Story Wednesday: Britney

In college, I loved being sneaky and playing tricks on other people, and this love became even stronger when I met Megan, who would often join me for my shenanigans. One particularly ridiculous trick that we played went like this:

One day I spotted a life-sized Brittany Spears cardboard cutout in the window of an apartment on our college campus. I was horrified. I do not know why I found this to be so horrifying, but I did.

Given my horror, I was sure that the next logical step was to play a practical joke to teach those Britney-loving boys a lesson. I decided that someday when the boys with the Britney Spears cardboard cutout were home, I’d duct tape them in to their own apartment. I envisioned that if I used enough duct tape, they’d find that they were not able to open the door from the inside and would have to call security.

It seemed like a perfect plan. I recruited Megan to join me on the job, and she obliged, because, as a good roommate, she was very supportive of my ideas...even when they didn't make a whole lot of sense. She didn’t even question whether or not having a Britney Spears cardboard cutout should deserve punishment…she just agreed that duct taping was a good response.

I purchased the duct tape. Then one day we went to the Britney-apartment and saw lights and people moving around, so we figured that it was a perfect time. We began cutting strips of duct tape, and applying them to secure the door shut.

We had probably put on about 6 strips of tape when a parent-aged couple approached us. “Hello,” they said, “Can we get in here?” They asked, laughing and pointing at the door that we were taping.

“Eek!” Megan and I screeched and ran away.

As soon as we left, the couple (one of the boys’ parents) easily took down our duct tape strips and entered the apartment.

A failed trick. What made it worse was that somehow from the parents' descriptions, the boys knew that I was behind the trick. Even worse, when I informed the boys that we were duct taping them into their apartment because they had a Britney Spears cardboard cutout, they told me that didn’t make any sense. How could they not understand that owning a Britney Spears cardboard cutout was a terrible offense, deserving of the most severe punishment...that of being trapped in their own apartment?