Delena is determined to have a good time at summer camp and forget about her backstabbing ex-best-friend Mei. But when Mei shows up at camp too, suddenly revenge looks a lot more appealing than forgetting.
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As far as 17-year-old Delena Tor...
As lunchtime approaches, Lizzie and I manage to collect half a plastic cup's worth of worms. There are at least ten of the little guys, all squirming and crawling over each other in their new house. I feel sort of bad, but if they have any sense of taste, I think they're about to be pretty thankful.
"Okay." I check my watch for the time: five minutes before noon. "The announcement for lunch is about to be made, which means Operation Wormeroni is officially underway. You ready?"
Lizzie gives a determined nod, standing at attention. The two of us start the walk to the mess hall and I try to look casual, like I'm not holding a cup of worms that are about to be used as the nuclear weaponry of our teenage war.
I spot Rita leaning against the outside of the building, a few friends surrounding her as they wait for lunch to start. There are a few other stragglers, hungry enough to be waiting right next to the closed doors. I pull Lizzie behind a large tree, holding the cup close to my chest.
"You were right," I say, peeking out. I recognize one of the group as Mei. "They're both here."
"Rita always likes to be one of the first people in line," Lizzie says with slight annoyance. "She probably thinks waiting is beneath her."
"It's obnoxious, but we're lucky she's like that-- the less people around, the easier this will be."
It's a weird line we're dancing, here-- we want the room to be empty enough so that no one notices what we're doing, but crowded enough that people witness her almost guaranteed freak-out.
This whole mission would go a lot smoother with more people-- someone to distract her friends, another decoy to keep Shaefer from noticing anything, and me and Liz to do our jobs-- but apart from Zack, I haven't spoken to any other camper than Lizzie. Something tells me she wouldn't be too open to the idea of asking him to join in on our scheme, since she can barely say one sentence to the guy without her face catching on fire.
Besides, difficult doesn't mean impossible, and I'm certain we can do this. At its core, the prank is simple enough. Distract, deploy, retreat.
The speakers around camp turn on with their now-familiar sounding hum, and Miss Rodruiugez's voice lets everyone know that lunch is now being served. On cue, the doors of the mess hall open, and Ethan walks out to prop them in place.
Okay, so that's admittedly an element I wasn't counting on-- the thought of getting caught sucked enough already, but now I have to worry about it happening in front of him.
Rita waggles her fingers in Ethan's direction, strutting inside as if she's on some sort of runway. Subtle. He gives a small nod of acknowledgment, unfortunately looking away just before a pair of two rowdy guys race into the mess hall, bumping into Rita's shoulder and almost knocking her off balance.
She snarls in their direction and dramatically brushes off the arm they rammed into, then double checks that Ethan didn't see. I guess it's safe to say that "ninety percent" Lizzie talked about includes Rita, meaning once again, we've got a thing for the same guy. Go figure.
"He didn't flirt with her last year, I doubt it's going to happen this year," Lizzie says, shaking her head as she watches.
It's sort of a surprise, given how Rita-obsessed most of the guys at Winsor are. Even here, it seems like most of the boys would trip over themselves if she so much as glanced in their direction, let alone flirted so obviously. Maybe Ethan's seen her personality, and maybe unlike some of the other guys, it actually turned him away. Whatever it is, knowing he isn't into Rita is enough to make my attraction even worse.
As soon as she's inside, Lizzie and I hurry in after her. We casually step in line behind the group, so that we're right after Rita and Mei. As campers file in after us, I keep my hand spread over the opening of the cup and try not to look suspicious. Shaefer takes his usual place right by the entrance, watching over the room with an eagle eye.
Things go pretty smoothly leading up to go-time. Rita and Mei chat with their group, and they're either oblivious to the fact that we're behind them, or they just don't care. I'm guessing the former, since I doubt Rita would give up an opportunity to say something snarky to us. The line moves, we get our food, and my heart pounds in my chest as we near the end of the buffet.
As Rita and Mei reach the juice boxes placed at the end of the counters, just about ready to pick up their trays and head to their table, Lizzie steps out of her place in line behind me. She walks up to Rita, and as she taps her shoulder to grab her attention, everything goes just as we planned-- Rita turns, leaving her tray sitting right on the metal bars of the buffet. And like the Rita-copy that she is, Mei does exactly the same thing.
Two trays, two slices of pizza, totally behind their backs.
"What do you want?" Rita asks.
Lizzie's eyes flicker to me for a second before she straightens, collecting herself and wiping the paranoia from her face. "I wanted to give you a chance to apologize."
Rita scoffs, causing me to roll my eyes as I angle myself away from the counter. As I face the entrance, I realize this is going even better than we could've planned-- I'm perfectly blocked from Schafer's view, thanks to a few campers who are standing around with their trays.
My hands shaking with nerves, I uncover the plastic cup and reach in, taking out a worm. It wriggles as I reach over, placing it onto Rita's slice as she replies to Lizzie.
"Apologize? I'd like to give you a chance to learn to take a joke," Rita snaps, starting to turn around.
I freeze, my hand hovering with another worm, right over her tray. Lizzie reaches out, grabbing her shoulder, and Rita shakes her off. I can't see her face, but judging from her voice, her expression is one of disgust.
"Who said you could touch me?"
I grab two more worms and quickly place them on Mei's slice before nodding to Lizzie, letting her know it's done. There are a lot of unused worms still in the cup, but I guess it's better to be subtle-- and fast-- than to be caught.
"Whatever," Lizzie says, faking resignation as she steps aside. As she comes back to her place in line, Rita huffs and shakes her head. She and Mei pick up their trays and begin the walk to their table, somehow not noticing the extra toppings on their pizza.
"Talk about a lack of observation," Lizzie says in disbelief as they sit down. We sort of expected they'd notice as soon as they turned around, but I guess when you walk around with your chin up as high as Rita's, there's a lot you don't see.
The two of us head to our own seats, eyes trained on the two girls as we sit. And in a moment so perfect that I wish I could frame it, Mei is so busy listening to Rita that she doesn't even glance at her tray, and Rita is so busy babbling that she doesn't even look as she picks up her slice of pizza.
Lizzie and I stiffen, watching silently, holding our breaths. Again, I thought they'd see the worms and freak out before they got to their seats-- I didn't imagine the wiggly little guys making it to their table, let alone inches from Rita Wexler's face.
It's a work of art, and I sincerely wish I had my camera. And then, somehow, it gets even better. Rita-- barely even pausing from her rant about who knows what-- goes in for a bite.
Mei, finally seeing the moving, brown toppings on Rita's pizza, get's a wide-eyed, panicked look, and her jaw drops open. And Rita, seeing this expression as her teeth close down just millimeters from a worm, finally looks at what she's putting in her mouth, and comes face to wriggling face with an earthworm.
And then, as Lizzie would say, she goes absolutely nuclear.
Rita's shriek fills the mess hall, echoing off the wooden walls and drawing the attention of every single camper and staff member, just in time for everyone to watch her fling her pizza slice away from her face with full force. The thing goes flying, a triangle of crust, cheese, and sauce all slowly coming undone and raining down over the nearby tables. I wince as innocent campers get sprayed by the delicious debris, but I guess every battle has its casualties.
Mei looks down at her tray in disgust, and as other campers see the remaining evidence, the room starts to fill with assumptions of "Oh my god, Rita just ate a worm!"
Shaefer hurries over to the table, but Rita's already standing, wiping at her tongue with a napkin and nearly plowing him down as she rushes to a trashcan near the entrance. She hunches over it, spitting, nearly dry heaving in disgust.
Lizzie and I turn to each other with wide eyes and simultaneously break into laughter so intense that I almost start dry heaving too. As more people join in, laughter mixing with the spread of misinformation, Rita straightens, red-faced. She sends a furious look around the room before storming outside, quickly followed by a worried-looking Mei.
"Forget Lizzie's Titties," Lizzie says through hiccups of laughter, "That is a prank worth remembering."
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what did you think of their prank? 🐛
and lol, I have to ask: what's your favorite pizza topping? 😆🍕
