Read Online Nothin But Net by Matt Christopher - Free Book Online Page B

beat again, and he felt close to passing out.
    “Um, sure,” he lied. “I mean, once or twice.”
    “Oh,” she said, sounding disappointed.
    “Not really kissing, though,” he said, hoping he hadn’t blown his chance by saying the wrong thing. “Just kind of like, you
     know, pecks and stuff.”
    “Oh,” she said, smiling and giggling again. “You wanna kiss?”
    He swallowed hard and tried to say yes, but nothing came out, so he only nodded his head.
    “Okay,” she said, quickly looking over her shoulderto make sure no one was watching. “Close your eyes, then.”
    She said it loudly, and he wondered why, but he was too wrapped up in what was about to happen to pay attention to anything
     else. He closed his eyes.
    “Now kiss me,” she whispered.
    He moved his head slowly forward, lips first, reaching for hers. He felt them, soft and warm and … rubbery?
    F
ffffftttttttt!
He opened his eyes in shock, only to see that he’d just kissed, not Stephanie Krause’s lips, but a rubber whoopee cushion!
    Laughter erupted from behind him. Turning, he saw that the sunshade had been lifted from inside, and six or seven kids were
     staring at him through the window, pointing and screaming with glee.
    Tim could feel himself turning bright red. He wheeled around, but Stephanie was nowhere in sight.
    Tim had had all he could stand. He marched straight off the porch and back to Eagles Nest, so angry that he was sure smoke
     must be coming out of his ears.
    Billy arrived about fifteen minutes later. “What happened?” he asked. Apparently, he’d forgotten he was mad at Tim.
    “They played a nasty trick on me,” Tim said, not going into the gory details. “You were right about the kids here, Billy.
     They’re the pits.”
    “So you finally got mad,” Billy said, crossing his arms on his chest and nodding with satisfaction. “I was wondering how long
     it would take you to come around to my point of view.”
    “Well, I’m through getting mad,” Tim said. “I say it’s time we got even.”

10
    T hey lay in their beds in the dark that night, but neither Billy nor Tim dozed off. They remained awake and alert, listening
     to the low sounds of conversation coming from the other rooms of Eagles Nest, the boys talking and laughing softly about things
     that had happened at the social.
    Tim knew — he just knew — that the laughter was at his expense. The whoopee-cushion stunt had caught him completely off guard.
     And Tim held one person, and one person alone, responsible — Mike Gruber.
    He felt sure that Mike had put Stephanie up to it. It must have been him, because what reason did Stephanie have to hurt his
     feelings? Whereas Mike had had it in for Tim ever since Tim blew it in the game against Camp Chickasaw.
    Maybe even before — Tim wondered if Stephaniehad asked him to dance that first time because she wanted to. He wanted to believe it was Stephanie’s own idea — that she
     was telling the truth when she’d said he was cute — but he figured it was Mike all along, putting her up to it from the very
     start. He and the other kids had probably just gotten tired of taunting Billy and decided it was time to go after chicken
     boy’s best friend.
    “It’s time,” he heard Billy murmur. “Let’s rock and roll.”
    Tim sat bolt upright and grabbed a plastic bucket from the floor. They’d borrowed it from the cleaning closet earlier so they
     wouldn’t have to make a lot of noise now. Tim went to the bathroom and filled the bucket with warm water while Billy scouted
     the territory, watching for intruders, listening for the sounds of campers who were still awake. “The coast is clear,” he
     whispered to Tim.
    “Here I come,” Tim whispered back. They made their way down the stairs, holding their breath with every creak of the old wooden
     steps. No one inside any of the little rooms stirred as they passed, even though some of them had their doors wide open.
    They stopped in front of room five