somethingwithturquoise | Frontenac Suite; Wednesday Evening [10/23].

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Frontenac Suite; Wednesday Evening [10/23].

The suite that Summer and Stark had been given had boasted being "spacious and perfect for entertaining," and so now Summer was putting that claim to the test with her traditional School Trip Wednesday Night Room Party. Texts had been sent out to remind people of the party or to inform them if it was their first trip (with a caveat that if you were underage, Gladio Amicitia will kick you out, but that was mostly just a formality because, here in Quebec, the drinking age was 18, and she was pretty sure even their youngest students were at least that age now, but, either way, she was covering her bases for resposible chaperone behavior!), and then a good portion of her day was spent getting the jello shots ready, setting up snacks, getting other alternate drinks, and then utilizing this 'perfect for entertaining' space to its full advantage.

And, of course, all the shots were locally inspired and, when possible, locally sourced. You had
Maple Bourbon Cider, Maple Almond, a little French Martini, Honeysuckle Mimosas enchanced with local honeysuckle berries, an Ultimate Caeser, some flag representation, and, of course, the poutine jello shot.

(For which, oddly enough!, there were no recipes to link. Rude!)

The cooler was also filled with bottles of water, Canada Dry, and Puppers and other local brews, and there was a good selection of other booze if you wanted to mix your own drink (especially if you were pouring some of that Gus N Bru).

And the snacks? Of course you have your ketchup chips and all-dressed and dill picklers, and other varieties of moddable party food, but you really don't want to miss the poutine punchbowl.

So come on in! It was Wednesday night! There was a playlist pumping that had only Canadian artists on it (with an emphasis on ones from Quebec, but not exclusively because come on). Time for a mid-week classic room party!

[[ open party is open and flying OCD-free! Swing by, enjoy the party and free booze and snacks and please don't mind if I disappear due to being eaten by work! ]]

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Adrian, once again in his well-tailored black on black on black, had heard about the room party from Yelena (and hadn't asked how she'd heard about it, because she just seemed to know pretty much everything) and had happily shown up - with a small gift for the hosts. Because that was what you were supposed to do, right? Bring a small gift?

"Wow," he said, looking around. "And I thought Wednesday nights at Caritas were impressive."

The narrative, like, literally mentioned texts!

"Adrian!" Summer had clearly gotten either a head-start or a quick-start on her own bullshit (which was definitely a point for room parties over Caritas!) as she greeted him. "Excellent! You made it! Welcome to the school trip room party! Ooh, and you brought more booze! You can just go ahead and add it to the rest, that looks so fancy!"

Bold of you to think he remembered to check his phone often for texts, Summer. It was currently on the nightstand in his hotel room, charging. Where it had been for the last day and a half.

"Glad to see the school trip room party is just as over the top as everything else school trip related it," he said with an appreciative laugh. "Summer, you look amazing, thank you for hosting, is there anything you need me to get before I settle in and get a jello shot and some poutine?"

You mean to tell her that people would go more than five minutes without checking their phones? Sounds fake.

"Well, yeah," Summer said, grinning as she rolled her eyes and swung her arm toward the rest of the room in a way that she hoped particularly showed off how amazing she (in his words!) Looked. "You can get to partying already! Seriously, like, help yourself,be social, have fun! That's the whole point of all this! And maybe tell me a little about how you're liking the trip so far."

"I was actually planning to lurk a little bit and watch other people party so I knew what to do," Adrian admitted with a laugh. "Other than Yelena's party, this is my first one and her party was more putting together Ikea furniture while drinking."

Which had been great! He'd had a task! He knew how to do tasks! But Summer had cruelly denied him tasks!

Yelena had gotten back to the room late last night and left early this morning to avoid anything awkward.

When she spotted Adrian, she sauntered over with an extra beer and held it out for him to take. "Take off the hat, you look ridiculous with it," she said with an eye roll. And then after taking a sip of her own beer added, "Thank you for the Toblerone."

The last statement actually sounded honest and sincere instead of snarky and deadpan. For once.

"It's a good hat!" Adrian protested, taking the beer from her. And, fortunately, it was close enough to Halloween that people thought it was weird, but it was an understandable kind of weird.

He gave her a smile, one that showed his dimples. "And thank you for the blankets."

"Don't mention it."

With a swift motion, Yelena snatched the hat off his head and flung it across the room. "There," she said, reaching out to fix his collar. "Much better."

Her hand lingered a second too long on the fabric, and the moment she realized it, she jerked it away, glaring at her fingers for a second like they had a mind of their own. She took a quick swig of her beer, eyes darting elsewhere.

"You fit in better this way," she added, added a little too quickly. "No one will think you're a Barry Plodder reject."

Adrian frowned at her - his hat! - but sighed and gave in, ruffling his ever-unruly curls. "I am only going along with this because you know more about parties than I do," he warned.

And then sighed. "At least at your party, I had something to do. What do you do at regular parties?"

There was one curl that was dangling down that so needed to be tucked back but Yelena kept her hand at her side. “Don’t be coy,” Yelena said rolling her eyes. “You did fine at the supper club the other week. This is no different. Or even at the picnic where-“

She paused and frowned. “Whatever. Just be nice and you’ll be fine.”

"I'm not being coy," Adrian said, wondering why Yelena cut herself off there. "Supper Club is for eating. Easy conversation there. The picnic..."

He looked around. There were a lot of pretty people around, which he'd appreciated at the picnic, but it would be rude to Yelena to go trying to pick someone up.

Well, unless he went to their place? Because he certainly couldn't take them back to 603!

"...I mostly talked to my mother and my aunts," he admitted sheepishly. "At least until they all wandered off to do their own things."

His mother's thing had been named 'Bellamy.'

“The supper club is no different than this,” Yelena said pointing at the table with the food and drinks. “You eat and drink. If you see someone you don’t know you introduce yourself. If they are not an asshole you chat them up and get to know them. You talk to people all the time. I’ve seen you do it at Caritas too.”

"It's really no different?" Adrian asked, his shoulders relaxing a little. He ran his hand through his hair, which tucked his curl away for a brief moment before it fell back again. "I always figured that parties...were...different," he added, a little lamely.

Yelena’s eyes narrowed at that stupid hair curl but kept her hand firmly at her side and took a big gulp of her beer to distract herself.

“What did you expect to be different?” Yelena asked. “Did you expect people to be dancing on the ceiling? Or everyone tearing off their clothes and rolling in jello?”

"If don't know!" Adrian said, exasperated. "If people were tearing off their clothes and rolling around in jello, I'd actually be a lot more comfortable!"

Then it would just be a regular Beltane celebration with some additional jello!

"It might shock you to hear this, Yelena, but I'm not really used to stuff like this, and definitely not with strangers. The closest I'd been to a party before yours was sneaking into Chuck E. Cheese to watch some other kid's birthday party on our way to the Boston Anchor Market."

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"You didn't need to bring anything," Stark said, but he grinned at Adrian. "But welcome to a Summer room party. Glad you could come."

"Thanks," he said, giving Stark a grin that was maybe a little nervous around the edges. "Has she been hosting them long?"

"Longer than I've known her," Stark said. "She's good at parties. And good at making people feel welcome at them."

Nervous boys could recognize others.

Adrian was good at talking to people! Or, at least, he'd thought he was? The island was weird. But just standing around making conversation? That seemed much harder.

"She's certainly good at them," he said, looking around, impressed. "Did she do all this herself, or...?"

The island was super weird, yes.

"I helped with some of it," Stark said vaguely. "But she does most of it. I...I've never tried to host a party."

He'd been the guest of honor at a couple of birthday parties now.

"But helping I can do."

"Neither have I," Adrian said, so solidarity! And he'd stopped having birthday parties after thirteen. They had...greatly lost their appeal. "Behind every great party-thrower is a pair of helping hands?"

"I like helping her," Stark said. "And...just being useful."

As a general rule.

"I understand that," Adrian said. "I like being busy. It's good to be working on something with your own hands and to see an appreciable difference when you're done."

Stark nodded eagerly.

"Exactly. You have tangible proof of having done something when you've finished. And... just keeping busy helps me, often. Helps me from getting stuck in my own head."

"Hard to be bothered by existential crises when there's an entire pile of logs that need splitting and a garden that needs weeding," Adrian agreed. "Or in this case..." He glanced around. "Jello that needs...setting?"

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