The phone rang the next evening, interrupting Jacob’s studies. He picked it up off the counter, saw the Caller ID. Webb. Had Teegan already found a way to get Jacob in to Logan High?
Jacob answered. Nope. It was Tani, with completely different news.
“My mom and I are going for a walk right now, and we just saw Kevin and his friends drive up your street with a huge hay bale in the back of their truck.”
Jacob groaned, remembering the last time this happened. It had involved fire. “Great. Thanks.”
He hung up, jumped off the stool, and ran to Matt’s room, knocking on the door. Not waiting for his brother to open, he barged in. Matt was reading a book, a doctor show playing on his little TV at the same time.
“Kevin—hay bale,” was all Jacob needed to say.
Matt scrambled to his feet, the book falling. “Let’s go.”
They ran downstairs and out the back door, grabbing dark hoodies from the mud room on the way. This wasn’t the first time Kevin had played a prank with a hay bale, but unlike last time, the Clark brothers had a plan.
Jacob sneaked around the house and ran along the fence to where it met the road, while Matt ran to the storage shed to start connecting hoses. Peering over the top of the fence, Jacob saw Kevin and his friends—dressed in black—unloading the hay bale only four hundred feet down the road from Jacob’s house.
This would be easy.
Jacob returned to the back of the house and dashed into the shed to help Matt.
“They’re not smart—only four hundred feet or so away,” Jacob said.
Matt laughed. “Idiots.”
They connected the last hose, making one long, five-hundred-foot hose. They’d stocked up on one-hundred-foot-long hoses for this very reason. Jacob grabbed the fire hose nozzle and attached it to the end.
They ran around to the irrigation pump, connected the hose, then turned it on full blast. Matt kinked the hose to build water pressure and the brothers jumped the fence, entering an orchard on the other side. Using the trees for cover, they ran at a low crouch, careful not to be too noisy.
When they got to the edge, they were only fifteen or so feet away from Kevin and his friends, who were just starting to light the hay bale.
Jacob held the hose to help support it, and together, the brothers jumped out of the orchard. Flame was just bursting from the bale, shooting skyward. Matt let loose a war cry, released the kink, and aimed at the fire first, then directed the enormous stream of water at Kevin and his friends. They jumped back in shock.
Kevin yelled and ran straight at Matt, holding his hands over his face. The stream of water was too strong, though, and he backed up behind the hay bale. Some of the other guys tried to get near Matt, but he kept the water trained on them until they gave up.
Finally realizing they wouldn’t be able to attack Jacob and Matt, Kevin and his friends jumped back in the truck and sped away. The brothers high-fived each other, then quickly put the hose away and called the cops.
Kevin would be receiving a visit that night.
Kilenya Series Books 1, 2, and 3 Page 69
