The CotK arrived at the Hive a little after midnight. Now that Diane and
Lisa's vehicles were out of the garage and fully repaired, the group had
enough cars to drive to the party and didn’t need to hire a cab. But since
they had to ask Stephano to show up earlier (before the girls’ cars were
ready) to help them take care of the two 12" high ceramic Winnie-the-Pooh
statues and honey pots, each filled with 1 ½ lbs of pure honey they had
bought as a gift for the UF birthday girls, they figured they’d rather
keep him to drive the gifts to the party. Most of them admitted that it
was mainly because they had begun to like the guy, but the transparent
truth was that neither of the car owners wanted to risk getting their car
seats sticky with the substance, or break the precious gifts because of an
unforeseen sudden break. So they all drove to the Hive and left Stephano
in charge of bringing the gift.

The party was in full swing when they arrived. Fans were flooding the
gardens and the broad flight of stone steps that lead up to the heavy
wooden double doors. Kezia, Jenieve and Andrea jumped out of Lisa’s car;
Desiree, Nicole and LaCountess came out of Diane’s car. The cab carrying
the gift showed up right after them and the girls helped Stephano unload
the golden bear and the golden sustenance that had, through a brilliant
mind’s delightful little story “Honey and Wine”, become the UF’s official
symbol.

The cousin’s of the Knight were overly excited about this event,
especially LaCountess, who was, after all, a member of the Unnamed faction
herself and this party gave her an opportunity to meet a few of her UFfish
friends. The group walked toward the stairs and the wide-open entrance
when they saw Susan come toward them and greed them with a smile. “Hello
gals”, she said in a joyous voice then turned toward Sunny to give her a
big bear hug, “Hi girl! Missed you. I hope you had as much fun where you
were as we did here.” She then looped her arm with Sunny and invited the
others to follow them inside the mansion. The happy CotK tagged along with
Kezia and Desiree each carrying one of the honey filled Winnie-the-Pooh
bears and jars.

As soon as they walked past the foyer and into the dance room, which was
full of wild dancers, some armed with weird objects that deceptively
looked like honey sticks, the UFfish CotKer was attacked by her friends
from the other faction leaving the rest of the group to take care of the
gift and themselves. While Lisa, Kez and Desiree carried the Poohs to the
table designated for gifts, Nicole, Andrea, Diane and Jenieve looked
around the room in amazement.

“Are those supposed to be skunks?” Asked Andrea pointing at the mural on
the wall to their left.

“I guess so, but look at what that one is doing, biting a squirrel. And
the other one, the way he looks. I bet they are meant to portray Nick and
LaCroix.” commented Nicole.

“Yeah, I think so too, considering this is the UF headquarters and they
are, after all, a Nick-LaCroix faction.” Jenieve added.

“You mean like us?” asked Diane.

Jenieve fidgeted before she answered, “No not exactly like us. You might
say they think of the relationship on a more…how should I put it…’daring’
level.’

Diane thought for a moment, then blushed from ear to ear upon realizing
her meaning, “Oh,” she said and turned to shoot a glance at her friend
LaCountess who was still chuckling with a few of her ‘daring’ friends.
Another “Oh” escaped from her lips, “You mean Sunny too…?” she turned to
the others in bewilderment, still blushing more.

Jenieve fought to keep her delight at her friend’s reaction from her voice
as she replied, “Yes, I’ve heard, and as it’s now obviously plain to see,
that she’s a Uffer too. And I won’t blame her. Seems like these guys do
have a lot of fun.”

“But guys,” called Desiree who had just joined the conversation, “If
that’s the case, then how do you explain those?” She pointed at the two
framed paintings on the opposite wall on which pictures of Nick and Nat,
and LaCroix and Fleur were exhibited for the entire room. Jenieve was
bemused, and she had to admit that she didn’t know the answer.

“The UF are just weird.” commented Kezia, staring at the frames like the
rest of the group, “Most they care about is to have fun and be jolly all
the time. This, most likely, is part of that agenda.” She looked over at
Sunny who was now holding an oversized honey stick in her hand and
threatening her friend April with it while laughing all the while. For a
fleeting moment her voice was heard above the noise in the room, “…you’ll
finish that freaking story, April, and finish it soon or I’ll poke your
eyes out with…” the rest was all drained in laughter.

“Yes, pretty wired, but they sure know how to have fun.” She turned just
as she saw Lisa walk up to her, “But I prefer more normal folks, with a
tinge of cousinly affection of course.” Just then Lisa reached behind her
and fully unexpectedly, brought out a dripping honey stick and smeared the
honey all over Kezia’s face while smiling evilly. Kezia shrieked in shock,
remotely hearing a few of the UFfers as they cheered Lisa from behind
while she mischievously observed her handiwork, “Yeah! Smear the leader,
honey her up.”

Kezia sighed as she watched the honey drip from her face, “Ok, *only*
normal folks then.” She left to find the washroom and clean up her face
while Lisa continued to bow to the cheers and wiggle her honey stick at
the rest of her faction mates.