Page 6 of Spencer and the Younger Girl
Roman laughed. He understood. It was why he was in his room when all the girls were in hers.
“Sure. Just remember, I’m on your team this time. You aren’t supposed to attack me.”
She grinned. “No promises.”
The truth was, Roman was pretty awful at video games even though he spent a lot of time playing them. She always beat him.
They roamed the wasteland of the dystopian game while Hadley tried to come up with a solution to the problem most people didn’t believe existed. “Our school is lame.”
A laugh burst free of Roman. “And? We’ve known this for four years.”
“Yeah, but in previous years, the seniors pulled some epic pranks. Remember the pig thing last year? Or the Saran Wrap on all the toilet seats the year before?”
“Those were epic.” Roman laughed.
Hadley went silent, trying to work through the problem in her mind. A senior needed to pull off something epic this year too, but no one had yet.
“Silence from you is dangerous. Spill.” Roman paused the game and set his controller aside.
Hadley sighed. “Well… what if we…”
“No.” He crossed his arms. “Do you remember what Vice Principal Madison said at the beginning of the year? Pranks will result in suspension. And she’s the nice one. I can’t afford that when I already just barely got into college.”
“Since when does Roman Sullivan worry about causing trouble?”
He thought for a moment before the corners of his mouth turned up. “We won’t get caught, right?”
“I knew you wouldn’t be able to resist.”
“It has to be epic, though. Like better than anything before it.”
She tapped her chin. Epic. Epic. Epic. “Let’s just play. We’ll figure it out. Don’t worry. Once we pull off a prank, no one will forget us.”
They shared a grin only two troublemakers could understand.
Before long, Charlotte and Cassie wandered down and sat to watch them play. But Hadley didn’t tell them what she and Roman had agreed on. They wouldn’t get her need to do this, the desire for a little wild to go with her senior year.
Because Hadley Gibson needed the freedom it brought her.
She needed to make her own rules.
* * *
“What smells so good?”Hadley walked into the kitchen to find her grandfather pulling a pan out of the oven.
He set it on the counter and turned to her with a withering look. “Hadley, my dearest granddaughter…”
She suppressed a laugh. “Yes, dearest Grandfather?”
He picked up a spoon from the counter and pointed it at her. “If you touch these baked apples before we’ve eaten dinner, I’m going to have serious words with you.”
“Ooo, serious words. I’m terrified.” She shot him a closed-mouthed smile before sliding open the drawer at the desk in the kitchen. “What’s for dinner?” Shifting through menus, she picked two. “Chinese or Thai?”
“And just what makes you think I’m not cooking you a nutritious dinner, young lady?”
Her smile widened.
“Fine.” He sighed. “Chinese.”
