"No, it says to use cocoa powder," said Matt to Nathan, who was perched on the kitchen counter looking through the spice cabinet.

"But we don't have any. I'm sure chilly powder will work just as well. Plus it shares half of its name," he reasoned.

"Yeah, so does powdered sugar," Pete said from the fridge. "Why don't we use that instead?"

"Let's just use both and be done with it," Matt improvised. "It's not like we're making cookies or anything."

"Um, alright," Nathan said hopping down from the countertop. "What do we do now?"

"It says to use a sifter, and then brush it over the surface," Matt answered. He was reading from a Wikipedia page on his laptop.

"We'll need a brush too then," said Nathan, attempting to read over his shoulder.

"But we'll need the sifter first," said Matt, though this was obvious.

"Pete, get out the sifter," Nathan ordered. "Now we need a brush," he shot back to Matt.

"Um, what's a sifter?" Pete asked tentatively.

"It's like a cup," Matt explained using his hand for a visual. "And it has holes in it."

"We don't have a brush, though," Nathan repeated.

Pete returned to where the other two were standing around the kitchen island. In one hand was a paper cup and in the other was a steak knife that he was using to poke holes. "You guys can borrow my toothbrush!" he offered.

"I think we'll pass," said Matt.

To say that Pete looked disappointed was an understatement.

"No offense Pete, but your toothbrush is like five years old," Matt attempted to console.

"It's not even four and a half," Pete defended.

"You know, that's not much better Pete..." said Nathan.

"Alright," Matt continued, hoping to distract Pete from the subject of his toothbrush. "So we're supposed to put the cocoa...or powdered chilly-sugar, through the sifter and then brush it onto the surface with a soft brush," Matt read.

"And we still don't have a brush," Nathan reminded, yet again.

"We're just trying to get a fingerprint. It's not rocket science. Let's just sprinkle the powder onto the glass," Matt improvised.

"What happened to the axe method?" Nathan asked. He was helping Pete to sift the powder onto the drinking glass in front of them.

"Turns out that all I needed was a hard, glossy surface. Don't get me wrong, the blade of the axe would have worked nicely, but the drinking glass was easier to find," Matt explained.

"What do we do next?" Pete asked.

"Just give it a blow, and then we put the tape over it," said Matt, getting the tape ready. "I think we should just test to make sure it works tonight, and then plan for tomorrow night. We can lure them out or something."

Wes looked uneasy. The guy's plan was all good fun, except that now.... now it seemed it would only cause him more complications. Would their fingerprint work on the lock? And if it did... if it did, it would give Ash a perfect opportunity to steal Maddie's diary. He glanced at Matt. Was he even aware of the extreme risk he'd be exposing Maddie to by doing this? Of course not! Lost in his world as per usual. Whatever malodorous assault they had decided on is all well and good really. And itching powder in a few beds never hurt anyone! ...But stealing a lady's diary was another matter entirely. He wondered yet again if he should warn her about Ashers... He struggled to find a word that was bad enough to describe Ash's plan.
"..Just VILE!" he said.. aloud. ..accidentally...and rather passionately. The other guys glanced at him wondering if he was feeling ok. But Wes hardly even noticed. Ungodly! Malicious! Iniquitous! Morally abhorrent! And just plain... poo-shitty plans.
...
That's right. Poo-shitty.

"We could have a bonfire," Nathan suggested, breaking Wes out of his particularly troubling thoughts.

"They won't buy that," Matt argued. "They think we just had one last night."

"What that? They won't even remember that. That was like... so yesterday, you know," said Nathan. "Besides even if they did remember," Nathan paused for a moment to scoff at the absurdity of that though, "Well.. even if they did remember, we could say something cheesy like how we missed them, and how it wasn't the same," said Nathan.

"Hm, you're right," said Matt, who was only wrong about this kind of thing about fifty percent of the time. "They'll be drawn straight in like well-fluffed bear plushies to a honey pot."

"We can set it up for tomorrow," said Nathan. "And then after they leave, we can sneak up, do our damage, and then meet up with them at the fire pit."

"A bonfire," said Matt, who now seemed quite taken with the idea. "With my Julia. Yes, yes. It shall be perfectly lovely. They'll never guess what we're really up to. I can practically see it now... They won't know anything's amiss until after we all get back. And once they find out they won't even be able to blame us because we were at the fire pit the same as them!"

"Yeah right," said Wes with an eye roll. His voice was little more than a dark mumbling. To be fair, he wasn't in a very good mood. There was too much to be thinking about. But one thing was now clear. Things were getting serious. Damn guy code! He'd have to tell Maddie about Asher's plans. And the sooner the better.

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