Party Games
Party Games
Chapter 16: Food and Water
"Food and water!"
Lily heaved herself up, catapulting over a brick wall as she hurdled toward Sirius. She all but ran him over before whirling around and dragging herself behind the nearest tree.
Remus was already frozen: a bored, slumped figure on the grass.
"Fifteen, sixteen, seventeen…" As he counted to twenty Lily heard a rustling behind her. James, dressed in camoflauge with war paint around his eyes, put a finger to his lips as he inched, on his elbows and knees, toward an oversized pumpkin.
"Peter, I see you!" Sirius called out, triumphant. Peter, poised on Hagrid's back steps like a majestic statue, was frozen. Out. Beaten. And laughing his head off.
There was rustling and a crackle of leaves as James sat himself up against the pumpkin. It seemed he had found his perfect hiding spot.
"Food and water!"
Lily swung out from behind the tree and sprinted for Sirius, who had his eyes closed and arms held out. She punched his hand and made a hasty dive behind a bush just as he finished counting to ten.
"Hello," said James, who was also kneeling there.
Poor Lily's face went red. "Hi, James," she tried to say calmly. It came out a stutter.
"I said hello," James whispered, moving for a kiss. He got it. Lily leaned in, loving every second of this little…escapade.
"Food and water!"
"Hello," Lily repeated. Again their lips met. Again, hands touched.
"Food and water!"
Eyes fluttered shut.
"Food and water!"
Breath mixed.
"Food and water!"
The kiss became demanding. Hands tipped her chin up as she gripped her knees.
Silence pounded in Lily's ears. She wondered briefly if this was bad.
Her lips met his throat, and his hands met her waist.
Silence.
"Lily," he said to the sky.
"James," she said to his collarbone.
"I see you," said Sirius. And all of them were frozen.
I realize how short this is.
I've been gone for over two months, so I have a lot to tell you.
This is the first thing I have written in weeks - where I used to be completely devoted to fanfiction... now I'm not so much :( Classes have become stressful as the end of the year builds up to finals, etc. Even my poetry - I used to write five or six poems per night - has dwindled to nothing as I find a lack of time and a lack of inspiration. Even though I am still actively working on my big piece now, Timeline, I also have a real novel to contend with. The lack of muse has been devastating.
The inspiration for this piece came from a game I was fortunate to learn at a friend's 18th birthday party (Theo, if you read this, you were there)! When I first started this series, I made a list of all the party games I knew, and worked my way through them one by one. Some of the ideas were unusable, not so much party games as little games to play when we're bored (such as Bloody Knuckles... I barely managed to write that). So learning a new game was a lot of fun and a definite bonus to my muse.
I'm not very clear about the rules in this one, but I know that one could learn new games from this, so here there are briefly:
- One person stands in the middle of a house or yard
- He closes his eyes and puts his arms out to his sides, and everyone touches a hand
- He yells "Food and water!" and everyone runs to a hiding place while he counts to a number (let's say, thirty)
- Once he finishes counting, he opens his eyes and looks around. He can move one step in any direction, but that's all.
- If he sees someone, he calls out their name and location. They have to freeze where they are.
- Once he can't find anymore people, he closes his eyes again and yells "Food and water!" After yelling he counts to a lesser number (say, twenty) as everyone runs back, touches his hand, and finds a new hiding place.
- This continues until one person is left, who becomes the person in the center.
It's a difficult game because each go-around the time available to hide is less and less. I suggest playing it in a big yard... with lots of places to hide, like behind a car or tree, or in a garbage can.
It was a lot of fun to play.
You might notice my writing style is changing... that's in part because of my English class, which is so gosh darn focused on proper language that I doubt I'll ever be able to work humor in with ease. I probably sound really stuck-up right now, actually. Er... just know that I'm the same person, and I'll be trying to put out the same or better quality writing for all of you. My fans are my inspiration. Other people might say something like reviews are their muse... well, you are my muse. :) Each and everyone one of you.
I have to thank everyone for being patient... and also, cookies to anyone who read this horrendously long author's note ;)
Ciao!