The Seventh Grade Wars

CHAPTER 41: JK

On Tuesday, Jessica came to lunch sopping wet.

"Jessica! What happened?" demanded Thomas. He'd asked her out last week, and ever since he's been super protective over her. It's disgusting.

"Trap! In the bathroom!" gasped Jessica. Her makeup was ruined, and was running down her face. Her usually straight blonde hair was now wet and stringy.

"Jeez, Jessica," I said, "you look just like you did at that party you threw."
She probably would have slapped me if Thomas hadn't held her back.

"Sit down," he said quickly. "I'll go get you some napkins."

Jessica sighed and sat, wringing her hair straight onto the table.

"Do you mind?" said Ryan, hastily moving his carton of french fries out of the way.

"I wanted to talk to you guys about Halloween," said Jessica, ignoring Ryan's protests. "It's a week and a half away, and we out to do something awesome."
"Please not another party," said Yvonne. "My parents heard about your pool one and grounded me."

"Yvonne, quit being such a goody-goody," said Jessica. "And yes, I'm talking about a party. We can have it at my place again." Thomas came back just then with a handful of brown paper towels, which he shoved at Jessica.

"Are you sure your parents will be okay with that?" asked Harriet. "I mean, you got busted last time."

"Of course they'll never know," said Jessica, dabbing at her face with the napkins.

Thomas took a seat besides her. "What about your sister, Avril?" he said. "My brother says she'll probably throw a Halloween party too."

"Well, she's not," she replied. "She's going to another one at a friend's house."

Nobody said anything.

"Fine. I'll arrange it, then. Only A Siders will be invited, of course." She turned to her side. "Thomas, more napkins. Fast."

He jumped up automatically and ran off towards the paper towel dispenser.

The next day, I came to lunch and said, "Guys, I don't think this party will be such a great idea."

"Why?" asked Harriet. "I think it sounds pretty dang awesome."

"You know somebody's going to crash it," I replied. "C Side, most likely."
"I don't think C Side will crash it," said Danny quietly. "Look at this." He turned his laptop computer around so we all could see it. It was the C Side blog. The top article read:

C SIDE HALLOWEEN PARTY!!!!!!!!! ALL C SIDERS INVITED!!!!!!!!

Jessica smiled. "We'll just have to make sure ours is better. Which it will be, of course." She looked at me. "Oh, and JK. You know how I told you to have a prank ready by this week?"

"Yeah," I said. "I—"

"Well, I don't need it any more," she interrupted. "So forget about it."

My mouth dropped open as she turned away and started to talk to Thomas.

I had actually spent a while thinking of that prank.