Every head at the table swiveled toward her.
Sadie blinked once. Twice. “Yeah,” she said slowly, clearly recalculating. “It’s already set up for tomorrow morning, and no one should need to go in there until just before the scheduled time… why?”
Hope shrugged, casual as anything. “Because we don’t need some elaborate setup. If you can get your hands on glitter, and a few of us sneak in there tonight, we can just sprinkle it around the room. Lightly. Like fairies spreading their dust.”
The table went very still.
“No traps,” she continued. “No buckets. No face full of glitter for anyone. Just… everywhere. On the chairs. The tables. The floor.”
A slow grin started pulling at my mouth.
“That way,” she finished, “we won’t have one Dom pissed because they got a glitter bomb to the face. It’ll just be… inconveniently magical.”
Silence.
Then Pink Braids whispered, awed, “You’re scary smart.”
Sadie leaned back in her chair, studying Hope like she’d just discovered a new species. “Oh,” she said softly. “You’re not a chaos Little.”
Hope raised a brow. “No?”
“You’re a calculated menace.”
Hope’s careful expression morphed into a bright smile. “You think so?”
Sadie nodded. “I know so. If Hayleigh were here, she’d so totally agree with me.”
My chest filled with warm pride at Hope. Maybe she would be the big sister and the boss of me after all. But that was something I could live with… if it meant I got to keep her.
Chapter Eighteen
Hope
The clock on the wall outside my room clicked over to 10:07 p.m.
Technically past curfew, according to the other Littles who’d been at the dinner table with me.
Technically, I should’ve been tucked into bed, lights off, door shut.
But...technically… no one had told me that.
That was the strange part about not having a technically official Big or a Dom. No one to sneak around. No one to text goodnight to. No one to pretend you were asleep when footsteps passed your door. It was certainly a lonely life, but tonight I would focus on the positives. Tonight it was a good thing because I got to be the hero who helped pull off the prank.
The hallway was quiet when I eased open the door, the soft carpet swallowing the sound of my bare feet. My heart still pounded loudly in my ears.
I paused for half a second.
This was ridiculous. I was a grown woman sneaking out to commit glitter crimes.
A smile tugged at my mouth.
Correction. I was a Little pulling off the prank of the year while simultaneously making new friends.
Sometimesnotbeing a grown-up was just the way to go, and the more time I spent with Perry, the more I believed it.
I slipped down the hallway and toward the large workshop room where I found the door open a smidge.
A faint sliver of light spilled into the corridor, making me hesitate only a second before pushing it wider.
