A/N: Hello to my lovelies. So… I feel like I don't really need to say that things are really crazy and scary right now. I personally am healthy and safe right now, but I've definitely been feeling a lot of anxiety and know that you guys are probably in similar boats. So, I decided that now would be a good time to return to Pleasantville. It's not a lot, but I hope that by working on this silly little story, I might be able to at least bring a little happiness into this crazy situation. So, I hope you enjoy. Stay safe!


Old, New, Borrowed, Blue

Part 60: In Which Games are Almost Played

Things were going so much better than Feliciana had dared imagine. She'd been so worried that Lovi wouldn't have fun at her bachelorette party, especially after the whole panty game thing. Her sister had been really annoyed about that and hadn't seemed to enjoy Robin's question game much more—although she had blushed very adorably at Antonio's super cute answer to 'when he decided he was going to marry her.'

Finally, though, she seemed to be having a good time! And yeah, that might mostly be because they'd all been drinking lots and lots of wine and cocktails and things like that, but Feli felt that it still counted. Her sister was laughing, after all! Granted, the laughter might sound a little evil-ish… But the important thing was that Lovi was finally starting to enjoy herself!

"Christ, how the fuck're you getting this?"

Robin's grin was almost as malicious as Lovi's laugh. The other girl shifted her grip on her cellphone, tapping at the screen with a sparkly turquoise nail to change the image the girls were currently viewing from a video feed of the pool in Francis's house to a different, festively-decorated room filled with tables holding what looked like snacks.

"I just asked my boyfriend to help me hack into Franny-kin's security system," she answered. "I figured this way we'd be able to keep an eye on the boys and make sure they're having just as much fun at their party as we are at ours!"

Feli cocked her head to the side. She wasn't sure whether what they'd just witnessed would count as 'fun' or not. "Ve~ I hope Sadiq's okay." He hadn't looked like he was prepared to be shoved into the pool by Heracles. He didn't even have a swimsuit on!

Lovi snorted. "Bastard'll be fine. He can swim."

Ally slapped Lovi on the shoulder; Feli saw her sister wince and flash an irritated glare at the other girl. "That was so funny, though! Who'd've thought Heracles could ninja himself around like that? Just popped out of nowhere and Sadiq's flying like sploosh~!" It looked like she wanted to slap her sister on the shoulder too, but she missed and Mattie just responded with a sigh.

The entire group was gathered around Robin and her cell phone except for Natalya, who was sitting on the porch swing and carving designs into a Styrofoam cups with her knife, and Katyusha, who'd fallen asleep with her head on her sister's shoulders. Katyusha always seemed to get sleepy when she had alcohol.

Lovi had taken the phone from Robin's hand and zoomed in, squinting slightly as she looked over the figures moving across the screen. "There's Ivan. Feliks, Toris, the potato bastard… No Antonio."

Robin grabbed the phone back and switched to another screen. They were now viewing an empty hallway. "Yeah, I'm not sure where Toni-oni is. I can't seem to find him with the cameras."

Lovi snorted and rolled her eyes. "Prob'ly locked himself in the bathroom or something stupid like that."

"Poor Antonio," Feli sympathized. Antonio probably felt just as uncomfortable at his party as Lovi had at the beginning of hers, although he'd show it differently. Lovi had no problem making sure everyone knew she wasn't very happy by being grumpy and cursing at people, but Antonio would just smile and pretend to be having a good time, even if he wasn't really.

"Well, that's part of why I decided it's time for us to gatecrash!" Robin exclaimed, as she turned her phone's screen off and shoved the device in her pocket. "That and cuz it's just fun!"

"Woo! Party-crashing!" Ally pumped a fist in the air, overbalanced, and fell against her sister, who managed to catch her without any apparent surprise and kept her upright.

Feli thought it sounded pretty fun too. She'd been enjoying the party so far—jumping in the bouncy house with Ally, playing the question game, eating lots of snacks and drinking lots of drinks—but it did feel incomplete when it was just them. She couldn't help but wondered what Ludwig was doing. And Antonio and Franny and all of the others.

She hadn't gotten a super good look at the screen when Lovi was holding it, but she had noticed that Ludwig was sitting at a table by himself. It'd be just like him, she thought, being silly and staying by himself during a party because he was too shy to hang out with the others.

"And there's Leon!" Robin suddenly shouted, redirecting Feli's thoughts to a pair of headlights just turning into their driveway. "Finally!"

"Shotgun!" Ally didn't even wait for the car to stop before she started running toward it.

Robin actually seemed startled for a moment; she'd started to open her mouth, as if to give instructions, but instead she just shrugged and flashed Lovi and Feli a bright smile. Her eyes were twinkling in a Gill-like way, as she said, "Okay, well, I already told Lee-Lee he gets the honor of driving the bride-to-be, so how 'bout Lovi, Feli, and Mattie go with Leon now. While the rest of us wait for our back-up driver!"

"Ve~ Who's the backup driver?" Feli didn't remember them talking about anyone else driving.

"I got Eli agree to take us!"

Elizabeta had been standing on the outskirts of the group, not seeming to really be paying much attention as she drank something from a can, but now she suddenly started coughing.

Robin ignored her. "And while we're all on our way to Franny's house, we'll play another game!"

Feli was partly distracted by Lizzie's coughing fit; thankfully she managed to regain control over herself within a few minutes. Lovi was the one who muttered a suspicious, "What kind of game?"

"Nothing too crazy!" Robin twirled a strand of her hair around her finger and winked at Feli, although Feli wasn't really sure what that was supposed to mean. "Not without the guys, at least!"

Lovi had crossed her arms over her chest and was sending Robin one of her fiercest scowls, although her normal intimidation level was lessened a little bit by the fact that she was weaving on her feet a little bit. Or maybe that was just how it looked to Feli; she felt a little off-balance herself.

"Maybe something like 'truth or dare' or 'never have I ever'?" Robin smiled sweetly. "Just ask Leon for suggestions. He's great at coming up with games!"

Really? Feli hadn't known that.

"Now," and Robin suddenly reached out and grabbed one Lovi's hands and one of Feli's, then gave them both a little push toward the car. "Off you go! Have fun! Don't do anything I would do!"

"Fucking…" Lovi muttered, although she didn't complete her thought. Instead, she began to walk toward the car. Her path going a little zig-zaggy. Feli amused herself by trying to follow the exact path, although she wasn't doing a very good job at it.

Mattie was following both of them. She said something under her breath, too low for Feli to hear, and before she could ask what she said, Ally had rolled down the passenger-side window and was yelling at them. "Hurry up! We gotta get going before Artie has a chance to lame the whole party to death!"

Feli tried to hurry, although her attempt just seemed to confuse her feet so she almost tripped over herself. Mattie was the one who came to the rescue, steadying her elbow and helping her into the backseat of the car, where Lovi was already waiting and tapping her fingers against her leg impatiently.

"All right!" Ally sounded even louder now that they were inside the car. "Let's go, go, go!"

"After everyone has their seatbelts on," Leon responded from the driver's seat. Feli could see his face very well from this angle, but his voice sounded kind of tired. She hoped they hadn't woken him up from a nap or anything; that'd be a pretty horrible thing to do when he'd agreed to drive them all the way to Francis's house without getting any money or anything.

Ally apparently hadn't put her seatbelt on yet—despite being the first one in—and took a few seconds longer than anyone else to actually put it on. But once she did, she threw her arm up to point through the windshield and shouted. "To infinity, and beyond!"

Feli could hear Leon sigh, but he did as she asked and pulled back onto the road, and then off they were to Franny's house to help make Antonio's bachelor party even better!

Although…

"Hey, Leon!" Feli scooted a little forward so she could see Leon a little better, although it wasn't very easy in the dim light.

He flashed a quick glance at her before returning his attention to the road. "Yeah?"

Robin had said she should ask Leon about games, so…

Unfortunately, she wasn't able to ask her question, because as soon as she started with, "How do you play—" her sister slapped a hand over her mouth and dragged her backwards.

"Don't you fucking dare!"


A/N: Lovi, Lovi, Lovi, gotta ruin all our fun…

Definitely more than a little rusty when it comes to my writing, but I hope you guys enjoyed this anyway. This was more of a transition chapter, so I can get my girls and guys in the same place and then we can get to the really fun stuff. So… We'll just say it's okay if I'm a little rusty on this one.

So, like I said, things are super super sucky out there in real life right now. Just to kind of give y'all an update on where I am… So, I had an internship out in Santa Fe that finished up right after Christmas, so I came back home to live with my parents in upstate New York. I've been working at the local library since then and job hunting (which was depressing and super not fun, so part of the reason I wasn't really writing anything during that period). Managed to get selected for a year long internship doing museum education, social media, and graphic design, but… Said internship was supposed to start last week in Long Island, so… Clearly that wasn't going to happen.

Thankfully, my supervisor is working with me so I should be able to still do my internship. We're just going to wait until this all settles down.

So, just so you guys know that I'm doing okay! I'm going to be trying to use this forced quarantine time to do more writing and hopefully it'll be able to help you all get through this rough time too. If anyone needs to talk, feel free to message me. I know all this forced isolation can be really tough. Also, if you have any requests for short stories or anything, I'd definitely be open to them!

Stay safe and healthy everyone! I love you all!