Frankie straightened his tie. The big night was here. Friends, family, media, and even totaly strangers were coming to his studio to celebrate the successful opening of his company Middle Monkey Studios. That, however, was not the reason he was standing in front of the mirror, shaking like a wet dog and trying to strangle himself with his tie. Nope. Tonight was the night. After 2 years, he was finally going to ask Jessi out. Kate knocked on the door.
"Frankie? It's Kate, can I come in?"
"Sure." she took one look at her friend and smiled.
"You're really going to do it, aren't you? You're going to tell her you love her"
"I don't know. I mean, after everything, what if it;s too soon?"
"It's been ages. Besides, Isabel and Rachel and I all think it's going to work, and if you can't trust us, who can you trust?"
"Well, maybe I'll trust you for relationship advice, when you finally admit that you like Zac."
"What, are you insane? Zac is the biggest goofball in the world, besides, he's like Mr. Manwhore. The only thing Zac could ever want from me is the one thing I'm not ready to give anyone."
"Point taken. Are the guests arriving yet?"
"Yep. Oh, and you should see Rach, she looks amazing. You could never tell now that she's had three kids. All the baby weight's gone." They took one last look in the mirror and headed down to greet everybody.
~*~*~
"Are you sure I look okay Iz?" Jessi asked for the millionth time.
"You know you look amazing, now, tell me how great I look." Isabel said, as she checked her hair in the limo mirror yet again.
"We rock. Ready to break hearts?"
"Always." They climbed out of the limo and walked past all the papparazzi.
Zac and Saku
Zac was in the limo with Saku and Orion, and they pulled up at the red carpet and got out.
"Yes," Saku said, softly, tugging again at his bowtie, "yes, ladies, I know I'm fabulous. The very sight of -"
"Saku?"
"Yes Dad?"
"Nevermind," Zac said, waving to the crowd.
Saku chuckled.
Orion, Rachel, Macauley, Keiran, Dakota, Dan and Tom (amongst others)
"And perhaps," Orion said, "Ix-nay on the 'dad' business around the paparazzi. Stick with the distant cousins story?"
~*~*~
Rachel kissed the babies and left them with the nanny before heading downstairs. Marco Jake and Cassie were supposed to be there, and she hadn't seen them in ages.
~*~*~
Macauley, Keiran, Quinn, Rory and Chris Culkin and their dates all pulled up to the party.they couldn't think if any better time to reenter the spotlight that than this.
~*~*~
Dakota and Keisha pulled up to the party. They were still reeling from losing Lilly, but they had already agreed to be there.
"Look happy. Remember, if they ask, we go to the same private school, and if they ask about the recent death, remember that Giles said to say she had a riding accident." Keisha reminded Dakota.
"This sucks,"
"Yep. She'd want us to have fun though. And Dan and Tom are going to be there."
~*~*~
Dan, Tom, Emma, Rupert and their dates all climbed out of the limo. They were taking time off of shooting Harry POtter to do this, so it was a much-needed break, except for Dan, who had to deal with the constant barrage of thoughts from total strangers.
Zac and Saku
"Like any of them would believe me," Saku replied, softly, so not to be overheard. "I look old enough to be his brother."
Zac chuckled, as they got to the end.
"Not now, boy," he murmered.
The usher greeted them, and after producing their tickets, showed them to their seats.
Frankie, Jessica, Isabel, Rachel, Orion and Macauley
Frankie took a few moments from greeting his guests to say hello to the girl of his dreams.
"Wow, Jess, you look amazing," he said.
"Thanks, you don't look to bad yourself," she said, and kissed him on the cheek.
"Thanks. i was hoping to talk to you alone after dinner, and before dancing if you don't mind. You look great too, Isabel."
"What, this old thing?" she said, joking. She'd spent two weeks making her dress, making sure nobody would have anything like it. Frankie kissed her hand and moved on, greeting the Culkins, and moving over to the other Hansons.
"Hey Zac, Saku, Orion," Frankie said. He saw Orion eyeing the glasses of champagne.
"If you get into any trouble tonight, well, there's more than one way to skin a cat. . . "
"Hmph," Orion said, sticking out his tongue.
~*~*~
Macauley saw a few pretty girls standing together, but one in particular caught his eye.
"Hey," he said, and the girls giggled a little.
"So your hair really does look like that," Isabel said, and Rachel elbowed her.
"She's just trying to act cool, as if she hasn't seen all your movies a million times," Kate said.
"So, are you ladies actresses?" Mac asked.
"No. Well, Kate's going to be in the movie and she's working on a soap opera. Rachel is the stunt woman for the movie, and Isabel and I are at fashion school. I'm Jessi Hanson." She shook Mac's hand.
"Hanson, as in the band?"
"I'm their sister, that's how we know Frankie, he and Zac are, like, best friends."
"So, you're Isabel?" He asked Rach.
"No, I'm Rachel, the stuntgirl."
"Is this your first job?"
"In the movie business, yeah. I help Frankie out with other stuff too, like the books and stuff. I live in one of the apartments upstairs."
"Oh, are you together?"
"Nah. We thought about it for, like, a day, but there was no spark. Anyways, we should get to our seats, I'm sure we'll bump into each other after dinner." The girls walked over to the table.
"Oh. My. God. Rachel, Macauley Culkin was just hitting on you," Isabel said. and the girls collapsed into giggles again.
Saku and Zac
"Hehe," Saku giggled. "Unless the champange has kero in it, it won't matter how much I drink."
"This is true," Zac nodded. "It's always fun to go into bars, and drink and drink and drink and go past what humans consider the limit and not show one sign of being drunk. It's so funny. Unless, y'know, they do random breath tests on the road later that evening, because you'll be booked for drink driving. Although, on the one occasion that happened the officer was certain that the analyser must be malfuctioning - it read so high he thought I should be dead. And of course, I didn't appear drunk at all, because I wasn't... The only think was that I smelt of alcohol. So he's made me do all these tests and figured out I wasn't drunk, so yeah. It was funny. Glad he didn't get it into his head to do a blood or urine test, though."
Frankie
"Well, some hybrids are affected by both, and some by neither," Frankie said. "I have to sit down to make the toast before supper," Frankie said. He tapped his fork against his glass to get everybody's attention.
"Well, I'd like to thank you all for showing up tonight," Frankie said. "It's taken a lot of work, but the studio is officially open. Now if everyone would raise their glasses, I'd like to propose a toast to the people who were essential in getting this business started: Rachel Evans, Julie Rocks and the rest of my web-staff, and Jessica and Zac Hanson. To friends!"
"To friends," the guests all said as they sipped their glasses.
Zac and Saku
Saku put down his glass after sipping.
"It's a shame that Julie couldn't be here," he said.
"That's what she gets for having six kids," Zac nodded.
"But, Dad, you have nine," Saku pointed out.
"Yeah, but I don't have custody of all of them."
"True."
Frankie, Jessica, Macauley and Rachel
After dinner, a clip of the movie was shown, and then everyone was free to mingle and dance and/or get drunk or whatnot. In between dodging reporters, Frankie managed to be alone with Jessi on the terrace. Mainly because it was so cold nobody else wanted to bother, seeing as how Tulsa in March tends to be snowy.
Finally, Frankie saw his chance.
"Hey," Jessi said, stepping out onto the terrace. "What did you want to see me about?"
"Well," Frankie said, taking a deep breath to steady himself. "You know, you're my best friend, well, except for Zac but he's a guy, so it's different, so you're my best girl friend, not to say that ou're my girlfriend-"
"Frankie," Jess cut him off, "You're babbling." She laid her hand on his arm to calm him down.
"Well, okay. What I mean to say is I love you."
"I love you too," Jess said, slightly confused.
"Not like that. What I'm trying to say is that recently I became aware of the fact that somewhere along the line I managed to fall in love with you."
"Oh. Cool."
"That's it? 'Oh. Cool.'?" Frankie teased, trying to cover up his insecurity.
"No, I mean, I really like you, as more than just a friend. I'm honestly not sure whether or not I'm in love with you yet, but I'd like to find out."
"So, you'll go out with me?" Frankie asked, surprised and relieved.
"Of course. What took you so long?" Before Frankie had a chance to answer, jessi leaned up and kissed him quickly on the mouth, before they felt obligated to return to the party.
~*~*~*~
Macauley walked up to Rachel and asked her to dance. Once she got over being starstruck, the typical aggressive Rachel slipped out, and it was obvious to onlookers why Marco called her "Xena" or "Amazon Girl." She wasn't afraid to go after what she wanted. Marco, however, was watching sadly from the sidelines. His Rachel was being stolen away by yet another celebrity.
Corinne, Cliff and Binar
"Cliff, don't tug at your collar," Corinne said.
"But I hate wearing a suit, Rin," Cliff complained. "Can't we go back home and play computer games?"
"It's a special evening."
"Yeah but... there's a raid going on in World of Warcraft, right now, and I'm missin' out on it. A raid, do you understand me?"
"There will be other raids," Corinne replied patiently. "Besides, you look so handsome in a suit."
"Hmph, Binar looks better in a suit than I do. He has the whole black 'n' white thing going for him. He's so plae he looks like a necromancer."
Binar raised an eyebrow.
"A nercomancer in a tux."
"I don't know," Corinne said. "I think he needs more black around the eyes for that. And some skulls and stuff. But anyway, this is all besides the point. Can't you get away from your games even for an evening?"
"If we were doin' sumthin' fun."
"I think Frankie would be hurt you weren't enjoying his party."
"It's not that I'm not enjoying it... it's just that I would rather -"
"I know, I know."
Ending as written by Joy
The party went on way into the dawn before people went home.