Chapter Text
Kris had left with a bold statement. Her senior prank had been something, to say the least. She had filled the teacher’s lounge with fake blood for Halloween, leaving a grotesque crime scene.
She had anonymously left riddles, hidden clues, and great leads for a nice adventure. Students and teachers alike played along, solving the murder of a very particular purple bunny plushie.
After a great anecdote, Kris promptly graduated, leaving every single high school student with a unique Blue’s Clues R-rated memory.
Esteban was touched by the experience, or more so by the thought of his own revolutionary prank. Plus, he now knew Kris’ mistake in getting caught, and he vowed to not get caught.
────── ˎˊ˗ ٠࣪⭑꩜.ᐟ 𓆝 𓆟 𓆞 𓆝 𓆟
Children’s Day was already close enough to have fun. Mostly due to the lack of actual activities. Hanging out, with no upcoming classes or responsibilities, was an enjoyable day for every student except the few who piled on more than they needed to.
Bulgarelli was clearly one of these. Taking the free first period as time to advance on “overdue” work, too entranced to realize he had yet to see his friends that morning. Before his thought had even fully formed, Esteban, Dake, and Mau had stepped into view and sat at his table, giddy and excited over nothing.
— “I swear, bro! There was a cat! A mini cat just over there! I'm not going crazy.” —
Esteban couldn't hold back his laugh, fueled by Dake’s snort over his classmate’s sudden exclamation.
Knowing Dake and Mau had little time before having to leave before they got caught, they burst out laughing at the comments quickly starting to pour in throughout the area. No one really knew what was going on, and who even had counted cats to know how many there were.
No one had to count, really. Esteban had managed to convince Ari and Fer into loudly talking, sharing the news that twenty cats had appeared in the school.
It was going to be a fun day, seeing as everyone was starting to catch up on the fact that there actually were kittens around the school.
Esteban really couldn’t stop his cackling, bending down as he saw his friends scurrying away as more people filled the place. Bulgarelli was staring at them suspiciously, slowly closing his laptop to stare down at him.
— “Did you do something?” — He said, before turning around to try and look at their friends, who were now out of sight.
— “Do- what exactly? I’m pretty sure I can laugh”
— “That’s not what I’m talking about. There’s cats in the school, and I happen to know an idiot who could’ve done something about it”
— “Maybe it’s an activity for the kids, who knows”
— “There’s rules for this kind of thing, and I haven’t happened to have heard anything about it. Have you?”
— “I mean– I guess you’ll find out.”
— “What were Dake and Mau even doing here? Were those your uniforms? How did they get in?”
— “Do you really have that much against whimsy and the unknown?”
— “Was it you? Did you actually bring cats to school?”
— “It’s nice to see you’re invested enough in me to let your work aside”
— “Don’t start. Please just tell me, where are these animals even from?‘
— “Hmmm” — Esteban hummed, as if he were in deep thought.
— “Have you planned anything?”
As it seemed, their joking bickering never really ceased. And before Esteban could even muster a quick retort, he was cut off.
— “Just fucking tell me already!” — Bulgarelli said, in an annoyed sigh, clearly frustrated at the lack of answers for seemingly endless questions.
Esteban really couldn’t help but laugh again, amused by his friend's vexation. This time, weirdly enough, it really was only them for a moment. He quickly burst his own bubble, as he was only met with an expectant stare.
— “No need to be so entranced with what’s going on in my life, you know? Just ask in a nicer tone” — He managed to tease, just rolled his eyes at the lack of response, and sighed in defeat. They probably didn’t have that much time left before the first events, seeing as people were starting to pool around the area.
— “It’s not that bad. Look, it's an easy plan. Twenty cats, a whole day of students awwing at them, a little field trip from the shelter.”
With a single poignant look, Bulga was able to pry the events out of him.
────── ˎˊ˗ ٠࣪⭑꩜.ᐟ 𓆝 𓆟 𓆞 𓆝 𓆟
— “For how long have you been planning this, actually?” — Kris asked the night before, eyeing Esteban as he prepared a small place for the nineteen cats to sleep inside her studio. — “You only told me recently about this whole ordeal”
The room was– something. Only slightly messier than usual, bags of cat toys, treats, and three carrier backpacks.
— “Well, I thought of it recently. Seems like a fun activity. I mean you did a prank too, no?”
— “Yeah, but not– you know what? Just do whatever the fuck you want. I can’t say bad behaviour isn’t exactly what gets you a good time. But– aren’t you going to get caught easily? Have you really thought it through? ” — The girl pointedly asked, turning her chair around, still not offering to even move and help.
— “ How am I going to get caught if I have people looking for twenty cats when there’s only nineteen? I’m pretty sure that’s good to keep teachers busy”
Kris sighed before laughing and going back to her desk.
— “Dake and Mau will get here tomorrow, right? I swear I’ll leave without them if they’re not in time”
— “No you won’t, you don’t have any classes in the morning”
— “No, I won't. But I'll be annoyed enough to not let any of you pick the music we’re playing on the way there.”
ꕀ ˎˊ˗ ٠࣪⭑꩜.ᐟ 𓆝 𓆟 𓆝
That was the simple reason why less than 10 hours later, all 13 of them were inside Kris’ car (her mom’s, basically). Their giddy excitement couldn’t be bothered by Kris’ questionable music taste.
The car swiftly stopped at the entrance, just in front of the packed area.
— “Say bye to– Jabarkus and Luna and Momonga and whatever the other sixteen are called,” — Kris called out with a chuckle, knowing two of the idiots would be back quickly either way.
— “What an irresponsible aunt” — Mau said, but waved as he closed the door.
Everything was busy enough, late enough for three kids (two of whom didn’t even attend the school) with weirdly big backpacks to scurry their way over to the hopefully empty teacher’s lounge.
It was fine, weirdly enough. No one really spotted them, busy setting up downstairs to care about the sudden appearance of carriers in the lounge.
But it did take a lot of willpower to just act naturally while being loosely followed by a cute swarm of kittens.
And by some kind of magic, they also managed to actually get back, say hi before leaving.
ꕀ ˎˊ˗ ٠࣪⭑꩜.ᐟ 𓆝 𓆟 𓆝
— “That is– a lot simpler than I thought. Did you really not- think it over any more? “ — Bulga asked, as his flabbers had clearly been ghasted.
— “I know! things are easy when you don’t stress and complicate them” — Esteban answered with a smug smile, leaning back on his seat.
— “Where did you get the cats from?”
— “The shelter I went to a couple of weeks ago”
— “Did you even ask? Plan anything? Someone could be allergic, and this is very irresponsible”
— “It’s fine! Not everything needs a protocol”
— “These things do. How can you make sure they’re gonna be fine? You could very well end up with 15, even like 8 cats.”
— “Of course I thought about it, I’ve brought treats to lure them. Do you not trust my intellect?”
— “No. Not at all”
— “I’m going to pretend I didn’t hear that”
…
— “It’s going to go wrong, terribly”
— “Huh?! Don’t jinx it!”
Their bickering was abruptly cut by teachers asking everyone to gather to finish setting up for the talent show they had to be part of, either way.
────── ˎˊ˗ ٠࣪⭑꩜.ᐟ 𓆝 𓆟 𓆞 𓆝 𓆟
As a responsible student and person of the law, Bulga could not pay his full attention to any of the things he did throughout the day. He was worried, eyes darting to every kid running behind a sprinting cat.
Esteban, on the other hand, made little to no effort to hide his amusement. He would chuckle, maybe even cackle whenever anything happened around them.
Either way, they could both say that it was indeed fun to be a senior.
Fun because they had first row seats to see a bunch of teachers crash out over trying to keep both kids and kittens at bay, being unable to lure them with food from the cafeteria and, most importantly, stressing over the fact that no one could find the last cat.
— “Have you seen two similar cats? Maybe there’s twins?”
— “Has anyone found the person who brought them over? It has got to be a student”
— “Does anyone know who saw the twenty cats? If the kids know it’s twenty, it has got to be because they’ve seen them”
Not a single staff member knew how to handle the situation, and as funny as it was, everything had to come to an end.
────── ˎˊ˗ ٠࣪⭑꩜.ᐟ 𓆝 𓆟 𓆞 𓆝 𓆟
By the end of the school day, Kris was forced to —once again— wait in the car.
Dake and Mau were once again back inside, searching around for cats with some kind of practiced ease. Esteban had managed to find enough cats to place back in the carriers, and alongside Bulgarelli, they recapped the day, reactions, and general success of their prank.
It had been amazing, and just as he stayed back for a quick second to stop and say his goodbyes and thanks to the rest of his friends, he was stopped right on his tracks.
— “Yeah! It was great. I had fun with them too. Honestly didn’t think they would walk around so much beca–”
— “Esteban Cascante Alpízar”
Esteban barely had the time to turn around and look at the woman standing behind him, as he suddenly froze–a pair of cats still in his hands
— “Ehm- yes..?”
traitors
He thought to himself as his friends stepped back as soon as Teacher Tati began scolding him, reprimanding him, and questioning him as the only person she saw carrying cats home.
— “ -And the incompletion of any due process or merits to—”
— “Teacher Tati! Wait. There has been a misunderstanding.” — Bulgarelli quickly intervened, seemingly appearing out of nowhere.
Esteban couldn’t help but stare at him in confusion. Because there clearly was no confusion. He just couldn’t care less about protocol, and chose not to inform them because how else could a prank take place? His issue was only one: having gotten caught.
But before he could open his mouth to protest, a soft step on his foot made him shut any stupid ideas.
— “As you can see– this idea might’ve lacked the technical and reglamentary precisions. But! It was a student-run charity event” — Santiago preached, way too confident for someone who carried a slight tremble to his voice.
Both Esteban and Teacher Tati looked equally shocked at his bold claim, funnily enough.
— “As a direct activity, my dear classmate has attempted to create a connection from our students to animals. Cats from a local shelter, no less. This is clearly an attempt to bridge-” — To Esteban, Bulga was clearly saying a whole bunch of nothing. His speech was clearly inflated by formal words that one would only really use in a political and moral debate.
But even so, he was very clearly managing to calm the situation. He couldn’t really help the way his gaze lingered in profound admiration. Teacher Tati was significantly more open to listening, and maybe– Esteban wouldn’t be punished for his wrongdoings, painted right.