“Good luck with that,” Claire shouted and shook her head.
Jack knew Paige was still angry with him, but there was nothing he could do, but apologise. Apology speeches raced around in his mind as he sped across Croydon to get to Selhurst. He parked his car in front of Paige's family vehicle at the back of their flat and ran through the alleyway to the High Street. He banged on the family's front door, and Hazel answered. “I need to see Paige.”
“She's not in,” the tall red-haired girl told him. “And she doesn't want to speak to you anyway.”
“I really need to speak to her, Hazel. Please”
Hazel crossed her arms and leant against the wall in the hallway. Jack tried to see up the stairs to Paige's home, but Hazel blocked his line of sight and she shook her head. “She doesn't want to speak to you. You know, she was crying earlier. And anyone who does that to my sister …”
“I was wrong,” Jack admitted. “Please, Hazel.”
“It's for your own good,” Hazel snapped. “If you see her now, she'll hurt you. I saw what she did to some bullies when they picked on me. Paige fights dirty.”
Jack sighed. “I need to see her,” he insisted. “I want to speak to her and …”
“She's upset. And she's in pieces.”
Jack flinched at Hazel's words and rubbed his hands together as he thought. “I know. And it's my fault.” He took a deep breath and looked at the teenager in the doorway. “OK. You know her better than anyone. If someone really, really wanted to say sorry and would do whatever it took to make things right, what would he have to do to get her to talk to him?” Hazel shifted and licked her lips. “'Cause I did a silly thing. I let myself get bullied. I was weak. But I am here, because I want to go on tour and I want to take her to Devon or Wiltshire, or wherever the hell Claire has said we are going because I enjoy being with her, and rocking with her, more than anything in the world.” Hazel wiped her eyes and shook her head. “What do I have to do?”
“You could start by apologising,” a voice behind Hazel said and the younger girl turned to see Paige sitting on the stairs.
“How long have you been there?” Jack asked.
“Long enough. I'm waiting!”
“OK. I am very, very sorry,” Jack admitted, and Paige suppressed a smile.
“On your knees,” she demanded and Jack moaned that he was in the middle of the High Street. Paige shrugged and watched as Jack got on his knees and repeated his apology. She sighed. “How can I trust you? How do I know you won't flake out on us again?”
“Because I am free of my parents. We are going in my car, I have access to my funds, and we will make money along the way. This is me. And I know you have no reason to trust me, but I am so looking forward to the next month. I want to go, which is why I am here. Claire is coming, if you'll come. It's all up to you.”
Paige took a deep breath. “OK, I'll think about it. I don't know if I can trust you.”
Jack clenched his fists. “We need to go now. I've run away from home. It's now, Paige.” Jack told her impatiently and scrambled to his feet. “I've left home and have everything ready. I just need you and Claire.”
“Go now?” Hazel moaned, and she looked at Paige, who focused on Jack.
“Hell!” Paige muttered. “You're really taking the whatnot. I don't know if I can trust you.”
“I know,” Jack agreed. “I know I'm being unfair but we need to go now. Claire's ready, it's just you. Please Paige, we are going to have such a great time, I just know it. I messed up but who doesn't once and awhile. Please, come with me! And I'll never break a promise again.”
Paige grunted and gulped. “Yeah come on.” Her eyes narrowed and she poked the gleeful Jack in the shoulder. “But you break promises again and I shall never, ever forgive you,” she warned and Jack nodded. “I mean it. I will hunt you down and hurt you. Understand?”
“Yes,” Jack muttered. “But come on, get ready. We need to get going!”
“You leaving me?” Hazel asked and Paige sighed.
“You can come too, if you want. As Band Manager.” Hazel looked uneasy, but Paige pulled Jack into the flat and into her shared bedroom. She frantically began adding clothes and toiletries to a case, before retrieving a family tent that was neatly packed up.
Hazel hovered. “I don't think I want to go,” she told her sister. “I'm not sure I'm ready to go running around the country.”
“Will you be OK on your own?”
Hazel bit her lip and nodded. “Yeah. I'll be fine,” she promised. “I've been feeling a lot better recently.”
“Well, I'll ring,” Paige promised. “And tell Mum I'll be in touch.” Hazel nodded and hugged her sister. “You can manage the Croydon end of things.”
Hazel giggled. “Yeah,” she said and wiped her eyes. “Good luck,” she called out after Paige had hugged her again, and five minutes after Jack had arrived, he was leaving with his star vocalist.
He would be collecting Claire, and then the Bare Necessities were going on tour!
Chapter XIV
While Claire had said goodbye to her startled parents, Paige's family were out when she had left – with the exception of Hazel – so the lead singer got a worried phone call from her Mum.
Claire and Jack chuckled as Paige did her best to explain that she was going on a crazy road trip with two people her parents thought she barely knew, had borrowed the tent, but that she would be back soon, and it was perfectly safe. She did not mention anything about the band or performing naked, and Claire gave her a wry smile. Paige promised to ring regularly, although she could tell her parents were worried, and Paige moaned for the next twenty miles until Jack turned on the radio. “This could be us soon,” Claire remarked. “It could be us on the radio.”
“It will be Paige,” Jack replied. “She's the star.”
“Will you stop saying that?” Paige snapped. “I am not the star. We are members of the same band when our keyboard player wants us to be, and if we succeed then we succeed together. If not, then we better enjoy ourselves trying 'cause otherwise there's no point.”
Claire gave instructions to their first camp site, and location for their first gig, in a little village in Hampshire. Paige had fallen asleep on the back seat, and was leaning against Claire's suitcase while Claire and Jack talked quietly. “Thank you,” she whispered to the driver.
“What for?”
“For … coming to your senses. This means a lot to Paige. And it means a lot to me. I think we are going to enjoy these few weeks.”
“I hope so,” Jack muttered and pulled up outside a yellow sign. “This is Four Oaks, but this is a …”
“Yeah, what?”
“It's a naturist camp site.”
“Well yes, we play naked. It’s the perfect audience as they will appreciate our performance.”
“But … it's naturist!” Claire groaned, and Jack accelerated down the drive of the camp site. Jack tried hard not to look at the naked flesh on display as he parked the car in the tiny car park and Claire told him to wait in the vehicle.
“We are here,” he told Paige, who stirred slowly. “We are at the venue. And it's a naked place.”
Paige rubbed her eyes and stretched her muscles. “What does 'naked place' mean?” She looked out of the windows and yawned. “Oh, you mean a naturist resort. Yeah, then it's a naked place.” Her eyes scanned the three outbuildings and looked back at Jack. “Four Oaks, right?”
“Oh, how do you know that?”
Paige smiled. “Because I know every naturist camp site in England,” she boasted, and Jack turned to face her, clearly impressed. “And because it is written on that sign there.”
“If I am staying here naked with you, is that worth a kiss?” Paige sucked in air through her teeth and nodded. “Please!”
“Yeah, I guess so! When we leave, not before! I want to make sure you don't get cold feet again.”
Claire returned to the vehicle before he could respond and directed Jack to anot
her tiny car park, a hundred metres from the centre of the site, and told him to park it next to “Pitch 8.”
“How much was it?” Paige asked, and Claire smiled.
“Free. We are doing the set. We get a hundred pounds expenses after the gig and free pitch for two days. Which is fortunate as we weren't due to arrive until tomorrow.”
“What about food?”
“There's a café on site or a pub down the road for tonight, but we could do with a kettle or something. And getting some food tomorrow.”
Paige pushed the back of Claire's chair as they spoke. “Come on, let's go and get our tent up. Before we lose the light.”
Jack had never put up a tent, and as he struggled with the thin material, he was dispatched back to the car to watch as Paige and Claire erected their shelter inside ten minutes in the evening twilight. Paige hammered the pegs into the ground, and they carried their bags into the big four-person tent.
“Oh …” Jack moaned as he watched Claire unfurl a sleeping bag. “I just guessed we'd be in hotel rooms, so I've not brought a sleeping bag. And I haven't got one anyway.”
“Yeah, I thought about that,” Paige said with a smug expression and nodded towards her bag.
“You brought a spare?”
“I brought a double.” Claire laughed at Paige. “What?”
Claire sighed. “So I have to give up my sleeping bag to Jack to share the double with you?”
“I don't mind sharing with Jack. Hazel and I shared a couple of times when we were younger.” Claire's eyes narrowed, and she looked at her friend. “Honestly, I don't mind. Perhaps we could take it in turns to have the single.”
“Yeah, OK. Or we could stop off and get another single.”
Paige's eyes fell to the floor. “We could. But I thought it'll be better to be closer.” She nodded at Claire. “It's up to you two. Now can we get something to eat 'cause it's half nine in the evening and I'm starving.” Jack nodded and looked at his phone; it had been on silent for three hours and he had 23 missed calls.
Something told him that his father was most displeased with him.
* * * * *
Jack felt the warm body of Paige against him as he stirred; they had gone to sleep with their backs to one another, but Paige was a restless sleeper and had turned repeatedly in the night. He was not used to sleeping in the same room as someone else, let alone the same sleeping bag, and she had disturbed him repeatedly.
He could feel her naked body heat against him, and he opened his eyes to see the side of the tent. She mumbled something and put her arm around him as she adjusted her position and Jack froze. Pressed up against his back was her bosom and he saw Claire look across at him. “You two look comfortable,” she teased.
“It's snug,” he replied, and his voice caused Paige to wake and stretch. “Morning.”
“Yeah, morning,” Paige muttered and moved her body away from her friend. “You snore,” Paige moaned.
“I don't. It was Claire,” Jack replied and readjusted himself in the sleeping bag. “And my neck is all sore.”
Claire objected to being accused of snoring, but the three friends wandered down to the small café with their towels to get breakfast. Jack was nervous about going nude, and tried to use the cool morning as a reason to get dressed, but Paige dragged him away from the tent, and he paid for breakfast for all three of them.
They had to discuss finances as neither Paige or Claire had an excess of cash, but Jack promised to pay for the petrol – at least initially – and they would get accommodation and expenses from their first few venues, and some payment from others.
After breakfast, Claire got dressed and walked to the small convenience store in the neighbouring village. Paige and Jack offered to accompany her, but she asked for some time alone, and Paige took Jack for a naked swim in the site's tepid pool.
Jack was still openly reluctant about being naked, but as scores of families joined them in the water and as the site became awash with bare people of every shape and size, his anxieties seemed to vanish.
Paige was able to swim away from the naked rugby player easily, and her slight body gave her an agility Jack did not possess. They openly swam and played loudly in the pool, before Paige joined in a teenage game of water volleyball.
It was clear that by lunchtime, Jack was more comfortable with his surroundings, and as their dinner settled and the three of them went for a walk in the neighbouring woods, Paige began to see broad grins from her two friends. “This really is so … relaxing!” Jack surmised to his friends as they ambled down the small hill to their tent. “It's fun!”
Paige giggled and held her hand out for her friend to take. “It is,” she agreed, and Claire pulled out a small bag of food when they arrived back at the tent. The pre-prepared salad with cold chicken and fizzy drink on paper plates was gratefully received by her two friends.
The three of them spent the evening playing cards in the tent before they wandered to the pavilion on site and spoke to a handful of the families. Jack was a little disturbed that a sizeable number of the campers knew who he was, and the three musicians were asked repeatedly for their autographs.
The following day was very similar and the teenagers swam in the pool, walked in the woods, before they drove Jack's car to the open field on the edge of the site where they were playing. They noticed that the site became a lot busier as a number of guests arrived in the late-afternoon and Paige joked that they had all come to see them play!
Claire spoke to the site owner, and two long power cables were provided as Jack set up the equipment and a small crowd gathered. “I saw you on the Internet,” a child's voice cried as an eight year old came up to Paige.
“Did you?” Paige said with a smile, crouching down to the child's level. “Was I any good?”
“Mummy says you are a star, and I think you were OK too,” the girl replied and smiled. “But I think The Wanted are better.”
“Shall I let you into a secret?” Paige answered with a smile. “I think The Wanted are better too.” Claire laughed behind her, and the girl ran back to her parents. “What?”
“Nothing,” Claire answered as Paige grabbed the microphone and introduced herself.
Tomorrow they would be in Dorset, and the following day Cornwall, and as the assembled crowd clapped, the eight year old came and sat at the front. “Do you want to come and sing with me?” She asked, and the cheeky girl could hardly contain her excitement. “Shall we sing Hot N Cold?” The girl nodded and climbed onto the stage with Paige's help. “Hey, and I bet The Wanted don't let you do that!”
* * * * *
Paige laughed as she grabbed the microphone. “I can't believe this is a naturist site,” she teased the audience. “One, two, three, four, five, six bare people and the rest of you … you're a disgrace! Back in Hampshire on Tuesday, we didn't have this. I had an eight year old on stage naked singing with me. They must be made of sterner stuff up there!”
Paige got some good-natured heckling. “It's bloody cold,” a voice cried.
“Not next to these heaters, it's not.” The naked Paige giggled and introduced her band before they started with Bad Reputation. Paige sang with passion and conviction, putting energy into her rock songs as she danced on stage. She took time to give a brief explanation about each song, and hauled a couple of identical twins from the audience to sing Hot N Cold, with her; it was their most well-known of covers and everyone knew the words to it.
Paige was cheeky, when she asked Jack and Claire to play their instruments, and then passed her microphone to the two sisters and walked into the audience. “I think I'm redundant,” the girl joked as they the two naturist children did their best to sing Katy Perry's classic.
Paige returned to the set, to sing Don't Leave Me, a powerfully understated song that had her audience silent as they listened to her hit some very difficult notes. The band got another standing ovation and were asked to repeat a handful of songs which they were only too happy to d
o.
Tired, the three of them put their equipment into Jack's car and went to settle in their tent when a voice from behind the canvas dome called. “Jack, Jack!”
All three band members turned to see a naked Lucinda emerge from the shadows, and she shivered. “It's cold here.”
“Lucinda!”
“You can wear something in the evenings,” Claire remarked, and Jack's aunt nodded. “Ignore what Paige says, she's just a fundamentalist!”
“Yeah, I know. But I wanted to blend in.” She looked at her nephew. “Your father says 'you are to return home at once and stop messing about.' I trust you have a suitable message to give back to him.” She looked at the stunned faces of Claire and Paige and smiled. “One that ends in 'off' I hope.”
“You can tell him that I am happy here and will be staying with my friends.” He looked at Paige, clearly hoping to get approval and she nodded.
“Excellent. I hoped you'd say that.” She looked across at Claire and Paige outside the spacious family tent and rubbed her hands. “Is it OK to go in? I got a tent, somewhere over there, but I wouldn't mind seeing my nephew before he leaves the site.”
Jack was grateful that Paige passed his Aunt Lucinda a T-shirt to cover herself, but Paige was half the size of his aunt, and the garment had to stretch to accommodate the voluptuous woman. Lucinda sat down on the groundsheet of the tent that contained two sleeping bags and Jack spoke. “What are you doing here?”
“What, you'd rather your father came here? You posted a schedule on your webpage, Harriet found it. He wanted someone to go there and give you a rollicking. Which is me.”
“But you don't want him to go home,” Paige said, a little perplexed by the 47 year-old woman. “Do you?”
“Do I bollocks!” Lucinda replied. “I told him to come. But his father thinks I am on his side, not your's.” Paige chuckled as Jack shook his head.
“So what was he doing?”
“Oh, and that message about Harriet. It wasn't nice.”
“Yeah, but's true.”
“Yeah, I know. But very sneaky. I thought my nephew had more class than that. And anyway, the thought of his heir to the family firm running away with … commoners … well let's just say that a bit of cocaine was nothing.”
Jack shrugged. “She was callous to me. I just …”