Stargazing With Beilah

Prank War

Perhaps the most intense feud between long-time best friends Spencer and Beilah was whose sibling dynamic duo was more powerful. Both were incredibly close to their respective siblings and loved them deeply which lead to frequent defence of them. The strong sibling relationships often lead to arguments over which duo was better and, in typical, childish sibling manner, these arguments would result in intense prank wars between Beilah and Jake- The Freezies (named after Beilah's chill and laid back personality and Jake's cool one) versus Spencer and Christine- Stage Left (named after their mutual love of theatre arts and both of them being left-handed (they thought it was a clever play on words)).

This month, they found themselves in yet another one of their prank wars. It had been going on for such a long time that either side could hardly remember what had initially sparked the war (though both would surely blame the opposing team).

They may not have remembered exactly how the war started, but each team was certain that they would be the one to finish it regardless of how it had come about.

One morning, early in October, Jake and Beilah discovered a basic fact of science that was, truthfully, very unfortunate to them: wet cotton balls stick to anything if it's cold enough.

They found this out the hard way when they exited their house to go to school for the day, they were met with the sight of Jake's car completely encased in the small balls of fluff. The only part of the car that was safe from the cotton ball raid was the front window- though that didn't help them much. They still couldn't drive to school without the other windows or rearview mirrors completely intact.

From behind the car, each perched on their respective bikes, Christine and Spencer cackled impishly, Spencer grinning evilly while Christine playfully stuck out her tongue at the others.

"Not cool, bros!" Jake called out, though he wasn't really angry. This was all part of the fun, though this would make getting to school more difficult.

"Jokes on you," Beilah countered, "Now we can skip!"

Christine rolled her eyes and let out a good-natured giggle, knowing full-well that Jake wouldn't agree to skip. As much as he disliked many aspects of school, at least it meant he had time to take his mind off of his parent's disappearance- though neither Christine nor Beilah knew of this- they simply knew that he preferred being active to staying home.

This was what lead to the quartet all biking to school together, joking and playfully taunting one another as they made their way to Middle-Borough High. Beilah, however, was not content with letting them win so easily and was already formulating a plan. As she attempted to text Jake about her brilliant Master Plan, though, she ended up tipping her bike over and crashing in, causing ripples of laughter across the group.

"Dude, what the hell?" Spencer snickered.

"Eyes on the road, nerd," Jake chastized, sticking out his tongue.

Once Christine recovered from her fit of laughter, she helped Beilah up to her feet.

"Thanks, Chris, for being a good person."

Spencer and Jake both just shrugged, still grinning and amused with the whole situation. They kicked off and began quickly biking away, Spencer momentarily pulling ahead of the others to declare a race to the school (which Jake obviously won). Beilah narrowed her eyes and smiled as she raced after them on her bike. She was so going to get back at them.

The following day, Spencer and Christine stashed their bikes and chained them up before heading inside to find their lockers. Considering they, obviously, had the same last name, their lockers were located directly next to one another- which made everything easier.

Today, however, something was different.

"Uh... what the hell...?"

"What the hell indeed," Christine crouched down in front of their lockers, scrunching up her nose in concentration, "How are we supposed to get all of these open...?" She reached forward to touch the chain of locks all snapped together, barring Christine and Spencer's lockers together.

The piercing shriek of the warning bell echoed up and down the halls, causing Spencer to cringe, "...We're not going to get these open in time for class, are we?"

Christine sighed and stood up, "We should probably get some help from the staff..."

Spencer groaned, "Yeah."

As they walked to get someone to help them out of the debacle, Spencer pulled out his phone and texted Beilah.

7:22

FENCER:

Dude. How?

7:22

SLOTH:

;)

The next morning, Jake and Beilah pushed open the front door to be greeted by a strange sight: Christine and Spencer sitting down on the lawn across the road from their house. In front of them were their bikes as they sat there, clearly waiting for something, though they couldn't tell what it was they were expecting to happen.

Beilah squinted in tired confusion at them while Jake just let out a confused chuckle before they stepped forward, both being completely caught off guard by what they found. As they stepped forward, they were met by a crisp, cracking sound, followed by the feeling of chilly liquid spilling out.

Jake leapt about a foot in the air, skillfully landing out of the wat of the water. Beilah, however, was not as lucky and ended up stumbling over the cups and spilling more water in an evil cycle of water, and crinkled plastic cups (which Christine and Spencer would recycle after this whole ordeal (they weren't heathens!)). As she struggled to get her footing, Jake reached out and helped her while Christine and Spencer cackled from across the street, high-fiving excitedly.

Once Beilah got to her feet, she glared across the street at the two of them, irritated with how her shoes and socks were now soaked with water, "Really?!"

"Yep!" Spencer chuckled.

They both laughed as they picked up their bikes, riding off, satisfied with seeing their surprised and mildly irritated facial expression. It was strangely therapeutic to torture your friend and their sibling... or maybe all of them were secretly just slightly sadistic. Who knew?

About a week later, Beilah was hanging out with Spencer. After hours of playing Borderlands in an almost obsessive way, she headed out of his room and into the bathroom, grinning wickedly once she locked the door behind her. This was going to be one of the most devious plots, yet!

The prank war was decidedly finished once Christine and Spencer's father stepped into the shower and was surprised by broth instead of water. Apparently, Beilah had hidden a bouillon cube in the shower head that fateful day (the same day the Broth Incident took place). It had really upset their father, and, even though it was intended for them and they should have felt bad, Christine and Spencer were slightly amused (though Christine did feel for him).

It was a unanimous decision to put the war on hold- a ceasefire if you will. One day, though, Christine and Spencer would get them back. They were sure of it.