CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

The crowd roared with laughter. Brent's face went through varied emotions - embarrassment, fear and finally anger. He worked in a circle until his gaze rested on Ivy. Suddenly, the happiness of seeing her "nemesis" being the target of Finn's pranks faded and she was left staring into the face of said person, who looked like he might actually kill her.
Ivy's stomach twisted. The prank wasn't so funny anymore.
Finn looked incredibly happy with himself.
Now Ivy really wanted to punch him.

"Ouch." Hazel mumbled beside her. "That must suck. Funny though."
Ivy nodded numbly. "He thinks I did it."
"Well..." Hazel shrugged. "Don't tell me you weren't planning to do something to Brent."
"No, we were." Ivy paused. "But Finn plans all of the pranks. I just said that I didn't mind."
Hazel arched an eyebrow. "Taking that back now?"
"Yep."

Brent glowered for a few more minutes - looking between Finn and Ivy - before he scrambled away from the crowd in a cloud of humiliation. The disco had been alright up until those moments where Ivy had been looking right into that boy's eyes. She hadn't liked what she had seen.
Ivy flashed one glance to Finn, shook her head, and left through a different exit.

Most of the people had left. Ivy and Hazel being the only ones from their "friendship" group. Finn had been grinning at his creation as the crowd dispersed and the mood had changed drastically. Lionel felt oddly sorry for Brent. Public humiliation? Wasn't very nice.
Heather yawned. "That was a dramatic end to the night."
"Yeah." Lionel agreed. "Do you think Ivy had something to do with it?"
"What?" Heather said, uninterested.
The boy scratched the back of his neck. "Ivy left almost immediately. I thought she may have had something to do with it."
"Who cares?" Heather asked. "It's Ivy. She doesn't like parties or anything social, for that matter."

Lionel nodded. The night was drawing close and everyone was grouchy. And this was Heather, so she was bound to be more grumpy than everyone else. He shrugged and looked around for Cinder. She was mumbling something to Poppy, who was nodding in agreement.
"Wait a second." Lionel told Heather, and headed across the hall to where Cinder was. "Hey."
Cinder smiled. "Hey. How are you?"
"I'm good." Lionel pushed back his hair. "You?"
"Same." She laughed. "Why are we being so awkward? How was the dancing with Heather?"

Glancing in the direction of said girl, Lionel shrugged. "It was about as good as it could be, I guess."
"No stepping on toes, I hope?"
"Thankfully not, no." Lionel laughed as well. He let himself relax. "Quite a show, huh?"
Cinder grinned. "Can't expect any less from Finn, can we?"

They both looked to where the fiery haired boy was now sitting at the edge of the stage, speaking to Tyler and Dana and Ben.
Finn noticed them looking and gestured the remaining members of their "group" to join them.
"Right." He sat up straight. "What did you all think of the prank?"
He received a murmur of recognition and praise.
"Good!" Finn clapped his hands together. "Now, I urge you all to watch your backs. Brent will most likely be upset and he'll probably want to get his own back. So, if you ever find yourselves in a difficult situation or Brent has evened the score - call me."

Ivy buried her face in the pillow, breathing in the familiar scent and wanting to curl up and never wake up again. What had she done? She was confused at her own emotions. She wanted to prank Brent but she didn't know that Finn would do that - but the thing was, she did know he would do that. It was Finn. Of course he would do something like that. Where everyone else excelled in sport, a school subject or being socially inept, Finn excelled in pranks. It was his area of expertise.
Now Brent would hate her even more.
Was that was she had wanted?
Ivy moaned quietly as she heard the front door close. Dana was back. Which meant...

"There you are!" Dana flung her bedroom door open. "Finn's prank was interesting."
She sat on Ivy's bed and Ivy could almost feel the annoying smile radiating from her sister's face.
"Oh, what's wrong?" Dana leaned forward. "You went out with Brent, right? I heard someone say that..."
Ivy mumbled in recognition of that fact.
"Well, you didn't really like him, did you?" Dana questioned. "He's a jerk."
"Yeah." Ivy said in reply.

"Then why are you upset?" Dana asked. "If you didn't like him, then there's no point in being upset about the whole thing."
Ivy exhaled slowly and turned to face her sister. "I don't like Brent. Of course not. But I'm confused."
"Alright then." Dana nodded. "Why don't we talk it out?"
"Um.." Ivy realized she didn't know how to talk to her sister. They had never done this before. "I wanted Finn to prank Brent but I didn't at the same time, because now Brent will probably hate me and do something even worse..."
Dana blinked. "If he does something worse, then you've got me and Finn, and everyone else. We'll get him back."
Ivy shifted uncomfortably and picked at her shirt. "That's nice, I guess. But then he'll hate all of you."
"Who cares?" Dana shrugged. "We're sisters - and friends. Kicking other people's butts is our job."

Ivy laughed. This was entirely new. "Alright."
Dana grinned. "Deal?"
"Deal."

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