"What do you mean you don't want to try out for the tournament?" Jazz asked, devastated. Serene rolled her eyes, weaving through the other people in the marketplace. Her teammates put way too much emphasis on team work.
"I just think we should wait until the next one. What are the odds we're even going to make it past the team round?"
"She's not wrong," Maizie said, her mouth full of candy.
"Only nineteen percent of first years make it past the team rounds." Nyla added, running his hand over the scarves at the stall they had stopped in front of. "And we'll still have our third year to try again,"
"And I don't really feel like getting my ass kicked in front of the world."
"It can't hurt to try," Jazz pleaded.
"Actually, it could really hurt to try," Maizie countered, rubbing her thigh from where Serene had accidently hit her with her staff in training. "we're not exactly cohesive."
"But the next one is in Atlas," Jazz whined, and pouted, "It's going to be so cold,"
"We'll be a lot more prepared," Maizie pointed out, digging through her pick'n'mix bag.
Serene felt a dash of annoyance, pretty sure Raven wouldn't be okay with her participating next time either. She'd have to break an arm or something. Maybe even her own if it came to it.
"So we're not competing?" Jazz concluded.
"Sorry," Nyla put his hand on her shoulder sympathetically. Jazz pouted sadly.
"Come on," Maizie said, throwing an arm around her shoulder, "let's buy some hats."
They made their way half way through the marketplace before they ran into another team.
"Hey ladies," Neptune grinned, appearing with Sun. He noticed Nyla's short hair and the more masculine clothing, "And gentleman."
Nyla gave a small, grateful smile.
"We've been looking for you guys," Sun said. "Neptune's having a huge house party this weekend; you guys should come."
"A party?" Jazz asked. "Why?"
"Sun's heading off to Beacon soon," Neptune explained, "we gotta send my bro off with a bang!"
"Who's going?" Maizie asked.
"Pretty much everyone in our year, a couple of older teams." Sun answered.
"My parents are out of town and my brothers will probably stay in their rooms or not be there." Neptune added.
"Sounds like fun." Maizie shrugged.
"So you'll come?" Neptune asked.
"Hell yeah."
"I suppose we could stop by," Nyla added.
"I mean… I guess," Jazz relented, crossing her arms over her chest. It was a day of defeats for her.
"Sure," Serene agreed.
"Cool! We'll see you then; I'll shoot you guys the address."
They went their separate ways and JSMN headed back to their dorm, deciding Jazz had been through enough for the day.
The next Saturday morning Nyla was tidying Jazz's tight but messy curls and wearing one of Jazz's nice hats. Serene sat on her bed with her legs crossed wearing Jazz's grey trilby, sucking on a lollipop with her own pick'n'mix bag in front of her. It was much smaller than Maizie's; Serene hadn't been comfortable getting more after Maizie offered to pay, but not uncomfortable enough not to . She was reading her History book, absolutely fascinated. She didn't know why so many people complained about their theory work, she was entranced.
"What are you guys wearing to the party?" Jazz asked, looking at her reflection in her hand mirror.
"Something casual," Maizie answered, "I think Neptune's less 'tea party' and more 'frat party'. Are you guys drinking?"
"What? No." Jazz said, scandalised by the suggestion. "We're underage."
"Barely," Maizie rolled her eyes.
Serene looked up, silently between the two, interested to see how the conversation would play out when it wasn't her horrible behaviour mortifying her partner.
"We can't drink. We could get kicked out of school." Jazz pointed out.
"They're not going to kick us out for getting drunk on the weekend." Maizie rolled her eyes. "Do you know how many fucked up kids are future huntsmen and huntresses? They throw out everyone with a vice and they'll go out of business."
"The drinking age is eighteen here," Nyla said slowly.
"And I'm eighteen in a few weeks. Sera?"
"A couple of months," She shrugged. "But I've got no problem drinking."
"Great, cus I do not want to be making an ass out of myself alone." She turned to Jazz. "Can I borrow your glitter?"
Serene's attention jerked back up to the trio before her. "Why do you have glitter?" She asked, absolutely bewildered.
"For makeup." Jazz said defensively. Serene was still confused, and slunk over to Maizie's part of the room, watching her do her hair and then makeup, putting the glitter on her eyelids. She did some elaborate work and finished with the mascara to her already gorgeous eyelashes.
"You ever do your makeup?" Maizie asked.
"Nope." Serene shrugged. She appreciated the beauty and intricacies of the theatre makeup, but she wouldn't even know where to start.
"Want me to do it for tonight?"
Serene frowned. "I don't have any stuff."
"Well you're probably the same shade as Nyla," Maizie gripped her chin loosely, turning her head and examining her face as though she'd never seen her before. Serene flinched minutely before freezing until Maizie let go of her face
"Oh! Do you want to borrow some makeup?" Nyla asked excitedly, jumping up from Jazz's bed and running over to her bed, grabbing a case from under her bed.
"It's not a big… deal," Serene trailed off, looking at the thick, suitcase sized case. Nyla opened it, revealing the rows of eyeshadow, highlighter, and lip gloss and the well organised tubes and pencils at the bottom.
"That's… a lot of makeup."
"Yeah, I like to experiment a lot." Nyla shrugged. "You can borrow anything; all the brushes are clean, and the pencils are freshly sharpened."
"Why do you have so many pencils in your makeup case?" Serene asked, pulling out the plastic cases containing two dozen or so various pencils.
"Lipliner, eyeliner, eyebrow, face art etcetera." Nyla explained. "Do you have a particular look you want?"
Maizie leaned over the back of her chair, smiling knowingly. "You've been waiting for this moment since you got here haven't you?"
Nyla smiled sheepishly. "I have six siblings and we're all theatre kids; coming here alone was like going cold turkey."
Serene let Nyla and Maizie play fairy godmother – a small price to pay so they wouldn't annoy her – as Jazz went through her meagre clothing, declaring she had nothing to wear.
"What's wrong with my clothes?" Serene asked.
"It's just gonna be kind of anti-climactic after the makeup. Your face is so pretty, and your clothes are all so… black."
"It goes with her smoky eyes," Maizie said, painstakingly doing Serene's mascara.
"I probably have something you can wear."
"Dude, she's a twig and like, half a foot taller than you."
"She is not!" Jazz said. "We're pretty much the same height."
"That's just your hair."
Jazz frowned, putting her hand on her head and pushing the curls down.
"I might have something," Nyla offered, going to her drawers. "On a scale of one to ten how revealing are you comfortable going?"
"Slut me up." Serene said enthusiastically. Maizie and Jazz laughed.
Nyla carefully sorted through her clothes, pulling out some black raw hemmed high waisted jean shorts and a top that was little more than a bra with several useless straps and a see-through crop top.
"Try this," She handed it to Serene, who stripped and pulled on the clothes. Jazz helped her adjust the straps oh the top and held the mirror up.
"Wow, I didn't think you'd own anything so… slutty." Maizie said, appraising Serene's outfit. "I'm impressed."
"Uh… thanks. I think." Nyla frowned. "Okay, now we need to do your hair. The whole 'purposely messy' thing you got going is hot, but it needs some refining."
Nyla tidied the curls in her feathery shoulder length hair, putting a silver crescent moon pin to keep her fringe out of her face and pulled her to her feet.
"Done!"
Serene looked at herself in the mirror on the back of the door. She barely recognised herself in the nice, expensive clothing with a face full of bewitching makeup and her hair all pretty. She felt like a different person.
"Do you like it?" Maizie asked.
"Yeah," Serene said softly, before clearing her throat. "Yeah, it looks good. Thanks. You guys are really good at this,"
"You're a great barbie doll," Jazz joked.
Serene's smile faltered slightly as the others quickly finished getting ready. Jazz went in a pink jumpsuit, Nyla in a short, form fitting dress and Maizie in shorts and a blue and gold loose silk singlet, a headband made out of the same material holding her hair out of her face.
They headed out as the sun began to sink into the mountains, using Maizie's fake ID to grab a few drinks and grabbing a snack.
All through the walk Jazz's words niggled at Serene. Barbie doll. They'd just played dress up; why was it bothering her so much?
Trying to ignore it, she weaved through the city silently, trying to focus on the party.
"You guys made it!" Sun called as they walked through the front gate. He was hanging from a tree in the front yard, having just finished hanging fairy lights. "Come on, I'll give you a tour."
Neptune's house was a lot bigger than they had expected; three stories with a huge yard, the backyard at the top of a slight slope that led to a waterfall and a drop just beyond the railing at the bottom of the garden. Sun took them around the house and into the back door. The building was much more modern than most of the other buildings they had passed.
"Pretty cool huh?" Sun asked, walking them into the open plan first floor, gesturing around them to the smooth white and glass walls. Serene didn't think she'd be comfortable with so many see through walls, but she had grown up in a tent, so what did she know.
"Are we the first ones here?" Nyla asked.
"Nah; the rest of our team and a couple others are upstairs playing video games. The TV down here isn't working yet. Neptune's brother Jupiter accidently blew it up, so if you wanna see drunk idiots playing guitar hero you gotta head upstairs."
"Cool." Maizie nodded.
Sun led the way upstairs, and the girls watched the boys play video games before Maizie joined in and thrashed them.
Serene went downstairs with Nyla to get another drink after she and Maizie had peer pressured her into it, and was surprised at how many people had arrived. Music was playing and the other students were drinking, dancing and talking loudly. She weaved her way through the crowd and into the kitchen, grabbing the first bottle of alcohol she saw in the fridge and popped off the top.
"Neptune's folks got some fancy shit," Serene muttered, filling Nyla's cup.
"What is it?"
"Amarula. Trust me you'll like it." Serene dropped her cup into the bin and led her back upstairs with the bottle.
She would say it was Maizie's idea, but Serene had done nothing to stop it. She may have encouraged her slightly. A bit. A lot. Okay, it was her idea.
"This is stupid!" Jazz called.
"If Neptune's parents didn't want us jumping off the balcony into the pool they wouldn't have built the house so the balcony falls right over the pool!" Maizie called back. Serene was already over the other side of the railing outside Neptune's room at the top of the house, and Maizie threw off her other shoe and joined her.
"Come on, before we're old!" Scarlet called from below on the other side of the pool with the small crowd. It was dark out now, but the lights in and around the pool lit up their target in a multicoloured glow.
Serene and Mazie glanced at each other before propelling forward, falling the three stories into the deep end, landing dangerously close to the end with a large splash that threw several gallons of water out onto the smooth cement around it.
Serene extended her legs and shot to the top of the pool, breaking through the surface to the sound of drunken cheers. She looked around for Maizie, seeing her appear a moment later, pulling off her headband where it had come loose.
Maizie laughed, wiping the water out of her eyes. "That was great! Let's go again!"
They climbed out of the pool, but only managed to jump one more time before they were too tired and drunk to make the ascent to the top story. They ended up just floating around in the cool water with a few other students they didn't know and Sun and Sage, avoiding the occasional others dropping from the balcony.
"Why is the water so cold?" Maizie asked, cupping her hands and quickly clapping them together, and trying to squirt the water out.
"To keep the drunk people out," Sun answered, before disappearing below the water again.
"Oh," Serene dunked under water. She missed swimming. The pool was a lot nicer than the river. Once she felt the painful burn in her lungs she shot to the top again, gasping for air.
"Don't forget to breath!" Maizie called, amidst a sudden splash war with scarlet.
Serene was about to reply when a splash behind her sent a small wave over her head.
She turned around, bobbing with the wave until the figure appeared through the waves and foam.
"Hey!" Serene smiled, swimming over to Nyla.
"That," Nyla said, spitting out the water in her mouth, "was fun,"
"I can't believe you jumped from the balcony in that dress." Serene laughed.
"And heels,"
Serene laughed so hard she barely stayed afloat.
Maizie and Serene and – with a lot of help from her teammates and Sun – Nyla, got out of the pool, claiming a towel each from the pile someone had dropped on one of the beds. They found Jazz sitting on the L shaped lounge inside, eating pizza and drawing on her legs with some colourful markers.
"Hey!" Their team leader smiled when she saw them, apparently having long forgone her apprehension at underage drinking. "Where have you guys been?"
"We jumped from the balcony." Maizie giggled, falling onto the lounge beside her. Serene sat on her other side and Nyla fell into the corner seat, cuddling up in her big fluffy towel.
"That was fun." Serene smiled, "This is great!"
"I know!" Jazz said enthusiastically, grabbing her arm and leaning against her. "We should go to parties all the time,"
Serene chuckled, "I don't know if you could handle it. How much have you had to drink?"
"Dunno," She said, sounding both surprised and perplexed. "But I have like," She opened her handbag, revealing the stacks of red solo cups inside, "Lots of cups in here."
Maizie burst out laughing. "Did you just… steal those?"
"I think so. I don't remember!"
Serene rested her head against the back of the lounge, sinking into it, still laughing. After a minute she got control of her breathing, wiping away the happy tears slipping down her cheek.
"Man, is this what school is like? This is awesome. Why would anyone not want to do this?"
"'s lots of fun," Jazz agreed certainly, drawing on her knee with a bright pink marker.
"What are you drawing?" Nyla asked.
"Flowers," Jazz said, stretching out her leg. Serene could probably record the progress of her inebriation with the quality of the doodles along her russet brown skin.
"Can I draw something?" Maizie asked.
"Oh! Draw on me!" Nyla volunteered. Serene and Jazz switched places and they each took a marker, drawing on their partners.
Serene didn't remember much after that, probably because they started drinking again, but when she woke up, she had her head on Maizie's stomach who had commandeered the corner seat, With Jazz hugging her legs and Nyla at the other end of Maizie's part of the lounge, her feet tucked under her friends butt.
Blinking against the harsh light coming in from the stupid glass walls she looked around the room, ignoring the bad taste in her mouth.
There were about a dozen kids passed out in the room, on the other lounges and a few others with a pillow or jacket on the floor.
Untangling herself from the mess of limbs she was as quiet as possible when she fell onto the floor. She crawled away before getting up, stumbling slightly. Her vision was blurred, and the world was moving.
"You're alive."
Serene rubbed her eyes, stumbling against the kitchen island. Sun was on the other side, eating a banana with his tale. Serene squinted at him.
"Where's your shirt?" She asked.
"I think it's in the pool." He said, chewing thoughtfully. "I can't remember having it after that."
"Hm. Weren't there more people?"
"Yeah people went home or crashed upstairs. A lot of Neptune's friends live around here."
"Oh," Serene looked in the fridge, her stomach turning at the sight of all the leftover drinks. She grabbed a bottle of what she hoped was water and climbed onto a stool, leaning against the cool marble of the island.
"Hangover?" Sun asked.
"Just… really warm." She muttered.
"Go jump in the pool."
Serene scoffed, giving a breathy laugh. "I'm good," She opened the bottle and took a tentative sip.
"How are you gonna clean this place up?" Serene asked, looking around at the scattered food and cans.
"Jupiter has a cleaning guy on speed dial. He'll be here in like an hour, so you guys might wanna scram before Neptune does the rounds with his blowhorn to wake everyone up."
"Thanks for the heads up." Serene slipped off the stool and shuffled back to the lounge. She opened the bottle again and poured the frosty water over her teammates.
Maizie and Jazz screamed, jerking and scrambling away. Nyla squealed and fell off the lounge.
"Come on, we gotta take off." Serene said before yawning.
"No," Maizie moaned, shoving her face into a pillow.
"Yes."
"Why is it so bright in here?" Jazz whined, sitting up and hiding her face in her hands. "It's stupid."
"Take it up with the sun. Come on, I want food."
Jazz looked up at her, blinking the sleep out of her eyes. "You look really nice."
Serene blinked dumbly at her. "What?"
"Your face looks really pretty," She said. "Your makeup is still all there."
"Really?" Serene pulled her scroll out of her shoe and checked her appearance. Her hair was its usual mess, but her makeup was mostly still intact.
"Wow."
"That's some top-quality shit Nyla," Maizie said, leaning back against the lounge. "Hmm. Food sounds good."
"You're both sick," Nyla moaned. "Where's my bag?"
"Here," Jazz pulled the smaller gray bag out of her own larger handbag.
"Oh. Thanks."
"Did I have a hat?" Jazz asked, looking around.
"No," Serene said, pulling on her boots. "You said it would ruin your hair."
"Oh yeah."
Maizie grabbed her bag and stood up, stretching. She looked Serene up and down.
"You know, we really should have thought about the next morning when we got dressed."
"You two look fine," Nyla pouted.
"And you two look like hookers," Jazz scrunched up her nose.
"Here," Maizie grabbed her jacket and put it around Nyla. She looked at Serene. "You wanna steal a shirt or something?"
"Nah," Serene adjusted the bra straps. "I'm fine with the hooker look."
