Chapter Thirteen - Toga Party Pt. 1
He kicked up his feet on his desk. He deserved a break. He deserved a break from this horribly long, unforgiving, and eventful year of Fungi High. It was over. Done for. It was a bittersweet situation. The pros being that 3 months of laziness were about to begin. The cons were that nothing else was going to happen. He sat there thinking of what he was going to do that night. Maybe order a pizza and watch a few movies with his mom. Just a boring family night. Wait a second! There was the toga party!
Yes! The delayed, prolonged toga party that had been awaited for so long! The party that had been delayed because of Ted's constant sickness and busy schedules! It was tonight! Ted had forgot. He looked at the clock. 5:30. Only half an hour until it started! Ted grabbed his toga and slipped it on. Not to mention the little leafs he wrapped around his head. He ran out of his room and down the stairs. He was running out the door when his mom stopped him.
"Teddy," she said, "where are you going?"
"Party, Mom," Ted said, "over at Thrasher's."
"Okay, son," she replied calmly, "boy...you are getting tall."
It was true. Ted had grown over 4 inches since his old Pi days like seven months ago. So many other things had changed. He hung out with the punk crowd, after all they were the people that were going to be at the party. He was in the best band at the school too, Poison Mushroom Academy. He'd also changed in the fact that nobody really picked on him anymore, considering he had grown. Other things that had happened was that his wrestling team had gone state, with him leading the team. He still had that fabled Koopa knife mark on his back. He was also done with the Pi book and finished his classes with a few A's, but mostly B's and C's.
"Well, anyways," Ted's mother coughed, "have a good time at your shindig."
"Will do."
Ted hopped on his bike, and pedaled quickly to Thrasher's house which wasn't that far away. Just a few blocks, and he was there. Thrasher's was pretty big, and kids were crowed around it. Loud music was blasting from inside. Sounded like it was live. He looked through the window and indeed a few kids he didn't know were performing on a small stage. Ted ran up to the huge crowd standing around the house. There were so much kids that they overflowed out of the house, plus togas as far as the eye could see. He saw Maxwell Vance chatting with Kay Hold, and ran up.
"Hey what's up, guys," Ted exclaimed.
"Yo, Ted," he said, pounding Ted's fist, "good to see you here. You've been sick forever, man."
"Yeah," Kay agreed, "what's it been...like three months?"
"Something like that. Mono can be a real..."
"Whoa, let's not go there, buddy," Maxwell laughed.
Ted chuckled and patted Max on the back as he saw his other friend, Mage, who was in his band.
"Hey, Mage. What's the scoop?"
"Ted!" she screamed, afterwhich she gave him a huge hug that knocked him over.
Ted rubbed his head and stood up covered in grass and dirt and muttered, "Glad to see you too."
"C'mon our band's playing really soon, Ted!"
"Wait! You guys never told me that Poison Mushroom Academy was playing! I didn't bring my guitar!"
"Oh great," she moaned, "if Thrasher dosen't have an extra guitar, then we're screwed! C'mon!"
She grabbed Ted's wrist and pulled him through the crowd. Ted waved and shouted at all the people he knew in the crowd. There was good old Greta Gifted (who was talking to someone about the cheat), Vincent Meele (whom was also in Poison Mushroom Academy), and hundreds of other kids who his punkish and non-prep bretheren.
Soon, the two ran through the door, and ran into Thrasher's stuffed living room. He looked around and saw many, many togas. Greek word were spray painted on the wall, and there was lots of pizza! The band that was playing was a bunch of jr. high kids who were lucky to even be in a high school party. Ted knew this band. It was Koopakrunch. Mage continued to pull Ted until they reached Thrasher who was watching the band and jumping around, like everyone else in the room. Mage pulled him to the side so the three could talk.
"Thrash, he doesn't have his guitar. We can't play. Plus we're on in like 5 minutes."
"Hey, hey," Thrasher inturupted, "listen, I can get one quick from the neighbor's."
"That'll take like ten minutes though," Ted said.
"That's why you entertain them, Teddy Boy!" Thrasher exclaimed, while he handed Ted a small ukelele.
"WHAT? I'm going to play this?"
"Yeah, run up there. Koopakrunch is done, give them a show! Make something up," Thrasher yelled.
Ted ran on to the stage confused. Everyone stared at him. He looked at his ukelele. He started to play Mary had a Little Lamb.
He played that song and sang the lyrics while kicking stuff on the stage. The crowd erupted in laughter. This was a good idea. He built on this. He did something funnier.
Ted took his ukelele and took a huge bite out of it and spit it at the crowd. Everyone screamed in approval, and some lucky fans got to keep some ukelele bits.
Thrasher ran on to stage.
"Just kidding, Ted. I have two guitars. I just wanted to see you make a fool of yourself," he laughed.
Ted wanted the crowd to have a good ending to this little performance, so, he took the ukelele and smashed it against Thrasher's head. Thrasher fell against the drum, laughing. He took a drumstick and broke it against Ted's head. Ted moaned, and then kicked Thrasher off the stage. The crowd cheered as Thrasher landed softly in their hands. They pushed him back up and Thrasher muttered into one of the microphones, "Thank you, Ted."
Ted smiled. The audience was chattering and chuckling. Vince Melee, Mage, and Jay Man ran on stage, completing the band. Ted looked through the audience. He noticed some of his great friends, who had been with him through thick and thin. There was Nerd Person (who now prefered to be called by his serious, real name, Jason, since he had dwelved into abstract art and free form jazz), Max Vance whom he had just talked to and was pointing two thumbs ups and smiling, Sarah Pekkala who was chanting "toga, toga, toga", and good old Greta, who was sporting a signature Homestar toga. Of course, Ted recognized hundreds of other kids in the crowd.
"Now, everybody," Thrasher yelled, "welcome to my party! I have a few announcements."
"Play 'Ode to Bowser'," some moron screamed from a silent crowd.
There was a pause, and then Thrasher continued, "Well if we ignore the total idiots, we can get on with the announcements."
The crowd laughed.
"Well, first I have to make it clear that upstairs is for make-outs. Please refrain from PDA, people! Use the upstairs," Thrasher exclaimed as the crowd laughed again, "secondly, I have to point out our extremely awesome snack table. The fried koopa kabobs will blow your mind!"
Lou E. G. Simpson whistled with agreement as he chewed on two koopa kabobs.
"So I think we're ready to start. Who's ready for some Poison Mushroom Academy?"
The audience screamed as Vincent grabbed his bass, Jay Man grabbed a microphone, Mage sat down at her drum set, and Thraser and Ted grabbed their guitars.
"Band huddle," Vincent Meele whispered as the band did as he said, and huddled, "I say we play Kashmir."
"No, not a good opening song. We need something with energy. Kashmir could be one of the last few," Thrasher critqued.
"How about Crazy Train?" Jay Man asked.
"Nope. That would be a good song for the middle," Mage answered.
"Turning Japanese would be fitting," Ted said.
"Ted you're a genius! Let's go!" Vincent exclaimed.
The band went to their positions, and Ted stood in front of over 100 of his screaming school mates. He got goosebumps from this kind of night. He looked and Thrasher and nodded.
"It's good to be back," Ted muttered into the microphones as he raged into their first number.
Chapter Fourteen - Toga Party Pt. 2
Patrica Peach crouched on the roof, with a pair of binoculors up to her eyes. She watched the toga party with envy. About 30 other prep kids watched with her, all wearing pink Abercrombie togas.
"So are we crashing this thing or what?" Ben L. Fan pondered.
"Yeah of course we are," Patrica mocked, "we've been planning to do this for months now."
"Why are we on a roof though," Blue Toad asked.
"I don't know! I thought it would be like spyish!" Patrica exclaimed.
Patrica ran off, and landed on the grass in a thud. The others did the same. Now they stood across from the punk's precious toga party. They heard the band playing some song about Japan or something.
"C'mon," Patrica said, as she motioned her hand torwards the house.
"No, wait!"
It was Leo Tev. The paranoid kid. He always thought that they were going to fail, or get in trouble, or die.
"What, Leo."
"What if the punks win the fight?"
"They won't, we're genetically superior," Patrica comforted.
"If you say so," Leo Tev chattered nervously.
"Now, for the love of Hollister, let's go!"
The preps ran across the street. All of the punk kids were inside listening to the band. All they had to do now was run inside and rock their world. Patrica and the thirty other crouched down close to the door.
Patrica whispered, "Now, just beat the snot out of these so called 'rebels'."
**********
Meanwhile, inside, Ted was burning out a killer solo. The crowd was shouting with approval, and Lou E. G. Simpson was shouting with approval...to the snack table.
They all jumped up and down in excitment, but then the door flung open revealing a tital wave of pink Abercrombie togas.
Patrica stood in front of a large mass of confused punks, as the band stopped, and she screeched, "WE CAME! WE SAW! WE CONCORED!"
Then a flurry of violence sprung out. Preps including Patrica, Ben L. Fan, Aaron Eleven, Jude Sixsix-Sefen, and others were flinging their fists at the punks like Lou, Greta, Kay, and others.
Ted was awe-struck, this party had gone amok. The two groups kept on fist fighting, and Ted even saw a few lamps and other things fly. He saw Thrasher screaming and jumping violently into the prep side, ready to fight them. Vincent, Mage, and Jay weren't sure what to do, so they just followed. He saw Lou E. G. Simpson sword fighting a prep with the koopa kabobs. Sarah was puching Aaron in the stomach. The whole room was stuffed with kids punching and kicking each other. Then, as he stood confused on stage he felt a sharp pain on the back of his head. It felt like someone had thrown a brick at it, and everything faded.
**********
Half an hour later, Ted looked up at the night sky. He had just awoke from his unconcousness. He appeared to be out of the house, which loud noises were still coming from. Then a face popped right in his face. It was one of the preps, he noticed by the pink toga.
"Didn't know you were that easy to knock out, you vandal," an evil grinning face chuckled.
As Ted's eyes slowly ajusted, he saw that it was infact...BUD WIG! The kid who had tricked Ted into vandalizing with him, and tried to frame him!
"WHAT!? You? I thought you were still in juvie!"
"No! I got out yesterday, and when I heard that my friends were crashing a party that you were at, I decided to join them. I couldn't give up the opportunity to kill the maniac who put me in juvie."
"KILL?"
Then Ted felt it. A sharp device being pressed into his stomach. Bud was holding a knife to Ted's chest, and could kill him any minute he wanted to.
"Bud, if you do this. You'll be put in jail for your life."
"You fool. Getting away with murder is a lot easier than people perseive it to be," Bud chortled.
"You sicken me."
The knife was pressed into his stomach a notch harder.
"Sorry, sorry!" Ted exclaimed, "Don't kill me! What do you want me to do?"
"Nothing," Bud whispered, "there's nothing that you can give me to make me think about sparing your life."
"Bud, isn't this a little harsh?"
"Teddy, Teddy, Teddy," Bud said, "look, you've made my parents hate me, you've made my whole family hate me, and you've ruined my life in so many aspects. I can't do anything other than fix the problem."
"By killing me?"
Bud pointed to his nose, an universal sign for "yes". The sharp pain on Ted's stomach intensified. Ted saw a bright light gaining. He felt as if he was being lifted up. He ran down a large bright tunnel, with strange heavenly sounds all around him. It was a great feeling. He felt like he was being taken away to a good, happy place. He heard a soft voice saying, "Ted..." over and over.
"Tedddd....Teddddd.....Tedddd..."
He was looking up another face.
"Thrasher, you're God?"
"No! You're not dead," said Thrasher, looking over at Ted at the same spot he was with Bud.
Ted smiled. His life had be spared. He felt overjoyed. He looked down at a bloodstained toga. It was almost completely red. He looked around for Bud. Bud was colapsed on the ground.
"What did you do to him, Thrasher," Ted moaned, grimacing in pain.
"Hit him with my guitar. He won't be enjoying rock music for a while, knowing what pain the insturment brought him."
Ted remained lying and looked through the window. Most of the kids were gone. Except for a few that were weeping.
"I can't believe I almost died," Ted said to Thrasher, "and I'm eternally grateful that you saved my life."
"Hey, trust me," Thrasher replied, "things would not be the same without you around."
Both of them smiled. Ted continued to thank him for saving his life, and Thrasher kept on saying "no problem" or "you deserve it".
That's when Ted noticed Patrica. She was behind a bush, staring at him with a sad, mourning face. She trotted over, tear-stained.
"Get away from here," Thrasher yelled, "look what you've brought to this kid. Did he deserve to be stabbed? HUH?"
"No," she moaned as she sat down next to a blood-stained Ted, "I thought this wasn't going to come to this kind of measure. I thought this was just going to be a quick fight between us."
"Well it still happened to him," Thrasher growled.
"Look," Patrica said, staring down at Ted, her baby blue eyes twinkling in the moonlight, and covered in tears, "I didn't mean for this to come. I'm so sorry that I ever tried crashing this party. Now I realize that clique rivalries are insane. They shouldn't happen. Ted, punks are just as much people as preps are. It's just a label. I'm sorry for bringing this on everyone. You know, this whole year the only reason I ever picked on you, wether it be about Pi, or you being stuck in a locker, or whatever...was just because I have feelings for you."
"What...," Ted questioned staring up at her face, under the moon, and Thrasher's confused face.
"Ted Zeplinrochts...I'm in love with you."
Patrica grabbed the back of Ted's head, and kissed him square on the lips.
