Reason 19:

He thinks he can frame me—
that he’s some sort of prank guru
whose antics shamed me into submission.

But he’s going to learn not even a seditious,
self-righteous Rulebreaker like him
can crack me.

For three days, my outlines languished in neglect while I divided my time between plotting ways to get the best of Sterling Lane and keeping Cole from being expelled.

Thanks to the distractions, I stayed up into the wee hours of the morning almost every night, trying to keep on top of my schoolwork. I spent an afternoon researching high school pranks—infuriatingly, Sterling Lane’s escapades were chronicled on pretty much every single website. Apparently, he was a legend in some circles. I begrudgingly had to admit that he was clever. But I was clever, too, and I knew I’d find a way to prove it that would eclipse anything Sterling had ever done.

It wasn’t until I ran into Cole at breakfast the next morning that a solution presented itself so tidily it almost seemed like divine intervention.

“Where’s your roommate?” I glared over Cole’s shoulder so that my frown was certain to be the first thing Sterling saw when he approached.

Cole rolled his eyes. “Don’t tell me you’re still mad about the car thing. It was just a joke.”

“Of course I’m mad,” I told him. “If I’d been caught, I could have been expelled.”

“Actually, I don’t think anyone would believe you put it in your own room. What would be the point? If anything, it would have cast blame on Sterling. Everyone knows how he is. And that you hate each other. He took a stupid risk that you wouldn’t tell.” He wrapped an arm around my neck. “And I’m proud of you for not doing it. You’re lightening up in your old age.”

“We’re the same age.”

“Stop peering around like that,” Cole said. “You won’t see him down here for breakfast. He sets the alarm for five minutes before class.”

“That would explain his hair,” I said.

“Don’t tell anyone this,” Cole said. “It would destroy his image. But Sterling has trouble sleeping the night before games. He takes sleeping pills.”

“Really?”

Sterling Lane, completely incapacitated by a pharmaceutical haze—that thought warranted further contemplation. I glanced up in time to see Parker and Kendall enter the room, holding hands. I wasn’t in the mood to endure the wet and sloppy side effects of their reunion, so I wrapped my breakfast in a paper napkin and headed to class.

As I made my way across the quad, watching bleary-eyed students wandering around, the pieces fell into place. It was a simple prank, one I’d read about in a blog post rife with typos. No one would be expelled or get injured. Except for a certain someone’s pride, of course.

Fortunately, pride was one attribute Sterling Lane had in abundance. It would take me a lifetime to exact enough damage to even put a dent in it. And that would be one thing I’d devote eternity to achieving.

I just had to convince Cole and Parker to play along.

“Why would I want to risk getting in trouble?” Parker asked.

“Because Sterling Lane took your girlfriend out on a date,” I’d replied. “And he’ll do it again.”

Parker raised an eyebrow.

“Maybe not to you,” I explained. “But to someone else—unless we stand up to him now and let him know that’s not how we do things here at Sablebrook.”

Just like that, Parker was on board—which was important, given that there was no way I could move a massive piece of furniture without his help, much less carry it across campus in the dead of night.

The hardest part would be drugging Sterling Lane. Fortunately, thanks to Cole’s reveal earlier that day, Sterling would take care of that little detail himself.