The Frat Party

[03.09.00] » by Dan Levinson

"Hey, why don't we do the trick where we paint a face on our stomach and dance around?" Jessiah asked holding his beer glass aloft and spilling it all over the floor of the Yggdrasil Gun Room. Citan pondered this strange statement for a moment, and then the memories came flooding back.

Sigurd set up everything in the small room neatly and cleanly. He set out a few snacks and a keg of beer for his "guests". Jessiah, his senior officer, was sleeping in the adjoining room, his loud snores muffled by the thick metal door in between. Sigurd glanced at a clock on the wall. "People should start coming any minute now..." A knock sounded on the door.

"Coming."

Sigurd touched a button next to the door and it slid open. "Hey Sig." Citan wore his contacts to the party, and the absence of the glasses made him look that much less like a Jugend student.

"Citan, good to see you." Sigurd slumped into one of the chairs and rubbed both of his eyes wearily. "Hey, do you know if Kahr will be here?"

"Yeah, probably," Citan responded. "At least that's what he told me. Who else is coming?"

"Let's see... There's Clarke, Rowan, Jakks, oh yeah, and I gave a pity invitation to Vanderkaum."

"Vanderkaum?" Citan asked in disbelief. "You think he'll come? He might ruin it, you know."

"Yeah, but I doubt he'll be here..."

A great voice boomed from outside the door. "Hey, is 'der a party here or what?"

"You were saying...?" Sigurd was crestfallen as he opened the door to greet the behemoth of a man. Vanderkaum pushed past Sigurd and walked over to the snack table. He grabbed a glass and filled it to the brim with brown ale from the keg. At that time, more knocks sounded at the door. And another voice spoke out.

"What the hell's all that noise in there! Can't a man get some sleep in his own place!?" Jessiah barged into the party room and immediately targeted Vanderkaum. "Hey big man, I s'pose you're the one makin' all the noise?"

"Back off, old man. I'm tryin' ta drink."

"Drink? Hah! Don't make me laugh! I'll drink you under the table!" Jessiah grabbed his own glass and immediately the beer drinking contest started. Four men, Kahran Ramsus, Steve Jakks, Simm Rowan, and Haven Clarke, pushed their way into the room and took their own glasses. After a moment, Citan sighed resolutely and took his own place.

"C'mon boy! This's yer party! You can't just sit there like a lump," Jessiah yelled. He walked over to Sigurd and pulled him over to the keg. Jessiah then proceeded to fill a glass and pour it down Sigurd's throat before he could protest.

"Round Two!" Vanderkaum proclaimed.

*Later*

The contest inevitably ended in the victory of Jessiah, who still stood by the keg drinking glass after glass. However, it also resulted in a number of drunk party-goers. Ramsus reeled around the room, muttering to himself and sweating profusely. Jessiah had literally drank Vanderkaum under the table, where he lie passed out from too much alcohol. Jakks and Rowan were engaged in a game of rock-paper-scissors, which they had been going at for almost fifteen minutes. Sigurd was snoring lightly on a couch. Citan, who had refrained from drinking too much, stared thoughtfully at the night sky out the window.

Clarke and Ramsus started to laugh for seemingly no reason. Clarke held a black marker in his hand. "Do it, do it!" Ramsus urged. Clarke shambled over to Sigurd's prone body and proceeded to draw a large smiley-face on his stomach. The deed done, Clarke doubled over in laughter. But Kahr wasn't done. He picked up Sigurd, and shook him promptly until he woke up.

"Wha... hey? Kahr?" Ramsus started to chuckle as he spun Sigurd round and round. After what seemed like hours to the helpless party host, Ramsus let him free. Sigurd lurched dizzily in one direction and then another, trying to grab on to something.

"He's dancing, he's dancing," Kahr shouted with glee. "Look, Sig's dancing! And he's got a big face on his stomach!" Ramsus collapsed into fits of giggles while the rest of Sigurd's guests stared at him in their drunken stupor. All, that is, except for Citan, who took one look at his friend and grinned, planning to remind him of it for a long time to come.

"Hey, ya don't do that right!" Jessiah grabbed the marker from Ramsus and proceeded to draw a face on his own stomach. "This's how ya dance, yes it is!" Jessiah then moved randomly, this way and that, to a thunderous applause.

"Hey, this's my joke! I get ta do it!" Kahr snatched back the marker, and proceeded himself to perform the wondrous feat...

Citan shook his head clear of the embarrassing memories. "Not now, old friend... Maybe some other time..." Jessiah threw back his head and roared with laughter.

"Ya never did it the first time, and you're too sissy to ever do it!"