1049: I don't know. It all depends on what the magic 8-ball I use to come up with these story-lines tells me.

JMbuilder: Girl Jordan X Lincoln tends to be more popular in artist circles, but there are many writers who've taken it on, both on this site and others. And thanks, glad you liked it.

heavy5comando: No, you rock

Also, I just realized this is my 50th story… that's pretty neat. I'd say something like 'Here's to another 50' but we all know that's not going to happen. I'm too lazy and dumb to make it to 100. Lmao

Before the first guest had even arrived, Girl Jordan was busy triple-checking the premises, to ensure everything was perfect for the party she had planned. She had a reputation to uphold, after all. If she messed up one year, her title as 'The Queen of Parties' would be up for grabs, and she knew there were many kids (re: Cristina) hungrily keeping their eyes fixed on her crown. So when she lightly tapped the popcorn machine and it broke to pieces, she nearly broke apart with it.

"Calm down, it's alright," Gabby said to Girl Jordan as she directed Mollie to pick the machine back up. "You've still got an awesome thing going here. Someone'll just fix this thing up and..."

"The popcorn maker is just the start!" Girl Jordan declared dramatically. "What else isn't working right? The pool jets? The speakers? Does my punch secretly taste horrible? ANSWER ME!"

"Girl, relax. These are the kind of kids with Tide-Pod based diets, they'll eat or drink anything."

"So the punch does suck. I knew it," Girl Jordan whined dejectedly.

"It's… fine, I guess. What it really needs is an extra ingredient, if you get what I'm saying."

"I can't put alcohol in the punch. Clyde is too straight-laced, Omar can't drink for religious reasons, Frank is recovering from a bad addiction..."

"I'll make two bowls. And I'll label them," Mollie stated, rushing into the house to grab another punch bowl. When she left, Gabby put her hand on Girl Jordan's shoulder.

"This isn't about popcorn, is it?"

"Probably not," Girl Jordan admitted, brushing Gabby's hand off. She turned around, her elegantly tied braid swishing with her as she moved, and the brunette shuddered as she let out a visible sigh. She wanted to dance around the issue, but felt that this wasn't the time. Besides, she could place her trust in Gabby. She was kind, and could keep a secret.

And if she doesn't keep a secret, then she's not inviting to my wedding with Lincoln, and she'll never get to visit our fifteen children.

"Okay, the truth is that I'm just really nervous about… the moment. I want to tell Lincoln everything at this party. I want to tell him about the crush I've had on him for a long time, and I want to tell him about how much I treasure him and care for him and all that. And, call me crazy and unrealistic, but I want everything to be perfect when I do. The lights, the sound, the place… everything is absolutely perfect when I picture it in my head. And… and I want it to be that way tonight."

"Well, I know that's how you want it to be, but I know you're also smart enough to realize that you, er, can't really have that," Gabby shrugged her nimble shoulders.

"I know. But I can try."

Gabby opened her mouth to protest, but quickly shut it. Technically, Girl Jordan wasn't wrong. She could try, and maybe somehow succeed. Gabby didn't really know how she could say otherwise. Instead, she shrugged again and turned around gracefully, picking up a bag of Doritos of the floor and ripping it open. While she was busy spilling the ranch flavored insides into a small bowl on the table, Girl Jordan turned and walked away. She put her hand on her chin as she thought about what Gabby had said to her.

"She's wrong," Girl Jordan concluded. "I can totally do it. I don't care how much money I have to spend, I can make this night as close to perfect as possible."

A large excess of resources would do that to a person. Make them believe they're on top of the world. Girl Jordan, as smart she was, fell into the same trap. Maybe it didn't matter at all, considering that she was about to throw the grandest party ever. Or maybe it did matter a lot…

As Girl Jordan reached down into her purse, fishing around for some more money, her hand snagged on a thin sheet of plastic, wrapped around something circular. Her curved finger circled around it, tracing the texture on her fingertip, before she remembered what it was. Her hand came out of her purse, and the object came out with it. It was a red wrapper, one of many in her purse, and inside it was… was…

Girl Jordan gulped before she let the name of the object escape her lips. "A condom."

She had plans for the night, after all.

Plans to make sure everything was absolutely perfect.

"Hey, Girl Jordan. Earth to Girl Jordan. Are you there, Girl Jordan? It's me, Mollie."

"Hm? What?"

The host of the party shook her head, and turned to her friend Mollie, who was holding an empty cup. She, shamefully, realized that she had been having a flashback daydream, and her cheeks pinkened when she realized that her flashback had ended with thoughts about condoms.

"We're out of soda," Mollie told her, turning her cup upside down for a few drops of clear sugar water to drip out. "There's another bottle in the fridge. Were we supposed to touch that, or…?"

"No, don't touch that. It's my dad's soda."

Mollie grit her teeth, and hissed. "Ooh… whoops."

Girl Jordan narrowed her eyes at Mollie, who quickly put on a sheepish grin and hid her plastic cup behind her back. "Mollie, did someone touch my dad's soda?"

"What? No, I'm just asking because… because Tabby wanted to know… about it..."

"Mollie, did you drink any of it?"

"I have to go to the little girl's room now."

Her friend scampered off into the crowd, and Girl Jordan scowled. She ran her fingers over her eyelids, rubbing them for comfort. "It's okay, it's okay," she repeated to herself like a mantra of growing madness. "I'll just get Dad another one. Even if that was a foreign soda from Europe. I'll search around the fusion places before he gets back from his business trips."

One of his many business trips.

Girl Jordan groaned. "Yep. One of his many business trips. And if you'll excuse me, brain, I need to go distract myself by talking to people before I get depressed thinking about it."

k

She went near the pool, and saw the great writhing mass of limbs and heads all stuffed inside her pool. They poked out painfully, and most of her peers were pushing and shouting at each other. Girl Jordan grit her teeth. Didn't they know there was a maximum occupancy for such an enclosed space. She considered ordering some people to get out of the water, but upon further looking, it was kinda funny watching everyone bump around. Plus, they had a beach ball flying around above their heads. At least some of them were having fun.

She turned without looking, and bumped into a slightly shorter girl. Her mouth filled with long black hair, which Girl Jordan spat out and immediately began apologizing. "Oh my God, I'm so sorry Haiku."

Haiku looked at her with her single exposed eye, and it was clearly disinterested. That wasn't saying much, considering how much it always looked disinterested. "Is no problem, mademoiselle. Accidents happen, no?"

"They do, yeah. Um… Haiku, since when did you speak in that accent? Were you French this whole time?"

"Non," Haiku said, even though she had just used 'no' earlier. "I am, how you say, learning the languages of Romancia, or Romance tongues. Espanol, Italiano, uh..."

"Romanian?" Girl Jordan offered.

"Yes, and of course, French."

"Right, but you're not really talking French, you're just speaking English in a weird accent. And you know, now that I think about it, why are you even learning all these languages anyways?"

Haiku went silent, almost theatrically so. She then said, "I hope that wit every Romance word I learn, I come closer to finding romance in my own life."

"Oh… that's what this is about. Well, uh, you know you shouldn't let me get in the way of that. I'm sure you'll impress someone with your… French..."

"You think so?" Haiku asked, flashing a quick, hopeful smile.

"I know you will," Girl Jordan nodded kindly. The Goth seemed pleased with her answer, and excused herself to wander amongst the crowd, emboldened by Girl Jordan's words. She placed her hands on her hips and shook her head lightly. "I swear, every time I catch up with Haiku, she's acting more and more like a Tim Burton character."

"That's the guy who did the movie with the monkeys, right?"

"Amongst other, better projects, yeah," Girl Jordan said, spinning around to spy none other than the infamous Chandler, taking a sip from a cup of punch that she had no doubt was from the spiked bowl. Chandler had a developed bit of a reputation as a substance abuser, but she honestly couldn't see it on him. The guy looked healthier than most clean people. He had muscles, a good tan, and his eyes were only slightly red.

The redhead took a sip from the cup, before crushing it on his forehead and tossing it on the grass. "Nice gig you got going here," he complimented in a rusty voice born from his smoking habit. "I probably could've thrown a better one, but whatever."

"And what's so wrong with this one?" Girl Jordan asked coolly.

"Chill, chill, I'm just throwing around my swagger," he chuckled nervously. "You got a good thing going here. The only reason people like my shit is because I actually throw my parties in actual shit."

Girl Jordan giggled. "Well, at least it's a creative locale."

"Well, if you like creativity, I have been writing a few poems lately..."

Oh God, no, please, not his stoner poems again.

Chandler, the holistic chap that he was, decided that rather than spend his time sober wallowing around on his bed or gobbling down vast sums of munchies, he wanted to spend that spare time working in the creative arts. Poetry was his latest endeavor, but much like writing short stories and painting, he wasn't really good at it. Also, his poems usually revolved around his hard experiences growing up… the ones everyone knew he didn't actually have.

"Listen, I'd love to listen to you recite something for me," Girl Jordan stopped his hand as it reached into his pocket, "but I'm really busy right now, and I'm also looking for someone. Have you seen Lincoln somewhere?"

"Lincoln? Oh yeah, he was talking with Paige..."

For a single, fleeting flash of a second, Girl Jordan imagined burying Paige alive.

"… but then he went off to find Clyde for something. And last time I saw Clyde, he was hanging out on the porch with Penelope, so Linc's probably there."

"Alright, thanks Chandler. I'll go find Lincoln before Paige does."

"No problem," Chandler muttered. Girl Jordan happily stepped away from him, disappearing into the hefty crowd of teenagers. When Chandler was sure she couldn't see him anymore, he whipped out a lighter and a 'cigarette' and started hitting that doob like Wiz Khalifa.

Girl Jordan made her way across the house, stopping on her way to yell at two of her friends for bothering the stray cat that her family usually left food out for, and got to the porch. She found Clyde sitting with his girlfriend Penelope, his arm wrapped around her shoulder. But there was no Lincoln, sitting there like a third wheel, so Girl Jordan walked up to them and said "Hey, Clyde. Hey, Penelope. Have either of you seen Lincoln?"

"You just missed him," Penelope said, pointing at the open door behind her. "He went inside for some snacks."

"Thanks, Penelope."

When Girl Jordan stepped inside, she closed the door behind her, so Penelope looked at Clyde and smirked. "She's completely head over heels in love with him, huh?"

"It's obvious to everyone except Lincoln. For a guy that falls in love so much, he really has a hard time noticing it," Clyde chuckled. "I'm so glad that whenever I look at him, I feel so much more secure in my manliness."

Speaking of the young man himself, he sneezed into his hand just before he reached for a snack. "Dang it. Now I have to go wash them," he complained. He grabbed a tissue to wipe his palm as he went up the stairs to the bathroom, and just as he left, a frantic Girl Jordan barged into the scene.

"Have either of you seen Lincoln?" she asked Tabby and Polly Pain, who both pointed towards the upper floor. Girl Jordan let out a slew of annoyed curses under her breath, before she clocked out of the kitchen to run up the stairs.

Lincoln heard someone stamping their feet loudly down the hall, so once he was done wiping his wet, cleaned hands with a tissue, he braved a look outside, peeking his head out of the bathroom door…

Where he was met with Girl Jordan's chest smacking him in the face.

"GAAH!" he yelled as he fell to the floor. Girl Jordan cringed when she realized she knocked the guy she was looking for down to the floor, but then cringed even harder when she felt the stinging on her breasts and realized that she had smacked him down with her boobs. Her face reddened painfully, and she quickly flipped into apology mode.

"Oh my God, Lincoln, I'm so sorry," she said, reaching down to give him a hand. Lincoln took it, and she helped him to his feet.

She also took note of how nice his hands felt. Smooth, but not too soft.

"It's alright, I shouldn't have got in your way. I mean, I heard the running, so I was the stupid guy that pushed his head out..."

"Let's just call it even. I was looking for you anyways, so this is good."

"You were looking for me? Oh, uh, what's up?" Lincoln asked.

"I… uh…"

You didn't even think of what you were going to say to him when you found him?

Shut up, shut up, give me a second.

"I, um, just wanted to ask… if you were enjoying the party. Yeah, heh heh, I've been asking everyone that and you're last on my list. Yeah. Totally..."

Lincoln didn't notice the obvious lie, and nodded his head with a smile. "I've been having fun. It's a really nice party you have going here."

"Y-You really think so?" Girl Jordan blushed, preening some hair away from her face.

"I do, yeah. I was about to grab some snacks before I sneezed into my hand like a jackass. Wanna join me?"

He's already inviting me to a romantic dinner EEEEEE!

A romantic dinner was usually a special occasion, in which a man invites the girl he loves to either a high-class dining establishment or a meal which he prepared himself. It often involved the finest meats, cooked or grilled to perfection, as well as the freshest of green vegetables, and a small glass of sparkling water or wine. The point is that only Girl Jordan, in the absolute peak height of her mania, could convince herself that grabbing cheese-flavored crackers out of a bowl and washing it down with warm juice could count as a romantic dinner. But as long as she was happy with her delusion, did it really matter?

"Cheers," Lincoln muttered, tapping his cup against Jordan's and drinking his punch in one large gulp. "I've always wanted to ask you something, Girl Jordan, and I hope you don't mind..."

Yes, Lincoln, I will marry you!

"Ask away," Girl Jordan replied casually.

"I've always wondered what your parents think of these parties you throw. Like, they must cost a lot of money, and they leave a huge mess and make a lot of noise, so do you ever get in trouble for them?"

"Maybe I would if they noticed," Girl Jordan said with a sad sigh. "Money isn't really a problem. My family is rich, but we're… distant, I guess."

"Oh… sorry to hear that."

"It's fine. Just a fact of life. My parents are always away on some trips or whatever, going from meeting to meeting. They send me back some cool stuff, though, and more money than I could reasonably spend. I just… well, it must be a lot different in your family."

"Yeah, our house used to be bustling with people. Thirteen plus the hundreds of pets we had lying around. That's not even an exaggeration, Lana had these colonies of bugs and they were everywhere," Lincoln chuckled, before his face went more solemn. "But after all my older sisters moved out, it's been more quiet. It's not lonely, I still have my parents and my little sisters, but… I guess I miss being forced to carry music equipment and modeling for fashion design. Hell, I even miss the April Fools' now."

"Sounds like we both got family we wish we had around more."

"I think it helps to remember that they love us, no matter what the distance is."

"You're right," she said, suddenly smiling. "Maybe I'll give one of them a call after everyone leaves."

"Same. Been a long time since Lynn's had the chance to call me Stinkoln."

The two went silent for a moment, before Lincoln swirled his cup in hand and awkwardly laughed. "Sorry, I took us down a really serious path for a second."

"Oh no, no, don't worry about it. Hey, at least we gave each other a little solution to our problems. If you want to talk about something lighter… well, do you have any hobbies? Biking? Music? Writingromanticpoetrythatsweepsgirlslikemeofourfeet?"

"What was that last one?"

"I said biking."

Lincoln rubbed his chin for a moment in thought. "I guess there is one thing I like doing… but nah, I shouldn't tell. You'll think it's stupid."

"Try me," Girl Jordan confidently replied.

"Alright. So, uh, I don't think that you'd be into this kind of stuff, but… well, you know Ace Savvy comics, right?"

"Are you kidding me? I love Ace Savvy comics!"

Lincoln blinked his eyes in surprise, and then he blushed. "Well, um… I do that."

"What do you mean you do that? Do you… wait, are you saying that you draw your own comics?"

"Draw and write some fancomics, yeah. It's a small thing I do really, and I know it's pretty nerdy, so I don't know why I'm telling you any of this… probably my inhibitions going away because of the punch."

"You're fine, you only took a little bit. And Lincoln, seriously, it's not as dumb as you think. It's dorky, yeah, but I actually think that's pretty interesting."

"You don't have to pretend to like it. I know a girl like you wouldn't care for my nerd shit," Lincoln chuckled, rummaging his hand through the hairs on the back of his head. Oddly enough, Girl Jordan didn't seem to immediately confirm or deny what he said. She put on a thoughtful look, scratching her head in deep concentration. Looking at her, Lincoln took a moment to admire her attractiveness in thought. Most girls acted stupider to bag a guy, but Girl Jordan never behaved that way. She was proud of what was inside her head, and it gave off an aura of perfection.

Plus, the way her finger twirled around in her brown hair was cute.

"Alright," she said suddenly, snapping Lincoln out of his momentary stupor. She put her hand on his back, grinning as she felt the mass of muscle underneath her palm, and started leading him towards a room down the hall. "Come with me."

"Where are we going?"

"My room. I want to show you something."

Lincoln gulped, and his throat bobbed. He wanted to ask what kind of thing, but that would've been inappropriate.

The door was tightly locked, to keep anyone from getting inside and messing with her stuff. Before she did anything, Girl Jordan pulled out her phone and quickly dialed a number with a flash of her thumb. She pressed the phone on her cheek and said "Mollie, it's me. I'm going to be distracted for a while, so you're in charge of keeping things in order. Keep the snacks stacked, make sure no one shits on the lawn, and take a few pictures of the best scenes. I wanna show them to Cristina and tell her to suck it."

Mollie responded, and then Girl Jordan closed her phone. "What did Mollie say?" Lincoln asked curiously.

"She said, 'I'm already the one keeping things in order,'" Girl Jordan answered as she fumbled around for the key to her room. Her fingers finally closed around the long metal object, and she pulled it out and stuffed it in the door's keyhole. Down the hall, the duo heard someone whistle and catcall at them, and the two teens blushed as they stepped inside.

"Hold on, I just need to find it," she said, skirting off to look for what she needed. In the meanwhile, Lincoln looked around her room, and he was instantly impressed with what he saw.

It was a plain room, really. He was pretty sure his sisters had more wild room designs, because all she really had was a large bed supported by a frame of plain wood, some drawn curtains with a green floral pattern decorating the fabric, a few pictures hanging on the wall of her and her family, a desk for her computer, and a pile of boxes on the side of the room. Those caught Lincoln's eye, as written on the cardboard in bold marker was 'Stuff from Fam'.

He bent over them, opening on the boxes on top, and his eyes danced over a large selection of foreign memorabilia. "Hey, Jordan, do you mind if I look at these?" he asked.

"You can take one for all I care," she grumbled as she shuffled through a large file of papers.

He beamed lightly, and reached inside to grab some of the objects. There was no geographical theme to any of it; he could see a golden necklace with a Russian Orthodox cross attached right besides a small voodoo totem from East Africa. It did tell him a lot, though; her parents moved around way more than he expected. Digging in further, he found gifts from even more regions of the world. Central America, Polynesia, Northern Europe, pretty much all the -istan countries. There were even presents from North Korea.

"She really wasn't lying," he whispered to himself. "They really are always away."

He cast a forlorn look in her direction, his lip sticking out slightly. He was suddenly overcome with immense sympathy for his friend. No parents, no siblings… maybe that's why she held these huge parties. She just needed someone to be in the house with her. As childishly boyish as it was, he felt the need to be the one there for her, spending time with her while her own flesh and blood were forced abroad to provide for each other.

"Man, capitalism is a bitch," he mumbled.

"Found it!" Girl Jordan cheered, pulling out several sheets of paper and tossing the rest of them on her desk. She sat down on her bed, her bottom pressing into the soft mattress, and she beckoned Lincoln to sit next to her. He tensed up lightly, and she blushed in response. "D-Do you prefer standing?" she asked shyly.

Suck it up, Linc. Don't be a pansy.

He forced himself to sit down next to her on the bed, still a little on edge. Their arms pressed together as Girl Jordan scooted a little closer to him, to show him what she was holding. "Look," she said, a hint of reserved excitement in her tone. "Look at these and tell me if I don't care about the stuff you were talking about."

He took the stapled papers from her hand, and scanned them over. His eyes widened as he slowly realized what the words he was reading meant. His jaw dropped a little, and he looked back at Girl Jordan. She had a smug yet playful look on her face.

"Y-You… this is… you write Savvyfics?"

"I do," she nodded. "I tried to draw some art for it too, but I'm really bad at it. But writing seems to be my skill."

"Sounds like the opposite of my problem. I can draw a pretty picture, but I suck with the actual plot. How… How many have you even written?"

Girl Jordan counted the number on her fingers. "Maybe fifty-ish. Not all of them are winners. But still, I have plenty I'm proud of. Like this one. The Gal Who Lost It All. Or this one called Day and Night. Or this one..."

She found a script titled Peace or War Treaty. She tossed that one away.

"Point is, me and you share the same interest. That's… that's pretty cool, don't you think?"

"Yeah, it actually is," Lincoln said, shuffling through the stories. "I… I honestly never thought I'd see a side of you like this. You always came off as… I don't know, you're better than all this."

"I'm not better than anything, Lincoln. An interest is an interest, whether it's in politics or pop culture."

Besides, anything that you like is automatically the greatest piece of art in the whole world, Lincoln uwu

She sat back as she watched Lincoln read her story, with a small smile on her face. This was the first time she had ever shown this to anyone else. There was no way she could share it with Stella or even her best friend Mollie, because those two would've found it weird. But with Lincoln, things were different. There was a comfortable air with him, like she didn't need to hide that much of herself. He was almost like the sibling she never had. Not in the gross way, of course. In the way that he was close to her heart, and her love for him went far, far beyond that of a love struck school girl. Even though she was one.

The air in the room changed, and Lincoln noticed, judging by the twitching of his nose. He sniffed the air, and he could smell the pleasant scent wafting from Girl Jordan's fresh hair. She must've showered right before the guests started arriving, because she smelled of citrus fruit. Or maybe she didn't need shampoo to smell like that, and she simply smelled amazing by virtue of nature.

The loud noises from downstairs and down the hall, though muffled by the door, distracted his reading process, and he eventually gave up. He rubbed his tired eyes, and gave Girl Jordan the papers back. "I was reading the one about Ace and the superhero girl… I liked it."

"That tends to be a lot of them. You'll have to be more specific," she smirked.

"The Jordanian one. The one who was rich and she didn't have anyone for her on her birthday when she was a kid, so Ace showed up from her. That was really cute."

"Oh yeah," Girl Jordan remembered with a blush. "That one."

"So I'm guessing it's just a coincidence that out of all the rich countries in the world, you chose the one you share a name with," Lincoln grinned.

"Oh, shut up," she laughed, giving him a hard shove. He playfully tapped her shoulder in return, which encouraged Girl Jordan to grab him by his shoulders and shove both him and herself on the mattress. Their heads bounced a little, and they both laughed. But the most important thing both of them noticed was the heat coming off their faces. Their cheeks radiated with steamy energy, and the heat they gave of was absorbed by the other's face, so close they were together. Girl Jordan swallowed nervously, and Lincoln's eyes widened.

"So, uh… this… this is a nice bed."

"It is."

"Blanket's soft."

"Real soft."

The two went silent, unable to force a conversation. Girl Jordan bit down on her bottom lip, and tried again at dialogue. "Um… Lincoln?"

"Yeah."

"Can I… can I ask you about love?"

"S-sure. A-ask away."

"Say there's a girl," Girl Jordan started, her eyes shimmering, "and she really likes a guy. But she doesn't know how he feels. What… what do you think she should do to see if he likes her back or not."

He wanted to look away. He wanted to look away from her, and maybe get up and just run out of the room and out of the house. But he couldn't. Her eyes were like hypnotic jewels, forcing him to stare into the ocean of beauty within. "Uh… I think she could tell him. Maybe word will decide. Or maybe… maybe she can do something drastic. Something that'll let him know for sure."

"You think so?"

"Depends on the guy," he breathed.

A flicker of a smile danced on her pink lips.

Then, without another word exchanged between him and her, she leaned in quickly and planted a kiss on his lips.

She kept her mouth there as Lincoln struggled for a moment, before he relaxed himself and gave in. His eyes closed as he fully returned their embrace, and they held on as long as they could before they had to resurface for air.

"W-Well, this has been fun," Lincoln stammered, shooting up out of bed and leaping towards the doorway. "But I think I better..."

"Lincoln, please stay."

Her voice was low, but it kept him in place like a spell. He looked back at her, her head drooped on her shoulder, and the yellow shirt she wore slowly falling off her other shoulder, revealing the bare skin underneath. His hand, trembling in front of the doorknob, returned to his side. Without a word, he went back to her side.

"Okay. I'm here."

She nervously reached into her pocket, and handed him a small red wrapper. "Are we really going to do this?" she asked.

"Do you want to?"

"More than you can believe," she said, pulling her shirt over her head and tossing it to the side. The sight of her lean body killed any hesitation inside Lincoln, and he took her hand.

For the rest of the night, the room was filled with sounds of a creaking bed, and two young lovers moaning.