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THE OTHERS WERE LINED up inside the make-up truck, joking nervously and making cruel remarks to whoever was in the chair getting his face rubbed with extra colour or his hair brushed and sprayed. Randy quietly joined the end of the queue and avoided everyone's eye.
A minute or so later the director came bustling in. "Who's ready?" he demanded, glancing around at the queue. "Come on, what's the hold up? What's the hold up?"
"Him!" said several of the boys, pointing back at Randy. Dexter swivelled to look.
"Problem?" asked Dexter, softly but dangerously.
Randy grinned painfully. "No, no, all fixed now."
"Good," said Dexter, then his voice rose to a bellow, "Now come on folks! I want this team ready! We have rehearsals to do!"
"Yes, Dex!" said the make-up people, hastening their work as the director departed.
"Geez!" said Nathan to no one in particular.
"You get used to it," said one of the make-up people. "He can be a lot of fun, actually."
"Seriously?" said Tweety doubtfully.
They were hustled out of the truck and marched off to the playing fields where they had to practise running onto the field between the two banks of cheering supporters.
"Okay, again!" called the director. They did it again while he watched from behind the camera. "Come on, boys!" he pleaded. "Give it some energy!"
"Then give us some Apple-Pops," said someone. Much laughter.
"What was that?" snapped Dexter.
"Nothing."
"Okay, let's run through that again ... Oi! Who changed the order? Come on boys, work with me here! I want you first, then you, and . . . Hey!" He stopped dead, gazing at Suzy and Bridget in disbelief. "You're girls!"
"Well done, Einstein,” said Suzy sardonically, “And so what?”
"I only want boys," said Dexter, waving her aside.
"Too bad!" she said, and didn't move aside.
"Yeah!" said Bridget, joining Suzy. "This is an Equal Opportunities School you know!"
"Yeah, yeah, that's great," said Dexter tiredly, "but it doesn't fit our image. I only want boys." He waved them aside again and tried to step past them.
"Sexist," said Suzy, moving to stay in front of him.
"Yeah," said Bridget, "we're gonna protest until you change your mind," and she linked arms with Suzy and they both sat down right in the middle of the shot. Meanwhile the rest of the team had been standing around uncertainly. Then Tweety spoke up.
"Yeah!" he said, joining Suzy and Bridget on the ground.
Next thing Piho was getting down too. "Yeah," he said.
"Yeah," everyone else said, and next thing they were all sitting down together linked up like a huge untidy knot.
"The girls are in or none of us are!" declared Johnny, remaining standing. He was easily as tall as Dexter.
"All right, all right!" cried Dexter, waving his script about in frustration. "They can stay. Now let's get on with it, please!"
And so it went. They filmed the shot, then began resetting the cameras and reflectors and tape recorders and stuff for the next shot.
"Where's the cheerleaders?" demanded Dexter, looking around for them. "I want the cheerleaders, now!" One of the gofers ran off while everyone stood around waiting.
Finally the cheerleaders arrived on the trot wearing pleated mauve mini-skirts over shiny leotards, mauve socks with cheap tennis shoes, and all carrying those big fluffy things that cheerleaders wave around. More mauve!
And immediately the whole school burst out laughing because one of the Creative Dance Club was Albert Ho, Jefferson's twin brother, and he was in there with the girls.
Dexter looked around puzzled, trying to get the joke. This made everyone laugh even louder. Dexter looked to the camera woman and the sound man. They just shrugged.
"Come on, come on!" Dexter shouted. "Let's get on with it!"
He lined up the dancers. "Okay, let's see the chant."
"Kai-nui! Kai-nui!" they called out, shaking their fluffies left and right. "Kapai-nui!" Then they all did a great leap. "Yeah!"
"Right! Good!" Dexter shouted above the almost constant background of tittering and guffawing. "This time give it more energy! Really jump! Kick those heels back, that's it!" Until he finally noticed the boy in the skirt. "What the f...?" He very nearly said it.
Everyone was screaming with laughter by then.
Even the teachers were doubled over. Dexter began stamping his foot.
"No! No! I won't have it! No way!"
"Sexist!" yelled a girl from the crowd.
"Yeah!" agreed several other voices. "Boo! Boooo!"
Randy had never actually seen someone tear out their hair, but that is what Dexter did right then. "All right!" he finally shouted, "Alright, he can stay!"
Everyone cheered and clapped and those in the back row drummed on the hollow desks with their feet. Dexter pulled out a few more hairs' "Quiet, PLEASE!"
The shot took forty-five minutes to get 'in the can' as the crew called it, so it was well past lunchtime when the director finally called "Lunch" and the crew headed back across the field to their trucks. The school headed back too, growling like a pack of hungry wolves. No-one, but no-one should keep children from their lunch. Not even teachers dared do that!
"What happens this arvo?" asked Piho as the team sat together munching. Not that many of them had a lot of lunch.
Randy sat uncomfortably among them with Bennithorpe's fiver in his pocket.
"I think we're supposed to fake a game," said Tweety, who had sensibly kept enough spendo for chips and a muesli bar.
"How do you know?" asked, Piho, eyeing Tweety’s food hungrily.
"Didn't you see the other jerseys in the costume truck? And didn't they call for all the rugby players? Want a chip?"
"Thanks."
"Hey, I said a chip, not ten!"
"Yeah, where are the union players anyway?" wondered Johnny.
"Hiding," said Robbo around a mouthful of pie.
"Terry whatsisface saw them all being marched off to the gym in league jerseys."
"Ha-ha-ha! Oh the shame, the shame!"laughed Tweety.
Robbo looked up. "Hey! Look who's coming over to see ol' lover boy here!"
It was Tammy and she was coming across the playground straight towards Randy.
"Oo-ooo-oo!" went all the boys.
She walked right up to them and stopped as if she was about to make a speech, and that was exactly what she did. "You guys should be proud of Randy," she began. "Look at what he's achieved for you all - these great new uniforms and this amazing chance to be on TV, and that wonderful idea for a prize. So I think you should all give him three cheers. Hip-hip . . ."
"Hooray," some of them said grudgingly.
"Hip-hip. . ."
"Hooray," most of them said weakly.
"Hip-hip. . ."
"Hooray!" they all finished with a hint of relief.
"Thank you," said Tammy, "and I'd just like you all to know that Randy worked really hard to win, but not for himself, no, he wanted to give his prize to his best mate Piho. And I think that was really noble of him."
By then Randy was a nervous wreck, but he forced himself to raise his eyes to meet hers. He wanted to say something in the way of thanks but all he could manage was a wet-eyed smile. She smiled back, ever so briefly, and quickly hurried away.
The boys went wild, hooting and cheering and clapping.
Tammy stopped halfway across the playground and turned briefly to take a bow and make a curtsy. The boys clapped and cheered some more.
It was just that sort of day.