From her place by the top of the table, Frankie noticed that Eric was standing in the corner eagerly discussing something with Mac and Goo. She had a pretty good idea what it was.

Okay, so maybe this won't go as smoothly as I had planned, she thought. But I won't let it ruin Foster's first Christmas party under my management.

A few minutes later, Nemesis' group returned from the kitchen in the company of Goofball and Eurotrish. Okay, this was a recipe for trouble, but for the time being, they were all behaving themselves. And Eduardo, who was looking rather lost just a few minutes ago, beamed as Trish returned to her place next to him by the table.

She cast a glance towards the desk from which Goo was handling her DJ duties. Goo waved at Frankie as she put on what she knew was Frankie's favorite Christmas song, "Christmas Wrapping" by the Waitresses. If she did that to try and lighten Frankie's mood, it worked, she had to admit.

Roughly an hour passed. The turkey had been consumed, as had the panettone cake that Frankie had tried making for the first time this year. The success of the panettone had lifted her spirits still more, and with renewed confidence, she prepared to read World's Christmas letter.

That, of course, was when she heard some noise from the bottom of the table. Walking towards it, she was not entirely surprised to see that the group making the noise consisted of Nemesis, Sir Toby, Goofball McGee, Imaginary Frankie and, to her grief, Eurotrish. She was sitting next to Eduardo, but clearly paying more attention to her new "friends".

Frankie managed to catch the attention of the Imaginary who still seemed to act as the ringleader:

"Nemesis!" she hissed, "you and your friends are breaking every rule about alcoholic consumption at the party, including the one about only drinking from neutral glasses." She pointed at Goofball, who was holding a can of Molson Coors. Nemesis looked around and shrugged.

"Fine", she eventually said. "We can just retire to the kitchen, right guys?"

"If the Madame insists, then certainly", Sir Toby replied

The rest of the party nodded and got up. Secretly, this disappointed Frankie. She was hoping that one of them, probably Nemesis, would threaten her or otherwise make a scene, so she had an excuse to throw them out.

"Ed-huar- do", Trish said with her most sensual Italian accent, "Are you coh-ming weed us?"

Eduardo, in response to this, sweated and looked nervously at her.

"Uh, but I don't drink. Besides, it's time for World's letter soon".

"Suit yourself", she responded, sounding disappointed and hesitating, if only for a moment, before she followed the rest of her group back into the kitchen. Frankie stared at the group, then at Eduardo, who looked pretty disappointed himself, not surprisingly. She was going to let Eurotrish stay at the table, if she wanted to. Mostly out of concern for Eduardo.

Frankie forced herself not to think about the party at the kitchen. It was her responsibility to make sure that the party ran as smoothly as possible, and for the moment, she had averted a scene. She told Goo to turn down the music, then tapped on her glass and started reading World's latter to a highly attentive audience. Everyone seemed to have forgotten about Nemesis' internal party already.

The reading took nearly ten minutes. When she was nearly finished, she suddenly heard a thump from upstairs. Pausing momentarily, she looked around. Nobody acted as if they had noticed the thump, and Frankie decided to take the chance on finishing the reading before doing anything else. After she had finished it, and the applause had died down, she discreetly took Wilt to the side and told him to go check on the party upstairs.

"Let's not panic for no reason", she told him.

A few minutes later, Wilt came running down:

"I'm sorry, but I think there's reason to panic now!"

Fearing the worst, Frankie followed him back up.

She shoud've seen it coming. Nemesis' party was wrecking the kitchen. Or actually, Nemesis, Goofball and Bloo were wrecking the place. Frankie had not noticed Bloo's absence at the table, but it didn't surprise her that he had somehow joined in on anything that looked destructive. Nemesis had demolished one of the kicthen tables and was using it as some kind of levitating surfboard. Imaginary Frankie was hanging from it, shouting "wheeee!". Bloo and Goofball had barricaded behind the other kitchen table. They were bombarding each other with kitchen utensils and - to Frankie's even greater annoyance and panic - with plates.

"ALL RIGHT, BREAK IT UP EVERYBODY!" she shouted.

Her fit of rage made everyone stop dead in their tracks, though it was probably out of surprise than out of fear. The four troublemakers all stared at Frankie and Wilt, looking as if they were all waiting for someone else to make the next move.

And someone did, someone else than everybody was expecting.

At the other end of the room, Frankie noticed that Eurotrish and Sir Toby were engaged in some kind of dance, or at least they looked like they had just finished one. Both were visibly drunk, and Trish was muttering something barely comprehensible. Sir Toby was holding his arms around her and his hands were, to put it elegantly, all over the place. She reacted to his advances with a mix of confusion uncertainty and some reluctance.

Frankie didn't even have time to comment on this scene before she suddenly noticed the voluminous presences of Eduardo right behind. He didn't look like knew how to react to this sight, either.

Coming up behind him were Eric, Mac and Goo.

"It was I who made Eduardo come up here", Eric admitted. "I told him he had to gather the courage to look after his girlfriend and confront his rival…in a non-violent way, of course."

"Fair enough, but did you have to drag Mac and Goo up here as well?"

I didn't. They just insisted on coming along."

Frankie nodded. "Yeah, they'll do that."

From afar, Eduardo looked Trish in the eyes.

"Patricia…?"

For a moment, the cute, cartoonish imaginary just stared into the air. Then:

"I really can't stay… I gotta go away…." ", she sang shrilling

"Trish is…singing?" Frankie said, mildly surprised.

"It must've been seven or eight years since the last time", Mac commented.

"This evening has been so very nice…"

"And we didn't miss it."

"My mother will start to worry. My father will be pacing the floor…"

"It's not as bad as you guys always told me", Goo commented.

"So really I better scurry. Well maybe just a half a drink more"

"Still pretty bad, though", she admitted as an afterthought.

'Before anyone could stop her, Trish had taken another solid chug from her glass

"The neighbors might think – Say, what's in this drink?"

"Good question." Frankie quipped pulling the glass out of the imaginary's hand. Nemesis!" she said, turning to hourglass-figured, red imaginary. "Not only are you visibly intoxicated, but you're vandalizing the place. You have to leave."

"Why, I'm not by da table", she said with a husky voice.

"It doesn't matter, you're still making a scene."

"Beat it" she muttered, and struck Frankie halfway across the room with one of her rainbow energy punches.

"Nemesis, you're only digging yourself deeper" Frankie cried.

"I wouldn't say that, she's still here, isn't she?" Goofball said, and giggled at his own weak joke.

Trish began singing again:

"Lash Christmas…I gave you mah heart. But the very next day…you gave it away…"

Staggering, she moved away from Sir Toby and towards Eduardo.

"Thish year…" she grabbed onto Edurardo's right arm and clinged to it like it was the only port in a storm "To shave me from tears.." she paused, and everyone stared at her awkwardly.

"I give it to someone special…" she grabbed Eduardo's chin, pulled his face down to her level and gave him a kiss on the mouth.

Everyone stared, and Nobody had actually seen them go this far. Granted, Trish' condition took some of the effect out of it, but still. For a moment, everyone expected Eduardo to faint from the shock.

He didn't. Not only that, but he also tightened up and walked towards Nemesis.

"You heard Madame Foster" he told her sternly. "You are visibly intaxed..detox…"

"Intoxicated" Frankie helped.

"Si, what she said!" Eduardo continued. "And you are making a scene! You will have to leave."

"Why don't you make me!" the supervillain friend hissed.

«I'd rather not hit a lady» Eduardo said calmly.

"No problem! I'll knock you out before you'd even get a chance to do that!" Nemesis declared, channeling her fists.

"I don't think you will, Senorita Nemesis.", Eduardo replied, still calm. "I watched your episode, so I know what to do."

"Episode? What are you talking ab- HEY!"

The purple giant reached out a hand and roughed it through the female imaginary's head.

"MY HAIR" she cried in anger and despair.

"Now that you have been rendered harmless" he continued, "I must please ask you to leave." He tried grabbing her by the collar, only to realize that her shoulders were bare. However, not even this little detail was enough to bring him out of balance. Instead he grabbed her by the hair again held her up against the wall. As nemesis waved in the air and tried desperately to punch Eduardo, the purple imaginary turned his head.

"And Señor Toby…"

"That's Sir Toby!", the dandy snapped. Eduardo scowled.

"Uh...I mean, if you don't mind" Sir Toby continued, looking a little nervous. "My good man."

Eduardo let go of Nemesis and moved slowly towards him.

"Now, let's not do anything hasty…"

Eduardo didn't do anything hasty. He just stood still right in front of Sir Toby, but this didn't do anything to ease the latter's mind.

"I mean, I had no intention of stealing back…I mean, stealing Patricia from you. It was merely an innocent gesture…something any gentleman would have done at a holiday jamboree."

Eduardo crossed his arms. "You, señor, may call yourself a gentleman, you may even look like a gentleman, but you were not a gentleman tonight. I'm going to have to ask you to leave as well."

The big, purple imaginary's attention was only momentarily drawn as Nemesis attempted to leap at him, only to receive another rough hair treatment.

"I think we should take his advice and leave, my dear!"

"Don't you 'my dear' me…" Nemesis muttered. "But yeah, we're outta here. Frankie", she said addressing the imaginary version, "I know of a place downtown where they're won't ask for ID from a pretty thing like you. Are you game?"

"Sure as long as there are boys there!" the bubbly, humanoid friend exclaimed.

"Great! Goofball, what about – Oh great"

The mooching imaginary had collapsed.

"If that is all"; Eduardo announced, "Then I shall escort the rest of you to the door."

"Hey, wait for me!" Bloo tried, but was stopped by Mac.

Without hesitation, Eduardo grabbed Nemesis and Sir Toby under each arm and carried them out, with Imaginary Frankie skipping cheerfully right behind them.

"Eduardo, that was amazing!" Frankie cried as he closed the door behind them. She grabbed him by the shoulders. "I've never seen such-"

She was interrupted by Trish pushing her aside and tried to put her arms all the way around the larger imaginary friend.

"Oh, Eduardo, caro! You shtood up for yourself, and you shtood up for me!" she hugged him. "You are a real man!"

"M-man?", the purple said, suddenly much more confused and nervous, as if he was just coming out of a daze, not quite aware of what he had been doing few minutes ago.

"Yes, caro, you were wonderful! " She hugged him tighter. You know what I want to do to a beeg, shtrong, wonderful hunk like you? Let me tell you –"

The smaller imaginary friend pulled down his head and whispered something in his ear.

This time, Eduardo fainted.

"Did I say something wrong?" Trish said perplexed.

"I'm going to assume you didn't, Patricia." Frankie answered her in a friendly voice. "Eduardo is just a little shy, you know. But I'm afraid you can't go back to the party. You're intoxicated, too."

The Imaginary looked down. "Okay, I understend."

"I'll escort you to your room", offered Frankie, who noticed that Eurotrish seemed to have some problem standing up. While she put the Friend's arm around her shoulder, she looked at her crew and said:

"Wilt…Mac…Eric...carry Eduardo to his room, please." hurriedly, she grabbed Bloo as she noticed the blue imaginary was trying to sneak away. "And take Bloo with you." Despite the imaginary's protests, Mac grabbed his hand determinedly.

"And Goo? The guests might have noticed that there's no music. Go back to the main hall, turn on something cheerful and pretend like nothing's wrong, because as far as anyone else knows, nothing is. This never happened, got it?"

Everyone nodded. "But what about Goofball?" Goo asked, pointing at the slacker friend who was still lying unconscious on the floor.

"Eh, we'll clean up the rest after party" Frankie replied snidely. "Also, I know what place Nemesis was talking about. I should probably give them a call…"

~0~

It turned out Frankie had been right. As far as anyone else knew, nothing bad had happened and the first Christmas party under her supervision had been a success. As she made her inspection round around noon the next day, she noticed Goofball was sitting in an armchair in the tv room with a heating pad on his head, groaning in hangover pain. She was tempted to "innocently" shout something in his ear, until she noticed that Eduardo and Eurotrish was lying on the couch next to him. That is to say, Eduardo was sitting. Trish was lying with her head on his lap. It would've looked cuter if she wasn't obviously suffering from a hangover on roughly the same level as Goofball's. Even so, the sight had already drawn a small crowd, consisting, in addition to herself, of Wilt, Mac and Goo.

"How is she doing, Eddie?" Goo asked well-meaningly.

"Eh, so-so."

Trish groaned in agreement.

"Caro Eduardo...Madame Foster...forgive me. I must have made a spek-tackle of myself last night. Why, I hardly remember anything of -"

She interrupted herself as if an epiphany suddenly came over her.

"I deedn't do or say anything embarrassing yesterday while I was at the beenge…deed I?"

"NO!" everyone replied in unison.

The End