It's All Fun and Games Until

[BetaKnight]

((Any and all God Modding has been expressly approved for the duration of this post.))

She stood at the rear of her car, trying to look nonchalant and casual. Of course, it was hard to look like you belonged in the high school parking lot at night. Hopefully the others would arrive soon so they could take this shindig indoors.

The contents of the cardboard box in the back seat rustled again in its disconcerting way. Opening the rear door, she eyed the box warily. "Don't worry, guys. You'll be free soon. Free to roam and hide as much as your little hearts desire."

He walked across the parking lot holding the bag tightly to his side so that the aerosol chalk cans wouldn't bang together and draw any more attention to him. He'd parked down the block, figuring that five cars in the parking lot might draw attention to them. He waved at...What was her code name again?

Right, Mr. Blonde. He flashed her a wide grin. "Are we the only ones here so far," he asked softly.

She looked up at the sound of the familiar voice and gave a little squeal of delight. Clearing her throat, she tried to compose herself. "Mr. Blue," she acknowledged with a nod. "Glad to see you could make it to this little shindig. Did you bring your party favors?"

She patted one of the cardboard boxes quickly and then rubbed the palm of her hand on her shorts. The thought of coming into physical contact with the contents freaked her out. "As you can see, I have mine."

With a smirk, she poked at the crates. A silent prayer to whatever deity was listening that none of the creatures escaped and she was ready to roll. "Once the others get here, we can get this party started."

Walking towards the two, Mr. White chuckled softly over the nicknames. "Mr. White" was especially funny, because she was not male or, for that matter, white. Whatever. Reservoir Dogs was a pretty good movie. Not her usual thing, but her friends liked Tarantino, so she'd seen a good deal of his stuff. Picking the names had been a bit of an odd choice; after all, wouldn't it be better to reference a heist which actually, say, went off without a hitch?

Still, that wasn't what was important. What mattered was that this was going to go down in the annals of Aurora lore as the most epic stunt ever pulled. Mr. White had kept her head down pretty well for the four years of high school, despite her little extracurricular escapades. It seemed only fitting to try something a little more daring for one last hurrah. Okay, so maybe her heart wasn't really in it. She was known for this sort of thing, though, and she wanted to be remembered at the reunions for something epic. She didn't want to fade into obscurity, didn't want to be the girl with no good stories to share at the graduation parties. If the price of being interesting was vandalism a few steps up from her normal, well, so be it.

She kept the paper bag close to her side, kept her head down, brim of the baseball cap she'd appropriated for the evening down low. She'd considered a mask, but that would have made visibility a pain, and the worst thing in the world would be to get busted like a Scooby Doo villain.

"Eeeeeey, caballeros..." The artist formerly known as not-Prince and currently known as Mr. Pink sauntered up to the group, wearing a ridiculous sombrero. "Mr. Pink, at your service! I'd say it in Spanish if I could remember just what the heck the word for 'pink' was!" Mr. Pink giggled, only to remember about halfway through that they were trying to be quiet.

"Sorry," he practically squeaked in a much softer tone than the one he was using before. "Anyway, everybody got everything? I grabbed glue, but... well, I hope it doesn't bother you guys if I switch off with somebody. I'll take the chalk or whatever but don't wanna be doing the gluing first hand. You understand, right?"

Mr. Orange grinned as he approached the parking lot. This was a great plan. Not only would senior year be going out in a memorable fashion, but he'd be part of what was sure to go down in Aurora High History as the greatest senior year prank of all time. Sure, vandalism wasn't his usual game- he liked to think of himself as a pretty upstanding guy, actually. But was it really vandalism if you were just having a bit of fun? Wasn't like anyone was getting hurt, after all.

Although PETA might get a bit pissed, come to think of it.

As he approached the group, he balked a bit. "Dude, are you wearing a sombrero?" He asked...uh. Wait. "You're Pink, right? I should have kept better track of who was who."

He shrugged to himself. He liked Mr. Orange- after all, Orange was awesome- but there was something a touch unsettling about sharing a name with the guy who spent the entire movie bleeding out of a stomach wound.

He nodded to the other three. "Blue, White," he said, mostly sure that he was right about those two. "Blonde," he said grinning at the last conspirator. "Right, if we're gonna do this, let me make one thing clear. There's no way I'm gonna get stuck in the middle with you." He laughed to himself.

After a second, he cleared his throat. Time to be serious. "Alright, I assume everyone brought what was needed?" He turned to Mr. Pink. As much as actually harming school property seemed like a really bad idea, he knew it had to be done. If Pink wasn't gluing, someone would have to pick up the slack. "I'll glue for you, no problem."

He squared his shoulders, nodding at the building with a smirk. "We ready?"

"Oh, I'm so ready for this." Mr. Blue rubbed his hands together and chuckled evilly. "I'm thinking it'll be smart for us to split up. That way we can get the most chaos accomplished in the shortest amount of time. I'm up for either the air fresheners or the shower heads, just because they're fairly easy for me to reach."

"Got a problem with the sombrero, hombre?" Mr. Pink asked with a chuckle in his voice. "The way I see it, it's the best way to keep any surveillance off my face. But, uh, yeah! I'm with Blue on the whole fresheners or shower heads things. We can divvy it up or you can just pick one, I really don't care!"

Mr. Blonde flashed the group a thumbs up. "I could use a hand with my boxes, if nobody minds. I got help at home loading them into the car. I know this was my idea and all but they just really creep me the hell out."

She shivered slightly at the thought of releasing the thousand or so crickets from their confines. They would be everywhere. Grimacing with distaste, she gingerly grabbed the first box and set it on the trunk. She paused to wipe her hands on her shorts again before reaching into the pocket of her hoodie.

"Here are the zip-ties for the lockers and the furniture. There's a bunch here for everyone." With a flourish, she pulled out several thick bundles of zip-ties and offered them to her co-conspirators.

"Mr. Orange and I will get started with the gluing and helping Mr. White with the swapping out the air fresheners. Why don't you and Mr. Blue hit the locker rooms first and do the voodoo with the dye, Mr. Pink? You guys are taller and won't need to stand on chairs or anything to get the job done," she rationalized.

Mr. Blonde grinned impishly at her group and waved the zip-ties at them. "Then we can all regroup in the Student Center and lock up the lower classes lockers. After all, many hands should make light work. And then as we get ready to make our grand exit, we can release The First Annual Aurora High Cricket Convention. Sound good?"

"I'm freaking five feet, six inches!" Mr. Pink protested, "but I had every intention of doing the shower heads anyway because it sounds flipping hilarious." The shower heads weren't even that out of reach, really. He had seen them. He could pull the head around to re-direct the water when he used the showers for gym, so he could certainly undo it and screw around with putting dye inside.

"I'll help you carry them as long as you promise me that they'll stay in their boxes. They creep me out too. Hand me some of those zip-ties," Mr. Blue said, coming over with an outstretched hand. "Pink and I'll also need dye. Let's do this!"

Mr. Blonde gratefully handed over a box of crickets to Mr. Blue and picked up a box of her own. "Ladies and gentlemen, lets go and give the senior class of Aurora High a send-off that will not soon be forgotten!"

<><><><><><><><>

Mrs. Freeman scowled at the trio of seniors in her office. They squirmed as she continued to stare at them. For a week now she had been overseeing the cleaning up of the mess left by the vandals now seated before her. She slowly paced behind them, going over the damage list in her mind.

"As nearly everyone in this school is well-aware of, someone snuck onto the campus after hours and carried out their own little reign of devastation. I do not want to think about the amount of time, energy, and money it has cost us to try and repair that handiwork." She slowly circled the grouping of chairs, leaning in a bit to loom at the students.

One of the girls shifted nervously in her seat and was glared at by the others. Good. They should be nervous. Hopefully she would be able to get them to turn on each other.

She continued in a low, almost casual tone. "Luckily, most of the damage was negligible. The food coloring that stained the grout of the locker room showers has been mostly bleached away, and it should finish fading on the skin of the more fair-skinned students in the next day or two. The aerosol spray chalk in the restroom air fresheners was messy, especially when those first few students tracked it all over in their excitement. But that too, has been taken care of and the standard canisters are again where they belong. It did seem a bit of overkill to do it to every air freshener in every restroom on all three floors."

She paused and watched the little group. They were staring resolutely ahead at the diplomas and awards behind her desk. Time to turn the heat up a bit.

With deliberate and unhurried steps, she made her way around to her desk. Mrs. Freeman made sure to make eye contact with each of the seniors in front of her before she sat down. "However, the other acts of vandalism were not as easily corrected. There are still crickets being found on a daily basis in classrooms and lockers. I had a sophomore nearly knock out some inattentive freshman with her backpack when she swung her bag to get the bug off. We are going to have to fumigate the building to ensure that they are all eliminated. Do you children have any idea the amount of damage those bugs can cause if left unchecked?"

No response from the trio in front of her. All three of them shifted their gaze, looking anywhere other than at her but still not a one of them spoke. "And speaking of cost, that brings us to the matter of the doorstops. My horde of little vandals essentially glued closed all of the classrooms in the science hall by gluing down the doorstops mounted on the doors while the doors were closed. You would not believe the panic that set in the next morning when those teachers were unable to open those doors." One of the girls snorted and tried to choke down a laugh while the boy fought to hide a smile.

Ah, good. They were right where she wanted them. "Yes, it is funny when you think about it. But you see, ladies and gentleman, I didn't think any of this was funny. I have stated that daily during morning announcements. And now, thanks to the security cameras, I know who has done these terrible things to our beloved school." She leaned forward and graced them with a humorless smile. "Did the five of you not consider the cameras when you set out on this little venture, children?"

Without waiting for an answer, she continued. "Against Mr. Rasmussen's better judgment, I'm going to offer complete and total amnesty to the first person to provide me with the names of the other two who were with you."

The silence in the room was palpable. The trio exchanged nervous glances, gauging who would be the first to crumble. Mrs. Freeman could tell that no one wanted to be the first, but she was counting on the fact that common sense and self-preservation would win out over any misguided notions of camaraderie. She began tapping her index finger on her desk.

The seconds loudly ticked by and turned into several minutes. "Miss Banneman? Mr. Dorsey? This is the one offer of leniency that will be made. It would be silly not to take advantage of it." The two band students swallowed but said nothing.

She turned to Emily. Of the three, it made the most sense for Emily to fold. "Miss Nakoa, be sensible. If you just give me the names of your two compatriots, senior trip and graduation would still be available to you," she gently prompted. "I won't have to contact your parents and involved them in this issue."

This was met with more silence. So that is how they wanted to play this, was it? Frustrated, Mrs. Freeman slammed her hand down on the desktop. Genie, Cody, and Emily all jumped. "I want those names, and I want them now. Who else was with you?"

Genie opened her mouth but clamped it shut as Mr. Delgado opened the office door. He surveyed the scene with concern. "What was the bang? Is everything okay in here?"

Mrs. Freeman sighed and pinched the bridge of her nose. She was certain that the Banneman girl had been about to tell her who the other two participants were until Henry opened the door. "Everything is fine. Our little Breakfast Club here has invoked their Fifth Amendment rights, apparently. Since they are refusing to cooperate, you can take them away to In-School Detention while I contact their parents and set up meetings."

Taking a deep breath, she leaned back in her chair and steepled her fingers in front of her. "Well, ladies and gentleman, beginning today, the three of you are suspended for the next five days. Of course, a suspension of that duration will automatically make you ineligible for all senior privileges, including commencement ceremonies. I will be contacting your parents to set up meetings with them to discuss the financial compensation that will be required. Unless..." she trailed off, waving a single hand at them in invitation.

Her offer was met with three steely, resolute faces. So be it, then. Shaking her head, Mrs. Freeman huffed and dismissed them with a resigned gesture. "Take them away, Mr. Delgado."

Once the door swung shut, she slumped and sighed again. She really hated this part of her job.

((Apologies for the skittles post, but it was necessary for narrative purposes.))