Gem pulled up to a large house whose yard was littered with sports equipment, and several minutes later Ben jogged out the front door as if he woke up before dawn for elaborate water-gun assassinations every morning.
“ ’Sup,” he said, and tucked all six feet three inches of himself and his modded-for-distance water gun into the backseat behind Lia. He wore all black and had covered his Lincoln-Lions-red hair with a black beanie. “May said most of the soccer team isn’t playing, but track is. Hope y’all are in shape.”
“Is May playing?” Gem asked.
“I’m not my sister’s keeper.” Ben grinned and snapped the bands of his braces with his tongue. “Guess you’ll have to be brave and ask her yourself. May doesn’t like cowards.”
“Be nice,” Lia said, knowing how Gem felt. “Is May in the game or not?”
Gem’s light brown skin reddened around their cheeks and ears. By the time they had pulled into Devon’s small neighborhood tucked behind an old cemetery and the new Starbucks, Gem’s face was practically heating the car.
“Yeah, fine,” Gem said. “I get that she doesn’t like cowards. But…would she like me?”
“What?” Ben asked.
Gem glared at him in the rearview mirror.
“Oh.” Ben nodded, understanding. “Hell yeah.”
“Great.” Lia patted Gem’s arm. “Just don’t be a coward.”
“I’m going to murder you,” Gem whispered, and unlocked the doors.
Devon, a scarf pulled up around his chin, crawled into the seat behind Gem. “My face isn’t used to being up before dawn,” he said, yawning.
“Here’s the deal.” Lia turned to them, using her arm to hide the bleach spots on her sweatshirt. She had dressed for Assassins, but Devon looked impeccable. The ass. “I know every senior’s schedule, so we’re good if they don’t change that. Our new rules to live by are one, go nowhere alone, and two, practice your aim.” She looked at Ben. “Will you be okay at gym before school if we don’t pick you up?”
He nodded. “Never alone. And if I am…” He pulled open his coat and revealed two water guns Velcroed to the lining.
“Devon?” Lia asked.
“I’m assuming you and Gem will be picking me up?” he asked, one black brow arched. “My mother will be delighted about not sharing the car.”
“Great,” Lia said. “We should get Abby quickly. Once a few targets are killed this first weekend, people will get more paranoid. It’ll be better if we can kill Abby and then get to our next target quickly before people start changing their schedules. We’ll also learn who the competition really is,” Lia said. She held out a neon-green water gun to him. “Sound good?”
“Still slightly creepy.” Devon held up the water gun and checked the seal against the water sloshing inside. “I love green. This isn’t filled with caffeine, is it?”
“Only water,” Lia said. “Sorry.”
“It’s fine.” He held up his thumb and forefinger. “It only lessens my love a little.”
Lia ignored the flutter in her stomach. “As you know, our target is Abby Ascher. What you don’t know is that she goes for a walk with her dog Omelet to Pleasant Pines and then she runs home before heading to work a few hours later.”
Lia hadn’t needed to follow Abby to know that. They lived near enough that her dad always joked about setting his watch by Abby’s morning run, even though all the watches he owned were digital.
“Oh my God,” whispered Ben, “she named her dog Omelet.”
“I know. It’s good.” Lia handed them each a printout of what she knew of Abby’s schedule. “Ideally, we’ll get her today, but if we don’t, there’s tomorrow morning or when she gets off work tomorrow.”
“Did you follow everyone?” Ben asked, his face scrunching up.
“Not everyone,” Lia said quickly.
Devon scanned the paper and whistled. “Your preparedness is terrifying.”
“It’s color-coded, but the printer sucks.” Lia gestured to his dark jeans and sweater. “Are you okay with those getting wet?”
“They won’t,” he said. “I refuse to die.”
“You need anything to blend in more?” Ben asked. He emptied one of his pockets, pulling free three granola bars, a collapsible water bottle, a ski mask, a sewing kit, an EpiPen, a flashlight, and three gum wrappers. “I came prepared.”
“Sure did,” muttered Gem, maneuvering the car into an empty spot a few blocks away from Abby’s house.
“Brown boy in a ski mask in the dark?” Devon said with both eyebrows raised. “Yeah, no thanks.”
Gem saluted Devon in the rearview mirror. “Who’s the EpiPen for? You allergic to anything?”
“Oh yeah, but it’s embarrassing,” Ben said, and laughed. “I’m allergic to latex. Makes me look like a lobster and as good at breathing air. May and I both carry one just in case.”
Lia added that to the top of her journal page on Ben in all caps. “Why is that embarrassing?”
“You know.” He flushed as red as his hair. “Guy stuff.”
Devon, holding back laughter, patted Ben’s arm.
Lia checked her phone. “Abby should be leaving her house soon. If I were alone, I would get her at her house, but I figured this would be more fun. We can take positions around the path.”
They slunk out of the car. Lia looked around her, a pair of binoculars pressed to her eyes. Shadows danced in the dark between the trees, limbs grasping at the air, and a woodpecker picked at a waterlogged fence post. The posts had marked the boundaries of the old park, but as the waterline of the creek winding through the area had grown, they had been lost. Now an old bridge arched over them, connecting the walking paths to the newer dog park.
The four kids took up spots a little ways off the path. As Abby walked Omelet around the park, they would shoot her when she neared. Lia knelt in the cold next to Gem. Devon sat beside her.
“Did you stalk me?” he asked.
“It wasn’t stalking, and no. I didn’t think you would play,” Lia said. “It’s not like I watched people through windows.”
Devon laughed, and Gem held a finger up to their lips. Leaves rustled in the late winter breeze. Lia rubbed the back of her neck.
From the dimly lit street came Abby and Omelet. Gem gestured to Lia, miming a shot. Lia pulled a slightly larger water gun from her backpack. She was hoping the longer barrel would help her aim. She had spent most of winter break practicing. Abby paused on the bridge, and Lia took aim. Abby stretched her arms over her head.