24 Twenty-four - A good party

"Hey, you finished your test?"

Ken, Endo and Flail saw her washing her hand and came over.

"We heard that you almost left the program and freaked out," Flail said. "After all the fuss this afternoon, they almost got rid of you."

"You back for good now?" Ken asked.

"Yes," Stacey said, leaning on the sink while drying her hands with a paper towel. "The boss got me back."

"I'd miss you if you left," Endo fist bumped Stacey and wrapped an arm around her shoulders. "I'm glad you're back. If you really left, my lucky charm would be gone and I'd have no chance for Ken to praise me more."

"I'm glad to be back too," Stacey grinned, letting the boys lead her somewhere else. "I have food. I can't believe I almost missed all this."

"We've been told we're not allowed to monopolise your time and that we have to encourage you to go and make friends with other people," Ken twitched his nose. "They don't want us to stick to the first groups we formed. So we only get to live together in the same room for a week and then we'll be mixed up again. The group the four of us formed is only going to be for today. We have to group with different people everyday, although we can choose to stay together if we want for the ranking competition this weekend."

"Cool. Is there a theme or anything?" Stacey asked, refilling her cup with a purple coloured drink at the drinks table. Carbonated fizz. It tasted kind of citrusy with a hint of grape or berry or something like that. An odd combination but it kind of worked.

"No. We can make our own choices for this first performance. We have all week to prepare for it."

"Great," Stacey swallowed a yawn, eyeing the desserts she hadn't tried yet. "I'm going to get more food. Have you guys finished eating?"

"Yeah, but we can keep you company if you want."

"I'm good. I'm a big girl," Stacey wrinkled her nose at Ken. "Go and mingle and make friends or they'll probably have a chat with you guys again."

"Actually, we don't actually have anything to do," Ken waved his hands in a nervous gesture. "Most of us boys have already met each other and there's a crowd of us just standing around because we don't know what to say or do. We've run out of polite conversation topics for the moment and we three aren't into some of the things the other guys are."

"What do you people normally do in parties then?" Stacey lifted an eyebrow.

"Get drunk?" Endo scratched his neck.

"What get drunk?" Ken hissed. "We're not even at the legal drinking age."

"What is the legal drinking age?" Stacey wanted to know.

"Twenty. It's the age we cross the threshold from child to adult," Flail explained.

"So if you guys are already drinking booze in underage parties, it means nobody knows how to throw a real party, right? I mean, alcohol is pretty much a drug. Only people who don't know how to really have a good time or throw a real party would drug their guests into thinking they're having a good time."

That made the boys laugh, nervously at first but then more naturally when they realised nobody else had heard Stacey's bold statement.

"Whoa. You just insulted the entire world. Respect. But it kind of makes sense," Endo laughed like a mad thing, "except I kind of like the feeling of getting drunk. People do all kinds of stupid and crazy things. Not only me."

"I guess I need to introduce you to the world of party tricks and party games," Stacey grinned. This was her forte. What she had done for work back home.

She demonstrated a few party trick puzzles using what was on hand and then taught the boys the answers. This caught the attention of a few other people. After she sent one group out to try the puzzles out on several of the other boys, she got those left around her to help her set up a game of charades. When that was in full swing and those playing were moderating the game themselves, some girls dragged her over to ask her to teach them some games and tricks. Stacey taught them to play twenty questions, a few other party tricks and ice breaker type games to help everyone get to know each other's names better. She soon had a group of boys and girls singing, dancing and clapping to a rhyming rhythm while they shouted names to each other, contracting their circle to punish the person who made a mistake every now and then by drawing on their face with an eyeliner pencil.

By the time Stacey had set up game stations all across the dining hall and outdoor area where they were eating, the moon was ascendant. Her job was done. Looking back upon all the people playing games, shouting and laughing, Stacey felt a great sense of satisfaction. She sat down outside on a bench in a corner and put her feet up to take a break. She watched teenagers, staff and mentors drifting between groups to play the games that they found interesting. They seemed to maintain the organised structures she had put into place without needing constant direction. Some people had appointed themselves the game masters of certain games, ensuring the game could continue even if the players moved on. Now this was how a good party should look like.

The wind was cold and Stacey hugged her knees to her chest to get warm. It was a good thing this corner was a little bit more sheltered from the wind. All the people had passed her by in a whirl. She couldn't remember most of their names at all. Now that she thought of it, she still only remembered the three boys and Lacey. That wasn't a good indicator of how well her brain was working. Maybe when her brain wasn't overloaded another day, she might start remembering people's names.

While the other teenagers were busy learning each other's names through the games and having fun together, Stacey had been going between groups and teaching and explaining game after game after game. She hadn't had time to commit any names to memory. It wasn't that late but Stacey felt exhausted. Her nap earlier in the boys' dormitory hadn't been enough.