When we’d finished eating we all walked down to the forest and into the clearing; we always used for parties that were outside because it was quite big and the trees around the outside were quite close together. Lanterns had already been hung up around the trees and there was already a stage up where the band would be playing. I could see the stall in the corner where the drinks were and made another mental note of its position. There was still some things to do to get ready so Roan and I organised a group of lads to go and get some chairs from the hall and arrange them in small areas around the outskirts of the clearing. Once that was under way we got a group of girls to set up some more lights in a path on the ground so that people would be able to find their way out of the forest in the dark.

Then we walked over to the alcohol stall to check on the supply, even though I didn’t drink much of the stuff, we still had to  make sure that it was a party that lived up to a certain standard and that standard included lots of free dinks. I checked that there was also a load of non-alcoholic fruit cocktails and water for those people that liked to start off slow and then build up, and give him his credit, Roan had actually gotten plenty in.

We walked into the middle of the clearing and did a quick survey of the appearance, tweaking a few lights that weren’t quite in the right place, sorting out the small barrier that separated the VIP area from the rest of it and then it was ready, all that was left to do was go back up to our rooms, get changed and make our traditional speech upon entrance.

As we walked out of the forest we could see the first few people already coming down ready to get in the queue for the party, as we passed them they all said hi and how much they were looking forward to it and how appreciative they were for being invited, blah, blah, blah, it got pretty repetitive to be honest.

Once we were in our room I asked Roan about why he was looking at Midori and me in that way at the evening meal. He just shrugged it off and said “No reason.” But he didn’t meet my eye, so I could tell that he was lying, but I knew that he’d tell me in his own time so I left it.

I was glad that I’d remembered to get me white shirt cleaned the day before and put it on, with the first few buttons open, I also pulled on my blue denim trousers and quickly checked the leather strap and coin around my neck; it had been my fathers and I always wore it. I quickly ran a comb through my hair and ruffled it up a bit at the back to make it stick out again.

Once I was ready I turned to Roan and watched him sort out his hair in the mirror that I had just used. I found what he was wearing ironic; a light green shirt and slightly darker blue denim trousers than me. He caught me looking and asked what was up, “Nothing, ready to go?”

“Yep.” He said with a child like grin on his face.

As we approached the forest we could hear the music playing loudly and grinned at each other when the lights from the trees came into view; it had been a good idea to position some facing upwards, they looked like beams shining brightly into the night sky. As we walked past the end of the queue and straight to the door someone shouted our names, but we ignored them, pretending that we hadn’t heard. We went straight to the entrance to the clearing and smiled at the two massive guys standing proudly there, they let us through immediately. We walked into the middle of the dance floor and clapped three times and everything immediately stopped, all the dancing, all the music and talking, it was so dramatic that I almost started to laugh.

Roan started the speech as usual, “Well friends, welcome to our party, this one is in honour of my dear Shigeru here,” punch on the arm, “receiving private lessons with Sensei, now I want you to all give him a cheer of congratulations.” A big cheer rang out as prompted. Now it was my turn.

“Thank you. This party isn’t just for me, it’s for all of us to let our hair down a bit and to have a good time, are you ready!?”

“Yeah!!”

“Good ‘coz this party’s going to blow your mind! Alright?”

“Yeah!!”

“But remember boys and girls, be good and for god’s sake enjoy yourselves!!... Within reason of course.” I said with a smile on my face but with a warning tone in my voice that I made sure everyone heard.

“Yes, and if you don’t we’ll have to set Sensei’s star pupil on you all, and failing that, Frasier over there would be willing to give us a helping hand.” Roan said indicating at another huge man standing by the VIP area and laughing. Roan had a huge grin on his face but had been speaking in the same warning tone as I had. We looked at each other and grinned, “But for now… ““Enjoy!”” we both shouted.

We walked to the VIP area through loud clapping and when we got there Roan turned around, “Well, why isn’t there music playing?” he shouted and immediately the band started to pick up a song.

“You two are such show offs.” Arian said good naturedly as we walked through the seats.

“Of course we are!” Roan said loudly “But you wouldn’t have it any other way.” He finished, winking at her flirtatiously, she stuck her tongue out in reply. Roan noticed that there was an empty seat next to her and sat down in it, this surprised me because he usually went to the place where the most girls were, and Arian was sitting mostly on her own. I didn’t give it too much thought before I went to find Midori; someone told me that she was on the dance floor with Zana so I went to look for her and found them both in the middle dancing together. I walked up behind her, mouthing to Zana not to tell her I was coming, then I put my hands over her eyes and kissed her gently on the neck.

“Hmm, I wonder who that is?” She said playfully, taking my hands down and putting them onto her hips. We danced like that for a while, so that we were both facing Zana, “I’m like the odd one out here, I’m going to find myself someone to dance with, see ya.” And then she walked off.

Midori swivelled around in my arms so that she faced me and put her arms round my neck. We danced for a couple of songs but it was very busy and very hot so we soon went over to the drinks stand and I got us both a fruit drink. We took our drinks back to the less crowded VIP area and sat down for a bit, I noticed that Arian and Roan were still talking, and what was even stranger was the fact that Roan still didn’t have a drink, and we were easily twenty minutes into the party.

We sat for another ten minutes or so and Roan and Arian were still in deep conversation, Midori and I were talking about it quietly when a well built blonde girl tried to walk into the VIP area, “Erm excuse me, but I don’t think that you’re allowed in here.” I told her politely.

“Oh, I’m sorry, I just came to see Roan, but if he’s busy I don’t mind talking to you instead.” She said bating her eyelashes in a very flirtatious manner

“He’s a bit busy at the moment. Do you want me to give Roan a message for you?” Midori asked her, coming up behind me and putting her arms around my waist with a very obvious statement; back off, he’s mine. The blonde shot her an evil look and then directed her words at me as if I’d asked the question.

“Yes please, could you tell him that Lilia is here?”

“Yeah sure, one sec.” I put my arm around Midori’s waist and she did the same to me, slipping one hand down onto my bum as we were walking. “Erm Roan?”

“Yeah?” he said looking up at me.

“There’s someone here to see you, Lila? Lilia? Something like that.”

“Oh, right, where is she?”

“At the entrance to the VIP area.”

“Can you get rid of her for me? I’m kind of busy.” He asked, looking to the entrance, he really shouldn’t have done that.

“Roan!” She was coming through.

“Oh, God.” Roan murmured under his breath.

“Heya Ro, I knew that you’d love to see me, so I just came over to say hi!” She noticed how close Roan and Arian were and did a slight double take, “Oh, but if you’re busy?”

“No, I’m just going to get something to drink, coming Midori, Shigeru?”

“Yeah sure.” Midori said and dragged me along behind her and Arian. Roan shot me a desperate look but I only shrugged, mouthing that I’d be back as soon as they’d let me go.

I got dragged over to the drinks stand, saying I didn’t want anything and then watching Arian downing a shot as Midori slowly drank a fruit cocktail. I could tell that Arian wanted to talk to Midori on her own, so I made some excuse and left them to it. I quickly walked back over to the VIP area where Roan was sitting with that blonde from before and two other big bosomed girls. I raised my eyebrows in a greeting and Roan smiled at me desperately.

“Oh, hey.” One of the girls said in a low, I think meant to be sexy voice.

“Hi.” I said back to her abruptly. “Erm Roan, We need your help at the drinks stand, apparently they’ve run out of fruit cocktails already so we need something else to serve the guests, and quickly.”

“Oh right, sorry girls but I’m going to have to sort this out, and you’re all going to have to leave the VIP area until later, it’s just a rule.”

“Oh, that’s okay, we understand.” Lil… something or other said.

We ushered them out of the VIP area and then made our way to the drinks stand as quickly as possible. “I can’t believe we’ve run out of fruit cocktails already, I thought you checked them?”

“I did. You idiot Roan, we haven’t really run out.” I said, rolling my eyes at him.

“Oh, clever.” He said, smiling at me appreciatively.

“Look, there’s Midori and Arian.” I said, starting to make my way over to them, but Roan held me back.

“Shig, I need your advice.”

“Why, what’s up?”

“I think I really like Arian.”

“What do you mean?”

“Well, I dunno, she’s just so different to the other girls I speak to, she knows what she’s talking about, she says stuff that makes me think, and I really like her and not just for the obvious reasons.”

“Which are?”

“Well you saw how long I’ve been talking to her for?”

“Yeah.”

“I don’t think I pictured her in her underwear once during the whole time we were talking, I was actually just thinking about how pretty she looked in this light. I think I’m going mad, it’s not normal.” He said shaking his head.

“Roan, I think you might be falling for her.”

“What do you mean?”

“Nothing at the moment, don’t even think about it, just act naturally around her and see how it goes.”

“Okay then, if you say so.” We walked over and sat down in the seats next to them. “Well that was awkward.” Roan said conversationally, neither of the girls said anything, so I decided I’d chip in.

“What do you mean?”

“Well, that Lilia, she’s nice, but she’s a bit ditzy, I kind of feel mean.”

“What for?” Midori asked him curtly.

“Well, I was trying to get away from her for most of that conversation.”

“Why?”

“Because I don’t really like talking to her that much, the conversation is too, I don’t know, basic, I like talking to people who make me think.”

“Me and Midori better go and dance and leave you two alone then.” I said jokingly, receiving a punch on the arm from Midori for my efforts.

“Oh, haha very funny.” She said pulling a tongue at me.

“Fine, why don’t we all go and dance?” I suggested, standing up and taking Midori’s hand, Roan stood up as well, but Arian just stayed sitting down. He looked at he helplessly, so I raised my eyebrows an opened my eyes a bit, looking at Arian. “Ask her to dance.” I mouthed at him silently.

 He extravagantly put his hand out to Arian, “Would you care to dance my fair lady?” She looked up at him cautiously, as if trying to work out whether he’d just make fun of her if she accepted, but even I could see the sincerity in his eyes.

“Okay.” She said quietly and let him lead her into the middle of the dance floor with Midori and me following. I mouthed at the band to play a slow song and they hit it just as we got to the centre. Midori put her arms around my neck, I put mine round her waist and she then rested her head on my chest. We started to dance together slowly, really only swaying from side to side. Arian and Roan stood in the middle of the dance floor awkwardly, I could tell that neither wanted to make the first move, but eventually Roan took her hands and placed them gently on his shoulders and then put his arms just on her waist. They seemed to be looking everywhere but each others eyes and I was beginning to give up hope, when finally they looked at each other and their gazes stayed locked together.

I nudged Midori carefully, trying not to attract her attention too quickly, just in case they noticed her looking and became self conscious. She saw them and then looked at me smiling, “She likes him doesn’t she?” I asked Midori quietly.

“He likes her too doesn’t he?”

“Yes, I think he’s fallen for her completely.”

“Good.” I smiled and gently kissed her on the lips. When I looked up I saw that Arian also had her head on Roan’s shoulder, and he had a contented smile on his face. The song finally ended and Roan took Arian’s hand from his shoulder and kissed the back of it, I’d never seen him do it before and I suddenly realised how much he really did like her.

The beat of the music picked up and we started to dance a bit faster with our arms just around each others waists. Roan had to go and tie up his lace so left the dance floor for a few minutes, Midori, Arian and me were left dancing together, but Arian said that she was going to go and get a drink and walked off a bit, so Midori and me just switched our attention to each other, so we didn’t notice the tallish dark haired boy pull Arian to him, put one hand over her mouth or put his other hand up her top and then try and grope her.

Luckily Roan was coming back onto the dance floor at about the same time that this was happening and saw the boy pull Arian over to him. I don’t think I’ve ever seen Roan move so quickly, he rushed over to Arian and punched the boy in the cheek so hard that it knocked him over. Arian was left standing and Roan immediately pulled her into his arms as she started to cry. The boy stood back up and I could see from his eyes and his stance that he was going to retaliate, I was by Roan’s side in a mater of seconds, Midori hadn’t even moved.

The boy threw a punch back at Roan, but before it had even gotten half way I had taken his feet out from underneath him and had one foot on his chest. He tried to get up, but I just pushed him back down again. He went to try and twist my foot, but I just bent down and punched him on the other cheek, “Don’t even try it.” I said through gritted teeth.

Midori eventually arrived and took Arian out of Roan’s arms. “What the hell did you think you were doing?” Roan snarled at the boy on the floor.

“There’s no need to be like that it was only a bit of fun with a bird.”

“A bit of fun!” Roan shouted, kicking him in the side and then spitting on him, “Stand up.” I took my foot off the boy and let him stand.

“You’re not in our cycle.” I said to him quickly, he was definitely in the sixteenth cycle, I had seen him at lunch the day before.

“Well, that changes things.” Roan said with a smile on his face.

“What do you mean?” The boy grunted.

“Well, I was going to fight you, but there are specific rules about kids that sneak into our parties, I guess your punishment will just have to be intensified. Any ideas?” He said with a wild gleam in his eyes. I wasn’t sure if Roan was being a bit harsh, but then I looked back at Arian and saw the tears still streaming down her cheeks.

“I’ve got one.”

“Pray tell.”

“Since he like to grope ‘birds’, how about we make him into one?” I said smiling widely.

“Hmm, that sounds interesting, what do you suggest? Remember, he’s got to be made an example of.”

“Have any girls here got an old dress that hey don’t want or need? The uglier the better?” A couple of girls put their hands up, “Please will you all go and get them, that way we can have a bit of fun and put it to a vote.” The girls all ran from the clearing.

“If you think you’re putting me in a dress then you’ve got another think coming!”

“Oh no little boy, it’s you who should have thought twice.” Roan said mockingly. “Frasier, Reed.” Two big burley guards came and stood either side of the boy, who looked rather small in comparison.

The girls returned with the dresses and I walked over to the stage holding all of them, then we had a quick vote on which dress would be the best to put him in; the pink one won. It was a bit of a struggle putting him into the dress but we managed to do it in the end. Then we tied him up, put him onto a chair and carried him to the edge of the forest. We then created a sort of pulley system and managed to get him into a tree on the outskirts of the forest. We sat him on a branch and tied him to the trunk and then left him there. He was not happy and we could hear his shouts follow us as we walked back to the party it was quite funny but no on was laughing, the reason behind the punishment was too sombre, even so, this would be another one for the record books.