Senior Prank (9781620957295) (7 page)

Winston knew that he had to keep Missy away from the entourage, including the governor or she could inflict more damage. He went over to two of the girls in the group and asked them to keep Missy away from the others. They held her in conversation in the back, telling her to constantly brush her hair. After about 10 minutes after the potion had been blown into her face, she insisted she go out to meet the governor. She then came out from the backstage area and walked towards the governor.

Winston instantly went to head her off, but she looked at him and said, “I want to met the governor. I want to tell him I'd admire him for his rise from humble beginnings. Please excuse me.”

“But you already have met him,” Winston countered. “I need you to give others a chance to talk with him.”

Missy forced her way up to Governor Montoya and waited for her chance. Winston stood by in silent prayer, hoping at that very moment she would lose her voice.

“Governor, it's my pleasure to meet you,” she said. “I am a big supporter, and admire how you came from such modest beginnings. It's a tribute to the American way of life that even those not raised with a silver spoon can succeed.”

“Missy's your name, right?” the governor answered. “I'm afraid we already met, and I appreciate the kind words. Please excuse me,” he added, leaving the situation and heading for his assistant.

The assistant went to Winston and asked for the nearest bathroom. Winston pointed to the janitor's private bathroom just outside around the corner. He figured it would be the cleaner than any other. “Coffee,” the governor said to Winston, “excuse me, I'll be right back.”

As the governor approached the restroom, he saw a chair propped so it was holding the door shut. He heard pounding on the door and someone shouting, “Help, let me out!” The governor pulled out the chair, opened the door and out popped an embarrassed young male student.

“How long you been in there, son?” the governor asked. “Hope you haven't been in there long. Who locked you in there?”

“I have no idea,” the youngster added. “I went in there and the next thing I knew I was locked in. Even though we're not supposed to use this restroom, I had to go bad and didn't think I'd make it to the one down the hall.”

“Well, glad I could be of service,” the governor added. “Just remember your freedom come election time.” With that the governor closed the door, wondering if he might fall victim to such hijinks. He used the room and returned to the auditorium. He quickly mentioned to the judges and Winston about the young man, laughing at the youngster's plight. Winston thought it might be strike two.

Winston told the group that it was time to head to Ms. Heron's English class. He asked if anyone needed to use the restroom, and not wanting to take any chances instructed a few of the society's girls to take the two judges, who indicated they needed to use the facilities, to the faculty restroom in the main office. “We'll wait for you here,” he told them. “When you get back, we'll head out.”

After reuniting, the group headed to Ms. Heron's room. Shortly after they began walking one of the judges discovered an open door. He entered, along with the rest of the group. Winston followed. The door led them through the copy room, past a few offices and into the backside of the media center, the opposite end where the press conference had been held only minutes earlier.

“We like catch a few of the students off guard,” said the first judge. “It allows us to see what's going on behind the scenes. We want to see students hard at work.”

What they saw was the opposite. It was Mr. McCarthy's social studies class at the computers. Since the guests were on the backside of the class they could see what was on all the computer screens. Games, music videos, Facebook, and celebrity web pages dotted the landscape. Not a single person had anything on the screen education related. Sitting to the side at a table was Mr. McCarthy, oblivious to his class happenings.

In front of Mr. McCarthy were diagrams of football defenses. He was the defensive coordinator of the football team and it was mid-season. The team had a big game coming up. The class roster included many of his players. The word was that if you produced on the football field, you got an easy A grade, regardless of your work. During the season, the lesson plan included library visits twice a week for research.

McCarthy looked up, saw Winston and the governor and quickly gathered the papers in front of them into one big pile. “Excuse me, ah, ah, the students were just doing some history research,” he offered. He knew it was against the rules for students to visit the sites he usually saw in his class. As the class members realized who was behind them, they quickly closed out the pages they were on and popped up to a history related website they had ready in case of such circumstances.

Winston figured it was strike three, but didn't want to inflame the situation so he said nothing. “We need to be going,” he said, quickly motioning the group to follow him.

Elvis knew the next step in the process would be the trickiest and most difficult to successfully pull off. The target for this class was Hian Nguyen. They had to get him out of class, hit him with their formula, and hope for the best. Jose was assigned this part of the prank so he again called on Catalina for her help. Every time she saw him she couldn't help falling in love again.

Using a teacher hall pass he had found in a garbage can, he doctored it to read, “Please send Hian to my office at 11 a.m. Ms. Fortney,” one of the school's guidance counselors. In order to get it to him at that time, he asked Catalina to deliver it at 10:50 a.m. since she'd be working then in the school office. He told Catalina he found it on the floor in the hall just a few minutes before when classes had changed hands and he thought she'd get in trouble if she didn't follow orders. It looked official so it was a no brainer. Besides, she knew anything should could do to get with Jose was a positive.

At 10:50 she delivered the note to Ms. Heron, who delivered to Hian when he entered the room. The governor and his guests entered the room at 11:02 a.m., minutes after Hian had left the room. If Elvis had planned this right, it would take about five minutes to walk to guidance, a minute or two in the office, meaning that he would have to kill about another minute or two for Hian to enter after the governor had arrived in the class.

When Hian got to the guidance office, Elvis got lucky again. Ms. Fortney was on a phone call, so when the secretary buzzed Ms. Fortney more than three additional minutes had passed. The secretary informed Ms. Fortney that Hian was there to see her. “I don't need to see him,” she said, “so send him back to class.” The secretary looked at the note again to make sure the details were right, handed it back and said, “Sorry, Hian, false alarm. You need to get back to class.” She stamped it return to sender.

As Hian neared the restroom just down the hall from Ms. Heron's room, Jose called him into the restroom and said, “Hian, I'm testing the water to see if it is contaminated. Would you smell this? Does it smell okay to you?” For good measure, he gave him a second sniff, at the same time grabbing the note from Hian's hand.

Jose dumped the formula down the sink, and thoroughly washed the sink and container. He didn't use the fan. He wanted no evidence left behind. He left the restroom, walking quickly in the opposite direction of Ms. Heron's class so he wouldn't be spotted.

Hian wandered back into class and took his chair. It was 11:05. The class was seated in a circle engaged in a lively class discussion with their special guests standing in the back of the room. “Tell me what you think of Heather in
The Scarlett Letter?
” offered Ms. Heron. “Do you think she got what she deserved? Do you think the author is criticizing religion in this story? Was wearing the letter A on her chest just punishment for adultery?”

“No, she was mistreated,” said Lindsay Leeham. “She showed dignity, and although she could have gotten others into trouble, she simply accepted her punishment. I think Nathaniel Hawthorne in some ways was attacking religion and its hypocrisy.”

Then Hian, apparently under the potion, usually the quietest kid in the class, blasted out, “That bitch got what she deserved,” he said. “That white ho should have had to wear a B for booty call. You know what I'm saying. Yo, dog, the home boys would have called her a gang….”

Before he could finish, Ms. Heron yelled, “Hian, I'm ashamed of you,” we don't talk like that in this class,” a sign of her hypocrisy where foul language and edgy talk is the usual. “Please stop that type of language.”

“She had it comin'! Ya feeling me dog?” Hian continued, and with that Ms. Heron asked him to leave the room. Every member of the tour group stood in stunned silence. Ms. Heron took Hian to the door, asked him to wait outside, and went back to class. “Let's continue,” she said. “Who wants to be next?”

As Hian left the room, he got a final word, exclaiming, “That Heather was a hoochie-momma!” The class was in hysterics by now, laughing out loud, and wondering what just happened to the quietest kid in the class. Playing him for the prank was easy. He made a lasting impression.

Just then a loud fart sound blasted from her bookcase. Someone had planted a fart machine in Ms. Heron's bookcase, running it by timer. She blew it off, figuring enough damage was done, and continued class, offering some of her thoughts on the story in order to avoid many more such disruptions. Then the fart machine went off, again.

Winston interrupted with a short speech. “I'm afraid you students need a refresher in how to behave,” he said. “More is expected from you. Now, settle down and let's show what constitutes a good, productive, intelligent class discussion. Now excuse me, I have some other business to take care of.” With that he went into the hall. About 10 minutes had elapsed since Hian had reentered the room.

“Young man, I am appalled by your behavior,” said Winston to Hian. “You will be disciplined for this.”

“Excuse me, sir, for what?” Hian said sheepishly. “I'm sorry; what did I do?”

“You know darn well what you did. Now get back to class.” Hian entered the room and went to his chair, bowing his head in disgrace, still not knowing what he had done. Class continued and things returned to normal. With about five minutes left in the period, Winston said to the governor and his group, “It's time to go. The football office is next. We have a great team this year. Some of our kids might even go to Texas this year.” As a Texas A. & M. graduate this was hard for Winston to accept.

As the group progressed toward their next destination, they heard a large high-pitched scream from the nearby men's restroom. “AH, shit, I can't believe this,” came the yell loud enough for all to hear.

Running into the restroom, Winston noticed a toilet had done a major flooding and was still running onto the floor. The water ran out into the hall where the rest of the group was waiting. The school was turning into heartbreak hotel as far as Winston was concerned.

Winston thought to himself this is right in line with the rest of his day. His saw his dreams of All American School probably were going down, or was it out, with the toilet. He came out of the room, radioed the office for a janitor ASAP, and told the group “let's go.”

Everyone was silent with the realization nothing need be said. This wasn't the usual way these visits went. Unfortunately, there was still more to come, not all of it a positive representation for an All American school.

As the group headed towards the football locker room, Winston was hoping nobody would look up at the flagpole. Flying under the flags of the United States and state of Texas was a pair of women's panties, a bra and men's underwear. In fact, Winston thought quickly and tried to get their attention away from the flagpole.

“Wow, it's a beautiful day,” he said, pointing to the sky to his right. “Looks like the sun is telling us we aren't ready for winter yet.”

However, the two judges had noticed the lingerie show. “Look,” one said to the other, pointing towards the flags. “I wonder what country those are from?”

Just before the locker room, the governor noticed the ROTC room was on his left.

“I need to stop here and thank these students for thinking about a military career. They deserve some credit,” he said. With that he opened the door. His attention went to the back of the room where five young men were playing poker. A huge stack of chips sat in the middle of the table. One of them looked up, saw the governor, followed by Winston, and figured he better act quick.

The student took his right arm and dragged it across the table to the other side, pushing the chips into the air, as though to hide the evidence. At the same time, he said, “Ditch the cards now!”

“Where's Major Charles?” asked Winston to nobody in particular.

“He went to the supply shack,” one of the students said. “A bunch of the students went with him. He said he'd be right back.”

Winston figured he had better start taking a stand against what he was seeing.

“You know the policy against playing cards in school. Let's get them away and forget about playing with them in the future.”

“Fellows, I just want to find out if any of you are considering a career in the military?” asked the governor. “As a representative of the state of Texas I thank you for your service.”

“I am,” answered one the poker players, “and I leave two weeks after graduation. I'm joining the Army. My brother is at war now. My dad was in the Army. We got to win that war on terror.”

“Well thank you son, good luck and God bless,” answered the governor. With that Winston said, “Governor, we have to go.” The rest of the group was waiting outside the door and joined in the walk. With the flag display and poker game, Winston was hoping the visit would soon be over.