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Chapter 16

Several weeks passed and Tom and Lynette found themselves drawn into more and more school social and extra-curricular events. Tom was running with the cross-country team and their first race date was approaching. Their chorus class was rehearsing for a concert and Lynette had a brief solo in one of the numbers. Their friendship with Roberta and Simon was burgeoning and one day at lunch, Roberta asked Lynette about dating.

“Lynette, Simon and I’ve noticed that you don’t seem interested in boys. Hell, every boy who’s asked you out, I’ve seen you politely shoot them down. The only boy you really pay attention to is your brother. I’d like to invite you to go on some of our gang’s group dates or parties, but...”

Lynette stopped her. “Yeah, Roberta, I know. And I can’t believe that no one’s asked me, or Tom either, about why we don’t date. Until you did now. Tom and I don’t date for a reason. Last year in school, when I refused dates, I kinda got a rep that I was frigid or a lezzie...”

“The Avery Program taught us not to label...” Roberta started.

“Yeah, I know that. It’s kinda amazing, actually. There’s no bullying here, no put-downs. Let me see... I’ll ask Tom when he gets here if he wants to get together with you and Simon to talk about it... oh here they come. Can we get together with you after school?”

Roberta nodded, “Sure.”

Simon and Tom arrived at their table and sat.

Lynette leaned over and whispered, “Tom, how about us getting together with Roberta and Simon after school?”

He nodded. “Sure.”

Lynette asked Roberta, “Where should we meet? Is today okay?”

Roberta looked at Simon. “Sweetie, we’re gonna meet up with them after school. How ‘bout Romano’s? Right after school?”

Simon nodded, “Yeah, sounds good.” He looked at Tom. “They’re not close but they have the best pizza, don’t they,” he grinned.

After the lunch period ended and they were headed to class, Lynette told Tom about her conversation with Roberta.

“So I think we need to tell them a little about us, sweetie,” she finished.

“Is that a good idea? I mean, if the word gets out...”

“We’ll sound them out. I think what they learned in the Avery Program about spreading stories and being sensitive about others will help them keep quiet. You’ve noticed that there’s no bullying and rot like that here?”

Tom looked dubious. “Yeah... well, maybe.”

After school they were delayed a few minutes by their chorus teacher; then they rode their bikes the dozen blocks to the pizza place. When they walked in, they noticed Simon at a table in the far corner, and went there.

“Roberta nipped off to the... oh, here she comes,” Simon said. “The menu’s on the wall. Order at the counter. We’ve already ordered.”

Lynette whispered her choice to Tom, who went to order.

“Sorry we were delayed,” she told them. “Our chorus teacher kept us a little longer to tell us that the drama department is planning to do a musical for the Christmas performance and they wanted singers from our class. And they wanted ME! I have a solo in a chorus number and the drama teacher heard me.”

Tom rejoined them. “Yeah, Lynette has a sweet voice. They asked her to be in the musical; it’s ‘The Mikado,’ you know, Gilbert and Sullivan.”

“Oi, we heard they were doing that,” Roberta said. “One of the lead roles is gonna be Amelia Hadad, you know, the girl who’s the youngest person to be knighted.”

“Yes, she came in with the drama teacher. She’s playing Yum-Yum. And they want me to do Pitti-Sing; she’s something like Yum-Yum’s sister, I think. There are seven songs where I’d have a solo and some chorus singing too. Half the chorus class signed up. Tom did too!”

Tom looked sour. “Yeah. They made me sign up. I have a deeper bass-baritone voice. But I’m not auditioning for any named roles; I’ll tell you that! Amelia told Lynette that she didn’t have to audition; her lower soprano voice was perfect for the role. What’s it called? Mezzo-soprano.”

Roberta looked at Tom. “Are there a lot of male roles in it that need a deep voice?”

Tom nodded. “Apparently. Um, three? Four? Lynnie, do you remember?”

“Well, they said the emperor and two nobles, at least,” Lynette mused. “Tom agreed to be in the chorus. I think they already have the male leads picked out.”

“Well, if Amelia is in it, it should be good. She was in a play last year that had the newspaper critics in an uproar. She got rave reviews and for something like two or three weeks, there were agents hounding her to sign up with them,” Simon offered.

“Wow,” Lynette mused, “she seemed so ... demure? when she was speaking to the chorus class. Quiet, but I could feel her projecting her passion for her acting.”

Tom nodded. “She was magnetic. Did you see her eyes? Even though she spoke quietly, I noticed that her eyes were flashing and she had the total attention of everyone in the room.”

Roberta smiled. “She’s quite a person. Everyone who meets her loves her. Her boyfriend’s quite a hunk too. Those two have a real history here. When they tried to start the Program here last year, I saw him deck three big blokes who were trying to strip her...”

“Wait, what? I heard something about that happening!” Tom exclaimed. “That was Amelia?”

“Yeah, Jeremy and Amelia,” Simon agreed. “Word is that they were the ones who got our school out of having to run the Naked in School Program. Along with Amelia’s guardians, that is. That’s how she got into helping with the Avery Program and she got knighted for, um... she helped with some research that showed that continuing the Program would cost the government millions of quid. And then they—she and her guardians—showed another way—um, a better way to get kids to relate to each other than by being naked, anyway. That’s the Avery Program.”

“Don’t forget Jeremy the hunk, honey,” Roberta giggled. “Rumor’s that he was doing that blog that exposed a lot of the Program’s problems. That got the tabloids involved and turned people’s opinions against the Program.”

“Well, I can’t disagree with you about how bad the Program was,” Lynette remarked. “Remember, I told you this summer that we saw it happening at our old school but happily, I didn’t get picked. Then Tom and I transferred here to avoid it.”

Roberta grimaced. “Yeah, I remember those stories you told last summer. Brrrr. About what you heard from the kids at that other school on the north side. That was horrid. I wonder how things are there now...”

Lynette frowned. “Oh right. I did hear from one of the girls, Sarah, she’s the one who was in that year nine sex demonstration class. She emailed me with some news right around when school began. They kept the Program going there ‘cause her school was getting government money for it, but nobody’s being forced to do it now. She told me that they’re gonna have a super hard time getting anyone to volunteer, though, ‘cause anyone who was okay being naked has already done it. And oh yeah, Liz—the girl whose cousin Rita was raped—told her that the rapists had been identified and arrested and not only were they to be tried as adults, they were also subject to more severe penalties because they assaulted a Program participant. The school’s head teacher was sacked and the governors were replaced. She said that Rita’s doing fairly well, it seems she’s very resilient, and her family’s lawsuit against the local education people—the LEA, I think she said—is moving ahead now. All good news on that front—well, as good as stuff about that naked crap can be.”

“Nice to hear good news like that,” Roberta smiled. “But I’m curious about something you and Tom did—and I’m conflicted about asking, ‘cause we’ve been taught not to be nosey about other people’s affairs. So if it would bother you to talk about it, forget I asked, but you’ve never mentioned why you both dropped out of your Avery class. When it happened, the kids in that class were talking about how you and Tom had walked out and never came back, but then everybody got quiet about it and no one mentions it anymore. I know that the Avery Program teaches us not to spread rumors or tell tales about others, but...”

Lynette interrupted, “But that’s why we wanted to see you two now; you’ve become our closest friends. Tom and Simon are cross-country teammates too. Then at lunch, you asked me why I don’t date—why I don’t even hang out with any boys.” She looked at Tom.

Tom said, “And I don’t hang with any girls either. It’s related to why I dropped out of the Avery class and why Lynette supported me. But the reason’s terribly sensitive—we like you both and don’t want to mislead you or tell you lies.”

Lynette continued, “It’s very simple. We trust you and hope you won’t spread our story. It’s that Tom and I are committed to each other.”

Simon and Roberta gasped. “But...” Roberta began.

“But we’re brother and sister?” Tom asked. Roberta nodded. “That’s true in a legal sense but actually we’re not related at all in any biological way.”

“Sorry...?” Simon began, but Roberta said, “Oi! Different sets of parents, right?”

“Exactly!” Lynette agreed. “When my mom met Tom’s dad, Tom and I met too, and we fell in love all the way back then. We didn’t know it was love then, but we soon found that we were soulmates in every way. Our parents got married back then and that made us step-siblings. Look, turn it around. My mom pointed this out to me when we discussed my relationship with Tom. What if Tom and I had met first, fallen in love, and maybe gotten engaged—and then our parents had met and gotten married? People would have thought, ‘Oh, how cool is that?’ But flip the timing around; they married first, so society’s taboo on intimacy between siblings, even unrelated step-siblings, rears its head. But our situation is no different than if Tom and I had gotten together first. So that’s why we have to be very careful and keep our relationship quiet.”

“And that’s mostly why I couldn’t do the Avery stuff,” Tom said. “Lynnie and I had been doing stuff exactly like those bonding exercises from when we were what? ten years old?—so my doing the exact same things with another girl felt so wrong. It wasn’t like I was cheating Lynnie, actually, but it was more like cheating myself. I couldn’t make myself do something with another girl that I only wanted to do with her.”

Roberta and Simon stared at him, then Lynette, both openmouthed and speechless.

Lynette giggled. “I did some reading on babies and pet animals. According to those articles, what happened is that I imprinted on Tom. Doing that bonding stuff with someone else went against his psyche.”

Roberta sighed and leaned back. She was unaware that she had been holding her breath.

“Oh crikey,” she breathed. “Oi, I can see a little how you felt! Simon and I were pretty close before we did the Avery Program and when I was in it—when we got separated to work with other partners, it felt awkward at first, like I was being unfaithful.”

“Hell, it sure did!” Simon chimed in. “After every session, Roberta would come to me, tears in her eyes, to ask me if I still loved her. But we stuck it out and after a couple of days, my pain when I saw her with another bloke became bearable and then something clicked; we found that we could love more than one person, and then doing the exercises was awesome.”

“Yes, but the love we felt for the others was a different kind of love, sweetie,” Roberta agreed. “Our teachers told us that the different loves could be parental love, sibling love, romantic love, friend love, and that a person can love all kinds of ways without being unfaithful.”

Tom put his hands up. “Stop. You just said it right then. What Lynette and I experienced together was all those loves at once. Well, not parental, obviously. We were at first, absolute best friends and siblings too, then that quickly became romantic love. We bonded on all of those levels and for me, Lynette probably became an exclusive object of my love.”

“Can you see how Tom must have felt with trying to do those bonding things, Roberta, after your initial Avery experience?” Lynette asked. “If you were uncomfortable with the first few bonding sessions, how do you think Tom was affected? And me, as well?”

“Oh shit, you’re right,” Roberta breathed. “Simon and I love each other and we’re certain that it’s for the long term. But school romances don’t always last, we’ve been told. We hope ours will last.”

“I sure do,” Simon interrupted. “What I found out about myself during the Avery Program was that I could have intimate connections between me and a number of girls where we could snog with each other but still return to our chosen partner. Roberta and I have a real connection, but I also feel pretty close to many of the other girls in our group.”

Roberta nodded her agreement with his comment, and added, “I feel the same way. Our teacher told us ‘Love does not divide, it multiplies’ and said it was a quote from a famous science fiction writer—don’t recall the writer’s name. We learned about plural marriages and group families as being an extreme example of this kind of love. But I could never be romantically in love with more than one boy, even after the Avery Program.”

“But do you feel any discomfort seeing Simon kissing and almost groping another girl like we saw you guys doing last summer?” Lynette pressed.

“Hmmm. Well. You gotta realize that...” Roberta started. “Whew. Cripes, that’s a fair question. Let me get my thoughts in order. There’s a lot of emotional rubbish and other rot that answering that question brings up. Okay, during our Avery sessions, we all got really, really intimate with each other. We spilled our souls doing the role-playing, and whilst in the massage sessions we touched and caressed each other—especially when the teacher wasn’t paying attention, anyway—as we were learning how touch brings pleasure. So the, um, groping you saw was just more of doing what we had gotten used to doing. I couldn’t do that touching with a random bloke, even if it was a kid from another Avery group, I’m sure. And no, I wasn’t uncomfortable doing it, since both Simon and I did those things in our Avery sessions. That’s why we loved the naked hiking we all did, too. Is that what you mean?”

Lynette shuddered. “Yeah. But hearing that now, I’m really so glad I pulled out, but Tom...”

“Yeah, I’d of never made it,” Tom affirmed. His face was pale. “Simon, how did you feel seeing your honey doing crap with other boys?”

Simon shrugged. “It’s just what Roberta said. At first I duffed through the motions, just following along. I saw she wasn’t into any of it at first too, but then things began to change.”

Lynette muttered, “Brainwashing...”

“Sorry...?” Simon asked.

Lynette looked at him. “I just got this random thought. I noticed that the teachers’ instructions in the classes seemed mildly hypnotic and there was lots of repetition. I’m wondering whether the Avery Program uses, intentionally or deliberately, elements of psychological conditioning to make you guys more accepting of what they’re doing?”

Roberta looked thoughtful. “Oi, that’s a really wild idea, Lynette. A lot of us in that program have discussed our feelings and Simon and I are the only ones who reacted the way I described to you. Even Julie and Harry, the ones who became mentors and were pretty committed to each other before the Avery Program, were right on board with it from the beginning.”

Tom laughed, “Say, maybe that’s why the two of you clicked with Lynnie and me; we all kinda felt weirded out by the Avery Program at first.”

They all laughed.

Roberta continued, “So I can see those two, Julie and Harry, liking it ‘cause they’re both so empathetic. Why they got to be mentors. I guess that makes them feel close to lots of other people and not feel threatened about losing their partner’s affections.”

“That’s awfully perceptive, Roberta,” Lynette remarked. “But are there any other kids who were couples before the Avery Program?”

“Hmmm, I don’t think so. Simon, honey, anyone you remember?”

“Well, a few of the blokes were dating before, but I can’t think of any serious romances. Harry and Julie, sure. And us, of course.”

Tom asked, “How long have you two been an item, if I may ask?”

Roberta giggled. “We live ‘cross the street from each other all our lives, actually. We hung in our little group whilst growing up, and then when he found out that girls didn’t give the boys cooties, he began asking me to do ‘dates’ with him.”

“Oh how cute,” Lynette smiled. “Two more soulmates.”

“Yeah, and we’re both the only child in our families,” Simon mentioned. “That made our relationship closer, I guess. Someone our own age to talk about clobber.”

Lynette sighed and looked at Simon, then Roberta. “Well, back to our own revelation. Tom and I don’t date ‘cause we’re already an item. But we can’t come out of the closet on this; you can certainly see why. So how can we handle it in school?”

Roberta shrugged. “It might sound crazy but I think that if the two of you came to social events together, it wouldn’t really matter. Almost every year eleven’s been through Avery so there’ll be little or no gossip. I don’t think anyone will push you for details. As well, many of the kids don’t know you so they don’t know you’re related. Honey, what do you think?”

“Same, I guess. We’ve been taught not to label people or their relationships. I think all the blokes I know won’t question Tom about dating and if they find out that Lynette’s his stepsister, I don’t think that they’d care.”

Soon the couples finished talking and left for their homes. On the way home, Tom thought about their conversation, but was paying attention to the traffic so he didn’t speak to Lynette. When they arrived home, he had made a decision.

“So sweetie,” he said, “let’s do what they said; we’ll act like a couple but cool it on any romantic displays. You think that would work?”

Lynette smiled at him. “I had the same thoughts, darling. Isn’t it weird that they had the same initial reaction as us when they started their Avery Program?”

“Yah. Sure is. I get nice vibes from them too, and Simon is a really straight guy. He and Roberta make a cute couple. This year is so much better than last; I’ve made several friends already.”

“Great. Do you ever want to go out with your new friends for a boys-only play date?” she grinned.

“Ah, well...”

“Oh, don’t think you have to spend all of your time with me,” Lynette assured him. “I’d like to have time to go do girlie stuff with my new friends, too, you know.”

“Oh. Sure. It’s just... well, I never had friends like I do now. This is a whole new experience. I won’t ever ignore you, though, Lynnie.”

She hugged him. “Oh, I know you won’t, darling. You do need to spread your wings and get some social experience.”

She kissed him and he wrapped his arms around her in a passionate embrace.

~~~~

The next day, Lynette and Tom got notes in home room that gave them the rehearsal schedule for “The Mikado.” The notes told them to pick up a copy of the script in the Music Department office; the packet included the libretto, score, and stage notes. Also, the siblings’ chorus performance was to take place the following evening.

Their choral performance went well. Lynette felt that she was comfortable singing in front of an audience; Tom liked the anonymity of being just one of the voices in the chorus.

The first meeting of the cast for the musical seemed a bit chaotic to the siblings. The auditions were now complete and the cast of named characters was set. Amelia Hadad was, of course, Yum-Yum and Lynette was Pitti-Sing. Peep-Bo had been assigned to Beverly, another girl in their chorus class, and some of Lynette’s songs involved the three girls.

The main male lead was Ko-Ko and he was played by Danny, a sixth-form boy who was tall, thin, had a high voice, a very mobile face, and a seriously wicked sense of humor. The musical’s male love interest, Nanki-Poo, was the sixth-form prefect who helped teach in the siblings’ voice class; he had a smooth tenor voice, while the role of the emperor was played by a huge Black boy, a rugby player, who had a rumbling bass voice. The siblings were surprised by the selection for the role of Pooh-Bah—it was none other than Harry, the boy who was the mentor in their Avery class. His voice was in the low tenor range. The siblings didn’t know the two remaining cast members, playing Pish-Tush, a low-voice male role, and Katisha, a contralto.

Mrs Dixon, the musical’s director, summarized the plot overview by blocking each musical number with the assigned soloists and chorus members, having the soloists and chorus read their lyrics while she moved them to marks on the floor.

“See,” she instructed, “your scores are marked with red numbers corresponding to the marks on the stage floor. When you say those lines or sing them, you should be moving between those marks. There’s very little scenery, just a few risers so the stage won’t be totally flat, so the play’s visual interest will come from the costumes and your constant movement, always creating groupings and moving to create new ones according to the flow of the lyrics. This means that everyone will be moving around the stage a fair amount; lots of times you’ll be singing as you move. Most of the spoken dialog, though, will be done standing stationary. And you need to interact with each other—you’re not singing to the audience; you’re communicating with each other. There are only a few numbers that are directed at the audience and I’ll go over those when we rehearse them.”

The crew ran through the musical numbers for Act One; each member marking their scores with notes to themselves, and then Mrs Dixon called a halt.

“Okay, not bad for the first run-through. But this is really important, especially for the chorus. E-NUN-C-ATE! Remember your choral classes. Soloists too. Remember how you’re supposed to make each word SNAP as you sing or say it. Exaggerate the final consonants and make the vowels sound ROUND. You want the audience to understand what you’re singing, after all, isn’t that right. Okay, let’s take a ten minute break and then we’ll do Act Two.”

Most of Lynette’s part, especially the acting part, occurs in Act Two, where Pitti-Sing is a co-conspirator with Ko-Ko and Pooh-Bah in trying to deceive the emperor. Both Lynette and Tom had a lot of stage time—Tom with six numbers in Act One and four in Act Two, while Lynette was on stage for much of the second act. Tom was nonplused when he found out that the men’s chorus in the musical was composed of only eight boys and as he had the lowest voice, his voice naturally formed the backbone of the chorus.

Lynette had four solo numbers with Amelia and they were complicated vocals, so they spent a lot of rehearsal time together. Over the next few weeks, the individual groups met together to rehearse their sets; in vocal and chorus classes, the cast members practiced their songs and had their delivery and diction critiqued. Meanwhile, Lynette and Beverly, the Peep-Bo, and Amelia, were becoming fast friends.

“She’s just awesome,” Lynette was telling Tom one evening after a rehearsal that ran into the late afternoon. “Amelia is such a trooper. She’s always smiling and encouraging everyone.”

“I know,” Tom agreed. “In one of my numbers with her, I had some ideas about my character so I ad-libbed it a little bit. She saw it and gave me a real smile and a thumbs up. Later Dixon spoke to me about it; she was kinda annoyed at me and I had to convince her about why I thought it would work, but finally she told me to keep doing it my way. Then Amelia popped by and told Dixon that she thought it worked well too.”

About two weeks before the final dress rehearsals, the chorus was working on some complicated action in several numbers involving the soloists and they were running late. Dixon asked if people could return after supper for an hour and a half, so the kids involved called their parents to get permission. Dixon told them she’d give them money for their meals if they couldn’t get home and return in time and then sent them off.

Amelia organized several cast members to go with her for pizza: Lynette, Beverly and Jeanette, the Katisha, decided to go. So did Tom and another boy in the chorus.

Lynette and Amelia were talking about the musical when Amelia’s mobile beeped with a text.

“Oh, it’s Jeremy,” she said. She looked at the message. “He was supposed to meet us but the orchestra rehearsal is running late too. He says he’ll be there inside a half hour.”

Beverly asked, “Is that enough time for him to eat?”

“Yeah. He said he’ll come back and wait for our session to end; then we’ll leave together.”

They arrived at the pizza place; there were just a few customers. Finding some empty tables near each other, the kids pushed a few together, then they went to the counter to order. That done, they returned to their table and chatted and soon Beverly’s and Amelia’s orders were called and they got up to collect them. As they did, an older kid rose from where he was seated and ambled over to where Beverly and Amelia were standing.

“H’ya doin’, chicks, wanna sit wi’ me ‘n’ my mates?”

He was a beefy kid, poorly dressed, with a hard expression. Meanwhile a second boy, looking very much like the first, got up and walked over to them as Beverly turned to see who was coming.

“No, I don’t care to join you,” Amelia said firmly as Beverly told the other guy to stay away from her.

Tom looked up and saw what was happening. He started to get out of his seat as the manager rushed out from the back.

He came up to the boys. “I’ve warned ya before! Stop botherin’ ma customers! Siddown or geddout or I’ll call the bobbies! Now do it!”

Grumbling, the two boys returned to their seats.

Then the other orders were called and as Tom detoured past the troublemakers’ table, he warned them not to bother the girls. The three boys seated there sneered at him.

“Yuh pussy, we’ll do whut we wan’,” one challenged.

Everyone now had their meals and ate, quietly discussing the play, for about ten minutes, then Amelia and Lynette got up to get beverage refills from the self-service fountain. As Amelia refilled her cup and Lynette stood by waiting for her turn, one of the troublemakers suddenly came up beside Amelia and put his arm on her shoulder, pulled her close, and tried to kiss her. Seeing this, Lynette backed away from Amelia and found herself in the grasp of the second boy who had come up behind her. He spun her around and started to hug her. Meanwhile, Tom had noticed the boys moving toward the girls and when he saw them grab the girls, he quickly jumped up to run over to them.

Things happened very quickly then. Amelia dropped her cup and twisted under the arm of the boy who was trying to embrace her. She threw his arm off her shoulder and grasping his arm, twisted around and threw him down to the floor in a perfect hip throw. His head hit a table post and he was out cold. Meanwhile, Lynette had turned to face her assailant and with a scowl, grabbed his shoulders and kneed him hard in the groin. Both of them now lay moaning on the ground as Tom rushed up.

He grunted to Lynette, “You okay?” She nodded, and Tom looked at Amelia. “That was a sweet move. You okay too?”

She grinned at Tom and delivered a hard kick to her attacker’s side. Then the shop manager ran over, grabbed the guy’s legs, and began dragging him out of the shop.

Tom leaned down to the other guy, who was still doubled over on the floor clutching his groin and groaning, took hold of his jacket collar, and dragged him out of the shop, following the manager. He pulled the guy onto the sidewalk and let him go, dropping the guy’s upper body onto the pavement with a thud. The third guy from their table came running out of the shop while threatening revenge.

The manager called out, “Ya kids, ya neva come back, hear me? If ya do I’ll charge trespass!”

He turned to Tom. “Sorry f’ that happenin’—those kids jus’ begun bein’ a problem an’ now they’s banned from ma shop.”

Tom thanked him for helping them and returned inside. The others in their party were clustered around Amelia, who was looking a little pale. The manager came over and asked if they were okay.

Lynette looked at Amelia who nodded back.

“I’m fine, just a little shocked,” Amelia said. “I didn’t think I would need to do that to those gits,” she grinned mirthlessly. “I thought the manager’s warning would be enough.”

Tom asked Lynette, “You okay too? That was quite a kick you gave him.”

Lynette smiled but it was all teeth. “I had practice, remember? Our ambush?”

“Oh yeah. Right. That was a good shot too,” Tom acknowledged. “Amelia? Beverly? Let’s sit, okay?” Tom prompted.

They sat and the manager brought over a selection of drinks and some packaged dessert snacks.

“On th’ house,” he told them. “Hope ya’ come back.”

“So, Amelia,” Tom said, “that was some move you pulled.”

She smiled. “I guess. Jeremy taught me. He’s a black belt in taekwondo. After what happened to me last year—I guess you know about that...”

They all said that they did.

“...so I asked him to teach me some defensive throws. Came in useful. I guess I learned something!”

“You sure did!” Beverly exclaimed. “And Lynette! You nailed that other one good. What was it you said about an ambush?”

“Oh right. In our old school, some hoodlums tried to jump Tom and me. Some kind of revenge idea, they were real prats. I kneed the one guy. Tom took care of the rest. End of story.”

“Oi!” Beverly exclaimed. “You get in trouble for doin’ that? Get nicked?”

“‘Nicked’?” Tom wondered.

Lynette grinned. “Tom’s not quite familiar with a lot of Brit slang. Tom, it means ‘arrested’ by the cops.”

Tom chuckled, “Was real lucky. Security camera recorded it and the cops saw we were just defending ourselves.”

They continued talking for several more minutes and then Jeremy arrived.

“Hi, you missed the fun, Jeremy,” Amelia told him. “But I have some pizza for you.”

“Thanks, but what fun?”

Everyone tried to speak at once and Jeremy held up his hands. “Sorry? Wait! Who did what?”

Eventually he made out what everyone was trying to tell him about the fight, such as it was, and asked Amelia if she was all right.

“Of course!” she answered. “You taught me, right? Do you doubt your own student?” she grinned.

“Never!” he said and took her in his arms. “You did good.”

Tom grinned at both of them. “That she did. She was awesome. Jeremy, I’m Tom. I’ve seen you around a bit but never had the chance to introduce myself. Lynette tells me she’s met you.”

“Sure, she did. Hi, Tom,” Jeremy said, shaking his hand. “Yes, I’ve met Lynette. Hi Lynette, Beverly, all of you guys.”

“Hey you blokes, we need to head back now,” Jeanette said fifteen minutes later, looking at her mobile.

They left the shop and began their walk back to the school. They hadn’t gone very far, just past two store-fronts, when the three guys who had been in the pizza shop appeared from an alley, joined by a fourth guy. They began taunting the group and making threats, then one guy moved close to them and started to push Tom, who had shifted over to stand in front of the girls. Jeremy had moved to Tom’s side and when the first guy began to push Tom, a second guy tried to throw a punch at Jeremy.

It was all over in just a few seconds. Jeremy moved like lightning and then two of the guys were writhing on the ground. Meanwhile, Tom’s response was a bit slower but almost as effective; he had simply picked up the guy who tried to push him and used him as a club to clobber the second one, knocking him down; then he threw his human club into the clobbered one lying on the pavement. Neither of those two guys were moving either.

Someone in the small gathering crowd of bystanders had called the police, and the commotion had alerted the pizza shop manager, who came out and told Jeremy and Tom to wait and that he’d deal with the police to tell them about what had happened inside the shop. While they waited for the authorities, Tom and Jeremy compared fighting styles.

“Shit, man, you got no finesse,” Jeremy joked. “I felt like I was fighting alongside of the Hulk! You just picked up the one bloke and used him to clobber the other one.”

“Hey guy, I don’t got your moves, but sometimes brute force works. Also I don’t need as much room to work as you do with your flying legs and twists.”

“Yeah, but that goon must weigh over 14 stone!”

“Um, isn’t that about, ah, 90 kilos? Yeah... I can clean and jerk 125, though. Having big hands helps.”

“Tom, if you ever want to learn taekwondo, let me know. I think you’d be brilliant at it.”

“Hey, thanks, buddy, I just might. You weren’t even breathing hard after doing those two, and I saw how Amelia just stuffed that idiot who tried to put a move on her.”

The police soon arrived and called for medical assistance for the injured assailants. After getting the details of the assault from the shop manager, Jeremy, Tom, the girls, and some bystanders, the police concluded that the schoolkids were the intended victims of an assault. Tom and Jeremy had to give their identification information and then they were all allowed to go.

On the way back to school, Jeremy and Tom continued their discussion.

“Damn, I still can’t get over how Amelia did that number on the guy who tried to grab her,” Tom commented. “She said you taught her—then seeing you in action; shit, man, you were just scary.”

Jeremy grinned. “Years of training. Muscle memory. I taught Amelia ‘cause she told me that she never wanted to feel helpless again. You know how we met, right? It’s a school legend.”

“Sure do. I also heard how you two got the whole stupid naked program stopped here. No, everywhere in the country, right?”

“Almost. It’s practically gone now, but Amelia and I only helped the two most wonderful people on the planet to get it done. Say, we’ll need to get together with you and Lynette and we’ll tell you the whole story. And I’d like to hear your story—Lynette had mentioned to Amelia something about an ambush you blokes were in?”

Tom nodded. “Yeah. Let’s get together.”

They had arrived back at the school. Two of their group were explaining to the director why they had returned late.

Tom continued, “Oops, gotta get back to the rehearsal. Talk about it later.”

Jeremy waved at him. “Sure. I’ll be waiting for Amelia. I’m her ride home. You blokes need a lift home?”

Tom smiled. “Hey. Sure, that would be nice.”

The group was rehearsing the middle numbers from Act One, “Behold the Lord High Executioner” and “As Some Day it May Happen,” both requiring the men’s chorus, and “Comes a Train of Little Ladies,” “Three Little Maids from School Are We,” and “So Please You, Sir, We Much Regret,” where the girls and the girls’ chorus were featured. Everyone was still trying to keep a straight face when the Ko-Ko was delivering his patter song, which was about “keeping a little list” about people “who’ll not be missed”—people he had on his execution list. Danny, the Ko-Ko, and Mrs Dixon had come up with additional lyrics which, following a long tradition, lampooned some of the current political figures and with Danny’s madcap delivery of the lines, the other cast members were having a difficult time keeping from laughing.

Eventually the rehearsal ended and everyone began preparing to leave. Tom and Lynette, together with Amelia, went to the auditorium door as Jeremy came back in.

“My dear, and my new friends, our chariot awaits,” Jeremy intoned with a sweeping bow.

Lynette giggled as Tom stared at him, then Amelia. “Does he do that a lot?” he asked her, his eyes twinkling.

“Only every day,” Amelia declared as she grabbed Jeremy’s arm. “He’s an awful romantic but I’ll keep him.”

Jeremy led them to the front of the school where a large sedan was waiting. He opened the back door.

“Plenty of room for all,” he declared, as they began climbing in. “Tell Mr Jones where you live,” he requested.

Tom gave his address and turned to Jeremy with a questioning look.

“Yah, don’t ask. It’s not widely known, but I’m a diplomatic brat and I get a security detail, so this ride’s paid for,” he joked. “But I’m guessing that Mr Jones didn’t need you to tell him your address—am I right?”

Jones, pulling away from the school, laughed. “Got it in one, Jeremy. We already have your profiles, Tom and Lynette. You’re Canadian, born in Toronto to be exact; went to school last year in Friern Barnet; the prior year you were in Munich. Mr Armstrong is the vice president of international operations of Barkeshire Bank at their home office downtown. Mrs Armstrong is an interior designer and works as a private contractor with local realty agents. Tom has an older brother, Andrew, who goes to UCL.”

“Holy sh...” Tom muttered. “Is this some kind of espionage...”

“Ha ha,” Amelia giggled. “Jeremy did this to me too. His dad is a big shot at the U.S. embassy but please don’t mention this to other people. Jeremy had to get you guys checked out when we realized that Lynette and I were getting really friendly. I’m so glad that Tom and Jeremy seem to like each other too...”

Jeremy laughed. “Yeah, I guess we bonded over a matter of our damsels’ honor. Nothing like a good fight to cement bonds of fellowship.”

“What’s this? Jeremy, were you in a fight?” Jones asked.

Jeremy answered. “Yeah. I was going to tell you. Four guys—no, first two?” Amelia nodded. “Two guys tried to make a move on Amelia and Lynette in a pizza shop before I got there and then they were joined by two more outside when we all left. Tom and I had to teach them some manners. Gave the bobbies my contact info.”

“Okay. We’ll contact the MPS tomorrow and get it sorted,” Jones replied. “Were any press there?”

“No... about four locals, I guess, and the shop manager. There were a few of our classmates and some other people in the shop too but no one else got involved,” Jeremy replied.

They arrived at Tom’s and Lynette’s home and they left the car, making arrangements to get together that Friday after school.

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