Niles Sparks

**Niles Sparks** is the secondary protagonist of the series, and is a member of the Terrible Two.

## Background

**Spoilers Ahead.**

Niles's parents are both intelligent with presumably lucrative careers. Because of this, it was always expected that Niles would be the best at school, and so he hid his love for pranking so as not to get in trouble. Whenever he fell below the standard, it was a "national crisis" to his parents, but whenever he met or excelled their standards, they didn't care much. Niles continued to try to win his parents' approval by going above and beyond at school. He invented the School Helper position; created several programs such as the Safety Patrol, the Student Anti-Smoking Society, the student behavior committee, etc.; and generally volunteered to help out as much as he could.

During the summer before the first book, Niles realized that his apparently pointless efforts to impress his parents had put him above suspicion, and therefore in the perfect place to pull his first prank. On the first day of school, he parks Principal Barry Barkin's car at the top of the school steps.

## Personality

At school, Niles has built up a reputation as an excellent, obedient student who devotes himself entirely to his studies. He is constantly cheerful and friendly. He does his best to show Miles around the school, praises the school staff, refuses to badmouth Josh along with Holly and Miles, completes extra-credit assignments just for fun, and is said to look small, innocent, and sunny. Though he is shown talking to other kids in the first book (mostly Holly, as well as an unnamed student in Chapter 20), he has no friends because he is so dedicated to school.

Out of school, Niles is a sneaky, intelligent strategist who secretly plans pranks and other acts of mischief. He has no problem using flattery and outright lies to get a desired result, such as creating the International Order of Disorder and the Prankster's Oath to impress Miles and complimenting Judy Murphy and Sharon Barkin to get access to Miles and Barry Barkin respectively. He thinks long-term about all of his decisions (the main reason for his School Helper cover) and has a very artistic perspective on pranking.

Niles is generally poor with people. He fumbles his first attempt at becoming Miles's friend so badly that Miles hates him for the better part of the first book, and later he admits that he doesn't really understand people. His "intense" attitude towards pranking can exhaust Miles; when pranks go wrong, he is shown to become irritable, close to tears, or even throw up. Josh's misuse of the word "prank" infuriates him, and even hours after the fact, he is still upset enough to go on a florid tirade about the art of pranking.

## Relationships with other characters

### Miles Murphy

Niles takes a liking to Miles from the beginning. After Miles tries to frame Josh for knocking a lunch tray out of his hands, Niles validates the lie, putting his reputation as "school snitch" at risk for Miles. He also tries to impress Miles with his outfit and specialized knowledge of pranking, which backfires by aggravating Miles into announcing a prank war. Niles plays defense for a majority of the war: foiling Miles's pranks, explaining how he did it, then inviting Miles to change his mind. After it becomes clear that Miles isn't going down without a fight, Niles finally strikes back with a prank that forces Miles to surrender. They call a truce and become friends, which was Niles's goal all along.

As Niles's first and best friend, Miles means a lot to him. The first time Miles comes over his house, Niles is uncharacteristically nervous, trying to give Miles different drinks and worrying about whether they're having fun. Niles seems to be the more openly affectionate of the two: volunteering the idea of a secret handshake, putting a hand on Miles's shoulder, openly saying he has "affection" for Miles, etc. He is noticeably bothered when Miles jokes about going to another school in the beginning of the fourth book and feels like Miles is the only person in the world who truly understands him.

Niles occasionally pranks Miles and convinces him to do things that Niles doesn't want to, like freeing a wild squirrel from its cage.

### Barry Barkin

Niles posed as the goody-two-shoes "School Helper" for a long time so as not to disappoint the adults in his life, earning Barry's respect. Though Barry is very open about liking Niles more than the other students, Niles's feelings are a bit more ambiguous. In his School Helper persona, he seems to highly admire Principal Barkin. He even composes a seven-minute speech lauding Principal Barkin as a hero, enhanced by charts, photographs, and a diorama that, as the accompanying illustration shows, appears to imply that Principal Barkin is comparable to Cicero in terms of oratorical skill.

In reality, he views Principal Barkin as a "goat" (someone who deserves to be pranked) and takes great satisfaction in pranking him. He seems to warm up to Barry Barkin after their collaboration in the second book, and feels the need to stick up for him after Bertrand Barkin humiliates Barry at the beginning of the fourth book. In Barry's office, Niles tries to cheer Barry up by complimenting his portrait, and later tells Miles that he doesn't like the way Barry's father treated him, though Miles tries to wave the situation away as none of their business. Overall, Niles seems to like Barry.

## Gallery

Niles eating spaghetti in The Terrible Two Get Worse.from terribletwo.com
## Trivia

* In *The Terrible Two Go Wild*, Josh Barkin shaves half of Niles' head, forcing Niles to get the rest shaved. In accordance, he has noticeably shorter hair at the beginning of *The Terrible Two's Last Laugh,* which he initially hated and was surprised to learn that virtually everyone else agreed he had needed a haircut.
* Niles owned a hamster in second grade, but it escaped from its cage and vanished.
* Niles asked for a bucket for Christmas when he was six, hoping to prank anyone who came in his room. Unfortunately, he was too afraid to put it up, though it would have been pointless anyway because his parents don't go into his room.
* Niles is the only major character whose parents are never named or seen in the books.
* According to Kevin Cornell, Niles' tan jacket and turtleneck combo was likely inspired by a combination of spy novels and movies.