Dirty Little Secret

CHAPTER 8 (TATIANA)

“Guys, I think I had the most hilarious time of my life,” Tatiana said, trying to catch her breath, “Did you see her face expression?”

“OMG, I know right, it was so funny,” Victoria answered back, laughing.

It was about 7 p.m. when they had finished egging houses and were walking back to Audrey's house. They had stopped by somewhere to give Nikki a welcome gift, a fake ID.

“So guys, Rosewood Day closes at 8 p.m. What should we do in the mean time?” asked Victoria.

But nobody got a chance to answer, because they had been interrupted by the sound of sirens coming closer. The whole group froze and didn’t move at all. They could all hear it. Tatiana pressed her basketball charm between her fingers.

“You can’t possibly think someone saw us...?” asked Audrey.

“What are we going to do?” Nikki asked, trembling.

“Guys, be quiet , what we do is act innocent and say that we were here the whole time,” Allison said looking back and forth, blinking more than usual.

It was the first time Tatiana had seen her being scared. Allison had always been so confident.

They all shivered as if it were 0 degrees outside, and slowly but surely, the sound of the police car faded. Everyone had a relieved look on their face, and started breathing regularly again.

“Guys lets stop, what if the police that just past us were coming to get us? We wouldn’t be able to defend ourselves. I know how much you guys were scared,” Charlie shot out.

“Charlie is right, we shouldn’t do anything like this ever again, and we shouldn’t do the things on the list...,” Kennedy said.

Tatiana in her mind agreed with Charlie and Kennedy. She knew if they had gotten caught, her parents wouldn't ever let it go. She couldn’t say it out loud, though, because she didn’t want to seem wimpy in front of her friends, and besides, she hadn't had this much fun in a long time.

“Charlie and Kennedy, stop being so over reactive, it’s not like we’ve ever gotten caught before,” Allison said, “Never will we either.”

“But...” Charlie said.

“Charlie, Allison is right, stop over reacting about things, and plus, we had such a blast,” Victoria said.

“Yeah but still....”Charlie whimpered.

“Stop it for goodness sake!” Audrey said. (If her party was a fail, she wouldn't be able to host a sleepover again, and she didn't want the list she worked so hard on to be discarded.)

Tatiana wanted to protest out loud, but she was too afraid to say it out loud and defend her friend. Peer pressure was always her problem, and Tatiana was always just absent minded, following anyone that seemed to be the leader.

“Charlie and Kennedy, it’s going to be fine, trust me,” Victoria said, hanging her arms around their shoulders.

“You know what? Let’s go back to Audrey's house and grab a snack, I’m seriously starving to death,” Tatiana said, thinking this would stall enough time for them to eventually talk about boys, give each other make-overs and not go clubbing or golf-cart racing at Rosewood Day.

“So Audrey, what did you prepare for us?” Kennedy asked once they were all back.

“So on the table from left to right are three different flavored potato chips, strawberry filled jello, fruit punch, lemonade, sparkling water, and mango tarts,” Audrey said waiting for her friends' reactions, then added, “all home made and fat-free!”

“You prepared all of this?” Nikki said in amazement.

“Impressive, Audrey,” Allison said with a slight smirk and wink.

Without hesitating, everyone began to dig in. As they were snacking and music began playing, Tatiana said, “Ohemgeedoublehkp, I saw the funniest thing today!”

“Rank first,” replied Kennedy.

“What rank? What do you mean?” Nikki asked.

“We rank our gossip by card hierarchy. One being the lowest, and ace the highest,” Victoria replied

“Five; today I was walking by and I saw half-half boy and alligator tooth girl holding hands! I think they thought nobody was looking!” Tatiana said. Everyone began bending over in laughter.

Just then, the doorbell rang. The girls ignored it but heard Audrey's parents welcoming someone in. Then, they heard footsteps coming down the stairs.

"WE'VE COME TO TAKE YOUR SOUL," a voice called out at exactly the same time the lights turned off. They all shrieked in fake-horror and clutched on to one another.

"AHHHHHH!" somebody screamed. Then, the lights were turned on, and the seven girls in camis and boy shorts found themselves facing six guys in oversized teeshirts and basketball shorts.

"Whattheheck!" Allison complained, fake-frowning.

"We scared you guys, huh?" Brandon said with a flirty grin on his face.

Allison threw a pillow at him, but missed and hit Jacob instead. Jacob tried to hit Allison but she ducked and he hit Charlie. It resulted in a pillow fight with everyone shouting and having fun. But no one noticed Kennedy, who inconspicuously went away to the side, sat down a table, and just watched.