The Seventh Grade Wars

CHAPTER 34: Cricket

So apparently A Side had a "hacker" on their team. And apparently they'd changed the date of the football tryouts on the school's website to a day earlier. And apparently now the entire junior high football team was composed of A Siders. 

We was mad. Really mad. But more so, we were desperate. Desperate for a prank. We hadn't done anything for a while, and now even B Side had got their foot in the door by coming up with that baby-oil prank.

"We need something genius," said Asia. "Something that the other Sides can't help but admire."

"Unfortunately, none of us are really good at math," Alexa put in. "Or physics, basically."

"I know someone who might be able to help," said Pete, "although he definitely won't be able to for quite a while."

"Who?" we demanded. 

"My cousin," he said. "His name's Lucas."

"There's no Lucas, not that I know of," Asia said irritably. "Honestly, Pete, I wish you'd tell me this stuff more often."

"Sorry, I just thought it would be better to tell the whole team at once."

Asia sniffed. "Well, I'm your girlfriend," she muttered. 

"Tell us what, Pete?" I asked quickly. "What about Lucas?"

"Lucas is going to move here this winter," Pete explained. "He's super smart. He'll be able to help us with anything."

"Why's he moving?" asked Marcus.

"Lucas lives in Oklahoma. The schools there won't allow him to move up the grades he needs to skip, so he's coming here. Lucas is nine, by the way."

Peyton nearly spat out her soda. "So he should be in what, third grade?"

"And he's coming up to seventh, that's right," Pete said. "My aunt and uncle helped him by letting him take extra courses after school, but they'd rather move here to Westchester."

"Wow," said Tess. "Your cousin's got to be pretty smart, Pete."

"Big deal," said Asia, who was obviously still mad at Pete. "Lucas isn't going to be here till later, so why bother now? Unless he can whip us up a prank?"

"No," said Pete. "I just thought I'd tell you guys now. Although we're doing pretty good ourselves."

"I'm sure B Side's got a good prank," I said suddenly. "A genius one."

Heads turned to face me. 

"Why d'you say that?" asked Harley.

"Because they have Hayley George," I responded. "The female version of Albert Einstein."

"Oh, her," said Peyton quietly.

"I'm sure she's cooking up something big," I said. "Putting her big head to use."

"Boy, Cricket, you sure don't like this Hayley person," said Marcus. 

"No, I don't," I said. "And if she has a prank ready, I'd be glad to get it."

That day after school, I went on my phone and pulled up a chat room with Chelsea. It hadn't been used in a month, something that almost never happened. We texted each other so much, my dad claimed our thumbs would fall off eventually.

It was risky, texting Chelsea. So I typed in one simple word: Hey, and awaited her response. It came a few seconds later.

Chestnut860: Hi, Cricket.

Cricketbug: What's up? 

Chestnut860: Nothing, I guess.

Cricketbug: You're not still mad about the Hayley thing, are you?

Chestnut860: I don't know, Cricket.

I could almost hear her bitter tone through the words. 

Cricketbug: Oh, come on, Chelsea. Surely you can't still be upset?

Chestnut860: Why are you texting me, anyway?

Time to get down to business. But I had to do it casually, or she'd suspect something.

Cricketbug: Just wondering...we haven't talked about the War. What do you make of it?

Chestnut860: It's certainly making this year interesting.

Cricketbug: I hear Hayley's on the B Side team.

Chestnut860: WHY ARE YOU SO INTERESTED IN HAYLEY??

Chelsea was getting riled up. And when she did...she tended to text in long paragraphs. Usually I found this annoying, but maybe I could use it to my advantage.

Cricketbug: I can't imagine her contributing anything. She's pretty much mute, isn't she? No wonder you have to keep standing up for her.

Chestnut860: Well, for your information, Cricket, Hayley's done lots for the team. She's so smart, which you'd have known if you didn't keep shutting her out. She's even got Jordan Walker interested in her now, you know, and he asked her out. They're even working together for a totally ingenious prank that'll blow all you C Siders away. What do you think about that?

Cricketbug: What do I think? Good for Hayley George! Jordan's kind of a jock, isn't he? Bet he doesn't have many ideas.

Chestnut860: Of course he does. He's the leader of the B Side team! He totally trusts Hayley, you know. Just a couple days ago they were working on a prank at her house. They do really great work together, you know. Not that you'd be interested.

Jackpot. Time to end this.

Cricketbug: You're right. I'm not interested. 

Then I signed off. My first thought was: wow, I can't believe Hayley's going out with the hottie Jordan Walker. My next thought was: Perfect. Mission accomplished.

Even if this meant that Chelsea was going to hate me even more for using her, it was worth it.