Pranks

Funny story, I got into a prank war at work. There are some people I want to explain so that I can just use their names rather than describe them each time. Clayton is my supervisor. Amy is my co-worker, and usually we clean together. Chris is my co-worker, and we used to clean together usually, but that changed after Amy was hired. Alden is another co-worker who was hired more recently. I trained him (like I trained Amy) but he works with Chris most of the time. There are other co-workers, but these are all the people important to the story. One upon a time, we roll around large trash cans while cleaning the classrooms and usually we leave them out in the hall. On Wednesday, Chris took mine and Amy’s trash can and rolled it down the hall and hid it while we were inside a classroom. We were rather confused. But after calling him a dork the next time we saw him, we brushed it off as nothing. The next day He stole our rags that we had on our trashcan-cart and hid them. Reeeaaaal mature. This time, we decided we needed to get him back. So, we started sneaking our trash into his trash can. (Also, we had to be super sneaky because how this works is we start at one corner of the building and go off different directions.) At some point, we decided that they weren't noticing that we were adding to their trash, so we went and got the bathroom trash and put them in their can. It filled them up. So, we’re going along minding our own business, and all the sudden we get a little paranoid. We decided that we better start taking the trash can into our room with us. So we do. Good thing too, because Clayton later told us that Chris was looking for our trash can, and when he saw Clayton he said, “They must be taking their trash can in the rooms with them.” Back to the moment. We are nearing the end, and we see them poke their head in the door, telling us they’re done. They also said, “You don’t play fair. You’re puppy guarding your trash can. That’s LAME.” Then they leave. About thirty seconds later, we hear a little bang against the door. Amy looks up and says, “I’ll bet that they just blocked the door or something dumb like that.” She was right. They had pushed desks in front of our door, so we had to move them to get out. We made them put them back—we weren't going to clean up after a prank on us. In the meantime, we had moved on past cleaning classrooms and Amy and I were doing entry glass while Chris was vacuuming by the back stairs and Alden was sweeping the outside stairs. That’s when we told them that we hadn't cleaned up. While Chris was gone, we hid his vacuum. But, the real plotting began. The plotting for the next day. Amy and I came up with a brilliant plan. (We’re the kind of pranksters who are clever and psychological…thus the slow filling of the trashcan.) We asked Clayton to please make sure to assign Amy and me to the south hall and assign Chris and Alden to the north hall so that we could prank them. He was super serious in his ‘yes,’ and didn't ask any questions. Amy and I took a minute then and went to steal a cardboard box from the cardboard trash compacter. That evening we met up and created our prank. The next morning, we checked in with Clayton a little early to make sure that he was still on board. We pretended like we were starting our job, but really, we sneaked around to some classrooms that they would get to later and set up. We drew on the boards a progressive comic strip. Here are the pictures of what it looked like.

                     
In the last room, that is a cardboard cutout of a stick figure lion. The words on the board say, “You know what this means? (This being you in the same room as the cardboard lion.) This means you’re in the belly of the beast now. This is WAR!” Also, when they came out of the room (it was the last room they cleaned before running into us, so we saw them) they were smiling at our witty and clever joke. But we had to explain to them that yes, the man ate the lion, but he is the real beast. And now they’re in his stomach too, just like the lion. And then we named the lion Roger. I don’t know where Roger is, but they were saying something about us finding him on Monday (which is the next day we go in to work). I’m excited, but I’m afraid they won’t be clever, they’ll just hide him somewhere. But I think that Roger is going to become a big part of life at work. It’s an exciting job.

Oh, ps, when Amy and I were cleaning entry glass, Clayton came and found us and asked us what we had done to them. He told us about all sorts of pranks he pulled on his co-workers when he worked construction. That’s when he told us about Chris’s trash can moment. And that’s the end of that story…