Next Monday came around with no new pranks to report. Opal was biding her time, waiting for the perfect opportunity to arise. Friday's classes were too mundane to try anything and a prank on the weekend was futile since she was grounded.

At lunch time, the girls gathered together at one of the crumb infested school cafeteria tables, Tee and Lia joining them.

Taking another bite out of her pizza, Amethyst asked, "So what's everyone doing on Wednesday?"

"Why do you ask?" Lia enquired.

"There's this really good movie premiering that night called 'Dora the Explorer: The Destiny Medallion' and I wondered if you wanted to see it?"

After a momentary pause, everyone at the table - save for Amethyst - broke down laughing.

"That exists?!" Ash managed to say through her laughter.

"Yeah," Amethyst replied, seriously. "It's got Amelia Winston in it. It's kinda a spoof of that old children's cartoon. Like, they changed it into an action title and all."

Kayley slowed down her laughter. "You aren't kidding, are you?"

"Nope," Amethyst smiled. "And you've all got an open invitation to join Mom and I that night. It starts at nine so you all would have to sleep round."

"As much as we would love to join your Disney derision," Lia took a slurp of her drink before continuing. "We're at our Aunt's house that night. Sorry."

Amethyst frowned. "Too bad," she sighed. "Well, what about the rest of you guys?"

"I'll come," Kayley nodded.

"Me too," Ash agreed.

Lorelai, on the other hand, couldn't take her gaze off the peperoni pizza Amethyst was stuffing her face in. With disbelieving eyes, she said, "You do realize you are eating nothing but fat and swine, right?"

Amethyst swallowed. "And I wouldn't have it any other way. So are you coming?"

Lorelai nodded and took another sip of diet soda.

"Opal?" Amethyst persisted.

"I am still grounded," Opal reminded.

"Well, what about that massive biology project you need to finish?" Amethyst hinted.

Opal smiled. "What is it about?"

"The molecular structure of the human body," Kayley supplied.

"Essay, presentation or model?"

Ash replied, "Presentation to accompany the model."

"What percentage of my final grade will this account for?"

"Fifteen."

"And why was this not completed earlier?"

Amethyst thought for a moment before saying, "Say with all the extra math and Latin studying you were piling on it went out of your head. Then, suffer through your Mom's lecture and hopefully she'll cave. I'm sure she thinks an A is more important that being grounded."

Slowly, Opal began to nod. "I think that might just work. If so, I will be around your house for tomorrow at seven."

Amethyst grinned. "Looking forward to it. Shame you guys can't come though."

She looked sympathetically to Tee and Lia.

"No sweat," Tee winked and stole the rest of the pizza from Amethyst's plate. Taking a mouthful, she said, "If it's good, you'll lend me the DVD."

Wednesday night. Eleven o'clock. The Dora the Explorer movie had just finished and the five girls walked out of the lounge, dumbstruck at how awesome a Dora film could be!

"That was…" Amethyst began, numbly.

"Incredible," Ash finished.

"Insane," Kayley answered.

"Surprisingly good," Lorelai conceded.

"Better than grounding," Opal accepted, following her friends upstairs and into Amethyst's room. But Opal wasn't paying much attention to the movie, or anything that evening for that matter. She was undercover, scouting through every room, checking every inch of the house to work the set-up through her mind.

The prank had come to her out of the blue just before she started packing that Wednesday, and a quick run to the hardware shop in the evening meant that all the necessary supplies were hidden away in her overnight bag. Now, it was a simple game of patience.

4:00am. Almost the entirety of Pinewood was still sound asleep, hushed in serene and peaceful slumber. At that exact minute, a quiet beep started to echo throughout Amethyst's bedroom.

Opal instantly shut it off. She'd only been dozing for most of the night and was simply waiting for the alarm to ring. Now it was action time.

The girl rose from her bed with espionage-like stealth, creeping over to her bag. On the double bed, Amethyst and Ash slept soundly, whilst Lorelai and Kayley cluttered the floor around her. In the duffle bag, she found everything she needed. Lorelai was the only worry - the others could sleep through a volcano. If Lorelai woke up, her plan would fail. Silence was crucial.

Just over forty minutes later, Opal had set everything up. The act of being quiet and creeping around was time-consuming in itself, though luckily lighting wasn't a problem as the little corner lamp illuminated everything. However, creeping into the other rooms of the house and locating everything she was looking for was hard. And dangerous. There, the lack of lighting and noise whilst trying desperately to wake the other Cook's proved a tedious challenge.

Lorelai hadn't awoken; if she had, she hadn't breathed a word to the girl. That was fortunate. Now, Opal re-set her watch to 6:00am - just early enough to pack, get ready for school and get out of dodge before the others woke up. She took one final look at the bedroom, admiring her handiwork, before returning to sleep.

Seven o'clock came and, like clockwork, the sound of the morning alarm shook the girls from the land of dreams and into the unwelcome reality of another school morning. Amethyst, still groggy, stood up and stretched out her arms, yawning with noises like a baby dinosaur. She went to open her closet while the others gathered themselves. There, she realised there was an obstruction. She tried again, but to no success. After rubbing the sleep out her eyes, she saw that her handle had been tied shut with a zip-tie. Now fully alert, she darted her head around the room to find dozens more of the things snapping shut all her drawers, tying her shoes together, even zip-tying her hoodie to the door-handle.

With everyone up now, they saw the spectacle for themselves. EVERYTHING that could be opened was now inaccessible.

Then, something came to Ash's attention. With a snicker, she said, "Uh, Amy…?"

Ignoring the loathed nickname, Amethyst walked over to her chest of drawers and found a pile of scissors on top, each with their handles zip-tied closed. Under it was a note that read:

"Dearest Amethyst,

By reading this I am sure you have become aware of my little prank and I am awfully sorry I could not stick around to see your reaction, but there is no doubt in my mind that it was priceless.

Consider this vengeance for the hair-dye.

Oh, and if Kayley has not already figured this out, I could not bear leave her out of this prank - her clothes bag is tied shut.

There is one remaining pair of scissors in the house left un-tampered with. Good luck in finding it.

P.S. Don't bother with any knives - you will see I've taken care of that option to.

Have fun.

- Opal"

After Amethyst had finished reading the note aloud - and Ash and Lorelai had calmed their laughter - Kayley looked towards her clothes bag. "Son of a mother duck…" she muttered. "She got me too!"

"Got you?!" Amethyst cried. "Look at this! I'll have to go to school in my pyjamas for the rest of the month unless I find those scissors! You guys gotta help me look."

"Hmm…" Lorelai mused. "And what's in it for us if we do?"

Amethyst stared at her. "You really wanna play this game?"

Amethyst and Kayley traipsed into school, flanked by the others, but wearing clothes that looked around two sizes too big for them. Compared to the sea of black surrounding them, they stood out like a sore thumb and were gathering attention from eyes all across the courtyard.

"You did not find the scissors then?" Opal guessed.

"Didn't you hear?" Amethyst responded, wryly. "It's 'wear your Mom's clothes to school day'," she thought it best to add, "Where were they, anyway?"

"Cleaning cabinet under the sink."

"I looked there!" Kayley cried.

"…taped to the top," Opal grinned.

"That's not fair," Amethyst complained, but then noted the faded pink glimmer to Opal's hair and almost thought herself lucky. Almost.

Tee and Lia walked up to them. "Hey guys," Tee greeted. Taking in Kayley's and Amethyst's appearance, she teased, "Yo, the eighties called - they want their clothes back."

Kayley stared at her, eyes dull, unimpressed. "Original."

After Ash quickly spelt out their predicament, both Lia and Tee were grinning with admiration.

Lia turned to Opal and commended her, "That was ingenious, Opal. High marks."

Tee concurred, "I can easily see Opal winning this now."

Opal smiled, victoriously. "Brains before brawn."

Amethyst didn't seem to be sharing in their humour. "It was all fun and games until she zip-tied the scissors shut..." she growled, wrathfully. Turning to Kayley, she whispered, "We got to get her good. I can't think of anything but 'The Bomb'."

"The Bomb?" Kayley hissed, snatching Amethyst aside. "You said you wanted to use that against Ms Briggs for our end of year prank. Are you sure you wanna waste it now?"

"I see no other choice."

Kayley shook her head. "To be honest, I don't think it'll win."

"We have to hit back," Amethyst declared. "And fast. I'm desperate. She can't win this thing. She'll run out of ideas soon enough."

Kayley sighed, but nodded. Turning back to the chatting Opal, she momentarily doubted her certain victory. She couldn't be out-pranked, she kept telling herself, and especially not by her best friend.

"I assume that little strategy talk over there means you are not giving up yet?" Opal ventured, tauntingly.

"Not at all," Amethyst matched her tone. "The question is, are you? Because what we have in store for you… it's not pretty."

"I think I will do just fine," Opal replied, challengingly smiling back at her.