Castle High

15. Kobayashi Maru - II

“Okay then…yeah, they’d arrive by 10?…That’d be great. Later.” Alex hung up. “That was Tracy.” She informed the group which consisted of Ariel, Alice, Shelby and Emily. They all sat in a circle in one corner of the gym, awaiting the staff. The boys were fooling around as usual with gym equipment.

Emily was right in front of her, and had Shelby and Ariel by her left and right respectively; While she had Alice by her left and Shelby on her right.

“Your second cousin who attends Prescott?” Emily enquired, interest sparkling in her stare.

“Yup, she called concerning the party.” Alex nodded, enthusiastically. “We’re celebrating it together.” Although the notion did nothing to soothe her, she couldn’t afford to be nervous so early.

“I wish I had a relative who shared the same birthday date with me,” Alice sighed; her hands were clasped gently on her thighs. “Preferably my twin uncles; they know how to make the dough and spend it. It’d be so fabulous celebrating birth-days with them.”

Alice scowled. “Nope, hers is a day after mine and Joey’s. Ours is on Friday, but it would be lame to celebrate it in school, so we pushed it to Saturday.”

“Ooh, I’m getting goose-bumps already.” Ariel shrieked in delight, wriggling her legs simultaneously. “I mean, can the annual birthday splash of the Ice princess get any better, than adding Prescott seniors to the mix.”

A collective chuckle preceded Alex’s reply. “The Ice Princess. I always preferred that name to the FB, you know. But I made sure it didn’t see the light of day because it was a direct rip-off from High-school musical. You know, Ashley Tisdale’s character.”

Shelby’s brows furrowed in incongruity. “I’m confused, why don’t you like being compared to Sharpay? I mean you guys are totally alike.”

Alex shook her head vehemently. “No, no, no. Sharpay was driven by her silly love for Troy. Perhaps if she wasn’t so way in over her head with a dude, then I’d have been happy with the comparison. But the heights she took competing for Troy’s love for? Please, no dude is worth that.”

“You know I was wrong,” Ariel continued. “The Ice princess is too nice for you. Frost would be better. You know, Lady Frost.”

Alex nodded, amusement seeping into her being. “You know, I do love the sound of that. ‘Lady Frost.’ But it sounds too good, I’m pretty sure there is a movie or anime out there with a character with such name.”

“Let’s look it up,” Alice suggested, sifting through her phone. “I’m pretty sure we’d be able to find–”

“Could we please return back to the subject matter,” Alex grunted, snapping her fingers. “My birth-day, this Saturday; we’re hosting Prescott seniors, we can’t disappoint. So how early are we arriving at my place?”

Shelby snarled. “You talk like we disappoint all the time. I thought the plan was to arrive 7 A.M.”

“7.A.M?” Alex echoed. “Seriously, the party starts at ten. People will begin to arrive let’s say Nine. And you want to start preparations by 7? You see, what I meant about disappointment.”

“Okay let’s sleepover till Saturday then.” Ariel suggested. “We’d all arrive on the evening of Friday – No, we’d all go from school to Alex’s on Friday. Get most of the tedious work done before Saturday, and do the menial ones in the morning. That way, we’d be all set even if our external guests decide to arrive as early as 5 .A.M.”

“Uh-oh?” Shelby swallowed, as a look of uncertainty flashed through her face.

“What?” Alex grunted. “Ari proposed a great plan, Bee. Don’t ruin this.”