Chapter 4: The Pajama Party

The doorbell rang. Chinatsu ran to the door. Could it be...?
It was!

"Yui-senpai!" Chinatsu hugged the first girl through the door. This was the best possible beginning for the party!
"H-hi, Chinatsu-chan. Could you let us in? The others might be getting tired..."
Chinatsu glanced past Yui, who was carrying just one bag. Ayano and Chitose were lugging a futon each. It didn't look comfortable.
"Oh, I'm sorry, senpais! Welcome in, everyone!" Chinatsu released Yui and let the trio into the house. Yui took off her shoes and walked to the living room to set up her Namostation.
"Where should we take these, Yoshikawa-san?" asked Ayano.
"Follow Yui-senpai to the living room. There's space in the corners to set them up."

Chinatsu checked outside and spotted the three other first-years moving along the street, shopping bags in hand. She waved them hello, and left the door open for them to walk in. Akari was her usual cheerful self, Sakurako had a comical bump on her head and was eating a pocky, and Himawari looked like she had caused that bump not long before.
"Hello, Akari-chan, Sakurako-chan, Himawari-chan! Please bring everything to the kitchen!"
Chinatsu joined her classmates in unpacking all the snacks and drinks they had brought. At least the student council had enough budget to not leave them hungry.
"Good job buying all the food, Akari-chan!" Chinatsu beamed.
"Ehehe... it wasn't a big deal," Akari laughed nervously.
"I was so busy setting up the house, I only had time to bake a few cookies," Chinatsu said forlornly, indicating a bowl of horrendous objects. Akari cringed in shock, but while Chinatsu's attention was on her 'delicacies', the redhead stealthily pocketed a certain item from the bottom of a bag. The girls continued their work.

Soon enough, the doorbell rang again.
"I'll get it!" yelled Tomoko, hurrying down the stairs. "Welcome to our house, umm..."
"I'm the super cool Funami Yui-senpai! And these are Chizuru-chan and President Matsumoto Rise!"
"Stop it with the stupid impostor act, Kyouko!" Yui yelled from the living room.
"Please excuse her," said Chizuru, bowing. "Ikeda Chizuru. I'll be in your care."
"Welcome," said Tomoko, having retreated to the staircase.
Rise whispered her greeting. Tomoko gave her a confused smile. The president smiled back.

"Alright, looks like everyone's here!" spoke Chinatsu as she led the first-years from the kitchen. "Let's go over what we have!"
"There's 10 of us, and I've managed to arrange 10 beds. In the living room, there's the sofa bed for two people, and two of Yui-senpai's futons. In my bedroom there's three futons, plus my bed, which anyone is free to sleep in. Finally, there's my parents' double bed. I think Kyouko-senpai and Sugiura-senpai should share that one."
"Yay, sleeping together with Ayano!" Kyouko blurted out. Ayano went bright red. Chitose started bleeding from her nose. Yui threw a pillow at Kyouko.
Chinatsu continued like nothing had happened. "As per Kyouko-senpai's suggestion, all the beds are already setup, so nobody has to worry about them when we get tired."
"Party hard, crash harder! We'll all be wearing pajamas anyways!" Kyouko started distributing the animalwear from her bag.
"There's a ton of food and drinks in the kitchen, feel free to take whatever wherever whenever."
"Here's some more," said Chizuru, handing Chinatsu some fashionable sweets and what looked to be a box of the Ikeda family's pickles.
"I've got some board games in my room, and the TV in the living room should be set up with Yui-senpai's Namostation" a nod from Yui "so we can play games and maybe watch a movie or series".
Rise withdrew a DVD from her pocket.
Tomoko spoke up next. "I'm Chinatsu's older sister, Yoshikawa Tomoko. I'm officially supposed to watch over you, but I'll let you have fun as you wish. Just don't cause any big messes. I'll be in my room upstairs if you need any help."
"Alright then," said Kyouko. "I hereby declare the start of the Student Council Recreational Division's founding celebration party!"

Kyouko burst into the bedroom. "Surprise bug planting game time!"
"We're in the middle of a game already, Toshino-senpai," Himawari replied curtly.
"This one's way more exciting!"
"Perhaps to you."
"Well, truth to be told, this game is starting to turn into Furutani-san's unstoppable domination," Chitose said in her usual tone. Only she and Akari remained to contest Himawari's expanding empire, but it seemed like a foregone conclusion.
"What is a surprise bug game anyway, Kyouko-chan?" Akari asked quizzically. One of Kyouko's tasks had been coming up with party games, but this was new.
"The bug planting game is very simple! Each of you draws one insect toy and a slip of paper from this box." Kyouko presented the usual pink cardboard cube, with 'creepy crawlies' as the latest text. "Your mission is to plant your bug on your named target. The one with the sneakiest delivery and best reaction gets a prize!"
"Eww, that's horrible," said Ayano. Having been eliminated, she and Rise were off to the side, dueling in a game of 17-step minefield.
"At least we're not on the receiving end," Chitose laughed.
"But we have to stick our hands in there!"
Rise whispered something. Ayano relayed: "The president says she feels like her chances for a comeback are too low."
In the end, the girls decided to leave the games of Lords & Domains and 17-step behind, drew their bugs and targets, and headed downstairs to the living room.

The girls were busy with their game. Yui and Chizuru were focused on the screen, and Sakurako and Chinatsu only glanced at the suddenly arriving group. By common agreement, the bug planters quietly moved to grab some snacks from the bowls present in the room. Soon enough they were paid no mind, and they took the opportunity to move. Akari snuck behind Chizuru, planting a large ladybug in her hood. Ayano was trying to place a plastic tick on Chinatsu's neck, as her cat hood was also down. And...

"Gah! what are you doing!" Sakurako screamed. Himawari had tried to plant an ant into Sakurako's hair, but the girl in rooster pajamas had immediately noticed and was now flailing in panic. "Stupid Himawari! Stupid! Is this your idea of a joke?!"
"This would probably be your idea of a joke!"

"What are you two doing... AAAAAGHHH!" Yui had turned to look at the noisy first-years, only to spot a spider on the armrest of her chair. She almost leaped off her seat, landing on the other armrest, pale. Chitose chuckled.

"A spider? Is this another of Kyouko-senpai's pranks?" asked Chinatsu from the sofa. "Wait... no no no..." she started pleading as she realized the feeling of cold plastic on her neck. "Get it off get it off getitoff! Aaah!" Chinatsu grabbed the tick from her neck and tossed it at Akari's face, from where it fell onto the floor.

"You come up with the stupidest things, you..." said Chizuru, turning towards Kyouko and flipping up her hood to protect her backside. That turned out to be a mistake. Another plastic insect got delivered into her hair. Suppressing her anger, she withdrew the offending object, only to be mesmerized by the ladybug. It's cute.

Kyouko marched into the spotlight. "Alright, and the winner of our bug-planting game is... HIIIII!"

Rise had stealthily climbed atop a chair, pulled back Kyouko's tomato hood, and dropped a plastic centipede directly down her backside.

"Getitout getitout getitout!" Kyouko screamed, ineffectually trying to remove the bug that was creeping down her pajamas. She eventually collapsed on the floor, panting. After some wrangling, Akari managed to grab the centipede through her pajamas and slowly extract it back up.

"Okay, okay, you're the winner, President," said Kyouko, rising up with tears in her eyes. "That was magnificent. As a prize, you get to keep all these lovely bugs!"

"What sort of prize is that?" asked Chizuru incredulously, despite only reluctantly handing her ladybug to Rise, who proceeded to relieve Yui from the spider and untangle the ant from Sakurako's hair.

"Alright, alright. Now that we're all here, it's the perfect time to watch a movie!" declared Kyouko.
"Wait, were you planning for this?" asked Yui.
"Of course! Now we're all primed for some horror!"
"No, no, no more scary bugs!" yelled Chinatsu.
"I don't think the president's movie is that scary~" Chitose said, lifting up the case. Some sort of period drama set a 100 years in the past, with a group of girls solving mysteries.

Kyouko turned the lights off. The girls started taking seats, but it soon became apparent there weren't enough.
"Drat, I didn't think about this," muttered Chinatsu. "Sorry, I'll go ask onee-chan if I can grab her office chair and..."
"No need," said Kyouko. "I can take this seat!" She jumped on the sofa bed, scooted between Ayano's legs, and rested her head on Ayano's chest.
"T-t-t-Toshino Kyouko?!" Ayano managed, bright red. Kyouko flashed her a smile over her shoulder. Ayano quietly acquiesced.

One seat was still missing. Sitting in chairs next to each other, Sakurako and Himawari shared a look, but immediately broke it with a *hmph*, continuing their sulking from the insect incident.

Akari happened to be the only one without a seat. Just her luck... but this time it might pay off. She approached Yui's spacious armchair.
"Yui-chan, mind if I sit with you?"
"Huh? Umm, not at all, go ahead."

Yui scooted over to the side. Akari sat next to her. Even with the fair size of the armchair, it was still pretty cramped. Their sides would be in constant contact.

"Ehehe, Yui-chan," Akari giggled. "It's just like old times." Yui smiled.

Akari was aware of Chinatsu glaring daggers her way from the sofa. Sorry, Chinatsu-chan. This is for your sake too. I think. I hope. I could have sat by you, but I'm not sure I could take a movie's length of close contact without doing something.

The question is: can Yui-chan?

Special thanks to my cats, who keep getting ticks on their necks.