Title: April Fool's Day :)

Era/AU: Modern AU

Word Count: 612

Romeo. (ft. Mush and his puns)

"Mush, what on Earth are you doin'?" I asked as I came back into our room to see him writing what looked like a list of puns.

"Well, I'm writin' a list o' puns."

"Why?"

"Romeo, you realize April Fool's day is today, right?"

"It's six in the mornin'!"

"And Racer's probably been up since five."

I chuckled. "Mush, I can assure you that Race has not been up since five." I gestured to his list. "And why are you makin' puns anyway? April Fool's is about pranking people, not tellin' 'em bad jokes."

"A prank in the dictionary is defined as a mischievous act. A list ain't all there is to it." He grinned slyly.

"Alright then," I said, leaning back on the bed. "Whaddya plan to do with this list o' yours?"

"I'm hidin' the jokes. I've already hid one in the fridge, behind some pictures – I hid one in your phone case. Er, I guess it ain't really hidden."

"What?" I reached over and picked up my phone. Sure enough, a small piece of paper was behind my phone. I picked it up and removed the paper, unfolding it with unnecessary caution.

The invention of the shovel was groundbreaking, but the invention of the wheel was what really got things rolling.

"…This is terrible."

"Don'tyou mean...tear-able?" Mush asked as he tore another joke off his list and folded it up. He laughed. "And no one'll see 'em coming."

"When you asked Jack how he slept and he said 'On me back, Mush', you laughed about it for days." I grinned at the memory. "I'm pretty sure they'll know it's you."

"Maybe…but that don't mean they'll be expectin' it! I hid some in the Jacobs' apartment, and in Jack and Katherine's, and all over the rest of our dorm. People are gonna be wakin' up to puns under their pillows!"

"How...how did you get them into those apartments? How long have you been working? How did you get in?"

A comedian never reveals his secrets...And I've been working on this since last night."

I shrugged. Someone might think that was a good prank. And it wasn't the worst, of course – not like last year when Davey had tried to prank us with the fake bugs. Those were just about a handful of poorly-drawn creepy-crawlies that he put in random places. No one was scared, but we did have a good laugh about it later.

"Hey, Romeo?"

"Yeah?"

"When does a joke become a dad joke?"

I rolled my eyes but decided to humor him. "I don't know, when?"

He grinned. "When it becomes apparent."

"Oh my gosh, Mush, that was horrible!" I laughed. This was going to be an interesting April Fool's for sure.

Albert.

He's been planning these pranks since early March,

keeping them more or less secret

After all, pranking, to him, is an art

and that's how he intends to keep it

But somehow it seems awful convenient

that the one never fooled is Race

To Albert, keeping secrets is no great achievement -

lying to his best friend should take that place.

\_(ツ)/

Elmer.

Elmer is usually the one being pranked, but he doesn't mind. It gives him a chance to laugh at himself, and everyone else to laugh with him. Sometimes he catches on – he's not as blissfully ignorant as they think he is – but he won't say anything about it. After all, it isn't like anyone's being harmed. So Elmer lets the newsies have their fun and smiles to himself afterwards. Besides, every now and then he gets back at them. They never see it coming. Because who'd suspect little old Elmer to give the newsies a taste of their own medicine?

A/N: Tried my hand at a short story, another poem, and a drabble! I've never actually done a drabble before - it was an interesting challenge. I hope you enjoyed this April Fool's chapter of Newspaper Clippings!-mouse :)