Sunshiner

I wanted to be mad at her. I really did. I went out of my way just to be angry with her, actually. I spent the rest of the day hanging out with Johnny Boy, doing random and insane things to prove that I could have way more fun without her. And then I made sure that Johnny Boy and I accidentally ran into Candace somewhere in town. I wouldn’t speak to her, of course, but I was sure to laugh as loudly and as obnoxiously as I could.

At some point in the day I had invited at least a dozen people over to my house to hang out and have some of my mom’s amazing pink lemonade and sugar cookies. I invited some kids from Candace’s team as well, and I knew perfectly well that by coming to my house they were abandoning Candace. It was all just to piss her off. No one had ever rejected me like that, and I was going to make sure that she would never forget it. I was going to make her wish that the rejection wasn’t worth all of the trouble I was about to put her through.

Once the lemonade and cookies had run out, I sent everyone home. Normally I loved hanging out with huge crowds of people because I always managed to make myself the center of attention, whether it was by telling jokes or planning out pranks or showing off by doing something reckless. I had been the leader of my group of friends since we were eight so doing things like that seemed like a natural thing to do. Today, however, I just wanted to be alone. I was getting sick of all of these people at my house, and the suffocating tension between my friends and the kids from Candace’s team that I invited was getting on my nerves.

Pretty soon it was just Johnny Boy and I. I had no intention of sending him home, and even if I did he wouldn’t have listened to me. I didn’t mind, of course, even though I did sort of want to be alone. But he and I were basically the same person and it really made no difference if I hung out with him. He was my best friend out of all of the friends from Dayton and from home-home, and that was saying something.

The sun was sinking to the west, splattering the sky in streaks of scarlet and amber. I always hated afternoons. It was the shitty transition period between day and night: it wasn’t sunny enough to go swimming or get ice cream, but it wasn’t dark out enough to start any nighttime activities. And the sun was always in my eyes.

“What do you want to do, Johnny Boy?” I grumbled, leaning back in the lawn chair and folding my hands over my eyes.

“Let’s go get ice cream!” he quipped, immediately standing up and then he attempted to pull me off of my chair, but I wouldn’t budge.

“It’s not hot enough,” I sighed. “I don’t want to.”

“We’re not going to go for the food, dumbass,” he snickered. “We’re going for the girls.”

That caught my attention. I sat up in my chair and gave him a serious look. “You’re still with that brunette chick?” I asked.

“Cindy? Yeah. Well, technically we’re not together or anything,” he shrugged. “But you know. Things have happened.”

“Things? What sort of things?” I asked and shoved him in the shoulder. He just laughed instead of answering my question, but then again his laughter provided enough of an answer. “Do you like her?” I then proceeded to ask.

To that, he just shrugged. “She’s hot,” was all he said. I nodded understandingly. When we lived in this place for only two months it was hard to have an actual relationship; most of the time we just hooked up with random girls at random parties and that was that. Dayton was the perfect place to have flings with no strings attached, and as a guy I absolutely loved that.

If you ever ended up liking a girl – which hadn’t happened to me with anyone from Dayton, but I suppose it’s possible – then she would be much more than just the random girl at the random party. You’d be exclusive hook up buddies and you would probably go on little dates to go out for ice cream or hang out on a boat by yourselves. But that was as serious as it got; you would never actually date. God forbid you became attached because by the end of the summer you’d be saying goodbye. And a long-term relationship would just be stupid, because who knows what could happen over the course of a school year? Especially when there are so many other girls around…

“So you wanna go?” Johnny Boy asked, his voice snapping me back to reality. “I’m sure some of her friends are going to be there. Apparently working there is like the ‘girl thing’ to do.”

“You work there,” I pointed out.

He bounced off my insult with a perverted grin. “Yeah. And it’s awesome.”

I laughed good-heartedly. “All right, man. Let’s go.”

For the first time all summer, we decided to take my car because we were way too lazy to walk, especially after eating at least a dozen sugar cookies each. My car was a fairly new Mustang convertible, painted in a crisp cobalt color with a sleek black roof; my dad may have left my mom and me, but at least he didn’t leave us without his money. That was one of the few things I could thank him for.

As we drove our lazy asses the half-mile down the road to the parlor, I couldn’t help but grin as my car made everyone’s head turn. Even the Older Kids whistled and my ego was boosted even more. When we were little, the Older Kids were the people we looked up to and wished to be exactly like when we grew up. Our parents would always gossip about how they “always got into all sorts of shenanigans,” and the Older Kids had laughed it off and even renamed themselves The Shenanigang as a joke.

We thought it was so cool. We tried to come up with a name for our own group, but to no avail; everything we thought of was lame compared to The Shenanigang. But in retrospect, I suppose we didn’t need a name for ourselves – it was what we did that defined us. My age group was the group that had the Prank War. And we were the only ones that had that.

I remember how I would try to do everything the Older Kids did, and when they were feeling nice they would include my friends (we were the Little Kids back then) in a game of manhunt or night tag. They were the ones who told us the stories of Lucky Point and the secrets of Devil’s Island. Now, however, we hardly saw them; they were all married and a few even had a kid or two.

It was weird to think that now my group was the Older Kids. In Dayton, the groups of friends were divided by age, and now we were the ones who told the current Little Kids about the parties and how to kiss girls. I took one last look at the former Older Kids as I drove by them, and I shuddered upon seeing my old idols with their wives and little kids. My group was next in line for that kind of stuff and I was dreading it. I didn’t want to grow up.

As we pulled into the parking lot, I saw a familiar figure wearing a red-and-white striped bathing suit. Feeling the sudden desire to flaunt my car again, I decided to rev my engine and screech into the parking spot, and a wide grin was plastered over my face as I stepped out of the car. There was a rather large crowd here today and everyone was staring at me in awe, including Candace. She was hanging out with her usual gang, which consisted of Chad, Finn, Quincy, and her cousin Robert. This would be the third time I had “coincidentally” run into her, and although this time it actually was an coincidence, I would be sure to make it the worst out of all of our run-ins.

“Next time you decide to show off, would you mind giving me a heads up? Those cookies are making a comeback,” Johnny Boy grumbled, stumbling out of the car as he clutched his stomach, but I hardly heard him. I was suddenly way too focused on the strawberry blond girl working on the counter. She was definitely from Dayton and I recognized her face, but I needed the help of her nametag (Amie, it read) to remember who she was.

I quickly forgot about Johnny Boy, but he didn’t mind, because he forgot about me too. In thirty seconds he had sought out Cindy and began flirting relentlessly with her.

“Hi,” I said smoothly as I strolled up to the counter where Amie was working. I flashed a smile and that sealed the deal. Her cheeks flushed ever so slightly and she smiled back; she was easier than most girls, then. One word and I knew I already had her.

“How can I help you?” she asked, a small grin still toying with her lips.

“I’ll have a vanilla-almond sundae with whipped cream and a cherry,” I said, “and your phone number on top.” I gave her my heart-winning smirk and leaned in a little. “If you don’t mind,” I finished in a husky whisper.

She bit her bottom lip, and I decided that she was kind of cute. Maybe Amie could be my next random girl at the next random party. “What makes you think I’d be interested?” she asked coyly, and I could tell it was just a show. She was playing with me, pretending to be hard to get, but we both knew that in the end, if I really wanted to, we would end up hooking up at some point in the summer.

“Well, let me think,” I said casually. “You’re hot. I’m hot. Stuff could happen.”

She laughed (score) and then shrugged her shoulders. “I’ll think about it,” she said playfully and then went off to prepare my sundae.

Laughing silently to myself, I glanced out of the corner of my eye and saw Candace standing not even ten feet away, glaring at me murderously. She had her favorite ice cream in her hand (butterscotch in a cone with rainbow Jimmies, if I remembered correctly) but judging by the fact that she threw it away angrily as soon as we made eye contact, I was sure that she had heard my entire conversation. And I couldn’t deny the fact that I felt overwhelmingly pleased with that fact.

“You’re a shallow jerk, you know that?” she spat as she stormed up to me. Chad, Robert and the twins watched from a safe distance, whispering amongst themselves as they prepared for a fight to break out. I suppose they expected Candace to punch me or something.

I pretended I hadn’t heard her and as I turned around to face her, I said, “Oh, hello Candace. What a pleasant surprise seeing you here.”

“Pleasant my ass,” she stated and crossed her arms. “I know you’ve been trying to be an asshole to me all day. And I heard about that little party you had at your house with my friends. Real nice, Kasey. Real nice.”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” I said calmly and leaned back on the counter, toying with a strand of Candace’s wavy hair and twirling it around in my fingers.

“Will you stop that?” she demanded and tugged her hair away. “What’s your problem, anyway? Just this morning you tried to undress me, and now you’re picking up this girl!” She said this last part a bit too loud and several people gawked at her. She noticed this and flushed a furious shade of crimson, and I just smiled at her embarrassment.

“Jealous, much?” I asked, raising my eyebrows.

“No,” she answered a bit too quickly, and then she blushed again and I just laughed.

“Good,” I said simply, and at that moment Amie returned to the window and handed me my ice cream.

“Have a nice night,” she said charmingly and gave me one last smile before I had to move and let her help the next person in line. I turned back to Candace and saw that she was smirking at me.

“What?”

“Looks like she didn’t give you her number,” she teased.

I looked down at the receipt. “I beg to differ,” I said and flashed the sheet of paper, showing off the lovely ten digits that Amie had scribbled in pink pen. “And look,” I point out, my smirk growing on my face as Candace’s own smile disappeared, “she even drew me a little heart. How sweet.”

“I don’t give a damn,” she growled. “Do whatever you want. See if I care.”

“Okay, then,” I smiled. “So you won’t mind if I call her up tonight and take her to Lucky Point?”

“Nope,” she said. “I wouldn’t mind at all. And, of course, I don’t suppose you care about what I do, do you?” she asked.

I snorted. “I couldn’t care less about you.”

“Good,” she replied. “Then you won’t mind if I do this, then?” And then she walked back to where the four guys were waiting for her. After casting me a final dirty look, she abruptly threw her arms around Chad’s neck and kissed him fully on the lips.

People around them “ooh”-ed and cheered, while Rob, Quinn and Finn all looked shocked. But then they shrugged it off; Candace was known to do spontaneous things like that.

I tried not to feel surprised as I saw Chad kiss her back. And I tried not to feel angry when she broke the kiss and threw me a devious smirk. I had to be calm and collected. I couldn’t look like I cared.

“I don’t mind at all!” I called to her, forcing a smile onto my face. “Have fun with that, by the way,” I added, nodding towards Chad, who was looking at Candace as if she was a goddess. I laughed as he tried to kiss her again. The horrified look on Candace’s face indicated that she realized that she had just done something very, very stupid. She must have forgotten that the kid was completely in love with her and now he would never leave her alone. But Candace’s obvious regret didn’t help me feel any better.

I was going to get back at her for that.

“Johnny Boy! Let’s go,” I ordered, pulling him away from Cindy and dragging him to my car. I took my phone out and sent a quick text message to ten of my friends: Emergency team meeting. My house. Be there in five.

By the time Johnny Boy and I returned to my house, there were already seven people waiting for us. We waited a few minutes for the last three to show up and then everyone gathered around the patio table. I could tell everyone was dying of curiosity to find out why I had called such an urgent meeting.

“Candace Harlow is a bitch,” I began, and everyone immediately grinned. It wasn’t a normal way to start out a meeting, but at least now everyone knew what I had in mind. “I hate her, and I’m sure all of you do, too.” I waited for everyone to nod in agreement. “Boys, the Prank War is back.”

Everyone laughed in excitement and a few of the guys slapped each other on the back. “What are we going to do, Kasey?” Frankie Fat-Ass asked eagerly.

“We’re going to give Candace a prank of a lifetime,” he replied with a smirk. “She’ll never be able to forgive me for this one.”