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  “Oh no,” he says, looking at a text.

  “What?” I ask.

  He shows me a video of Neko in his underwear, hopping around and plugging his nose. Behind Neko is the rest of our team, all yelling and running around as if a bomb had gone off. There’s me in my towel looking skinny, and Walter yanking up his pants.

  The Eddies Stink reads the caption beneath the video. Then I notice the number of views, and my stomach drops. This thing has gone viral. The comment section is filling up as we watch the number of views grow.

  As we watch, a message from Neko pops up on Walter’s phone telling us to meet at Lou’s Pizza Pit in an hour.

  Chapter 7

  I head home, and the first thing Gram says when I walk in the house is, “Why do you smell like skunk?”

  I tell her about the surprise we all discovered in the shower after practice. She plugs her nose and laughs before ordering me to throw my clothes in the wash.

  After I’ve showered and changed, I explain that we have a team meeting at Pizza Pit.

  “Hmm,” she says, looking at me as if she knows that something is up. I can tell she’s thinking twice about letting me go.

  “We’re just getting together to talk game strategy,” I say.

  “Well, eat something good for you before you leave.” Gram makes me sit down and eat a bowl of the soup she’s been simmering on the stove.

  Through the kitchen window I see Walter bike up the driveway. Gram sees him too and raps on the glass, motioning for him to come inside.

  Walter drops his bike and hurries to the door. Gram has a bowl of soup waiting for him at the table, and he’s in the chair before I can even say hello. Walter loves Gram’s cooking and eats two bowls of soup before I even finish one.

  “That’s the best soup I’ve ever had,” he flatters Gram as we clear our plates.

  “Thank you,” she says with a smile as we head out the door. “Nothing better than feeding growing boys.”

  We bike to the strip mall a few blocks away. Half the stores are empty now. Over in Winfield, they built a nicer, three-story mall. No one shops here anymore.

  At Pizza Pit, Walter orders a large pizza as soon as we sit down with team.

  “How can you still be hungry?” I ask.

  “I just am,” he says.

  Neko holds up his phone, which is playing the same video Walter and I watched earlier, and says, “We’re getting them back.”

  “How?” Cam asks.

  “That’s why you are all here,” Neko says.

  “What they did was pretty good,” Jason says, smiling. “I mean, how did they get those skunks into our locker room without being sprayed? Seriously. They win.”

  Neko glares at him and says, “We haven’t even started. Now all of you”—he looks at everyone sitting around the table—“give me your best idea.”

  “Pigs,” Cam blurts. “Let’s set some pigs loose in their locker room.”

  “Or chickens,” someone else says.

  “My uncle has a farm not far from here,” Walter says. “But he just raises cows and organic vegetables.”

  “Does he have one of those mean bulls?” someone asks.

  “I don’t think so,” Walter says, shaking his head. “All the cows are pretty nice. They all have names like Star and Toffee and Milky Way.”

  I look at Walter like he’s crazy for even bringing this up.

  “We can’t just go around stealing animals,” Neko says. I nod at this. The guy is more reasonable than I thought. “But . . .” Neko puts his hand on Walter’s shoulder.

  “Where there are cows, there’s cow poop,” Neko says. “We fill up a bunch of bags and spread it all over the field.”

  “Manure,” Walter corrects. “That’s what my uncle calls it—manure.”

  Neko looks at him and says, “I think your uncle wouldn’t even notice or care if we filled up a few Hefty bags.”

  “Let’s do it!” some guys shout.

  A couple of guys shake their head.

  “Coach will blow a gasket,” Zander says. “I’m out.”

  “Come on,” Neko pleads.

  But Zander just picks up his cup of soda, takes a last sip, and walks out. A couple more guys follow. I kick Walter under the table. I want us to leave too, but Walter doesn’t move.

  “Tonight,” Neko says, looking around at everyone who stayed behind. “We head to Walter’s uncle’s farm. I’ll bring the garbage bags. You bring shovels!”

  Neko beams at Walter and says, “Text everyone the address, and we’ll meet there at midnight.” And then he turns to the dozen or so guys left sitting around the table.

  “Who stinks?” Neko asks with a grin.

  “The Wildcats!” Cam shouts, pounding the table with his fist. All I can think is that this isn’t going to end well.

  Chapter 8

  As Walter and I bike home, some of the guys pass us in their cars and trucks and honk their horns.

  “Hey, Wally and Gibby. Race you!” Neko says, as he rolls up next to us in neutral, revving his engine. I swerve my bike so I don’t get hit by one of his big side mirrors.

  “I’ll pick you guys up at 11:30,” he says. “Be ready.”

  Then he peels away, kicking up dirt and dust with the back wheels of his truck. It’s a good thing he’s got mud flaps, or I’m sure I would’ve taken a rock to the head.

  “I’m not going,” I say to Walter as we turn into our neighborhood.

  “You have to,” he says. “I feel like this is my deal. You can’t bail on me. Come on, man.”

  “Why did you even mention the farm?”

  “I don’t know. It just popped in my head. I’ll text my cousin Eva and let her know we’ll be heading out there tonight so she can distract my uncle if he hears any noise.”

  “Don’t say anything to her!” I say. I don’t need Walter’s cousin getting me in trouble.

  “She’s cool,” Walter says. I went to the farm a few years ago, and I don’t remember her being “cool.” She somehow tricked Walter and me into doing all of her chores while she sat up in the hayloft reading a book.

  “I don’t know,” I say. “I have a bad feeling about this. Besides, our team should be focusing on getting ready for state, not on stealing cow poop.”

  “Cow manure,” Walter corrects.

  “Coach wasn’t fooling around today. He was mad.”

  “Come on. What he doesn’t know won’t hurt him.” Before I could reply, Walter says, “I’ll see you at 11:30. Don’t wimp out on me.”

  “Fine!” I yell after him as he turns on his street. “But this is a really stupid idea.”

  Walter waves at me as he bikes away.

  Chapter 9

  I try to do my homework, but I fall asleep at my desk. At 11:30, I wake up to tapping at my window.

  “Shhh.” I hush Walter as I open the window.

  I hear Gram shuffle down the hall.

  “Toby, what’s that sound?” she asks from just outside my door.

  “I’m, umm, just studying,” I tell Gram. “It was just me tapping my pencil. Sorry for waking you up. I’m going to bed now.”

  “Good night,” she says, and I hear her go back to her room.

  “Hurry up!” Walter hisses. “Neko is getting antsy.”

  “I don’t think I should leave,” I whisper. “Gram is up. She might check on me again.”

  “Shove a pillow and some clothes under your covers. She’ll never know you’re gone,” Walter says.

  I roll my eyes and sigh. “Fine.” Once I’ve done what he’s suggested, I pull on a jacket, hat, and gloves. I’m not going to freeze again this time.

  I slide out the window, grab a shovel from the tool shed, and run to the truck. I look back at Gram’s window and I can’t believe I’m doing this again. I’m so tired. I just want to crawl into my bed and pull the covers up, but Walter will never forgive me if I don’t go, and he’s always had my back.

  When I get to the truck, I see Walter is sit
ting up front, between Neko and Cam. Jason is sitting in the back this time. I guess he’s gotten on Neko’s bad side.

  I climb in beside Jason and pull my hat down over my ears as we head out of town.

  Chapter 10

  We’re driving down a long gravel road a few miles outside of Edison. The farm is up ahead. I can see the dark outlines of the house and the barn. I also see a few cars and a minivan parked near the edge of a half-harvested cornfield.

  Neko shuts the lights off on his truck, and we drive behind the barn. As I hop out, I can see a light go on upstairs in the house. I freeze. The light flicks off and back on again twice.

  “It’s just my cousin,” Walter says, patting me on the shoulder. “She’s letting us know my aunt and uncle are asleep.”

  He leads us through a metal gate to a huge pile of manure next to the barn.

  “You’ll get used to the smell in a little bit,” Walter says to the guys. I know this is true. I’ve been here with Walter before, and after a while, your nose adjusts. I fill up a bag with cow poop, tie it up tightly, and hand it to one of the bigger guys who hauls it to Neko’s truck.

  “Don’t let any get in the bed of my truck,” I hear Neko hiss. “Or you’ll be scrubbing the back of this thing until it’s clean enough to eat off of.”

  Behind me, a cow lets out a long, loud bellow. I turn around and see three or four cows slowly approaching us. Their eyes are huge, and they’re all staring at us.

  “Walter,” Jason says, slowly backing away. “What do they want?”

  “They won’t hurt you,” Walter says, shaking open another bag. “They might lick you, but they won’t bite.”

  And sure enough, one of the cows moves next to me, sticks out a slimy pink tongue, and licks the back of my head.

  “Go away,” I hiss as I try to dump a huge scoop of manure into the bag. As I try to dodge the cow’s tongue I miss my target, and a big pile of cow poop lands on my shoe.

  Soon, though, we’ve filled a dozen bags.

  “Let’s get out of here,” Walter says, nervously looking back at the house. A light flicks on and off twice.

  Instead of starting up the truck, Neko puts it in neutral, and we push it back across the road to where the other cars are parked.

  Our teammates get back into their own vehicles. As cars start to pull out, Jason and I realize at the same time that we’ll have to ride in the back of a truck filled with the cow poop. Jason jumps in a minivan, which drives away before I even have a chance to ask for a ride.

  “I’m not sitting back there,” I say to Walter, who’s sitting inside the truck. “Move over. Make room.”

  “Get in the back,” Neko says as Cam smirks at me and refuses to open the door.

  “He can fit up here,” Walter insists, trying to shift over on the seat.

  “No, he can’t,” Neko says. “There’s no room.”

  Walter looks at me and I can see he’s trapped. He’s stuck in the middle of the truck between Cam and Neko. I sigh, but know it’s no use arguing with Neko.

  “I’ll ride in the back,” I say. “I’ll be fine.”

  “You’ve got three seconds to get in, or I drive away,” Neko warns.

  I walk to the back of the truck. Just as I’m about to step on the bumper and climb in, Neko pulls away, and I lose my footing and fall on the gravel.

  The sharp stones dig into my knees and hands.

  The trucks keep driving, but then the brake lights go red, and Walter pushes his way out of the truck.

  “Are you okay?” he says, running back to me.

  “I’m fine.” I try to stand up, but my jeans are ripped, and I can see my knee is bleeding.

  Neko sticks his head out the window and looks back at us. “What did I tell you about being too slow?”

  “He’s hurt,” Walter says.

  “I’m fine,” I say again, walking toward the truck.

  “Come on, baby,” Neko taunts. “I’ll get you back home to your mommy.”

  Now I’m mad. I don’t like anybody talking about my mom. Especially Neko, who hasn’t even bothered to get to know me enough to realize that my mom is in the military. That she’s been deployed. I pick up a rock off the road and throw it hard at the back of his truck. It hits his taillight.

  “Did you just throw a rock at my truck?” Neko shouts.

  I throw another one, and it hits his back window.

  “Find your own way home!” Neko yells back as he puts the truck in gear and speeds away.

  “Idiots,” Walter says as we stand there looking at the taillights disappear down the long dark road.

  Chapter 11

  Walter texts his cousin as we head back to the farm.

  “Eva says she’ll drive us home,” Walter tells me as we wait behind a tree near the barn. “She just needs to a few minutes to sneak out.”

  I lean against a tree and shine the light from my phone down at my knee. The bleeding has stopped, and I realize the cut isn’t that deep. I stand back up and press my back against the tree trunk, still fuming at Neko.

  “Here she comes,” Walter says, and we watch as his cousin sneaks out her window and climbs down the branches of a giant pine tree. Once she drops to the ground, she makes her way toward us. Her curly, dark hair is piled into a messy bun on top of her head, and she’s wearing a red hooded sweatshirt.

  “Eva, do you remember Toby?” Walter asks.

  Eva squints at me. “I think so,” Eva says. “You came here once.”

  “Yeah,” I say. “You made us do all your chores.”

  She laughs. “I don’t remember that,” she says as we walk toward an old station wagon parked near the barn.

  “Sorry to make you drive us,” I say.

  She turns to Walter. “They just left you?”

  “Yeah.” Walter shrugs.

  “Jerks,” Eva mumbles. Then she notices my ripped jeans and bloody knee. “That doesn’t look good.” She bends down to look at the cut more closely.

  “It isn’t that deep. I’ll be fine,” I say. Walter tells her what happened.

  “Make sure to wash it with soap and water when you get home,” she says, straightening up and unlocking her car for us.

  “Eva wants to be a nurse,” Walter says as he climbs into the passenger seat and slams the door.

  “Shh,” Eva whispers. “You’re going to wake up my dad.”

  “Sorry,” he says.

  We all freeze, watching the house for any signs of movement.

  “I think we’re good,” Eva finally says.

  Two minutes later she’s driving us down the gravel road, away from the farm. “I want to be a doctor,” she corrects Walter’s previous comment. “But I might get my nursing degree first so I can understand everything from the front lines.”

  “Cool,” I say.

  “Toby’s mom is an Army medic,” Walter says. “Remember, I told you about her.”

  “Oh, right,” Eva says. “Do you think I could talk to her? I was thinking of maybe taking that route.”

  “She’s deployed right now,” I say.

  “How long?”

  “She’s probably got another five months.”

  “That’s rough.” I can hear the concern in Eva’s voice, but she keeps her eyes on the road.

  “Yeah,” I say. “But they need her over there.”

  “I’d like to talk to her when she gets home, then,” Eva says.

  “Yeah, sure.” I stare out the window as we merge onto the highway.

  As we get near our exit, I notice that Eva doesn’t put her blinker on.

  “You need to exit here,” I remind her.

  “Since I’m driving you guys, I want to see what that team of yours is up to,” she says, staying in her lane. “Let’s drive by Winfield High and watch them spread the manure. I want to see them pinching their noses.”

  “Yeah,” Walter agrees. “I want to watch them haul all those bags out on the field without our help.”

  I nod at this and s
ay, “You know, they would’ve made the two of us do all the work.”

  We exit the highway and drive into Winfield, but when we get to the high school, no one is on the field.

  Eva drives past the school. Neko’s truck is parked down by the locker room, but we don’t see any sign of our teammates anywhere. Then the lights go on inside the building.

  “What are they doing?” I ask.

  “I think they just broke into the school,” Eva says.

  Four guys cross the road, and I realize one of them is Jason.

  “Drive toward them,” I tell Eva.

  When we get near, Walter rolls the window down. “What’s going on?”

  “Neko and Cam and the rest of them are a bunch of idiots,” Jason says. “What they’re doing was never part of the plan. I’m out of here.”

  “What are they doing?” Walter asks.

  “They’re filling every player’s locker with cow poop,” Jason says, heading to a parked car with the three other guys.

  “That’s so wrong,” Eva says from the front seat. “They’re going to get caught. I’m sure there are security cameras recording their every move.”

  If that’s true, I don’t want to be anywhere near the school. “Let’s get out of here,” I say.

  Walter rolls up his window and slides down in his seat as we slowly drive out of Winfield.

  Chapter 12

  We cross over into Edison and I start to feel a little safer, being in my hometown. But just then, as we pass the high school, a car peels out of our school parking lot and zooms past us. A red BMW. The same one Walter and I frosted just a few days ago. Two other cars follow.

  “What are they up to?” Walter wonders out loud.

  “Nothing good,” Eva says.

  “Drive by so we can get a closer look,” Walter says.

  “No way,” Eva retorts. “I’m bringing you guys home. There’s way too much stupidity going down tonight.”

  Eva drops me off first.

  “Thanks,” I say. “We’d still be walking if it wasn’t for you.”

  “Don’t worry about it. Hey, can I have your number? I really would like to talk to your mom when she gets back.”

  “Sure,” I say, and we exchange numbers.