"Hi Mara! Sorry we're so early," Sam said as he and Troy came in through the side door.

I smiled, "Hi Sam, hi Troy. You know it's only noon right? Some of us aren't even dressed yet!"

After a moment I added, "And by some of us, I mean all of us."

I quickly pulled on a nightshirt when we saw their pick-up truck pull into the driveway, while everyone else ran up to the bedrooms to get dressed.

"Late night?" Troy asked.

"Nah," I grinned. "Sometimes we don't bother with clothes unless we need to."

Once they were both in and the door was closed I let my horns and tail reappear again and asked, "Why'd you come so early? We weren't planning on serving lunch..."

The two of them were both holding small backpacks and they each had a grocery bag too. The tall attractive blond responded "We brought some extra snacks and stuff, we can fend for ourselves till the party starts. If you all haven't eaten yet I could even go out and pick something up if you wanted. And we figured we'd come early so we could help get things all set up."

Troy added with a grin, "We also thought if we got here early enough, we could call dibs on the guest room."

"Dude!" Sam acted shocked as he protested, "That's not it at all!"

I just laughed, "Well go leave your stuff on the bed, close the door or whatever. We'll make sure everyone knows you've claimed the room. I don't know how many others are planning to stay the night anyways. For that matter I don't even know how many are coming, but we've invited quite a few."

"Yeah, Melissa was saying. It should be a fun party," Sam commented as the three of us went up the stairs. The guys went right to the guest room, while I turned left to the master bedroom so I could get dressed too.

A half hour later all six of us were in the backyard setting up the new patio furniture. We had a dozen cheap plastic chairs, four little plastic tables, and a larger folding-table.

Me and my girlfriends were all in our DLP t-shirts. Amber and I were wearing leggings, while Sue and Melissa were in jeans. And unfortunately my horns and tail were hidden again, since neighbours could see into the yard.

The guys were both dressed casual too, Sam in a tight t-shirt and blue jeans, Troy in a loose black shirt and black pants.

With all the outdoor furniture set up, Susan set up some outdoor speakers and got some music streaming out to the backyard. Then we all relaxed and had some breakfast or lunch or whatever.

"I guess we won't be getting any magic demonstrations this time around?" Troy asked. "I'm assuming the other guests aren't all 'in the know' about your demonic friend?"

Susan shook her head, "Sorry Troy. We probably shouldn't even be talking about that stuff outside?"

Sue gestured towards the other houses visible from where we were all sitting so Troy understood she was worried about the neighbours.

Melissa added with a grin, "Didn't you get enough of a demonstration back in March?"

Troy blushed but smiled, "It was good, but it was also three months ago. And it was kind of fun. I wouldn't mind doing that again, you know?"

Sam rolled his eyes and said, "Probably not going to happen this time around buddy."

I mostly kept out of that conversation, but I could tell Susan was glad we got that out of the way before anyone else showed up. And I figured we could trust Sam and Troy to keep quiet about the delicate stuff, especially since we basically just told them nobody else knew about the magic stuff.

About a half hour later our next early-arrival showed up.

Matt pulled into the driveway and parked his car next to Sam's pick-up truck. Amber went to meet him, then brought him into the backyard and introduced him to Susan, Sam, and Troy. He politely greeted them, but I could tell he was mostly focused on Amber.

Her supernatural beauty thing was going strong and it definitely had an affect on her best friend. He followed as she took him on a quick tour of the house, then she got him a drink and brought him back out to the yard again.

The two of them sat down next to each other and Matt smiled as he commented, "I thought I'd come a bit early incase you all needed some help, but it looks like you've already got everything ready to go?"

"Sam and Troy beat you to the punch," Amber replied with a grin. "And there wasn't much to do anyways."

I added, "We need to bring out the coolers and ice and get all the drinks chilling, but it feels too early to do that yet? We don't want the ice to all melt before everyone gets here. Same with the snacks, we'll wait a bit more before we start putting out the chips and dips and stuff."

"Gotcha," Matt nodded.

We all relaxed and chilled a bit more as we waited for the party to really get going. Matt talked some more with Amber, and he also spent some time talking with Sam and Troy.

Around half past three in the afternoon Susan got a text from one of her uni friends that they were on their way. At that point she opened the side gate and kept it propped open, so guests could just come straight through into the yard instead of knocking at the door. Then we got the coolers out and the ice and everything, we loaded up one with beer and vodka coolers and wine and stuff, the other one we filled with cans of soda, bottles of juice and water. And we put out a couple bowls of chips and opened some dip. Finally Sue turned up the volume on the music a little.

The guys all grabbed beers for themselves while me and my girlfriends all opened up vodka coolers. And I had a big smile on my face, I was excited about our first big party officially getting started.

The next arrivals were a couple of Susan's friends. There was a tall slim brunette and an attractive blonde. Like the rest of us, they were both dressed fairly casual. The brunette was in shorts and a t-shirt, the blonde wore a sundress.

Sue handled the introductions, the brunette was her friend Willow, she was in the same nursing program as Susan. And the blonde was Willow's date Jenna. She was another university student, but she was in one of the chemistry programs.

After the introductions Sue showed them around, gave them a tour of the house and got them drinks and everything.

Willow and Jenna were just starting to talk and mingle when Susan's other two guests arrived.

Logan was a cute guy with light brown hair and silver-framed glasses. Erin was a taller girl with short red hair and bright green eyes. Like the other guys, Logan was in blue jeans and a t-shirt. He was a smaller guy, like only a couple inches taller than me and he had a warm friendly smile. Erin was a little more fashionable than everyone else, she was in a pretty skirt and blouse.

Once again Susan did all the introductions, gave them the tour, and got them set up with drinks.

And that was just about everyone we were expecting, apart from Grace. I didn't even know for sure if she'd show up, I hadn't heard from her since the last day of classes so I figured there was a good chance she wouldn't be coming.

Susan turned up the music a little louder again, and with everyone talking and mingling and stuff there was a definite party atmosphere despite it being relatively early still. It wasn't even five in the afternoon yet.

It was nice though, and I enjoyed mingling and talking with everyone. I spent some time talking with Willow and Jenna, they were curious how Susan wound up with three girlfriends.

"So me and Sue first hooked up last October at a halloween party," I explained with a grin on my face. "It was your typical classic romance? She was a Jedi, I was part-demon, it was a match made in heaven."

They both giggled and I went on to give them the short non-magical story about me and Sue going out a few times then running into trouble. Then my best friend needed some support so of course I was there for her, and that relationship started to become romantic just in time for Sue and I to patch things up.

"And just like that, instead of some kind of stressful angry love triangle, we ended up as a polycule instead." I grinned, "A couple months later I met Amber at college and we sort of hit it off, then when I introduced her to Susan it turned out they already knew each other? Amber grew up just around the corner from Sue. That was a little awkward for a bit, but everyone got past that and next thing we knew Amber was part of the group. She actually just moved in with us a couple days ago."

"Wow," Willow smiled. "If I didn't know better I'd almost think you had some kind of magic touch Mara. I've known Sue for over two years and honestly, I thought it was hard to believe she managed to hang on to one girlfriend, let alone three. And from what you've said, it sounds like you're the one who's brought the four of you together."

"I don't know about that..." I said with a blush. And I was desperately trying to think of a way to steer the conversation in another direction, because the idea of me having some magic to bring Sue and me and Melissa together was just a little too close to the truth.

Then Jenna spoke up, and for a second I thought I was saved as she changed the subject. "Off topic but I'm really curious about something Mara. You and your girlfriends are all wearing matching t-shirts. What does DLP stand for?"

"Uh..." I hesitated as I glanced around for any potential escape routes. Or even a convenient diversion. With nothing obvious, I finally responded "Honestly I'm not qualified to answer that? You should probably speak to one of the responsible ones, like Susan or Melissa. I'm liable to blurt out something silly or embarrassing."

Jenna and Willow both giggled, and Willow commented "I can tell why Susan likes you. You're cute, and you have a good sense of humour."

"Definitely!" Jenna agreed. "Anyways who cares if it's silly or embarrassing, it's a party! If you can't tell us the awful truth then make something up. What's DLP mean?"

I grimaced, "Ok. Um... How about Demonic Lesbian Polycule?"

The two of them giggled again, like I'd just come up with that on the spur of the moment as a joke.

And I couldn't help wondering if maybe that was a skill or something, like I'd lost count of how many times I'd told someone the truth because I sucked at coming up with lies on short notice but had it taken as a joke.

At last there was a diversion and I was saved from having to explain anything else. Melissa came over and asked me to give her a hand with the food. The BBQ was already heating up, and Melissa had been planning to do the cooking but she had four guys all crowding around the grill vying for the spatula and tongs.

I escaped into the house with my tall blonde girlfriend, and we got the burgers and sausages out of the fridge.

"So far so good right?" she asked me while we were alone in there. "You haven't exposed any secrets yet have you?"

"Not yet," I grimaced. "But it was close. Jenna and Willow wanted to know what the DLP on our shirts meant."

Melissa laughed, "Maybe it wasn't such a good idea to wear them after all. I liked the idea of showing the four of us are all together though. I didn't think about it but yeah, people are obviously going to ask. So what did you tell them?"

I grimaced again, "I told them it stood for Demonic Lesbian Polycule, but I said it like it was a joke so they didn't believe me."

She rolled her eyes and sighed, "Of course you did. Come on, let's get the food out there. I'm taking bets on which guy will end up driving the BBQ. My money's on Sam. He knows how to use a chainsaw, he can intimidate the other guys."

"I'll bet on Matt," I grinned. "He'll want to impress Amber, and he's got the athletic sports-guy thing going for him."

She giggled as the two of us started carrying the food out. We piled up the raw stuff on a tray beside the BBQ, then the buns and condiments and all that stuff went on the folding table. We also had napkins and paper plates and plastic cutlery and stuff there too.

I was just about to head back into the kitchen to start slicing up tomatoes and onions and stuff when Amber called my name. I looked at her and she gestured towards the gate, where an uneasy-looking Grace was standing. As usual she was fashionably-dressed and had nice make-up on, she was almost out of place with the rest of us being so casual.

"Grace!" I grinned as I hurried over to her. "I'm glad you came!"

She took a step back, like she was afraid I was going to hug her or something. And I probably would have too, if she hadn't recoiled in fear like that.

"Sorry," I grinned. "I'm already in the party spirit. Come on in, let me get you a drink and we'll do the introductions!"

We got her a glass of white wine, then I took her around and introduced her to everybody. And with that, we were ready for the party to really get going.

PurpleCatGirl

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