After breakfast, me and Lawrence went back to our dorm rooms to get ready for morning classes. 

Our room wasn’t anything glorious.

You’d think that with parents paying the school twenty-thousand dollars to send their kids off to school for a year, that we would get the finest rooms with the finest halls and meals that could rival Gordon Ramsey’s food, but no. 

The room that Lawrence and I were staying in had six beds—with three beds lined up on one side of the wall and the other three on the other side. That’s right. We were roommates with four other boys. And three of them snore!

Not only that, but our room didn’t have any air conditioning either. We just had a small fan placed near the back window that would never reach me, since I slept closest to the door.  

And speaking about the heat, when me and Lawrence opened the door to our room, it was like opening a preheated oven. There was this wave of hot air that hit me in the face. 

“Ugh!”

“Augh! Oh god it’s hot!”

Lawrence and I were in agony. 

“I’m telling you, Dean,” Lawrence said as he went inside to turn the fan on. “Hugo needs to be charged with some sort of child abuse. I mean one fan? Really? The dude’s a millionaire off of us and the guy won’t even buy us another fan.” 

“…”

I didn’t say a word but I’m not going to lie, he had a good point. 

“Woah there. Are you guys talking about Mr. Hugo?” 

Standing by the door was Mark, our senior roommate, and the one guy besides Lawrence who didn’t snore when he slept. 

“Yeah, we were talking about Principal Hugo,” I said. 

“That and the heat,” Lawrence added. 

Mark leaned against the door. 

“Pfft. Tell me about it. But at least we're lucky with that fan,” he said, pointing at it. “When I was a freshman, we didn’t have any fans or heaters. My roommates and I just had to tough it out the entire year.”

“Woah,” I said. 

“So wait,” Lawrence said. “What made Hugo buy a fan for every room?” 

“Did he have a change of heart?” I asked. 

“Pfft! No, not one bit,” Mark said. 

“Then what happened?” 

“Back in freshman year, instead of writing to my parents, me and a bunch of classmates wrote letters to news stations and CPS (Child Protective Services).”

“No way.” 

“Really?” 

Me and Lawrence were dumbfounded. 

“Yup,” Mark said with a nod. 

“After that, Mr. Hugo and a bunch of teachers were put under a ton of pressure to change student’s living conditions—then bam!” Mark said, mimicking an explosion with his hands. “Fans for every dorm room.” 

“Wow.” 

That’s all I could say. I mean, writing letters to CPS? Why haven’t I thought of that? Bringing media attention to the school. Wow! Just wow. I didn’t want to admit it openly, but at that moment, Mark was my hero. 

“But wait,” Lawrence asked. “If Hugo and them were put under all that pressure, why just one fan?” 

“There used to be three, but the fans broke down.” Mark said. “Mr. Hugo promised to replace them, but—”

“He didn’t,” I said, butting in. 

“Yup.” 

“Hmm…” 

The room was quiet. The only noise in the room was Lawrence’s humming and the fan running. 

“I guess we need to write some new letters to CPS,” said Lawrence. 

“Or,” Mark interrupted, “we could do something else.” 

Me and Lawrence looked at each other, then back at Mark. 

““We’re listening…”” we said in unison. 

Mark held up a handful of things that I couldn’t see. 

“What’s that?” I asked. 

“They’re water balloons. Me, a couple of friends, and some freshman got them from Ms. Goodman’s lab. We’re planning an end of the year water fight with this and plastic bottles if you two want to join.” 

Once again, me and Lawrence looked at each other—dumbfounded—before turning back to Mark. 

“I’m in,” Lawrence said. 

Mark smiled, then the two looked at me. 

“What about you, Dean?” Mark asked. 

“I don’t know…what about the teachers? Or Principal Hugo?” 

I was worried about the consequences. I know. I’m a bit of a wussy. Yeah, yeah, yeah. But the thing was that Mark didn’t have to worry about any punishment. He’s a senior. He’ll be gone in three days. He was never going to come back here. But me and Lawrence, we’re juniors. If the two of us joined in this water fight, every teacher at the academy might be doubly as strict with us once we got back. They might have their eyes on us wherever we go. Oh god, it gave me chills just thinking about it. 

But Mark slapped the back of my shoulder as if he was trying to dismiss my worries. 

“Look, if you’re so worried about getting in trouble, then me and the other seniors will take the blame for it.” 

“Um, I don’t know…” 

I was still worried about getting into trouble for the next three days. 

“Oh, come on, Dean,” Lawrence said. “It's the end of the year! Hugo and the others won’t be that mad!” 

“You think so?” I asked. 

“We—ll~,” Lawrence said with a lofty tone, “we will get in a bit of trouble, but after that—it’s summer break! Two whole months before we ever have to set foot in this place again.” 

“Lawrence is right,” Mark added. “And once summer break ends, Mr. Hugo is going to focus way more on the freshman than you seniors.” 

I stared at the ceiling, thinking about what Mark had just said. 

Because since it costs twenty-thousand dollars to send your kids to Henry Hugo’s Academy, the smart thing Principal Hugo and his staff could do is spend their energy on getting freshmen parents to send their kid here for the next four years. And the rest of that energy would be put into seniors. So…

“I guess you’re right, now that I’m thinking about it,” I told Lawrence and Mark. 

“So are you in?” Mark asked, though he had this smug smile on his face, as if he knew what I was going to say. 

It made me sigh, but I felt excited at the same time. 

“Yeah, I’m in,” I said at last. 

“Great!” Max said. 

He stopped leaning against the door and strolled out of our dorm room, leaving Lawrence and I alone just standing in idiotic silence because… 

“Did Max say anything about where we were supposed to meet up?” 

Lawrence was scratching the back of his head while I shrugged my shoulders. Neither of us knew the answer. 

Then, from down the hall, we could hear a loud finger snap and a couple of steps leading back to our room. 

“Fellas!” Max said. “I heard you from down the hall. I totally forgot about where we should meet up! It’s down by the yard near the hoses. Be there during recess.” 

After that, Max walked off for good. At least, that’s what I thought, but the next thing I knew, I heard another snap and a couple of footsteps coming back towards our room. 

“Oh, and one more thing,” Max said, embarrassingly red in the face. “Well, two. There’s two things I need to tell you guys.” 

“Alright then,” I said. “What are they?” 

“The first thing is that there are two teams in this water fight,” Mark said as he raised two fingers. “Boys vs. Girls.” 

“I’m fine with that,” Lawrence said. 

“Yeah, me too,” I added. “So, what’s the second thing?” 

Max gave us an awkward smile. The kind of smile that suggested that ‘we’re in trouble.’

“The girls have double our numbers. And they have buckets.”