He pretends to be deep in thought. “Well, you’ve asked me to fuck off a couple of times.”
“Aiden, if we’re going to do this, we have to do it now!” I say urgently.
Kaitlyn and her friends are currently oblivious to the rest of the class, sharing a laptop and scrolling through some website, their headphones plugged in.
“Come on, man! It’ll be hilarious!” Noah prods Aiden.
“Fine,” Aiden grumbles. “Give me the stupid envelope.”
“Yay!” I take the envelope out of my bag and discreetly hand it over to Aiden along with a black sharpie.
He takes the marker and writes Kaitlyn’s name on the front in his bold, identifiable handwriting. I quickly take the envelope back from him and shove it into my shoulder bag. Now, for the last part of the plan.
“Mr. Rogers!” I thrust my hand up in the air, grabbing the attention of the rest of the class.
He looks up from his laptop screen. “What?”
“Can I go to the bathroom?” I ask.
“What? Time to change your tampon already, Amelia?” Kaitlyn sneers.
Mason, Noah, and surprisingly even Aiden, all turn to glare at her.
“Go.” Mr. Rogers dismisses me before looking back at his screen, and I quickly leave the class, and then the school.
Once outside, I head toward Kaitlyn’s red Porsche, still parked right at the entrance of the school, in plain sight of the front doors.
It’s a nice day, so she left the top of the convertible down, with the windows rolled up. Letting the adrenaline pumping through my veins guide me, I place the envelope on the driver’s seat, making sure Aiden’s writing is facing up and noticeable. She’s so obsessed with Aiden, she’ll know it’s his writing.
I quickly run back into the school before anyone notices me and sit back down in class, trying to look inconspicuous and calm my racing heart. Now we just have to make sure we’re there for the show.
After school, I meet up with the rest of the group. We get into position, standing off to the side of the school with a clear view of Kaitlyn’s red Porsche.
“She’s going to freak! I think she’ll be so mad she’ll breathe fire from her nose! That’d be awesome,” Noah exclaims.
“Shhhh.” We quiet down when we see Kaitlyn open her car door.
“Oh my God, Makayla’s getting a ride with her. This is even better!” Annalisa enthusiastically whispers when Makayla gets in shotgun.
Kaitlyn grabs the letter as she closes the door and rolls down her windows. She clearly recognizes Aiden’s writing, showing it off to Makayla and eagerly but delicately trying to open the envelope. She can’t; I sealed that shit.
Abandoning trying to save the envelope out of curiosity of what’s inside, she violently rips it open, and the seven of us burst out laughing.
Kaitlyn and Makayla’s faces are full of shock as glitter goes flying everywhere: all over their faces, clothes, skin, and especially all over Kaitlyn’s beloved car. If you know anything about glitter, you’ll know that it’s basically the herpes of the craft world. That stuff is impossible to get off, and you’ll be finding it everywhere for months. Harmless, yet so incredibly annoying.
Best part is, she’ll never rat out Aiden if she’s trying to get with him—there’s no way she can spin this to her mom to get me suspended. Mom, an envelope stuffed with a glitter bomb that may or may not have been from Amelia was in my car? I don’t think so.
Kaitlyn and Makayla get out of the sparkly car, frantically trying to shake the glitter from their hair. They’re shrieking, and their frenzied movements are attracting weird looks from the students who walk by.
“How much glitter did you put in that envelope?” Julian asks, astonished.
“It may or may not have been packed so much that glitter was escaping from the seams,” I giggle.
“They’re going to look like sparkly strippers for weeks,” Mason adds.
“Not to mention she’ll be driving the sparkle mobile for who knows how long. That stuff doesn’t vacuum easily,” Chase chuckles. “Great idea, Amelia.”
“Honestly, I can’t take all the credit. I got the idea from some website back when I was at my old school, but I couldn’t wait for them to mail her the envelope, so I just made my own version,” I confess. “Still funny though.”
Kaitlyn stops shaking around and her furious eyes zero in on me from across the parking lot.
“That’s our cue to leave,” I announce.
Aiden grabs my wrist and leads me away from Kaitlyn before anyone else can react. I turn back and wave to the rest of them as Aiden pulls me along. I hear them chuckling good-bye to each other, probably heading off their own separate ways before they incur the wrath of a glittery Kaitlyn and Makayla.
“What’s the hurry, Aiden?” I smile and look up at him. “Scared of big, bad, sparkly Kaitlyn?”
He glares at me, not slowing down, but his lips pull up on one side to make his famous one-sided smirk. “So far, we’ve had a confrontation a day with her. We had today’s this morning at your locker. Let’s save some excitement for tomorrow, yeah?”
I laugh, slightly shocked that Aiden’s actually joking with me. “It’s probably for the best.”
He lets go of my wrist and we walk side-by-side to my car. We don’t say anything, but I’m too busy chuckling quietly to myself, recalling Kaitlyn’s expression when she got a face full of glitter. I hope some got in her mouth. That’d be even funnier.
“Thanks for walking me to my car and making sure I don’t get ambushed by Kaitlyn and friends.”
“Be careful tomorrow,” he warns.
“Yeah, yeah, she’ll be on a sparkly warpath. I’ve got my insect repellent,” I joke as I get into my car.
I look at Aiden standing outside my door and give him a smile, then start my car and drive away.
Despite how great it felt to get even, I was wary going to school the next day. I wasn’t ready for another confrontation. I was starting to worry about the constant escalation—what it could lead to, how it could all end up. But it turns out, I didn’t need to be concerned.
As soon as I get out of my car, Mason and Noah are immediately at my side. I literally didn’t even close the driver’s-side door before the pair are shoving each other, trying to determine who gets to be the first to hug me. Growing tired, I wrap my arms around both of them at the same time in greeting.
“Were you guys waiting for me to pull up?” I lock my car door, then walk in sync with the boys on either side of me toward the school.
“What are you talking about? It’s not like we waited for you in Mason’s car, saw you pull in, drove to where you parked, then”—Mason reaches behind me and smacks Noah upside the head—“Ow!”
I laugh. “I know you guys are worried about Kaitlyn and friends attacking me, but I’ll be fine. I promise. I don’t need you guys as my bodyguards.”
“Aiden told us to make sure someone’s always with yo—” Noah glares at Mason, who just hit him again. “Ow! Cut it out!”
Mason meets his glare, muttering something about why they never tell Noah secrets.