Emily is Smiling

After accidentally placing our prank -a gay pride bumper sticker that said "I can't even drive straight!"- on the wrong car, Rebekah and I decided to try again. 

The next night, we met each other at the theatre where Caleb was parked outside.  We took down the Converse shoes that hung from my mirror -my car's trademark- and carefully pulled into a parking spot a row across from Caleb's car.  Luckily, Caleb hadn't parked next to the front door, so we were out of sight.

Quickly, Rebekah and I stuck the sticker on the back of his car.  We were taking a picture when we heard a noise and spun around.  Two full buses of about seventy teens had pulled up beside us.  Seventy curious faces were pressed against the windows, watching us.  Immediately, we assumed they were kids from the theatre, so Rebekah and I panicked.

Instead of laughing and admitting we were caught... instead of simply playing it cool and starting to walk in the other direction... instead of strolling over to my car and pretending like nothing had ever happened... we instead shrieked and started to run.  And we ran!

Rebekah had knee surgery over Christmas Break, so she still can't run well.  Instead of running, she hobbled on her knee brace, struggling to move quickly.  I lost my flip flop halfway to my car and stubbed my toe, so I had to reach down, grab my shoe, and hop on one foot the rest of the way to the car, waving my arms to keep my balance.  All the while, the seventy kids in the buses watched us with confusion.

We hopped into my car, scrambling to start the engine and back out of the parking spot.  Instead of leaving the parking lot the normal way, we were still in panic mode and ran off the curb, making a loud thud as we went.  We sped away, leaving Rebekah's car behind us.

That was probably one of the more embarrassing moments in my life.

"We're caught.  They're going to tell Caleb.  We're so caught," we panted to each other in forlorn voices as we drove around a few times until the buses left.  It had been such a wonderful prank.  Perhaps the funniest of them all.  And now it had failed.

To make matters worse, Jack came along with us and peed and pooped in my car... something he's never done in his entire life, not even when he was a little puppy.  I have no idea what got into him that night.  He knows better than that.  The smell wasn't pleasant, for obvious reasons, so I had to roll down the windows of my car all the way home, shivering in the cold wind... and then clean up the mess as soon as I got to the house, standing outside in shorts and a t-shirt while scrubbing pee off my seat.  The night was an absolute fail.

Or so we thought.

Things soon got better.  My sister attends the same theatre as Caleb and when she got home, she said that their particular theatre doesn't have buses.  So those buses must have pulled in for another reason... and then they probably thought we were trying to break into Caleb's car.  We are entirely uncool car thieves, running away like crippled maniacs.  Thankfully, since Amy had gotten home, Caleb hadn't yet discovered the window decal.

In fact, later that night when my mom passed Caleb's car at the theatre, the sticker was still planted nicely on the window.  He was still oblivious.
Perhaps our plan had not failed after all.

This is why Rebekah and I make the best prank war team in the world.  Even when we fail, we win.