Corey Delaney, the Australian party boy whose rock-hard abs, nipple ring, and steadfast refusal to kowtow to authority made him a hero to kids everywhere, is not the rebellious young Spicoli we thought he was: According to reports this weekend, Corey has put his tail between his bronzed legs and decided to reunite with his parents.

It seems the 16-year-old—whose decision to avoid his parents' calls after a wicked kegger he hosted while they were out of town became international news—just couldn't handle the rigors of being a world-renowned party boy. "He's devastated," says mother Jo Delaney. "He's taken this and run with it but he has come back down to earth with a big thud. At this stage, for everybody's sake, he's taking a bit of a break.'' But what about the sake of the children?

We're pretty sure we'd have been chained in the basement and never allowed to leave if we did what Corey did—pranksters are even putting his house up for sale on Australian real-estate sites, for God's sake—but the Delaneys seem to be taking things in stride. "He deserves a second chance," they wrote in an open letter defending their son. "It could have been any teenager who wanted to play up while their parents were away. This time it just happened to be our son Corey.''