"All right gentlemen, since you seem so eager to volunteer!" announced Leslie as she waved to the group of young college-age looking young men in the lower left corner of the audience. Rather quickly, the four young men stood and hurried up to the stage, nearly running into each other as they made their way up and onto the stage. Leslie knew these type of visitors, quick to doubt and jeer from the audience, but once they were in the midst of transformation, they'd be putty in her hands.
"Well well well, don't cause a traffic jam getting up here boys, all four of you are welcome... let's do a little introduction first. Names and ages, gentlemen."
The four young men collected themselves and flashed eager but still somewhat bashful grins--something that had Leslie been their age, which she estimated to be about 21 or so, would have instantly won her over.
The first to step forward was clearly the most athletically inclined of the four of them, a handsome chocolate colored young man who clearly played some sort of sport which involved a decent amount of running, given his powerful leg muscles--particularly his calves and glutes, which his gym shorts--tight as they were--showed off rather well--not to mention the healthy bulge in his pants.
"My name's Willem, and I'm 20 and single, ladies," he said, flashing a rather white smile, which caused some women in the audience to whoop and one in particular to shout his name out in a manner that caused the rest of the audience to laugh good-naturedly.
The next to step forward was not the most physically impressive of the young men, and clearly by his choice of t-shirt, something of a geek with the reference to the tabletop game of 40K it made. He was an olive skinned lean young man, with a bit of scruff on his face, who was dressed in a manner which flattered his lean build, while still advertising his interests.
"My name's Alexandros, but everyone calls me Alex, and I'm 21."
While Alex didn't get as many cheers as Willem had, he still seemed to appeal to some women in the audience, especially as he reacted to the applause with a bashful smirk.
The next one was a deep brown young man with a decent build to him, but a fresh looking face that hadn't nary a sign of a beard. He did however have black thick framed glasses which added to his longer hair that was styled in such a way as to suggest a pompadour really gave him a chic appearance along with his rather flashy wardrobe of name brand products popular these days.
"Hari's the name, and I'm 18."
The women who had whooped earlier now "awwed" at Hari, as though acknowledging he were the "baby" of the group of handsome young men. Hari seemed to not know how to react to the ladies' reactions and so was completely bashful, biting his lip as he tried to contain himself from grinning and laughing like an idiot--but obviously failing.
And last but not least was a copper young man who looked well built, but not overly muscular like Willem who was the obvious gym rat of the four. It looked more that the young man was used to doing manual labor as the callouses on his hands seemed to indicate he'd likely grown up doing, and had acquired the physique that working on a farm or a ranch would provide, if Leslie had to guess.
"I'm Baishan. I don't want to be called Shawn or any other kind of nickname. My name is Baishan and I'm 19."
Baishan seemed the most serious of the four, and while he gave a quick and polite smile, it did not linger long on his face, nor did it seem his excitement at coming up on stage was lasting as long as the others. Likewise, the ladies responded with a polite and somewhat confused applause for the serious young man.
Well, given the four young men were very different from one another and obviously from very different backgrounds, and were different ages than she'd thought, a little more probing was required.
"So gentlemen, how do you know each other and what brings the four of you to our lovely show tonight?"
"Came out to see the show, and just lucky to be a part of it," said Willem on behalf of the other four confidently.
"The three of us are brothers with Kappa Rho Nu outta Santa Fe University," explained Alex, indicating Willem, Hari, and himself, "Baishan here's a pledge and a friend of Hari's."
"Thought he might loosen up and open up a bit if we came to the resort," added Hari.
"All I've seen so far is just a bunch of smoke and mirrors, and a waste of time... that's all college seems to be, just to get a worn out piece of sheepskin," said Baishan.
"It's not about the fucking sheepskin Shawn, my man," said Willem. Baishan visibly bristled at being dubbed something other than what he had insisted on being called.
"It's about the journey you take to get there... what you learn about yourself along the way," said Alex.
"Next you'll be telling me it was the friends we met all along that was the real treasure," said Baishan.
"And Baishan, what do you think isn't a waste of time then?" asked Hari.
"My mother wants me to get a degree and find some way of improving the res, but from all I've seen, my older brother had it right--stay home and work is the best way to improve things."
"Well then, I've heard all I need to," said Leslie and with that she quickly brought out her crystal and lulled the four young men into a hypnotic trance.
"Well audience, it seems clear to me that Baishan here needs a little lesson in how to let loose a bit... and his three soon to be fraternity brothers here perhaps could use a bit of his practicality--if we can unchain it from his cynicism."