The party

I was awake before the alarm went off. Standing in front of my wardrobe I was analyzing how much I had changed. There were no more shabby eyes looking at me from the other side of the mirror. I looked at the whole wardrobe as it would frame my image and the light wooden doors on each side were working great. Today I was ravishing, I was finally happy with myself and it wasn't the change in my reflection, although that had suffered tremendous changes too, it was the change of posture. I finally liked the way life was going and the way I looked in it... Boy, was I in for a surprise?!?

It was barely the end of the year, before the exams. We decided to celebrate the end of classes and the fact that we wouldn't have exams for another fifteen days with a gathering in the university gymnasium. Each graduation year chose a different day to celebrate, apart from the seniority granting you entrance, those who wished to join the younger celebration were always allowed and yet not interested. Except for the scarce men who dated a younger student and wished to flash and complain at her colleagues' night gathering.

The night was informal, though we all made our best to show a slight improvement compared to our day-to-day outfit. I found myself lost in my wardrobe. Poring shirts, skirts and jeans on my bed. It was a warm summer night. It was early and I was fresh from my day sleep; with my shifted schedule these night parties made no sense to my metabolism. I looked twice at the soft top hanging from my hands before I dropped it onto the pile of ``maybe''s. I turned back and joined it on my bed. Looking at so many options and none really compelling me to choose it. I gave up, there isn't a soul I want to impress today, I wished in the deep of my chest that Akita would look at me differently today... Actually, tonight. Nevertheless, my better judgement knew I had no business holding his heart, not only I couldn't if I tried, it wouldn't work. But my heart didn't fly solo, it would only replace one infatuation with the next, never staying still, never beating wise, never hearing me. I shook my head and grabbed the light blue silk soft shirt with straps to tangle on my back. -``I really don't care!''

I took some the jeans from the bottom of the pile, the ones that turned with my curves just the right amount. They made me feel pretty and were tight and elastic enough that I could dance. ``Oh, hell! Dance!?'' I closed my eyes and took a deep breath, whatever! What is the worst thing that can happen? Better not go there!

I got dressed with a cashmere coat over a flair light pink silky top and my new low hill shoes, so I was ready. OK, now for something completely different... make up! I entered the bathroom to find my makeup pallet as poor as its user's face. I had no time for make up in my routine and wouldn't spend that much money on something I rarely used. So I always complained and stressed when I actually wanted to use it. The options weren't many, and it's hard to improve your image when you have two pencils, one lip gloss -classic red was the color for me-, and ten colors of eye shadow. Fortunately the shirt basic color would go fine with any color and the lip gloss was definitely my color, no matter what I wore. So much so that I overcame its embarrassing price. A few minutes in the bathroom and a little foundation to probably more of a psychological than actually an image change and I was ready to let it be whatever would be. ``Que será, será!''. And left home early, determined to not let myself stress in a night designed for partying.

The greeting large gates shined intensely. The beige, golden and salmon drop-shaped lights, which interspersed bathed the shed through the extension of its sideways, met over the gate shelter falling lightly along its tiles. Warm and welcoming for the first time. In the inside the same lights spread punctual and repeatedly along the stony way to the Gym, guiding the eyes, the feet and spirit of excited incomers. The sound also grew with pleasant vintage dancing rhythms.

The green meadow in front of the gym had the irrigation on. Various foci of water jet rotated freely, but today the water guided color changing light that dropped to the floor after a two meter high and three meter long sprint. The Gym showed up surrounded by the usual tall trees, which today carried surrounding drop-like lights to as high as the ceiling. All plain and exuberant as ever this fortress let escape an intense colorful light, so the tall windows contrasted the darkness on its walls. The colors springing from the windows created light shadows in thin air, changing orientation and color, dancing with the released music.

When I reached the door, it opened instantaneously as it had all these months. Inside a young girl and boy faced me in formal wear, from behind a small desk/counter and under a large flier ``Today you are young! Live a little... too much!''. The girl requested my student card, the entrée fee and my coat. I obeyed and received my student card back, a voucher for two heavy or four light drinks, a ticket with a number, a pretty rehearsed smile and a ``You can purchase virgin beverages at the bar. Have fun Mam''. She disappeared into the ladies locker room and after a deep breath I was on the doorway to the huge Gym.

Inside, three disco balls rotated disposed in a triangle, so that the scattered light would fill the walls. The stereo was in the left corner ahead, the speakers were one over its top and the other two in the middle of the walls that met at the stereo. The gym was huge and this way you had a high volume area and quieter party on the opposite corner, where drinks were served by two barmen in white shirt behind a long counter. They had pressurized bier and a table behind them with endless glasses, even so they would take the bottles from behind the counter and juggled them and threw them at one another, in an efficient bar circus way.

By the wall to the right of the entrance door, a long champagne table cover was sprinkled with delicacies such as mini-pizzas, chips, cookies, jelly and mousses displayed in golden paper "ceramics".

Groups were forming along the food table and being the affluence to it as expected people would rotate and mold, squeezing the whole empty large floor. The filling spread through the saloon until the dance floor between the speakers.

The bench that extended from that corner area to the corridor door on the right was filled with cushions and every few meters a group of golden, silver and salmon balloons hanged from it. Four small sofas with champagne covers were placed facing the bench between the balloons, with four small round tables in the middle. At two meters height, over the bench, a row of drop-shaped lights, such as the ones outside the gym, cleared this area for a smoother bar-like atmosphere. Had it been any other university and they would be filled with glasses and braces wearing guys, until there were more of those than sofas. Then they would fill the seats close to the balloons, in order to maximize the distance between them and to minimize their exposure to other beings. After all those were taken, because let's face it... in a university you are far more prone to finding these specimens than in any other place, with the bonus that these aren't typically nerds, but actually geeks.

Being this a university of the underworld, they wore no braces nor glasses, but their choice of wardrobe was peculiarly distinctive. Furthermore, there was the nervous humming and hand playing, of men cursing the decision of coming and attempting to blend in.