SOTF Archive/SOTF Classic

(This thread is OPEN, and takes place between sophomore and junior year.)

Joey plopped himself down on the couch. It was 8 O'clock, on the dot, party time. He cracked open the first beer, officially commencing the drinking. Beer cans were never as exciting as kegs, but they kept things simpler and cleaner.

His cousin had been kind enough to provide the beverages. Of course, he'd taken a big ass tip, but it would be worth it in the end. Joey'd been planning this party since he saw the invitation in the mail. While his parents watched their third string friend get married, they'd probably be drinking too.

They wouldn't even care if I threw a party. So long as nothing, and nobody, breaks.

Ruth would probably join him soon. In the meantime he'd just sip his Yuengling and wait for people to start showing up. He wasn't sure in all who'd be there, but that's how parties worked.

A final glance around confirmed that all the chips were out, and the mixers and chasers were nearby their assumed partner liquors. It was a good thing Alfonso had talked him out of a keg, there would be enough left overs already.

Joey hoisted himself up, and made his way over to the snack table. If his guests were anything like himself, he'd have over an hour to kill before having to entertain. He popped some jalapeño flavored chips in his mouth, savoring the burn before extinguishing it with beer. Finding them tastier than he'd expected, he took the bowl back to the couch with him. Snacking would help pass time, and he knew better than to drink on an empty stomach.

(Rutherford Roger Jr. Continued from Little Talks)

R.J. was already riding down the highway to get to Joey's house, even though the party didn't start till 8:00. R.J. checked his phone and saw it was 7:54. It was night time already, the stars were abundant, and the city lights looked beautiful on the dark horizon. However, there was no time to enjoy the scenery, especially since the he had the go ahead.

It was the beginning of summer, and the end of a long sophomore year. R.J. had about a week before he left to see his father, before being deployed again. Since he wanted to relax, Joey's party seemed perfect. Drink a few beers, hang out with some friends, maybe even watch the game. Seemed like everything was going to go swell. R.J. didn't imagine that Joey had that much beer, and slung around his shoulder was a plastic bag that held 3 big liters of beer that he got from the Quik Stop, which he hid inside in what use to be 3 big liters of empty Ginger-Ale.

R.J. pulled his bike up into Joey's driveway. Joey's parents were out, so there was nothing else in the driveway. He checked his phone again, and it was 8:04. He rang the doorbell and waited patiently.

((Mallory McCormick continued from Down In The Alley... though I guess this is chronologically before it.))

"They've got more beer than he's ever seeeeen and they've got girls on trampolines~"

Mallory had filled in the ridiculously long walk to Jimmy's... Joseph's... Joey Joe Joe's... god, she was bad at names... house by singing Ludo songs to herself constantly. She wasn't sure if she was supposed to bring things, and upon going through the house for something that would help a booze party she'd only found a bag of lemons. Lemons were used in alcoholic drinks, right? Like Coke with Lemon, but alcoholic. She'd also picked up a couple of bottles of soda. No way she could afford alcohol and there'd probably be enough anyway.

"They tapped ten kegs since 9:15 and they've got girls on trampolines~!"

Oh, there's the house. And right on time, as well. Though wasn't there a concept called 'fashionably late?' Eh. Mallory wasn't fashionable so it didn't really matter, and she'd look like a right doofus malloofus standing outside until the point where arriving was fashionable.

Besides, someone was already standing at the door. That girl... no, guy... something to do with baseball, his name was, right? Nice kid, she knew that much.

"What's up, Nice Guy?" Mallory greeted him. She shifted the bag of lemons to her other hand and tried not to drop anything as she knocked on the door. Rap-tappa-tap-tap. Tap-tap.

Claire Monaghan checked her cell phone's clock. She was early.

Hell yeah. Early for the party, first to get the good food and drinks. Hehehe.

Claire's parents were out of town that week. Her dad was at a medical conference in San Francisco, and her mother tagged along to go sight seeing and shopping with friends. They knew she was going to a party and made sure she wouldn't misbehave. For the most part, that involved making sure she didn't drink too much, didn't engage in anything explicit, and generally acted like a reasonable individual.

Plus, her brother was home from college, so she basically had an adult figure looming over her. Mason was dropping her off at the party, and would be back to get her at eleven.

Claire and Mason were nearing Joey's house.

"Okay Claire," her brother said, "you remember what Mom and Dad said. It might not be fun, but they want to be able to trust you on this kind of stuff. Just drink soda, chat with some friends, try to make the most of your time."

"Alright," she said. "Man, you became kind of a stick in the mud really quickly."

"Oh please," Mason responded, "while you are at your lame high school party, I'll be shooting heroin and painting the Fremont Troll pink. Don't say I'm not fun."

"Okay Mase," she sarcastically responded, "you go be the wild one. I'll get us home alive with my learner's permit. Oh, hey, we're here."

Mason pulled the car up in front of the house. Claire unbuckled her seat belt and grabbed her jacket.

"Although admittedly, I would love to see a pink troll. I'm sure you can do it in time."

"Go on sis," Mason said, pushing Claire's shoulder. "Go be young and do all that John Hughes shit."

"Thaaaanks," she responded, stretching the vowels.

She stepped out of the car and closed the door. A moment later, Mason was driving off.

Okay, high school party. What to expect? Julia Stiles dancing on a table, Rachel McAdams kissing Lindsay Lohan's crush, probably one of the Stacys getting body shots done off them. Are either of them coming to this?

That's when Claire noticed the two at the door. The one closest to the door was the girly looking guy Claire had been friends with since fifth grade. Next to him was a soccer player, holding lemons. She waved to them as she approached.

"Wassup R.J? Hey Mal."

"Aiight, Rutty's here! You got any idea of when anybody's gettin-"

There was a knock at the door, and a stocky girl soon filled the doorway. Joey remembered she was a regular in the weight room. She wasn't exactly a model, but it was better than having three dudes and no chicks. Chicks sometimes got awkward when they didn't have anybody to go to the bathroom with.

"What's up, Nice Guy?

Alright so she didn't care. Joey made a mental note of her chillness before starting to rise to greet his first guests.

A third person appeared in the doorway, which was still open. Another girl in fact.

"Wassup R.J? Hey, Mal."

Joey'd seen her before too. In fact, he'd assumed the chatter box was more of a dork until now. Always talking about something, he'd assumed she spent her free time using the Internet to learn or something. But here was Glasses, ready to party.

And she's fixing the ratio. And she's not looking half bad.

He strut up toward the door, trying to look as welcoming and hostly as possible, while still looking macho and respectable. On the way, he passed the long folding table and a pack of hollow, plastic spheres. He snatched it up I'm his meaty and made for the visitors.

"Heya guys, I'm Joey, welcome to my humble home."

He snickered at his false formality, and waited for their reactions, hoping they'd say their names and save him having to ask Ruth later.

When the conversation slowed again, he held up the pack of ping pong balls.

"Anybody up for 2 on 2?"

"Oh, hey guys." R.J. didn't even notice the two girls that were behind him when the brickhouse that was Joey opened the door and invited them all inside. Joey had asked if anybody else wanted to play some ping-pong , which seemed like a good way to past the time till more people came. But, business first.

"Yeah, sure, just give me a second."

R.J. placed the bag that held 3 large liters of beer, on the kitchen counter.

"Here, some Bud for my bud."

R.J. had been waiting to take a piss since he was halfway. He had been to Joey's house before, so he already knew where the bathroom was. A sigh of great relief passed through his whole body as he let nature do it's thing. He zipped back up his pants, washed his hands with soap, and was ready to roll.

"All right then, who's with who?"

"Hey, Glasses Girl."

One day I will remember names. When I'm thirty or something.

Their host opened the door and welcomed them inside. Hurrah, he said his name, I no longer have to guess. I was close, anyway. He then asked if anyone wanted to play ping pong.

"Ping pong? Sure, I'm all over that shit. And I'm Mallory, by the way, I'm bad with names so I'm probably gonna forget them."

As the girly-looking guy--Glasses Girl had said his name was R.J, right?--hurried off to the bathroom, Mallory put her soda bottles and lemons on the counter as well. "Sorry, all I could get. But lemons go in alcohol, right? Or they get stuck on the rims or something, anyway, maybe that's oranges, I'm not a mixer-person."

R.J came back from the bathroom. Alright, ping pong! Ping pong was good. Whacking things and stuff.

"Eh, I'm cool with siding with whoever." Mallory picked up one of the paddles. "But sounds good."

Hey, Glasses Girl.

"You can call me Claire," Claire told Mallory, "like Claire Denis or Claire Bennett from Heroes. 'Glasses Girl' implies that I'm defined solely by my appearance. I'd much rather you judged me by my soul instead."

The doughy guy hosting the party welcomed them into the house. Claire briefly looked around and took in all of Joey's home. R.J. was going to the bathroom, while Joey was trying to invite her and Mallory into playing ping pong.

"Ping Pong sounds fun," Claire said. "I have no preference for teams."

Claire walked over to a bowl of potato chips and put a few in her mouth.

"Whaddya got to drink?" she asked Joey.

Joey's eyebrows narrowed.

Ping pong?

They all seemed to be up for it, despite it seemingly out of place, and kinda lame. But they all had paddles now...

"Whaddya got to drink?"

Now they were getting back on track.

"Smirnoff, Kracken, Cuervo, Pinnacle Whipped, and beer. The mixers are over there if ya want."

He paused, and then grabbed a stack of cups. He'd intentionally asked his cousin to avoid red cups and Solo cups, the song was enough go make him sick. Coupled with drinking, he preferred just to avoid the possibility of a musical outburst.

"Hey since we got the stuff for it, how about we just beer pong? Standard rules, no leaning, two restacks, yadda yadda?"

Everybody seemed very passive about teams, and he didn't want to be the one to crack.

"We can do guys and girls, or we could mix it up and get to know each other."

Ooooooh, Beer Pong! I should have known that!

R.J. had seen beer pong videos before on YouTube. The rules varied depending on personal preference, but the basics seemed to be understood by most. Try to get the ball into the other team's cup and make them drink. If you get the ball in their cup, they drink, if you miss, you drink. The team with the most cups (and less achohol in their systems) at the end won.

R.J. took it upon himself to stack the cups into the shape of a triangle, two on each side of the table.

"We'll, if we're gonna mix things up a little, why don't we have me and Mal go against you guys?"

Ethan checked his phone as he walked towards Joey's house. 8:20. He had planned to get here a bit later as supposedly some guys from the football team would all be coming at the same time, but a couple Facebook messages later and he hadn't heard anything from them. While he was grateful for Lomalli dragging his ass out onto the Football team, he still felt unsure about his place amongst his teammates which unfortunately would take a bit more time before he finally fit in.

As Ethan approached the door he quickly shook his head to clear his thoughts. The only reason he came here was to have fun, so worrying about team stuff was pointless.

With the door being closed for obvious reasons Ethan announced his presence by loudly knocking on the door.

"Hey guys, Ethan is here. So can you let me in now?"

Mallory nodded at Claire's explanation of how to remember her name until she got to the 'judging by souls' part. That confused her a little. "But I can't see your soul so how can I guess your name from it?"

And then it was switched to beer pong. Drinking games so quickly? They'd have no coordination for the ping-pong playing part soon enough.

Though if the aim of the game was to, in fact, get drunk then wizard staffs would do much better. Mallory had once walked in on her big brother and his friend sword-fighting with 'staffs' that were basically beer cans taped together. It seemed efficient.

R.J suggested that they mix things up, so the teams were her and R.J vs. Joey and Claire. That works.

"Yeah, I'm cool with that. Team Ambiguous Gender, hurrah!" Mallory stretched and jumped up and down a bit, much like she would before soccer or football. She didn't want to get drunk too fast.

Then there was a knocking at the door, followed by a guy called Ethan asking to be let in. "Bah, uneven numbers. Would it be three vs. two or we could make him an umpire or something, I dunno."

"Ooh, beer pong sounds awesome," Claire said. "I never played it before."

She listened as Joey explained the rules. Soon, R.J. and Mallory began to declare their alliance. It kind of forced Claire to work with Joey, someone she hadn't really known, but figured if they were playing a game, it might be fun.

"Okay, me and Polpetta versus you guys," said Claire.

That's when she heard the knocking at the door. Some kid named Ethan was at the door.

"Awesome, more peeps," she said.

Okay Joey, I hope you're good at ping pong. I can't get drunk tonight.

(OOC: I'm not really expecting us to RP every shot or reaction to the shot, and were probably gonna elapse time a bit, so don't feel like you have to focus on the game.)

"Heya Ethan, what's up? We were just starting a little pong, if you wanna Celebrity Shot lemme know, drinks are over there, and food over there! If Claire here ends up being a lousy shot you n' me can take winners!"

Anxious about playing, he turned his attention back to the table, politely tossing Mallory the ball.

"Start us of, Lemons!"

The bag had been moved to the mixer table. It looked slightly less out of place next to the diet coke.

He was impressed with himself that, not even a half hour into party time, a few people had showed up already. And Ethan's presence suggested some more footballs kids would be arriving soon, which was good. The current mix of kids were social enough, but definitely a seemingly random handful.

Whatever, parties are for 3 things. Meeting people, meeting girls, and... Uhh... Well... Partying?

He convinced himself it sounded cool, and waiting for the next thing to happen.

He didn't have to wait long. Jaq Locke entered right behind Ethan, who the door hadn't even shut behind quite yet.

She smiled seeing everything set up, making sure to smile especially big at Ethan, the cutest of the current male pool.

"Sorry I'm late, but I didn't want to be on time."

(let's try to get more people before going on too much, otherwise I feel like it's gonna be super slow.)

Another guy named Ethan had come along, which was fine. More people meant more fun, right? He knew he was on the football team, so that usually meant that more football players were coming. Which was cool too. Football players were usually party animals, or so R.J. was told. Joey was a football player too, or use to be anyway, so R.J. figured that this was only natural. Jaq Locke also came in, evening up the ratio yet again.

Of course, there would be more time to think about this later, as there was beer pong to be played. Mallory had dubbed her and Ruth as "Team Ambiguous Gender" which was fitting.

"Yep. Androgyny, all day every day."

Of course now that Ethan was here, R.J. had wondered if "Team Dented Noses" was a better pair. He then realized that was mean, and tried to erase it from his mind. Joey had said that Mallory was up first.

"Don't worry, Mal. If you miss, I'll take the first drink."

Besides trying to be nice, R.J. actually was pretty thirsty, since he had been munching on some Jalapéno-flavored chips, which were better than he thought they would be.