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THEY STARTED PAINTING signs at five-thirty. Piho had to go home for his dinner and was back by seven. Randy was already back in the garage, painting gaudy yellow lettering onto a plain brown sheet of hardboard.
"You sure your dad won't mind us using this stuff?" asked Piho as he took up from where he had left off.
''Sure of it," grunted Randy.
They worked until after nine, producing about twenty signs which, although of little artistic merit, Were bright enough and possibly even legible from a distance. They had two of Horse Apples: Great for Roses, three of Get Your Horse Apples Here, and plenty of Support Our Team, Manure Ahead, Fresh Today, and $2 a Bag - Proceeds to Kainui School League Team.
They were in the middle of debating whether to do one that said Support Team Manure when Randy's older sister Beau came bursting into the garage.
'What are you up to?" she demanded, glancing around as if expecting something far more disgusting than paint and odd-shaped squares of hardboard. "You've been out here for hours!"
"Nothing," said Randy straight off, despite the evidence.
"Oh yeah?" she said, rapidly taking in the various messages standing around drying. "So what're these for?"
"We're doing fundraising for the school league team," said Randy tiredly, "for new jerseys." He knew there was no point in trying to hide anything from Beau; she could get 'woof' out of a dead dog.
"Since when?" she said.
"Since today," he said. "Mr Tully said so."
"Ah." she glanced around again, suddenly sounding quite a lot more interested. "For new jerseys, huh?"
"Yeah."
"So who's doing the new design?"
"Design?" repeated Randy and Piho blankly.
'Yes," said Beau. "If the team is getting new colours, someone in the school should design them."
"Ye-es..." they both agreed cautiously.
"Right, it's settled then!" said Beau cheerfully. "As soon as I've done the design you can paint ..." then she seemed to change her mind. "No, I'll do that too, then you can take them out for display around town."
"Now hang on – " began Piho.
"Stop!" said Beau unexpectedly, pointing at Piho's brush. "Don't use any more mauve! I'll be needing that!"
"It's purple," said Piho.
"Mauve," corrected Beau. "Now put the lid on, right now!" She stood over him until he had done as she said then turned and hurried out. Randy knew she'd be up all night now, slaving over her little drawing board, because she absolutely loved designing clothes.
Piho was looking daggers at Randy but Randy just shrugged and kept on painting. "Ain't my fault this time," he said.
"Is so," said Piho. "She's your sister."
"l didn't have a lot of choice, did I?" snapped Randy. Then he said quite cheerfully, "Anyway, it's not so bad. At least we don't have to paint the stupid things."
"But she's taking over, man!" protested Piho. "'I'll do this; you do that!' Flippin' hell!"
Randy shrugged again. "So what? It's one more person doing the work and that means less for us, right?"
"Yeah, yeah, but think, man! What if she comes out with a really stink design? We're gonna look like total dorks!"
"Er, yeah, I hadn't thought of that," admitted Randy.
"So go and stop her!" said Piho.
"You go and stop her!" said Randy.
"Mauve!" Piho reminded him. "Do you wanna wear mauve?"
"No-o, but..."
"But what? She's your sister, wimp!"
Randy sighed. "Yeah – wimp – that’s me, man. You try it! Geez, Beau's got this way of twisting up what you say so she always ends up right. It's just not worth it. Anyway, I've got a better idea – we'll get onto Tully and suggest to him the idea of a design competition, right? Then we'll get a design that all the guys'll like."
Piho considered the idea for some seconds. "Hmm, hmm, yeah, okay, yeah, but we'd better do it quick. Go ring him now."
"Now?"
"Yes. Now!"
#
RANDY CAME BACK TO the garage ten minutes later. 'Well?" demanded Piho.
"Tully likes the idea."
"Great! Excellent!"
"Except he didn't want to organise it himself."
"Uh-oh ..."
"It's okay!" countered Randy quickly. "I got someone else onto it."
"Great! Who?"
"Beau."
Piho actually screamed.
#
BEAU HAD ARRANGED A meeting with Mr Tully for eight thirty the next morning. Randy didn't find this out until breakfast time. "Eight-thirty!" he squawked, spitting Weet-Bix.
"Yes. Mr Tully is going to announce the competition at assembly so he wants to know all the details."
"Details?" echoed Randy with a sinking feeling in his stomach.
Beau continued without a pause, "The competition is probably going to take about a month so in the meantime you'll have to use my design for promotional purposes."
"Promotional purposes?" echoed Randy as his stomach sunk even further. "But..."
"I'm doing the posters at lunchtime today,” Beau went on without pause, "You can get them distributed after school. Do you have something to pin them up on?"
"Pin them up?" Randy's stomach slid off the continental shelf and plummeted into darkness. "Yeah, but..."
"Good. Now, we'll use our garage as centre of Operations. Tell the boys to be here at three-thirty sharp because I want to talk to them – oh, and tomorrow I'll need two assistants to help me put up the rest around town, right? Good! See you at eight thirty. Bye!" and she shot out the back door.
Numbly Randy ate his breakfast, sending it down to join his stomach on the bottom of the ocean.
#
PIHO WAS BIKING SLOWLY to school when Randy came hooning around the corner up ahead, belting straight towards him. "Piho! Hey! Wait up!"
"Oh no," groaned Piho quietly to himself, "Now what?"
"Beau's gone insane!"
"You finally noticed?"
"No, I mean yes, I mean it's all going mad!" babbled Randy as he skidded to a stop beside his friend. Piho biked around him and continued up the road. "Hey, what's up with you?" said Randy, pedalling hard to catch up.
"As if you can't work it out," growled Piho over his shoulder.
'No, I can't, honest! What's the matter, man?"
"I'm finished with you," said Piho bluntly.
"Eh? Come again?"
"I said finished, like: through, finito, endo-no-mendo."
"You can't!" cried Randy.
"Can too!" snapped Piho.
"What about the deal?"
"What deal?"
"Bag for you, bag for me."
"It's stupid."
"We gotta do it! We're in charge!"
"You're in charge, not me. I'm out of it!"
"But ... but ... Hey!" Randy stopped suddenly, throwing out an arm to stop Piho. Piho wobbled to a crash-defying halt and turned to hurl abuse, but Randy was pointing ahead urgently. "It's the van!"
Piho turned and looked. "Geez, you're right!"
Sure enough, there was the same white van they had splattered last Saturday, parked opposite the school gates.
"They waiting for us?"
"I reckon."
"So what're we gonna do?"
"Hide!"
They scuttled off the road and onto the grass verge, just out of sight beyond some overhanging trees. Over the fence was the school sports paddock.
"Over the fence," said Randy, "then around the back. Whadd'ya reckon?"
"You are joking, right?"
"You wanna get minced? Not me, man!" Randy threw his bike over the fence, then scrambled after it. Piho hesitated, glanced ahead, then did the same. A few minutes later they slipped in at the back of the school and parked their bikes. From the cover of the bike shed they peered out at the van. It was considerably cleaner than when they had last seen it. In the driver's seat was the big man who had first yelled at them, and in the passenger's seat was the one who had shrieked 'I want you boys!' For the first time Randy noticed the name on the side of the van: Image Inc.
"It's them, all right," muttered Randy.
"Yup."
"You reckon they know we're here? I mean how would they know we go to this school?"
'Just a guess, probably."
"Yeah, I s'pose."
They watched a little longer, then slunk away deeper into the school.
"Oh no!" said Randy suddenly, once again throwing out an arm to halt Piho again. "The meeting!"
"Meeting? What meeting?"
"Right now, in the hall, with Tully. Come on!"
#
MR TULLY WAS SITTING on the stage. In front of him were most of the boys from last year's league team. Nearby were Beau and the art teacher Ms Kingsley, discussing something.
"Ah, Randy and Piho," said Mr Tully. "Let's get started with a progress report, then I think we'd better discuss money, safety, identification, and – " here he glanced at the row of sullen boys sitting nearby. " – I believe you've got some kind of sales incentive?"
"Er, yeah." Randy went silent, hoping Mr Tully would continue, but he didn't. Randy glanced at Piho, hoping that he would say something, but Piho stayed silent, looking sour. Oh well, thought Randy, here goes nothing!
"Um, well, y'see, I was thinking – since we're going to raise a lot of – er – awareness with the design competition ..." Chugga-chugga-flop-flop went his brain, like an engine that wouldn't start.
"Ah yes, that was an excellent idea," said Mr Tully.
Randy looked down at his shoes. "Aw, it was nothing ..."
"Don't put yourself down, Randalf," interrupted Mr Tully. "You've been handling this whole project brilliantly, just brilliantly. Go on."
"Well –" said Randy, beginning to swell with pride but also terribly aware of the hard-eyed stares coming from the other boys, "– I thought that the incentive should be the sort of thing that everyone would want, the sort of thing that everyone could really go for ..." Chugga-chugga ... flop.
"Like what, man?" growled PJ impatiently.
"Like a – like a ..." Chugga-chugga-varoom! "...A free day at the Zap-Zone!"
"Yay!" said the boys, and Mr Tully nodded cautiously. Even Piho, who had not exactly been the best of mates that morning, cheered up again.
"Okay!" said Mr Tully. 'And you'll be following up on that?"
"Uh, yeah," said Randy before he could stop himself.
"Excellent!" said Mr Tully, turning to address the others. "So let's have a quick progress report from each of you."
"Duh-er ..." several of them said, glancing aside in the hope that someone else would speak up first.
"Well, boys, how's it going?" asked Mr Tully again. "Johnny?"
"Um, well, uh, me and Robbo went out to the horse place down my way but the boss guy wasn't in, but, ah, he'll be there today and, ah, I'm sure it'll be okay. But," he added craftily, "shouldn't we, like, wait until we've all got ID badges first?"
"No problem," said Mr Tully. "They'll be ready by three o'clock. Now, what about the others?"
The others also admitted that, well, they hadn't actually got it all quite sussed yet, but, hey man, it would be happening real soon. Randy and Piho began grinning.
Piho spoke for the first time, seizing the moment to look really good. "Well, me and Randy went out again yesterday and made another three dollars . . ."
"Not fair!" Nathan Mooney called out suddenly.
"Yeah, yous got a head start on us!"
"Yeah!" said several other disgruntled voices.
"Well," Piho said quickly, "we thought about that and... and... we've come up with a great idea that'll balance that up. Randy? You tell 'em."
"Ah ..." said Randy, caught short by the sudden switch. "Um, well, y'see, we figured the campaign needed advertising, like, y'know: coz people need to know what it's all about and everything, so we allocated all of Saturday's money towards it. We got a whole bunch of paint and stuff from ... from ... " (Oops.) "...anyway it was real cheap! And we spent last night painting up signs. You see, every team gets a couple of signs to take out, you know: to advertise? And... oh yeah! We'll all be meeting at my place today at three-thirty to get them, in the garage. And my sister Beau is helping out too." He swept a grand gesture in her direction. "Over to Beau!"
It worked. Beau sprang out and enthusiastically told everyone about the design competition and how they would all be given a big poster to take out, etc, etc, and by then the bell had rung and Randy and Piho scuttled away to class before Mr Tully could question them any more about the money they had 'spent'. Phew, so far so good, but Randy still had some urgent thinking to do.
A free day at the Zap-Zone!
Why, oh why, had he gone and said that?