Pajama Party: Lucas

Even though we had just finished the first major tournament of the year, there was no time to rest. With a plethora of competitions in the future of this year as well as throughout the rest of my education, I definitely couldn’t stop now.

Next time, we’ll all win first place!

In the month that followed, everything stayed nearly the same with weeks full of managing classes and training in MMA. The biggest differences were definitely with Madison, Sam, and Cole.

Madison and Sam both began working hard on their flaws, especially Sam who was now focusing a lot more on the grappling aspects of MMA. Rather than being discouraged by the outcome of the competition, both of them used it as a learning opportunity and are rapidly growing much stronger.

I’m proud to be training under them.

Cole on the other hand seemed to grow in a different way, becoming more socially active and attending almost every club social.

The tournament truly brought everyone closer.

In the spirit of team bonding, during the last social of the month and the first trimester, I proposed a different kind of event.

“Hey, I have an idea!” I proclaimed loudly during over my McDaniel’s burger. “We should have a boys night!”

“A what now?” Cole asked confused.

“You know, we can all come over to my dorm and order pizza, play games, the whole shebang!”

“So, a slumber party?” Cole haphazardly leaned his head on his hand as he stared me down.

“No! Well maybe yeah…” I replied quietly. “Is that a no?”

As Cole looked between the other guys at the table, I implored one of my secret techniques: puppy dog eyes.

“I mean I’m down to eat an unhealthy amount of pizza and caffeine.” Andrew broke the momentary silence with his usual joking attitude. “That is the college experience after all.”

“Who needs sleep when you can party with the boys?” Alix intervened, playing off of Andrew’s energy.

“Hey now! What about us?” Madison interjected, not liking being left out.

“No girls allowed; this is bro time.” Sam countered, staring Madison down cockily.

“I see how it is,” Quinn glared at Sam, making him regret his life choices. “We girls will just have our own slumber party! And it’ll be much better than yours!”

As my small suggestion exploded into a full-blown war, I couldn’t help but laugh along with everyone.

I guess I’ll have to clean up my room.

After finishing out burgers and chicken nuggets, we all split up to grab some clothes and games for our party, agreeing to reconvene at my dorm room.

As we said goodbye to the girls, still on hostile terms, I gave everyone my address and jogged heartily back to my room.

I need to get ready.

Unfortunately, I didn’t have enough time to completely remake my room, so I settled for stuffing some miscellaneous knickknacks under my bed and vacuuming the little open floorspace I had.

Before I could finish wiping down every surface with tissues, I heard the first knock on my door.

“Who is it?” I asked teasingly as I looked through the peephole.

“Open the door or else I’m not sharing my chips with you.” Cole nagged, staring directly at the peephole I was looking through.

I slowly opened the door to let him in, completely defeated in a single move.

“Where can I put these?” He asked, holding up a black container and a party sized chip bag.

“What’s in there?” I asked, pointing at his remaining luggage as he placed the chips on the desk. “Is it dip?”

“It’s just some toiletries, we are staying the night, right?”

As I showed him to the quaint bathroom, I finally looked him up and down. His wardrobe was definitely meant to sleep in with loose pajama pants and a plain, stretched out shirt.

“Once you’re done with that, feel free to make yourself at home, I’m going to take my contacts out real quick.” I called to him as I waited outside of the bathroom, knowing it could only fit one person comfortably.

As more people began arriving, the size of my dorm room seemed smaller and smaller as I wondered whether or not five people could sleep in here at all.

Once everyone arrived, I began taking orders for the pizza through UbrrEats and put on some music.

“Is this your favorite band?” Alix asked, not looking away from a game of Maria Cart.

“Was it that obvious?”

“Well between the posters, your shirt, and your computer background, I’d say so.” Cole responded jokingly.

“Hey now, I didn’t invite you over to be judged.”

“I’m not mocking you; I was just asking an innocent question.” Alix began as he finished the race in first place against Andrew. “Now, who’s my next challenger?”

In response to his provocation, we all joined in for some Maria Cart and Maria Party as we waited on the pizza.

While playing, we all came to a sudden realization: Cole is really good at video games.

Not only did he win every single race of Maria Cart and sweep us on every board of Maria Party as the night continued, but even when we formed an alliance against him, we were still outmatched.

The friendly competition quickly changed to a desperate struggle to find a game we could collectively win against him.

Two hours and two large pizzas later, we were completely defeated. From Boundless Battle Brothers: Ultimate to Road Ruffians VI, no one in our group had a fighting chance against Cole.

“I’m thoroughly convinced that Cole is an android sent from the future to psychologically torture us.” Andrew exclaimed while laying on the floor in shame. “Do any of you have any enemies who may or may not become a spiteful mad scientist in the distant future?”

“There was this one guy in middle school who I bullied for being too intelligent…” Alix began, spinning a ludicrous story for Andrew’s scenario. “After I burned all his journals on quantum mechanics, he said something about how I’d rue the day I messed with Doctor Heinz Doofenshmitz.”

“Eh, probably unrelated, he seems like a swell guy.” Sam added after downing a red solo cup of Mountain Dude.

After a moment of silence, Cole spoke up softly.

“Sorry, I was just having fun and didn’t realize how bad you all must’ve felt.”

“Hey, don’t sweat it,” I interrupted before he could beat himself up too much. “It was fun, like having to beat a big boss in the game.”

“That boss needs to be nerfed.” Andrew groaned, still laying on the floor. “How’d you get so good at these games anyway? It’s uncanny.”

“I just played a lot recently, nothing major.” Cole laughed it off, sounding a bit sad as he spoke.

“Oh yeah, you had that whole car accident thing a year ago.” I thought out loud, “Guess that would give you plenty of time to game, huh?”

As I finished, the whole room went quiet. Although I meant it in a lighthearted way, the topic of his accident made us all feel bad, especially after complaining that he was too good at games because of it.

With the mood soured, we all turned in to sleep as the clock read 2:45. Because of the lack of space, Sam and Alix ended up heading back to their rooms and Alix made a nest in the bathroom with a sleeping bag he brought.

It’s going to be a long night.