Brittany's Party, Part 1

The Monday after Maco's Karate tournament, Star was walking through the halls at school, greeting everyone she passed with a smile and either a wave or a high-five. After stopping at her locker and retrieving what she needed for her next class, she accidentally bumped into Sabrina, a very accident-prone and jittery cheerleader with fair skin and light brown hair in a ponytail. This particular morning, Sabrina looked especially bedraggled; her hair stuck out in random spots, her uniform was crooked, both of her eyes were twitching madly, and her whole body was shaking like a leaf. Star couldn't help but worry for the nervous wreck of a girl.

"Whoa, are you okay, Sabrina? Are you cold or something? I can poof up a sweater for you if you're cold," Star offered.

"O-oh, n-n-no th-thank you, S-Star. I-I-I'm j-just waiting f-for s-s-something r-really important," the poor girl squeaked through her chattering teeth. It was then that Star noticed she and Sabrina were at the end of a sizable line of students.

"Hey, cool, a line! What are we in line for?" Star asked. Sabrina took several deep breaths to steel herself and speak as clearly as she could.

"Invitations to the most important social event of the year: Brittany Wong's birthday party," she explained and pointed straight up. With a raised eyebrow, Star looked where Sabrina was pointing (which was easy to do, as they were standing in an open-air atrium) and spotted a large purple blimp with a giant screen advertising the very same event. While she was looking, the screen changed to a picture of Brittany frowning and the words NO LOSERS ALLOWED.

"Huh, that's weird. According to Marco, the most important social event of the school year isn't until spring," Star commented. "I think he called it Prom." Sabrina was about to explain further until she spotted Brittany making her way down the line with a stack of invitations.

"Yes...no...yes...no...no...yes..." Bittany said as she handed out invitations seemingly at random. Instead of a random pattern, though, she was handing out invitations to a carefully selected social clique.

"Shh! Here she comes!" Sabrina shushed Star as Brittany approached. Brittany stood in front of Sabrina and seemed to hesitate a moment before handing the jittery girl an invitation. "YES! I'M IN! I'M IN! I'M IN!" Sabrina squealed excitedly before falling over in a dead faint. Star grinned in anticipation and held out her hands expectantly, but Brittany only scoffed.

"Ugh! Star Butterface?! No way! You're invited when pigs fly!" Brittany smirked when she said this, thinking she'd won. Instead, Star simply conjured a flying pig with her Wand.

"Problem solved!" Star exclaimed as Brittany's eyes widened. Upon regaining her composure, Brittany frowned.

"HMPH!" she grunted, turning around so fast that Star got a faceful of her hair.

"I'm goin' to that party," Star murmured to herself as Brittany walked away.

...

"You really should've known better than to say something like that to Star of all people," scolded Chantal, Brittany's second-in-command. Brittany groaned in frustration and pinched the bridge of her nose.

"I know, I know. Hopefully she's not dumb enough to actually think that counted as an invitation," she said. Chantal looked in front of them and smirked.

"I know what'll make you feel better: hunk at twelve o'clock!" she said, nudging her boss with her elbow. Brittany looked up and spotted Bucky walking across the hall to his next class. She gave a bold grin at the swell opportunity and rushed to catch up with him, Chantal following close behind.

"Oh, hey, Prince Buchanon! Fancy seeing you here!" she cheerfully greeted, causing Bucky to stop for a moment and look at her.

"It's just Bucky. I don't like being referred to by my title," he said with a roll of his eyes and continued on his way. Brittany's smile faltered a moment, and she rushed to catch up to him again.

"Wait! I have something for you!" she said, causing him to stop again and look at her in mild annoyance.

"Can it wait? I don't want to be late for class," he told her.

"It'll only take a minute," Brittany assured him and pulled out one particular envelope that she went through the trouble of putting extra decorations and a dab of her perfume on. "Here, this is an invitation to my birthday party. I'd really appreciate it if you came." This piqued Bucky's interest, and he turned the envelope in his hands while Brittany waited for an answer with bated breath.

"Sure, I guess I could come to your party..." he began, and held up his hand before Brittany could interject. "...on the condition that I can bring a plus-one."

"Well, I guess an extra guest won't be so bad. It's a deal!" Brittany accepted the condition right as the five-minute warning bell rang.

...

"How come you got invited and I didn't?" Star pouted at lunch.

"I dunno, Star. I don't even have the foggiest idea why I got invited," Bucky admitted and excused himself to the restroom.

"He really doesn't know, does he?" Marco asked after Bucky left.

"Nope. Not a clue," Star replied.

"Think we should tell him?"

"Nah, he'll figure it out. Eventually," Star assured him. Bucky came back and told Star and Marco about the deal he made with Brittany, which cheered Star up greatly.

After school, the trio went home and changed their clothes for Brittany's party. Marco's clothes were just a fresher set of his everyday clothes. Star changed into a dark green sleeveless dress that had rainbow-colored stripes on the front, rainbow leggings, and knee-high white boots with small pink hearts on the backs of the heels. Between all three of them, Bucky dressed up the most: a white dress shirt with the top unbuttoned and the sleeves rolled up, tucked into black slacks with polished black jockey boots and a gray herringbone vest. He'd also used a black cord to tie back his shoulder-length hair.

The sun was starting to sink below the horizon by the time the three teens were ready to leave the house. Star and Marco followed Bucky out the front door, but nearly collided with him when he suddenly stopped at the edge of the curb.

"Uh...why did you stop? Aren't we going to the party?" Marco asked in confusion.

"Yes, we are, but not on foot," Bucky replied. "Brittany said she'd pick us up." Right as he finished speaking, a purple vehicle the size of a concert tour bus pulled up to the curb in front of them. Marco went pale as soon as he saw the stylized lettering on the side: BRITTANY'S PARTY BUS.

"A bus?! B-b-but I get carsick!" he stammered.

"It's not a car, it's a bus," Star stated the obvious, giving Marco a broad grin. The double doors slid open, bringing a grinning Brittany into view. Her grin vanished once she saw Star and Marco standing behind Bucky.

"They're not coming, are they?" she whined in disappointment.

"You're the one who said I could bring a plus-one," Bucky reminded her, smiling smugly as he crossed his arms.

"But there are two of them! You said you'd only be bringing one!" she complained.

"I am. Star is my plus-one. Marco is her plus-one."

Knowing that turning one of them away would only make her look bad in front of the other guests, Brittany sighed in defeat and stepped aside to let the trio board. Once the rotund, wall-eyed bus driver closed the doors and pulled away from the curb, she put on a fake smile.

"Who's ready to get this party started?" she announced.

Stay tuned for Part 2!