We were standing a few steps away from the washrooms. So they took that route to safety. All the sudden about 20 or so girls came that way down the hallway. Katie and I acted as if we knew nothing and made our way out of the crowd.
"I'm going to go get some security," whispered Katie who knew the mall quite well.
She was back a few minutes with a male security guard, yelling at all the girls to leave, and not hang around. Most girls left, except for one or two. The security guard went into the bathroom and told them it was safe to come out.
When they came out, Clint quickly grabbed my hand and whispered, "play along."
Dave did the same to Katie. The security guard led us through a back entrance which went to the backroom area of the food court and down a hallway to a door to enter the mall. He opened the door and checked if the coast was clear, and said we could go.
The guys now looked different, Clint, Bob and Dave now had blue eyes. Clint was wearing glasses. Bob had on a bandana, and Dave was wearing a hat. Scott still looked the same, but no one had seen a picture of him with his new hairstyle, and they all had their family necklace in their pockets.
"If you guys want, you can hang around with us for an hour before we have to go, but I'm guessing we should split up so no one can recognize us. It's easier to recognize us in a group. We're being picked up at entrance 50, so we can meet there," suggested Bob.
"I'm game," said Scott.
We all agreed.
"I guess I'll go with Clint," I said, because some people briefly saw us hand in hand. Clint smiled.
Katie went with Dave.
Clint and I walked in silence for a few minutes until we reached a small cluster of girls. He grabbed my hand again, "I hope you don't mind."
"Not really."
"I still owe you an ice cream don't I."
"If you want."
"How about a Yogen Fruz?" he asked as we walked to the nearby Yogen Fruz booth.
I didn't have to say anything, the grin on my face told all.
I got an oreo flavoured one while Clint got strawberry. We decided to walk and eat, so we continued to walk holding hands. After about 5 minutes a girl came walking by me a little too close which caused the ice cream in my hand to hit my shirt and fall to the ground.
"Oh my gosh, I'm so sorry," she said. She looked to be around 16 years old with shoulder length brown hair.
"That'll be okay once I wash my shirt," I replied trying not to get mad. Actually I was more annoyed than mad.
"I'm soooo sorry," she said again. She looked up at me then Clint, "hey, are you going out with Clint Moffatt?"
"Um no, my boyfriends name is Ryan."
"Who's Clint?" asked Clint.
"You know, one of those guys from the band the Moffatts that you hate."
"Oh."
"Oh my goodness, I'm so sorry. Clint has brown eyes instead of blue."
"Next time do your research....to think I'm a Moffatt brother," he mumbled.
"I feel like an idiot," she said.
With that she left and rejoined her friend waiting a distance away. "I can't believe you dared me to bump...." we could hear her say until she was out of earshot.
"The nerve of someone to do something like that. I mean wreck my shirt and waste $3.00 of ice cream," I complained.
"I know, but thanks for saving my butt....Ryan," he snickered.
"Hey, Ryan was the hottest guy in my entire school in grade 9, and my locker was beside his," I said defending the name, "well, you know, I kinda wanted to buy a new shirt today, and now I have a reason to buy one."
"Hey, sure do you want to help me finish my ice cream, since you lost most of yours?"
"No, it's yours."
"I insist. The faster this cone is done the faster we can go into the stores that say, no food aloud."
"Fine," I answered annoyed at myself of how easy I gave into peer pressure, as I took over a quarter of the ice cream off the top of his cone. I swallowed and then the brain freeze took over, but I didn't say anything.
Once the cone was finished we were right outside the Gap, so we decided to have a look see. I found a nice black tank top, while Clint found a blue T-shirt. We went and tried them on. We came out to show each other. "So what do ya think?" asked Clint posing in his shirt.
"I think it totally brings out the blue in your eyes," I joked, "seriously, you look good."
"I give you two thumbs up yourself," he complimented me.
We made our purchases and then left. I was wearing the new shirt of course.
"So what else do you want to do, we've got a half an hour?" I asked.
"How about we go to the Playdium for a game or two," he suggested.
"Sure."
On the way there we met my friend Melissa and her friend Romus.
Before they were in earshot I whispered to Clint, "shoot man, that's my friend Mesissa and she likes you guys what am I going to tell her?"
"Don't tell her now. Here give her this," he said pulling and envelope from his wallet, "there's a backstage pass in there, tell her not to open it until later. For now I'm Ryan," he whispered and took hold of my hand.
"Hey Melissa, hey Romus," I greeted them.
"Karin tell me if I'm dreaming or not. Are you holding hands with Clint Moffatt!" she asked getting straight to the point.
"No silly, this is my boyfriend Ryan," I said and turned to smile at him, "Ryan meet Melissa and Romus."
They shook hands, "he can't be Clint. Clint has brown eyes not blue and doesn't wear glasses."
"I guess. Well keep your eyes open. I overheard that the Moffatts were here," then she sort of freaked, "Karin have a boyfriend, umm have you changed since I last talked to you two days ago?"
"It's a long story, anyways, I have to leave soon. I'll phone you tomorrow....Oh before I forget, I got this for you today, but I was going to give it to you Saturday when I would see you, but since I ran into you now....Don't open it until you get home."
"I won't, but what is it?"
"A surprise, but promise me you won't open it now."
"I promise," she said.
"Okay," I answered and passed her the envelope.
Then we were on our way to the Playdium again where we played a ski racing game, and then we attempted this guitar one, but we both sucked cause it wasn't a real one. You'd think you'd be good at it because you play guitar, but it's not even close to a guitar.
After Playdium it was time to go. "So you said that, that Ryan guy was hot right....do I remind you of him," Clint said bringing up the Ryan subject again.
"What, are you trying to get me to say that you're hot or something?"
"No, yes, maybe, I don't know, sure, yeah," he said studdering.
"You want to know something. I picked the name because it was the first one that came to mind. I mean, I could have called you Helga or something, because my friends met a guy in Germany who's name was Helga."
"Great, ask a civil question, get a grumpy answer," he muttered to himself.
"If it makes you feel better," I said putting my arm around his neck, and putting him in a headlock, plus a small playful knuckle sandwich, "I think you and your brothers are all cute."
I knew he would get a smidge mad at me like most guys do when people mess with their hair, so I ran all the back to entrance 50 with Clint at my tail. We were a bit late so the others were already there. "Quick, hide me," I shrieked as I ran for cover behind 4 not so helpful people.
Clint came around the corner, "where is she," he smiled.
"Over here," answered Dave pointing to me beside him.
A mischievous grin came over his face. All I could do was try to hide, "ah, there you are."
He came up to me and started messing my hair around and tickling me, "okay.....stop it....already," I said in a mixture of laughing and shrieking. He stopped. "All I gave you was a mini knuckle sandwich."
"Well Karin how about we go get our skates from the locker and go catch the bus home," asked Katie.
"What you have to take the bus home? I'm sure Dad'll drive you home, I mean, after all we put you through today..."
"Um, we don't exactly live to close to this mall...."
"Hey that's okay, I owe you. You had someone purposely make your ice cream fall over you, then you had to lie to your friend, and Katie saved us from the hoards of fans in the food court," persuaded Clint.
"Okay, if you insist, I won't object."
On the car ride home Bob decided to rummage through my skat bag, "these nylons aren't a little too new are they....Yuck, they smell too," he said pulling out a nylon with about 25 runs in it, before dropping it back in there. "Clean your bag sometime will ya!....Oooo looky here, tape of me, it says," he said pulling out a tape.
"Oh, so that's where it went, I was looking all over for it."
"Glad I could help you, here Sheila, put this in."
"Noooo!"
"Why not?"
"Because it's embarrassing, its of me singing and playing guitar."
"All the more reason to play it," answered Bob.
"Come on Karin you're not that bad," said Katie.
"Pullllleeeeesse," begged Dave.
"You can play it, but beware I suck, people always tell me to shut up when I sing."
The first song came on, it was, "Naturally," by Hokus Pick, that I was singing.
"You're not that bad," commented Scott.
"Well lets see, in a bit my voice will crack and you'll hear a bunch of wrong chords."
"Wait a second, since when does a girls voice crack......oh since now I guess," commented Katie, when we all heard the mistake.
A few more songs came on, which sounded okay then it ended.
"And now opening for Karin is.....the Moffatts," said Dave in his announcer style voice.
"Ah, shut up," I said.
They dropped Katie off first, then me. I gave them directions to where they were staying at from my house, gave them hugs goodbye and said, "see you on Saturday." Then they left.
~*~*~
The next day I phoned Melissa and sorted everything out with her. She was a little mad that I lied to her, and I was mad too, but the backstage pass kind of helped her.
~*~*~
Soon it was Saturday, Sandi, my friend who was coming with me to the show, arrived at the Agricom 10 minutes early, soon after a guy wearing skaterish looking baggy jeans and a black hoody sweater came by. He was wearing a backwards hat with bleached curly hair sticking out the sides of it, and he had blue eyes. We approached him, "hey are you Mike?" I asked getting excited about meeting the guy I had talked to on the phone.
"Yep, you must be Karin right?" he said.
"Yep, that's me, and this is my friend Sandi," I answered shaking his hand.
"Well if you want, you can come with me, I found a way in, well, actually I'm a good friend of theirs," he said.
"No way! I get to meet them!" said Sandi happily.
"Yeah, so which Moffatt is your favourite?" he asked.
"I don't know. When I met them on Wednesday at the Mall, Clint seemed to be nice to me."
"How about I answer that once I meet them," stated Sandi.
Once we got into the Skyreach Centre and he gave us backstage passes and such, we made our way backstage.
"Hold on, I'll go get them, you stay right here because they might be changing and you wouldn't want to walk in on them."
While he was gone, Frank and Sheila made their way to us.
"You're Karin right?" asked Sheila who remembered me from Wednesday.
"Yes, and this is my friend Sandi," I introduced Sandi to them.
"So where are the boys?" asked Frank, "shouldn't they greet their visitors?"
"Well, their friend Mike went to get them," answered Sandi.
"Mike, who's Mike?" asked Frank.
"He said he was good friends with them," I answered, "he was the guy who brought us back here."
"The guys'll know what's going on, but anyway, Karin, I need to ask a huge favour of you," said Frank.
"Maybe, how huge is it."
"Well we heard your tape in the car on Wednesday, and our opening bands lead singer has laryngitis. Would you be able to open for the boys."
