JUST ADD WATER
Monday, 10:24 A.M.
We had to hustle through a dingy stairwell to get to the penguin tank, the next stop on Finnster’s itinerary. Slowly, we crept down the metal steps in the near dark. The stench of dead fish hung heavy in the air and pinpricks of salty sweat rose along the neckline of my dress. Every nerve in my body was on high alert.
“Dun dun DAH-dun, dun dun DAH-dun.” Behind me, Molly hummed the theme to Mission: Impossible. Nessa snickered.
Halfway down the stairs, I stopped and turned to face my troops. “Remember, if we run into a security guard—”
“Ohmygosh, Officer! We’re soooo lost and just want to, you know, learn? Can you help us find our teacher?” Molly widened her eyes innocently, then triple-blinked.
“You’ve got to be kidding me.” Nessa groaned.
“I can cry on cue if you want.” Molly pinched her thigh, and her face twisted in pain.
“Mols!” Liv swatted Molly’s hand away. “Quit it.”
“That’s okay. No crying necessary,” I said. “Let’s just stick with the plan.”
The door at the bottom of the stairwell was jammed. I had to hip-bump it three times before it released, revealing a dim, cavelike room. Behind floor-to-ceiling glass, at least forty penguins hopped from fake iceberg to fake iceberg, dove into clear blue water, and blinked their beady little eyes at us. The light from the tank wove blue ribbons on the wall behind us. The room was completely deserted. No witnesses.
“Perfect.” I wiped beads of sweat from my forehead and squinted at the girls. “Let’s get to work. Mols? Supplies?”
Molly knelt next to her black backpack and pulled out two giant bags of Swedish Fish, a boa, and three glow-in-the-dark rubber duckies.
Nessa wrung her hands. “I can’t believe we’re about to do this! Wait. What if we get caught? What if—”
I grabbed her wrist and squeezed reassuringly. “We won’t. I swear.”
“This isn’t gonna hurt the penguins, is it?” Liv pinched her lower lip. The turquoise glow emanating from the tank lit her worried frown.
“GIRLS!” My voice bounced off the damp walls. Even the penguins stopped and stared. “Everything’s gonna be fine. We want Stevie out of our lives, right?”
“Right,” the girls chorused.
“Then we have to do something so big that she’ll really get in trouble. And this is it.” I hoped my friends couldn’t hear the thunderous beat of my heart. Of course the plan would go off without a hitch. Stevie would be out of the picture, and I’d have Zander and the band to myself again. But if anything went wrong, we’d be in major trouble. Grounded-for-LIFE kind of trouble.
“Kacey’s right.” Molly nodded, locking her eyes with mine.
I grinned back. “Thanks, girl. Okay. Nessa, you take the supplies into the tank. And Liv, you take care of the glass. Molly, stand watch by the door. I’ll supervise. Ready? Break!”
The girls dispersed. Liv dug a handful of glitter pens and puff-paint markers from Molly’s backpack and started scribbling on the glass. Molly flattened her body against the wall next to the door, cop-style. And Nessa scooped up the candy, boa, and rubber duckies and headed for the door next to the tank. She gripped the handle and rattled.
My heart stopped mid-beat. “What?”
“It’s locked,” she said again. “I can’t… we can’t get in.”
The sweat on the back of my neck turned to ice. “No. Nonononono. This is not happening right now.” I hurried to the door and tried the handle. Definitely locked.
“Okay. I can figure this out. I just have to think. Think, Kacey.” I raked my hands through my hair, my fingers catching on the jeweled hairpin that held my bangs in place.
“Aha.” Nessa plucked the pin from my fingers, slid it into the lock, and jiggled.
“You are brilliant!” I peered over her shoulder as she twisted the pin. Finally, we heard a small pop.
“Is it just me, or do you totally feel like we’re in a Russian spy flick right now?” Nessa turned the handle and opened the door. “Like, with subtitles and everything?”
“Da,” I said in a Russian accent, flicking at the boa around her neck. “Now get to it.”
She giggled and disappeared behind the door. A few seconds later, Liv shrieked.
“Nessa! Ahhh!”
“What? Lemme see!” I hurried to the front of the tank and peered through the glass. On the other side, Nessa was flinging handfuls of red Swedish Fish into the water. One of the penguins was making a nest out of the boa, and the glow-in-the-dark duckies were bobbing happily in the water. Nessa glanced up and waved, then produced a pair of tiny pink shades and placed them on the closest penguin.
“OH. MY. GOD.” I doubled over in giggles. Liv and I leaned against the glass, trying desperately to catch our breath.
Nessa checked her watch and flashed five fingers.
I coughed and straightened up. “Five minutes! Five minutes.”
“Help me finish up here.” Liv tossed me an emerald-green glitter marker, and I started doodling feverishly on the glass. Guitars, musical notes, Seattle’s space needle—anything that would point directly to Stevie. A few short minutes later, almost every square inch of the glass was graffitied with neon glitter sayings and drawings:
FREE THE PENGUINS (& THE STUDENTS)
SEATTLE ROCKS MY BOAT
HEY, MARQUETTE! HONK IF YOU’RE CORNY!
SPINSTER FINNSTER: 1,000 B.C.–????
“Awesome.” I jumped at the sound of Nessa’s voice behind me. “Looks amazing.”
Molly waved her hands frantically and stomped her foot. “I can hear them!” she hissed frantically. “Hide!”
I snatched the backpack out of the way, and the girls and I bolted for the door, clustering behind it. My stomach was practically in my throat. What if Paige noticed I’d ducked out and started asking questions? What if someone recognized Liv’s handwriting? What if Stevie—
“And here we have the peng—” Finnster’s disbelieving wheeze told me she wasn’t totally blind after all.
“Oh. My. Gahhhhh—” Paige’s voice trailed off.
“Dude! Somebody graffitied the tank!” Aaron Peterman shouted gleefully.
The rest of the class shoved their way inside, and the girls and I slipped into the back of the crowd as if we’d never left.
Finnster clutched her chest like she was about to collapse. The class rushed the tank, snapping pictures on their cell phones and tapping the glass. Almost immediately, a SWAT team of trainers in khaki shorts appeared on the other side, chasing the increasingly aggravated birds and swiping candy from the water with giant nets.
Molly inhaled sharply when she saw the tank. Her shoulders started to shake, and her face turned bright red.
A familiar lemony scent hovered in the air next to me. Liv reached over and squeezed my hand.
“Such a shame.” She tsked. “Great accessories, though.”
I squeezed back and swallowed a laugh.
“Nobody messes with us,” Nessa singsonged in my other ear.
… and gets away with it, I added silently.
“ATTENTION!” Finnster bellowed in a voice louder and stronger than I’d ever heard before. We shut up. The only sound in the observatory was the muffled flapping of penguin wings.
“Now. As much as I detest the idea that a Marquette Middle School student could be responsible for such a childish prank, it’s clear that this is the case.” Furious spittle leapt from her withered mouth. “I want the person or persons responsible for this to come forward immediately.”
No one moved. Or breathed. Until the rustling of a cellophane bag caught Finnster’s attention. The woman couldn’t hear a fire drill, but apparently a candy bag was a different story.
“Ms. Jarvis?” Since nobody had bothered to inform Finnster that Stevie and Zander weren’t siblings, she’d been calling Stevie by Zander’s last name for days. It made me want to hurl. “Please step forward.”
At the edge of the crowd, Stevie froze with her hand in her back pocket. Her elbow jutted out at an awkward angle.
“I, uh—yeah? Yes?” Stevie looked like she wanted to move but couldn’t, like she was playing her own personal, doomed game of freeze tag.
Tag. You’re out.
“Kindly remove your hand from your pocket.”
For a few agonizing seconds, Stevie just stood there. Her eyes were twice their normal size, and her cheeks were the same pink as Molly’s old bang streak. She didn’t look confident, or cool, or even snarky, the way she’d looked 24-7 since she got to Chicago. Instead, she looked young and confused. Out of control.
Good. Now she knew how it felt.
“Ms. Jarvis.”
Slowly, Stevie pulled her hand from her pocket. Peeking out from her fist was a crumpled piece of plastic. I held my breath.
“Open your fist, please.”
I could almost see the air leaking from Stevie’s body as she complied. Inside the bag in her hand was a lone red gummy fish, identical to the fish in the tank.
“Okay. I know… But I… I didn’t do this!” Stevie sputtered, looking to Zander for help. He took two steps away from her. “This isn’t my fault!”
Liv made a peace sign. Or maybe it was a V for victory.
“No way.” Somebody snickered in the back. Finnster’s glare silenced the uneasy murmurs bubbling to the surface.
“Somebody set me up,” Stevie insisted, her voice getting stronger. Now instead of looking scared, she looked pissed. “I swear.” She scanned the crowd, and her gaze came to a screeching halt when she found me. The tiny hairs on the back of my neck stood up.
“Yeah,” Jake Fields said sarcastically. “It’s a conspiracy.”
“Come with me, Ms. Jarvis.” Finnster’s steely tone chilled the room.
“But—”
“Now. We’re going to discuss this with aquarium security. The rest of you will remain in this room until you are instructed otherwise,” she informed us.
“Wait,” I whispered to Nessa. “Security?”
Nessa shushed me with a sharp exhale. “It’s fine. Remember. She deserves it.”
Head down, Stevie followed Finnster toward the glowing red EXIT sign over the door, her chunky plastic bracelets clinking together like a prisoner’s cuffs.