Payback [ON HOLD]

Chapter 12

     "You're doing... WHAT?"

     Lillian nodded a barely perceptible nod, her motivation from before already wearing off enough for her to feel like sinking down in her seat.

     "Well, this changes EVERYTHING," Lizzy announced with a dramatic gesture, eyes wide with excitement and enthusiasm. "This means I can help! I can help make him pay for being such a doofus!"

     Lilly felt herself flinch. "Too soon still."

     Lizzy ignored her. "But this is awesome!" she practically squealed, bouncing in her seat like someone half her age. "So, what's the plan? What are we gonna do to him? Ooh ooh ooh, I know what we gotta do to him! So we're gonna push him off a cliff with a parachute, and then we're gonna shoot an arrow into the parachute, and he's gonna fall into a rampaging river, and float downstream to a waterfall, where I am going to get into the water and push him off the waterfall, and we'll never see him again. Oh, and I'll need proton torpedoes."

     Lillian blinked slowly. "Why would you need..."

     "NONE OF YOUR BUSINESS," she said indignantly, whipping her pointer away from the chalkboard she'd pulled out of nowhere, which had a few drawings demonstrating her special ideas, a big pile of proton torpedoes in the center. "NOW, back to my plan."

     "Yeah, um, about that?" I already had an idea. It's CRAZY, and I probably won't go through with it, but—"

     "TELL ME," Lizzy ordered (who was officially speaking in all caps now), eyes wide with exaggerated curiosity.

     "Uh, before I tell you, I think I'm gonna... run it by a couple of my friends first," Lillian i formed her sister carefully, hoping her younger sibling wouldn't make a big, dramatic deal out of it.

     Lizzy made a big, dramatic deal out of it.

     "But LILLY," she whined, making big puppy dog eyes more suited to a seven-year-old than a girl of almost thirteen. Or wait, hm, maybe it worked for both. "I'm your SISTER! I should know first!"

     Utterly ignoring her, Lilly smiled a smile with fake cheer and brightness (as she was unable to make it real anymore), hopped from her seat, and left the room to send a few texts and make a few calls.

     Each reply had one thing in common: they all hinted that it was a bad idea, while also suggesting all were extremely curious to see what would happen, at varying levels. But Jessica's and Raelynn's replies made her mind up: they both heartily agreed the plan should be put into action, and they offered their services for when extra help was needed.

     And what was this idea, you may be wondering? This terrible, wonderful, awful plan?

     It was so cliché that it was embarrassing, that's what it was. But when Lillian really set her mind to something, no matter how stupid or terrifying, she went through with it. And, the great majority of the time, it wither had no affect whatsoever, or went terribly wrong, close to un-mendable.

     Still, her friends knew now. There was no way she could turn back, and frankly, she didn't really want to. She was dying of curiosity. On one hand, what if it worked? What if she made Timothy feel something close to the pain she'd gone through? In her heart of hearts, she secretly thought it would serve him right; another part of her was ashamed of that, still holding sympathy for him. On the other hand, she wondered if what happened in all the books and movies she'd stolen this plan from would would work in a different direction. And that different direction terrified her to the point of making her shiver.

     "Lillyyy," a voice came from outside her locked door in a childish whine (used in the Gresham house daily, of course), the doorknob making that rattly metallic noise that comes when someone jiggles said object in impatience, "I still need my proton torpedoes!"