Just Revenge

Chapter Eighteen: Chicken

At rehearsal the next day, I'm not sure exactly why I expected things to be awkward between me and Cort – maybe something to do with spilling our secrets to each other in the middle of McDonalds – but my dumb ass was wrong again. I hopped out of my mom's car, walked up to rehearsal and it was like nothing had changed. I stretched out under our tree between Max and Diana. Ror stopped her conversation to say hello to me, but everyone else just continued on talking because manners were dead. I shot a glance at Cort when I sat down, but he wasn't even looking at me – too busy arguing with Harper about something or other. Whatever I brushed it off, if he wasn't going to be awkward about everything, all the better.

I settled into the warm grass and leaned back, staring at the sky while half the group stared at their phones.

Rehearsal was pretty boring. We ran scenes and forgot lines and laid on the grass talking about nothing in particular – the show was only three weeks away which meant that we had to actually buckle down and get stuff done at rehearsals. The one highlight seemed to be that it ended early.

"You guys worked hard today and you're gonna be putting in some late nights these next couple weeks, so we're gonna end early today." Marie informed us.

"But don't get used to it!" barked Miranda.

Cort rolled his eyes, "Like there's a chance of that happening."

"Come on, let's go before they change their minds" Max wasted no time throwing his stuff into his bag.

I laughed, "You act like they're gonna chain us to the tree or something."

His face took on a grave mask, "Last time I was stuck there for years." His mock seriousness cracked, "For YEARS!" He howled.

"Shut up!" Harper gave him a playful shove, "Let's play on the playground while we wait for rides." Her blue eyes sparking at the idea of playing on child's equipment.

Ror laughed, "Some of us are our own rides, but you kids have fun." She waved good-bye and walked to her car, Cort and Diana trailing after her for a ride.

"Dibs on the swing set!" I yelled, bolting towards the swings.

I felt the others rushing after me so I pushed my legs faster. I was never very fast though and with only four swings, I was too slow to snatch one for myself. Shockingly enough – to me anyway – Harper was fast enough to get a swing, snagging the fourth one just before I reached it. I gasped for air as Harper, Alex, Luke, and Max claimed their prizes and starting swinging.

"Guess we gotta find something else to do" Izzy shrugged her shoulders.

"Sucks to suck!" Luke hollered obnoxiously from his swing, pumping his legs wildly.

I smirked, an idea growing, "Not necessarily."

Izzy had the right kind of friends to recognize my smirk, "What'd you have in mind."

"When you were little, did you ever play that game where you run between the swings? Like through the middle while they're in the air?" I walked closer to her, lowering my voice so the others don't hear.

Izzy smiled as she caught on, "Harper's gonna have a heart attack if we try that."

I smirked at her, not bothering to lower my voice as I walked toward the edge of the swing set, "Even better."

"What are you guys planning?" Harper wondered aloud.

I turned my smirk toward her but before I could respond, Max cut me off, "I get the feeling that we're gonna find out now, aren't we?"

"Good guess." I leaned against the pole next to Harper's swing and waited as Izzy wandered to the pole on the other side.

I waited until Harper was in the air before I ran through, stopping in the narrow space between her and Max's swings.

"Don't do that!" She snapped, "You're gonna get somebody killed."

"Oh please," Max dismissed, "Seven-year- olds can do that. If that's all you've got, I'm disappointed."

He was baiting me and I knew it, but I was too competitive to not take it. I waited until he swung backwards into the air and I stepped forward, not running, just strolling in front of the swing. I stopped for a second in the middle and turned to face him as his swing fell towards me. Our eyes locked as it swung closer and closer, but I waited until I could see it in his eyes – the exact moment when he started to doubt that I was moving, the moment he got scared. Then, I jumped out of the way. It was probably closer than it should've been. I felt the chain of the swing brush my arm as I moved. But still, I'd proven my point and I'd gotten to him.

Nobody said anything for a second as I caught my breath and something told me Max was still recovering too because it wasn't him that broke the silence.

Luke's laughter broke through the silence. It was loud and cutting and snapped me out of the daze I seemed to have entered.

I stood up, throwing a smug look over my shoulder, "Seven-years-old or not, I still got you."

"Yeah." His voice came out shaky, "You did."

We kept playing the game for a while, taking turns running through and swinging – for a little kid game, it was pretty fun. Nobody played chicken again though. Nobody mentioned how juvenile the game was again either though.

A/N

I low-key hate saying this because it always bugs me when other authors do it, but this was just a filler chapter because things are about to start moving kinda quickly. Hope you enjoyed the filler anyway.

Thank you and Enjoy!