• Chapter 4
    “I GOTTA FEELING!!!” The whole group yells in chorus as they jump around Pen’s backyard. Fear just turned on the song from the tree house and then Momo jumped crazily out of it, and we followed. Right now we’re all just rocking around the whole place. It’s about the most fun I’ve ever had EVER!

    “CRANK IT UP, FOO!!” I shout as I do the head bob with Snoop.

    “WOOOOOO!!!!!!” Catie shouts from the treehouse as she cranks it up even louder. We can hear the 90-year-old neighbors shouting at us to ‘TURN THAT TRASH DOWN!!’ But we turn to just turn the music up more to drown out their endless rants.

    “Okay, everybody follow my lead!” I do a simple two-step to the right and everybody follows. Then again to the left and everybody does that. We’re left from going back and forth between that, then going into a bend over position on the ground while slightly shaking our stretched out leg. Then we come up again and do the whole routine over.

    Out of nowhere, Fear does a couple back hand springs and lands perfectly. Then she does some of her cheer dance moves and we all form in a circle, clapping our hands to the rhythm.

    “OKAY CATIE, GO!!”

    Besides the fact of Catie being a total rebel tomboy, she loves ballet. So she goes in the center and goes up on her toe shoes and does a little mix of that and hip hop. She spins around on one foot and then does a leap in the air back into the circle.

    “PEN!!” The purple-haired girl spins into the circle, the hair flying everywhere around her. Doing a mix of jazz moves, her eyes are cast far away as she is transfixed by the music. She does a quick turn and hops off the scene to the thud of the music.

    Laughing, I call out the next person, “RINA!!”

    She taps her way into the circle and her feet hit the ground so many times to create more music to go along with the song already playing, and it sounds so beautiful and perfect we all start dancing around again. But we still gotta go on to have everybody go.

    “TAY!!” She backs everybody away back into a circle with her fast and unique Bollywood movements, then backs her way into the middle. Her feet hit the ground so furiously and her fingers and hands flick in many different positions so fast it’s impossible to count.

    “JAY!!” He simply slides across the middle while doing gangster poses and we all shake our head in shame.

    “INO!” She does a one-handed cartwheel into the circle--the girl has a kick for gymnastics. She’s flipping and bending in incredible ways all over the place before we eventually have to shove the pretzel away.

    “HOW LONG DOES THIS SONG GO ON FOR!?” Snoop shouts over the music.

    “ENOUGH FOR YOU TO GO!” I nudge her forward and she shakes her head at me.

    “NOT ALONE!!” She shouts. I laugh and turn to grab Momo’s arm and the three of us make our way to the middle. Then we launch into a hip hop routine we’ve practiced many times before. We go from bouncing legs to stomach rolls to chest pops to loose arms to head bobs to a million ever movements. Snoop does a few turns and tricks of her own, then Momo breaks forward and does straight out break dancing. Then I do a summersault in the air over him in an upside down pose and I start to freestyle.

    Captivated by the music, I let my body move in many ways I never knew possible. I feel so free and alive as I jump backwards and the three of us go into ending poses as the song finishes off.

    “WOOOOOOO!!!!!!!” We all shout as we dance around each other.

    “GOT IT ALL ON TAPE!” Blue informs as she jumps from a tree.

    “I THOUGHT YOU COULDN’T COME!” I laugh as we leap forward.

    “Yeah, well, that proves of my pro ninja skillage.” We shake our heads at her and laugh as she goes into one of her dumb ninja poses.

    “OH WAIT WAIT WAIT YOU DIDN’T GET US ALL!!!” Snoop leaps forward to grab the camera out of her hands. Getting the hint, Momo and I grab Blue by the arms and shove her forward.

    We all instantly get in our circle position, and Snoop pushes record. Catie goes to about the middle of the song and Blue rolls her eyes at us. “REALLY GUYS!? REALLY!?”

    “JUST DO SOMETHING!!” Ino calls.

    “DO YOUR NINJA STUFF!!” Rina frantically flails her arms around above her head and Blue starts doing her ninja moves--but they’re actually pretty cool!

    She finishes with a little dumb girly-girl pose and we all laugh and leap forward again. Fear and Pen scream ‘WOOOOO’ in perfect unison and it starts to hurt our ears. Then we hear noises outside the house and we stop the music.

    The familiar sound of 9-1-1 vehicles fill the air (we have had a lot of events of many sorts happen in The Group--don’t ask), and then out of nowhere, about 30 police are rushing into the backyard, telling us to put our hands above our heads, drop all weapons, bla bla bla, all that crap.

    “Uhh, I think you have the wrong people….we were just listening to music.” I say, sort of freaked out.

    “HEY, THIS GIRL HAS SOMETHING ON US!!” Some guy with a weapon detector thing shouts to the others, waving his hand towards Fear.

    And it turns out she had a crowbar, 2 handguns, a nun chuck and 11 miniature bombs in her purse.

    I’m not even gonna ask.