The Pool Party

My writing for Step Up 2 has been pretty heavy going and sensible, so I fancied a bit of light hearted fun. This was the result. Comments and feedback appreciated. I dedicate this to my good friend Twannee, who joins me in my love of Blake, and in fact semi-inspired it. Thanks Twannee.

"Chase, for crying out loud, can I have some peace and quiet?" Blake stormed along the landing of the house he and his brother shared, shouting and cursing. It was a weekend- they were supposed to be relaxing, and with all this noise he couldn't think straight.

"I fail to see how a few teenagers can make so much noise anyway, but this is taking the…." He stopped abruptly at the bottom of the stairs. A conspicuous pair of trousers lay crumpled on the floor, with no Chase to occupy them. They were definitely Chase's, he could tell due to the style. How odd. He had seen him wearing them just half an hour ago. What were his brother's trousers doing on the floor? If Chase was outside, why was he not wearing trousers? His mother had warned him about this. When Blake had agreed to having Chase move into his house, she had warned him about the behavior of teenagers.

"You won't be able to handle him and all his friends," she had said. He had argued, for Chase's sake. He had spent his teenage years at home and if he'd been offered the chance to move in with an older brother he would have jumped to take it. But he had to admit, living with Chase was not always a hoot.

"Chase?"

He'd mentioned that a few friends, part of the 'MSA crew' were coming around to use the pool and 'hang out' this afternoon, so they must be outside. Sighing and picking up the trousers he strode to the French doors, which were open and caused the curtains to flutter across the doorway. Swatting the curtain out of the way he stepped out onto the patio and stopped dead in his tracks. A few friends. That was what he'd said. He'd failed to mention that the entire crew was coming. The pool was littered with teenagers on inflatables, all clad in summer swimwear. He looked around for Chase, and walked slowly and incredulously along the patio in the shadows. They had not noticed him yet. Suddenly a group of girls laughed, and he turned as one of them called his name.

"Yo, Director Collins! Nice place you got!" Missy yelled from the other side of the swimming pool as she lounged in a stripy deck chair. Having been caught totally off guard, Director Collins got quite a shock when he was addressed by a group of scantily clad female students and the sight of them in tiny bikinis in his back garden grasped his attention momentarily. It was for this reason that he did not see the flower pots directly in front of him, and with a shocked, confused frown he fell over one of the pots and landed on the other. He really didn't need this today. Throwing Chase's trousers at someone nearby, he shot to his feet and brushed himself down, then stood up straight and took a deep breath.

"CHASE!"

Chase peeped around the corner of the garage, a barbeque fork in his hand.

"Yes?" he said meekly.

Blake's stood with his hands on his hips and scowled.

"Would you care to tell me why half of MSA Is in my back garden wearing…not very much…. And making more noise than a football crowd?"

Chase lowered the fork innocently.

"Er, I accidentally invited everyone. The whole crew."

Blake was not convinced and his face conveyed it.

"Yeah, that was a lie. I did it on purpose and didn't tell you cos I knew you'd flip." Andie popped up beside Chase and held out the trousers that Blake had thrown at her.

"Found your trousers," she said happily, handing them to him.

"Thanks, been looking for them, where'd you find them?"

"I NEARLY BROKE MY NECK ON THEM." The garden was silent.

"You left them at the bottom of the stairs. Not your most clever day today is it?" Blake scowled again and turned to retreat back into the house. He deliberately ignored the group of bikini girls, not wanting to add being arrested for or accused of 'perving' on students to his list of reasons why today sucked. He was about to step into the house when Moose's head popped up from under the water in the pool and called his name.

"Yes?" he said impatiently.

"It's really cool of you to let Chase have us all round at your place," Moose said, smiling and flicking wet hair out of his face.

"It's er…it's fine." He stood awkwardly as Moose leaned on the side of the pool.

"So you coming in then?"

Blake looked confused.

"Excuse me?"

"For a swim." Moose began to paddle backwards and bumped into an inflatable crocodile.

Director Collins raised his eyebrows and almost laughed.

"What do you think Moose?" he said irritably.

Moose frowned.

"Chase is right, you are even tense at home. You're really throwing over a chance to hang with the crew. Silly, sir, really silly."

Not entirely sure how to reply, Blake stood dumbly and thought. He knew he had a reputation for being hard on students, and even worked to keep it- it was better to scare the living daylights out of them than to have them walk all over him, but something about what Moose had just said had got to him. He looked over at Chase. He looked happy with his friends, and part of him did not want his brother to look back in ten years time, and find that his older brother had been the one to kill his fun. Chase wasn't a bad kid to live with, and arguably he wasn't a kid anymore. Soon he'd move on and make his own life, and Blake didn't want to be cut out of it as a result of years of tyranny. He wanted to cut him some slack, but wasn't entirely sure about or comfortable with how.

"Chase, that's freaking disgusting."

"There was some kind of commotion over at the barbeque- 'Hair' brandished a sausage and a beef burger, neither of which were very cooked.

"Well who am I? Gordon Ramsay?" Chase snatched the beef burger and sausage back defensively and slapped them onto the barbeque.

"Can anyone here cook?" smiles yelled, looking around the garden hopefully.

Blake frowned. An opportunity had presented itself.

"What are you trying to do, Chase? Keep your entire crew off school for a week with salmonella?" he strode over to the barbeque and took the fork from Chase, shoving him out of the way.

"You gonna cook for us, Director Collins?" Kido asked, looking surprised and holding a bottle of ketchup.

"Yes, but only because if I don't Chase will go to jail for killing you all by food poisoning." he set to with the barbeque, as the students all cheered and went about their immature business. Chase leaned against the garage wall and grinned, looking at his brother.

"What are you sniggering at Collins?" Blake asked, not looking up from his cooking.

"You, Collins. Thought you were mad at me. Why are you cooking for us?"

"Well, I don't want you to hate me forever, do I?" Blake said, ducking as a giant beach ball nearly took him out.

Chase grabbed the beach ball and threw it over the fence.

"I don't hate you Blake. You're alright, really." He grinned and watched as Hair and Monster attempted to throw Moose over the fence to fetch the beach ball, and Blake pointed a long fork with a sausage stuck on the end at them.

"Must you always act like a bunch of delinquents?" he yelled, flipping the beef burgers.

But then, his mother had warned him……..

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Reviews are welcome. Just a bit of random fun to show Dicky C's nicer side x x x x x x