Graves County High School’s Orchestral Director, Cody Hein returned from winter break on Tuesday, January 7^th, expecting an average day of work, but was shocked when she found everything in her office wrapped in decorative Christmas paper. After realizing what had happened, Hein shared, “I was surprised! I wasn’t quite sure how it happened. It took a little asking around.”

By the time most students reach high school most have heard stories of legendary senior pranks. Many students put a lot of time and effort into the perfect prank to play on their favorite teachers. This was the case for Nikki Padgett, Danielle Upton and Rachel Simpson; 3 seniors in the orchestra department who put their heads together, planning the perfect prank to play on Ms. Hein. Padgett, who takes credit for the idea says, “It was my idea. We had two or three other ideas, but we decided that the wrapping paper was the easiest, most effective, and most long lasting of the three. Doing a senior prank on her was something we had been planning for a long time. This exact plan was made a week in advanced, it was kind of a spur of the moment thing.”

Padgett, Upton, and Simpson took action on Saturday December 21^st during the FAHS Academy’s Candy Cane Classics concert, a performance Hein was not able to attend, enabling her students to take the time to sneak past her. The students were aided by band director, Jeff Williams who unlocked the office and allowed them to enter it safely. When asked about the prank, Williams laughed confessing,

“They asked me to unlock the door for them, and I knew what they were going to do, so I don’t know if I gave them permission, but I allowed them to do it, I guess.” Having being pranked in January of 2013 by his band students, Williams credits Hein’s students by saying, “It was very creative. They are creative kids so it doesn’t surprise me. I’m glad it wasn’t my office, but it was clever!”

The seniors began wrapping the office around 5:30pm, working until 7:00 when their performance began, but continuing directly after. With such a large job at hand, the seniors were helped by fellow senior, Gabby Adams and underclassmen, Andrew Durham, Casey Ogg, David Adams, Autumn McClain and Keaton Elliott. After a while, the seniors alone took over to finish the job because “Things were getting out of hand. I wanted it all to look really neat!” as Padgett confirmed “We finished around 9:30pm. It took us a while, but we did it!”

When the office was properly decorated they had “Literally wrapped everything!” as Hein discovered after the break. The prank took a total of 3½ hours, 7 large rolls of wrapping paper and several rolls of clear tape to completely wrap the office. The 3 students wanted the office to accurately look like a Christmas present, not wanting to leave anything that would not require unwrapping. A great deal of the wrapping paper was used to wrap the office door, desks and bookshelves. Padgett explains, “We even wrapped her coffee pot and her coffee maker, then put the pot back into the maker. We wrapped all of her dirty dishes, and she hasn’t figured that out yet. We wrapped her refrigerator, too!” Hein shares, “My tape dispenser was wrapped, my White Out was wrapped, I had a couple of pencils that were wrapped. They wrapped a coat hanger. It was very exciting! My first thought about it was ‘Oh, goodness! How will I find my music for class?’ I had to frantically just rip through things to find my scores to teach class, but it was still very exciting.”

The most anticipated part of a prank is to see the victim’s reaction to it. Padgett was happy with Hein’s reaction that morning before 1^st period as she recalls Hein’s first words after seeing the office being, “OH MY GOSH!” when Hein opened the office door, poking her head in to take a look around. These seniors feel their prank successful. Padgett says, “She loves unwrapping things, so it was awesome, and she was not expecting it. She loves it! She sat in her chair, spun around and said, ‘I love it!’” Prepared for any kind of drastic reaction, those involved were proud of a positive reaction. In Fact, they would have been satisfied with anything dramatic. Padgett laughs, “I couldn’t care less if she got mad at us. I think it would have been funny if she got mad at us, but she loves it!”

Delighted with her colorful, holiday chic office, Hein reflects, “It was very exciting to come in after Christmas break to see my entire office covered in Christmas paper. It was very festive!” but she dose not intend to let her students get away with it without repaying them for it. Hein shared her plans to seek revenge. “Oh! I will get them back! At the April Fools concert I will get them back. We do a concert at the end of March, so they should expect a big Surprise!” Her students are suspicious of her plans. Padgett predicts, “Oh, she is going to get us at the spring concert because we’re seniors! If she doesn’t I will be thoroughly surprised. I don’t know what it is going to be, but I feel like its coming!” With the start of the second semester at hand, the halls of Graves County High School are filled with whispered rumors of senior pranks that are to come to several teachers before the end of this year.