“And it’s nobody’s damn business, anyway!” Ricky spat in anger.
Techie looked even more embarrassed, if such a thing were possible. “You don’t have to tell me this, guys.”
The fire in Lance’s eyes intensified. “Yes, we do. We know how nasty those people out there can be.” He locked his eyes on Sir Techie’s. “I’ve always been straight with you, Techie. Do you believe me about this?”
Techie looked long and hard into the eyes of Arthur’s son, and grinned. “Yeah, I do.” Then he added shyly, “And it wouldn’t matter to me anyway. You guys are perfect together.”
Lance let out a breath of relief, exchanging a look with the still-mortified Ricky. He gripped Ricky’s knee and squeezed it gently to calm him, and then pulled his hand back.
“What else is going on out there about us?”
Back on safer technological ground, a relieved Techie pulled up the list of gay magazines and activist groups who wanted interviews, appearances or shirtless pictures of the boys, causing both Lance and Ricky to blanch anew with disgust.
“Shirtless pix?” Ricky exclaimed with a shake of his head. “Aren’t we still minors?”
Lance grunted. “Doesn’t matter. If they can get grown-ups to drool over our hot bods they might make more money or something.”
Ricky tossed off a slight smirk. “Well, you do have a hot bod.”
Lance grinned and shoved him, causing the chair to roll away several feet and bump into a computer table.
Techie eyed them with amusement. “How do you want to respond to these requests, Lance?”
Lance considered a moment. “Any TV shows want us on?”
Techie scanned the list. “Most of ’em, especially Ellen. Her producer has sent a bunch of messages since Tuesday.
Lance looked at Ricky, and both boys smiled simultaneously. “Ellen will work, Techie,” Lance said. “She’s cool. We’ll say everything we’re ever gonna say about our relationship on her show. The rest can just crib from there. And those groups who wanna exploit us, well, they aren’t gonna like what they hear.”
The three exchanged a conspiratorial high-five.
“C’mon, guys, it’s time for dinner,” Lance announced, rising to his feet. “I’m starved.”
And so the three boys left the Computer Lab for their nightly trek to the Renaissance Dining Room.
†††
The following morning, the boys rose early, as they normally would for school, showered and dressed in casual t-shirts, jeans and skate shoes. No longer shy about seeing each other shirtless, they paraded uninvited into and out of each other’s rooms, borrowing this hair dryer or that item of clothing because theirs was in the wash.
After a quick breakfast, they headed to Jenny’s classroom to drop off their completed work. Despite Jenny being their mother, they always turned in schoolwork during school hours so the others would not perceive any advantage or favoritism on the part of Jenny the teacher, as opposed to Jenny the mother.
She thanked them and they waved to the class before exiting. Darnell and Justin gave them the head nod, and several others threw out a thumbs-up. Lance and Ricky knew that once school let out at noon, every one of the knights would head to the lab and go online for the reaction to their amendments.
Feeling almost like they were ditching, the boys hurried back through the lobby and down another hallway to the Computer Lab. For once, the spacious room with its hundred computers sat silent and empty, with even Techie not taking up residence until nearly noon
They sat down at their usual stations, logged onto their website, and pulled up the Children’s Bill of Rights, intending to check it over before the public unveiling.
While prepping the website and Facebook page for the big unveil, Lance received a tweet from Harry Styles: ‘Hey Lance, heard Arthur’s getting married. Want me and the boys to perform for the wedding?’
Astonished, Lance showed Ricky the tweet and Ricky’s mouth dropped open.
“That dude was way cool when you got arrested, Lance,” he offered with a grin. “I say tell him yeah.”
Lance tweeted: ‘Yeah, man, that’d be dope. Wedding’s a week from Saturday. That possible?’
They went back to their preparations. A few moments later, Harry tweeted back: ‘You got it, bloke. Just give me the time. Look forward to meeting face-to-face and starting a real scandal. Ha!’.
The boys laughed and Lance tweeted his thanks, promising to get back as soon as possible with the specifics.
“Is that crazy or what?” Lance said with a whistle. “One Direction playing live for Mom and Dad’s wedding.”
“Yeah,” Ricky confirmed with a nod.
Then Lance’s face clouded slightly. “Hey, Ricky.”
“Hey what?” Ricky replied, his eyes back on the Facebook page.
“Is their music any good?”
Ricky looked up to see Lance gazing at him earnestly. He shrugged. “Beats me.”
Lance laughed and they finished their preparations. Slipping out quickly for some lunch at eleven, the boys were back in their seats by eleven-thirty when Jenny dismissed school for the day and the Computer Lab began filling up with eager, excited children and teens. Chris, of course, made his way straight to Lance and hopped up onto his lap, checking the computer screen and Lance’s set-up of the amendments, nodding his head in apparent approval.
Like the captain of a starship, Techie sauntered in and resumed his seat beside Lance, firing up his screen and verifying that Lance had everything set up correctly. The media had already been alerted to the noon reveal, and a tweet would go out to the millions of New Camelot followers with a link to the Children’s Bill of Rights.
Lance felt nervous, his palms sweaty as the hour approached noon. Chris finally jumped off his lap and planted himself in front of his own computer, allowing Ricky to reach out and take Lance’s trembling hand. Their eyes met, and Lance gratefully squeezed back.
When he turned back to Techie, he noted the boy’s eyes fixed on their clasped hands uncertainly, but then the seventeen-year-old smiled. “Someday I hope I have with a girl what you guys have together,” he said, a touch of envy evident in his voice.
Lance grinned. “You will.”
Ricky smiled in agreement.
At that moment, Reyna and Esteban blew into the lab like twin tornadoes, each having cut out early from their college classes to be part of this historic moment. Esteban was currently taking classes at Los Angeles City College, while Reyna had enrolled in Cal State Northridge.
“Are we ready to roll, people?” Reyna called out by way of announcing her presence.
She swept between the tables to engulf Lance, and then Ricky, in a bone-crushing hug each, acting like she hadn’t seen them in forever. Esteban just shrugged and gave each the fist bump.
As Reyna threw herself into a nearby computer chair, and Esteban planted himself right beside her like a tree, Lance looked up from his phone. “Oh, Reyna,” he said mater-of-factly, his mind on the amendments, “I got a tweet from Harry Styles. He asked if him and that One Direction group could perform for Mom and Dad’s wedding and I told him yes. Hopefully, that’s okay with you.”
Reyna whipped her head around, long hair flying back and striking Esteban full in the face, her mouth hanging open in shock. “One Direction wants to play here?”
Lance looked up, exchanging an uncertain look with Ricky. “Uh, yeah. Is that cool?”
Flabbergasted, she turned to gape at Esteban, but he looked flummoxed. “Hey, don’t look at me. I don’t know those guys. Not my kind ’a music.”
Reyna shook her head and looked back at the boys. “Lance, that’s like, amazing. They’re only, like, one of the biggest pop music groups out there. I mean, it’s not my style, either, but I bet Jenny and your dad’ll love it.” Then her face clouded. “You gotta tell them to keep it on the low pro, because if word gets out ahead of time we’ll have every middle school girl in the city camped out front.”
La
nce grinned. “They’d be better than those cultists who wanna worship me.”
“Don’t forget the ones who wanna kill yer ass,” Ricky put in with a shove at Lance’s shoulder.
“Oh, yeah, them too.” The boys laughed. “Don’t worry, Reyna. I’ll see if they can sneak in Friday night and stay over, before the media starts flying around in their helicopters.”
“This’ll be the biggest wedding ever!” she gushed, grabbing Esteban and squeezing his hand enthusiastically.
The boys shrugged, and continued the vigil.
The time on Lance’s phone finally ticked over to twelve o’clock, and he gave Techie the word. The Children’s Bill of Rights went live and everyone in the room sat back to await the feedback.
The reaction was instantaneous.
‘Likes’ began inundating their Facebook page almost at once, leading Lance to believe many people weren't even reading the document, but just liking it on general principle.
Almost as fast came the comments on their website – positive, negative, outraged, excited. And with the comments began coming suggestions for revision.
Clearly, the anticipation must’ve been high with so many people pouncing on the document the very second of its release.
Techie began scrolling the news sites – the world had apparently been put on hold for this story because no one at any news outlet except MSNBC was talking about anything else, and at MSNBC, Techie pointed out to Lance, they were discussing higher taxes for the rich to pay for wind-powered automobiles. Lance and Ricky exchanged a mystified look at that one and shrugged.
As the day wore on, the various talking heads weighed in on CNN and Fox (and finally MSNBC) about parents’ rights versus government protection of children, and whether or not children should be in charge of their own money, or even if they should have free-speech rights at school – exactly the debates Lance and Ricky hoped their Bill of Rights would generate.
Tomorrow would be a live press conference in front of City Hall that Lance knew would attract all the national and local news outlets. He and Ricky would leap from the hot seat right into the frying pan as the questions would likely be strong and specific now that the amendments were live, and the media had time to digest them. Both boys knew the amendments inside and out––they’d written them, after all––and felt prepared for the grilling to come. Still, apprehension eventually prevailed and they slunk out of the lab at three-thirty for a sparring session to work off the nervous energy. Tomorrow, they knew, would be a very big day.
†††
Dinner that night proved a raucous affair, with Reyna, Esteban, Techie, Justin and Darnell and a host of other knights sticking around to celebrate the launch of their next big salvo in the war for America’s children.
Reyna chattered on about the upcoming wedding, causing Jenny to sneak random smiles with Arthur. The adults seemed amused that Reyna appeared more excited about their upcoming nuptials than they were, though Jenny knew no one was more thrilled than she.
Darnell and Justin thumbed their noses at the news that One Direction would perform live at the wedding, with Darnell slipping an aside to Justin, “There goes our rep,” causing Justin to laugh and fist bump him.
Most of the conversation revolved around the divisive response to their Bill of Rights. As expected, nearly every comment from kids proved to be positive and encouraging, while those from adults ranged from dismissive to downright hateful. Once again, as he’d been when he “came back,” Lance was “The spawn of the Devil for conspiring to take God-given rights away from parents.”
Despite the jovial atmosphere, Lance knew once again he’d be on the spot tomorrow when he faced the press and public at large to address their proposal. Oh, well, he thought, I’ll enjoy this moment while I got it. And he did just that, laughing and joking and enjoying every moment with his family and the boy he loved, ignoring the nagging sensation that tonight marked the last peaceful moment he’d have for a long time. Maybe forever.
†††
Sergeants Ryan and Gibson arrived the following morning with the news that Chief Murphy had once again reassigned them to permanent duty as the protectors of Lance, Ricky, and Arthur whenever they ventured forth into the public arena. With Michael’s death, the LAPD had closed the case on the attempts on Lance’s life, but the FBI had, as yet, drawn a blank on the person or persons responsible for the attack on Arthur that had killed Lavern and three other children in San Francisco the previous May.
Now, with their potentially more contentious Bill of Rights before the public, both Murphy and Mayor Soto felt the need for renewed security.
†††
The press conference, scheduled for three-thirty p.m., drew even bigger crowds than any previous ones. The national media crammed in with the local around the usual stage set up on Temple Street in front of the towering Los Angeles City Hall. The public, too, came out in force – parents with their children, single adults, and many, many teens in groups, including nearly all of Arthur’s thousand-plus knights from all over the Los Angeles area.
Unlike previous appearances, as a new security measure, Ryan and Gibson escorted Arthur, Jenny, and the boys, all attired in their finest tunics and pants, with the males sporting their swords sheathed to their belts, through the vast, marbled and columned City Hall lobby. They exited on the Temple Street side and proceeded straight to the enormous staging area, thus avoiding that long, unprotected walk through the gathered throng anxiously awaiting their appearance.
Mayor Soto greeted the family when they stepped up onto the stage and all were welcomed with boisterous applause from the assembled crowd. When he shook Lance’s hand, the diminutive mayor smiled wryly and said, “Well, if it isn’t the young Mr. Lincoln,” to which Lance laughed.
Given the enormity of this new endeavor, the entire city council, led by President Sanders, and LAPD Chief Murphy, were also present, greeting Arthur and the family warmly. Their bill of rights, while enormous in scope, would not directly or indirectly affect them or their political lives as the proposition had done, so the welcome was heartfelt and worry-free.
The mayor stepped to the podium first and quieted the vast multitude, which surrounded him on three sides like the Pacific Ocean around a peninsula. “Greetings fellow Angelenos,” the mayor began, and was instantly interrupted by a tumultuous shout of approval from the ebullient crowd, especially the youth.
“We are gathered here today,” the mayor went on, his voice booming out over the crowd through enormous speakers set up around the staging area, “to once again set Los Angeles’s young Mr. Lincoln, Sir Lance Pendragon, loose to work his magic, only this time he’s going after the whole country. As for me, I’m betting against the country.”
That drew a tremendous laugh, and lots of whoops from the kids.
“As all of you know, their monumental Children’s Bill of Rights went live yesterday and has caused, how shall I put this, a bit of an uproar?”
He grinned as the crowd again laughed and the kids whooped even louder.
“Before I introduce them, Sir Lance has asked me to inform you that he and Sir Ricky will answer no questions about their personal relationship. They will appear on the Ellen Show next week and that will be the only time they will publicly discuss the matter. So, for those of you with questions in that area, I suggest you tune in to the show.”
The crowd laughed and the teens cheered wildly, which caused Lance and Ricky to grin broadly. They hadn’t expected so much support in that arena from their peers.
“So, without further adieu,” Soto went on, “I give you two young men I personally feel honored to know, Sir Lance and Sir Ricky.”
He stepped away from the microphone to thunderous applause from the assembled kids and teens, with more muted support from some of the scowling, wary adults. Lance and Ricky, beaming, shook hands with the mayor and he ushered them forward before resuming his seat beside Sanders.
Nervousness filled his soul and threatened to dro
wn him as Lance shyly eyed Ricky while they approached the podium. He knew Ricky felt the same nauseous waves of anxiety, but he also knew Ricky expected him to do the lion’s share of the talking. He was the young Mr. Lincoln, after all.
Lance scanned the crowd, and the reporters. He made eye contact with Helen Schaeffer of Channel 7 News in her usual place in front, and waved. Of all in the media, she had been his staunchest supporter from the beginning and had never doubted him, even when he doubted himself. He even spotted Yellow Hair a little ways behind her. He was a tabloid reporter who’d spent much of the past year heckling him and trying his best to rankle him. But since last week’s rally, the man seemed different, more human and less paparazzi than before. Lance met his eye and gave him the chin nod. Then he cleared his throat, and waited for the crowd to settle.
“Welcome everyone,” he began, hoping his voice sounded strong and confident.
The crowd cheered again, giving Lance a moment to steal a glance Ricky’s way. The other boy was wearing that look, the one that said, “You’re all that’s important in this world,” the one that always immersed him in peace. And it worked again. He grinned in gratitude and turned back to the crowd.
“As you all know, Ricky and me put something on the Internet yesterday that for some reason people think is a big deal.”
That drew major laughs and applause, especially from the youngsters.
Lance spotted Justin, Darnell and Techie down in the crowd, clapping excitedly. What surprised him was that Bridget and Ariel stood with them, cheering and clapping, as well. His heart caught a moment in his throat as he thought back on the past year and all that had passed between he and Bridget. But she looked happy and excited and that assuaged some of his guilt.
“Okay, here’s the deal,” Lance went on when everyone had quieted down. “After I got out of jail in September, Ricky and me got to talking about the Bill of Rights and how we kids didn’t have any of them, even when we’re being tried as adults, which thanks to the people of California can’t be done here any more.”
More applause and whoops arose from the teens.
And The Children Shall Lead Page 5