Usual Disclaimers Apply

Puppet Master

It had been a week since the Life and Death Brigade had helped Logan move Rory's car, but there hadn't been any sign of activity of Rory's part. Logan couldn't help but wonder if Rory had given up, but he didn't think that was her style. In fact, the longer they went without a joke being pulled, the more nervous Logan became. He even considered pulling another joke on her, but that seemed against the rules somehow.

But what angered Logan the most was the fact that Rory seemed oblivious to the currents she was generating. She continued with her daily life in a completely normal way – she was productive at the newspaper, played referee between Paris and Doyle, and was constantly studying. Even her jumpy-ness when Logan was in the room had completely disappeared.

Finally, the weekend came, and Logan decided he had had enough. Instead of waiting around on campus for Rory to pull a prank, thus making himself even more of a target, he decided to go home for the weekend and hang out with some of his old schoolmates. He was in such a good mood he even invited Finn and Colin along, but much to his confusion, they told him they were busy studying. Yes, Finn and Colin claimed they needed to study.

He decided they had temporarily gone insane and, with a prayer for their sanity, he was out the door and quickly on his way home.

As soon as Logan was out of the room, Finn looked up from his biology textbook over at Colin who was seemingly engrossed in a philosophy textbook.

Before Finn could say anything, Colin shook his head almost imperceptibly. Finn looked back down at his textbook.

Ten minutes later, Colin looked up. "Jesus. Are you even taking biology?"

Finn looked up too. "Well, no. I actually borrowed it off of Stephanie." With that, both doubled over in laughter.

When they regained their breath, and an illusion of calm, Colin noted, "He is either really preoccupied, or really gullible."

Finn shot back, "Hey, did you know that the word 'gullible' is not in the dictionary?"

"What?! Of course it is. Here let me show you!" As Colin reached for the nearest dictionary, it hit him and he physically smacked himself on the head. "Hello? Gullible?"

Finn just laughed.

"Hey, cut it out. We need to make the call."

As Finn dialed, they both picked up the phone. When it was picked up on the other end, Finn said, "Musketeers two and three reporting in. Musketeer one has left the building. Repeat, musketeer one has left the building. Operation Delta is a go."

Rory hung up the phone. "Alright, do we have everything?"

Lorelai and Paris nodded. "I think so." Lorelai had driven in just for the occasion.

"Good. Musketeers two and three are waiting. Let's get going, girls."

They each hefted a couple of large bags and made the walk to Logan's suite. By the time they got there, Lorelai was already complaining.

"I need coffee," were the words that greeted Colin when he answered the door. "I must have coffee. Coffee is the bringer of life, the savior of nations, God's gift to humanity-" she was cut off as Finn pushed a mug of coffee into her face. She took a sip. "Not bad, but I'm sure you could do much better."

Finn looked indignant. "This is the thanks I get for letting your daughter ransack my best mate's room?"

"Oh about that," Lorelai grinned cheekily, "thanks." She turned to Rory. "I still can't believe you of all people would get caught up in a practical joke war. Remind me again how this happened."

Before Rory could open her mouth, Paris cut in. "Can we get on with it already? Some of us have to get back to study-"

"…or go on a date with Doyle," Colin cut in.

"-and don't have all day to gallivant around," Paris continued, ignoring Colin, "redecorating for snobby rich kids."

"Hey!" Colin shouted, pretending to be wounded.

In the midst of the chaos, Rory entered Logan's room, followed closely by Finn. "Ok, as much as I hate to say this, his room is actually pretty cool."

"Shouldn't that make it all that much more fun to redecorate?"

Rory stopped to consider Finn's suggestion. "Yeah, I guess you're right!" She said happily before opening her bags. Eventually, Paris, Lorelai and Colin came in, having finished bickering and they each added their own flavor to the room.

A couple of hours later, the group stood back to look at their handiwork.

"Great job, guys," Lorelai gushed, "and great idea Ror. Didn't know you had it in ya."

"Yes, well, I did learn from the best." Rory replied.

"You are such a suck up," Paris griped.

Rory ignored Paris, opting instead to turn to Finn and Colin. "Hey, we're having an after party at our dorm. Want to come?"

Finn perkedup at the word party. "Party?!"

"Well, not really a party, more of a pig out night for anyone who worked on Logan's room and, well, anyone who happens to venture into our dorm."

Colin responded before Finn can ask anything else. "We're in."

Four pizzas, two gallons of pop and three pints of ice cream later, Rory, Finn and Colin sat on the floor watching movies. Lorelai had driven home, only after receiving promises from each and every one that she would be notified of how the prank turned out. Paris had left with Doyle who had been waiting outside the room when they showed up.

"So," Rory turned to the two guys who were watching Spiderman raptly. "Why did you guys help me?"

"What do you mean?" Colin asked.

"You helped me pull a prank on your best friend."

"What? We aren't allowed to help out a friend?" Colin tried to avoid the question.

"He deserves it." Finn deadpanned. At Rory's skeptical look, he continued. "Really he does. His ego gets the best of him," here Rory snorts and gives him a look that says, 'major understatement', "and once in a while, we like to see him put in his place."

"Especially when it's you who's putting him in his place." Colin had started to warm up to the topic.

"And," Finn hurried on before Rory could ask Colin to clarify his statement, "it's amusing. Your last joke gave us entertainment for a solid week. We can't wait to see his face this time."

"You do realize that he's gonna know you had something to do with it, right?"

"Yeah. It'll be obvious, especially when I come at him with a camcorder to capture his stupefied expression."

The three break out in laughter imagining Logan's reaction.

"You realize, of course, that we're probably going to help him execute the next joke on you, right?" Colin pipes up when he regains his breath.

Rory's jaw drops open. "How much do you want?"

"Oh, honey," Finn says sympathetically, "You can't buy us."

Late Sunday night, Logan returned to the suite, exhausted from partying with his high school buddies. He tiptoed in, careful not to disturb Colin or Finn…especially Finn. He opened up the door to his room and dropped his bags.

"WHAT THE HELL?!!!!!" His room had been given a complete makeover. The room was very…pink. Pink walls, pink bedspread, pink desk, pink chair, pink lampshade…you get the point. In the middle of his bed sat a large, pink teddy bear. But the worst part was that his furniture hung upside down from the ceiling.

"FINN!!! COLIN!!!" he yelled at the top of his lungs, not caring that he was probably waking up the entire floor.

"Yeah?" Finn popped up from behind the living room couch being careful to keep the camcorder on Logan. Colin reluctantly followed.

"YOU TWO ARE DEAD!"

"Whaddya mean?"

"You…let…her…in…here!"

"Well, she pulled the prank!"

Logan snorted. "Like she could get my furniture on the ceiling on the ceiling by herself…"

Colin gave in. "Well, we may have helped…just a tad."

Quickly, Finn jumped in. "Hey, don't shoot the messengers! Listen to your messages!"

Logan quickly rummaged through his bag, flipped his cell phone and listened.

Rory's voice came over the phone. "Hey hun! I figured I was being remiss in my fiancical duties," at this point there was a bit of commotion on the other end and someone yelled 'ooh, nice word!!', "by letting you live in such an awful room, so I redecorated. I hope you like it. By the way, what do you think of the color scheme? I was hoping we could use it for the wedding! Love ya."

While he listened to the message, Logan's face had gone from disbelief to a scary purple color. He hung up the phone and looked like he was contemplating his options. Finally, he threw his head back and laughed long and hard. When he looked up, Finn still had the camera focused intently on Logan.

"You two are so dead!"

"Idle threats, Huntzberger," Colin affirmed confidently.

"I hold the keys to the liquor cabinet."

Finn and Colin looked at each other in disbelief. "He wouldn't, would he?"

They looked at Logan who had an evil grin spreading on his face. "He would."

The next day, there came a knock on Rory's door. She opened it to see a note taped to her door.

Ace,
Good one. You have won the battle.
You will not win the war.
Anyway,
Ace – 2
Logan – 1
By the way, I'll get back to you on the color scheme.
Logan

AN: Well, I was planning on thanking each and every one of my reviewers by name, but when I looked and saw 84 reviews…well, I'm hoping that a blanket thank you statement will suffice. So…..THANK YOU SOOOO MUCH!! hugs>

BTW, I have absolutely no idea how do perform the prank; I write them, not pull them. Don't shoot the messenger.

JJBP – I used the line for you. Hope it made you happy!