The Payback or The Adventures and Pranks of Zachary O'Connor

Chapter Twenty-One: Cake Batter

I walked into school the following Monday with four boxes of Cocoa Puffs under each of my arms. It was 6:15, meaning the doors were unlocked and the lights were on, but very few teachers were actually there. I started down the Fine Arts hallway and found Gabby leaning against the wall outside the band room. She and I had volunteered to get this hallway. The seniors' plan was to fill every single sink in the school with two whole boxes of cereal. We had had to get approval from the administration since a few years ago, some seniors at Bay River had managed to turn the gym into a lake, complete with fish, and even a small dock. It must have been a hell of a job, considering they had managed to find a way to prevent the lake from leaking for at least a week. The seniors behind it were not able to walk at graduation, though, so that sucked.

As I reached her, I handed her four boxes, and she handed me a few dollars. I had paid for all the boxes since they were cheaper in bulk, and she didn't wanna go to the store. We started our procession towards the restroom at the end of the hallway. In the next hallway over, we saw Maddy and Destiney carrying assorted boxes of cereal. Gabby walked into the girl's restroom as I walked into the guys. A teacher was standing at a urinal, which immediately took me aback. For a moment, I was startled, but then I realized that since no students were there yet and this bathroom was closer to the classrooms, it was way more efficient to use the student restroom. He shot me a strange look when I walked in with the Cocoa Puffs.

As he stood there, I walked to the sinks and began to open the boxes. He had to reach across me to get soap, and he kind of awkwardly nodded at me as I opened the first box and poured it into the sink. He washed his hands at the other sink as the second box was emptied. He left without drying his hands, and I was left in peace to empty the rest of the cereal into the other sink. I walked out of the restroom, and Gabby emerged a minute later.

"A teacher gave me some weird looks," I told her.

"That may have just been your face," she replied.

I flipped her off, and then we went to meet up with the others.

The prank went off well. Apart from putting cereal in all the bathroom sinks, someone had poured so much cereal into a teacher's classroom that it was a foot deep. We learned that it was Aiden, and that his family had a Costco membership. The teacher had a personal vendetta against whoever had conducted the serial cereal flooding, but the administration dismissed her claim to see the security footage. Only students seemed to know it was Aiden. Other grades were pretty pissed at us, though. I found out upon my own trip to take a piss that it was rather messy and gross and inconvenient, but it was worth it to see the faces of preppy freshmen that had gotten some chocolate stains on their overly-white Chuck Taylors.

The last day of school for the seniors was Friday, the 22nd of May cuz we were exempt from finals. On that day, in AP Gov 6th period, I had my feet propped against Meghan's, our legs fully extended. Gabby, Meghan, and I were sitting on the ground. We had been playing cards, but now we were just talking, enjoying our last few minutes together as students at Walkerhall High School. My eyes were on our feet. Meghan was gently swaying hers, and my feet followed. I listened to Meghan laugh as I said something and knew that this would be one of my favorite moments from all of high school. All the big moments were significant and memorable, but looking back at the past four years and realizing that most of the journey had just been simple moments like that made such an enormous difference. The four-year journey that had brought us through so much shit ended as it had begun. A few teenagers just doing whatever.

Then the bell rang, and we were adults. No longer students (at least for a month or so). We met up with Anti in the hall, and the four of us went straight to the parking lot. We drove to Maxie's. It had been tradition for us to go to Maxie's together on the last day of school for a long time. Anti, Meghan, and I did it in kindergarten, and we had never failed to make it. The cast of characters changed a bit, particularly in middle school when I had big crush on some girl that invited her other friends, but the three of us had always been there. In ninth grade, it was just the four of us, and it has been ever since. We parked and sat together on the red benches until John arrived. Together we ordered ice cream. The frigid air rushing out to hit us from the ordering window felt amazing.

We ordered the usual. Cookies and cream for Anti. Classic chocolate for Gabby. John got a kid's dirt sundae (vanilla ice cream, gummy worm, chocolate syrup), which I found to be interesting. Superman for Meghan. As for me, I got cake batter. I hadn't had cake batter since I was in 4th grade.