Page 143 of House of Pain
She snapped her fingers, and a bundle of papers floated around to land in front of each student. Alecto glared down at the list that seemed to drag on forever.
Wouldn’t there be a fairy of some sort running around to organize events? Did they really have to do all that?
“You can see the things the Dean requires from each House, so you can bring the list back to your leaders and get to fucking work. Any questions?”
“Can we change the theme?” Mariana asked, and a wave of moans went around the table, quite a few witches rolling their eyes.
“You and your fucking themes,” said Helion, from the House of Dragons.
“Well, I’m sorry if I want something more interesting this year,” Mariana snapped back, her glasses sliding down her nose. “I feel we’ve done enough dressing up as our Houses, haven’t we?”
Mariana glared at Alecto as she said the words.Alecto wasn’t sure what her problem was now.
“Suck my dick, Mariana,” said Alecto. “Besides, you look great dressed as a piggy with your sweet little pigtails.”
The girl bristled, squaring her shoulders, but Garcia intervened before the argument could go any further.
“Okay,” she said, slamming the gavel on the table, unnecessarily. “Maybe Mariana has a point. We could change the theme of the masquerade into something fresh. Any ideas?”
A few ideas went around the table.
Holly Hills celebrities, Helion suggested, clearly hoping to see most girls dressed as Marilyn Monroe so he could drool all night long.
Night in Hel, Drake, from the House of Dogs, suggested because he clearly had a hard-on for demons, which was a little bit creepy, even for witches.
Creatures of the Cursed Forest.
Spirits of the dead.
So on and so forth; at some point, Alecto stopped listening.
“How aboutFairy Tales?” Mariana asked.
That seemed to draw everyone’s attention.
“Dressing like someone from your favorite fairy tale for one night could be fun,” Mariana pushed.
“That doesn’t sound half bad,” Killer agreed, grinning. He jerked his chin at Drake. “You can dress like a swamp gremlin fromMagical Henry’s Adventures.” He then jerked to Helion and added mockingly, “And you can dress like the goblin fromSleeping Boggler. You sure as Hel have the nose for it.”
“And you, Killer, will be able to dress like that kid who fell in love with his own reflection in the lake and didn’t see the mermaid come in time to avoid getting eaten,” Alecto chimed in, her voice light as a feather. She then covered her mouth with a hand, gasping. “Sounds like something you’d get yourself into.”
Killer’s eyes narrowed, his jaw clenching as another wave of laughter went around, this time at his expense.
Alecto sent him an air kiss before Garcia announced the meeting over, and they were up from their seats.
Alecto came back to the House right in time for the weekly House meeting taking place at their meeting room.
Twelve pairs of eyes turned to her as she entered the room and came to a stop.
“Right on time, bitch,” Val said. “We were just about to start, so we can get right to what there is to know from the Liaisons.”
Alecto cleared her throat, fishing the paper out of her bag.
“Well, for the next two weeks, we’re only going to be living and breathing preparations for Samhain,” she said.
Val snapped the paper out of her hand, burying her nose as she scanned the information.
“The Dean gave each House a number of tasks because apparently we don’t have the funds for an event planner.”
