Disclaimer: Same as always.
She'd done it all. She'd gotten them to come to her damn party, on Halloween night no less, and she'd gotten them to dress up, in some sort of masquerade. Great. All five of them had turned down her invitations, and all five of them assured her that even if she did manage to get them there, they wouldn't have fun.
Somehow, and Spencer was damned if he knew, she knew they lied.
He snuck a glance at the girl he was cursing, and who happened to be the worker of miracles, apparently. Constance Ching had transformed from nearly-perfect princess to chubby-face Chipette Eleanor within an hour, with some help from Miriam. Her normally straight hair was deliberately messy, and her pale face was now rosier with the help of makeup.
And what had he come as? Dracula. Because Kai didn't want to go as a vampire, and Ian thought it would be hilarious if he did instead. The little bugger practically dared him to. And he didn't quite feel like giving up a challenge.
However, the same little bugger was now laughing his ass off and shooting pictures of him from a distance because Constance looked like his next meal. Great. He just needed pictures of him being posted along the school hallway.
The rest of the class would probably be interested. Connie had only invited the five Blitzkrieg Boys, Ozuma's gang, and a couple other girls that she liked.
So she was anti-social. But why the party then?
He looked at a scowling Kai, who had decided to dress up as Frankenstein, snatch up Ian's camera and toss it out a window. Then, upon hearing a smothered laugh, he turned to Ozuma and Joseph, who were sitting a few feet away, and snarled at their smirking faces.
"I don't understand you," Spencer muttered from under his mask.
"Hm?" Connie looked up from her sprawled out position on the floor. She noted his scowling face and sighed. "Spencer, if you tell me you're not enjoying yourself again, I'm really going to hit you. Really."
"I wasn't talking about that," he grumbled. "It's just… I don't understand why you had this party." He looked at her only to find her laughing. "What?"
"I forgot to tell you why, and I totally meant to."
"Uh… huh." His eyes rolled.
She elbowed his knee. HARD. As he hopped around in agony, she said calmly, "You know I wouldn't lie about things like that. Why should I? I wanted to see Kai. That's all."
"And, what, the rest of us don't matter?" he asked through clenched teeth.
"Not entirely."
Spencer snorted, out of irritation and amusement, and partly out of pain. "Thanks."
She laughed before glancing at Kai. "Ah, well, he's here, so everything is swell. Why the concern? I'm clearly enjoying myself, Dad."
"I'm not your father."
"Awww. Would Mom be a more fitting title?" she drawled.
He prodded her gently with his foot if only because his knee was still throbbing, and he didn't want to aggravate her into snapping his leg in half, and muttered, "You're a weird girl, Connie Ching."
"Ah, I get that a lot. Now why don't you understand my motivations? It's not like they're a secret. Except maybe to Kai." Another glance at the oblivious Kai.
"That's just it! You know he doesn't like you," the blond hissed, testing out his knee.
She twirled her hair around her finger absently. "Of course he likes me, dearie. He didn't object coming to this party."
"Well, he likes you as a friend. Not the way you like him. And he DID object to coming to this party; we all did; you just didn't want to listen!"
"Oh, you big baby. You weren't protesting all that hard. I figured you guys were playing hard to get."
"You were playing hard of hearing."
"Mmm. Perhaps." A smile played on her lips. She knew she was infuriating him, but it didn't really matter to her.
"Connie. Stop it with the games already," he mumbled, "He doesn't love you. There's no hand for you to win, and there's nothing to gain by adoring him."
He expected her to ignore him in stony silence, as she was prone to do when he told her things she didn't particularly like. But for some reason, she was still smiling, and not hiding the fact that she was studying the guy in question.
"Connie?"
She nodded, and then lay back to relax against the cool surface of her living room wall. She closed her eyes briefly, as if to take a nap, but he knew she wasn't resting. She said, "Well, what's the point of playing a game if it doesn't amuse me anymore?"
She was tired, she hated parties, and she really didn't care for Halloween. Spencer had left to fish Ian out of trouble, while Kai, Tala, and Bryan contemplated leaving. She could tell Tala really wanted to go, but at the same time, really didn't know how to tell her tactfully, "We're done with having fun, can we ditch this place?"
And out of spite, she refused start any sort of conversation with them that could result with them leaving the party. Hell, if she had to sit through it, they would too.
She hadn't moved from her spot for most of the evening, but not that she cared; they knew she wouldn't be a fabulous host.
A movement to her left caught her attention. She smiled and waved as Miriam and her "family" made their way to her.
"Hon, you look awesome tonight! Now, twirl around so I can see you better, and so you can't see me decking the guys for not complimenting you all evening!" Miriam said, pushing her so that she would do as commanded. Connie obliged and heard an aggravated, "OW!" from Joseph and Dunga at the same time.
"Say something, twits!"
Joseph said dutifully, "Nice costume, Connie." He sent a pleading look in his sister's direction, apologizing for his lack of ideas.
"Can we go home now?" added Dunga. "Owww, what the fuck was that for?" He glared at Miriam, rubbing his bruised shoulder.
"Tactless," she muttered. "So much assimilation training to do, so much idiocy to handle. Ozuma," she said looking at the last guy, "please say something to your host that will at least make me feel that I'm not living with a bunch of retards."
She glanced at their 'leader' (as it was very apparent that Miriam wore the pants in this household) with interest. Ozuma never said much to her, but she knew he was always watching her. As if he could see her weaknesses, and even scarier, her strengths.
It was as if he knew what she was really trying to say when she spoke in riddles.
He looked at her, taking in her costume, and then it seemed that his glance was taking her in; expression, exhaustion, irritation and façade.
It really shouldn't have surprised her when he nodded at her and began to walk past her.
Miriam had been muttering death threats so she couldn't hear what Constance could as Ozuma made his way across the room to get another drink. Connie wasn't even sure he said it.
But she could have sworn he said:
"Happy Halloween, Constance. Tell me, aren't your tricks starting to bore you? The game's fun and all, but you've made it too easy for him to break you."