"Vriska, put your phone away," Melisa Serket said after swallowing a mouthful of food. Vriska groaned and told Dave she'd be back after dinner, finishing her food as quickly as she could. Or at least, she wanted to finish before Eridan did so she could get some snooping time in his room. If caught, she could say she was looking to bother his text book or something stupid like that. Eridan wouldn't be the wiser, or so she thought.
"Darren, Mom, can I be excused?" She asked with mouth half-full. Darren Ampora and Melisa exchanged a look before they both gave a nod, and Vriska ran up the stairs. She ran into her room quickly to grab a ponytail holder and pull her long, thick auburn hair out of her way before she snuck into Eridan's room.
His walls were painted a dark plum, posters for Harry Potter, a history timeline and a few world maps of different eras plastering his walls. In the corner was his bed, which was a messy assortment of blankets and fluffy pillows in the form of some weird nest. Next to his bed on the little table was a tiny aquarium, which held two gold fish. There was also a jar of Nutella and a book, which upon closer inspection was a book about all sorts of different pirates or something like that, and sadly, it was not hollowed out to hold a tape-recorder of some kind.
Off on the other side was Eridan's dresser, which Vriska went to rummage through. Pulling on the chrome nobs of the black scrap of wood, Vriska saw that between the pairs of socks, boxers and what seemed to be a cloak of sorts were a few notebooks, but when she opened them, she found the writing inside to be too messy to read. She slammed it shut and turned to look around, observing his room. In the corner was a pile of laundry, and she practically dove for it. Searching through it, she didn't find anything of use, so she turned her attention to his bed. Searching under the cold, black metal frame, she found it completely void of anything interesting except a glass case holding what appeared to be a replica wand from Harry Potter.
Crawling out from under his bed, she instead opted to sit on the corner of it, looking around the room. Various pictures of him and his friends from Britain littered his shelves, as well as a few more replica wands and what appeared to be the Golden Snitch, and there was a harpoon above his dresser above his navy alarm clock. She turned to look at the nightstand again and opened the drawer, but she found it to be full of papers in the same scribble she couldn't read. She threw them back, startling the two gold fish that swam behind their plant. She looked around again, and spotted his desk. There was nowhere else it could be.
Standing over the desk, she glared at the contents. Books and papers with that stupid handwriting littered the desk in unorganized chaos. She opened the drawers and found nothing of interest, when she began to open the last draw, she heard someone clear her throat.
"Have you found anything in particular that you need, Vriska?"
Vriska turned slowly. "Aranea, this is my business, not yours. Go study for your tests or something. Leave me alone."
"Why?"
"Why what?"
"What has he done to you? Why are you after him? For God's sake, Vriska! So he pushed you in a pool once. That doesn't mean he's the ultimate evil in the world. Will you quit acting so rude and childish?"
Vriska groaned. "Go rant to Kankri or something! I'm just looking for his textbook."
"We all know that's a lie."
"Oh, shut up!"
"Hey, w-what's goin' on?" Eridan said, tapping Aranea on the shoulder gently. "Any reason w-we're hangin' out in my room? W-Without me?"
"I was just looking for your math textbook. I left mine in my locker," Vriska said, grabbing it off the desk from under the papers she had piled on top of it. "Hope you don't mind."
"Oh, don't w-worry about it," Eridan said with a sincere smile. "Just giv-ve it back w-when you're done, alright?"
"No problem," Vriska said with an evil, sly smile. She snuck past Aranea and Eridan. Slithering to her room, she slipped into her desk chair and hopped on her computer, telling Dave that she found nothing in Eridan's room. Dave seemed disappointed, but Vriska took her focus off of him and, for once, the youngest Serket did her math homework. She got up eventually and returned the book to Eridan, who invited her to chat a moment. She excused herself, claiming that biology would keep her up all night if she didn't get it over and done with soon, which wasn't a total lie. After finishing everything, she felt like she had nothing to do, so she went downstairs to grab a soda, where she overheard Melisa and Darren talking.
Darren said, "Wait, so there's a party this weekend? I don't know how I feel about that."
"It's just going to be some of the kids' friends. Vriska said it was for Aradia! Apparently, the boys' birthday surprise for her went up in flames," Melisa said.
Vriska walked in and sat down, saying, "More like confetti. I swear, John Egbert is not so bright. I feel kind of bad for his family. Living with four kids is bound be hard, especially when one of them is John." When she saw Darren raise an eyebrow, she said, "There's John and his older sister, Jane, and then the aunt lives there with Jade and her older brother Jake. Jake's the guy Dave's older brother is dating, and somehow they have another aunt who is Feferi Peixes's mother, but they live on the other side of town, closer to the school. It's really complicated, and I don't know why."
Darren nodded. "I see. Well, I guess it's alright, so long as everyone can invite a few people over. I wouldn't want your sister, or Eridan and Cronus, to be left out. Though, obviously, this entire celebration would be about your friend." Darren smiled in complete knowing, and Vriska grinned.
"Thanks, Darren," she said, getting up and hugging him before leaning over to give her mom a kiss on the cheek and rushing up to her room. "Sibling Meeting! Younger Serket Room! Now!"
Eventually, all four Serket-Ampora children were in Vriska's room; Vriska at her desk in the chair backwards, Cronus and Eridan sitting on her bed, and Aranea standing politely when she saw all the spots were taken. Aranea asked, "Why the call for a meeting, Vriska?"
"Darren and Mom just approved a party for this weekend, and Darren said you guys were welcome to invite a few friends over. But, just to be clear, this is my party, and it's for Aradia."
"Aradia?" Eridan asked. "Isn't that the woman Sollux is dating? And who John-"
"Confetti blasted?" Vriska finished. "The one and the same. I feel bad about it, so I wanted to throw a party by the pool. Cronus, maybe you could play us some of your music!" She plastered on a grin.
"I'v-we been lookin' for an excuse to bust the ol' guitar out. No problem, chief," Cronus said, grinning. "V-what exactly happened to your friend?"
"John Egbert confetti blasted her when he gave over the guys' present. I knew when Egbert had it, something was fishy, but whatever." That wasn't a total lie. Sure, she knew something was fishy, but that's only because she told John to go through with it when he was debating rigging her gift with a confetti cannon. It's not like she'd let anyone else know that, though, and no one needed to know that her friendliness was just an act.
"V-well, that's pretty rude," Cronus said.
"Agreed," Eridan muttered.
"Third it," Aranea said.
"And forth it," Vriska said with fake sympathy. "Listen, you guys go tell your friends about the party. It'll be great! We'll work out kinks like food and stuff later. It's late, anyways. We should be getting to sleep."
Eridan yawned, covering his mouth with the back of his hand and nodding in agreement. "I call bathroom first."
"Second!" Vriska called quickly.
"Third!" Cronus practically jumped off the bed.
"Already showered," Aranea said, giving a bit of a sly smile and sneaking out of the room. Vriska, Cronus and Eridan all let out little groans, but the eldest Serket only laughed down the hall before getting into bed. As for the Ampora boys, Eridan sauntered off towards the shower, and Cronus could be heard strumming his guitar from across the hall. As for Vriska, she debating doing some snooping, decided against it, and waited for her turn at the shower for a long, well-deserved night's sleep.