“She’s really pretty... No, she’s stunning.”
“I mean, yeah, she’s beautiful, but...”
“It doesn’t really feel like a costume...”
The audience seemed unsure of how they felt about her. Admittedly her outfit felt a little too mature for this setting, like a grown-up going trick-or-treating.
“Wh-While we have you, let’s ask: What made you decide to enter, Inaba-san?”
“I heard I’d get a free Santa costume out of it, and Taichi’s been begging me to wear one.”
“Oho! Turns out it’s all thanks to Yaegashi-kun’s libido! Is she planning to keep wearing it after the show? Not for long, apparently!”
“Himeko! Don’t blame it on me! You’re the one who asked me if I wanted to see what you looked like in costume!”
But the crowd jeered:
“Pervert!”
“Freak!”
“Degenerate!”
“Lucky bastard!”
“Now then, that’s all of our entrants for today... PSYCH! There’s actually one more surprise entry!”
This was news to me. Who the heck was it?
“Entry #10... our charismatic leader, Fujishima Maiko!”
“OOOOOHHH!” The crowd went wild. After all, Fujishima always liked to goof around, but she really didn’t seem like the type to dress up.
But then someone... or something... walked out, covered in brown fur. Her arms, her legs, her body, her head — all of it was fuzzy and brown. Two antlers poked up into the air. Indeed, it was a reindeer onesie.
Fujishima Maiko looked out at the crowd, stone-faced. Then... slowly... she raised her hand in a peace sign.
“...W-Well, there you have it, folks! That’s all the entries for our Christmas Costume Competition! Later tonight you’ll be able to vote for your favorite, so stay tuned!”
A beat later, the audience broke out in a round of applause.
“So, uh... Not to be rude, but... Fujishima-san...”
“She was totally trying to be funny, but... nobody laughed...”
Uh oh. “Shhh! Keep your mouths shut, or she’ll end you!” I warned the two gossipers.
“Okay! Sorry!”
A moment later, someone gently clapped me on the shoulder. “Having fun?”
“Why, good evening, fine sir!”
It was Katori Jouji, wearing a charming smile that was sure to make his fangirls swoon.
“Of course I’m having fun, silly. Who do you think planned this shindig?”
I had stuffed this party chock full of my own personal preferences. Was there ever any guarantee that it would pan out? Nope! I just got it all set up, then let the guests figure themselves out from there. After all, anything would be fun as long as my friends were there.
“As long as you remember to take a break from running things and actually enjoy yourself, that’s all that matters.”
“Running what? Trust me, I’m not even paying attention!”
I had faith that these awesome peeps would behave themselves.
“Uhhhh, that... sounds like a disaster in the making... Well, whatever. Have you eaten?”
“Not yet, but I’m gonna!”
“Good, good. Go have yourself a snack.”
What a nice guy. He sent me off with a wave. I’d only had one drink since I got here, so I headed over to the snack tables.
“Hey Shiroyama-kun, look! This is my favorite brand of chocolate chip cookies!”
“Yeah, I know. You pointed them out to me a while back.”
“Aww, you remembered... That’s so sweet...”
“Of course I’d remember. I could never forget anything about you, Setouchi-san.”
Part of me wanted to wait until Setouchi Kaoru and Shiroyama Shouto had finished taking their turn, but at the rate they were moving, we’d be here all night.
“Sorry to interrupt your puppy love, but a girl’s gotta eat!”
“Oh, sorry!”
“Sorry, Iori!”
The two blushing lovebirds hastily stepped aside, and I got my paws on a muffin. As I took a bite, I turned away from the snack tables... but then I remembered something and spun on my heel. Come to think of it, I was once in a love triangle with this happy couple, too. We’d all done some things we regretted, but fortunately we arrived at a peaceful solution.
“Anyway, you two kids have a lovey-dovey time!”
And with that, I walked away.
As I nibbled on my muffin, I contemplated where to go next. The whole room was full of smiles and laughter... Then I spotted two teachers entering the room: Tanaka-sensei and Hirata-sensei, the happily married couple. (Technically Hirata-sensei wasn’t “Hirata” anymore, but for simplicity’s sake, we all agreed to keep calling her that.)
“Oooh, looks like we’re having a lot of fun in here!” Hirata-sensei grinned. As for Tanaka-sensei, he was wearing his usual scowl... No, wait. Upon further examination, his expression seemed a lot softer tonight.
I started to walk over to them, but Oosawa Misaki beat me to it.
“What brings you here, Sensei?”
“We’re checking to make sure you people didn’t conveniently leave any details off of your permission form,” said Tanaka-sensei sternly.
“Once we’ve done our due diligence, we’ll be out of your hair, I promise,” Hirata-sensei added.
I wasn’t worried about them checking on us since I’d known in advance that they’d be dropping by, and plus, we weren’t getting up to any funny business.
“Aw, c’mon. You can stay if you want!” Misaki replied amiably.
“No, no. You young people have fun without us.”
“You’re not that old yourself, Sensei!”
“Yeah... After falling in love, it’s like I’m a teenager all over again... Agh, how could you make me admit that?!”
“I’m pretty sure you admitted that of your own free will,” Tanaka-sensei retorted wearily.
I had walked over just in case, but evidently Misaki didn’t need my help. She had it all covered.
A few more teachers came and visited us after that, but none of them had any complaints about our party. After chatting with the students for a bit, they all swiftly departed, as if to suggest they weren’t really all that interested in supervising us.
“I was expecting the teachers to crash our party sooner or later, but...”
“They sure didn’t stick around, huh?”
Relieved, the students quickly went back to partying. So far, so good. Everything was going swimmingly.
“Hey there, Nagase.”
As I stood near the door, performing my duty as a party hostess to greet new arrivals and say goodbye to those departing, another teacher called out to me. Then he stuffed the last bite of his muffin into his mouth, chewed, and swallowed. It was Gotou Ryuuzen, the class advisor I’d spent the past three years with. Easy to forget he was still in his mid-twenties. Or maybe late twenties at this point.
“I was thinking, you and I haven’t talked much since you volunteered at the daycare. I mean, I got the gist of how it went, but yeah.”
“I literally wrote a report about my experience, Gossan.”
“Yeah, I know. But what I wanna know is if it helped you with your personal problems, remember?”
“You totally told them about it, didn’t you?”
No one else was nearby. I leaned up against the wall, scanning the room as I spoke.