Team pranks on another level with “ugly Facebook photos” and fake parking tickets

At the end of this newspaper prank war, it is safe to say our team was the winner.

But to be honest, neither of us were very well versed in the intricate art of pranking. We attempted to Google “best pranks that are safe to do at school because we don’t want to get in trouble,” but due to a lack of the Post-its and bubble wrap the pranks online required, we were sure we were going to fail.

Fortunately, we were pleasantly surprised to find that the other teams had either forgotten about the prank war or were just incapable of reaching our level, because we were not pummelled nearly as badly as we thought we’d be.

After hours of brainstorming ideas and enlisting a couple of our friends’ help, we decided to list our best ideas and finally get on with the pranking.

First, we scoured Facebook and the depths of photo albums to find two uncomfortably close pictures of Maya Prasad, one of Jenny Qian, one of Rachel Hull and one of Michelle Leung. We then made the pictures the desktop backgrounds of all the J-room computers.

When Maya, Jenny and Rachel finally arrived in the J-room (Michelle was already there), their reactions were priceless. Rachel was distraught; Jenny started laughing hysterically at Maya, who desperately tried to switch the background away from her face.

Not bad for a first attempt, if we do say so ourselves.

We then moved our efforts to a prank specifically on the senior team: Michelle and Rachel. The ideas were endless once we found out that they both drove cars. We placed a seemingly realistic parking ticket on Michelle’s car, after sophomore Trevor Leung, Michelle’s brother, helped us to identify the car and remove her parking permit. Kudos to Google Images for giving Michelle a heart attack.

The best part of the prank was that we signed the parking ticket “Maya and Jenny,” which made Michelle and Rachel direct all their revenge on the other team.

Needless to say, Michelle and Rachel completely fell for it. Next thing we know, Maya, Jenny, Michelle and Rachel are involved in an elaborate prank involving Mr. Robinson, Leonardo DiCaprio and the fear of expulsion. Caitlin brought the chairs and Amulya brought the popcorn. It was quite a show. It took them a while to find out that we were the ones who pranked them.

One of the highlights was Maya trying to pull the same Leonardo DiCaprio prank that she had used on Michelle again on Caitlin, where Maya texted Caitlin with the message “To stop receiving the Daily DiCaprio, reply with STOP.” Ultimately, Maya failed hilariously in her attempt because she had forgotten Caitlin had her number.

Unfortunately, we couldn’t get out of this war completely unscathed. A few days after the parking ticket fiasco (or victory, rather), junior Anant Rajeev casually offered us some Oreos from a box he was eating out of, as he comfortably sat at a chair in the J-room. Amulya, who has the biggest weakness for all things sugary, happily took a bite. Immediately, she knew she had fallen for Maya and Jenny’s elaborate scheme. They walked into the J-room with huge grins on their faces. Who takes the time to put mayonnaise in Oreos, anyway?

In Amulya’s defense, Anant was eating out of the box as well, but Maya and Jenny were smart enough — or just lazy enough — to only put the salty mayonnaise in half of the cookies to ensure that we would fall for it. (Caitlin would like to add that she picked one of the good cookies without the mayonnaise inside but was instantly suspicious when Anant offered the cookies.)

By the end of the two weeks, all the teams were pretty tired of the war, but we had one last trick up our sleeves. Rachel’s car remained untouched throughout the whole war, and we needed to rectify that immediately. Caitlin bought a “For Sale” sign and, with the help of two seniors, we stuck the sign on the front of her car, marking it for the price of either $20 or a pack of gum. Sadly, we didn’t stick around to see the results.

Moral of the story? Don’t eat Oreos from Anant Rajeev, always take videos of your friends’ heart attacks and either recount their reactions a hundred times to embarrass them or just post the videos on Facebook. We should do this again, and this time you’ll know not to underestimate us.

We might have a prank monster on our hands.

“Signed, Maya and Jenny.”