Foot Me Once, Break Me Twice

It was the end of March and Maggie was keeping a wary eye on the calendar. Her least favorite so-called holiday was coming up and she was going to be sure no one was going to get her on April Fool's day this year. She just knew her brother and cousins had something planned for her. She just hated, absolutely hated, getting duped ! Didn't they understand that? Couldn't they see that being pranked made her feel so dumb and like such an idiot ! Well, she'd show them. It was just not going to happen this year. She was going to be on extra alert, all day long! She had notifications set on her phone to remind her that it was April Fool's day and she had post-it notes all through her apartment and on her desk and computer at work and even in her car! She was ready this time.

Ever since her grandpa passed away and they couldn't prank him any more on April Fool's day, they started to get her each year. She tried complaining to her parents but they just smiled and patted her on her shoulder. It was infuriating. She didn't understand how her grandpa just laughed it off and thought it was all hysterical. He might have sworn like a sailor when her brother switched his ice cream for mashed potatoes on April Fool's the one year but then they just laughed like lunatics afterwards. She just didn't get it.

The day arrived. She got up and got ready for work and was on high alert. Usually it was some kind of phone call with some kind of made up emergency. So she kept her cell phone ready. If it wasn't that, it was one of them showing up unexpectedly, needing her to take them to the ER with some type of emergency. Nope, she wasn't falling for that this year either. She got to work and got busy with her project she was working on and thought it was strange that she hadn't heard from any of them yet. She thought that one of them might show up at work now and that gave her all kinds of anxiety at the thought of having to explain that to her co-workers or having to tell her boss she would have to leave work to take them to the ER only to find out it was a prank. "Ohhh, those rats", she thought, "even when they aren't actually doing something, they're causing me stress."

She made it through the morning and it got to be lunchtime. She shot her mom a text and asked how she was doing and if she'd heard from her brother today. Her mom replied and said "no, honey, why? did you need him to call you?" she texted back that she didn't and frowned at her phone. She couldn't understand what was going on.

Her day went on and she tried to forget about it all (even though her desk was covered in post-it notes with April Fool's Day written all over them) and focus on her work at hand. She successfully got through the rest of her day and prepared to leave her office for the day. She stopped for a minute before she left and was shocked to realize that she hadn't heard from her brother or cousins at all. They hadn't shown up to embarrass her or caused any type of ruckus or tried to prank her. She really didn't understand this day at all. She shrugged her shoulders and cautiously drove home because she figured that's where they'd get her. Surely, there'd be some kind of nasty surprise or something waiting for her there.

She got out of her car when she got home and decided she would walk around her house first before going in and see if there was anything that looked out of place. Plus, it gave her time to think about what was going on. She went inside and did the same thing inside. Waiting for one of them to jump out and scare her or for her phone to ring or any of the above-mentioned scenarios to play out. Nothing happened. Now her nerves were just shot and she was exhausted and to be honest, confused. They've never gone a year and not tried something.

Her evening remained uneventful. She couldn't believe. All the hype and all the drama she created for herself was for nothing. They didn't even try anything. She called her mom and asked her point blank "Mom, why didn't the boys try anything this year for April Fool's day today?" and her Mom replied "Honey, this isn't April Fool's day. Today is April 2nd" and Maggie replied "No, it's not, Mom, I have notes everywhere reminding me that today is April Fool's day so that I would be ready for them this year" and her Mom again tried to convince her that it was really April 2nd. She looked at her phone and it said April 1st. Now that was really strange. "Mom", she said "My phone says April 1st" her mom sighed and said "Maggie, honey, are you ok? you've been working too hard. You need to make a Dr's appointment. It's April 2nd." Maggie hung up then after a few more minutes and decided to try to get some sleep. She woke up again and it was morning! She slept the whole way through the night without eating dinner or changing her clothes or anything. She looked at her phone and her phone said clearly "April 2nd"

Now, she didn't know what to think. She was really confused and started to worry about herself. She decided to call her brother and tell him what happened. She explained everything to him and he started to laugh and she said "what, why are you laughing?" he finally stopped long enough to choke out "that was the April Fool's prank this year. Our cousin hacked your phone and messed up the date for you to make you think you were crazy." Maggie was stunned into silence before she started stuttering "he what? he can do that?" and "what is the actual date?" only to hear her brother laughing like a loon at her. She couldn't believe it. "You just wait", she said "It's time for paybacks"