Angelina Peters walked amongst her friends, chatting and giggling as they headed toward the public park. This would be fun; tonight was Friday, the sky was clear, and Danny Yates was back. He’d been in America for some time, in LA, but since he’d come back to New Zealand he’d taken on the Job of youth leader. As the night was perfect for a picnic dinner, Danny had decided to take his youth group down to the park for tea.
Fridays were just a hang-out time for all the Waihi Christian Center kids. They had brought steak and sausages to fry on the park barbeques, marshmellows to roast and loads of drink.
Ange and her friends-Trixie, Alice, Mandy, Chloe, Eliana and Emerald were walking together in a group taking turns to carry the food. The boys, Luke, Daniel, Tyler, Zech, Johnny and Eli were walking in front with Danny, laughing and joking. They were in charge of the drinks, although the knocking they were getting would probably result in fizz fountains when they were opened. But boys were boys, and always would be, so the drinks had no choice.
Up ahead, Danny stopped and called out “Ok guys, we’re here! I think we’ll go around the lake and use the tables and BBQ over that side. It’s sort of secluded, so not many people should be there. We’ll have it all to ourselves.” He paused, counted everyone, then finally said “Alright, you can go now.”
Everyone was always obliged to walk in groups until the destination was reached; but once there, you were allowed to break up and run wild. Rules were rules, so everyone always waited patiently until Danny finally let them go for it.
“Hey Eatz! Race you over there eh?” That was Johnny. Tall, dark and athletic, always doing some sport or other.
Eli, nicknamed Eatz because he was short and agile and supposedly needed to fatten up, agreed. “Sure John. We’ll start at that tree over there. You know the rules.” He pointed to a little beech tree beside the carpark, from where the walkway started and circled the whole lake. Both boys went off to start their race, calling some of the others to join in. Zech and Daniel jogged over.
Luke and Tyler weren’t so boisterous. Luke was into books and music so he didn’t do much sport, and Tyler was just a quiet guy, happy to do his own thing. The two of them made quite a good pair, always hanging around together either talking about books, or the latest from Detour 180, Switchfoot or Thousand foot crutch. A few of their favorite bands.
Luke took out a discman and he and Tyler followed the others, walking though, not running. Soon all the boys had disappeared into the trees that bordered the walkway, their laughter and shouts rising into the still evening air.
Danny turned to the girls. He was staggering under a load of drinks which the boys had deposited on top of him. “Hey girls. If you’re not going anywhere, could you uh, give me a hand?” He grinned around one of the shopping bags.
Emerald, Chloe and Mandy had already gone off somewhere, but Angelina, Eliana, Trixie and Alice were still walking along behind Danny, chatting and laughing.
“Yeah, sure. Trix you take the coke and I’ll carry the fanta. You ok with the rest Dan?” Ange handed a shopping bag to Trixie, a slim, blond girl of fifteen.
“We’ll take the food. You guys just concentrate on the drinks. They’re probably bottles of fizz anyway, after the boys’ treatment.” Alice laughed good humouredly. “Here, Eliana, take the suasages?” She handed the latter a bag, who took it obediently. Alice was medium height with a creamy complexion and browny-blonde hair. She was always tidy, always looking neat, but had a fairly bubbly character. Eliana was tall with a pale face and frizzy honey coloured hair. She had a pair of brilliant green eyes although they sometimes seemed to look a little sad. Aapart from this though, Eliana was actually quite pretty.
Angelina was entirely the opposite. Her face was always happy and contented, never sad; she had a laugh that was extremely catching, sort of two sounds combined, tinkling bells and the smoothness of harp strings being plucked. Her friends, who were basically the whole youth group, called her Ange, short for Angelina. Her hair was the one thing which caused a lot of joking and good natured teasing amongst everybody who knew her. It was waist-length, thick, reddish brown and totally frizzy. Among the boys, Ange was known as Frizz-bomb or Frizzo, but she didn’t care a bit.
When they reached the picnic spot which Danny finally decided on, everybody got down to business and helped set the table. Well, all the girls did anyway. The boys were too busy fighting over who would cook the meat, the latter task eventually falling to Tyler.
The table Danny had chosen was in a perfect spot. On one side, up a smooth rise, the walkway bordered the lake with trees scattered here and there, creating a sort of partition-like wall between the lake and the table. On the other side of the table, a smooth open space formed a good playing field and this was bordered by a natural stream, winding it’s way forward, out into the country. a few bench seats were also scattered around, one of which was occupied by a lanky, vacant-faced youth.
Apart from him, no one else had taken advantage of the georgious summer night.
"Hey girls, game of soccer?" Johnny called over from where he was dribbling a ball.
"Should we?" Eliana raised her eyebrows at the others.
"Why not? It won't do no harm. Besides, we'll probably beat the boys anyway. Girl power." Ange laughed.
"I heard that Frizzo. You just wait." Zech grinned over his shoulder as he joined the rest of the boys.
Ange rolled her eyes. "No, YOU wait and see, Zech Walters. Come on girls, let's go and win!!"
"Hey, you too Luke and Tyler. Hurry up man!"
The two boys were seated on one of the benches listening to something in the discman.
"Ok Ok, hold your horses. We're coming."
"You better come alright. Who would wanna miss out on our glorious triumphant win? Not you two, that's for sure." Alice said jokingly.
Everyone shouted with laughter.
This game just had to be good.
It's all gonna lead up to something, fo' sure.
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