“Are you guys gonna f*in’ come or not?!” Nick whispered as loudly as he could. And just like that, John and I hopped the fence to begin the plan we had set up for after a long night of the anticipation that built up for it. I wasn’t sure where exactly to attack first, but I knew after hopping the fence that there was no going back, and that I had reached the point of no return, thereby accepting all responsibilities, and consequences that came with getting caught.
During one Memorial Day weekend, I had taken a train to spend a couple of nights at my friends Nick and Brandon’s house. Nick and Brandon, a pair of twins, are two of the first friends I’ve ever had. Although they moved away years ago to Barrington, Illinois, after we all grew up in Park Ridge, Illinois together, we still try to hang out as a group as much as possible. So, because of the distance barrier, when all three of us do hang out, we tend to create some memorable times. This trip was no different.
Getting there on a Saturday afternoon, Nick, Brandon, and I started our hang out by immediately driving to a restaurant named Wool Street to meet up with a separate group of friends that consisted of Jake, Jack, John, and Casey. As a large group, we started to talk about an assortment of different things before we got our meals, and before long the conversation shifted to someone named Gunnar.
“I can’t stand him anymore. He treats us like his backup friends now,” Nick stated angrily.
“I’m sick of his s***. We’ve been there for him for years now, and now he’s throwing us all away to hang out with his Cairo friends,” John replied.
“What happened?” I asked curiously across the table.
“Well, ever since he went to this Cairo religious retreat thing, he’s been hanging out with his friends from there a lot more often and has been ignoring us. We should really f*** with him again tonight,” John said back.
“I’m down,” I replied back, halfheartedly laughing, until I realized John said the word “again.” “What happened the last time you guys messed with him then?” I asked again.
Everyone across the table sort of looked at each other with a grin before anyone spoke. Finally, Brandon replied, “You sure you won’t tell him or anyone?”
“Promise,” I said back.
To my left, Jake responded, “...Well, we sort of smeared a burrito on his window.”
“That’s it?” I questioned.
“There was some other stuff left in it,” Nick shot back quickly.
I let the conversation die there.
As the night progressed and we left Wool Street, we drove in two separate cars around the area of Barrington and Lake Zurich seeing what ever we could do at the time. It was around nine o’clock at night before we all finally agreed on a movie to watch, and afterwards we just drove around, doing whatever we could that we found fun at the time. At around eleven o’clock we returned to Nick and Brandon’s house, and discussion became serious over messing with Gunnar’s house.
“We did it yesterday and everything turned out fine,” John explained, “Let’s get him back one more time, before he puts up those stupid cameras like he promised to.”
I wasn’t really crazy over the idea of messing with someone’s house that I didn’t know, but I didn’t have much of a say. Everyone in our group was conversating about it now, and the talk become serious. Jake and Jack even started to pass out masks that they picked up at a party store earlier in the day to help hide our identity during the prank. We were going to mess with Gunnar’s house whether or not I was going to participate.
“We hit him from the front only last time,” Brandon claimed. “This time, we hit him from all sides.”
The plan was simple: we were going to cover his house in whipped cream, ketchup, ranch dressing, and thousand island dressing. We were going to make him to never forget who his first true friends were. We were going to teach him one final lesson about making us his backup friends.
Despite whether I wanted to partake in the activity or not, I almost had to at this point. Everyone was in on the plan, and my own opinion of participating in the plan was starting to change also as we grew closer and closer to doing the prank. Being a part of the group, we all learned to know what we had to do. Why we were doing it. And how we were going to do it.
I choose a blue mask when Jake and Jack passed them out.
Around half past twelve, John, Nick, Casey, Jake, Brandon, Jack, and I all headed out in into the family minivan of Nick and Brandon and headed towards Gunnar’s house, each of us carrying a bottle or two of the ketchup, dressing, or whipped cream. We each had a mask and were ready. It was an incredibly suspicious scene, but, Nick and Brandon promised that if we were to be pulled over, it would only be for being out past curfew, and the offense wasn’t one to worry about. Around 12:45 am, we headed into Gunnar’s residential area. Nick, the driver, turned off the lights of the car and drove into the dark to help turn off any suspicious lights this late out at night. Me, riding in the front seat, lowered the radio to a low buzz. We drove to an abandoned house behind Gunnar’s house to discuss the final plan.
Nick, the unquestioned leader of the plan, said in a low voice, “Alright guys, here we go. Should be as simple as last night. Jake and Jack, you’ll hit the left side of the house. Each of you grab a window. Brandon and Casey, I want you guys at the front. When the sensor-detecting light hits you guys and turns on, go as fast as you can. We won’t have much time. Then, John and David, join me. We’ll hit the back. I’ll take the big window. John, take David with you to the small window so each of you get one. And remember, no one f*** this up. This is our last time messing with Gunnar.” He said the last two sentences in a stern voice that stuck in everyone’s heads. It was meant to be followed more than it was meant to warn.
Realizing we couldn’t get in from the abandoned house’s backyard, Nick drove all of us to a large and wide bush outside of Gunnar’s house that helped cover the car. Casey and Brandon got in front of Gunnar’s house but not too close which would’ve activated the sensor-detecting light. Jake and Jack slid over Gunnar’s house’s fence and into his side yard. And Nick, John, and I waited behind Gunnar’s fence behind his backyard. Although we were this close, my mind was overflowing with emotions -- what do I do if we get caught, what happens to everyone if we get caught, what if I get us caught, what if something goes wrong, what if I make too much noise, what if I’m the last person to leave, what if I’m the only one caught, and the list went on and on. Before I even realized it, Nick jumped the fence and began the prank. That made Jack and Jake move from the side, and Brandon and Casey move from the front of the house. I was left crouching behind the fence next to John, watching Nick spray Gunnar’s back window with streaks of dark red ketchup. He looked behind himself five seconds later and whispered loudly, “Are you guys gonna f*in’ come or not?!” Next to me I heard John move over the fence.
And then it was my turn.
I put on the blue mask. Despite what my feet said, what my heart said, what my mind said, I crawled over the fence and followed John, whipped cream in hand. Jake and Jack now sprinted for Gunnar’s side window, which meant Brandon and Casey would be heading for the front of Gunnar’s house.
We had fifteen seconds.
I ran to the window next to the one John was working on. I sprayed the nozzle of the can of whipped cream hard against the window. It had trouble coming out at first, but eventually a rapid stream of white fluff covered the window. Despite what everything about me thought of this plan at first, midway through it it was one of the most exciting and heart-racing moments of my life.
After a solid twenty to twenty five seconds, it was time to race out. Brandon slammed a piece of the metal tubing he was carrying at the ground, signifying that it was time to leave, without any of us having to use our voices. The car door was open for Nick to hop into from behind the large shrub he hid the car behind. I slid back into the front seat, while we waited an additional ten seconds for everyone to get into. During those ten seconds, I heard a faint voice yell off, “Yeah, you better run f*ers!”
The plan was to have a safe getaway. To leave without anyone else knowing. To return home and celebrate on Nick and Brandon’s deck for a flawless run of a great prank. To get back at Gunnar for how he had been treating his group of friends.
But that plan seemed to fade almost immediately as the prank ended.
Nick forgot to drive off immediately, and for a few moments we talked about our perspectives of the prank. Precious moments. Valuable moments. Result-changing moments. Thirty seconds into our discussion in the minivan, Jake had realized that a new pair of lights were emerging out of Gunnar’s driveway -- the lights of Gunnar’s Honda CRV.
The chase was on.
Nick immediately abandoned the conversation and accelerated the car as fast as he could down the long stretch of street that was in front of us. The radio was on loud, playing some electronic music, while Casey, Brandon, and John freaked out from the back three seats, yelling out any curse words they thought of at the time. Jake pulled up to Nick’s right ear as he drove down the road.
“Just keep going left and right. Just keep going left and right. Just keep going left and right,” Jake constantly repeated in a monotone voice. He would make sure Nick would not forget it.
Nick followed the instructions perfectly, and within a good two minutes any type of chase was over. We were well away from Gunnar’s Honda CRV, now going at a normal speed in the residential area. As we all freaked out, Nick and Jake remained cool, while Jack helped offer instructions on getting out of the area. By 1:45 am, we were all home back at Nick and Brandon’s house. Everyone spent the night over.
When we got back to Nick and Brandon’s house, we all celebrated on their deck. It was a long night, but we had succeeded in what we were trying to do. We all celebrated with cans of Mountain Dew Baja Blast and within an hour we all found ourselves passing out. Despite some of the troubles we met during the course of the prank, in the end, it turned out to be very successful. We all got the thing we wanted out of Gunnar, and then some, with the car chase.
Unfortunately for the annonymousity of the prank, Gunnar found out months later, but started to hang out more with the group soon after we did the prank. He wasn’t mad at it, and found it better that it had been people he knew that had pranked him, rather than a group of people he was unsure of that did the job. Despite that he eventually did find out, none of us were ashamed that he now knew. It still made for an exhilarating moment in all of our lives.
The decision to partake in the prank against Gunnar’s house wasn’t an important one, but was an interesting one. I had never really thought I had it in me to go through with the prank from the start. But, well by the time that the night was over, I was happy I did go through with it, as it made for one of the most exciting times of my life. It made me realize that sometimes, just sometimes, the risks are well worth it, even if they don’t seem like it at first.