The Lost Boys (56 page)

“W-wait, what?! No! Hell, no! They’re not sitting this out!” Bradley yelled angrily. He did not take booing well. His prankster fame was at risk now. He would never back down. It was a matter of pride, and control, and not losing his authority to the crowd that was watching eagerly.  

“The band will not sit this one out!” Bradley bellowed once more.  

Tristan shrugged and walked to Seth’s side.  

Then he stopped.  

And started to freaking strip!!  

A few gasps and shocked whispers emerged from the crowd, while Tristan took his shirt off. And it got even worse when, after kicking his sneakers away, he started to unbuckle his belt.  

“Well, then,” Tristan said while stripping. “If we can’t reason with you, then it’s best to get it over with it.”  

There were jaws hanging everywhere you looked. Including the band AND myself. I launched at Tristan, grabbing his hands away from the zipper on his jeans.  

“Tris! What. The. Hell. Are. You. Doing?!” I shrieked while trying to whisper.  

“I’m following the prank program here,” he said winking at me, and then he added a little more softly, “We might as well have fun with this. It’s all about the attitude you put into things, Joey. People don’t really know how to react most of the time. If you make them perceive the situation the way you want, that’s the way it’s going to be. If you don’t feel humiliated, then it’s not humiliating. If you make it fun, they’ll think it’s fun. You guys worry way too much about being embarrassed. Life’s too short! Live a little!”  

And then he unzipped and took his pants off, standing only in his black boxers. I was flabbergasted!  Then I heard Harry’s voice from behind me. He was having his moment of shocking enlightenment too.  

“You know what? He’s absolutely fuckin’ right! I’m going to have some fun too! Who’s with me?!” Harry said excitedly, taking his clothes off, all fear gone from his face.  

He took his shirt off first, and everybody could see his amazing red and green tattoo covering his upper right arm, shoulder and part of his smooth chest. It looked really beautiful, crashing green waves mashing into red flames, red fire mixing with green water.  

The rest of the band just grinned like maniacs and started to strip their clothes off too, while shouts and catcalls broke loose from the crowd watching. There were whistles, yells and hoots everywhere; it was insane!  

Harry took off his pants and stood there in his red-striped boxers that matched his red spiked hair, while Josh, Sam and Seth started stripping their shirts off too.  

 I thought to myself,
“What the hell?”
and decided to join in with my band
.
I was glad I was wearing my sports top and shorts under my sweats, having had gym class last period, otherwise I’d be so screwed right now! When I started to take my T-shirt off too, the catcalls redoubled in number and volume. The guys stopped their stripping and looked at me, surprised and amused at the same time.  

I shrugged at them. “What? I’m part of the band too. Right?” I stated firmly.

They laughed loudly and clapped for support, while I took my shoes and pants off.  

Bradley was astonished. He didn’t understand what the hell was happening. We were not supposed to be enjoying this! Tristan had just screwed up his whole prank plan. It was fucking brilliant!  

“So, I believe now is the time for the egg smashing. If you could please move along, gentleman, thank you very much,” Tristan said positioning himself at the top of the line of half-naked Lost Boys band members.  

The noise was beyond intense now. I don’t know how come there weren’t any teachers coming along to put a stop to it all. Bradley signaled to his troopers, because he didn’t know what else to do. If in doubt, follow the program, was his reasoning. They took out the eggs and smashed one on each of our heads at the same time, while people applauded. Tristan motioned for us to follow him, a huge grin on his face.  

Harry took off at the front, taking the leadership and shouting to the crowd, “Stand aside, people, The Lost Boys are coming through! Coming through!” he shouted excitedly in his high-pitched voice. “And don’t miss our practice sessions; you can listen to our amazing songs and become a fan!”  

Tristan was right behind Harry, walking with both arms held high in a victory gesture, defined muscles on his arms, stomach and back tensing and moving beneath his smooth skin; his broad shoulders and large sculpted chest caused every girl in the hall to sigh loudly and giggle as he passed them. He looked pretty impressive in just his boxers. It was taking all my will not to drool at the sight of him half-naked.

Josh and Sam laughed hard and loud at Harry’s theatrics, and Seth stood by my side at the back of the group, holding my hand protectively and waving to the crowd. I felt exhilarated, adrenaline running through my body, making my heart pound fast in my chest. People cheered at us, clapping and shouting the name of our band over and over again. I felt like being a true rock star. I’d remember this day for ever.  

It was our first day as a truly united band. The first time we felt that, together, we could take on the whole world. We could do anything we wanted. We were making a legend out of this!  When we finally finished walking to the end of the corridor and were about to make our way back to gather our clothes, Principal Smith appeared in the hallway. Let’s just say he did not look happy as he made a sharp signal for us to follow him to his office before stalking off, while people screamed and cheered at us.  

 We grabbed our clothes from the floor and ran to the Principal’s office. Bradley and his gang sneered at us as we passed, and then they disappeared into middle of the crowd.  

We left Principal Smith’s office in a hurry. I didn’t want to push my luck a second longer. The principal had seemed pretty pissed off with me, but I didn’t care, because I knew I was right.  

There had been a lot of shouting going on in his office, mostly by me and Principal Smith. He wanted to put the blame on us first. Massive detention time was mentioned. Then I pushed words like “law suit” and “pranks being allowed on school grounds” into the discussion. After a couple more threats, including that I was still deciding whether to call my mother and tell her about this cruel, humiliating thing that had happened to me at
“his”
school, Principal Smith backed off and agreed to let us go. I even got him to promise he’d have “a word” with the basketball team.  

As soon as we stepped foot outside the Principal’s office, Harry ran in front of the group, yelling
“Woohooo!”
at the top of his voice, with his arms wide open, while Josh grabbed me and carried me in his arms.  

Seth skipped along chanting,
“Jo-ey, Jo-ey”
while Sam and Tristan talked excitedly at the back.  

We were all still shirtless, because we were still covered in egg yolk and putting our shirts on would only mess up our clothes too, but we had put our pants back on.  

We decided to head for my room (a.k.a. Seth’s and Tristan’s room as well) after that. People had pretty much dispersed by now; only a few strays were walking here and there, but they still cheered us when we passed them.

We were almost at the door to my room when Tiffany tackled us.  “What the heck happened, Joey?!” she yelled, running at me with wide eyes and bouncing blonde hair. I laughed at her choice of curse word. Just like Tristan, Tiff never cursed. They were both properly brought up and had extremely good manners.  

I tugged at Josh to put me down, and he did it carefully. Everybody stopped by the door and turned to look at me.  

“You go ahead, guys, I’ll be there in a minute!” I said, waving at them.  

They nodded and entered the room, chatting happily, and I heard Seth saying to Tristan. “I wanna know who’ll manage to pipe Harry down now! He’s all worked up! Look at him go!”  

Harry was still
“Woohooing
” loudly from inside the room, still hyped from his adrenaline rush.  

I laughed and shook my head, turning to face Tiffany.  

“Well?!” she asked frantically. “I came over from my room and everybody was talking about how
‘The Band’
(she made air quotes with her fingers as she said it) was walking the halls half-naked, and that Principal Smith had caught you guys, and that it was a heck of a commotion going on back there and you’d been sent to his office afterwards!” She retold the rumors she had heard.

“Okay. That pretty much sums it all up, Tiff. But we’re not in trouble, so don’t worry about it. Let’s get inside and I’ll tell you all about it,” I suggested.

She glanced at her phone and seemed to be mentally debating something. “Sorry, Joey. I’ll have to take a rain check on that. Cheer squad emergency,” she apologized with a sorrowful expression as she read the text message on her phone. “They really can’t do anything without me, those blundering idiots.” She grunted, upset.

I smirked and wiggled my eyebrows at her. “Aw, come on, Tiff! Aren’t you curious to see a particularly handsome
shirtless
blond boy in there?” I teased.

She blushed a deep shade of red and her eyes darted to the door of my room. “Sorry, Joey. I really have to go,” she mumbled, biting her lips and glancing reluctantly at the door. “You tell me all the details later, okay?” And she scurried away, still blushing a little.

I watched her leave in a hurry and paused by the door of my room. I was just about to walk inside when I overheard the guys talking.  

“Are you serious? Sensei Kingsley? But he’s crazy!” Sam replied to someone.  

“I’m telling you, man. Joey’s training with him now. She can kick anyone’s ass in here!” That was Josh talking now. I could tell because he had a grave, deeper voice.  

“I told you guys she’s fantastic! So, let’s just stop with this silliness. What do you say?” Seth’s voice piped in.  

I decided to enter the room then. “Hey, guys!” I said, closing the door behind me and smiling at them. “What’s up?”  

 They all turned to look at me, grinning.  

“Hey, Joey, is it true you’re training with Mental Kingsley?” Harry asked, breaking the silence.  

“Yeah. I am. I even got a compliment from him in the last class!”  

“No way!” Sam shouted, his curly brown hair flailing around, all squishy and yolky.  

“Well. It was only once. But he did it! I know he never compliments anyone . . . so I was real happy,” I said, beaming. “Why? Is there a problem with me training with Sensei Kingsley?”  

“You were really going to punch Brad McSmelly there, weren’t you?” Seth asked, reclining on his bed and crossing his legs. Sam was sitting right next to him.  

I frowned at him. “Yeah, that was the plan. By the way, why did you stop me? I could have at least broken his nose, you know?”  

“Because then you’d have been expelled,” Tristan interjected, giving me a reproachful scowl.

Tristan was sitting on his bed, with Josh at the end. Josh’s dark mohawk glistened with egg white. He only had a little on him; Sam had got the worst of the egg-smashing. His brown curls were a tangle of yellow goo. Tristan had almost nothing on his hair. Harry, like Sam, had got it pretty bad too. His red, usually spiked hair was a drippy mess now. I couldn’t see Seth’s hair properly; the egg blended smoothly with his yellow locks.  

My hair must have looked disgusting! And the egg smell coming from it was making me gag from time to time. I turned to look at all of them, and then realized that I was in a room with five fit, shirtless, handsome boys all staring at me. And that I was also wearing only my tight sports top and shorts!  

I tried to stop blushing, but I don’t think I managed too well.  

“Well, it would have been worth it. I was dying to punch Brad’s face up there,” I mumbled, trying to cover up my embarrassment. I headed for the pile of shirts, trying to search for mine and act casual about it. I knew they would never stop harassing me if they realized I was shy about standing there amongst them in just my sports top.

“You’ve got some balls on you, woman,” Josh mused, giving Seth a meaningful look.  ”I told you. She’s brilliant! So, what do you guys say? She’s right here. It’s take-it-or-leave-it time. For good now,” Seth said, crossing his arms above his head.

I looked curiously at them, with my shirt in my hands. They were all grinning like maniacs again. What was this all about?  

“Hey. She has my definite vote.” Harry was the first to speak. “I don’t care if she’s a girl. She had bigger balls than any of us back there at Principal Smith’s office. She’s a Lost Boy, all right.”  

Josh raised his hand after Harry. “I say yes too. Her songs are solid. And you heard the girl, she was going to punch Brad’s face! That should always be rewarded! Come on!” They all laughed at Josh.  

So, I was being voted to officially join in the band! Like as in Official Band Member. A true Lost Boy!  

“Well, you all know what I think. She turned all my crappy scramblings into outstanding music! She’s a keeper!” Seth said, giving me a broad smile.  

They all looked at Sam expectantly. He hadn’t said anything yet and he looked back at them, faking surprise.  

“What?” he said teasingly. “She became a band member the moment she took her shirt off back there! She doesn’t need any votes, she’s already in, you morons!” Sam cheered and then added, “Plus, nothing shouts commitment more than a woman stripping for our cause.” Sam winked at me and I blushed right on cue.  

So did that mean I was officially a Lost Boy, then?  Everybody started talking all at once, but Seth raised his hands, yelling for attention in the room. “Wait a minute, wait a minute! We still haven’t heard from the last band member.” He looked at Tristan, who was leaning against the headboard of his bed, watching everybody in silence.  

“Seth, man, you know I’m not really a band member, I’m just avoiding music classes,” Tristan started protesting, but Seth cut him out short.  

“Dude. Want it or not, you’re in. Just give us your vote!” Seth pleaded.  

Tristan sighed, nodded and raised the palm of his hand like Josh had done with his vote. They all started shouting and clapping again. Harry came and grabbed me by the legs, throwing me on the bed and shouting
“Woohooo!”
again.