Submission (#1914) Approved

“This is going to be the best New Year’s party known to man, you guys just watch!” Zeeky chirped, bouncing through the living room of his house. It was spacious. Open floor plan. Stars and stickers in the most random places, but to Zeeky, it was home. As much home it was, it was also the perfect to host a little get-together. The other two Terras sat on the couch, watching Zeeky’s eccentric behavior. “Would you settle down?” Phoney barked at the other Terralien. Zeeky rolled his eyes, looking from Phoney to Kitty, who of course remained silent. “Would you two at least help me with the decorations?” Zeeky held up a 2024 banner, stretching both of his arms out to support it. Kitty silently nodded and stood while Phoney huffed and stalked towards the banner. “Fine, as long as you shut up.”
“Hold it up there!” Phoney hissed as Zeeky sat atop his shoulders. Kitty stood on a stool, struggling to keep the banner in place. “Kitty, keep it up!” Zeeky barked, attempting to nail a piece of the banner into place. “Kitty is trying their best,” Kitty boomed, voice louder and deeper than the duo had remembered. Zeeky jerked around, his body twisting to face Kitty. Phoney screeched as he began to topple over from the sudden jerk, Zeeky howling as he followed him to the floor with a thud, banner draping down to the ground with them. Kitty just stared, trying their best to keep a straight face.
Ears flicking with amusement, Kitty stalked back inside the house to the living room, leaving the other two outside. That didn’t last long though, as they immediately rushed in. “Kitty,” Zeeky panted. “How did you manage to get the banner up while we were on the ground?” Phoney stalked in after him, plopping onto the couch, heaving. To the question, Kitty simply shrugged.
“Well,” Zeeky spoke, catching the attention of Phoney who was done catching his breath. “That’s one thing off the list.. just two more things to go!” Phoney’s eyebrows raised. “What more do we have left?” Zeeky scanned his list. “Well, just preparing the food and.. Oh that's it. Just preparing the food. The activities should be easy to prepare.” Zeeky grinned over at Kitty, who was already in the kitchen, all while Phoney spoke once more. “Well do we have to do the food now? It’s only like 4!” Kitty disregarded Phoney and started getting out ingredients for the many dishes and appetizers they were going to prepare for themselves. Cheese, dips, black-eyed-peas, cut up vegetables and hummus.. All the works.
“Could you hand me the pretzels from the pantry?” Zeeky chirped to Kitty, smiling as the quiet Terralien did the deed. Zeeky opened the bag and emptied some onto a platter, adding some cheese blocks that Kitty had chopped to the spread as well. “This will look so amazing!” Zeeky shrieked. Kitty nodded, before turning to Phoney, who still sat on the couch. “You know,” Kitty spoke up once more, voice deepened as always. “It would be really nice if you could get your lazy tail up and help with the Hors D'oeuvres.” At that, Phoney snapped upwards, stalking towards the kitchen. “I am not lazy!” He barked at Kitty. Kitty then tilted their head towards some celery that needed to be chopped, all while Zeeky chuckled, back turned. “Get to work, Phoney! We have lots of work to do before everything is ready!”
“I heavily dislike this.” Phoney commented, elbow-deep in soap and suds. “Suck it up,” Zeeky retorted next to him, also soaking wet with suds. Kitty watched from the couch, not caring to get their paws dirty. “Maybe I don’t want to!” Phoney snapped, pissed. The cooking had gone well, and everything was ready, but all the Terraliens had to do was clean. Zeeky rolled his eyes, flicking some wet suds at Phoney. “How dare you!” Phoney freaked, splashing Zeeky with the dishwater. Cold and now a lot more wet, Zeeky splashed him back, but harder. “Take that!” They splashed and splashed, spilling water all over themselves and the floor, getting nothing done, until they eventually got tired. “Let’s just do the dishes tomorrow and enjoy the end of 2023, eh?” Phoney suggested, now cold. “Agreed,” Zeeky nodded. “I’ll go get us some blankets..”

‘Hmm…’ Kitty snuck out into the kitchen in the early morning hours. The clock read 4:27am. Zeeky and Phoney, dead asleep. The party had gone great, but things needed to be done. ‘Might as well…’ Kitty thought, gritting their teeth as they plunged their paws into the cold dishwater from earlier that night. They scrubbed the dishes, and left them to dry. They got down to their knees and cleaned the remaining water off of the floor. Kitty sighed, taking down streamers and sweeping up confetti. They took down the banner, packaged up the remainder of the New Years food, and disposed of the trash. They then looked at the clock once more.. 6:35am. ‘Shoot,’ Kitty thought, slinking back into the kitchen. They stuck some biscuits in the oven on a set timer so as to not overcook them, nor burn the house down. Kitty poked their head back into the back room once more to confirm that Phoney and Zeeky were still asleep. They were. Kitty silently wished them well, before slinking out of the front door silently, clicking the quiet lock behind them.