21: Wedding
It was another warm day when George rolled out of bed, woken by racket in the corridor that he knew wasn't going to die down. They'd been having a good spell of weather and George had prioritised swimming in the lake and sleeping on the grass over doing homework, so he was grateful to be missing his Russian class to watch the ceremony. It wasn't until the middle of the day, so he donned a pair of jeans and a CHERUB t-shirt when he'd finished in the shower and went to see if anybody else was out and about.
Rex had been let off his punishment laps for the day, and he almost walked into George as he opened the door.
"Oh, hi. I came over to give you this," Rex said, handing George a striped tie. "It's from my old school, not sure why I still have it."
"For emergencies like this," George smiled, tossing the tie onto his unmade bed. "I'll get all dressed up later, no point getting sweaty this early in the morning."
"The girls are really getting excited," Rex informed him as he locked his door and put the key into his pocket. "They've been up since seven shouting at each other. I'd give them a wide berth if I were you."
"Good idea," George said, wincing as he heard something thump heavily against one of the closed doors. "Any ideas of how we can kill a few hours?"
"After breakfast we could go to the pool? The one with all of the awesome water slides will be deserted because everyone's getting ready for this," Rex suggested.
"Sounds good. We'd better be back here by half eleven or I think Jemima might batter me," George said after a moment's thought. "All that running has given her legs like rocks."
Rex just shook his head and muttered something insulting under his breath, but Goerge wasn't really in the mood to hear his bickering.
Thankfully the pool wasn't shut because a couple of staff members had retreated there to get away from all of the fuss surrounding Chloe. They acted as lifeguards while Rex and George enjoyed freedom over pretty much everything, only having a couple of black-shirt lads for company. When one of the black-shirts was hauled away by his apoplectic girlfriend, George decided it was time to head back before he was also on the receiving end of an earful.
Rex didn't want to see the girls so he went to pick up some of his kit from the gym, leaving George to go back on his own. He made a quick change into a blue shirt he'd borrowed from Harry and the tie he'd got from Rex, combed his wet hair and pulled on a pair of ex-school trousers. It wasn't spectacular but it would pass.
"Coming in," Letty yelled as she hurtled through his door wearing only pyjamas and giant fluffy slippers, skidding to a halt on the carpet.
"I could have just got out of the shower, you know," George said, but he was smiling. "Aren't you dressed yet?"
"Beatrice and Jemima are doing theirs, it's my turn next. I just wanted to make sure you were ready," she explained. "I know what you're like."
"So much confidence," George tutted. "I'm ready, what do you think?" He spun around on the spot and Letty nodded.
"Not bad. Think this is the first time I've seen you looking half-decent," she said. "Even when you're supposed to be in a smart uniform you always seem to have mud somewhere."
George just shrugged. "Not my problem. When are you going to go down to the chapel?"
"Just before twelve," Letty replied. "We're leaving plenty of time. Is Rex about?"
"He went to get some kit or something."
"I'm gonna be angry if he's planning to miss it," she snarled, pounding a fist into her palm. "Don't think Jemima would care very much, but you boys are really winding me up."
George actually thought that he'd been very cooperative, but it wasn't the time to say so.
"I'll go and look in on Michael for a bit," George said. "Leave you girls to your dressing and stuff, I don't wanna be like a lemon in your room."
"We're in Beatrice's room, but yeah fine. Come back by quarter to," Letty said, turning on her heel and disappearing as suddenly as she'd arrived.
George knocked on Michael's door and he answered a few seconds later, dressed to the nines in a three-piece grey suit. He even had a matching top hat under his arm.
"Nice threads," George grinned, but Michael looked anxiously over his shoulder before pulling the door shut.
"Listen, you would not believe what I have put up with over the past few days," Michael said, looking distressed. "This was a compromise choice."
"Who's forcing you? The girls opposite me made me wear all this," George said, pointing to his shirt and tie.
"Nice school tie," Michael grinned. "Anyway, it's my girl Lucy who's making me. No mercy."
"Girls eh?" George said, looking down the corridor as some pandemonium broke out halfway along.
"Give it a few years, you'll be in the same boat as me," Michael said, sounding resigned as he heard his girlfriend's voice through the door, shouting something about shoes. "Listen, I'll meet you outside Rex's room at five. Don't be late."
"Roger," George replied as Michael disappeared back into his room. He accidentally bumped his hat into the doorframe as he did so, and as George headed back to his room he could hear Lucy screaming blue murder. He should have felt bad for the guy but instead he just smirked.
George had never been to a wedding before. He didn't have any family growing up and none of his mum's friends had fancied having her kid along for the service, so he'd spent the occasional Saturday afternoon at a friend's house instead. The whole idea of people getting married seemed boring, and it was for adults who seemed impossibly old anyway, so George decided not to take too much of an interest. He met up with Rex and they passed the time giggling and trying to set light to the order of service before one of the red-shirt carers gave them a rollicking in angry whispers. The chapel was quite warm when it was packed full of people, so George was relieved when everyone filed out and he could enjoy the sunshine again.
"Finally," he said, pulling off his tie and stuffing it into his pocket. "I wonder if they'll let us go over to the lake."
"We'd better go now," Rex noted, looking around. "There must be nearly a hundred ex-Cherubs here and they'll probably want to walk around and everything.
To George's relief, the majority of the returning Cherubs were Chloe's age and had been away from campus for less than a decade, so only a few unlucky black-shirts were told to go and give tours of the newer facilities. He and Rex took advantage of the fact that most girls were in fancy dresses and didn't want to get grass stains sitting by the lake. The wedding and forthcoming reception had put campus into a good mood which George felt as he lay on his back in the sun. The weather was great, he was sure to get a mission before long, and he was looking forward to an evening of unlimited fizzy drinks and ten quid from Michael. He had almost saved up enough for a PlayStation. He was so relaxed that he didn't even care when a couple wearing their fancy clothes began snogging a few feet away, although when a football match broke out he finally got up and ran over to join in to get away from them.
Rex stayed out with the others playing football at five o'clock, so George jogged up the stairs of the main building by himself. The lifts were empty because everyone was out in the sun but he was pumped up from all of the running around and didn't fancy standing still for more than thirty seconds.
"Ah, it's you," Michael said as George rounded the final staircase and stepped into the corridor. "We've got plenty of time so it's just a matter of carrying everything over to the gym."
"How're we gonna do it?" George asked, panting slightly as he peered into Rex's room at the assembled boxes.
"Simple. I've got a golf buggy waiting downstairs which we can load up. Should take two or three trips. If anyone stops us we'll say it's a punishment job for Zara," Michael explained, shifting some of the boxes into the corridor. "Just make up something about not behaving during the service."
"I didn't actually behave during the service," George laughed, taking some of the strain and shifting the boxes towards the lift.
"Even better. When we get there, we'll stick everything into the equipment storage room. I've stolen a key for it and it's not likely that anyone will really want sparring mitts today," Michael added. "All you have to do this evening is run back and forth from the gym and the storage room getting the right things."
"Sounds easy," George grinned. "I'm still getting paid?"
"So long as you don't get caught."
By six o'clock the adults had gone off to their reception with authorised alcohol, leaving the underage Cherubs to share an overly-warm gymnasium. Some of the older agents who had recently retired were keeping an eye on things and running the budget disco system that was belting out music.
Michael and George were sat at one of the tables at the back, as far from the noise as possible. Michael had made it known amongst the older crowd that he was the man to go to for illicit booze, and while George guzzled down orangeade the older boy collected pound coins before sending George off to fetch it.
"Make sure you lock up when you leave," Michael warned him. "I don't want a mob of Cherubs stealing everything."
"I thought people had ordered stuff specially?" George asked.
"They have, but I got some extra beer and stuff to sell on the night."
Going back and forth was tiring but not particularly hard, and all of his combat training meant that George didn't really get out of breath jogging around. The best part was getting to sit with a group of Michael's friends who were all fifteen or sixteen and were insanely cool.
"Hi Michael," a dark-haired girl wearing a stunning off-the-shoulder dress said as she walked past the table accompanied by her blonde friend, who had her arm around a black-shirt that George didn't recognise.
"Hi Bethany, Lauren," Michael smiled, leaning forwards in his chair. "Come to collect?"
Lauren smiled. "Plus Rat," she said, digging the black-shirt in the ribs.
"No problem," Michael said, looking at his list. "George, go and fetch all of the wine spritzers and that big bottle of vodka, you know the one."
"And four cans of cider," the Cherub called Rat added in an Australian accent.
It only took George a couple of minutes before he was returning with the drinks, which Michael passed out in return for a couple of notes.
"Who's your assistant?" Bethany said, sitting on the edge of the table so that her dress hiked up. George was too young to care about girls' legs and Michael just rolled his eyes, but a few of the other boys sat nearby looked over with interest.
"This is George, he's the kid I brought back from that recruitment in London," Michael explained.
"Well, thanks George. Make sure Michael doesn't rip you off," Lauren giggled, slugging back some of the wine spritzer she was holding.
Bethany giggled in unison before leaning over and giving George a kiss on the cheek. "He's too cute to be doing dirty work."
Lauren followed suit, then both girls kissed him at the same time and he blushed, much to their amusement. Thankfully Rat seemed to be more interested in draining his can, but nonetheless, George wished he'd had a picture of the two beautiful older girls kissing him.
"Ladykiller," Michael laughed as the girls left. "I'd bet my left nut that when you're my age, you'll be fighting 'em off."