This story is a riot. I hope you all laugh as hard as I do.

FAKE IT TIL YA CAKE IT

Theodore's POV

Pranks. Everyone has an opinion on them. Some people like them, some people don't. Pranks can get a laugh or they could make people so mad that they never talk to you again. Some pranks get really scary. Some are harmless fun. I've got a story for you about a harmless little prank that got a bit out of hand.

It all started one day when I was talking to Eleanor. We were hanging out in the park, on the swings. I love swinging. It's very relaxing. The only thing that could make it better is if I had something to snack on at a picnic table afterward.

Anyway, Eleanor came up with an idea for a prank and it sounded pretty cool and funny, so I was on board! What could go wrong?

"Check this out! I've been looking up realism cakes on Instant-Gram and Youtube." She began, showing me a video. "And I thought we could make some."

"Oh wow!" I looked at the video. It was a cake that looked like toilet paper next to a real roll of toilet paper. Nobody could tell the difference until they tried to touch it or cut into it. "That's amazing! We should make them! What objects do you want to make?"

Eleanor grinned with a hint of mischief in her eyes. "I thought we could start with a beaker or something and use it to fool your brothers."

I frowned. The thought of using it to mess with my brothers felt wrong. "I dunno, Eleanor…."

She patted my back. "Don't worry. It's not bad. It's just a harmless prank. Everyone will laugh. Trust me."

"Well, I guess….it's not really gonna hurt them to get frosting on their fingers." I reasoned, still not fully feeling like it was a good idea.

"And think of how much they mess with you. You owe them one, Theo." The girl with the cute pigtails continued.

"They mess with each other more than they mess with me." I told her. "But, it does sound really funny." I made my decision. "I'll do it!"

That afternoon, Eleanor and I put our plan into action. We created a beautiful and delicious cake that looked exactly like an empty beaker. We made sure to shade the cake correctly to give the illusion that it was made of glass.

We high fived each other and both smiled widely. Then, we ran off to place the cake beaker in Simon's lab. Eleanor positioned it on the table next to a group of other beakers. I kept watch, cuz we didn't want Simon to come in and catch us.

"He's coming!" I whispered to Eleanor. "And Alvin's with him!"

She quickly grabbed me and we both hid behind a different lab table across the room. Simon and Alvin entered the lab, unaware they were about to get cake fake-outed. This was gonna be good.

"Get ready for the show." Eleanor whispered, peeking out from behind the table carefully. I followed her, getting a nice view of my brothers. They were, sigh, arguing...as they tend to do.

"For the last time, Alvin." Simon was grumbling. "You cannot create supersonic sneakers that break the sound barrier. It's impossible."

"The impossible was only impossible until someone came and MADE it possible." Alvin insisted, taking a seat on top of Simon's lab table.

"It breaks the laws of physics." Simon noticed him sitting on the table. "Get down from there! That's not safe!" Good thing Alvin hadn't sat on our cake. That was close.

Alvin slid down from the lab table. "What if I told you I already have them designed and I just need to test them?"

"I'd say "have fun smashing your face into a tree when they inevitably malfunction." The taller boy in blue replied with sass.

"They are 100% guaranteed not to malfunction!" Alvin quipped, folding his arms. "I TRIPLE- QUADRUPLE- INFINITY checked my calculations."

Simon tossed his head back and laughed. "That's not even a real number."

"Is so!" Alvin squeaked.

"Is not." Simon argued back.

"What do you know!?" My brother in red grit his teeth. "Not like you've tried it."

"I have tried. It doesn't work. You cannot become The Flash. Now, take off that silly T-shirt." Simon ordered.

Ohhhh! That's why Alvin was wearing a red T shirt with a yellow lightning bolt over his cyan shirt. He wanted to look like The Flash. I thought he was trying to be the super tall guy from that show about nerds Simon likes. What's his name again? Shelly? Shelton?

"Come on, come on…." Eleanor chanted softly. "Touch the beaker, you dummy."

"Be patient." I whispered to her.

"Don't touch the shirt!" Alvin puffed out his chest.

Simon snatched Alvin's cap off Alvin's head. "Haha!"

"Hey! Don't touch the cap either!" Alvin tried to jump to reach it, but Simon had already tossed it on top of a pile of boxes.

"Oops." Simon didn't look too sorry about that. He returned to his work, his fingers inching closer and closer to the cake beaker.

Meanwhile, Alvin tried to spider climb up the stack of boxes to get his hat. You can probably guess what was about to happen next.

"Let's see, I just need to add this solution and…." SQUISH! Simon pulled back a frosting and cake covered hand. "What the?"

"Yesss!" Eleanor cheered as quietly as possible.

I giggled along with her.

Predictably, Simon blamed you know who. "DID YOU REPLACE MY BEAKER WITH CAKE!?"

"What? No!" Alvin was halfway up the stack of boxes now.

"YES YOU DID! WHO ELSE COULD IT BE!?" His eyes went wide when he noticed Alvin climbing up the stack of boxes. "GET DOWN FROM THERE BEFORE YOU…."

CRASH! The stack of boxes toppled over and Alvin was sent falling to the ground, with boxes landing on top of him. "Whoaaah ohhhhh!" THUD!

"...Fall." Simon finished, rubbing his temples with his non caked hand.

Alvin lifted an empty cardboard box off his head. "I wouldn't have been up there if you hadn't tossed my cap!" He pointed a finger at Simon.

"You replaced my beaker with CAKE!" Simon growled back.

"I did not!" Alvin insisted.

Knowing that I didn't want Alvin to wind up taking the fall….another fall….I bravely stepped out from behind the lab table. "It was me! And El…." Eleanor was gone, so I just took full responsibility for the prank. "It was just me."

"Oh…." Simon rubbed his neck. "Sorry, Alvin."

"It's fine." The rest of the box pile that hadn't fallen before tumbled down on Alvin and his cap landed on his nose. "No harm done. Pretty SWEET prank, bro." My oldest brother said to me.

"Thanks! I got you good, didn't I, Simon?" I said, while helping pull Alvin out of the pile.

"Yes. I believe you did. What inspired this?" My blue shirted brother stared at me with calculating eyes.

"Uhhh…" I couldn't lie. I knew it would only come back to haunt me. "It was Eleanor. We both made the cake...together. The prank was her idea, but I went along with it."

"That makes more sense." Simon snapped his fingers. "Well, don't do it again, okay?"

"Eh, I dunno. Two or three times couldn't hurt. Just don't go nuts." Alvin told me as he placed his cap back on his head.

Simon sighed. "Do whatever you want, Theo. It is….fairly harmless." He licked his hand. "Mmmm. Lemony."

I kinda wish he HADN'T said that, cuz when I relayed that message to Eleanor, she wanted to do more….and more….and more. As expected, things went downhill pretty fast. But I was having so much fun with Eleanor, the guilty feelings weren't registering!

Next, we pranked Brittany by making a cake hairbrush.

"Can someone tell me WHY there's FROSTING in my hair!?" She hollered.

"Haha! Fooled ya!" Eleanor popped out with me from behind the shower curtain to scare her.

Brittany then chased us around until she ran out of steam.

After that, we made a cake fantasy fairy themed book….and poor Jeanette got both her hands covered in chocolatey goodness.

"What's going on?" She asked.

Eleanor and I jumped out from behind the fridge. "Gotcha!"

Jeanette didn't chase us, but she did look confused.

That was followed by getting Simon AGAIN with a cake that looked like a TV remote and Alvin with one that looked like a videogame controller.

"ELEANORRR!" Simon growled. "THEODORRRE!"

"Good one, guys." Alvin fist bumped us. "Now where's my actual controller?"

"Uhhh….I dunno." I shrugged.

Alvin chased us both around a bit, until he got distracted by a song playing on the radio.

Speaking of songs….Eleanor created a music video using all the clips of us cake pranking more and more people. There was Miss. Miller with a cake that looked like a fluffy pillow and Bocater with a cake that looked like a stack of gold coins.

That was followed by pranking Ms. Croner with a cake that looked like cat food. She was NOT happy. And then we got Britt, Simon, Alvin, and Jeanette AGAIN with cakes that resembled a magazine, Simon's laptop, a banana, and a flower pot.

The song Eleanor used for the music video was called Catch Me If You Can. It was….a really catchy song. I could tell why Ellie liked it. I mean, just look at those lyrics!

"Here I go

You'll never stop me

I'm on a roll

Now you see me, now you don't

It feels like a game

'Cause, when you think you've caught me,

I slip away

I guess you're just too slow

Can't you find me

Now I'm over here

Now I'm over there

Now I disappear

Could be anywhere

What you waitin' for

Ready for some more

So exciting

Give it all you got

But I'll never stop

Push it to the limit

Try it all you want

Nothin' you can do

'Cause I'm on the move

I double dare you now come on and

Catch me if you can

You know that

You don't have a chance

I'm faster than you are

I'm on the run

Where am I now

You run up, I go downstairs

Look all around

I can hide where you can't see me

Try and find me

Now I'm over here

now I'm over there

Now I disappear

Could be anywhere

What you waitin' for

Ready for some more

So exciting

Give it all you got

But I'll never stop

Push it to the limit

Try it all you want

Nothin' you can do

'Cause I'm on the move

I triple dare you now come on and

Catch me if you can

You know that

You don't have a chance

I'm faster than you are

I'm on the run"

She stopped the video compilation. I was feeling confused. I didn't know what to think. It seemed like she was pushing this past the point of it being funny. But, I didn't want her to feel like I was trying to undermine her efforts.

So I just asked a random question instead. "How did you manage to get all those video clips?"

"Not important." She held out a drawing of the next cake she wanted us to make. "We've gotta plan our next target."

"I….don't really feel comfortable calling my brother a target." I said.

Eleanor wasn't listening. She was caught up in the giddyness of pranking people. "Okay, so, the game controller and banana were good, but this'll really screw with Alvin's head!"

"I...I don't wanna screw with his head. It's pretty messed up already." I squeaked. "You're taking this too far, Eleanor. And you're wasting so much cake!"

I looked at the drawing. We couldn't do this to Alvin. We couldn't mess with something he cared more about than even his cap.

"Oh, hush. It'll be fine. Remember how many pranks he's played on you over the years." She cackled. "Ahahaha! Time to get a TASTE of REVENGE!"

"No. No. I can't. I'm out." I raised my hands.

"Alvin said he doesn't mind." Eleanor reminded me. "He thinks this is funny."

"Not if you mess with that he won't. Like I said, Eleanor. I'm out." I left the treehouse in a huff and walked back up to my room. I sat down on the bed and wondered how this had all turned from being fun into being….not fun.

A few days later, just when I thought Eleanor had reconsidered the prank, Alvin burst into the kitchen with golden colored frosting around his mouth. He was very very VERY mad. He had every right to be.

"YOU CAKED MY HARMONICA!" He screamed at me, voice cracking.

"Nuh uh. Eleanor did. I walked out." I explained. "I knew that was pushing it."

"I AM GONNA DESTROY THAT CHIPETTE!" Alvin stomped around angrily.

"She's too fast." I moaned. "You'll never be able to catch her. And if I couldn't talk sense into her, what makes you think you have a chance?"

He wasn't phased. "This looks like a job for my new supersonic sneakers!" He pointed to the silvery metallic shoes on his feet with tiny rocket boosters attached to the sides. "Activate: Superspeed!"

Simon walked into the kitchen. He noticed Alvin's shoes start to smoke. Uh oh.

"Whoah! I moved so fast I'm already back to where I started! Haha! They work!" Alvin said excitedly, clearly unaware he HADN'T actually moved.

"You're on fire." Simon said, calmly.

"Why thank you, bro." My brother with the red glasses thought it was a compliment. I yi yi.

"No, I mean your shoes….are literally on fire." The chipmunk with more experience inventing stuff grabbed a fire extinguisher.

"What?" Alvin looked down at his feet. "AHHHHHH GET THEM OFF ME! GET THEM OFF ME! SOMEONE HEEEEELP!" He shouted, running around and leaving a trail of flames around the kitchen.

Simon was quick with the extinguisher and put them all out, along with Alvin's melting silver sneakers. "I hate to say "I told you so, but I told you so."

"You said I'd smash into a tree!" Alvin whined, kicking the still smoking shoes off and letting Simon coat them in fire extinguisher foam. "You didn't tell me I might catch fire!"

"I didn't think I had to! I thought you knew what to do to prevent that!" Oh great. Now the two were shouting at each other again….Meanwhile, Eleanor was still sneaking around replacing who knows what with cake!

"I thought I did too!" Alvin replied angrily at Simon, though I feel like he was more angry at himself.

"Come on, let's go get some burn cream for your feet. They're not too burned, are they?" Simon helped Alvin hobble out of the kitchen.

"Thankfully, I was wearing some really insulating socks." That was the last thing I heard Alvin say before I ventured into the music room.

I needed some advice from my dad. He had sorta helped me figure out things to say to Eleanor before. I knew he could help with this...if only he wasn't so busy.

"Dave, can we talk about stuff?" I asked politely.

"Hold on one minute, Theodore. I have to get this new piano instrumental done. The deadline's tomorrow." He sat down at his piano.

"Oh, okay, yeah I can wait." I agreed.

Suddenly, I caught a whiff of something delicious. Was there a cake in this room? It smelled like a really big cake. OH NO! I connected the dots in my head and realized that Eleanor had been here and left behind a large "present." This was gonna be LOUD.

Dave pressed down a piano key with a SQUISH! "Huh?" Thinking he imagined it, he tried another key. It squished again. The entire piano had been replaced by a cake replica. "It's got goop on it!" Dave wailed. "Wait a minute...it's all made of goop!"

I wondered how Eleanor had managed to get Dave's real piano out without him noticing AND replace it with a cake one. I assume she had some help, likely from Derek. She and Derek get along pretty well now that he's less of a bully, but he's still got a love for pranks.

Dave yelled as loud as he could and I covered my ears. "ALVINNN!"

"I can explain! Look, I was trying to make supersonic sneakers and there was a tiny mishap. Si and I will get ya new flooring! I promise!" Alvin skidded into the room, tripping over the rug and falling flat on his face. His feet were all wrapped up, so I assume Simon had put on the burn cream.

Simon followed, glaring at Alvin. "There is no "Si and I." You will be using your money to replace the kitchen floor."

"Kitchen floor?" Dave looked surprised and then angrier. "I'm talking about the goop in my piano! Someone covered it in frosting!"

"Ohhhh." Alvin frowned. "Yeah, that wasn't me."

"Or me." The taller chipmunk echoed. He gave me a look. "But maybe Theodore could explain it for you."

"THEODORE!?" Our dad stood up and put his hands on his hips. "You did this?"

"Uhhh….w...welll….n...n...no….not not really….not that." I stammered.

"Do you know who did?" My dad's amber eyes flashed with even more anger.

I exchanged a knowing glance with Alvin and then we spoke at the same time. "Eleanor."

I covered my ears again as Dave bellowed. "ELEANORRR!"

Eleanor stepped out from behind the curtain, looking guilty. "Okay, okay, Theo was right. This was too far."

"Give Dave back his piano!" Simon commanded her.

"Yeah!" I added, hurrying over to stand next to my brother in the deep blue shirt.

"And YOU BETTER FIND MY GOLDEN ECHO HARMONICA TOO, BLONDIE!" Alvin was furious.

Eleanor hung her head in shame. "Yeah….I will."

"Why did you do it?" Dave asked, trying to keep himself calm. I could tell he was steaming.

"I saw it online and thought it would be funny." Eleanor smiled sheepishly.

"And it was, a little, the first times." Alvin admitted.

"Then you wouldn't stop. You've BOTH tormented the town with your cakes and it needs to END." Simon stressed the last word a lot.

"I'm very tired of it." I said to Eleanor truthfully. "I kept trying to tell you, but you wouldn't listen."

"I swear I'll bring your stuff back." The girl in the mint T shirt with a darker mint star promised. "And I'll make it up to you."

"Me too." I switched sides to stand beside Eleanor.

The next day, we called a family meeting and both apologized for the really annoying pranks. Eleanor called in a crew of people to bring back Dave's prized piano and she gave Alvin back his harmonica….and all the other belongings we snatched...except the banana, cuz I ate that.

"We made something for you." I said, pointing to a tray with a domed lid.

"It's not another cake, is it?" Jeanette asked, looking suspicious of us.

"Uhhh." I felt silly revealing it now. It WAS in fact another cake.

Eleanor revealed it for me. It was a small vanilla cake with mint green colored frosting and dark teal letters that read "We're Sorry." It had a little frowny face drawn on. That was my touch. Ellie did the rest of the decorating, but we both helped make the cake.

"We accept your apology." Alvin said, fidgeting with his precious harmonica, which hadn't left his sight since Ellie returned it.

"Yeah." Simon added. "But seriously? Did it HAVE to be cake?"

Brittany cut a slice off of the cake. "Did it have to be green?"

"It's blue green." I told her.

"Still green." She cringed as she took a bite. "But it's tasty. Mmm vanilla."

"It's a nice gesture." Dave said, cutting a piece of cake for himself.

"I'll pass on it, but I accept your apology too, guys." Jeanette, being vegan wasn't interested in eating the cake.

Simon and Alvin both took their slices at the same time. Then they both looked at each other, annoyed that they had unintentionally been in perfect sync. I personally like it better when they're in sync.

So everyone (besides Jeanette) ate the cake and Eleanor surprised Jeanette with a vegan friendly matching cupcake. I was happy to be putting the days of pranking people unexpectedly behind me, although once in a while I might still watch Ellie's little compilation video...for the memories.

That night, as we were about to brush our teeth, Alvin eyed his toothbrush as if he didn't fully trust it. Oh man. See? This is what I was afraid would happen.

"Alvin, it's not gonna bite ya." I teased.

"If this is cake, Ellie is toast." He chuckled at his joke before going back to being paranoid that his toothbrush was really a cake.

"It's NOT cake." I insisted.

"But how do you know it's not cake!?" He asked. "It could be! It's like Shrodinger's Cat! I won't know if it's cake or not until I touch it!"

"I dunno who Shroder's cat is." I said. "But I don't smell cake, you're safe."

"You promise? Cuz I don't trust Eleanor. At all." He shivered.

I sighed. "I trust her. I know her. You're fine."

His eyes widened. "You trust Eleanor? Dude, that girl is one angry outburst away from hacking into the pentagon...or raiding area 51."

I shook my head. "She has standards, Alvin. Trust me."

Alvin scrunched his face in concentration and tapped his toothbrush lightly. "Phew! Not cake!"

I was glad that was settled. "Just like I said." I gave Alvin a friendly grin. "You don't have to worry about her."

"P...Promise?" Alvin whimpered.

"Promise." I replied sweetly.

That helped him be less anxious. And if Eleanor ever tried to mess with either of my brothers again, I would find a way to stop her. Knowing Eleanor though, she's got way more important things to worry about. I don't think we'll have any more trouble and no more cake fake-outs.

Was that great or what? I feel like I'm pretty good at condensing story plots and making them short. This compilation fic is FUN!

Did ya love how I managed to fit in a montage? Not every mini fic will have a montage, but some will!

Comment which character POV you'd like to read a mini story from next!