Patches of Bright Orange

10 things I still haven’t done a week before the party;

1.       I haven’t bought anything new to wear

2.       I haven’t got a cute pair of high heeled shoes to wear (mainly because my mum won’t let me wear any shoes over 2 inches high)

3.       I haven’t saved up the money to buy an outfit for the party

4.       I haven’t painted my nails

5.       I haven’t asked my parents if Macy and Brooke can come round

6.       I haven’t sorted out with Macy and Brooke whose house we are going to

7.       I haven’t decided what I am going to wear

8.       I haven’t decided what I am going to the party as

9.       I haven’t bought a present / birthday card for Chelsea yet

And the 10^th thing I still haven’t done:

10.   I can’t even remember if I’ve RSVP’d

So Brooke’s house is out of the picture.  Her 18 year old sister Lulu is having a house party that night, and she doesn’t want three 14 year old kids getting in the way.

Macy’s parents are getting a few rooms in her house renovated for the next few months, so we can’t get ready for Chelsea’s party at hers, and if we went to mine, we’d have to get the bus back so we wouldn’t get to mine ‘til 5:30.

Looks like we can’t go.

It’s a week before the party and Macy, Brooke, Allison, Becki and I are all in the same position �" none of us have a clue what we are doing about this party.

This week feels so different. We’re eating in our normal lunch place, but Allison and Becki replaced Kelly because apparently, the week before her party, Chelsea’s V.I.P.’s must try and spend every waking moment with her - before, after and during school.

“So you’re hanging with us at the party, right?” Alisson’s asked while chewing on her tropical bubble gum.  See, Alisson’s lucky.  If I was that forward, I would be considered pathetic and needy, but because Allison’s higher up on the scale of popularity, she can get away with being so straight to the point.  I guess now is as good a time as any for me to voice what has been going through the mind of Macy, Brooke and I.

“Don’t even know if we’re going.”

“Why?”

Why don’t I know if I’m going?  Because, if I’m being honest, I don’t even like parties.  They’re load and require effort, and you end up standing around in an uncomfortable outfit talking to around four people, ogling guys that you’re not going to talk to anyway.  I only go because...  Well... I guess I go because everybody else goes.  It’s what’s expected of me socially.  But I can’t tell them that.  Instead I’ll just say;

“Dunno... Just can’t be bothered.”

“But you guys have to go!  It will be fun!”  Becki’s whining,

“About as much fun as it is watching Kelly run after Chelsea at school.”  Brooke’s retorted, picking the lettuce out of her sandwich.

“Come on you guys!  You can join in with our 10 minute challenges!”

“10 minute challenges?”

“Allison and I do them all the time!  Basically, Allison and I will both come up with a challenge for us all to do at the party, and then we’ll see how many of us can do it in 10 minutes!  The one with the most success wins!”

Ok, that actually sounds kind of fun, but I still don’t want to go.  I’ve put myself off of this party, and now it just seems like too much of an effort to even try.  I have the perfect excuse not to go;

“It sounds cool, but I still can’t.  We have nowhere to get ready before the party.”

“Easy, get ready at mine!”  Alisson’s suggesting, “I live 5 minutes down the road from here, and considering we’re all having bad luck with the costumes and we’re roughly all the same dress size, let’s all bring like 5-10 bits of nice clothes and accessories and shoes and then we can all mix and match!”

“That sounds really awesome!  We’ll be there!”  Brooke’s piping up,

Great.  That means I actually have to go.

***

5 minutes.  That’s all I have left.  5 minutes.  5 minutes ‘til I can leave school, 5 minute’s ‘til that bell rings and I can leave this free period and go to Allison’s house. 

It’s been a relatively good day.  It’s Friday.  Chelsea’s party is tonight and I’m actually out of my slum.  My parents have agreed to let me sleep over at Allison’s after Chelsea’s, which I’m still kind of shocked about.

You see, I thought my parents have this “Unless we’ve met the girl or the parents, you can’t sleepover” rule, but what I forgot was that Allison’s brother Kyle is really good friends with my brother Max, so they’ve already met her parents.  When I asked my parents if I could sleepover at Allison’s they were like,

“Do we know Allison?”

“Yeah,” I lied, “You know, Allison Halden!”

Luckily, Dylan was then like, “Do you mean Allison - my friend Kyle Halden’s brother?  Can Kyle come round?”

So then my parents decided that since they know Kyle’s parents I could go.  They even rang up his parents and offered to let Kyle sleepover at our house on Friday so now Allison and I are both brother free for the weekend.

I haven’t actually seen Kelly all day.  Which is probably why my day has been so good.  Apparently, the day of Chelsea’s party, her V.I.P.’s cannot see anyone but her, but they have to come to this final registration.  They can’t leave school without being registered. 

And here they, OMG.  OMG.  OMG. 

Oh.

My.

Gosh.

Macy and Brooke have just witnessed exactly what I have witnessed.  I can tell because they’re trying just as hard as I am to fight back laughter.  Kelly and Megan have walked into the classroom and...  I’m speechless, plus, Kelly’s walking over and I need to stop the smirk on my face.  I’m gonna have to keep my mouth closed.  If I say anything to Kelly I will start laughing.  There’s no alternative.  I mean, I’m trying as hard as I can not to look her in the eyes as it is. 

Brooke’s got that look in her eye.  That look that show’s that she’s ready to stir trouble.  And it looks like she’s gonna start now.

“Kelly, you’ve got a dodgy bright orange patch of fake tan somewhere,”

“Really, where?” Kelly’s asked, frantically checking her arms for patches

“Everywhere!  Why are you and Megan bright orange?” And now she’s laughing.  Yeah that’s right, Brooke is laughing at Kelly right in front of her face, and Macy and I are just sitting here with our lips pursed, at risk of opening our mouths and joining in.

“Oh,” And Kelly looks confused.  Her brow is furrowed and everything. “Yesterday Chelsea paid for all of her V.I.P’s to get professional spray tans.  Is it that obvious?  It’s for our costumes!”

“What are you going as? A giant cheese puff?”

Brooke’s asked that with a dead serious straight face, but that’s too much for Macy and I.  We’re off.  We’ve erupted into a fit of giggles, not that Kelly cares.  She’s just rolled her eyes and gone to talk to Megan again.

The minute I got home from school yesterday I rushed upstairs to start packing.  I packed the usual - pyjamas (Just some boring checked shorts and a plain black vest top, my snowman pyjamas don’t leave the house), a change of clothes for Saturday, underwear, my spare hairbrush, and I packed my toiletries this morning after I used them. 

Next was the hard part - finding the clothes for the party.

I looked through my wardrobe for possible costume related items, but to be honest, I was having trouble starting. 

I thought about it logically.  I don’t have many nice dresses for parties, so I packed the two I have:

I rushed upstairs to start packing.  I packed the usual - pyjamas (Just some boring checked shorts and a plain black vest top, my snowman pyjamas don’t leave the house), a change of clothes for Saturday, underwear, my spare hairbrush, and I decided that I would pack my toiletries after I used them in the morning. 

Next was the hard part - finding the clothes for the party.

I looked through my wardrobe for possible costume related items, but to be honest, I was having trouble starting. 

I thought about it logically.  I don’t have many nice dresses for parties, do I’ll pack the two I have I thought as I grabbed my short black chiffon dress with the one sleeve and my grey strapless and placed them in my bag.  I have been in a lot of school productions and you normally get to keep the costumes, so I looked through those but all I found was a large camouflage T-shirt that I wore when I played a soldier, A deep blue shawl I got from a dance show and some maroon leggings which I actually hated because Maroon makes my legs look like tree stumps.  I chucked them all in my bag too (Plus the baseball cap that matched the T-shirt - They’re kind of a matching set).  6 Items done, now why don’t I get some accessories?  I thought. 

I looked through my top drawer.  My top drawer is the one with all my hair accessories.  I found two old headbands.  One with leopard ears attached and one with what I assumed were some type of monster ears attached. 

8 items done, I’ve got to find 2 more.  I chucked in my navy canvas trainers, the one pair of heels that I own (My mum doesn’t believe that I should be wearing high heels at such a young age), and I thought I’d go one extra and add the pair of suede pumps that I bought last summer.

It was almost 11pm by the time I was done choosing my ten items so I chucked in some basic make-up (you know, lip gloss, foundation, eye shadow, mascara, eye liner), stole a packet of strawberry laces from the place where Max hides his sweets, packed them in my bag and then went to bed.

And now there are 20 minutes.  20 minutes ‘til the end of the day.  I’ve had to sit through double maths, a history test, art, geography and I have 20 minutes until RS is over.  20 minutes.    

Kelly’s barely talked today, but then again she barely talks to us nowadays anyway.  We didn’t even get a “Hi” this morning.  It doesn’t matter though. 

10 minutes.  Allison’s smiling at us all - It’s a cheeky smile and it pretty much summed up everything we’re looking forward too.

Fun, laughs and a little pinch of crazy.