Mercenary63: Thanks! Glad you loved it!
Turns out this next story is rather long so there may be two parts or three parts.
Madge glanced over at her door to see a bright white envelope slide under. Intrigued, she got up and opened it. She unfolded the invitation and read it slowly. 'Who Done It and Why' it was titled. Madge scanned the details.
"What is it?" Her roommate asked, taking her headphones off.
"It's an invitation for a role play party," Madge grinned and wandered over, leaning up against her roommate's bed. "Everyone gets a character and has certain objectives and has to fulfill them by the end of the night while trying to figure out who the murderer is."
"Sounds awesome- are we both invited?"
"Yeah, we are. It's also a date party so we can bring people, like you could bring Peeta."
"Are you going to bring Gale?"
"Katniss," Madge squealed, "no!"
"Missed opportunity," Katniss shrugged.
"Says you," Madge said and stuck out her tongue.
"When is it?" Katniss asked.
"This weekend, we need to RSVP by tomorrow though."
"This isn't Jo's party, is it?"
Madge looked up sheepishly, "it is."
"Damn… she should have called it booze and bad decisions."
"Hey- you met Peeta at one of her parties," Madge reminded her.
"My point exactly," Katniss grinned.
"Funny," Madge smirked, "the theme is Roaring 20s- can we go shopping?"
"If we have to," Katniss sighed.
"We're late," Katniss sighed staring at the clock. Madge glanced over at the dashboard.
"Just a minute or so," she replied.
"They said 8:30 at the latest," Katniss complained.
"So we're fashionably late," Madge grinned, "so what?"
"I don't think it's one of those parties you can just show up to," Katniss said, and rolled her eyes.
"You're ruining it," Madge warned her. Katniss pulled up a few feet from the house and put the car in park. Together they ran up to the house, carefully taking the stairs in heels.
"I can't believe you made me wear these," Katniss muttered, stepping onto the landing. Madge grinned over at her friend.
"It's fun to dress up," Madge reminded her, "think of them as costumes."
"They are costumes," Katniss sighed, "it's a 20s theme date party, not a frat party." Madge rolled her eyes and opened the door. All eyes were immediately on them. Maybe being late was a bad idea.
"Sorry we're late," Madge huffed out and tried not to make eye contact with anyone. She shuffled on the hardwood over to the couch and deposited her coat with everyone else's.
Katniss came up behind her and deposited her coat as well, "he's here," she whispered.
"Shh..." Madge blushed. She turned back towards the filled room with mustered confidence. Her sapphire dress was longer than most but the sheer plunging neckline had her blushing.
"Damn..." Johanna grinned, coming over to Madge. She looked her up and down, "you're a sight." She handed her an envelope and a name tag.
"What are these?" Madge asked.
"Your character descriptions," Johanna explained, "the name tag is your character's name, and the envelope explains your back-story and your objectives for the introduction round. There are also three money tokens- don't give them away unless it says too."
Madge glanced down at her name tag: Elsie Adler. "That's a pretty great name," Peeta said coming up behind her. She glanced at his name tag,
"William Germaine isn't half bad," she grinned at him.
"Why thank you, Elsie." He took a slight bow. She rolled her eyes.
"I don't know how I feel about calling each other different names," Katniss grumbled, wrapping an arm around Peeta. Madge glanced at her name tag as well.
"Evelyn Germaine," Madge made a face, "you two are married."
Peeta grinned and Katniss tried to hide her smile, "awkward." Katniss finally said.
"Have you read your character descriptions?" Peeta asked them.
"Not yet," Madge pinned on her name tag and dragged out her letter.
Elsie Adler. You have grown up with 'old' money. Your family held several political positions over the course of multiple generations and you've accumulated more money than anyone else in the room. Be careful, greed is punishing. But your beauty will attract many eligible suitors and your fourth finger doesn't have a ring on it.
"Wow, didn't get creative, did you Jo?" Madge asked, glancing around for her friend.
"My name is Ruby," Johanna said, tapping her name tag. "You should read your objectives." Madge scanned the bottom of the page.
- Don't let anyone swindle your money, especially Dewey Riley.
Madge turned to Peeta and whispered, "Who plays Dewey Riley?" She asked.
He laughed and whispered back, "Thom." She glanced around the party. Thom had drawn on an elegant mustache and practically had on a suit, a pocket watch hung from his vest.
- Befriend Nora Shane
"Who is Nora?" Madge asked Peeta again.
"Delly," Katniss answered, "she just walked by." Madge glanced over at Delly who was wearing a white lace smock dress, a red solo cup in her hand. Madge glanced down at her last objective.
- Get to know Nathaniel Hastings. He's important to your story line.
"Who plays Nathaniel?" Madge asked quickly. Wide eyes scanned the party.
"I do," she closed her eyes and took a deep breath. Of course. She turned around and looked up at Gale. "I think I'm going to go by Nathan or Nat though," He said, smiling.
"A nickname for your nickname?" Peeta asked, "isn't hard enough not to call each other our actual names?"
"Calm down, Mr. Germaine." Gale said raising an eyebrow, "Besides Dewey over there is already calling himself D."
"I take it he doesn't like his name," Delly said coming over. She hooked Madge's arm. "Come on Elsie, we have business to discuss."
"I need a drink," Madge told her, loud enough for Johanna to hear as they passed by.
"Be careful around D," Jo warned as they passed by.
"Was that for you or for me?" Delly whispered as they entered the kitchen. Finnick was behind the bar; his name tag read Max Warner. Music filled the room behind them with dance Jazz.
"They're not going make us dance, are they?" Madge asked Delly.
"You don't even want to know what I have to do,"
"Let me guess," Madge said leaning against the counter, "talk to your crush aka Dewey aka Thom."
"Not so loud," Delly squealed.
"No one is around," Madge said. They both glared at Finnick.
"I'm just the bartender. My lips are sealed," he told them, making a zipping motion across his lips.
"Anyway," Madge pressed on, "I only asked because Johanna... Ruby... or whatever wants me to talk to Gale. Worse than that, she mentioned that I don't have a ring in my character description."
"A ring?" Delly asked, Madge held up her left hand. "Oh no," she grinned and covered her mouth.
"Also beyond that, Jo's warning me. I have to watch out for D because he wants my money." Delly laughed.
"This is such a good idea," She said clapping her hands, "I hope I don't die though."
"I think D is going to be the murderer," Madge grinned.
"Not my suitor," Delly said clutching her chest in mock despair.
"We're going to need a couple drinks," Madge laughed, "Max give me something strong."
"I thought it was going to be awkward coming to a party alone," Delly said as they moved away from the bar.
"I think it will be when we're forced to flirt with our crushes," Madge reminded her.
"I don't want to think about it," Delly grinned. They moved back into the living room, everywhere people moved through their characters' objectives.
"Miss Adler…" Delly and Madge turned to see Thom. He was pretending to smoke a pipe. Madge tried to hold back a laugh.
"You look ridiculous," she told him.
"You however do not," he said his voice dripping with huskiness. Madge could feel the blush work up her neck and she flashed a face at Delly, who just laughed and patted her back.
"Have fun with that," Delly said and left her. Madge turned her attention back to Thom.
"I heard a rumor that you have some money to toss around," he said and touched her arm. She raised an eyebrow and brushed off his arm.
"I do have some money but I'm not going to 'toss it around'" she says and crosses her arms cross her chest, "and I'm certainly not giving it to you."
"That's harsh," he grinned.
"I'm just going off of my objectives," she winked.
"I am too," he laughed.
"Well, I'm not giving you my money," she shrugged.
"Spoken like a true Townie," he joked.
"Is this guy bothering you?" They both turned to see Gale; he studied Thom's name tag, "Dewey…"
"I go by D," Thom said, sticking a hand in his pocket and the other lifting his pipe to his mouth.
"Probably for the best," Madge says turning to Gale. They grin.
"Nathaniel isn't much better," Thom tells him, glancing at Gale's name tag.
"He goes by Nathan," Madge tells Thom.
"Thanks, Elsie," Gale winks.
"You're in a good mood," Thom remarks, glancing at Gale.
"Just focus on getting money from someone else," Gale said, ignoring his remark. Thom rolled his eyes.
"My objectives say to get it from Madge," he told Gale.
"Elsie," Madge interjected.
"My objectives say I can't give it to you," Madge told Thom.
"And my objectives say to stop you from harassing Elsie." Gale grinned at Thom and glanced down at the small blonde.
"So it's impossible," Thom laughed, "right, okay." He put his hands up in surrender and went to search for another victim.
"Why do your objectives put you as my protector?" Madge asked him, but she already knew the answer. She knew how Johanna worked.
"I don't know," Gale shrugged, "but I want to win."
"It's not like that," she laughed, "the only way to win is to guess the murderer."
"Oh."
"If I you could win by getting completing all of my objectives, I would have chosen to 'get to know Nathaniel Hastings'" she pointed it out on her objectives list, "but since they don't really have to do with anything…" she winked and stalked away from him, her heels clicking on hardwood.
"How are you guys fairing?" Madge asked coming up to Katniss and Peeta.
"We're waiting for the first death," Peeta said, "we already got through all of our objectives."
"We had to roll a dice with Annie… I mean… Lucille, her character, to see who got Thom's property he was selling."
"Who won?" Madge asked, "And why is Thom needing money?"
"He needs enough money tokens to do whatever, I'm not really sure, and we won so we had to transfer our tokens to Thom." Peeta told her.
"But we apparently have a mansion now," Katniss said, showing her the picture.
"This game is so confusing," Madge grinned, "and I don't even know everyone here."
"Yeah I don't know any of these people," Peeta said glancing around.
"They must be Johanna's roommate's friends," Katniss shrugged.
"What are we talking about?" Gale asked, falling into the conversation. Peeta and Katniss shared a look.
"Do your objectives say to follow me around the party?" Madge asked Gale, bluntly. He sputtered. Peeta chuckled but quickly covered it with a cough.
"Next round of objectives!" Johanna called out and passed out the envelopes. Mage slipped her letter out of the envelope and read her objectives.
- Find out Dewey's objectives and help.
- Keep all your secrets from Nora.
- Kiss Nathaniel Hastings.
Oh, Jo...
Review! I'll get out part 2 soon.