Muck Up: Just an Excuse to be Bitchy

Not everyone agrees with muck up - there can be extreme events and serious consequences - but unlike initiation, it tends to be harmless fun.

In a boarding school, it's even better, because you can do all those things like putting washing powder in people's beds, stealing their toothbrushes, etc. Practises like egging and vandalism aren't really in the spirit of friendly jokes. And there's always the students who cross dress (i.e. wear the uniform of the other sex.)

On Sunday night, after brainstorming how to make fun of the yr 11s in tonight's skit (tonight is Party Night, and involves the yr 10s singing a funny song and a sad song to/about the yr 12s, the yr 11s making fun of the year 12s in a skit, and vice versa, as well as super supper), we put our devious heads together about how to carry out muck on the yr 10s (the yr 10s are always the ones who suffer muck up - at least at this school they do!), apart from the obvious: honey on toilet seats, Vegemite on door handles. This is what we came up with:

• 'Stealing' their Internet (by unplugging the cord to the connecting box - we did this yesterday, and they still haven't figured out it us! Mind you, the Internet drops out all the time is this house. It's pretty funny though, because it's killing them not to be able to email/IM during prep, and I've seen some in our common room, because that's where they can get an Internet connection!)


• Mixing up their dresses, so they're all in the wrong people's cupboards (also done yesterday)


• Glad wrap on the toilet seat (not very original, but effective)


• Setting alarm clocks to go off at 1/2 hour intervals starting at around 2 am in the morning, and hiding several in every dorm (this was attempted last night - all the alarm clocks were hidden but they weren't set!)


• Stripping beds of doonas, tipping mattresses, and removing doona covers


• Finding the house list of phone numbers and pranking them late at night, every so often


• Stealing their shoes, tying them together (in odd pairs, of course) and piling them in our common room (can you picture them walking down for assembly, in their socks but without their shoes, dazed and confused?)


• Stealing their bras, hooking them together in one big line, and hanging them from the beam in the common room

The last two are planning to be carried out when the yr 10s go on camp in a couple of weeks from now.

Such much up is more rife in another girls' house, where the yr 12s actually have permission from their Head of House to carry out muck up on the yr 10s! I believe she even provided them with a list of people to target! They began the week (this week) by "raiding dorms" - running in at 12am and then again at 2am, turning on lights, taking doonas, and generally causing havoc. They also have rules including that the yr 10s may not talk to the yr 12s unless spoken to, and that they must write an essay on one of two topics: "what if God was one of us?" and "the history of the dildo." However, this has all been ended by a yr 10 girl complaining to her parents about it, and her parents ringing the HoH. Sigh. No more muck up.

I don't think our HoH is strictly aware of our plans. I'm not sure she'd entirely approve. Although it's not as though we're going to hurt anyone. We shall see what hits the fan.

Muck up also tends to be a time when people get suspended. Around this time in yr 10, four girls in my house snuck out of the house around 1 am in the morning and visited a boys' house. I needn't go into details - there was some degree of intimate relations, as well as alcohol, and obviously being out of bounds, out of hours. Three of the four girls were expelled (as they couldn't pin dirt on the fourth girl.) Just one of the many reasons why our year group is so small.

Speaking of mucking around...two boys have been suspended and demoted (from prefect) for getting caught drinking alcohol on campus! Big school no-no. Not exactly sure how they were caught, but that's what everyone's talking about.

[Update: the HoH has said NO! to all things muck up. No, we didn't ask her - I'm not sure if she was pre-empting us, or whether it had to do with a small matter of yr 10's cupboard being locked and not being able to find the key, or if she figured that we were behind the Internet debacle. Whatever the reason, our last excuses for fun at school are quickly disappearing. Party night tonight, yr 12 breakfast Friday morning, Valedictory dinner Friday night, followed by Speech Day, then exams. But more time for fun after that - 22 days to go!]

x
Just a girl