I've been waiting to do this chapter! I'm so excited and a little terrified at the same time.
There is one part in here that the point of view changes back and forth really fast, but I tried to make it so it's not that confusing. There's also another reference! Can you spot it? (I'm sure you can!). It's vague but it's definitely there.
Um I don't know if you guys are experiencing this too but people around where I live are starting to say 'osh cosh magosh' in place of 'oh my god' or 'oh my gosh' and it came out of nowhere. I personally don't say it but I think it's hilarious. :D Weird though.
Read on!
Patting the now filled hole with a shovel, TJ gave himself a well-deserved pat on the back. Shoveling was hard work after all. Especially at three in the morning when he should be sleeping (or in his room for that matter). Luckily, the digging wasn't as hard as he had anticipated; the dirt was already lose from the diggers digging and he spent half as much time working on that as he thought it would.
It had taken him two days to come up with his current prank, and now that it was Monday, he was ready to set it off. But he couldn't hurry because everything just had to be perfect. Fortunately for him, being ground helped him focus on every aspect of it. Since he couldn't go outside the house for the weekend, and what he needed required him to go halfway across time, that meant he had to sneak out in the middle of the night, something he became quite good at.
Hiding the shovel, TJ moved on to another part of his plan and grabbed a brown box he sat next to the school. Looking around the playground he spotted the Ashley's clubhouse and started to climb to the top of the tires. Using a rope he lowered the box through the opening at the top of the clubhouse and made sure that it was in the middle for maximum effect. Using duct tape he taped the wires coming from the box against the wall of the clubhouse. He always hated the fact that those stuck-up little rich girls being able to have a clubhouse on the playground, and this was just another way to get back at them for it. It was part of the plan too, but mostly as a highlight.
Climbing off the clubhouse, TJ thought about how much trouble he could possibly get in for doing something this big. There was the threat of being expelled, sent to boot camp, and being hated by the entire playground. And a few months ago all of these would've been very big deals.
'But they destroyed my bike,' He thought. 'They deserve this, and any punishment I get for this will be worth it. It's not like I plan on going along with their punishments anyways….."
Having already picked the lock to the school doors, he made his way to the room behind the big clock where ten metal boxes where sitting. One side of each of the box had a rope tied to the top and when pulled, the side would go up releasing the little creatures inside. That wouldn't happen for at least another five hours, but the prospect of what will happen when it does made TJ smile. He double checked the knots in the rope to make sure he didn't miss anything and once that was all clear he moved to the schools roof where he had set up five NYE Block Buster fireworks (M-100's) taped to sticks with the wick facing the ground. He placed them an equal distance apart against the roof of the school facing the sky. Once they were in position he tape a hand sized cylinder container to each of the fireworks. If things went according to plan, the contents inside would be spread to everyone below when the fireworks go off.
"Finally," TJ said in exhaustion. "I think that's it…." He reached in his pocket and took out a list of things to do while he was out and went over it. Everything was crossed off except for one. "I can't do that until school starts. Besides that I'm finished…..time for bed…" With a yawn he headed for the exit, but he had to throw away the boxes he used to bring his materials in. Walking away from the garbage cans he tripped over something on the ground. Looking down he saw that it was his backpack.
"Oh yeah," TJ mumbled. "I left it here yesterday." He picked the bag up and looked inside. He smiled at the sight of the untouched beer bottles inside. He took the bag with him as he left, but before he walked down the street towards his house he paused and thought about what he was doing.
~*~FLASHBACK~*~
"No, we're going to talk about this now so you can remember it," Principal Prickly said. "Of all the things you could be doing, it's drinking! Do you know how bad that is or your health? You're only 13 years old!"
~*~END FLASHBACK~*~
'He said it was bad for me,' TJ said to himself. 'Maybe I should just throw it away. I dunno. I'll keep it just in case...' Closing his bag he continued his way home.
~*~TIME LAPSE~*~
Making their way to class the reminding five members of the group now felt safe to go about their day as they normally would. Since the rest of last week was free of any pranks taking place, TJ's threat was called a bluff and no one walked around in fear of opening their lockers, desk, or playing with the equipment on the playground. Still, there those who said that just because he didn't do anything yet that it didn't mean nothing was going to happen at all. Those people were promptly called paranoid and crazy. One of the people being called paranoid and crazy was Gus.
"I Just don't think he would give up this easily," Gus said to the others was they all walked to class. "It just that when he make a promise he would always keep it and I don't think this is any different."
"Gus you're overreacting," Vince told him. "He does pranks every day. He's never missed a day since he started. And he hasn't done anything since last Monday."
"But what if he's planning something big?" Gus asked.
"Will you stop worrying?" Spinelli asked him. "Nothing's going to happen."
~*~MEANWHILE~*~
"Okay so remember, don't go out there until I blow the whistle, got it?"
While the other students were inside beginning their lessons, TJ was outside the kindergartener's pen, and ac that would be considered absolutely dangerous in the eyes off everyone else. But after offering the rowdy children candy in exchange for their help calmed them down rather fast. Besides he needed there help.
Since they all were so hyper and full of energy (not to mention innocent) they were perfect for the job. As soon as they came in for school he went over to their den and used the candy to calm them down then proceeded to hand out the materials.
"Don't go out there until I blow the whistle okay?" He said again. The current leader of the kindergarteners, King Gooey, quickly nodded.
"We go playground goes boom?" Asked the kindergartener.
"Playground goes boom," TJ said as he stood up. "Big boom. Just wait until I blow the whistle." With that he left the kindergarteners and headed to his next destination: the roof. It was only the beginning of the school day he still had to set up one more thing. It wasn't going to take long; he had set up slingshots before. After that it was a waiting game.
Once he reached the roof he took of the sunglasses he received from the older kids in the back alley last week and focused on the task at hand. It was going to be perfect; no one was going to forget about what was going to happen today. And afterwards they would never do anything to him or his property again. Sure he might get in the biggest trouble a kid has ever been in, but hey, those guys needed to be taught a lesson. Pulling the sling back he made sure that it worked and once he was sure, he placed the ammo next to it. He looked his watch and saw that now there was only ten minutes until the first recess and he needed to be in position.
~*~FIVE MINUTES LATER~*~
Making sure that it was five minutes before recess TJ pulled the rope that was attached to five of the metal boxes allowing the creatures inside free to roam the school. They moved fast from the sound of it. Not wanting to step on any of them, TJ stayed on top of the metal boxes until the sound of the feet moving across the wooden floor. When the sound was gone, he jumped to the next box and pulled the side up, letting the creatures inside crawl free. They moved fast and soon they were out and moving throughout the school.
~*~IN THE CLASSROOM~*~
"Maybe I'm worrying too much about this," Gus thought to himself as he tried to pay attention to the teachers lecture. "The guys are right. Nothing's going to happen—" His thoughts were interrupted by the scream of Ashley A.
"EWW! RATS!" She screamed, pointing at the door. The rest of the class turned to the door and saw rats crawling into the room from the space at the bottom of the door. They came in fast, and there was no telling how many there were. Rat jumped on students who jumped on their desks to avoid them. They screamed and heard the screams coming from the other classrooms as they experienced the same surprise. Soon there were not only rats coming into the room; they were joined by very large African cockroaches (those things are fucking huge) pouring in. The screamed and shrieks became louder as the pests crawled all over the kids. The bell for recess rang and they all wasted no time trying to escape the madness. However, when they reached the hallways, the madness only continued at the sight and smell of the skunks. Keeping their noses and mouths covered the forced their way through onto the playground.
~*~ON THE ROOF~*~
Standing on the roof, TJ watched as the entire student body rushed out onto the playground for some relief. That wouldn't be happening anytime soon on his watch. But he gave them a few moments of peace before reaching for the whistle around his neck. Ne kneeled down so those on the playground couldn't see him and with one breath he blew the whistle. Down below the kids looked around in confusion, but then heard the screams of the kindergarteners approaching.
~*~ON THE PLAYGROUND~*~
"OUCH!" Gus yelled after something small and hard hit his cheek. Touching the spot where he was hit he felt something sticky.
"What is it, Gus?" Mikey asked him. Gus looked at his fingers and saw that whatever had hit him left green paint on his face.
"It's paint…." Gus said. Almost immediately small object were zipping past their heads, some hitting them hard and leaving marks in different colors. Turning around they saw the kindergartener's running out of their pen and towards them carrying and shooting fully loaded paintball guns.
~*~ON THE ROOF~*~
"Those kindergartener's listen really well," TJ said out loud, watching the scene unfold below. Kids were screaming trying to escape the assault from mini terrors. Some tried to go back inside, but after he blew the whistle he ran down and locked the doors from the inside. Other tried to climb the fence to escape, but were only given and electrical shock. No one was going to get away from this ad he was going to be sure of it. How good could a prank possibly be if people can get away from it?
Next he walked over to the NYE Block Buster's fireworks and pulled a lighter out of his pocket and began to set them off. As they flew into the sky he pulled out a small controller with a bright red button in the middle. He pressed it, and one-by-one, the holes on the playground exploded, sending dirt and debris everywhere, confusing the students. The last and largest thing to explode was the Ashley's clubhouse, and a black mushroom cloud was forming over the top. At the same time the fireworks exploded, making more paint rain from the skies. As the situation escaladed, TJ loaded the slingshot with a massive amount of glue. This was going to be the icing on the cake. He pulled the lever and the glue was sent flying, landing on the unlucky souls that happened to be in its path. Now that everything was launched and everyone was running for their lives, he looked over the edge at the warzone below.
And he couldn't help but laugh.
~*~TIME LAPSE~*~
"$5,000 for professional exterminators, $7,000 for professional cleaners, $6,000 to get the paint and glue off of the students, $1,000 to replace the Ashley's clubhouse, a $2,000 fee for disturbing the peace, a $500 medical bill for a kid how broke an arm, $1,000 for a kid who broke his legs," Principal Prickly listed from the paper he held in his hand. "Why do you hate me Detweiler? What did I ever do to you? Did do something in a former life to enrage you and this is your revenge?"
"On the contrary sir, I have nothing but the utmost respect for you," TJ said. "Any guy who doesn't quit with me as a student deserves to be respected."
"Damn right he does," The Principal mumbled. "Why do you insist on doing these things? It looks like a warzone out there!"
"It wasn't my fault, sir. Some kids broke my bike," He explained. "This is just me getting back at them for it."
"SO YOU DESTROY THE PLAYGROUND OVER A BIKE?"
"Not just any bike. A Roadrunner 360 v.6."
"I was cursed," Prickly said, resting his head in his hands. "I should've known from the long line of terrorized principals I come from! You know Superintendent Skinner?" he rambled. "He's from out of state, and he used to be a principal. He had a little hell raiser at his school too! And the Principal before that and before that!"
"It's not like you have to pay those bills," Said TJ interrupting Prickly's rant. "The school district does."
"But they're going to be down MY throat for this!"
"It's not like they're going to fire you. No sane person will want to be the new principal with me still here."
"…you're right. No one's going to want to take my position…."
"I thought about that when planning all this. You're safe. Mostly."
"You know what Detweiler," Principal Prickly said going through the students files. "I'm very tempted to expel you." He sat a six inch yellow folder on his desk labeled with TJ's name.
"But then you'll only have to deal with me again when I come back next year," TJ said with a smile.
"That's right. So I'm going to let your parents punish you," Said Principal Prickly. He got out of his seat and walked over to the door to his office.
"THEODORE JASPER DETWEILER YOU ARE IN SO MUCH TROUBLE!" TJ cringed at the sound of his mother's furious voice.
~*~AT HOME~*~
"Explosives, Paint guns and rats! Where did you even get these things?"
When he arrived home after a very long and quiet car ride, TJ sat on the couch listening to his parents and like always he wasn't paying very much attention. Since he knew that this would lead to him getting grounded and being stuck in his room with nothing to do but homework (he scoffed at that) and creating plans, he welcomed the 'punishment.' More time for him to figure out what he was going to do for next week.
While TJ didn't see his parents as much of a threat, his parents were at their wits end. No amount of discipline seemed to be working and he was getting worse every day. His quick and massive change in behavior came out of nowhere and caught them off guard. Before he was a pretty easy kid to handle that needed little punishment at all and now he was a regular juvenile delinquent and they had no idea as to why. With his latest so called 'prank' they were beginning to look at the idea of sending him to a Boot Camp or a Behavioral Modification Camp to help him straighten up, but that was set aside as a last resort.
"So am I in trouble or what?" TJ asked his parents.
"Of course you're in trouble!" His father told him. "Give me your hat!"
"What?"
"Give me your hat!" His father repeated. "If being grounded won't get you to behave then maybe taking away the most valuable thing to you will!"
"You can't do that!" TJ protested.
"Yes I can!" Said Mr. Detweiler said snatching the cap off of his sons head. "Until you get your act together you can forget about wearing this!" Having his hat taken off of head angered TJ and out of that anger he pushed his father and began to throw punches. Grabbing his son, Mr. Deweiler dragged him upstairs and put him in his room to let him calm down.
"You can't do this to me!" TJ yelled as he kicked his door. How dare they take his hat! Is more beloved item! They were way out of line! Grabbing the rope under his bed he tied one end to his bed, tossed the other end out of the window, and began to climb out of his room.
~*~MEANWHILE~*~
Principal Prickly had a very long and excruciating day. After the whole fiasco earlier he had to face the wrath of the school board for having such a misbehaving student that cost them so much money; though they did show some mercy considering who the misbehaving student was and having faced him themselves. After been chewed up and spit out he looked forward to sitting back in his favorite chair and having a stiff drink. But fate didn't have that planned for him.
After putting his things down and grabbing two well-deserved glasses of whiskey he headed towards the living room where he had an unwanted visitor sitting in his favorite seat eating a bowl of ice cream.
"Hey Pete," TJ said with a smile. "What's going on?"
"What are you doing here, Detweiler?" Asked the Principal, not bothering to hide is frustration with the child. "How did you get in my house?"
"You left the window open," Said TJ. "I was going to wait outside but the window was open so I came in."
"I can have you arrested for breaking and entering," Prickly threated.
"Nah, you won't do that! I'm your favorite student!"
"I don't know where you got that idea. Why aren't you at home getting punished?"
"See what had happened was my hat was taken away and I was locked in my room," He said. "Then I remembered that there was this Senior Fusion marathon on and I wanted to watch it so I snuck out and came over here. Wanna watch?" Having gone through hell and back the stressed Principal went with the simplest answer there was.
"Get out of that seat Detweiler! It's mine."
~*~TEN MINUTES LATER~*~
"I can't remember the last time I watched this show," Said Prickly after finishing off his last drink. "God I miss it."
"Principal Prickly do you think I'm a bad kid?" TJ asked from his spot on the floor.
"No," Said the Principal. "I don't think you're a bad kid. Sure you're acting bad right now, but somewhere in that head of yours there's the good side of you. You're just going through a phase. I'm hoping it'll be over before you do anything else like today."
"A phase?"
"That's right. What you're doing seems like fun to you now but eventually it's going to become boring and you'll move on to something else. Hopefully something constructive and doesn't leave the school in shambles."
"I think my parents think I'm a bad kid," He said.
"That's because they're upset with your behavior like the rest of us. Why are you acting like this, Detweiler? It isn't like you."
"I dunno," TJ said. "It's fun I guess."
"It's fun to turn the school into a warzone?" Asked Principal Prickly. TJ nodded. A less than awkward silence fell in the room as the commercials ended and the show came back on. "I have two nephews three years older than you," He began. "They were little horrors. Never listened to their parents and did awful things to people just for the fun of it. You know where they are now?"
"Boot camp?"
"Jail," Principal Prickly said. "They decided it was fun to bully little kids and one of those kids died from it. So they're in jail for the rest of their lives. I don't want that to see that happen to you."
"Don't worry" Said TJ finishing of his ice cream. "I'm not going to do anything that bad."
"If you do I'm expelling you," He said. "You're putting the other student's well-being at risk. No more big pranks?"
"….no more big pranks," TJ mumbled.
"Good. Now you get home before your parents notice you're missing."
RandallXSpinelli: I thought that was you! And I was right. I always wondered if Prickly had any kids 'cause they don't mention it in the series even though that would've made a pretty good episode. It seems to me that he would have at least one kid. You're right; it is going to be important later on. How? You'll just have to wait and see.
Donna nnov: Thanks! :) It needed to be said. I kinds used him being drunk to voice my own opinions about characters in the show when I was having a really bad day and trying to write a chapter for another fic.
Hahasux4u: Yes it is! Thanks for reviewing!
Now I have a question for you all and I would like some feedback. I need a name for Prickly's son. Something that says serious but playful at the same time. Middle names too.
Reviews are highly appreciated!