Summary: As a "morale booster" Michael plans an April Fool's Day joke that he believes everyone will find hilarious. Of course things don't go as planned because after all, it is Michael Scott.

Special notes: When I started writing this fic I had planned to make each chapter a oneshot. After some consideration (very little, actually) I decided to have them all connected in some way. That being said, this chapter is the only exception. The rest will all tie in together.

Also, this entire story doesn't follow any timeline that any of you (or I for that matter)are familiar with. Sometimes I incorporate information from past episodes, sometimes I ignore stuff completely.

Enjoy!

Michael's April Fools

"One thing people like is being tricked. For instance, this one time I took my nephew to Disneyland and it had burned down. No wait. I took my nephew to Disneyland, but really I went to a burned down warehouse and told him Disneyland had burned down. He thought it was really funny, but at first he cried. Or wait wait wait! Let me start over, I've got it now. I've got it down to an art! A comedic art! Alright, here it goes. One thing people like--especially kids-- is being tricked. For instance this one time I took my nephew to Disneyland, but instead of driving to Disneyland, I took him to an old burned down warehouse. When we got there I said, 'Oh no, Disneyland burned down.' He cried and cried, but deep down I think he knew it was a really great joke. I started driving to the real Disneyland, but it was getting late."

Michael Scott slapped his knee and burst into a fit of laughter. That was solid gold. He looked at the camera crew, who all had apprehensive looks on their faces.

He coughed awkwardly before adding, "That's not mine. No, no, that belongs to a little sketch comedy show I like to call Saturday Night Live. Well actually, that's what it's called. Anyways, there was a little segment on that a few years ago called Deep Thoughts by Jack Handy. Mr. Handy is a sort of hero of mine," his face turned serious, "I use a lot of his philosophies in my own life. For example, one of my favorites is 'It takes a big man to cry, but it takes a bigger man to laugh at that man.' Kidding! Kidding! But seriously, I do get a lot of jokes from him. One thing though, that I do live by, is the fact that people like being tricked. That is why today, I am pulling the greatest April Fool's prank ever. Ever."

He paused a moment to let this sink. He really was pulling the greatest prank ever. He had labored over it for hours planning and scheming and imagining just how much everyone would love it.

"I realize today is April 3rd, but April Fool's fell on a Saturday this year, and this was just something that was waaay too good to pass up. Besides, it's sort of a morale booster. Not just in the office, but in their personal lives as well. I don't know if you've noticed, but these people live pretty sorry lives. I mean have you seen Toby? That guy just went through a messy divorce; he only gets to see his daughter like every other weekend. So he goes home and you know, turns on the T.V. and eats his cold microwave dinner and he probably just thinks to himself, 'Man, I cannot wait to get back to the office and have some flair in my pathetic life.' Being here is what a lot of these people live for, so I have to make it great. A wise man once said, 'Laughter is the best medicine.' But a wiser man once said, 'Dad always thought laughter was the best medicine. I guess that's why several of us died of tuberculosis.'" He laughed hysterically again. "That was Jack Handy once again. Man I love that guy."

The camera crew glanced at each other and raised their eyebrows.

One of them asked, "Michael, so what's the morale booster?"

"I'm so glad you asked. Alright here's how it's going to go down my homies. I am going to steal everyone's car keys and move around all the cars in the parking lot. My accomplice will be Dwight—not by choice, uh, he overheard me while I was recording a memo to myself. I really wanted Ryan to be in on it; I think we make a really great team. We're a lot like Abbott and Costello. Or Jay Leno and that African American guy that plays guitar. But anyways, the plan is that we are going to get everyone to leave their keys in their desk drawers, and then I am going to get the whole gang outside. Dwight is then going to go around to everyone's desk and steal all the keys. Once everyone is back inside, we will go outside and move all the cars around. People will be so confused when they get out there! Then they'll realize that they were duped and they'll laugh hysterically and everyone will see how clever I am. I think everyone will go home feeling a lot better about themselves, and all from a simple prank. Well its not that simple. As you can probably tell its going to involve a lot of effort and good timing. Dwight better no mess this up."

Michael stood and motioned for the camera crew to follow him, "Alright fellas, I'm going to go and get it started in here, let's get it started in here!" He held up his hands and made a raise the roof type motion, "I love those Black Eyed Peas. They are some cool cats."

He exited the conference room and entered the main office area, "Working hard for the money, eh? Okay all you busy beavers, listen up! Today, we are going to have a meeting outside just to uh get a change of scenery! Okay so everyone, grab your coats, and let's head outside! Oh and also, we're going to be playing a motivational game, so please leave everything that you have in your pockets in your desk drawers. I'm going to be locking the doors, so don't worry about anything getting taken! Just leave everything…cell phones, wallets, car keys—especially car keys, something could get punctured. So just leave everything right there in the drawers and let's get it on! Except not like that you sick minds, you!" He laughed and failed to notice the grumbles and eye rolls from all his employees.

He led the group outside and into the parking lot. He saw Dwight follow behind everyone else and then duck back inside. No one noticed, and he smiled to himself. He rubbed his hands together as he thought how great it would be.

"Okay everyone this is the game. It is called 'Buck Buck'—I cleaned the name up so it would be appropriate for the office environment! This is how you play: one person bends over and the other people line up. One by one everyone runs and jumps onto each other's backs. Whoever causes everyone to fall over is the looooooser! This shows us how important it is for us to cooperate and work as a team in order to succeed."

"Question," Jim interjected, "How does it show that?"

Michael sighed. "Because everyone has to 'hold each other up.' Literally and metaphorically speaking."

"I'm not playing," Angela said and crossed her arms. Other people mumbled as well and took steps back. Michael hadn't expected this. He had expected everyone to jump—literally jump—at having the opportunity to play this game. He and his buddies used to play it back in high school and they always had a blast.

"Too bad, everyone's playing. Who wants to be on the bottom first—uh! Oh! That's what she said, right!" When no one volunteered he said, "Alright I'll do it, but that means someone else has to go first," he bent over and braced himself.

"I'll do it, Michael!" he heard Dwight yell. He came running at full speed and jumped on Michael's back. They both fell to the ground, Dwight landing on top of Michael.

"Dwight! You loser! Get up. Get UP!" They both stood, and faced the group. Michael brushed himself off and said, "If Dwight hadn't ruined it and we had gotten a chance to play, its actually a great game."

Everyone just stared at him and finally Pam askied, "It's cold. Can we please go back inside now?"

"Alright fine, everyone go back inside, go back to work!" Everyone frowned as they headed back inside and Michael thought to himself, just wait until later. Then you'll be laughing until you pee your pants.

As everyone went back inside, Michael and Dwight stayed, whistling and shuffling their feet. Oscar and Ryan looked at them strangely, but headed inside nonetheless.

Once everyone had gone in, Michael asked, "Okay, Dwight, where are the keys?" Dwight walked over to the door to where a canvas bag lay. It jingled as he picked it up.

"All the keys are right here, everyone's except Jim and Pam, obviously, because Roy drives her. By the way, I think you should take into consideration the fact that Jim blatantly disobeyed his superior by not leaving his keys as you specified. That is sufficient grounds for firing him."

"Dwight, no, shut-up. It doesn't matter. Let just do this." He reached into the bag and pulled out a set of keys, "Whose keys are these, Dwight?" Dwight stared at him.

"I don't know, I just grabbed all the keys and threw them in there."

"Well good going. How are we supposed to know which keys go with which car? I swear, you are such an idiot." Dwight looked from the bag to Michael, and back to the bag.

"I've go it," he said seriously, "We can be like Luke Skywalker and use the force," he breathed in deeply and closed his eyes as he reached into the bag. Michael really wanted to smack him. Instead he yanked the bag away from a startled Dwight and pulled out a set of keys.

"Okay this one says 'Ford' so let's find a Ford and see if it fits. You take a set and do the same." They set off in opposite directions. Michael found a Ford and stuck the key in and pulled the handle.

A blaring alarm filled the air, and another quickly followed it, coming from whichever vehicle Dwight had tried to get into. Dwight covered is ears and ran towards Michael yelling, "ABORT! ABORT!"

A shout was heard from above. Stanley was poking his head through the window.

"Michael, wha—what are you doing! Are you breaking into my car?"

"What? Stanley, no, no. We were just--"

Stanley cut him off, saying irritably, "I'm coming down there!"

Moments later, Dwight and Michael were joined by the entire office. They all looked annoyed, especially Stanley and Angela. She strode towards them, arms crossed, brow furrowed.

"What is going on? Why are our alarms going off? And where are our keys?" Michael grinned sheepishly.

"Whoa! Relax, we were just pulling a little April Fool's Day prank but--"

"It's April 3rd!" Pam exclaimed. Michael sighed.

"Thank you Pam, I realize that! But April 1st was on Saturday, so we had to move the prank to Monday, duh."

"What kind of prank is breaking into our cars?" Stanley demanded.

"Well, we weren't breaking in, per se. We were just getting in, so we could move the cars around. That was the whole plan. To move everyone's cars around so that when you all came out to the parking lot your cars wouldn't be where you left them! See! That's not breaking in! That's funny."

"So," Jim began, "You took everyone's keys?"

"Yes," Michael said, sounding bored.

"And then you 'got' into everyone's cars?" Jim continued, raising his eyebrows.

"Well, we tried, and it would have worked, too, if Dwight hadn't screwed it up." Dwight hung his head in shame. Michael looked around at everyone's faces. No one looked at all amused.

"So you did all that. Without anyone's permission," Jim finished.

"Yes—well no, not exactly. It was just a prank that went wrong, thanks to Captain Loser over here. And that reminds me, Jim, you blatantly disobeyed me by not leaving your keys in your desk so…we're going to have to talk about that later," Jim looked at the camera and rolled his eyes.

Later as he faced it alone, he said, "You see, I've developed a systematic way of dealing with Michael. When he tells you do something, you either do it, or you don't. Great skill comes in to play when you have to differentiate between what you should do and what you should ignore. For example, when Michael insisted we leave our keys in our desk, I took them with me. If Michael were to have said, 'Bring your keys with you,' I would have left them. I've really got it down to an art form: 'Jim whatever you do, do not walk into my office right now! Don't do it!' Okay. I won't."