The sound of a muffled clap reverberated around the room. The cheap microphone smacked against the palm of Rin’s hand, and sent the sound through a couple speakers set up on the kitchen worksurface.

“Okay everyone we’re going to start the costume competition. I’m sending the list of everyone’s costumes to the group chat. If you haven’t told me your’s come to me in the next five minutes otherwise it’s a guess.”

Jack and Jude were sat on top of a box freezer. There was enough room for them both. Jude, true to his word, was dressed in a tight dark blue ninja suit. His black sliders sat snuggly on his feet.

Jack had a white tank top on, loosely fitting; he’d bought the top to be size accurate not taking into account his shoulders weren’t that wide. Tight jeans with brown gun holsters that had two orange water pistols in.

Jude sipped from a large mug. “Isn’t it hard to drink in that suit?” Jack asked.

“Well yeah but only if my mask is up.”

“But aren’t you going to have to have your mask up to win the costume contest?”

“Oh yeah right and win what? That T-Shirt Rin is hiding from us?” Jude took another sip from his drink.

“Okay next question then. Who’d cha think is the hottest?” As if on cue Jude hesitated and spat some of his drink back into his mug.

“I’m not going to answer.”

“Personally, I like that Halyn girl.”

“The one with the pink hair.”

“Well yeah, her or Alice.” Jude gasped immediately.

“Bro you mean white hair, pink highlights, Alteration is parkour, in our team Alice?”

“Yeah man she’s cute.”

There was an awkward silence that washed over Jude, he just did not understand how to respond. He took a sip from his drink and scanned the room. His eyes landed on Nerissa, she had decided to go for a traditional Greek garb; the toga left little up to the imagination, fitting her form perfectly.

“Ten pound if you slap her arse.” Rin’s devilish voice came from behind Jude. Immediately he blushed and thought it through.

“Isn’t that sexual harassment?”

“Nope, it’s ten pound in your pocket.”

Though his moral compass was strong his greed was stronger.

She was stood with a bunch of the girls on the course, though not really with them more by them. As Jude approached, he noticed every step he took, every beat of his heart and the drop of sweat that trickled down his skin.

Now directly behind her he took a deep breath and swung his hand.

There was no impact. There was however a heavy pressure pushing down on his wrist. “You’re not doing what I think you’re doing are you, Jude?” The sultry voice was stern and sharp.

“I don’t know what you mean Nerissa.” Speaking only caused her to tighten her grip.

Flinging her arm forward she threw his body forward. His ear was next to her face as she began to whisper, “Skip the club and come to my room when everyone leaves and maybe I’ll forget about what you’ve done. Okay” She strained the finally word until a yes escaped his lips.

A stinging pain still emanated from his wrist and to make matters worse Jude’s spot on the freezer had been taken by Rin. Rin himself was wearing a big cheesy grin. “Guess I’ll keep my tenner.”

“Don’t you have a list of costumes to announce?” Jude dryly retorted trying to regain some sense of fun back to his night.

With a sigh Rin called out to the room. “Right, everyone. I’m just gonna send the list of candidates to your respective group chats. Choose one winner per team and each of ‘em gets a special prize.”

Simultaneous pings and vibrations could be heard around the room as the messages came through.

Blue Team’s Costumes:

Agni – NO COSTUME DISQUALIFIED.

AJ – Wall Socket (Big White Rectangle)

Alice – E-girl??

Amelia – Lauren Crafter (The Spelunker)

Aria-Mae – Zombie Nurse

Camelia – Green (Might be Deadly Nightshade?)

Connor – Viking

Damian – Tengu (Long red nose)

Delilah – Angel (The Superhero one)

Jack – Nathaniel Dragon

Jonathan – Bert Samson

Jude – Ninja

Kuna – NO COSTUME

Leo – Professor When

Nerissa – Toga (Greek Dress thingy)

Olivia – Statue of Liberty

Rafe – Pig Mask

Rin – Wizard

Sahar – Orange Training Gi thingy (From an anime apparently)

Sofia – Ghost (The sheet over her head)

Sol – NO COSTUME DISQUALIFIED

X – NOT HERE

Zero - Butler

Zoe – Creepy Doll

Please DM your favourite.

Damian waddled his way over to the group, the mask impaired his vision. “Yo lads, told you my costume was awesome huh?”

“You know what it’s pretty fucking sick.” Replied Jack. “Where’d you get it?”

“I picked up the pieces from around. The mask I got…” Damian began to drone on, and Jude zoned him out to focus on who to vote for. Yes, there were some good efforts but people like him and Rin who had dumb costumes from the shop were pretty good as well. On the other hand, his brain belonged to a hot blooded straight teenage boy so Aria-Mae with a ripped nurse costume in the right place or a toga that fit every curve of Nerissa’s body had his attention.

Eventually he sent Rin his choice. He unfortunately had to admit Damian had pulled off his promise and blew them away.

It was now 11:00 p.m. and everyone was gearing up to leave before a shout tore through the room. “Wait!” Rin screamed as loud as he could “I gotta announce the winners and give them their prizes.” At this point no one cared, they just wanted this over with.

“So the winner of Blue Team with ten votes is Damian and his Tengu costume.” It was hard to see an expression on his face but almost all of his friends could tell he was beaming with joy.

“Red Team’s winner is Halyn with her half and half costume.”

“Finally Yellow’s team winner is Vinnie and his Sexy Sherlock Holmes…” Rin trailed off as a tall guy, no shirt but only Sherlock’s hat, walked over to him.

The three winners came up to Rin, expecting their prize. Never one to doubt himself Rin thought the prize was something they would all love. He pulled out three white t-shirts, surprisingly he has the right size for them all.

On all three was a picture.

A fat racoon.

Rin beamed with pride.

Damian laughed.

Halyn looked really happy. She would have preferred if the shirt was in black, but it went with her wardrobe.

Vinnie just stared in confusion, wrapped it around his waist and walked off.

Everyone began filing out of floor 4’s living room and kitchen and off to wherever they’d be off that night be that a club, their room or in Jude’s case someone else’s room.