"Take it easy, man. You're gonna wear holes in the tile here," he joked.
"Easy for you to say," Kyle muttered. "You're not gonna be out there in front of a million people representing our old high school," he whined.
"Just relax," Frank said with a laugh. "You've been practicing for weeks. Everybody says your routine is great, and you're gonna do fine." Kyle sighed, taking a deep breath to try to calm himself.
"I guess you're right. I'm still nervous, though. I don't want to let everyone down."
"Hey, how'd you even get involved in this in the first place?" Frank asked. "I mean, I think it's really cool and all you're going to do this, but how did you even think about it in the first place?"
"Well, for one, this is just going to be practice until I'm really comfortable doing this sort of thing. My dream -- and don't laugh! -- is to be a mascot for a professional sports team. You know Steve from our English class?" he asked Frank. Frank nodded; he, Kyle, and Steve all attended a small local community college. "Well, he's the Wildcats' mascot. I was talking to him about it one day, and he was telling me all about it. His experiences while he was out there as their mascot, being able to cheer on your old high school's team like that and how fun it is to perform in front of all those people... well, I just knew that's what I wanted to do. He even let me try on his mascot costume, and I can see why it's so fun. Nobody knows who you are while you're in there, so you can be as silly as you want and not have to worry about anything!"
"Well, I hate to interrupt your story of your life's dream," Frank said as he pointed at his watch, "but we'd better start getting you ready. You don't want to be late for your debut, do you?" Kyle laughed, and went over to a locker, grabbing his underclothes for the costume.
"You're right. I'll be right back."
It took Kyle about a minute to change into his underclothes -- a lightweight, tight black t-shirt and similar shorts. He went over to a locker, taking out the costume and its foam underbody. The foam bodysuit was two pieces; one for his torso, and one for his legs. It was shaped to look like muscles -- not huge ones, but very defined -- which was fine since Kyle was very slight of build anyway. He slipped the bottom half on like a pair of pants, tying the loops tightly around his legs, ankles, and waist to keep them on securely, doing the same for the upper half which he slipped on like a large shirt, tying the loops around his chest, arms, and wrists with Frank's help. After flexing and stretching his body to make sure everything was on securely, he took the bodysuit, getting ready to put that on. The eagle bodysuit was made from a strange, furry-feathery material, but looked just like feathers from a distance. It stretched slightly, and was very strong, specifically made to be a sports mascot. The fur-feathers were golden brown over most of the suit, with white fur-feathers on the chest and stomach area. The head was sewn right onto the suit, attaching at the front and pulled back and down over the wearer's own head. It was foam-lined inside to fit snugly against the wearer's head, and it was smaller, more proportionate, and more realistic looking than a normal mascot's head was. The suit had wings instead of standard arms, and tailfeathers. The fur-feathers continued down to about a quarter of the way down where Kyle's upper legs would be, where it seamlessly transitioned into an orange spandex-like material printed with a design that looked like a bird's legs. The spandex-like material continued down to the feet, which were foam feet in the shape of an eagle's talons, covered with the same bird's leg-design material as the legs and with shoes inside. Kyle unzipped the suit from the back to get in -- the zipper went from the middle of the upper back down to waist level, just above the base of the tailfeathers. He stepped into the suit, carefully working his own legs and feet into the legs and feet of the suit, slipping his feet into the slip-on shoes build into the suit's feet. He pulled the costume up to his waist, making sure to adjust it as he went -- the foam undersuit served to make the costume look even more realistic, like skin over muscles. Kyle worked the eagle suit up to his arms, inserting them into the suit's wings. The wings of the suit, which had no thumb or finger openings, made it impossible for Kyle to finish putting on the costume alone. Frank took over at this point, pulling the wings up until Kyle's hands were securely at the end of them, then finished by working the suit's shoulders around Kyle's. The final piece was the head of the suit, which was attached to the suit at the front. Frank adjusted the strap to keep the head from moving around while Kyle moved under his chin, then pulled the head back and down over Kyle's own, adjusting it so Kyle's eyes matched up with the suit's. The eagle's face was made so that the black portions of it -- the pupils of the eyes and the inside of the eagle's open orange beak -- were made of a black spandex-like material, allowing Kyle to see out and breathe easily, but made it impossible to see in from the outside. Once the costume was adjusted and all the wrinkles smoothed out, Frank began to zip the costume shut. The zipper was well-made; it moved easily, and the edges of the fur-feather fabric were very close to the edges of the zipper, so when it was closed no seam was visible. A small flap also closed over the zipper to further hide it, and the flap blended in perfectly with the back of the suit.
"There you go, all done," Frank said as he finished zipping up the suit. Kyle walked over to a nearby mirror, gasping to himself as he saw how good the suit looked -- it was the first time he had tried this suit on. He laughed as he posed in front of the mirror.
"This is awesome!" Kyle squealed, his voice muffled from the suit.
"That does look really cool," Frank agreed. "It fits you perfectly."
"Well, it's a brand-new mascot costume," Kyle explained. "The coach ordered it for me specifically since I told him I was planning on doing this for at least a few years until I'm all done with college, and... hey, why are you laughing?" Kyle asked as Frank suddenly cut him off, cracking up.
"I'm sorry," Frank said between chuckles, "it's just really hard to take you seriously when you're in that thing!" Kyle giggled.
"Yeah, I guess it must be pretty silly talking to a giant eagle, huh? Hey, hurry up and help me get my clothes on, I've gotta get out there in a few minutes!" Frank nodded, grabbing a jersey with a team logo on it, helping Kyle into it, also helping him into a pair of baggy sports shorts.
Halftime rolled around; Kyle went out to perform, and Frank watched from the sidelines. Kyle was very into his performance; he performed with the cheerleading squad, then performed alone doing various skits, and even played a mock game of football with his friend Steve, performing as the mascot of the Wildcats in a standard mascot-style giant lynx costume. In the middle of their mock game, though, a loud crack of thunder sounded, and without warning the sky opened up, a torrential downpour of rain drenching them and everybody else outside. They both ran for the dressing room Kyle came from earlier, as it was closer, and Frank followed the two inside. By the time the three got inside, they were absolutely drenched from head to toe. Steve removed his head; even through the thick foam and materials the head was made out of, he was dripping wet inside.
"Man, where'd that come from?" Steve asked, shaking his head dry. "I didn't see anything about rain on the weather report tonight!"
"I know," Frank sighed, grabbing a nearby towel and partially drying himself off with it.
"I'll have to wait in here with you guys if that's okay," Steve said, "until the rain stops. I'm glad these things are machine washable anyway," Steve sighed as he pulled the hands of his costume off and reached around, unzipping his costume and taking it off to let it dry.
"Yeah, I know," Kyle said. "Er... could somebody help me out of this thing? It's drenched, I'm drenched inside, and it's starting to stick to me and feel weird." Frank went around behind Kyle, taking off the drenched jersey and shorts.
"Er... uh... what the heck?" Frank asked, scratching his head.
"What is it?" Kyle asked, worried.
"The zipper. I can't find the zipper."
"What do you mean you can't find the zipper?!" Kyle asked, panicked. "It couldn't have just disappeared!"
"It's not here!" Frank said, feeling around for the flap. Steve sighed and walked over. He ran his hand along Kyle's back, finding the flap and pulling it back, revealing the zipper. Frank chuckled, embarrassed.
"It's not here, huh?" Steve asked with a chuckle.
"So sue me," Frank sighed. Steve laughed and went off to find an extra towel, and Kyle sighed with relief.
"Man, don't scare me like that! I thought I was gonna be stuck in this thing! Now hurry up, I want to dry off, too!" Frank went to unzip the costume, he found the zipper wouldn't budge.
"Er... now we've got another problem. The zipper's stuck, Kyle."
"Well get it unstuck!" Frank tried his hardest to unzip the costume, but the zipper stayed as if cemented in place. Steve, having found an extra towel, came back in to see what the commotion was about.
"Now what's wrong?" Steve chuckled, still amused over the alleged disappearing zipper. "Zipper's stuck or something?"
"Yes!" Frank said. "Here, you try." Steve walked over, but found he couldn't budge the zipper, either. He frowned.
"Hmm... this is odd. It's not even moving in the least," he muttered.
"Hey, come on, hurry up and get me out of this!" Kyle whined. Frank and Steve tried everything they could think of over the course of the next ten minutes, but the zipper refused to budge. Finally, Steve sighed.
"All right, I hate to even suggest this, but... we're going to have to cut you out of there, Kyle. We've tried everything we can to get you out without damaging the suit."
"I hate for you to have to cut it too, but do what you have to do," Kyle sighed. After some searching, Frank found a pair of sharp scissors, and gave them to Steve, who prepared to cut the suit as close to the zipper as he could so it could potentially be re-sewn. But to his and Frank's surprise, the fur-feather material simply would not be cut by the scissors. None of the three knew quite what was happening, but one thing was certain at the moment: Kyle would be trapped as an eagle until they could find a way to get him out...