came Caleb's reply through the walkie-talkie.
Ty frowned. Someone is bound to find me, he thought, cynically.
Ty had always been the scaredy cat of the triplets. Bravery was not the first word that came to mind when describing Tyrone Black.
Although it was the last thing he wanted to be doing right there and then, Ty shrank again and searched the vanilla soufflés, again without success.
Every single soufflé, chocolate and vanilla, had collapsed with a round hole in the middle after Ty was finished. The catering staff, however, didn't notice as they rushed to bring the desserts out to the waiting guests.
Ty wished he could have stopped them, but he knew it would have looked suspicious. "I really, really, really hope you can explain this to Bella's mom," he growled into his walkie-talkie.
"Guys, they're bringing out the soufflés!" Bella whispered, urgently, over the radio.
"It's a sore point, Bella," Caleb answered.
"Please tell me you found the bomb," Jack begged.
"What if I say I didn't?" Ty asked.
"Is it possible you didn't drop the bomb in a dessert?" Bella asked Caleb, her sweet voice filling with hope.
"No, I definitely dropped it in a dessert," he said, regrettably dashing Bella's hopes. "It's small, so I can see why Ty had trouble finding it."
"I'm small. I'm supposed to find small stuff!" Ty ranted.
Bella moaned. Her mom owned a local diner and had been hired to cater the business function. If a cherry bomb exploded in one of the desserts, Bella and the boys might not live to see graduation.
"Well, what now?" Bella asked, downheartedly.
Silence.
"We hope the threat of life in prison holds your mom back from murdering us."
2
Outside, the event was proceeding without mishap.
Ethan cracked jokes, trying to give the impression of happy fat guy, while avoiding handshakes, pats on the back and eating dinner with excuses varying from contagious warts to obscure dietary needs.
Ty and Caleb continued their charade as caterers, carrying trays around and offering glasses of wine.
Bella kept herself unnoticed, but in plain sight, while Jack anxiously watched every soufflé in the crowd, waiting for a cherry bomb's small detonation.
He just hoped no one mistook the tiny explosion for a terrorist attack...
Nothing was happening and that made the anxiety worsen.
Eventually, Ty groaned. "Man, I just wish that stupid cherry bomb would explode so we could go home!"
Unfortunately, as soon as he said that, there was an audible poof and an old businessman, sitting at Ethan's table, was covered in chocolate goo and soufflé.
The chatter quietened down as everyone turned to stare at the man's shocked, chocolate coated expression.
"Ty, learn to shut up," Bella said.
Ethan laughed, heartily. "Wow, I haven't had exploding surprise soufflé since the sixties!" he said, activating Damage Control mode. "That's considered a delicacy in some states."
The victim of the cherry-bomb-soufflé didn't look too impressed. "This is sabotage!" he bellowed.
Murmuring began in the hall.
"Who did this?"
"Was is our rivals?"
"Maybe it was just a prank."
"There are footprints in my dessert!"
Suddenly, more soufflés exploded.
"Caleb!" his brothers and friends exclaimed.
"It may have been a whole box of cherry bombs," he admitted, sheepishly.
"The gig's up!" Jack warned. "Time to initiate plan B!"
"We didn't make a plan B!" Ty replied, bordering on hysteria. "What's plan B? Please don't say we'll be winging it again."
"Plan B is... simple," Jack said, sounding so reassuring, it could have convinced anyone. "Caleb? It seems we'll be livening up the party after all."
"Oh, goodie!" Caleb said, sounding like an ecstatic toddler.
Jack fell straight down, wobbling as he landed behind the huge curtains dividing backstage and centre-stage.
He looked around the dark backstage, searching for anything that he could use as a means to liven up the party.
Eventually, he spotted an electric guitar.
Hurrying, he grabbed the instrument he had been playing since second grade, strapped it over his back and entered stage right.
The band that had been playing slowly stopped in astonishment at the newcomer.
Jack walked up to them. "We'll be speeding things up now," he said, hoping he sounded like he had just enough authority to be believed.
The band members shrugged and the drummer smacked his sticks together. "One, two, three, four!" and a thumping drumbeat kicked in, the drummer banging his head up and down in time to the pumping beats.
The uptight businessmen and businesswomen were confused, shocked, by the sudden change in pace.
Bella ran to the panel that controlled the lights, searched the array of buttons and levers, read the labels until she found what she was looking for and pulled the small lever.
The lights completely went out. People were half way through their gasps of shock when a disco ball lowered and shot specks of multicoloured light across the room.
Bella, her entire body breaking out in a bright blue glow the instant the lights dimmed, tried to hide.
Jack plugged his guitar into an amplifier, adjusted the settings, and approached the microphone.
"They called me in to give this party an extra kick, so let's get rocking, shall we?" Jack asked. He didn't wait for a reply from the puzzled audience: he just started playing and singing.
Jack had his own band, made up of some friends from Crashton High, and was used to playing for school events, the neighbourhood, or just his mom and little sister in the garage. But never before had he played for such a... dead crowd.
As the rock tune played and the lights danced, the formal men and women continued looking perplexed.
"We're never going to get out of here if we don't get people on their feet," Caleb told Ty and Bella as they congregated together in a hidden corner.
"How on Earth are we going to get them moving?" Bella questioned, jerking a thumb in the direction of the puzzled audience. "I don't even think it's possible."
"They're businessmen," Caleb said. "If you get one moving, the rest will follow. It's their job. We just gotta make sure it's someone higher up on the food chain."
Ty looked at his brother in awe. "Okay, I did not expect something so clever to come from your mouth. What do we do?"
"We don't have to do a thing," Caleb said. He pointed to the crowd. "Look."
As they watched on, Ethan, still projecting the hologram of a jolly, overweight businessman, started dancing to the rocking, upbeat, dance-inducing tune, pretending to dance badly.
"Let's boogie!" he declared.
The other executives decided to join and soon the tables and chairs were pushed aside to make room for an appallingly badly dancing crowd of tuxedoes and gowns.
Jack, still singing and rocking out on the borrowed guitar, searched the crowd for his friends. He noticed Ethan and winked to him, signalling for him to leave now while he had the chance.
"Time to hit the road," Ethan told his brothers and Bella as he returned to his youthful, solid self and joined them near the exit.
"How do you think Jack's going to get out?" Bella asked, concern shining in her denim blue eyes.
"He's Jack: Superman without the cape," Ethan told her, reassuringly. "I think he can get away from a crowd of dancing office-workers without even breaking a sweat."
With that sentiment, Ethan grabbed Bella, tossed her over his shoulder like a rag doll and started running.
"Oh, come on, guys!" Bella moaned, dangling over Ethan's shoulder. "I am capable of running with my own two legs, you know."
Jack, Caleb, Ty and Ethan had been doing this since they were little kids and Bella figured it was some kind of ancient instinct to protect the girl. She no longer pr
otested, just complained and went along with it. It was actually sweet.
As the teenagers battled their way through the hordes of boogieing businesspeople, Jack kept his eyes focussed on them, making sure they made their way to the exit without strife.
They were almost out the hall when, suddenly, Caleb was cut off from his brothers and Bella. A barricade of poorly dancing suits blocked his exit.
Bella was the only one who saw it happen as she was facing backwards. "Caleb!" she called, automatically.
His thick, Mexican eyebrows furrowed as the swarm of tuxedoes swallowed him.
Ethan and Ty continued their sprint for freedom but stopped and turned around when they reached the open exit doors. Ethan set Bella down and she readjusted her attire, un-ruffling her hair and un-crinkling her dress.
"Where is he?" Ty asked, looking worried.
As they watched the crowd, waiting to see their short friend and brother emerge, a blur sprung up from amidst the horde of people, and landed, expertly, in front of them.
"Did you have to jump?" Ty questioned his brother. "Someone could have seen you!"
Caleb rolled his chocolate brown eyes. "Out of everything that's happened tonight, I don't really think anyone cares."
"Let's get out of here," Bella said, urgently. The triplets trailing behind her, Bella led the way to the jeep, parked right outside the hall for a quick getaway.
She opened the front door, eagerly. "Okay, someone else is going to have to drive because I forgot my learner's permit," she said, sounding deflated.
The triplets smiled. Bella, being younger than the boys, didn't have her full license yet and still needed an adult in the car whenever she drove.
"No need," a voice said from behind.
Bell whirled around, a smile erupting on her faintly glowing face. "Jack!"
"Didn't have time for an encore," he