The party

Once again I have to thank you all for the feedback, the ideas and the nice things you said.
Matt, I am sorry these vignettes are driving you crazy.
I am so sorry, in fact, I will post a few more. You know I'm a tease!

By the way, I am going through this out of order as the fancy strikes me, and I like that what I am posting on the blog is like the pieces of a puzzle we'll have to put together later on.

So, here we go.
It's time we met two characters we have mentioned but never saw.


Fuck them, Penny thought. She hated this shit.
Her mother had dragged her to the stupid ‘Welcome Party’ the neighbors had thrown for them and she felt like in some sort of nightmare.

She hated this shit!
“They’re just used to meet their stupid friends on the weekend,” she had said to Stella. “It’s not like they are making this special for us.”
“But they have been kind enough to invite us,” her mother had replied. “And so we are going, because…”
“Yeah, yeah…” she had flipper her mother the bird and walked away, but in the end she had decided to come along. She had put on a mesh body stocking over which she had wrapped a ripped black tee and a very tight denim mini. She meant to be outrageous.
Now the people in the Mancuso’s back lawn were looking at her like she was a street hooker, and for a while she had enjoyed the shocked stares and the whispered comments of the old people gathered there.
“I hope you don’t mind if I smoke,” she had said, blowing smoke in the face of cheerful plump Carla Mancuso as they shook hands.
“Of course not, dear,” the woman had replied with a bright smile and a complicit wink. “I’m somewhat of a social smoker too, so maybe later I’ll come over and bum one of yours.”
That had REALLY pissed Penny off.
The scandalized looks of the other guests at the party were all right. They were exactly what she wanted. She did not care about them, she wanted them to hate her just as much as she hated them. But the way in which the hostess and her husband were treating her was driving her mad.
“I’m Art,” Carla’s hunky husband had said. He was tall, muscular. “I’m manning the grill, so I won’t be around much, but—well, welcome. Enjoy yourself.”
“We also have a selection of salads if you’re vegan,” Carla had added, coming over and hooking her arm in her husband’s.
They were plain ignoring her looks, and her manners.
They were actually friendly!
Fuck them!
Now she looked around, in search of her mother. She’d tell the bitch she was going home. Enough of this shit. She needed some music and some weed.
Finally she spotted Stella, in her ridiculous calico dress. She was standing by the fence, talking to the tall blonde she’d made friends with. The mother of Little Miss Perfect from school. Lisa, or Lita or something. Tight jeans and a football jersey. How old she thought she was?
Penny walked there.
“So in the end it’s just a matter of silencing your own voice and adapt to the client’s—” Stella was saying.
“That’s fascinating,” the blonde replied. Then she caught sight of Penny and beamed at her. “Hi!”
Penny ignored. “I’m going home,” she said to her mother.
Stella frowned. “That’s not—”
"Fuck it, I'm going."
The blonde placed her hand on Stella’s forearm. “I guess it’s pretty boring for a young woman,” she said. She smiled at Penny. “My daughter was supposed to be here with some of her friends but—”
“As if I cared,” Penny snapped, and then bit her tongue. She had decided to completely ignore her mother’s friend.
Stella glanced at the blonde, and then nodded. “OK, if you want to go. I’ll stay here a little more and then--”
“Suit yourself.”
Penny turned on her heels and walked away.
“Where was I…?” she heard her mother say. “Oh, yeah. Ghostwriting.”
Penny snorted and pranced on.
She saw Carla come out of the kitchen carrying two big jugs of lemonade, and was caught by an inspiration.
She let Carla go by and then she slipped into the back door. She went through kitchen, picking a sandwich along the way. She took a bite as she did a tour of the parlor. The house was clean, bright. There was a scent of vanilla in the air.
She finished the sandwich and went up the stairs.
The first door she tried was locked, but the second was a large bathroom, all white and orange hues. She sat on the toilet, and lit up a blunt. She filled her lungs and closed her eyes. Wouldnt it be great were they to catch her like this?
She chuckled, and exhaled.
The lawn party was a million miles away.
She got herself properly backed, enjoying the way in which the pot was making her stupid, but so incredibly aware. Her fury faded, and she finally stood, feeling mischievous.
She drank some water from the tap, checked he makeup in the mirror, and then walked back into the corridor. Sound was coming from another room. Swaying gently on her platforms, she went there and opened the door.
Bookshelf, bed, a poster of the solar system and one of some Japanese cartoon. A big screen hooked up to a Playstation. A kid jumped on her chair and turned to her, eyes wide. He was gangling and pale,and his face remindedher of Carla.
Penny walked in, leering. Her eyes focused on the screen in front of the kid. Saturday morning cartoons, she thought.
No, she realized.

Caught in a freeze-frame was a young girl, short hair, naked and wrapped in a tangle of gooey tentacles. Two of the tentacles were wrapped around her huge boobs, squeezing cruelly. Another was in her mouth. Wide eyes, a surprised expression. Her body was impaled on two more tentacles, one in her fanny and one in her ass.
Penny eyed the kid. His face was beet-red.
“That’s cool,” she said, nodding at the video.
He cleared his voice. “You  into anime?” he asked.
She sat down heavily on his bed. “Never imagined they could be that interesting,” she giggled.
He looked at her uncertainly, then glanced at the screen, then back at her. “Want to watch it?”
Penny’s stoned smile widened. “Sure!”
“I’m Arthur, by the way,” he said, sitting back on his chair.
“I’m Penelope,” she said, scanning the syllables with care. “Do you mind if I smoke in your room?”