Hands up if you did any of these.
Tongue-in-cheek skulduggerous behaviour is to be expected in any secondary-school, which is why we’ve been reminiscing about our teenage years and all of our miscreant behaviour in class.
Extreme ‘bagging’
Who remembers the moment when someone in your class was unfortunate enough to leave the classroom or head to the bathroom?
As soon as the door closed behind them it was almost like a loud military cry was shouted. ‘GO! GO! GO! We have a code green on operation bagging, I repeat a code green”.
What followed next was pure giddy genius.
All the books in this person’s Jansport schoolbag were instantly emptied onto their desk, their bag was turned inside out, books placed back in the bag, zipped up and left like a carefully wrapped present on Christmas morning upon their return.
The best ‘bagging’ though was always when you managed to get the people who had those Pepsi or Fruit Pastille pencil cases that was made out of fabric.
The level of skill, timing and patience that was required to pull off this prank was superb.
Image via – Maggebob
Pen clicking races
If you ever made eye contact with a person that was sitting directly across the classroom from you, it only meant one thing.
Cue an epic duel that involved wrist strength, thumb dexterity and a battle of nerves.
The Dental Plan game
A simple game that was inspired by a sublime moment in The Simpsons that provided endless amounts of craic in my school.
The rules: one lad would should ‘dental plan’ from across the main hall while another person would have to reply with ‘Lisa needs braces’.
This carried on until we were ordered to stop.
A bouncy ball or super-ball as it’s called in the US
No one should ever be bored in school if they have a ball. Ever.
A teacher once caught this writer throwing a bouncy ball that ricocheted off the portrait of the Virgin Mary that hung above the blackboard.
The ball hit the picture frame causing it to drop and the glass to smash into smithereens.
So many lines followed.
Image via – Dreamstime
Laps of the class room
A game that separated the men from the boys. The rules: who could walk up and down every aisle of the classroom without getting caught before the teacher arrived.
Balls of steel were required to win but we’re giving extra cool points for the one guy in our class who actually did this while the teacher was in the room.
Cheeky pup.
Blinding people with the sun via your watch or pencil case
There was a skill required here because you really had to catch the light at the right angle and perfectly adjust your watch or metallic pencil case to trap the incoming beams of sun.
We all had this pencil case, didn’t we?
Firing elastic bands
There was always one person in your class that was more deadly and accurate with an elastic band than the combined talents of Robin Hood and Robin van Persie.
They used to sting so much if you got hit by one in the face.
Making cat noises
Any teacher leaving a classroom unsupervised is the worst idea since Liverpool decided to replace Luis Suarez with Mario Balotelli.
It’s essentially an open invitation for all hell to break loose as students around Ireland desperately tried to be the loudest person in their respective classroom/corridor.
There was always one person though in your year who could perfect the sound of a cat screaming as if they just got caught in a lawnmower.
Hide the duster
The real trick to this was coming up with new and creative locations that your teacher would never think of looking.
Resting it on top of the chalkboard has been done to death but has anyone been so clever as to put it in the bin or hang it from the window ledge like us?
Text on your 3310
We really did love that girl whose name we can’t remember. She was special despite the fact that we never received a reply from any of her texts.
Then again we only had two numbers in our phone, that girl and our family home so maybe we were over enthusiastic.
Call us?
Hiding other people’s books
We’re cruel but there was something hilarious about taking someone else’s books and seeing them descend into a furious panic and cold sweats before finally revealing where the location is.
A simple but effective pleasure.
Play football in class
Keepy-uppies over a schooldesk is the ultimate test of your skill and nerve.
We have it on good authority that Ronaldo, Messi and Heskey all did this.
If you were really good then head-tennis was also a must.
The ‘boll#*ks’ game
This might be one that’s unique to JOE but this game involved your friend saying a curse word and we had to reply by saying the same word but in a slightly louder voice.
We think that this was the inspiration behind the game.
Rolling cent coins up the aisles to tap the teachers foot
No student will ever have money on them and if they did then it usually went on curry chips but we frequently used to roll a 1 or 2 cent piece up the aisles while the teachers back was turned.
A strike in ‘money bowling’ would only happen if the coin touched the skirting board under the chalkboard or the teachers foot.
Be nice to your teacher.