Better Than Revenge (Sweet Secrets #1) (22 page)

Ella nodded vigorously from her spot on Lena’s lap. “Hell yeah, I’m in.”

“Watch your mouth,” Lena scolded playfully.

Smirking, Ella nodded, “Sure thing mom. Brianna probably won’t even be expecting it from me. We’ve gotten really “close” since we fought. Or at least she thinks we have. It was hard for me to really be friends with her when I had the blackmail in the back of my mind.”

“Why did you guys really fight, anyway?”

Ella shrugged nonchalantly. “Brianna called you a twat for hanging out with Violet, and I don’t care what someone has over me, no one messes with my family. Afterwards she talked to me about it, apologizing and crap, and saying that that was my first warning. What is she, a kindergarten teacher?”

I laughed at the thought of Brianna teaching a class full of young, impressionable minds. “Good morning students, I’m your teacher, Ms. Bitchardson,” I spoke aloud, in a mock impression of her voice.

“First thing I’ll teach you is the proper way to execute the art of blackmail,” Lena added in.

“Lastly, I’ll dye each of your hair blonde, and make you my minions. Then we can take over the world one person at a time.”

Chapter 27

After a few days of planning out our revenge, Lena and I were excited to include Ella in on the scheme. After all, she had plenty of reason to want to get Brianna back for blackmailing her, and we needed her. Ella was our shining angel in this situation. She’s the only one who was close enough to Brianna to get all of the inside jobs completed. Ella is our double agent.

Our first plan of action was to show everyone who the real Brianna Richardson was. Ella had come up with the bright idea of getting Brianna to host a sleepover at her house. Being the attention whore that she is, Brianna was unable to resist the idea of inviting all of her friends over to spend the night. All night long, Ella was set up with different tasks to complete in order to make her day tomorrow terrible.

Considering the fact that Brianna had decided to throw her sleepover party on a school night, not many of the girls could make it, therefore making our task a bit harder. If more girls had been able to come, then Ella would have an easier time sneaking away without being noticed, but now everything was more complicated. On the bright side at least, with less people in the house there’s a smaller chance of Lena and I getting caught as well.

Lena slouched further down in the driver’s seat, pressing one of the walkie-talkies that we had found in Lilly’s room to her mouth. Jabbing her thumb onto one of the buttons, she whispered, “Baby Red, do you hear me? I repeat, do you hear me?”

I watched from my position in the passenger’s seat as Lena stared at the walkie-talkie in anticipation. Her eyes were wide and round as she waited for a moment before turning to me. “She’s not replying. What if she’s already been busted?”

Raising an eyebrow, I reached over and took the walkie-talkie from her hands. “You forgot to take your finger off of the button.”

“Oh,” she sighed. Suddenly, Lena pushed herself upwards, and reached into the back seat. Her arm swept around until she obviously found what it was that she had been searching for.

Static sounded on the walkie-talkie and Ella’s voice came through just as Lena slid back down in her seat, now clutching a pair of binoculars. “Hey guys, I just excused myself to the bathroom. What do I do now?”

Squeezing the button with my thumb, I spoke. “Did anyone think something was suspicious about you taking your purse to the bathroom with you?”

It was silent for a moment before she replied. “Not really. I told them that I needed to reapply my makeup. They seemed to buy it. Now what?”

Lena snatched the walkie-talkie from my hands and held it to her mouth again. “First, find her conditioner. Forget about the shampoo. Everyone knows that the conditioner is used the most. Just uncap the bottle, and pour every last drop of the henna into it.”

Everything was silent for a moment. I could just imagine Ella shuffling through the cabinets in Brianna’s bathroom in search of her conditioner. Suddenly her voice crackled over the speaker. “I found her conditioner, but I think I found something better.”

“What?”

“A few boxes of blonde hair dye.”

Lena held the walkie-talkie near her face as she opened her mouth to respond, before she did so, she turned her head toward me and asked, “Isn’t she a natural blonde?”

I nodded, “Yeah, she was always a blonde. Her hair was really pale when we were younger, but it got a bit darker as she got older. I never really thought about it, but she must bleach her hair to get it lighter.”

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 bought, 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.