Mileven in Heaven

Party Hearty

It was April 2, 1985. Mrs. Wheeler had noticed that Mike was constantly spending time with the same group of friends and wished that he would branch out more. To fix this problem, she had suggested that he host a boy-girl mixer at their house, and though he protested, she made him do it anyway.

"How about 5:00-7:30?"

"*chuckles* Mom, I'm 14! Nobody sets a time for parties, you just show up when you show up. Also, nobody's going to show up to a party at 5:00 on a Friday. That just screams lame!"

"Well, I'm sorry, Michael, for taking time out of my day to help you host a party with your friends!"

"*raises voice* See, that's the thing, I never asked you to!"

"*scoffs* I'm putting 8:00 on the invitation, and that's final."

"*sighs* Fine."

She made copies of some flyers for him to pass out to people and sent them to school with him the next day. First, Mike distributed the flyers to his friends.

"What's this?" asked Dustin.

"Invitations to this party my mom's making me have on Friday...*sighs*"

"*laughs* Michael's Bodacious Farty?" said Lucas.

*Dustin snort laughs*

"Wait, what?! Let me see that! *snatches*"

Mike looked closely at the invitation and banged his head against the locker.

"I'm screwed..."

"Hey, it won't be so bad!"

"No, Will, this is hopeless! I already knew I was gonna be the mama's boy passing out mixer invitations, but now I'm gonna be the laughingstock of the whole school!"

"It's just a typo, man! Don't be such a drama queen..." said Max.

"Yeah, Mike, take a chill pill," said Lucas.

"Whatever. I still gotta hand these out. See you in class."

*walks away*

Will ran up to Mike and said:

"Mike, wait up!"

"*slows down* Yeah?"

"Crazy together, right?"

"Yeah, crazy together."

"Alright then, it's settled. I'm helping you."

"Thanks, Will."

*smiles*

They walked down the halls and Mike would stop people and say:

"Party at my place this Friday. You in? *holds out invitation*"

He got a number of responses, some meaner than others, but managed to get some yes's and maybe's every now and then. He was a respectable student, always insightful and a good partner. He was also much more popular now after he and his girlfriend terrorized Troy, the school bully, but was still a nerd at the end of the day. By the end of the day, 19 people were coming for sure, including El and his friends.

[2 days later]

It was 7:45 and Mike was setting up the basement for the party. His mom had set out some cheese nips in one bowl and carrot sticks and celery on a separate plate, with a side of ranch dressing. He huffed at the sight and replaced them with bowls of Doritos, bugles, and cheese balls. He then pitched the apple juice and grabbed some Fanta and Sprite instead. Mrs. Wheeler walked down and checked in on him.