Drabble 3

Prompt: the squad draped around a room at 4 in the morning, asking deep questions and giggling at everything

Characters: Jane, Jordan, Ben, Evie, Carlos, Jay, Mal, Doug, Lonnie, Audrey

The clock tower bells chimed the hour, four in the morning, usually a quiet time in the night as most students would be sleeping, dreaming of the future. But not this night. The dorm common room was full of students, still in their party clothes, giggling, laughing, even singing a little.

"My feet hurt," Evie lightly complained as she sat on the couch next to a humming Mal.

"That's what we get for dancing so much," Jordan commented as she sat down on a fluffy chair.

Jay took the other chair across from it. Carlos decided the floor looked like a comfortable place to lie down, causing Jane to giggle at his actions as she sat on the floor near him. Ben squeezed himself onto the couch next to Mal, draping an arm behind her. Doug sat on the arm of the couch, next to Evie. Lonnie chose to sit on the floor, but she put her back against Jay's chair for support. It was such a large group of them, draped around the common room so late at night, or rather early in the morning.

"It was a crazy party, though," Doug commented.

"Oh yeah," Carlos added from the floor.

"But you know what," Evie interjected. "This is my favorite part of the night."

"What do you mean?" Mal asked.

"Being able to relax with everyone here and just talking," Evie answered. "I like this part a lot."

"It is nice," Jane agreed.

"I'm surprised we are all still up," Ben commented.

"Well, we don't have school tomorrow so it's not a big deal if we stay up late," Jay added. "We can just sleep the day away."

"Maybe you can," Ben replied. "I've got a lot of meetings tomorrow."

"Then why don't you head out?" Mal asked. "And I'll see you tomorrow. You need rest."

Ben slowly nodded his head. He knew he really should leave, but sitting here next to Mal surrounded by their friends was a good feeling. He made no move to leave, though.

Everyone settled and began to relax, some sighing.

"It's too quiet," Evie broke the silence. Evie and several of the other girls giggled in response.

"I'd say that if we don't keep talking or something we're all going to fall asleep here," Carlos pointed out.

"You look like you'd be the first," Jay added, looking at Carlos on the floor.

Carlos suddenly sat up straight, "There is no way I will be the first asleep."

"Afraid we'll give you the Isle party treatment?" Jay teased.

"I'm not going to give you the chance," Carlos shot back, pointing at Jay.

"What's the Isle party treatment?" Jordan asked.

"At Isle parties, the first person to fall asleep or pass out usually gets drawn on or covered in something nasty or something equally evil," Mal explained.

"That sounds terrible," Jane commented.

"I saw some interesting twists on it," Jay admitted.

"You did go to a lot of parties," Mal added. "So of course you would see the creative ones."

"Did you go to a lot of parties?" Ben asked Mal quietly as Jay told the others about some of the more creative results of parties.

"No," Mal answered. "Parties weren't really my thing on the Isle. Not after Evie's sixth birthday party."

"What happened at Evie's sixth birthday party?" Ben asked. Some of the others switched focus from Jay and his story about how Harriet Hook had used Island sludge to stick Anthony Tremaine to a wall once, to Mal and Ben's conversation.

"Not much," Mal answered. "I just wasn't invited."

"Wait, what?" Jordan interjected. "You didn't like parties because you weren't invited to a little kid's birthday party?"

"There's more to the story than that," Evie answered. "My mom was slighting Maleficent by not inviting Mal and inviting everyone else. It was a great party."

"It was a huge party!" Jay added. "The party of the century on the Isle."

"And my mom and I were banished for ten years from society for that," Evie concluded.

"Wow, the Isle more complicated than I thought," Jordan commented.

"You have no idea," Carlos added.

"Ok," Mal interjected. "Attention off of the VKs. What about you guys? Party much?"

Jane looked at the ground. "I'm only allowed to go to court events or school dances."

"That is a bummer," Jordan replied. "Every day is like a party in my lamp."

"Party of one?" Jay joked, causing a little laughter from mostly VKs. Jordan glared back at him.

"Do Tourney after parties count?" Ben asked.

"Maybe," Mal gave him.

"You?" Evie asked Doug.

He smiled at her. "My family throws excellent holiday parties. Never a dull moment."

"Just the kind of party I would want to go to," Jordan rolled her eyes. "A whole bunch of dirty dwarves with pickaxes."

"Hey," Doug interjected. More laughter followed.

"Excuse you," Audrey walked into the common room. She was clearly dressed for bed in a pink silk nightgown, her hair in curlers, and pink slippers on her feet. "Some of us are trying to get our beauty sleep. Can you please quiet down," she scolded the group. When she finished she spun around and marched out.

"I wonder if beauty sleep works on the inside too?" Carlos asked.

"Carlos," Jane scolded him as everyone else laughed.