Before You Go (Book 1, the Before series)

Chapter 9 | Binoculars and Blossoms

HENRY AND I ATE A late lunch—which was just a pepperoni sandwich and fries—before deciding to do something stupid.

It was always like that whenever Henry and I were together, we just couldn't stop doing absurd things. That was also why in middle school the teacher made sure to keep the two of us in different ends of the classroom so we wouldn't end up blowing the school apart to smithereens.

Isaac was doing something in his room, I could tell because loud music was blaring, obviously to hide whatever he was doing. Henry's theory was that he was a secret spy agent who was undercover as my brother to protect me since I was a long lost princess of some tiny country somewhere.

If I were a princess, I wanted a castle. Both options were unlikely, but not impossible. My theory was he was doing something dirty. The loud music was a dead giveaway.

I glanced at Dad, who was watching Adventure Time on TV. "Dad, Hen and I are going to my room."

"Don't forget to use protection!" he called as we were already halfway up the stairs. Rolling my eyes, I gestured for Henry to be quiet as we tiptoed past Isaac's door like Tom from Tom and Jerry, with our shoulders hunched and knees high.

Yeah, we loved to be dramatic.

I pressed my ear to his door, hearing Coldplay blast through his speakers. Isaac never really liked Coldplay. Seriously, was my brother dumb or something? If he has going to do something secretly, at least he should have done it right.

I strained my ears, trying to hear anything else but failed. I made a series of gestures to Henry we'd invented when we were twelve. He frowned and mouthed, what?

Really? He didn't even remember the secret language we created to say bad things about the people we didn't like, especially Hellion Harold, who once pushed me in mud and we'd spent the entire English lesson calling him names like dumb, stupid and son of a biscuit, which I had heard Dad call his brother and thought it sounded interesting.

I mouthed, can't hear anything, which Henry thankfully seemed to understand and gestured to go in my room. I followed suit and gently closed the door behind us.

"So now what do we do?" I whispered.

Henry made that face he made whenever he was concentrating. "We can go to the roof with a bungee cord which I'll tie around you. Then I'll lower you slowly so you can see into Isaac's window, and then if he sees you, I'll pull you up quickly."

"That sounds like a recipe for death," I said dryly.

He crossed his arms and pouted like an upset child. "Like you have a better idea."

I smirked. "I do actually."

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"That's way lamer than my idea."

I scoffed. "Yeah right."

Creeping past Dad was going to be easy since he had started watching Jessie. I backed against the wall next to the stairs and made my way to where the keys were kept. I went through at least three of them before I found the one for Isaac's bedroom.

When I went back up Henry was already there, still upset we couldn't do his 'brilliant' spy idea which he'd always wanted to try after watching Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol. I held up the key in answer to his silent question. Quietly, I put the key in the lock and twisted. Nothing happened.

Frowning, I tried again, but the door didn't budge. Something occurred to me, then I twisted the doorknob and the door sprang open, revealing something neither Henry nor I could have predicted.