Nicky, Ricky, Dicky and Dawn The Cheerleader

Spilling The Beans

Dawn yanked Dicky into the room, ignoring his complaints of a swollen ankle. Ricky and Nicky followed close behind, looking out into the hallway for any rogue Kayleys that may have broken into the Harper household.

"Ow! What gives?" Dicky grumbled, sitting down on Dawn's former bed, the one she'd used before she got her own room. "My ankle's still twisted, you know, and the nurse said not to put any extra effort into using it--"

"Well, you haven't followed that at all, so why should we?" Ricky demanded. "Sit and listen to the woman talk."

"Thank you, Ricky," Dawn said. "Remember when Kayley stormed off into the girl's bathroom? I followed her and--"

"You followed her?" Dicky said indignantly. "How much more of a stalker can you get?"

"Shh!" Dawn hissed. "I heard her having quite an... interesting conversation, so I recorded it on my cellphone and--"

"You recorded her? That crosses even the most stalkerish line there even was!" Dicky cried. "My sister's a stalker! That's illegal! ...It is illegal, right?"

"Stalking someone is actually against the law and if you are being stalked you can get a restraining order from the court so it would be illegal for the stalker to come within a hundred mile radius of you for your own personal safety--"

"No one asked for all that, Ricky!" Nicky said.

"Well, actually, Dicky kind of asked for it--"

"Ricky! If you don't mind, I'm trying to expose Dicky's girlfriend here?" Dawn snapped. Ricky quieted down.

"Whoa, whoa--expose Kayley? What do you mean? Did she do something wrong?" Dicky asked, momentarily forgetting his injured ankle.

"Done something wrong? Has she done something wrong? In case you haven't noticed, she's been dating you for the past forty-eight hours!" Ricky screeched.

"Hey, that's offensive!" Dicky yelled.

"Quiet!" Dawn raised her voice. "Do you want the entire block to know what we're up to?"

"Will you just quit the chitchat and tell him already?" Nicky interrupted. "This is cutting into my workout time!"

Dawn rolled her eyes. "Kayley's using you." She told Dicky.

"She is not."

"She is so, I heard her myself."

"You heard her say she was using me?" Dicky asked in disbelief. "No way would she say that in front of you."

"She didn't know I was there, she thought she was just with those two girls from the cheer squad, Bethany and Melanie, I think they're called? They're all obsessed with lipgloss and makeup, like how much more artificial can you get?" Dawn scoffed. She obviously did not like these girls very much. "Anyways, she was telling them all about her grand plan to date you and separate you from the populars, then hang out with them on her own and 'dump your sorry butt' so they all forgot about you."

"She said she'd dump my sorry butt?" Dicky sounded hurt. Dawn felt a little guilty, but shook it off. It wasn't her that was doing this to him, she reminded herself, it was Kayley.

"In those exact words." Ricky confirmed, nodding. Dawn had let Ricky and Nicky hear the recording before they told Dicky.

"I want to hear this recording myself." Dicky decided.

"What?" Dawn put a hand over her heart in mock-hurt. "You don't believe us? But Dicky--we're your siblings! Do you really think we'd actually, actually lie to--"

"I want to hear the recording." Dicky said again. Dawn sighed and shook her head.

"Fine, alright, but its your funeral." She pulled her phone out and tapped the recording app.

"Tell me where you're hiding your voo-doo doll, cause I can't get you outta my mind--" Dawn hurriedly tapped her phone screen a couple more times until the warbling voice disappeared. Ricky and Nicky glanced at each other.

"Um... what was that?" Nicky asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Wrong recording." Dawn explained vaguely.

"That's a terrible song." Dicky said. "It makes my ankle hurt."

"Shut up, Dicky. Here's the right one..." Dawn held the phone out to her brother as the recorded conversation began playing. It started with Kayley's voice.

"Okay, okay, if you insist. First, I date Dicky. I isolate him from the populars. Secretly, I hang out with the populars as 'Dicky's girlfriend'. I insert myself into their group as an equal, then dump Dicky's sorry butt and leave his heart for those loser siblings of his to pick up the pieces."

"Brilliant, absolutely breathtaking. You are a genius, Kayley."

"I know. I better get out there and give Dicky a second chance. Hopefully by now those idiot siblings of his have left the table. Or better yet, the school." [Laughter]

Dicky dropped the phone on the mattress softly. It bounced a little, and Dawn caught it before it could topple right off the bed.

"She was using me." Dicky whispered. "She gave me a second chance so she could use me."

"We know, honey," Dawn said, smoothing Dicky's hair down like a mother. Dicky shook her off.

"I'm going to dump her." Dicky said, starting to get angry. His voice went louder with every word he said. "I'm gonna dump her so hard her heart breaks into millions of tiny, tiny pieces that get thrown to the wind and blown to Ilinois!"

"Calm it, Dicky!" Nicky said, "That's not the way to go. You dump her, the effect won't last."

"The effect... won't... last?" Dicky repeated.

"It won't." Dawn said. A grin spread across her face. "There's only one way to go now."

"...which way?"

"The revenge way. Much more effective, and with a particularly... satisfying result." Dawn said. A storm was coming, and it may just spiral out of proportions.