felt responsible. More than anything else, I wanted her to have fun. We were pulling a harmless prank on the school administrators. A principal and vice-principal who were married to each other—they were begging to be pranked. They’d pretend to be mad, but I fully expected a high five from Mr. Gentry on Monday morning. He’d know exactly who was responsible for his house being wrapped in plastic wrap. There was no question. But I wouldn’t tell Mara that. Half the fun of pulling a prank was the anticipation of getting caught while you were doing it.
There was nothing quite like the hysterical laughter brought on by someone making a loud noise when you most needed to be quiet—the kind of laughter I now struggled to stop.
“We have to keep moving.”
Mara’s lips pinched together, and I gave into the irrational urge to kiss them. It lasted less than a second, but I felt the sensation all the way to my fingers and toes.
“Come on, Mara. This is living.”
And it was. For the next thirty minutes it took to exhaust our three thousand feet of plastic wrap, I laughed more than I ever had in my life—silently, of course. Mara was hilariously terrified. She stopped about every thirty seconds to listen for anyone stirring inside the house, which meant I practically had to drag her along with me. It took her a while to loosen up, but when she did, she was laughing just as much as me. We were having so much fun, I almost didn’t want it to end.
But then a light came on in the house. Mara and I were standing just outside a window when it did. I could feel the terror take over her body.
“Taggish,” she mouthed my name, gripping my arm so hard it was painful.
Quickly as I could, I tore the plastic from the roll and grabbed her hand. “We better go.”
The guys would know what to do. It was every man for himself. I led Mara through the yard and onto the street, careful to avoid the glow of the streetlamps positioned at intervals between us and my car. We’d all parked far enough away and, in all directions, to keep from drawing attention in case we had to make a mad dash—experienced pranksters that we were.
I kept hold of Mara’s hand until we reached the car.
“Go, go, go!” she shouted once we were inside.
“I’m going. I’m going,” I laughed and pulled away from the curb. I shot her a quick glance as I maneuvered down the street. “You okay?”
She sagged against the seat. Her head rolled to the side so she faced me. “That was,” my heart stopped a little at the tone in her voice. Was she going to be mad now? It was her choice to come along, but I hadn’t given her all the information beforehand. Would she be angry with me for not telling her?
“So fun!” she shouted.
I breathed a sigh of relief and hazarded another glance at her. We were still in the neighborhood, driving slowly before we reached the main road.
Gosh, she looked cute. Smiling and happy. Before I could think better of it, I reached out and rested my hand on her knee.
“I can’t believe we just did that,” she breathed. And then I couldn’t believe it when she wrapped both her arms around mine.
“You’re not mad?” For some reason, I had to make sure. For some reason, I cared.
I felt her looking at me, saw her smile from the corner of my eye. Her arms tightened around mine, and it occurred to me how close we were, how close we’d been for the last hour and a half. I liked it. Maybe I liked her.
“I’m not mad.” She faced forward again. “I was. At first, when I realized where we were.”
I thought about that. “What changed your mind?”
Mara sat silent, then said, “I don’t know.”
I glanced at her again. She had her lower lip caught between her teeth. I squeezed her knee with gentle pressure.
“It was fun. And—and I guess, I figured if we got caught, what were they going to do to us? Make us clean up the mess?” She shrugged. “Call the cops? I can’t really see them doing that. It was a harmless prank, right?”
She looked at me. I was aware of her gaze, so aware my skin prickled. “Yeah, it was a harmless prank. And the guys and I have pranked the Gentrys every year since we were freshmen. They