"Got it," She said, putting her backpack down.
"What's with the bag?" Mr. Siamonds asked.
"Just some art stuff, some books, that sort of thing," Charlotte said, crossing her fingers inside the pocket of her Jack Skellington hoodie.
"My door is locked," Mindy whispered so her parents couldn't hear,"Don't go near my room."
"Don't flatter yourself. I wouldn't step foot in there if my life depended on it," Charlotte hissed.
There was three honks from a car that had just pulled up. Mindy walked out the door without a word and left with this week's boyfriend.
"Be good," Mrs. Siamonds said to Cody, her son, before giving him a kiss on the cheek,"Listen to Charlotte."
"Okay mom."
"Call if you need us," Mr. Siamonds said.
"Okay, have a good time," Charlotte said as they left.
"So... we're just going to wait for Charlotte to call..." Frank said.
"Yep, we can't call her, she has to call us."
"Radio us," Tracy corrected, holding up one military walkie-talkie of a set of two.
".... why are we using those again?"
"It leaves Mindy's phone free and my dad gave me these and I never used them, so I thought it would be a good opportunity."
Ray picked up his guitar and began strumming a few cords.
"Hey, your eyebrow's growing back," Frank said to Gerard.
"Yep."
"Charlotte says you owe her a new eyeliner pencil because she kept drawing you a new eyebrow everyday," Tracy said.
"I'll keep that in mind," Gerard said.
"Hey isn't your birthday coming up?"
"Today."
"Oh! Happy Birthday."
"Thanks."
"How long will we be waiting for?" Bob asked.
"About another half hour," Ray said, looking at his clock that said 8:00.
The minutes ticked by slowly. At about 8:45 the walkie-talkie gave off some static before they herd Charlotte say,"Hello? You guys there?"
"Hey," Tracy said.
"He just fell asleep."
"Great. Now, Gerard put the dye in the front pocket of your backpack."
"Okay."
Gerard took the walkie-talkie,"It's the lightest shade of blond I found at my mom's salon... I didn't have a lot of time to look, the manager was looking at me funny."
"Doesn't he normally look at you funny though? It should work."
"I've entered her lair," She said into the walkie-talkie.
"Dun-dun-dun."
"It's... very blue.... blue walls... purple sheets... blue pillows... blue desk..."
She walked into Mindy's bathroom and took out the blond dye that Gerard had provided. She got the conditioner bottle from the shelf and opened the container with the dye. She poured out most of the conditioner into the sink before re-filling it with the dye. She shook up the bottle and put it back on the shelf.
"Okay, conditioner has been sabotaged, moving on."
"Okay, I crossed it off the list," Tracy said.
Mindy's dog came up behind Charlotte and began barking like crazy.
"Shut up," She said. The dog kept barking until Charlotte finally picked it up, ignoring it's nips and struggles and locked it in the backyard. She went back up to the bathroom and took out a wrench. She decreased Mindy's water presure in her shower and mixed honey with the shampoo.
"Okay, now what?" She said into the walkie-talkie as she put her things back into her backpack.
"If memory serves... Mindy keeps her diary in her jewelry box's bottom drawer." Tracy and Mindy had once been friends. They often used their once friendship against each other.
Charlotte opened the bottom drawer and found the diary. She opened it and skimmed through a few pages.
"Nothing that we couldn't have already guessed.... Oh... 'Charlotte, get out of my diary, you whore.'...... Didn't expect to see that...."
"Ha, she called you a whore," Frank said.
Charlotte put the diary back the way it was before taking out some itching powder and opening all of Mindy's drawers. She sprinkled the powder over everything in every drawer.
"This all seems... clich�..." Charlotte said.
"See if they have popsickles," Ray said.
"... Why?"
"Break off a chunk and put it in her perfume or something... she'll be really sticky."
"Okay, I'll go look. Then I have to put cream cheese in her deodorant."
"I can't believe they called my house for you...." he said.
"Hello? Hi Josie...... oh shit..... okay..... yeah.... I'll be right over..." She hung up the phone. "Gerard, I need a ride to Josie's. Turns out that they dumped two more kids on her. She's tied up on the kitchen floor and they're destroying the house."
"Okay," Gerard said, getting up. He had given her a ride to Ray's house.
"You guys stay here and make sure Charlotte goes through everything on the list, Gerard will come back, but I'm going to stay at Josie's most likely."
It took about five minutes to get to Josie's house. Tracy got the key from under the mat and opened the door.
"Josie?"
"It's quiet..." Gerard said.
"Way too quiet.... we'd better keep our eyes pealed."
"I never got that expression, why would someone peal their eyes?"
"I think it means pealing your eyelids off of your eyes... you know, like keeping your eyes open."
"Oh. It makes sense now.."
They walked into the kitchen to see Josie tied like a calf at a rodeo with a rag in her mouth. Tracy took the rag out.
"They came at me from behind," Josie said,"Those motherfuckers, I'm gonna murder them."
"But then you won't get paid," Gerard said as he and Tracy started untieing her.
"... dammit..."
"These knots are nice. Looks professional," Tracy said.
"They're all in Boy Scouts. Damn Boy Scouts," Josie said,"Thanks for coming by the way."
"Mmhm."
When Josie was completely untied they stood up and she asked,"So, how's the sabatage comming along?"
"Okay. It doesn't seem like anything that bad that's going to happen to her though."
"Eh, start small. Our creativity and plans will get better."
"Hey mister, I thought only girls had long hair," Said a little boy looking up at Gerard.
"I thought that was a girl," said another boy next to him.
Gerard glared at them and said in a creepy Transylvanian accent,"Vampires are the exception."
Their eyes got big and they ran up the stairs screaming,"VAMPIRE!!!"
"Nice, now I have something to threaten them with. 'Brush your teeth or I'll call the vampire over here.' Thanks."
"I'll stay and help you out, Gerard you can go back if you want."
"Okay. See you tomorrow."
"Happy Birthday Gerard," Josie said.
"Thanks."
"Hi Gerard, I'm sorry you had to come and sit here doing nothing for so long on your birthday," Charlotte said, she really did sound sorry.
"Its okay, I'll have others..."
"But you're 18 now, we'll all have to get together and watch an R film or something."
"We watched R films before."
"Yeah, but now you can watch them legally," Ray said.
"You could legally get a tattoo now," Frank said. That's what he was most anticipating about turning 18.
"Um... I'm afraid of needles."
"I want a tattoo," Charlotte said.
"Really? You don't strike me as someone who would."
"Do I strike you as someone who'd break into someone's room and put itching powder in their underwear drawer?"
".... good point...." Bob said.
Charlotte checked her watch in the dim lights shinning through the windows of Ray's house and said,"I should get back, it's getting late and Mindy's parents should be home soon. Happy Birthday." She put her hands on his shoulders and gave him a peck on the cheek before rushing back to Mindy's house, thankful that it was too dark for anyone to see her blushing.
"... what was that about?" Gerard said as she re-entered Mindy's house.
"She was wishing you a happy birthday in the way girls know best I guess," Bob said.
"I dunno, she didn't kiss you on your birthday Bob," Frank said in a sing-song voice.
"What are you implying?"
"Well... what are you insinuating?"
"Well, what are you implying? Besides, I was in Chicago for my birthday anyway."
"I don't know! I'm confused now...."
"Maybe you should go home and sleep."
"Maybe we all should, school's still tomorrow."
"Right... Gerard, can I have a ride?"
"... yeah okay."
"Mikey come here," Gerard said.
"Hm?"
"Here's your ten dollars," He said giving Mikey ten of his eighty before putting the envelope back.
"Okay, who gave you the cash?"
"Josie, Tracy, and Charlotte."
"I think Grandma Elena's going to send you a gift certificate for some art store."
"That's cool."
"Here she comes!" Josie said as she rushed over to Gerard's locker. Gerard closed his locker and they all stared as Mindy walked down the hall. Her hair was sticky and partly bleach blond, but most of it was grey from the dye. She limped because one of her heels was shorter then the other one. One of the arms of her jacket was also shorter then the other. Charlotte had done a nice job hemming it so that it seemed that no one had purposely cut it off.
"Nice," Mikey said.
"There's no way she'll live this down," Charlotte squealed as she walked across the hall to them.
"I think we did pretty good."
Mindy had a note stuck to her arm. She pealed it off but it stuck to her wrist after that. She kept scratching her arms and sides.
"Ha, the popsickle in the perfume was genius."
"And this my friends is the beginning. A new scheme is forming in my mind and I'll call you tonight with details," Josie said,"but the thing is... I think we need a bit more dirt on some people."
"How are we going to do that? Go through their records?" Charlotte said sarcastically.
"Yeah."
"What?!"
"We'll go over it more at lunch," Josie said, checking her watch,"The bell's gonna ring."
"Trust Me"