Liam checked his watch as he jogged along the road to the track; he was late again. His life was currently a contrast between the present – studying at university – and a bit of living in the past, with a position at his old school, coaching cross country in the mornings. He’d held the position since graduation, he’d been a decent level runner as a teenager, made a few rep competitions, and now was in charge of the junior grades. They were shaping up well; the boys were competitive enough that they didn’t slack off in front of their mates, so keeping them focused wasn’t a mission.
He turned onto the footpath that ran alongside the creek, crossed the little bridge and came out onto the playing fields of the school, where a 400 metre running track had been spray painted. Underneath one of the tin roof shelters, the boys were waiting for him, their bags in a pile while their owners stood in a close group a few metres away on the grass. Attendance was a little lower than usual; fifteen or so, but that was fine.
As he got closer, he realised the group were all standing around something. What had been excited voices quickly died down to silence. ‘Sorry I’m late guys, let’s get the roll done real quick before we get started…’ he stopped as he stepped up to the group, finally seeing what they were standing around.
For a moment he’d thought he was dreaming; there’d been enough stimulus in the last few weeks for it. His cousin, Connor and his mate Bennett had been over a few times since they’d stayed over, much to Christian’s delight. Liam had relished the excuse at breaking from study, and the fact that Bennett wasn’t family; as he’d grown older the enjoyment from tying and being tied had become a bit weird for him when it was his brothers and cousin, but with the like-aged Bennett things weren’t as complicated.
So when he’d found two of the boys on the ground with their wrists and ankles bound to tent pegs, mouths covered with school ties, Liam had to bite the inside of his cheek to make sure he was awake.
---
‘Hands up if you want to tie up this kid and leave him out on the road,’ James said, sighing. A few hands actually went up, much to Aiden’s surprise. But it worked to silence Nick, who’d been niggling James about his breakup with his “girlfriend” for some fifteen minutes, which had been getting on everyone’s nerves.
Aiden went back to picking at grass and asking his mate Ethan about his weekend, as James went wandering away from the group. Their coach was late, which wasn’t like him. A few of the kids had asked Aiden what they should do; start running or just head up to school, but Aiden was only just fourteen, and didn’t really know the rhyme and reason behind sets. They ran, following Liam’s instruction. Yeah, it was easier with Liam in charge, rather than trying to wrangle the younger kids, like eleven year old Nick, into following him.
‘Hey,’ someone tapped Aiden on the shoulder a few minutes later. He turned, seeing James crouched behind him. ‘I found these near the groundskeepers shed,’ he said, holding out his hand to reveal a bunch of tent pegs. They were probably left over from the inter-house sports carnival from last week.
‘Yeah, so?’ Aiden shrugged.
‘I wasn’t really joking when I said we should tie Nick up.’
Aiden looked over at the kid, thin and blonde, chattering to another kid his age. ‘You serious?’
‘Yeah,’ James smiled, as a few others came over, dark blue ties and grey socks from their academic uniforms in hand.
‘Dude, what if a teacher sees us?’ Aiden asked, suddenly worried about getting in trouble.
‘Come on, what are they gonna do? We’ll just say we were playing around.’
‘I dunno…’ he looked to Ethan for support, but his mate had the same excited look on his face.
‘Ethan, grab him,’ James said, and Aiden felt arms wrapping around him, pinning his arms by his sides. His shout was quickly muffled by a hand from another boy, and he tried to struggle, dropping his weight low like he was shown in Tae Kwon Do, but two more boys, all excited at something happening after just waiting around for ages, grabbed him and rendered him motionless.
Aiden kept squirming, now embarrassed at the idea of a teacher finding him tied up, but four on one meant he wasn’t going anywhere. So he watched as James and a few others went up to Nick, one of them slipping their arms between Nick’s and his body, holding him close as James silenced Nick by stuffing a balled up sock in his mouth, then wrapping a school tie over top. They wrestled the kid to the ground, putting him on his back with one holding his legs and one on each arm, pulling each limb outwards. James used his foot to push a tent peg into the ground, then lashed a tie or sock around Nick’s wrists and ankles to each peg. Within a minute the kid was immobilised on the ground, stretched out and silenced.
‘You’re such a goody-two-shoes,’ Ethan laughed, as the kids holding Aiden half carried him next to Nick, then pulled him onto the ground. Aiden struggled as soon as his back was on the grass and the boys were adjusted their grips, pulling a hand out from Ethan’s fingers, but his friend sat on his chest, the weight pinning him. James stood over him, upside down from his viewpoint, grinning victoriously.
‘Hold him out,’ James instructed, as he pressed the pegs next to Aiden’s outstretched wrists. He couldn’t turn his head thanks to the hand clamped over his mouth, but he could feel the ties cinching around his wrists, more tightly and more carefully than they had done with Nick, before being looped under the pegs and knotted. Probably because he was bigger and more of a fight than Nick, he thought. That hadn’t done much in the end, he sighed forlornly, trying to pull his hands off the ground to no avail.
They tied his legs closer together than his hands, so he imagined himself more of a Y on the ground than an X. Ethan was still sitting on him, a hand keeping him quiet. James disappeared from sight for a moment, then returned with something bundled in his hand.
‘Open up, Aiden,’ James said, leaning in close. Ethan took his hand away; they’re gonna gag me and finish the job, he thought. So Aiden pressed his lips together, defiant, but James pinched his nose until he gasped for air, then he thrust the bundle into his mouth, as Ethan wrapped a tie over, knotting it tightly behind his head.
‘Is that the principal?’ James said suddenly, pointing towards the school. Aiden practically squeaked behind the gag, straining his head around to see, but the boys all broke out laughing. Aiden slumped and groaned at them. ‘Oh how do my undies taste?’ James asked, to further laughter.
Should’ve kept your mouth shut, he thought to himself. Yeah, no problem with that now.
One of the boys knelt down next to him and ran his fingers under his armpits. Aiden chuckled under the gag; he’d never been ticklish, which had annoyed his friends at lot as a kid. The boy quickly switched over to Nick, who was much more vulnerable. Nick’s high pitched giggling made the embarrassing situation a little more tolerable. Aiden tried forcing his legs and arms off the ground, but the pegs were pressed deep into the dirt.
A few minutes later, after he’d given up, the group went silent, which got him worried. Was there a teacher coming? He really didn’t want to be found by a teacher, they’d probably call his parents or something…
‘…let’s get the roll done real quick before we get started…’ Aiden looked up; the voice was coming from the opposite direction of the school.
Liam appeared, and Aiden didn’t know if that was better or worse. He could be pretty strict at training, would he get mad?
To his surprise, Liam broke the tension with a laugh.
---
He shook his head at Nick and Aiden, staked out and gagged, laughing at the absurdity of it all. The others had their eyes cast sheepishly at the ground; Nick was looking at him with appealing eyes while Aiden was avoiding his gaze.
‘All right, I think that’s enough. James, Bailey, Dylan, untie them please,’ he instructed gently, trying to keep himself from laughing again. He wondered where they’d gotten the pegs from. Once the boys were freed and ungagged, he sent the squad on their warmup run but kept James and Aiden behind.
‘Are we in trouble?’ Aiden asked, with James rolling his eyes.
Liam raised an eyebrow. ‘Care to explain yourself James?’
James shrugged. ‘Nick was being annoying, so we decided to tie him up,’ he said bluntly. ‘Aiden was all soft about it, so we tied him up too.’
‘And that was it? No one was hurt?’
‘No.’
‘Aiden?’
‘They tickled Nick, but I’m not ticklish.’
‘Okay. So it was just boys mucking around. I don’t mind if you boys play those sort of games, hell, I’ve got nothing against them, but if you do, it’s best to do so at home, or if you dare, in school where the teachers won’t see,’ he winked to James. ‘But out here in the park is a bit dangerous, anyone can walk in here. Is that clear?’
‘Yes,’ they both mumbled.
‘All right, catch up with the others.’ He gave them a gentle push in the back. Liam shook his head, smiling to himself. Wait till Bennett heard of this.