Part 7

Wesley was standing behind the rest of the boys on stage, being kept from view because they said he was the surprise for the assembly. He danced and sang along with the others, only thing was he wasn't visible at all. He had seen Ms. Lincoln look at the empty chair beside her where he was supposed to sit but he wasn't there and she looked… disappointed. He also noticed that Principal Carmichael had this mischievous air around him and he smiled as if he knew the answer to a secret that you really, really, really wanted to know.

The theme for this assembly was the pre 90's so Philip had been leading the Warblers in an awesome adaptation of Wake Me Up Before You Go Go. Wesley danced along with the others and Mark and Peter who stood on either side of him grinned at him and he beamed back at them. This was the most fun he'd ever had! All Warblers had noticed that their newest member seemed to be happy like a kid on Christmas and that made them extra happy and a bit better.

Nathan had joked and said that Wesley was their new mascot which rewarded him with a death glare from Lucas, an identical one from Jerry and a cuff around the head from Mark. Wesley had smiled and said:

"At sectionals I can be. I'll be your number one fan!"

Everyone had laughed and Jerry smiled fondly. The little one was getting more and more confident in himself. His mouthing back at Alvaro whenever the guy was trying to get at him was proof of that… and the fact that the little one could pack quite the punch… which Nathan got to learn the hard way when he played a prank on him. The song ended and Jerry stepped forward.

"Fellow students", he said. "Beloved Dalton teachers and staff. We are gathered here today to celebrate the victory of our outstanding fencing team who beat We-High last week!"

Everyone cheered and Wesley looked at Mark and pulled on his sleeve so that the tall boy would look at him. He did and smiled.

"We-High is our rival school", Mark explained. "It's really Westerville High but shorted We-High."

"It sounds like if they're telling you they're on drugs", Wesley whispered back. "We-High."

Peter snickered at that, why hadn't they ever thought of that before? He had to tell that to some of the sports teams. Jerry continued to talk for a little bit and then he said:

"And now we present our newest member. Boys!" The boys all got in position. They stood in a trapezoid-like fashion and held their hands on their backs. Wesley stood hidden by the boys forming the top base of the trapezoid. He took a deep breath and then sang:

A-buh buh buh buh buh

The Warblers answered:
A-buh buh buh buh buh

The boys parted and Wesley was seen and he started singing as he walked up to the front: (Wesley, Philip, Warblers)

You went to school to learn, girl
Things you never, never knew before

Philip joined him at the edge and the two of them danced exactly the same while the Warblers made their own dance.

I before E except after C
And why two plus two makes four
Now, now, now I'm gonna teach you
Teach you, teach you
All about love, dear, all about love
Sit yourself down, take a seat
All you gotta do is repeat after me

A B C, easy as one, two, three
Are simple as do re mi
A B C, one, two, three, baby, you and me girl

A B C, easy as one, two, three
Are simple as do re mi
A B C, one, two, three, baby, you and me girl

Come on, let me love you just a little bit
Come on, let me love you just a little bit
I'm a gonna teach how to sing it out
Come on, come one, come on
Let me show you what it's all about

The boys in the audience stood up cheering and clapping, everyone but Alvaro. He looked furious.

Reading and writing arithmetic
Are the branches of the learning tree
But listen without the roots of love every day, girl
Your education ain't complete

T-t-t-teacher's gonna show you, show you, show you
How to get an A,
Na na na na
Spell me, you, add the two
Listen to me baby, that's all you gotta do

A B C is easy as one, two, three
Are simple as do re mi
A B C, one, two, three, baby, you and me girl

A B C is easy it's like counting up to three
Sing a simple melody
That's how easy love can be
That's how easy love can be
Sing a simple melody
One, two, three, you and me

Sit down girl I think I love ya – Philip stood with his legs spread apart and made some hip-rolls.
No get up girl show me what you can do – Wesley slid between his legs and got up. Philip grinned and grabbed hold of him, underneath the arms and lifted him away as he sang the "come on now" part.
Shake it, shake it, baby, come on now
Shake it, shake it, baby, ooh
Shake it, shake it, baby
One, two, three baby oo oo
A B C baby and now
Do re mi baby now
That's how easy love can be

A B C is easy as like counting up to three
Sing a simple melody
That's how easy love can be

Now I'm gonna teach you how to sing it out
Come on, come on, come on
Let me show you what it's all about

A B C is easy as like counting up to three
Sing a simple melody
That's how easy love can be
Now I'm gonna teach you how to
Sing it out, sing it out, sing it out, sing it out

A B C is easy it's like counting up to three
Sing a simple melody
That's how easy love can be

At the end of the performance Philip and Wesley leaned on each other and flapped their hands, Wesley down and Philip up. The crowd was cheering and Wesley saw Carmichael standing and applauding as well. He was smiling and Wesley grinned at him and at Ms. Lincoln who looked really proud. Suddenly Wesley's mouth dropped open in an O because Mark hoisted him up again, so that he was sitting on his shoulder while the Warblers cheered around them. Wesley grinned. He had never been this happy.

A few weeks went by without anything major happening. Wesley was allowed into the martial arts club as well and he was good. But he wasn't allowed to practice with the older boys, their coach said they were too big, even though Wes had just the same grade as some of them. He wasn't too happy about that.

But he was happy that Alvaro had stayed away from him and hadn't taunted him in a while. The Warblers were fantastic and they were preparing for sectionals that was going to be next week. Wesley was eager to see what it would be like. Carmichael had told him that he was allowed to sit in the crowd and stay backstage, but not to perform on stage. Which Wesley thought sucked but he would be able to do perform out there… someday.

The council was trying to decide what song was going to be sung but that wasn't at the top of Wesley's worries. After all… he wasn't allowed to join. His biggest problem was solving all the math-problems given to him by Ms. Lincoln. She wanted him to become as good in math as he was at all other subjects, geography included. Lucas had been a saving grace and had taken it upon himself to help Wesley with all his homework. So every day after classes were over Wesley would leave his little private classroom and see Lucas sit at a table in the library waiting for him.

Lucas liked the time he spent helping Wesley, they were usually joined by Jerry because he helped both of them. The three didn't talk much but it seemed to help Wesley a lot with getting more and more confident. And he was.

But Lucas, Jerry and Mark had noticed something. Wesley hated it when they called him Wesley… well it seemed that way. He looked sad almost when they called him that. Jerry was the one to figure out why that was. He had been called Wesley all his life and the people that called him that didn't care about him or liked him even. So when they called him that, Wesley seemed to think they didn't really care about him after all. So they stuck to Wes. Even Ms. Lincoln called him Wes, everyone called him that… well Lucas called him Shorty and was the only one getting away with it. The Warblers called him kid at times, but it was with affection and Wesley knew that, but he still glared at them when they did. The only one to get away with calling him that was Jerry.

Jerry had made a habit to walk to Wesley's room at night and make sure that he was really asleep or didn't have nightmares. He found him many times, sitting on the windowsill, looking sad and a bit lonely as he watched the starry sky. Jerry would sit down by him and when the boy started to cry or became tired Jerry would hold him until he was calm or fell asleep. Jerry had fallen asleep in there many times, but he didn't mind and Wesley didn't seem to mind if the way he liked to snuggle into him when they fell asleep on his bed was something to go by. Mark had taken many photos of them, asleep or awake because he like Mark was very worried and protective over the small boy.

Mark was the giant of the Warbler and they said he had the biggest heart and protective instinct of them all. He was like a mountain towering up over the boys that hurt his boys in one way or another. The Warblers had started to refer to the duo as the Mama and Papa of the Warblers. Jerry was the mama and Mark was the papa. Neither boy liked their titles but they acted that way. When on that mood Wesley would even call them that to tease them. It usually ended in a tickling fight.

The Warblers found out Wesley was ticklish and used that when they wanted to cheer him up or get even with him. He was getting more and more secure with his comeback skills and it showed. He had this dry humor and his remarks were always spot on and funny. Like once when the Warblers were arguing about something and the council couldn't calm them down. They were arguing about what to call their next after-school performance where they were going to perform ten songs. Wesley said calmly:

"One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest."

Everyone stared at him, he was busy working on some math problems with Lucas. The older boy smiled and looked up at the other Warblers.

"Did I ever tell you I love him?" he asked and everyone laughed. Wesley also turned out to be a bit mischievous. It was no secret he hated Jerry's whistle and every chance he took he would steal it or hide it from him. Those were the only times Jerry got irritated with the boy. He claimed he needed the whistle but Wesley only retorted that the Warblers' hearing would take damage because of that thing and their performances would suffer. Jerry always found the whistle though and every time Wesley said:

"Man I need to find a better hiding place."

His best one so far was masking the thing as a silver pencil and putting it in Lucas' collection. An unwritten rule in the Dragon… Don't touch Lucas' pencils. Otto and Nathan played sports with the kid whenever they all were free and they did other things together as well. If Jerry, Lucas and Mark were his protectors and guides in school Otto and Nathan were his playmates. Something they were more than happy to be.

But back to where we were before I started this long, long sidetrack. Wesley was struggling with his math and Jerry and Lucas were doing their own homework, but would help him if he asked. Wesley held the sheet up and sucked on his pencil.

"Lucas", he asked.

"Yeah Shorty", Lucas said looking up.

"I have a problem here…"

"What is it?" Lucas asked scooting closer.

"I can never remember what 7x8 is and… do you have any more ways to make it easier to learn the multiplications?"

"I do actually", Lucas said and smiled. "First of all there are some rhymes like 6 times 8 is 48 or 6 times 4 equals 24. But then I have these…" He took out some sheet of paper and handed them to Wesley. They were covered with multiplications from all the tables. "You'll get three minutes and you will have to finish as many as you can and if you get a certain amount of right answers I'll give you a reward."

"Those that work", Wesley asked confused.

"That's how I learned it", Lucas said smiling.

"Heads up!" someone suddenly shouted from the balcony above them and all three looked up. Only to get hit in their faces by something cold and sticky. They heard the familiar laughter of one Nathan Newland, one Otto Johnson and one Julian Rose.

"Idiots!" Jerry yelled flying up, removing his glasses. He had been late this morning so he took them instead of his lenses. "Just wait until I can get my hands on you!"

"Oh chill Jer", Nathan called. "It was just a prank."

Lucas removed his glasses, that had protected his eyes and he looked up at them.

"Where did you get your hands on slushies", he asked.

"Oh downtown", Otto said leaning on the railing.

"Why is it green?"

"What you don't like green", Julian asked grinning.

"I do. But not on my face, shoulders, neck, chest or in my hair."

The trio above them grinned but then Lucas and Jerry's faces turned to Wesley as the kid whimpered. He was pressing his hands to his eyes as he was shivering.

"Wes", Jerry asked walking around the table and putting a hand on the boy's back. "What is it?"

"My eyes", Wesley whimpered. "They're burning. It hurts."

Lucas wondered what he meant but then realized… Wesley didn't wear glasses so he got the whole cold surprise in his eyes. Above them everything had become really quiet. Jerry had wiped the slushie out of Wesley's face. The boy was squeezing his eyes shut and whimpered again.

"Kid are you okay", Jerry asked pushing Wesley's chair back so he could sit in front of him.

"It hurts Jerry", Wesley whimpered slightly. Lucas got up, looking like a storm cloud. He took Wesley's hand.

"Come with me Shorty", he said and pulled the kid up. "Let's go get cleaned up and I'll make sure those eyes of yours are fine. Don't worry, you'll soon be back to using those puppy eyes of yours."

Another thing the Warblers had realized about Wesley Montgomery… none of them could withstand the force of his puppy-eyes. No one at the school could and Wesley didn't use them that much, just sometimes and it worked every time. He looked so adorable. Like the cat in Shrek.

"You promise", Wesley asked as he stood up.

"I swear it."

"What's the capital of Albania?"

"Tirana. Now come on."

The two left and Jerry twirled around and looked up… but the trio above them were gone and he narrowed his eyes before taking care of all of his, Lucas and Wesley's school stuff. He gathered them all together and took the three bags and hurried after Lucas and Wesley. When he found them, they hadn't gotten far because they had a bit of a problem getting down the stairs. Wesley was afraid he'd fall and… Mark was there demanding an explanation as to why the two of them were covered in green and why Wesley looked as if he was in pain. When Jerry joined them Mark stared at him in shock.

"Nathan, Otto, Julian", Jerry explained. "We have to get back at them for this."

Mark nodded and hoisted Wesley up and gave him a piggyback-ride. The boy squeaked in surprise at first but then held on.

"How", Lucas asked.

"No idea", Jerry sighed as they started to walk.

"I…" Wesley said and they turned to him. "I know how… but it will require some good acting from you guys."

"Anything for you Shorty", Lucas said and ruffed Wesley's hair fondly.

"Stop calling me that Midget", Wesley grumbled and Lucas, Mark and Jerry laughed. "Oh great."

"What is it", Jerry asked.

"The first time I know Lucas is standing up and I can't see him! That's not fair!"

The older boys laughed and they headed for the dorms to get cleaned up and prepare for their payback.

TBC Kinda short... sorry about that.

Warblers Wes' first year:
Seniors – Mark, Jerry (chairman), Scott, Bastian, Brad, Fredric & Richard
Juniors – Peter, Michael, Philip (lead singer), Charles, Lucas, Brad(councilman)
& Ethan
Sophomores – Joseph, William, Roger, Matt, Austin (councilmember secretary), Justin/Justine,
Reed, Malcolm & Tom
Freshmen – Nathan, Otto, Julian, Mitch, Eric, Carl & John – 29

Answer to non-members' (or not signed in members') reviews: