Don't Get Caught(12)

“Why does getting thrown out of a game make me an easy target?” Adleta says.

“Because when you feel powerless, you’ll do anything to feel better about yourself.”

Thank you, Psychology 101.

“You may be right, but that’s not why I showed up.”

“Then why did you?” Malone asks.

Tim doesn’t answer; instead, he turns his back and resumes painting the tower.

“So let’s say you’re right, Max,” Ellie says. “What if all of us were chosen because we were easy targets. What are we supposed to do about it?”

It’s all been leading up to this. If you’ve never seen Ocean’s Eleven, there’s a scene where Danny Ocean, the group’s mastermind, gets everyone together and pitches the impossible heist of robbing three casinos in one night. I’m no Danny Ocean, but I did watch that scene three times today on my phone in study hall, planning for this moment. Steal from the best—that’s my motto. It’s time for Not Max to step up.

“I think we’re all pissed about what happened to us,” I say. “And we should be. We look like idiots up here, and no one’s going to let us forget about that. But I think the Chaos Club messed up. We’re not the type of people to just roll over and take it. I might have been, but I’m not going to be anymore.”

“Me either,” Adleta says.

“Yep,” Wheeler says.

“I agree,” Ellie says.

“So, revenge?” Malone asks.

“No, not just revenge,” I say. “That’s too shortsighted. I don’t want to just get back at the people who pranked us. Anyone could do that.” I throw in a dramatic pause here—the result of watching way too many movies. “What I want is to nuke the Chaos Club out of existence, to be the ones to end their secret society forever.”

Go big, right?

Ellie claps her hands once.

“Excellent!”

“Abso-freakin’-lutely, dude!” Wheeler says.

Even Adleta’s smiling.

And, of course, Malone’s shaking her head no.

“Nice goal. But like you said, we don’t even know who they are.”

“Right, I have a plan for that. But before I get into it, what I’m thinking could get us in a lot of trouble. If I explain everything and someone wants out, that’s cool.”

“Oh, I like the sound of this,” Ellie says.

Of course she does. It was her whispered “we need a plan” last night that really made me take this seriously. If getting to spend time with Ellie means having to risk Stranko’s wrath and possible grounding by my parents until I’m eighty, then I’ll take that chance.

“How do we start?” Wheeler says.

“We need as much info on the Chaos Club as we can get,” I say.

Heist Rule #9: Know your enemy.

“Do you have a plan to do that?” Malone asks.

“I do.”

And I tell them my idea. It’s so ridiculously dangerous that once I’m finished explaining, even Wheeler is slack jawed.

Ellie finally breaks the silence by bursting into heavy laughter. Soon all of us are in hysterics at the absurdity of the proposal. From the base of the tower, Stranko shouts repeatedly at us to get back to painting, but we ignore him.

“Game on,” Ellie says between gulps of air, her eyes full of tears. “Game. On.”





Chapter 6


Ellie calls it Operation Stranko Caper and gives each member of the Water Tower Five code names related to his or her role.

Adleta is Goon.

Malone is Shadow.

Wheeler is Potatoes.

Ellie is Crybaby.

And I’m Bleeder.

But at the moment, waiting for zero hour while standing in the back hallway where I can view the busy cafeteria, I’m feeling more like Puker because I want to sprint to the bathroom to vomit up my guts.

And to think this was all my idea.

Here’s Heist Planning 101:

1. Identify your target. In this case, the target is Stranko’s phone. Clearly he’s investigating the Chaos Club; the pictures he took in the office prove that. Who knows what other evidence against them he might have?

2. Formulate a plan. It took a week of observing Stranko during school (all of us) and after (thank you, Adleta) to realize he’s most separated from his phone during lunch duty. It sits on a table on the stage next to where Stranko polices the cafeteria. Now if he were to be pulled away from the stage…

3. Practice, practice, practice. The five of us rehearsed our roles for more than a week. The plan isn’t the most complicated, but we only have one shot at this.

Our final run-through of the plan lasted two hours on Saturday, with Ellie and Wheeler the most excited. Even Adleta, who’s probably risking at least a thousand push-ups every day for the rest of his life, liked the idea. Malone, go figure, predicted failure.

“It won’t work,” she said. “Maybe in a movie, yes, but not in real life it won’t.”

“No, they won’t see it coming,” I said. “No one expects things like this to happen and especially not from us. We’re trying to stay out of trouble, remember? Why would we risk getting suspended?”

“Max is right,” Adleta said. “There’ll be too much going on for Stranko to realize what’s happened. It’s going to work.”