Loving the Enemy

2

The next day I woke up really early and headed towards the suburbs. I stopped my car next to the familiar house where I usually went the day after I pranked Xander. Casually I walked up to the front door and was greeted by Mrs. Smith after a few knocks.

"Oh hello dear you're here to see Sammy aren't you?" She said in her usual cherry tone.

"Yes Mrs. S. Is he upstairs? I'll go find him myself" I walked past her and ran straight upstairs to the twelve year old's room. See Sammy was a young computer genius and he used his skills... umm let's just say in a questionable manner usually the blackmail kind. The good thing for me he had some incriminating info on a few people close to Xander making him the perfect spy. I knocked before slowly opening the door to the dark room. I could barely see anything but the glow of Sammy's computer screen being eclipsed by his giant head.

"Come in Aria. I've been expecting you" he said in his usual prepubescent monotone voice swivelling is chair to face me. Sammy wasn't bad looking just messy his jet black hair was in disarray, he had large chunky glasses that made his average sized blue eyes enormous, he seemed to have a nice defined jaw but it was hardly noticeable because he had small blackheads and acne sprouting in odd places all over his face. His appearance was screaming make me over and it would be fun to help the kid out one day but for now I had an arch nemesis to take care of.

"Hey how are you buddy?" I said cheerfully slightly punching his shoulder

"Can we skip all of the formalities and get straight to the point" he said swiveling his chair so he was now facing me and his back towards the computer screen.

"Well in that case you probably know what happened then" I said plopping down on the stool next to his bed.

"You set off a couple of smoke bombs at the Montgomery mansion now the entire street smells like sulfur mixed with incense" Sammy said without looking away from his computer.

"Let's just say the smell was a pleasant surprise" I said gleefully "but you know he's now out for blood so I need you to be on high alert. Let me know the slightest thing even if a butterfly flies past him I want to know"

"It's going to cost you" Sammy said this time turning to look at me

"I'm willing to pay the price" I said "in fact I've already brought some advance payment"

I handed Sammy the brown paper bag and he took it from me with shaky hands. He didn't wait to open it till I was gone and slid the little black box out of the brown bag.

"Nice" he admired looking at the limited edition vintage video game that was so hard to get I'm pretty sure a Saudi prince has me on his hitlist now.

"There are two more on their way in shipping I hope they cover the cost" I added

"For now its enough" Sammy said putting the game carefully in a drawer "we'll talk about additional payment later. I'll talk to my informants and tell them to be on high alert"

"Thanks I have to get heading towards school" I said getting up and waving Sammy goodbye.

Everyone at school probably already knew about the prank and the ones that weren't in the know will be informed by the time I reach school. I purposefully reached just a minute or two before the bell. The crowded school halls gave me a chance to make a grand entrance to a larger crowd and bask in the glory of making fools out of the Montgomerys. I walked past the obvious stares and loud whispers of how badass I was and headed towards my four close friends. Jerome, Angela, Marie and Penny all four were patiently waiting for me.

"Here's our little prankster" Angela said taking her books for first period out of her locker.

"As they say size doesn't matter" I said with a sly wink. Of course at five seven I wasn't small but you get the point.

"Xander isn't going to let this go you know" worried Jerome "I hope I don't get sucked into this mess"

"He wouldn't dare mess with you bud. There's only one clear rule the feud stays within both of our families if he breaks it won't be long before world war three breaks out" I reassured him

"Guys we're going to be late" said Marie. She had never been late to a class and made sure from attendance to finals that she didn't lose a single mark that would affect her average. God forbid if she ever got an A minus.

"You guys go a head I have to get my books from my locker" I told them before making my way to my locker.

As I was taking out my English workbooks for first period my phone vibrated. Taking it out I saw that it was a text from Sammy.

Sammy: X is definitely up to something stay on high alert and I'll text you as I get more intel. 

I looked at the text for a good minute before putting it back in my pocket. What could he be up to? I thought. That's when I heard footsteps behind me turning around I saw Xander walking slowly towards me with his head down.

"Tick tock Rockwell" he said looking up with a smirk on his face "Tick tock"

I just ignored him and headed straight to English class not wanting to be late because of him. Although I couldn't escape the constant paranoia that I was about to be pranked. Every chair, desk or person seemed like a trap. I clung to my friends and avoided contact with anyone else. I finally took a sigh of relief when the bell rang at the end of the day and couldn't wait to get home. I made my way to the parking lot and was turning towards my car when I noticed something peculiar sitting on the hood. I creeped towards it slowly and poked it just to make sure if it would explode thankfully it didn't. It was a digital minion alarm clock but instead of the time it had a timer set on it like a bomb would. The time on it read 26:38 and counting. Looking around for Xander I thought it would be best if I left immediately and figure this out at home. Throwing the clock as far away from me as possible I gave my car a quick inspection before getting in and driving off. All the way home I heard Xander singing "tick tick" in my head.