Just Dance

[Brackie]

Mikki Swift was currently the host of the last big party she'd ever host in Tennessee, held at her friend Forrest's giant fucking house, and everyone was invited.

It had taken weeks, nearly months, of planning, scouting, and constant thankless preparation. She'd had to beg people for supplies and equipment she didn't own, mix more songs in less time than she'd ever had before, make promises to neighbors that probably wouldn't be kept, and the marketing; the goddamn marketing had been both the easiest and the hardest part, because it sure was fun throwing flyers around school but everyone always had questions, like what to wear or how long it would go for or what the address was, even though Mikki thought she'd made everything perfectly clear. But of course, people were stupid, and she tended to forget that, even in Chattanooga.

But none of that mattered now.

After she'd begun pre-drinks with Forrest and Andy, Erika showed up not long after, and Claude not too long after that. She'd given them one last rundown, and then, people started arriving. She'd said hello to them, welcomed them, although thirty seconds later she wouldn't even remember their names, because there was no goddamn room in her brain for that right now. After the first ten people arrived, Mikki disappeared to the bathroom and took half a hit of E off of Forrest's immaculate bathroom countertop - not her usual vice, but energy was in high demand. The next twenty people came by in even more of a blur, and after that Mikki disappeared again, this time to take the other half. Once there was a fair amount of people there, enough that making smalltalk with everyone at once was out of the realm of possibility, it was down to the basement dancefloor where she pumped the speakers up to near breaking point and put on the best party-starting music to lure everyone down.

Not everyone would come down, of course. There wasn't nearly enough room, and it wasn't everyone's scene anyway. There was still plenty of people upstairs, probably causing petty drama like they always did at this school. If things got bad, they'd find her. She'd sort it out, if Claude didn't get to it first.

But for now, Mikki was standing on a raised platform in a slick basement converted to a dancefloor, in front of a huge crowd of her peers, probably giving most of them permanent hearing damage for the rest of their life. She was in complete control of the music, and she could feel the combined tenseness of all of them as the music edged closer and closer to the drop.

Within a few seconds, an eardrum-shattering noise bullet broke the tension, and everyone went wild.

After all this time, Mikki was finally back in her element.

[BlizzardeyeWonder]

Over all the commotion- cheers, stomping, other stuff- one thought always endured. It wasn't unique to this party, or even parties in general. Just a pervasive thought, a pervasive feeling, that was the whole world forever and ever when it struck. In the moments afterwards, the brain monotonously carried about its business, the functions of keeping a body alive- but the psyche slipped into a temporary coma, replaced by one thing. It wasn't like this thing ever shook people to the core. It wasn't like this thought fell empires. It wasn't even the feeling that tore the (metaphorical) hearts from peoples' chests. For something that overpowered, it was oddly quiet. Just one thought echoed in her mind-

Why are you here, again?

[Camilla Bell continued from Exodia Destroys- Wait, this isn't right]

Camilla had told her mother she was going to a 'social gathering', and she immediately agreed to take her upon hearing 'social'. She probably could have mentioned the ramifications of a party on 4/20 at the resident druggie rich kid house and she still would have accepted if she promised to talk to her fellow classmates.

Not like she was going to keep that promise, but whatever. It's fine. Everything's fine. First of all damn that one guy for inviting her here. Without, she may have gone the whole year without being bothered by parties. But no, she had to be the one guy awkwardly standing in the crowd holding a stereotypical plastic red cup (it was not drugged for there was nothing in it to drug... yet) while people wildly danced in all directions. The music was... fine, maybe not her thing, but it was fine. The dancing was... slightly less so but still fine. Actually, why did she come down to the basement, the shadiest part of near every house, to begin with? Maybe she imagined she could find Julien, maybe Declyn down there. Well, she couldn't see them here, but that was probably because of all the people.

The moment she found a gap in the crowd, she would bolt for the wall, to curl up into a ball against it and watch the madness unfold from the safest distance possible, possibly going back upstairs to protect her ears. Right now though, she could just idly look around, pretending she was trying to not spill her non-existent drink.

[Buko]

Beats' Beats: Usher - Nice & Slow
"It's seven o'clock--on the dot! I'm in my drop top--cruisn' the streeeeeeeets," Ace belted highly off-key to the music blasting from his earbud as he weaved through the streets of Chattanooga, "I got a real pretty, pretty little thing that's waiting for mee-eeee!"

There were several things wrong with that statement, the least of which was his attempt at falsetto. For one, it was definitely later than seven o'clock--it was party time and he wasn't in seventh grade, duh! For two, he didn't have a drop top, but he did have a Honda Ruckus and it was pretty low to the ground and open to the elements...so he supposed half credit on that? Doubtful. Lastly and most egregious was the lack of a real pretty, pretty little thing that was waiting for him...least in his mind, however limited and football/hip-hop obsessed it was.

But that didn't mean he couldn't have a good time, did it?

A black tank top, paired with blue jeans and his trusty sneakers and Memphis Tigers cap certainly didn't paint the picture of someone overtly concerned with getting the attention of the opposite sex. Or at least of someone who cared about getting their attention, maybe that was the goal, Ace didn't really know. He wasn't that deep. He wasn't much of a partier but he was having like a...fifth life crisis or something. He didn't want to elaborate but he was told there was going to be a big ass party, he was a Senior and leaving town by end of summer...

It just made sense that he went, okay? It was character building!

Now what's really character building is gonna be findin' parking, goddamn Forrest--this place is already fuckin' packed!

[Ace Ortega Continued From: In Our Bones ]

By the time he had found a semi-safe place to leave the Ruckus and had managed to weasel his way through the crowd into the doorway of the entrance of Forrest's big ass house the music and people in it were enough to make Ace realize that even the earbud on full blast wasn't gonna be enough to set his own soundtrack. Fine by him. He bopped his head aggressively and tried his best to scope around, headphones firmly in pocket.

Okay, I can handle this. I think.

The party was supposed to be BYOB but Ace didn't have a fake nor did he really know any dealers or anything. He was a boy scout athlete pretty much who had tried his best to avoid getting into too much trouble and that left him completely virgin to booze, bud and pretty much everything under the sun. He didn't really know how everybody else planned on getting stuff and he didn't want to re-enact Superbad trying to get booze when everybody else was probably doing the same thing. He thought he'd pretty much just charm folks at the party and enjoy the music!

Work smart not hard, right?

He made a beeline for the fridge, feeling way too aware of how much of a wallflower he seemed by just standing in the doorway looking at everybody mean as fuck like and went in search for a beer or a solo-cup to place some beer in.

He had read online that it was nearly physically impossible to look uncool with a beer in his hand. He continued bopping his head and twisting his hips to the music as he pumped his fist to the beat--because, uh, wasn't that what he was supposed to do?

Fake it till you make it s'gonna be your epitaph Beats and that's big facts.

[Laurels]

"Okay, never fear! Pretzels are here!"

((Tanisha Abbey continued from i'm so 3008))

Tanisha had no idea if the rowdy crowd of this party would care at all that she walked in with a jumbo bag of pretzel sticks. She had to assume so. People needed something salty to go along with beer, and some people probably needed something in their mouths during a party like this. Tanisha made her way to the kitchen counter and opened the bag of pretzel sticks, taking one out and gnawing on it.

Tanisha had found a flyer for the party around school, and she quickly committed to it. I mean, who didn't want to go to some wildass party in the nice part of town while in high school? That was the sort of shit that would be good prep for college and its bacchanalia. Of course, Tanisha knew that she'd have to get a fake ID or make friends with someone who could legally buy alcohol to be really accepted at these kind of parties, but hey, until then, she could bring snacks.

As Tanisha gnawed on a pretzel stick, she saw a guy open the fridge to put beer in.

"Hey, what do they got here?" she asked the guy. "Anything good?"

[Brackie]

Kayden knew if someone had taken a picture of the entire dancefloor, he'd be the best looking guy on it.

That might have been the E talking though.

((Kayden Brockman continued from Take The High Road))

At some point, Kayden had rocked up to the mansion, and in a rush to avoid any number of douchebags or people he'd pick a fight with that he saw in the hallways and coming behind him on the way in, found himself in the basement with an entire crowd of students he would never be able to pick out of a lineup the next day. The music wasn't his favourite, but his body was definitely feeling it. And at some point, he was feeling his body. That was when everything kicked in (again, might have been the E) and suddenly he was having the time of his life. God knew how many minutes passed, but eventually he was sweating up a storm from the dancing alone and it felt so good.

Somewhere through the lights he saw some junior getting handsy with a reluctant girl who looked his age, and the impulse to go over and play gay-fety patrol, the one-man protector against the perils of heteronormative bullshit, grew inside him. It'd definitely liven things up even more, but Kayden remembered the last time he was high, his impulse control wasn't the best. It was probably a really bad idea and he knew it somewhere so the doubt won out and he focused back on the music. She'd be fine. If he saw her not being fine, he'd ask her about it. If something had happened, he'd kick up a fuss and find some names on the team and react appropriately - he was still a footballer, after all; flaming he may be, he still had some weight to throw around. Then again, that might have been the you-know-what talking.

At some point, he began to lose steam, and made his way through the throbbing crowd to the back stairs and eventually found himself in the kitchen. He had another hit or two, but the night was still young - energy drink would do fine.

He strode across, pulled one of the many Red Bulls he had stashed near the back, mentally calculated if he was still allowed carbs that day or if he was taking it off tomorrow, shrugged, leaned back against the counter, and chugged.

Just don't think about those jager bombs from the last time you had booze.

Suddenly, Kayden was thinking about those jager bombs from the last time he had booze, and grimaced at the empty.

Well fuck, didn't see that coming.

[Primrosette]

Why the fuck did I agree to coming to this wild party with Adonis? And where the hell did he disappear off to?

((Emmett Bunnell continued from Just Chill))

Emmett let out a groan of frustration as he was pretty much hiding off in a corner of the basement and he was glaring at almost everyone who would even look his way. Some had even asked him to dance with them and he basically told them to fuck off. He didn't even want to have a good time with these people that he disliked with a strong passion and he was thinking about just getting his ass out of there. But he couldn't just up and leave without Adonis. Their relationship has been on the rocks again and Adonis had told him that he should try to have some 'fun'.

Yeah. Having fucking fun on my own here, Adonis. Thanks....

His ears felt like they were going to end up bleeding from how loud the noise was and he couldn't help but sneered at all the people who were having the time of their lives. He didn't even care if he was being a dick.... As soon as he didn't start a yelling match with anyone, then everything should continue to be alright for him. He just had to wait for Adonis to come back from wherever he had gone to.

He just hoped that no one would talk to him and he preferred being on his own to think about some sketches that he needed to finish up soon over the week.

He was leaning against the wall's corner and he had his arms folded against his chest, hoping to warn people that he was in no mood to get all chatty and friendly with them.

[BlizzardeyeWonder]

Walking into the mansion with the wave of chatter and music washing over her was like a breath of fresh air.

"Good evening!" Meilin shouted at nobody in particular.

[Meilin Zhou continued from In Our Bones]

Excitement, like most human emotions, were contagious. Such was the nature of social beings, and Meilin was a very social animal herself. She let out a breath charged with the melody and the rhythm of the house, and stretched. Right here was where she was in her element- right here with all the people.

It was going to be the party of year, boasted the fliers, both implicitly and not-so-much. Either way, it was important to her at least, and she dressed the part- a silvery shrug adorned her shoulders and the top that started the flowing white dress that depicted glittering pastel swirls that made way for a skirt that ruffled and ruffled more into the blue, like sea foam, all the way down to her knees. She was also sure to bring her trusty sidebag that hung by her hip daintily, containing the usual things- phone, house keys, notebook- plus the car keys. Perhaps it clashed with the rest of her dress, but there was no way in hell she would leave that bag behind.

She'd make her way closer to the basement, closer to the music, in a bit. Pacing was important. As of now, she'd probably see if there were a few snacks available, try and find a friend or acquaintance to have a friendly chat with, generally warm up before it got heated on the dance floor. To that end, she found herself pacing towards the kitchen, looking around idly.

[Buko]

Okay, this shit crazy...way too packed.

Ace grumbled to himself as he tried to weasel his way through the crowd with some degree of grace and without manhandling his classmates/random teenagers. It was a bit difficult due to his general size and the fact that he moved like a Labrador on skates sprinting down a bowling lane.

Okay, but this is just zone blocking--pick a hole and go right through it Beats.

So single-minded was his focus he quickly reached the fridge as another teenage boy was placing beer in it and without really meeting eye contact with anyone else at the party. So great was his determination that he placed little mind for anything than getting a drink in his system and starting to teenage it up. He had set a goal and he intended to meet it. Fuck waiting for this guy to get out the way--scared money didn't make no money. Ace went in above him, stretching out his long limbs and swinging open the door to the freezer above the fridge and the kneeling boy.

" 'Scuse me bro, just tryin' to get things poppin' and lockin', be out your hair in a good minute."

Always better to ask forgiveness than permission, something he'd exercise when explaining why he stole whoever's liquor he was stealing at the moment. Maybe he should've looked for liquor on a counter as opposed to the freezer? Somebody had to have forethought if they had put it in here. For a moment as he scanned the icebox Ace felt a pang of nervousness and hesitation...

Then he heard a female voice prompt him with a question and he answered with an instinctual speed.

"What they got in there? Anything Good?"

"Nothing much, like some Peach Absolut or some shit!"

He drifted as he grabbed the bottle, turned from the fridge and made eye contact with Tanisha.

An accomplice. An ally.

Now time to get everybody involved.

Y'know, sometimes you're smarter than you give yourself credit Beats. Not often, but sometimes.

"Yooooooooo!", he shouted above the music, "Who down for some shots?"

He blinked and paused--talk about being a prisoner of the moment! He felt a grin expand on his face and felt a measure of adrenaline pump in his chest...

"Where the solo cups at?"

[Laurels]

The tall chocolate Adonis at the fridge revealed a bottle of peach vodka. Tanisha was quite familiar with fruity liquor, as she found it the easiest to consume. Granted, the more she consumed, the more she was likely to get hammered quicker. Like she always said, “citrus is vicious” when it came to flavored liquors. Still, it was early, and she could surely weaken it with cola or something.

But when Ace called for shots, that changed quickly. Tanisha wasn’t normally a shot girl, but she could get down. Besides, there were always games to be played, and she could get in a competitive mood. She already beat out every bitch here as the most gorgeously rubenesque chick here, so maybe there’d be something fun to play.

“Yo, I’ll take you up on that,” she shouted to Ace, raising her pretzel stick to the sky like Hogwarts paying tribute to Dumbledore. “Let’s do this.”

She looked around and noticed the sink was full of cups. She started to pull out the variously shaped cups, glasses, mugs, and whatever else people had haphazardly thrown in the sink.

“Here,” she said to Ace. “This ought to help.”

She also pulled a cereal bowl out of the sink and put it with the cups. Tanisha didn’t know how many people would be playing, so she had to account for those who were too slow to get glasses.

[Buko]

"Respect!"

You always gotta love it when it's the sister who shows some damn resourcefulness!

Ace smiled as Tanisha gathered the cups with a speed that impressed even the running back and track star--someone else was determined. Game recognized game.

Not really sanitary but the liq should take care of that shit right? Ain't that how it works?

You're in way over your head Ace.

He approached her with the a big mischievous smile on his face and located the two cleanest cups before pouring two haphazard shots or what he guessed were appropriate sized shots. He was freestyling, it looked right, but these weren't really shot glasses...

Quit being a bitch and drink up bro!

He looked to Tanisha and raised a glass...

"Reward for the gathering of resources," he had seen this next part on a Hip-Hop podcast that involved artists getting drunk and reminiscing on the past, "Eye to eye."

He clinked his glass against hers maintaining eye contact and took the shot...

It had been too much liquor.

He nearly choked and had it come out his nose. He gulped it down with a grimace and then a cough before wiping his mouth. This tasted like ass with a hint of Peach cough syrup. He tried his best to look like he had been here before, but he thought the tear coming from his eye from after he coughed betrayed him.

"Shit's spicy," he gasped, "Who else want in? I'm pourin' up now--get here quick before you gotta drink outta bowl!"

[BlizzardeyeWonder]

Upon hearing a familiar voice call for shots, Meilin paused before heading back into the kitchen. On one hand, she kind of wanted to get in and check on the guys, make sure nothing bad happens, you know? On the other hand, she trusted they wouldn't do anything too stupid. Besides, there was a party downstairs, and it was waiting for her! She figured after a bit of dancing, she'd come back up to check on the drinkers, maybe see if one of them needs a ride.

Though, was there not a party here too? Eh, the music is a lot of the reason she came here. Might as well follow the music. Finding the way down to the dancefloor wasn't too hard, as the noise was impossible to miss to a familiar ear.

Right at the last step, she could almost feel her sidebag/purse/whatever vibrating, and her eardrums thumping. Her smile grew wider for a moment, and she made her way into the crowd, weaving between the revelers.

Electronic dance music was something she often heard as a high school social butterfly, and while it wasn't her favourite genre in the world, she had learned to love it. Plus, mad respect to the DJs who put the thing together by themselves. Sure, mixing and composing were different animals, but both were worthy of recognition, she felt.

---

"Excuse me, excuse me, excuse me-"

Camilla burst through the stairwell, panting, as though the crowd had stolen her air. The upper floor was... still kinda people-heavy, but it was a more tolerable kind. First order of business- where was the fucking food? What kind of 'party of the year' was this where the host didn't even bother to have some sort of appetizer course for their guests? Sure, her idea of party was skewed because she'd only been to awkward adult parties where food was the whole point. But seriously? She skipped dinner for this!

Truly, to assume makes an ass out of you and me.

Well, the kitchen was in sight, and if any sort of snacks were to be around, it was there. So she stumbled on over, and stood observing with all the notability and usefulness of a particularly tall tent pole in the doorway. It seemed people were passing around cups, almost as if getting prepped for a drinking game- and behind that commotion, a bag of pretzels.

"Hey uh... what you got?"

[Primrosette]

Emmett raised an eyebrow at the others that were starting to take shots and he wondered if he should try to get the hell out of there. But he was somehow trapped in the corner of the kitchen and he knew that if he spoke then he would have to have a long conversation with someone that he didn't like or didn't know. It had been a mistake to come to this party with Adonis and he wished that he could go back in time and had said no to him.

"This is so stupid...." He mumbled under his breath and he continued to observe the people having the time of their lives. "Hm...."

Don't look my way, for fuck's sake.

[Brackie]

Ooh, these straight people 'bout to get turnt up in here.

Kayden was standing off by the side with his second Red Bull as everyone decided on an awkward grouped drinking game going. Not Kayden's thing, for a number of reasons. One being he didn't drink, another being it was boring. There was always half the group who hadn't done anything so half the game was spent thinking of the must mundane white-people stuff (although considering the two who were starting it up, that probably wouldn't apply here) to get them drunk while everyone who had much more interesting lives got more and more plastered and had less and less patience and then left.

Still, at least they were enjoying themselves.

"This is so stupid..."

Unlike some people.

Emmett Bunnell - loner with a face like a cat's ass, twenty four seven. At this party because...who the fuck knows, really? It was a mystery as to how someone who seemed so allergic to the concept of fun would even attend. Didn't he have a long brooding journal to write in, some boring moody band from last decade to be angry listening to or something else kids with no friends did which Kayden was not privy to, being someone with friends?

Considering his addled condition, it's amazing Kayden's turn to Emmett wasn't more immediate. His voice could have been softer, but it didn't reach a shout, more like an announcement.

"Then leave, bitch! Door's that way!" he hollered, vaguely pointing off in the direction of what could have been the front door.

He rolled his eyes and turned back to the action, sipping his Red Bull as he did so.

"God, gotta have one person pissin' an' whinin' at every fucking party."

[Primrosette]

And the first person to talk to me is a fucking footballer.... When I wasn't even talking to him!! Fucking asshole!

Emmett couldn't stop himself from confronting the guy, Kayden something or another, and he did it with a sense of irritation and slight anger. He couldn't even control himself in that moment as he was pissed off at his boyfriend for abandoning him on his own and Kayden just seemed like the right person to take it out on. The guy was asking for it as Emmett hadn't been talking to him and he should have just let Emmett mope alone in peace.

"Hey, asshole!"

Emmett was sneering as he got up close and personally in front of Kayden and he was tempted to knock the red bull out of Kayden's hand. But no, he couldn't do that. Even if it would made him feel good to piss Kayden off as much as he was pissing Emmett off. He had to look down as Kayden was shorter than he and he felt his face turning into a look of a 'you're annoying me' expression.

"Who said that you could fucking tell me what to do, huh?!" He almost in a yelling stage, but he managed to keep his voice in a normal tone and his hands were at his sides, trembling with the itch to punch something at any moment. "I wasn't even fucking talking to you, shitbag! If you have a problem with me, then you should be the one to fuck off, fucking prick!!"

[Brackie]

Kayden wasn't really surprised when Emmett got all up in his face because, well, it happened. When you mouthed off to people as much as he did, you got people coming into your personal space. It usually didn't go any further than that because Kayden usually had inches and pounds on them in muscle, at least as long as they weren't teammates, but sometimes people felt like pressing their luck. Who knew if tonight would be one of those nights? If Emmett wanted to go, then they could go. But the party could be a good one, and the host did have security lurking around every corner, so Kayden didn't especially feel like getting thrown out.

Getting Emmett thrown out, though, that was another thing entirely.

So Kayden looked up as flecks of spittle came flying out of Emmett's enraged mouth and narrowly avoided touching his face. He was doing that thing all losers did when they thought they were being tough, without any idea of what it meant to face the real toughness. But Emmett didn't have the same luxury of having to share a team with both Wyatt and Bret Carter, so if he thought he was going to get anywhere tonight then he had another thing coming.

Kayden would have something to say about that. To start off, he let out a laugh.

"Ooh, tough, did your mommy teach you to swear? Might as well have, she's still dressing you by the looks of it."

He scanned Emmett's ensemble up and down in a very over the top manner, making his point, and suddenly felt taller.

"And I can say whatever the fuck I want, by the way, because I'm somebody and you're nobody. So if you don't like it at this party then just fuck off. Ruin someone else's mood with your miserable fucking face, because you ain't ruining mine."

He let a beat drop before finishing.

"Invest in some breath mints, by the way. Or is the halitosis an aesthetic choice?"

Kayden suppressed the urge to throw the remainder of his Red Bull in the other boy's face like he was Tamra Judge, mostly because he was budgeting them for the night.