He pins her in the grass and starts tickling her. “You helped convince them, admit it!”
“N-nooo!” She’s laughing so hard at him.
“Admit it.”
“Hahahahaha, didn’t do it.”
“Who?”
“T-Ty-ler. Hahahahahahaha!”
“Beg for mercy.”
“Ne-hehehehehehe-ver!”
“Beg.”
“My s-s-s-s-sides.” She can’t stop laughing and can’t get up cuz JC has her pinned by straddling her stomach.
“For mercy.”
“Ow. Hahahahahaha!”
“Do it and I’ll let you go. We can water bomb Tyler.”
I’m shocked. “Josh!”
He smiles at me with that cheesy smile he does. “It’s fun. You can help too.” I pretend to be offended. “Don’t act like you won’t.” He knows me too well.
Heather has tears coming down her face. “Mercy, mercy, mercy, I beg for mercy, Joshua.”
He gets up, helps her up and looks at me. “Are you in or are you in?”
I giggle. “I’m in.” We high five each other and Heather.
He looks at me. “How are we gonna do this?”
“Huddle.” I tell them the plan. “Break!” I run over to Chris. “Chris, need your help executing a plan.”
He smiles as he walks away from his mom and sisters. “What is this plan?” I whisper the plan in his ear. He pulls away, smiling his evil, just before a great prank smile. “Let’s do it.” He claps his hands together, rubbing them.
“You are pure prankster evilness.”
“You will learn from the master.”
“I came up with it.”
He thinks for a second. “Yeah, you did. I have my own flair to put in it.”
“What’s that?”
“You shall see, youngin’. Go get your post ready. T-minus 7 minutes.”
“Yessa, masta, sir.” We laugh and I run inside to the kitchen, where I find JC and Heather filling water balloons. They had about ten ready. “I think we’ll be good after two more.”
JC looks up at me. “You sure?”
“Tyler isn’t as dense as you wish. I understand he’s your younger brother, but give him credit. He is smart.”
“True, he won’t stay still after we drop the first three.”
Heather smiles. “Unless we drop them all at the same time.”
We look at Heather, confused. “My room faces the backyard and has a window ledge we can just roll the water balloons off.” She smiles.
“Great idea, girl!” I high five her and smile. We look at JC, who isn’t following along. I pull him outside and point at Heather’s window that faces the yard and explain it. I see Chris peeking around the corner and pull JC inside, not caring if he got it. We had almost a minute before Chris would have Tyler placed under Heather’s bedroom window. Heather was already placing the balloons on the window ledge by the time we got in her room. She opens the window, while she and I sit on the inner ledge. I grab four balloons by the ends they’re tied on and prepare to drop them. I see Chris walk Tyler under the window and signal us. “Now!” I whisper just loud enough for Heather and JC to hear. We managed to drop them and most of them hit Tyler’s body. Heather and I bolt out of the room, pulling JC with us and we sit in the living room, pretending to read a magazine or watch TV.
Tyler comes inside. “Who dropped the balloons?”
We look at him like we’re confused. I answer. “What balloons?”
Just then, Joey, Justin and Lance come from upstairs. We had no idea they were up there. Tyler looks at them. “I hate you guys. I will get you back.” He turns upstairs to his room, most likely to change.
The six of us head out to the yard. We get outside before Heather, JC and I burst out laughing. We high five. Chris comes up laughing and high fives us too. “Who does he think did it?” He asks once we stop laughing and are sitting at the table.
I look at him. “Ty thinks Joey, Justin and Lance did it.”
Chris laughs even harder. “Lance sucks at pulling shit like that.”
“I do not.” We all look at him like he’s lost his fucking marbles. “Ok, so I’m not as good as your three.”
I look at him and put my hands on my hips. “James. There are five of us that are good at this kinda thing. Josh did good, but Heather, Chris, Joey, Justin and myself are the best at pranks and booby traps.”
Chris smiles and giggles. “You have no clue. JC is an amateur at this. I’m surprised he even made it downstairs before Tyler got in sight of the living room.”
I swat my hand in the middle. “Shhh! Tyler’s coming.” I whisper to them. “When is the next football game again?”
JC is confused again, but quickly catches on. “I think the next big one is Saturday or Sunday.”
“I’ll have to tape it, then.” I nod at JC for catching on. Tyler walks past us and lies on the hammock. The 7 of us start laughing.
JC gets up, grabbing some of the food. “Let’s get this food put away.”We each grab a few plates and bowls, before we turn to go inside. We put the food away and as we finish up, Roy comes up to the seven of us. “Water balloons?” Chris, Heather, Joey, Justin, Lance and I point at JC. “Why?”
JC looks at us. “Nice. I get the blame. Dad, you know I couldn’t master mind this.”
“I know Chris helped because he lured him into it.”
“You always told me that the trip to Tampa was a family trip, so when I found out Jazz could go, I got upset. I tickled it out of Heather.”
“Who set it up?”
“Jazz came up with it and set it up.”
Roy nods before leaning in. He whispers as we all lean in. “Beautiful execution.” We start laughing. He waits for us to stop laughing before saying, “Don’t do that again or there won’t be a trip Saturday,” just loud enough for Karen to hear. He high fives all 7 of us and walks away.We look at each and laugh.
I look at JC and Heather. “Your dad’s actually pretty cool.”
JC looks at me. “Wait till he gets in on the pranks.” He smiles, evilly. “Let’s get your mom home, Jazz.”
“Alright.” I hug Heather, his parents and Tyler before I find my mom sitting by the grill, talking to Chris’ mom. “C’mon, Ma. You have to get home and the rest of us have to head to bed, it’s almost ten at night.”
She tells Beverly she’ll call her Saturday afternoon and they can meet up with us on Sunday. My guess is that Chris’ sisters went home and to bed a while ago. We get in the Jeep and drop Ma off. I give her a hug. “Call me tomorrow evening and lemme know you’re alright.”
“Ma, JC, Lynn, Joey, Diane and Chris are taking care of me.”
“True. Three of them are mature enough.”
“Ma!”
“Joey and Chris are like big kids.”
“They know how to be mature adults when it’s called for.”
“Ok, I’ll take your word for it. Josh, keep her safe.”
He smiles. “I will, Vikki. Come on, Jazz, we gotta get back soon. We have to get to sleep and get up early for our busy day tomorrow.”
I climb back in the Jeep and wave to my mom. She heads inside. “When do you expect me to help James with the moves?”
“Some tomorrow and the rest when we come back home.”
I hang my head and groan. “You’re a pain in the ass.”
“You think you hate me now? Wait till we get done at rehearsals tomorrow.” He has that evil smirk on his face.
We get back and most of the guys are asleep or close to it in the living room. JC and I look at them. “Where’s Andi?”
“Her room, probably.”
He checks her room and nods. He comes back over to me and chuckles. “Go to bed. They can crowd in my room.” I nod and head for Lance’s room, using the wall to hold me up.
