Don't Get Caught(41)

“That was amazing,” I say.

“I shouldn’t have let them get to me like that. But whatever,” she says. “So why are you here? Looking to lecture me again?”

“No, I wanted to apologize. I shouldn’t have said anything about Libby.”

“But you still think I shouldn’t have done that to her?”

“Honestly?”

“Of course.”

“I don’t know.”

I tell her about what Watson said about revenge and justice and how I feel like we’re confusing the two in our pursuit of exposing the Chaos Club.

“So what if we are?” Malone says. “That’s not your problem. If Adleta wants to puke on Stranko and his dad, and I want Libby dead for what she did to me, then that’s on our consciences, not yours. I totally wish I could just forget what she did to me, let it go and pretend like it’s no big deal, but I can’t.”

“I get it,” I say. “I just wanted to say I was sorry. I was an idiot. I’ll mind my business next time.”

Malone softens, and her eyes drop for a second while she works something out.

“Well, since you didn’t mind your business, I’ll be guilty of it too,” she says. “Ellie told me about you two at the radar dish.”

My cheeks get so hot, my head may burst into flames.

“Don’t get embarrassed,” she says. “I totally get it. Ellie’s cute and cool. You’d be crazy not to try to kiss her.”

I don’t say anything because: (A) I don’t know how to respond, and (B) I’m hoping if I focus hard enough, I’ll teleport to another planet.

“But, look, here’s the thing—and I feel like a bitch saying this, but you’re a good guy—I think you need to be careful around Ellie.”

“What?”

“It’s just…look, I like Ellie, I really do. She’s really nice, like scary nice, but I’ve heard things about her, Max. Like maybe she’s not as nice as she makes herself out to be.”

“What have you heard?”

“Rumors mostly.”

“About what?”

“That she lies, Max. All the time. I admit I haven’t witnessed that, but I don’t know, I can see it somehow. She’s so good at acting. We’ve seen that firsthand. I just don’t want to see you get hurt.”

“I don’t think you have anything to worry about. She blew me off.”

“Maybe that’s for the best.”

Getting rejected is “for the best”?

Yeah right.

? ? ?

At home, I do two things:

First, I delete the naked picture of Malone from my phone. It’s something I should’ve done months ago. But before you give me the Good Guy Award, know that my finger hovered over the Delete Photo button for a good two minutes. Still, I did push it.

Dammit.

Second, I google Chaos Club, and it takes digging through three pages of links to Wheeler’s fake site to get to the real one. On the real Chaos Club site, I hope to find a denial of the pranks we’ve pulled in their name, but there’s nothing. The only change I can see from the beginning of the year is a picture of the cows on the roof. They don’t even bother mentioning the water tower prank, almost like it wasn’t a big deal to them.

Question: If we’re going to all this trouble to get back at a club who doesn’t care what we’re doing, aren’t we being laughed at all over again?

Later that week, Ellie catches me on my way to lunch.

“You need to get on board,” Ellie says. She’s doing that bouncing-on-her-toes thing she does when she’s excited. “I would’ve thought you’d be first to come up with a prank. Now you’re almost last.”

“I will eventually.”

“What’s stopping you?”

Fair question. Mostly, I haven’t thought of a prank yet, but a good part of it is the whole guilt thing.

“I’ll come up with something soon,” I say.

“Okay, but in the meantime…”

Ellie pulls her phone out and moves in close.

Would it be creepy of me if I sniffed her hair?

“I need your help,” she says. “But you can’t tell anyone.” She unlocks her phone and shows me the picture on her wallpaper.

“Oh my God,” I say. “Stealing isn’t very Christian-like, Ellie Wick.”

“Neither is what I’m going to do with it,” she says.

“What’s the plan?”

“I think it’s time the school got an image makeover. I can give you the details when there aren’t so many ears around, but it’s a two-person job. Are you in?”

I hesitate just one second, but it’s one second too long.

“What’s wrong?” Ellie says. Then her brow furrows. “Wait, you’re not thinking about quitting, are you?”

“Huh? No.”

“You are, aren’t you? It’s because of Tim’s and Kate’s pranks, right?”

Man, I swear sometimes girls have ESP or something.

“You can’t quit, Max. We need you. I need you.”

I certainly like the sound of that.

She says, “You may not like the last two pranks, but remember how you felt after the water tower? That’s why we’re doing this.”