None of the Regular Rules by Erin Downing Page B

be the reason someone felt uncomfortable in my car. The lack of appropriate padding in the passenger seat already made it uncomfortable enough; we didn’t need to put him through the third degree, too. I was just as curious as Grace about why Johnny wasn’t at Madison, whooping it up with Mackenzie at the moment, but he could tell us the reason for it on his own time. In the meantime, I looked over at him in the passenger seat and said, “If we could avoid right turns as much as possible on this scavenger hunt, that would be great.”
    Johnny smiled at me gratefully. “We will make it a specific part of our evening’s mission to avoid right turns,” he said quickly. “We eventually need to get to Sammy’s, the one on Park Drive.” Sammy’s was the best pizza place in town—really, the only one that wasn’t Godfather’s or Domino’s.
    Peter worked as a delivery guy at Sammy’s. We all knew this because Ella spent most of her babysitting money on Sammy’s delivery, on the off chance that Peter would deliver it to her. I don’t know if she fantasized that maybe he would realize she was the love of his life as he handed her a white cardboard box. At any rate, we ate a few too many pizzas. I knew Johnny had worked at Sammy’s, too. He’d delivered a few of the pizzas we’d ordered over the years.
    Johnny pointed to the left, at the road that led past the old, abandoned elementary school. “If we hang a left here, this road will gradually get us up the hill and we won’t have to take any sharp turns at all.” Again, I followed his directions. “Impressed?”
    “Very,” I said. Grace leaned back in her seat again, obviously disappointed that I’d staved off the gossip.
    When we got to Sammy’s, I spotted Peter’s car in the lot. It was a tiny, old sports car, the kind with flashy spoilers and an ugly yellow paint job. Ella held her boobs a little higher and peered anxiously out the window at the pizza shop. A few minutes later, Peter emerged from the glass front doors with a stack of five insulated pizza warmers and headed toward his car. Johnny motioned for us all to stay quiet and duck down. “Nice! He’s got a multirun. This is going to be perfect. If you want a pizza, you’ve got to trust me and get your sneak on,” he said.
    I looked back over my shoulder at Ella and Grace, who were giving each other a questioning look in the backseat. They both looked at me warily. Grace was probably nervous about getting in trouble, and Ella was probably concerned about what Johnny was planning to do to the love of her life.
    “Now follow him,” Johnny instructed, popping up and giggling as Peter’s car sailed out of the parking lot and down the hill. “Give him a little lead time so he doesn’t hear your car. We’re not exactly incognito in this beast.”
    “Respect the car,” I cautioned. “I don’t know what you have in mind, but your revenge is made possible thanks to my vehicle.”
    “Ooh, look,” Johnny said happily, when Peter pulled up in front of a white stucco house with a long, curving front walk. “He’s making his first delivery already. Now turn off your lights,” he instructed. I did as I was told. “Okay, just pull up as close as you can to his car, and try not to get noticed. When I get back in the car, we all need to hide. Got it?”
    I cringed. “Got it.”
    “Don’t worry,” he said, recognizing my anxiety. “No one will get hurt.”
    Peter got out of his car and made his way to the front door of the stucco house. He’d left his car running, and it was obviously unlocked. Johnny opened the front door of my car noiselessly and slipped outside, crouching down next to the passenger’s side door. As soon as the front door to the house opened, Johnny scooted up to Peter’s car and opened the back door. By the time Peter had turned to walk back to his car, Johnny was already back in my car with a pizza in hand.
    He was grinning and giggling. A moment later, Peter was in his