They left me for dead...

This post is not about my birthday. It happened two days before my birthday, so we can pretend like it is. But today is April Fool's day and I've been wanting to tell this April Fool's story for a while. So here you go.

My first year in college I found myself happily in the midst of a group of really awesome girlfriends. I had never been a "group" girl. I always had at least one really good girlfriend and a couple others that I was friends with, but I never had a big group of girls that I hung out with. Then I got to college and met Jenn, Shannon, Whitney, Alison and Sherlive. Who knew I could enjoy a group so much?

But I did and I was so happy that I found them. Going away to college is tough and they made my college experience so much better than it could have been.

We spent a lot of our time together especially since we all lived in the same building.

That year on April 1st we found ourselves sprawled in Shannon's room devouring a carton of ice cream. We were discussing my upcoming birthday and the fact that we hadn't heard of any good April Fool's pranks that happened on campus that day. College students are ripe for the picking when it comes to pranks. So many gullible girls and so many bored guys - it's an April Fool's prank paradise.

Oh well, maybe next year.

We finished off the ice cream and separated. Sherlive went to her room under the pretense that she was turning in for the night. Alison turned in too and after saying goodnight to her Jenn, Shannon, Whitney and I all headed up the steps to socialize some more. We were in college! Who needs sleep in college?!

Something you should know before I continue with this story: Sherlive, Jenn, Alison and Whitney were all in residence life. Jenn was my resident assistant on my hall. Alison and Whitney were resident assistants in the same building and Sherlive was the resident director (she had a better title, but RD will suffice for this story). Shannon and I were officers in the Residence Hall Association. So were Alison and Jenn. Suffice it to say that among our group we had access and knowledge of the campus and residence halls that most students didn't.

Also, you should know that there is a long standing rumor that the fourth floor of that building is haunted by a ghost named Emily. Jenn and I lived on the fourth floor, and Jenn's room just happened to have the attic door in it. The door always stayed locked and Jenn didn't have a key.

We went all the way up. I stepped in my room for something and the other three went into Jenn's. I sat down at my desk and after a few minutes passed I heard a bunch of high pitched squeals coming from the direction of Jenn's room. Then it got really quiet again.

A few more seconds and then more squeals. Louder this time. Then someone came running to my room. They told me there was something scratching on the wall and door of the attic.

I had long made peace with the idea of a ghost on my floor. It's something you had to do so as not to freak out every night. The building was old and creaky and there were all kinds of noises at night. Your best bet was to embrace the ghost or ignore it. I did a little of both.

So of course I rolled my eyes at them. It was nothing but wind blowing the door and I was sure there were birds or bats stuck in the stair well that let to the attic. No big deal. They were all just tired and paranoid.

They drug me down to Jenn's room anyway. It was quite a spectacle to see us all standing there in the hallway with our ears pressed to the wall.

Nothing happened.

Then a little scratch. It could have been easily explained by an animal scratching or the wind, but at this point they had pulled me into the paranoia so I squealed right along with them.

Silence again.

At this point someone asked if Sherlive might have come up ahead of us and hidden herself in the closet. That is totally something she would have done, but Jenn had a grocery bag full of stuff in front of the attic door. No one could have opened the door without moving the bag. So we dismissed that theory and stuck our ears back against the wall.

With our ears pressed to the wall Jenn and I started discussing the possibility of her sleeping in my room that night because she was kind of freaked out. I couldn't blame her. I wouldn't have wanted to sleep with the attic door right then either.

Suddenly the door started to open.

We all screamed at the top of our lungs and ran down the hall towards my room.

Except I was wearing big floppy slippers and I fell down in the hall. Jenn, Shannon and Whitney, the traitors, left me laying there and locked my door behind them. They left me for dead.

I turned around to face my attacker and saw Sherlive doubled over and crying from laughter.

She had come up before us and she did have to move the grocery bag, but stuck her hand out the door as she closed it until she got the bag back into position.

Then she waited for her extremely gullible prey.

The other three came out after I told them it was alright. I wasn't dead, but Sherlive might be at any moment.

After our hearts stopped beating we all had a good laugh and finally went to bed.