If you ever come to work for our agency, be careful to watch your back. Apparently, we hire comedians and pranksters as a general rule these days. Seriously. Nothing is safe.

Today began like any other day. Quiet, uneventful, busy yet boring. The kind of day where you stare longingly out the window at the sunshine and blue sky, wishing to be anywhere but where you are.

And then it happened.

We were halfway through the morning, when I got up from my desk to take a break. I walked back to the fridge in the break room, looking for something to eat as a mid-morning snack. I was gone for maybe 3 minutes. Maybe.

Being in the zone today means I don’t really pay much attention to my surroundings. Unless it’s something obvious, of course. But today there was nothing obviously out of place about my desk when I returned. If only I’d known. I resituated myself (sitting on my feet of course) and took a sip of water from my Smart Water bottle. Been trying to drink more water and less coffee to stay hydrated. You know. Be healthy and all. I turned back to the paperwork in front of me with a sigh.

It was 20 minutes later when my phone rang and I reached to pick it up. It was then I saw something very, VERY wrong.

Keeping company with Smart Water’s signature “goldfish on a bottle,” were two very colorful, very much ALIVE guppies. Oh yes. They were swimming around quite happily in a recently half-depleted 33 ounces of purified water.

I eyed my coworkers suspiciously. They were both concentrating hard on their computers…which one had done this? It dawned on me that I could very easily turn this prank around on whoever it was by acting as if I’d swallowed one of the creatures. Mmm…no good. These were two of the pretty ones. Might be a little awkward going down the pipe too.

“Very funny, guys,” I finally broke the silence.

They both burst into laughter. “You NOticed!!!” Bethany exclaimed. Lanette added, “It was everything I could do not to laugh when you took a drink earlier.” Dad even had a smart remark, “Sushi water! It’s a new fad!”

Gee, thanks guys.

Now I’m paranoid. I had to leave my desk this afternoon to talk to my dad about one of our clients…and I saw Bethany sneaking across the room to my desk. My immediate fear was that she was goin’ for the 2 liter of Dr Pepper I’d made her buy me as restitution. I squeaked a panicked warning out, “Don’t even think about touching my Dr Pepper or I’ll kill you worse than before!”

Back at my desk, I poured two cups of the fizzy goodness. “You’re going to drink one of these,” I threatened her. “You can be my cupbearer. If you keel over and die, then I know you did something to it.” She laughed. “I didn’t touch it, I promise!” I gave her the suspicious squint and raised an eyebrow. “Drink it. I’m not convinced.”

She took a tentative sip and swallowed.

At that moment, LaNette looked over at us and with the most innocent straight face you could imagine, quipped, “Can you taste it?”

We both burst into laughter. I’m not sure who she was accusing of tampering with the sacred beverage, but it didn’t matter at that point. We’re an office full of jokesters. “Look at it as tension relief!” Bethany says.

Look at it as insanity, I say.