It happened when I was in the eighth grade, when I was in the American International School in India. My class, along with a few chaperones, was on a field trip to explore the city of Ooty, a city in a nearby state filled with hills and grasslands and everything that comes to mind when one thinks "nature."

So here I was, all alone in the hotel room except for a fellow roommate, unconsciously switching from one TV channel to the next, bored out of my mind. Then along came a few more of my friends, who stealthily knocked on my room door and were cautiously led in. They seated themselves on my bed and told us of a prank that they just came up with. Five minutes later, eight more people walk into my room, a mixture of giggling girls and boys (yes, boys giggled in my Middle School). Everyone proceeded to climb out the window and walk onto the ledge that was connected to it, as well as to other rooms of the floor. When my turn came, I carefully swung my legs over the window and planted them on the ledge, only to see a vast network of horizontal ledges intersecting at so many points, seemingly in mid air. I suddenly felt like I was walking on a tight rope in a circus, only that the 'rope' was a feet wide. We were on the first floor, and a good several feet's distance from the sloping ground.

So here we all were, eleven people aimlessly walking carefully on the ledges, no one following the same path. Then this girl, Sarah, decided to take photographs of us, despite mine and everybody else's warning about being careful and having evidence of our act. We didn't want to have pictures as evidence in her camera only for adults to reprimand us after words. After all, we were just trying to have a little fun. She was obstinate and continued clicking the shutter button, only to have some ruder yelling directed at her.

Wanting to leave the unpleasant situation, my roommate and I decided to stop by the next room, and we slowly made our way to the ledge connected to the room's window. The room was empty but the window was unlatched, so we climbed into the room, left through its door, and rushed to the bathroom just in the nick of time. I was oblivious to all the drama that was going on while making way to the empty room.

Apparently Sarah retraced her steps to my room, and headed straight down the hallway to the chaperone's rooms, while deleting all the pictures of herself in her camera on the way. She came back, accompanied by the teachers, and led them straight to the scene of action, seeing most of my peers caught in the act. My roommate and I could hear some admonishing going on, so we hid in bathroom till the noise subsided. Thinking that the coast was clear, we both stepped out of the bathroom, only to find the chaperones, Sarah, my partners in crime, and the rest of the class facing us. The shock was so much for me that I screamed so loudly, causing someone to drop several books on the floor (obviously a clumsy person not from the window incident). Mr. Sampson, the one holding the camera, showed us all the pictures that Sarah took of us fooling around on the ledges. Then all the teachers proceeded to give us a very long lecture about misbehaving, each taking an eon. We all glared at Sarah, who was now looking at the floor, hiding behind Mr. Sampson. Tattle-tale!

When we arrived back at school, we were handed notices of suspension (just me and my partners in crime, hehe). We, with our parents, were to have a meeting with the chaperones regarding our misbehavior at the trip. One family after another solemnly went into the 'lecture room,' only to leave out with the parents angry and the kids sad. I was extremely nervous and had to wait for my family members to come and yell at me. Would I be grounded? Would they talk to me every again? Will I be able to see my friends ever again? What if they take me out of school and home-school me? A lot of unpleasant thoughts rushed through and around my head, and I got exponentially nervous with every passing minute.

I noticed how my friends' parents took this very seriously and even proceeded to yell at their children in public, causing much embarrassment to my friends. My grandparents, on the other hand, were the least bothered. When my parents met with the chaperones, my dad turned to me and said "That was a dangerous thing that you did….couldn't you have picked a lower altitude?" And my mother explained to the surprised chaperones that what my friends and I did was a completely normal thing, that it is a part of me growing up. We'll hopefully eventually grow out of it." And then she suddenly gave me a grave look.

The next field trip and many more after that were still happening, only that the class now lived in window and balcony-less rooms. To this day, the underclassmen of the school still hold a grudge against the class of 2009 only for this prank.

Tags & Keywords : school, girl, boy, friendship, funny