AN: Okay this chapter is one of the reasons this story is rated T and not K+ there is some wild teen partying in this chapter and it implies some under-age drinking, so if you're too young to read about that stuff, click the back button. Otherwise, enjoy! BTW: Sorry if the party seems a little modern for a fic that takes place in the 1940s I don't know much about that time period other than what I read about in the Narnia books and what people tell me.

"Why can't I come?" Edmund asked for the hundredth time that night.

"You weren't invited." Peter reminded him.

"But I'm more fun that you." Edmund protested. "You don't even know how to party."

"That's not true, Ed." Peter said. "Remember all those balls in Narnia?"

"You mean the ones where you stood on the side and glared at Susan and Lucy's suitors?" Edmund raised an eyebrow.

"I did that one time!" Peter protested, he knew exactly what ball Edmund was referring to. "Lucy was only thirteen!"

"Okay, I can see why that might upset you, but what about Susan?" Edmund asked, clearly being cheeky to get back at Peter for not letting him come with him. Not knowing Peter's secret he didn't realize what he was implying.

Peter looked a little uncomfortable. He wasn't going to tell Edmund the real reason. That would be utterly insane. "Um...I didn't...er...like him..."

"Pete, the man was practically a saint." Edmund reminded him.

"Was not." Peter retorted.

"The man saved puppies and kittens from burning towers daily!" Edmund said.

Peter didn't care about that. He could've saved those same animals himself if those darn royal counsel meetings didn't last so dang long! "It doesn't matter Ed, you're not coming, end of story."

"But what are you going to do as a masked ball?" Edmund asked, still ticked off. "I seem to recall a certain Narnian king saying, and I quote, 'Wearing masks at parties is stupid, why can't people just be themselves?' end quote."

A friend of a friend of one of Peter's friends was throwing a masked ball type party. He'd gotten permission to go but rumor had it was going to be a somewhat rough crowd. Nothing he couldn't handle but not something he was going to let his siblings attend. If he let Edmund come, Lucy would want to. Then Susan would feel left out and then he'd be stuck with all three of them. Aslan forbid, Lucy actually talked to people at this party. Some of them didn't have the best use of words if you know what I mean. No way he was bringing any of them with him. He was only going because his friend had literally fallen down at his feet and begged him to come. No joke.

"Where's your mask?" Lucy asked as she walked into the room and realized Peter wasn't wearing one.

"I said that I'd go to the party not that I'd cover my face like a monk." Peter grumped.

"But don't you have to wear one?" Lucy asked. Wasn't that kind of the point?

"Not really." Peter shrugged.

"He wants all the ladies to see his face." Edmund teased.

"I do not!" Peter said.

"Do so." Edmund shot back. "And that's why you wont let us come right? Worried we'll embarrass you in front of all the girls."

"You know perfectly well, that is not the reason." Peter said getting more annoyed by the second. Was Edmund ever going to shut up?

"So is Mary meeting you there?" Edmund teased.

"Heck, no!" Peter said firmly. If Mary was there he was going to run out of that party as fast as his legs would take him. She was the most annoying brat he'd ever met in his life. (Though at the moment, Edmund was running a close second).

"Hey what's with all the shouting?" Susan walked in.

"Peter's not letting us come." Edmund sulked.

"Ed, you've known for three days we weren't going." Susan rolled her eyes.

Edmund pouted. "Fine. Go ahead." He sighed. "Leave your poor little brother home to baby sit Lucy, while you have all the fun."

"I don't need a baby sitter." Lucy cut in.

"I'll be back in a few hours." Peter told them as he turned to leave. "See you then."

Lucy yawned. "I'll be in my room." She told them.

Edmund gave Susan a smile which usually meant he had a plan. Most of the time, it ended in them all getting grounded.

"What are you thinking, Ed?" Susan asked cautiously.

"I'm thinking we go to that party." Edmund said. "I mean, Peter doesn't have to find out, Lucy's in her room. We know where it is..."

"No way." Susan told him.

"Oh come on, Su." Edmund begged. "It'll be lot's of fun. Wouldn't you rather have fun dancing than sit here playing 'go fish'?"

"As long as I don't turn into one, sure." Susan shrugged.

"But Susan, think about it, how many parties have you been to since the..." He lowered his voice. "Tail thing first started?"

Susan had to admit he had a point. She hadn't been having a lot of fun lately. The only parties she'd gone to were her parents boring cocktail ones while all the moronic woman with loser sons tried to set her up. Maybe just this once, she could live a little. "But I have nothing to wear."

"Leave that to, your fairy god brother." Edmund said with a smile. he went downstairs to the kitchen, and called someone on the phone. "Hey, it's Edmund, yeah, about that favor you owe me..."

Less than twenty-five minutes later, one of Edmund's friends arrived at the door and thrust a bundle into Edmund's arms before taking off faster than the wind.

In the bundle was a suitable dress. It was delightful to wear a ball gown again even if it wasn't as nice as the Narnian ones. It was a long dark red gown with long lacy sleeves. There was also a matching red-and-white mask. Susan had to wear her own shoes because none had come with the clothes.

Edmund wore one of his suits and a black mask that sort of matched it.

"Let's go tot he ball." Edmund said proudly.

"Just one question." Susan said as they climbed out the window. "What if mum does her nightly check up on us and sees we're not home?"

"Ah, don't worry, little brother has that all figured out." Edmund said. "She never does that before midnight, when she gets up to get a glass of water. So if we're back home before that, we wont get caught."

"Alright then." Susan said, closing the window behind them but being sure not to lock it.

Meanwhile at the party, Peter watched as a young nerdy boy got thrown out by a large bouncer. He tired to figure out where he'd seen him before. Then he remembered, oh yes, that was right, he was the same boy that always called Susan, 'Phyllis'. Poor guy.

"I had glasses." The boy called. Someone threw them out after him. "Thank you!" he shouted back.

Peter looked around the party. It was dark and everyone was wearing masks except him, and a group of people who were standing to the side looking a little tipsy. Why on earth had he let his friend talk him into coming?

"Hello mate!" one of his friends came up to him and waved.

"Have you been drinking?" Peter asked.

"No." His friend said hiding his beer behind his back.

"How many fingers am I holding up?" Peter held up two fingers.

"Um four?" his friend guessed, squinting very hard.

"Give me that!" Peter took the beer away from him.

"Peter Pevensie!" an older woman who was a friend of his mother's came by. "Drinking under age?" She looked down at the beer in his hand. "You should be ashamed of yourself!"

"But it wasn't me!" Peter protested. he needed to find himself some new friends. These were getting him into too much trouble.

"The first step is admitting you have a problem." The woman said. "Now I have a headache and I'm going home."

"Yay!" Someone shouted after she left. "The chaperone is gone!"

"Yay!" some other people cheered.

"That was the only chaperone?" Peter asked his friend.

"I don't know the capital of America." his friend slurred before vomiting on the floor in front of him.

It was around this time that Susan and Edmund arrived. "This place is too cool." Edmund said looking around. "I can't believe we almost missed this."

"It does look like fun." Susan admitted.

Edmund looked over at the dessert table. "I think I hear a cookie calling my name." he raced over there.

Susan wondered what she was going to do now. She hadn't thought passed getting there. Who was she going to talk to? She couldn't talk to Peter or he'd know she snuck out.

At dessert table, Edmund reached over to grab a cookie. Another person next to him reached for the same one. They banged hands by mistake.

"Sorry." It was a girl's voice.

"No, it was my fault." Edmund took off his mask for a moment because it was shifting the wrong way.

"Edmund?" The girl gasped. She took of her own mask.

"Julia!" It was the nice girl from the department store "What are you doing here?"

"The nice bouncer let me in." Julia explained.

Of course the bouncer let her in, pretty people could get in just about anywhere. That's why Susan got in and Edmund was able to tag along with her.

"Do you want to dance?" Edmund asked.

"Sure." she answered.

on the other side of the room, Peter was talking to the only two sober friends of his at the party while the tipsy ones puked in the bathroom.

"Ask someone to dance." One of his friends told him.

"No." Peter said. He didn't know or like any of the girls there.

"Come on." They begged him. "have a little fun."

"I am having fun." Peter lied. He was actually hoping the police would come and shut the party down.

"Okay ask a girl to dance or..." One of his friends pointed to a circle of chairs where some guy was chugging a huge barrel of beer while ten other boys egged him on. "You'll be the next chugger."

Peter glared at them. "Knock it off."

"What about her?" one of them pointed to a masked girl in a red gown who'd just arrived. "Why don't you ask her to dance? She's pretty."

"If I ask her to dance will you leave me alone?" Peter asked.

They all nodded.

"Fine." He rolled his eyes. Let's get this over with. He had no way of knowing that the girl he was about to ask to dance was Susan.

"Excuse me." He said softly.

Susan turned around and gulped. Oh, no. Busted.

He didn't recognize her because it was dark and the mask covered about half of her face. He did think she looked familiar but in the dark foul-smelling party room he couldn't place her. His buddies were watching him as if he was an action film and something was about to blow up.

"Would you like to dance?" Peter asked her.

Phew! Susan thought, he didn't recognize her. She was about to shake her head no. If they danced, he might figure out who she was. But then another girl came up behind them.

"Hey do you want to dance?" The girl asked Peter.

He asked me first. Susan thought bitterly. Peter barely noticed the other girl. "Yeah, with her." He shrugged. "Sorry."

The other girl turned up her nose and stormed off.

Susan couldn't say no now. She nodded yes (She was worried her voice might tip him off to who she was). They went to the dance floor.

"You're pretty good." Peter noticed that she didn't miss a step during the dance. "Where did you learn?"

Of course she'd learned in Narnia, same place as him, but she wasn't going to admit that. She tried to make her voice high-pitched so it didn't sound too much like her. "Oh, I just watch a lot of dancing...you know at other parties."

"Sure." He squinted at her. He had the feeling he knew her from somewhere. but where? This was going to drive him mad. "Do I know you?" He asked.

"I don't think so." Susan said quickly. "I look a lot like other people. Lot's of people even say I look like their siblings...I don't know why...I guess I just look very common...hee hee." She added a nervous laugh at the end.

Peter had heard a laugh like that once before...The night Susan was moonstruck...what were the odds that this girl had the same weird laugh only higher pitched?

As they were dancing, some guy ran by in his underwear. "Hey everyone check out my invisible clothes!" he waved his arms to and fro.

Peter knew who it was. One of his non-sober friends. "Excuse me." He looked passed Susan and shouted. "Mark, put your clothes back on!"

Susan started to walk away but Peter followed her. "Do you think we could talk for a bit?" He asked leaving his underwear-clad friend to fend for himself.

"You want to talk to me?" She asked still in that overly-high pitched voice.

"Well it's you or invisible boy over there." Peter pointed out.

"Good call." Susan said laughing a bit at that. And forgetting to use her fake voice.

"I know that voice..." Peter said looking at her.

"It's a common voice?" Susan tried.

Peter reached over to lift up her mask. Maybe if he saw her whole face, he'd figure out who she was. But just then, the clock started to strike twelve. Susan ran away as fast as she could.

Edmund was talking to Julia right outside the door.

"Come on, Ed!" Susan said grabbing his arm. "We're going to be late!"

"Alas, I must say farewell, fair maiden." Edmund said in a very kingly voice to Julia.

"What?" She called after him.

"Goodbye." he called back.

"Oh, you should have said that in the first place!" She rolled her eyes but she was still smiling.

Peter followed Susan and hid in the bushes to watch were she went.

"We're not going to make it." Susan said trying to run in her heels.

"Yes we are." Edmund said, grabbing her hand and pulling her along.

Susan managed to kick off her heels so that she could run faster.

One them went flying into the bushes, Peter had to doge it. Then he picked it up. He looked carefully at it, 'Property of Susan Pevensie' He shook his head. "I knew it!"

The next morning, Susan woke up feeling very tired and sluggish from the party and then from the race home. They'd just barely made it. After breakfast, Peter asked to talk to her.

"Sure." Susan hoped he hadn't figured out that it had been her last night.

He had something behind his back which he pulled out when they were alone. It was one of her shoes.

"Oh no." Susan gulped.

He didn't seem angry though, rather he smiled and gently put it on her foot as she took a seat on a chair. It slid right on. "It's a perfect fit." was all he said.

She took his hand and smiled back down at him. It was a total Cinderella moment.

AN: So? What did you think? Please review! I would love to hear your thoughts.