~ Adam ~
As far as Sunday nights went, Adam never expected to be dressed head-to-toe in black and crouched down beside the fence that separated his and his neighbour's properties. There was heavy cloud cover above, blocking any rays of moonlight and casting the neighbourhood awash in darkness.
"This is such a bad idea." Adam groaned.
"Shut up. No it's not." Piper was crouched beside him, digging through a backpack rather loudly for the stealth this particular situation demanded. Like Adam, she was dressed completely in black clothing to intentionally blend into the dark.
"We have a plan and we're going to stick to it." Piper continued, hair falling in her face as she dug through her bag. She swiped it away with a huff. "There's no cause for alarm."
"Oh, sure." Leo said on Adam's other side. He wore a pair of sunglasses for reasons Adam hadn't figured out. "Not like trespassing on private property isn't a crime or anything."
He was the only one of them not wearing a complete attire of black; instead, he wore bright yellow parachute pants, looking not unlike a bumblebee when paired with the oversized black hoodie he wore on top.
"Really, Leo?" Piper had glared the moment he stepped through Adam's door earlier that night. "Did you completely miss the memo I sent beforehand?"
"It was seventeen pages long! I've got class readings that are shorter than that!"
"You're going to stand out more than heterosexuality at a Pride parade!"
After finding out Leo's black jeans were in the wash - a spiel that sent Piper on another ten minute rant about why you should have more than one pair of jeans to begin with - Piper, forever being Piper, reached into her backpack and produced a spare hoodie. Apparently borrowed from her roommate, Skye, which explained the red pentagram on the back.
"There." Piper smirked as she stepped back to admire her handiwork once Leo was dressed appropriately. Sort of. "Now let's go and get some sweet revenge on your dickhead neighbour."
And that was where a very unfortunate series of bad decisions had led Adam at this very moment; crouched in the bushes along the edge of his property as he watched his best friend plan an elaborate prank.
"This is ridiculous." Adam whisper-shouted. "We could get arrested."
"Please," Piper scoffed. "The police clearly don't give a shit about this estate."
It wasn't reassuring to know she was right. "That doesn't make this okay."
"And yet, that fact is irrelevant." Piper whooped quietly as she finally found what she was looking for. Aggressively pulling the item free from her bag, she set it down between her and Adam.
Adam frowned, picking up the small bottle to read the label. "Really, Piper? Stink spray?"
"Ooh, you can get different ones." Leo eagerly swiped up the bottle. "This one's called Smell From Hell."
"And," Piper smirked as she set down her next item.
Adam's eyes bulged out of his head. "No, absolutely not. No way. He's going to actually kill me."
There, set on the ground between them, was a large bottle of liquid hydrogen peroxide.
"You are insane!" Adam hissed at Piper.
Piper rolled her eyes as Leo reached over and picked the bottle up, weighing it thoughtfully in his hands. "I have so many questions."
"Adam, you remember that experiment we did in eighth-grade science class?" Piper asked sweetly.
Adam cocked his head. "The rat dissection?"
Leo's face paled. "Oh no."
"Not that one!" Piper hissed, flapping her hands wildly. "The other one."
It took all of three seconds for Adam's eyes to grow wide and his heart to drop into his stomach. "Piper. No."
"Piper. Yes." The blue-haired girl grinned as she began rifling through her backpack again. "Okay, here's the plan. Leo is going to douse this guy's porch in the stink spray. The smell holds for eight hours so we have plenty of time. Meanwhile, Adam and I are going to set up the experiment site."
Adam was already dreading the answer as Leo asked, "Experiment?"
Piper held up a bottle of dishwashing liquid.
"I don't get it." Leo said.
Adam was on the verge of hyperventilating as Piper continued unpacking her bag. Safety goggles, gloves, a thermos, food colouring, and potassium iodide. "The perfect catalyst!" Piper cheered softly as she held up the last item. She smirked. "Boys, get ready for a foam party."
"We're so dead." Adam moaned as Leo picked up the bottle of food colouring, intrigued. "Red?"
Piper gestured over the fence toward his neighbour's house. "It's threatening." Fastening her hood over her curls, she looked back to Adam and Leo. "You guys ready?"
"Hold on." Adam said, not fully on board with the plan still. "We used a soda bottle for that experiment in school. What exactly are you planning on using for this?"
"I'm so glad you asked." Piper grinned. Then, from beneath a black plastic tarp Adam hadn't noticed beside a bush, Piper revealed a two-hundred litre barrel drum.
Adam's eyes bulged. "Where did that come from?"
Leo was less tactful. "Piper, did Sky have a body hidden in there?"
"You know, it did have an intense bleach smell emanating from it when I first pulled it out of the garage." Piper said thoughtfully. "But never mind that now. We've got work to do. Adam, help me drag this over to the centre of the yard. Leo, be ready with the spray. We're got three minutes on the clock on counting." She moved to start the timer on her watch.
"Wait!" Leo cried. "Are you sure the neighbour's not home?"
Piper repacked the items into her bag. "Adam and I saw his car leave before you got here. He hasn't returned since."
Admittedly, Adam's neighbour had reined in his obnoxious behaviour a little over the past few weeks. Adam was able to a decent night's sleep at least three times a week. He wasn't sure what had inspired the behavioural change but given his neighbour's attitude towards his peacekeeping requests in the past, Adam wasn't inclined to back down on his approach.
There had been no more messages exchanged between them on Snapchat either. Ever since Adam sent that last message telling his neighbour to wait and see what he had planned, the latter had either ignored his threat or was planning something in retaliation. Adam hoped it was the former; he really didn't need to start an all-out war on top of everything else he had going on.
Unfortunately, Piper was an enabler.
"Alright, I'm starting the clock. Ready?" Piper looked between Adam and Leo. Leo nodded once. Adam sighed but said nothing.
"Ready. Set. Go!" Piper hissed.
Standing, Piper and Adam each grabbed one side of the barrel drum and hauled ass across the property line toward the centre of his neighbour's front yard. Leo ran after them, sticking to the shadows as he raced up to the porch and waited, stink spray in hand. He looked utterly ridiculous trying to blend in with yellow pants.
The yard was mostly vacant. Like Adam, his neighbour hadn't made any changes to the original landscape design of the property. Only a handful of bushes and small rock garden provided some depth to the area.
"Set the drum on top of that dirt mount." Piper hissed as she crouched down to unzip her backpack. "That way the foam will flow downhill and cover the entire yard."
"You are insane." Adam hissed back but did as she asked.
Like most things with Piper, Adam didn't know whether he was concerned or undeniably impressed with Piper's evil genius. And despite his better judgement, he went along with it. Because his neighbour really was an ass.
Pulling on gloves, they made quick work of preparing the solution. Adam was surprised how easily he remembered the experiment's method and the feeling was stirring up excitement in the pit of his stomach.
Having added the hydrogen peroxide and food colouring - "because, Adam. If we're going to explode someone's yard we're going to make it colourful" - he and Piper poured the entire contents of the dishwashing liquid bottle into the barrel. Then it was time for the catalyst.
"Once we do this, there's no going back." Piper said. She turned to look over her shoulder, "Leo, be ready with that spray!"
Leo saluted her from his place by the door and crouched down, can poised in a ready position with his finger on the trigger.
"He's having way too much fun with this." Adam deadpanned.
"We're all about to be," Piper poured the contents of the thermos into a smaller container. She paused before adding the potassium iodide and looked up at Adam, "Ready?"
He sighed. "Do it."
Piper added the last ingredient to the mix, swirled it around for thirty seconds, and dumped it in the barrel. A hissing sound ensued and Adam took a step back, prepared to run.
"Leo!" Piper hissed.
Leo was already going to town with the stink spray. Adam could smell it even from where he stood out in the yard, and the scent made him want to throw up. Or pass out.
Piper was tugging on his arm. "We have to go! It's started!"
And it had. A brief glance inside the barrel already had foam thickening and beginning to rise. A bubble popped somewhere in the centre as the mixture began to ooze.
Adam pushed at Piper's legs. "Go!"
They ran for it. Leo, in all his ridiculous yellow glory, came flying off the porch with his hood drawn up and together the group hightailed back to Adam's house. Adam had just thrown himself back over the fence when an explosion of soap threw up into the air.
And then chaos erupted.
***
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