(PARTY; JAMDER) Light the Night // *

[Cinder Maebell Lynn]

ignite the light *

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Cinder had started lots of parties, all with planning, decorations, and tons of food. But this was the first party that had a theme. She had gone all-out with the decorations, but more on that later. First lets focus on what she was doing at the current time: Getting ready. Heart pounding as she freaked the freak out about what people would think about her decorations, she took a shower. Then she slipped a robe on and curled her hair, letting hairspray be her best friend for one more time. But that wasn't all she did to her hair - she also sprayed it with Juicy Couture perfume (Black Friday sale, baby!), then dashed it with a bit of silver glitter, and flipped it over her shoulder. Usually she went with gold stuff, but not today; today she was wearing a festive silver dress, so she wore silver to go along with it. By the time she was done with her makeup, she had added a silver sparkle and little dot of gold eyeliner at the corner of her eye, so it made even her eyes pop with silver. She really hoped she wasn't overdoing the silver.

Then was her dress. She took it out of it's case just to look at it, and instead of putting it on, she put it back into its case and slipped on an old pair of jeans. The only thing she put on from what she was going to wear was her red jewelry, so she walked out of her cabin (fighting the mob of annoyed and eccentric girls trying to go to the Christmas party, with Max Darke yelling at them), moving slowly so she didn't touch her makeup and once she got to the big hall, she looked around. She was the first there, so she would have a crack at the last decorations she wanted. So she sprinted to work; hanging this, pinning that, writing this, folding that, laying a table cloth. Then she stopped being OCD and looked at it. Just really looked.

The Mess Hall had never looked better. There were several tables, all round, all thrown to one side in an artistic-but-comfortable layout to the left. Half the tables had white table clothes, half had red. There were four chairs around a few tables that were bigger, and two chairs around several more. There was more chairs then people that were expected to show up, but it didn't really matter. Anyway, the middle of the floor was polished and shining wood, with lights shining down it as a dance floor, then at the back wall there was a makeshift stage for people to preform at (Cody had planned the music, so Cinder didn't get much say in that, so whatever he said went) with musical instruments already in place. On the right, there was a long table against the wall, where people would put their presents if they wanted to give them anonymously. She, though, wanted to give Jamie hers herself. Back on decorations before Aries has to re-write another description instead of copying this one: There where Christmas-esque balloons placed in lonely corners, and there where strings of popcorn hanging from the ceiling to look like snowflakes, and also a few balls of mistletoe placed where unsuspecting couples might walk.

She just stared in awe at it for a moment. The lighting and the music was going to make it so much better, but it was already perfect. But, before too long, she yanked herself out of that daze to go finish getting dressed, practically sprinting into the bathroom to make sure no one saw her before she finished.

Once there, she put on her silver dress and pinned her hair up into a formal, but messy-ish bun to show that she still had hair, she just wasn't leaving it down. Her dark hair glittered with... glitter as she shoved it in carefully, taking time to get every strand perfect. Then she realized she didn't have much time, so she put on her tailored dress and red heels, along with her red necklace and bracelet, then gave herself one more pep-talk to calm her beating-faster-then-normal heart, before she took James's wrapped present into her hands, and walked out of the door.

outfit[/i] cliiiick~
muse[/i] good enough.
notes[/i] ohaidere.
words[/i] ~700

[James Darkwood]

James was running around madly. He had offered to help Cinder with the decorations earlier, but she had declined his offer. He would have insisted, but he had other things to do. He was extremely busy getting together all of the information on who was coming and all that. In fact, he barely had the time to throw a suit out of his trunk that he had. The day of the party, he was feeling very rushed. Honestly, he was pretty sure that this suit was a little bit small on him. However, he had planned the party to be a formal, and he was going to wear it.

Getting ready for the party was pretty much the least of James's problems. He never really did anything. He dressed like any other normal guy. Jeans, t-shirt, sneakers. Being pretty close to an Aphrodite kid, you would think that he gave at least a little crap about how he looked, but he had never payed any attention to it. Although now he sort of had to.

The suit that he had picked out was a complete classic. White button-up, black jacket and pants and tie. When you're a party host, you have to make yourself presentable. The suit wasn't the big issue with his appearance. That would be his hair.

James's hair was insane. It stuck up in some very awkward and different directions and he never really tried to mat it down before. One time he had tried cutting it off, but that had desperately failed. Hair gel disgusted James in many ways. It was too greasy and smelled nasty and then when it dried up it got stuck in globs and just ... ugh, ew. So he never went with that. This time he just decided to wet his hands and see what he could do. He pulled the sticking up strands down and ran through them with his fingers. At one point, he had considered dying the tips of his hair maroon-ish, but decided that it would look really strange. He smoothed it over to one side and the edges were angled down in some sort of way. After throwing this last-second-outfit together, he ran up the mess hall.

Entering the mess hall was like a dream. Cinder had made it like some sort of holiday fantasy or something like that. There were round tables pushed to the side and a polished dance floor and a stage where the music would be performed. It looked amazing. Standing there, with her back turned to him, was Cinder. Even from the back she looked goregous. Her hair sparkled in the lighting and her dress looked fairly amazing. Then James got a devious plan.

He walked as quietly as he could behind her. He doubted she could hear him. Keeping his head down - a huge, six foot four guy sneaking up behind you seems kind of noticable - and ran up and wrapped his arms around her waist and kissed her cheek. Classic.

[Cinder Maebell Lynn]

ignite the light *

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Cinder checked off her clipboard. Food - check, Decorations - check, Lighting - check, Secret Santa list - check, Presents - check, She hummed softly, still having around fifteen minutes before people were supposed to arrive. She moved her dark finger slowly through the checklist, checking everything off with a red pencil when she got too it. She stopped for a moment to tuck a strand of loose, glittery hair behind her ear before resuming. Planning parties where so much work! Not that she minded; she liked keeping busy. Especially when it was something like this, where everyone got something out of it. In a fit of her ADHD, she started walking around the room to test walking in her shoes. She walked perfectly in them, so she turned back to her checklist.

Just before she checked the second to last thing, arms wrapped around Cinder waist and someone kissed her cheek. She jumped slightly, but grinned and turned around in James's arms so that they where nose-to-nose. Cinder pressed her lips against his lightly as a very friendly hello, still grinning.

"You look awesome." She told James sincerely. It was so strange to see him in something so formal - usually it was jeans and, if he was feeling really dressy, a t-shirt. She remembered how he looked when she first kissed him - spiky hair, the playby of James Phelps no shoes, and simple jeans. She had fallen in love instantly, but somehow she knew that that guy she had kissed was not the guy standing in front of her. The guy standing in front of her was a responsible adult, not someone who played guitar without shoes on. She kissed him on the cheek once and then just looked at him for a second before remembering something.

"Oh! Guess who your Secret Santa is." She smiled again. Of course she had put them together. What else was she supposed to do? Watch some girl fall all over him to give him the present, accidentally knocking him under the mistletoe? No way, Jose! She wasn't letting Jamie out of her sight; girls where always trying to get him to kiss him, and with mistletoe and the said girls in short dresses wasn't going to make it any better. Sometimes Cinder wished people would just get that some people where taken and some weren't. People really needed to respect their boundaries.

outfit[/i] cliiiick~
muse[/i] good enough.
notes[/i] ohaidere.
words[/i] enough

[James Darkwood]

After their kiss, James hastily wiped the lip gloss off of his lips with the back of his sleeve in a mocking manner. With her compliment, he bowed. "You're going to be so proud, Cinder." he told her "I combed my hair today." she straightened up with joking confidence. He gave her a once-over. "And how extremely wise of you to wear a strapless dress for the occasion." he said, jokingly waggling his eyebrows. He knew that she was never going to let him out of her sight for three seconds. James had no doubt that he would be forced under the mistletoe by some girl that he had no idea what hell her name even was.

Hmm ... let's see ... guess who his Secret Santa was? "Is it a supermodel? Because I wouldn't mind something from a supermodel." he told her, raising his eyebrows. A coy smile spread across his face, "I'm just kidding." he said, chuckling to himself. He was going to have an amazing time tonight. "I'm guessing it is none other than Miss Beautiful Sparkles herself." he paused and added "Who I'm sure is much better than a supermodel." he winked at her and took in the mess hall.

"The place looks amazing, you know." he told her "Did you seriously do this all yourself?" then a troubled expression crossed his face "I should have helped you." he mumbled, sighing and running his fingers through his hair, trying to keep it down.

Slowly, he grabbed the details of the room. "By the way," he said, glancing at her "I get a turn under that mistletoe." he looked at his watch. The party started at seven and went until about four AM. Guests were free to come and go as they pleased. Honestly, he wasn't forcing anyone to stay or leave. And he most certainly wasn't locking people in a gorgeously-decorated mess hall for a whole night. That would be very rude, now wouldn't it?

"So," he said, turning himself to face her "Anything else we need to do to get this thing started?" he had to admit, the mess hall looked complete. But, knowing Cinder, she might have had something else in mind to add. After all, it was a holiday party. You can never overdo one of these things. You could do almost anything with a holiday party if you had some imagination, glitter, and paper snowflakes.

[Cinder Maebell Lynn]

ignite the light *

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"I am so proud, James Robert Darkwood." Cinder giggled, then wagged a finger at him at the strapless dress comment. "Cinder Darkwood. Hm. Cinder Lynn Darkwood. Cinder Maebell Darkwood. Huh... Cinder Maebell Lynn Darkwood. They all sound great!" So that was really off topic, but whatever. It was the least-dirty thing she could come up with as a counter topic. Her heart pounded a bit at the thought of them actually getting married some day. She could picture them walking down the isle, she in a white, flowing dress. And he would be in--

Cinder laughed at his goofiness. "Miss Beautiful Sparkles will not give you your present if you keep this up!" She threatened hollowly. She had spent a lot of money on that thing; he was going to get it one way or another. "And she agrees with you; she is much better then a supermodel." She giggled again and twirled around. "Beautiful though? I thought I might have overdone the sparkles." She said. Then she stopped spinning and threw her arms around her neck, looking up into his face.

"It wasn't hard. Trust me. I just threw some stuff here, little bit there. It was no big deal. I wanted to clean it better, but I didn't have the time. Is there anything wrong with it?" Cinder bit her lip carefully. She found herself seeking his approval with all her heart. She wanted to kiss him again, but she also didn't want to be random; there was still a few things to do.

She thought for a moment. "Of course! After all the other guys that are paying me, of course." She said, then seh grinned. "Just kidding. You're my one and only." She sad, lacing her fingers through his with a bright smile. He was so cute. And he was even trying to change. For her! She had been wrong about him. He was the perf to her ection. She wondered what her dad would think, but then her thoughts snapped back into place.

"I wanted to put glitter on the floor, but I figured that people would slip. Especially in dress shoes. I can't really think of anything else; just waiting on Allie for the lighting. Suggestions?" Again; she was seeking his approval. She always was. From him, from her dad, from Tal, from Maddie, from Em, from anyone. She just always needed to know that she was doing something right. That's not how she viewed it, though. She viewed it as wanting an audience for her splendor.

And gods know she always had one.

outfit[/i] cliiiick~
muse[/i] mehh.
notes[/i] ...
words[/i] enough