PARTY AND POOPER

Chapter 18

I held two dresses in front of the mirror unable to decide what to were. On my right hand I had a pink floral dress whose sleeve went up to my elbow. On my left I had a full sleeve lacy dress. Both were the prettiest dress I had. So, I called for Noah through the door.

"What?" He removed his curtains.

"I can't decide." I held up the two dresses for him to see.

"You're asking me? Dude, I have zero experience and interest in this." I sighed at his words. At this point I wished so much that my mom was alive. She would've picked the dress, done my hair.

"Okay," I said.

"Wait. Let me call mom." I immediately lit up. Susannah would know. She will help me. Susannah came up running when Noah screamed saying it was an emergency. She saw me in the window and rushed to me.

"Is everything alright? Are you hurt?" Her eyes were worried. Then she noticed the two dresses in my hand. "Oh. Let me get a look at them." I held up the dresses higher.

"The black one. It's time you women up. Take the dress and come over. I'll do your make up and hair. You'll be the prettiest one." I was about to tear up at the motherly affection when she said, "And please, through the front door." And I burst out laughing.

"Don't you think I should tie it up?" I asked Susannah as she pressed the curler in my hair.

"No. You have beautiful hair. Why tie it up? Have a look." My hair was parted from the middle and let loose in messy curls from the shoulder. It wasn't much different from my usual hair. But it looked a lot neat. She applied a little mascara and a thin line of eyeliner.

"Please no," I told her as she opened a bottle of brick red lipstick. I usually only wore lip gloss or nude color lipsticks.

"Shush. It'll go nice with black. I wanted to go for cherry red. But you would have passed out just taking a look at it." I shushed when I saw the red lipstick looking fine. Susannah handed me a black heel whose lace went up a little higher than my ankle. I immediately fell in love with the shoe.

"I wore this to my prom. I couldn't make Noah were them, could I?" She tucked my hair behind my ears and whispered, "You're the daughter I never had. These are yours."

I squeaked a little then whorled around after wearing the heels. I looked at myself on the full length mirror of Susannah's dressing room and I looked beautiful. Most of all, I felt beautiful.

"Oh Susannah, thank you." I would have cried if she hadn't said, "Don't you dare. I put a lot of effort on that make up." She kissed my forehead.

********************

Noah was wearing a black leather jacket and a white T that said 'Rock The Night' over his black jeans. he handed me a strawberry punch and said, "They got a lot of money huh?"

"Uhuh," I said as I glanced around his big house. There was a big space in the middle of the house where we are standing. Surrounding it was a round walkway which led to two stairs on two sides to take you upstairs. In stead of walls, they had glass walls through which I could see their ginormous pool on the flood light.

No doubt their family had a lot of money. But nobody has seen Mr. Cove. He stays away on business trips most of the time. Alex maintains this house all on his own. It wasn't messy at all like it would've been when left under a teenager. Rather it had a very sweet vibe to it.

I haven't seen Alex since we came here. He saw me when I entered the house and waved at us. He was going to approach me, but Hannah looped her hand through his arm and ushered him in the opposite direction.

"Jenny?" I turned around to find Skyler, Ivy and Reyna. "You look so beautiful," Skyler said.

"Those shoes are so pretty," Ivy almost took one of my feet off the ground.

"Gosh. You're probably the prettiest girl in the room." Skyler made a fake jealous gesture.

"It's time someone told you how to dress," Reyna cut in.

I blushed. because I knew she was right. If it weren't for Susannah, I would have never looked this beautiful.

"You are not gonna quit soccer are you? You look way hotter in the field." Ivy giggles which made the rest of us giggle.

My eyes fell on the corner near the pool. Where Luke and Alex were having a heated argument. Looked like Luke was mad at Alex for something and yelled at him furiously. Alex just shrugged off every bit. But at one point Alex yelled too. I was wishing people weren't this loud. Only then I could've heard their conversation.

Naomi saw me from a distance and stopped there. She pretended for a moment that she couldn't recognize me. I did a twirl for her and she acted to faint. I grinned at her and she came to join.

"What up, hot ladies?" Naomi slipped a golden bracelet, which had an infinity sign on it engraved with white stones on my wrist.

She winked at me and said, "Now it's perfect. You can give it back Monday."

"She's probably gonna lose it. Sure doesn't have any experience with precious things," Reyna said haughtily.

"First, she is way more responsible than you," Ivy said. Ivy didn't like Reyna as much as Skyler did. After all she had a sportsmanship in her.

"Second, It's not engraved with diamond. Oh, wait, you wouldn't know the difference cause it's hollow up here." Naomi pointed to her head and I forced in a giggle. Even Skyler was trying hard not to laugh at that. We were saved by Alex.

He was, for some reason, standing over a center table which wasn't there a moment ago. So he brought it specially for the announcement.

"Hey guys," he was talking on a microphone. Th sound seemed to come from all around us. There must be tons of speakers fitted in this house. I look around me with no sign of Noah. He must've slipped when I was talking to the girls.

"I have an announcement. But first, thank you all for coming here tonight. On other weekends, I would have just sat on the couch with a bag of Cheetos and watched games. but this weekend, we're up for party." He lifted the glass in the air and everyone broke out in a cheer.

"What do you think he's gonna say?" I ask Naomi. She just shrugged.

"Look at Hannah, she seems to glow a little more than enough," Skyler pointed out. i looked at a blushing Hannah, a few people to my right.

That's when Alex brought out a pink cupcake out of thin air. "Tonight." The crowd keeps chanting his name. All he did was stand there and grin like stupid. He slowly descended the table and paced this way. I could see Hannah getting all giddy.

But something else caught my eyes. Someone behind Hannah. She was wearing white sneakers with matching black jeans and a jacket. I couldn't believe my eyes. She was rummaging through her pockets looking for something.

"Jenny." I turned my head back to front and faced Alex in front of me. As much exciting as it would have been any other moment, my head wasn't in this. He extended the cupcake to me and I saw Noah at the back of the room shaking his hands in the air to get my attention. When he caught my eyes, he pointed outside and left.

"I'm so sorry Alex, I have to go." I ran outside as everyone started oooooo-ing. Clearly they thought I just rejected the most popular guy in the school. But I had bigger problems.

I met Noah and agent Savvaro at the back of the house in a dark place. With the few light there was, agent Savvaro could've easily passed as a teenager with that look.

"We have good news and bad news, Noah said as I approached them. "The culprit is in this party. " That was the good one I guess. Now we can just leave out a lot of people. "And, someone stole the brand from agent Savvaro's pockets."

"This is bad. That means he can attack again," I said.

"Worse. He can attack now. He has most of the people in the party. He can get his hands on his next target any moment."

"What are you doing in here in the first place?" I asked her.

"Duty."

"The more important point is, someone knew who she was and what she had in her pockets," Noah pointed out.

"I've called for back up. The house will be surrounded. Once we check everyone, we can find who has the brand," agent Savvaro said with confidence.

"As far as I can deduce criminal behavior, sending warnings to you two, losing the brand, getting us on his tails, all these are going to make him desperate. He's gonna act quick now."

"What if he attacks before the police comes?"

"We just have to wait and watch."

"That means-"

Noah was cut off by her, "The game begins."