Pat grimaced as he studied the letter Mr Cooper had given him not so long ago. At the top of the page in bold text read the words PARENTS EVENING.
Great.
Parents evening was the one time Pat's parents could justifiably reprimand him in public, and they always did just that. They'd bitch about him to the teachers regarding his lack of skills and weaknesses in general, and just made him feel incredibly worthless all around.
"What's up, Pat?" Robin greeted, patting his friend's shoulder as he slid onto the chair next to him. He peeked at the letter. "Ah, parents evening. Not a fan?"
"Who is, really?" Pat smiled it off, folding his letter and sliding it into his bag. "How was your lesson?"
"Boring." Robin huffed, pulling out his lunch. "At least I got to speak to Mary."
"You really like Mary, don't you, Robin?" Pat smiled.
Robin turned bright red. "We're just good friends."
"Okay, Robin."
"Yeah." Robin sipped from his juice carton.
Pat started eating his lunch. As his eyes wandered across the cafeteria, he spotted Thomas walking into the room. The poet was clearly lost in his thoughts so didn't see the leg suddenly stick out in front of him. Thomas tripped over it and ended up sprawled on the floor as a group of boys Pat was rather too familiar with started laughing at him. After the laughter had settled, Thomas stood up angrily and marched over to Pat's table in a huff. He lowered himself onto a seat and remained with his arms and legs crossed.
Thomas frowned. "I suppose you saw that, didn't you? Go ahead, laugh it up."
Pat shook his head. "It wasn't funny, Thomas. Are you okay?"
Thomas' shoulders sagged momentarily. "Oh I'm just dandy."
"Do you want to talk about it?"
Thomas stared at him pointedly, "No, not really."
"Not to worry. If you ever feel like sharing anything, you can always talk to me. If you want to. N-No pressure or anything." Pat wringed his hands and cleared his throat. "Okay?"
"Understood." Thomas sniffed haughtily.
Turning his eyes away from Thomas, Robin yawned. "Where is everyone today?"
"In detention, probably."
"Why?"
"I think Julian started a class riot." Pat recalled.
"He did WHAT?"
"Oh you know how he is. I think a class debate sort of got a bit out of hand, then he started a mutiny, or something."
"How do you know this?" Thomas asked.
"It's all everyone's been talking about. I don't mean to eavesdrop, but when you're surrounded by people talking about it then it sort of sticks in your memory." Pat explained.
"Oh."
"I think Cap went to talk to Will. I don't know where Humphrey is."
"Fair enough."
The three boys sat in silence while they ate their lunch. They were soon joined by an irate Fanny, with Julian on her tail, laughing his head off.
"It's not funny you cretin! Stop laughing about it!"
"But it was hilarious!" Julian chortled. "Did you see the way Hill swang for Thompson? It was priceless!"
Fanny dumped herself next to Thomas. "He almost knocked him out!"
Julian laughed harder, taking a seat next to Robin. "I know! Classic!"
Fanny rolled her eyes and pulled out her lunch.
"Hi Fanny." Pat greeted aimably. "Julian."
"I don't even want to know what went on, before you ask." Thomas hissed at Julian.
Julian rolled his eyes. "Fine. Guess you had to be there. Hey, have you guys heard about parents evening?"
"Yeah, it's next week, right?" Robin replied.
"Next week?" Fanny moaned. "Why so soon?"
Pat shrugged.
"I hate parents evening. My parents never show up and always leave me to go round on my own. It's cringe." Julian huffed, folding his arms. "I'd rather just stay home."
'Me too...' thought Pat.
~~~~~
"Okay guys, today we'll be focusing on music!" Pat paused for effect, hoping the rest of them would applaud or cheer excitedly, but all they did was stare at him boredly. "Ahem. So, um, Mr Fitzgerald wanted me to get you all to learn to read music-"
"Boo!" Julian interrupted.
"But, um, I think it would be best if we just practised playing our instruments. I feel it'll be more productive."
"What if we didn't bring our instruments?" Mary asked.
"Mary's right! How would we able to play them then?" Kitty gasped loudly as if this was the worst thing in the world.
"I didn't think that far through..." Pat deflated.
"Why don't we just like, not do music?" Julian put to them. "I mean, I personally think the subject is rubbish anyway and we won't be needing it to get good o-levels."
"I can't believe I'm saying this, but Julian has a point." Cap nodded.
"So what do you suggest we do instead?"
"Come back to mine, have some pizza and watch a movie?" Robin suggested.
Everyone stared at Robin.
A few moments later the squad were hurrying out of the school gates, trying not to be caught by the odd members of school staff still roaming around in the grounds. Pat ducked his head behind Humphrey and the teenagers huddled in a crowd to look more discreet. They practically ran down the street and finally relaxed when they turned a corner leading to the adjoining road. Despite their near misses, the group were in good spirits and laughing at their apparent rebelliousness.
"I can't believe we actually got away with it!" Cap laughed.
"Same here! I thought Mr Cooper would see us for sure! We would have been in sooo much trouble!" Kitty yelped.
"But we didn't, and that's all that matters!" Fanny chuckled.
"The ultimate aim of this club was to make us bond, right? And what we're doing now is considered 'bonding', right? So this is okay! Right?" Pat tried to justify their actions.
"Don't overthink it, shorty. Everything's going to be fine. Nobody saw us, and if anybody grasses us up I'll beat 'em into silence." Julian winked.
Pat felt even less reassured.
"Come on guys!" Robin hurried them along the pavement.
They soon arrived back at his home and Robin knocked on the door in a certain manner so his parents would know it was him. His mom opened the door and beamed when she saw the familiar brat pack standing behind her son.
"Hi sweetie! Brought home your friends, have you?" she looked up, "Nice to see you all again! Come on inside!"
Robin and his friends entered the house. After a few minutes explaining to his parents that he'd promised his friends a takeaway, they conceded happily, providing the gang would study before and after their meal.
Robin had agreed to these terms but had his own plan in mind. After his friends had gathered in his bedroom and were all sitting comfortably with their schoolbooks out, Robin switched on his stereo.
"What are you doing, mate?" Pat asked.
"Your original lesson was for us to read music. How about we listen to music instead and determine what instruments are used in each piece?"
Julian grinned like a cheshire cat, catching on. "That's a great idea! So that means-" he lowered his voice, "-all we'd be doing this 'lesson' is justifiably listening to music!"
"I see..." Thomas said. "What songs will you play?"
"How about we compile a playlist? Everyone choose one song, then we'll play each one and determine the instruments used!" Humphrey suggested.
"So what exactly is the point of all this?" Fanny asked.
"We get out of doing pointless work by creating something easier to do instead." Cap raised an eyebrow.
"But isn't this also pointless?" Mary inquired.
"Yeah." Robin grinned, "But this is a lot more fun!"