Sparks Beneath the Surface.

ＥＩＧＨＴＥＥＮ- Auld Lang Syne.

Trying not to cough too much at the hairspray in the air, I adjust my dress one more time, looking at myself in the mirror. She's a cute little number, black with sequins, definitely the kind my mom would wanna steal from my wardrobe and wear herself. I look good! I feel like I haven't used actual eyeshadow in ages, I usually don't use it since I'm either at school or training, I just keep it to a little glitter on the inner corners of my eyes. But today? I went all out with a shimmery orange shadow and some silver glitter, "So? Whaddya think?"

"I think you look so good, Elian is gonna have a hard time keeping his hands off of you." Drea smiles. She begged and begged and begged me to come, so I asked Kiyo if she could and she said yes! Thank goodness. I intentionally left out the part where Drea knows her ( and everyone elses) hero identities, because that wouldn't just nipped it in the bud, so, good lie! Right? Yeah, whatever.

I laugh, "I don't even care. Okay, I do care if he notices me- but I think tonight? I just wanna hang out with you and get wasted." I tease her, throwing my arm around her shoulder.

"Bitch, get the fuck off of me and let's go!" She rolls her eyes, forcing me off of her. Giving myself one last nod in the mirror, I throw on my jacket and conjure a portal to their place. 

Once westep through, I gape in amazement at the sight before us. Glitter and white and gold streamers are all in the air and on the floor as the people bounce to the house music blaring from the speakers. Holy shit?! They really know how to throw a party! Andrea and I dance our way through the crowd, immediately heading for the bar. Oh, or to see my friends, but to be honest? I'm fine with whichever comes first. I wanna get drunk!

"Oh my fucking- NO WAAAAY!" Andrea squeals, "Can you believe this shit?!"

"I can't!" I giggle, gasping, "Fuck yes, there's the bar!"

"Score!" She excitedly pulls me by the hand and I follow eagerly. The bartender hands us two complimentary glittering shots of tequila and we take them almost far too quickly, "Shit! This is some good tequila."

"Right?! Another round, please!" I request. The bartender and as he's pouring out our shots, I hear someone squeal my name excitedly from across the room. I see it's Kiyo, wearing a beautiful shimmering silver dress, purple tinsel in her hair and glasses that say '2026!' with a matching headband.

"DANI! Ohmigod- I'm so glad you made it!" She giggles as she dances in place, giving me a side hug, her speech is slightly slurred, so I know she's already pretty tipsy, "And who's this hottie with you?"

"I'm Andrea, her super-hot, sexy, fun bestie!" Andrea introduces herself as she starts dancing with Kiyo, much to her joy.

"FUUUUUN! I'm Kiyo and these are for youuu," Kiyo says as she hands us our own headbands and glasses which we accept gracefully, "Everybody's already at our section, come on OVERRR!"

"Yeah, we're on our way! We're just waiting for our shots!" I tell her and she gasps.

"Nooo, no! We've already got some alcohol over there! OH! Oh, we can all do a group shot, yeah? YEAH!!" As if on cue, the bartender serves us our shots. Drea and I do the salt first, then take it, as if savoring it to be liquid courage before Kiyo drags us by the hand over to the group section where I can see almost everybody is all here, "Look who I found!" She grins as she falls into Zade's lap.

"Daniii! So glad you could make it baby girlll!" Benji chuckles in the sparkliest red pants I've ever seen, very Benson Boone-esque with some glow in the dark necklaces around his neck.

"I'm so happy to be here! Drea? This is everyone, Zade, Benji, Lilah, Ivy, Elian, Orion, Kami, Diana, and, uhh, I know Clarke's over here somewhere." I introduce her, looking around for Clarke.