Tomorrow was Halloween, and that was strictly for candy. Tonight, Mischief Night, Don and his friends Gene and Mark had two missions: minor mischief to people they knew—mostly soaping windows and tossing toilet paper, but last year they cut through back yards and tossed an egg against the back wall of Jeff Foche's house because he'd tripped Gene during recess the day before, making Gene scrape up his palms—minor injury, but tripping someone running past you is chickenshit, even though it's also hilarious. The egg stain was still there. The second, cooler mission was to patrol the block, pails of ice cubes in hand to throw at foes (friends were spared) trying to do any mischief. They stood on the sidewalk in front of Gene's house—being quiet because his mom was sick—and scanned their short block, about twenty houses total before emptying on cross-streets, and spotted someone standing in front of a car parked on the curb at one end of the block. They ran up and saw it was a girl they didn't know; she was pouring a can of Hershey's Syrup on the hood of the car.
They chucked ice in silence as she yelled, "Hey you shits cut it out!" They kept at it until she retreated, disappearing around the corner.
"I got her first."
"Bounced one off her head."
"Ran like a squirrel, right?"
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