EVERY NEIGHBORHOOD has a bad kid. The one everyone suspects when somebody’s yard gets toilet papered or mail gets stolen. That kid in our neighborhood is Rufus Ledbetter.
Rufus Ledbetter is fourteen. When he rides his bike down the street, you better look out because if you’re in his way, Rufus might run over you. We make it a practice to steer clear of him.
That’s why, a few days later, I’m so surprised to see Rose talking to Rufus when I come back to the pool after lunch. He’s sitting on one of the picnic tables outside the pool area and Rose is standing next to him. I watch him give her something, which she takes and stashes into her pocket.
“Hi,” I say. They look startled to see me.
“Oh, hi,” Rose says and pushes whatever it is deeper into her shorts pocket. Rufus hops off the table. “See ya, Rose. And good luck.” He gives her a bad-boy grin, then turns and walks away.
Stunned, I stare after him, then turn to Rose. “What did he give you?! What are you doing with Rufus Ledbetter, Rose?”
“Don’t worry. It’s not drugs or anything. Come on.” She takes off behind the pool and I follow her. Within minutes, we’re crossing the tree bridge to our island. We tag the willow tree like we’re finishing a race before she finally looks at me.
“What’s going on?” I demand while trying to catch my breath.
“Chill, Bird. Everything’s good.” I hate it when she says stuff like that. I wish Ally weren’t at baseball practice, because I feel like I’m going to need her backup.
“Seriously? Rufus is bad news.”
“He’s not so bad. And he’s useful for nefarious operations.”
“Nefarious?” That’s a big word for Rose. “What are you talking about?!”
“We’re having another open house this Saturday and my mom didn’t even tell me until this morning.”
“Okay,” I say tentatively, not knowing where this is leading.
“I’ve decided I’m not moving,” she says defiantly. “And then I realized they can’t make me.”
Technically, they can make her, but I decide not to argue that point right now. Instead I ask, “So what are you going to do?”
“Good question. As I began to take matters into my own hands, I had a thought. If they can’t sell the house, then we can’t move.”
I think about this for a moment. “Really?” I ask. “Do you really think it would stop you from moving?”
“Come on. At least it’s worth a try.” She reaches into her pocket and pulls out two small glass vials with some kind of liquid inside.
“What are those?”
Rose smiles. “Stink bombs.”
“Stink bombs! For what?”
“So far we’ve been lucky. Three open houses and no buyers. I’m not willing to rely on luck anymore. So I was thinking. Nobody will want to even come inside our house once they get a whiff of this.”
“That’s got to be illegal or something.”
“It’s not. And it won’t hurt anyone. It just makes wherever you are stink really bad. I saw it online. Some kid set one off in a school bus and videoed the whole thing. Everybody wanted off that bus, big-time! So then I had a thought. Who do I know who could get me one of these stink bombs?”
“Rufus,” I say flatly.
“Rufus!” she says happily.
“Your parents will kill you.”
“Only if they find out.”
* * *
“Don’t get caught,” I whisper.
“I won’t,” Rose says and slips into the back door of her house.
I’m standing lookout for Rose, who is going inside of her own house to set off a stink bomb. How did I get here? As I feel my heart hammering, I wonder if the person driving the getaway car goes to jail for as long as the person who’s actually robbing the bank.
I hadn’t yet agreed to Rose’s nefarious operation by the time of Ally’s Saturday game. We had a whole conversation with Ally about it behind the concession stand before the game started.
“Come on, Al,” Rose pleaded. “Reconsider.”
“Are you crazy?” Ally exclaimed. “The General would kill me. And I don’t mean kill me like your parents would ‘kill’ you. If only. No, this would be with a bullet and a shovel. There’d be no trace.” She glared at us both. “So, no.” And she stomped away.
A look of disbelief sprang up on Rose’s face, so foreign that it made me laugh. It’s rare that anyone says no to Rose so thoroughly.
We watched the game sitting next to the General and didn’t say a word to each other. Mark wasn’t there for the second week in a row because of summer soccer practice. And Ally played great. Maybe being mad at Rose made her throw even harder.
Between innings, when the General went to the concession stand, Rose leaned over and whispered to me. “Please.”
I hit her leg. “No! I’m not doing it, either.” I’d do almost anything for Rose, but this Nefarious Operation with Stink Bombs stuff was too much.
Ally won the game but we weren’t celebrating. The General drove us to my house, Rose and I in the backseat and Ally in the front. I knew Ally was frowning, even though I couldn’t see her face. “You girls are awfully quiet,” the General said. “Are you okay, Ally?”
“Sure, Mom. I’m fine.”
What a liar.
When we got to my driveway, Rose and I got out. “You coming, Al?” Rose asked.
Ally glared at her. “Can’t. Got to clean up my room.”
WHAT A LIAR. She would never do that voluntarily.
“That’s a good idea,” the General said. “You’ve had a big day anyway.”
As they pulled out of the drive, Ally stared at Rose with such intensity I thought she might actually get through to her. Said the lookout man.
When we walked past Mrs. Hale’s house, I asked, “Are you sure nobody’s going to be there?”
“The open house starts at one, so only the real estate agent should be there. And she’ll be upstairs or out front.” Rose pulled out her phone and saw it was 12:45. “My parents will be gone by now. All you have to do is keep watch.”
I stopped in the middle of the street. “Rose, this is so dumb.”
She turned and said, “You want me to stay, don’t you?”
We stood there staring at each other. Yes, I wanted her to stay! Of course, I wanted her to stay. The thought of going to middle school without her terrified me. And I knew that without a doubt, she’d help if I ever staged a Nefarious Operation of my own.
And I felt guilty about Romeo.
And she was standing there looking at me, needing her friend.
And that’s how I became the lookout man.
I stand by the back door as Rose slips inside the house after using the key from under the hide-a-rock.
The plan is that Rose will tiptoe to the top of the basement stairs, break one vial (she’s saving the other) with a small hammer that she left on the stairs, and open the basement door so that the stink can rise into the house. And ruin the open house.
In one sense, it’s not a bad plan. It probably will ruin the open house. But when her parents find out, it will probably also ruin Rose’s life. But Rose doesn’t think ahead like that.
The door opens quietly. I look at Rose. She nods, but doesn’t need to; the smell is already reaching my nose. “Oh, you stink,” I say.
“I told you. Come on.” We take off toward my house.
My mom and dad are cleaning out the garage, so it’s easy to sneak upstairs. Rose takes a shower while I sit on the edge of my bed, waiting for the police to arrive.
It takes more than an hour for me to start breathing again. I don’t ever want to be a lookout person again, but I’m beginning to think that maybe Rose got away with it. Maybe they’ll think some random neighborhood kid set off a stink bomb in their house. Maybe Rufus Ledbetter. Why not? Everyone blames Rufus.
Then the doorbell rings. Three times. Urgently.
Rose’s eyes and mine meet. We hear the murmuring of adult voices, then a loud, deep one booms up the stairs. “India Rose Ashcroft!” It’s Rose’s dad’s voice. “India, you get down here right this minute!”
“Oh, crap,” says Rose. He only calls her India when he’s mad. She rolls off my bed and starts for the door, dead girl walking.
“India! Don’t make me come up there!”
“Don’t say a word, Bird,” she pleads before opening the door. “Coming, Dad.”
I follow her down the hall and watch as she walks down the stairs toward her red-faced father. Beside him stand my bewildered parents.
“You are in a world of trouble, young lady,” Rose’s dad says. “Your mother is out of her mind right now.”
Even though Rose’s dad is the one who gets loud and red-faced, he’s not the scary one. That would be Rose’s mother.
“I didn’t do anything,” Rose says, her voice so innocent even I almost believe her.
“Didn’t do anything,” he says. “Let’s go.” Then he sets his eyes on me. “Birdie, I hope you weren’t part of this. And if you were, you have a lot of explaining to do to your parents.”
Rose gives me one last look before being marched out the front door. As I hear the door close behind them, I see the look on my parents’ faces. And I realize that Rose isn’t the only one in a world of trouble.