Past: Talk Me Into This
"I can't believe you talked me into this," Erin looked between his two friends, a look of dread surfacing on his face.
"Oh come on, Erin. Stop being such a goody two shoes," Joel on his left sniped.
"Yeah, Erin. You have to loosen up," Lenny on his right agreed.
"Remember what happened last time? We barely escaped with our lives," Erin whined.
"Well, we made extra sure that Marie won't be around here at this time," Lenny reassured.
"Now, you have the easy job. All you have to do is stand here and make sure no one comes to his room," Joel instructed.
"I can't believe you talked me into this."
"Just stand guard, Erin. It's not hard," Lenny said.
Without waiting for his to respond, Joel and Lenny sneaked into the office.
Lenny laughed, "This will be the best goodbye present, Principal William will ever have."
Joel took out a plastic bag filled to the brim with sticky notes. Each note was signed by a student or a teacher saying their goodbyes to the principal. Honestly, both boys would miss him. They always managed to get in enough trouble so the secretary knew them by name yet not so much that they'd be considered troublemakers. He always let them go with minimal damage and was very understanding. To repay him for his kindness, the two boys were going to cover his office from top to bottom with the sticky notes.
"I don't know whether he'd love it or absolutely hate it," Joel snickered. With that they got to work.
While that happened, Erin nervously looked around his surroundings. He didn't notice the girl until she was in front of him.
"Hello, Erin."
Erin almost screamed at the voice. "Marie!" He cleared his throat, "What are you doing here?"
"I forgot something."
"Oh, what did you forget? I can help you if you want."
"Can you?"
"Yeah! Definitely."
"Really? Great!" The ponytailed girl smiled brightly. "Well… I forgot…" The smile turned into a frown. "To ask what Lenny and Joel are up to." She rose an eyebrow at the small squeak Erin gave.
He cleared his throat, "Lenny and Joel? I haven't seen them."
"Really? What'cha doing near the principal's office?"
"I...um...needed…"
"Needed what?"
"His new permission for the newest proposal for the new rally."
"That's a lot of new."
"Yeah. Well, we are going through a lot of changes, so."
Suddenly there was a crash inside the principal's office. Erin internally cursed at his friends. 'I still can't believe they talked me into this' he thought to himself.
"What was that?" Marie asked.
"I'm sure it was nothing. I'll go check on them, so you don't need to worry."
"Them?"
Erin froze. He basically ratted himself out.
"Um, yeah. Principal William is with, um, a student."
"Who?"
"Um, I'm not sure."
Marie crossed her arms. "It's Lenny and Joel isn't it."
"No," he squawked out. Erin winced. He was so bad at lying.
Marie rose an eyebrow. "Step aside." She pushed Erin out of her way and reached for the door. Erin quickly blocked her way.
"Don't worry about it. I'm sure the principal just dropped something." While he talked he knocked on the door three times.
"Did you hear that?" Lenny asked Joel.
"Three knocks. Someone's coming!" Joel said.
"Man, we're not even halfway done."
"Can't he hold them off for a little while."
"I wonder who it is?"
"Should we hide?"
"Yeah, probably."
Both boys ran to find a spot to hide.
Meanwhile…
"Why did you knock on the door?" Marie asked suspiciously.
"I didn't knock on the door," Erin cleared his throat, "Seriously Marie, don't-"
At that moment Marie grabbed Erin by his collar. "Erin, I swear to God if you don't move your butt I'm going to sucker punch you so hard you'll be out for weeks."
Erin let out a small whimper, "Okay."
He moved away quickly. Marie entered the office. To her it looked like a normal office. No one was there. What she didn't notice was all the sticky notes right behind her. Erin noticed immediately. He was hoping Marie didn't turn around. Although that would be impossible since she'd need to turn to exit the room. Marie looked around for a moment. Seeing nothing she was about to head out, then she noticed the sticky notes.
"What are these?" She asked Erin.
He shrugged. "Beats me."
Marie stepped closer to the wall to inspect it. After a while, "Lenny. Joel. If you don't get out here I'm going to strangle the both of you."
Joel and Lenny froze in their hiding spots.
"Shit. Oh shit," Lenny whispered.
"Shh!" Joel hissed.
Marie waited a few more seconds. "Alright, if that's how you want to play it." Marie opened the closet.
"Um, you do know this is trespassing?" Erin mentioned.
"And you do know I'm strangling you too for helping them out right?"
Erin gulped. She moved next to the desk. Lenny and Joel were both praying that she wouldn't find them.
"Boo."
Both boys jumped, hitting their heads in the desk.
"Really? Under the desk? That's the best you can do?"
"Oh, hey Marie. How's it going?" Joel smiled innocently. They both smiled sweetly at Marie.
"Get out of there!"
They scrambled out of the desk and ran behind Erin. All three struggled to get behind someone.
"What are you doing?" Marie growled.
"Well, I'm trying to protect myself from the wrath of the dragon," Lenny said behind Joel.
"Did you just call me a dragon?"
"No! No! No!"
"I'm pretty sure you did." Erin put in.
"Dude!"
Marie went around and grabbed Lenny's collar.
"You better explain what you're doing trespassing."
"Well…" Lenny drawled, "It was Joel's idea!"
"What?!"
"Okay. Okay. Calm down. We're not pointing fingers here," Erin chided, "They wanted to give a present to the principal before he left."
"How is this a present?" Marie asked, letting go of Lenny.
"Well, the sticky notes have a note from a student or teacher in it saying goodbye to Principal William."
"How'd you guys convince the teachers?"
"We told them we were going to put the sticky notes on a poster," Joel answered.
"And they believed that?"
"Yup." Lenny took out a poster filled with sticky notes. "We're putting it on the desk."
"Of course." Marie sighed, "This is definitely something you two'd do. But you," she turned to Erin, "I can't believe they talked you into this."
"I know," Erin groaned.
"Well, wanna help?" Lenny asked.
Joel and Erin gawked at Lenny. They couldn't believe he just asked that.
"Lenny, are you trying to get us killed?!" Joel whispered to him.
Both boys slowly inched closer to the door, ready to run if needed.
"Okay," Marie said.
"Huh?!" Erin exclaimed.
The three boy stood in silence.
"Where's the other sticky notes?"
"Over there." Joel pointed to the corner.
Marie walked over to it, "Close the door Erin. We don't want anyone catching us."
"Okay." Erin said a little breathlessly.
"Wait, you're actually helping?" Lenny couldn't believe it. He expected her to be beating them to death, but here she was grabbing a few sticky notes and sticking them on the wall.
"Yeah. You did ask didn't you." The boys didn't move. "Well, am I going to be the only one working or are you guys going to work too?"
Lenny and Joel shared a huge smile.
"Sweet! We got Marie to help!" Joel said high fiving his best friend.
"Yo, Erin. You know what's your job."
"Yeah, okay. I'll knock if someone's coming." Erin left the room.
Lenny grinned. "Okay, let's get started."
The three friends worked on giving the best (and worst) goodbye present to their favorite principal.
This is a continuation of the previous short story, Dumbest Idea. Erin's such a goody two shoes, Lenny and Joel really didn't think they would get him to agree. After using the best friend card on him, Erin did agree, but they soooo owe him big time. Getting into trouble isn't really something Erin's used to, so of course he rarely does. When he does though he becomes a total mess.
Lenny and Joel are usually playing pranks all the time, but they actually don't get into a lot of trouble. The principal is pretty chill about it, as long as no one is getting hurt and he's not the recipient. They're still getting a serious detention after this though. :) Thanks for reading and until next time...
-P.V.J.