Lucky Girl by Jamie Pacton (novels for beginners txt) 📕

tapes,” says Holden. “Then I’ll know who bought the winning ticket, and I can find them. Do you know what I could do with all that money?”

Surveillance tapes?

Well. That shoves all other thoughts about lost love out of my mind.

Banks doesn’t ask the questions I’m dying to know: What tapes? I thought there were no surveillance tapes. And once Holden’s got the tapes, what will he do? Would he really be able to find out I was the one who bought the ticket? Surely not.

Nevertheless, it’s not a chance I’m willing to take. Meaning, I have break into Wanda’s before he does.

Perfect. Just perfect. If I wasn’t a criminal already, I’m certainly well on my way to that now.

I bite my lip to keep from screaming as Holden and Banks walk away and a cornstalk digs into my shoulder. As soon as they’re gone, I set off to find Bran.

I come across him near the tower where, indeed, there are still more jerks with water balloons. Holden and Banks are up there too now, and Holden waves down at me.

“Cut that out!” I shout as Banks lobs a water balloon in my direction. I dodge out of the way, but the balloon hits Bran. Bran swears loudly as it soaks his jacket.

“You all need to get out of here,” shouts Bran. He takes a picture of them, while Holden grabs Banks’s arm and stops him from throwing another balloon in our direction.

One more balloon flies past my head, but somehow Holden convinces the other boys to stop flinging them. They shuffle down the tower steps, and Holden drops a bucket of water balloons at my feet.

“For you, my lady,” he says with a wink. “Didn’t know you were working tonight or we wouldn’t have come. I don’t want you to get into trouble.”

It’s hard not to believe him, but I just cross my arms and point toward the path out of the maze. “Goodbye. You’re banned until next season.”

Holden laughs and waves over his shoulder. “Talk to you later, Jane! Text me.”

I pick up a water balloon and lob it at their backs, but it just lands on the cornstalks with a splat.

“Text me,” says Bran mockingly, as we clean up pieces of smashed balloons.

“Ugh. Never again,” I say. Quickly, I fill him in on what I overheard Holden saying, including why Holden has been hanging out with me and his plan to break into Wanda’s. Bran makes an indignant noise at the part about Holden’s treachery, and his eyes widen in surprise when I get to the part about the surveillance tapes.

“I knew it! I knew there’d be tapes!” Bran starts pacing. “What are we going to do about it?”

I grab his arm, stopping him midstride. “I was thinking we break into Wanda’s tomorrow and get the tapes before Holden does. Are you in?”

Bran’s face lights up. “You mean, do I want to get more information for this story and beat Holden at something? You don’t even need to ask me twice. Let’s do this.”

Before I can say anything else, a Halloween-haunt actor dressed as a zombie carrying a fake chainsaw comes racing toward us. We do the first thing any soon-to-be-criminal team would and start flinging water balloons over our shoulders while running for the safety of the pumpkin-farm café.

HOW TO PLAN A HEIST PREPARED BY JANE BELLEWEATHER

Okay.

If we’re going to steal the tapes before Holden, we better learn how to commit a crime. Or a heist. Or whatever.

Luckily, the Internet is full of helpful information about criminals who have succeeded.

This is what I’ve learned so far:

First, obviously, if you’re breaking in somewhere, be sure to have a way out. Sure, this seems like Crime 101, but a ridiculous amount of criminals get caught simply because they didn’t figure out how to walk away.

Second, make sure you have a good team. It helps to have someone on the inside, which I don’t. But Bran is at home right now doing his own research, so I know he’ll be prepared.

Third, go through all the ways the plan could work out and all the ways it could fail, like, a dozen times.

Fourth, disappearing in plain sight or into a crowd is a great diversion. In 2006, four criminals stole $50 million worth of art from a museum in Rio de Janeiro during carnival. They disappeared into the crowds, and they still haven’t been caught.

Now that the Harvest Festival is over, I’m not sure Lakesboro can generate crowds of any size, but maybe if we go when everyone else in town is busy …

Fifth, be sure to have enough gear. Depending on what you’re trying to steal and where it’s secured, you might need ropes, glass cutters, tools to break stone, bags to remove debris …

But let’s be honest. Getting into Wanda’s to steal a surveillance tape might not need as much tech as Mission: Impossible or Ocean’s 8.

CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

ON FRIDAY NIGHT, EVERYONE IN TOWN IS AT THE HOMECOMING football game. It’s the Lakesboro Honey Badgers versus the Carlsburg Cobras. Because we are not a subtle town, every window in downtown is painted with variants of honey badgers eating cobras. Normally, I’d be at the game with everyone else, but alas, no honey-badger rallying cries are happening tonight.

Tonight, Bran and I are heisting.

Sort of.

It’s the perfect time to break into Wanda’s. Downtown is mostly empty—there are only three cars parked on the street, no one is walking around, and the diner and the hair salon both have signs in the window: Gone to the game, open again tomorrow. The sun is already down, and it’s dark enough that we should be able to slip into Wanda’s unseen.

I can hear the news announcer now: “It was a perfect October night in a perfect small town. Perfect for a crime, that is …”

Despite my nerves, I laugh out loud at that.

“What?” says Bran in a voice that’s stretched thin. We’re walking toward Wanda’s, both of us jumpy.

“Nothing,” I say