“Don’t all jump in at once,” Jack said. “You’re staring at me like I’m speaking Martian. I said, let’s rob a store.”
“For real?” Ivy demanded. “Rob a store for real?”
“And video it?” I said. “So the police would know who to arrest?” I rolled my eyes. “That’s genius!”
Jack scratched the side of his face. “Very funny. I thought you wanted to do something crazy.”
I squinted at him as if seeing him for the first time. “Not that crazy.”
Manny laughed. “I’m not sure my brother the cop will approve. He didn’t like our dog-store prank at the mall!”
“I think we’d look awesome in those orange prison uniforms,” Jeremy said.
Jack jumped to his feet. He had an impatient scowl on his face. I hadn’t known him for long, but I’d already learned that sometimes he had a short fuse. He definitely didn’t like being teased.
“Come on, guys,” he pleaded. “It wouldn’t be a real robbery. Just a prank. A fake. No one goes to prison for a prank.”
“We do a fake robbery?” Ivy said. “But at a real store?”
Jack nodded. “We’ll set the whole thing up but make it look totally real. You know. Like a reality TV show.”
“And do we really take stuff?” Manny asked. “We could rob a shoe store. I need new sneakers. Look at these. They’re, like, air-conditioned. I got so many holes in them.”
Jack frowned at him. “That might be considered a real robbery, you know?”
“I know where you got this idea,” Jeremy chimed in. He had been watching the whole discussion in near silence. I could see that Ivy was reluctant. But I hadn’t been able to tell if Jeremy was into the idea or horrified by it.
“You saw the same video?” Jack asked him.
Jeremy nodded. “On YouTube. Those kids in Seattle. They robbed a seafood store and tossed these big fish back and forth. It was a riot. The store owners were hiding behind their table, and the fish were flying everywhere.”
“Yeah, and it got them, like, half a million hits,” Jack said. “Everyone in Seattle knows who they are.”
“And they didn’t get in any trouble?” Ivy asked.
“No way,” Jack told her. “It was just a funny video. You know. A total fake. The owner of the seafood store was in on it.”
“And I guess it got the store a load of publicity,” I said.
“Yeah. Everyone liked it,” Jack replied. “We can do the same thing. Everyone in Shadyside will know us. Ha. The Shadyside Shade.”
Ivy’s face was locked in a frown. I could see she still wasn’t buying the idea. And I didn’t blame her. She was the one who came out of our last prank with a blown-up car. She was the one who’d had her summer in New York ruined because of it.
“Listen, guys,” she said, her eyes on me. “How about we come up with something less dangerous?”
Jack sighed. He swept a hand back over his spiky white-blond hair. “It won’t be dangerous, Ivy. Everyone will be in on it. The store owner will be playing along, too. What could be dangerous?”
Ivy thought for a moment. “What if someone wanders into the store who isn’t in on the joke?”
“We’ll make sure that doesn’t happen,” Jack said. “We can always stop the live stream video and explain. Right?”
A hush fell over the room. Everyone was thinking about the prank, trying to picture it. Finally, I broke the silence. “I think we should do it,” I said. “I mean, we’ve been under a lot of stress. All these tests are killing me . . . All the pressure at school . . . Who is going to blame us for blowing off some steam?”
I thought I had to be enthusiastic about the plan. After all, I wanted to impress Jack. I had a major-league crush on him, and I wanted him to like me back.
So I got all rah-rah about the robbery plan. And my enthusiasm can be infectious. It’s one of my best qualities, I think. And after a little more discussion, even Ivy was willing to participate.
“Let’s all get famous!” I cheered.
Jeremy narrowed his eyes at Jack. “Have you thought of a store? What kind of store are we going to pretend to rob?”
“How about a Burger King?” Manny chimed in. “I’m getting hungry.”
“I’ve been thinking about it,” Jack said. His silvery eyes flashed.
“That would be funny, right?” Manny continued. “If we robbed a big bunch of Whoppers and fries? We could be the Flame-Broiling Robbers. Let’s say we stole a hundred Whoppers. That could maybe get us in Guinness World Records. The first ones in history to steal a hundred Whoppers? How awesome is that?”
Jack kept a hard stare on Manny, who was practically hopping up and down in his chair, he was so excited. Finally, Jack said, “Are you finished?”
I laughed. “Manny, I can’t tell if you’re serious or not! But you’re making me hungry, too.”
Manny’s face stretched into the dopey grin that was his natural expression. He laughed. “I’m always serious.”
“Seriously deranged,” Ivy said. She reached out a hand and messed up his hair.
Manny made two fists and pretended he was going to sock her.
I could see that Jack was getting impatient. “So? Do you have a store in mind?” I asked.
He nodded. “Harlow’s.”
I blinked. “Harlow’s Pic ’n’ Pay? Here on River Road? Why Harlow’s?”
“A lot of reasons,” Jack said. “One, it’s never crowded. It’s kind of out of the way. Two, it’s small, with narrow aisles, and the cash register is right near the front door. And three, Harlow is a really nice guy. He’s even nice to teenagers.”
Manny laughed. “Why would anyone be nice to teenagers?”
“He’s a good dude. He’ll go along with a joke,” Jack said. He clapped his hands together. “Everyone raise your right hand. Like taking an oath. We’re going to do this thing and it’s going to be awesome, and we’re all going to be famous.”
We all raised a hand high. Manny raised both hands. Ivy was the last to do it. I could see she still had her doubts.
After Jeremy, Ivy, and Manny had left, I found myself on Jack’s lap, his arms wrapped tightly around me. He ran a hand over my springy hair. I think he liked the way it bounced. We nuzzled our faces for a little while, just teasing each other, and then we kissed, a long, hard kiss that took my breath away.
“You’re amazing,” he growled, soft and low.
With our second kiss, he wrapped me up even tighter. The back of my neck tingled and I felt chills run down my spine. His lips were hard, not soft. I didn’t know what that meant. I couldn’t think clearly. Actually, I couldn’t think at all.
But as I pressed my hands on his cheeks and kissed him, I found myself thinking about our store robbery. Just another prank by the Shadyside Shade.
I was right to go along with the idea.
Because this—what I was feeling with Jack—couldn’t be wrong.
