Better Than Revenge (Sweet Secrets #1)

by Taylor Henderson

  A slow smirk spread over Lena’s face as she pushed the talk button and said, “Is there any way that you can open one of the packages and switch the two bottles without it being noticeable?”

  Ella’s response was quick, “Yeah, one of them is open already anyway. The bottles look the same; the henna bottle is just a tiny bit bigger. It’s hardly noticeable. I’ll even open the henna and squeeze a layer of hair dye on the top just in case she looks at the inside. This way the henna will be hidden a little.”

  “All right, hurry up and do that, so you can go back to the party. You don’t want to look too suspicious either.”

  Lena handed me back the walkie-talkie. Just from the look on her face, I could tell that she was mentally visualizing what we were going to do as soon as the girls fell asleep. Who know how long it would take for that to happen. Man was it going to be a long night.

  ***

  A crackling sound fuzzed through the walkie-talkie, jolting me awake from my uncomfortable slumber. My head was resting on the dashboard, and when I jumped up, my head hit the glass, causing me to screech in pain. A glance outside of the car showed the pitch black sky, making me wonder what time it was.

  “You guys there?” came Ella’s whisper.

  Glancing around, I spotted the walkie-talkie clutched tightly in Lena’s hands. After pulling it free, I replied to Ella with a simple, “Yep.”

  As I waited for her eminent response, I poked Lena’s cheek and flicked her nose, trying to wake her up. She groggily opened her eyes just as Ella responded.

  “Everyone’s asleep. We’re all in Brianna’s guest room, but earlier when I went to get a water bottle from the kitchen I opened a window in the living room for you guys. It’s on the side of the house nearest to your house Violet. Brianna leaves her car keys hanging on a hook in the kitchen. Her keys have a studded key chain labeled B tied to them. I left the fish in the freezer, that way they will take a while to defrost in her car, and she won’t be able to smell them immediately. Remember, once you’re inside the house, I’m not going to communicate with you all, so just make sure you get in and out quickly.”

  A deep yawn came from Lena’s mouth. “Got it,” she mumbled.

  “Okay, but remember, if anyone wakes up or anything happens, text me. It’ll vibrate and that will warn us to get out. Then stall them for a bit,” I replied.

  Ella’s whisper came through the speaker again, “Got it. Oh and guys?”

  “Yeah?” Lena and I questioned simultaneously.

  “Try and be quiet, and don’t get caught. These girls are paranoid since Brianna’s parents are out. Every little creak makes them jump. Oh, and I won’t be able to vouch for you if anything happens. You guys know I’ll have to take Brianna’s side.”

  “We know, we’ll be like ninjas.”

  “Great,” was all Ella said before the line to her walkie-talkie cut off, leaving us with no way to contact her.

  Lena shifted positions in her seat and reached up to pull the mirror down. After staring at her eyes for a moment, she rubbed them with her fists and let out a sleepy yawn. “Let’s go Forrester.”

  We simultaneously opened the car doors, trying to be quiet despite the fact that we were parked two houses away in a spot where we had a perfect view of Brianna’s house, but weren’t too close to my house. After all, we weren’t only trying to avoid being caught by Brianna and her minions, but we were also trying to avoid being seen by my parents considering the fact that I had told them I would be spending the night at Lena’s house. It had taken a while, and my face had felt as if it would be permanently stuck in the puppy dog face, but somehow I had managed to convince them to let me spend the night on a school night. They most likely were thinking about how little sleepovers I’ve been to in the past few years, and decided to let me go out of pity.

  As I slid out of the car I made sure to grab my small shoulder bag that I stuffed with a few things I had bought in the prank aisle at the dollar store earlier that week.

  After tiptoeing our way across the damp lawn, Lena and I slipped past each window, using the shadows as our only disguises. We sneakily ran around the house to the side where our two lawns joined, and where Ella had told us that she left the window open. The grass near the window stood a few inches taller than the grass on the rest of the lawn, and it annoyingly scratched at my bare legs. The night breeze was chilly against my arms, and I instantly found myself wishing that I had worn something other than my cotton pajama shorts and a tank top.

  Gripping onto the window, Lena pushed it up a few more inches, creating a slight screeching noise as the window scraped against the frame. I widened my eyes, scared the noise was going to attract some type of attention, and that we would be caught before we even had a chance to get inside the house. After a minute passed and nothing happened, Lena turned to smile at me.

  “Once we get inside, I’ll go get the fish and the car keys, and take care of that. I’m sneakier and faster than you are, so it would make more sense for me to go. Besides, I have a little surprise that I want to leave for Brianna.”

  “What are you going to do?”

  “Don’t worry. I’m not going to do anything bad.” She rolled her eyes playfully. “It’s something she deserves.” Flipping her hair back, she turned and stuck her head into the window. She looked as if she was going to climb in, but suddenly she removed her head, backed up, and gestured for me to go first. “You’re shorter, so I’ll give you a little boost to get in. I can easily pull myself through though since it’s not that far of a jump.”

  Before starting to climb, I made sure that my bag was secure on my back. Then, pulling myself up into the window, I felt Lena shove my butt forward in order to give me a boost. I slipped through easily and landed silently on the plush carpeted floor. Sitting down, I slipped my shoes off of my feet so that I could be quieter, and left them behind an armchair that was positioned near the window. Lena scrambled in behind me and did the same with her shoes, being extremely careful to be quiet.

  Once we were both inside, we each ran off to complete our separate forms of revenge. Lena headed into the kitchen to grab the fish and car keys that Ella had stashed in there earlier, while I started to roam the house in search of places to use my bag of tricks.

  After walking in circles around the living room, I realized that I would have to sneak upstairs to actually be able to use anything that would directly affect Brianna, rather than her parents. My heart beat quickly as I made my way over to the grand staircase. Taking a few slow deep breaths, I finally mustered up enough courage to take the first step. When nothing but silence met my ears, I became more confident. I started taking steps two at a time, trying hard to be quiet and quick. Finally when I made it to the top of the stairs, I sighed in relief. Not once had the stairs creaked. Now all I had to do was hope that the hallway floor would be as cooperative as the staircase had been.

  I slid toward the wall, pressing my back against it and slipping silently down the hallway in the direction of Brianna’s bedroom. It had been years since I had been upstairs inside Brianna’s house, and yet, thanks to our similar house interiors, I could easily remember which room was hers. She had the room at the end of the hallway to the left with the window that faced my bedroom. I knew that I had to be extremely quiet, not only because I was upstairs, but also because the room next to Brianna’s bedroom was the guest room; the room where all of the girls were asleep. I tip toed silently past the guest bedroom door, wincing and freezing when the floor creaked beneath my weight. I waited silently, listening for any sound of movement for a moment before I quickly slipped into Brianna’s bedroom, pushing the door closed behind me.

  Once I had made it inside, I sighed, placing my hand over my rapidly beating heart. I made my way over to Brianna’s closet and silently thanked the heavens that the door was already open and I could avoid possible squeaky hinges. I slid my bag off of my shoulder and unzipped it. Reaching my hand inside, I pulled out the itching powder that I had bough
t, and began sprinkling it into every single pair of shoes Brianna owned. Lucky for her, I was forced to avoid the flip flops and open shoes because the powder would be obvious, but to compensate for that, I poured a healthy amount into all of her cheerleading shoes and heels. Just enough to make her itch insanely but not be noticeable on the shoe. Afterwards, I sprinkled a little of the powder on as many of her clothes as I could, making sure to sprinkle the powder on the inside.

  When I got to her cheerleading uniform, I couldn’t help the smile that formed on my face as I imagined her scratching all over her body during practice. With only a little bit of powder left, I opened up her underwear drawer and sprinkled the rest of the powder over her bras and underwear. Tomorrow she would have an itch down below that would probably scare her away from boys for weeks.

  With a satisfied smirk on my face, I stuffed the empty bottle back inside my bag and pulled out a tube of blue food coloring. I made my way into Brianna’s en-suite bathroom, the only difference between our two rooms, and searched for her toothbrush. Once I found it, I flicked the light on for a second to make sure that the bristles on the brush were blue. After seeing that they were, I squeezed one drop of food coloring onto the brush and turned the light out after putting her toothbrush back.

  I quickly made my way out of the bathroom and grabbed the bag off the floor, bringing it with me into the bathroom again where I switched the blue food coloring out with a roll of plastic wrap for the toilet. I started to unroll the plastic wrap when I heard the sound of a door creak open.

  At the sound, my heart leapt into my throat.

  Thinking quickly, I grabbed my stuff, flipped the light off, and jumped into the bathtub like I imagined a ninja would. The tub thumped under my weight, but the sound was hardly noticeable. I made sure that the shower curtain was closed just in time as the bathroom door opened. My heart was beating so loud that I was afraid that whoever was coming in would hear it. The light flicked on, and someone yawned loudly before shuffling over to the toilet. As the toilet seat lifted I was immediately thankful that I hadn’t plastic wrapped the seat yet. If I had then I would have never been able to get out of the house.

  The sound of pee splashing in the toilet was loud and splattering. It was followed by the sound of the toilet paper roll squeaking as it turned, and then the toilet flushing loudly. My heart pounded harder as the person made their way to the sink, washed their hands, and then stood there for a few moments. I heard a deep yawn, the water coming on again for a moment, and then, finally, the sound of the door opening. I let out a small puff of air as whoever it was left the bathroom, flicking the light switch off on the way out.

  I was too afraid that I’d get caught if I moved, so I stayed still for a good five minutes, just listening to make sure everything was quiet before I left my hiding spot. Despite the silence, I was still nervous as I stepped out of the tub, and raised the toilet seat to begin wrapping the bowl in plastic wrap. Once I was finished, I made sure that everything looked normal before I stuffed the plastic wrap back in my bag, and quickly left the bathroom. I made sure everything was in the same place before leaving the room and hurrying down the hallway.

  On my way to the staircases, I was in such a hurry that I wasn’t as careful as I had been the first time. As I neared the stairwell my foot got caught on the hallway throw rug, and I crashed landed on the ground. My reflexes weren’t as quick as I hoped, and my hands caught myself just as my head hit the hardwood floor. My face stung on impact, and as I went to push myself up, my skull throbbed where it made contact with the floor, and a wave of dizziness overcame me. I didn’t have time to wallow in my pain though, I had to move even faster now after my screw up. We were too close to success to be caught now.

  The sound of my fall was so loud in the silent house that all odds were against me now. There was probably no way that I was going to get out of here without being caught. To make matters worse, when I fell I had let out a startled shriek. The sound of the scream, and my face and hands hitting the ground had echoed through the hallway, and suddenly I heard voices. Ignoring the soft throbbing in my head, I instantly hopped up and clutched my bag tightly in my hands. Not caring anymore about the noise, I pounded hurriedly down the stairs just as the hall light lit up the stairway. At the bottom of the stairs I sprinted as fast as my legs would carry me. I ran to the window and grabbed my shoes, stuffing them in my bag. Lena had left a shoe so I grabbed that too and dove out of the window. I hit the ground with a muffled oomph, getting my hands and knees wet from the damp and slightly muddy grass.

  I huffed and puffed, breathing heavily as I raced back to the car. Hopping in quickly I pulled my seat belt on and sat in anticipation, waiting for a moment until I saw Lena sprint toward the driver’s side of the car. She climbed into the front seat and forced me to duck down. We hid in the car for about ten minutes, before Lena deemed that it was safe for us to drive away. The car pulled away from the curb and Lena headed back to her house. She let out a loud holler and screeched excitedly. “We did it! Oh my god my heart is pounding.”

  “Mine too,” I laughed, my fingers stroking my sore face. I’d most likely have some pretty dark bruising in the morning.

  “Thanks for grabbing my shoes,” Lena sighed as she pulled up near her house.

  I nodded and handed her the shoe that she had forgotten. “You’re welcome.”

  Lena turned the car off and turned toward me slowly. Her expression was one of confusion. “What? Did you seriously only get one?”

  I nodded, pulling my brows together at her question. How could I get both of her shoes if she had only forgotten to grab one of them?

  Lena smacked a hand to her forehead and groaned. “That means that one of my shoes is still in the house.”

  My mouth formed a small ‘o’ shape at the sudden realization that hit me. She hadn’t grabbed either of her shoes. I had only seen one and assumed that she had forgotten it, when in actuality, I was the one who had left a shoe behind.

  “Oh my gosh, this is bad.” She rested her head on the steering wheel. “What if they find my shoe? It probably got pushed under the chair.”

  My head spun. “Maybe they won’t see it?”

  Lena groaned. “Here’s hoping.”

  Chapter 28

  The next few weeks at school were uneventful. Brianna remained flawless, strutting through the locker-lined hallways as if she was Beyoncé herself. Her hair was still as yellowy as a banana peel and she seemed happier than ever. Seeing Brianna in such a bright mood was tiring me out. All day long I tried to avoid her. It was almost as if her great mood was draining me of all my energy. I was just so ready for her to get what she deserved. No one should get away with meddling in other people’s lives.

  The only revenge that had been completed was the fish. According to Ella, Brianna had her car smelling of old fish for a few days until she searched it and found the fish that Lena had hidden under the seats. She had taken her car to have the seats shampooed and that was the end of that.

  I was surprised that the itching powder hadn’t affected her. I had gotten just a tiny bit on my finger and that itched for a few days afterwards. Either Brianna had a high tolerance for itching, or she just was getting off lucky and wasn’t wearing any of the items that I had dowsed in itching powder. Lena kept telling me that I needed to be more patient. She was right, I guess. Brianna wasn’t just going to fall from popularity in the span of a few days. It was going to take a month at least. Until the time came, I was just going to have to go on about my business, ignoring her happiness and trying to find my own.

  Blake and I hadn’t spoken since an unfortunate bump into each other outside the boy’s locker room. I was late to class, and he was going to the water fountain. The tension between us was so obvious that even a blind man could see it. Our conversation was different than they ever had been before; it was forced, short, and above all it was extremely awkward. It was the most uninteresting conversation I had ever participated in, including the con
versations I have with my dentist about flossing while she picked through my teeth. Yet, despite how awfully boring it was, I can still remember everything that was said. His gym uniform t-shirt was a bit too big for him so he was telling me about how he had to tuck it into his shorts, which were a size too small. I remember nodding along like I really cared about his gym uniform struggles, when I replied with, “I hope the water fountain has cold water now, it’s usually hot,” before I waved and disappeared to find my class, mentally slapping myself for saying something so stupid and off topic.

  Despite my anger over what I had said, I was angrier about what I hadn’t said. The conversation played in my head every night on replay. I couldn’t help but wish that I had stopped his incessant rambling and had changed the subject to something that actually mattered; like how he was doing, or if his mom had made any of her infamous macaroni and cheese lately.

  I also wanted to tell him that I still loved him, and that I was ready to move on and start over. Lena was glad that I hadn’t said that. She says that even if I do feel that way, we should still take more time apart to really think about our feelings and not try to rush back into anything. According to her, I should wait until he makes an effort to win me back, not the other way around. After all, he’s the one who messed up, not me, and I should “exert my power as a woman and stand strong”. Those were her exact words.

  Ella and I had gotten a lot closer than we had been before. After enacting our revenge scheme, we had exchanged numbers and had been texting nonstop since. We bonded over our mutual hate for Brianna and surprisingly enough, we found plenty of other things that we had in common. Not including our taste in men; a subject that we had discussed quite a few times, each time ending with her apologizing profusely. She was sorry for lying to me, treating me rudely, and for kissing Blake in the first place, and I was sorry about hating her when she hadn’t even known that Blake was seeing someone else when she kissed him. With that out of the way, Ella and I were friends in no time. It was crazy how much she was like Lena.