A few days later, I received a text message from Tia, inviting me to a party she was throwing. I called Amelia for advice.
"Are you going to Tia's thing?" I asked.
"Yeah," she replied. "Apparently she invited all of us." By 'all of us', Amelia meant all the teenagers in Solitaria.
"Oh, OK…then I'll probably go," I said.
"Yeah. Me too."
I turned up at the Mink's place a few minutes late. I could hear the party was already in full swing, somewhere around the back. I knocked on the door of their huge Mediterranean mansion.
Tia's mum answered the door with a percussive jangle of jewellery. "Hi, sweetie," she said. "Just go round the side, they're all out the back."



"OK," I said, a little irritated. I hated being called 'sweetie'. It made me sound like confectionery.
I walked around the side, where there was a pathway between the enormous garage (the only one besides the Rosencrantz's that housed two cars) and the far more enormous house. I soon located the source of the party noises.
Tia's dad was playing DJ, standing in a small booth behind enormous speakers which were blaring out house and techno music. Nearby was a buffet table loaded with salads, cold meats and jellies for dessert. Next to that was another table with pizzas and barbequed hot dogs. I knew I wouldn't be hungry by the end of the night.
Nearly everyone had arrived by that time and were standing around chatting. Tia's place was well set-up for entertaining large crowds – there was the large stone patio, with the DJ booth and food tables, as well as a lower paved area with a bar and portable fireplace. There was a pool, a spa, and an indoor entertaining area with lounges, coffee tables and a karaoke machine. That room also had its own small balcony.
Tia came over to greet me, dressed in a short black skirt, tight-fitting low-cut tartan top, and black boots.



"Hi, Ellie," she said.
"Hi," I replied. "Is Amelia here yet?"
"Yeah, she's over in front of the fire," Tia said, already uninterested in me and moving away.
I went over to join Amelia by the fire, where she was chatting to Tamara and Anastasia. "Hey," Amelia said, looking up at me.
"Hey," I replied, sitting down.
"Do you know," Amelia said to me, "apparently Tia's thrown this party because she's missing Jake? And she needed a distraction."
"What's happened to Jake?" I asked Tamara.
She sniffed. "Well, he was arrested and taken away for questioning and all. I don't know exactly what's going to follow, but Dad's decided to place him under his own personal house arrest for at least a few months. And I," she said, sounding pleased, "get to make sure he doesn't try and sneak out, like he so often does."
"You wouldn't side with your own brother?" Anastasia said, smiling.
"Nah!" Tamara said shortly. "Can't stand him a lot of the time. I'm more than happy to be his jailer."
"Sisterly love," I commented.
"Poor Tia," Amelia said, sighing. "She can't be with her lover boy for all that time."
"Hey," I protested. "Sarcasm like that is reserved only for me."
"You wish. I'm surprised she hadn't dumped him yet, you know."
"Oh, she probably will soon."



We stayed there for a while, chatting about nothing in particular. I watched as the last few invitees rolled in. I noticed Julian arrived later than I did, wandering in, trying to sneak through unnoticed. He was still wearing his Phantom mask. When I saw him arrive, I felt strangely happy. As though I would've been disappointed if he hadn't come.
Where did that come from? I wondered. I hate the guy!
I was still trying to figure out why I was so happy when Amelia said, "He's still wearing that?"
"What d'you mean, 'still'?" Tamara asked.
"He was hanging around outside the bowling place last night," Amelia said. "After 'going to an Eridessa drama club'." She'd made inverted comma signs with her fingers as she'd spoken.
"Why didn't he come in?" Anastasia wondered.
"Maybe he didn't want to be seen in his mask," Tamara volunteered sensibly. "Although I don't know why he couldn't just take it off."
I stayed silent, feeling it wasn't my place to reveal what was concealed beneath the mask. Julian would tell everyone when he was ready.
"What were you two talking about last night?" Amelia asked me teasingly.
"What?" I was caught off guard.
"You and Julian. You were talking about something before I arrived. Something 'interesting'," she said.
"Oh." I shrugged and studied my fingernails. "Nothing. I'll tell you later. It's complicated, anyway."
"What did you do to your nails!?" Anastasia asked in horror, looking closely at my hands.
"I painted them," I said. "Sparkly silver. It's the only nailpolish I own."
"Dude," Tamara pointed out. "They look worse now than they did before!"
I laughed. "I know. I was bored."
"It's chipped already…" Anastasia was dismayed and started telling me how to do my nails properly in the future.
As we kept chatting, I glanced back towards where I'd last spotted Julian. Tia was in the process of greeting him, and I noticed her pointing to his mask. He leaned back, bringing his hand up to his face, smiling slightly, gently fending her off. She kept bugging him for a while, until he got visibly annoyed and said something angrily to her. She responded with her own snappy retort before going to serve the food.



A loud belch nearby brought my attention back to our small group by the fire. Adam had come up behind Anastasia and burped in her ear.
"Adam!" she complained. "That's disgusting!"
"Hello," he replied, grinning. "I got you a drink."
"I don't accept drinks from other people," Anastasia said.
"You do now," Adam replied, handing it to her.
She took it and sniffed it gingerly. "This is alcoholic," she said suspiciously.
"No, it's not," Adam said. "Try it."
Anastasia tossed a small amount of the drink into the fire, which blazed alarmingly on contact.
"It is, you idiot." She gave it back to him.
"No, you take it!" he protested, pushing the drink back towards her.
"No!"
"Yes!" With a particularly sudden shove, he pushed the drink back towards Anastasia, where it spilt all over her lap.
Amelia, Tamara and I flinched, wondering what would happen next. Adam looked sheepish.
"Oops," he said.
Anastasia leapt up, hissing at him. "You're in big trouble now, Adam!" she yelled, and started chasing after him.
Tamara sighed. "Your brother seriously needs help," she said to me.
"Is that his way of flirting?" Amelia asked.
"God, I hope not," I replied, watching the chase.
Anastasia, being a vampire, was very strong and a very fast runner. It didn't take long before she'd caught up with Adam and grabbed his arm in her vice-like grip. She started hauling him towards the pool, in much the same way that she'd dragged me to the community hall storeroom.
"You're really cute when you're mad," Adam said, struggling.
"'Cute', am I?" Anastasia growled.
"Yeah, like an adorable kitten."
"Really," Anastasia hissed at him angrily as they neared the pool. "Well, I think it's time you had a drink of your own."
With little effort, she calmly pushed him into Tia's pool, fully clothed. She stood back, looking at him in satisfaction as he came to the surface, gasping and shaking water out of his eyes.



"Oops," Anastasia said scathingly, and walked off to find a bathroom.
"Snap!" Tamara said approvingly as she walked past us. I think I saw Anastasia smile.
"Hey," I said to Amelia. "Where's Hannah?"
Amelia looked around. "Dunno," she said. "Maybe she's not coming?"
"Maybe," I said vaguely. I'd been counting heads, reasoning that without Jake, there should have been twelve of us at the party. Instead there were only eleven.
"I'll ask Tia," Amelia volunteered, getting up from her seat and going to find the hostess.
Adam clambered out of the pool, soaking wet and leaving a trail of puddles as he walked. As he walked past me, I caught his eye and grinned.
He grinned, too, before flicking water into my face from his dripping hands.
"Hey!" I cried, wiping the drops off with my hands. Little droplets had landed all over my glasses, too, so I took them off to wipe them on my top.
"Brothers," Tamara muttered.
"Tell me about it," I agreed.
Amelia soon returned, shrugging as she sat down. "Apparently, she's coming later," she told me.
"That's good," I said, then turned to Tamara. "Did you see Hannah got a MySpace?"
"Really?" Tamara said, surprised. "Cool."
I looked at Amelia, whose forehead was slightly wrinkled as she considered this reaction. It meant that Hannah had only added certain people – probably, I thought, just myself and Amelia.
"Guys!" Tia called out in a sing-song voice, addressing everyone. "The food's ready now!"
"Excellent," Tamara said, stretching and getting up. "I'm starving."
Soon there was a great cluster of people around the food tables, helping themselves to hot dogs, pizza, turkey (turkey?) and salad. I eagerly headed towards the pizza, but noticed…
"Bacon?" I said to myself sadly. "Why?"
"You can always just pick it off, El," Amelia pointed out, overhearing me. "Don't let the dreaded meat spoil a good slice of pizza."
I decided to take her advice, taking a piece of pizza and carefully picking all the bacon off before eating it.



I started surveying the people at the table while everyone around me chattered between mouthfuls. Julian, I saw, was having a little difficultly eating his pizza, since the mask obviously restricted some of his face movements a bit.
He noticed me watching him, and our eyes met for a minute. I'd never noticed just how brown his eyes were - like the fine dark chocolate made with 70% cocoa that I liked better than ordinary milk chocolate.
Stop! I thought to myself, breaking the eye contact quickly, instead staring intently at my pizza slice. Why am I comparing his eye colour to chocolate? This isn't right.
Anastasia finally returned from the bathroom, her clothes now only showing a faint mark where the drink had spilt. Adam followed a little while later, still wet, but not dripping everywhere.
"Hope you don't mind me borrowing some fresh undies of yours, Tia," he said as he sat down.
Tia looked horrified, and I had to assure her that my brother was an idiot and was only joking. She exhaled loudly with relief ("Thank God").
"So, Jules," Adam said, "what's with the mask?"
I bit my lip, wondering exactly what was going to follow this question. The table went quiet – everyone wanted to hear the answer. Julian looked briefly at me and raised his eyebrows fleetingly before he calmly said "I'll show you" and removed the mask.



The reactions were spectacular. Amelia gasped loudly and pressed her hands over her mouth, Tamara's eyes bugged, Adam's mouth fell open, Anastasia and Oswald stared in dismay, Nathan gazed in wonder, Artemis burst into tears, and Mystery said "Without the mask, where will you hide?"
Before Julian could try to respond to Mystery's latest Evanescence quote, Tia interrupted. "Urgh, that's gross," she exclaimed, screwing up her face. "Can't you do something about it?"
Julian's eyes flashed. "Do you think my mum would still look the way she does if there was a way to get rid of it?" he said pointedly.
Tia seemed to consider this, her face still etched with revulsion. "It's still yuck," she shuddered.
"No, Tia, tell him what you really think," I snapped sarcastically, glaring.
She gazed back at me, surprised. "What do you mean?"
"Do you think you could be any more insensitive? It's not like it's his fault."
She shrugged indifferently. "It's still gross," she repeated.
"Wow, you just make friends everywhere you go," I said. "I'm sure that attitude will be helpful when you go running off to Hollywood in search of fame and fortune, or whatever. Good luck with that."
Tia's black-rimmed eyes narrowed. "At least I have a couple more friends than you do, Ellie."
I pretended I was deeply offended. "Ooh, Tia, I'm deeply offended," I said flatly.
"You're real charming, Tia," Amelia added. "I notice no one's come to your defence so far."
"If Jake was here, instead of in jail," Tia snapped, glaring at Tamara, "he'd protect me."
"I wouldn't count on that," Amelia said.
"He's not in jail!" Tamara exclaimed.
"He might as well be," Tia said.
"And you should be, too, if you were sneaking into clubs with a fake ID, drinking underage, and taking drugs," Tamara shot back.
Tia reddened. "At least I know how to have a good time," she said.
"Your idea of a good time is breaking the law and destroying your body?" Tamara said with raised eyebrows. "I know what I'd prefer."
"Bowling!" Tia snorted. "Children go bowling."
"OK, um…guys?" Oswald interrupted. He was rubbing his forehead, brows knitted, eyes shut. He looked like he had a migraine. "As much as I'm enjoying the catfight, it would be great if we could get back to the actual party."
We all fell into an uncomfortable silence, during which a lot of staring at food occurred. Eventually, we returned to normal (if a little strained) conversation and food consumption. In an effort to steer the party back towards normality, Tia suggested that once we'd finished eating, we should gather in the indoors party area.
Which we did. Mystery surprised us all by immediately going to the karaoke machine, but didn't surprise us when she began singing 'Bring Me To Life'.



"Your sister is just so predictable," I commented to Amelia after we'd sat down.
"Careful," she warned. "That's a Delta Goodrem song. Delta's pop. You might upset her."
"Who, Delta?"
"No, my sister."
We chatted for a minute or two, until I felt an urge.
"Um," I said to Amelia. "Do you know where the bathroom is in this place?"
She shrugged. "No," she said. "You could ask Tia."
"I'm kind of trying to avoid her, if you haven't noticed," I said, going off to search for the bathroom on my own. Thankfully, Tia's dad was still there on the patio, packing up the DJ booth.
"Excuse me, where's your bathroom?" I asked.
He fixed his ice blue eyes on me and smiled. "You're the third person to ask that this evening," he commented, then pointed behind him. "In there, at the end of the hallway."
"Thanks," I said, walking through the door and coming to a very short hallway. There were doors at both ends and one going off to the left. I headed for one of the doors at the end, and to my relief, found the bathroom.
Ahh.
After I'd washed my hands in the ivory basin with the gold taps and dried my hands on the pure white Egyptian cotton hand towel (hung on a smooth gold ring), I headed back out into the little hallway. As I walked past one of the other doors, I heard a soft chuckle coming from the room behind it.
Curious, I gently turned the door handle and entered the room. It appeared to be an enormous library, similar to the one in Amelia's house, only with much posher surroundings. Sitting on one of the lounge chairs in the middle of the room was someone I knew.