Jack peaked around the corner of the hallway as Kim, Ivy and Milton waited for him to give them the all clear that the janitor had left.
He turned back to his friends and gave them a nod before leading them out into the hallway, where he got down on one knee and ran his hand against the floor.
"Oh, yeah," Jack smiled up at his friends. "Waxy Wednesday, where a plastic tray meets a freshly buffed floor and legends are born."
"Uh, 'legends' isn't the word I would used, " Ivy thought out loud, getting Jack to look at her.
"Then what word would you use?"
"Losers," Ivy said quickly, nodding her head.
"Hey, guys," Eddie rounded the corner with some trays in hand. "I got the trays."
"Any problems getting by Marge the lunch lady?" Kim asked taking a tray from him.
"Nah," Eddie shrugged. "She said they don't pay her enough to care."
"Guys!" Jerry yelled, running down a flight of stairs, launching himself on the railing with excitement. "Did I miss anything?"
"Not yet," Kim answered, before remembering that Jerry wasn't supposed to be here. "Hey, shouldn't you be in detention for putting a toll booth in the boys bathroom?"
Jerry smiled to himself, probably thinking he was a genius for escaping detention. "I should be, but when you sit me in the back and leave a window open, I'm what they call a flight risk."
"Jack, your record's about to be broken," Milton gave Jack smug smile. "Prepare for the new world champion: Milton the Missile Krupnick."
Milton ripped off his clothes to reveal a purple body suit underneath, making all his friends grimace and turn away.
"Like, I said: losers," Ivy turned to Jack, who could only nod.
"Dude, eat a sandwich," Jerry cringed as a hallway door flung open.
"Oh! Look at this, I've walked into the middle of a loser palooza," Truman, one of the worst people Ivy had ever laid eyes on said walking up to the group.
"Hey!" Ivy snapped, getting Truman to take a step back out of freight. "Only I get to call my friends losers."
Jack put a hand on Ivy's shoulder, pushing her behind him, probably worried the girl was going to attack. "What do you want Truman?"
"I thought I just hang out," Truman regained his composer quickly and was back to his snarky attitude. However, he made sure to stay away from Ivy.
"Do you have to do it here?" Jerry asked with a disgusted look.
"It's a free hallway, Jerry," Truman snapped back as Milton walked toward him.
"Truman, if you'll excuse me, I have a date with destiny,"
"Well, that'll be your first date ever," Truman started to cackle, but it quickly died down after realizing he was under Ivy's icy glare. The one that could make anyone afraid of her if you were under her gaze.
"Very funny," Ivy gave him a daring look. "Keep laughing, see what happens."
Jack pulled her back again as Milton got himself set up. "Watch this Truman, you're about to see my skid marks." There was an awkward pause as every let what Milton said sink in. "Okay, I thought that was going to sound different when it came out."
"Just get ready," Ivy patted his shoulder, getting him to do what she said.
"Okay, guys," Kim ran down the hallway and stood next to a garbage can. "This garbage can marks Jack's record of 47 floor tiles."
Before anyone could say anything more, Milton let out a battle cry and got a running start, leaping on the tray and sliding quickly across the floor. It took no time at all for Milton to not only break Jack's record but break open the door and crash into some science project on display.
The group quickly ran to meet Kim in the hallway, looking to make sure Milton was okay.
"He just shattered your record," Jerry announced wide-eyed.
"And the paper mache solar system outside the science room," Kim pointed out as Ivy examined the floor.
"Jack," Ivy tapped her friend's arm as she drew his attention towards some marks on the floor.
"It looks like someone greased his tray," Jack informed the rest of his friends.
"Look like," Truman cackled, reminding everyone that he was still there. His laughter quickly died down as Ivy turned to him, his confidence diminishing in seconds. And before Ivy knew it Truman was running away, afraid that the girl would hurt him if he stayed any longer.
"Looks like Saturn is now lodged in the dark side of the moon," Milton muttered to his friends as he limped passed them, cringing at the pain.
***
Ivy sat on the bench at the dojo with a book in her hands, half reading, half watching her friends as they practice.
At least she was until a high-pitched scream interrupted them. Ivy didn't have time to process the scream before Jerry opened the door, continuing to scream, and Ivy got to see what had happened. Jerry now had pink hair, causing everyone to try not to laughed as he stood still screaming in front of them.
Ivy took out her phone to take a photo, not even trying to hold back her laugh anymore, but Jack quickly knew what she was going to do and took her phone out of her hand before she could even get the camera ready.
"Hold on," Kim bit back her laughter as she took a few steps closer to Jerry. "Something's different. Wait, don't tell me. New bathrobe!"
Kim comment caused everyone to snicker as Jerry looked at her like she was dumb.
"It's my hair!" Jerry explained, making Ivy roll her eyes. "This is what I get for showering. Rudy, what kind of shampoo are we using?"
Rudy read the label and shook his head. "That's the same shampoo we always use."
Ivy held out her hand, reaching for the shampoo bottle. "I have a theory, let me see the bottle." Jerry gave the bottle to her, and she immediately saw that the label didn't look quite right. She ripped off the label exposing a pink hair dye label underneath it. "Yeah, that's not shampoo, it's pink hair dye."
She handed it back to Jerry who's eyes widened at the label. "How is this possible?"
"Obviously, someone switched it out," Ivy responded. "My brothers did the same thing to me before, which by the way, I can rock blue hair."
"Jerry," Eddie giggled looking at Jerry's now pink legs, "do you shampoo your leg hair?"
Jerry lift up his leg giving everyone a view of his pink leg hair. "When I shampoo, I'm all-in."
"Love your new look," Truman walked in with a big grin on his face, causing everyone to groan at his presence. "Awesome, just awesome."
"I know you did this, Truman," Jack stepped up to him while Ivy was busy trying not to picture herself punching Truman in the face. "Somehow you snuck in here and switch out the shampoo for pink hair dye."
"What?" Truman faked an offended look.
"Nah, it wasn't Truman," Rudy shook his shook gaining weird looks from his students. "I've been here all day and never once saw him ooze his way in here."
Truman shrugged and gave the group a smug smile. "Looks like I've got an air tight alibi. See you around, Pinky."
Ivy stood up and took a step toward him, causing the boy to walk away quickly.
"Why is he so afraid of you?" Jack asked beside the girl.
"She's beat him up before," Milton informed him, causing the boy's eyes to widen looking at the blonde.
She stood there smiling at the memory. "You know, he's all talk. Once you start swinging he just curls up into a ball on the floor."
The girl laughed at herself as Jerry looked around at his friends confused. "Pinky?" He repeated the name Truman called him. "Why would anyone call me Pinky? And tha-" Jerry let out a yelp when Jack pulled out a hair to hold it up to him. "Oh! I get it!"
***
"Come on people let's make some noise!" The principle cheered as student gathered in the hallway to cheer on the basketball team for a game they had that day. "As the captain of the pep squad, Kim Crawford, leads out our championship basketball team, the Seaford Lady Whales!"
"Have you ever thought about trying out for the pep squad," Jack leaned over to ask Ivy as they clapped for their friend.
"No, why?" Ivy looked at him confused on why he was bringing that up.
"I don't know," Jack shrugged focusing his attention back on the pep squad, "just thought it could be something you could enjoy doing."
Ivy looked back at Kim, choosing to ignore the topic, watching the girl start to run to the banner. However, the cheering quickly turned into confusion and freight as the banner didn't break and stuck to Kim. Everyone was quick to her rescue, trying to get her out of the banner that continued to stick to her, refusing to let go.
It wasn't until Ivy heard the annoying laughter of Truman that her boil started to boil. "Looks like you got yourself into a sticky situation!"
"Remind me to punch him after we help Kim," She muttered to Jack who only gave her a concerned look.
***
"He put blue cheese in cologne!" Jack complained to Ivy as they walked into the dojo. All their friends agreed to go to the dojo after school to figure out what to do with the whole Truman thing, and Jack and Ivy were the first to arrive. "And I feel so bad for the janitor."
Ivy slowed her pace as she looked at the bench, her bench, that had the book she had left there over night. "Interesting," she said to herself, feeling paranoia starting to creep up her spine.
"You left it here, again?" Jack asked, clearly not getting the same eerie feeling as the girl. "We need to get you like a bookshelf, or something. Just for you to store them somewhere, instead of having them be laying about."
"Yeah," Ivy nodded, her focus still on the book as she grabbed the nearest bo-staff.
"What are you doing?" Jack questioned the girl, finally realizing she had barely heard a word he said.
Ivy looked everywhere to see if there was any places anything could jump out at them. "My book is there," she explained. "It looks like no one has touched it. But it also looks too perfectly placed. I couldn't have done that myself and not remember to bring it home."
"Okay, I get it. You're paranoid, I would be to at this point, but the book doesn't have anything on it. I think it's fine," Jack moved forward, reaching out to grab the book, but Ivy stopped him with the bo-staff before he could even touch it.
"So it seems," Ivy said, before moving to an area that she thought would would be the safest place. Using the bo-staff, she pushed the book off the bench making it land on the floor and almost immediately a glitter bomb went off, aiming right at the spot Jack had been standing before she moved him.
"Oh my god," Jack muttered under his breath as the last of the glitter fell on the floor.
"Paranoia can be a good friend at times," Ivy crouched to the floor to get a closer look at the glitter. "Yeah, I would've been a disco ball and it would've taken weeks to get rid of it."
The door to the dojo opened and closed causing the two to look at Truman who had a smug smile on his face until he realized there was not a single piece of glitter on the girl.
"Oh, no," he turned to run out the door as Ivy jumped over the bench to run after him. She didn't too far however, due to Jack managing to pick her up, her feet leaving the floor.
Ivy continued to try to break out of his arms, but looked back at him as she realized he wasn't going to let her go. "How'd you do that?"
***
As the rest of their friends showed up, they all sat down, pouting or with their arms crossed, ready to rip off Truman's head.
"Guys," Milton was the first one to break the silence, "we all know Truman's behind all these pranks. We just gotta figure out how he's doing it."
"Grease, hair dye, sticky paper, blue cheese and glitter," Jerry listed the pranks out loud before looking at his friends, "sounds like my grandmother's medicine cabinet."
"Truman's picking us off, one by one," Jack shook his head. "Well, Ivy's didn't work out the way he planned. But other than that, he's got all of us. Except for, Eddie."
The group looked over at Eddie, who shifted around uncomfortably. "What are you guys saying?"
"We're saying your next," Milton stood up and sat next to Eddie on the bench. "If I were you, I'd roll myself up in bubble wrap and sit in the basement. I did that when my father showed me my own birth video. Do you guys have any idea where we come from?"
"My mother told me it was a pumpkin patch," Eddie replied, getting Ivy to roll her eyes.
Milton shook his head sadly. "I wish."
"Back to the matter at hand," Ivy interrupted their little conversation they were having.
"Yes, thank you," Jack agreed standing up and walking up to Eddie. "I think what Eddie needs to hear is that we're gonna be there for him."
"Guys," Eddie shook his head walking away from the group. "I can take of myself."
"No, don't worry, Eddie," Jack followed him with everyone else close behind. "We'll protect you. We'll walk you to school in the morning."
"And after school we'll walk you back home," Kim continued.
"And I'll punch Truman every time I see him in the hallway," Ivy added, with a sweet smile on her face. "I'll even hunt him down if he tries to avoid me."
"What is wrong with you today?" Jack asked the girl.
The girl smiled more and shrugged. "I don't know, I just feel like punching people today, I guess."
"We'll be the last thing you see at night," Milton redirected the conversation, "and the first thing you see in the morning. How do you like your eggs?"
"Guys, stop!" Eddie snapped, getting the group to exchange questioning glances. "I can't take it anymore! It wasn't Truman who pulled those pranks on you."
"Well then, who was it?" Jack asked for the group.
"It was me," Eddie admitted, and Ivy took deep breath trying to calm herself down.
"What?" Everyone other than Ivy gasped.
"Eddie, why would you prank us like that?" Jack asked, his faces slowly turning from confusion to anger.
"Do you know what you did to me?" Kim spoke up with a hand on her hip. "That paper was so sticky I lost four freckles and half an eyebrow."
"And a clown keeps following me around asking me where I get my hair done," Jerry complained.
"I didn't want to," Eddie said, looking around at all the angry faces surrounding him. "Truman's been blackmailing me."
"How is he blackmailing you?" Milton asked after a brief silence.
"Truman's father owns a security company that watches the mall."
"So?" Jerry urged him to keep going.
"One night, Rudy let me stay late in the dojo to work on some moves. The thing is, I wasn't working on karate moves. I was working on my dance moves and lady moves on the dummy. Truman saw everything from his father's office. He put it on a flash drive and unless I do whatever he says, he's going to put it on the internet," Eddie looked around at the friends he hurt, and all he could say was: "I'm sorry, guys."
"It's okay, Eddie," Jack smiled and crossed his arms a plan already starting to come together in his head. "He's not gonna get away with it."
Milton nodded and sat next to Eddie. "Truman's going to be sorry he messed with us. When you poke a bear do you know what happens? Seriously, does anybody know?"
"They bite," Ivy explained, before turning to look at Jack with hint of a smile on her face. "What's your plan?"
***
The group stood around a table all dressed in black, waiting for Jack to show them where they needed to go. They watched as he laid out the blueprints to the mall.
"Okay," he looked around at his friends surrounding him. "Our mission is to get into the security office and grab the flash drive out of the safe. Let's go over the plan one more time."
"I'll get Truman out of the office by taking him to the parking lot and letting him shot paintballs at me," Eddie explained his part of the plan.
"You think he'll go for it?" Kim asked.
Eddie nodded his head and open his gi to see it full of paint splatters. "I'm pretty sure."
"Once, we're inside one of us will disarm the security system," Jack continued the plan.
"I'll crack the safe," Milton nodded.
"Out in the courtyard, I'll distract the security guard," Kim added.
"And I'll distract the guard's dog," Jerry smiled.
"How are you going to distract the dog?" Ivy asked, getting Jerry to smile brighter.
"See, I don't know if you know this about me, but, uh, I was partially raised by wolves."
"That actually explains a lot," Kim nodded.
"Check it," before anyone could say anything Jerry started to howl, causing howls to come back to them. "Those are my peeps."
"Okay, good plan," Ivy looked over at Jack, still not knowing her part of the plan. "What's my job?"
"You're going to be with me and Milton," Jack explained.
"Why?"
"Because I have a feeling if I give you a different job, you're just going to run off and hunt down Truman yourself. And if you're with me, I can stop you from running."
Ivy sighed. "Fine. Let's do this."
***
"Getting to sneak passed the guard was a lot easier than it should've been," Ivy thought out loud as they entered the security building.
Jack laughed as they started to walk down the hallway. "Yeah, and getting into the building was kind of sad since it did have any security."
Milton rolled on the floor, getting ahead of his friends and paused as he was about to roll around the corner. "Woah, military grade security lasers."
Ivy looked around at the lasers and nodded her head.
"Okay, now that I didn't expect," Jack looked around trying to think of something to do.
"Kill switch is on the other side," Milton pointed towards the opposite end of the hall, looking defeated. "How do we get past it?"
"I have an idea," Ivy said, but before she could explain further, she decided it was best to do it right away so Jack wouldn't have the time to tell her no.
She did a series of flips and tricks getting passed all the lasers without even breaking a sweat, mentally thanking all her years in whatever sports that helped her be able to do these tricks.
When she got to the other side, she turned off the lasers and turned back to her friends who had a look of awe on their face. "Let's go."
"Ivy, that was amazing!" Jack exclaimed as he ran over to the girl. It had been the first time he had ever seen the girl do anything related to karate and it was safe to say he was beyond impressed.
"Thanks," Ivy breath out as they walked over to the door, opening it immediately seeing the safe across the room.
"There it is," Milton said. He was about to take a step inside the office but Jack pulled him back and pointed to a little box on the floor.
"There's weight sensors on the carpet, we can't walk on the floor."
"Well, what do we do?" Milton asked as Jack looked around the room.
He took a deep breath and use the door frame to get high enough to jump onto the desk that was few feet away from them. Milton tried to do the same, but after failing two times, Jack to help him up.
After Jack made sure Milton was good, he looked over at Ivy, who was leaning against the door frame. "You coming?"
"No, I'll stay out here for look out," Ivy responded getting a nod in return.
Ivy watch as Jack use his belt as a way to swing across the office while carrying Milton.
"All right," Milton started to punch in the code, explaining why he decided the numbers. "Truman has four brother."
"Poor him," Ivy commented.
"He's claimed to have kissed seven girls."
"Lies."
"And he has three nipples."
"Ew!"
Though the explanations were a little weird the safe opened easily, getting all three of the kids to smile in celebration.
"You made the last one up, didn't you?" Jack asked as Milton got the flash drive out of the safe.
"No, he swims at my Y," Milton informed, before realizing they were still swinging in midair. "Okay, now how do we get down?"
"That's a very good question," Jack responded, trying to think of something. Both of the boys got the same idea at the same time.
"Ivy!"
***
"Breaking in my father's office?" Truman stormed into the dojo, not looking very pleased. "You guys are in so much trouble."
"We'll take whatever comes," Jack shrugged. "But we had to help a friend out."
"I want that flash drive and I want it right now!"
"All right, all right," Ivy stepped forward with a small smile, knowing where this conversation was headed, "we'll give it back but first, we've got another video we want you to see."
"What are you talking about?" Truman asked trying to seem confident as Ivy pushed him over to an opened laptop. Eddie pressed play and showed Truman the meltdown he had in his father's office when he found out the flash drive was missing.
"Yup, I got your whole cry-baby freak out," Eddie giggled.
"Doesn't feel so good when it's you, does it, Truman?" Jack asked as the video continued.
"If that thing gets out my life will be over," Truman looked panicked as Ivy's eyebrows scrunched together in confusion.
"What life?"
Truman ignored her and continued on his rant. "I'll be known as, Tantrum Boy. Please, tell me you won't post that video."
"Were not going to post it," Kim shrugged. "We're not like you, Truman. Even Ivy refuses to post anything about us without our permission."
"Hey, how about we make a deal?" Jack offered. "We destroy both videos and you never mess with us again, deal?"
Jack held you his hand, which Truman quickly shook. "Deal, just delete it, please. Please."
With a few taps, the video disappeared and Truman let out the breath he had been holding.
"You know," Truman tried to laugh it off. "I only melted down like that because I knew the camera was there. I was just putting on a show."
"Well, show's over," Eddie said. "When you mess with one of us, you mess with all of us. Bye, Truman."
"Bye, Eddie. Maybe next week we can go paintball!"
"Get out," Eddie shook his head, getting annoyed. Truman left with his head hung low, and as soon as he left Jack turned to Eddie.
"Eddie, remember what you just told Truman. If you're in trouble, we'll always be there for you."
Eddie slowly smiled. "Got it. Thanks guys."
"Has anyone seen Jerry?" Jack asked, searching for his friend.
"Last time I saw him, he was out in the courtyard," Kim shrugged.
"He'll be fine," Ivy waved them off. "He'll have a new friend by the end of the night."