Arcadia Oaks High
USA, Earth
Elara's POV
Five minutes before lunch starts, I sneak into the school hallway.
I already scanned through Tarron's school schedule for the day, so I already have everything planned out. With the school's surveillance cameras hacked, now's my chance to act.
I reach his locker and scroll in the combination. His lock opens with a flourish.
Hey, don't look at me! A geek like him would be stupid enough to write down his locker combo and stick it in the front of his Math book. Trust me, if I can see it, everyone else can too.
I reach into his locker and rummage through the messy pile of clothes, papers, books and notes until I find his second pair of pants.
I pull out a whoopie-cushion and stick it on the backside part of the pants before tossing them carelessly in his locker and snapping the lock into place. He won't see what's coming for him until it's too late.
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Aja's POV
"Where's Daxxon today? I have Science after this, so she'll have the opportunity to prance around the classroom and act like a Queen," Krel growls as he pulls out a chair to sit in.
"Leave her be, Little Brother. She's not worth our time. We have bigger things to worry about."
"That's true, I guess," he admits as he sits down. A loud poof suddenly erupts from under his seat. Everyone stops to stare and laugh.
"Look! Tarron's gone all Tooty!" Seamus announces.
Krel's face turns bright red as he stands to check if there's anything under his backside before slowly seating himself down again. Another loud poof rings through the cafeteria.
"Krel! Was that really necessary? Keep the next one to yourself!" I hiss.
"It's not me!" He whispers back.
"Tooting Tarron! Tooting Tarron!" A human boy mocks until everyone in the room chants along.
A paper airplane suddenly hits Krel in the side of his face. He picks it up and unfolds it, revealing a message scribbled onto the paper in neat handwriting:
Happy early Birthday, Doofus!
Hope you like your present!
From ;)
We look up in the direction of where the airplane came from in time to see Elara smiling sweetly at us from a nearby table.
I see Krel's eye twitch and his face turn an angry shade of red. And I know he won't let her stunt off the hook so easily.
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The Next Day
Arcadia Oaks High, Earth
Krel's POV
"I still think this is a bad idea, Little Brother," Aja calls out to me nervously as she follows me into the girls' changing room.
"Well, I said you didn't have to come with me," I answer, as I search under the benches for Daxxon's black sneakers until I find a match.
"And I did, because someone has to look out for the King-In-Waiting before he returns to Akiridion-5 with his limbs in a knot!"
I pull out her shoes and and attach a pair of miniature jet packs to each sole of her sneakers as I explain my plan to Aja.
"I've already installed the jack packs' coordinates to this remote control. When I press this—" I point at a white button with a black X marked over it "—that will trigger the jet packs, she'll launch into the sky, and the remote will alter the packs' movements! Ha ha! My plan is genius!"
"Not If it gets us in trouble," Aja adds. "If we get caught doing something so ludicrous, the school Bureaucrat will kick us out for sure!"
"Which is why he'll never find out," I reply. "I'm not letting Daxxon's earlier stunt to go unpunished. If we want to win this Prank War, we need to fight fire with fire."
"But weren't you the one who declared war on her in the first place?" Aja suggests.
"Not my fault!" I protest. "She was the one who crossed the line. Nothing can go wrong from here!"
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Out on the school's Football field, I watch Daxxon from the corner of my eyes as she stretches her legs under the bright hot yellow Ball of Light.
"Keep up the good work, Daxxon!" Coach Lawrence bellows as he jogs through the hoard of humans, blowing a whistle every now and then.
Even Coach Lawrence loves her, and he hates everybody! No matter, this next prank will leave a bad mark on her, and only me and Aja will be aware of it!
When everyone's attention is on Coach, I slowly pull out the remote. When Daxxon stands, I press the white button. The jet packs shoot her into the sky!
"Oh!" Everyone says in horrified delight.
She stifles a scream as the jet packs twirl and dip her in the sky, writing in the air in big white letters and mimicking every lever I pull.
What a sight! I should take a selfie; I take out my phone and snap a picture of me with Daxxon in the background.
I grin. Now for the big finale. I push all the levels and gadgets forward, driving a disoriented Daxxon face-first into the field!
I quickly hide the controller as everyone rushes to see if she's ok. I stay put where I am.
She slowly stands. She's covered in mud and dirt from head to foot!
The humans burst into a fit of laughter as they snap photos of the groove she made in the field and of her. I laugh right alongside them.
Daxxon ignores the cheers and teasing from everyone (how does she manage to do that?!) And wipes her face and PE kit down.
"Daxxon! Now's not the time to be diving face-first into the Earth!" Coach barks. "We're trying to be eco-friendly to the animals here!"
"But—"
"Drop and give me 40—no, 50 push-ups on the spot! No excuses!"
As she bends down to start her first push-up, she looks up at the big message the jet packs wrote in the air:
THANKS FOR LETTING ME GET MY REVENGE, AMATEUR! IT'S SWEETER THAN YOU WILL EVER BE!
From ;)
She turns around to glare at me. I smirk back.
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The Next Day
Arcadia Oaks High, Earth
Elara's POV
This Akiridion seriously doesn't know when to give up! I admit, he's good. But this next stunt will teach him his lesson.
I check the time on my phone. 9:39PM. After getting Tarron's home address from the school's website, I set out to hone my next prank.
Making sure I'm the only person around, I quietly approach the side-wall of his house and take out a duffle bag.
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The Next Morning
The Tarrons' Neighbourhood, Earth
Aja's POV
I wake up to the sound of screaming. What is going on? I quickly renew my transduction form and race outside of the Mothership to find Krel yelling in surprise and anger ... At Mother's wall?!
"Little Brother! What in Gaylen's name are you shouting at 3:00 in the morning—OH!" I gawk at the answer to my question right before my eyes.
The whole of Mother's exterior design has been vandalised! Streams of toilet paper hung from neighbouring trees and an endless supply of underwear sat on Mother's roof. But the worst part of it is the huge portrait of Krel roasting over fire that is spray painted over Mother's wall!
Zadra, who also wakes up to the debacle, races out to us, her staff in hand. "What is the trouble, my lieges?" She addresses us.
"Someone demolished Mother!" I clarify.
"It's Daxxon who's behind this!" Krel's voice drips with acid as he speaks. "She would be evil enough to do something like this, and Mother's already sustaining enough severe damage!"
"Tell me about it," Mother booms.
"How do you even know if it was her at all?" I propose.
"Because of this!" He points to another message written on Mother's wall in green ink with familiar handwriting:
Good look for Picture Day, Doofus! The horror on your absolutely hideous face compliments the scenery!
From ;)
"Who is this citizen that's troubling you a lot?" Zadra urges Krel. "Permission to strike her where she stands?"
"Permission granted!" He says gleefully.
"No no no! You can't! We're still trying to be inconspicuous. After all, I'm sure she means well," I say positively.
"You haven't read it all yet." He gestures for me to follow him to the other side of the ship, where an extended piece of the message is scrolled across the wall:
P.S: Compared to me, you sister's pretty slow at the Rope Challenge.
"How dare she!" I glower. That is nothing but a bunch of klebso! Why does it feel so hard not to let her bother me?!
"Still thinking positive now, Sister?"
"Not humouring, Krel—"
"Humour is a way to communicate with the soul of a lonely heart," Ricky poets. He keeps popping up out of nowhere!
"Children, I must confess. I was a very lonely man before I met your mother," he continues on. "She was the joy in my heart. The love of my life. We had many laughs together, and many heartbreaks."
I feel my core melting. For a robot he is quite sentimental.
"No matter how many challenges we face, all the love I see in her eyes makes it worth it in the end." His hand rests over his chest dramatically.
"Aww," I coo, touched by his heartwarming speech.
"Yeah yeah, can you just go back inside for me?" Krel shoos the Blank back into the mothership.
"Let's get her back real good." He tells me.
There's only one word to say now.
"Lively!"
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The Next Day
Arcadia Oaks High, Earth
Elara's POV
After PE class I head to the changing rooms and start showering, the steaming hot water cooling my thoughts.
I rub body wash all over myself and rinse it all off. Then I change into my regular clothes. When I walk out of the cubicle, every girl's stare is on me. Some even begin to snicker. Weird.
I walk in front of the huge body-sized mirror, and bite back a gasp. What the hell?!
My tan skin is replaced with a glowing neon blue! The colour of ... an Akiridion. I run a hand through my hair in disbelief, only to discover my green highlights are now a striking whitish blue!
"Love the new look, El!" Mary sneers. "Did you get it from Papa Smurf?" She and the whole room of girls laugh and chuckle at her antics.
I grunt in exasperation and shove Mary out of the way. "I don't have time to be mingling with Class Clowns." I tell everyone.
They just laugh. I just ignore them.
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After dragging hours of snickering teens and flashing phones, school finally ends.
I search through my bag until I find the bottle of shampoo and body wash. I take out a LED UV flashlight and shine it over the labels of the bottles, revealing a secret message from a certain prince:
You look good in blue, Amateur! Say hi to Papa Smurf for me!
From ;)
Anger and hatred surges through me as I grip the flashlight and the shampoo bottle in my hands, shattering the flashlight to smithereens and bursting the shampoo bottle everywhere.
I ignore the people staring at me from nearby as I stomp back home, my mind racing through endless possibilities for my next stunt.
On Monday, I'm going to end this once and for all.