Unconventional

The day was shining. The pranks start on the morning of the first of April. Mark got up and saw next to him the calendar which showed the day that everybody hates and loves. From the start of the day his mom said good morning with a biter smile shadowed by the sad and emotionless look on her face. She put the eggs who were cooking on the stove in his plate and looked in the plate as if it was some puzzle. Mark sat on the chair and happily ate his breakfast. He looked at his mom and said: “I know that it hasn’t been easy, but we shouldn’t be sad we will only make him sad.”

“I know I am just thinking that’s all”

“If you want we can go, see brother after school at one o’clock.”

“Yes that will be a good idea.”

As he was eating his eggs he looked from a picture taken from when his brother was studying for college. He looked at it and gave it a smile as he was looking at free Disneyland tickets. He got up, kissed his mom for goodbye, took his bag and went to take the bus. 

When he finally made it to school and got out of the bus his friend Panda slapped him on the back of his head. Mark looked behind and saw his best friend. 

“Hey Marky, how are you doing, happy valentines day.”

“You mean April fools’.”

“OOWWW yeah, sorry my bad. Anyways it’s not that great when your family are into doing pranks as mine.”

“Yes, I can see they pranked you while they were choosing your name.”

“At least my name is original, if you go to a bus there will at least be two Marks.”

Mark thought ‘That was Panda Fillips, one of the loudest and weird guys that a man can meet. He is dressed again with his purple long sleeve shirt and a yellow tie with beards on it.’

He was born the youngest in a family of crazy people. His parents are very outspoken people and never would lie for anything and that’s sometimes a problem. His parent’s were even stranger than him, especially when it came down to names. Even though that Panda is a pretty bizarre name. On the first day of school when the teacher saw his name she thought that some eight grader was playing a prank on her, so she couldn’t believe that was actual name. It is a bizarre name, but from his brothers and sisters he was the lucky one, his sister's name was Life and his brother's name was Awesome, not that it is super, but that’s his actual name. But they were let off lightly in comparison to his oldest brother, who because that was their first child they wanted to make the perfect life for him in their home before he leaves. So the idea was born and he was called House and I am not making that up it is on the name certificate. But everyone calls him home for short. 

As they went in they saw that the school was nothing but people hitting people with pies and confetti. If the breakfast club was here they would be like at home. It was a mess. The school lets students do such weird things and make the school look like a clown party. The place was like a minefield even Arnold Schwarzenegger will have trouble maneuvering. Panda and Mark were able to maneuver, but not without casualties Panda was hit in the back with some pie.

“A dang it Tommy got me, he isn’t the best basketball player in the school for nothing you know”

“You think you can survive this critical hit.”

“I will survive that, but I will go clean my shirt. You don’t die on me.”

Mark sat on his chair next to his desk and was looking at the clock thinking, while looking so focused that it looked like a five year old which is looking at her dad who is eating her brownies which they bought. So while he was looking like an owl he heard one of his classmates Leni, screaming in the distance. Mark went to investigate and saw how three bullies were ganging up on him. Mark went there with a calm demeanor, even though that the situation was far past calm. 

“What’s happening her?”

“Why do you care?” said Rony, the gang leader.

“Well I think that you are a little bit aggressive, what did she do to anger you as your pen stops working during a test.”

“Don’t tell such stupid and silly thing you are usually much more sharp thunged than that. You always act like that on this day.”

“Thursday?”

“No, on the first of April. Anyways that little nerd deserved it she tied a rope to my belt and the door and made me fall. I looked like an idiot because of her!”

“That’s a little bit too exaggerated, isn’t it.”

“Yea you don’t need me to look like an idiot.” said Leni.

“Oww now you are going to get it girly.”

Panda jumped like he was walking on fire and made a blockade in front of Mark and Leni.

“Hey big boy why don’t you shut your uneducated mouth and go destroy your lungs by smoking in the parking lot.”

“Hello bear boy.”

“Hey the name is Panda and at least the name of a clown right Ronald McDonald.”

“I want to be called Rony not Ronald. So go to your brother bears and sleep and eat all day, even that’s more than you do every day.”

“Now you are going to get it.”

“Mr. Paul!”

“Ms. Anderson! Sorry about that.”

“You better be going to your classes. Especially you mister Ronald.”

“Yes maám.” said Ronald.

All of them went to their classes.

“You ok Leni?”

“Yes he is lucky that he had his two goons or I was going to kick his butt.”

“Ok, you want to call him to have a rematch.”

“Hahaha Panda. But preferably not.”

“That’s what I thought”

“Hey that wasn't nice Panda.” said Mark.

“And what’s up with, normally you were going to say the stuff that Panda said even worse.”

“Not today.”

“Whatever. Thanks, again”

As Miss Anderson came in everybody closed their mouths and listened to her. Leni who was a normal girl with a weird sense of justice she wasn’t a very outspoken person, even though she was more than normal people, but on this day she usually makes the worst pranks to the people who have wronged the school or her classmates. Rony was a lucky one because he didn’t have very bad pranks compared to others. He was a boy with no borders to hold him. He usually didn’t speak with his classmates; he had other friends from his previous school. His father won the lottery and because of that there was still money left from the house renovating and buying a better car so he sent his son to a better school. It was the best school in which he could go compared to his grades, he wasn’t the shining star of the school. And the one who with stare and voice could even make North America split in two. She was a person of reality she didn’t like this day because it wasn’t serious, even though deep inside she just hit somebody with a pie in the face, especially this man was Panda. She didn’t like the creativity she liked the formal approach, that’s why she became a math teacher and she hated and loved Panda and his brothers. Panda and his brothers were the worst and yet the best thing happened to her. She didn't like weird names so she gave them other normal names that she thought that were good. And even though that because of their recklessness that she needed to always shout because of them. So will say that is the thing that she hated most after untied shoelaces. But in actuality that was the only thing keeping her sane and not being bored out of her mind. 

As the day progressed and more minutes passed, more people were covered in cream, some were students, some were teachers, but everyone at least had fun.

As the first class ended everyone went to the cafeteria to have a snack, but that was the most dangerous place to be as some of the spots were dead traps. The seats were like pedophiles, just waiting to make a mistake and grab you by the butt. As many students paid the cleaners during the late hours if they could stay and set traps and they said “no” to most people, but if you were a person with a dollar then it was another word. You needed to be precise. Your chair might have glue, a nail, whoopee cushion or in the extreme cases fireworks and you don’t want the third one, a high schooler got pranked ones like that he couldn’t walk without looking like a sideways crab. 

As people were being pranked and some were being catapulted in the distance one of the girls shouted Charly pooped herself. As Mark and Panda were maneuvering and trying not to lose their pants to strong glue, they turned and for their surprise someone put brown paint on Charlie Brown's usual spot. And even though she had the name of the cute peanut she was more like dragon fruit looking gorgeous and cool, but in actuality it’s nothing, but a tasteless, one sided, bad tasting, very expensive, one sided fruit. She was the typical mean girl everyone has grown to hate from Disney films. She looked at Leni as she just knew that she did it because of the roomers that everyone talked about how she always does that to people she doesn’t like. Charly went to her and said:

“You know that that skirt is worth more than your whole life right.”

“Well then you shouldn't destroy it with doing that business in it.”

“Oww you think that you're smart.”

“I am smarter than you, at least I have been thought to go to the toilet when the wild awaits me.”

“This is not over.”

“What an original comeback, did you get it from a high school musical like you attitude.”

As Charly went away to change, everybody was in shock. As Leni went out of the cafeteria, Mark and Panda went after her.

“Leni, Leni, Leni…” screamed both of them.

“Ow hi guys, how are you.”

“Leni you are walking on ice.” Said Mark.

“Yea she isn’t the girl to mess with,”

“How do you know?”

“Leni I was in the same school as her before.” Said Mark.

“Yea it’s a bummer that she didn’t come on the 6st of May or I would prank her even more. I was going to do a bigger prank, but then I realize that that girl thinks only of how she looks. She isn’t as rich enough to be a Disney villain.”

“I know that she might look bossy, but she is bad news she has done horrible things to people.” Mark said.

“What’s the worst that could happen, spank me with money.”

As the day moved by, the third class was in session and Mark was on his way to the bathroom. While he was washing his hands, like a normal person, he heard somebody talking in the hall. He went to hear what was happening and her two people were speaking.

“Move it Ronald.”

“For the last time it's Rony.“

“Whatever, you got the paint.” 

“Yes.”

“That little girl is going to get it for humiliating me.”

“Can I just punch her?”

“I see that you have a very huge deathwish. You want to get expelled, no. We will give her one medicine, she humiliated me and no one has the final laugh except me.”

“What about me I will have my revenge too, right.”

“Yes, yes, I guess you too.”

“We will go on in the art department where there is a window going straight down to the bus stop. There we will spray her with so much paint that she will look like on an album cover from the 70s. Because of the celebration today we only have three hours.” 

As they went to the art department Mark knew that he won’t be able to stop them because of Rony's superior strength and tendencies for violence. So he went to warn Leni. He couldn’t find her anywhere. While he was searching for her he saw one of Charlie's friends soaking wet going down the corridor he went to ask her if she knew where Leni is.

“Hey Susan do you know where Lenis is.”

“After she threw a water cracker in the water of the swimming pool she headed out for the school exit.” 

“Thank you so much.”

Mark threw some napkins to her and started running for the exit to catch Leni. He saw Leni, she was a few meters away from the exit he got every bit of strength in his legs. He was running faster than a fat guy running to McDonalds. It was too at the time to stop her. She was out so he ran and pushed her out of the way. After that he looked up and saw so much paint going to be wasted on him that if their artist teacher was there he was probably going to start crying. As the paint dropped his clothes, which weren’t something special, but it still was a bummer, it looked like he lost pretty badly in a game of paintball. Everybody was looking at him, but what really broke the tension was Panda starting to laugh. As a response Leni got some paint and hit him with it. Panda in response to that one took even more and threw it at her. She took paint again, but trying to hit him she hit some boy in the background. He took and threw it at Leni, but he wasn’t as good and hit some other girl so like that everybody started throwing paint as everybody had fun. As Charly looked at them with anger as nothing went according to plan, not only that, but Rony was there too having fun. The whole scene was bizarre. It looked like a modern painting or something as the battle grew stronger the bus who standed there after the fight had so much paint in places where even the people throwing them weren’t expecting. Some got in the engine and diesel and paint were a worse combination than Mentos and Coca Cola. Mark was there devastated because he couldn’t get home in time to see his brother and there wasn’t any place on Pandas bike so they didn’t know what to do. Panda said to Mark just to take his bike and to bring it tomorrow, but both didn’t know how Panda would go home as his house is on the other side of the town. As both of them were thinking of a plan Leni came and told Mark that she was going to get him there. As three of them were riding like crazy they were late by a few minutes, but his mother wasn’t at the point where she would go in a circle. When Mark got out and said goodbye to them Leni looked around and saw that the place where they got Mark down was the graveyard.

“Panda, why is he going there...wasn’t he going to see his brother?...Panda”

“Well you will find out in one way or the other. Aamm where do I begin, I guess that there isn’t a more delicate way to put it, but his brother is dead.”

“What do you mean? Dead? I don’t understand?”

“Well you have noticed that he has been acting a little strange. He is more polite and strives to do good. Well he is just trying to make peace with himself?”

“For what?”

“The reason that his brother is dead is his. One April fools day three years ago he wanted to make a super prank. He would put crackers around the house and start them while everyone else was in the hall watching tv as they usually did that in their house every Monday as they all wanted to make it better, they're like Garfield they hated Mondays. So he got a few crackers, which aren't a huge deal usually, but the crackers he got were no ordinary crackers they were huge. He asks the store clerk if he can give him some bigger crackers these times. By Mark's enthusiasm he just thought that they were making something big outside for April Fools Day so he brushed it and gave him the biggest and best fireworks they got. So he did everything as planned, but when he set the fireworks it started a huge fire. Because of Mark's hiding spot he was trapped so his brother went to save him, but when they made his escape his brother was lit on fire. He died a few days later of his injuries.”

“What? Why didn’t you tell me or someone else? And why the whole day were you so chill?”

“Mark was scared to admit that because of his mistake he killed his father figure so he didn’t want to remember that and didn’t want to trouble them so much. I was the only one that knew because my family was the closest to them and still are. He didn’t want to be reminded so we made an agreement on the 1st of April to act as nothing happened.”

They both looked at Mark and how he was sitting next to the grave stone. After that they looked at each other and both made a silent agreement to not remind him and to not talk about this thing again.