-10-

The next morning, as Brianne and Jason were preparing to take the triplets away from me, Utopia slipped a piece of paper into my hand. "Pranks for Stacey," she said. "Will you do them for us?"

I took the paper. "Don't you like Stacey?"

"Yes, we figured out that she's really awesome. She talked to us while the cookies were baking and we got to know each other. We told her stuff that we like to do and so did she. She told us that it's super fun when you guys play jokes on each other, but you were being angry yesterday."

"Was she crying?" I remembered the tears I thought I saw in her eyes.

"Yeah, but it wasn't your fault."

Relief flooded through me. I was feeling a lot better ever since I'd gotten some sleep, but the thought that I'd made Stacey cry was nagging at me. "So why would she cry, then?" I asked.

"We asked her, but she only said someone was just being mean to her on the phone."

I furrowed my eyebrows. Who would be mean to Stacey over the phone?

"Just do the pranks," she said. "And we promise that Stacey still loves you."

My eyes widened. "Loves me?"

"Yeah. You know how we all love each other here. I mean she's willing to tolerate you. That's what love is, you know? Kinda like I tolerate my siblings."

"Right."

Behind Utopia, Brianne called the kids to her. Before they went off, they all hugged me and then turned around to get buckled up.

And as they drove away, they kept calling "Bye!" to Stacey, Anna, and me. Most everyone came out to bid them farewell. I may or may not have shed a tear or two.

Just like that, they were gone.

Stacey was sitting in a chair on the carport. I was sure she didn't want to talk to me after yesterday. I just walked to the far end of the yard and sat in the hammock.

I unfolded the paper Utopia gave me and looked at it.

In scraggly handwriting was a list:

Pranks for Stacey:

-Hide the laundry

-Hide the sleeping bag

-Hide the toothbrush

-Hide the hairbrush

-Hide Logan

Well, I did promise Utopia that I'd do all of these pranks. Why not all at once?

»»»»»«««««

I used Anna as my distractor while I hid Stacey's things. She had used a chair to put the cookies in the highest possible shelf, and then asked Stacey to come help her get them down. I wanted to stay and watch, because Stacey was really determined to retrieve to cookies without a chair. Perfect for what I was planning, although that was an entertaining sight.

I took Stacey's sleeping bag and folded it and put it inside Anna's. I went inside and found Stacey's brush and toothbrush, and put them in Anna's suitcase, too.

We all combined our laundry together and then took turns washing it, so Stacey's laundry was hanging in miscellaneous places. It was easy to find her shirts because of her elbow length sleeves. Her shorts were considerably slimmer than any of the women there, but I really hoped I didn't take any of Faron's pants. Faron was a little shorter than Stacey, but that information didn't help me as I tried to steal Stacey's pants.

As you might have guessed, I didn't even go anywhere near any undergarments. She could keep those.

I went back upstairs and found Stacy still trying to climb on the counter and get the cookies.

"Why is this counter so much taller than mine at home?" she complained.
Anna met my eyes and I gave her a thumbs up.

"Can you help us get the cookies, Logan?" Anna asked.

"No." Stacey looked at me coldly. "I can do it myself."

That hurt. I didn't want Stacey to be mad at me. I'd wanted to text her last night and apologize, but I couldn't find my stupid phone. Now that she was here in front of me, angry, I couldn't find the words to say.

The last thing on the list was hide Logan. I decided to hide in plain sight so she wouldn't think anything was up. I wandered into the dining room and found Anthony playing a board game with Faron. It looked like Monopoly.
I sat down and watched them. They seemed to be arguing.

"I would've noticed if you bought Boardwalk," Faron said. "I would've been like, 'oh crap' and then stepped up my game. You must've stolen it."

"I didn't!" Anthony said.

"Yes you did! Give me the stack of cards! It's time I got a turn anyway!"

"I didn't take it!" Anthony continued to defend himself.

"You liar!"

Anthony threw his hands up in exasperation. I decided this wasn't the funnest thing to watch and silently slid away.

I moved to Patrick's room. The walls were all painted blue, and random toys like action figures were scattered around. Presley and Kyle were in there with Patrick, and I couldn't tell what they were doing.

"Logan!" Presley said. "We were about to shoot a skit with Patrick's iPod! We needed a stunt double but neither of these guys look like me. Will you do it?"

"Uh, sure." I didn't bother pointing out the fact that I was a whole lot taller than Presley. I had to make friends with these guys somehow. I needed something to do for two more weeks. There's not much I could do with Anna, and Stacey was mad at me....

"Sweet!" Patrick said. "We're going outside. Follow us."

I followed them outside.

"Now, what you need to do," Patrick said, "is stand on this bench and then do a backflip onto the grass."

"But...I can't do a backflip...."

"Well, neither can we. And you agreed to be Presley's stunt double, so you have to do it. We'll shoot Presley's part first, and then you've gotta be ready to go."

"Um-"

"Places everyone!" Patrick yelled. Presley and Kyle scrambled to the appropriate places around the bench. "And...action!"

Presley and Kyle pretended to be in a very intense fistfight, and then Presley hopped onto the bench.

"Cut! That's a wrap!" Patrick yelled. He turned on me. "Get on the bench, do a backflip, and that's it. Got it?"

He didn't wait for me to answer; he just pushed me up onto the bench.

"Action!" he called, even though I had no idea what I was going to do.
Hastily, I attempted a backflip, but I only jumped and landed on my back. I made it look better by rolling dramatically.

"That was cool!" Kyle yelled after Patrick finished the scene.

"Yeah, yeah," Patrick said. "He can't do a backflip. Now back in position, boys."
Presley and Kyle resumed their fistfight in the place where I jumped off.

"You're not needed anymore," Patrick muttered to me.

I nodded and walked away. What the heck was I going to do for the rest of this reunion?

__________________________

Since yesterday's chapter was so unsatisfying, here's another unsatisfying one. I really like the next chapter though, so you can look forward to that.

What are your guys' thoughts? Any predictions of what's gonna happen? ;)

*gives you purple strawberries* Here, eat these. I don't want them.

Byeeeeeeee :3