Chapter Five

Sarah divided up the cash between her little group of hell-raisers: Silas to the candy shop, Marcus to the building renters, Nora to the furniture salesmen (she said she could use the tables and chairs once the party was over), Milo to the general store, Koran to the place on the corner where they sell disco balls and karaoke machines, and she went to negotiate the terms with her parents.

Silas whistled as he pushed open the door to the candy store. He looked at all the different types and started drooling. He handed over some cash and bought a bunch of everything.

Marcus went into a store that said, "Kir's Buildings" and asked to rent a hall for four hours, not counting set-up time. He was given a wide hall with a stage and a bunch of fridges. "I'll take it" said Marcus and forked over $300.

Nora bought three tables and ten chairs for $500, then rented a truck to drive the furniture to the building. Marcus called her on his cell phone to tell her where to go.

Milo sauntered into the general store and bought soda, tortilla chips, potato chips, bottled water, cocktail weenies, tiny sandwiches and other little finger foods.

Koran chose a disco ball that was already multicolored, so it would flash even more lights. He got a karaoke machine that had almost every song the group liked.

And now we come to Sarah. Oh great.

Sarah knocked on her parents door and saw them talking about taxes. "Umm….mom? Dad? Can I ask you a question?" Jenna smiled. "Ask away." "Woulditbeokayifwehadapartytonight?" Sarah asked in one breath. Jenna slapped her forehead. Then Sarah's phone rang.

"Hello? Oh, hi Marcus. Mmm-hmm. Corner of Broadway and Sassafras. Big building with 'Party Tonight" sign on it. Gotcha. See ya."

She closed the phone and Jenna sighed. "You've already rented a building, gotten party food, furniture, and other stuff, haven't you?" "Yeah" said Sarah nonchalantly.

"Seeing as I can't stop you now, go ahead," said Jenna as she rolled her eyes. "WAHOO!!" Sarah ran outside and screamed to all the poor saps in hearing distance, "WE GET TO HAVE A PARTY!!!!"

"Maybe I shouldn't have told her that" muttered Jenna. Her husband patted her on the back. "Relax. We'll make them invite Sep, he'll keep them under control."

So Jenna yelled out the window, "Be sure to invite your uncle!" "Gotcha!" Sarah yelled back, and then she rushed off. "AND YOUR COUSINS!!" "Great."

She knocked on Septimus' door. "Yeallo?" he said, poking his head out. "Oh, hi Sarah. What do ya need?" "Mom says we have to invite you to our party to"—she made quotation marks with her fingers—"'keep us under control.'" "Cool. So what time do I come over?" "Hmm, maybe about 6:00?" "Kay. See you then."

She was about to leave when Septimus asked, "Hey, the floor stopped calling me 'LegLess Invertebrate'. Do you know why?" Sarah thought for a moment, then shrugged. "Well, I did reprogram it again to say 'Whazzup Incredibly Cool Royal Rambles', but apparently it didn't affect your thingy this time." She raised one leg, spun around, and asked, "Why, did you like being called 'LegLess Invertebrate?" "I was kind of getting used to it."

Three floors down, an old and very distinguished Ordinary Wizard by the name of Maxwell Roberts was entering the Wizard Tower. The floor hastened to greet him by the words, "Welcome, You Fat, Ugly Pig." Poor Mr. Roberts gaped at the floor and the younger Wizards and Apprentices giggled. But the floor continued with the words, "Are You Standing On Your Head? 'Cause Your Face And Butt Are Mixed Up." Some Apprentices exploded in laughter. He turned around and swore loudly at them. That pretty much made them shut up, and look at Mr. Roberts like he was a demon or something.

Septimus had closed the door, but Sarah was laughing so hard she was shaking. "So that's what happened!" she exclaimed, and then sat on the rim of the stairs, and slid down.

The group met at the party building. "Well, we've got exactly 2.6 hours left" remarked Silas, looking at his watch. Sarah clapped her hands. "Then let's get ready."

It took the next few hours to set up the tables and karaoke machine, stock the coolers with sodas, juice, and water, screw the disco ball in, install the dance floor, and dump all the food on the tables.

Who drinks water at parties, anyway? 45-year-olds, I guess. I mean, any kid would want to get as much sugar in their blood as possible.

Oh, I am so glad I'm not Jenna, Beetle, Nicko, or Snorri. They're gonna have to give the kids sedatives to get them to sleep.

Anyway, once all the stuff was set up, Sarah, Nora, Silas, and Milo ran off to tell their invitees.

Their argument about who should go where went something like this:

"I think Nora should go to our cousins." "Oh no you don't, I went last party! You go!" "Well, I'm not going. I remember what happened last time I went over." "Maybe if you hadn't brought your 'Fart-in-a-Can*'…" "Sarah has to go and invite Rack. Here, catch it on videotape. I can hear it now: 'Whaaaa….'" "Shut up or that video camera will go where you really don't want it." "Hee hee." "You shut up, Silas, or it's going up yours." "Mommy." "Fine, I'll go to the cousins, Sarah gets Uncle Sep, Silas gets Rack, and Nora gets Kaz, Vic and Ryou" Milo settled.

Kazzan, Victor, and Ryou were a few Wizard Apprentice friends of Marcus, Nora, and Silas.

"How come Sarah—" Silas began, but then Sarah kicked him in the—

"Ouch." "That must hurt." Sarah wore a smug grin as Silas hopped up and down, letting out odd choking noises. Some sounded like curses.

Milo paid 2 bucks to hitch a ride on a horse-and-cart that was going out of town, past the Forest. He jumped out and went into that mass of trees. He glanced anxiously up at the branches, hoping that none would break and knock him out like the last time he had been in there**.

When he reached the clearing where his four cousins lived, he called out, "Anybody home?" He looked around. There was Kia and Shian. "Oh, it's Milo. What do you want?" asked Kia warily. "Just a party invite, but since you appear to be busy…" he trailed off with a sneaky smirk. "PARTY INVITE??!! AUGH, I'VE GOT TO TAKE A SHOWER!!" "ME TOO!!" The two teenage girls rushed off as their brothers stepped in. "Milo?" asked Rick. "That's me." Drake pointed at the place where the girls had vanished. "Any reason that they're crazier than usual?" "Party tonight" answered Milo. "And dad made us invite you guys." "Ah. We'll be there."

Silas walked nonchalantly to the boatyard, where he saw his father. "Hey dad" he said, waving. "Silas, kid. What can your old man do for you?" Nicko asked, leaning on a boat that promptly tipped over. "HEAP! PUT THAT BACK UP!" "Okay, Jannit." Nicko struggled to push the boat back up and then Silas said, "I'm looking for Rack." "Oh, why?" "Party invite." "I presume you got permission." "From Sarah and Milo's parents, yes. And I don't think you can refuse." Nicko grinned. "How does that work?" Silas looked into his dad's eyes and said slowly, "Cocktail weenies." "WOOHOO!!" cheered Nicko, jumping into the air. "HEAP! STOP THAT RACKET AND GET BACK TO WORK!!" "Yes, Jannit."

He turned and called into the shed, "Rack!" There was an explosion noise from inside it and then Rack was flung out into the water. When he got up, there was seaweed all over him. He hurriedly brushed it off and ran back on the dock. "Yes, Nicko?" "Kid's here for ya." Rack's eyes lit up and he promptly tripped over a bucket and fell flat on his face. "YOWohfrickinOWOWOW—Hi Silas—OWOWferheaven'ssakeYOWOWgeezOW&^$# *& #%^MOMMY!!!"

He clapped his hands over his mouth. "Did I say that out loud?" "Yes, you did." "Great."

Silas said, "We're having a party tonight if you wanna come." Rack looked at Nicko. "Don't look at me like that, ask Jannit." Rack turned back to Silas. "Who's gonna be there?" "Well, the RRs, of course—hey, where'd he go?" Nicko swiveled and locked his eyes on a human-shaped shadow by the main boatyard building. Silas scratched his head. "Did he just go 30 yards in half a second?" "I don't know, you went to school and learned physics." "Actually, that was Marcus."

Meanwhile, Sarah was down in the Ice Tunnels, reprogramming the floor again. "Let's see, 'Whazzup Omnipotent and All-Amazing Incredibly Cool Royal Rambles.' Yeah, that works." With that, she felt for a whistle around her neck and blew. A sled rounded a corner and stopped in front of her. But this wasn't just any sled. This was the Palace Sled.

The Palace Sled had been made by order of Jenna before Sarah was born. It was made of beautifully designed red-painted wood with inlets of rubies and amethysts, and gold finish made it glow even in the desolate Ice Tunnels. Sarah hopped on and slid along the Tunnels until she reached the arch that marked the Wizard Tower. She tied the sled and strode confidently across the ground, forgetting that it was solid ice.

Splat. "Oop! Son of a…"

Rubbing her nose, she went more carefully.

A few slips and splats later, she was in the Tower. She grinned as the new words showed up and laughed as she saw some kid being called "Grand King of the Farts."

She spun wildly up the stairs and knocked on the purple door. Septimus looked out, looked down, and saw Sarah. "You again?" "You need to come now." "Okay, I'll just get ready." He closed the door and she yelled, "NO FANCY CLOTHES! THIS IS A PARTY!!" She heard a chuckle and then pulled out her cell phone to check the time.

"5:35??!! AUGH!!" She banged on her uncles door. "Hurry up, you lazy lump!!" He finally came out, wearing a simple purple tunic that registered his authority, but didn't overdo it. "Geez, you took forever. Come on."

I'll not go into details about how Nora got her friends, seeing as this chapter is already supremely long, but they are coming.

The group of kids, teenagers, and adults met in front of the building. "Lardies and germs, welcome to the party event of the…" Marcus checked the date on his watch. "….week!" "For this party, we have a new person: the new ExtraOrdinary apprentice. You can call him Koran." "Hi" said Koran with a wave, and, hard to believe, he was actually excited. He also kept glancing over at something.

Your good friend Wolf would try to find out, but Koran would probably beat her to a pulp.

Come to think of it, Rack keeps glaring at Koran, too. Odd. What'd Koran do?

"So please step inside, and get ready to have the time of your week!" Marcus finished. "Actually, it's 'time of your life', you dork" Kia said, rolling her eyes. "Yeah, but we're having another party in a few weeks, you ignorant chicken-brain."

With a sweep of Marcus' arms, Silas and Milo opened the doors, and the people gazed upon the magnificence of the thing that is the party.

* Two and a Half Men ripoff :D

** Only I can understand this ;)