“Sure. It’s just …” Perk shrugged. “You know how he is; sometimes he’s not good at keeping secrets. And if we’re planning out what we’re going to do, it’ll just be easier.”
“Maybe. Well, if you see anyone, let them know and I’ll do the same.”
“Sure.”
Thirty minutes after school ended, Adam watched and waited behind the counter at Bakers’ Place.
He jumped up from his stool when they all pushed through the entrance, laughing. “Hey, come on in, guys!” he called. “Let me just tell my mom you guys are here. Where’s Perk?”
“He said he’d be a few minutes late. He had to get Tommy off the bus and meet the babysitter.”
“All right.” Adam ducked into the back and peeked his head into his parents’ office. “My friends are here, so we’re gonna sit down at table seven. Is that okay?”
His mom licked an envelope and smiled. “Sure.”
“Thanks.” Adam grabbed a stack of dessert menus and strolled out.
Let the plotting begin.
CHAPTER 32
Perk
Tommy was fine. He liked Mrs. Miller.
Sure, he wasn’t happy when she met them at the house, but Perk just couldn’t bring him along today.
And when Perk got home, Tommy would probably not talk to him for the rest of the night when he found out that Perk went to Bakers’ Place without him, but it wasn’t something that Perk could help. Not this time. If they were going to do something huge, they needed to get moving.
Perk kicked a stone.
He loved his brother. Of course he did. He loved him more than anyone else.
Was it awful of him to want to go to school because it sometimes felt more relaxing than being at home? Was he a horrible brother because he liked the idea of being just Perk for a little bit? That he wanted to have his own friends and not constantly worry about Tommy?
No, he couldn’t think like that.
He’d do anything for Tommy.
Then why is he with Mrs. Miller and not you?
Perk stuffed the thought away. It wasn’t like that. Besides, he needed to think about a plan to get back at Hill and his dad.
Yes, that’s what he needed to think about right now.
Something with the summer camp Hill wanted to go to?
Perk pulled open the door to Bakers’ Place.
“Hey, Perk,” Adam called. “Over here. I already ordered your monster cookie.”
Perk grinned and walked over to the table and sat down. “Thanks. Sorry I’m a little late.”
He sat down and felt like something was missing. Maybe he should’ve brought Tommy along after all? The thought tugged on his sleeve and tapped on his shoulder even after he took a giant gulp of water.
CHAPTER 33
Adam
Adam blew a few bubbles into his chocolate milk then looked up. His fingers twitched in excitement. Mary—Adam’s favorite waitress—had just set down their desserts, and it was time to get started. “So, everyone,” he said. “What have you found out?”
They were quiet for a moment, looking around at one another, no one wanting to go first. He could tell his best friend was distracted. Probably thinking about Tommy. Probably wondering why in the world he hadn’t invited him. But maybe he was right. They couldn’t afford anyone finding out about the plan, and if there was any chance that Tommy might say something, anything … well, they just couldn’t take that risk. “Perk, anything interesting in the e-mails or on Parmar’s computer?”
Perk swallowed a sticky bite of chocolate. “Well, Parmar had a lot of e-mails about cars, which isn’t too surprising, and some things on a camp for Hill this summer.”
“Hill’s talked about that camp at the lunch table,” Pearl said. “He was saying that his dad can pretty much get him in and that it’s a really good camp, blah, blah, blah. That’s all.”
Adam nodded. “I think we’re on to something. Hill had the brochure of the camp on his computer. Camp Beaumont, I think it was called.”
“Yeah,” Ray said. He took a gulp of water. “I heard Parmar talking to someone—sounded like a teacher, maybe—about getting Hill volunteer hours in Tommy’s after school program for a camp.”
“At the high school?” Pearl cut in. “I just found out that me and a few others from the orchestra are going there after school tomorrow to play a few songs. I bet he’s going with us.” She rolled her eyes and shook her head.
“That jerk shouldn’t be anywhere near Tommy’s class.” Perk stabbed at his chocolate chip cookie.
“But at least I’ll see Tommy,” Pearl said. “I’ll make sure I say hi.”
Perk stuffed a bite in his mouth. “Thanks. He’d love that.”
“And it could be a good chance to get more info on Hill.” Adam turned back to Ray. “Did Parmar say anything else?”
Ray swallowed a bite. “Yeah, something about Hill turning in a video of himself.”
Adam looked up. This kept getting better and better. “A video? Awesome.”
“Yeah,” Dutch said. He took a bite of his lava cake. “I’d love to see that.”
Adam was impressed. With their little prank earlier and now this, he was feeling better—like they could pull off something really cool. He looked at Perk, who nodded back at him.
“All right,” Adam said. “Now, anyone find anything else about Parmar besides his obsession with his car and making sure Hill gets into this camp?”
Dutch squinted. “Do we need anything else?”
Adam nodded. He had a point.
CHAPTER 34
Perk
It was nice that Parmar and Hill were so easily predictable. A few conversations and some e-mails and they already had a direction to go in. Camp and car. He looked over at Adam. His best friend had the same frantic, excited look on his face that he got every time they were thinking of pranks to pull. In a minute he’d be steamrollering ideas over everyone. Perk needed to step in and give the others a chance.
“Does anyone have any ideas of what we could do with the camp and the car?”
Adam stood, his chair screeching beneath him. “I’ll be back. I’m just going to run and get my computer. I have a thought.”
He left and dashed through the restaurant to the back.
Perk looked at Pearl, Ray, and Dutch. It was weird to not have Adam there, for even just a few moments. They all stared back at him as if he knew what to do. “Uh, so, yeah. Any ideas?”
Pearl set down her fork. “Well, we aren’t going to do anything to hurt Mr. Parmar’s car, right? We’ll totally get caught and we’d get in so much trouble.”
Perk cleared his throat and rubbed his hands on his jeans. “Yeah. I mean, no, that’s definitely a rule. We can’t damage anything. We can’t stoop low like they do.”
Adam dashed back through the restaurant and sat back down in his seat. He opened his computer and booted it up. “Anything yet?”
“Not yet,” Perk said. “Just talking about how we can’t ruin Parmar’s car.”
“True. I sort of wish that we could, though.” Adam stared at his computer screen, pressing buttons.
“Maybe,” Dutch said, squinting. “Maybe we can send Hill to a different camp?”
“That’s a good idea,” Pearl said. “What camp, though?”
“A really boring camp,” Ray said. “Or … or a camp on something he doesn’t know about. Like gymnastics camp or skateboarding camp. Is there a camp for bullies?”
“But won’t his dad just get him out of it?” Perk asked.
“True,” Pearl said.
“Then I guess we have to make sure he doesn’t get into Camp Beaumont, or whatever it’s called.”
“How about a military boot camp?” Ray said. “My brother almost had to go to one a few years ago.”
“But again, Mr. Parmar can get him out of it.”
“We’ll just have to make sure that he doesn’t know that he’s in a different camp until the bus takes him away,” Ray said.
“That’s good,” Pearl said.
Perk was impressed. He hadn’t expected good ideas from anyone except him and Adam.
“Yeah,” Dutch continued. “We can send in a different video of him and then Mr. Parmar couldn’t say anything.”
“You mean, one of him bullying someone?”
Dutch shrugged.
“That’s good,” Perk said.
That’s when Adam sat up straight and said, “Yes! I’ve got it.”
CHAPTER 35
Ray
Ray had just plunged his spoon into the large, melty apple pie slice when Adam yelled. Ray’s arm jerked, and he’d sent a glob of whipped cream soaring onto Dutch’s plate.
“Oh man,” he said. His face was heating up. “I’m sorry.”
But Dutch laughed.
“Listen, guys,” Adam said. He turned his computer around. “Look at this.”
It was an old black-and-white photo. It was a photo of an old car—an Austin Seven, the article said—perched on top of a roof.
They were all crowded around the computer and Adam leaned forward, tapping his finger on the screen. “This is what we need to do to Parmar’s car.”
Pearl laughed. “Really?”
“Sure. Look.” He scrolled down the article. “They even have how they did it. It’s genius.”
“Yes,” Dutch said. “I say let’s do it.”
Perk nodded. “We’ll have to make sure we can get the materials, but I’m in.” He laughed. “Can you imagine his face when he sees it.”
“Can I look at the article?” Ray asked. He couldn’t even guess how the car got on the roof.
Adam pushed it toward him. “Sure.”
Everyone continued talking about the car on the roof while Ray examined the diagram and read the article. The maneuvering, the hoisting, the pulling, the scaffolding, steel wire rope. Three teams. The car was empty and inside the car they’d placed a pulley system for the steel wire rope to wrap around.
It was genius.
But there was no way they could do it without damaging the car. The school roof was lower than the roof in the picture, so they could possibly use a ramp or a lift … but still.
“So, what do you think, Ray?” Adam asked. “I know you’re smarter than you let on.” He turned to everyone. “Seriously, guys. I saw him take apart a calculator and put it back together, fixed, in science class one day. It was awesome.”
“Well, it’s really not that hard.”
“Whatever,” Adam said. “And today you didn’t use your dad’s lock cutter, right?”
Ray shrugged. “I know how to pick locks.”
Adam laughed and leaned back. “This is gold. So come on, what do you think of the car on the roof?”
Heat filled Ray’s face. “The idea is really cool, but—”
He paused. The feeling of being called smart, out loud, by someone surprised him in a good way. A really good way. And when he looked up at everyone, none of them seemed to be surprised at what Adam had said.
Could he tell them right now that he wasn’t sure it was possible? They all thought he was smart. Maybe he could make it work.
“So, what do you think?” Adam asked again. Ray could tell he was excited.
Ray handed Adam his computer back. “I think it’s an awesome idea,” he said. “We’ll figure it out.”
CHAPTER 36
Pearl
She looked up from her cinnamon roll.
Ray didn’t look very sure about the prank. But he also didn’t look like he was as smart as Adam said he was. Then again, most people were surprised when they found out she was a violinist, as if she didn’t look like one.
But what did a violinist look like?
What did a smart person look like?
Maybe no one was as they seemed or looked.
“So,” Perk said. He dug his fork into the last bite of his cake. “Now that we know Ray is smart—”
“I never said—” Ray cut in.
Perk held up his hand. “Now that we know he’s smart, is there anything else that you guys can do or that you’re good at? Something that could help us with the car or the camp?”
Pearl licked the icing off her fork. “I’m good at remembering things.”
“Remembering?” Adam asked. “What do you mean?”
She could remember the music variation to all of her pieces from her first recital, the Latin roots for all the words they’d learned that year in English, the quadratic equation, the definition of direct, indirect, and controlled variables in science, and locker combinations. Her dad said she was sort of like Sherlock Holmes—bits of information were stored in places where she could access them if she just concentrated.
Everyone was looking at her.
“Do you have a photographic memory?” Dutch asked.
Pearl shook her head. “No. I forget things like anyone else. It’s just that when I really want to remember something—numbers, music for a song, and facts are the easiest—I just … remember.”
Adam’s eyebrows lifted. “Really?”
She shrugged and tried not to smile at everyone looking at her. “Yeah. Stop looking at me like that.”
Perk leaned forward. “Twenty-seven, forty-nine degrees latitude, three hundred fifty-two, sheep, book, aardvark, blue, window, rope. Say it backward, too.”
Pearl sat up straighter, closed her eyes, and then rattled off everything that Perk had just said forward and backward. They all clapped. She pretended to bow. She’d had people clap for her before, but this felt different.
“Well, that will definitely come in handy,” Adam said. “So, Dutch, how about you? You’re probably a rocket scientist or something?”
Pearl glanced at Dutch, who smile-squinted and shook his head. “Nope. Nothing like that.”
His smile reminded her of J. S. Bach’s “Partita No. 3”—light and full and tripping on itself.
She closed her eyes a moment and hid his smile away in her head.
CHAPTER 37
Dutch
The lava cake made him feel warm and cozy inside, or maybe it was sitting so close to Pearl, he wasn’t sure.
He’d just have to get used to that feeling.
Adam’s question, “So, Dutch, how about you?” still hung in the air.
He shrugged. “I don’t know. Nothing like you guys.”
“It doesn’t matter,” Pearl said. “Come on. What are some things?”
If only he could say something like, I’m really good at rock climbing, or soccer, or he was an amazing writer, or he could sing really well. But there was nothing like that. “I can play cards and do some card tricks. And well, my grandpa says I can imitate people pretty good.”
“Really?” Perk said. “That’s cool.”
He shrugged.
“Who can you imitate?” Adam asked.
“I don’t know. It’s not like any one person. Just people’s voices I hear.”
“Like Parmar’s?”
Dutch knew where this was going. “Maybe.”
Adam leaned forward and smiled. “Try.”
Dutch glanced at Pearl.
“All right.” He looked down and rubbed his face in an attempt to keep himself from smiling. He had to do a good job for Pearl.
“Well,” he started, his voice low and catching the tiny inflections in Mr. Parmar’s voice. “I’m sorry Hill locked you in the bathroom again. Boys will be boys. Just don’t take it so seriously, son.”
Everyone fell silent, staring at him. Adam knocked Perk with his elbow and they started laughing. “That was perfect!” Adam said.
“Creepy and awesome,” Ray said. He was smiling.
Perk shook his head like he must have heard wrong. “I can’t believe that.”
“That sounded exactly like him,” Pearl said. “Seriously, that was crazy. How did you do that?”
Dutch squinted. “I don’t know.” He squinted again. “My grandpa said my dad was good at imitating people, so maybe I inherited
it or something. I’ve also had enough experience with Parmar telling me to ‘take it like a man’ and ‘boys just being boys’ and ‘don’t take it so seriously.’”
Their waitress walked over then, and Adam handed her his mostly clean plate. “Thanks, Mary,” he said, and then to Dutch, “That is definitely going to come in handy at some point. These pranks are going to be awesome.”
Dutch’s chest and heart filled up like a helium balloon and floated around inside him.
It stayed with him as they all got up to go and thanked Adam’s mom and dad and kept him buoyant even as he watched everyone leave one by one while he waited and waited and waited for his grandpa to come and get him.
“Hey, Dutch,” Adam said, opening the door to Bakers’ Place. “My mom is dropping me off at home. She could take you if you want?”
The floating feeling sank a little inside him as he looked one more time down the empty street. “Yeah, that would be great. My grandpa might have fallen asleep or something.” That could have been the case. Or he might have forgotten.
The floating, hopeful feeling had pretty much vanished by the time he thanked Adam’s mom and walked up the stairs to the apartment. But then there was Gramps. He greeted Dutch with a smile and told him he’d missed him and asked if he wanted to play a game of cards before they “hit the hay.”
“Sure,” Dutch said, pulling up a chair and sitting down.
“Did you have a fun time with your friends?” he asked.
Dutch nodded. At least Gramps remembered some of the phone call from after school. “Yep, it was a lot of fun. They think I’m good at imitating people.”
His grandpa dealt out the cards. “Of course you are.” He looked at him with the mischievous grin he always got when they played cards. “But can you outwit an old fox like me?”
Dutch gave him the same look back. “I’m gonna try.”
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