As I was entering my post concerning the minister and the stolen car, I spent some moments reminiscing about other pranks I have pulled in my day. I have decided to come forward and stake claim for a prank that for nearly 20 years has been left unclaimed.

My senior year in high school, I had the fortune to take Calculus from one of my favorite previous math teachers. We lovingly called her 'Stiggy,' and I think for most of us who had her for Calculus, we would claim her as our favorite teacher. Since I had to drop my brother off at Junior High on my way to school, I arrived well before classes started. So I would spend my mornings hanging out in Stiggy's classroom, often using the time to finish Calculus homework (she gave me a 'B' for the year, but I didn't really deserve that) or just chatting with Stiggy. Some days she would make it clear that she didn't want to be disturbed in the mornings by leaving her doors closed while in the room working on something. Since you could tell by looking through the windows in the doors that she was there, you knew immediately that you shouldn't barge in that day. That also made it easy to tell when she was absent - the doors would be closed, but the lights would be off and the room empty.

Sadly, misfortune befell Stiggy on April 1 of that year, as she was out sick that day. It was a Thursday, I believe, and I knew before anyone else that she was out, because my morning visit was met with closed doors and an empty, dark room. I didn't think anything of it until 4th period (band) as I was getting ready to go to lunch. Calculus was 5th period right after lunch (for those of us in the band - most of the other Calc students were in other classes and had earlier lunches), and I would often skip out on lunch to hang out in Stiggy's room before class started, as she had late lunch, too. When I stopped by class early, the doors were closed, and I peeked in the window to see the substitute teacher sitting quietly at the teacher's desk, finishing her lunch and reading the newspaper.

I don't know what inspired me, but the idea came to me right then, and I had to act quickly if I was to pull it off. I grabbed a sheet of paper and wrote in my best faux-Stiggy writing (don't ask why I was so good at that): "5th Period Calculus - Meet in the Library today." I affixed the note to the back door to the room, the door all the students entered through, because it was closest to the main hallway, knowing that the substitute could not see the occupants of the hallway through the window in that door. I also knew that no one would look through that door to see that Stiggy was in absentia when they stopped to read the note. My plan in motion, I made myself vanish from that hallway and momentarily bumped into a few of my other Calculus buddies as the bell ran releasing classes to go to 5th period.

One by one, my classmates went up to the classroom door, quickly scanned the note, and turned back down the hall to head toward the library. By the time I got to the door, I was with a group of three other students, and the first one in our group read the note and told the rest of us that we were meeting in the library. Dutifully, we turned around and headed to the library. As the bell rang again announcing the end of the passing period, the entire roster of 5th period Calculus were sitting in the library, anxiously awaiting the arrival of Stiggy and the reason for the change in location.

Did I mention that I went to a magnet high school for gifted and talented students? I say that, because otherwise you'd never believe that 5 minutes after the bell rang for the start of 5th period and Stiggy had not shown up in the library, all of us started working on the next section of homework that we knew would be assigned. No one questioned why we had been redirected to the library. Well, yeah, people asked, but when we realized we'd have some quiet surroundings to catch up on homework, no one much cared. When 5th period ended, I made my way surreptitiously back to Stiggy's classroom, where the doors were still closed and the substitute still sat reading the paper, and quietly removed the note from the back door and disposed of it quickly.

All I really remember about the next day was that Stiggy was back and she was pissed. The substitute had left her a note that not a single Calculus student had shown up for class, but she figured that there had been some miscommunication about that particular class (the only Calculus class offered at the school) and maybe we were off on a field trip or something. Stiggy assumed that we had all skipped class when we found out that she was absent, but finally believed the rest of the class when everyone told her the same story. Eventually, everyone realized that it was an April Fool's prank, but no one owned up to it that day. Or any day since.

Until now. Perhaps, now, I can finally get some rest after getting that off my chest. I am a free man again.