Woods shenanigans
Lexa and Luna had just arrived at the house when they managed to come up with an effective way to get back at their older siblings. It wasn’t unusual for them to prank each other or to play these little jokes; they had always done it. It had started with the adoption, and when they all found out that they would all stay together as a family,
Lincoln pranked them once by saying he had gotten a girl pregnant and was going to move to the Netherlands because he thought it would be the best country to raise a kid. He had made photoshopped copies of a flight ticket and a pregnancy test; he even hired an actress to be the mother of his child. He introduced her to the family and videotaped everything; it is now a family favorite that is watched at least once a year. He was fifteen at the time. When he dropped the bomb at Christmas, Indra nearly had a heart attack.
Indra regretted adopting all four of the children, but even if it doesn’t seem like it, she has a big heart and loves them with all her heart. She is a part of the on-going prank war and loves surprising them when they come back from a tour or when they just finished their training week.
Lexa and Luna knew Lincoln and Anya were still watching movies in Lexa’s master bedroom; they always claim it is the most comfortable place in the big house. They had everything they needed for that plan at the ready. Luckily, they always had supplies in the Challenger since most of them forget they even exist when they exit the car, and Lexa wasn’t about to clean up after her grown-up siblings.
The plan was to wait for the usual text that both were heading to bed and got everything ready. They want to climb up the wall of the house, since the alarm system announced who was entering through the main doors, they decided to use the only gap in the security system. Lexa hadn’t been able to fix this gap yet since her technology knowledge ended at following the instructions.
They planned to enter the rooms of Anya and Lincoln, being careful not to wake them or disturb the dogs or Chase, who was sleeping in his room. They planned to put water-filled plastic cups into the rooms of the two and cut the power, so they couldn’t turn on the lights and had to walk to the curtains to open them. In the process, they will walk through the cups and spill them all over the floor.
That’s the plan, but Anya and Lincoln were extremely vigilant in their sleep. As soldiers working for a special unit, they often sleep in the wild and have insurgents all around them; sleeping is a dangerous thing out there.
But Luna and Lexa are trained in stealth combat and have the highest scores seen by the military in a long time. When they infiltrate a building, the enemy only knows they have been made when their blood is spilling onto the floor and Lexa and Luna have already made their way to the next room and the next kill.
They got the climbing gear out of the car and secured themselves; they were able to get an anchor point on the roof. Lexa made a mental note to check the roof and secure it more. It was too easy to get an anchor point, and the whole point of this very expensive, high-security house was that everyone living in it would be able to survive an attack.
For most people, it would be an overreaction to have that many security protocols, but with the enemies they made over the years and what they would be capable of doing, Lexa didn’t take any chances and built a house with the highest security measurements any high-security prison could only wish for. Since the house wasn’t that old and the technology kept updating every year, flaws and gaps had shown themselves, and Lexa didn’t have the time to fix all of them.
The text came in, and they got ready to climb. They secured themselves on the wall that led up to Lexa’s room, from where they could strip down from their gear, change their clothes (considering they were still in their dress uniform), and then get down into the kitchen to get the supplies for the original prank. After that, they would have waited long enough for both of their older siblings to be asleep.
The dogs weren’t going to be a problem, since they listened to every single command. They were retired military-trained dogs that knew how to behave in certain situations; it was only a good thing that they only barked when immediate danger to themselves or their owner was evident.
But there would also be Anya’s son Chase, who would have gone to bed a while ago, but he likes to get up in the middle of the night and get himself a glass of water, or if he was gaming, he often got himself some snacks. Lexa and Luna knew he wouldn’t snitch on them, but he was really easily scared, and if there were people sneaking around their house, it would be rather difficult to not scare him.
They started their ascent and made it up without talking a single word; they worked like a perfect machine. They knew how each other worked on a case like this, only looking out for each other’s tells and their body language. Before they knew it, they were inside the bedroom. Lexa had managed to open her window with the safe escape feature she had built in. They were inside the room and took off the gear and put it on Lexa’s bed.
Luna made her way to her room to change out of her dress uniform, and Lexa did the same. She opted for sweatpants and a loose-fitting T-shirt. She safely stored her uniform in the closet and sent a text to Luna, telling her to meet her in the kitchen.
She silently made her way through the hallways and prayed that her socks and the carpet would muffle her steps. Doing these kinds of pranks, where you sneak around and have to be as tactical as possible, were her favorites. She could put all these years learning these skills to use, and it gave her a feeling of calmness.
She went down the two sets of stairs and made it near the kitchen without a single sound echoing through the empty halls. She was just rounding a corner when she saw the light coming from the kitchen. Someone was there, and she was sure it wasn’t Luna.
Luna wouldn’t have turned on the lights. She would’ve used a flashlight to minimize the light source. Lexa silently crept forward and glanced through the door; a blonde boy was wearing headphones and dancing while making a ridiculously big sandwich.
Lexa had to stop herself from snorting out loud at how stupid it looked. She had to wait for him to finish; she didn’t want to be detected, and he doesn’t like to be scared. Lexa respected that; she wouldn’t want someone to overstep her boundaries.
She was glad it was an open kitchen; that way she knew that Chase wouldn’t go through the door, where she was currently hiding. She also knew that Luna would use another set of stairs since she had texted her to not use the main ones.
It didn’t take long for Luna to arrive and Chase to disappear in the direction of his room. The twins started the main part of their plan and each took a good amount of red plastic cups, which they kept on hand for birthday parties.
They soon realized that it was impossible to fill them up in the kitchen. They had to fill them in the bathrooms upstairs. This was another risky part, since everyone had their own bathrooms in their bed rooms.
Lexa looked at Luna and saw the little glint in her eyes; this only meant she accepted the challenge and was ready to start whenever Lexa gave the signal. Everyone in the family always loved a good challenge, and this one was certainly the most difficult in a while.
Lexa decided to take Anya since she always loved to annoy her, and Luna took Lincoln. They bumped fists when it was time to split up and start with the mission. The hallway wasn’t long, and she was able to hear Lincoln’s snoring from behind her, where her sister went.
She crept forward until she reached the right room's door. She carefully opened it to find her sister sleeping on the queen-sized bed. The curtains were pulled close, and the bathroom door was open. The room wasn’t heavily decorated; her sister and herself were more of the minimalist type, while Lincoln and Luna, on the other hand, had thousands of things in their rooms.
Her set-up plan was simple: she would do three rows of water around the bed, five in front of the window, and a few scattered around the room. She sneaked toward the bathroom and went to the sink. She tested her sister’s reaction to the water turning on and off. The reaction didn’t come; Lexa had been smart enough to not use the cheapest faucets, instead opting for more expensive ones.
She quickly executed the set-up plan and nearly stumbled over one of the cups, and Anya had stirred and turned around. Lexa’s heart had stopped for a second, and she thought her sister would wake up. She didn't, and Lexa thanked everyone silently as she made her way out of the room with the last three cups and placed them directly at the door.
She sneaked her way to her office and closed the door behind her. Once she was sure no one had heard her, she walked toward her computer and sat down in her office chair. She had access to all of the cameras inside and outside the house via this computer. She turned the monitor on and enabled the cameras for Lincoln's, Anya's, and Chase's rooms.
Luna was still placing the cups with an evil smile across her face. Chase was gaming on his console and had already finished eating the gigantic sandwich he had made earlier. She disabled the camera in his room, not wanting to intrude anymore than she already had, and kept the one from Lincoln and Anya on.
Luna finished her cups and made her way out of the room; Lexa only had to wait a few minutes for her to appear in the doorway of the office. She silently moved over to the computer and looked at the masterpiece Lexa had created. They high-fived each other, and Lexa started working on cutting the power in the two rooms plus the bathrooms.
"They are going to be so pissed in the morning." Luna smiled evily at the sleeping forms on the monitore.
"Anya isn't a morning person, she'll probably get Chase to clean it up." Lexa told her.
The twins smiled at each other and went their separate ways, as they both needed to sleep a little. It wasn’t easy for Lexa to sleep nowadays; she was so used to staying up all day and night when out on missions. She also really liked the calmness and quietness that the night had. But nonetheless, she needed to sleep and rest; her body could only take so much.
Lexa removed the climbing gear from her bed and opted to put it away in the morning. She changed into pajamas, brushed her teeth, turned out the lights, and went under her covers. She waited a bit longer for sleep to take over, but when it came, she felt like she needed that a long time ago.