Gumi, Len, Rin, Miku, Luka, and I were all huddled in the small kitchen of Len and Rin's house.

We were all still in costume from the birthday party that had just taken place. Rin had just turned fourteen and had decided to throw an Alice in Wonderland themed costume party.

The only drawback was that she got to choose which characters we were. Most of them I agreed with, for instance:

Miku being Alice, Luka, the red queen, Gumi, the white rabbit, Len being the Mad Hatter, and finally Rin being the White queen.

So, in simple terms, I liked everyone's costume except mine. I was, unfortunately, the Cheshire cat.

I know I'm supped to be the cutesy white-haired little boy that LOVES cats, but to be entirely honest, I hated them with a burning passion, after that incident with a pregnant cat, and my hair...No...we're NOT going to talk about the past. It's too terrifying.

"It's going to be dark soon, we should do something outside." Gumi commented while taking a sip of her Mountain Dew.

(I glanced at my own empty cup of soda and back to the empty 2 liter bottle of diet coke. I had drank the entire bottle single-handedly...But that's not important.)

"We could play sardines." I replied boredly.

"Sardines?" Almost everyone questioned.

(Why is it that only I knew the game? Are my parent the only ones that drone on about what they did when they were young? And about ways to sneak off to go to parties...)

"Holy-YES! Let's play sardines!" Len shouted bolting upright.

(He had been at my Halloween party when we played it last year. I guess he liked it.)

"Piko! Explain the game!" Len started.

I gave him a look that said 'why me? You're the one that's so excited'

"Because you suggested it, and I have to pee." He continued, rushing into the little bathroom connected to the kitchen.

I sighed, and began explaining the game.

"Well, it's basically the opposite of hide and seek. One person hides and then everyone goes around in a giant group and looks for that person, if you see them, you go and sneak away from the group and hide with them." I began. "Until there's only one person left looking for the rest of the group Once they're all found, the round is over."

I heard the toilet flush, and Len was once again by my side.

"And now that Piko's explained the game, let's get out the flashlights and play!"

Len and Rin scrambled about the house, looking for flashlights we could use while Gumi, Luka, Miku, and I chatted about what else we should do later during the sleepover.

Eventually the two returned to the kitchen and dropped a boatload of flashlights on the counter.

"Okay, everyone take one, and make sure it works." Rin said. "But, I'm going to hide first, seeing as I'm the Birthday girl.

"Okay, you have approximately five minutes to go and hide-" I stopped. "Maybe we should set some rules before we play, seeing as how you guys have a ridiculously huge back yard, not even counting the forest behind it.

"That's probably a good idea." agreed Miku. "Seeing as I'd rather not spend an hour searching for one person."

"So, Let's say you can't hide within five feet of the back door," Len started, pointing at the "Backdoor" (Or rather front door, I never knew you were supposed to enter through the back door of a farm house...) "And you can't go past the trampoline, or go into the barns or forest."

"That would give us a good thirty or forty feet of playing space." Rin finished.

"Okay then, Rin you have five minutes to go and hide before we come out looking for you.

We had found Rin at the top of a six foot tall playground, meant for five or six year olds, by the end of the first round.

I could only imagine the look on Luka's face when she finally found us smashed together at the top of that thing. (I couldn't see her, because Len decided it was okay to sit on my face...And that's why he's my best friend.)

Round after round we continued to play Sardines, Miku hiding in the pool area, Luka under the trampoline, Gumi in the bushes, Len under the car, I even hid in the chicken coop. (Who knew chickens could be so warm...?)

By the time we went back inside to get some more soda, it was past Midnight.

(I went over to pour myself some more diet coke, only to remember I had already drank it all, so dejectedly, I got a glass of water.)

We all jut stood there silently for a moment, trying to recover, when Rin shouted "Piko! Len! Get out! We're going to change into our pajamas!"

She shoved us out of the kitchen and up the stairs, into Len's room.

"You two can change in here."

I was going to give Rin a sarcastic remark about how there wouldn't be anything to see even if we did peep on her, but Len gave me a look that said 'If you mess with her today, you'll be in a coffin tomorrow...And I'm not going to your funeral' So I just kept my mouth shut.

"Could you please turn the other way Len." I replied, as casually as possible.

He faced me. "Really, Piko? We're the same gender, you know."

"It's still weird!" I argued.

"What? Are you embarrassed?" Len teased before tackling me to the ground and forcible removing all of my clothes, minus my boxers.

My cheeks were burning bright red as he tossed me one of his extra shirts to use for pajamas. I turned away when he started to undress.

"You're missing quite the show, Piko, why don't you turn around and watch?" He teased.

"Shut up, len."

Once we were both finished we walked back downstairs, to see the girls all huddled up together in the dark.

It looked like it was story time.

A/N Yeah, I have a diet soda drinking problem. I BLAME MY TYPE 1 DIABETES! I've grown up drinking liquids that have no carbs whatsoever, making the only things I drink water and diet soda...SODA TASTES BETTER TOO! BB should hold an intervention for me...