April Fooled!

How this works: New stories designed to be read aloud and shared with your children are emailed to your inbox or within the Substack app every week or so. Each story comes with a link to a set of Plot Twister and Thought Sifter Conversation Cards you can use as part of your homeschool English curriculum.

I write stories about ordinary homeschooled children living ordinary lives playing games, exploring outdoors, solving problems, making mistakes, asking questions and learning together: stories designed to spark conversation, encouraging children to think, wonder, create and connect.

About the author: I home educating my three children between 1986-2004, and they’re now homeschooling theirs! Stories about everyday children living life without school are hard to find, and I firmly believe that homeschooled kids need to see themselves and their lives represented in children’s fiction, so that’s what I write!
Find my other homeschool resources at Always Learning Books.

I hope you enjoy April Fooled!, a story about three friends having a sleepover on April 1st.

To listen to an AI narration of this story, click the “Play” icon (triangle ▶️) in the the top-right corner of your screen.

Tahlia dumped her overnight bag on the floor of her friends’ bedroom and looked around. “Where am I going to sleep?” she asked. Decorated with posters and drawings of animals and mountains, the small room only had space for a bunk bed, a wardrobe and a tall set of cube shelves packed with books and toys.

Lilly pulled a trundle bed partway out from under the lower bunk and grinned. “Don’t worry,” she said. “We’ll pull it out all the way at bedtime!”

“That reminds me,” Zoe grinned. “Tomorrow’s April Fool’s Day.”

“Really?” Tahlia blinked, then grinned back. “This is going to be so much fun!”

“Let’s come up with some pranks to play on Mum and Dad!” Lilly grabbed her notebook. “What about switching the cream in Oreos with toothpaste?”

“Everyone does that one,” Tahlia groaned. “How about a bucket of water perched on top of the door?”

Zoe shook her head. “That’s too mean.”

“I’ve got an idea!” Lilly quickly rummaged through a drawer in the wardrobe and pulled out a green sock covered with cute cartoon pandas.

“A sock?” Tahlia frowned.

“Not for long!” Lilly grinned. “Come on!” They followed her to the living room where she carefully placed the sock on the scanner. A life-size colour photocopy of her sock slowly slid from the printer. Tahlia frowned. Zoe looked equally confused. “You’ll see!” was all she said.

“Have you got any white craft glue?” Tahlia asked, looking around the room. She spotted some tucked behind a tin of pencils on the desk. “Can I use it? I’ll need some wax paper too.”

They found some in a kitchen drawer. Zoe spotted her dad’s shoes sitting neatly by the back door and grinned. She crumpled some of the wax paper into two tight balls and quietly handed one to each of the others.

“Umm, I need a toilet roll too,” said Zoe, and ducked into the bathroom.

Before heading back to the bedroom, the girls quickly grabbed some markers and a sheet of googly eyes from their craft supplies.

“What are you girls up to?” asked Mum, walking into the kitchen from the backyard.

“Nothing!” they answered together.

“Hmm…” Mum paused, her eyes squinting a little, but she simply smiled and went back to preparing dinner.

Back in the bedroom, Tahlia carefully mixed the glue with some white paint and poured it onto the wax paper, letting it spread out into a puddle. Zoe unrolled a couple of sheets of toilet paper and started drawing.

The next morning, while Mum was having a shower and Dad was shaving, the three friends gathered their prepared pranks and quietly set them up. They placed the paper cut-out of the fake sock in the hall, snuck into the kitchen, and swapped out the toilet roll in the bathroom. Finally, they retreated to their bedroom, leaving the door slightly ajar so they could peer out.

Just then, they heard a sudden cry from the bathroom. “Eeeeeek!”

Lilly gave a little excited jump, and Zoe pushed her hand against her mouth to suppress a giggle. Tahlia grinned.

Moments after leaving the bathroom, Mum walked down the hall. She bent down to pick up what looked like a stray piece of clothing on the floor. “Lilly! Pick up your...” She stopped. “Oh!”

She heard giggling in the girls’ bedroom. Laughing, Mum pushed the door open. “Neat trick,” she said. “Who wants breakfast?”

Just then, Dad walked by heading for the kitchen. “What’s funny?” He went to open the fridge and suddenly took a step back. “Oh no! There’s milk everywhere! The carton must’ve leaked!”

Zoe laughed so hard she grabbed the bench to steady herself. Tahlia and Lilly high-fived each other. Their fake milk spill looked completely real.

“Oh, you got me good!” laughed Dad, picking up the rubbery disk of fake milk.

Mum held up the paper photocopied sock. “They got me too!”

The three pranksters held their breath as Dad took the eggs out of the fridge and opened the carton. A dozen little eyes stared back at him. Some looked frightened. Some looked cross. One appeared to be winking. “Very funny,” he said. “I wonder what’s next?”

But breakfast passed without any more surprises. Then, when Dad bent down to put on his shoes before leaving for work, he frowned. He reached inside and pulled a wad of tightly scrunched paper.

“Aha!” he said. “And that reminds me – who safety-pinned all my socks together in a long snake this morning? My guess is that it was you three?”

Zoe stared at him, lips pursed, trying not to laugh, Lilly snorted and Tahlia hiccupped mid-chuckle.

Mum folded her arms. “Well, at least you weren’t confronted by a very scary, very large, and very fake spider drawn on the toilet roll first thing this morning.”

“April Fools!” the girls shouted together.

“Oh! Of course!” said Mum. “Well played.” She paused and glanced at Dad momentarily before adding, “Now you three pranksters need to get ready. We’ve booked dental check-ups for nine o’clock. I hope you don’t mind, Tahlia. Your mum said it was fine if you came along too. Dad can drop us all off on his way to work.”

Tahlia’s eyes widened.

“What?” gasped Zoe.

Lilly pouted, then groaned. “I hate the dentist!”

Mum bit the inside of her cheek, the corners of her mouth twitching.

Dad looked at his watch. “I’m leaving in five minutes.”

The girls opened their mouths to protest.

Mum and Dad looked at each other, burst out laughing, and shouted, “April Fool!”

All illustrations in the Plot Twisters & Thought Sifters series are original AI-assisted pencil sketches created with ChatGPT from scene descriptions written by Beverley Paine.

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That’s all for now! Until next time, Beverley