[claire marie richards]

Claire Richards had spent an hour running around her house making absolutely sure that everything was perfect. It was time for Clementine, Marianne, and herself to have their annual tea party. The idea of annual teas had originally been brought up by Claire herself, obviously. Who else but Claire would be into tea parties? She smiled to herself as she smoothed the wrinkles out of the beige tablecloth she'd laid across the table. A vase filled with orange tiger lilies, white roses, and baby's breath. The smell was perfect. The setting was perfect, and the party would be perfect, of course.

Claire's house wasn't really a house at all. Claire lived one of the Beverly Hill's Hotels suites. She paid good money for it too. She wasn't the best party planner in LA for nothing, she charged high but if you hired her you got what you wanted if not better. Claire smiled once more, taking a seat on her couch. She picked a piece of cat fur off of her red sweater. She had on dark wash denim skinny jeans and silver ballet flats. Her hair was down and she hadn't done much to it. It was just there, but for some reason it still looked perfect.

As she waited for her friends to arrive she went on a cat scavenger hunt. Her five beauty's were scattered around the suite. Kiwi was closest to her so she gently scratched her behind the ears. "You aunty Clem is coming today to have tea and see you," she said then adding, "And aunty Marianne too, we can't forget her!" Kiwi had been a Christmas gift from Clementine herself. She tapped her foot impatiently and looked to the clock that was placed on the wall. It was 12:03 and Clem and Marianne were three minutes late. It wasn't like it bothered her, but she couldn't help sighing as she herd Kiwi meow loudly and move to another room.

[clementine maria riviera]

clementine drove up to the tall hotel, parking in front and handing the keys to the valet with a soft smile. claire's tea time was one of the most unusual traditions in which she had ever participated -- after all, she didn't think she had ever encountered people who actually had tea. people who drank tea, yes. people who threw afternoon parties, also yes. but no one who combined the two. at least, not since she was five and her favorite teddy bear, clarissa, invited her to a tea party. that was just different; it was just something little girls did. grown women, on the other hand...pretty much never had tea parties in downtown Los Angeles, 2008. still, that didn't mean clementine didn't enjoy the very unusual tradition. if nothing else, she got to hang out with two of her best friends and pet any number of claire's five cats, because, for some reason, the older woman always hosted the tea party.

claire's cats were very social creatures, except for the one who's name clementine could never remember because she almost never saw the poor thing, and at any given time, at least one would be on her own lap, and at least one would be on the lap of some unwitting guest. this guest, in particular, enjoyed it when kiwi decided to visit her lap. it seemed the small feline remembered its former owner (even if it had only been hers for a week or two) and came to sit with her every time she visited. the cats in this hotel were one of the principle enjoyments of clem's visits.

it was hot outside, and even the short trip between her air-conditioned car and the air-conditioned lobby of the hotel made tiny beads of sweat break out on the back of her neck beneath her hair. clementine hated sweat. she always had, and she probably always would. unfortunately, sweat was a fact of life in southern california. thank god for low humidity so it evaporated almost as soon as the cool air from the lobby hit her face. she smiled again, this time at the doorman, and stepped onto the hard tile floor. her brown heeled sandals clicked smartly as she walked, making her strides seem shorter, somehow, more clipped. but they weren't. she was just ready to relax, that was all. the shoes perfectly matched the leather lacing in her white tank top, and complemented her dark jeans very well. the elevator wasn't far away, and though she was technically supposed to wait for someone to come down and meet her, then escort her upstairs, she knew where claire's suite was, and she didn't want to bother.

instead, she merely entered the elevator, pressed the appropriate button, and waited for the soft whirring of machinery to start carrying her upward. it seemed to take forever, but at least the elevator was faster than the one in her college dorm. it frequently took a full minute to go two floors, and clementine constantly compared all other slow elevators to that one. so far, none had beat it. and sure enough, in less than a minute, she heard the light chime that told her she had reached her destination and as the doors slid open, she viewed the carpeted hallway that lead to her friend's room. she knocked on the door before turning the knob and pushing it open -- she and claire knew each other well enough that the knock was merely a formality -- and grinned as she saw the older woman stroking a cat on a nearby chair.

"claire! sorry I'm late, the valet was trying to flirt with me again," she laughed, waving her hand in a dismissive manner. "actually, no, i just haven't adjusted to the traffic in l.a. yet. you'd think after living here so long, i would've figured it out, right?" she laughed again. reaching out to hug her friend, clementine shook her head and tucked a stray piece of hair behind her ear as they separated.

[marianne kristen jones]

Being in the same building as claire was so easy. Instead of driving here, or wait.. waiting for a taxi she just had to go down through the elevator and down the hallway and towards the door. It was that easy, but pulling Marianne out of her bed was an harder obstacle. Remember when we were all like, "hey if i lived in this house.." refers to a house across the school, "i'd leave at 9:59.." when school started at ten am, in the mourning. This was kind of the same thing. But now it was in a hotel room, and she didn't want to get out of her bed. Marianne was so tired from the night before, she couldn't go to sleep even though she went to the club and she was expected to be tired. Even though she loved Claire, and Clem company, she needed her sleep. The sleep that she was suppose to have at least 8 hours of. But, she needed to get out of her bed or the hotel's bed and get her ass out of bed.

Getting out of the twin bed, she slipped on her bunny slippers. Yes, she was still a baby and she liked her slippers just the way they were. Hey, she was 20 and last year she was 19..and that was a pretty young age.She was in her third year of collage, and it was going by so quickly. Making her way to the mini closet that was clostest to the door of the hotel bedroom she swished her hands through the clothing. There was so many different things to wear, because Marianne brought three suitcases here, and she basically brought 1 quarter of her wardrobe here and if she stayed for long... Marianne would defiantly go back and bring more clothing. Everone knew, well mostly mr.evan knew that marie was a shopping-holic. No, not like those girls who went in those very colorful and lame. You know the typical clothing that you see all the girl's wearing? No, that wasn't Marie. Marianne was more the 'going to boutiques' or little outlet stores or whatnot. She wanted to be different and not the typical girl you see.


"hey guys, me and kevin jonas are the same age. she said randomly walking in trying to lighten up the room, with her weird comments. But she knew she needed to apologize, "Sorry, girl's..i kinda couldn't get out of bed?"and walked over giving then both of them a hug. Okay, who said three girl's couldn't have tea? Well it wasn't really tea...it was a time to gossip and see what was happening in the city or actually the wedding. It was tea but they liked to put music on and just talk. " so, like my out-uh-fit? marie said twirling around, even though it wasn't a big deal. She just liked to say that for the fun of it. What she wore today was a golden dress, and her hair tied up, with black heals. It was a bit fancy, but it was tea, tea was fancy!

[claire marie richards]

Claire wasn't that impatient of a woman, so she laughed as Clementine burst through the door. "I promise to forgive you if he was cute," she said winking, adding to the joke. "And traffic smaffic, You're not that late and I'm not that uptight," she added laughing. Claire rose from the couch to hug her friend. She hadn't seen her in quite some time, as they were both very busy. Claire had the wedding, which was getting closer and closer each day. She sighed, "Six months of planning and it's almost here." She flopped ungracefully onto the couch with another sigh. Another of her cats, Cicily, found her way into Claire's lap. She scratched her behind the ears and Cicily purred. Meanwhile, more cats came out of their hiding places to greet Clementine, Kiwi in perticular was the first one.

But the sound of another woman bursting through the door in a hurry scared poor Cicily off her lap. As the white maine coon ran, her one of her sharp claws brushed across Claire's wrist. "Ow!" she squealed as red liquid poured from the cut. The cute wasn't necessarily bad, but it did sting a bit. Claire was used to cat cuts though, she did live with five of them. "Oh dear," she said, getting up to grab a band-aid. She made extra sure to not get any blood on the furniture. She quickly applied the band-aid and returned to her seat on the couch.

"Thanks Marianne, you've injured me already," Claire said, laughing and standing once more to give her friend a hug. "And Kevin Jonas? Really? Are you interested?" she asked, laughing at Marianne's random comment. She rolled her eyes playfully at the not being able to get out of bed comment. Claire scanned Marianne's outfit. It was gorgeous, the gold worked perfectly with the black heels. "Adorable!" she announced. "And your's too Clem, of course," she added. "And I see you've been out all night parting as usual Miss Marianne," Claire said, laughing.

She smiled warmly. "Welcome to the Richard's home for Marianne, Claire, and Clementine's annual tea party," she said, pausing for breath. "So who's cooking? The pot and tea and all that stuff is over there," she said, motioning to the stove with a flick of her wrist. Claire wasn't one to cook. It wasn't that she didn't want to, it was that she couldn't. She could barley toast a piece of toast without burning it or setting fire to the entire hotel. She smiled to herself as she realized how ironic it was that she was dating a professional chef. Of course, no one knew about it. Adam's was a bad boy and no one would take Claire as the type to date him. Deep in her heart she knew her friends would accept that, but she didn't know if she was ready to accept it herself. Maybe today she would tell them when they started gossiping...

[clementine maria riviera]

clementine laughed, screwing up her face to demonstrate just how distasteful that idea was. "ugh, he was so not cute. but he was the one hitting on me, so why should that be my fault?" she asked with another laugh. she did enjoy these tea parties they had; it was an excuse to sit around and be girly, and she really never laughed as much in one sitting as she did with these girls. after all, she worked at a law firm, where a single chuckle could get you fired -- as could the lack of chuckle if the boss was actually trying to make a joke. rare, but it did happen. leaning down to scoop kiwi up off the ground, she had to resist the urge to bury her face in the cat's soft fur. she wished she had been able to visit more often when the little kitten was growing up. she felt like the grandmother that lived in another state; she wanted pictures, pictures, pictures, and she wanted to see her baby more often.

but now little kiwi was all grown up, and acting more like a cat than a kitten. it had been months since she actually fell asleep on clementine's lap the way she used to just sleep on anyone. with that absolute trust and odd postures that betrayed the lack of backbone present only in very young kittens, she had been the very picture of cuteness. and yes, there was a picture of her on clem's desk at work. right next to her own little ball of fluff and her fishtank. after all, she was single; who the hell else was she supposed to have pictures of?

the door burst open yet again, and she looked up to see the third member of their party enter in a casual gold dress, talking about kevin jonas. she felt her face screw up again, and at the same time, a smile formed across it. clementine was thankful she was too old to be part of the jonas brothers craze. she frankly thought they were next-generation backstreet boys clones, their music identical to that of every other bubblegum-pop boy band that ever existed, and she wanted nothing to do with them. it more than baffled her that marianne, a sensible woman of twenty years was buying into the teenybopper fanaticism. "yeah, totally wouldn't be bragging about that if i were you. in fact, i would probably start lying about my age. at least until some crazy fangirl fiiiinally kills him and the jonas brothers are no more," she laughed. the words were softened by the hug she stood up to give her friend before hearing her ask about her outfit. suddenly, clementine felt more than a little underdressed. she had spent maybe five minutes picking this out, just making sure it all matched before leaving her house. oh, well. it wasn't like claire was dressed up at all, either. "thanks, honey. you do look gorgeous, mari," she grinned at the girls.

and then it was time to cook. rolling her eyes, she made her way to the kitchen, waiting for the two of them to follow. she knew claire didn't cook, but she really thought it wouldn't be that hard to make tea and muffins. "i've got you covered, dear," she chuckled, her tone saying more than the words, "always the same thing. when will you finally learn how to cook?" clementine didn't bother saying it, simply heading for the pantry and grabbing some muffin mix. her next stop was the small pile of tea accoutrement on the kitchen table. pouring some water into the teapot, she set it on the stove to boil. "you two better be coming in here," she called out to the other room while she grabbed a muffin pan, a mixing bowl, and a whisk. clementine had no intentions of missing out on gossip just because she was willing to cook and make tea for this thing.