Thanks to everyone who gave me support. I have decided to keep on writing this story, but you have to be patient with me because I'm really busy (isn't that always the case when you are in band?!?!)
So here is your reward- a new, longish chapter.
The duo arrived at Ally's job thirty minutes later. They walked into Kangaroo Bob's and Ally went to change. Mal stood in the doorway, looking at the inflatable jungle in front of her. KB's (as Ally called it) was a play place for kids, mostly birthday parties, which looked like an accident waiting to happen. That or someone's colorful version of a mental institution. She walked over to the staff lounge where Ally told her she could stay. Inside were two teenagers, one about Mal's age, the other older. Both had on the dark green polos and khaki pants on that were uniform.
"You new here?" asked the boy, who was older, glancing at her curiously.
"Nah, I'm Mallory, Ally's friend."
"Then what are you doing here, of all places?" asked the girl incredulously.
"We were out, and I didn't have my car, so she said I could come here for her shift. Why, is that bad?"
"No, just unusual. I'm Diane, by the way," she said, "And that's Chris."
"Nice to meet you."
"You too. So, uh, what does one do when not working here?" Mal asked.
"Thank God." Chris answered sardonically.
"Um… ok…" she said slowly.
"Don't listen to him," said Diane, "There's a snack machine over there," she pointed,"and you can watch our torture through this window."
"Could I help? I love little kids." Mal asked.
"Seriously? You want to work here?" asked Chris with a raised eyebrow.
"Just today…" she answered.
"Yeah, I guess. Come on, we'll show you around." Diane said.
Diane led Mal around the inflatable play-place, pointing out what were apparently important things.
"That's the main moon-bounce," she gestured to a large, inflated tree house in the middle of the room, "And over there is the toy closet- you know, balls, stuff like that." Mal nodded at her.
"What are y'all doing?" Ally said as she exited the bathroom carrying her other clothes.
"We've got a volunteer." Diane said simply. Ally gave Mal a look.
"Are you sure about this?" Ally asked.
"Yeah, it sounds fun. I might as well, since I'm going to be here."
"Whatever."
After Diane finished her tour, Mal went to the front desk to see when the first group was coming in.
"Ok, so the first group is at 3:30" she announced to her co-workers for the day.
"Seriously?" Chris asked.
"Yeah, why?"
"That's my kid sister's party," he said.
"Really?"
"Yeah. Great, I can't wait." Chris's voice was dripping in sarcasm.
"What?" Mal asked.
"When a family member comes here, it's always twice as bad. They expect to do things that aren't allowed, and then whine when you say they can't." Diane explained. "My brother's friend had his party a month ago, and he freaked out when I wouldn't let him on top of the tree house."
"Okay then…" Mal said slowly.
An hour later, a caravan of mini-vans pulled up in the parking lot. The three regular workers shared a grimace, but Mal was excited. That is, until the kids walked through the door.
There were about a dozen kids in all, and all of them had presents and parents with them.
Mal leaned over toward Ally.
"Have any of these people ever heard of carpooling? Seriously, this party alone is a hole in the o-zone layer."
Ally suppressed a laugh.
"Hey, and welcome to Kangaroo Bob's! I'm one of your leaders, Diane, and this is Chris, Ally, and a special guest leader, Mal! Go ahead and put your presents down on that table over there, and then we can get started." Diane said authoritatively.
The kids scrambled over to the aforementioned table, leaving the adults to swarm in on the staff with questions. Ally, Diane, and Chris answered them faster than they left the parents' mouths. Mal was in awe. The kids returned and crowded around their respective parents. The parent who seemed to have spawned the birthday child, and Chris for that matter, told the kids – as per Ally's instructions – to go and put their shoes in the rack against the wall. She also bade goodbye to the parents, who slowly left, while still carrying on their conversations.
"All right, who want to go start?" Ally asked the kids when they returned. A chorus of cries went up around her.
"Great! But first, we have to go over the rules." The kids sighed.
"Number one- no running around…" Mallory zoned out as Ally went through the rules, which were posted beside her on a kangaroo-strewn poster. She couldn't get Josh out of her head. He really had seemed different than the other drumline guys. He was the only one who had ever seemed to take an interest in her too. Not to say that she hadn't had her fair share of dates, but none of them had ever tried guard- they all just saw it as a reason that she couldn't go out with them. Most guys just thought of her as a friend, anyway. The girl that they would go to if they needed advice. And then he stood her up.
Mal shook her head, coming back to the present just as Ally finished telling the kids the rules. They ran- immediately breaking rule number 1- into the play area. Ally glanced at her, having noticed that her friend had spaced.
"You okay?" Ally mouthed. Mal nodded back at her.
They followed Diane, Chris, and the kids into the main room. Most of the kids had headed straight for the moon bounce, but some still were wandering around, looking for other stuff to play on.
She went over to the wandering kids.
"Are you looking for something to do?" she asked them. Three wide – eyed nods came back to her.
"How would you like to be my little helpers today?" More nods.
"Great! I need you to make sure that none of your friends get hurt. If you see them doing anything bad, come tell me or one of the other leaders, okay?"
Two of the kids ran off excitedly. But one little girl stayed behind. She had blonde hair and bright blue eyes, and she was looking at Mal sadly.
"But what if I don't have any friends?" she asked in a small voice.
"I'm sure you have a friend here sweetie" Mal replied. The little girl shook her head.
"I just moved here. I'm only invited because Anna is my next – door neighbor."
Anna was the name of the birthday girl, Chris's sister. She'd run off to the bounce house with the other kids when they got here. Mal looked at the little girl her a moment.
"What's your name?" she asked.
"Blair Harper," the girl replied.
"Well, Blair, you have a friend here. My name is Mal," she bent down to shake Blair's hand.
"So, what do you want to do Blair?" Mal asked, straightening up.
"Can we… can we go bounce?"
"Sure!"
Blair grabbed Mal's hand and dragged her toward the bounce. It was stuffed with kids. Too many kids. Ally and Diane and Chris stood off to the side, trying to figure out how to get some of them out. Mal looked over at then and nodded.
"Hey guys!" she called into the bounce house. The kids kept on bouncing.
"Hey!" Once again, they ignored her. She put two fingers to her mouth and let out an earsplitting whistle.
And the kids stopped bouncing.
"Who wants to learn how to whistle like that?"
Over half of the kids jumped out and stampeded over.
"Alright, so here is what you do first…" she began.
One birthday cake, twelve presents and a few tears later, the party was complete. The staffers waved to the kids and parents and Chris reassured his mom that he'd be home for dinner later that night.
Ally looked over at Mal.
"Are you ready?" she asked expectantly.
"For what?" Mal answered, genuinely confused.
"Clean up time!" she answered with false excitement.
Chris and Diane groaned at the statement. Even Mal could tell that this wasn't going to be pleasant.
♫
"Alright, we'll see you later!" Mal and Ally called to their friends as they left KB's. Mal was totally spent, but pleased with how the day had gone. Whenever things got out of control, which was more often than not, she'd pulled out the whistle trick. It worked every time.
The duo climbed into Ally's car, and just as Mal finished buckling her seatbelt, she heard a horn honk from across the parking lot. She looked up and stared. There in his car, sat Josh. Next to him sat Blair, the little blonde girl Mal had made friends with.
"Blair Harper..." she whispered.
"Huh?" Ally asked, but Mal wasn't listening. Josh had seen her, next to the tell-tale uniform that Ally was still wearing. He jumped out of his car and started to come over to the car.
"Hey! You work here?" he asked, coming up to Mal's window.
"No, but Ally does. Talk to her." Mal answered coldly.
"What can I do for you?" Ally interrupted before he could ask Mal another question.
"Oh – ah – my sister left her bracelet here at a party earlier today? She wanted to know if you had it."
"I don't have it with me, but we found a bracelet from that party. GO in and ask for Diane, she keeps track of those things."
"Great, thanks," he said, "See you Mal."
"In your dreams." She answered swiftly before rolling up her window.
"Drive, please, fast." She told Ally.
"Aye Aye, Captain. Where do you want to take me fore lunch?" Ally responded.
"Wherever you want. I don't care."
"Ok, we'll just go to The Lounge, and then you can tell me what that was all about."
Mal shot Ally a look.
"And yes, you have to." Ally said.
♫
