Room and board can cost as much as tuition and money was tight, so I roomed with three strangers my freshman year. We girls came from across the state: Medford, Oswego, Honeoye Falls and me. By April, we knew each other fairly well. The later spring troubles and fallings out among us had yet to occur.

They had ceased attending classes, having all found suitable engineer boyfriends to marry.

For my part, I was still reeling from the blow to my pride caused by sleeping through a month of British History the previous fall, including missing an exam. Even though I earned a "B" - my self-taught knowledge of the subject saved me - I was striving for my one and only 4.0 semester that spring.

Towards that end, I continued getting out early each morning, while they lingered in bed. The sleepyheads.

Still, I wasn't too serious for pranks. In fact, I considered myself clever, 'though I can't remember how I pranked them that first and only April Fool's Day together.

I merely remember how they retaliated.

Being away from the dorm room all day left me wide-open to their turning of the tables upon my return. They knew my habits and I never saw it coming.

They put lemon juice in my water bottle in the li'l fridge. They booby-trapped my closet so things fell out when I opened the door. They removed the bulb from my desk lamp.

It was fair. It was alright. But I'm not much of a prankster these days. They cured me of that.

The best, as I remember, was what they did to the girl from Honeoye Falls:

She was always using this Paul Mitchell freeze spray product to poof up her limp blond hair. It was a habit with her, like smoking. The other two dumped out the spray and filled the bottle with water. Imagine her frustration over her limp hair.

But, then, the girls spilled the reserved spray! And couldn't replace it when the time came. They asked me, "Do you know how expensive that stuff is?!" No, I had never heard of Paul Mitchell products before. They were forced to apologize to her.