EGGSTERMINATE!

The push that sent Ellie over the edge came sooner than I’d thought.

It was the last shot of the day and the most complicated. It was also the most expensive by a mile. Ellie and the rest of the Outsiders had saved up a whole bunch of money for it and managed to buy some fireworks from a movie-prop supplier in Sydney, rent a dry-ice machine to make fog, and prepare buckets of fake blood.

“This has got to go right the first time,” Ellie said.

Nico, the director, gave instructions to Mikey and Dingbat, who were playing the two characters. It was up to Ellie to time the fireworks, turn on the dry-ice machine, and throw the buckets of blood. Nico had one camera—the best one—and they gave me a smartphone to film things from another angle, just as a backup. A third camcorder was propped up on a tree stump to film the scene as a long shot.

“Everyone ready?” Nico said. “Let’s get this right, okay? We’ve got about three minutes of sunlight left!”

Ellie counted down the scene. “Three, two, one…”

“Action!” Nico yelled.

Ellie pressed the Start button on the dry-ice machine, and we began filming.

Mikey and Dingbat came out of the cane field right on cue, and Ellie started setting off the fireworks. They looked amazing. Ellie smiled and looked over at me. Grinning, I gave her a thumbs-up.

As Ellie threw the first of the buckets of fake blood over Dingbat, an egg exploded on the ground in front of her. She looked at it, puzzled, and then a second egg hit Mikey on the shoulder, followed by a bag of flour.

A shower of eggs and flour cascaded down on the set, and then crashing through the sugarcane came the Surf Gorillas, yelling and screaming. Before any of the Outsiders could react, they ran through the set, scattering script sheets to the wind and kicking over the buckets of blood.

“Losers!” Bradley shouted as they ran off, laughing and hooting.

“Film this, you geeks!” Belinda screeched.

The Outsiders stood and watched them go. The shot was ruined.

As the sky darkened, Ellie walked over to me. She had egg in her hair and an expression on her face that would not have looked out of place in a horror movie.

“This revenge plan of yours?” she said. “What do you need? I’m in.”