Senior Year Box Set

“I just brought the group from Wesleyan in. Would you introduce them around?” I asked.

Damion gave me a questioning look, and I responded with a little nod. I handed him my beer and made my exit.

“You’re that star football player …” I heard Destiny begin.

That was a car wreck just waiting to happen. Tami grabbed my arm and steered me out of the tent before I got waylaid again.

I took her around and showed her all the different booths that were set up. There didn’t seem to be any that interested her. I offered to get her a tattoo, but Tami decided to be a wimp and declined.

I stopped short when I saw Lexi directing men to distribute large trash cans with lids around the property. What confused me was they seemed to be struggling with them. I would expect them to be taking away full ones, not bringing them in.

“Something’s going on,” I told Tami.

She looked at me with a mysterious expression.

“I think you’re going to like this,” she said, but wouldn’t tell me any more.

Tami and I walked over to Lexi.

“What’cha doing?” I asked.

“Wait until it’s all set up, and then I’ll tell you,” she promised.

I whined, and both Tami and Lexi rolled their eyes at me.

“David hates surprises,” Tami shared.

“I’ve never noticed that. Every time I’ve surprised him, he’s liked it,” she said and then looked thoughtful. “Then again, he does want to ‘talk’ about everything. Sometimes I wonder if he’s a girl.”

“Isn’t that the truth,” Tami agreed and changed topics. “What kind of surprises have you given him that he didn’t complain about?”

“I’m going to have a little peek,” I suggested.

“No!” they both said simultaneously.

One of the guys came up to Lexi.

“We’re all set,” he said as he handed her a clipboard to sign.

“Now, can I look?” I asked.

“Let’s move to the side of the yard where it’ll be safer,” Lexi suggested.

“Are there bombs in there?” I asked as I let them drag me to the farthest garbage can.

“Go ahead. Open it,” Lexi said.

I wasn’t sure what might be in them, but the suspense was killing me. I cautiously reached over and popped the lid off while leaning back in case something was going to shoot out. When nothing happened, I leaned back in to find the trash can full of water balloons.

“Care to get our next activity started?” Lexi asked.

I may have been a bit excited. Okay, my little hop of joy was a dead giveaway. I grabbed two of them and perused the crowd for my first victim. I spotted Wolf eating a pretzel and chatting up Gina. The obvious choice was my buddy, but I figured his girlfriend would get him in the mood to participate fully in our upcoming battle.

“Get your phone out,” I told Lexi.

Both she and Tami did as I asked. When they were ready, I launched one of those high, arcing, teardrop passes. I wanted to get off several before they figured out what was going on. As soon as I released the one at Gina, I threw one at Wolf for good measure.

As soon as they were in the air, I turned and acted like I was talking to the girls.

Splush. Splush.

The first one was perfect. It exploded on impact on the side of Gina’s head, soaking her. The next one was even better: it nailed Wolf in the nuts. I hadn’t actually planned that, but it was a happy coincidence.

My buddy doubled over, dropped his pretzel in the dirt, and groaned in pain. Gina let out a blood-curdling scream that had everyone staring at her. There’s a saying about someone being ‘as mad as a wet hen.’ Until now, I never knew what that meant.

Her arms flapped at her side as she spluttered.

“What the hell just happened?!” she barked at Wolf. “What are you going to do about it?”

Wolf held up a finger to slow her down. That was when she saw the large wet spot on his pants.

“Did you pee yourself?” Gina asked.

Everyone chuckled. It cracked me up that several people had their phones out, recording Gina’s meltdown. That would be on social media shortly.

Cassidy and Tim hurried over to see what was going on. I surreptitiously launched two more balloons, which struck Tim and Cassidy almost simultaneously. Cassidy was no fool. She spotted me acting all innocent and pointed at me.

“David!” Gina screeched.

Since there was no longer a need for stealth, I started grabbing water balloons and chucking them at everyone.

“Help me,” I ordered Tami and Lexi.

The funny part was it took everyone a few minutes to figure out there were other garbage cans.

I’d picked my allies well. Tami had played baseball on my Little League teams and had an arm, and Lexi was athletic as well. The three of us were holding our own as the crowd scattered.

About that time, my little genius, Dare, spotted the other garbage cans. The little shit told Ty, who shared the info with everyone else. We were soon outnumbered something like 100 to 3. Without going into too much detail, let’s just say that when all was done, the three of us were soaked.

When we got down to the last few water balloons, Lexi and Tami turned on me.

“Traitors!” I bellowed.