High School: Fearsome Foursome

Dan and his friends (Brian, Bob and Randy) had formed a small club which they called the "Fearsome Foursome". Dan used to tell me about his activities and adventures with this group all of the time. He’d go on for hours about their hunt through the woods for elves and their trip to Castle Park and many of their other fascinating adventures.

From what I understood, it was basically bunch of friends who got together occasionally to have a good time. There were no rules, no by-laws, no ceremonies. It was all very informal, and Dan made it sound like the perfect place for a teenage like myself.

The foursome consisted of four boys who were misunderstood, confused, and desperately wanted to hang onto their childhood. They were all from "broken families", and, I think, used each other to cover-up some of the pain they felt. Since I felt like my family was at least as screwed up as theirs, I fit right in with the group.

I introduced the concept of gaming to the club. I remember playing "War of the Ring" or Risk or any number of others at Dan’s house. We’d sit up for hours upon hours, fighting battle after battle. Of course, I always won, but I think it was fun for everyone anyway.

One day I asked Dan if I could join the "Fearsome Foursome". He said I could join anytime I wanted, and left it at that. I was very excited - finally I belonged to something. However, a few days later, he informed me that the other members of the group wanted it to remain a small group of just four members. Nothing personal, he assured me, but they didn’t want anybody else in their group. I was welcome to continue in their activities, but I couldn’t become an actual member.

That hurt. I felt betrayed. I felt rejected. For a few days I avoided Dan and his friends like the plague. Eventually, however, I shrugged by shoulders and forgave him. After that, though, some of the magic went out of our friendship.

Things slowly began to change for our little organization, however. I began to notice more and more alcohol during our get-togethers. Dan and Brian were beginning to drink extremely heavily, as was evidenced by the many hundreds of beer bottles left strewn all over his house.

I desperately wanted to be a part of something, anything. I really liked Dan and Brian, and wanted to be their best friend. I decided to ignore their drinking, although I never joined in with them.

All of the alcohol began to become too much for me. I didn’t like the way people acted when they were drunk. I didn’t like the atmosphere, and I didn’t appreciate the peer pressure to join them.

This accelerated my tendency to withdraw into myself. Since everybody (almost literally, it seemed) was so utterly without redeeming features, I decided that my best course of action was to simply ignore them.

Over the years, I’ve lost contact with all of the members of the Fearsome Foursome except for Dan. He finally settled down, became a Christian and got married. He’s now very conservative, straight, and is a very likable person.

Brian went into the military and spent four years in Turkey. After his four-year stint, he returned to the states and continued his wanton existence. Finally, he got a job at the phone company (I think) where his mother works. He’s a computer programmer now.

I don’t know what happened to Randy and Bob. I never saw them again after high school.