3

I clutched the icy spot on my back. “What is it?” I cried. “It’s so cold!”

Nicole jumped to her feet and examined my back. “Jordan, you’ve been stabbed!” she announced. “With a purple Popsicle!”

As I turned around I heard mean laughter. The Miller twins jumped out from behind the tree.

I should’ve known. The Miller twins—Kyle and Kara. The twin pug noses, the beady little eyes, the matching short-cropped red hair. Yuck. They carried twin Super Soakers, red ones.

The Miller twins love practical jokes. They’re worse than I am. And much meaner.

Everyone in the neighborhood is afraid of them. They pounce on little kids waiting at the bus stop and rob them of their lunch money. Once they blew up the Saxes’ mailbox with a stink bomb. Last year, Kyle sucker-punched me during a basketball game. He thought it was funny to watch me turn purple.

The Millers like to pick on me more than anyone, for some reason.

Kara is just as scary as her brother Kyle. I hate to admit it, but Kara can take me out with one punch. I know that for a fact. She gave me a black eye last summer.

“‘Oh, it’s so hot. It’s so hot!’” Kara sneered, making fun of Lauren’s whiny voice.

Kyle flipped his Super Soaker from one hand to the other behind his back. He tried to make it look like a really complicated move.

“Arnold taught me how to do that,” he bragged.

Kyle wanted me to think he was talking about Arnold Schwarzenegger. He claims he knows Arnold. I have my doubts.

Nicole tugged on the back of my shirt. “Dad’s going to kill you, Jordan,” she said.

“Why?”

I craned my neck backwards. The back of my white polo shirt was stained dark purple.

“Oh, great,” I muttered.

“Dad said not to get messed up,” Nicole reminded me. As if I needed to be reminded.

“Don’t worry, Jordan,” Kyle said. “We’ll clean it off for you.”

“Uh—that’s okay,” I murmured, backing away. Whatever Kyle meant by “clean it off”, I knew I wouldn’t like it.

I was right.

He and Kara raised their Super Soakers and squirted me, Nicole, and Lauren.

“Stop it!” Lauren screamed. “You’re getting us all wet!”

Kyle and Kara laughed their maniac laughs. “You said you were hot!”

They drenched us. My shirt was so wet I could wring a glass of water out of it. I glared at them.

Kyle shrugged. “We were only trying to help.”

Yeah. Sure they were.

I should’ve been grateful that all they did was soak us. We got off easy.

I can’t stand the Miller twins. Neither can Nicole and Lauren. They think they’re so hot. Just because they’re thirteen and they have a swimming pool in their backyard.

Their father works at a movie studio. They’re always bragging about how they go to sneak previews and hang out with movie stars.

I haven’t seen a movie star show up at their house yet. Not once.

“Aw, you’re all wet,” Kara said, sneering. “Why don’t you take a bike ride to dry off?”

Nicole and I exchanged glances. When we’re alone, we don’t get along so well. But when the Millers are around, we have to stick together.

We knew the Millers too well. They wouldn’t mention our bikes without a reason. A bad reason.

“What did you do to our bikes?” Nicole demanded.

The Millers faked wide-eyed innocence. “Who—us? We didn’t do anything to your precious bikes. Go see for yourself.”

Nicole and I glanced around the side of Lauren’s house, where we’d left our bikes.

“They look okay from here,” Nicole whispered.

“There’s something wrong with them,” I said. “They look weird.”

We approached our bikes. They looked weird all right. The handlebars had been unscrewed and twisted backwards.

“Hope you have reverse gear,” Kyle snickered.

Normally, I’m not the kind of guy who goes around getting into fights. But something in me snapped. This time Kyle and Kara had gone too far.

I jumped on Kyle. We tumbled to the ground. We wrestled. I tried to pin him with my knee, but he pushed me over onto my side.

“Stop it!” Nicole screamed. “Stop it!”

Kyle rolled me onto my back. “You thought you could jump me, Jordan? You’re too big a wimp!”

I kicked him. He pinned my shoulder to the ground with one knee.

Nicole shouted hysterically, “Jordan! Look out!”

I glanced up. Kara stood over me, clutching a rock the size of her head. A mean grin spread across her face.

“Drop it, Kara!” Kyle ordered.

I tried to roll out of the way, but I couldn’t move. Kyle had me pinned.

Kara heaved the rock. Then she let it drop—right onto my head.

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