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“Isn’t this fun?” Anna whispered.

“I guess so, but we still don’t know what we’re doing,” I said.

“Oh, yeah,” Anna replied with a laugh. “Gather round. Veronica is about to explain.”

Anna led us through the group of waiting girls until we reached the front. Veronica was standing before the crowd next to two large boxes. When she cleared her throat, everyone turned to listen to her. It seemed she wasn’t just the queen of our school; she had also delegated herself as the captain of our revenge team.

“Okay, listen up, everyone,” she said, keeping her voice low. “It’s time to give the boys a taste of their own medicine.”

She pointed to one of the boxes. “All these alarm clocks are set to go off at the exact time the boys woke us up—4:00 A.M. That gives us plenty of time to sneak into their dorm, hide as many of these alarms as possible, and get out before they go off. The clocks might look small, but trust me, they’re loud, so you don’t want to be nearby when they go off, or you’ll be caught for sure.”

Veronica sounded like she was preparing a bomb disposal unit for a dangerous mission rather than a high-school prank. As murmurs of approval vibrated around the group, I was distracted by the other box next to her. On second glance, I realized it was larger than the other one and covered by a dark sheet. What could she be hiding in there?

As if she could read my mind, Veronica stepped closer to the mystery box and picked up a corner of the sheet. “If any of the boys don’t get woken up by the alarm clocks, Barry will take care of the rest,” she said before she whipped away the covering to reveal a metal cage. Inside was the biggest rooster I’d ever seen.

“Barry…is a rooster?” I whispered to no one in particular.

“Yep,” Anna laughed. “Hopefully, he’ll give the boys an even ruder awakening than they gave us.”

“It’s brilliant,” I agreed. “But…he’s called Barry? Really?”

“Well, I didn’t name him.” Anna shrugged.

“Where did we even find a rooster?”

“From the kitchen garden,” she explained. “The school keeps chickens down there. And Barry, of course.”

“Of course,” I replied with a shake of my head. Was there anything this school didn’t have?

Veronica snapped her fingers to put an end to our conversation. She was really serious about this whole thing. “Okay, let’s go,” she ordered “Get your alarm clocks, make sure you hide them somewhere those boys will never think of looking, and don’t get caught.”

She waved us toward the dorm like a commander leading her troops into battle. One by one we all hurriedly plucked an alarm clock from the box and followed her. A few of Veronica’s friends picked up Barry’s cage and carried him inside.

“Veronica sure did go to a lot of effort for our revenge prank,” Cress said as we made our way up the stairs. “There must have been a hundred clocks in that box.”

“Uh, have you met Veronica?” Anna scoffed. “I’m pretty sure revenge is her middle name.”

“True.” Cress laughed. “I guess I’m impressed. Do you guys know where you’re going to hide your clocks?”

“Outside the twins’ room for sure,” Anna immediately replied.

“Yeah, those boys need some payback,” I agreed, grinning as Anna lifted her hand to give me a soft and silent high-five.

“I’m going to put mine outside Kaden’s room,” Cress said. “He’s down this way, so I’ll find you guys after.”

“Okay, good luck,” I said.

“Don’t get caught,” she added before taking off down one of the corridors.

Anna and I continued together, and when we reached the hallway the twins’ room was in, we found a few girls were already there as well as Veronica’s friends with Barry’s cage. The place was only dimly lit by a few low-hanging lights on the ceiling, but we could see the girls slowly carrying the cage to the far end of the corridor, doing their best not to giggle when the rooster flapped his wings or made soft noises.

"Perfect.” Anna grinned when she saw the rooster. “I really hope Barry wakes up the twins.”

“They’re going to hate us,” I said with a soft laugh.

We made our way to Wes and Sawyer’s bedroom door and looked for a place to hide our clocks. There wasn’t much in the corridor, so it wasn’t easy even though the clocks were only about the size of my palm. I glanced around to see what other girls were doing. One dropped theirs into a trash can while another hid hers behind a heater on the wall. I wished we could have snuck into the twins’ room and found somewhere to hide them in there, but I wasn’t nearly brave enough.

The girls managing Barry at the end of the hallway started laughing a little harder as they tried to release him from the cage. They weren’t doing a very good job of keeping quiet, and Barry didn’t seem to be cooperating. I really hoped they weren’t going to get us all caught.