The Lakeshire Hunt

I have been feeling very lonely. I woke up to the sound of my alarm clock ringing. It’s the first day of senior high and my nanny has been very excited about it. I’m not really sure why. I turned off the alarm clock and sat on my bedside table, scratching my head. “Lucas! Breakfast is ready! Hurry up! Hurry up!!! You don’t wanna be late, do yah?” called my nanny. She’s always so loud in the morning. I laid down, silently, closing my eyes, thinking about the dream I had. I don’t really remember most of my dreams, but lately I’ve been remembering similar dreams having the same similar lonely feeling. It didn’t even have a beginning and an ending. I was just standing in the middle of the freakin’ road, staring at all the people around me. It was a very busy road. Much like the busiest street in the world, The Shibuya Street in Japan. But I have never been to Japan, so that was just kinda odd. I was about to fall asleep again when my nanny knocked on my door. “Knock! Knock! Knock!”. “Lucas? You had better be ready for school by now. Come on!” It was kinda loud really, of course, understanding the fact that she was actually pretty excited about my first day in school. “Alright! I’m up. I’m up! My body felt so heavy as I stood up. I brushed my teeth, took a quick shower and went down, to find my nanny ready to go. “Come on! Get your breakfast and I’ll have Louie prepare the car.” Your probably wondering why I said my nanny’s ready to go. If you’re wondering if she’s coming to school with me, it’s a big “YES”. Unfortunately, she just tags along with my driver, driving me to school. I always think and I’m sure you guys would agree. My mom and dad should be with me, not my nanny and my driver. My mom and dad are always away. They’re always busy working. They come home at least 3 or 4 times a year. This year, they’re staying in Florida for over 2 months now. Mom says she and dad will come back home after a month and will stay for just a week. After their stay, they will have to fly all the way to New Zealand to check on the family business. We have a dairy farm there, you see. We also have a ranch. Mom says New Zealand is so beautiful. The air is fresh, the land is broad, and there are lots of greenish mountains, trees and many more. I remember her telling me stories about New Zealand. The rich culture, friendly people. It was just simply nature at its best. She says when the time is right, they’ll take me there. She was so sure New Zealand would change my life. I was about 8 years old when she last told me those stories. Since then, I rarely see them. I remember dad saying, “We’re working so hard to make sure you get a good life, a good future. Know that we always love you. Alright?” We were at the airport then. They were leaving for Melbourne, Australia for a business trip. They’re still the best parents for me though. They left me in the care of the greatest, selfless people in the entire world; my nanny, Éclair Morris, and my driver, Louie Martinez. They became my mom and dad. They don’t get along very well though. My nanny sometimes gets very loud and Louie doesn’t like it. The last time I told them, they were like parents to me Louie reacted with saying. “Son, there’s no way I would put up with your nanny. Talk about disgusting. My nanny shouted “You big-headed loach! Who do you think you are? Huh?” she said many things after that. I just stopped listening and went to my room after laughing so hard when nanny grabbed the frying pan and chased Louie around the house. I may not be all that complete because my mom and dad aren’t with me, but Nanny Éclair and Louie are, so I’m still pretty happy and contented. I wouldn’t want anything to change. Even if my parents come back. I wonder when. Oh yeah, I almost forgot my name is Lucas Rivers. Affton High schools greatest prankster. Trust me. No one knows perfect pranks better than the king of pranks himself, yup! And that is me. I got a few toasts and hopped in the car with my nanny and off we went. “You can just drop me by the post Lou.” I told my driver, Louie. Well, he knows I don’t like to be dropped in front of the school entrance. No offense, I love my nanny. But I’ve got a reputation to keep you know. “All right kiddo. Let me just park real quick.” He answered. As soon as the car stopped, I opened the door and stepped out. “You have fun kiddo!” He happily added. “We love you sweetheart. Bye now.” Added my nanny. “I will. Love you too. See yah later!” I responded, walking continuously towards the school entrance. Along the entrance, my man Carter greeted me with a fist bump. “My man C! How’re yah? You got what I asked for?” I asked. Carter Miller, my best friend since kindergarten. We do my pranks together ever since Middle school. We always share a good laugh. My mom and his mom are best friends. A week before the first day of school, I had Carter get me the coolest prank item in the world. FAKE COCKROACHES! “Of course I got them!” he signaled with an OK. “You’re the best! This is just a classic man!” I excitedly whispered. Carter laughed with me as he hid the fake cockroaches on his pockets. We’re reserving it for our favorite prank victim. I sure do hope we still get to be in the same class. Carter and I already knew we’d be in the same class together and as if that’s not cool enough. Megan Martel, our favorite prank victim, is in the same class as we are! Trust me, you guys, this is simply the best way to start senior high. Carter and I giggled silently at the sight of Megan in our class. We waited patiently for the perfect time to prank her and the perfect time would be lunch time. I had my man, Carter spy on her this morning, so during lunch we rushed ahead of her to her locker. I had 6 fake cockroaches at hand and it took me some time to put all of them in the locker as I couldn’t really open it. I had to do it one at a time, so I had my man Carter distract her to give me more time to pull it off. Of course, a lot of people are in the area, so I had to play it cool by casually chatting with them with my right hand, slowly putting the cockroaches in, behind my back, to her locker. Carter and Megan came in just in time. I can’t help but to grin in excitement as she slowly walks towards her locker. Carter looks extremely excited too. As we both slowly made our way out of the area, and watched from a distance as she opened her locker. She jumped and screamed like there’s no tomorrow and it was absolutely hilarious. A lot of students in the area also screamed in surprise. Carter and I couldn’t help but to laugh non-stop at the sight of the commotion. I gave my man C, a high five as we both turned red, from laughing non-stop. A few students simply laughed it out when they realized that the cockroaches were fake. That’s what I call a good sport! We’re all just having fun, yeah? But Megan? Man! She was over reacting as always. She was screaming hysterically and jumping up and down like crazy. The security guards had to come in. And that was our queue. We left the area, still with grins on our faces. “Man, Megan never changed! She still can’t take a joke?” I commented. “Yeah, like how hard is it to move on? Really? Hahaha!” Carter agreed. We have had Megan as our classmate since middle school and she was always this overacting crybaby, but still, going to school, would definitely be boring without pranking her. The thing about pranking her though, is that she always knows it’s me and we always get called into the principal's office. But hey, pranking her, seeing her reaction with her overacting screams? Getting caught pranking her is all worth it. As expected, the security guard called me and escorted me to the principals’ office. This is normal, no biggie, I’m used to it. But I’m just wondering. Why is it just me? Like hello? Carter was my accomplice, remember? Well naah…doesn’t matter. I’m used to facing things alone anyway. When I entered the room, Megan was there with her parents. Wow, that was pretty fast. How on earth was she able to get her parents in that quickly? And as always…my parents weren’t with me. Principal Mcdough says she called my mom and dad but they were pretty busy working. They just said that they would pay for the damages. Like come on! There were no damages made. It’s not as if I murdered someone or stole something. “I am so sorry Mr. Martel. Rest assured this will never happen again.” Assured Principal Mcdough. It took some time for Principal Mcdough to be able to convince Megan’s dad but everything went well if I do say so myself. It was quite boring really. I had to sit there and wait till they all got tired of talking. Principal Mcdough got me off the hook but she said I really needed to have either one of my parents come in for a chat. “Lucas, you have parents, you’re not an orphan. You have to convince your parents to come in.” Principal Mcdough explained. “I’ll try.” I coldly said. By the end of the day, I didn’t tell them about what happened. They’re too busy anyway, so why bother telling them if I already knew they would just pay it off. Everything for them can be bought with money. And besides Principal Mcdough already called them about so basically they already know. A few days past by and Principal Mcdough never mentioned about having my parents come in. And that was seriously a relief. This wasn’t the first time I got into trouble with Principal Mcdough though. I did lots of pranks. All of which I enjoyed doing. There was this one time I pranked another girl in school during lunch by putting a water balloon on her chair. The moment she sat on her chair, the balloon exploded, she looked like she peed on her pants. That was epic! She was kinda boring though cuz she cried. Apparently, she told the principal and I was called in again. Another epic prank happened to one of our PE teachers. When we snuck into her locker room and placed a super slippery soap outside her cubicle after PE class when she was bathing. Man, she seriously stepped on it! The next day she came in on a wheel chair. She looked so funny, she can’t even climb the freakin’ stairs. Now there’s one prank I consider the best. This had not happened yet. Me and my man, Carter, are still planning this perfect prank. But I’m telling you guys, this one’s gonna be the best ever. A new girl just came in this morning as expected. We saw her yesterday with her dad. I had a feeling we’d be in the same class and I was right! We didn’t get to clearly see her though. I wonder…would she be late on her first day of school? What a sloth. Ms. Milligan came in, carrying her laptop as always and wearing a pencil skirt and, seriously? Stilettos? Why do girls like wearing those things? They look painful. “Alrighty everyone. Settle down.” Everyone rushed back to their seats as Ms. Milligan took her laptop out to prepare the lesson for the day. My day has just started but I can definitely feel the boredom. Carter threw a paper at me and signaled for me to open it. I lazily picked up the crumpled paper and read out the message in my head. “Dude? Where’s the new girl? You said she’d be in our class?” Seriously? I have no idea. I tore a new page out from my notebook and cautiously wrote back “I don’t know. Maybe she’s late.” I crumpled the paper and threw it back at him. He immediately caught it as he was actually waiting for it. We often exchange crumpled papers during class. My classmates don’t seem to mind or maybe they just didn’t care. Everyone’s a jerk anyway. “knock. Knock. Knock.” “Excuse me…Ms. Milligan?” Principal Mcdough called. It’s the new girl! Everyone was curious about what Principal Mcdough came in for but I know it’s because of her. The class started to get louder and everyone gossiped. Carter and I wore our best smiles and began to get very excited. Ms. Milligan stepped out of the class to speak with Principal Mcdough. She came back in with a pretty Irish girl beside her. She looked very shy and had red hair and some freckles. As expected, of course. She’s Irish. She wore her best smile as Ms. Milligan introduced her to the class. “Settle down everyone! Settle down!” Everyone silenced as we all stared curiously at the new girl. “This is Abby FitzMichael. She will join our class from now on, so be kind to her, OK?” Ms. Milligan eyed me and Carter as she introduced the girl. She doesn’t trust us. Well, that’s understandable cuz we always do the best pranks in school. “Hi everyone. You can call me Abby.” She cheerfully greeted. “Alright Abby. Please find yourself a seat and let’s begin today’s class.” Ms. Milligan instructed as she turned the projectors on. Abby looked around for an available seat while smiling weirdly at us. Maybe so that she can make friends? I don’t know. It makes her look stupid though. “Here!” Alexa called. She waved at the new girl with her big smile on and whispered “My name is Alexa. Have a seat.” Damn. Alexa and the new girl are seated on the 2nd row to the front, which means we cannot execute our greatest prank during class, so we waited till after lunch. Fast forward, me and Carter just came back in after lunch and Ms. Milligan still hasn’t come back. Good thing she has a thing or two about being late after lunch. She always spends her lunchbreak with her boyfriend, Professor Rey. Disgusting really. It’s the perfect time for our prank. Alexa and Abby had just come back from lunch and sat comfortably on their seats chatting. “So what does your last name mean?” Alexa curiously asked. What a stupid question. Really? It’s like asking if she’s a human or something. “Well, Michael is my dad’s name and most Irish last names have Fritz added before it.” Abby answered. Seriously, I don’t have any idea how that was supposed to answer Alexa’s question, but whatever. Girls…pfft. I called Carter’s attention and waited for him to come closely as we both approached Abby’s seat and threw a sticky fake rat at her. Alexa and Abby screamed like hell. Me and Carter laughed hysterically at the sight of their reactions. Alexa screamed, running outside the classroom hallway. Where is she going anyway? Abby, on the other hand stayed screaming overactingly on her seat. She was really loud. A lot of my classmates laughed along with me, so technically what I did, definitely made everyone’s boring day. “What is going on?!” Uh oh Ms. Milligan came back. She probably bumped into Alexa and heard Abby screaming in the lobby. Well, everyone in the school surely heard her. She’s really loud. And Alexa hasn’t returned yet. Where did she go? Abby hasn’t stopped screaming yet. Everyone’s laughter soon turned to annoyance as she just simply wouldn’t shut up. Ms. Milligan rushed to approach Abby and tried to shut her up. “That’s enough, Abby. Look at me! Enough!” her voice raised. Abby stopped screaming but suddenly she seemed to be in pain as she held her hand on her chest, panting uncontrollably and struggling to breathe. “Abby? Abby?” Ms. Milligan panicked and shouted “Call an ambulance quick! Everyone went into action and called an ambulance. It was honestly quite chaotic and dramatic. Overall, I didn’t like it and left the room. I went to the rooftop to catch a quick nap when Carter suddenly arrived. “Dude! Abby was rushed to the hospital!” He reported. “So?” I coldly asked. Seriously, I don’t know why I should care. A lot of people gets rushed to hospitals. I don’t see how Abby’s case is any different.” “What? Dude! She suffered a heart attack! Because of our prank! And you don’t care?! Seriously?” Carter yelled. Man, what is up with this guy? Really? I don’t get it. I just stared at him and invited him for a quick nap. You know when everyone’s busy with what has happened, we can take advantage of it and take a quick nap. “Why don’t you join me? She’ll be fine. It’s not like she died or something.” I responded. Well, in a surprising turn of events, he walked out on me.