Fight for your right [Semi-open, PM/skype to join]

Janae was excited. It was the Saturday before her and her brother’s eighteenth birthday, and they were having fun. She had spent awhile getting ready, and had decided on an all-black attire, a strappy crop-top, black high-waist shorts over ripped fishnet stockings, and her favorite pair of black combat boots. Her hair was ombre now, light brown on the bottom and dark on the top, straightened sleek but curled lightly outward on the ends. Her highlight was on point, so was her winged liner. She was wearing a deep berry gloss on her lips, and she felt absolutely beautiful. She felt ready to party.

She was actually surprised at the turn-out. She had invited all of her and Jam’s friends, and it seemed like a lot of them had actually shown up! She felt proud. She had pregamed a little bit, so she was feeling pretty good already. This was a usual hangout of theirs, a little wizarding karaoke club, had all sorts of songs available—both wizarding music and muggle. She signed up to sing a few songs as soon as she came in, and eagerly encouraged her brother and Circe to do the same. She didn’t worry about Ezra. His singing voice was decent, but he knew it and loved karaoke more than even she did. He would definitely make a fool of himself on purpose.

She gave her best friend Circe a bit of a wide berth, knowing she was here with her foreign friend, Severin. She didn’t know Sev very well, but so far he seemed nice and Circe was definitely smitten. She pretended she wasn’t, but Jae could see right through her. She was giving him the benefit of the doubt for Circe’s sake.  Instead, she slid into a booth and waited to hear her name. She ordered a fruity cocktail that involved apple, cinnamon, and firewhisky. She stirred it with her straw, and looked around eagerly as more of her friends poured in.

Ezra was still looking through the list of songs, and Janae was enjoying wondering what he would pick. She looked around for Jam. He loved karaoke, too. She wondered what he was going to sing. She took a sip of her drink and looked over at him, willing him to come over to her. Sometimes the twin thing worked, sometimes it didn’t. Either way, she was excited for what kind of fun the  night would bring.


@Lisa @Rinn @Marin Clare @Mel @Emily @Lianne
if i forgot to tag you i'm sorry

The closest reference Henry had for this party was Gene’s Jewish thing when they were kids. Every other party he’d been to had been at Hogwarts: end of term feasts, secret get-togethers led by @Jeremy Edwards and @Danny Willbond … That or children’s birthday parties in his hometown. None of them had this air of sophistication. Not that a karaoke bar was sophisticated, exactly—but the act of going out on one’s own felt grown-up to Henry. Probably (hopefully?) he’d get used to it someday. Tonight he was still enjoying the feeling.

He’d wanted to play it cool. He’d worn a large flannel shirt unbuttoned over a t-shirt and jeans, his “cool muggle guy” costume—but he felt like an idiot, of course, as soon as he saw Janae. It took a second to curb the urge to go home and change, but he didn’t know what he would have changed into anyway. Whatever the masculine equivalent to fishnets was, it wasn’t in Henry’s closet. Maybe he should look into getting new clothes, he thought. Now that he was an adult who went to birthday parties at clubs—he couldn’t go around looking like he was in the middle of farm chores.

The birthday girl was in a booth stirring her drink. “Happy birthday!” said Henry, cheerfully leaning on the padded back of the seat above her. “Where’s Jam at?” he asked. Janae’s twin brother was nowhere to be seen—at least as far as Henry could tell, it was sort of dim in here.“If I forget to wish him one, make sure you pass it on, yeah?”

He inspected her colorful cocktail. “What’re you drinking?” he asked. “That looks good.” It smelled good, at the very least. Henry looked to the girl behind the bar as she swiped stray lemon zest off her counter with a wave of her wand. This wasn’t exactly the Three Broomsticks. How do you get a bartender’s attention? Do you have to yell? Is that rude? It feels rude.

He was very ready to start getting drunk.

Ah, there it was. Jam was more than familiar with Janae's "mind tricks" and he knew that that was her "get your ass over here" look. Well, really, it was a bit more polite than that but that was the general message. He offered her a smile and held up a finger to indicate that he would be with her in just a second. Besides, he already saw Henry making a beeline for her and he thought he'd give them a moment or two. He and Sid had just been debating on whether or not Sid should sing that night, and Jam was of course absolutely 1000% for seeing their friend let go of his "too cool to be here" act for at least a song or two.

"It wouldn't kill you, and it would make Janae happy. Eh? Ehhh?" He knew that Sid had a thing for his sister, and though it bothered him a little bit Janae was a grown woman and he trusted her to make her own decisions regarding her love life. "Anyway, talk to you later. Think about what I said. It'll be fun. You won't regret it."

With that, he made his way over to his sister and Henry with his drink in hand.

"Hello, dear sister." Jam gave Janae a smile and a hug. "And Henry, I'm glad that you could make it, man."

Gene had been outrageously tempted to write Henry ahead of time and ask him to come over first, so that neither of them had to do any awkward showing-up-at-the-party-alone. Janae was more Henry’s friend than Gene’s, and Jam was more Gene’s friend than Henry’s, and overall he’d rather have stuck by Henry than navigate the treacherous, rocky waters of friendship with more than one person at once.

But it seemed like a fairly desperate thing to do, so instead he planned to fuss at his hair for an inordinate length of time and then turn up a tad late.

Henry was already there, talking to Janae -- Gene lingered in the door until he spotted Jam heading their way, and made for Henry’s other side. (He wondered now if it would’ve been smart to ask Henry over beforehand -- he was dressed sort of like a farmer.)

Standing next to Henry (and with Jam on Henry’s other side) Gene was self-conscious. It didn’t help that Janae was sitting down. He leaned down to prop his elbows on the booth, in case that helped, and said, to the group at large, “Hullo! Sorry I’m late. Happy birthday!” He’d brought them presents (Candy, because he had waited too long and meaningful birthday shopping always had to be a full-day ordeal with him) but it looked like nobody else had: even more self-consciously, he set them on the table. (At least he hadn’t wrapped them up any more posh than the Honeydukes lady did.)

Henry was looking at Janae’s drink, so Gene looked too -- he couldn’t have guessed what the hell it was if his life depended on it. Mostly to Henry (Jam and Janae both had drinks already) he said, “You want to go get drinks?”

Danny rubbed his hands together as they entered the karaoke club, a grin tugging up the corners of his lips. He hadn't been to this one before, but him and Jere had put on a karaoke performance before one or two times and had obviously crushed it. "Did you remember the card?" he asked Jere before he saw Tricky holding it and he smiled at her. She's the one who had brought the card in the first place as him and Jere were just planning to give them some money and buy a round of shots. She had even written a nice little message inside and prompted the boys to sign their names in between the pre-game shots they were doing in their flat.

Dressed in comfy jeans and a long sleeve graphic shirt that was bunched up at his elbows, he glanced before spying Janae and a few of their other friends. "There's the birthday girl," he said before weaving through the crowd, giving her a big smile. "Happy birthday!" he said looking between the twins as he joined the little group of Gene, Henry and Jam, smiling a hello and clapping his hand on their shoulders in greeting.

"Has anyone hit the stage yet?" Danny asked with a wide smile and a glance up toward the karaoke mics. He threw a look at Jere and waggled his brows. They always loved to entertain a crowd. Even if they were both tone deaf and didn't have an ounce of musicality. He also glanced around to see if anyone else was there that he knew, looking for someone in particular who mentioned they might be here.

Eleanora would have arrived on time if she hadn’t been so preoccupied with what she was wearing, it suddenly all mattering a little more than necessary, but probably only because now she felt the need to impress someone rather than just show up for her friends. She had dragged Andy into it as well, probably overwhelming her poor, younger brother with constant questions of whether she looked alright only for her to disregard his opinion and change again. She figured he was just being nice or supportive or whatever but she was a little anxious and had she not felt bad that she was already slightly late, she would have changed again just for the sake of it. Andy was probably grateful to see her finally leave, even if she had just settled on a simple green dress and white, canvas sneakers. She later realized that those sneakers did nothing for her height and she felt ridiculously short.

By the time she reached the karaoke club with cards and gifts in hand, she felt a little more relaxed, felt much more put together, and wasn’t having second thoughts about entering at all. Eleanora had settled on a few vintage records as gifts, figuring that music was a good route to go where her friends were involved. Though she wasn’t sure if either of them owned a record player, they looked like nice decorative pieces. And to make it even better, the man at the records store had even hinted that some of them were collector's items. Eleanora had also chosen a birthday card and had added in a bit of money for later. As soon as she spotted Jam and Janae, she walked over to the birthday twins, “Happy birthday!” she announced happily, “I’ve gotten you these, hopefully you’ll find something here you like and of course, a card,” she added, reaching out to hug her friends with a smile. She'd have to do something extra special for Janae, she was her favorite after all.

She turned to greet everyone else, not trying to be the center of conversation when everyone else was chit-chatting around the birthday twins. She turned around immediately noticing Danny but taking a couple of moments before moving closer to him, nudging him with her shoulder when she finally got to stand next to him. "Hey there you, so you did come, I thought you were setting me up or something," she joked, wondering if he had traveled alone as she had or if he had come with his friends. "Sounds like you're ready to give us a good performance?"