The Seventh Grade Wars

CHAPTER 33: Hayley

Nerd Girl," said Diane. "Make sure you don't try anything funny."

"The only funny thing we'd need to watch out for is you," I retorted. 

Neither twin seemed to have a response. 

So after school, the entire B Side team headed out to the football field. C Side was already there, but that was it. No coaches, no sports equipment. Except for us, the field was virtually empty. 

Jordan stepped up to the C Side's leader, a tall, lean, shaggy-haired boy in the front. He didn't look like much—Jordan was much more impressive.

"What's going on?" asked Jordan. "Why isn't anybody here?"

"I dunno," said the boy. "Tryouts are today, aren't they?"

"Yes, Pete, today's Tuesday," said Cricket, standing close to him. 

"Maybe they're just late," Riley said. "We should give it a couple minutes."

But moments passed by, and nobody arrived. We'd been waiting there for half an hour, and still nobody showed up.

"I'm givin' up, guys, I'm going home," said one of the C Side boys. His friends nodded, and decided to leave the field. 

"Well?" said Jackie loudly. "What's going on?"

"They're not today, I guess," said Jordan. "A mess up on the dates, maybe? You're sure it's today?"

"That's what the school website said," I told him. 

Finally, we decided to leave, just like C Side. The mystery remained unsolved until that Friday, when the results were posted on the cafeteria bulletin board. 

"Guys, there's a list over there of people who made the football tryouts," said Riley, rushing over. 

"How could they have results? Nobody showed up!" Chelsea said. 

"Apparently we were tricked." Riley sat down, and Victoria handed him a soda. 

"Tricked?" I exclaimed. "How?"

Riley opened his iPhone. "I took a picture," he said. "There was a handwritten message on the list of names. Check it out. It says, 'Dear B and C Siders — I'm afraid this has been a prank. *Hint: we hacked into the school's website and changed the dates of the tryouts. We have a very experienced hacker on our team.* Hope you'll not feel too bad about it. We know how much you try your hardest, but we're still the best. Sincerely, A Side.'"

"No wonder nobody was there that day," said Jordan. "Clever of them, though..."

"But who's the hacker?" asked Diane. 

I glanced over at the A Side mission team's table. "I think...it's the littlest one," I said. 

"The redhead? Danny Soulker?" said Hudson. "He skipped, like, three grades! Why do you think he's the hacker?"

"Why else would they have let him onto the team?" I pointed out. "He's got to have some purpose to them or they would have rejected him. And if he skipped a bunch of grades, shouldn't he be very smart?"

"That seems about right," Jordan said. "But we can't do anything about Danny Soulker. He's on their side. That's it. It's not like we can eliminate him or something."

"Well, we have to come up with a new prank," said Jackie. 

"Why don't you think of it, then, since you never do anything else?" snapped Victoria. 

I shook my head. "It has to be something so ingenious, the other Sides have to feel threatened."

Jordan looked over at me. He didn't say anything, but he just looked thoughtful.