Take a Sad Song and Make It Better

Jade's POV

“I seriously hate you for bringing me into this,” Matt groaned, turning around in the driver's seat to glare at his younger sister, “I hope you know that.” Melanie rolled her eyes, unzipping her duffel bag that she held in her lap.

“Oh, please,” She responded, sifting through the items in her bag, “like you had anything better to do at home today.” Snickers followed Melanie's remark while Matt rolled his eyes, turning back to face the car he was parked behind; Rian's car to be exact.

The boys were all sleeping over Alex's tonight, and, by Matt's information, they always slept in Alex's basement to secure secrecy and privacy. By the looks of it, the boys were still awake; the light glowing from the small basement window confirmed my assumptions.

Matt sighed, running a hand through his disheveled hair, “Fine,” Melanie smiled victoriously, “but make it quick, 'kay?” We all nodded, slowly and quietly making our way out of the car, stifling our excited giggles. Melanie 'shushed' us, beckoning the group to follow her as she made her way to the tree situated in front of the Gaskarths' house.

When we were all gathered around Melanie and her bag of pranks, an evil smile captivated her face, “Okay, we're going to split up into different jobs, got it?” We all nodded, encouraging Melanie to continue. I was getting antsy; I hadn't played a prank on someone in forever.

“So, Kaylie,” The girl in question perked up, a small smile overcoming her face, “you take the forks and post-its. Make sure the forks are everywhere on the lawn and the post-its are all over every window of the house,” Kaylie took the post-its and box of forks from Melanie and walked off, tearing open the box and beginning the work.

“Kara,” The brunette widened her eyes dramatically, “shaving cream.” Melanie handed the cans over to the girl, a devious look on both their faces, “No directions. Just go nuts.” Kara nodded, winking and saluting before running off towards the house.

“Bailey,” my sister nodded, encouraging the darker brunette to continue, “string up this bitch.” The string was passed over to my sister who began unwrapping and tying it to the tree branch, running around with the string following behind her.

“Okay,” Melanie's voice captivated my attention, my face turning towards her, “We have toilet paper and plastic wrap left.”

“I'll take the toilet paper,” I said, taking the many rolls of toilet paper into my arms. A roll fell out of my hands, laying on the ground.

“Here, let me help,” The voice from behind me caused Melanie and I to turn around to look at the new person behind us. I smiled upon seeing Matt standing there, his hands in his pockets, “You didn't think I'd let you guys have all the fun, did you?” He asked, pulling a couple of rolls out from arms and tucking them under his armpits, “These guys had it coming to them eventually.”

Melanie nodded towards her brother, grabbing the plastic wrap from the bag and running off in another direction.

“Let's get this bitch rolling.” I whispered, Matt cracking a smile before we walked towards the house.

Matt and I began throwing the toilet paper over the trees and bushes that occupied the Gaskarths' yard, laughing and joking the entire time; quietly of course. Out of everyone I had met in Lutherville, Matt was the one I rarely even talked to, which I felt extremely bad about. I mean, he was such a great person to hang out with, and I hadn't spent anytime with him. A part of me kind of hoped that all of that would change after this 'TP'ing experience.

“Hey, should we start on the backyard?” Matt whispered, picking up another roll of toilet paper from off the ground. I nodded, my smile growing on my face. Matt grabbed my wrist, pulling me towards the backyard. We dodged around Kara who was busy spraying shaving cream onto the windows next to the post-its Kaylie had placed expertly covered the walls of the house with. Once in the back yard, Matt let go of my wrist, beginning to pull off more of the toilet paper.

I was about to throw some of it over a bush when muffled voices pulled me from my doings. I looked over at Matt who was smiling mischievously.

“Do you hear that?” I whispered.

Matt nodded, pointing towards the lit window next to my feet, “Its the guys.” My eyes widened and a devious smile grew on my face.

“Well, I guess it would be wrong not to listen to them, wouldn't it?” I asked, dropping the toilet paper to the ground.

Matt smirked, “Of course not,” he dropped his toilet paper to the ground as well, kneeling down next to the window, “I mean, they did leave the window open.” I couldn't help it; my face broke out in a grin as I knelt down next to Matt by the window where the voices became more apparent.

“Dude, I'm fucking hungry,” Zack's voice ran through my ears, “Pass me the chips.”

“But, Zacky, won't that ruin your perfectly chiseled abs?” Alex's voice held a smirk or a smile; I wasn't exactly sure.

“Stop checking me out, Gaskarth.” There were small snickers following Zack's remark.

“Are you cheating on me, again, Alex!” Jack yelled, followed by the sound of something
hitting another object.

“Dude, I told you, they just walk into my line of vision. I can't help but stare.” Alex responded.

“Kinda like Jay?” Rian responded, a laugh in his voice, but his remark didn't leaving me giggling. My eyes widened drastically and I turned to face Matt, a similar expression on his face.

There was a long pause before Alex spoke again, “I don't know what the fuck you're talking about, dude.”

“Okay, whatever you say, man. Its kinda obvious the staring you do at Jade, though. I'm surprised Lisa hasn't said any-”

“I think you should shut up, Dawson.” Alex's voice held a sort of edge to it. There was silence before anyone spoke.

An awkward silence.

“Um, well, I guess Jade isn't the only one getting special attention, right Zack?” Rian continued, his smile so present in his voice.

“Shut it, Rian,” From the way Zack spoke, I could tell he was blushing, “Bailey's a friend.”

“Yeah, sure. Just like your mom and I are friends,” Jack responded, a laugh I could only recognize as Rian's following his remark.

“Dude, seriously? 'Your mom' jokes are so second grade,” Zack responded; I could imagine him rolling his eyes.

“You're just jealous you couldn't think of a comeback,” Alex's voice piped up again, a small laugh flowing through his words.

“Your mom's so fat that when she saw a bus full of white kids driving down the street, she yelled, 'Stop that Twinky!'.” Jack blurted out. Matt and I had to cover our mouths from bursting out in laughter. The other boys joined in laughing shortly after Jack's statement.

“Dude,” Alex choked out in between laughs, “who was that even directed at?”

“I-I don't know.” Jack choked out, causing another round of laughter from everyone, including Matt and I eavesdropping from the window.

“Oh, God. I swear, I question your sanity 99 percent of the time, Barakat.” Rian choked out, the laughter dying out.

“99 percent? More like 99.99 percent of the time.” Zack responded, a whine coming out of someone's mouth that I could only assume to be Jack.

“Hey,” Melanie said, coming from around the corner, Matt and I turned around to her, placing a finger over our lips in hopes of trying to get her to keep quiet, “We're finished. You guys done?”

Melanie looked down at us, crouched around the window, “Whatcha doing?” Her voice was barely above a whisper, but with the now more silent boys in the basement, it would have been easy to hear anything from outside of the open window.

“Did you hear that?” Someone announced from inside.

“Oh shit.” Matt and I whispered, peering into the window where all four boys sat, looking towards the window, their eyes now wide.

“Is that- Is that Matt and Jade?!” Zack said, getting up with the other boys to walk closer to the window.

“Run!” Matt shouted, grabbing my arm and pulling me up, grabbing his sister's arm as well, dragging us towards the front yard just as we heard a, “Let's go” come from the basement.

The three of us jumped around the forks Kaylie had strategically placed around the yard. It was becoming harder as we got closer to the front of the house; she had really outdone herself.

“Everyone in the car!” Melanie yelled, catching the attention of the rest of the group who immediately dropped their materials and sprinted towards Matt, Melanie and myself as we made our way towards the car, just as the front door opened.

My eyes widened as the four boys stood in the doorway of Alex's house, their eyes widening as they saw the destruction we had put upon the front yard. As they began to make their way towards us, the boys all yelled in disgust as their feet sunk into a rather large glob of shaving cream, shaking it off as they tried to fight their way through the string my sister had laced through the railings of the stairs.

“They're coming!” I yelled, causing Matt to speed up his feet in fear of getting caught by the boys. But with his new pace, I was caught off guard, causing me to trip over the string my sister had dragged across the yard earlier. I looked behind me to see the boys jumping over the forks; the distance between me and them was becoming smaller and smaller by the second.

Before I could think twice, Matt had picked me up in his arms, carrying me to his car and jumping in the back seat; Kara in the driver's seat already. Looking out the window, I saw Zack and Jack stop to look at the beautiful wrapping job Melanie had done with the plastic wrap on their cars, Kara's shaving cream dripping from the handles of the car doors.

When Bailey slammed the passenger's seat, Kara started up the car just as two of the boys jumped in front of the hood. Rian and Alex slapped the hood of the car with their hands, their faces filled with a mix of fury and slight amusement, along with slight exhaustion from chasing us.

“Get out of the car, you motherfuckers!” Alex yelled through the windshield, staring intensely at each person seated in the car.

Kara didn't think twice before pulling back and driving away, leaving the four stunned boys back in the front yard of Alex Gaskarth's house.

My arms still clung around Matt's neck, his arms still secured underneath my legs and behind my back like they had been since he had picked me up off the ground. We were both too stunned to make any adjustments, much like the rest of the car was.

As we continued to drive further and further away from Alex's house, the shocked and stunned features began to subside and soon every member of the car began to laugh uncontrollably.

“That. Was. Amazing.” Melanie breathed, looking around to each passenger in the car. Each of us nodded in agreement.

I looked over at Matt, smiling up at him as he pulled me closer to his chest in a somewhat hug. We both knew that we had heard a couple of things we shouldn't have, but I was confident in knowing that our little secret would bring us closer together as friends. It definitely felt good to make better friends with Matt. Somehow, it seemed like I would need his friendship later on in my adventure in Lutherville, Maryland.