“Well aren’t you just the ladies’ man,” I sat back and crossed my arms as I watched Alex slip on yet another bead bracelet from one of our campers. We were in the Arts and Crafts workshop on this Friday afternoon and this was the third bracelet he’d received in the last twenty-five minutes. This one was rainbow-patterned.

“They just keep coming, I don’t ask questions,” he shrugged, a hint of a smirk curling at the corners of his lips. I unfolded my arms and sat forward, shaking my head.

“Is someone jealous?” He folded his own arms, raising his brows teasingly. I rolled my eyes.

“Well, I have always wanted a rainbow bracelet…” I said, leaning in closer to him, my eyes fixated on his wrist. He nodded and looked as though he were thinking deeply for a moment. The change in demeanor was abrupt, and left me trying to blink out my confusion.

“I’ll be right back,” He jumped up from the table and dashed towards the supply closet where all the different colored beads and string were stored. When he returned, he had a fistful of purple, white, and black beads along with a big spool of clear lanyard. I frowned when I realized what he was doing.

“I said I wanted rainbow!” I pouted, pretending to be disappointed. Alex ignored me and sat down, beginning to unwind the spool.

“Sh, this will be better,” he insisted and grabbed my wrist, wrapping the lanyard around it to measure what length he needed. He pulled back and went straight to work, lining the beads up in order of threes from purple to black to white. I looked on with amusement until he was done and held out my arm for him to slide the finished bracelet on.

“Oh, it’s just beautiful!” I gasped, admiring his handiwork.

“Ain’t no thang girl,” he replied sassily with a flick of his wrist, making me laugh even harder. Alex’s cool composure broke as if my laughter was contagious, and we spent the next few minutes in hysterical, tear-inducing giggles. After receiving a few questioning stares from campers and some rather annoyed glares from the older staff women running the workshop, I took a shaky breath to try and calm myself down.

"So," I said trying to keep my voice even and not make Alex laugh any more than he was. "Any details on the prank yet?" I asked. I'd been wondering what he and Christina had been cooking up ever since breakfast the other day when I’d found out all about Brett and his asshole friends.

“I can’t give that kind of information away just yet, Cadet,” he replied with a proud look on his face that told me he was extremely satisfied with whatever his plans for how tonight would go down were.

“Oh come on!” I begged. “Just a teensy-weensy little hint?”

He stuck to his guns and refused to disclose any information, no matter how much I pouted my bottom lip. With a heavy sigh, I finally gave up and reached across the table to drag the spool of lanyard over to my side. I picked up a handful of beads and began making my own bracelet to pass the time. Alex laughed, seeing how disappointed I was and said, “Don’t worry, you’ll find out when the time is just right.”

I glanced up at him, a small grin on my face. “You take this stuff way too seriously.”

***

It was twenty minutes after final lights out when Kara, Christina, Lisa, and I received the text to meet at our “Stage: 1” location. Alex had told us all at dinner to wear dark colors and attract as little attention as possible, so as we slipped out into the night we wore all black, from the beanie on Christina’s head to the Vans on my feet. We carried no flashlights, only using the dim glow of our cell phones to light the dirt road for us. When we approached the lifeguard’s campsite, we found Alex and the rest of the guys waiting just a few feet away.

“Nice of you to join us,” Alex greeted, keeping his voice low. “For a second there, we thought you’d all fallen asleep.”

“Hey,” Christina stepped up, placing her hands on her hips, “You try putting a bunch of tweeny girls to bed and see how long that takes.”

“All right, all right—let’s just get to business,” Alex said and everyone huddled together. “There are a few parts to this prank, so I’ve decided to split us up into groups of two.

“Chris, you’re with Jack. Zack, you’re with Rian. Lisa, you’re with Kara and Jamie, since you’re the rookie here, you’re with me.”

“Oh gee, I feel honored,” I muttered sarcastically.

Alex made a face at me and continued, “I decided to start off with something simple. Christina and Jack are going to be in charge of breaking into each cabin and filling each person’s suitcase with itching powder.

“Zack and Rian will be in charge of kitchen sabotage.

“Jamie and I will attack the bathrooms and Kara and Lisa will stand watch in case they come back from town early. If anything goes wrong, the panic word is: red—any questions?”

I tried to keep my expression blank as all the others accepted their duties. This was considered keeping it simple? I was almost afraid to wonder what their more complex pranks involved. Now that the plan was all laid out, we had to get going or we’d miss our deadline. If any of us were even a minute behind, we could be caught and I didn’t think my parents would appreciate me getting fired after my first week. We each set alarms in our phones for the times each cabin had to be completed and split up into our pairs.

“Ready men?” Alex whispered as we marched up to the first cabin.

“Let’s fucking do this,” Jack could barely contain his excitement.

“Ride or die, baby,” Christina added and even I could feel the adrenaline pumping through my veins now as we waited for Zack to pick the door’s lock. Once we were inside, we reported to our stations: Rian and Zack to the kitchen, Jack and Christina to the bunks, Alex and I to the bathrooms, and Kara and Lisa crouched behind the trees outside.

“Fill up all the soap dispensers with this,” Alex whispered as we walked over to the sinks, handing me a bottle of some questionable looking, murky yellow liquid. I nodded and began twisting off all the tops of the hand soap containers, emptying them and pouring in the mysterious concoction Alex had blended together. Behind me, I heard what sounded like him tearing open a cardboard box and then the opening of a stall door. Once he was finished, we left a little message on the mirror in dry erase marker and headed out to make sure everyone else was finishing up as well. Then we moved on to the next cabin.

***

We were just about finished in the last cabin. Alex and I were just getting ready to rejoin the others when both our phones vibrated at once with texts from Kara and Lisa. Each said the same one word: Red. Alex and I looked up from our phones to each other, the pale blue light from our screens illuminating the panicked expressions etched on our faces.

“What do we do?” I whispered frantically. Alex grabbed me by the shoulders and tried to keep me calm.

“Don’t worry,” he said looking me straight in the eyes, but that didn’t stop my heart from hammering and my palms from sweating. “Stay quiet and get low,” he commanded and we both quickly crouched down to the floor, slowly crawling out towards the bunk room where we saw Jack and Christina huddled in the far corner. Christina held a finger to her lips and pointed up to the window. Alex and I looked out and saw the group of stuck-up lifeguards approaching the front door. Another wave of panic washed through me and I grabbed Alex’s arm.

“Zack and Rian!” I whispered, glancing behind me to the hallway that lead out into the kitchen. Alex shared the same worried expression. We heard footsteps coming closer and seconds later, the hallway light flicked on. I could feel my heart beating faster and faster, the blood pulsing loudly between my ears. I thought I was going to have a stroke. They were going to find us.

Thinking quickly, Alex grabbed my hand and dragged me behind him as he crawled to the back of the room where Jack and Christina were.

“Open the window,” he told Jack who sprang up without a moment of hesitation, lifting the window and popping the screen out.

“What the hell was that?” we heard from out in the hallway.

“Hurry, climb out!” Jack yanked me up and helped me ease out of the small space. Hopping down from the side of the cabin, I landed softly on the ground. Next, came out Christina, then Jack. Once Alex was safely out, my heart rate decreased significantly and the four of us bolted for the safe line where we’d met up earlier.

“Oh my God! I thought you guys were goners!” Lisa ran up to us, Kara following closely behind.

“We saw them walk into the cabin, but none of you were out yet.”

I looked around at all of us, still out of breath from running. “Where are—?” I started to ask, but was suddenly interrupted by the sound of heavy footsteps and panting. The six of us whipped around and there were Rian and Zack running towards us, looking like they’d just seen a ghost.

“Holy shit!” Rian was breathless by the time he reached us, nearly falling over as he came to a stop. Kara rushed over to him, dipping under his arm for support.

“How did you get out?” I asked, my jaw hanging in pure astonishment. I thought they’d been caught for sure.

“Stealth like a ninja,” Zack flashed a devilish grin, turning to Rian for a fist bump.

“Let’s get out of here,” Alex said and everyone nodded in agreement, turning around to head back to our cabins. I’d barely survived my first prank and whether we were successful or not was left to be determined in the morning.