Burn for Burn (Burn for Burn 1)

Kat shuts off the engine and the headlights. She blows her bangs out of her eyes and says, “She’s late. It’s so like her to not be considerate of anyone else.”

I smile to myself. I don’t say what I am thinking—that Kat was late too.

As we sit there in the dark, the wind picks up. Kat zips her hoodie and turns to me. “Aren’t you freezing? There might be one of Pat’s work shirts in the trunk.”

“No,” I say, tugging at my pale pink shorts. “I’m not cold at all. Too excited, I think.”

That’s when Lillia appears. It’s so dark outside, all I can see is her face, until she gets a bit closer. She’s sneaking down the driveway, dressed entirely in black. Black turtleneck, black leggings, black ballet flats.

Kat busts up laughing. “Oh my God.”

Lillia runs up to the car, breathless. “Hey,” she says, climbing into the passenger seat.

“Lillia, we’re not robbing a freaking bank,” Kat says. “This isn’t a heist.”

Defensively she says, “We have to be careful!” Lillia glances back at me and frowns. “Oh, well. I guess it doesn’t matter.”

I feel like I’ve done the wrong thing again. We’re the same age, but these girls feel so much older than me.

Alex’s house isn’t far from Lillia’s. Just a couple of miles. It’s as big as Lillia’s but more traditional-looking, lots of brick. They even have their own dock, and there’s a speedboat tied to it. Kat slows down and dims the headlights as soon as we get close. She parks the car a few houses away from his.

I can’t believe we’re really going to do this.

“Does everybody remember what to do?” Lillia’s asking both of us, but she’s looking at me in the passenger vanity mirror.

It’s been decided that I should be the lookout. I’m relieved I don’t actually have to break into his SUV. She might be a cool aunt, but I don’t think Aunt Bette could hide it from my parents if she had to bail me out of jail. The way they worry about me, I would be on lockdown for the rest of my life.

Kat rolls her eyes. “We’ve only been over this fifty times. It’s not that complicated.”

Kat’s job is to look for some special notebook of Alex’s. Lillia says he’s always scribbling in it, but he never lets anybody read it. She called it his secret diary. She’s sure there’ll be good ammunition in the notebook, and at the very least he’ll freak out over having lost it.

“Whatever,” Lillia says, “I was just making sure.”

“You just worry about yourself,” Kat says as she reaches over Lillia to open the glove compartment. She fishes out a flashlight. “Do you have the Retin-A?”

Lillia lifts up a travel-size bottle of lotion.

“Is that enough?” Kat asks.

“It’s a three-month’s supply. So, yeah. It’s enough.”

Kat gives her a sidelong glance. “I didn’t know you suffered from acne, Lil.”

“My mom uses it for wrinkle prevention,” Lillia says, indignant.

The plan is for Lillia to empty out Alex’s bottle of sunscreen and fill it with the Retin-A. Retin-A is a zit medicine. It makes your skin hyper-sensitive to the sun. According to Lillia, Alex lathers himself up in sunscreen even if he’s just stepping out of the house. Basically, we’re going to give Alex the worst sunburn of his life. Blisters, peeling, the works. It’ll be a mess.

Kat turns the flashlight on and off a couple of times. We creep out of the car.

As we walk up the driveway, Lillia whispers, “We have to keep a close eye on the pool house. That’s where Alex stays.”

“I know that,” Kat snaps.

“I was talking to Mary,” Lillia snaps right back.

“Guys, come on,” I whisper. “No more bickering.” I crouch beside Alex’s SUV, keeping my eyes trained toward the house. The lights are off, but I can see there’s one on in the pool house. Kat said Alex would be asleep by now, but it looks like she was wrong.

Meanwhile, Kat and Lillia are already in the SUV. Apparently Alex doesn’t lock his doors. Kat’s in the front seat, going through Alex’s backpack, and Lillia’s in the backseat looking for his equipment bag.

“I don’t see the bag, Kat,” Lillia says, sounding panicked.

“Maybe he left it in his locker.”

“How am I supposed to do this lotion switch, then?”

“Quit freaking out! We’ll think up something tomorrow,” Kat says. A few seconds later she says, “Shit. His notebook isn’t here either.”

“You’re not serious. I thought you said he kept it in his car!” Lillia climbs out of the backseat and joins Kat up front. She rummages through the glove compartment, then the center console, then flips down both of the visors. But Alex’s notebook is nowhere to be found.

“We could take his textbooks and throw them in the water,” Kat says, holding one up.

“No! Who cares about textbooks? He’ll just buy new ones.” Lillia looks like she’s going to cry, she’s so mad. “I’m not leaving without that notebook.”

My stomach does a nosedive. It seemed so easy, when we were talking everything out. I take one last look back at the house, and then I dart around the side of the SUV to help search for the notebook.

Lillia’s head snaps up. “God, Mary! What are you doing? Get back to your post!” she hisses.

I stiffen. “I was just trying to help—”

But then Kat yelps. “Got it!” She holds up the notebook triumphantly. It was under the driver’s seat. Kat and Lillia high-five, and then they grin at me. I give a very relieved thumbs-up.

She and Lillia jump out. Kat closes the door, a little too hard. We both run back for Kat’s car as fast as we can. Kat gets into the driver’s seat, and I dive into the backseat.

But Lillia’s still back by the SUV. She’s standing in the driveway, looking toward the pool house.

“What’s she doing?” I ask Kat.

Before Kat can answer me, Lillia stoops down and picks up a huge rock from under one of the potted plants that border the yard. And then she hurls the rock through Alex’s rear window. It makes a big flash, all the shards reflecting the light of the moon. The sound of shattering glass echoes through the air.

Kat and I both gasp. This was definitely not part of our plan.

The lights in the house start to turn on. First in a room upstairs, then the ones on either side of the front door.