One | Kitty
I watched the halls as everyone screamed. “Katarina Sweetin!” the principal yelled. “My office, now!”
I groaned and went in, looking around and sitting down. “All I did was set the tarantulas free. I say it’s not punishment worthy.” I twirled a strand of hair around my finger.
He gave me a glare. “I’ve had enough if this attitude. You’ve really served your time. This time, I’m going to try something new.” He gathered papers.
It couldn’t be that bad. A suspension wasn’t, so really, how much more could he punish me? It wasn’t like my parents cared. They weren’t even together. I’ll start with where it all began, why I was the way I was.
Daddy was a con artist. He loved selling cheap stuff for lots of money. That was how he met mommy. Daddy conned mommy and she got pretty pissed. She confronted him about it, and somehow, they ended up together. Then, she began to help him con people. It was like a match made in heaven. (Or was it hell, because they were criminals?) Not much later after, I came along. There were two reasons why I was a prankster.
As I grew, they taught me how to scam people. At the time, I didn’t enjoy hurting others. Yeah, crazy, right? Katarina didn’t like to hurt people. There was a story to be understood.
My parents started to hate each other. They couldn’t stand to be around each other anymore. That was when they decided to divorce. It was, honestly, the worst day of my life. I began to believe that it was my fault that they broke up. I mean, their daughter didn’t like to hurt people, so, they thought something was wrong with me. That led them to believe that one of them failed as a parent, which soon turned into them blaming each other for my other failure.
So, there you have it. It was my fault that they got a divorce.
This divorce ruined me. I only cared about getting my parents back together. I started to do what they wanted me to do all along, to scam, hurt, and screw people over. Then I found my love of pranking, this way, and I chose to prank to hurt others. I was trying to show them that they didn’t fail. They could still love each other.
But then they stopped paying attention to me at all. And my pranks got worse. To sum it up, I was like this because of my parents. Two reasons, both being their fault.
One reason was their divorce. I wanted them to love each other again and see their success in me. The second reason was they ignored me and it hurt, which caused me to act out to get the attention that I didn’t get at home.
As you might have noticed by now, my name was Katarina Sweetin. Everyone here called me Kitty Cheshire. Now we had to make sense of that story.
My name was Katarina, Kat, for short. Kitty Kat. You got the idea. With my parents being con artists, and me being a prankster, that was how I happened to get the name Cheshire tagged onto the end of Kitty. And thus, Kitty Cheshire was born.
I was so known around here that I had my own name like they named a criminal. Now, if only my parents paid attention, they’d be very proud.
So, what was this prank I played, the one that stuck me in the office a moment ago? Good question. I worked alone. But I happened to know people who I paid to get the supplies I needed.
Earlier This Morning.
I cautiously swept my eyes through the hall to make sure nobody was looking or watching my every move. Today was going to mark the history of all pranks by Kitty Cheshire. This one would be the mother of pranks. This wasn’t your typical ‘set the fire alarms off’. No. I wanted more. I had my supplies ready.
My supplies included: bugs (for the bait to make the tarantulas follow), my hands (of course), and a paid student to keep a lookout. Not all good pranks involved lots of supplies.
In fact, this was a good prank because it was a bunch of pet tarantulas that the teacher was going to have the students study, which would also anger the teacher. People were also afraid of giant, hairy spiders. They couldn’t even bite and didn’t want to, but fear wasn’t logical.
“Are you sure that this is a good idea?” the naive boy asked.
I smirked. “Oh yes. Scaring the school and freeing our harmless friends? It couldn’t be more perfect.”
He looked nervous. They usually were. Most of my paid accomplices were always double-thinking it. They weren’t like me. This boy’s name was Dexter. His brother, Daring, was super popular and Dexter was always in his shadow. Convincing him to watch for teachers or students (with pay), and to save the tarantulas, was too easy.
I set the bugs all over the floor and Dexter screeched like a little girl. I had to roll my eyes at him for that one. He needs to man up. No joke.
I opened all the cages, or tanks I should say, and pushed him out of the room as I followed. We went our separate ways and I kept my cool and my head low. Didn’t need people to suspect me before the prank went into action.
Then the screams started, and all I could do was smile.
Present.
It was a beautiful prank. I knew I would never, and I mean never ever, feel sorry for such a great prank.
And come on, let’s be real. These tarantulas were begging to be free. They wanted to be wild. What kind of living creature didn’t want to be wild? I wasn’t an animal rights activist, but I was just saying, tarantula lives mattered.
Grimm, the principal or leader of the school, paused before speaking, “I can’t call your parents or count on them for any punishment. That’s just failed one too many times. I need an effective way. Detention failed, a phone call to home failed, suspension failed, community school service failed... I don’t want to have to expel you, Katarina. You’re already failing classes, too. And I truly want you to succeed. I want to do all I can to help you. So, this is my last resort.” I knew it wouldn’t help. I’m built tough. “I’ve asked one of my best tutors to help you express yourself safely. Alistair Wonderland.” I froze. Well, I wasn’t going to get out of this one alive.
