When Summer Ends (51 page)

Miss Teller laughed. “It’s after school you know; can’t you
cut them a little slack? He’s your brother after all, and it was his fault, not
Chloe’s,” she persuaded, winking at me, obviously thinking she was helping me
out when in actual fact an hour with Will on Monday was awesome in my book.

A smile pulled at the corner of Will’s mouth. “If I could
give that little punk detention I would,” he said, punching Sam in the arm a
little harder than playfully.

Sam shrugged him off. “We’re now going. So anyway, Mom said
to make sure you’re at the restaurant by eight tomorrow. That’s what I came to
tell you,” he said.

“Yep, thanks.” Will shrugged, looking at the door, nodding
for us to leave.

Sam threw his arm around my shoulder again. “See you
tomorrow then, Will. It was nice to meet you, Caroline.” Sam smirked in her
direction again, and I knew that he’d be talking about the hot teacher tonight
when we went out. Just as we got to the door he stopped and looked back at
Will. “You don’t have any spare condoms, do you?”

Will’s face hardened instantly. I gasped and elbowed Sam in
the ribs again.
That one was totally unnecessary. He’s just trying to wind
Will up on purpose.
“I can tell you with absolute certainty that you won’t
be getting any tonight, Sam Morris,” I growled.
Jerk.

He laughed and kissed my cheek. “Whatever you say, Foxy.” He
waved over his shoulder and dragged me out of the room. “See you later, big
brother,” he called, laughing wickedly to himself.

Chapter Thirty-Three

When I woke up in the morning I couldn’t stop the happy grin
that stretched across my face. Sam had been hilarious last night, and I had
laughed until it gave me stomach ache at some of the things he was doing. He
really was a great friend, and I was lucky to have him in my life. We had
barely made it to the bowling alley before Will had called Sam. I had just sat
there, trying not to listen to him being shouted at down the phone, but Will
was shouting so loud that I could almost hear every word. I couldn’t help but
giggle at him, especially when Sam pulled the phone away from his ear and just
put it on the table, before proceeding to order our bowling shoes while Will
ranted on the line, oblivious to the fact that his brother wasn’t listening. He
was seriously pissed that Sam kissed me, from what I could gather from the
rant, he hated the condom joke too, but I think the whole someone else kissing
his girlfriend while he was standing there thing had really gotten to him.

I had slept so well last night. Everything was going to work
out. Sam’s plan was genius, and although Will and I would now need to be even
more careful around each other, if anyone got wind of anything suspicious as to
why we were so friendly towards each other, then we had the excuse that I was
in a serious relationship with his brother. Perfect.

I rolled over and looked at my alarm clock. It was after
ten, and I was due at Erika’s at twelve thirty to do her chores as blackmail.
Today was going to be an enjoyable day, I could feel it. When I spoke to Will
last night before bed, he wanted me not to bother showing up at Erika’s, or
send her a ‘get stuffed’ text. But Sam and I had come up with something better
than that last night, so I was definitely going to do Erika’s chores today… and
I would enjoy doing them too.

I had a quick breakfast before heading upstairs and packing
up my clothes and make-up for tonight’s dinner and a change of clothes for
tomorrow. I ‘accidentally’ forgot to pack pyjamas for tonight, I would much
rather sleep in Will’s T-shirt instead. I left my stuff in my room and slipped
on my bulkiest jacket so I could hide my supplies in there without them being
seen, and then I almost skipped to Erika’s house. When I got to the address
she’d given me, I gasped and looked at the large white house in front of me.
The drive way was so long that my legs ached by the time I got to the front
door.

I was all out grinning with delight as I raised my hand and
pressed the large gold doorbell.
Calm down, Chloe.
Wow, my poker face
sucks!
I giggled to myself and then bit my lip, trying to chill out and not
give anything away. She opened the door with a scowl on her face as she looked
me over distastefully the same as she always does.

“Well, I’m glad you came in old clothes, you’ll be getting
messy today,” she said, smirking at me as she waved me into her house.

I nodded, still trying to keep the grin off of my face. “So,
what is it that I’m to do exactly?” I asked, praying it would be the things
that she already told me I was going to be doing today.

She smiled evilly. “Some of my shoes need polishing. My
clothes need ironing, and my car is a mess, it needs cleaning inside and
outside. After you’ve done all that, you can muck out the horses at the
stable,” she instructed, nodding towards the back of her house. Her house was
beautiful inside. All high ceilings, expertly decorated walls, and real oak
floors. I knew her parents had a lot of money, but I didn’t realise that they
had enough for horses in their back yard.
No wonder she acts like a spoilt
brat all the time.

I nodded, trying to look annoyed, when in actual fact I was
hoping for two of those jobs. Everything was working out perfectly.
Jeez, I
love Sam so much for being an evil genius!
He reminded me a little of Amy
and her harebrained schemes. I was secretly glad that he was a man-whore and that
she was in love with Ryan, because if those two ever got together, they would
have dangerous kids.

She pointed to a pile of leather shoes and boots that she’d
put at the bottom of the stairs, and a polishing set. “Get started then, Ice
Princess,” she ordered, grinning at me cockily.

I smiled sweetly and headed over there, sitting on the
floor, polishing her shoes just like she’d asked me to. She only watched me for
about five minutes before she got bored and went to make herself something to
eat. I giggled as she walked out of the room and reached into my inside pocket,
pulling out the little packet of itching powder that Sam and I had bought last
night. I sprinkled it into all of the shoes, taking a photo on my phone as I
did it and sending it to Sam, knowing he would laugh his ass off. I shook them
to spread it in so it wasn’t noticeable and then got back to polishing them
all, with a huge smirk on my face.
Payback number one, complete.

When they were all sparkling, I headed into the direction of
where Erika went, nosing around her house as I did so. I felt a little like a
stalker, but Sam had instructed me to keep my eyes open for anything
incriminating. I didn’t really know what he was expecting me to find, maybe a
photo of her as a fat kid, or a letter that said she was actually born a guy.
What he told me to search for was her diary. I had a feeling he would get a
kick out of reading a girl’s diary, a ‘forbidden pleasure’ he called it. I was
pretty sure that Erika wasn’t stupid enough to leave that lying around knowing
that I was coming over though.

I found her sitting at the kitchen table, nibbling on a pile
of green salad, plain salad too, no dressing, it looked so bland. “Erika, I’m
done with the shoes,” I said quietly.

She dragged her eyes away from reruns of The Hills and
glared at me hatefully. I genuinely had no idea what I did to make this girl
dislike me so much. She hated Amy too, but there was just no explanation other
than the fact that she was just an evil witch. “I have some clothes that need
ironing before the party that I’m going to tonight,” she informed me, pushing
her half eaten rabbit food away from her and stalking off. I assumed I was
meant to follow her so I did.

She led me into a separate laundry room and pulled open a
cupboard where an ironing board immediately came out and set itself up.
Whoa,
my mom would love one of those cupboards.
I couldn’t imagine having enough
money just to dedicate a cupboard to a fold out ironing board.
Oh how the
other half live.

It wouldn’t take too long to iron an outfit for the party,
so this one wasn’t going to take very long at all. Except, it turns out she
wasn’t sure what she wanted to wear. She pointed at a pile about three foot high
with clothes on the side. “Don’t put double creases on the sleeves, I hate
that, it looks so cheap,” she sneered, her eyes flicking to my arms as if to
imply that I had a double crease in my clothes. “Why are you still wearing a
jacket? Aren’t you hot?” she questioned, looking at me as if I was stupid.

I shook my head, trying not to grin. “I’m fine.”

She rolled her eyes and waved at another cupboard. “The
stuff is in there, use the scented water.” She disappeared out of the room, and
I silently cursed myself for not saving some of the itching power so I could
sprinkle it in her clothes too. But then again, I didn’t want her to catch onto
me too quickly; I wanted her to figure it out slowly that I wasn’t playing her
game anymore. The longer she got me to do stuff for her, the more I could mess
it up.

If I could have, I would have gone with Sam’s outrageous
suggestion of buying her new clothes in smaller sizes, so that when she put
them on she would think she gained weight. It had taken me a long time to explain
to him that it really wasn’t practical, because one, I didn’t have the money,
and two, how would I know what clothes she had in the first place? He had
pouted about it for over half an hour.

When I was done with the ironing I was actually quite proud
of the fact that I’d stopped myself from burning those little brown iron stains
into the back of her clothes. I didn’t actually want to damage anything of
hers; I knew I would end up paying for it if I did, so I was extremely careful.

I carried the clothes back to the kitchen, finding her
sitting there still watching ‘The Hills’.
How can she not get annoyed with
this show? I could barely stomach an episode or two, but she seems like she’s
on some kind of marathon!

“Want me to hang these in your closet?” I offered, raising
one eyebrow, trying to look innocent. In reality, I wanted to find her
bathroom; I was hoping she had a private one that I could get a couple of
minutes alone in.

She nodded and headed out, again without speaking to me. I
followed her up the stairs, into an enormous bedroom that looked exactly like
how I would expect it to look. It looked like a Disney Princess had vomited all
over it: it was pink, fluffy, girly, and with a white sheer canopy thing that
hung over the bedhead.
Wow, what is she, five?

“Nice room,” I muttered, grinning. I longed to take a
picture of this room so I could show Sam. He would piss his pants laughing.

She smiled happily. “Yeah, I had the designer come in and do
it a couple of months ago. Cost Daddy a lot of money, but I’m pleased with the
result,” she gushed, running her hand over her mountain of pink cushions at the
head of her bed. She’d obviously missed the glaring sarcasm in my voice.

She flopped down onto her bed, pointing to her closet. “Put
them in there. Use the wooden hangers, not the metal ones,” she ordered,
frowning distastefully.

I gave her a little bow and headed in there, spotting her
private bathroom on the way past.
Jackpot!
I hung her clothes up quickly
and then headed out. “Do you mind if I use your bathroom? I really need to
pee,” I lied, looking at her hopefully.

She frowned but nodded to it. I bit back the laugh that was
trying to escape and headed in there. I went straight to her cupboard and
pulled out her shampoo and conditioner, tipping some down the drain to leave a
little space in the bottle. Then I pulled out the brown hair dye that I’d
bought last night. I tipped some into each bottle and gave it a vigorous shake
to mix it with her shampoo. I wasn’t sure if it would work, but the plan was
that each time she used it, that her natural platinum blonde hair that she was
so proud of, would get just a fraction darker. She would hate that. I was the
proud creator of this one.
Payback number two, complete. Now I just need to
get my hands on her car!

When I walked out of the bedroom she wasn’t in there. I
spotted her cell phone on the side, and gasped with excitement.
Oh hell
yeah!
I whipped out my phone and dialled Sam, hoping he’d answer quickly.

“Hey, Foxy. How’s the revenge going?” he asked, laughing.

“Great. Listen I just found Erika’s phone so I need the
number of a premium rate number, Busty beauties, Horney babes, whatever, just
get me a number!” I giggled, excitement building up inside me. He immediately
reeled off a number to me. I frowned and screwed my face up. “Should I be
worried that you know that off by heart?” I asked, slightly concerned for him.

He laughed. “No, Foxy, it’s all good; I’m not addicted to
sex chat lines. That one just stuck in my mind because that’s where your mom
works,” he joked.

I rolled my eyes at his lame ‘your mom’ joke. “Okay, I’d
better go. Speak to you tonight.” I disconnected the call and dialled the
number on Erika’s phone, then put it back where I found it. I briefly wondering
how long it would be connected to the line for, hopefully long enough that
she’d have to pay her parents the two hundred bucks of Will’s money that she’d
blackmailed out of us already.

Last on my hit list was her car. I could feel the package in
my jacket pocket and I winced thinking about it in there, touching everything.
I would have to make sure I put it in the wash as soon as I got home. “Erika?”
I called as I walked out of her room. She walked out of another room, talking
on her house phone, flirting unashamedly with whoever it was.

“Car next, you’ll find everything you need in the garage. My
car’s unlocked already.” She nodded towards the front door, signalling where
her Mercedes would be parked. I saluted and headed out there, skipping to her
garage and grabbing everything I needed.