Sophie the trickster

Sophie's favorite saying is, Fool me once and shame on you, but fool me twice and shame on me. So on April Fools' day, she makes sure to prank her friends at least twice and leave her favorite saying on a note for them as she skips down the hallway and clicks her tongue.

She decided to prank Hester in the morning, Anadil in the afternoon, and Dot at night.

The night before, Sophie had planned and plotted on how to prank her friends from the start to the end. The next day, April Fools' Day, Sophie waited until Hester left her dorm room and stormed down the hall, before Sophie set out to prank her grouchy friend. Hester loved goo and slime, so Sophie rigged up baskets of unicorn mini figures and pink glitter. She attached them to pulleys and cables that slid across the room and would dump them on her head and shoot out pink streamers onto her bed when Hester opened the door. But if anyone else opened the door, the prank wouldn't go off. Sophie also set up pink paint to splash her in the face if she opened the door a second time, and a sign, Fool me once and shame on me, fool me twice and shame on you would pop up with flashing lights. Sophie laughed silently to herself and decided to prank Anadil next.

Anadil had her pet rats in her bed. Sophie swept them out and replaced them with windup chickens. She put the rats in a small birdcage on the ceiling and left a ladder with handles covered in slime to make anyone slip off if they tried to retrieve the rats. On the top of her bunk bed, Sophie put a tripwire on her pillow and dangled robotic spiders with sharp pincers to scare and bite Anadil when she went to bed. Finally, she poured oil on the floor by her bed and silly string sprayers in the closets to spray anyone who dare open the door.

Sophie climbed up to Dot’s top bunk bed and poured vinegar and garlic onto the sheets which stank terribly. Sophie draped goo which hissed and steamed down the railings of the bunk beds, so the girls would get hissed and burned by slime when they lay on their beds. She put legos in Dot’s pillow, and hooked up a water bottle full of mud, ready to tip down onto Dot when she put her head on her pillow, and left a pink and blue box tied with a red satin bow on her table with a jumping spider inside, waiting to attack the first person who lets it loose.

Sophie crept out of the room and quietly tied a tripwire, so thin and clear it was almost invisible, to the doorway to drop basketballs, golfballs, tennis balls and baseballs on their heads if they touched it. She drilled hooks into the ceiling that would bounce up and down, and took the girls’ school books and papers and tied them to the hooks. Now, when Anadil, Dot, and Hester needed their school supplies, they would have to jump and grab their things that would bounce out of reach. Sophie snickered and climbed up to her bed, the only un-pranked one, picked up Good Pranks for Friends and Enemies, lay down, and waited for the traps to go off. 

After Professor Manly’s class, Hester pulled Dot and Anadil aside. “It’s April Fools’ Day!” She warned. “Sophie will be up to her tricks!” 

The girls scampered nervously down the hall. Dot excused herself to go get a snack from the kitchen. Anadil and Hester wondered what Sophie was planning this year. Anadil opened her mouth. “Uh, Hester? I left something in the classroom…” Hester watched her best friend excuse her way out of potentially being pranked. She groaned, and plodded forwards. At the door, Hester reached for the handle then hesitated. She bent down and saw a thin wire running the length of the base of the door. Hester slowly opened the door and stepped carefully over the wire. Foolish Sophie. She thought. I saw her trap! Gleefully, Hester stepped into the room only to be doused in sparkling pink glitter and unicorns. Pink streamers coated her bed, and Hester shrieked and ran from the room. Outside, she brushed the glitter from her hair and heard Sophie call from inside their room. “Hester dear, sorry about the prank! It’s safe to come in now!”

Hester re-opened the door and ducked as a wave of acrylic pink paint shot at her face and splattered against the wall outside. She stormed inside and grumbled as she leaned away from the hissing goo draped over the rail hanging by her bed. Lying down, Hester thought about studying for next week’s test. She reached for her table where her school books usually were and found them gone. 

Anadil snuck out of the classroom she hid in and scampered to her dorm. She opened the door, and tripped on a thin cord. She tried to stand up, but a basketball bonked her in the head. Then, she was hit with balls of all sorts, and howled with frustration as balls piled on top of her, waist deep, not able to be let out since the door was shut. Anadil stumbled through the balls and tried to reach her bunk. Her rats were gone and replaced with wind up chickens. Anadil looked to Hester who had covered her face with her hands in embarrassment. She had glitter dripping from her hair. Anadil heard chittering above her head and saw her rats dangling in the air. Anadil saw a ladder below them but it was slick with something. Guessing it was another trap, Anadil carefully climbed it and reached her rats. She slid down and got rid of the fake chickens. Then, Anadil noticed the box of candy on the floor. She kicked it away when the door creaked open. Dot stuck her head in, only to get whisked away by a horde of rolling balls. Hester winced as she and Anadil heard a thump, thump, thump of Dot rolling down the stairs in a hurricane of balls. Then, Dot opened the door again. She was sore and angry from bouncing down the stairs with rolling balls. Her expression lightened when she saw a box of candy on the floor. “Dot! Don’t! It might be a prank-” Anadil shouted. But Dot already had a fistfull in her mouth. Then, she reddened. “HOT! HOT!” She jumped around shouting. Then, Hester saw their school supplies hanging from the ceiling. She and Anadil  leapt for their things but they missed. Then, Anadil launched herself up. She grabbed her books and they clunked to the ground. “Sophie!” Hester yelled. “Why don’t you come down and help us!” 

When all the pranks had been put away, Sophie had laughed with glee. She had teased Hester, Anadil, and Dot the whole day for falling for her pranks. Sophie plopped down on her bed and the rudest noise echoed throughout the dorm room. Anadil’s rats shrieked with delight and the girls covered their mouths with their hands to hide that they were laughing at Sophie who pulled a whoopie cushion out from inside her pillow. Eventually, the girls got their revenge. Sophie held up the whoopie cushion. She couldn’t wait for the next April Fools’ Day.