Hole in the head.

    J knew they were up to something. They were sitting on the couch, whispering to each other and trying to hush their laughter, a small plastic bag from the local drugstore on the couch in between them.

    It was back in the early days. They had barely been living together a month and already the lines of friendship had clearly been formed.
    Sean, the youngest, was a puppy. He followed J around everywhere, a look of wide-eyed admiration on his face. J didn't seem to mind. The kid looked up to him.
    Abs and J got along pretty well, too. They were both rappers, and listened to similar music. They could go on for hours about this new cd or that, and never once have a disagreement.
    J and Scott were an entirely different story. They pushed each other's buttons. Scott was naturally hyper and always made sure to turn it up a notch when J was around. J couldn't stand Scott when he was like that.
    Rich was something of an oddball. He didn't have much in common with the other lads, except for age with Abs and Scott. He and Scott both sang soprano, so from the beginning they were competing with each other for the lead vocals in a lot of the ballads. They tried to play it off, but there was a rivalry there.
    When Abs and Scott got together, there was trouble. Especially if Abs was in one of his quirky mindsets. Scott's hyperactivity and Abs' bizarre mood swings, when added together, were a dangerous combination.

    J could tell this was one of those times. He was relaxing in an armchair, trying to read the day's paper, while Sean sat on the floor in the corner, fiddling with one of his keyboards. They both couldn't help but notice Abs and Scott's little outbursts.
    The two of them let out a particularly loud snicker, causing J to lower his paper and peer at them over the top of it. Scott was playing with something inside the plastic bag, and Abs' gaze was directed towards the window, watching as their fifth member's friends dropped him off out in front of the house.

    Sean was watching Abs and Scott, very nervously. The last time the two of them had started quietly conspiring and laughing mischievously like that, poor Sean had ended up running around the house in naught but a towel. While he had been in the shower, Scott and Abs had decided to steal every stitch of Sean's clothing and use them to decorate the front lawn.

    Just then, the door opened, and Rich came in, reeking of cigarette smoke and softly singing a Green Day song under his breath.
    J glanced up from his paper again in time to see Abs and Scott exchange grins. Sean breathed a sigh of relief; he wasn't the day's target after all.

    "Hi Rich," Abs said brightly, and Rich, who had been heading towards the kitchen, froze in place. Abs had sounded just a little too cheerful.
    "What is it?" Rich asked suspiciously.
    "Nothing," Abs told him, voice full of feigned innocence. "Just `hi'."
    "Uh. . .ok. . .hi," Rich replied nervously, and decided it would be best if he just hurried on his way.

    J had just replace his paper in front of his eyes when he heard a strange series of noises that made him lower it again.

    Thump.
    "Oof."
    Thud.
    Thud.
    Smack.
    "Ow!"

    For some odd reason, Rich was now on the floor on his stomach. Abs was sitting on his legs, and Scott was straddling his back, pinning each of Rich's arms down with his knees. Scott was holding in his hand the object that J deduced must have been inside the plastic bag.
    It was a small, plastic ear-piercing gun.

    "Get off me you. . ." Rich shouted, sentence disintegrating into a string of curses.
    "Oh, hold still, you big baby!" Scott told him. "It won't hurt a bit."
    "What won't hurt?!" Rich demanded.
    "We're piercing your ear, mate," Abs told him cheerfully.
    "No you're not!" Rich shouted back, bursting into a fresh wave of struggling.
    "C'mon, Rich, it'll look good," Scott told him. "It will give you some masculinity. Make you look tough. Less people will think you're gay."
    Rich stopped struggling.
    "Who thinks I'm gay?" he asked.
    "Lost of people," Abs volunteered.
    "They do?" Rich asked again.
    "Sure they do," Scott agreed.
    "Gay and feminine," Abs added.
    "Right," Scott agreed again, reaching down and grabbing Rich by the earlobe. "But don't worry, we'll take care of that for you!"
    "No! Stop! J, help me!" Rich shouted, trying to get free.
    "I think I should just stay out of this," J replied quickly. Scott had made mention the week prior that J should get his left eyebrow pierced to match the right one, and J didn't much fancy Scott and Abs trying to give it a go themselves.

    "Get off me!" Rich demanded again.
    "Oh, would you just hold still?" Scott replied, trying to regain his grip on Rich's ear. He decided that he had really gotten the worse end of the deal. All Abs had to do was sit on Rich's legs to keep him from kicking up. Scott had the much livelier – and louder – end to deal with. Rich had tried to bite him three times already.
    "Scott I swear to God, if you. . .OW!"

    As soon as the job was done, Abs and Scott let Rich up.
    Almost instantly, Rich yanked the earring out of his newly pierced ear and threw it across the room, where it landed near J's foot. He then stalked off to his bedroom, holding his bleeding earlobe and muttering curses under his breath.
    "Hmm. Never thought he'd just rip it out like that," Abs said with a shrug.
    "Yeah. Me neither," Scott agreed, looking at the plastic gun in his hand. "Look, it came with a pair. We have an extra earring all loaded in here and ready. Who else can we pierce?"
    All eyes drifted to the boy in the corner.
    Sean lout out a noise that can only be described as, "Meep!", and took off for his bedroom, slamming and locking the door behind him.
    Scott and Abs looked disappointed, then turned to J, brightening.
    J shot them when he hoped was a menacing look. It did the job.

    Scott shrugged and then added another piercing to his own ear, not even flinching.
    "Oh like you really needed another hole in your head," Abs joked.
    "Shut up," Scott replied. "Let's get out of here before Rich realizes we cut all the buttons off all his clothes. He's gonna be right pissed."
     As if on cue, Rich started bellowing from his room and they could hear his footsteps pounding down the hall towards them. They broke into a fit of laughter and ran out the door, Rich close behind them.

    J shook his head and replaced his paper, wondering if he'd get a similar reaction from Scott and Abs when they realized that J and Sean had let a bag of crickets from a local pet supply store loose in each of their rooms.