Chapter 27
TWENTY-SEVEN
“Tell me again why we’re hiding in the bushes at eleven o’clock at night?” I whispered, crouching lower as a pair of students walked by on the sidewalk. The branches scratched at my arms, and I was pretty sure I’d just gotten a spider web in my hair.
Drew was beside me, his eyes gleaming with mischievous intensity in the darkness. “Because Harper Tinsley is a demon spawn who needs to be taught a lesson.”
I sighed, glancing at Gordy and Liam, who were similarly hunched in the shrubbery that separated the hockey house from the music house next door. We’d been out here for twenty minutes already, waiting for Drew’s signal to execute what he called “Operation Tinsley Takedown.”
“Aren’t we a little old for pranks?” I asked, shifting my weight to relieve the cramp forming in my calf. “I mean, we’re in college, not high school freshmen.”
Drew’s head whipped around, his expression deadly serious. “There is no age limit on justice, Kane.”
Gordy cleared his throat. “Didn’t Harper organize that collection and meal train for those three local families that lost their homes in the fire last month? The ones over on Seventh Street?”
I raised an eyebrow. Gordy had a point. I remembered seeing flyers around campus about the fundraiser. It had been pretty successful too—raised something like ten thousand dollars plus clothing, furniture, and other essentials.
“Don’t get him started—” Liam warned, but it was too late.
Drew’s face flushed even in the dim light from the streetlamps.
“That’s exactly what I’m talking about! It’s all a front.
A carefully crafted public image to hide her true nature.
You think she actually cares about those families?
Please. The Tinsleys have been pulling this kind of PR stunt for decades. ”
“Don’t argue,” Liam said, resigned. “The Tinsley/Dumontier feud goes back like three generations,” he explained. “There’s no reasoning with him on this topic.”
Drew was still going. “And now she’s here, at our university, living next door, playing her violin at six in the morning like some kind of psychopath.”
I had to admit, the early morning violin wasn’t my favorite thing either, but it wasn’t exactly a capital offense.
“So what exactly is the plan here?” I asked, trying to redirect Drew’s increasingly passionate rant. “Because I’ve got an eight a.m. class tomorrow, and I’d rather not spend the whole night in these bushes.”
Drew’s focus returned to the mission at hand. He reached into his backpack and pulled out what looked like several packages of plastic wrap.
“When she comes home and goes to sleep, we’re going to plastic wrap her car.”
Gordy arched a brow. “That’s your master plan?”
I frowned. “Drew, man, I don’t think—”
“Relax,” he cut me off. “It won’t cause any permanent damage, but it will mess with her perfectly composed schedule that she never deviates from.”
Liam sighed. “This seems childish, even for you.”
“You don’t understand,” Drew insisted. “Last week, she reported our house to campus security for noise violations. Three times. We got a formal warning from housing and we didn’t even have any parties! I can’t let that go without retaliating.”
I was starting to wonder if Drew had built this rivalry up in his head a bit too much. I’d seen Harper Tinsley around campus a few times—a slender, curly-haired redhead who was a music major and mostly kept to herself from what I could tell. She didn’t exactly scream “evil nemesis.”
“There she is,” Drew hissed suddenly, ducking lower into the bushes.
I peered through the branches and saw Harper get out of her car and walk toward the music house, violin case in one hand, a stack of sheet music in the other.
She was wearing jeans and an oversized sweater, her hair pulled back in a messy bun.
She looked tired, probably coming back from a late practice session.
“Perfect,” Drew whispered. “She’s going inside. Once the lights go out in her room, we’ll make our move.”
Gordy shifted uncomfortably beside me. “Drew, I’m not sure this is a good idea. What if someone sees us?”
“That’s why we’re doing it at night, genius,” Drew replied. “Besides, it’s harmless.”
I wouldn’t exactly call making someone late because they couldn’t get into their car in the morning “harmless,” but arguing with Drew when he was in this mood was pointless.
We watched as Harper entered the house, and a few minutes later, a light came on in a second-floor window.
“That’s her room,” Drew informed us. “Now we wait.”
Forty-five minutes later, I was seriously reconsidering my life choices. My legs had gone numb, I was pretty sure I’d been bitten by at least three different insects, and Drew was still glaring at Harper’s window with the intensity of a sniper waiting for his target.
“Why couldn’t we wait in our house instead of the bushes?”
“Because then you guys would find excuses not to help me.”
He was right about that.
“Maybe she’s not going to sleep,” I suggested. “Maybe she’s one of those people who studies until three in the morning.”
“She’ll sleep,” Drew said confidently. “She always turns her light off by midnight.”
I exchanged glances with Liam. “You’ve been tracking her sleep schedule?”
“Know thy enemy,” Drew replied without a hint of irony and keeping his gaze fixed on her window.
“Someone doth protest too much,” Gordy mumbled.
Drew whipped his gaze to Gordy. “What did you just say?”
“Hey! Her light went out,” Liam interrupted, saving Gordy from having to face off with Drew. Although I was in agreement with Gordy.
“It’s go time.”
Before any of us could protest further, Drew ran across the lawn toward the driveway where Harper’s small blue Honda was parked.
Like idiots, we followed him.
“I’m going to regret this,” I said.
“Get in line,” Gordy added.
Drew handed each of us a box of plastic wrap and then got started wrapping her car. We stared, watching him with dread.
“Hurry up,” he whispered, not really paying any attention to the fact that none of us had moved to help him yet.
“Drew—” I started.
“What are you doing to my car?”
We all froze. The voice had come from behind us, female and distinctly unamused. Slowly, we turned around.
Harper Tinsley stood there in sweatpants and a CFU Music Department hoodie, her hand on her hip, her brows arched in judgment, looking significantly less demonic than Drew had described. Mostly, she just looked tired and annoyed.
“Uh…” Drew eloquently responded.
Her eyes narrowed on the plastic wrap in Drew’s hand. “Are you serious right now, Dumontier?”
Drew quickly stood up, attempting to hide the evidence behind his back. “What are you doing out here? You’re supposed to be asleep.”
“I was going to my car to get my other rosin that I left in there,” she replied, then shook her head in disbelief. “You are un-fucking-believable.”
“You started it,” Drew said, his voice cold and lacking any of the usual playfulness.
“We’ll agree to disagree because I’m too tired to list all the ways you started it.”
She shook her head and took a deep breath. “You know what,” she continued, “I’m not even that surprised. This is exactly the kind of childish stunt I’d expect from you.”
Drew bristled. “Oh, like you’re so perfect?”
“Look, this got out of hand,” I said, stepping forward. “We’ll just go back to our house and forget this happened. We’re sorry.”
Drew looked at me like I’d just announced I was quitting hockey to join a boy band. “Dude, what are you doing?”
“Being an adult,” I replied. Then I turned back to Harper. “Seriously, we apologize. It won’t happen again.”
Gordy and Liam quickly nodded in agreement.
“Speak for yourselves,” Drew muttered.
Harper sighed, looking weary. “Just…go home. And take your stupid plastic wrap with you. My car better be in pristine condition when I wake up in the morning.”
Drew glared at her. “This isn’t over, Tinsley.”
“It is for tonight,” she replied firmly.
As we trudged back toward the hockey house, Drew was seething. “I can’t believe you guys caved like that.”
“What were we supposed to do?” Liam asked. “She caught us red-handed.”
“We could have denied it! Said we were looking for a lost…I don’t know, Frisbee or something.”
“At midnight?” Gordy questioned skeptically. “With plastic wrap?”
“You guys don’t understand,” Drew insisted. “The Tinsleys have been getting away with stuff like this for generations. They act all innocent and make us look like the bad guys.”
I clapped a hand on his shoulder. “Look, man, I get that there’s history there, but maybe it’s time to let it go. We’re in college now. We’ve got bigger things to worry about than some old family feud.”
“Like not getting suspended from the team,” Gordy added.
Drew shrugged my hand off. “Whatever.”
“I’m going to bed,” I announced. “And Drew, I’m serious—no more pranks. If Coach finds out we were messing around like this, he’ll have our asses.”
“Fine,” Drew grumbled before heading upstairs without another word.
Gordy followed, yawning widely.
Liam lingered in the living room with me.
“You think he’s really going to let this go?” I asked.
He snorted. “Not a chance. These two have literally been trying to one-up each other since grade school. I doubt a little lecture from you will change that. It’d take a miracle for those two to get along.”