From the diary of Griselda Vargas-Beilschmidt

32

This night is not peaceful.

"SLUMBER PARTY AT MY PLACE!!!!" Ash announced after dinner with her usual excitement. "Food, drinks and horror movies provided!" Gabe didn't want to go at first, but the free food and horror part convinced him.

"It'll be fun to watch you all freaking out while I'll be alright," he said, addresing the horror movies. He is very rarely scared now - Uncle Romano toughened him up by all the pasta-stealing gnomes and everything else, which, I guess, is surprising - you'd think he'd be scared 27/4, but Gabe gotta Gabe. Sure, he's not fearless, but who is?

When my dads and especially Nordics (Finland with his loyal sniper rifle) complained, she had to promise it will not be scary at all. (Gabe was dissappointed.)

By "her place" she meant the biggest room of the hotel, which was classy as hell and one would worry about accidentally breaking things, but she just shrugged it off and somehow made a deal with the personnel.

We met up on the stairs later, already showered after the long day, in pajamas and carrying pillows and folded blankets. Gabe had his blanket over him because he was wearing his cutest pajama, white with a pattern of tomatoes on it. It had been a gift from -guess who?- Uncle Spain, who even bought a same pair for Uncle Romano. ("Isn't it adorable?" "SHUT THE FUCK UP YOU BASTARD!" Romano had replied, redder than the tomatoes on it. But he clearly liked it and from what Gabi said, wears it often. Gabe himself, honestly, didn't care much about clothing no one was going to see him in - but he hadn't been prepared for Ashleigh's party.)

I had a pink pajama with colourful flower pattern on it. Fred had flannel ones with a Canadian flag on it (and they say French and American people are patriots - they clearly haven't met Fred), Greenland ones with polar bear head pattern, Faroe grey-green striped ones, Anni had a beautiful light blue nightgown, Lars and Ingrid wore a dark purple pajamas with smiley faces (apparently a gift from Denmark, judging by Ingrid's slightly sour expression, but they looked comfy!), Sealand blue and white striped ones, Ladonia the same only with the colours green and orange, Ash ones with a crazy mixture of bright pink, blue and black, but George killed it with a long white nightgown with tons of laces. And with his long hair untied you could say he looked a little girlish, but girlish with style.

"Damn, Georgie! A pink bow and it's complete!" Fred teased. The said one only whipped his hair around in a posh manner. (Ashleigh seemed really distracted by the fact he was legitimately wearing a gown by his own free will. "Damn he looks good," she muttered under her breath. "Even more than usual.")

"Haters gonna hate."

"I'M JUST GONNA SHAKE SHAKE SHAKE-" Ash started, but soon was interrupted by Anni, who stuffed the river's mouth with some marshmallows.

"Hey Gabriel! How do your pajamas look like?" The Canadian demanded to know, for my cousin had held a blanket over him still, hiding his cute clothes.

"Come ooooooon!" I joined. "Gabrieeeeeeeeeel!"

"FUCK YOU YOU FUCKING FUCK!" The Balearian yelled instead, directing it at everybody and nobody in particular. "I HATE YOU ALL!....Well maybe except the twins 'cause they never bothered me."

"Cool. I don't hate you too," Ingrid replied with zero emotion in her voice.

"Cool," Gabe threw back.

"Ship," Ash said. A several people looked at her with all levels of confusion in their eyes. "Wait, what?"

I started tugging on the blanket, and soon others followed.

"NOOOOOOOOOOOOO!" The boy fell forward, overpowered by..really all of us at this point. And as he fell, his pajamas were revealed piece-by-piece. And soon his head, too, looked like a giant tomato.

"Awwwwwww," Fred teased his friend.

"This is so fitting ohmygod-"

"Cute."

"FUCK YOU!"

"...no."

"What?"

"WHAT!"

"...Let's collectivelly forget that ever happened.."

"Agreed."

______________

We watched a few movies, mostly romantic comedies, out of which I didn't really get much, I was too distracted by a) stuffing the free food down my throat b) someone wiggling c) mostly boys complaining that it was "too boring", but Ingrid was joined by a lot of people when she chanted "STAB! HIM! STAB! HIM! STAB! HIM!", much to Ash's disdain.

"I mean, we can always watch Titanic," she suggested.

"Ewww," Ladonia loudly spoke his mind.

"Plus there's *cough* that scene..." Anni supplied. Ash sighed.

"Okay, screw y'all, we're watching anime!"

"Why?" Fred asked.

"Idontknowwhattodowithmylifethatswhy!"

"...Jesus, I asked for a simply answer, not the story of your life."

"If someone told this to Forrest Gump, the movie would've been a lot shorter, you know."

"Fair enough."

"No seriously, what do you want to watch?"

"...horrors?" Gabe replied.

"Finland will shoot me and cut me to pieces if his kids watch horrors."

"...Your point?" Ashleigh gave him a getting-real-tired-of-this-shit kind of look, which was extremely rare to see upon the usual energetic, cheerful American's face.

And so we ended up watching something Ashleigh thought was "not really a horror", but was just scary enough for us younger ones and I can't sleep.

Oh joy! as George would say.

Gabe is fast asleep next to me, snoring lightly. The others are sleeping in sometimes embarrasing poses and I'm thinking about taking a few pictures, but then I realise I don't have my phone or a camera or anything here.

For example - Ashleigh and George are squished together, Fred is laying upside down from the couch (?????), Anni is cuddled up with Andrias and Greenland in one big pile, Ingrid and Lars are of course together and Sealand has his head buried in a bowl of popcorn.

After five minutes of trying to find a pen or sharpie or something to decorate their faces with, I had to give up.

"Griselda?" I hear and I freeze.

"Are you awake? Why are you awake?"

Oh wait. It's only Anni. Thank god.

"Can't sleep?" I hum.

"Want to lay down over here with us?"

I accept the offer and sink into the comfortable, warm pile.

And no nightmares come. 

_____________________

The slumber party no one asked for but everyone deserved.

Anyway, the next updates may take a little longer, because I'm going to write another story (Bnha related this time - for the Kiribaku week), so that'll take some time. It's only next week tho, so please be patient: I'm not saying there will NOT be updates, only that there will probably be less of them. Idk yet though. 

Thanks for reading, commenting etc. and see you soon! :)