The rivalry began in high school. Carlos and James had always been the star athletes of their grade so it did not come as a surprise when they were chosen to be the two captains of the school’s soccer team. James was the natural athlete of the two. He did not have to put in extra hours of practice and could still show up on game day and play like the All-American he was. Carlos, on the other hand, did not have the natural ability, but he had the passion. He thought about soccer from the moment he woke up until the second he fell into a deep sleep. He practiced anytime and anywhere he could. All of his dedication and talent, however, was not enough to exceed the skill of James, which drove Carlos crazy. So one day, Carlos decided to alleviate his frustrations with his friend and teammate in a fun way, harmless prank.
Carlos had fifteen minutes in the locker room before the rest of the team would show up to get changed for practice. He double, then triple checked to make sure no one else was there before he went over to “James’s corner” of the locker room and pulled out the carton of butter. He spread the butter all over the floor in front of James’s locker where everyone else was forbidden to step foot. After what Carlos considered to be enough, he stepped back to admire his work. There wasn't a trace of butter. Perfect. He quickly went back to the other end of the locker room and waited for all of the other kids to walk in.
After what seemed like forever, the team started to trickle in. James was nowhere to be seen. “What a waste,” Carlos said to himself. Then, suddenly, the door flung open and James came running in. He was definitely going to be late to practice which meant he would spend the first half running laps. As he frantically approached his locker, his feet flew up from underneath him and his head flew back. His backpack flew open, throwing the contents everywhere and he came down with a thud. The whole room went silent until Carlos couldn’t hold it in any longer and started laughing and soon everyone had joined him, even James.
It didn’t take James longer than a minute to realize his friend Carlos was behind this prank, so he started to think of his revenge right after practice. He came up with a great plan that would scare Carlos out of his mind. The first step of this plan was to go to the pet store to buy the prank. The next morning James got to school early so he could put the gerbils in Carlos locker. Right around 8:00, all of the students started walking towards their lockers to get their books for class. James stood outside of his first period classroom and watched Carlos talking some of their friends and as he opened his locker he screamed when he saw the gerbils. He screamed loud enough that the glass in the windows around him broke. Everyone started laughing at Carlos. He slammed his locker door shut and started sprinting down the hall. The gerbils started running after him, which only made Carlos scream harder and more like a girl.