Prank I

Alex was sleeping deeply, immersed in a perfect and pleasant dream.

She was in her classroom, sitting at her usual desk: front row, right in the center, directly facing the teacher's desk. There was no better spot. From there, she could hear every word the teacher said with total clarity, free from distractions or annoying interruptions.

Moreover, whenever the teacher asked a question, raising her hand guaranteed she would be the first to be seen and selected. Of course, in most cases, she was the only one who did. Her classmates, with their pathetic lack of academic interest and even lower intellect, preferred to remain silent.

The teacher posed a difficult question about biology—or difficult for the others, not for her.

Without a second thought, she raised her hand. Her answer came out clear and precise, with the confidence of someone who knew she was the smartest in the room.

The teacher smiled broadly, almost with exaggerated admiration.

"Excellent, Alex! Always so brilliant. With a talent like yours, there's no doubt you'll get into one of the best universities in the world. Your future is dazzling! Compared to you, your classmates are practically useless," he exclaimed with overflowing excitement, as if he had just witnessed an unprecedented genius.

Alex smiled with satisfaction at the compliment. "Thank you, professor. But it's not a big deal if you compare me to them," she said.

As the teacher continued praising her intelligence, something strange happened.

Suddenly, the men face began to distort. Him features shifted rapidly until they became Haley's, now wearing an annoyed expression.

"Wake up, Alex!" her sister said impatiently.

Alex frowned. What was going on? She looked around, but the classroom was fading, losing its colors and shapes.

"Come on, Alex, wake up already!"

Another voice joined in, and suddenly, her cousin Andrew appeared—though her dream quickly dissolved. The insistent voices pulled her back to reality.

"What's going on…?" Alex mumbled, slowly opening her eyes, her voice still rough from sleep.

She saw two blurry faces, but she recognized them by their voices—it was her cousin and her sister. Nearsightedness was such a hassle. She quickly reached for her glasses on the nightstand and put them on.

"Your stupid alarm didn't go off. We're going to be late for school. If old Professor Johnson sees me arriving late on the first day after break, I'm screwed…" Haley said, her brow slightly furrowed.

"The alarm didn't go off?" Alex repeated, alarmed, turning toward the clock on her nightstand. Her sister was right—they were going to be late! Very late!

Horror washed over her from head to toe. She, Alex Dunphy, could not be late. She was always the first to turn in assignments. The model student. Her reputation depended on punctuality and excellence, and being late on the first day after winter break would be an absolute disaster.

"Dammit!" she exclaimed, clumsily throwing off the covers.

"See you downstairs," Andrew said hurriedly before rushing out of the room with Haley.

But as soon as they crossed the door, instead of heading downstairs, they slipped into Luke's room, where he was still sleeping like an angel. They exchanged glances and covered their mouths to keep from laughing.

Meanwhile, Alex, still groggy from the urgency and not noticing anything unusual, jumped out of bed. She moved with impressive speed, changing out of her pajamas into her uniform with automatic precision, buttoning up her shirt in a frenzy, and tying her hair into a quick ponytail.

She had barely finished putting on her shoes when she rushed down the stairs at full speed, not noticing that most of the windows were still closed and that the house was completely silent…

The only normal thing was that the downstairs lights were on.

When she reached the dining room, she didn't see the usual scene of her mother making breakfast or scolding Luke for making a mess. Her father wasn't there either, nor were Haley or Andrew, who had said they would wait for her downstairs.

'Where is everyone?' Alex wondered, frowning with a strange expression. Had she imagined everything? No, impossible.

Suddenly, an alarm went off in the kitchen. Alex jumped in fright. The sound wasn't extremely loud, but it was irritating. And in the silence of the house, it was impossible to ignore.

Within seconds, hurried footsteps echoed down the stairs.

"Ouch, I really need to fix that step," Phil mumbled.

Claire stormed into the kitchen in her pajamas, gripping a baseball bat, ready to defend her family and her home.

Phil, on the other hand, had assumed a karate stance—though his face looked half-asleep.

"Get out of my house! The police are on their way!" Claire shouted, expecting to find some unknown, suspicious person. But when she saw her youngest daughter fully dressed for school, she was utterly confused.

Phil, rubbing his eyes to make sure he wasn't dreaming, looked just as baffled.

"Alex!? What are you doing dressed?" Claire asked, lowering the bat and sighing in relief that there wasn't an intruder.

"For school… What else?" Alex replied, confused.

Claire and Phil exchanged glances, looking even more bewildered than Alex. Then they turned back to her.

"Sweetheart, it's four in the morning… You still have more than two hours before you need to wake up," Phil said, pointing toward the only open window, a small one.

Alex followed her father's finger and looked through the window at a pitch-black sky. It was still nighttime.

Finally, she realized what had happened. 'Those two sons of bitches!' she thought furiously, gritting her teeth as her brow furrowed in anger.

She turned to her parents, who were staring at her as if she had lost her mind.

"It was Andrew and Haley! They woke me up!" she snapped.

They then climbed the stairs and entered Luke's room. There, they found Andrew sleeping deeply, completely covered. Luke was also asleep, having not woken up from all the noise they made.

"It can't be…" Alex murmured, frowning even more.

"Alex… maybe you were dreaming," Claire commented. "Andrew is very strict about his sleep hours."

"I'm not crazy or schizophrenic, this family hasn't driven me to that state yet," Alex muttered, still not believing Andrew's stunt. But she couldn't go in and cause a scene while Luke was sleeping next to him.

They then went to the next room. Haley was also sleeping like an angel, and there was nothing strange about it.

"Go back to bed. I'll make sure to wake you up at the right time," Claire said, turning around and heading back to her room.

She didn't feel like thinking about whether Alex was lying or not. In fact, she believed her. She could totally see Haley and Andrew pulling off a prank like this, but Claire was tired and didn't want to wake everyone up to argue about it. The best thing was for everyone to go back to bed.

"Hey sweetheart, who scared you more? Your mom with the bat or me in my attack stance ready for action?" Phil asked, looking at Alex, who was still standing in the doorway staring at her sister.

Alex slowly turned toward her father. Why did he always ask these kinds of questions at the most inconvenient moments?

"You, obviously," Alex replied, seeing the enthusiastic expression on Phil's face.

Phil smiled widely, completely satisfied.

"I knew those YouTube karate lessons with Sensei Tanaka would pay off," he murmured proudly, turning around and happily heading back to his room.

Alex entered her room with a murderous look directed at Haley, slammed the door without much care, and walked toward her.

"Wake up! Really? Such a childish prank? Seems like your standards have really dropped," Alex said angrily toward Haley, who opened her eyes casually and smiled.

She knew this was a prank from Andrew, with Haley as his accomplice. To be honest, she expected a more elaborate prank from her cousin, considering their past history.

"Yeah, it may be childish... but you got mad, and that's what matters, right?" Haley said with a little giggle, which only made Alex more furious. Alex quickly put her pajamas back on and got into bed, seething.

'Hehe, this is just the beginning, Alex. You're going to have a great day at school,' Haley thought with a slight smile as she turned off the nightstand lamp.

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