Fondest Memory

Day 1 (Night)

Friends tumble out of my room, one tripping over the other until all of them end up in a huge dogpile. Arms and legs stick out like the globule of flesh in Inside. Rayne somehow fights up to the top of the dogpile, with his elbow on Rocky.

"WASSSUUUUUP!!!" He bellows in happiness.

"Rayne. Get. Your. Body. Part. Off. Me." Rocky grunts grumpily.

"My arm!" Somebody female complains at the bottom, probably (probably...) Yui.

I suppose my old Bop It is stuck inside the pile, because Yoel turns and something says "Bop it to start!" A hand sticks out and turned it off.

"Guys," I muttered, "w-w-why, h-how..."

"We decided we'd give you a surprise party! Rayne took a long way from Green Bay, but he couldn't resist saying hi!" Yuno squeals from the middle of the pile.

Diego and James ended up at the bottom as a result of Rayne and Rocky pushing them and their collision with Yui.

"What are we waiting for? Get off!" Diego heaves from the bottom of the conglomeration and everybody rolls off.

In the middle, stuck in an uncomfortable position, Ariela smiles and gets off James by rolling back. Rocky's already started to run upstairs, and I can't help but run after him.

The stairs make thumping noises as me, Rocky and Diego stomp upstairs.

Yui complains "Hey, where's my phone?" She pushes James to the side and finds it covered in sweat. "DIEGO!!!"

"Wait for us!" Ariela calls out with her scratched voice. Ariela, being a Milwaukee native as well, knows that it's safe to make loud noises at this time of night, unlike in New York or Dallas.

When I get upstairs, Diego and me can't see Rayne, and when he suddenly grabs us by the shoulder, Diego shrieks and grabs Yuno's hand. Yuno, who had just arrived upstairs, gives Diego the look of death and he automatically lets go.

Ariela comes up now with James leaning on her. She lets go and James tumbles over, reclining against the wall.

"I swear to God, Yoel, I am never having you on me again. That sounded gay. Mierda." James heaves, with obvious trouble in his lungs.

I walk into the game room and turn on the light. Diego does a really bad Dracula impression, jumbling to the side, bumping into Juliet, and almost impaling himself on the pool table.

"Okay, so whaddaya wanna do? Split into groups? Do 8-player Smash while 2 play pool? What?" I announce, my voice echoing all over the room. Man, this place has bad acoustics.

Yoel, passing the 8 ball through and over his fingers and slowly reaching for the cue stick, calls pool and Yuno joins him, knowing that her attempt at Smash will be futile.

Yui gets knocked out first, then Juliet falls off the map. I, playing as Bayonetta, make my ultra-combo that I created myself (I hope) and knock out James, but in the process I find myself out on the edge. Rayne sees the opportunity to finish me, but that's my plan. I bait him out of the stage, use my extra jump, and meteor smash him out, and his jaw opens with amazement. Me, Rocky, Diego, and Ariela are what's left. Rocky gets in a fight with Diego on the edge of the map, but I know it's a bait, so I fake a low blow, jump up, and they try to meteor smash, failing to do so and falling into the abyss. Ariela's coming towards me and I don't bait her, waiting for her to go for the pullback, and I go towards her. I jump sideways before she can side smash. As a finisher, I stay up, fake the down smash and go to her other side, doing a side smash to finish her off.

Everybody claps as if they've just seen a masterpiece. I think I've never moved my fingers as fast as I have now. Ariela tackles me in fake anger and cries "Good game!" I laugh and pull her back up and hug her. In the hug, Rocky tackles us both and slowly everyone piled on top of us, even Yoel, who was silently celebrating his blowout victory over a failing Yuno.

I think, man, it's good to have friends.