Never Miss A Beat (Part Five)

Putting parties together involved a lot of labor. It wasn't just making sure people showed up. There was a matter of making sure there was stuff to do once people showed up, otherwise they wouldn't be staying for long. Thus, a number of us ventured into Salem Center in order to procure the goods we needed.

Shopping was a complete pain, but it wasn't so bad when you were doing it with other people.

"Do we have enough chips?" Santo asked as we left the store. He easily carried twelve full bags of goodies, looped in one finger of one hand, "This doesn't feel like enough."

Hisako had the least amount of bags to carry, mostly because she had the list that we were going by and keeping track of the money, "Santo, we've got like ten whole giant bags. Unless a bunch of people decide to binge on chips and only chips, I think we're good."

The big rock boy didn't relent on the point he was trying to make, "No, I mean do we have enough kinds of chips? I'm just saying, we might need more than the big three," Which of course was original, barbecue, and sour cream & onion.

"Honestly, we probably could have skipped the sour cream & onion," I said, "I don't see a whole lot of people planning on getting close to anyone eating a lot of those."

Hisako added as we left the supermarket parking lot and walked down the street to our next destination, "We've got lots of other snacks too. There should be a little something here for everybody."

Once the next store we were after came into sight, I got everyone's attention, "Alright. We've got all of the conventional stuff, plus sodas and water for the straight-laced crowd. Now it's time to get the fun stuff."

Julian passed his bags off to Santo with a big grin on his face, "I'm on it," He said, "Anyone who wants anything special when I head in, fork over the cash now. I'm not covering you."

I went into my pocket to fish out my wallet for two $20 bills, "Yeah, get me a bottle of 44˚ North. Check the vodka aisle, playa," No one else had any personal requests. No cheapskates were going to be drinking any of my supply up. They could get their own, "...I'm not sharing either. That's mine, all night long."

"Stingy," Santo said before turning to Julian, "How exactly are we going to get the beer? And how are we getting it all out of here?"

Julian, to his credit, didn't take the easy route of just calling his friend dumb. That was low-hanging fruit, and it wouldn't help anyone, "Okay, Santo... even if I didn't have TK, you can carry a truck over your head. Three kegs is nothing."

Case in point, he was at the moment carrying 4/5ths of our bags by himself on two fingers.

"Oh!" Santo said, chuckling to himself. "Heh, sometimes I forget I'm a mutant."

"How?" I asked, not that it would do any good, "Nevermind. Make with the ID, rich boy. Let's see what we're working with," Julian proudly pulled out his fake. It all seemed to check out to me. Nothing too suspicious, and it didn't have his real name on it. Nothing that would warrant a second glance as long as he played it cool, "...Why are you 22 on this ID?"

"To help throw people off the scent, Marcher," Julian explained as though it were elementary, "This is a professional-grade fake. The people I got this from know all the tricks. It hasn't failed me yet."

Hisako looked at Julian and his fake ID strangely, "How much do you do this? And what people?"

Bah, details. We didn't need all of that right now. What we needed was alcohol, in large amounts, "Hey, hey, hey. Let's just go for it," I said, "We're not cashing a check or anything. We're just flashing the ID so the guy can punch in the birthdate. No big deal. You've got this, Jules."

Julian tucked the ID away and headed off to the ABC Store, "Right. Don't wait up. I'll be back in a bit. And don't call me Jules, assface."

"Sure thing, Julia," I felt a slap come to the back of my head from a disembodied force, "Ow! Fucker!" I aimed my pointer finger at him, about to take a shot in broad daylight before letting it go. There were more important things afoot, "Well, that's handled."

Hisako looked over at me, giving me a mild stinkeye, "Is it? Is it really handled? Because I can't help but feel like you're missing a few things."

I couldn't imagine what I'd missed so far. I had Cessily and Brian doing the legwork to spread the word about what was going to happen that Saturday. Kevin and Eddie were procuring the sound system and the entertainment. Ruth went with Laura and Saberwolf, damned good scouts that they were, to find a place for us to hold the party according to the parameters I had given them. Julian had the beer covered, with me, Santo, and Hisako there in case anything went wrong.

She palmed her forehead and stashed away the list, "How are we going to keep the whole staff from figuring out something is happening, genius? All of the upperclassmen are going to be suspiciously absent that night, and no one's going to be looking for us?"

I made a fake expression of fear, "What are they going to do, use Cerebra to track us all down?" Actually, there was a real chance that that would happen, "Oh, man. They'll actually use Cerebra to track us all down."

Hisako made a little gesture as if to emphasize what she was saying, "Right?"

Santo scoffed, "So what if they do? There's gonna be a hundred kids there. Maybe more. They can't punish all of us."

Hisako rolled her eyes, "They can single out all of the kids in squads. You know, because we should know better, be a good example, all of that."

Santo suddenly stood up straight from his previously lazy, hunched posture, "I didn't think about that. What the hell, Marcher? So we're busted before we start?"

Oh no, they weren't both about to double team a freak out on me, "No! Shut up. Let me think," I said, trying to buy myself a few seconds to come up with something decent, "...We need a diversion."

"Duh. What kind of diversion?" Hisako asked.

Something good, for sure. It would have to be, "We only really need something for Mister Summers and Miss Frost. Dr. McCoy's always spending his days off doing brain guy shit, so he's covered. Mister Logan heads into town to get super-sloppy on the weekends-."

Santo chimed in, "Why do you know any of that?"

I made my answer quick, "Because I don't sleep, so I see everything. Can I finish please? Guys? Please? Please?" The more I was allowed to talk without a filter or without being interrupted, the more the ideas flowed. Both Hisako and Santo went silent for my benefit, "Thank you. So anyway, that leaves the only ones that can bust us without trying being those two."

Mister Summers was a goddamn workaholic. He was always ready, always around the Institute, and he would be quick to notice if something was amiss, even if curfew much less strict for weekend days. Miss Frost had a lot of the same qualities, only she was more likely to leave for New York City or some other big city for fun if she had something that she wanted to do. Getting her to leave would be much easier than getting Mister Summers to.

Wait. She might have been the key to getting him to go too.

I pulled out my phone and quickly began using the internet, my best friend, to get the information I needed, "Hold on. Hold on. This might halfway solve itself," I said. It took a moment, but I found exactly what I needed, "Yes! This is gonna be a layup!"

"What?" Hisako asked, moving over to my side to see what I was seeing. Once she did, her eyes lit up, "Oh. Oh, that's good. That might actually work. How did you even think of that?"

Santo muscled in behind us to get a look over our heads, "Hey, I want to know what's going on too! I can't see, you guys!" I tilted the phone up to give him a decent look as well, "Frost's birthday. Ohhh. I get it."

"Yesssss..." Hisako cheered, squirming in place. It was incredibly hypnotic to watch, "It's on Saturday. Why is it that we only get lucky with useless stuff like this?"

I let out a laugh and put my phone away, "I wouldn't call it completely useless, seeing as how if this didn't break our way we'd be getting the book thrown at our asses."