You Wouldn't Steal A Goat by 

Augustine Rhodes was going to be in so much trouble if she got caught. Grounded for life, she knew that for certain. She also knew that what she was about to do was morally questionable in several different ways, and yet here she stood.

In her rival high school in the middle of the night.

Okay, maybe her behavior wasn't that questionable. She wasn't about to do anything too wild. Just a little bit illegal. Still, breaking into your rival high school in the middle of the night to make a scene was a little bit troubling. All Augustine needed to do was avoid getting caught, then she'd be okay. Nothing could distract her. Not even Reed Morgenstern, her longtime friend (that she definitely wasn't crushing on) who she was currently doing these illegal activities with.

She held her flashlight with a shaky hand, and Reed reached over and steadied her shakiness with his hand. She brushed him off, not before turning bright red. Luckily for her, she knew that it was too dark for him to see the redness of her face through the shadows of the hall.

"This is wrong," Augustine mumbled. She brushed a stray curl out of her face.

"We won't get caught," Reed assured her. He held up his flashlight and grinned at her. The shadows danced off of his pale face and made him look creepy, but she didn't tell him that.

"We're so getting caught," she sighed. "The two of us could not be more ill-prepared for this."

"Ye of little faith," Reed mused. He held his flashlight out to the shadowy hallway.

As the two of them walked, the sounds of the spray paint cans rattled in their backpacks. The two of them knew that if they made it out of here tonight without getting caught, then they would be the talk of the town come morning. Though, nobody would know that Augustine and Reed were behind the graffiti. While the two of them wanted to get credit for such a thing, neither of them cared much about getting arrested.

Finally, they came across the mural at the end of the hall. It was a hideous painting of a bulldog—the school's mascot. Underneath it read the schools slogan:

The Place to Be Great

Augustine rolled her eyes. The Bakersfield Bulldogs were about to get some well-deserved treatment. She and Reed set their flashlights on the ground and took their bags.

"This is what they get for stealing Marco," Reed said. He took a can of white spray paint and got to work on the slogan.

Marco was Carter High's mascot. He was a baby goat that lived in a barn on campus. A week ago, a bunch of the kids from the football team at Bakersfield thought it'd be funny to steal him in the middle of the night. It was because the Bakersfield Bulldogs were poor losers, and when they lost their homecoming game to the Carter Spartans, they wanted revenge.

But stealing Marco wasn't right. Unfortunately, Augustine had no idea where the goat was being kept. So, she and her friends settled on some good old-fashioned graffiti.

Augustine got to work repainting the ugly bulldog. She gave him a handlebar mustache and angry eyebrows. Then she went all in and gave him a hairstyle reminiscent of Tracy from Hairspray. When she was done, she stepped back and admired her work.

Then she looked at the slogan. Reed was clearly the artist of the two. He had gone over the slogan entirely and left a new message in bubble lettering:

The Place to Be a Loser

Augustine felt like she was a character in an 80s movie. Looking at the graffiti now, she saw how ridiculous it actually looked. But she loved it. Adrenaline rushed into her veins. She looked over at Reed, who was admiring their work. Suddenly a clattering sound rang out in the distance, interrupting the silence between them. Anxiety spiked in her heart.

"What was that?" She shot an anxious look at Reed.

"I don't know," he replied. She could hear an edge of panic in his voice.

"We need to get out of here."

"Thank you, Professor Obvious."

"Reed!"

"Right, sorry."

The two quickly shoved their cans of spray paint back into their bags and grabbed their flashlights off the ground. Hopefully whoever caused the ruckus had not seen the car running outside. Augustine and Reed did not work alone. Jake Vu had provided a ride, and Chelsea Danvers had gotten them into the school. But they were both outside in the parking lot, not in the school.

Reed reached out and it took Augustine a second to realize that he was holding out his hand for her to take. She took his hand and together the two raced down the hall. Once they reached the doors, Augustine realized that she could hear someone running behind them. She didn't wait to find out who was chasing them.

Without looking back, she pushed the door open and pulled Reed along with her. They had hardly made it to the bottom of the stairs when someone called out to them.

"Guys!"

Augustine turned and saw a shadowy figure holding Marco. Someone had found the goat.

"Holy shit," Reed murmured.

Once the mysterious figure made it to the two of them, he stopped and caught his breath. Augustine recognized him as one of the football players at her school. His name was Mason North. For a moment, the three of them stood with nothing but the sound of Mason's tired breaths filling the air.

Mason's eyes went down, and Augustine realized that she was still holding Reed's hand. He gave the two of them a smirk. Augustine let go, flustered.

"Where was he?" Augustine asked finally, breaking the silence between the three of them.

"I overheard some kids from Bakersfield say they kept their prize in the locker room," Mason replied. He had finally caught his breath. He held onto Marco like a baby, despite the goat looking rather big in his arms. "I knew I needed to get him back. That's when I decided to break in."

"Yeah, where exactly did you break in from?" Reed asked. "We would've heard you if you'd come in through the front doors."

Augustine and Reed were able to break in because of Chelsea. The front entrance at Bakersfield had a passcode, and Chelsea had hacked it. Augustine didn't know how she did it, but she didn't ask questions.

"There's a door to the gym that was left unlocked," Jake said. He finally set the goat down. It started to chew on his shoelaces. "Took me a minute to find the place, but once I did, it was worth it. Had to kick the locker room door open, though."

"Nice," Reed commented.

He nodded modestly and then gave the two of them a strange look. "What exactly were the two of you doing here?"

"Redecorating," Augustine said. She crossed her arms over her chest. "You didn't see us, and we didn't see you."

Mason crossed his fingers. "Scouts honor."

A car horn rang out in the night. Augustine turned to see Chelsea sticking her head out of Jake's van. She was waving them over.

"You need a ride?" Reed asked Mason.

"I took my bike," Mason said. He shot a glance down at Marco. "Though I don't think the goat will fit in the basket."

Reed nodded. "We'll take Marco, and you get your bike. Meet us back at the van?"

"Sounds good."

Then Mason sprinted off and Augustine and Reed were stuck babysitting a goat. Before Augustine could say anything, Reed picked up Marco.

"This night is more than I expected," he said. He started walking back to the van.

Augustine fell into step next to him. "What does that mean?"

"I didn't think we'd aid in a goat heist. Don't get me wrong, though. I'm glad we got Marco back."

"Me too," Augustine replied. Though she couldn't quite shake the way Reed was looking at her. It was almost as if he were disappointed for some reason.

"I just thought we'd have a bit more time with just the two of us," he said.

Her heart started to beat faster. "Well, we couldn't stay for too long. The longer we're here the more risk we have of getting caught."

"I guess I can't argue with that." He shrugged. "Though, I guess I just like spending time with you. Just the two of us. Even under illegal circumstances."

They were at the van now, and Augustine didn't know how to respond to Reed. His words kept replaying in her mind. She thought of how it was always the four of them. Jake opened the back door and grinned at the goat.

"Marco!"

Chelsea looked at them from the passenger seat. Her green eyes were wide in surprise. "Y'all got the goat back?"

Reed put Marco down in the van triumphantly. "Mason got him."

Jake moved back up to the driver's seat. "Mason North? That's who you two were talking to over there? I thought some Bakersfield prick caught y'all for a moment."

"Us, caught?" Reed laughed. "Never."

Augustine climbed into the van and shimmied past the goat. She looked over at Reed, who quickly turned away as if caught doing something suspicious. Like he had been admiring her.

"Hurry up," she said.

He looked back at her and climbed into the car. Augustine caught Chelsea and Jake looking between the two of them. She brushed them off. Luckily, the staring stopped because Mason's bike nearly crashed into the van. He stumbled off the seat and grinned at the group through the front window of the van.

"Oh yeah, we offered a ride to Mason," Reed said.

"I can see that," Jake replied.

He stepped out of the van and helped Mason put his bike in the back. When Mason opened the doors to the seats, he looked between Augustine and Reed and raised a brow.

"So, either you two scooch, or I take the middle seat."

So that was how Reed ended up right next to Augustine. The ride was silent, and Augustine could hear her heart in her chest.

Suddenly Reed perked up. "So, what are we going to do about Marco?"

Jake slowed the car. "Right. We need to get rid of the goat before we get caught with him."

Augustine looked at Reed. "Maybe Reed and I could break into the barn?"

Reed caught her gaze. "So, you want to break into two places during the same night?"

"Maybe I do."

"Well then," said Chelsea. She looked to the backseat. "Let's do this."

Chelsea turned up the radio and rock music started to blast through the van. In truth, she had no idea how this night was going to end. She had no idea if they would get away with any of this, but at this moment she didn't care. Augustine took Reed's hand and smiled. She leaned closer so that he could hear her over the music.

"Just the two of us."