4 Let The Prank War Begin!

4 Let The Prank War Begin! Over the weekend, we got together to think of some cool pranks to pull on Miss Banks. Ryan said we should glue some coins to the floor and watch when she tries to pick them up. Neil said we should put confetti in her umbrella so when she opens it, the confetti will go flying all over.

Michael said we should call her cell phone and ask if her refrigerator is running. When she says yes, we should tell her, "You'd better go catch it!" We had lots of good ideas. When we got to school on Monday morning, there was a big whiteboard next to the front office. It looked like a scoreboard, with Teachers on the left side and Students on the right side. The gang and I were walking down the hallway to class when we saw Miss Banks. "Are you kids ready for The Prank War?" she asked us. "Oh, yeah," I replied. "The teachers are going down!" "I don't think so," said Miss Banks. "I was talking with some of the other teachers over the weekend, and we really want that hot tub."

"Well, you're not gonna get it," Ryan told her. "The teachers are old and tired. We're kids, so we're young and full of energy." "Yeah," added Michael, "and we can't delay our gratification." Miss Banks stopped and turned to us. "You think some snot-nosed kids are going to beat the teachers?" she asked. "No way! We've had years of experience pulling pranks on kids." "Yeah, hundreds of years," I added. "Oh, snap!" said Ryan.

"May the better team win," Miss Banks replied. Principal Stoker was walking right behind us, and I guess she heard what we were saying. "Enough trash talk," she told us. "We still have to do our regular schoolwork this week. Don't forget that." We walked into our classroom. Everybody put their backpacks in their cubbies. "Before we start The Prank War," said Miss Banks, "who wants a piece of sponge cake?" "I do!" "I do!" "I do!" In case you were wondering, everybody wanted sponge cake. Of course! Sponge cake is my favorite kind of cake. Miss Banks handed out paper plates and napkins to all of us and opened a cake box on her desk. I was about to take a piece of cake. Then I stopped. "Hey, wait a minute," I said. "I remember the time you offered us brownies. But you didn't have any brownies. You had a plate with brown letter E's cut out of paper! You said they were brownies. So no thanks. I don't want any sponge cake."

"That's right," said Alexia. "You also offered us doughnuts, but it turned out that they were veggies." "Yeah, we're not falling for that old trick again," said Andrea. "Nice try." "Suit yourself," Miss Banks told us. "That just means more sponge cake for me." She put a piece of sponge cake on a plate and started eating it.* She closed her eyes and sighed. "Yummmmm!" she said. "I lovvvvvvvvve sponge cake." So do I. Watching Miss Banks eat, I could almost taste the sponge cake. "It sure looks like sponge cake," said Emily. Emily was right. The cake looked like real sponge cake, and it looked delicious. It had pink icing and sprinkles on top. My mouth was watering. But not really. How would you water a mouth? "There's gotta be a trick," said Michael. "She's pranking us again."

"What trick?" Miss Banks asked as she took another bite of sponge cake. "Look at it. Smell it." "Do you promise that this is sponge cake?" asked Andrea. "I promise," said Miss Banks. "It's one hundred percent real, genuine sponge cake." "Well... okay," I said. Miss Banks put pieces of sponge cake on paper plates and passed them around.