(First posted here.)

“I don’t think this is mean at all,” Keebs said.

Dante finished spraying the sides of Mr. Sanchez’s table with bubblegum-smelling cologne. “E ikaw, Deej?” I sometimes called Nirvana Deej, short for D.G., her middle initials, for De Guzman.

“I think carrying a tiny dog around in a basket all day is inhuman.”

“This is actually a pretty elementary prank.”

Nirvana nodded. “We’ve definitely done better. Or way worse.”

“But the simpler it is, the better. Didn’t we learn that somewhere?”

Dante sat on the couch at the teacher’s lounge, reading some girl’s text messages.

“Who’s that?” Keebs asked. They had an open door policy with regard to love lives. Except of course if it ran too close to home.

“The pretty girl from Stat.” He wondered whether he should start letting the girl down easy. The girl was beginning to show more interest than he was willing to reciprocate. Her name was Lorrie, and she was a fine girl by any standards. She wanted me to teach her something or another.

I looked up at Keebs. “Maybe you should teach her.”

Keebs cleaned up the last of their tools of the trade and motioned for Nirvana and Dante to start walking. “Maybe I’ve been down this road before.”

I shrugged. I looked over at Nirvana. She was rummaging through her bag. “What are you looking for?”

“Mr. Sanchez’s schedule. We need to watch this happen.”

“Relax, his next class is in the next thirty minutes,” I said. “I checked. Let’s hang out sa tapat ng 302 for full impact.”

They started walking in the direction of the stairs. Sometimes pranks like these were all that’s needed to bring good back into life. I’m not sure how and where we began this crazy enterprise of getting things done the sneaky—and sometimes not so wholesome—way. The truth is the only reason I’m doing the dog stunt is because Nirvana hated how Emily, ultra-girl, would bring her toy dog into the building and during class, tucked all day in a leopard-print purse.

We were hoping to get the dog to jump out of the purse and hump Mr. Sanchez’s leg. Mr. Sanchez would have that dog thrown out in a heartbeat. Nothing beats watching your masterpiece unfold before your very eyes. I left Nirvana and Keebs to buy some refreshments. I felt giddy just thinking about it.