Knight

26

Mason Maloney

"Why is everyone being so weird?" I asked Ross as the two of us walked down the hallway.

I had noticed as soon as we walked in the school that students were being uncharacteristically excited and jumpy. Ross and I weren't the only ones left out of the buzz as other students looked just as confused as we did.

"I have no idea," Ross responded as we passed a group of cheerleaders who were all looking at a picture on one girl's phone.

Bella and Pete were already at my locker when Ross and I arrived. When Bella saw us, she smiled widely and motioned for us to come closer.

"Did you see what the football team did?" she asked excitedly.

I groaned and threw my head back. "What did they do?"

Bella practically shoved her phone in my face, forcing me to look at a picture. I took the phone from her hand and held it the appropriate distance from my face so I could get a good look.

The picture was taken of the Knight statue in front of Sam's school. The Knight usually stood proud for the school with its armor and confident stance. The statue in the picture was covered head to toe in red Warriors gear. The football team had somehow gotten our school apparel on the statue. It wore a Warrior's football shirt, along with a zip-up sweatshirt, and our red and black school sweatpants. The statue was topped off with a Warrior's winter hat and a sign that said, "Go Warriors," was stuck onto the plaque at the base of the statue.

I handed Bella back her phone, shaking my head. "At least they didn't damage anything."

"So they started the prank war," Ross said. "Great."

"Come on, dude," Pete started. "Admit it, it's a little funny."

Bella nodded in agreement. "And it's completely harmless. No harm in a little fun, right?"

Ross and I gave each other knowing looks before turning back to Bella. I was just glad Nathan and the team hadn't done anything completely stupid and risk a just as stupid retaliation. The pranks had gotten out of hand before and I hoped that both teams had learned from that and would keep the pranks harmless this time around.

"Well, I guess we can expect something from the Knights by the end of the week," Ross said, leaning against the locker next to mine. I nodded with a slight laugh.

"You guys aren't even a little bit excited?" Bella asked in a disappointed tone. "This is basically what this school lives for! Get hyped!"

I shook my head at her to which she scoffed and turned her attention back to Pete, talking animatedly about how excited she was for the rivalry Thanksgiving game.

***

"She's a killer queen–" Sam's phone sang as he played his Spotify playlist that he had made a while back.

The two of us were cleaning up the bakery, getting ready to close. We had decided that we would switch off every day with each other's playlist while we closed up. Tonight, Sam played his music which consisted of a lot of Queen to which he sang terribly off-key to.

"I never noticed that I know so many Queen songs," I commented as "Killer Queen" ended and "Under Pressure" began.

"Of course you do, they're iconic," Sam replied, not looking up from the floor where he was sweeping.

"Have you seen the new Freddie Mercury movie?" I asked, putting a chair up on a table.

Sam shook his head. "No, not yet."