Chapter 8 - Party at Ana's

Party at Ana's



The rest of the week was fairly uneventful. At school she was being constantly asked whether she was still going out with Joey that, on that Friday, she just exploded.

`Why is it that everybody else can go to these stupid ball things and dance with whoever they like, but when it is me, everybody knows and cares and asked me what happened?' Kaede paced the floor of their classroom, kicking all the chairs nearly along the way. `I mean, Yuula danced with Duke and no one cares.'

`Can you please not use me as an example,' Yuula hissed, glaring over at Duke. She had not been speaking to him since their argument on the Monday, and he was certainly not going to speak to her first.

`Aww, why don't you two just kiss and make up, you did make such a cute couple,' Sakura baited, teasing Yuula. Yuula opened her mouth to argue, but Ana suddenly came running in excited.

`Guess what guys, I'm having a party. It is at my house and you guys are all invited!'

Everybody got excited then too, and began talking about what they were going to wear.

`Hey Kaede, now you can wear that miniskirt and top you brought in town the other day,' Tea, who was sitting on one of the tables nearby with Yugi and Honda, said to her.

`Yeah, it is going to be awesome, that would be cool,' Kaede said, getting up and stretching. `It is going to be awesome.'

That evening their entire group went back to Kaede's house to hang out. Whilst the guys sat around on the floor watching Yugi and Joey duel against Duke and Ryou, the girls sat on the bed and talked about the party.

`It is going to be so cool,' Sakura said. `I can't wait.'

`Me neither,' said Tea, flicking through one of Kaede's magazines. `Hey Kaede, go show us what you are going to wear. Sakura and Ana haven't seen it yet have they.'

`No, they haven't,' Kaede slid off the bed and jogged over to her changing screen. She ducked behind it and changed into her white miniskirt and yellow halter neck top that she had put on the previous Sunday for Joey.

Joey looked up and grinned. `I hoped you'd wear that.' He laughed.

There was a knock on the door and Kaede's grandmother came in carrying a tray.

`Hello, don't mind me, I just thought you would be a little hungry that's all, so I brought all little dinner for you,' she lay the tray down on the floor and left.

The “little” dinner consisted of many types of pizza and lemonade. Joey and Honda pounced on the food like ravaging wolves, then realised that there were eight other people there (Kaede, Sakura, Yuula, Tea, Ana, Duke, Yugi (who was Yami at that moment) and Ryou), and began handing out pizza to everyone.

Kaede took her slice of pizza and sat down next to Joey, leaning back so that she was resting on him. He put his arm around her shoulders and together they just watched whilst everyone took turns duelling with each other, and they decided to have a small tournament. Of course, Yami won, Duke came second (being the only other person to have above average duelling skills) and so on to Tea who was right at the bottom with Ana (Ana didn't know the rules and Tea had rubbishy cards like Shining Friendship in her deck).

`Hey Joey, Kaede, do you want to duel too?' Yami asked them.

`No, it's cool,' Joey said and Kaede just smiled. She was not in the mood to duel anybody, and she certainly wasn't going to if it meant just losing to Yami.

`But Kaede, didn't you nearly win against Seto Kaiba once?' Ryou asked.

Kaede grimaced and clenched her hands into fists. She remembered Kaiba's face when he won, and when she asked for her necklace back. She had begged for a rematch, and he had ignored her.

`That was ages ago, besides, it's not like it was a fair duel,' Kaede waved her hand, as if it meant nothing to her. But Joey felt her stiffen and knew she wouldn't relax for a while if left alone, so he began asking her about what she was going to do tomorrow night.

`Well, as I am nearly seventeen my granddad has been giving me a few driving lessons, and lets me take out the car for a while sometimes, so I could drive everybody there in our van,' Kaede said, thinking out loud. She relaxed against Joey's shoulder again, her duel with Kaiba out of her mind, and they began talking about party plans.

`Hey, did you say you could drive everybody there?' Honda asked.

`Yeah, who wants to come?' Kaede asked. Everyone said yes apart from Yuula, who would be coming with her brother (her brother was friends with Ana's brother), and Sakura, who was going to drive herself on account of living far away from Kaede's house.

`And I am bringing a surprise, I won't say what though,' Sakura grinned. No amount of questions would get her to tell, so they gave up.

After several more duels, everybody went home, most of them saying they'd come over again the next day to go to the party.

Joey stayed behind for a little while. They went back up to her room and cleared away them mess their friends had left, and then they put on some loud music and talked about the random stuff.

`You want a lift too tomorrow?' Kaede asked him from behind the screen whilst changing into her pyjamas.

`Sure, why not,' Joey called back, lying down on her bed and closing his eyes. `What kind of party is it anyway?'

`I think it is just a house party,' Kaede emerged from the screen wearing pink snoopy pyjamas. She brushed her hair and then lay down on the bed next to Joey. `Move up, this is my bed!'

`Now Kaede, you must learn to share,' Joey said as she got under the covers. `Am I allowed under the duvet too?'

`No way, what if my grandma comes in while you are under there? And even if I lock it she can open it coz they keep a spare key somewhere. And anyway, why ARE you still here? You aren't staying the night are you? Did I say you could stay over?'

`No, but I am anyway,' Joey grinned.

`Get out!' Kaede play-shoved him off her bed. He picked himself up and grabbed his stuff.

`See you tomorrow,' he said, leaning over the bed and kissed her quickly on the lips. He smiled and left quickly, shutting the door behind him as he went. Kaede could here him going down the stairs and thanking her grandparents as he left.

Kaede smiled and rolled onto her side, and closed her eyes. Then she sat up, she realised she hadn't actually asked her grandfather if she could take the van the next day, but knew that he would probably say yes. She leaned over to her bedside cabinet and switched off the light.



***



Kaede woke up early the next day, when it was still dark, and got dressed into jogging bottoms and a baggy top. She tied up her hair and took a bottle of water from the fridge. She quickly wrote a note for her grandparents just in case they woke up and she wasn't back, then she ran out of the front door. There was a black limousine with tinted windows on the other side of the street. She looked at it for a second, then decided it was nothing and off she went.

It had been a long time since she had last been for a run. She loved running in the early hours of the morning, when there were no cars around and she could run in the middle of the road.

She found a pace she was comfortable with and ran on, taking little sips of her water as she went. She ran on through the diminishing darkness, across Domino City. As she ran past a park, she noticed a gang of teenagers sleeping on the benches and slides, all of whom would probably wake up with a hangover. Kaede didn't want disturb them; if they could sleep away their hangover then she hoped they would if she left them alone, and she ran on.

By the next park she was out of breath, so she stopped and sat on the nearest bench. Looking to the East, she saw the sky was slowly turning pink. As she looked, the pink faded to gold and slowly the sun rose from the horizon. She watched as the early morning shadows were banished and her skin was warmed by the golden rays.

By this time her breathing was normal, so she ran on, doubling back on herself so she was now headed homeward.

More cars were now roaming around, so she stuck to the pavement. As she past, some cars tooted at her and some rolled down their windows and the drivers called to her, asking if she wanted a lift. She just waved at them, not trusting herself to say anything in case she called them perverts. As she neared home, she noticed the black limousine that had been parked on her street when she had left the house that morning. It was driving in the opposite direction as the one she was running in. She tried to get a glimpse of the driver, but the windscreen was also tinted, so she couldn't see who it was.

She shook her head as it past and carried on running. When she got back to the house her grandmother was already up, and had a pile of toast waiting for her. She grabbed a slice but didn't stop, she ran up to her room and grabbed her swim stuff and headed to the pool.

When she arrived Kyoko looked up from the reception desk and choked on whatever it was she was eating. Kaede went behind the desk and hit her hard on the back.

When Kyoko's breathing was back to normal she stared at Kaede. `What are you doing here? Don't you have somewhere to go? And why are you here so early?'

`I was just checking whether anybody had a shift they couldn't do, seeing as I am going to need someone to take my shift tonight,' Kaede asked.

`Why?' Kyoko asked suspiciously.

`I'm going to a party.'

`Well, don't do anything stupid. And don't take anything illegal. And never let anybody get you a drink if you can't see it being poured. And-'

`Okay, okay, I know how to be safe at a party. Geez, you sound like my grandmother,' Kaede checked the list of shifts, saw that Hitomi, her friend who had helped her save that kid on Monday, was working one the same shift as her and knew he could take care of things while she wasn't there, so she crossed off her name for the shift later that night.

`Okay, well, going to go for a quick swim,' Kaede said, and ran to get changed.

After her swim, she went home to find her grandfather was now awake as well and Tea had already arrived with a suitcase full of clothes.

`I just got a call from Ana's brother. It is a house party after all. He said bring whatever you want with you. Anyway, lets choose what to wear,' Tea said happily, skipping up the stairs.

`Tea, what are you doing here?' Kaede said as calmly as she could, putting her swimsuit in the sink to soak out the chlorine and shoving her towel in the washing machine. She went to the kitchen and took her plate of toast off the table and followed Tea up to her room. She found Tea already unpacking her massive suitcase and putting all the clothes flat on the bed. `I thought you said that you weren't coming until before the party.'

`It is before the party,' Tea said absentmindedly, picking up random outfits and holding them against her in front of the mirror.

`I thought you meant about half an hour before hand,' she looked at the clock on her bedside table. It said 7:15. `Tea, it is too early for this. Go home; come back in a couple of hours.'

`Oh come on, you get up before dawn every weekend to go do sports. Clothes is like my sport,' Tea said, now dragging Kaede to the mirror and holding a dress up in front of her. `Hmm, I thought that this would go well on you but it looks a little big around stomach and bum.'

`Maybe if you came for a run with me then it wouldn't need to be,' Kaede grinned at her and jabbed her finger into Tea's stomach.

Tea ignored her and carried on fetching outfits and holding them up against Kaede, occasionally muttering things like: `Well, that is too long' and `Mmm, not the right colour' and, even weirder still `I wonder what she will look like in reddy blue?'

`What is reddy blue?' Kaede asked as she said this.

`A shade of blue.'

`You can't get reddy blue. That is just like purple isn't it?' Kaede laughed at her, but stopped when she saw Tea looking lightly offended and confused.

`Of course you can get reddy blue, it is blue with a red shine in it,' Tea said, and then forgot it, holding up increasingly bizarre outfits.

Kaede was almost happy when Honda and Ryou came at 3 (yes, they had really been doing this stupid holding-up-clothes thing for 7¾ hours). Both boys were already wearing what they were going to wear for the party and seemed quite afraid when Tea pulled out a couple of outfits for them to try on when they arrived.

`No, seriously Tea, I like what I am wearing,' Honda said, backing away.

Tea started moving towards Ryou, who quickly stood behind Kaede and clutched at her arm.

`Tea, I think they like what they are wearing. And the last 7¾ hours were pointless because I am going to wear my own clothes,' Kaede grabbed the clothes out of Tea's hands and threw them onto the bed, then picked up a random dress and threw it at Tea. `Wear that one. Don't argue.'

`Tea looked at it and laughed. `I'm not wearing this.'

`Why not?' Kaede folded her arms in a There's-no-way-I'm-backing-down-after-you-held-up-your-whole-wardrobe-against-me type of way.

`Because I haven't worn it for over a year' Tea said stupidly. `And it suits you better.'

`Try it on, now!'

Tea slouched round behind Kaede's screen and put on the dress. When she came out she was scowling, but all the others thought she looked amazing. The dress was a short dark blue one, which suited her very well.

`I'm not wearing it!' Tea insisted.

`Yes you are.'

`Why?'

`Because it suits you!' Kaede shouted at her. Tea opened her mouth to say something, but shut up when she saw the look on Kaede's face which said that she would explode if she objected.

`Fine, I'll wear it!' Tea huffed, and sat down on Kaede's bed and shoved her nose into a teen magazine. The others chatted away about stuff, when Kaede's grandfather called them all down.

They came downstairs together (Tea still wearing the dress) and her grandfather beckoned them to follow him.

He lead them through the front door and around to the garage. He told them to wait and went to open the garage door.

Inside was their old van, except Kaede didn't recognise it at all. It wasn't scanky white anymore, but electric blue with lots of different shades all the way along it causing a ripple effect. The roof had a luggage rack tied to it and resting on the luggage rack was a beautiful new surfboard.

Kaede gasped and ran towards the van. She ran her hand along the side, over its new paintwork. She reached up and lifted the surfboard off the rack, taking care not to scratch the paintwork with the fins. She propped it up against the side of the garage and looked at the design. It was blue, strong in some areas, faded in others, creating a wave effect.

Kaede turned back to her grandfather with tears in her eyes. He smiled, then put his hands to his mouth as if he had forgotten something. He put one of his hands in to his pocket and pulled out a circular disk and threw it at Kaede. She caught it in one hand and looked at it; surfboard wax.

Kaede left the surfboard leaning against the wall and ran at her grandfather and hugged him. He put his hand in his pocket again and pulled out something and pressed it into her hand. She looked down and saw a single car key on a surfboard key ring. She hugged her grandfather again, tears of happiness falling down her cheeks. `Thank you so much grandfather.' She said into his t-shirt.

After about half an hour of examining the van's new paintjob, Kaede, Tea, Honda and Ryou were called back into the house by Kaede's grandmother, who gave them a plateful of her freshly baked cookies.

This time, instead of going back upstairs, they all went into the living room and pulled out Kaede's ancient games console. They plugged it into the back of the TV and had a tournament on one of the oldest fighting games known to mankind.

They were onto their third tournament (Honda insisted doing best-out-of-five when Kaede beat him in the finals twice) when Joey, Yugi and Duke arrived, all three of them already wearing party clothes.

Kaede ran upstairs and put on her white miniskirt and yellow halter neck top. She left her hair down and put on a couple of golden bangles and some silver hoop earrings. Then she pulled on a pair of knee high boots and grabbed a shoulder bag in which she shoved her mobile phone and a corduroy jacket.

Kaede ran downstairs and kissed her grandparents goodbye. `Have fun,' they called after her. `And stay safe!'

Kaede ran outside and into the garage where her van awaited. She climbed into the driver's seat and turned around to look in the cargo area. There sat Tea, Honda, Joey, Yugi, Ryou and Duke all squashed together.

`You all right back there?' Kaede called as she started up the engine.

`Enough talking, more driving,' Duke snarled as he struggled for space from between Joey and Yugi.

Kaede pulled out of the garage and down the driveway. She turned back to her house to way at her grandparents, who waved back. Then she changed gear and sped away into the night.



Soon enough they reached Ana's house. The lights were on but judging by the fact that barely any noise was coming from the house, the party hadn't started yet.

Kaede drove up the driveway and parked the van next to Ana's brother's car. She turned off the engine and took out the keys, shoving them in her bag. Then she went around the back and opened the back doors of the van.

Out they fell, all six of them, as each of them had been pushing as hard as they could against the door to escape. Kaede looked down on them superiorly, then closed the doors and headed towards the house.

They knocked on the door and Ana opened it. All of them (the others had picked themselves off the floor and followed her to the front door) stared at her. She was wearing an incredibly formal dress, dusty pink with a puffy skirt.

`What are you guys wearing?' Ana asked as if what they were wearing was odd.

`What do you mean what are we wearing? What are YOU wearing?' Joey almost yelled.

`It is a formal party, didn't you know?' Ana said, as if it couldn't possibly have been anything else. `Well, I suppose what you are wearing if fine, come on in.'

`They followed her inside the hall, along a long corridor to what was obviously the lounge, three large sofas, several cupboards and cabinets, a coffee table and a huge sound system in the corner. `Make yourselves at home,' she said, and took their coats and jackets to put them in the laundry room.

All of them stared around them. Ana's house was amazing. It just shouted to anybody who didn't know that she and her brother were part French.

In walked Ana's brother. He waved as he came in, quite cheerfully. He flopped down on one of the sofas and took a beer out of nowhere it seemed to them. He saw the bemused looks on their faces and grinned. `Mini fridge,' he said, pointing to the floor next to the arm of the chair. `Hello, my name is Marc by the way.'

Kaede saw out of the corner of her eye Tea's legs turn to jelly. Ew, Kaede thought, imagine fancying your friend's brother.

Kaede was about to go and whisper some sense into Tea's ear when the doorbell rang. `I'll get it,' they heard Ana shout. There came the sound of the door being opened, a moment's silence, and then the noise hit them like a wall of bricks.

From every doorway into the room there came teenagers, every single type. They jumped on the seats and opened cupboards. One guy had even taken over the sound system and was filling up the house with music.

Everybody was in the party mood, excited, and with the music as the catalyst, the party got started. Ana's brother got up and began chatting to mates, handing around beers and cigarettes. In complete contrast to her brother's calm, Ana was rushing around madly trying to organise everyone, asking them if she knew them or if they had an invitation.

Kaede pushed her way through the crowd to get to her friend. `Ana!' she shouted over the throng. `Ana!'

When she got to her, she saw Ana was about to realise she had lost control over her “guests”. `Come on Ana, let's go get you out of that pretty dress, we don't want it to get ruined.'

Ana was looking around, wide-eyed and shocked. She had clearly never been to a house party before. `It's okay Ana,' Kaede had to yell over the music. `Marc has complete control over the situation.'

This was true; Marc was more than capable of taking care of a few rowdy teenagers. Kaede grabbed Ana by the arm and led her upstairs. She guessed which room was Ana's and took her inside.

She had guessed right. All over the walls there were pictures of horses: Ana's favourite animal. When Kaede shut the door behind them, the noise level dropped considerably and they could talk at a normal level. Kaede went to her chest of drawers and pulled out a pair of jeans and a faded blue top. She threw them at Ana and said to her, `Put these on, come downstairs and meet me when you're ready.' And with that she opened and closed the door before Ana could think of arguing.

Kaede pushed her way through the crowd to get downstairs, and when she got there her arm was immediately grabbed by some drunk guy. `Dance with me,' he slurred.

`No thanks,' Kaede said. `Dance with her.' She pushed him over to a girl who was standing on her own and pushed away, hearing him call `Okay' to her as she went.

She entered the lounge again to find that a largish dance floor had been made by the two sofas being pushed back.

As she came in, Joey stood up from where he had been sitting talking to Yugi and Honda on one of the pushed-back sofas, and approached her grinning. She beamed back at him, and when he reached her he took hold of her hand. `Would you care to dance with me?' he asked grinning madly.

`Sure, why not?' Kaede shrugged and allowed him to lead her onto the dance floor.

As they were dancing, Kaede looked out of the window and saw a car pull up. She practically had to yell in his ear about it. `I think it might be Sakura. Let's go check out this surprise!'

Kaede went to the door, followed by Joey, and the rest of their gang after they saw where she was going. As they reached the hall Ana came down the stairs and was waved over by Kaede.

They stood outside the door as the car slowed and parked next to Kaede's van. Out of the driver seat stepped Sakura, grinning from ear to ear. She hadn't seen them yet but she was examining Kaede's van. `Wow, so cool,' she said, loud enough for them to hear.

`I'm glad you like it,' Kaede called over to her. She jumped when she heard her, but when she turned around and saw who it was, she grinned again.

`Hi there, what you doing out here?' she yelled over.

`We were waiting for this surprise,' Honda yelled back.

Grinning again, she went to the boot of her car and flung it open. The whole of the boot and the back seats (the back seat thingy had been pushed down) were covered in crates. And inside those crates was…

`My God, Sakura,' Joey shouted. `I never knew you were an alkie.'

`I'm not, these are for everyone, come help me,' she said, and began to unload the car. They all rushed forwards, even Ana, who did clearly not like this idea. They grabbed as many as they could carry and rushed back to the house with them.

Kaede just came back from her third trip and was exhausted, ready to have a rest. But as the car was nowhere near empty, she walked over to grab another crate. She bent down to pick on up but was blinded by car headlights.

She looked up and recognised the approaching car. Out of the passenger seat jumped Yuula, out of the drivers seat climbed Takumi. Kaede was about to run and glomp Yuula, but halfway to the car she stopped.

She had just seen who had emerged from one of the back seats.

She glared at Takumi. `Why the hell did you bring him here?' she snarled.

The other passenger smirked at her. `Hello Kaede, nice to see you here too.'

`Shut up, I wasn't talking to you!' she yelled at him. She turned back to Takumi again. `I already asked you, why the hell did you bring Seto Kaiba?'

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