The days all seemed to merge at the moment, so I glanced at my phone to check it. “Uh, it’s the first of April…”
“April Fools’!” the two of them screamed at once.
I slowly looked up at them as their words sunk in. “This was a prank?” I drew in a deep breath. “You guys pranked me?”
“Yeah, and we got you good!” Elliot exclaimed.
I struggled to contain my anger. “You guys woke me up and dragged me here just to laugh at me?”
“Um, yeah?” Aiden replied hesitantly
“And all when the world is in lockdown and we’re not supposed to leave the house?”
They both fell silent, and a look of uncertainty replaced Aiden’s proud grin. There was nothing to be proud of. Pranking girls should be illegal—especially if it involved waking her up before nine in the morning. And I wasn’t sure if I could forgive either of them for flouting the lockdown rules just for a laugh.
“You guys suck.” I jumped out of the vehicle, slamming the door behind me.
“Clary, what are you doing?” Aiden asked, jumping out of the truck to chase after me. He raced around the front of the vehicle to catch up with me. I was on a mission though. I wanted to get as far away as possible from these two idiots.
Aiden lightly touched my arm when he caught up with me. “I’m sorry,” he said. “We thought you’d find it funny.”
I whirled around to face him. “Aiden, you dragged me here without letting me shower or brush my teeth. You probably wouldn’t be breathing right now if you hadn’t given me a coffee.” The remainder of my coffee was still in the truck, and I glanced back at it with longing. I should have finished my drink before storming off.
Aiden tucked his hands into his jeans pockets. “Look, I really am sorry. Elliot and I get a bit excited about pranking each other on April Fools’ Day. It’s a bit of a Moore family tradition. We thought it would be fun to include you.”
I let out a sigh, a little of my anger dissipating as I glanced toward the school. Aiden seemed sincere, and while he enjoyed getting under my skin, his attempts were never cruel. It made me realize he hadn’t been trying to be malicious or hurtful with his prank.
“Aiden, I get that. But we should take this lockdown stuff seriously. I want the virus to go away more than anything so my parents can get home.”
His face fell at my words. “I’m sorry, Clary. I really didn’t think it would be a problem.”
I slowly nodded. “I know.” It was hard to justify my frustration because we hadn’t come into contact with anyone else. The rules were in place for a reason though, and I didn’t want to break them. I was probably just extra emotional because my coffee hadn’t kicked in yet.
As I glanced at Aiden, I felt bad for getting so angry with them. He was only trying to include me, and while I may not have enjoyed the prank very much, he’d gone to a lot of effort to try to trick me. I slowly started to smile. “It was a pretty good prank,” I admitted.
“It was?” Aiden let out a relieved breath when he saw I was softening up before he chuckled. “I guess it worked pretty well. You really had no clue we were fooling you.”
“I didn’t,” I agreed. “I must still be half asleep.”
“Yep, we were kind of counting on that, to be honest.”
“So, it looks like I’m going to have to come up with something extra special to get you guys back.”
“You will, huh?” His eyes turned playful, and there was a sense of amusement in his voice.
“Oh, yeah.” I started to walk back to the truck. “You should watch your back. I can be pretty vengeful when I want to be.”
He didn’t look afraid at all. If anything, he looked excited.
10
Clary
It was growing late, and I was pacing around my room at a total loss for how to prank Aiden. Tricking Elliot had been easy enough. Once we got home, I swapped out the cream for toothpaste in a packet of Oreos and left them on the kitchen counter. Elliot saw the cookies and went for them without hesitation.
His little face had been so cute when he realized his mistake. His nose scrunched up, and his eyes widened with surprise. It wasn’t the most original prank, but Elliot had laughed and high-fived me