6 FEBRUARY, SATURDAY, PARTY TIME!
I don't mean to brag, but tonight was the BEST PARTY EVER! It was cool and dangerous and fun all at the same time.
Flynn was the "adult" at the party. The official adult in charge. Even though Ki was an adult, too, you and I know he wasn't the type of adult you could leave in charge of a party of teenage werewolves.
Naturally, he got Hank to help. But I now had new respect for Flynn. You know how he was always freaking out over every tiny (and not so tiny) bruise I ever got, right?
Tonight, despite whatever happened, he was only a little tense at times. It wasn't even the music choice, which sounded a lot like Savy's playlist. Considering that the party was held in our putrid dungeons, with air guns, a horde of hidden live rats, and the fact that warriors from upstairs actually came down to check on us twice during the night—the second time with a warning that the party was causing disruption to the ground floor (from our B2 location... that's how loud it got)—he would have to report it.
He only yelled at us when Tim and Henry got into a standoff. Tim was an idiot. What wolf would stand off against an alpha? He even pointed an air gun at Henry point-blank.
Henry nearly shifted and bit his head off! Flynn barked at Tim to put the gun down. I had not seen Flynn bark an order like that before. It was pretty fierce. Tim actually obeyed without a word or a smirk.
But later, Tim claimed, "I wasn't really going to shoot. That guy was just getting on my nerves."
"You were the one getting on everyone's nerves," Shannon quipped.
So yes, all things taken into account, Flynn was surprisingly chill. Besides the episode with Tim, he even looked like he was enjoying himself, too.
Okay, rewind! I'm going to tell it from the start because THE BEST PARTY EVER had to be told properly.
The party started in the Training Hall on B1, which wasn't all that special, since we often had "camp nights" and "game days" and "ultimate dodgeball" here.
There were refreshment tables set out. They had a lot of cookies and chips and our standard pack punch—which was made of orange squash, 7Up, and canned pineapple cubes (don't diss it if you haven't tried it)—but there was also a long table for the pizza, which currently only had red and white checkered tablecloths and a sign that said "pizza table" to cover its nakedness.
At the other end were mics and instruments. The middle of the hall was empty, presumably for dancing. Some unnotable song was playing in the background, and the lights were all on. To be honest, even our camp nights had seen cooler lighting.
Most of the teens were just sitting around on the bleaches, eating and chatting and waiting. And when Ben opened the door for me and my friends to enter, he made an announcement. "Alpha Princess is here."
Everyone stood up—not in the trainee-snap-to-attention mode, more in the "Yo, whatzup, princess?" mode.
Which was only slightly more ridiculous than what they actually greeted me with in unison: "Yo, princess!"
And then Ben continued, "Alpha Henry is here."
And then they loudly called back, "Yo, Henry!"
Which was dumb and could be taken as disrespect. Seriously, the idiots!
But I was grinning like an idiot myself now, too, and Henry actually looked somewhat sheepishly pleased.
Jonah had approached us. "Everything's ready. Everyone's here, except Dean and Drew. Darlyn came with the other girls earlier."
"Yeah, let's just start then. They'd get here when they get here." Ben shrugged. He didn't wait; he simply went over to the "stage" side of the hall, grabbed a mic, and started.
"Alright, grab a seat, guys. The Alpha Princess and her guests are here, so we're going to start," Ben announced.
Killion and Harvey led us to the front rows of the bleaches.
Okay... Not what I was expecting.
"There are going to be three parts to this party," Ben explained. "The first part is icebreakers, courtesy of Flynn and Hank; the second part is the dungeon hunt, and the last part is live band and dance. Food and drinks are free-flow; the pizza table opens after the icebreakers."
"Whoot, PIZZA!" Some of the guys whooped.
The girls laughed.
Then Ben called out the teams. Each team was named after a "princess" who was one of the girls from my school.
I was with PRINCESS PEARL.
As promised, Harvey was with PRINCESS JASMINE.
Ben was with PRINCESS ABIGAIL.
Ki was with PRINCESS KRYSTAL.
Henry was with PRINCESS LEIA.
Marcus was with PRINCESS ZARA.
In all the games, the teams had to protect the princesses and complete the challenges.
So we had six teams, led by either alphas or betas. The other teens had to number off. I got everyone who was in Team 1, which was pretty sweet because anything regarding luck usually worked to my advantage, and we were what I'd consider a winning combination with Link, Lola, Shannon, Angela, and Jay.
I think Pearl was at first unhappy because she got me instead of Henry or one of the betas as her team leader, but she started smiling again when Link and Shannon said hi to her.
Normally, I'd let the girls play defence and the guys attack, but I took mental note to put one guy on defence and let Lola and Angela attack. I've seen Lola in Thursday training sessions, and I've played with Angela a lot, so I'm quite sure they could possibly ace it.
But the first icebreaker wasn't anything dangerous. We were all given a block of ice the size of an ice cream tub.
The first team to melt the ice and retrieve the marbles inside would win. We were allowed to use what we had around us; we were not allowed to break anything else in the hall besides the ice, and we were not allowed to go outside the hall.
My team crowded around the block of ice.
"If we take it out, there'll be more surface area and it might melt faster," Link said with all his greater wisdom and experience as the only senior in our group.
So Shannon helped him knock the ice out of the box. It wasn't easy. The ice was stuck inside. The guys banged and smashed the frozen plastic tub around.
The group nearest to us was Ben's and Princess Abigail's. Abigail was putting all her cheerleading skills into full throttle. I could sense Ben's growing annoyance whenever she squealed. On top of that, Ben's team had Ethan, who wasn't helping much because he was too busy laughing like a hyena. I think Ben's saving grace was Lizzy and Jonah.
But they weren't banging on the box. The guys were holding the box upside down while using their hands to warm the plastic box until the ice melted on the inside and fell out. It smashed on the ground and broke into two.
"Yes!" Lizzy said.
"Yay!" Abigail cheered. "Keep going, guys! You've got this!"
"Eiyahahahahahaha!" Ethan laughed, turning red in the face. "My hands are so cold they're burning! Eiyahahahahaha."
Hahaha. Meanwhile, our team had gotten the ice out, too. Shannon and Link had somehow mustered enough strength to rip open the ice cream tub.
"Okay!" Angela decided. "Now smash it!"
"Can you just wait, woman?" Jay scolded. "The ice will melt eventually."
"NO WAY!" Angela screeched. "I don't care if you sit on the ice or put it in your shirt, but if we don't melt all the ice first, I'm going to put it in your pants!"
It's not difficult to see that she was Delta Felicity's daughter. Lol.
"I am NOT going to put that in my clothes," Jay said firmly.
"Let's just break it into smaller pieces," Shannon suggested. "Then we can divide the pieces, and everyone can help melt a piece."
"Divide and conquer! Alright!" Link agreed. "I like the way you think, man!"
They exchanged fives and got to work on the ice.
"Yeah, see, now that's a workable idea," Jay told Angela.
Angela pouted. "Fine, then break it."
Meanwhile, the other teams were also working on getting their ice blocks out and trying to smash them. It was like we were all keeping an eye on the other teams. Carlie actually meandered over to see what we were doing, but Angela chased her away.
"What we need is a sledgehammer," Jay said.
"Do we have that?" Pearl asked.
No one knew how to reply politely. No one but Shannon: "Unfortunately not, princess."
Pearl beamed.
"How about we throw it down from a height?" Lola asked after some consideration.
This sounded like the best plan so far, so Link, who was the tallest, climbed up on one of the tables that didn't have a tablecloth and threw down the block of ice. It chipped in the corner.
This totally wasn't the expected result, since Ben's team got theirs to half just by dropping it by accident.
We decided to try it again. But our ice wasn't cracking.
By now, I could see Marcus's team and Henry's team trying to do this, too.
Ben had taken out the knife in his boot to hack at the ice to break it up further. I think he was going with the divide-and-conquer strategy, too—which meant we were on the right track.
Esther, Macey, and a few ladies came in to refill the cookie trays and add brownies and other delicious-smelling things to the mix. They set up a buffet table with hot food, too.
Hank and Flynn went over to talk to their mates. They were talking with amusement at our futile attempts. Their mates smiled and laughed a little.
I couldn't make out what they were saying, but then I saw Esther and Macey's eyes move to look at the radiator along the side of the hall when Flynn was talking. Then they nodded and laughed.
Muahahaha.
"I got it," I said. "We're doing this in the wrong place. Take the ice and come with me."
So our team went over to the side.
"Don't let the other teams see what we're doing!" Angela warned.
So Shannon, Jay, and Link tried to use their backs to make a small blockage as we crouched to put the ice as close to the radiator as possible.
"If we break it, it might melt faster," Lola said.
"I'll be back." I got up and went over to the ladies just as they were leaving to borrow an empty metal tray. It had a nice sharp edge.
"Alright, Sam!" Link cheered.
Suddenly, there was a loud shout from one of the teams. Princess Abigail was like, "You did it, Ben!"
"I did it, too," Jonah said, but he was properly ignored.
"Okay, quick, let's grab a piece and melt it!" Lizzy said.
"No." Ben looked directly at my team. "Follow me."
They came and parked themselves at the radiator next door, with a few rocks of ice.
"Quick! Smash the ice!" Angela screamed.
Link and Shannon tried, with Link using the tray like a guillotine and Shannon holding down the now slippery, wet block.
"Be careful," Lola worried.
You know how I said it wasn't a dangerous game, right? I still don't think it was supposed to be, but, you know... We were werewolves, we were young... And maybe we could be pretty stupid when it came to safety.
So yeah, Link crashed the tray down as hard as he could. Shannon's wolf reflexes saved him, and he let go just before it came down on his thumb. Lola gasped. Pearl screamed. Our block of ice DID NOT BREAK.
The tray bent, though.
What the hell was wrong with our ice?
"Eiyahahahahahaha!" The next-door group laughed at our epic fail. The whole group laughed out loud. It was just that Ethan was the loudest, so they sounded like a band of wild donkeys.
A few of the other groups had already broken their ice. Ben's group had four marbles out. I think Henry's group got at least two... Actually, everyone else sounded more successful than we were.
"You broke the tray," Jonah said. "That's against the rules."
"It's not broken, it bent!" Angela argued. She turned to Jay. "FIX IT!"
Jay held up his hand. "I've got it. Just don't shout, woman." And then he had to continue in a lecture tone. "Do you see any of the other girls screaming the guys' ears off? Look at Sam and Lola. Do you hear them screaming?"
At this point, he was interrupted by a shrill scream.
"Carlie is not counted," Jay continued with a straight face. "Can you try to be a little more demure? Think of your poor mate. Never mind your mate, think of the entire wolf population in general. We would all be deaf if all the females were screaming in our ears..."
At this point, Angela had had enough and pinched Jay's arm hard. "Shut up and fix the tray!"
"You're damn bossy, you know," was Jay's only complaint. And then he went to work on the tray.
Okay...
Our ice wasn't breaking. Not in this chapter.