the next morning, the real games started. julian came over around nine in the morning, claiming he just wanted to spend time with me. while that may have been somewhat true, i also knew that he was going to try and get mine and peyton's prank plans out of me so he could tell the boys.

"ugh you won't believe what happened yesterday," i said as we settled onto the couch.

"a zombie apocalypse occurred in san francisco?" he guessed, raising an eyebrow at me.

"if only," i joked. "unfortunately, it wasn't nearly as cool. nick and dream stole my door because we were kissing and now they've started yet another prank war."

i watched julian's face closely and saw that his acting skills sucked. he feigned surprise but it was so obvious he wasn't surprised. "oh wow. so what are you doing in retaliation?"

ah, the perfect set up. "oh, i'm going old school. i switched their shampoos for hair dye and put the real shampoo bottles under the sink, put saran wrap over every toilet except for mine, and i'm thinking about leaking nick's phone number," i told julian. of course, i wasn't going to leak nick's number but i couldn't think of anything else to say.

"you guys have fun with that," julian said.

"oh we will. anyways, do you want to watch a movie before i have to get to work?" i asked to change the subject.

"sure. you put something on while i run to the bathroom," he said before getting up and heading to the bathroom.

"yeah," i said to myself, "i'm sure you're going to the bathroom and not running to tell dream and nick."

while julian was gone, i texted peyton and karl in our secret group chat to let them know that the plan was in motion.

🤠secret stripper club🤠

thalia
the information has been
planted, i repeat the information has been planted. orange one, it's a go

peyton😩🍄
roger that, captain
orange one is on the move

karlos😮‍💨
target one just revealed that he sprinkled catnip on your bed and let patches loose in there

thalia
that's it, im spraying down the crotch of both of their pants with something that smells like meat so percy will get them where it hurts

peyton😩🍄
OOH YES

karlos😮‍💨
i am in awe of you

julian came back right then and i had to hurry and turn my phone off so he didn't see anything.

"so we're going to watch mulan since it's the best disney princess movie," i said, smiling at him.

"sounds good."

"although it is weird that she wasn't even a princess. but she fought for her country and went against all gender roles to do it, so i love her," i continued. i was trying to buy a few more seconds because i was waiting on a call from someone who would get me out of the house for the whole day without it being suspicious.

"and the fact that she did it all better than the boys who were supposed to be strong warriors," julian added.

"yep." luckily, my phone rang right then and i answered it immediately.

"hello?"

"thalia, we need you to come in as soon as possible," the man said. "there's a problem with the numbers and the software."

"how bad is it?" i asked.

"you could lose the whole company," he said.

i pretended to be upset as i hung up the phone and turned to julian. "i'm sorry but i have to go. something happened and we're on the verge of going bankrupt," i told him. i gave him a quick kiss on the cheek and hurried out of the house.

"thank you mark," i said to myself as i drove toward the office. it was just another step completed in my plan to destroy nick and dream.

peyton's pov

once thalia left, it was up to me and karl to put the next phase of the plan in motion. julian had snitched on thalia's "plans", meaning the boys thought they knew what they avoiding. unfortunately for them, we had actually done things the opposite of what thalia said. dream thought he was using regular shampoo until he came out with bright pink hair. nick thought thalia's bathroom toilet was free of saran wrap until he went to use it and found out that wasn't the case.

karl made sure to video their reactions for me and thalia since neither of us were in the house, and he sent the videos to the secret stripper club group chat.

about ten minutes after that, karl texted that it was time for me to go in. i got out of my car and walked to the front door, ringing the doorbell five times. nick answered the door, looking angry. he half smiled when he saw me.

"hey, peyton. thalia's not here right now," he said.

"oh i know. she texted and said she would be stuck at work all day long and that we should still go to paintball without her," i lied.

"paintball isn't until, like, three though, right?" he asked, feeling in his pockets for his phone.

"you're right," i said quickly, "but i just wanted to hang out. is the house safe?"

"safe?" he echoed, raising an eyebrow.

"yeah. thalia said there was currently some kind of war going on here."

"ohh. yeah, it's all good," nick told me, stepping aside to let me in.

we went into the living room where dream was seating up some elaborate catapult. "hey, peyton," he said casually.

"hello."

"so do you want to hang out here or go somewhere else?" nick asked me.

i tore my attention away from the catapult and back to nick. "well i've been meaning to go to this bookstore for the past week and i haven't had the time yet, but we don't have to," i said.

"no, we can. i've got to find the next volume of something anyways and they might have it."

"perfect," i said with a smile. "dream, do you want to come?"

"no, thank you," dream replied, his focus on the catapult still.

"i'm going to change clothes real quick," nick told me.

"wait, can i borrow your phone to call my friend? i think i left my hair straightener on and my phone's dead," i lied effortlessly.

"yeah, here you go," nick said as he handed me his phone.

"thank you."

i went into the kitchen, but instead of calling my friend, i opened up twitter on his phone and tweeted "heading to barnes and noble with my friend peyton :D"

now all we had to do was get dream out of the house.

word count: 1120