Young Writers Society

"HELLO MELLO!" Lordy shouted at the sight of his favorite hairdresser, "I didn't know you'd be here or we could've carpooled!"

Morri slowly bowed his head at them, "Always lovely seeing you. And hello to you too Evaline!"

"Wait, I though costumes were required for the party?" Lordy looked at Evaline, "Where's yours?"

"Lordy-" Morri began.

"No no no I'm putting my reputation at risk right now for the sake of the Halloween spirit and you're telling me this whole time other people just get a free pass?" Lordy interrupted.

Morri sighed, "Take a good look at the two of them would you."

"What do you mean take a goo-" Lordy's eyes shifted between the two of them, "Oooh..."

"Uh huh." Morri shook his head.

"My bad," Lordy apologized, "I didn't realize you're both dressed as runway models."

"Cool! And same. I go to most of his parties," Elias said distractedly, then started to waddle towards Carter, looking over his shoulder and beckoning for Daniel and Benji to follow with his dino arm.

"Hey man!" he said as he approached Carter, flopping onto the seat next to him with a beer in hand. The beer spilled a little and splashed onto his costume, but luckily, it was an inflatable dino costume. Can't get wet if you don't wear clothes.


"Sick costume. I've always known you were a knight in shining armor," Elias teased, flicking his eyes over to the vampire nurse girl next to him. "I like your costume too. It doesn't really match the whole medieval theme we got going on, but it's pretty unique anyways."

---

Mel posed when Lordy was eyeing them to figure out what they were dressed as (even though she thought it was obvious - oops!), but she paused and then giggled when she heard what he said.

"Runway models?" she said in pleasant surprise, lightly pushing Lordy's arm in a playful manner. "Aw thanks, Lordy. You're too sweet. Did you pick that up from Momo?"

Mel glanced at Evaline who was initially embarrassed from feeling under-dressed, but her face flushed even more at the accidental compliment. Evaline slowly crossed her arms, peering off to the side. Mel couldn't help but already notice that she was eyeing the door to leave even though they just came in.

It wasn't unlike Evaline to want to leave mid-conversation at the start of a social gathering, so Mel was surprised that when she spoke next with a subject change.

"Um - sorry that the painting is taking a while," she said, slowly tearing her gaze away from the crowd to look at Lordy. "It's been... busy. But I do want to make progress on it this week. I know you gave me until the end of the year, but I'd like to get it done before fall break."

"Oh come now," Lordy waved his hand dismissively, "We're here to have fun. I have full faith you'll deliver to me an excellent final piece, no matter how soon."

Morri leaned over to Evaline so that Lordy wouldn't hear, "Did he actually show up in that leopard-print cloth?"

"Have you ladies had anything to drink yet? Let's see what the scene's like in the kitchen." Lordy said as he shifted his rat self towards the closest cooler without waiting for a response.

Evaline didn't think she could get more embarrassed, but she was proven wrong when Morrigan leaned over and whispered if Lordshire really was dressed up in the leopard-print cloth. She felt her face flush hot, not even sure how to answer that.

Did Lordshire tell everyone? This was going to be her dumb legacy, wasn't it?

Maybe she could go by a pseudonym when she submitted the work? No, it was too late for that. This was dumb. This project was dumb. She shouldn't have taken this traveling art sponsorship class. She shouldn't have requested to partner with HPU.

Well, no... she didn't mean that.

"I -- um -- he --" she stammered, at a loss of words even though the answer was a simple yes. She stared at Mel with pleading eyes hoping she could save her from having to answer.

"Evaline!" Mel interrupted, quickly catching on. She had taken a few strides forward towards Lordy. "What do you want to drink?"

"I'll just have water," Evaline quickly said instead, glad for the subject change.

"Are you sure?" Mel asked.

"Yeah -- I'm, uh... thirsty." Evaline facepalmed at her answer, suppressing a groan. She didn't want to drink alcohol since she was back on her anxiety meds, but she really didn't want to explain any of that.

Besides, she could use the water to cool off since she was already sweating from the heat and her burning face, but maybe that was part of the costume, being a devil and all. How fitting.

Mel shurgged. "M'kay. What do you want, Momo? Don't worry, I'll make sure Lordy isn't going to steal all the drinks and snacks like a street rat."

"Did you say," Lordy shot his head back at Evaline, "Water?"

Lordy shuffled over to her as Morri shook his head. He reached into one of his rat pockets and pulled out a baby bottle, holding it out for Evaline to take, "Might as well take this too since you want to be a CHILD!"

Morri reached over and smacked him at the back of his head, "She doesn't have to drink if she doesn't want to."

After taking a second to reorient himself, Lordy rubbed the back of his head, "I was only joking you didn't have to hit me that hard."

"Save the jokes for the comedy club rat boy." Morri walked over to the cooler and grabbed a bottle of water, handing it to Evaline, "Sorry about him."

"And a think a beer would hit the spot right now, Mello, thanks for asking." Morri smiled at her.

"A bEeR wOuLd HiT tH- where's the liquor at." Lordy said, waddling past the three of them and into the kitchen.

Evaline almost regretted agreeing to come to this party now. Almost. But instead of wallowing in regret and apprehension over the entire experience, she instead decided to channel it towards Lordy and made the mental note to avoid him from here on out. She could email him if she needed to get a hold of him, and drop off items at his office when he wasn't there.

Why was he even at a party thrown by students, anyways? Did people normally invite their professors? Why did he even have a baby bottle with him? Some questions were better off without an answer.

Evaline sheepishly took the bottle of water from Morrigan, glad that the situation seemed to resolve on its own. She noticed that Mel looked like she was also about to smack Lordy, but was pleased when Morrigan did it first and even insulted Lordy.

"Sure! I'll get that for you!" Mel said with a smile, then glanced between Morrigan and Lordy, who was marching off towards the kitchen. "Evaline, do you want to come with me, or...?"

"I'm good," Evaline said quickly. It was nothing against Mel; she just didn't want to be next to Lordy again.

"Okay," Mel said with a nod. "Be right back." And with that, she rushed after Lordy.

Evaline slowly turned towards Morrigan, suddenly feeling awkward since she really didn't know him at all besides that random incident in his class during the first day of school at HPU. She cleared her throat, taking off the lid of the plastic water bottle, but not taking a drink of it yet.

"Thanks for that," she said, not really sure what to say. "He's... something else."

--

Mel quickly rushed towards Lordy, but didn't walk too fast since she didn't want to break a sweat or her stilettos. She reached him right before he could get a drink at the table, pulling back his rat tail so he couldn't walk any further.

"Hey!" she said with a huff. "Don't be so mean with my friend. I know you're dressed as a rat, but you know you don't have to act like a rat too, you know."

Mel quickly glanced around the room and immediately saw Bo sticking out dressed like a chef, and standing next to him was Rek with a Beatles costume and Jerica dressed as... a lazy bum? No sign of dino-donning Elias yet, but she was sure she'd run into him eventually.

"Come on," Mel said with a grin, suddenly yanking one of Lordy's rat fingers with her as she trudged towards them. "You're going to meet more of my friends, and you'll be nice to them this time." She waved with her other hand, approaching them. "Hey friends! Who wants to take a Halloween shot with us?"

Morri smiled at Evaline, "He's not normally like that. I think he may just be uncomfortable in that suit of his and he's not sure how to properly channel that discomfort."

He took a sip of his beer and gazed around the room. There were many familiar faces gathered all around, both former and current students. However, he remembered Evaline didn't actually go to school here, which meant she was much less likely to know someone.

"You seem a bit reserved," he turned to her, "May I ask what made you decide to come here?"

---

"Yes I know, I'll apologize to her later." Lordy pulled the baby bottle out of his pocket with his free hand, "I think the punchline just got the best of me."

He looked up as she dragged him over to a group of a whole bunch of familiar faces.

"Wait, these are your friends?" Lordy looked among them, "AYEEE! Shots on me kids!"

"Bruhhhh, I feel like I need sunglasses now. I can see it now" Jerica leaned into Bo and wrapped her arm around him in a side-hug, using her other arm to gesture dramatically in the air.


"My coolness, reflecting your goodness. Dream team!"

Jerica glanced at Rek. He lifted an eyebrow.


He was enjoying this.

Some people just liked to watch the world burn. It was him. He was some people. And he was becoming increasingly convinced that his theory was right. Which meant that Jerica would be regretting allllll of this tomorrow.

Little did he know that Jerica already regretted it. She flushed and pulled away from Bo too-quick, the motion awkward and jerky as she stepped out of his reach.

At just that moment Mel came walking up with Lordy in tow, shouting something about shots. Her face still burned with embarrassment but she was intent on making a recovery so she turned towards them -- very carefully giving Bo the cold shoulder -- and grinned. "Mel! ... Lordshire?"

Why did Evaline come here when this wasn't her crowd? Great question. She took a long sip of her water, stalling for time to answer, but also because she didn't know how to word her answer.

Her therapist had recommended that she work on her friendships and also encouraged her to reach out to others. That could obviously be done with small groups in quieter settings, but Mel and Elias seemed eager to come to this party, and they extended the invitation out to her.

It took her a couple of days to commit to showing up, and they were excited when she said yes. She knew that it wasn't going to be quality time with them since it was a big party and they had other friends, but that didn't bother her. The appeal to this party was to dress up, meet new people, and have fun.

She was trying... sort of. At least she was attempting.

Plus, James was at the party too. She'd be lying if she said that his attendance didn't influence her decision to come, but she didn't think there was anything wrong with that. Evaline hadn't seen him in-person since he visited her, and she just got into town this evening without having much time to do much else but watch Mel dress up and put together an outfit for her... But Evaline did text James asking him when he'd be there, and she knew he was here now, somewhere.

Would it look too desperate and clingy to text him again?

Evaline screwed the lid back on the bottle, knowing she was taking far too much time to answer Morrigan, so she decided to stop overthinking it. A part of her wished she could drink alcohol so she could loosen up some more.

"I thought, maybe, you know..." she said casually, maybe a little too casually as she shrugged her shoulders. "I'd put myself out there. What about you? What brings you here as a professor?"

---

"We're at a frat party, silly!" Mel said with a giggle, half-rolling her eyes at Lordy and then eyeing her friend group.

It didn't look like she interrupted anything between Bo, Jerica, and Rek, but they looked like they could use friendship shots. She peered past them at the drink table and noticed that there were some creepy-looking eyeball shots on a tray with liquid nitrogen bubbling around it. Perfect Halloween shots.



Mel picked one up and laughed, bringing it close to her eyes to inspect it. "Did you make these, Bo? They're so creepy. I love it. What are the eyeballs made out of, anyways? Gummies?"

Before Bo could answer, she was also handing the shot glass over to Lordy, and then picked three more so she could distribute it to Jerica, Rek, and Bo, before picking one up herself. They had hardly even striked up a conversation yet, but it would be more fun after an eyeball shot anyways.

"Cheers, bitches! Happy Halloween!" Mel said with a grin, bringing her glass up to clink as a group.

Jerica took the shot that Mel held out to her, then took a step back so that she stopped facing away from Bo -- although she still didn't look at him. Yet. She held up the shot glass and started chanting:

Bo laughed as Mel handed out the shots, and he drank his before answering Mel's question.

"They're gummies, yeah," Bo said with a little laugh. "Unfortunately, though, I didn't make them. I just bought them. I didn't have time to make gummy eyes. It takes a lot of effort, actually..."

He then plopped the eyeball into his mouth with a shrug.



Kayla leaned forward on the couch to get a better look through the little window into the dinosaur's neck to peer at Elias's face.

"Thanks," Kayla said with a smile, showing off her fake vampire teeth. "I thought I'd spice it up a little bit. Why stop at vampire when you can be a vampire nurse?"

"You truly are a forerunner in the Halloween costume department," Carter said with a nod and a little smirk.

Kayla narrowed her eyes at him with a smile and smacked his armored arm.

"And you're looking quite prehistoric," Carter said to Elias with a grin as his eyes drifted over to Benji and Daniel who were hovering close by. He could see that Daniel seemed a little hesitant to come over and say hello. Maybe it was because they weren't used to seeing each other at casual functions.

He continued to stare at the two of them, trying to figure out who they were dressed as. It was obvious that Daniel and Benji had taken costume as an all-encompassing term and dressed as characters from some show, but Carter couldn't figure out which one it was. People wore leather jackets in so many different shows, these days. It could be anything from a gritty detective drama to a post-apocalyptic thing.

He glanced at Kayla, then leaned in towards Elias's dino ear.

"Hey," he whispered. "Are those two a thing, now?"

Lordy watched as Bo stuck a whole eyeball in his mouth.

Sick, he thought.

He took the shot that Mel handed him and raised it up with everyone else, "Cheers!"

After swallowing the liquor down in a single gulp, he realized that his years of alcoholism had absolutely destroyed both his taste buds and his sense of self preservation. So of course he reached over for another glass and gulped that one down too.

"Ahhhh." Lordy set the glasses down on the table, "I need a snacky snack."

It took Bo a moment to realize the guy in the rat costume was Lordy, but the voice kind of gave it away.

Bo decided not to question how or why Lordy invited himself to the frat party. Lordy didn't seem to care, and Bo knew better than to shoo him away. With a little laugh, he reached over to the table and grabbed a big ghost cookie, offering it to Lordy.

"Ghost snack," he said.

"Mmmm," Lordy graciously took the cookie from Bo and stuffed the entirety of it in his mouth, "Dif you mate dese?"

The texture was immaculate. The cookie crumbled apart and melted in his mouth, leaving his tastebuds yearning for more. Even the frosting was the perfect blend of tangy and sweet- heavy enough to be the glue that held each crumb together, yet just soft enough to remind him of a cloud floating through his body. Lordy knew that if there was a heaven he was living in it right now.

"Who's you're professor again?" Lordy asked, after having finally swallowed his snack, "I have to remind them that if they fail you I'm going to murder them."

Bo laughed.

"I'm doing fine in the class, Lordy," Bo said. "But I appreciate the sentiment."

He looked over to Mel, grabbing her attention with a wave.

"Nice angel costume," he complimented.