Friends Don't Let Friends Play in the Dryer

The six roommates had made a list of things to do before the semester ended and they all went their separate ways. They had managed to cross off a majority of the items on their list and had even endured the stresses of finals week. The only thing that remained between them and summer vacation was the dreaded white glove, the thorough cleaning of their apartment that had to be done before they moved out. Laurie hadn’t even bothered to change out of the basketball shorts and t shirt she had slept in to start her cleaning. She sat on the floor of their tiny kitchen with her head inside the oven, scrubbing away. After several hours of cleaning, Laurie reappeared, thinking if she ever saw the inside of an oven again it would be too soon.

“Do you know what I’ve always wanted to do that we didn’t put on our list?” she asked, metal scrubber in hand. “I’ve always wanted to get in the dryer.”

This may sound strange at first, but it was not too unusual of a feat for those living in the apartment complex of Greenbrier. Each apartment was equipped with a washer and dryer. The dryer, stacked on top of the washer, was huge and many people had crawled inside before. One girls’ apartment had pulled a prank on several guys in the complex using the dryer as the key element. They would call up an unsuspecting victim, claiming something was wrong with their dryer and asking him to please come take a look. When he would come over and open the dryer, out would pop one of the girls while the poor guy was caught on camera. One guy was so scared he shut the dryer and almost turned it on.

“Kids die in dryers, you know.” Jess said in response to Laurie’s idea. The other girls looked at her in bewilderment.

“What?!” They all asked in unison.

“Yeah, my mom said every year three kids die in dryer related incidents.” She calmly told her roommates, to which they all burst into laughter.

“Jess, I think your mom made that up so that you wouldn’t play in the dryer.” Amy told her when she could finally speak again.

Jessica continued to protest that kids really did die in dryers and her roommates continued to laugh and tease her. They joked for several minutes, coming up with several funny sayings, including “Friends don’t let friends play in the dryer.”

Despite the claims of Jessica and her mother, Laurie still wanted to get in the dryer. She pulled a stool over so that she would be high enough to climb in, then pulled the lint trap out to make getting in a little easier. She then climbed on the stool and stood there, unsure of how to approach the task.

The girls discussed several ways to get in. Laurie tried feet first, then head first, then several other ways. Try as she might, she just couldn’t get into the dryer. It was time to call in the reinforcements.

Michelle knew their friend Jordan had gotten in the dryer before to scare his roommates, so she called him up to see if he could help out. He came over right away and was in the dryer in less than thirty seconds.

“You have to go in butt first. No other way will work. Then you pull your head in, then last comes the legs.” He explained. He then climbed out of the dryer to let the other girls have a try.

Laurie was first. She wasn’t able to get in quite as fast as Jordan, but she did get in, laughing during most of the process. After Laurie climbed out, everyone turned to Jess—she was the only other roommate that was small enough to fit in the dryer. Despite her years of believing that she would die if she climbed in the dryer, her roommates somehow managed to convince her to climb in. She nearly panicked when she was completely inside, but she stayed in just long enough for her roommates to snap a picture, then she was out. And now, after climbing into the dryer, the girls could say their semester was complete.

Extravaganzafestavillathon--A Grilling Experience

The plan was simple; Lisa, Michelle, and I would take our thirteen ugly lamps over to Apartment 5 and leave them in the living room while the guys were all gone to the priesthood session of general conference. Amy would have you know that she was out of town while all of this happened and was in no way involved. We thought we had planned out all of the possible hitches. If Apartment 5’s door was locked there were two options—find the RA’s key and let ourselves in as I had done with former roommates or else crawl in through the living room window. It seemed common knowledge that a person could get into any downstairs apartment through the living room window. Allison came through our window one morning when she had been locked out after going for a run and I had heard of other experiences of people going through living room windows as well. We figured nothing would go wrong and we would be in and out of there in no time. We were going to laugh so hard when this worked out.

Knowing there was no real way to carry thirteen ugly lamps across the parking lot inconspicuously, we decided to scope out the situation first and see how much work we had to do before we got in. It came as no surprise that the door was locked, so we stood outside their apartment weighing our options.

We decided to try to get the RA’s keys first, so we headed to that apartment. This door was unlocked and we went to the place where the former RA had kept the keys. When we didn’t find them there, we chickened out and decided to just try the window instead. If we were caught, the repercussions for breaking and entering seemed slightly less terrifying than if we had stolen the keys to get in.

The living room windows at Greenbrier were massive—extending almost from floor to ceiling, taking up a large portion of the wall. The bottom corners were the only portion of the window that actually opened. Large bushes grew in front of Apartment 5’s window, making our task difficult. The first part of the window was easily accessible. Lisa climbed into the bushes, and got the screen off but was unable to get the window open. We decided to walk around and see if any of the other windows in the apartment were open or if the kitchen window would be any easier to get in through.

When all of these attempts failed, we went back to our apartment to get a butter knife and enlist the help of Allison. We tried to get that first living room window open with the butter knife, but this was no more successful than any of our other attempts. For some reason, we decided to have Lisa crawl through the bushes and try her luck at the second window. As Lisa fought her way through, the bushes scratched her skin and tugged at her clothes, barring her access as if too tell her her journey was in vain, but we could only wait anxiously, hoping she would be successful.

Just as Lisa was about to reach the window, the door of the apartment above us closed and some guys started walking down the stairs. In a panic, we took off like a thief in the night and hid behind the apartments. We laughed nervously and were glad they didn’t see us. As we waited for them to pass, we realized Lisa was trapped in the bushes and couldn’t run away as we had. As soon as it was safe, we headed back out to see what had become of Lisa. When we got to the front of the apartment, we couldn’t see her anywhere. We called out to her and heard her voice, still hidden in the bushes. Discovering she hadn’t been spotted, we laughed in relief and apologized for just leaving her.

Lisa was no more successful in getting the second window open than she was the first one, so she had to climb back out of the bushes with nothing to show for her scrapes. Not willing to give up, we decided it was time to formulate a new plan. We accepted the fact that we were not going to get in their apartment, but we didn’t want to leave without pranking them in some way. I suggested we write them a note saying we had stolen something, then slip it inside through the front door. Michelle suggested we hide the barbeque grill that was sitting outside of their front door. Every year the guys had an Extravaganzafestavillathon where they invited people to come eat lunch in between conference sessions. They would grill whatever meat people brought and supply buns and the fixings. We had never been to one yet, but surely they must use the barbeque grill.

Before we got to work on our new plan, we made sure an envelope would really fit through the front door. When it did, we decided to make a scavenger hunt to lead the guys to the grill. Clues were written on the flyers for the Extravaganzafestavillathon, then taken to several different apartments.

After the clues were put into place, it was time to hide the grill. There was a big, grassy area behind the guys apartments, so we decided to hide it somewhere back there. It took two of us to move the grill. We got it behind the apartments without any problems, but when we got to the backyard, I dropped my side of the grill and ashes spilled out everywhere. When we got the grill upright and started moving it again, it left a trail of ashes. The guys wouldn’t need the scavenger hunt after all; they could just follow the trail.

At last the grill was hidden and we headed back to our apartment. We started making cinnamon rolls as an alibi and wondered how long it would take the guys to find the grill. The wait was not a long one. Before they even changed out of their suits, they came over to interrogate us and find out what we had taken. Michelle was unable to keep a straight face, so she claimed she was covered in flour and needed to take a shower. Lisa and I claimed we were innocent, but tried to help them figure out the clues. They decided we probably didn’t even take anything and so they went home without even trying to figure it out. We had failed again.

Unfortunately, this was not to be our last failure. When they found out the grill was gone, the laugh was on us. They didn’t use the barbeque grill for the Extravaganzafestavillathon, they used a griddle! All that worked we had gone through was for naught! Our only consolation was that they didn’t know just how much we had failed.

Even though the guys didn’t need the grill, they continued to interrogate us while we continued to feign innocence. When their questioning didn’t let up, we decided that somehow we had to get the grill back to their doorstep. We waited one night just before curfew to deliver the grill with a little note that said

“Roses are red
Violets are Blue
Here’s your dumb grill back
Now leave us alone!”

The grill was carried from its hiding spot and placed right in front of Apartment 5’s door where it could not be missed. Just as we were setting it down, the door of another apartment opened and without even waiting to see who it was, Lisa took off running as fast as she could. She had the tape with her and when she ran, it flew out of her pocket, landing under a car. Meanwhile, Amy and I were left standing in front of Apartment 5’s door with the grill while someone walked right past us. We said hi to them and just stood there. They looked at us kind of funny, but kept on walking. We then found a big rock and put it on top of the paper to hold it down, since the tape was out of the picture.

The next day, Jon came over and said “So, rocks are red…” We all looked at him funny. “Rocks are red? Rocks?” They couldn’t even get our note right!

In spite of our many failures, we attempted to keep our dignity in tact through denying that we had ever done anything, but even that didn’t work out for us. At church one Sunday, our other roommate who hadn’t really been involved was telling someone about our little adventure. Then in shock she realized that that someone was none other than an Apartment 5er. So much for maintaining we were innocent!

Extravaganzafestavillathon II--The Sweet Taste of Sucess

Our many failures in the plot to prank Apartment 5 didn’t discourage us. Instead, they made us all the more determined to pull a good prank on our friends. We knew security would be tight on their apartment and they were probably just waiting for us to strike again. Attempts were made to steal a key so that we could enter their apartment at our convenience. We also thought about leaving the window open just a crack so that we actually could get in that way without the use of a butter knife or being eaten by bushes.

Besides thinking of ways to get in, we also thought of what pranks we could pull on them that wouldn’t backfire on us. Jon had a number of items that would be delightful to steal. One such item was a pen from his mission that he was very attached to. If anyone asked him to borrow a pen, he had a hard time giving that one out and he would hover over whoever borrowed it until they gave it back. We thought it would be pretty funny if we could some how steal his pen. We knew he always carried it with him, so it would be no easy feat. The opportunity presented itself one Friday night when Amy, Lisa, Michelle, and I had gone Latin dancing. We saw Jon there with a date and before they headed over to the ballroom side, he took off his suit jacket and hung it up. Amy had watched where he hung his jacket up and as soon as the coast was clear, we all but ran to it, knowing the pen would be ours. Failure was not an option this time around.

We had great plans for this pen. No ransom note or scavenger hunt would be made. In fact, we would be returning the pen ourselves—in Jell-o. Knowing how much Jon cared about his pen and wanting him to still be friends with us after getting it back, we secured the precious item in a Ziploc bag before we added it to the Jell-o. Since this was our first time at such a trick, we thought the pen was supposed to go in at the beginning and so it floated to the top rather than staying in the middle like we thought it should. A rock was used to weigh it down to the desired level. At last the tasty treat was done and success was ours. The next golden opportunity was actually handed to us by Apartment 5 themselves. We were visiting them just before they were leaving to go somewhere and when it was time for them to go, they practically walked off and left us sitting in their apartment. We were unsure of how long the other roommates would be gone for and didn’t want to get caught in the act so speed and simplicity were vital. Furniture was overturned, marbles were placed in shoes, and remote controls along with silverware were hidden. My personal favorite was sticking silverware in Elliot’s coat pocket and having him find it on his way to school.

And so it was that the very guys who bragged about being pranksters themselves were pranked. For a while we feared retaliation, but they never struck back. Perhaps they thought they were being gentlemen in not doing anything back to us, or maybe they were just too chicken.

The last semester we would all be together at Greenbrier soon came. Amy, Lisa, and I thought it would be funny to pull one last prank on Apartment 5. So while they were gone to the priesthood session of general conference, we thought it would be funny to write a note saying we stole something and slip it through the front door. This time, we wouldn’t even attempt to take anything. We wrote our little note and headed over there. For some reason, Amy decided to see if the door was unlocked and it was. Not sure what to do, we stood there, dumbfounded. Finally, we walked in and set the note on the counter next to some cookies. It turned out that Apartment 5 really hadn’t left their door unlocked. One of the girl RA’s who was also the relief society president had gotten the keys, unlocked all of the guys apartments, cleaned them, and left cookies, a far cry from the shenanigans we had pulled. Our possibilities were endless! However, we decided to just leave the note on the counter, knowing it would bug them more that we somehow managed to get in after all our failures than any prank we could pull. At last, we were successful.