My brand-new, not-yet-broken-in trigger cut against my finger, and my ears strained as I closed on the bushes. Breathing so quietly that the squirrels wouldn’t be able to hear, I sprinted to attack. I shot water in front of me, splashing as I ran to the yard’s edge. As I narrowed in, I realized the long shadow hadn’t been Carter, but a shovel resting against the flower buds.

“Any last words?”

Carter’s gun scraped the back of my neck. I weighed my weapon—it felt light, probably about a quarter tank left. Digging my bare heels into the dirt, I spun to face him before he completely drenched me.

“Nice try,” said Carter. As if I were caught in a rainstorm with a personal black cloud, Carter dumped his tank over my head. Cold dripped from my chin to my ankles, even as I shot a few revenge squirts.

Violent. Totally unnecessary. And great.

After two more rounds of that (best out of three and Carter won all of them), we ended up covered in the world’s record for mosquito bites. We defrosted some frozen pizzas and sat pooling puddles in Carter’s kitchen. Our water guns took a well-deserved rest on the kitchen table.

The slow treading of tires in the driveway interrupted our haphazard dinner. I checked my phone. It was 10:35. The same time that Carter and I would have even arrived at this so-called party.

“She’s back early,” Carter said.

Taking it way further than necessary, as was his specialty, Carter grabbed his Super Soaker and stomped down the driveway. Josh’s pickup had barely rolled past the curb before he shut off its headlights. Carter scowled, squinting to no use as he tried to see inside.

“If she’s not out in the next three seconds I’m going over there to slash his tires.”

“Chill, bro,” I said. “Be cool. On my lead.”

Channeling our inner ninjas yet again, Carter and I slunk to Josh’s truck. It blocked the streetlights so I couldn’t see what I was doing, but I soon heard a “good-bye,” and the closing of a door, and then the car slowly drove away.

“Go!” I shouted. Carter and I opened fire on the back of it, using all of the water left in our guns. Josh squealed down the street faster than I could call after him, “Night just got real, Daley!”

“What are you doing?!” A silhouette stormed over to us. “Are you kidding me right now? Oh my god, you guys. Grow the hell up!”

“We’re sorry,” I said, because I knew Carter would be at a loss for words. “It was an accident—”

“Nick Maguire!” Eliza cut me off. She came closer and my stomach sank—her white shirt clung to her, dripping and soaked. If she hadn’t been mad at me, I’d have enjoyed the moment.

“Go away.” She scooped up two fists of dirt and threw them at our faces.

>She had great aim. Carter surrendered his water gun on the pavement. I did the same and we slunk into his house. I hadn’t felt this bad since the time we accidentally-on-purpose destroyed the model of the solar system she’d been working on for two days. We thought it would be more realistic if the solar system had been ravaged by Darth Vader’s Empire.