Old Secrets, New Discoveries

Chapter Four

“Ruining people's lives? Seriously, I knew you were stupid, but a comment like that?” She blinked back tears, stung by his harsh tone and gaze. Waiting no longer, She draped her legs outside and spun around to grab the sill with her hands before she pushed off- deciding at last minute to leave the snake behind. A little fear might do her guest some good.

The drop wasn't too far, but far enough to feel rather exhilarating. Not to mention far enough to cause her ankles to sting and smart with pain as she landed on the hard ground, but it was a welcome distraction from the emotional stings. Who did that boy think he was? She'd never done anything to him!

The trek from her home to Tristan's was not nearly far enough, Rachel fuming the whole way, finding little comfort in even the stars. She stopped at the fence behind his house, staring at it blankly. Now wasn't the best time to get even, what with trying to hold back tears, but she might as well finish what she came to do.

With a sigh, she angrily brushed her eyes with the back of her hand, not even sure why the comment from someone she couldn't care less about hurt so much. Why did she want his good opinion? Why did his bad opinion make her feel like this? She ought to be able to brush it off and carry on. Too bad emotions were never truly so easy to control.

Pranks were, though. Drawing in a deep breath, Rachel determined to thoroughly enjoy this particular one, to the best of her ability. The advantages of knowing a person for so long were great, giving her the knowledge she needed to pull this off far more perfectly than Peter had managed too. Biting back a slight giggle at the absurdity of what she was doing, Rachel tip-toed around the house to the wall she knew Bryan's room was against, and, sure enough, there was a small hutch under his window. The rabbits.

Grinning from ear to ear, and now fully able to ignore the encounter of several minutes before, the girl crouched to pull one of the fuzzy critters into her hands, flinched as the wire mesh creaked. This would all go perfectly, if Bryan didn't notice her. With the little ball of twitching fur in her hands, Rachel crept back around to Tristan's window, knowing the precise location of each room in the house. Tristan's room was level with the ground, and his shutters were open. Rachel snickered, and slipped in silently, praying she wouldn't awake him. Peter had a point about the impropriety of what she was doing, but really, everyone knew that she and Tristan had grown up like siblings.

He was snoring soundly, his face turned away from her. This was beyond perfect. Catching site of a desk in the corner, she stepped up to it and located a clean sheet of paper, the feather pen lying carelessly atop the mess of the cluttered surface. Placing her sheet in clear view, Rachel wrote in her neat script, “Dear Traitor, I greatly enjoyed your well thought out gift of the fish. Hope you enjoy my thank you gift just as much- Your unimpressed friend.”

Replacing the quill in the ink well where it belonged, she then crept across the room to the end of his bed, lifting the covers just enough to slip the rabbit in before she bolted for the window and tumbled out of it, curling up belong and holding her breath. She would have left, but she decided to wait a minute, afraid that Tristan may wake and see her fleeing.

Her fears proved justified a few moments later as she heard him shifting about and muttering something. Covering her mouth, she nearly doubled with silent mirth.

“Hey...wha...ouch! Ah! What the- Bryan!”

His door creaked open, and his cousin's groggy voice replied. “Shut up Tris. What's the matter with you? It's the middle of the night!”

“Get your filthy rabbit out of my room! What's the matter with you!? Those creatures are evil! Evil I tell you.” He paused, his breathing heavy, Rachel could tell he was ticked. “Look! The thing near bit my toe off!”