Of Buckets and Bloody Knees.

A boarding school is never the best place to sleep early, especially when a million pranks can be pulled on you.

Well, I made that mistake, and I got a bucket of water thrown at me. Serves me well. But I wanted to serve that guy who did it something even more special: Erick Hansen, I knew it since saw him running away frantically. Oh, I was going to ALS ice-bucket challenge him in a way that he was going to remember for the rest of his life. However, I needed a time. Well, on the first day of spring, which our school told was 19^th of March, was a no school day. It was also the name of our house. Let’s do it that day, I thought.

Well, I forgot that it was holiday and I slept till 12:00. Damn. I’m still going to get that guy. I knew exactly where to go. First place, the janitor’s room for the bucket. I went out of my room and traipsed down the stairs. My knees are always weak after I wake up and-yes. I fell down the last one. “Dude, you ok?” came the voice of Josh. “Yeah bro, all cool.” “Dude, you’ve got blood leaking out of your knee.” “Well, no pain, no gain.” “Okay I guess.” I weaseled my way out of that one. However, “Crap. I’m actually bleeding.” I said to myself. However, I pushed That thought to the side and quickly changed into some pants, and I started walking down the corridor. People were already using their smartphones, playing games, whereas I was about to throw ice water on a guy. I found the janitor’s room, but surprisingly, the door was not locked. Damn, I brought the lockpick for no reason.

I open it-and oh my god, stood there was Erick, the guy that pranked me in the first place. And he was smoking. “Dude, what the hell?” he whisper-shouted. “You’re the one that’s smoking.” “You’re the one who opened the Janitor’s door without his permission.” “As if he gave you any consent.” I countered. “As it turns out, the Janitor is my supplier.” Woah. All this new information, and my mind was ready to blast. Erick, the guy who acts the least weird around people, who never looks high, is a smoker. And the janitor supplies him. “What’s that anyway?” I asked. “Weed. Just get out, will you?” Erick replied, sitting back down. “Hold on. I just need a bucket. I’m painting something big for the house, and I need a mold.” “Reminds of what happened to you yesterday. You figure out who did it?” Oh, that little bastard. The quantity of water just got increased by 500ml. “No. Whoever did it is a loser who just wants to spoil other people’s lives because he does not have one of his own.” Playground insults, but I just woke up. “Ok.” He said a little uneasily. “Your knee’s bleeding, dude.” He said as soon as I pushed open the door. Crap, I wore white pants. “I know.” Was my reply.

Got out that one, phew. Next stop was to get some ice, normally I’d take some snow but it’s spring. However, there’s an infirmary in the campus, and I have a good enough relationship with one of the nurses that she can provide me ice whenever I want. I took out my cycle and sped off to the infirmary. As I pulled up to the building, I parked the cycle and I pushed open the frosted glass door. The smell of medicines and blood floated up to my nose. I hated those smells. I walked into the nurse’s quartet and I asked Julie, the nurse, for some ice. “What do you need ice for?” she asked in her strong southern accent. Oh, you know, just to brutally take revenge on a heavy smoker that emptied a bucket of water on me yesterday. Instead, I said, “Oh, you know, just for water. I’ll take it all at once, so I won’t need to keep coming back, and many of my friends want it too.” Julie raised her eyebrows but complied and led me to a room in the back. “Take just one bag, they’re in the compartment to the left.” I nodded thankfully.

When I go to said compartment, you’d never guess who was there.

“Erick! What the hell!” it was my turn to whisper-shout. Erick was sitting on top of the ice compartment, digging through the packets. Erick turned around, looking mightily surprised. “What are you doing here?” was Erick’s response. “I’m-uh-looking for ice for my bleeding knee!” I said. “Dude, you haven’t even cleaned your wound.” “I’m just doing it now, so I don’t need to do It later, obviously.” I replied, trying to be convincing. “Whatever you say, bro.” he half-laughed. “Okay, fine. What are you doing here?” I countered. I thought he would stall and stutter, but no. “I’ve hidden some-” “Oh, ok, don’t finish.” I said. I pushed his hand away and took a packet of ice, and I exited that room.

Having got out of that, I cycled into the bright, burning afternoon sun, and I went back to my room. I had the bucket and I hd the ice, all I needed was some water. I needed to do it discreetly, and I did not want to run in to Erick again. I chose a spot right outside the field, where the pitch-maintainer-guy kept a hose handy. Now, Erick was not a sporty person, so I was pretty sure I would not meet him again.

And I was right. No one was there, so I placed my bucket underneath the hose outlet, and I turned open the tap. The water was rushing fast, thankfully, so I didn’t need to wait long. After a sometime, the bucket was full, and, well, it was heavy.

WAYYY too heavy.

As I tried to lift it up, you’d never guess who bumped into me.

“Okay, dude, you need to stop following me.” I told Erick. “Look, I do this every holiday. You’re the one that’s coming in and messing everything up. You still have not healed your bloody knee and what do you need this much water for?” Erick said angrily. I set down the bucket of water as slowly as possible to thin of what to stay. “Look, I want to take revenge on Nathan. I think he pranked me.” I said, a brilliant idea popping onto my mind. There was a strange glint in Erick’s eye that was not because of the weed. “Let’s do it. Anyways you can’t lift this thing up by yourself.” “I’m not so sure, man, I think that two people carrying a bucket would look suspicious.” “Don’t worry. We’ll just tell them that-uh-we’re planting a ton of trees.” Erick said. Huh, not bad. “Fine. But if anything goes wrong, it’s all on you.”

So, we began, awkwardly carrying the bucket up the stairs, pausing at the top to dunk the ice I kept into the water, before resuming. We made to the hostel stairs where we met Nathan. When Erick was stretching, I winked at Nathan. Erick noticed Nathan. “Hey Nathan, mind coming here for a second?” Nathan saw the gestures I was making and nodded to me. “What happened?” Nathan asked. Erick began, “Well, you see, I was going-” as soon as he blinked, Nathan and I picked up the bucket and emptied it on Erick.

We ran like we never ran before, and as we reached the mess, we stopped. Nathan looked at me and we both started laughing.

Mission complete.