Chapter 14: A New Morning

Brick's POV

Once we got home, my brain completely powered off. We all walked into our room and collapsed onto our beds (Barb voluntarily slept on Butch's beanbag chair), and that was that.

We woke up about three hours later to the soothing sounds of the "Hotel California," as opposed to the usual, disruptive, annoying alarm. I rose up out of bed to the odor of waffles. It couldn't have been Mojo, because he hasn't been released from prison, yet, and since Barb was gone from her beanbag bed, she was obviously the one cooking. Out of instinct, I hovered out from under my sheets and into the eating area. She was standing up in front of the stove in the Heart t-shirt Boomer gave her and pajama pants with batter frying in a skillet and Pop-Tarts in the toaster.

"Since when did we start receiving 'good morning' from the Eagles?" I happily asked her, sitting down at my counter seat.

"Well, you know what they say: 'it's best to get off on a good note!' So I got rid of that sad excuse of a way to wake up that you had, and replaced it with something that was much better." Seconds later, my brothers drifted into the kitchen with nostrils puffing and eyes closed. It was then that I also realized that we were all wearing our regular clothes again.

"What happened to our suits? And how did we get our old clothes back?" Butch asked.

"Well, I sort of cloaked your outfits specifically for when we went to the club. There were no actual suits or dresses, just mere imitations," Barb explained.

"Aww, I really liked those suits!" Boomer claimed as he walked up to one of the neighboring chairs. The Pop-Tarts popped up into the air. Butch gave the pastries a lusty stare and began panting like a tired dog. Good thing to know that he still had some animal within. It's what makes Butch, Butch.

"I decided to mix em' up," Barb told us as she walked over and picked up the pastries, "Cherry and Birthday Cake. Enjoy!" And with that, she tossed them into the air towards us. Boomer and Butch both jumped out of their seats and caught one in each of their mouths.

"What are you guys, baby seals?" I asked, half awake but rather positive.

Boomer's POV

Pop-Tarts are delicious. If school was half as fun as catching Pop Tarts in the morning, I wouldn't mind having to go, I thought to myself. I had caught the Cherry-flavored one, and even though most kids didn't enjoy the cherry pastries, I sure did ("Cherry Pie" began playing in my head, but then I remembered what Brick told me about his journey to obtain the makeup, and that made me shudder).

Barb looked down at his watch and commented, "Boomer, you'd better hurry up!" I immediately swallowed the rest of my Pop-Tart, and dashed into the bed room to change into some fresh clothes. Well, that was weird of her to only say my name, specifically. I had just pulled my dirty jeans down around my ankles when I heard her say "Peekaboo!" from the doorway. I jumped, and then she fully entered the room. "Still on the sensitive side, I see..." she commented with a smug grin. "It's okay. By tomorrow... you will be impervious to shame," she assured me, pulling down her pajama pants and putting on some skinny jeans, smiling as to how I would tremble uncontrollably.

"Sure, whatever you say, I choked as I put on a clean set of jeans and walked into the bathroom to brush my teeth. I checked the clock myself, which read 6:43. If we flew to school, we'd make it no problem, but why fly when you have a wet dream on wheels?

Anyways, I slipped into my t-shirt with Moon the Loon's face on the front (drummer of The Who, for all the unfortunate souls who don't know their music... sorry, that was a cruel assumption, and it won't happen again, I promise), grabbed my schoolbag from the hook on the wall, and headed down the volcano side, to the garage, anxious to get behind the wheel again.

Several minutes passed before Barb, Butch, and Brick finally came down. "Shotgun!" Brick called out instinctively and hopped into the passenger seat. Butch took a much more gentlemanly approach and opened the side rear door for Barb.

"Thank you, Butch," she said aloud, and then gave him a peck on the cheek. His eyes grew wider than I ever thought they could, and he blushed as though he were an embarrassed Peanuts character. He finally returned to his senses and got in on the other side. I opened the garage door.

"Let's see what's on, this morning," I said to myself as I flipped on the radio. The intro to "Dream On" by Aerosmith was the first noise that we intercepted. "I think it's gonna be a good day," I said, zipping out of the garage.

Butch's POV

Ten minutes later, we pulled into the school parking lot. The other kids froze and stopped doing whatever they were doing, and just stared in awe and jealousy at us. We slipped into our cozy slot, piled out, and headed towards the side entrance right next to the gymnasium. It was there that we were greeted by a familiar figure. "Hey there, boys! Has everything been alright?"

"Everything's been just fine, Coach. Thanks for asking," the three of us replied in unison. Barb stood there with notebooks that she had created tucked against her chest, smiling at Coach.

"So, I guess you must've heard about what happened last week, huh?" Brick solemnly asked.

"Yeah, I heard what happened, and to be honest, I was rather shocked to hear that you reacted that way. I wouldn't say I was disappointed, but you were the last person, well maybe aside from Butch, that I would've imagined ever having an emotional breakdown."

"Thanks, Coach. I really appreciate that," I told him with a straight face to show him that it was actually somewhat serious.

"Well, I'm sorry guys... but hey, I guess it just happens," he told us apologetically. He looked up from us and noticed Barb standing there smiling at him. "Hey, you guys," he asked us in a whisper, "whose that girl? I haven't seen her on campus, before. Is she a new student?"

"Yes, I am new, and my name is Barb," she told him. He was extremely surprised to see that she could hear him from such a distance. "You must be Coach Shank. The boys have told me much about you." She stuck out her hand, still holding her notebooks to her breasts with her other arm. Coach shook it with a smile.

"We're glad to have you here at Townsville High. Now all of you, get inside before they lock the doors on you by mistake," Coach told us.

"Yes sir, Coach!" My brothers and I chanted in unison as Barb led the charge to the side door.

"I'll see you three sixth period!"

"Looking forward to it, Coach!" The door slammed shut behind us as he began to trek down the main hallway.

Nothing could make today be a bad day, I thought.