Teenage girls and mice add up to very interesting results. My friends Schmideee (he made a point of saying that his name did have three “E’s” in it), Sage, Adam, and I were sitting in a library at 7:15 in the morning waiting ‘til 8:00 to go to class. A group of friends were all in the same early-morning seminary class at 6:00. We would get out at 6:50 and then head 20 minutes to the Green River Community College. We were enrolled in a program called Running Start which allowed us to take college classes for both college and high school credit.
We had shot a few rubber bands at Amber and Kirsten, some of the girls in our seminary class, trying to restart one of the wars that we had enjoyed on previous mornings, but it was to no avail. Both were too busy “studying.” My friends and I often stole their backpacks, and put awkward library books like Bisexuality or Pornography: A Growing Trend in them so when they left, the alarm would sound saying that they were taking a book that had not been checked out. This would lead to them being very confused, going up to the short, gray haired librarian and pulling out the book. Schmideee, Sage, and I felt like it was time to after they had obtained a very putrid spray and drenched our hair and clothes in this odor. We decided to get feeder mice from the pet store, and put them into Kirsten and Amber’s backpacks.

The next morning I pulled into the school parking lot and saw that Sage was a few spaces down. Adam and I got out of my car and met up with Schmideee and Sage as we walked to the library. We planned to get the backpacks, put the mice in them, and then give the backpacks back to the girls looking as if we didn’t do anything to them. We knew they would scream and be grossed out once they realized what we had done. However we thought they would get over it quickly and soon all would be OK. We had a history with these girls and both groups had pranked the other. Schmideee had bought two frozen mice and had started thawing them with the car’s heater on the way over. The crisp morning air began to be filled with a rodent-like smell as we plotted the prank of the year. We weren’t sure how to get the backpacks away without them knowing. We had stolen them before, but now it would be more difficult because they would be expecting it. So we decided that it would be OK if they knew we took them. We would just go into the men’s restroom and then have no problems, or so we thought.
We went up the stairs into the library and headed to the back of the library where all of the seminary kids were. Everyone was either on their computers playing games or reading their assignments. We had our attack plan; we were ready. Schmideee headed to the bathroom where he would wait for the two backpacks. We looked at the table where Amber and Kirsten were sitting and found that Amber was not there. Adam, who we had decided earlier would attack first, went in and grabbed Amber’s bag. Kirsten, the guardian of the bags, went after him. Seeing this opportunity, Sage set off to get Kirsten’s bag. Unfortunately, Amber had seen Adam and was within arms length with him. This freed Kirsten of her chase and knowing that something was up, looked to see if her possessions were safe. She soon found Sage walking away holding her backpack. Naturally, she went after him. Noticing he was going to need some assistance, I ran behind him where he threw the backpack to me. Upon receiving the backpack I swiftly walked to the men’s bathroom. Kirsten pursued me with haste and I, a bit worried, quickened my pace. We passed the front library desk; I was so close to the bathroom now. I looked back, and felt a sense of dread. She had been stopped by the librarian. This librarian had been on my friends’ and my case all year, saying we were too loud and distracting. At one point we got in trouble for playing a paper football game together, because we were “disturbing” the people from studying. There weren’t any people studying around us. In short, we detested this pepper and salt haired, scowling librarian.
I got into the bathroom and saw Sage and Schmideee inside. Adam soon came in without Amber’s bag, she had successfully retrieved it, and said,
“Guys Kirsten is talking with the librarian right now. I don’t know, but I think she is going to tell on us.”
And then he left. We were furious. To her knowledge we had just stolen her backpack. We thought she was overreacting, which was not like her. We had no idea she would even think to go to the librarian and report us. It was against the early-comers code. With this feeling of irritation we decided to put both mice in her backpack. By this time they were pretty well thawed. We found one pocket full of her food and snacks. Schmideee, with a glowing sense of pleasure in his eyes, very carefully placed one white, furry rodent into the pocket.
“Hey how are we going to get out of here? I mean the front desk is right outside the door…” I said.
Sage answered, “We are going to have to just get out fast and then turn to the right and hide in the corner of the library. Schmideee you go drop off that backpack by her table.”
Schmideee nodded in agreement. He was always the one looking for danger, almost stupidly fearless.
“I think we need to go out separately so we don’t seem fishy” I said, “I will go right now and then you guys follow after a little bit.”I then made a mistake, I forgot to grab Adam’s bag. I thought Schmideee or Sage would see it and grab it. I headed out of the bathroom while Schmideee put the second smelly mouse inside the backpack and walked straight to the corner of the library, behind rows and rows of book cases. I sat down at a desk and pulled out a book to act like I had been studying for awhile. Soon Sage came up next to me.
“Dude, we are gonna need to get outta here,” he said.
“I know. How though, I mean we have to go right past the front desk and right by that librarian. I mean, you know how she is…” I replied. Feeling distraught, I realized that what we thought would be a funny prank was turning out to be a horror story. I now was beginning to understand why my mother had always been worried when I would go out with my friends to pull some pranks. If we were caught there could be some major consequences.
“Let’s just go see what’s going on at the front desk and then go to the other side of the library.” I agreed and we started walking. Schmideee caught up with us and we glanced from a distance at the desk. Kirsten was still talking to the librarian. The librarian looked cruel and forbidding with her gray hair and her glasses half way down her nose. She was like that black crow on the fence, always looking at you with an austere expression, waiting for you to mess up so she could swoop in and pester you. We didn’t know what to do but we didn’t stop walking. Then Amber came up to us,
“Guys, Kirsten is upset and I don’t know what she is gonna do. I mean sometimes she just freaks out with this kind of stuff.”
“We didn’t even do anything,” Schmideee retorted (at least she didn’t know we did anything).
“She hasn’t been like this before, what is up her?” Sage inquired.
“I dunno, but I would suggest you get out of here because the librarian is about to call campus police.”
The three of us looked at each other with dismay in our eyes.
“Wait, Kirsten had the police called?” I implored.
“Well, I did hear they were on their way…” Amber replied.
“Ok let’s go,” Sage told us.
Schmideee and Sage started towards the front desk and then went down the stairs. I lagged behind, so we again didn’t look too suspicious and then casually started down the walk of dread. I passed by the front desk. My stomach was up in my throat. I tried to act relaxed but inside a bucket full of worms was wriggling around in me. As I walked down the stairs to the exit the campus police were coming up the stairs. Their yellow vests screamed at my eyes. I hurried down the stairs, still trying to be laid-back and unnoticeable. It worked. They didn’t spot me, and I sneaked out onto the campus. Schmideee and Sage were way ahead of me, and I ran to them. We planned on going to another building on campus where we could hide out for a little bit and think of what we could do next. We still had to go to our classes, and we had to plan out how to get through the day. We weren’t sure what Kirsten said or what was going on so we decided to text the other people in the library.
Me to Scott (a friend who was with the early-comers): “What is going on in there?”
Scott to Me: “The security is asking questions and trying to get a description of you guys.”
I didn’t know what to think. I told the other guys and they were a little worried too. Then Sage got a text.
Melinda (also an early-comer) to Sage: “Hey did someone leave a maroon gym bag in the bathroom because security has it now.”
Just then Adam showed up to where we sitting.
“They have my gym bag.”
I explained what happened, how I left it in the bathroom and thought Sage or Schmideee would get it. I was scared and felt horrible.
“Is your name on anything in there?” I asked, hoping and praying there wasn’t.
“No. I don’t think so.”
I was relieved but still a little anxious. We continued to text the people in the library. They still had no idea what we had done.
Melinda to all: “Hey I talked with Kirsten. She didn’t give any names. The only person who might be in trouble is David.”
My heart sunk. Everything inside of me went on fire, a feeling like I was going to be burned up right there on the spot and be reduced to ashes.
Me to Melinda: “Why am I in trouble, what did she do?”
Melinda to Me: “She had to give something to security, so she gave a general description of what you look like-blonde hair, medium height, blue jeans, red jacket.”
I was nervous but was thankful that she didn’t do us in. I texted her:
Me to Kirsten: “Hey thanks for not turning us in.”
Kirsten to Me: “I don’t want anything bad to happen to you guys. I know it was just a dumb prank. The librarian is the one who blew it out of proportion.”
I was reassured, but she still didn’t know what we had done to her backpack. Schmideee, Sage, and Adam had gone to class, and so I sat and listened to music. I now fully understood why my mom was so uptight about this kind of stuff. I found that if things don’t go exactly to plan, everything will fall apart. I told myself that I must tone down my pranks, or I will get in big trouble. I couldn’t afford to get picked up by the police for a few laughs.
Sitting back in the uncomfortable chair in the Lindbloom Student Center, I looked out into the overcast sky and pine trees. The campus was still except for a squirrel running around. I began thinking of what I could do to disrupt the description Kirsten gave. I decided to head to my car where I had a black hoodie, and some warm up pants for weight class. I went to a bathroom, switched my clothing, put on my hood, and ventured onto campus as a wanted man, hoping that my laughable disguise would work for the day.

I was going to my last class and had had no problems when I got a text from Kirsten:
Kirsten to Me: “I HATE YOU GUYS!!!”
I decided to never go into that library again.