Party Like It's Your Last

[Slam]

Becky Long was far too stubborn a girl to let something like an imminent announcement day spoil her sweet sixteen.

Tensions always ran high around this time in the Long household: it’d been that way when her older brother started high school, and it was going to stay that way until Becky herself graduated.
“Maybe have it afterwards? You might not have a lot of guests if you throw it right now, that’s all.” Her mom had said, her eyes as weary as they always became around this time of the quarter. Four times a year of such rampant stress for so long was starting to do a number on her heart.

But Becky had not been deterred: there was wisdom in her mother’s words, people were always nervous when the Program was right around the corner, but if life had decided to hold her birthday barely in advance of the picking, then by damn she was going to stick it to it and throw an awesome party!

“Just…don’t make a mess, okay?” her father finally said, himself and Mrs. Long stood in the doorway, off to spend the night out and let their daughter’s party have the house. They wouldn’t dream of letting their daughter throw a party in an empty house before, but she was getting so old these days; they could trust her for tonight, and all the nights afterwards. There were going to be so many, because nothing had become of announcement day before, nothing for them anyway.

“Yeah, it’ll be fine! Go, go!” Becky ushered, waving her parents off as the house begged for her attention behind her. Snacks and soda were laid out throughout the house, she’d got a great playlist on her iPod set up in the living room, and by now the word should’ve spread across her entire year that everyone was invited to her birthday. Everyone wouldn’t come, Becky wasn’t nearly popular enough for that, but by the end of the night she’d be having so much fun she wouldn’t care who showed up and who didn’t.

Finally, stopping in front of the house only to honk goodbye, her mom and dad were gone and the place was hers.

The party was on!

[jimmydalad]

((Maxim Senders continued from The Problems of Three Little People))

Announcement day was coming up. Everyone knew that. It was an inescapable fact to everyone, especially him. The thought of being forced to compete against his classmates in a battle to the death scared him and the mere thought of it made him shiver. Therefore, he wasn't going tot think about it. Becky had thrown a party to which everyone was invited and Maxim took this opportunity as a way to help control his fears. After all, who doesn't like a party?

Becky was a pretty cool girl. He loosely knew her through the fact that her and Louisa shared a passion for cycling. Her bubbly personality was infectious and he appreciated her forward personality. While she wasn't his closest friend, she was still considered a friend in his books. She was better than half the people in his school.

Arriving at the house, Maxim waited for a moment, trying to compose himself and push away the thoughts of the imminent announcement day. He was determined to have fun. He was going to have fun, whether he wanted to or not. Negative thoughts weren't going to help him today and it was a celebration, thoughts of Announcement day would only ruin the day.

Once he had mentally prepared himself, he made his way to the door and entered the house, turning to Becky and giving her a cheery smile. She was awesome for organizing a party this close to Announcement Day.

"Hey Becky, thanks for inviting me." Maxim remarked happily as he made his way to get some drinks.

- - - - -
((Bailey Williams continued from Lunchtime Shenanigans))

"Are you sure you want to go Bailey?" Eric Williams asked her daughter as he dropped her off outside of Becky's house. He gave her a worried look, which Bailey responded to with a wide, warming smile.

"Of course I want to go. Don't worry father, I'll be fine." Bailey reassured her father as she walked towards Becky's house. Her father let out a worried sigh, thinking about the imminent announcement day. Bailey seemed to be oddly cool about it, which made her father worry more. She was his daughter. What if she was selected? The thought made his hair stand on end.

Bailey on the other hand was more preoccupied with the party. She admired Becky's guts for choosing to hold this party even with the upcoming arrival of announcement day. Bailey was pretty confident she was going to be safe. After all, there wasn't a great probability that their school was going to be picked, let alone her. She was going to enjoy the night.

Drifting gracefully through the door, Bailey turned to face Becky, giving her an ethereal grin.

"Thanks for inviting me for this occasion. I must say, I think I'm going to enjoy myself." She told her politely before moving over to one of the corners of the room, getting out her cards and shuffling them.

[Skraal]

Announcement Day. The word seemed to cause a physical reaction in Josie. The uncomfortable feeling in her stomach had been worsening all week, and she had barely been able to sleep at all for the past few nights. Josie had expected that, having been through four Announcement Days already, she would be used to the anxiety they caused. Unfortunately, that wasn't the case.

Josie's attempts to take her mind off of the distinct possibility that she could be dead in a few short weeks had so far all ended in failure. Thankfully, she had been invited to a party by one of the friendlier kids in her class, Becky Long. While she didn't know Becky very well, she hoped that her party would be enough to distract her for a few short hours.

Josie swallowed as she walked up to the door to Becky's house and pulled on the handle. To her mild surprise, the door was unlocked. As she entered the house she was please to see a few people there already, and all of them were pretty friendly kids, as far as she knew. She turned over to Becky and waved.

"Hi Becky! Thanks for inviting me to your party!"

Unsure of what do next, she looked around. Maxim seemed to be busy getting a drink at the far corner of the room, while another girl was setting up some sort of card game in the corner. Josie didn't really know many card games, but she did like playing them with people. She walked over to where the other girl was and sat down in front of her.

"Hi, my name's Josie! What's yours?"

After a few seconds of thinking, Josie looked down at the cards in the other girl's hand.

"Are you starting a game? Can I play?"