Chapter 41 - The Prank

"Guys! I have a plan!" Jahmene said as he barged into Finn and Dalton's place. They were in the middle of a tight game of foosball when he walked in, and they stopped and turned to face him.

"Literally the five words humanity fears most," Finn remared and Dalton laughed.

"Guys! This is serious! We need to get revenge on the girls!"

The story behind this was 2 days ago, when the guys were on their road trip to California, the girls were in the middle of their road trip to California, the girls had decided to prank them by putting dye in their shampoos. Finn, Dalton and Jahmene were still rocking pink hair. This started a prank war between the two factions. It was extremely immature, but undoubtedly hilarious.

"OK, what did you have in mind?" Finn asked.

"Well, what about a fake cheating prank?" Jahmene suggested. "Finn, you could pretend you're cheating on Ella. She would FREAK!"

Finn raised an eyebrow. "Isn't that a bit harsh? I mean Ella is still my girlfriend. I feel like your idea is taking it a bit too far."

"I hear you. But I'm currently distracted by your hot pink hair. And Dalton, I've never seen pink dreadlocks before."

"Fine, let's do it. But if something goes wrong, we're blaming you!" Finn said.

"Alright, this is gonna be…" Jahmene started but was cut off by Finn.

"Let me guess, Legendary?" He remarked. Jahmene scowled at him.

"Finn… just… just… okay?" He said.

They spent the next 24 hours planning the prank. They went and bought a mannequin from a random department store. They also went to a halloween store, and bought a dirty blonde wig. They bought a random t-shirt, but decided to keep the mannequin not wearing any bottoms to help sell the prank. They spent the rest of the night assembling the mannequin to look as realistic as possible. Halfway through, disaster struck.

"Let me just move her arm a bit. The current position isn't too natural," Jahmene said, but when he gently grabbed the arm, the whole mannequin came apart. The head flew off, the arm bent at a crazy, unhuman angle, one of the legs fell, and a whole lot more.

"NOOOOOOOO! Dalton Jr.!" Jahmene cried, as he watched the mannequin fall apart. Finn laughed and Dalton raised an eyebrow.

"Dalton Jr.?" Dalton asked.

"Well, yeah. The resemblance is uncanny. Don't you think, Finn?" Jahmene asked. Finn laughed, and held up the decapitated mannequin head up to Dalton's face.

"Yeah, twins." Finn chuckled. Dalton glared at them, indignantly.

"What do you mean? In case you haven't noticed, I'm black. That girl's pale as a ghost!"

"I'm sorry, but I choose not to see color!" Jahmene argued, mockingly. Dalton rolled his eyes, and they started to put Dalton Jr. back together. By the end of the night, they had successfully built the mannequin to look exactly like a real person from the perspective of the person walking through the door.

Finally, the next evening, the time came to start the prank. Finn would be up in his apartment, and Dalton and Jahmene were meeting Ella and Taylor at the bar. They were sitting down and talking in the booth, when Taylor and Ella walked in and came over to the booth.

"Hey guys," Taylor said, sitting down.

"Hey," they replied, not even looking at them.

"Where's Finn?" Ella asked. The guys looked at them, confused.

"He's not with you?" Dalton asked.

"No, he said he was with you guys," Ella said, raising an eyebrow.

"He told us he was with you guys," Jahmene stated.

Ella looked at Taylor nervously. Taylor put a hand on her arm.

"Hey, Ella, maybe it's just a misunderstanding. Try calling him." She said. Ella nodded and took out her phone. It rang for a while, and right before she decided to just hang up, Finn answered the phone.

"Hey, babe!" He said.

"Hey, Finn, where are you?" She asked.

"Ummmm… I'm just hanging out with Dalton and Jah." He answered. Her heart dropped. Finn was lying to her!

"Oh ok, sorry to bother you then," she said, forcing herself to keep her voice calm.

"No, problem," Finn said, and Ella hung up the phone. She took a deep breath and tears came to her eyes.

"Hey, Ella, maybe it's not what you think. Let's go to his apartment. See if he's there." Taylor said. She nodded and got up to leave. Taylor, Dalton and Jahmene followed her. Taylor was just as knowledgeable about the situation as Ella was, but Dalton and Jahmene smiled to themselves. The prank was working perfectly. The Red Lion was less than a one minute walk from their apartment building, and Ella stormed into the building, waiting impatiently for the elevator to come down to the lobby. She finally arrived at the door of the apartment, and barged in. What she saw made her heart stop…

Finn was locked in a passionate embrace with a random woman, who was half naked! They were both kissing each other fiercely.

"EXCUSE ME!" Ella yelled and ran over. She tried to tackle the person she thought was kissing Finn, but to her surprise, the person broke into pieces. Jahmene and Dalton started laughing.

"YOU'VE JUST BEEN PRANKED!" Dalton shouted in glee, and then turned to Finn. Finn groaned quietly in pain. When Ella had destroyed the mannequin, a sharp edge had sliced his cheek, and created a pretty big gash.

"OH MY GOD!" Ella screamed when she looked at Finn. Blood was leaking down his face, and he looked a bit like a vampire.

"Ella! You broke Dalton Jr!" Jahmene shouted, running over to the broken mannequin. "That took us so long to build!"

They all ignored him. "More importantly, you broke Finn!" Taylor cried. Finn stood up, and walked over to the bathroom. He washed his face, cleaning away some of the blood. The gash was pretty big, but luckily wasn't too deep.

"Babe, you ripped my face!" Finn exclaimed.

"I'm so sorry!" Ella cried, covering her mouth with her hand in surprise.

"I might actually need stitches," Finn murmured. Ella gasped.

"What happened?" She asked. Everything had happened so fast, and she didn't know what exactly had gone down.

"When you mutilated the mannequin, the sharp edge on the nose ripped my face!" He complained.

"Were you actually kissing it?" Ella asked.

"Yeah, I didn't think you would full-on football tackle it!"

"I'm so sorry! I thought you were cheating on me! I got scared!"

"It's fine, at least it shows you care!" Finn laughed, as he walked out of the bathroom.

"That's what you get! I was so angry when I walked in!"

"Clearly! You killed Jahmene's best friend! No, let me rephrase that: you MURDERED her!'

Ella laughed, and hugged him tightly. He was wearing a bandaid so he was no longer bleeding.

"Literally, if she was an inch taller, or I was an inch shorter, you could've hit my eye! That would have been bad!" Finn exclaimed. Ella shuddered at the thought.

"I'm so sorry!" She said, for probably the hundredth time.

"It's fine, I'll live." Finn said, laughing.

Two days later, the guys were sitting at the bar, discussing a new prank.

"OK, that last prank failed miserably!" Finn exclaimed.

"Well, yeah. What did you expect from a prank planned by Jah?" Dalton said. Jahmene glared at him.

"Hey, I'm Finn's best friend!" Jahmene exclaimed.

"Well, actually Dalton's my…" Finn started but was cut off by Jahmene.

"Finn, I'm your BEST FRIEND! I'm the most important in your life!" Jahmene said.

"Well, actually Ella is the most important person in my life!" Finn said. Jahmene gasped.

"I'll be expecting your apology in the mail." He said, evenly, and he walked out of the bar. Finn and Dalton looked at each other and laughed.

"We need a new prank. Their last prank was messed up!" Dalton said. He was right.

A few days after Finn and Dalton's cheating prank fail, Ella and Taylor had gotten their revenge. Finn, Dalton and Jahmene had walked into the apartment, to find all of their expensive stuff gone, and the girls lying on the floor, both with black eyes. It turned out that the girls had hidden all of the expensive stuff in their storage cupboard, and had painted on the bruises and black eyes with makeup. The guys were very worried when they walked in, not about their stuff, but about the fact that both girls were unconscious. When they realised it was a prank, they were kind of annoyed. The girls only revealed to them that it was a prank when Jahmene was just about to call the cops. Finn, Dalton and Jahmene were ANNOYED, and they needed retaliation.

"YES, WE NEED REVENGE!" someone exclaimed. Finn and Dalton both turned around. Jahmene was back already. It hadn't even been 5 minutes since he left.

"Wow, back so soon!" Dalton remarked. Jahmene rolled his eyes and sat back down at the booth.

"How about we do a Not Waking Up prank?" Jahmene suggested.

"No, that's just dumb. And very unrealistic." Dalton shot down the idea pretty quickly.

"Amnesia prank?" Jahmene suggested.

"No," Dalton said.

"Pass out prank?" Jahmene said.

"No," Dalton said.

"Well, what did you have in mind, prank genius?" Jahmene asked, sarcastically.

"I have one… what if I go missing for 24 hours. I'll say I'm going skydiving, and just ghost Ella for 24 hours."

"Yes, YES! That's a great idea! And totally believable too!" Jahmene exclaimed. The story behind this was that Finn had recently taken up the hobby of skydiving. He would try to go every weekend because skydiving was one of the most freeing experiences he had ever felt. After parachute school in the Navy, he was hooked. As ex-Navy SEAL, he had a license to be able to parachute alone, and he also took Dalton once. Dalton, however, needed to tandem jump with one of the instructors. Finn had brought his camera, and he jumped out of the plane at the same time as Dalton, so he managed to capture Dalton screaming like a girl, on camera. The only problem about skydiving was that Ella got extremely stressed out whenever he went. She had only come along once, not skydiving, but just waiting on the ground for him, stressing out. However, even that was too much for her, so she just stayed home and made him text her whenever he landed. If there were 3 things that Ella feared most, they were blood, horror films, and Finn getting injured doing his dumb adrenaline stunts.

However, Dalton looked unsure. "While I don't disagree that the prank would work, isn't it a bit much. Like, Finn, come on. You know how scared Ella gets whenever you go skydiving. I'm sure you don't want her to end up in the emergency room with a heart attack."

Finn thought for a moment. "Let's do it. But, Dalton, I'm trusting you. If things go too far, PLEASE tell her it's a prank. Like I don't mind if she gets a bit upset, but if she starts like driving recklessly or something and endangering herself and others, please stop her."

Dalton nodded.

Two days later

Finn walked out of his apartment and into the girls'. Taylor, Dalton and Jahmene were all at work, so it was just Ella in the apartment.

"OK, guys, I'm gonna leave now." He announced. Ella hopped off the sofa and walked over to him.

"Remember to text me when you arrive at the skydiving place, when you land, and when you're driving home." She demanded. Finn clicked his heels together and saluted.

"Sir, yes, sir!" He shouted, mockingly. She laughed, and hugged him. Finn left the apartment and got into his car. Ella, meanwhile, sat back down on the couch. She had no idea what was about to happen but she was already nervous. Finn drove all the way to Queens, and he lay back in his car. He took out a book from his backpack. He couldn't use his phone for the next few hours, as he knew that Ella would call all of his family and friends in her panic. They had both met each other's parents a month ago, so he knew that Ella would be able to call Carole, Burt and Kurt. He started reading To Kill a Mockingbird. It was one of the books he was meant to read in high school, but never could be bothered to do so.

1 hour Later

Ella was starting to get a little bit nervous. It only took 15 minutes to get to the skydiving place. Finn was probably stuck in traffic, she thought. She took out her phone and sent him a quick text.

Hey babe, text me when you get there. Love u. Be safe

Finn was starting to get bored. He literally couldn't do anything. If he left the car, he would be recognised by fans. He had to just sit and wait for as long as he wanted the prank to last. Finn drove to Hardees and got a burger for lunch. He just sat in his car and ate.

2 hours Later (3 hour after he left the apartment)

Around 3 hours after he left, he got a call from Ella. He obviously ignored it and waited for it to hang up. Eventually it did, and then, shortly after, he got a call from Dalton. He answered this one.

"Hey, hey, hey, is everything going according to plan?" Finn asked.

"Yup," Dalton replied. "She just called me. Jahmene is 'still at work' so I'm going over there now. Imma stir the pot a little."

"Cool, remember what I said though. If she becomes a danger to anyone, please pull the plug. But I don't mind if she calls my family or you guys, or anyone."

Dalton hung up the phone and walked into Ella's apartment. She was clearly starting to freak out, and was on the phone when he walked in.

"Mrs. Hudson," He heard her say, and knew she was on the phone with Finn's mom. "I'm not trying to freak you out, but Finn went skydiving and he's not texting me back and now I'm freaking out. Let me know if he texts you or anything."

She then hung up the phone and turned to Dalton. She ran over to him.

"You hear anything?" She asked. He shook his head.

"I've literally searched everywhere," She said. "I searched the entire building, I just called his mom, she didn't answer so I left a voicemail. I have his laptop now so…"

"What are you going to do with his laptop?" Dalton asked, curious.

"I'm gonna try and look through his messages."

"But you don't have find my friends. What are you gonna look at?"

"This is the dumbest thing! I don't know why we don't have each other on Find my Friends. Like, that's so stupid."

"Ok, well, the next time you see him, you should probably add each other."

"That's if I get to see him!" She cried. Dalton put a hand on her shoulder.

"Ella, I wouldn't jump to any conclusions and think about a car accident or anything. His phone probably died or something."

"Yeah but he would have told me. We tell each other everything! I don't understand! There's literally no messages on here," She said, pointing to Finn's laptop. "Literally the last message was from me."

"He has no messages?" Dalton asked. "So he hasn't even texted anybody. That is definitely creepy."

"I'm going to try texting him. He wouldn't be ignoring you for any reason, would he? Did you guys fight?"

"No, we didn't get into any fight. That's why I don't understand. What if someone told him something, like I cheated on him, and he's gone. And like that's not even true, but he just believed it."

"I hope that's not the case." Dalton replied. "I don't think he would believe a fan or someone who doesn't know him well. And why would he believe someone and not ask you?"

"Because that's how he broke up with his last girlfriend! He just left! And you saw her in L.A during the X Factor. He clearly wasn't gonna hear her out."

"Oh my god, hold on. Ok, that just made it a little bit scary. I'm gonna text him right now, cause if he's not texting you, maybe he'll answer me."

"Just I don't even care about anything, I just care that he's safe. I'm just worried about that." She said, a tear rolling down her cheek. Dalton felt a bit bad but kept on going with the prank.

"I'm freaking out now that you reminded me that that's how he broke up with his last girlfriend. I'm not gonna lie. Like if he believes something, because of what happened before, Finn probably has trust issues. Like once you have trust issues, you can't make them go away too easily.

"But who would have said something?" She asked. "I would never cheat on him. I'm so loyal to him. I love him so much. I would never hurt him. And I just don't understand why he wouldn't hear me out or anything."

"Well, now that you said that, I'm starting to freak out."

"At what point do we just call the cops?" She asked. Dalton shook his head.

"24 hours till we can file for mission persons." She put her head in her hands and cried softly. Dalton felt incredibly bad now and was extremely close to just pulling the plug now. But he didn't. They soldered on…