![[info]](https://www.scribbld.com/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small}
Who: EVERYONE
When: Monday, February 22nd
Where: Castle Ford, Lake Luzerne, NY
What: Cinna throws a birthday party for Bernadine and Abby. CHAOS ENSUES.
Rating: Let's just say probably NSFW
Cinna tried hard to keep secrets, she really did. But somehow, through someone, her super secret surprise birthday party for Abernathy had become known, and people from all corners were asking questions about it-- when was it, where was it, what should they bring, if they could bring a friend... before she knew it, word of a giant bender she was organizing over holiday had gotten out, and everyone in the school seemed to think they were invited. She was pretty sure some of them didn't even realize this was specifically for Abby's birthday.
She gave up on her awesome idea of a small, cozy bash and informed her best friend (actually Bernadine, as she had still not figured this out) with a rather sheepish face that she was maybe possibly accidentally hosting a giant party... at Abby's house. On her birthday. And that everyone was coming. Everyone.
Somehow, Bernadine convinced Abernathy that this wouldn't be such a disaster. They could get Bill out of the house with a quick call to Aunt Veruca and some convoluted excuse get him down to NOLA for the week. Mardi Gras not withstanding, Bill trusted his grown kids with their house. Big mistake.
Abby sat her sister down before Cinna arrived to hash out last minute plans. "So here's the thing. I can't be me at this fucking party." She groaned again as if to say how did I let you talk me into this again? "If Stas is coming... He's coming?"
Bernadine nodded. He'd texted her earlier that he wouldn't miss it for the world and damn her if her stomach didn't tumble just a bit. She wished, for a moment, that he wasn't being so sweet and wonderful and that faking dating him wasn't the most fun and interesting thing she'd done since changing places with her sister.
"I can't be dating him. And he's already in on the know. So he's just going to have to continue pretending and I'll do my best to be quiet and weird."
"Thanks," Bernadine replied ruefully, but she softened considerably at the smirk on Abby's face.
Neither of them could quite grasp how much they'd each changed in the few months since their ruse began. Abby finished tidying up their room and making space for anyone who might want to crash at Castle Ford. Bernadine hid anything that might be breakable and made sure to idiot proof their house.
Timmy lounged in his pajama bottoms, enjoying his sisters being so productive. "You know we're having people over," Abby pointed out.
Tim shrugged, because he'd put pants on so long as Adelaide was coming. Otherwise he was going to hole up in his room with some serious headphones and wait until the pot got passed around to come out.
As usual, Cinna was the first to arrive. Newly licensed to Apparate, she showed up on the doorstep with an armful of giant bags full of snacks and drinks and thrust it all upon the person to open the door-- she didn't stop long enough to see who it was before vanishing again, and reappearing moments later with ANOTHER armful of supplies. She felt slightly bad about accidentally volunteering Abby's family's home as a party venue, so she was going to make up for it by ensuring that aside from the location, nothing else would have to be provided.
"Ohmygod you guys, I think I left my house with more lemonade than this. Do you think there's like, lemonade floating about in nothingness right now just waiting to bean someone in the head on their way to work? Fuck, can I get in trouble for that?" She started ripping open bags in a mild panic. All the food was there, but she was definitely short some of the drinks. She turned to Bernadine. "Maybe I left it at my house?" Then she turned to Abernathy, and looked between the twins. "Man," she said with a foolish little grin. "You guys. If it weren't for your awful shirts Abby, I don't think I could tell you apart!"
She shook her head. "I'm going to just run by my kitchen again-- I'm like a billion percent sure I left stuff behind." She poked at the general array of snacks left on the bench. "I totally brought Cheez-its to keep Braden happy and out of the way, and I definitely had pink vodka too. I am such a ditz!" She checked over everything again, and disapparated with a little noise of disgust, muttering about how she was certain she'd picked everything up and this is why she should have just organized the party at her place so that everything was already there and she couldn't possibly forget it in her mad panic to get there early.
Shortly after Cinna left the second time, Shy arrived having driven from Burnham City all by himself, with not a crash or a speeding ticket to show for it. This was most definitely being pointed out to Abernathy with smugface intact. That is, after she explained to him again what it was that was happening with this party. She sounded a little stressed when she mentioned it the first time; something about her 'completely insane best friend' who was under the impression that she was her sister and that her sister was her... He couldn't quite make sense of it, even thinking about it the entire drive up.
Abernathy turned to Bernadine as soon as Cinna quite literally popped out. "We have to change. Right now."
Bernadine laughed, glad that Cinna had mistaken them for each other and then even more amused because she was wearing a skirt, which meant that Abernathy would be wearing her clothes for the rest of the night.
"It'll never work," Timmy called from the living room couch as the girls ran into their room to switch clothing.
"It really only needs to work on Cinna," Bernadine called back. That and Addy and Stas and Timmy had to keep up their part of the bargain. Oh god, and so did Abby's boyfriend. Bernadine made one last suggestion; Abby needed to spell her hair to grow out some and make the streak of violent purple disappear. Luckily Cinna had been too distracted to notice that they were wearing the same haircut and the only difference was the color of Abby's signature streak.
"It'll be fine," Abby reassured her, grabbing her wand and performing the proposed tweaks. She slipped out to the living room in time to see Shylock opening the door. She rushed up to him and tossed her arms around him happily, not even thinking how weird it might be to hug her when she looked like Bernadine.
He was taken aback at first, before realizing that it was in fact Abernathy jumping on him at that point. She'd changed her hair in the few days since he'd last seen her and... "Are you wearing a skirt?" He squeezed her waist tightly and pulled her close, bending down to press a very appreciative kiss to her lips. "I like."
Cinna showed up again, this time with the missing bag of drinks. She almost ran into the back of Shy barging through the door, squealing loudly when she saw who she thought to be Bernadine kissing the stranger. "Bernadiiiiine! You have a boyfriend!"
Abby feigned a blush, a very good blush and leaned sweetly into Shylock's embrace. "I do," she replied in that tone of voice Bernadine liked to use when she was pretending not to be so terribly aware of the situation.
Shy side-eyed her a bit, trying not to be too obvious about it. It finally dawned on him that this was what Abby was freaking out over on the phone-- she had to pretend to be Bernadine for this thing, which meant he had to pretend she was Bernadine too. That was slightly awkward. He released his hold on her so that she wasn't pulled so tightly up against him, and smiled awkwardly. "You must be Cinna."
"I am!" Cinna responded happily. "And you are... apart from taking this heavy-ass bag off me?" She gave him a cheeky grin and shoved the bag of drinks at him.
"Shy," he managed, before having to completely let go of Abby to take the bag before it crashed to the floor and spilled everywhere.
"Thank yoooou! So like, me and Abby can probably introduce you guys to everyone but c'mon, you're totally just going to sit on the couch and make out all night aren't you?" She teased. "You won't even know the rest of us are here! Abby? ABBY? When is your boyfriend getting here?" She barrelled on past them towards the kitchen again.
Abby grinned at Shylock as soon as Cinna was gone and properly distracted. "You're doing great," she assured him and snuck in a particularly lascivious kiss.
Bernadine on the other hand was fighting the furious blush that was trying to sneak onto her cheeks. "Not here yet," she replied, half calling out and half speaking quieter as Cinna approached her. "You know Timmy," she said, gesturing to her layabout brother who was thoroughly enjoying his visit home. His campus had been closed for the day and he could drive up early in the morning to make his classes tomorrow. There was no way he was missing the hilarity of Abby pretending to be Bernadine who was pretending to be Abby.
"Course she knows me," he said, getting up and hugging Cinna. Though, admittedly, most of the times Cinna had been over he'd been tromping around in the woods behind their house and shooting things. He couldn't say that they'd ever spent a good deal of quality time together.
"Everyone knows me," Cinna said with a grin, hugging him back and not letting go. "I'm just amazing! And okay, I guess you are too," she teased. "I've got Bernadiney's boyfriend bringing in the drinks! I did leave them behind! I was so freaking out about not forgetting shit that THAT'S EXACTLY WHAT HAPPENED." She bounced up and down, laughing. "Go put some pants on, Timmy. Everyone will be here soon!"
As if on cue, Adelaide apparated onto the front lawn. She didn't know for certain what time everyone else was getting there, but she had told Bernadine she would try and show up early in case B needed her to distract Cinna if things started getting a bit difficult. She could ask the loudmouth for... hair advice or something. She was very wary of such a scheme-- obviously Bernadine could pull off being brash, abrasive Abernathy, but she didn't know as much that Abernathy could be Bernadine, even for short periods of time.
She pushed on through the front door, battling down a smirk as she saw Abernathy wearing one of Bernadine's skirts. "You actually look nice," she said, trying not to laugh.
Abby frowned at Addy. Their tenuous peace could break over the course of the night. "Thank you," she replied with so much forced sweetness that she almost gagged on it. At the very least, her sister wasn't quite as sweet as this anymore. She leaned her head on Shylock's arm and leaned casually against the wall. "You're looking lovely as ever."
Bernadine tried not to listen in on this exchange. Forcing it a little hard, Abby. "Hey, Cin, what do you say we get this fucking party started early!" Drinking, that was always a good distraction.
In the meantime, Timmy bolted to his room at the sound of Adelaide's voice to put on a pair of decent jeans and maybe try and arrange his man-beard into a more pleasing shape.
"Not into drinking, Timmy?" Cinna yelled after him as he ditched her to run into his room. Then she laughed and high-fived 'Abernathy'. "Yeah, let's get this show on the road! Also, maybe hide some food under the sink or something just in case Braden shows up early. Gotta make sure there's snackies for all!"
Adelaide froze in the hallway at the sound of Cinna talking about Tim. She didn't think he'd be here, though it was vacation and she probably should have expected he would be. This could get awkward. She didn't know for certain if Luka was going to show (after all, it was supposed to be a party for Abernathy) and not having mentioned either boy to the other... she winced to herself. Maybe it would be fine? Maybe Luka wouldn't come, and maybe she and Tim wouldn't get too silly drunk, and maybe Carly wouldn't start up a hundred billion rumours just to be a bitch... oh god, she was fucked.
Cinna poked her head out of the kitchen to beam down the hallway at Shy and 'Bernadine'. "Do you guys want shots?"
"Oh..." Shy looked a little puzzled, and smiled down at Abby. "I dunno. Do you drink, Bernadine?" This was potentially a very entertaining level of weird.
"Not often," Abernathy replied.
"But it's our birthday!" Bernadine goaded gleefully. How many times had Abernathy done this to her? This was possibly the best/worst idea they'd ever had and she was going to milk every minute of it.
A knock sounded at the door and Bernadine rushed off, leaving Abernathy to wrestle her way out of shots with Cinna. She opened the door to find Anastas with a nicely wrapped gift in his hand. He was wearing one of his smoking jackets, but this one was less ostentatious than the red velvet. She stepped out quickly and closed the door behind her. She wanted to kiss him on the cheek, but that seemed off so she settled instead for a pleasant hug. "So, Abby's pretending to me and I'm pretending to be her. Please don't stab her in the face while she's being me."
"Will she promise to do the same?" he asked lightly and eased into the hug far more than he thought was polite. He pulled away gently. "Are you sure this is a good idea?"
Bernadine laughed. Abernathy hadn't so much promised that she wouldn't kill Stas, but she'd try her best. Then she touched his arm. It was a strange thing, but she could feel past that little brush of her fingers over the fabric of his jacket and find the tail end of a vision regarding the evening. What she saw wasn't pretty, but it also wasn't outright discovery. Their secret would be safe, even if they all returned after break still hungover and not talking to any of their friends. She smiled at the very end of the vision and blinked up at Stas. "It'll be fine," she promised. She ushered him inside and before she moved to join the others taped a sign to the door that said "Come on in."
Over the next twenty minutes or so, students and friends began arriving from all over, Apparating from their homes or Portkeying in groups to get to the isolated little house hosting the biggest event since New Years. Most read the sign on the door and barged their way through.
Some, like Riley, stood outside and smoked despite the cold, simply because no fucking sign was going to tell him what to do. Until he was unable to feel his feet, at any rate-- but then he would come on in because he wanted to, not because some fascist handwritten sign suggested it.
Braden didn't even notice the sign. He went in and made a beeline for the kitchen, simply because that's where the food was bound to be. He pushed past a group of people chatting animatedly by the kitchen door and ducked Cinna's instruction that he should maybe socialize some before hoarding the food, setting up camp by the counter with the fritos.
Cinna just rolled her eyes, mouthed 'what a fucking snackass' at 'Abby', and took a bag full of shot glasses and tucked a bottle of booze under each arm. She wiggled through the growing crowd to start loading bottles onto a table in the living room, and poured a line of shots once she had done to hand out to everyone in reach. "To the birthday girls!"
Luka arrived without a present for the birthday girls, because he was really only here for Addy anyway. It took him some time wading through the bodies to find her and loop his arm over her shoulder. Her eye looked quite a bit better, at the very least he could stop feeling guilty about that one.
When: Monday, February 22nd
Where: Castle Ford, Lake Luzerne, NY
What: Cinna throws a birthday party for Bernadine and Abby. CHAOS ENSUES.
Rating: Let's just say probably NSFW
Cinna tried hard to keep secrets, she really did. But somehow, through someone, her super secret surprise birthday party for Abernathy had become known, and people from all corners were asking questions about it-- when was it, where was it, what should they bring, if they could bring a friend... before she knew it, word of a giant bender she was organizing over holiday had gotten out, and everyone in the school seemed to think they were invited. She was pretty sure some of them didn't even realize this was specifically for Abby's birthday.
She gave up on her awesome idea of a small, cozy bash and informed her best friend (actually Bernadine, as she had still not figured this out) with a rather sheepish face that she was maybe possibly accidentally hosting a giant party... at Abby's house. On her birthday. And that everyone was coming. Everyone.
Somehow, Bernadine convinced Abernathy that this wouldn't be such a disaster. They could get Bill out of the house with a quick call to Aunt Veruca and some convoluted excuse get him down to NOLA for the week. Mardi Gras not withstanding, Bill trusted his grown kids with their house. Big mistake.
Abby sat her sister down before Cinna arrived to hash out last minute plans. "So here's the thing. I can't be me at this fucking party." She groaned again as if to say how did I let you talk me into this again? "If Stas is coming... He's coming?"
Bernadine nodded. He'd texted her earlier that he wouldn't miss it for the world and damn her if her stomach didn't tumble just a bit. She wished, for a moment, that he wasn't being so sweet and wonderful and that faking dating him wasn't the most fun and interesting thing she'd done since changing places with her sister.
"I can't be dating him. And he's already in on the know. So he's just going to have to continue pretending and I'll do my best to be quiet and weird."
"Thanks," Bernadine replied ruefully, but she softened considerably at the smirk on Abby's face.
Neither of them could quite grasp how much they'd each changed in the few months since their ruse began. Abby finished tidying up their room and making space for anyone who might want to crash at Castle Ford. Bernadine hid anything that might be breakable and made sure to idiot proof their house.
Timmy lounged in his pajama bottoms, enjoying his sisters being so productive. "You know we're having people over," Abby pointed out.
Tim shrugged, because he'd put pants on so long as Adelaide was coming. Otherwise he was going to hole up in his room with some serious headphones and wait until the pot got passed around to come out.
As usual, Cinna was the first to arrive. Newly licensed to Apparate, she showed up on the doorstep with an armful of giant bags full of snacks and drinks and thrust it all upon the person to open the door-- she didn't stop long enough to see who it was before vanishing again, and reappearing moments later with ANOTHER armful of supplies. She felt slightly bad about accidentally volunteering Abby's family's home as a party venue, so she was going to make up for it by ensuring that aside from the location, nothing else would have to be provided.
"Ohmygod you guys, I think I left my house with more lemonade than this. Do you think there's like, lemonade floating about in nothingness right now just waiting to bean someone in the head on their way to work? Fuck, can I get in trouble for that?" She started ripping open bags in a mild panic. All the food was there, but she was definitely short some of the drinks. She turned to Bernadine. "Maybe I left it at my house?" Then she turned to Abernathy, and looked between the twins. "Man," she said with a foolish little grin. "You guys. If it weren't for your awful shirts Abby, I don't think I could tell you apart!"
She shook her head. "I'm going to just run by my kitchen again-- I'm like a billion percent sure I left stuff behind." She poked at the general array of snacks left on the bench. "I totally brought Cheez-its to keep Braden happy and out of the way, and I definitely had pink vodka too. I am such a ditz!" She checked over everything again, and disapparated with a little noise of disgust, muttering about how she was certain she'd picked everything up and this is why she should have just organized the party at her place so that everything was already there and she couldn't possibly forget it in her mad panic to get there early.
Shortly after Cinna left the second time, Shy arrived having driven from Burnham City all by himself, with not a crash or a speeding ticket to show for it. This was most definitely being pointed out to Abernathy with smugface intact. That is, after she explained to him again what it was that was happening with this party. She sounded a little stressed when she mentioned it the first time; something about her 'completely insane best friend' who was under the impression that she was her sister and that her sister was her... He couldn't quite make sense of it, even thinking about it the entire drive up.
Abernathy turned to Bernadine as soon as Cinna quite literally popped out. "We have to change. Right now."
Bernadine laughed, glad that Cinna had mistaken them for each other and then even more amused because she was wearing a skirt, which meant that Abernathy would be wearing her clothes for the rest of the night.
"It'll never work," Timmy called from the living room couch as the girls ran into their room to switch clothing.
"It really only needs to work on Cinna," Bernadine called back. That and Addy and Stas and Timmy had to keep up their part of the bargain. Oh god, and so did Abby's boyfriend. Bernadine made one last suggestion; Abby needed to spell her hair to grow out some and make the streak of violent purple disappear. Luckily Cinna had been too distracted to notice that they were wearing the same haircut and the only difference was the color of Abby's signature streak.
"It'll be fine," Abby reassured her, grabbing her wand and performing the proposed tweaks. She slipped out to the living room in time to see Shylock opening the door. She rushed up to him and tossed her arms around him happily, not even thinking how weird it might be to hug her when she looked like Bernadine.
He was taken aback at first, before realizing that it was in fact Abernathy jumping on him at that point. She'd changed her hair in the few days since he'd last seen her and... "Are you wearing a skirt?" He squeezed her waist tightly and pulled her close, bending down to press a very appreciative kiss to her lips. "I like."
Cinna showed up again, this time with the missing bag of drinks. She almost ran into the back of Shy barging through the door, squealing loudly when she saw who she thought to be Bernadine kissing the stranger. "Bernadiiiiine! You have a boyfriend!"
Abby feigned a blush, a very good blush and leaned sweetly into Shylock's embrace. "I do," she replied in that tone of voice Bernadine liked to use when she was pretending not to be so terribly aware of the situation.
Shy side-eyed her a bit, trying not to be too obvious about it. It finally dawned on him that this was what Abby was freaking out over on the phone-- she had to pretend to be Bernadine for this thing, which meant he had to pretend she was Bernadine too. That was slightly awkward. He released his hold on her so that she wasn't pulled so tightly up against him, and smiled awkwardly. "You must be Cinna."
"I am!" Cinna responded happily. "And you are... apart from taking this heavy-ass bag off me?" She gave him a cheeky grin and shoved the bag of drinks at him.
"Shy," he managed, before having to completely let go of Abby to take the bag before it crashed to the floor and spilled everywhere.
"Thank yoooou! So like, me and Abby can probably introduce you guys to everyone but c'mon, you're totally just going to sit on the couch and make out all night aren't you?" She teased. "You won't even know the rest of us are here! Abby? ABBY? When is your boyfriend getting here?" She barrelled on past them towards the kitchen again.
Abby grinned at Shylock as soon as Cinna was gone and properly distracted. "You're doing great," she assured him and snuck in a particularly lascivious kiss.
Bernadine on the other hand was fighting the furious blush that was trying to sneak onto her cheeks. "Not here yet," she replied, half calling out and half speaking quieter as Cinna approached her. "You know Timmy," she said, gesturing to her layabout brother who was thoroughly enjoying his visit home. His campus had been closed for the day and he could drive up early in the morning to make his classes tomorrow. There was no way he was missing the hilarity of Abby pretending to be Bernadine who was pretending to be Abby.
"Course she knows me," he said, getting up and hugging Cinna. Though, admittedly, most of the times Cinna had been over he'd been tromping around in the woods behind their house and shooting things. He couldn't say that they'd ever spent a good deal of quality time together.
"Everyone knows me," Cinna said with a grin, hugging him back and not letting go. "I'm just amazing! And okay, I guess you are too," she teased. "I've got Bernadiney's boyfriend bringing in the drinks! I did leave them behind! I was so freaking out about not forgetting shit that THAT'S EXACTLY WHAT HAPPENED." She bounced up and down, laughing. "Go put some pants on, Timmy. Everyone will be here soon!"
As if on cue, Adelaide apparated onto the front lawn. She didn't know for certain what time everyone else was getting there, but she had told Bernadine she would try and show up early in case B needed her to distract Cinna if things started getting a bit difficult. She could ask the loudmouth for... hair advice or something. She was very wary of such a scheme-- obviously Bernadine could pull off being brash, abrasive Abernathy, but she didn't know as much that Abernathy could be Bernadine, even for short periods of time.
She pushed on through the front door, battling down a smirk as she saw Abernathy wearing one of Bernadine's skirts. "You actually look nice," she said, trying not to laugh.
Abby frowned at Addy. Their tenuous peace could break over the course of the night. "Thank you," she replied with so much forced sweetness that she almost gagged on it. At the very least, her sister wasn't quite as sweet as this anymore. She leaned her head on Shylock's arm and leaned casually against the wall. "You're looking lovely as ever."
Bernadine tried not to listen in on this exchange. Forcing it a little hard, Abby. "Hey, Cin, what do you say we get this fucking party started early!" Drinking, that was always a good distraction.
In the meantime, Timmy bolted to his room at the sound of Adelaide's voice to put on a pair of decent jeans and maybe try and arrange his man-beard into a more pleasing shape.
"Not into drinking, Timmy?" Cinna yelled after him as he ditched her to run into his room. Then she laughed and high-fived 'Abernathy'. "Yeah, let's get this show on the road! Also, maybe hide some food under the sink or something just in case Braden shows up early. Gotta make sure there's snackies for all!"
Adelaide froze in the hallway at the sound of Cinna talking about Tim. She didn't think he'd be here, though it was vacation and she probably should have expected he would be. This could get awkward. She didn't know for certain if Luka was going to show (after all, it was supposed to be a party for Abernathy) and not having mentioned either boy to the other... she winced to herself. Maybe it would be fine? Maybe Luka wouldn't come, and maybe she and Tim wouldn't get too silly drunk, and maybe Carly wouldn't start up a hundred billion rumours just to be a bitch... oh god, she was fucked.
Cinna poked her head out of the kitchen to beam down the hallway at Shy and 'Bernadine'. "Do you guys want shots?"
"Oh..." Shy looked a little puzzled, and smiled down at Abby. "I dunno. Do you drink, Bernadine?" This was potentially a very entertaining level of weird.
"Not often," Abernathy replied.
"But it's our birthday!" Bernadine goaded gleefully. How many times had Abernathy done this to her? This was possibly the best/worst idea they'd ever had and she was going to milk every minute of it.
A knock sounded at the door and Bernadine rushed off, leaving Abernathy to wrestle her way out of shots with Cinna. She opened the door to find Anastas with a nicely wrapped gift in his hand. He was wearing one of his smoking jackets, but this one was less ostentatious than the red velvet. She stepped out quickly and closed the door behind her. She wanted to kiss him on the cheek, but that seemed off so she settled instead for a pleasant hug. "So, Abby's pretending to me and I'm pretending to be her. Please don't stab her in the face while she's being me."
"Will she promise to do the same?" he asked lightly and eased into the hug far more than he thought was polite. He pulled away gently. "Are you sure this is a good idea?"
Bernadine laughed. Abernathy hadn't so much promised that she wouldn't kill Stas, but she'd try her best. Then she touched his arm. It was a strange thing, but she could feel past that little brush of her fingers over the fabric of his jacket and find the tail end of a vision regarding the evening. What she saw wasn't pretty, but it also wasn't outright discovery. Their secret would be safe, even if they all returned after break still hungover and not talking to any of their friends. She smiled at the very end of the vision and blinked up at Stas. "It'll be fine," she promised. She ushered him inside and before she moved to join the others taped a sign to the door that said "Come on in."
Over the next twenty minutes or so, students and friends began arriving from all over, Apparating from their homes or Portkeying in groups to get to the isolated little house hosting the biggest event since New Years. Most read the sign on the door and barged their way through.
Some, like Riley, stood outside and smoked despite the cold, simply because no fucking sign was going to tell him what to do. Until he was unable to feel his feet, at any rate-- but then he would come on in because he wanted to, not because some fascist handwritten sign suggested it.
Braden didn't even notice the sign. He went in and made a beeline for the kitchen, simply because that's where the food was bound to be. He pushed past a group of people chatting animatedly by the kitchen door and ducked Cinna's instruction that he should maybe socialize some before hoarding the food, setting up camp by the counter with the fritos.
Cinna just rolled her eyes, mouthed 'what a fucking snackass' at 'Abby', and took a bag full of shot glasses and tucked a bottle of booze under each arm. She wiggled through the growing crowd to start loading bottles onto a table in the living room, and poured a line of shots once she had done to hand out to everyone in reach. "To the birthday girls!"
Luka arrived without a present for the birthday girls, because he was really only here for Addy anyway. It took him some time wading through the bodies to find her and loop his arm over her shoulder. Her eye looked quite a bit better, at the very least he could stop feeling guilty about that one.
Spin the Bottle (Just about everyone)
Luka looked mildly horrified at the prospect of spin the bottle, but he wasn't going to contradict Addy when she was so excited. He followed her to the couch and laughed. "We should play as a couple. Make the spinners kiss both of us."
"What, and like double team the person we land on?" She laughed, completely amused at the thought. "Take turns? If we get Abernathy, you have to do it. I call shotgun on not having to do it."
Cinna appeared at that point. "That's not how it works! There are like rules guys, otherwise it's just makeout anarchy! Ohmygod, seriously, you people are just..." She shook her head and grabbed the bottle from Arnaud. "Okay, if it lands between two people you have to kiss both of them no matter who they are, and if it lands on yourself you have to kiss everyone in the circle."
"No way!" Addy protested. "If it lands on yourself it's your choice who you kiss, everyone knows that!"
"Says who?!"
"Says the internet," Arnaud argued, holding up his smart phone with a google page open. Of course he'd seen it played with the other rules, but this seemed safer. "Cinna, drum up some more people. We can't play spin the bottle with two couples and the gay guy."
She huffed. Fine, they could have it their way. "Bitches!!!" She yelled as loud as she could (meaning that people four counties over probably heard). "Get your asses in the living room, we're playing spin the bottle!"
Maddy plunked down, apparently dragged by Riley. She was very clearly drunk and very much in need of a good pash.
Arnaud spun the bottle without much more ado and it landed on... Riley. Of course it did. "Get over here and give me some sugar," he commanded.
"Thought you'd never ask!" Riley flashed the rest of the circle a smug grin and crawled over to Arnaud. He cupped the back of the other boy's head and leaned in to deliver a solid, open-mouthed kiss. When he was sure that he'd appropriately scandalized the others, he backed off back to his place in the circle beside Maddy. "We goin' clockwise, or is it my turn?"
Cinna stared, wide-eyed and open-mouthed. "What the fuck..." She gave Thorn a look that clearly said exactly the same thing, and then looked back at Riley. "Your turn then."
Riley sent her a shit-eating grin and then spun the bottle. It landed on one of the girls in Maddy's theatre group, and she crawled over to get a quick kiss on Riley's cheek over and done with as soon as possible, stopping momentarily to check on Maddy before retreating back to her position and taking her turn.
A few turns later and Thorn was spinning the bottle, landing squarely on his cousin. "Cousins can't kiss. That's like... Fucking New York State Law."
"Yeah, don't play with your family," Arnaud replied with a laugh.
Luka stood, crossed to Thorn and kissed his forehead. "Pleased, perverts?"
He spun the bottle very hard and when it landed on Arnaud he closed his eyes very tight. "Where's the sugar now?" he asked.
Arnaud leaned over Addy's lap and kissed Luka on the lips, something he'd been contemplating since they moved in together. It was a very chaste kiss, but nice nevertheless. He tried not to blush to the point of obviousness and spun the bottle, landing on a cheerleader.
Tina French, a quiet Champlain, blushed deeply but scooted over to Arnaud obligingly and placed a very precisely-aimed, delicate kiss upon his lips. She gave him a sheepish grin as if to say 'sorry I'm a girl!' before scooting back over to the other side of the circle to take her turn. Shell stared daggers at her the whole way back.
She spun the bottle and landed on Cinna.
"Oh it's just like regionals all over again!" Cinna bellowed, and all the cheerleaders laughed at the in-joke that seemed to fly over everyone else's heads. She got to her feet and skipped over to Tina to kick her foot up in the air and plant an exaggerated kiss on her face. Then she ran back to spin for herself. Everyone suspected cheating when it landed on Thorn.
Maddy tried not to look mortified when she got Thorn's sloppy seconds. She nodded briefly to Cinna, as if to say, he's all yours and then she spun the bottle herself. It landed between Luka Nikitin and Addy Legaux. "What are the rules again?"
Cinna clapped excitedly. "You have to make out with both of them!"
Addy was mildly horrified, but she knew that kissing a girl was a risk she took when agreeing to play spin the bottle. "Looks like you're getting Thorn's spit one way or another," she said to Luka before getting on her hands and knees and crawling over to drop a dainty little kiss on Maddy's lips. She came back to trade off with Luka. "Which one of us two spins next?"
Luka kissed the very edge of Maddy's lips before answering Addy. "I'll cede to the lady," he said in gentlemanly fashion.
He dragged himself over as though it was the last thing he wanted to be doing right then, and leaned in and bit her lip. Seconds later he was howling and retreating back to his seat after she punched him in the stomach.
His turn yielded a kiss for Shell, who looked fiercely disappointed when her spin passed over Arnaud and landed on Riley instead. His spin horrified a Hulett linebacker, whom in turn kissed an honor student who then spun the bottle in such a way that it landed on herself. After some shy attempts at getting out of it, she asked Thorn if she could kiss him.
Thorn flicked his eyes to Cinna first, an almost conciliatory gesture because he never said not to kisses. If it were Carly and not an honor student the silent conversation would have ended with Cinna's fist and weren't they all lucky that bitch was tarting it up with the eldest Ford in the hallway? "Sure thing," he said graciously and let the girl in for a kiss.
Surprise of surprises when she put some pressure behind it and managed to slip her tongue in between his lips. Forced and awkward and not even remotely compatible, but he gave her the good old Nikitin smile just the same. "I dunno know about you kids, but this is going to turn into 7 minutes in heaven right quick. Wonder if the Fords have a closet."
"At least one; Abernathy's been hiding in it all her life." Addy whispered for Luka's benefit.
Thorn's eyes widened at that idea. "Ah... I'm good. Anyone else not get a chance to spin?"
Cinna was glad she didn't have to shoot down that idea, because she was too busy giving the girl who just tried to tongue Thorn the worst stink-eye she could manage. Bad manners, much? She curled her arm around Thorn's waist possessively.
Addy looked around the circle and saw a few people who hadn't been kissed yet, but they weren't coming forward and she wasn't going to point them out in case it volunteered her to do the kissing. She did notice something strange about the faces in the circle, however. "When did we lose the birthday girls?"
Thorn frowned at this, because his Abby should be here getting into some awkward make-outs even if she was with the Russian. "Fucking A. It's their fucking party."
Luka could care less and tuned out the ensuing conversation, idly playing with the hem of Addy's shirt and trying not to think about nice and soft Arnaud's lips were when he was kissed.
"Three things," Riley pointed out. "They're gone. Their boyfriends are gone. Their bedroom door is shut. I suck at Arithmancy but even I can add that up."
"They're not going to all be in there together, idiot." Cinna said, rolling her eyes. She couldn't imagine Abby being cool with an audience despite her adventures in multiple partners, and from what she heard of Bernadine she didn't think she would be off screwing her boyfriend in the middle of a party. She looked around and couldn't see Tim either. "We've lost all of them!" She exclaimed. "No, seriously!"
Addy chose to ignore the issue at hand now that Detective Cinna was on the case. She leaned back on the heels of her hands and watched Luka's fingers toying with her shirt. Her lip curled into half a grin. "What, you wanna wear it?"
Luka removed his fingers immediately, entirely too self-conscious. "Not my color," he replied rather sassily.
From within the room Abernathy groaned. "Does that mean we should disentangle and pretend to be good little Bernadine and her weirdo boyfriend Shylock?"
"Weirdo my ass," Shy shot back. "You're the one asking your boyfriend to call you by your sister's name," he pointed out. "So, you know, let's keep the name-calling to a minimum. Weirdo." He pushed her up off the bed. "Well. You should probably go face your adoring fans."
"Not my adoring fans, love," she reminds him but rolls out of their warm cocoon of bed, replaces the clothing tossed aside and straightens herself out. "Coming with or warming my bed?"
He wiggled comfortably. Then figured he'd get an earful of it if she ventured out and someone got a glimpse in to see him part-naked in her bed. He pushed himself up with a loud sigh, and pulled his shirts back on. "Comiiiing."
Abby feigned a very good blush and rolled her eyes. "Perverts," she tried, as if anyone would believe she was being strictly PG, as if any of these people actually cared what 'Bernadine' was getting up to. "Where's Abby?" she asked, feeling strange and out of place and wondering if that was how Bernadine felt every day.
Cinna's teasing grin turned to a look of mild concern. "We uh... don't... know, exactly. We thought maybe she was in there." But clearly she wasn't. The concern soon turned to a smirk, however. "Shy. Your shirt is on backwards."
Riley burst out laughing quite properly then, and pushed his way back through the crowd to get moving towards the back door. Time for a smoke.
And there they sat on the edge of it, the potential for a second kiss looming quietly in the pleasant chill and dark of the backyard. Bernadine couldn't move any closer and Anastas couldn't break his gaze, sweeping over her face again and again as if he could trick himself out of leaning closer. Just an inch, only that much between them before their lips touched and this complication went from merely confusing to properly problematic.
Riley grinned an enormous, evil grin, having found himself an opportunity to ruin somebody's private time. "I FOUND THE OTHER ONE," he bellowed for the rest of the party to hear, and loped over to them to plop himself right between them on the picnic table. "Got a light?" He asked Stas.
Fight aftermath: Luka and Addy
Luka was bristling still, but calmer hearing Adelaide's voice. "Yeah sure. Want to tell me now what that was all about?" Things were starting to add up and he didn't like any of the implications. "And don't even try to pretend there's not something going on."
Her brows furrowed as she cast healing charms on his lip and anywhere else it looked like he'd been punched. "I can't say I totally understand what you're asking." She had no idea what had provoked the fight, didn't know what Luka had seen her hugging Tim.
"You hugged him," Luka replied instantly. "And you were so awkward with him earlier." It was an accusation, but he couldn't pinpoint why. "He's a fucking Ford. They're all goddamn mutants."
"He's my friend," she shot back. "And you insulted his sister in front of him and embarrassed me." She ignored the last part because it was ridiculous. He only knew Abernathy and no one was denying there was all kinds of things wrong with her. But he definitely didn't know Tim or Bernadine and he had no reason to claim that.
"Friend, huh? And you figured, don't need to mention my weird association with the Fords to my boyfriend. How the fuck do you even know them?" His angry edge was starting to wear down and the irrational thoughts that followed were losing their battle to stay coherently linked to his actions.
"I did mention it! We have had this conversation!" She yelled back. "Abernathy is a fucking freak! The rest of her family are nice, normal people! Is this not ringing any bells?!"
"I don't... He-- he doesn't look at me!" Now she was getting angry too. "Why are you acting like such an asshole lately?!" She yelled. "You lost your shit over me hanging out with Ryder, and now Tim, and you're just like... what is your fucking problem? You don't trust me?"
"Can I trust you?" he threw back hastily. He didn't have time to regret it, because there it was. He had no idea what his problem was, but he didn't like Addy with any boys. He'd never been this jealous before and he couldn't foist it off on the new found glory of commitment, that tedious idea he was trying out and finding stupidly impossible. Maybe it was a Nikitin thing. A temper accompanied by a one-sided jealous streak.
Maybe it was something else and he wasn't ready to even begin contemplating it yet.
Could he trust her... Before she knew she was doing it, she reached out and slapped him, hard across the face. Her eyes filled with tears. "Trust that," she snapped, and disapparated.
Luka stood in shocked silence for a long time before he could even begin to contemplate what he'd done. It was easy enough to blame it on fucking not freak Timmy Ford. Even Adelaide for whatever that hug meant. But Luka was self-aware enough to see that the path of blame always curved back to him. He didn't know what he could do to fix this, but he had the rest of vacation to think about it.
Fight Aftermath: Timmy and Abby
"Oh shit," Tim replied as he realized where that last punch had flown.
"She's fine. A fucking champ. A proper Ford," Abby replied. She was glad they were out of earshot and she could be her usual foul-mouthed self. "Someone said you were fighting over Adelaide." It wasn't so much an accusation, just a morbid curiosity. She didn't want to know. She had to know.
Tim sighed heavily enough to blow a piggy's house down. He didn't want to have this conversation tonight. "Not on your birthday, dude," he replied with respect. "Can't ruin it for you entirely."
"Already ruined so far as I'm concerned." She looked at her watch. "Besides, we're only ten minutes in."
It was tradition in the Ford house to celebrate the girls' birthday on President's day instead of their actual date of birth. It just so happened that the day after President's day was the date this year and the party rolled over into their birthday.
"I'm into her. There. I said it. I'm sorry. I know you hate her guts and all that, but I like her. Have for a long time."
"Hey, she's been very good to B at school. She's a wonderful person. You're just too much alike to tolerate one another."
Abby snorted. "Whatever you say, bro. It's your brain that's damaged. Your face too."
Tim laughed at that, rubbed his sore jaw. He'd have a hell of a story to tell at school in the morning. Maybe he'd lie and say he fell off his snowboard. "Sorry about your birthday."
Now it was Abby's turn to laugh. "Didn't ruin my birthday too much. Remember, I'm not the one who got punched."
"Should I check in on her?"
Abby was truly torn. Leave her to Anastas, because clearly he intended to nurse her sister back to health or send in the clowns. "Fuck it. Apologize in the morning. Walk it off," she instructed kindly and patted Tim on the back. "I've got to go find my boytoy and make sure he isn't pissing anyone off enough to get punched."
Fight Aftermath: Stas and Bernadine
"You are not Abby," he replied patiently, smoothing her face with his hand and applying a cooling spell to numb the area a bit.
She hiccuped and giggled, a peculiar sound combined and wiped futilely at her tears. "I'm sorry. Tonight's been a disaster from start to finish."
"I thought the middle was lovely," he said as his other hand moved to hold her neck fondly, traitorous hand not checking for more fight damage. "How is your head?"
"I'll be okay," she assured him, but she was still crying, still shaking from the conflict and the impact. She'd leave the running into fights to Abby from now on. And she'd have a serious conversation about her sister's conflict resolution skills with her before vacation was over.
He sat next to her on her bed, only certain it was hers because it was perfectly made and the soft pink color of the comforter on top. "Would you like to open your present now?"
Bernadine opened the wrapping carefully, set it on her bedside table. Nestled inside the back was the most exquisite necklace she'd ever seen. The chain was rose gold, delicate links interrupted every inch or so by a small pink stone in a round facet. "You didn't," she began but faltered, because clearly he had.
His face broke into a lopsided grin and he removed the chain from the box to clasp it around her neck. He was close again, even closer than he was before on the picnic table. His lips were so close to her ear that if he spoke they'd be pressed against her skin. Temptation reared its ugly head and he leaned his cheek to hers to steady himself.
Gratefully numb, Bernadine leaned against him, breathing him in, twice as intoxicated by his presence than she'd been from the liquor. It didn't help that her adrenaline was starting to crash. Whatever resistance she was clinging to, maybe out of virtue, maybe because she was terrified of how much Stas had come to mean to her as a friend, it was falling away.
He moved at her insistence and closed his eyes the moment before his head moved. He opened them again to look at her, finding brown eyes full of want trained on his lips, moving up to his eyes for permission. He granted it by tipping his head forward, touching his lips to hers.
Very mindful of her swollen cheek, he kept his kiss light. Hers were a bit more urgent, but she subsided as the cooling charm started to wear down. Slowly their bodies shifted until they fit together nicely, laying on top of the comforter. Hands moved over clothing, never too low or too forward. Sides and backs, gentle touches. His lips never strayed very far from hers, slipping to her jawline, sometimes swirling toward her ear.
"You have bewitched me," he whispered.
"Couldn't have," she replied before nibbling on his ear lobe. "Not a witch."
Fight aftermath: Everyone else
Abby put her hand lightly on Cinna's arm. Good old Cinna, always good at directing crowds. "Uh, yeah. Sure." She shrugged apologetically to Shylock and made her way outside to find Tim. Talking was never her forte when it came to settling an argument, but she'd pretend for now.
The rest of the party started milling back to their clusters, but everyone kept whispering about the fight. "Honestly," Carly would tell anyone who would listen. "Who would fight over her?"
"Like, no one!" Shell agreed, nodding sycophantically by Carly's side. Carly was there when it started, she had to have all the info and Shell wanted to hear it all. "What do you think happened?"
Cinna pulled a face at the both of them. "Did you both have stupid pops for breakfast? Think about who you're talking to. She's making shit up." Carly never let the truth get in the way of good gossip.
"I saw the start of it," Carly replied and no one could counter that fact. She hardly needed to juice it up. "Clearly Luka Nikitin feels threatened by Timmy Ford. Not that I blame him, the boy's delicious." She talked about Tim as if he were a morsel she'd just forgotten to eat.
Veronica leaned in curiously, concerned, still quite a bit drunk. "Is everyone okay?"
"Abby got punched in the face trying to stop it," Cinna said unhappily. Stas had taken her away immediately, so she knew that her friend was being taken care of, but it was still distressing to see it happen. "The guys are just... guys." That was a valid explanation as far as Cinna was concerned. Guys punched and took punches, and unless they got knocked out or something then they were fine because guys did that shit. "Timmy fucked off somewhere and Addy took Luka home or something." She sighed dramatically and shook her head. "Punched in the face on her birthday. Great going."
"Maybe she shouldn't have run into the fight," Carly interjected, perfectly sensibly. There were plenty of other people who could break up that stupid fight, but leave it to Shabby Ford to run into the middle of it.
"Oh bitch. I have had it with you." Carly crossed the room and slapped Cinna as hard as she could manage.
Cinna shrieked and tried to duck away from the slap, clawing out with her hands as she did. "Psycho bitch! Fuck off!" She grabbed a handful of hair and yanked.
Braden just sighed and sidled up to Veronica, taking her hand and pulling her back a few steps. "Don't get too close to this one," he advised. "They're going to take down everyone in their reach."
"Someone hold my earrings!" Cinna yelled. "I am going to rip this fucker a new vagina to whore on everyone!"
This party was out of control. "Awesome," Thorn said out loud before he realized that other people had heard him. "I mean... Oh... Nooooooooooo." Then he thought he should probably break up the girls that were going to tear Abby's house apart in the process of their fight. "Girls," he said lightly, attempting to sidle up close to them.
It was a bad idea. Carly reached out and ran her claws down his face and arm before clubbing him. Her other hand was tangled in Cinna's hair, pulling as hard as she could. "I will fucking kill you, bitch."
"Notice how you never get anything you fucking want!" Cinna spat back, ripping at the lace part of Carly's slutty dress. She tried to manouvre herself between Carly and Thorn, pushing her butt into Thorn to try and nudge him out of the way. "THORN, MOVE."
"WHAT. YOU DO NOT HAVE A NICKNAME FOR HER." Cinna rounded on Thorn momentarily, kneeing him hard in the stomach whilst biting down on Carly's hand.
Carly screamed and then aimed a punch at Cinna's boob. "He can have as many nicknames for me as he likes," she replied, practically cooing in Thorn's ear. She hadn't heard that silly pet name of his in ages. Now she was trying to position herself in between them, a ridiculously stupid attempt at being a human shield for a boy who had no idea what to do with his hands anymore.
"Slut! Whore! Bitch! Desperate cunt! None of those count!" Cinna yelped at the attack on her boobs and kicked out blindly, clawing with her nails at whatever she found first-- hair, skin, dress. Anything. She stepped back onto Thorn's foot with the heel of her tall shoes and tumbled over to the floor.
"Should we maybe... Should we do something about this?" Veronica asked timidly.
So of course, Abby walked back in on this mess and was tempted to cast a whole series of hexes to get them to stop. Good old Cinna couldn't help throwing down if that monster Carly was involved. And Thorn just couldn't help throwing his hat into the rodeo either. She was just about to let loose an attempt at a wandless spell when she looked over to see Shylock and better judgement began flooding back in. Fuck me.
She walked as close to the edge of it as she could and put on her best crying face. It wasn't a guaranteed Bernadine reaction to this mess, but no one here would know that. Cinna at least would fall for the emotional ploy. "You're ruining my birthday!" she cried and waited, hoping it would work.
Thorn heard Abby's voice, but he didn't recognize the gentle inflection of words. All the same he took a hold of Carly as best he could and pulled her off of Cinna firmly before flipping her around and taking any last hits Cinna wanted to get out to his backside. "Sorry Berny," he said apologetically. He didn't actually know Bernadine and he already had a nickname for her. Always a player, thought Abby, and had to school the amusement off her face.
Cinna kicked out from the floor a few more times, enraged that Thorn saw fit to hold Carly away to safety, but stopped immediately when she saw the look on Abby's face. She was appropriately shamed. "I'm sorry, Bernadine," she said, picking herself up off the floor in complete horror that she'd ruined her birthday. Her. She had ruined it. She felt terrible. "Is Abby okay?"
Cinna shot Carly a death glare, turning it on Thorn moments later, before wiping her nose on the back of her hand and nodding at Abby. "Yes, there's cake in the fridge. Unless Braden found it already."
"Hey!" Braden was offended. He wouldn't attack an innocent birthday cake until at least after the birthday-haver had a piece.
"Girl scout's honor," Veronica pledged. "I've been with him all night. Unless someone else got into it your cake is intact." She didn't understand why that statement might be embarrassing and grinned at Braden as if she had his back.
Carly kept her hands tangled around Thorn's body, even as he tried to squirm away under Cinna's hateful gaze. "Carly, pumpkin, you've got to disengage. People are already talking."
Carly huffed, let him go and headed to the bathroom to straighten herself out.
Riley gave Thorn his best bitchface. "Calling them 'your bitches' isn't going to earn you any points, genius." He patted down his pockets to see if he had anything better than a squished pack of Marlboro Reds. "Gonna need to get Arnaud out here if we want anything decent, 'fraid. Did I miss something good?" He thought he'd heard Cinna screaming, but really, what was so unusual about that?
"Oh Riles, you missed the whole show. Luka got punched around by Abs' brother, Tim. Rumors are flying around that they were sparring over Adelaide." Thorn shook his head and laughed about that one. "Can you imagine Addy Legs wanting anything to do with the Fords? At all. Ever. Then you know. My ladies got into it. Can never tell with Carls and Cin. They'll fight over everything."
He laughed again, but the aches and bruises were starting to set in. He had some impressive scratches running down his body and was pretty sure one of his bitches drew blood. Thankfully, oh so thankfully, Arnaud was heading out into the backyard.
"You sure do know how to stick your oar in," he said to Thorn while pulling out his magic pipe and delightful herbs.
"He's still doin' it, too," Riley said, digging his lighter out of his pocket to hand it over. "'My bitches', 'my ladies', like, do you really not see how your expressing posession is just digging you in deeper?" He wasn't going to try and get into feminist theory with Hawthorne fucking Nikitin, but it didn't take a genius to know that none of 'Thorn's ladies' were going to like not being his only lady.
Thorn lit up, shrugged. "I'm starting to think, man. Fuck 'em all."
Riley shrugged, obvious smirk blooming. "Fucking 'em all is what's got you here, dude. And then fucking 'em over. You got your hands full with drama." He took a hit and passed the pipe back to Arnaud. "'s it worth it?"
"No. You don't even know," Thorn began, rushing in. "When you can get two of them into your bed at the same time, all the drama llama duck bullshit is totally fucking worth it. They can quack all they fucking want, but jesus christ, it's too good having two at once."
Arnaud made a noise that fell somewhere between disapproval and jealousy. He hoped it sounded more like disgust. "I'm a one man man, myself. If I could ever get one for myself."