A couple of days afterwards, we were all hanging out at the living room of the base. Declan was once again trying to beat the final level of his video game. He was slowly getting better, the stitches on his shoulder were taken out and he was stupidly starting to lift weights with his arm, despite my threats of throwing them at him if he kept on doing that. But he knew I couldn't even lift one, so the threats were pointless. Jordan decided to mix things up and was eating some leftover pizza instead of the usual sandwich or chips. Bennett was just looking through a magazine, while I was sitting upside down on the couch with my legs propped up the back out of boredom. It was nice to see things at a different angle... upside down.
"So you're an official musketeer now," Bennett told me.
"Yup," I said, popping the p.
"How does it feel to be one?" Jordan asked.
I did an upside down shrug. "I don't feel any different. It's not like I evolved into a new stage."
Jordan and I high fived each other for the Pokemon reference.
"Maybe we should change that," Declan offered.
"Like what?"
We were all quiet for a long time.
"Ding!" Jordan said.
"What was that for?"
"That's my lightbulb idea sound," Jordan said before smiling. "I got an idea."
Old Time Rock and Roll by Bob Segar began to play. If you don't know what'll happen next, let me explain. In Tom Cruise's Risky Business, he danced to the song in his underwear, socks, and a pink dress shirt and was just rocking out. Of course Declan and Bennett were big sissies and wouldn't dress up-
"We aren't sissies," they said in unison.
"I have this thing called dignity," Declan said.
"And you should be happy I'm doing this in the first place," Bennett said.
Jordan and I on the other hand did. Besides all of us wearing white dress shirts, black sunglasses and socks, only Jordan and I were wearing white basketball shirts. At the beginning of the song, the guys all slid on the floor in unison. We had band hero equipment, so they while the drum set was in place for Declan while Bennett and Jordan were armed with the guitars. At the second beat I did the same thing as well with a microphone, but I ran too fast and slid right past them. Thankfully Jordan grabbed my shirt just in time before I crashed to the wall and I shuffled to place.
After that, we went all out.
"Just take those old records off the shelf!" We sang together. "I like to sit and listen to them by myself! New music ain't got the same soul! I like my old time rock and roll!
We just started playing around, rocking out to the music, most of all we were all just laughing at the stupidity and fun of this. We were practically bouncing off the walls as we did this, especially when the song was an extended remix of it. We all were singing to the song, off-key I might add, to it, but I didn't care, and neither did they. It was like we were just living the moment, having fun and not caring because we were having fun together. And that's what really matters, that we had fun together.
After the rock out session, we started playing cards. Declan showed me how to shuffle the cards in different ways to impress people. When we started to play, at first we started out with speed, but Jordan kept on losing and wanted to change the game.
"Let's play bullshizzle," Jordan offered.
"I never heard of that," Bennett said.
"Wait," Declan said. "Do mean bull-"
He suddenly put his hands over my ears. "I don't want to cuss in front of innocent Naomi here," Jordan said before he ruffled my hair.
"There's other ways to say it," Declan told him. "There's B.S, bluff and I doubt it, too."
"Yeah, I know, but it's more fun to say bullshizzle," Jordan said, then he looked at me. "You know the game we're talking about, right?"
I nodded. "It's a lying game," I said. "Everyone has the same number of cards and has to get rid all of their cards. By doing that, at each turn you have to give away a card to the middle at increasing order."
"Right!" Jordan said. "If you don't have the right card you can always lie about it. But if the others know you're lying and you did you get all the cards, if they're wrong they get all the cards. Whoever gets rid all of their cards wins."
"But it's a bad game to play with you guys," I grumbled.
"Why's that?" Bennett asked me.
"Well you for example," I said. "Your face is the poker face, there's no way to tell if you're bluffing or not about the card. Jordan is a master liar, all you can think that anything that comes out of his mouth is a lie-" Jordan's face was a combination of offense and pride "-And Declan already looks like a good card player, but he knows you guys the best. I bet he's good lie detector for knowing you guys for so long."
"Oh, she's so smart!" Jordan cooed, pinching my cheek.
"We can always play poker," Declan offered.
"That's worst!" I said. "I mean the game is different with depending on your hand –the five cards you have in your hand- you win whatever if offered at the middle. You guys will eat me up if I ever play this game with you."
"Well we can always help you," Bennett said.
"Help me?"
"Yeah, why not?" Jordan asked. "We might as well help you play a good game of poker, you'll never know when the might come in handy."
"And why should it stop there?" Declan told them. "How about other useful skills that could help."
"Sure..." Jordan said as if he thought they were joking around since he rolled his eyes. "Things like lying, picking locks, picking pockets, hotwiring a car, and how to throw a good punch."
I snorted. "It's like you guys want to this good girl how to be bad."
They didn't say anything.
"Please say something."
Nothing.
"Ding!" Jordan said again.
"Oh no..." The other guys and I said together.
"Do you know what this means?" Jordan asked with his voice rising in excitement. "Video montage!"
-
After Jordan stayed in his room for an hour or two, we were back at the conference room. We finally have four chairs for the table and were all munching on popcorn for the movie Jordan was setting up.
When it was all set up, Jordan plopped down on his eat, ate some popcorn then announced loudly and just as proudly, "Now behold the musketeer productions video, 'Good Girl Gone Bad'!"
We all clapped and cheered as the video started. Then the song Eye of the Tiger by Survivor, the perfect video montage song to use, began to play. At first it started me trying, and notice how I say trying, to do a push up before jogging on a treadmill. I chuckled watching that part along with the others, remember what happened during that scene.
"I don't see the point of me running in this," I said as I ran on the treading mill. "I'm already a good runner."
"Yeah, but we need this for the video montage," Jordan said as he finally set up the video camera in front of the treadmill. "And why is the level at five?"
"I never ran on a treadmill before, I want to get used to it first."
"That's not how you do it, here let me show you."
I hopped off the treadmill, happy to stretch my legs, and took a water break. Then Jordan stepped to the treadmill and began to jog do it.
"Hey Declan, could you help me out and raise the level for me?"
Declan smiled at his friend, way too big. "Of course."
Bennett shooked his head and told me, "I don't like the looks of this."
"Me neither," I muttered.
And we were right. Declan did what Jordan asked and began to raise the level of the treadmill and kept it kept on rising.
"Dude, you can stop now."
"Nah, I think you can handle it."
"This is the speed of light."
"Really? I can't tell."
"Are you trying to kill me?"
"Maybe."
Jordan missed a step and just flew off the treadmill. Bennett and I took a step to the side, barely having Jordan missed us and crashed on the floor.
I poked Jordan's cheek. "Are you okay?"
He groaned. "Yeah, but my dignity isn't."
Declan snorted. "That's been long gone."
Following the jogging was jumping rope (which was fun since we sang jump rope songs along with it) and some sit ups. What came up next were funny short clips as the guys taught me how to do the things Jordan mentioned. Time to time it would cut to the Old Time Rock and Roll dance scene or our own random dance scene. There was one point where Jordan tried to have me drink raw eggs. I refused so Jordan showed me it's alright by drinking it himself only to spit it out on the sink. Bennett made him clean up afterwards. Another clip was of me punching a punching bag or me lifting weights with Declan spotting me. I remembered that one too.
"I'm going to teach you how to punch," Declan told me.
"I know how to punch."
"I'm going to teach you how to punch better." He corrected himself before holding his hand out to me. "But first, show me what you got."
"What you really, really got," I finished, singing the parody of Spice Girl's Wannabe.
He rolled his eyes, but was smiling. "Hit me right here," he said, pointing at his hand.
"Hit me with your best shot!" I sang the song by Pat Benatar. "Hit me with your best-" I stopped when he gave me the look. "What? You walked into that one."
"C'mon, just hit me already."
I breathed in then out and changed my hand into a fist. I put all of my focus, energy, chi, chakra into my fist to punch the best as I can. I held my arm back then hit his hand as hard as I can. I used all of the power I could muster into that one punch. Declan took the punch into his hand, then looked at me.
"Okay, now really hit me."
"What!" I exclaimed.
He burst out laughing. "Alright, I have to admit, it was good-" I smiled "-for a girl-" I frowned and punched him on the shoulder "-That punch too. It'll tickle guys rather than hurt them."
I grumbled something under my breath.
Declan grinned and nudged me on the shoulder. "Now let me really show you how to really punch."
Jordan, a guy of many talents, has the most lessons to teach me. For being a master liar like I said before, he had a couple of tips on how to be a good liar. Right off the bat, he told me that I'm a bad liar which is a good thing overall, but it's better to know how to lie. He told me good tips on how to be a good liar and how to spot a liar with specific tells and body language. Jordan also taught me another trick.
"Picking locks is a sacred art," he began.
"Of course it is."
"Obviously you'd think you can do it with a bobby pin, stick it in a random lock, jiggle it a bit, and viola it'll magically opens!"
"Does-"
"It doesn't!" Jordan said. "Alright fine, it does. In movies and shows, they make the people think anyone can just put a bobby pin into the lock without the one thing they need. Do you know what it is?"
"No."
"No, you're supposed to ask what it is."
I rolled my eyes. "Fine. What is it, oh wise one?"
"You need a tension wrench," Jordan said. "A tension wrench is what you use to turn the lock while the pick is what messes with the lock itself."
He took out some jumbo paperclips, bobby pins and two locks out of his pockets and set it in front of me. He began to bend the paper clips at certain angles, telling me one needs to be the tension wrench while the other will pick it.
"You get me so far?"
I nodded. "I think so."
He smiled. "It's weird huh? I'm the smartest one in the room for once."
I snorted. "Keep telling yourself that."
"Okay fine, I'm the smartest one in this topic."
"That's better."
Then he began to pick a lock to show me an overview of doing so, as he did he explained, "Ever wonder how a lock works? Well there are these pins inside the lock. Now d you ever wonder the use of the jagged teeth on a key? The teeth lifts those pins at a certain way, opening the lock. Different lock pins, different key teeth, that's why you can't use any key for any lock." He smiled. "But you can use any paperclip for any lock." And just as he said that, the lock popped open.
Jordan held out the lock to me and smiled. "Now you try it."
We ran out of popcorn and the video was barely halfway done. I'm a bit surprised we didn't finish it any sooner. Food is always finished before the movie with the previews. Though the last time I went to the movies with the guys, the whole menu Jordan got lasted throughout the whole movie. Bennett offered to get some more popcorn, probably wanting to skip his part of the video when we forced him to dance with us.
But besides the dance, he was helpful with other things like hotwiring a car. It ended up being harder than it looked like in the movies as Jordan had told me with picking locks. Besides hotwiring car will only work on cars before the mid-90s since they won't have an immobilizer –device to stop car from running without correct key- and an alarm system, it was a nasty business with a screwdriver, knife and electrical tape that almost got me shocked a lot of times. Another thing he taught me how to shoot.
"Shooting is simple," Bennett told me. "You aim the gun at the target and fire, simple as that."
"I know that," I grumbled. "I've played enough of these games to figure that out."
Yup, turns out my so called shooting lesson was playing a game of Call of Duty. From the look on Bennett's face, he knew what my mood will be for the lesson with him.
He smirked. "You thought we're going to use real guns, weren't you?"
"You may have brought my hopes up," I admitted in embarrassment.
After a couple of more minutes of the game, Bennett pressed paused.
"C'mon, if I raised your hopes up, it might as well be for a good reason."
He led me back to the alley carrying a duffel bag with him. He set it down and pulled out a gun. But not just any gun-
"Meet a paintball gun-" he tossed it to me which I caught in my hands "-You should get to know it better since you'll be shooting it."
I looked like a kid on Christmas day. Bennett noticed my face and couldn't help but smile at it.
"Besides the paintball gun, we'll go through other guns," he explained me. "Laser guns to help you aim as well as a water gun and Nerf gun. There's also a BB gun and paintball gun to help you get used to shooting something as well as aim."
"Video games had prepared me for this moment," I said dramatically.
"Maybe," he said. "But this is the closest you'll ever get to a real gun. You won't use much less see a real life gun while I'm around."
"Good thing there's always Declan and Jordan," I muttered.
"I heard that," he said. "Anyway, I want you to get used to the next best thing before anything else."
The alleyway was a dead end. Bennett walked over to the very end with a bottle of spray paint. He shook it a bit before beginning to draw a big circle followed by a smaller circle and then another circle to show a bulls-eye. He walked back to me and took the paintball gun.
"The buildings all around us are abandoned, so you don't have to worry if anyone will report of any shooting," he told me. "First, we'll start out with this bulls-eye, and then we can try out shooting cans."
I nodded. "Alright."
"The paintball gun is designed differently from a regular gun as you can see," Bennett said as he began to load the gun with colorful paintball ammo. "With the hopper for the ammo and the air tank, it's designed to have little to no kick in it. I just want to be assured if you ever stumble across a real gun or we toss you one, you won't panic and will be able to at least wound someone."
"Oh um-"
He held the gun at shooting position and smiled. "Kidding."
Bennett took three shots at the target, all hitting the bulls-eye. He then handed me back the gun and helped me with the same shooting position. He stood behind me and held my arms in place.
"Don't be nervous, just relax."
I wouldn't be so nervous if he wasn't so close to me. Thankfully he backed off to let me shoot. I took a deep breath and shot the first pellet, being able to take the small recoil of the gun. I looked at the bulls-eye to see I barely even hit the target.
"Just be happy that you hit it the wall," he told me.
Bennett walked a little ways off to the duffel, saying that he has a laser that he can connect to the paintball gun to help my aim. Not wanting to waste any ammo and was waiting for the laser, I just worked on my shooting position with my gun on the trigger and started to say "pew, pew" to myself. Suddenly we heard a loud noise, surprising the both of us and made me whip around to the sound. In doing so... my finger may have slipped.
"Oh my-" I dropped the gun. "Bennett I'm so sorry!"
I shot him right at the back. I literally just shot my friend at the back. I might as well have used a knife to just stab my friend at the back. Bennett leaned against the wall, rubbing his back and looking at the paint on his hand from the shot. He looked like Xavier in X-men when he got shot at the back that turned him paralyze.
"Please tell me you can feel your legs!" I begged.
"What? Of course I can, but-" he sucked in some air"-that's some aim you got there." He started to chuckle, probably trying to make me feel better.
Which it didn't. I ran over to help him, but he held out his hand to stop me.
"It's alright, I'm alright. Just give me a second."
That's when we heard some snickering that turned to laughter. The both of us looked up to see Jordan and Declan on a fire escape between the two buildings. Jordan was holding what looked to be-
"A fog horn?" I demanded. "Really?"
"How's the weather down there?" Jordan asked us.
"You got something on your back Bent!" Declan called out. "Is that paint?"
"Give me that," Bennett growled as he took the paintball gun from me.
He looked up at his friends then aimed the gun at them. Their eyes widened in alarm and started to fight each other to crawl back inside the room. But it was too late because Bennett shot Jordan at the side making him crash back into the building then Declan at the arm and then the butt before he went for cover.
"I'm wounded! Man down, man down! Someone give me an aid kit!"
"Screw that! Someone call me an ambulance! I can't feel my butt!"
Bennett blew on the gun dramatically. "Now that's how you shoot a gun."
The video finally ended along with the popcorn. Jordan stopped it and we all sat there, staring at the screen.
"There's only one thing I don't get," Declan said.
I cringed, waiting for the shot about to be fired at me.
"How can you not do anything right?" Jordan demanded.
He was right, everything they tried to taught me, I didn't reach any of their standards. Sure, I'm book-smart, but nowhere near street-smart. I kept on hurting myself rather than hurting the person, other than that I doubt my punches can get any better than what I have now. I kept on missing the target when shooting and at one point I hit something behind me. It took me more than an hour even with Jordan's help for picking one lock. And when Jordan tried to teach me how to pick pockets with him as a target, I somehow gave him my wallet instead. How does that happen?
"It doesn't make sense," Jordan said as he showed a bunch of websites of online articles, books, and movies on the screen. "All of them say that the good girl can turn bad with a bit of practice."
"Why did you name the video 'Good Girl Gone Bad', anyway?" Bennett asked Jordan.
"For the irony."
I sighed. "Maybe this good girl just isn't meant to be bad."
"Or maybe you're a good girl," Declan said. "You're a good girl that's a bad girl that just hasn't been caught."
"If only that were the case." I leaned back at my seat. "I think this is as far as I'm going to get."
Declan shrugged. "Why fix something that isn't broken? You'll learn things overtime, you can't get something in one day."
"Or one video montage," Jordan piped in.
"But you do know what we should do?" Bennett asked us. "We should celebrate."
Declan frowned. "Celebrate about what?"
"Does it matter?" He stood up from his chair. "We can celebrate life, our friendship, staying awake through Jordan's video-"
"Hey!"
"-but most of all, we can celebrate Naomi becoming a musketeer."
-
That night became a blur to me. It was like Jordan's video montage. Though the whole night was fun, the best moments of that night made it to the video, showing just flashes or clips in the video kept in a safe part in my head. Now anytime I want to smile out of nowhere, I only need to rewind to a random part of the video and I can smile for days.
Our first idea for the "musketeer night out" as Jordan calls is was to head over to a club. With only Bennett's name and intimidating the bouncer by all three, we got in. But barely ten minutes flew by before we quickly left as fast as we came. The place was dark, loud, crowded and for some reason... sweaty. The best we got out of the club were a couple of beers and these random hats that were given away to everyone. I found myself the sorting hat from Harry Potter. Someone gave Bennett a cattleman cowboy hat, making him shrug and put it on. Jordan wanted the One Piece straw hat, but Declan got it just because Jordan wanted it, so Jordan ended up getting this ridiculously tall top hat that rivaled Doug Dimmadome's hat height.
It was probably someone's birthday or the club's anniversary because of the free drinks all around and the club was louder, more crowded and sweatier than any of the clubs the guys told me they went to. But after we left we decided to drive around the city looking for adventure with a drunk joke book who kept on making stupid puns, a tipsy stereo who kept on singing random songs, a soda-hyper nerd who kept on being paranoid, and a thankfully sober wallet being the designated driver.
Meet the musketeers.
But like I said, the night was a blur and I barely could process most of the things that happened that night. Maybe something happened with a fire hydrant and we ended up dancing in the street, pretending to be singing in the rain. That could explain why Bennett's car is all wet. We then went to grab something to eat at McDonald's. Declan asked us what he want, and he made up a whole song of our order on our spot, which made the manager gave us the whole thing for free. Then we ditched the car when we found one of those car shopping carts –a shopping cart that has a toy car attached at the front- abandoned on the street. So the obvious thing to do was race it down the empty streets.
Since Bennett was the designated driver, we stuffed him into the toy car. I was helped into the safety of the shopping cart itself while Jordan sat on top of the toy car. Declan said he's the strongest after flexing his biceps too much. I told him it would be a good idea for his shoulder, but he said to not mind it. Soon, everyone was all aboard. Then with the help of a slightly steep hill, we went down the street.
It was crazy.
It was stupid.
It was dangerous.
But let me tell you something, it was fun.
We were laughing at the thrill, screaming at the speeds, and howling like idiots. We started leaving the empty streets and accidentally went into a car infested one. Cars honked and skidded to a stop, drivers waved their fists and cursed at us. But thankfully our cart didn't have a license plate so we were able to drive away until anyone can catch us.
"I'm the king of the world!" Jordan announced at the top of his lungs. "We're the kings of the world!"
"Don't be sexist!" I exclaimed after him. "We're the kings and queen of the world!"
I was in the safety of the inside of the cart, staying low inside. But the guy's laughter and grins were contagious. I started to get up slowly and I felt the wind and the thrill the guys were feeling. That stopped when we ran over some pothole and one of the wheels popped off. The car began to skid around the empty street in zig zags. Declan tried hard to control it by using his feet as the break, but it was hopeless and he ended up just holding on to the bar. Now it was time to freak out.
"We're going to die!"
"I knew this was a bad idea!"
"It was your bad idea!"
Only Bennett had the clear head out of all of us.
"Everyone, abandon ship!" He ordered us then rolled his eyes at our dumbfounded looks. "That means jump!"
Declan was able to steer the cart off the street and into some bushes. At Bennett's count, we all jumped off the cart just as it crashed into some streetlight pole, actually making it lean to the side. The bushes was very comfortable, but I was thankful it cushion our landing. Jordan and Bennett crashed together, they sat up with Jordan holding on to him for dear life and Bennett pushing him away. I realized I landed on Declan's chest when I heard him from under me.
"Are you alright?"
"Shoulder," he grumbled.
"Damn, is it alright?"
He gave me a forced nod. I jumped to my feet and helped him out. We walked over to the streetlight, seeing the noticeable angle it's leaning, like the Leaning Tower of Pisa. Jordan kicked it playfully and it actually leaned even more. The cart was done, the toy car was squished into a sandwich between the pole and the shopping cart.
Bennett shook his head. "That was crazy."
Declan snorted. "That was stupid."
"That was dangerous," I muttered.
Jordan grinned. "But you gotta admit that was fun."
I picked the leaves off my hair as Declan helped me. "Where are we?"
Bennett took out his phone. "Just a couple blocks away from where we parked the car. I think we're in-"
"Valley Park," Jordan finished, pointing the sign a few feet away. "I remember this place. I used to come here when I was a kid."
"You mean you still go here?" Declan asked.
Jordan rolled his eyes. "No... but that doesn't mean I can't now. C'mon, let's hang out here for a bit before we go back to the car."
Before we can at least take a vote on it, he ran off towards the playground structure. Declan looked at us then shrugged and chased after him. Bennett let out a sigh and followed, and I was last. Valley Park, despite the memories of getting bullied here as a kid were nothing that my most recent memory here. That night with Parker when he took me here during my drunk episode of some party. Though it should be a happy and fun memory, it wasn't.
"Push me Declan!" Jordan asked childishly, sitting on one of the swings.
"Well, you asked for it."
Before Jordan could realize his mistake, Declan pushed Jordan off the swings, making him face plant to the sand. Jordan got up and spat the sand out of his mouth.
"Shot or not, I'm going to get you back!" He yelled as he grabbed a fist full of sand and threw it to Declan. But he missed because Declan had already hit the ground running.
As the both of them chased each other, armed with their hands filled with sand, I sat next to Bennett on the sand. He founded an abandoned plastic bucket and filled it with water from one of the nearby water fountains. I helped him dig a hole in the sand and put the water inside it. With an abandoned shovel, we began to make a sandcastle from the wet sand. The guys shook the sand out of their hair and clothes and began to help us out. Declan and I made the sandcastle, Jordan made the little details on it like the towers and carvings, and Bennett made little flags from small twigs and leaves. It took a while, but when we were finally done we looked at it proudly.
"By the morning, kids will just mess it all up," Declan said wistfully.
"It's best to just enjoy while it still stands," I said.
"We should sign it," Jordan said. "An artist should sign his or well their work."
He took a small twig and instead of writing our names, he just wrote, the Three Musketeers.
"Will it always stay the Three Musketeers?" I asked them. "Not the Four?"
"I think it's safer this way," Bennett told me. "We are the Three Musketeers, there are only three musketeers. No one will think there is a fourth musketeer, that'll mean you'll be safe, and I want it to keep it that way."
"You'll be like our little secret," Jordan said, nudging me on the shoulder.
"No one would bother us or bother you," Declan said, shaking the rest of the sand out of his hair.
"You're the fourth musketeer," Bennett said, "and nothing will change that."
I looked back at the sand castle we made together and smiled. "I like that."
I hope you enjoy the picture, ha ha... I drew it. It's how I picture everyone, but of course this is only my opinion. By the way, that shadow over there is me. I don't care if Declan pushing the cart is not physically possible because of his shoulder which is slowly healing (which it isn't, sorry Declan), I'm too lazy to change it because I already drew the picture. And I hope you like the video too. When I found that video, I ended up watching a bunch of best "Nile" moments in this old time TV show called The Nanny. It's hilarious, I totally recommend it. Before you go, check out this awesome poem someone sent me. When I read it, I may- alright, I fangirled. Fangirl and proud. I hope you enjoy next chapter too, especially if you're a Decomi fan.
"A story of a sassy geek
Who is abused by others for being a freak
But this sassy nerd meets three good bad boys
And they keep her safe from the abuse and the noise
But it doesn't stop there as the author keeps writing
The boys are unique, and can not stop fighting
They live a life they keep from our nerd
But they live dangerously, or so she had heard
Plot twists and turns throw the story upside down
And all the crazy ships hurl emotions around.
But the story is so much more than just romance
It's bullying and friendship in a delicate dance.
But Rubix isn't done so we await the next call
And silently chant, "All for one, and one for all"."
-Brennasaurus
RubixCube89201