text: [Themes: modern]
  
  "Anyway. I will get my revenge," he continues, quietly. "All because of him, I couldn't execute my artistic vision. He's kept me down for far too long with his tyrannical authority."
  
  "I'll help you if you help me," you say.
  
  "With what?"
  
  "So get your revenge on Mr. Barker, and do your play, and whatever else you want to do, but," you pause, "make sure that Nadia doesn't get to do her play."
  
  "Nadia? Why?"
  
  "Well, because I don't like her."
  
  "That's it?"
  
  "Don't you hate her too? She has Mr. Barker wrapped around her little finger, that's why she was able to get him to approve her student-written play."
  
  "But I thought it was because it was more easy to understand..."
  
  "Do you really believe anything that man says? No, he just likes her better, it's plain favoritism."
  
  "But...I've been in the club for a while too...and I do a lot too..."
  
  "Oh, it has nothing to do with that. You're not fake and chipper all the time like her. Teachers always like those types. She knows it, she probably does that on purpose. She's just as much of a tyrant as he is, did she even consider what any of us might have thought about her play? No, she just wanted hers in the spotlight, so she went ahead and pushed Mr. Barker to let her do it, without anyone else's consideration. She knows he favors her...and she was ready to use her power to get whatever she wanted."
  
  "Hmm...I don't really think she is that mean, though..."
  
  "Whatever. She won't be so happy once she doesn't have things go her way for once...So, what's the plan for Mr. Barker?"
  
  "I have an idea. Meet me at this location early in the morning tomorrow, at least an hour before school," he says, writing an address down on a piece of paper.
  
  "Is this your house?"
  
  "No. Mr. Barker's house. We're going to break and enter, and find anything that might get him in trouble or fired from the school."
  
  "Oh. Ok, see you then," you say, walking off. "Aren't you gonna leave too?" you say, seeing him still sitting there.
  
  "No, I'm waiting for my parents to pick me up..."
  
  > go home
  You go home, finish your homework, and go to sleep. The next morning, you wake up early and head to the address.
  
  "Over here!" yells Sam, who is hiding behind a bush. You hide behind the same bush.
  
  "So...are we waiting for him to leave?" you ask.
  
  "Yes, but I don't know when he leaves the house, so we'll just have to wait for him to get into his car and drive to school."
  
  You wait a while, but nothing is happening. You feel yourself starting to fall asleep...
  
  "Okay, he just left, are you ready to-" Sam turns to you to see that you have fallen asleep. "Wake up!" he yells, shaking you awake.
  
  "What? Huh? Oh. How long has it been?"
  
  "It's been only ten minutes, anyway, we have to get into the house!"
  
  "Wait, doesn't he have kids? Or a wife?" you ask, rubbing your eyes as you walk up to the doorstep and reach for the doorbell.
  
  "Stop that!" Sam yells, taking your hand away from the doorbell. "We're breaking in, we have to be discreet!" he yells.
  
  "Who's yelling out there?" asks a little girl's voice. "Is it...YOU?!" She suddenly opens the front door, and you see a small elementary-aged girl.
  
  "Hi little girl!" says Sam.
  
  "My name's JESSICA!" proclaims the girl.
  
  "Oh, hi Jessica! We're the...inspectors! Your father called us in to inspect his...bedroom!" Sam quickly and badly lies.
  
  "Dad left already."
  
  "Oh, uh, we know," you say flatly. "You don't need to worry, we're just going to do a quick check of his room for termites, and then we'll be right out!"
  
  "Okay!" she says, letting you two in.
  
  "Is your mom home?" you ask, closing and locking the door.
  
  "No, Mom left too."
  
  "Is anyone else at home?"
  
  "Just me, Goldie, and Sherry!" she says, pointing to two empty spaces beside her. "We won't bother you guys so you can do your work, we're going to play in my room. Come on, girls, let's go!" she says to no one.
  
  "Okay! Have fun!" calls Sam as she leaves. You head up to what looks like the parents bedroom, while Sam decides to check the basement.
  
  You search for a while, but find nothing out of the ordinary. It's just a normal bedroom. Bed, cabinet with nothing but clothes, cabinet with a bunch of jewelry, and bookshelf. Nothing unusual. When you meet back up with Sam, he also tells you he found nothing unusual. You search the bathroom, and there is nothing unusual. You search the attic, the office, other bedrooms other than Jessica's, and the living room. There is nothing unusual.
  
  "I thought you guys were going to be done in a few minutes," says Jessica, walking down to the living room where you and Sam are sitting haplessly on the couch.
  
  "Yeah...it turns out, those termites are not only in the room where your parents sleep, but all over the house!" you say, wiping sweat from your forehead. "We've had to do a lot of exterminating."
  
  "Don't you guys have to use a machine or something to get rid of the bugs?"
  
  "Oh, no, we just use our hands and squish them right between them! Like this!" says Sam, clapping his hands.
  
  "Wow. That's cool," says Jessica. "I'm hungry, so me and Goldie, and um... ... ... Sherry, are going to eat. Do you want to join us?"
  
  "Oh, um...no...hey, we just remembered, there's one place we need to check for termites again!" you say, going upstairs with Sam to a random room. "Okay, this isn't working. We can't find anything."
  
  "So......"
  
  "So, we need to PLANT something!"
  
  "What? But that's illegal! I mean, breaking in is illegal too, but this could get us in way more trouble!"
  
  "Do you want to destroy him or not?" you ask.
  
  "Well..." You can see the uncertainty growing stronger.
  
  "Okay, we're not going to plant, like, illegal drugs, okay?" you reassure. "More like, I don't know, um...child po...I mean...um...We don't have to plant REAL illegal drugs. We can plant FAKE illegal drugs!" You look up a guide on the internet on how to make fake weed that looks like real weed easily, and create it. You sprinkle it in random places around the house, but most of it in the master bedroom.
  
  "Good! Now, we should hire a sex worker to come to this address and sleep in the bed, so it looks like Mr. Barker is committing adultery," you say, dialing a number on the home phone.
  
  "Wait! The fake weed is enough, come on, let's go," Sam quickly protests. "We've done enough, if we involve another person we might get caught..."
  
  "No, it's fine, don't worry, we'll be fine," you say, making the call. "Hell-" Sam rips the phone from your hand and cancels the call.
  
  "Don't do that, you idiot! What if this house records calls?!"
  
  "Yeah, well, what if they have CCTV recording the premises?" you shoot back.
  
  "Well...um...I don't think they should, there aren't any cameras around..." says Sam, looking around.
  
  Eventually, you guys decide to leave, and go back to school in the middle of the afternoon as if nothing happened. You arrive in the middle of lunchtime, and go to see your friends Sarah and Alisha.
  
  > watch your friends eat
  "Julie! Why don't you have any lunch?!" asks Sarah.
  
  "There was a weird mix-up, and I just, um...it's a long story," you say.
  
  "Well, we already finished most of our lunch, but I still have...these cookies!" announces Alisha, taking out a box of chocolate chip cookies. "Want one?"
  
  "Sure, tha-" you say before Sarah slaps your hand down.
  
  "Wait! Don't you dare! Before you know it, you won't be able to stop, and you'll have eaten six of them!" she yells.
  
  "Um, no, it's just a cookie, Sarah," says Alisha.
  
  "It's always just a cookie. It's always just one cookie, or just one drink, or just one of anything! You can't do this, Julie, just one bite and you'll become addicted to cookies!"
  
  "Um, I've had cookies before, and I never became addicted to them..." you say.
  
  "Oh, so you think you're immune! So you think you're special!" says Sarah, mockingly. "It's a slippery slope. It can be anyone. So don't you dare take that cookie, I swear, or-!"
  
  "Okay, Julie, say 'aaaaaaaah!'" says Alisha, airplaning a cookie towards your mouth.
  
  > open wide
  You chomp down on the cookie and finish it. "Okay. See, I'm done. I don't need to eat another one," you say, putting your hands up.
  
  "Yeah, see?" says Alisha. "By the way, I also have something else..." She takes out a small box labeled with a brand of mints, and opens it to reveal some cocaine. "How about a bit of cocaine?" she asks.
  
  "ALISHA!" yells Sarah, snatching the cocaine out of her hand and tossing it into the trash can.
  
  "That cost a lot! Are you serious?!" Alisha jumps up and starts chasing Sarah around.
  
  You quickly slink away from them to go to your next class...
  
  > continue life as normal
  You hear the news at the auditions. Mr. Barker didn't get fired, but he chose to take a temporary leave because of personal reasons, and Nadia is the new leader of the club. You go through the auditions and get a small role, but you have a plan for the day of the play. You're going to lock everyone who's not you or Sam in the back room, and perform Snore Poison Leaping instead of the dumb leaf play.
  
  Fortunately, the play only has two characters on the stage at a time, and only four characters in total, so every character will be played by either you or Sam. On the downside, you have to learn the parts of JIB-04 and Kathryn, both which don't make a lot of sense to you. But you try your best, mostly because Sam has threatened you with "slow destruction" if you don't correctly do justice to his vision.
  
  The day of the play comes, and your plan is coming to fruition. You smile evilly as you turn to the door of the currently empty auditorium, and see...
  
  > See
  The pizza delivery man.
  
  "What? Pizza? I didn't- Who ordered this?" asks Nadia, looking around the room.
  
  "Someone wanted to surprise you guys, apparently," says the man, handing her three boxes of pizza.
  
  "Well...we were in the middle of rehearsing...but...I guess since we have these, we might as well eat them...Let's just be timely about it guys, yeah?" Everyone goes to the back room to eat pizza. You and Sam slink out, and close the door, making the excuse that you need to go to the bathroom. And Sam has to go to the office.
  
  You quickly barricade the door, stacking two desks from nearby open and unattended classrooms, surrounding them with six stacks of chairs, and surrounding those stacks with anything else you can find, for good measure.
  
  About ten minutes later, you hear screams from the back room. The door opens a crack and someone yells to open it, but, Evan and Nadia both refuse to open the door because then whatever is behind it will fall down, and it might hurt someone. Instead, they decide to call people for help. You just hope no one arrives any time soon. There still are fifteen minutes before the show starts, and the seats are half-filled up.
  
  > The show
  "Hey, where is the back room?" asks a random person who has wandered in.
  
  "Oh, only the performers are allowed," you say.
  
  "They said that they're locked in, and the door is barricaded, and they need someone to come help..."
  
  "What? Really? Hold on...stay there." You pretend to check the back room and go back. "Okay, I've called emergency services. The barricade might catch fire if it's disassambled improperly and we need firefighters on the scene."
  
  "Dude, what?" asks the person.
  
  "Don't worry, they'll be here fast. I told them it's urgent. Just sit back and enjoy the show!" you say, turning away.
  
  "But how can I enjoy the show when someone I love is in DANGER?!" yells the person indignantly.
  
  "We've got firefighters coming in!" you yell back.
  
  A few minutes pass, and the show starts.
  
  "Good evening everyone," says Sam, standing in the middle of the stage with a microphone. "We're having some technical difficulties with the other play..."
  
  "The leaf play," you whisper from beside him.
  
  "Yes, the leaf play, so until those are resolved, we have prepared another play, called Snore Poison Leaping!" he yells into the microphone.
  
  "Yes, we're so sorry for the inconvenience, but we hope that you are entertained as we wait for um...help to arrive," you say.
  
  The audience is startled and confused, but the play starts. The stage lighting all turns off to simulate a dark cave.
  
  "EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEYAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!" yells Sam loudly, flailing his arms. Most of the audience cover their ears.
  
  "What the fuck?!" yell several people.
  
  "I'm breathing! I'm breathing!" you yell in your best robot voice.
  
  "JIB! JIB!" screeches Sam.
  
  "Hsyl, where? Hsyl, where?" you repeat.
  
  "Right! Right!" he yells back.
  
  As the play progresses smoothly, you catch some of the audience walking out of the room. It's a miracle that no teacher has come to investigate the constant screaming yet.
  
  "KKKKAAAAAAAAAAAAATHHHHHHRYYYYNNN!" bellows Sam, crab-walking.
  
  "The sue-fulej! The sujgh-njokawj!" You take off one of your shoes and throw it into the audience.
  
  "OW!" yells the person who it hit in the face.
  
  "I...foth in the demonic hallow, yet, you, you, determine the glossy nirvana!" Sam says with a lot of emotion.
  
  "How...unsavory." A single tear rolls down your cheek. "I am...petrified...and...do...not....relegate..." You fall to your knees and stop moving.
  
  Sam turns to the audience. "Question not the buildings in your surroundings, for there are more questions than the universe can allow." His character dies as the play ends.
  
  The audience is silent, certainly shocked speechless by how phenomenal the play was. As the lights turn back on, several people run to the back room to see what's going on there, which you and Sam take as your cue to leave.
  
  You two get found out, get kicked out of the club, and get in big trouble with the school and the principal. They give you both long suspensions. However, it was worth it.
  
  The End