They Grow So Fast...
Distracting the adults? Pah, easy peasy. Jack Teague wasn't worried about this at all. After they'd all given each other boosts over the fence, Jack Teague was left outside, being the last one, he had nobody to boost him. His plan had been simple enough; he knew enough about garden party decor for this plan to work. He had then snuck over to the gate, and slipped inside.
Now he was inside the garden party, and he looked closely at the tables. They each had a tablecloth on them that reached down to the floor, which was perfect. He saw one of them wobble, and smile. They were waiting for his signal. He skipped up to the podium where the hoity-toity garden-party types went to make speeches.
"Ladies aaand gentlemen!" He shouted out. A lot of the guests turned to him, and when they saw who he was – well, more like how he was dressed – a lot of them wrinkled their nose in a way Cutler Beckett did rather often, or looked horrified. "I'm just here to say that there is an important announcement from Wiggywigs Ltd – and this is that you have completely bled them dry of wigs in your rush to get some for this garden party."
"Now, I know you may not think this is your fault, but those poor wigs spend a long time in training to become fully-fledged wigs, and some people buy a wig for a day and then never wear it again! This, ladies and gentlemen, must be stopped. It is a danger to the economy..." Oh yes. Jack Teague could talk about complete and utter garbage for hours on end.
"What is this?" Asked one of the ladies, frowning and leaning towards the host of the party, none other then Weatherby Swann. He opened his mouth, and closed it again.
"You, boy! Get off the podium!" A man suddenly shouted out, stepping forwards.
"And now, ladies and gentlemen, I present to you... the piece de la resistance." Jack turned around, and mooned the assembled crowd of lords and ladies, some of which swooned.
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As all of this was going on, their attention captivated by Jack's charming speech and, uh, performance, nobody noticed that about five of the tables had started, well, moving. They started sliding across the floor, in the direction of the buffet. Underneath the tables, about a dozen ragged, filthy boys crept across the floor, using the to-the-floor tablecloths to their advantage.
A few of them sniggered when they heard Jack's speech. When they got to the buffet, they crawled out from under the tables and eyed the food, smacking their lips. Then they grabbed as much as they could, swiping entire plates and shoving them down their shirts or into various sacks.
"Ooh! Jelly!" One of them said, grabbing a handful and stuffing it into his mouth.
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Anamaria wandered into the back garden, where all of the kids had been shoved. She just had to stop them getting to the main garden, right? She glanced around the wide, open space, with the rolling green grass, the swings and see-saws. Then she bumped right into someone. She and Cutler Beckett stared at each other for a moment.
"Oh no, not you again..." Cutler muttered.
"Was that an insult?" Anamaria demanded, "And also, what happened to your clothes?" She gestured to his clothing, which had been rather ripped and ruffled by the fall he and Elizabeth had taken earlier. He frowned at her.
"What happened to your face?" He retorted.
"What did you just say?" Anamaria shouted, jumping forwards with her fists ready. Cutler Beckett looked from her fist to her face, and back again.
"Aaaaaaarghh!" He screamed, running away across the garden.
"You get back here, you!" Anamaria snarled, giving chase.
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The scruffy boys were about halfway back towards the gate underneath their tables when suddenly, the tablecloth was snatched off of one by a bewildered Weatherby Swann, who'd noticed what looked like a herd of tables migrating across the lawn.
"What are you doing down there?" He asked, confused.
"Run, boys!" Jack shouted from the podium, before leaping off, and scampering through the crowd of guests, zig-zagging as some attempted to catch him. "I'll go and get Anamaria!"
Pushing the tables over, the boys, food spilling out of their arms, ran for the fence, beginning to do crazy horse-jumps over them. Most of them had chocolate all around their mouths, and were laughing as the people sent their servants after them.
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"Yeah, I hate it when they do that," Elizabeth said to Will. They were both still sitting in the tree, and had been talking for quite a while. Will replied, but Elizabeth didn't hear, too perplexed as she saw a very odd sight.
"Aaaaaargh!" Cutler Beckett raced past under the tree.
"Just wait until I catch you!" Anamaria was close behind.
"Ana! It's time to go, we have the food!" Jack said, bounding along after them.
And behind him, a whole bunch of adults that had rebellion in their eyes were running, trying to catch the little boy who'd mooned them. All in all... it was quite an odd procession.
"What's gotten into them?" Will asked, watching them vanish around the corner of the house.
"I... have no idea." Elizabeth cocked her head. "Want to go get some ice cream?"
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"Cutler? What happened to your face?!" His mother shrieked. Cutler's face was patched with grass-stains, dirt, and he had a cut under one eye, and his clothes were completely ruined, also one of his front teeth was missing – luckily it had been a milk-tooth. However, he smiled at her triumphantly.
"This girl jumped on me and started beating me up! But don't worry, I got a punch right in her eye!" He said, excitedly.
He was sent to bed without supper for fighting with a girl.
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Eventually, Jack Teague managed to grab Ana and drag her outside, though she was still spitting about how she was going to skin 'that blonde kid' alive and then boil him in tar and then stick him full of pins and then pound him into pulp and then after that she'd...
As they sat in a back alley, sharing out the food, the boys were all talking with their mouths full of custard creams, sponge cake and apple pies, their excited blabbing and laughter filling up the alley. Ana looked strangely pleased with herself, though a black eye was beginning to form.
She got a pat on the back from Jack for beating up one of the 'nobs'.
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"Daddy! Can we have another garden party soon?!" Elizabeth asked, excitedly. This one had actually been some fun! Not only that, but some girl had started punching Cutler Beckett, her nemesis! And not only that, but he'd had a tooth knocked out!
"I... maybe some other time." Weatherby Swann replied.
NB: Part two. Aaand end of garden party sequence.