Chapter 15
For the first time, Sydney was looking forward to returning to school in January. She had a wonderful Christmas holiday complete with lots of evenings spent with Michael and a few very successful idea pitches to her editor. Plus, she had the A Crowd’s party coming up, which was sure to give her the scoop she needed to write the perfect article.
The only downside to January’s excitement was the mid-term exams Sydney needed to take. Thanks to Michael’s insight on what exactly would be on the English final (he practically gave her the questions word for word since it was not like her grades counted for anything) studying for that would be a cinch. Her other three exams, however…well, she did not like to dwell on them for they gave her a stomachache.
On Friday, just three days before the exams were to begin, Sydney bumped in to a girl in her trig class, Cara, at the end of the day as she was making her way towards her locker. Cara was the tenth grader who had befriended her earlier in the year, so when she stopped to ask her a question about the review packet their teacher gave out, Sydney was inclined to help her out since, amazingly, she knew the answer. Cara thanked her for her assistance and then walked away. Sydney had barely taken two steps towards her locker when Susan and Jenny intercepted her.
“What were you just doing?!” Susan demanded.
“Um… I answered a question…,” Sydney said slowly, unsure as to how that was the supreme offence Susan made it out to be with her tone.
“But she was a sophomore!”
“A nerdy one!” Jenny added.
“Well she sits next to me in class; I was just helping her out,” Sydney said simply, not seeing any problem in what she had done. After all, it wasn’t as though she invited Cara to the mall. Heck, she didn’t even invite Cara to sit with her in the cafeteria. It was just a simple question related to a school issue.
“You cannot talk to people like that! If they talk to you, you walk away!” Susan instructed.
“Okay…,” Sydney said in a slow tone. “The next time she asks me a question I’ll ignore her and walk away…oh! and I’ll try to knock her books out of her hands as I do it.”
“Perfect!” Jenny grinned. Sydney’s jaw fell open. She, of course, had been joking, but clearly her sarcasm had not been picked up on; not in the least.
“So you’re still coming on Tuesday right?” Susan asked. Sydney nodded. “Great! Its going to start at one pm at Greg’s house. Here’s the address,” she said, handing over a piece of paper. “DO you need directions?”
“Oh no I know where that is,” Sydney assured her after glancing down at the street name on the paper in her hand.
“Terrif! See you then! Oh and good luck on your mid terms!” Susan called out as she walked away.
“Terrif!” Sydney repeated under her breath in a mocking tone. The party she was going to was certainly going to be…something. She just had to remember to get in, get the dirt she needed, and get out – that was the key to survival. That and not accepting drinks from anyone unless it was a pre-sealed bottle of water.
~*~
When Sydney arrived at Greg’s house on Tuesday, shortly after one, half a dozen cars were already parked on the street out front and in the driveway. Sydney parked her silver Neon behind a larger green SUV before stepping out and adjusting her skirt. She had decided (against her better judgment) on wearing the skirt picked out for her by Susan and the girls, hoping it would impress them on at least some level. Unfortunately, impressing them came with the downside of not being able to sit for the entire duration of her partying, but it was a worthy trade off.
When Sydney knocked on the door, Greg answered it and smiled immediate. “Sydney! I’m so glad you could come.”
“I’m glad I was invited,” she laughed softly.
“Well c’mon in. Guys! Sydney’s here! The fun can begin!” Greg shouted as he walked towards the back of the house where, presumably, everyone else was waiting. As it turned out, though, they were not in the back of the house, but down in the basement, which was completely finished with nice carpeting, leather sofas, and even a pool table.
“This is a pretty cool place you got here,” Sydney said to Greg.
“Ah yea it’s sweet. My older brother had this all done before he left for college a few years back; now we get to enjoy it, right guys?!” he called out to his eight guests. They all mumbled in return. “Anyway, there’s some drinks over there in the kitchen; help yourself.”
“Thanks,” Sydney smiled softly. Then, she headed in the direction Greg pointed, hoping there was some water, but figuring there was not. At the very least she figured there would be Coke since she knew Rum and Coke to be a popular alcohol drink (not that she had had any in her life time). While she did enjoy the occasional glass of wine, hard liquor was never her cup of tea and she certainly was not going to start right then.
“Oh Sydney we’re so glad you came!” Jenny said, rushing up and giving her a hug. In the process, she nearly spilled her plastic cup full of amber liquid, but luckily she did not. “And you’re wearing that skirt – it still looks awesome!”
“Thanks,” Sydney smiled at her.
“Did you want me to mix you a drink? My sister gave me this book for Christmas on all this mixed drinks – its so much fun!” Jenny giggled.
“Um, no you know I think I’m just gonna grab a bottle of something…,” she said. She was very skeptical of Jenny’s ability to do anything properly, especially when it involved proper drink mixing ratios, due to Jenny’s solid D in math.
“OK have fun,” Jenny giggled before skipping off.
Just as Sydney reached the kitchen area and began searching for something to carry around and pretend as though she was drinking it, she was intercepted by Nikki and Susan, who greeted her with hugs and complimented her skirt. “You know,” Nikki began quietly. “Greg is really happy you’re here.”
“Is he?” Sydney asked curiously. This was certainly news to her. Perhaps, though, he did not want her there for the reasons Nikki was implying with her quiet tone. Maybe he had an extra hotdog lying around and needed to get in some target practice.
“Yeah… he likes you, you know?” Nikki giggled. “I mean, he totally respects what you’ve got going on with Mr. Vaughn, he just thinks you’re hot.”
“Oh really?” Sydney asked, fighting the urge to gag. “Well he certainly is cute.”
“And so much more,” Nikki sighed dreamily.
After a few minutes more of speaking with Nikki and Susan, Sydney’s eyes began to drift around the basement area towards the different partiers. Over in one corner, she spotted a girl and a guy kissing one another. Though she did not know their names of the top of their head, she did recognize the girl as one who hung around Susan and her crew. When Sydney’s eyes scanned back across them, she was utterly stunned to see that the girl’s top had been removed just as though the two of them were alone in the room.
“Um,” she began to Susan quietly. “Should they, um…go someplace else?”
“Oh them,” Susan rolled her eyes and waved her hand causally. “They’re fine; they do that a lot. Don’t worry about it.”
“Okay…,” Sydney said with uncertainty. Yeah, that wasn’t going to be awkward.
Interestingly, as time progressed, other couples began following in the path of the shirtless duo in the corner. Sydney had heard of ‘make out parties’ from her own high school days, but always felt they were for younger teens, and that they were a thing of the past. It appeared, though, she was about to be very mistaken in that latter assumption.
“You ladies ready for some party games?” Greg’s friend, Brad, asked Susan and Nikki. The girls laughed loudly, took long swigs of their drinks, and then followed Brad to the other side of the room.
Party games. Party games? This struck Sydney as very odd. In her mind, party games were Pin the Tail on the Donkey or Duck, Duck, Goose – games she had not played since she was seven-years-old and at Maggie Steven’s birthday party. She could not for the life of her think of what party games were played at a party for seventeen and eighteen year olds. Sadly, she was about to find out.
“Sydney c’mon,” Jenny said, grabbing Sydney’s hand and pulling her towards the cluster of her peers across the room. “Greg, really wants you to play.”
“Um…okay, but what are we playing?” she asked, still confused.
“Here give her this,” Susan said to Jenny, holding out an item Sydney could not see.
“No not that one, this one,” Jenny said, reaching for another item in Susan’s grasp. Then, she held it out to Sydney, who was surprised to see a tube of lipstick. “Put it on.”
“Oh…kay…um its there a mirror?” she asked. The last thing she wanted to do was smear lip gloss all over her face in front of so many people.
“Oh I’ll just do it,” Jenny laughed. Then she yanked the cap off the tube, grabbed Sydney’s chin, and applied the color perfectly. “Looks great!”
“Purple,” Sydney said with an almost laugh. Strange. Purple lipstick…that really did not seem to be a popular shade. In fact, Sydney was sure she looked quite ghastly in it.
A she was standing there, trying to figure out what the heck was going on, she noticed that Greg and his friend were unzipping their jeans. This seemed ludicrous at first until it all hit her like a speeding freight train. The different lipsticks. The make-out twins in the corner, who were disturbingly losing more clothing as time progressed. The alcohol. The daytime, basement setting. She was, unbeknownst to her until that exact moment, at a so called “Rainbow Party”.
“Oh my god,” she breathed at this realization.
“What?” Jenny asked, having heard her hiss.
“Um…,” Sydney hesitated. She needed an excuse – a very good excuse – and she needed it fast. “Well, I, um…is there a bathroom?”
“On the other side of the stairs,” Jenny told her, pointing.
“Thanks!” Sydney said quickly before practically running in that general direction. Once safely behind the bathroom door, Sydney leaned heavily on the counter and began to hyperventilate. No bathrooms to escape from. No back doors. No easy way out. She was screwed.