Disclaimer: I do not own NCIS or any of its characters.

Chapter 4

Taylor had no idea the twenty seven dollars they'd scraped together would buy so many. She placed all fifteen plastic containers carefully into a large black plastic bag. Now all she had to do was to get them into the trunk of her mom's car without getting caught. Her dad wasn't home yet so she risked leaving the bag at the bottom of the stairs and went to find her mom. She was in the kitchen.

"Mom, where's your car keys? I've left my phone in it."

Patricia lifted the keys off a hook and tossed them to her.

Mission accomplished.

For once Taylor was actually looking forward to school, and as they pulled into the teacher's parking area she knew for certain this was going to work. For a while this morning she had been worried that this would be the day Mr Millar changed his routine, or finally closed his car window properly. Taylor walked right up to the main door of the school building with her mom before stopping abruptly.

"I've left my lunch in the car."

Again Patricia willingly handed over the keys, and Taylor made her way back to the almost empty parking spaces. Her mom had picked the perfect place to park this morning, right beside Mr Millar's car. Taylor wasted no time retrieving the boxes from the trunk, and emptied them one by one, through the three inch gap at the top of the driver's window. When all the boxes were empty Taylor stacked them inside one another and put them back in the plastic bag. It was much smaller now and she intended to dump it in the nearest trash can. Retrieving her lunch, Taylor locked the car and took one last look into Millar's car. He was gonna get a bit of a shock when he left for his daily lunchtime outing.

The morning dragged in, and when lunchtime finally arrived Taylor almost dragged Jared out of the classroom. She wanted to make sure they didn't miss anything. It was a warm sunny day, so there were plenty of other students eating outside, making it easy to blend in. They were however the only two watching eagerly as Mr Millar made his way over to his car. Jared looked as if he was about to throw up.

"Will you relax! There's no way he'll find out who did it, and even if they do, it was me who put them in, not you." There was no more time for reassurance. He'd reached the car now and was putting the key into the lock, but stopped before opening the door.

"WHAT THE HELL?" He was just standing there, staring into the car.

Taylor was certain that outburst would have been heard at the other side of the school. Millar looked absolutely furious. He rotated a full three hundred and sixty degrees, as if he actually thought he could spot the guilty party making a quick getaway.

WHO'S RESPONSIBLE FOR THIS?" He roared.

Everyone fell silent. Now they weren't the only two watching. Some of the teaching staff, including her mom emerged from the building and made their way over to him. Slowly the students edged closer, trying to see what the fuss was all about.

Not wanting to draw attention to themselves Taylor and Jared hung back. Taylor waited until the car was surrounded before making a move.

"Come on." She hauled Jared to his feet. "It's going look suspicious if we don't go over. Besides you haven't seen it yet."

As an extra precaution Taylor made straight for her mom. Patricia didn't realise her daughter was beside her until she felt a tug on her sleeve.

'What's going on mom?"

Patricia tore her eyes away from the car. "Mr Millar's car is full of crickets. Hundreds of them."

Taylor pushed in front of her to get a better view, pulling Jared with her. She was watching the boy carefully for his reaction. At first he just watched the crickets bouncing all over the car's interior. It was gonna take Miller quite a while to get rid of them all. At least as long as they'd spent in detention. Then Jared started to smile. For one awful moment Taylor thought he was going to start laughing. He must have been worried too, because he quickly pushed his way out through the rapidly growing audience. Taylor followed him, and he didn't speak until they were a safe distance away. "That's awesome! Those things can really jump."

"Feels good doesn't it?" She asked.

Jared nodded. "He was so angry I thought he was going to have a heart attack."

Taylor laughed. "Yeah, and the way he asked who was responsible, did he actually expect someone to walk up to him when he was that mad and just confess?"

The smile disappeared from Jared's face. "Oh oh, here he comes."

Taylor punched his arm. "Will you stop acting so guilty! Keep talking."

They needn't have worried. Millar ignored them as he stormed past. He wasn't getting any calmer.

When the bell rang Taylor stopped Jared outside the classroom. "You remember what I told you?"

"Never admit anything when there's still a chance you could get away with it." He quoted seriously.

"Good. Just sit back and enjoy watching him trying to figure out who did it. That'll drive him nuts."

Mr Millar paced up and down at the front of the classroom. He hadn't spoken yet and the whole class sat in silence, waiting to see what he would do. Word had spread fast about the incident and even those who hadn't been there to witness it, now knew. He stopped pacing and looked at the clock above the board.

"One hour. No one moves or speaks until the person who put the crickets into my car makes themselves known."

A whole hour staring at the walls was going to be tough, especially when she knew there was going to be no confession. Taylor immediately raised her hand.

"YOU!" He shouted, making a few of the kids jump.

She rolled her eyes. "No, not me. I just want to make sure you know it's a dumb id….. I mean whoever did it might not be in this class." That sounded better.

Unfortunately not to him. Millar stalked towards her and stood a little closer to her than Taylor would have liked.

"Do you always speak your mind Miss Gibbs?"

"I was just sayin'. It doesn't seem very fair that you're pickin' on us."

He spun round when he heard a few murmurs of agreement behind him."

"QUIET!"

Taylor jumped. Maybe she should of kept her mouth shut and suffered willingly through an hour of boredom. This guy was beginning to scare her.

"She does have a point." All eyes turned to Jared. Right now Taylor could have hugged him.

Millar glared at the boy, then addressed the class in a voice that could only be described as threatening. "Anyone else willing to share their opinion, and detention?"

When no one spoke up he gave Taylor and Jared one last warning look before taking his seat at the front, still convinced the guilty party would break under his scrutiny.

The hour dragged in, but every time Taylor felt her temper rising at the indignity of having to sit there like criminals, all she had to do was think about the hundreds of crickets hopping about in the scumbag's car. She was proud of how well the prank had worked out. It was just a pity they couldn't tell anyone about it. Well she could tell Jason, or maybe Vicky the next time she emailed her.

Not surprisingly when the deadline arrived no one had owned up. There wasn't much Mr Millar could do about it though, and Jared and Taylor filed past him smugly on the way out of class at the end of the day, not caring about the detention slips they now carried. From their perspective the whole operation had been a complete success.

Taylor waited for her mom out at the car and was treated to the sight of her teacher trying to capture the crickets. He had a lunchbox in one hand and was trying to sweep them into it, but this only made the crickets jump higher. The man was so engrossed in his task that he didn't notice Taylor pull out her phone and begin to record the action. There was no way she was gonna let Jared miss out on this. When she'd shot enough footage, Taylor leaned casually up against their car and watched him for a few more moments. He was getting nowhere, there must have been all of eight crickets in his box. Her mom was still nowhere in sight and Taylor couldn't resist winding him up a bit more.

"Mr Millar?" He stood up so fast he banged his head on the roof of the car.

"What are you doing here?" He asked accusingly.

"Waitin' for my mom." She nodded towards his car. "Wouldn't it be easier if you opened all the doors and then chased them out?"

Taylor wasn't interested in making his task any easier, but the opportunity to make him appear stupid couldn't be overlooked.

As he thought about what she'd said his face turned a dark shade of red. Maybe she'd pushed him too far. It was time to calm him down a bit.

"Do you want some help?" Taylor offered quickly.

He eyed her suspiciously before finally nodding. "Please."

When Patricia eventually appeared most of the crickets were now in the parking lot. Taylor and Mr Millar were in his car, trying to encourage the last few remaining insects to join the others.

"How's it going Simon?" Patricia opened the trunk to set in a pile of books.

A much calmer Simon replied. "Nearly got them all, thanks to Taylor here."

Taylor climbed out of the car at the mention of her name, and stood beside her mom.

"Did you find out who put them there?"

He shook his head. "No, but I haven't given up yet.

They left him to it, and as they drove out through the main gates Patricia smiled at her daughter. "That was really kind of you to help Mr Millar."

Taylor responded by guiltily sliding down in her seat, and wondered what her dad was gonna say when he found out he'd have to sign another detention slip. Millar hadn't been grateful enough for her help to take that back.

Just in case she ended up being sent to bed early, Taylor didn't hand over the detention slip until it was almost time to go to bed anyway. He gave her one of those 'what did you do this time?' looks and and waited for her to explain.

"I only said it was stupid to make the class sit there for an hour, so he could find out who put the crickets in his car. It might have been someone from another class."

That statement made even less sense than some of the crazy excuses she'd given him on previous occasions. "What crickets?"

She looked towards her mom. "You didn't tell him?"

Taylor tried to appear innocent as her mom related the condensed version of events. When she was done, her dad turned his attention back to her, searching her face for any sign of guilt.

"Did you play any part in this cricket thing?"

Taylor relaxed. This she could answer honestly. "Of course I did." Just when she figured out he was ready to start shouting she added. "I helped him get them out of his car. Didn't I mom?"

Patricia reinforced Taylor's misleading statement and in doing so removed any suspicion that had been heading her way.

"Are you gonna sign it?" Taylor stood impatiently in front of him. She wanted to get up to her room so that she could safely send the footage on her phone to Jared, Jason and Vicky.

Jethro signed the slip and held it out for her to take. "That's two in the space of a week. I don't want to see another one. If I do, it won't just be a signature I give you. You'll be taking a trip over my knee. Do you understand?"

"But dad, all you gotta do is look at him the wrong way and he gets pissed." That was an impossible request.

"Then don't look at him the wrong way, and watch your mouth!" He warned.

Taylor knew he wasn't going to back down, so there was no point hanging about. She glowered at her father. "Fine. I'm goin' to bed."

Turning to leave the room Taylor was already trying to figure out how to avoid her dad finding out if she did end up with another detention. It looked as if she was going to have to practice his signature again. As for her mom, she could always spin her a line about wanting to do her homework in the library, Taylor was certain she wouldn't mind staying late, it would give her the opportunity to catch up on her marking or something.

It was if her dad could read her mind, and called out after her. "Don't go getting any ideas about signing the next one yourself. Don't forget if you get three detentions it means both your mom and myself have to meet with your teacher."

That really irked her, so true to form her mouth went into overdrive. "How many do I need to get kicked out?"

Taylor quickly stepped away, hands flying back to cover her backside, as her father got to his feet. "What? I just wanna make sure it doesn't happen. You don't have to get mad!"

"Oh, you'd better make sure it doesn't happen!"

He was kinda intimidating, towering over her, arms folded, with that glare of his locked onto her. Taylor wasted no time in replying. "It won't, I swear!"

Her father must have believed her, because when he spoke again it was only one word. "Bed."

Carefully backing away from him, Taylor didn't turn until she was well out of swatting range, then hightailed it up to her room before her mouth landed her in more trouble. It looked as if she was going to have to learn to behave, fast!