Acting Like They Were Plastered

(I’m with a group of classmates on a trip to film footage for a documentary our school’s history department is producing. We’re staying overnight in a hotel. Several of us are in my room, which happens to be just above our professor’s room.)

Classmate: “Hey, I say we jump on the floor and bug [Professor].”

(She begins to jump up and down, while the rest of us refrain from joining in. To our surprise, our professor does nothing. He talks to us the next morning at breakfast.)

Professor: “So, who was jumping on the floor last night?”

Me: “That would be [Classmate].”

Professor: *to Classmate* “I put you in your room so I wouldn’t have you bugging me all night! You put cracks in the plaster! I need you to go find out how much this is going to cost the school to replace.”

(My classmate apologizes profusely and goes to talk to the people at the front desk. Just as she’s about to leave the room, my professor calls her back.)

Professor: “You didn’t really crack the plaster. I was kidding. Come finish your breakfast.”