"No one paid that much attention to Jahv on his first public outing, until he got tossed into the fountain and threw a lightning bolt." said Davy. "No one's going to pay that much attention now."
"When is this party?" asked Keyro.
"Two weeks from tonight." said Davy. "I can give you directions to the school, and you can meet us there."
"Great!" said Jahv.
"Indeed," said Arion. "I haven't attended a proper celebration since I left my homeworld."
Niklas and Davy weren't sure what to make of that remark, but decided to let it drop. They said their farewells, and headed out of their alien friends' new headquarters, and towards home. "I hope this doesn't blow up in our faces." said Niklas.
"Stop worrying." said Davy. "By the way, what were you planning on going as to the party?"
"I've been working on a pirate costume." said Niklas. "I've got this old striped shirt, and some ragged jeans my mom said I could cut up a bit. Put on a bandana and an eye patch and I think I'm set."
"I've got an old stuffed parrot toy." remarked Davy. "You could have your mom sew it to the shoulder of the shirt."
Niklas grinned. "Not bad. What about you?"
Davy stretched his arms. "Well, I was going to go as Adam from the Garden of Eden, but I'm not sure I can find a big enough fig leaf."
Niklas scowled, a desperate attempt not to grin. "You're sick, you know that?"
Two weeks passed. Niklas and Davy alerted the other neighborhood kids, those that knew about the four aliens, about their intended presence at the party. The more forewarned, the better off they might be in case something did go wrong.
The night of the party arrived. Niklas had arranged with just about everybody to meet in a darkened area behind the high school's athletic field scoreboard. Sniv, Jason, Fabian, Randy, and Jonathan had opted to head directly into the party. They were pleased to see their alien friends back, but they'd never been as involved with their activities as the rest of the boys.
Niklas had made good on his pirate outfit, complete with stuffed parrot. Davy had shown up wearing a sleeveless spandex leotard and claiming to be a professional wrestler. He'd inscribed the word «HUNK» on the front of the outfit. Keith was dressed in a leather jacket, blue jeans, and leather boots, stating that he was a biker. Martin was garbed in a loose-fitting white shirt, jeans even more shredded than Niklas', and a floppy straw hat — the sheer descendant of Huck Finn if there ever was one.
Keith wasn't quite able to restrain a few laughs when he saw Davy's uniform. "Jeez, Davy, if you have to advertise yourself that badly, why not rent out a billboard?"
"Watch it, pal, or I'll have to bodyslam you." countered Davy, more or less good-naturedly.
"So where's the aliens?" asked Keith.
"Here." came a new voice. Jahv, Keyro, Morik and Arion crept out of some nearby bushes. Jahv and Keyro were dressed in their usual spacesuits. Morik had taken the suggestion to dress in sort of a soldier's uniform, but he was going to have to pass himself off as a soldier of the future, given his long hair and the outfit itself, which consisted of a ridged, padded grey vest, black trousers with green and grey streaks in them, and the very high-tech boots. An insignia of Morik's own design was on the vest. He'd designed a cybernetic targeting eye to wear, in interesting high-tech contrast to the pirate eyepatch Niklas sported. Prince Arion was the wildest of all, garbed in a rather ornate, loose-fitting golden shirt, with turquoise trousers with red, glittering patterns running through it.
"Jeez, bird-head, what Las Vegas wardrobe did you raid to get that outfit?!" quipped Keith.
"I'll have you know that this is the ceremonial garb of the Royal House of Korras!" snapped Arion. Indeed, he'd managed to replicate it through the equipment in the dome-tent from memory. "And this is not how I am accustommed to attending parties."
"Just remember, this party isn't in YOUR honor." said Davy. Between Keith's wisecracks and Arion's attitude level obviously being set on «high» tonight, he was starting to get a little worried. "And don't expect to be announced when you walk in, either."
Arion snorted. "Barbaric primitives. No sense of ceremony."
The group headed out of the hiding place and towards the gym. "Anybody know what the rest of the gang was going to show up as?" asked Martin.
"Jonathan said something about showing up as an accident victim." remarked Niklas.
"That's hardly fair." said Keith. "You're supposed to come in costume, not as yourself."
"You sit on something sharp before you came here tonight, Keith?" asked Davy. "Tone down the attitude a bit."
"Yes, Hunk." said Keith.
"Fabian and Jason said something about coming as rock stars." added Niklas. "I don't know what Sniv or Randy had in mind."
The group entered the gym. Despite the presence of several hundred children and teenagers of varying ages, all the way from preschoolers to high schoolers, it didn't take long to spot the others. Jonathan had wrapped a bandage around his head and spattered red paint on it. He was also wearing a torn T-shirt that he'd drawn a tire tread across (or possibly rolled an actual tire across given how authentic it looked), and had smeared a bit of fake dirt and blood on his arms and legs. He was being given a generally wide berth.
Fabian and Jason were wearing phony, frizzed out wigs — Fabian's was green, Jason's was purple. They were dressed in tie-dyed T-shirts and blue jeans, and were carrying guitars. Keith muttered under his breath that they should call themselves the "Eyesore Twins". Randy was wearing a silver snow suit, which he'd attached NASA logos to, claiming he was an astronaut. Sniv had dressed as Spider-Man, apparently buying a commercially-produced costume, to which he'd added red rubber boots on which he'd drawn the web pattern, but instead of a mask, he'd painted his face with the Spider-Man mask pattern — entirely red, with black webbing lines, and the large, slanted black outlines around the eyes, with white centers.
Throughout the room was a miasma of costumes. Clowns, robots, monsters, animals, other superheroes, and several things defying description. At least three kids had gotten together and made a massive costume of some sort of nondescript but horrific-looking six-legged monster. Arion had to be restrained from attacking it. Niklas wondered how any of the inhabitants of the costume were able to get refreshments. Or even see where they were going. And milling through the crowd and watching over the refreshment tables were several dozen adults — in varying degrees of nervousness.
Music was playing, but only a few high schoolers were dancing. It was early in the evening, so everyone was still comparing costumes, and some of the younger kids were playing games.
"Uh-huh — and this race thinks of itself as an intelligent species." remarked Arion. "Riiiight…"
"Could be worse." said Niklas. "My sister could be here." Tina had managed to catch a nasty cold, and her parents refused to let her attend. It had taken all of Niklas' strength not to tease the daylights out of her over that one, but he realized doing so would likely get him barred from the party, as well. He'd let her have it later.
"Hey, amigo!" called a voice, and Sniv turned. It was his friend Ricky, whom he had first met when Keith and Martin had run away. He didn't see the boy all that often. Ricky was dressed — sort of — as a soldier. But nothing like Morik. He'd smeared green and brown paint on his face and arms, and was wearing a camouflage T-shirt and trousers. "Nice outfits!" said Ricky, then looking at Morik. "Wish mine looked that good." Ricky came from a poor family. The shirt and trousers were probably actual clothes of his.
"You look fine." said Sniv. "I think you've met some of the others?" Niklas and the rest of the group had wandered over.
"Yeah, but not those guys!" said Ricky, seeing Jahv, Keyro, Morik and Arion for the first time. "Those gotta be the best costumes I've ever seen!"
Sniv gulped. Ricky had never been introduced to the aliens. It just hadn't worked out. "Uh, yeah. This is Jeff, Kevin, Morris, and — Arion." Jahv and Keyro had been willing to assume names that were a little more normal-sounding for the night. Morik had simply taken up his usual «Morris» identity. Arion had categorically and obstinately refused any alteration to his name.
Ricky scowled. "That's a weird name. You not from around here, amigo?"
"Hardly." said Arion with an icy tone to his voice.
Sniv and Ricky wandered off. Niklas walked up to Arion. "What's ruffled your feathers — pun intended?"
Arion glared. "Do you have the slightest idea what 'ameegoh' means in my language?"
"Well, in his language, it means friend — so make nice." said Niklas. Arion just shrugged. "Are there refreshments around here?"
Niklas pointed at towards the long refreshment table. It was actually a bit of a buffet. Somebody had reasoned that there was no reason to just have candy at the party. Besides, who wanted to deal with several hundred sugar-whacked kids in costumes? The high school wanted their gymnasium left relatively intact, thank you. Arion nodded and walked off.
"I hate to say this, but he's royalty, all right. A royal pain." remarked Niklas.
"I suppose he's used to higher living than this," said Davy, "his ability to fly notwithstanding."
"Well, if he's going to hang around for any length of time, he'd better get over it." affirmed Niklas.
"He's not that bad," said Jahv. "But I'll admit he takes getting used to. I think he tends to act arrogant to mask his nervousness sometimes."