“Well, what you’re doing”—she taps the Parker Lane Prep rhino head with the tip of her shoe—“is acrime.” She tsks. “Plus, not only did you trespass by breaking into the school to steal the Rhino, you trespassed on private property wearing stolen goods. And I have the evidence to prove it.”
“Once again, that’s extortion.”
Harper rolls her eyes into the flashlight so I can see it good and clear. “What’s worse, Easton? Extortion or breaking and entering? Or wait—theft? No—trespassing?”
She is laying it on thick.
“I didn’t break in,” I protest. “I went into school through the side door like everyone else.” Parker Lane was unlocked because there were students and staff in the building, along with student athletes and plenty of people milling about.
No one looked twice at me when I walked down the hallway.
No one looked twice when I asked where the locker rooms were; zero people were in the supply room when I entered, zero people were in the equipment closet. All I had to do was linger until the coaches and janitors walked past. Then I slipped in, grabbed the mascot costume, and walked confidently out of the building the same way I’d come in.
Walk with a purpose and no one will suspect you’re up to no good.
“It was like stealing candy from a baby,” I boast.
“You went through the door like everyone else?” Harper scoffs, crossing her arms. “Is that what you plan on telling your parents?”
I glower at her. “Are you so hard up for a date to prom that you’re willing to blackmail someone?”
Her chin notches defensively and I can see I’ve hit a nerve.
“That’s not the point.”
I laugh for the first time all night. “That isexactlythe point.”
“Listen,” Harper says, trying to reason with me. “I’m offering you a deal. I help you; you help me.”
“Or.” I laugh again. “You help me up and let me walk away because you’re a senior, too, and you should be thanking your lucky stars you didn’t get chosen to pull this stupid prank.”
She’s quiet. “Look. I’m really excited about prom, okay? And I’m on the stupid decorating committee, and let’s be honest, no one is going to ask me to the dance. They’re just…not.”
“How do you know?”
“ ’Cause. No one wants to ask a bossy book nerd to be theirdate.”
Is she that clueless?
Harper is cute and smart, but she does sound convinced she’ll be dateless, andjust like thatI realize how double fucked I am.
“Be my date and I won’t say anything to anyone about this. Literally no one, not even Macy. Once prom is over, you can watch me delete the pictures.”
She had to go and bring up those pictures…
“In fact,” she continues, “if you agree to be my dateandbe on the decorating committee, I’ll—”
“Whoa, whoa, whoa. Who said anything about the prom committee?” Screw that! “First you said you needed a date. Now I have to be on the damn decorating committee?”
She ignores my ranting, warming up to this whole scheme. “If you agree to be my date and be on the committee, I’ll help you deliver the mascot to school and help you raise the head up the flagpole.” I can see her white teeth in the dark, biting down on her lip.
“How?”
She pauses, the silence stretching out in the dark. “I have the one thing you don’t.”
“And what do you have?”
Harper removes her foot from my chest. Extends a hand to help me off the ground and says the four words that seal our deal:
