April Fool

“April fool!”

There was no better satisfaction than the look of realization on her face that she had just been made a fool of. First, her face contorted into what I deduced was confusion, then slowly, she lifted the corners of her lips in a smile of embarrassment.

Source
“I know you orchestrated this, Treasure,” she said. I opened my eyes wide and jabbed my index finger at my chest with the most innocent expression I could muster.

“Me? Why would I do something like this to you?”

She placed a hand on my shoulder, “Because I did the same thing to you”

Maria had been one of my acquaintances since I was 12 years old in pre-teens class at church. She was older than me then so she was in the teenagers' class serving as an usher.

I barely spoke to her when I eventually joined the teens' church, she always looked so welcoming with that huge smile on her face and the ‘Welcome to church’ placard in her hands. I desperately wanted to be like her but I couldn't bring myself to stand in heels throughout the services so I respectfully went to the drama unit where I belonged.

It was a sunny afternoon about 7 years later, I was standing under the drizzling sky waiting for a tricycle to come by so I could leave school before the rain became intense when someone put an umbrella over me.

I thought I was going to turn around and see a dashing young man behind me like in foreign movies but when I turned, it was a familiar smiling face staring back at me. And it was a female.

“Treasure,” she recognized me first. It took me some time to register that face but when I did, the heavy torrents didn't allow us to exchange pleasantries. We rushed to a shop nearby and then threw our arms around each other.

“It's been so long, how are you?” I didn't even know her name then but as we stood there in the rain, we connected as if we had always been best of friends. From then, we began to keep in touch frequently.

On one of those random days a year after we met, Maria called me by 5 am. She was sobbing over the phone and speaking incoherently. I had to ask her to text me on WhatsApp because I couldn't decide a single thing she was saying.

Treasure, please can you come to my house immediately day breaks? My stomach hurts badly, I need someone to assist me to a pharmacy.

Thankfully it was a Saturday and even when I had to go clean the church, I promised her that I would be there. Immediately it was 6 am, I took a hurried shower and ordered a taxi to take me directly to her house.

I heard groans from inside when I tapped on the door. By the time she opened up, I saw 2 other young ladies whispering. I said hello to them and almost immediately, they began to laugh.

“You fell into the trap too,” one of them said excitedly.

“Happy new month, Tee” Maria said, I didn't know how I totally forgot that it was the first day of April popularly known as ‘April Fool's Day’.

I didn't like the fact that they kept laughing about it, nothing was funny to me. I had a 100 more things I would have done with my time and I was on the verge of saying so to Maria when we heard another knock. Apparently, she had tricked all her girlfriends close by.

The only good thing was, she had a steaming pot of Jollof rice to atone for her expensive joke.

So when I got the opportunity to plan my revenge, I did it without looking back.

The day before the next April 1st, I called Maria with a strange number and told her that there was a package for her from one Mr Edet. Edet was one guy she was secretly crushing on in church but he never seemed to notice her. I gave her one of my guy's contacts and told her that was the driver who was bringing the package.

I could already hear the excitement in her voice as she thanked me over and over again.

The following afternoon, I made sure my guy called her to tell her the package had arrived, and then I went to wait for her at the designated pick-up location.

“I can't believe you did this to me, to think that I spent the night composing a thank you message for Edet”

“Thank God you didn't send it o” I said, we both burst into uncontrollable laughter. “Happy new month my friend”

“So after everything, you people were just out to pull someone's legs” she was still muttering as we made our way back to our houses that were not too far away from each other.

I hoped she had learned her lesson because I was already cooking up more ideas for the next April fool's day if she decided to get tricky again.