Hello!
How are you?
I've had a pretty good week, I had to take part in a public speaking competition on Sunday, which was really boring, but the new song from Teen Beach Movie 2 (Gotta Be Me) being released on made my week much better. I can't stop listening to it! I'm so excited for the film to come out!
But anyway, here's chapter 14!
The surfers had been escorted home without getting a chance to say goodbye to their new friends. Brady also had to avoid another conversation about the Wet Side Story teens when Devon, who'd known Brady since they were in pre-school, noticed saw them being marched out of the park. The surfers were in a constant awkward silence on the walk back to Mack's house, but Mack and the bikers had no problem voicing their opinions.
"Ok, we get it, we messed up," Seacat sighed as Mack paced in front of them for the ninth time. At this point the 60s teens, along with Mack and Brady, were scattered around Mack's living room, having to endure a lecture about what they'd done wrong.
"We just wanted to find something to do 'cause you said we couldn't surf anymore," Rascal continued.
"Plus we were bored," Giggles added as Lugnut finished putting a plaster over her grazed knee, which (as Mack had phrased it) was a punishment for disobeying her.
"I understand that, but you could have at least told someone," Mack snapped. "And I thought we had an agreement that we weren't gonna leave the house unless either Brady or I knew about it."
"We won't do it again, we promise," Coral sighed, wrapping the end of a strand of her hair around her finger.
"Good, because Mack and I have some news that requires everyone to take on a big responsibility," Brady announced. "And it links in with a cure for boredom."
"Ooh, what is it?!" Lela squeaked, beaming at Brady and bouncing in her seat on the couch beside Tanner.
"We've got you all jobs," Mack told the teens, watching all of their mouths drop open and their eyes widen.
"Jobs?"
"What exactly do you mean by jobs?"
"Care to explain?"
"Wait, we have to, like, work?!"
"Who's idea was this?"
"Yeah, 'cause it's a horrible one."
"It's not a horrible idea," Brady started, hoping that persuading the 60s teens was going to be easier than he'd expected. "It gets you out of the house for the day, it gives you something to do and it earns you money."
"But what do we need the money for?" Butchy asked.
"Food," Brady answered simply. "It's more expensive than you think to feed twelve people every night."
"Well I think that it's gonna be fun," Lela grinned.
"Thank you, Lela," Brady said, glad that someone was on his and Mack's side.
"Ok, but what are these jobs that you got us?" Struts asked, tilting her head to the side a little.
"Struts," Mack started, addressing the biker girl as she read her notes from the crumpled receipt. "You're going to be working at the beach boutique with Tanner and Giggles."
"A clothes shop?" Tanner questioned, clearly not as pleased with the news as Giggles and Struts were. "Are you serious?"
"It's not a disaster, just deal with it," Butchy grumbled, finding Tanner's complaining irritating.
"You're going to just have to get on with it, you're not going to be there long, we'll get you guys back home before you know it," Mack said, before turning to her next victims. "Butchy, Seacat and Rascal, you're going to be working at the barbeque place," Mack explained, looking at each boy in turn.
"I can live with that," Seacat said.
"Can't I work with Lugnut instead?" Butchy asked.
"No."
"Mack, you can't just dump me with two surfers," Butchy shot back.
"It's not a disaster, Butchy. Just deal with it," Tanner said, clearly mocking the biker about what he'd said only moments earlier. Butchy glared at Tanner and Lela frowned at the pair, wishing that they'd just get along with each other for once. The tension between the two leaders had never gone away, even with the turf war ending. Tanner had tried to put his differences with Butchy aside for Lela but that didn't mean that the biker wasn't still going to get on his nerves. And Butchy didn't see any point in trying to be nice to the head surfer, apart from dating Coral and Lela getting with him, he pretty much had no purpose for liking Tanner. So some arguing was always on the cards for the pair.
"Exactly," Mack sighed, ignoring the teasing and trying to keep things going. "Now, moving on to CheeChee and Lela. You two are going to be working at the ice cream stand," Mack explained.
"Yay!" Lela grinned, leaning across to high-five CheeChee, who was perched in an arm chair.
"Sounds good to me," CheeChee stated. "I love ice cream."
"Great, at least someone's happy," Mack sighed.
"What about me?" Lugnut called from where he was knelt next to Giggles.
"Yeah, I wasn't given a job either," Coral agreed.
"We haven't gotten you two jobs yet, we were sort of side-tracked when we found you guys out of the house," Brady said, sending accusing looks to the bikers.
"It wasn't our fault, they left first," Struts cried, pointing at the surfers around her.
"I don't care who's fault it was, it doesn't matter now," Mack snapped. "Coral, Lugnut, we'll get you jobs as soon as we can, let's just try and keep everything under control for the rest of the day."
"Are you serious?!" Brady exclaimed, suddenly very angry at his phone, which he'd just pulled out of his pocket.
"I'm pretty sure she is, Brady," Lela answered.
"No, Lela, it's not that," Brady sighed, before deciding to give an explanation. "The babysitter for my little brothers and sister just quit on me."
"Well when do you need a babysitter for?" Lela asked. By this point the others had all separated into their own conversations, guessing that the announcements were over.
"In, like, five minutes," Brady said, quickly checking the time on his phone.
"I'll help out," Lela beamed, jumping to her feet so that she was stood in front of Brady.
"Are you sure?" Brady asked, his eyes darting back and forth between Lela and Mack.
"If it make you happy, Lela, then I don't see why not," Mack smiled, watching as Lela grinned from ear to ear.
"Are you sure you'll be alright on your own?" Tanner asked, standing up next to her.
"Why, do you wanna come too?" Lela asked, resting a hand on Tanner's arm and giving him a questioning look.
"Sure, I'll tag along," Tanner answered, wrapping his arm around Lela's waist and bringing her into a hug.
"Great, well you two had better come with me then," Brady said, starting to make his way to the door with Lela and Tanner following closely behind. "I'll be back after my lifeguard shift."
"Ok," Mack called back. A few seconds later a text pinged onto the screen of her phone. 'Thank you for agreeing to tutor Elizabeth again, Mack. We really do appreciate your help.' It was from Mrs Wilson. She was supposed to be tutoring Elizabeth, a 14 year old girl who, despite trying really hard with her schoolwork, was struggling with it, in fifteen minutes. "Oh no," Mack breathed. "Um, guys," she said, speaking up so that everyone could hear her. "I've got to leave, I'm supposed to be tutoring someone. So, just don't leave the house, everyone stay here until Brady gets back," Mack ordered, watching as the surprised 60s teens all just nodded their heads. And with that, Mack ran to the door, grabbing her school bag from it's place beside the back door as she went.
"Well, it looks like we've been left again," Butchy sighed, glancing around at his friends as the front door slammed shut.
"I'm not just sitting around and doing nothing though," Seacat piped up.
"Yeah, I'm findin' somethin' to do," Lugnut agreed, standing up and beginning to wander around the room.
"Don't worry, I'm sure we'll find somethin' pretty quickly," CheeChee drawled, swinging her legs over the side of the arm chair she was sat in.
And they did.
"Are you sure that this is a good idea, Struts?" Giggles asked, nervously perching on the edge of the sofa.
"Oh come on Giggles, what's the worst that could happen?" Struts asked, bouncing down next to the blonde surfer girl.
"It's just a game," Butchy agreed, slumping down beside Giggles just as Rascal walked in.
"Hey, Rascal!" Struts chirped, grinning at her boyfriend, who turned around at the sound of his name.
"Oh hey, Struts," he replied, picking up a pair of headphones from a small table in the corner.
"You wanna join in with us?" Struts asked, fluttering her eyelashes and giving him a hopeful smile.
"Yeah, sure, I'll just go and give these to the others," Rascal replied, walking back into the hallway to deliver the headphones.
"What do you think they're doing?" Giggles asked as Butchy started to open the box and set up the game.
"I don't know," Struts replied, crossing her legs and leaning back on the sofa.
"Struts, what the heck is this game?" Butchy asked, taking out a plastic frame from the box, about ten plastic rods that resembled chopsticks and a pack of balloons.
"Let me read the rules," Struts sighed, outstretching her hand so that Giggles could pass her the book of instructions as Butchy tried to slot together the parts for the plastic frame. "Apparently you have to roll the dice and, according to which number it lands on, you push one of the sticks in however many times it says."
"Push the sticks into what?" Butchy asked, trying to figure out what the contraption was for.
"A balloon," Struts answered, her eyes skimming over the instructions to check that she hadn't missed anything.
"What?!" Giggles exclaimed.
"Alright," Butchy said, taking one of the balloons out of the packaging and starting to blow it up so that it fitted inside the plastic structure.
"Are you kidding me?" Giggles continued.
"No," Struts replied innocently.
"What are we doing then?" Rascal asked, hopping onto the sofa beside Struts.
"Pushing sticks into a balloon until it pops apparently," Giggles cried.
"And we're doing this for fun?" Rascal asked, raising and eyebrow at his girlfriend, presuming that this was her idea.
"Yes, it'll be fun, believe me," Struts replied. "Have you set it up, Butchy?"
"Yep," he replied, putting the balloon in the plastic contraption on the coffee table in front of the four of them. "So who's goin' first?"
The first game lasted a good five minutes and no one knew how and why it continued for so long. With every move that someone made every single person flinched and it got very tense very quickly.
"I swear to god, if I get three again I'm going to scream," Butchy snapped, rolling the dice on the table.
"It's a two, that's manageable, you can handle a two," Struts said, but she still flinched away when Butchy went to push a stick in another two notches. Nothing happened.
"How is it even staying like that?!" Giggles cried. "It's ridiculous, it should have popped like five turns ago!"
"The pressure's on guys, is there gonna be a forfeit for the person that pops it?" Rascal asked.
"No, that makes it even worse!" Giggles wailed, burying her head in the pillow she was now hugging to her chest.
"Giggles, it's your turn, take the balloon," Butchy grumbled, practically shoving the balloon in the blonde surfer girl's face.
"Ok, ok," Giggles wavered, nervously picking up the balloon and rolling the dice. One. Giggles pushed another stick in a little bit further and handed it to Struts. "Your turn." Struts took her turn and handed the balloon to Rascal, who rolled a one but accidentally pushed a stick in an extra notch. "Rascal!" Giggles practically screamed, snatching the balloon away from her friend in horror.
"What? It was an accident!" Rascal cried.
"I thought you said that this was supposed to be fun, Struts," Butchy snapped, grabbing the balloon out of Giggles' hands to take his turn.
"Yeah, this is like my worst nightmare!" Giggles wailed.
"Three," Struts announced, watching the dice roll onto a three.
"Are you kidding me?!" Butchy half-shouted. And after taking his turn, he handed the balloon to Giggles, who looked like she was about to burst into tears.
"This thing should have popped, what on earth is going on?" Giggles cried. She rolled a one but before she could even touch the balloon, it popped without an explanation. All four of the teens screamed. And all four of the teens lost most of their dignity.
"Oh my god!" Rascal sighed, trying to compose himself after the scare as Struts just burst out laughing next to him.
"That was awful!" Giggles cried into the pillow.
"I never thought that I'd be so scared about a balloon," Butchy muttered, holding his head in his hands.
"I wish I'd stayed with the others now," Rascal sighed.
"I wonder what they're doing," Giggles murmured.
"Anyway, who's up for another round?" Struts asked, picking up a fresh, deflated balloon.
"Not me!" Butchy, Giggles and Rascal shouted, knocking the game's box off the table and jumping up from the sofa in unison.
I hope you enjoyed it! I'm sorry that it wasn't very long but I wanted to divide up the main action-y parts with a few filler chapters so that it's not all just jumping from thing to thing with loads of stuff happening. I hope that you don't mind! :/ And the game that they were playing was inspired by a challenge on Youtube if you were wondering.
Thank you so much for the three reviews since I last updated! I love every single review and I always love hearing what you have to say!
Thank you so much AquaDestinysEmbrace, zina1412 and DisneyChannelLover! Thank you for the suggestion last chapter zina1412, I'll be sure to use it at some point in the story! But if anyone else has an idea then don't hesitate to leave a suggestion if you think of one, I still want them and I love hearing and using ideas that you want to read about! :)
I know I say this all the time (if you're reading this then let me know what you think of Gotta Be Me if you've seen the video) but I want to say thank you to everyone who sends me PMs, leaves reviews and is just generally supportive of my stories because I think that you're all absolutely wonderful and you never fail to make me smile!
Thank you for reading!
-cherrygorilla