“Yeah,” he says with a soft laugh. “The guys were cracking up. I thought Nate was going to wet his pants.”

I laugh with him. “I can’t believe he—” And then I stop.

You know how sometimes brilliant ideas take months of planning and thinking over, and other times a brilliant idea hits you out of nowhere, like a lightning bolt?

“Oh my god,” I say, stopping at the bottom of the Crenshaw driveway. “I just had the most amazing idea for the prank.”

“What? Tell me,” Elijah says, finally sounding more like himself.

“I can’t. I have to talk to Bucky first,” I say, jogging up the driveway toward the gym doors. “I’ll see you later!”

“Bucky?” Elijah sputters. “But—”

“Tell all the guys to meet me at the lunch table today!” I yell back at him, laughing all the way to the front doors.

After I share my brilliant plan with Bucky and he assures me that both he and his dad will be on board, I have a hard time keeping my mouth shut until lunchtime. The plan is just too good to keep quiet for long, and I’m finally starting to understand why this prank is so important to everyone.

I draw out the suspense until the whole team is gathered around our lunch table.

“What’s happening with the prank, Cap?” Nate asks. “We’ve been waiting all day to hear this.”

I glance around to make sure Coach Marcus or Coach Andrews isn’t nosily poking around the cafeteria. “I had this idea this morning,” I say, and a murmur runs through the team. “Greased. Pigs.”

“Wait, what the hell are you talking about?” Darien asks, and everyone laughs.

Bucky breaks into loud laughter, and the soccer team, at the next table, glances over at us.

“Hey, shh,” I warn him. “We’ve got to keep this quiet. Piglets. Bucky’s family has got a ton of them, right? I got the idea after Bucky told us that story about the piglets getting loose yesterday. We’re going to grease up some of those piglets and let them loose on the Taylor field on Thursday morning. Early… like predawn early. They’re impossible to catch when they’re covered in Crisco. They’ll spend their entire morning practice chasing pigs instead of getting ready for their Friday night game,” I say.

“Oh my god.” Someone laughs. “They’ll be slipping in pig shit through their entire morning practice.”

“Exactly,” I say.

The team chatters and the laughter gets louder. Loud enough for some of the cafeteria monitors to start wandering our way.

“Hush, now,” I tell them. “I have one condition! This year, we’re starting a new tradition.” I look at Elijah, and he nods his head once and offers a small smile. “For every prank we pull, we’re also doing some community service.”

The team groans.