Game, Set
The weather outside was cold and it was getting dark early. It wasn't a pleasant part of spring, and it was boring, absolutely boring.
Lounging around the FBI office, the team was struggling to get up the gumption to work their caseloads. Mortgage Fraud and cold cases weren't enough to keep their attention and they were struggling to get through the day.
Trying to do his work, Jones was having a difficult time keeping his focus just as surely as the others were.
"Do you know, when I was in high school, my classmates decided to pull a prank on the principal. The instigators pulled money and purchased a large toy dinosaur." Diana started sharing the story at random as a fond memory. What inspired her was unknown to the others.
"What did they do with it?" Neal asked as he lowered his pen.
Jones snorted softly, he was only a little surprised that their residing consulting informant was interested in a prank. The man was prone to pull little jokes all of the time and was especially prone to stealing their boss's wallet.
Beaming, Diana enjoyed recounting the story, "It was made known that it would be hidden somewhere, but not where. The principal looked, but I didn't hear of him finding it until years after we'd graduated."
Leaving them with the cliffhanger to increase interest, Diana waited for a beat before she finished at Price's prompting.
"It was hidden in the ceiling above the tiles over his desk," clearly, Diana loved how clever her classmates had been by placing it in a place the principal wasn't likely to look.
Mulling on that, Jones also appreciated the cleverness of the prank. Obviously, the principal had either been prompted by another cause or had been bothered by the unknown location of the dinosaur enough to eventually resort to searching such unexpected locations such as the ceiling above his desk.
"That is great," Neal also approved of the genius behind the students' prank.
The conversation dissipated slowly as the subject was worked out.
However, after a while, Jones noticed that Neal seemed to be musing on something and casting glances at Diana.
Looking at his partner, Jones noticed that Diana was also smiling as she worked.
Something was brewing betwixt them, but Jones didn't know what had them amused.
As the day ended, Jones was still trying to finish a little more of his workload to reduce his tasks for the next day. Based on how Diana and Neal remained at their desks working on their own piles, Jones initially thought they had the same intent.
Then he learned what they were really doing when the two closed their desks down right after the bosses left and the office was cleared off all but the three of them.
"Are you thinking what I'm thinking?" Diana eagerly applied of Neal as she got up and moved to his desk.
Grinning deviously, Neal leaned forward towards her, "I am if you're thinking what I'm thinking. What are you thinking?"
"I'm thinking we should get a dinosaur and hide it in the tiles above Peter's desk," Diana admitted to her idea, which was obviously inspired by her high school prank.
Jones let them plot, but he smiled to himself as he listened.
"Okay, we're not exactly thinking the same thing. I was thinking that we should buy several little ones, one for everyone on the team, or at least, those who are interested in participating. People could place their initials on the dinosaurs before hiding them about the White Collar area spanning the office and the backrooms on the floor. Then, as we go about our days, we can be on the lookout for the little things." Neal elaborated a more complicated idea to make a game of it.
"Oh, and then we can re-hide the ones we find to keep the game going!" Diana was quickly on board and furthered the idea.
Intrigued, Jones had to admit that it sounded like fun, but he remained out of the initial planning, the resident pranksters were up to a new shenanigan.
Chuckling, he remembered a few of their past highjinks.
One had been the printing of a hundred little images of Peter's face that were then taped around the office so that he could 'watch' everyone for the day. The challenge was for the team to find as many as possible by the end of the day, but they were still being found a few days after the fact.
Another was when there had been a meeting and someone had taken the opportunity to fill Cruz's jacket sleeve with shredded paper stuffed so tightly she didn't initially notice it until she went to put it on. Then she'd noticed the little trail of paper showing her trip from her desk to the elevator door. Returning to the office, she'd had to empty her sleeve over the trash while grumbling about who might be the culprit.
Personally, Jones' money was on Neal. Cruz wasn't enthused about his presence on the team, so it was a mild way to yank her chain.
There was one that he'd missed the results of that hadn't been done by Neal and/or Diana, but had probably been inspired by them. Franklin had taken a giant rubber band and put it around Peter's doorknob over to Hughes' one evening after Hughes had gone home. Did it stretch when Peter left or did it snap from the strain? Jones had no idea and no one had ever told him so it was a mystery.
His favorite had been when they'd gotten ridiculous costumes for Peter and Hughes.
The clever duo had convinced Peter they were purchasing a unicorn costume for Hughes and enlisted his help. However, they'd enlisted Hughes in the aide of getting a chicken costume for Peter. Both bosses had been amused and ultimately willing to assist in the prank since it was for April Fool's Day.
Then when the day had occurred, the agents were surprised to both receive gifts when Diana and Neal took Peter into Hughes' office for the giving of the gifts. Diana had taken a video of the event for others to see since not everyone was in the office yet.
When Jones had arrived that morning, Hughes was sitting amicably working away at his desk… wearing a full unicorn costume! Peter had briefly worn the entire chicken costume, but he was down to only wearing the head covering so he pulled the string to move the flaps above his ears good-naturedly and waved when Jones had glanced up at him.
Zoning back into the conversation, Jones noticed that Neal and Diana had further elaborated their current prank. They were going to hide a special dinosaur and the finder would get some kind of ridiculous trophy.
Shaking his head, Jones knew they were going to make their boredom go away, but how the bosses would react… that was yet to be seen.
Calling it a night, Neal and Diana decided to go and shop for the tools of their game. They'd conspire later to make their final decisions.
Left in peace, Jones was glad he'd remained to make the effort to get his work done. It sounded like he'd have a different reason to struggle to keep his focus soon and he wanted to get in on the fun if he could.
A few days past, but Jones picked up on various pieces of what Diana and Neal were planning.
First, they'd purchased a collection of little plastic dinosaurs. However, there weren't enough for the entire team, so they'd also purchased some similar dragons.
Second, one of the toys was a golden unicorn and it was to be the special challenge, the one that searchers would use to compete for the trophy.
Third, the ridiculous trophy that his teammates were very proud of was a plush mount of a unicorn head.
Shaking his head, Jones didn't think most of the team would be enthusiastic about the unicorn head, he wasn't fond of unicorns, but then, that didn't mean that someone else wouldn't appreciate it.
The day that the challenge officially began, the golden unicorn had been hidden and agents randomly stopped by Neal's desk for dinosaurs or Diana's for dragons before putting their initials on them.
Most hung onto their little creatures and pondered exactly where to hide them: in plain sight or hidden, high or low, easy or hard.
Slowly, the little creatures disappeared from desks and were hidden about in unknown locations and the game was on.
Their initial finds were easy enough.
One had been found on the back of the team television in the conference room.
A second was sitting on a team plaque in plain sight.
The third was on the window ledge behind the blinds.
A fourth was inside the tissues of an agent's desk.
They were well and truly all over the place!
When the game had begun, Hughes had watched the goings-on to gauge how to react, but it was easy to see the change in the team so he hadn't restricted the playing of the game. The mood of the team had dramatically improved and their closer rating had increased.
In fact, he was actually one of the most avid searchers once his initial analysis was done.
Jones had never seen Hughes out of his office so much as he did once the hidden dinosaur game had begun.
Even Peter was a frequenter of Diana's desk trying to see if he could get any clues out of her as to where the golden unicorn had been hidden.
The bosses even worked together at times to methodically work through the break area, records area, and they'd taken strolls through the back rooms likely doing general searches there too.
Everyone had resorted to using their breaks and lunches as an opportunity to walk about and search for the elusive little toys.
When dinosaurs and dragons were found, they were placed on desk computers as trophies until a new location could be chosen to hide them.
Sometimes, the group enjoyed tracing who had hidden what dinosaur or dragon were based on the initials placed on them.
Those who had hidden well enjoyed seeing others found, and then bragging on how good their choice was as it remained hidden. The seekers who knew there was a difficult one outstanding were proud of themselves when they successfully found them and updated the hider of their success.
Around and around, the toys were found, hidden, found again, and hidden again. However, the golden unicorn remained elusive.