[acelyn residence] we are the new americana [alex's party!]

Alex Acelyn was seventeen years old.

In the wizarding world, he was now an adult. Not only that, but he was headed off to his seventh year in December - he was almost completely done with school. It was kind of scary to think about, really. Alexander had been in school for six years, and he'd come to call Hogwarts castle his home. On one hand, he was rather excited to be up and out of the school, but on the other, he was quite sad. He knew that after he graduated, he would forget some of his friends, or they would grow apart. He knew some friends, like Egan, would stick with him forever, but he knew that he'd lose some faces as time passed by.

But for now, he was going to party. Egan had told everyone about the huge party that was happening at the Acelyn house before Academy Athena had started, just in celebration for Alex's seventeenth birthday party. He wasn't mad - if anything, he thought his dad might be a little upset about the idea of a party happening at the house, but James seemed rather okay with the idea.

Alex had spent the first portion of the day getting the house ready. He'd placed a locking charm on his father's room, he'd cleaned his own room, and he'd made sure that there was nothing valuable out that his attendees would be able to take. It'd taken the wizard a lot longer than he thought, although he was also surprised by how easy it was. Now that Alex could use magic outside of the Hogwarts castle, he could just wave his wand and watch his clothes get carried into his laundry basket. The cleaning was done, however, and Alex lie in wait, adjusting the bottles of alcohol that he'd bought with the money he made from working for his father.

Egan would be the first to show up, Alex was expecting that. Egan was technically the host, after all - despite the fact that the party was at Alex's house, Alex knew that Egan was the one that put it together, really. With the first rap on the door, Alex took a deep breath. It was time for his party.

"Don't you roll your eyes at me, Egan Enders!" Egan's mom, who apparently had developed the ability to see through walls, had stopped her son mid eye-roll in the other room of their London hotel. Currently, the two were in a heated debate over flowers. His mother, ever the romantic, believed Egan absolutely needed to also bring Jess a gift to Alex's birthday. His whole family hadn't stopped gushing over the girl since their dinner a few nights previous during the London stop of their Summer family vacation. He swore his mother had even started to plan their nuptials.

Boyfriend. The word felt strange on his tongue as the wizard dwelled on the fact that it was referring to him. Egan had been called many things over his short, seventeen year life, but not once had been called boyfriend. His new title was certainly taking some getting used to.

After first apparating a few doors down from the Acelyn house, Egan eventually found what he was looking for with both the bouquet flowers and a carefully wrapped gift teetering wearily between his arms and chest. With no free hands he was left to kick at the door until his friend came to the rescue.

"Happy birthday!" Egan sang out as soon as the door opened, not even for a second wondering if anyone else in the Acelyn family might be behind it. Thankfully, he was greeted by the curly headed Hufflepuff. "I've got booze and... flowers," The wizard pushed his way through the door, making himself right at home. "Actually, the flowers aren't for you mate, although I know pink is your color," Egan threw an arm around his friend as soon as he had set down his things. "Are you ready for a night you won't remember?" He poked him in the cheek affectionately before draping himself over the couch. "I've invited nearly the entire school," Egan leaned up in his elbows to see Alex's reaction, his face smug. Just then, another knock on the door interrupted his charade.

  Oh, Jessalyn loved a party!! Naturally, she'd spent the entire day getting ready. It was an absolute law in the blonde's book that an entire 24 hours should be set aside in the run up to a good party for primping and pampering. Well ok, she'd gone over 24 hours. But everybody knew that a good facial would result in blotchy and sensitive skin, and you really shouldn't have an upcoming event requiring makeup within 24 hours of that. So she'd had that done 3 days ago. Fail to prepare, prepare to fail! Anyway, long story short, Jess was sooooo ready for Alex's birthday party! Hair in carefully styled waves, nails a shade of pink (of course) and her outfit carefully selected after 3 hours of absolutely agonising decision making.

  One last twirl in front of the mirror and a little spritz of perfume, and the witch was ready to go. She picked her meticulously wrapped present for Alex up and bounced down the stairs, where her mother was waiting. It was such a pain that she couldn't apparate yet, but she'd asked her mum with plenty of notice and gotten her to agree to do the apparating. Taking her mum's hand, Jess tensed for the gross feeling of apparition. It was predictably awful. Upon feeling her feet back on solid ground, she fussed over her hair a little to fix it after the travel. Ugh, when was enjoyable magical travel that didn't involve disturbing her hair going to be invented? Satisfied that her hair was once again immaculate, she thanked her mum and watched the older witch disappear with a pop.

  Skipping up to the Acelyn household, she rapped on the door with excitement. Being punctual was absolutely a virtue, and so Jess had made sure to be dead on time. People typically arrived later to parties, the witch was aware - but she'd have to be bodily restrained by Clem to ever be late to anything. When the door to Alex's home opened, the young Gryffindor let out a characteristic high pitched squeal, her excitement as usual knowing no bounds.

  "Happy biiiiiiirthdaaaay!!!" The blonde shouted in a sing-song voice, prancing over the threshold of the residence. With a skip in her step, she produced the present wrapped in silver sparkling wrapping paper - finished with silver ribbon, because details are everything - with a flourish for Alex. At the same time, she noticed Egan's presence. Of course - any good best friend would be the first to be at the brithday party, and Egan was nothing if not caring. Oh, wasn't he just the loveliest person? It made her feel almost silly with happiness to think that she could call him her boyfriend. With another squeal - her capacity for self consciousness apparently nil - she threw her arms about Egan's neck for an enthusiastic hug. At that point she noticed the flowers - not, she also noticed, being offered to the birthday boy. She let out an excited gasp. "Oh, Egan! Are those for me?!"

International travel was complicated even for wizards, given that she didn't trust herself to Apparate to another country and Flooing was administered by the Ministry which had nothing to do with the French government. However, Ari had decided as soon as she received the message that she was going to make special arrangements to get back to Britain for Alex's birthday party. After all, they'd been friends forever, as a function of Hufflepuff House and Quidditch and all of that. It wasn't terribly difficult to talk to her boss, who seemed to like the English girl, as hours were...well, somewhat lax in France in the first place; she succeeded in getting off a few hours early from work that Friday so she could get there on time. For the rest, it was a matter of Flooing to Calais, Disillusioning herself and her Cleansweep (the joys of being of age), flying across the Channel, and Apparating home--she hadn't exactly brought anything worth wearing to a party (or in other words, anything except jeans and shirts or business-type clothing) to her apartment abroad. After being fussed over by her mother and mobbed by Kate, who wanted to know why exactly she couldn't come home more often and what made some boy more interesting than her, Ari managed to slip upstairs to her wardrobe to survey the contents, placating her sister by explaining that she wouldn't leave until Sunday since she was here.

Truth be told, even at home she didn't have party attire. Ariana was not the kind of girl who went out all the time, and she didn't even like dresses that much. But she had to wear something, and now that she'd gone to all this trouble to come home before going to the Acelyns' she felt like she had to pick something. Maybe for her next birthday she'd ask her mom what would be appropriate to wear for this kind of thing. Ari shook her head: in the meantime she'd just go in her floral dress. Not the right style, but anything was better than nothing, and everyone would notice at least that she had tried to wear something different. Idly, she wondered who would be there, that she hadn't seen in a month. Egan would be there, of course, and...right. Alex and Skylar had broken up, so she wouldn't be seeing her friend. Given that they'd been inseparable for a long time, she hoped Alex wasn't surprised to see her there anyway herself. Then again, he had to know they'd been seeing less of each other except for at Quidditch practice and at night. Their relationship had impacted that, as had her prefect duties. And somewhere subconsciously, Ari felt their trajectories changing as her friend focused on Quidditch and she focused on the studies that would get her qualified for Auror training.

Everything was changing now that they were essentially seventh years.

But that was for another time. Her friends had to be thinking about that too, but she knew that part of the point of throwing something extravagant like this event was just to have fun and forget about all of it. Ari had also brought a present for Alex from Paris, and her mum hastily found something for her to wrap it in and a bow, which Ariana insisted upon, since it was Alex. She was well aware that Alex, like her, quite liked baked goods, and while it didn't really count as a pastry, there was a set of macarons in different flavors from her favorite pâtisserie, as they were more interesting than an everyday pain au chocolat or something of that sort. She'd also gotten him a model of the French national team's Seeker that forever chased a Snitch just out of reach, in honor of the position he'd played last year. Satisfied that she had what she needed, Ari descended to the kitchen to say she was off and turned on the spot, arriving right at Alice and Alex's front door.

Once inside, Ari noted she'd arrived behind Egan and Jess Russell, a younger Gryffindor girl she considered a (if not a close one) friend of sorts. Actually, what she mostly noticed was that they were hugging...and that Jessalyn was being very enthusiastic about it. Also, there were flowers. Trying to match both her friends' eyes, she shot each a look in turn as if to say "when did this happen?" before turning to Alex with the same questioning look lingering on her face for a moment. He'd know what was up with all that, she was sure. She cleared her throat. "Um. Happy birthday, Alex," she said cheerfully, holding out her (slightly lopsided, since the boxes hadn't been the same dimensions) package. "Finally caught up to the rest of us, I see," she added with a mischievous look. "How's the summer been here in England? And...is that all alcohol?" she asked, craning her neck a little to get a better view. Ari had had sips of firewhiskey like everyone else, but she'd really never had very much, even though there was wine everywhere in Paris. She had to admit she was curious, but no one had ever really been around to convince her to try much of the stuff before...