Wow. That was faster than I expected. The party part of this chapter was inspired by CaptainFriedaTimber on deviantART! (.com/) She is awesome! And this is the art that part of this story's dialogue has in it: .com/gallery/27622657#/d4k1tkg. Well, enjoy!

As more time passed, I had made friends with all of the new freelancers, though I had a bit of a competitive thing going with Carolina, the bright red haired one. She always beat me, but I was never jealous. She quickly became the directors favorite, but we always made a joke out of it, though she took it pretty seriously. Every day I would play games with York, Wash, Colorado, and Maine. York's calm attitude constantly balanced out my occasional, uh, extremely spirited attitude. I suppose I knew and befriended Connie more than any of the recruits, since she was my roommate. Colorado was just sort of… there. He was barely in any training session, and he never used any type of firearm, because of his bad eyesight. Though Wash, Maine, and I were inseparable. My birthday had passed quickly, thought we didn't really have a party or anything, and it had become December. Two twins came to the project, named North and South Dakota. North seemed really nice, but his sister South was a complete bitch. I tried to avoid them, but as the holidays neared, that became fairly unavoidable. On Christmas eve, I got quite a present, but I didn't know who it was from. That was the problem.

I had been taking a normal shower on a normal day with my normal towel and my normal shampoo. Everything was normal, or so I thought. I rinsed out my hair, put on a towel, and brushed through my wet blue-

Wait a second.

I looked in the mirror and screamed. My hair was blonde. Again. Connecticut burst in to the bathroom in panic.

"What? What's wrong?" She said in alarm and looked at me for a few minutes. Then started to laugh.

"Y-your hair is-" She paused and burst in to giggles, unable to finish her sentence.

"Blonde. Yes, I know." I ended for her and glared.

"Did you do this?"

"N-no!" Connie managed to squeak out while practically rolling on the floor.

"But I t-think I know w-who did!"

"Maine and Wash." I stated menacingly, and with that, I stomped out of the room, dripping water from my ruined hair and unaware that I was still clutching the towel around my small body. I rounded a corner and saw no one. They were all at a staff party for some reason. Except for the pilots, of course. I arrived at York, Wash, and Maine's room and flung the door open in outrage. Those three idiots were crowded around their TV playing games they got from the rec room.

"OKAY! WHAT DID YOU MORONS DO TO MY-"

I froze. Maine accidentally dropped his controller in surprise at my sudden outburst and turned around. He wasn't wearing a shirt.

Wow.

"Missy, whatever it is, I swear I didn't-" He stopped short much like I did and just stared at me with his eyebrows raised and his jaw dropped. Then it hit me. I only had on a towel. My face turned red, then purple, and I ran back to my room as fast as I could. Once I was gone, Wash turned to Maine.

"Did York and I miss something?"

Maine just stood rigid, staring at the place I had been. Wash waved his hand in front of Maine's face.

"Uh, Maine...?"

"Huh? Oh. Yeah, what?" He was shaken out of his trance and turned around.

"What just happened?"

"Uh… Missy just walked in… with only a towel on… And…" His puzzled voice dwindled and Wash and York gaped at him in astonishment.

"WHAT?"

After about a minute of running through a giant ship with a flushed face and only a towel on, I got to my room and slammed the door shut behind me. Connecticut was still chuckling to herself, along with Carolina, who had evidently come in to our room, and when they saw me, they began to howl with laughter again.

"So you realized you didn't have any clothes on, huh?" Connecticut asked smugly when she had finished.

"Thank's so much for stating the obvious." I hissed, grabbed a pair of jeans and a shirt, and stormed in to the bathroom.

"Did anyone see you?" Carolina called from the other room

"The director, staff, and Councilor are all at a party." Came my muffled reply.

"That's not who I'm talking about…." She teased.

"Shut up."

"Did the boys see you?"

"Shut up. And yes. Not all of 'em, though." I muttered.

"Anyone in particular?"

"Shut up."

"Like Maine…." She said in a singsong voice.

"Shut up."

"Come on Missy! You have to give us a hint!"

"Not now, 'Lina."

"Aww, You take the fun out of everything." She grumbled. We were all silent for a moment, then I came out of the bathroom, hair dried and still dyed an awful shade of yellow. Carolina opened her mouth with a devious smile pasted on to her face.

"No." Came my reply, before she had said anything.

"Oh, come on! I was just going to ask if you guys knew what you were going to wear for the holiday party!" Connecticut and I looked at her.

"WHAT PARTY?"

"Oh yeah. I was supposed to tell you guys yesterday that we were having a party today in an hour. I guess I sorta forgot…. Should I have told you that earlier?"

"Yes. You should've told us earlier." I said through gritted teeth.

"But we can stay up past curfew! Oh, and you need to pick out a black, white, or grey dress."

"But I don't have any dresses!" Connie

"What's that, then?" She pointed at my open closet to two dresses. One was a low cut, very short, and surprisingly plain, though it flared a bit at the bottom. The other was very ruffled, and it had a white bow around the waist. Although not as short as the other one, it was also low cut, strapless, and way too fancy and puffy for my liking. Not the best options.

"Uh, Carolina?"

"Yep?"

"Who picked out these dresses?"

"I did." She grinned devilishly.

"Really?" I raised an eyebrow.

"Yep. The Director said that I was the girl that knew you guys the best, so I got to pick them out. And York picked out the guys outfits!"

"Really?"

"Yes. Really."

"So there's no way I could, uh, get another dress?"

"Nope."

"Then where did you get these?"

"The director authorized a shipment of dress clothes for us to wear for parties and such. I picked out one casual one, and one fancy one. This party is of course formal, so you will be wearing your fancy dress." She smiled coyly and gestured to the long one. I glared.

While we had our exchange, Connie was staring in her closet in disbelief.

"There is no way anyone is getting me to wear this!" She held up a very short, tight black dress with spaghetti straps and a frilly trim. There was another long, sleeveless, white one in her closet with a small trail.

"Why don't you just wear that one?" I pointed to the white dress.

"It's three sizes too small! You did that on purpose!" She grumbled. I rolled my eyes and turned back to 'Lina. She was pulling a plain white v-neck dress with turquoise trim out of her room across the hall. Connecticut and I both looked up at the dress, at each other, then back to the dress.

"Dibs!" We both yelled.

"I already called it." She said smugly.

"Come on! We should change and go see the boys!" I squealed, all of a sudden excited about this party.

"One boy in particular?" Carolina teased.

"Shut it." I grabbed my dress and ran in to the bathroom again to change. In a second, we were all done and ready to go. Of course, Carolina also had to get shoes for us. For me, she chose 5 inch white platform heels!

My feet are going to die.

We walked to the boys room with much difficulty, and they were already ready. Wash, Maine, and York were in new, undecorated military dress clothes

"What's with the heels?"

"Carolina."

"And the yellow hair...?"

"I thought you guys did it."

"No, we didn't… anyway, why did you come to our room earlier in-"

"Drop the subject."

"Deal." He held out his arm for me to take, and the other boys did the same to Connie and 'Lina. We took them gratefully, considering that 5 freaking inch high heels were not very easy to walk in. After about five more minutes walking in my stupid white heels, I finally took them off and chucked them on the floor. Maine bent over and picked them up for me.

"You have to wear you shoes, Missy…."

"No."

"Come on…."

"Fine. I'll wear the goddamn heels." I muttered and snatched the out of his hand.

After a few minutes of grumbling about my feet, Maine got pretty annoyed.

"Goddamnit Mississippi! Stop your bitching and come here!"

"Huh?" I barely had time to respond as he literally swept me off my feet and carried me bridal style.

"Maine! Put me the fuck down right now!" I punched him as hard as I could, but he just laughed.

"Language, Missy. Language."

"Oh, up yours! And let me down."

"Nah, I like this way better. Oh, and guess what?" He grinned down at me.

"What…?" I asked hesitantly.

"We spiked the eggnog!" He whispered in to my ear.

"You did WHAT?" I shrieked.

"YOU SPIKED THE FUCKING EGGNOG! Guys! You could get in big trouble for this!"

"Not if the Director gets drunk as well…" York said slyly from behind Maine and I.

"Drunk Director… huh. I would actually like to see that!" I exclaimed, imagining what that could bring.

"See? It's a great idea!"

"Okay, now I never say that!"

"It's an… amusing idea….?

"Right."

"Who's idea was that, anyway?" Connecticut interrupted.

The boys all looked at each other, then pointed to York.

"Why?" I questioned York.

"And, "Drunk Director" is not an acceptable answer.

""What can I say? I've had my fair share of parties, and they're all better with some kind of alcohol. I talked to the Councilor and all they have is champagne."

I rolled my eyes at his reply and made another failed attempt at getting out of Maine's arms. We passed by North and South, the former trying to give directions, and the latter acting like a complete brat.

"Hi guys." North said pleasantly.

"Come on North! We're gonna be late!" South grabbed his arm and brushed past us quickly.

"Wow, what a bitch." Carolina said in surprise.

"Don't pay attention to her! We should probably get moving too if we want to be on time. And seriously Maine, let me down."

"Okay, I've had my fun, I guess. Just stop complaining about your fucking shoes." He lowered me to the ground and I dusted off my dress and yanked it up further on my body. Like I said before: Way too low cut.

"Hey, do we even know where this stupid party is?" Connie put in slightly cynically.

"Yeah… not really." Wash turned to her and grinned sheepishly.

"You're kidding, right?"

"Yeah, we're just sort of winging it…."

"You guys are so fucking dumb."

"No we aren't, see! We're here!" Maine chimed in and pointed to the training floor, which had been converted to a christmas party, tree and all. Most of the staff was already there, and it some were even ballroom dancing.

Now I see why the boys spiked the eggnog, because this is one boring party. I thought dully and went to get a drink. Before I could take a sip, Maine swiped it out of my hand and placed it on a nearby table.

"Not quite, Miss. Care to dance?" He held out his hand for me to take.

I frowned.

"No, I would care to have some eggnog." I snapped at him.

"Besides, I don't dance."

"Me neither." He laughed and dragged me in to the crowd. I resisted at first, and after ten minutes of clumsily tripping over each other's feet, he also decided that we should just watch. I walked around and found that some were getting a bit drunk already. I began to wander, an ran in to South, who was giggling tipsily and desperately flirting with a staff member. She turned around, gave me a dirty look, and shoved me to the ground. I blinked in surprise from my seat on the concrete floor.

"Watch where you're going, bitch!" She snarled.

"Oh, I'm the bitch? You need-"

"Wait!" North intervened and ran up to us. He helped me up in embarrassment.

"Sorry about South. She gets like this when she drinks. But how did she get…?

"York spiked the eggnog." I interrupted quickly.

"Ah. Well If you'll excuse us…." He pulled South outside the door with a displeased expression on his face. After a couple of minutes, I decided to go get my well deserved eggnog. I picked up a glass and sipped on it.

Wow. That's strong. But good too!

I quickly drank my glass and got another one, then another, and another. Soon enough, I was only half aware of everything going on around me. Wash was trying to hit on Connie, who was trying to strangle him with York's shirt. York was standing shirtless with a tie wrapped around his head and his arm around North, who was wearing Wash's shirt and holding a candy cane. Both of their faces were flushed red.

"Hey York." North slurred.

"Is that your shirt that CT is strangling Wash with?"

"Yup. Traded it for a tie."

"Why is Wash shirtless too?

"You traded your shirt for a candy cane and stole his jacket.

"Maybe we should lay off the eggnog next year."

"Never."

I laughed drunkenly at their exchange and turned around awkwardly in my chair to see Colorado cowering in the corner trying to get away from completely hammered staff members who had apparently gotten mad at him.

"Damnit! AM I REALLY THE ONLY ONE WHO ISN'T COMPLETELY DRUNK!"

I staggered out of my seat, only to fall in to none other than, the Director. He was too wasted to be completely furious, but he looked pretty mad. I giggled.

"Are you okay, sir?" I squeaked.

"Ugh. I suppose this was your doing." He groaned exasperatedly.

"No sir!" I jokingly saluted and gave him a lopsided grin. He just looked threateningly at me and I laughed again.

"Okay, good luck sir!" I picked myself up, stumbled to the refreshments table, and ran headlong in to Maine.

"Nice running in to you, Missy!" He chuckled, also looking pretty drunk.

"Hi Maine!"

"Wanna dance?"

"Sure!"

The party had fallen in to complete chaos without any fully conscious figures of authority to supervise us. We were going to be in big trouble the next day. Once we got to the dance floor, I began to sway, and my vision became blurry.

"Hey, Maine…?

"Yeah Miss?"

"Catch… me if… I…" I trailed off, my head swimming. My vision blurred more and more until it was nothing but darkness.

Wow. I really apologize for the OOCness. I'll try to do better this time, but besides that, I hope you like the chapter! (Though personally I hate it.)

Oh, and here's Mississippi's dress: black_with_white_bow_bow_tie_

And her shoes:

I'm getting faster at my updates! For this story, at least... ^^'

Agent Mississippi out.