Threat Level: Teacup
5- Threat Level: Weekend
Molly
For four boys supposedly in an aspiring YouTube band, their song writing skills were pathetic. So far, all Michael had contributed was the fact that Luke had promised him pizza and Calum had done nothing but throw grapes that he was never going to eat. Luke was at least sort of making it look like he was trying, messing around with his guitar, and I was nearly certain that Ashton had fallen asleep in a beanbag chair, but his offensive 2007 Myspace era hair was in the way of his face. In their defence, I hadn’t actually gotten anything done, either, except pace and pretend that the boys were doing something productive. The circle that they were sitting in was similar to the cult circle they sported at lunch; Ashton and Calum on one side, Michael and Luke on the other in some sort of wannabe round object that didn’t understand math in any sense of the word, with myself loitering on the outskirts. I felt kind of bad, intruding on their ‘guy time’ or whatever, but I came to the conclusion that Calum was their friend and that they were obliged to help him, even if that meant sitting in the basement all day with no productivity.
“It’s been three hours,” Calum groaned, stretching his legs out in front of him and throwing a grape at the wall, only for it to bounce back and hit Michael on the back of the head, evoking a chorus of snickers. “It’s your song,” Luke said, rolling his eyes. “You’re meant to do it yourselves.”
“Yeah, but we suck, don’t we Molly?” I eagerly nodded my head and sat on the edge of his beanbag chair. Honestly, I kind of wanted Luke’s beanbag chairs… and his swimming pool… and his entire house. It was justifiably enviable! “Yeah,” Michael added, “you kind of do.”
“You weren’t supposed to agree; you were meant to pity us and help.” Calum grumbled, scrunching up his face and scuffing his shoe across the basement floor. At this rate, we wouldn’t even have a fraction of a song to present at the end of term. Michael rolled his eyes as Luke played around with some chords, Ashton listening intently. “I’m sure, if everyone else in your class can do it, so can you two.”
“My brain isn’t working due to the amount of times you’ve hit me.”
“I said I was sorry!”
“Tell that to the angry bruise on my face,” I joked, gesturing to the purple bruise on my forehead. I also had quite a large yellowing bruise on my arm where he’d hit me with that full-sized door. I knew it made him feel guilty, but I was only joking. “Oh, trust you to bring that up.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?”
“Guys!” Ashton yelled, from his place next to Luke. “Can you just shut up!” And that’s when the lights went out.
Michael
These weren’t exactly the circumstances under which I wanted to hear Molly scream for the first time. I felt short nails dig into my arm and I tried to figure out whether it was Molly or Ashton (I later found it to be Ashton – Molly had clung to Calum) while trying to pry them off of me. “Are you all okay?” Luke said, his voice raised. I nodded before realising he couldn’t actually see me and joined the chorus of ‘yes’s. “I’m going upstairs to see what’s happened.” I heard him trip and snickered as Ashton swatted my arm. While I loved him and hoped he hadn’t been hurt, the idea of him falling over was still kind of hilarious. I heard Luke hitting the wall, trying to find the light-switch, using his phone for a torch, only to find that it wasn’t working. “I bet the bulb’s blown,” He groaned, tripping on the bottom step.
“Ash, you’re going to have to let go of me.” I said, pulling at his fingers and trying to get to the other side of the ‘circle’, which Luke had ruined by going exploring. You’d never have been able to guess that he was actually older than all of us. “Molly, are you okay?” I asked, recalling her previous screaming fit. I heard shuffling and then Calum muttering ‘ow’ under his breath in distress. I’d have probably laughed at him if Ashton’s fingernails weren’t so close to drawing blood from my arm. “I’m okay,” Her response was muffled, but it was a response and that was okay with me. Luke came rushing down the stairs, moments later, stumbling at the bottom and groaning. “Guys, the sky is literally falling down.” Little pieces of stone and dust fell from the ceiling. “It’s still kind of light upstairs. Come on.”
We decided that we couldn’t send Molly up first or last, so Luke started, Calum followed, Molly clung to Calum, Ashton clung to Molly and I prayed that they didn’t all fall on me. Liz was waiting at the top with the phone in her hand. “I’ve called all of your parents. You’ll all be stay- who’s this? Luke?” Molly’s face flushed when she realised she was being asked about, and I moved to stand beside her, feeling kind of responsible for her. So far, she hadn’t really seemed like the type to shy away from new people. “This is Molly. We’re helping her and Calum with their music project.”
“Oh that’s lovely. Would you like me to ring your mum?” Molly nodded and smiled, relieved, reeling off a combination of numbers from the top of her head. Liz was incredibly relaxed for allowing a teenage girl to have a sleepover with six teenage boys, if you included Luke’s older brothers. Saying that, she didn’t really have a choice; the monsoon out there was absolutely brutal.
Since we had no power and the sun was lost behind endless rain clouds and thunder, Luke’s living room had dimmed to grey by five o’clock, and the storm didn’t seem to be settling at all. “I’d make you all some dinner but we’ve got no electricity. Half of the food will spoil by the morning, so do any of you want sandwiches? Any fruit?” Luke eagerly nodded and grinned. “Not you. You ate earlier; I saw you. Do any of you want anything to eat?”
“Can I have a ham sandwich… wait do you have those pizza chips you always get?” Liz smiled and nodded, absolutely making my day. If I was going to have to spend the night with these losers, at least I could do it in style. Ashton shook his head, declining the food, but I knew he’d try to share mine later so I made a mental note to avoid him until I’d finished eating. “Calum? Molly?”
“What kind of ice cream do you have?”
“Chocolate? Strawberry?” Calum grinned and headed for the kitchen.
“Perfect.”
“Molly? Anything?”
“Can I have some fruit, please?” Liz nodded and smiled. Molly was possibly the easiest to feed person in this house, right now. Toss her an orange and she was set.
By eleven o’clock, Liz had supplied us with wind up torches from a school camping trip we’d been on, enough packet chips to last a life time, an unlimited supply of water and a sea of blankets and pillows. She’d even allowed Molly to sleep down here with us, upon learning that she was absolutely terrified of the dark. My mum would have flipped shit at us if we’d been at my house and asked if it were alright to keep Molly with us. “This camping shit would be great… if we had a tent,” Luke smirked, wandering into the room with a dining chair and some clothes-line pegs. If they still had the tent from our year five camping trip, we could have used that, but we probably would have just gotten tangled up in all of the different pieces, so a blanket fort would have to do. Molly perked up at the thought of this, sitting up straight from her slouched position against Calum (much to his disgust). What was their deal? I knew she was comfortable with him, but could they be any less subtle? “First, we need to get changed. If you think I’m building a pillow fort in skinny jeans, you are sorely mistaken my friend.” Luke announced.
“Molly needs sorting out, first.”
“I’ll sort her out,” Calum said, causing us all to groan and Molly to laugh. Why was he like this? He was meant to be sweet and innocent, but no. At least we had Ashton to play the baby, despite Luke being the youngest and him being the oldest. I took off my jumper and threw it to her before Calum could give her his shirt and hoped Luke had some sweats that she could roll up. “I’ll go find some joggers or something,” Normally when we stayed over, we’d all just sleep in boxers. That didn’t really seem appropriate with Molly sitting right there, so Luke ran up the stairs and returning moments later with several pairs of sweats. “These are Jack’s. Don’t wreck them.” He said, sternly, tossing me a blue pair of pyjama pants and a black pair to Calum. Ashton got the pleasure of wearing Ben’s grey sweats, while Luke got his own and Molly got some shorts with a drawstring, which she pulled up under her skirt, artfully removing her shirt from underneath my jumper while the rest of us changed in the kitchen.
“First, we need to make the floor squishy,” Molly announced, trying to stand tall, but only making herself look like a defiant toddler. In all honesty, it was actually kind of cute. Luke held a pillow above his head and whisper yelled, “On it!” before hitting Ashton across the back of the head with it, multiple times, with a grin on his face. He did eventually get to work, playing Tetris with pillows on the floor to Molly’s request. Ashton was on the floor, lounging on the pillows as soon as they were laid down, so I kicked his side and watched him keel over. “You’re not even helping. Go get another chair.”
“I don’t trust him in my kitchen. I’ll get it.” I wouldn’t trust him in my kitchen, either. When Luke came back with an extra chair, we flanked the pillows and began the blanket portion of pillow fort building. “Can we use Luke as like a centre post to keep the blankets up?” I asked, watching the sheet sink in the middle.
“No! I need sleep too!”
“Sleep standing up!” I yelled, as quietly as one could possibly yell, as Molly got herself all tangled up in a bed sheet and tripped, letting (big shock) Calum catch her before she hit the floor, erupting into fits of giggles. He may have seen her first, but I still needed to make up for hitting her so many times and I fully intended on taking her out for ice cream. If Calum got too close, that was never going to happen.
We eventually decided to use a broom as a centre post, rather than Luke, and the fort looked pretty well put together. Calum and Molly had set up camp at opposite sides of the fort, which put a smile on my face, and Ashton had decided to curl himself around the broom we’d placed in the middle. “We need to stock up on food,” Luke announced, pulling Calum up from the floor and marching him into the kitchen, leaving Molly and I to quietly trail behind them. I felt bad for her; she looked kind of terrified all of the time. “I’m sorry you got stuck with us,” I whispered, once we’d gotten into the kitchen and Calum and Luke had busied themselves with looking for biscuits and cakes. Molly smiled and took a seat on the last remaining dining chair. For such a large house, who’d have thought they’d have a swimming pool but not a separate dining room? “That’s okay. I’ve had a good time. Calum’s been trying to make me feel at home,” Everything was always about Calum. I plastered on a smile to mask my irritation and nodded, joining Calum and Luke in their sugar hunt. By the time we got back into the living room, the blankets had collapsed and Ashton was nowhere to be seen. “Help! Guys, I’m stuck!”
For four boys supposedly in an aspiring YouTube band, their song writing skills were pathetic. So far, all Michael had contributed was the fact that Luke had promised him pizza and Calum had done nothing but throw grapes that he was never going to eat. Luke was at least sort of making it look like he was trying, messing around with his guitar, and I was nearly certain that Ashton had fallen asleep in a beanbag chair, but his offensive 2007 Myspace era hair was in the way of his face. In their defence, I hadn’t actually gotten anything done, either, except pace and pretend that the boys were doing something productive. The circle that they were sitting in was similar to the cult circle they sported at lunch; Ashton and Calum on one side, Michael and Luke on the other in some sort of wannabe round object that didn’t understand math in any sense of the word, with myself loitering on the outskirts. I felt kind of bad, intruding on their ‘guy time’ or whatever, but I came to the conclusion that Calum was their friend and that they were obliged to help him, even if that meant sitting in the basement all day with no productivity.
“It’s been three hours,” Calum groaned, stretching his legs out in front of him and throwing a grape at the wall, only for it to bounce back and hit Michael on the back of the head, evoking a chorus of snickers. “It’s your song,” Luke said, rolling his eyes. “You’re meant to do it yourselves.”
“Yeah, but we suck, don’t we Molly?” I eagerly nodded my head and sat on the edge of his beanbag chair. Honestly, I kind of wanted Luke’s beanbag chairs… and his swimming pool… and his entire house. It was justifiably enviable! “Yeah,” Michael added, “you kind of do.”
“You weren’t supposed to agree; you were meant to pity us and help.” Calum grumbled, scrunching up his face and scuffing his shoe across the basement floor. At this rate, we wouldn’t even have a fraction of a song to present at the end of term. Michael rolled his eyes as Luke played around with some chords, Ashton listening intently. “I’m sure, if everyone else in your class can do it, so can you two.”
“My brain isn’t working due to the amount of times you’ve hit me.”
“I said I was sorry!”
“Tell that to the angry bruise on my face,” I joked, gesturing to the purple bruise on my forehead. I also had quite a large yellowing bruise on my arm where he’d hit me with that full-sized door. I knew it made him feel guilty, but I was only joking. “Oh, trust you to bring that up.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?”
“Guys!” Ashton yelled, from his place next to Luke. “Can you just shut up!” And that’s when the lights went out.
Michael
These weren’t exactly the circumstances under which I wanted to hear Molly scream for the first time. I felt short nails dig into my arm and I tried to figure out whether it was Molly or Ashton (I later found it to be Ashton – Molly had clung to Calum) while trying to pry them off of me. “Are you all okay?” Luke said, his voice raised. I nodded before realising he couldn’t actually see me and joined the chorus of ‘yes’s. “I’m going upstairs to see what’s happened.” I heard him trip and snickered as Ashton swatted my arm. While I loved him and hoped he hadn’t been hurt, the idea of him falling over was still kind of hilarious. I heard Luke hitting the wall, trying to find the light-switch, using his phone for a torch, only to find that it wasn’t working. “I bet the bulb’s blown,” He groaned, tripping on the bottom step.
“Ash, you’re going to have to let go of me.” I said, pulling at his fingers and trying to get to the other side of the ‘circle’, which Luke had ruined by going exploring. You’d never have been able to guess that he was actually older than all of us. “Molly, are you okay?” I asked, recalling her previous screaming fit. I heard shuffling and then Calum muttering ‘ow’ under his breath in distress. I’d have probably laughed at him if Ashton’s fingernails weren’t so close to drawing blood from my arm. “I’m okay,” Her response was muffled, but it was a response and that was okay with me. Luke came rushing down the stairs, moments later, stumbling at the bottom and groaning. “Guys, the sky is literally falling down.” Little pieces of stone and dust fell from the ceiling. “It’s still kind of light upstairs. Come on.”
We decided that we couldn’t send Molly up first or last, so Luke started, Calum followed, Molly clung to Calum, Ashton clung to Molly and I prayed that they didn’t all fall on me. Liz was waiting at the top with the phone in her hand. “I’ve called all of your parents. You’ll all be stay- who’s this? Luke?” Molly’s face flushed when she realised she was being asked about, and I moved to stand beside her, feeling kind of responsible for her. So far, she hadn’t really seemed like the type to shy away from new people. “This is Molly. We’re helping her and Calum with their music project.”
“Oh that’s lovely. Would you like me to ring your mum?” Molly nodded and smiled, relieved, reeling off a combination of numbers from the top of her head. Liz was incredibly relaxed for allowing a teenage girl to have a sleepover with six teenage boys, if you included Luke’s older brothers. Saying that, she didn’t really have a choice; the monsoon out there was absolutely brutal.
Since we had no power and the sun was lost behind endless rain clouds and thunder, Luke’s living room had dimmed to grey by five o’clock, and the storm didn’t seem to be settling at all. “I’d make you all some dinner but we’ve got no electricity. Half of the food will spoil by the morning, so do any of you want sandwiches? Any fruit?” Luke eagerly nodded and grinned. “Not you. You ate earlier; I saw you. Do any of you want anything to eat?”
“Can I have a ham sandwich… wait do you have those pizza chips you always get?” Liz smiled and nodded, absolutely making my day. If I was going to have to spend the night with these losers, at least I could do it in style. Ashton shook his head, declining the food, but I knew he’d try to share mine later so I made a mental note to avoid him until I’d finished eating. “Calum? Molly?”
“What kind of ice cream do you have?”
“Chocolate? Strawberry?” Calum grinned and headed for the kitchen.
“Perfect.”
“Molly? Anything?”
“Can I have some fruit, please?” Liz nodded and smiled. Molly was possibly the easiest to feed person in this house, right now. Toss her an orange and she was set.
By eleven o’clock, Liz had supplied us with wind up torches from a school camping trip we’d been on, enough packet chips to last a life time, an unlimited supply of water and a sea of blankets and pillows. She’d even allowed Molly to sleep down here with us, upon learning that she was absolutely terrified of the dark. My mum would have flipped shit at us if we’d been at my house and asked if it were alright to keep Molly with us. “This camping shit would be great… if we had a tent,” Luke smirked, wandering into the room with a dining chair and some clothes-line pegs. If they still had the tent from our year five camping trip, we could have used that, but we probably would have just gotten tangled up in all of the different pieces, so a blanket fort would have to do. Molly perked up at the thought of this, sitting up straight from her slouched position against Calum (much to his disgust). What was their deal? I knew she was comfortable with him, but could they be any less subtle? “First, we need to get changed. If you think I’m building a pillow fort in skinny jeans, you are sorely mistaken my friend.” Luke announced.
“Molly needs sorting out, first.”
“I’ll sort her out,” Calum said, causing us all to groan and Molly to laugh. Why was he like this? He was meant to be sweet and innocent, but no. At least we had Ashton to play the baby, despite Luke being the youngest and him being the oldest. I took off my jumper and threw it to her before Calum could give her his shirt and hoped Luke had some sweats that she could roll up. “I’ll go find some joggers or something,” Normally when we stayed over, we’d all just sleep in boxers. That didn’t really seem appropriate with Molly sitting right there, so Luke ran up the stairs and returning moments later with several pairs of sweats. “These are Jack’s. Don’t wreck them.” He said, sternly, tossing me a blue pair of pyjama pants and a black pair to Calum. Ashton got the pleasure of wearing Ben’s grey sweats, while Luke got his own and Molly got some shorts with a drawstring, which she pulled up under her skirt, artfully removing her shirt from underneath my jumper while the rest of us changed in the kitchen.
“First, we need to make the floor squishy,” Molly announced, trying to stand tall, but only making herself look like a defiant toddler. In all honesty, it was actually kind of cute. Luke held a pillow above his head and whisper yelled, “On it!” before hitting Ashton across the back of the head with it, multiple times, with a grin on his face. He did eventually get to work, playing Tetris with pillows on the floor to Molly’s request. Ashton was on the floor, lounging on the pillows as soon as they were laid down, so I kicked his side and watched him keel over. “You’re not even helping. Go get another chair.”
“I don’t trust him in my kitchen. I’ll get it.” I wouldn’t trust him in my kitchen, either. When Luke came back with an extra chair, we flanked the pillows and began the blanket portion of pillow fort building. “Can we use Luke as like a centre post to keep the blankets up?” I asked, watching the sheet sink in the middle.
“No! I need sleep too!”
“Sleep standing up!” I yelled, as quietly as one could possibly yell, as Molly got herself all tangled up in a bed sheet and tripped, letting (big shock) Calum catch her before she hit the floor, erupting into fits of giggles. He may have seen her first, but I still needed to make up for hitting her so many times and I fully intended on taking her out for ice cream. If Calum got too close, that was never going to happen.
We eventually decided to use a broom as a centre post, rather than Luke, and the fort looked pretty well put together. Calum and Molly had set up camp at opposite sides of the fort, which put a smile on my face, and Ashton had decided to curl himself around the broom we’d placed in the middle. “We need to stock up on food,” Luke announced, pulling Calum up from the floor and marching him into the kitchen, leaving Molly and I to quietly trail behind them. I felt bad for her; she looked kind of terrified all of the time. “I’m sorry you got stuck with us,” I whispered, once we’d gotten into the kitchen and Calum and Luke had busied themselves with looking for biscuits and cakes. Molly smiled and took a seat on the last remaining dining chair. For such a large house, who’d have thought they’d have a swimming pool but not a separate dining room? “That’s okay. I’ve had a good time. Calum’s been trying to make me feel at home,” Everything was always about Calum. I plastered on a smile to mask my irritation and nodded, joining Calum and Luke in their sugar hunt. By the time we got back into the living room, the blankets had collapsed and Ashton was nowhere to be seen. “Help! Guys, I’m stuck!”