Cheat Sheets

Chapter Seven

Chapter Seven

Braeden has me up at seven in the morning and I groan as I follow his directions and pull my car up just down the road from the school. “It’s Sunday, what the hell are we doing at school? If you got me up for extra an class, that’s good for you, but I swear to god-”

Before I can correctly threaten him, Braeden’s palm sneaks over my mouth and he cuts me off with a brilliant grin. “No. Don’t you see? The only people that come to school on Sunday’s are the football team, for practice sessions.”

“Josh is on the football team.” I mumble in recognition, licking his palm so that he pulls his hand away from my mouth and steadfastly wipes my mouth germs on his jeans.

“Exactly.” Braeden nods me along. “Ten points to the girl in the ninja costume!”

Scowling at him and folding my arms under my chest, I glare down at my all black attire. “You told me to dress in all black, so excuse me for looking like a cat burglar, but this is all I’ve got. And besides, it’s not like you look any better. You’re so big that it’s almost impossible for you to be inconspicuous.”

Braeden beams at me in pride. “Thanks for finally noticing, Kee. Just trust me, I’ve done this sort of thing before; we’ll be fine.”

“And what exactly is ‘this sort of thing’?” I ask ever the curious as to what could have possibly dragged me out of bed before noon on a Sunday. “Nothing illegal I hope Brae.”

He grins impishly before pushing his big body out of my little beetle and beckoning me out. “It’s not too illegal I suppose. But don’t worry your pretty little head about it; I’ll be doing most of the work. I just bought you along to stand there and look pretty.”

A rather unladylike snort leaves me. “Gee, thanks.” Clambering out of the vehicle, I lock it securely behind me and stare suspiciously down at the black gym bag in Braeden’s hands. “What’s in the bag?”

“Tools.” He answers with a shrug before placing a hand at the small of my back and nudging me forwards, towards the tree line that separates the school from the main road. “Now don’t worry about getting caught; I checked where the cameras were last night and we should be out of the camera range so all is good.”

“I don’t even want to know why you know that. What if someone comes by and sees what we’re doing?” I ask, nervously pulling at a stray string dangling from my cuff whilst kicking my feet into the curb to avoid looking around us like a guilty person.

Braeden’s fingers grasp my chin suddenly and he pulls my face up to make our eyes meet as he smiles down at me. “Relax Kee. I’m not going to let you get in trouble, alright? I know it’s a hard concept to grasp, but you’re going to have to trust me. You know what that is, right; trust? Well I’m going to need yours so quit acting so guilty and follow my lead.”

I nod numbly and jolt slightly when I feel his fingers lace through mine, his strong, callous fingers slowly stroking the backs of my knuckles in comfort as he pulls us through the small patch of woods and to the car park on the other side.

Just like Braeden said, not one soul is in sight and sat right in the middle of the car park is Josh’s’ – correction, Cheat Sheets’ – shiny black Hummer. Ugh, I really hate that show boat truck of his. It just screams rich and pretentious. It’s so different than Braeden’s matte grey bike which I’ve wholeheartedly fallen in love with.

“What are we doing here?”

Releasing my hand, Braeden gives the area a quick check before dropping his gym bag to the floor and looting through it. “We’re just going to mess his car up a little, nothing to permanent.” He informs me as he removes a set of wire cutters, some electrical tape and some food colouring from his bag before handing the food colouring off to me. “Here, I want you to pour some of this in where the screen wash goes.”