Survival Of The Fittest

(('S cool.))

Robert relaxed slightly. It may seem odd to some that strangers were a comforting prospect, but since they, or she, hadn't known him for a long time, he could be a bit of a blank slate. Invariably he always managed to successfully screw himself in social situations, but maybe he could work through this. He took a nervous breath, adopted an interested tone, and asked "So, uh, where're you from? Your accent suggests Ireland, but I could be wrong."

Ireland seemed like a decent guess. Ema's accent was certainly from European climes. From where in Ireland was a different story. Although different regions had different accents, much like in the US, most Americans could do shit-all to place accents in any sort of geographical map. Robert was, unfortunately, no exception.

Gloria looked up as another person approached, though she couldn't place his name. She didn't remember if this was a person whom she'd never met, or just forgot his name. Blushing in embarrassment at the thought, Gloria hoped it wasn't the latter. Seemed she didn't have to worry though, as he introduced himself right after.

"H-Hi, Robert..." she whispered, lifting a hand to give the barest of waves. Wait, could she call him Rob? Seemed like a nickname, sort of, and nicknames were for people you were close to. But then again, he did say they could call him Rob. And what if he thought "Robert" was too formal-sounding? It was true they were at a relatively-formal dance, but...ohhh, Gloria was confusing herself new. "Rob," she corrected herself, hoping he hadn't noticed the lengthy pause.

Still somewhat lost in her thoughts, she suddenly blinked as she realized the girl was speaking now. "You're on your own with Isaiah and.. uh... her." A point towards Gloria's direction. "I'm Ema though, transferred here a few months back."

"O-Oh, m-my name i-is--" Gloria began, but Rob cut her off, asking about Ema's accent. Gloria had noticed it herself, too, but she didn't think to ask about it. Now she was mentally kicking herself for not doing it. How many fairy tales had she read as a girl? How many times did she check the section of the library that focused on fairy tales, folk-tales around the world? Gloria could have asked about the accent herself, could have asked...Her face burned. About the fair folk...I can't ask that, I'll be teased something awful! ....And Ema might not appreciate it.

A pause came in the conversation, and Gloria took the opportunity to speak up. As best she could, anyway. "M-My name i-is Gl-Gloria..." she said, voice barely above a whisper, fidgeting with her skirt. Remembering Rob had provided an alternative, she thought it only fair she do the same. "B-But so-some people c-call me G-G-Glory..."

Robert turned slightly to inspect the other girl. She was... cute, although in a more "innocent" way. She was also extremely nervous, a sentiment he could agree with. His nervousness, however, made him seem awkward and weird, whereas hers was nearly adorable. He smiled at her, a little nervous, although as introductions had been successfully navigated, the nervousness and awkwardness was lessened. "A pleasure to meet you, Gloria. Or would you prefer Glory? I must say, you seem to be almost as nervous as I am," he said, with a slight nervous inflection.

"So, uh, where're you from? Your accent suggests Ireland, but I could be wrong."

It was hardly the first time someone had picked up on it, or pointed it out, but Ema was pleasantly surprised to meet someone that could accurately place it, their kind were rarer than she'd expected here in the States. "You're not wrong," she replies, her grimace from the last look at the clock turning halfway into a smirk. It goes all the way to a silly grin as she adds the good old stereotypical "t'be sure." on the end of that sentence. Then, just to be on the safe side, or so she reasons, Ema confirms "And yeah, I know I'm short and Irish, and I've heard the leprechaun jokes, so don't waste your time trying to be original with 'em." She paused, hearing Gloria speak up, her timid voice barely audible over the sound of the music and other conversations.

"M-My name i-is Gl-Gloria..." .. "B-But so-some people c-call me G-G-Glory..."

Back to a more positive note, she finishes up following Robert's example with a much cheerier "Anyways, nice to meet you both, Rob, Glory.", then returns her concentration to it's original split between the clock and the can of cola that was most definately empty, but she was still quite determined to eke those last few drops out, because hell, she had little better to be doing.

Isaiah took a seat next to Ema and slowly watched the dancers glide across the floor. All of them were acceptable, none were fantastic. He hadn't thought of what he would doif she had said no and fell into a rare comfortable silence.

'I'm Robert, or Rob. I'm afraid I don't know your names, though. Seems silly, I suppose, considering we've probably gone to school together for a long time.'

The conversation began and another girl Gloria, her name was if he remembered correctly, also added to the medley of activity.

He glanced at the dancers again always keeping an ear out for a gap in the conversation. He turned to Ema.

'You're looking at that clock like the apocalypse is imminent. And that can is empty...' he smiled 'I can't sit here and watch you struggle for the last half hour. Do you want a ride home?'

He wasn't going to stay for the dancing. Isaiah had socialised and drank and wanted to go to bed. It was baseball practice tommorrow.

((Jason Clarke continued from The Dance Must Go On!))

Jason had been dancing (badly at times) for the past ... he didn't how long had it been, and he felt exhausted. Alex must have felt the same way, as she finally went over to the table they had staked out. As he looked around, he noticed that the place seemed much emptier than it had been when he had last kept track of who was there.

Who else had actually been here? Looking around, he saw Isaiah (He was one of the sprinters. Pretty good, too.), but nobody else that he recognized.

"So what should we do next. My brother mentioned something about bowling, which could be fun, unless you have different plans."

Jason mulled it over. He actually hadn't had any plans. Bowling actually sounded like a pretty good idea. Better than sleeping alone, and there was a (very) small chance that he could get some (not that he was going to push it too much - nothing turned off women more than looking like a horny cad).

"That actually sounds like a good idea. How would we get there?"

((Jason Clarke continued elsewhere ...))

Christopher Carlson was feeling hot, and sweaty. Long nights like this tend to do that, and it didn't help that he was in a long-sleeved shirt and pants, spending two hours packed against fifty other grinding teenagers.

He walked over to the beverage table and poured himself a Coke. He took a sip, honestly surprised that he felt absolutely no effects from alcohol.

((Marty J. Lovett continued from The Dance Must go on!))

It must have been a good hour or so before Marty finally mustered the courage exit the cubicle he was in. Even after he'd stopped throwing up, he could still hear people coming in and out of the bathroom regularly. And, seeing as he could virtually feel the sick on his face, he was too scared to leave unless somebody made some horrid assumption about him. I can already see it now… "New kid vomits at school prom. Is later given the Loser-Of-The-Year Award to compensate"

Eventually, it looked as though there was nobody around, and after a further five minutes worth of waiting he hastily left his cubicle to wash his face. As it turned out, he had far less sick on him then he suspected. There was a virtually unnoticeable amount on his clothes (Barely a few tiny specks) and very little covered his mouth. Even so, he made a point to wash his face rigorously to clean it off. As he did so, he began to wonder how eating one brownie had caused him to become so inexplicitly sick without any warning. The hell was in that thing?!? Jesus, it's like it was filled with ipecac or something… Makes you wonder how the hell bulimics cope with it all the time.

He quickly cleaned off the sick from his face, and even went as far as to dab the specks of sick on his suit with a wet tissue. After he was satified with his appearance, he quickly made his way out of the bathroom back into the prom.

It was then that he realised that the main reason why there was nobody in the bathroom was because, for the most part, things seemed to be dying down as people began to leave the prom altogether. Well that's just great… halfway through the prom I get sick and nearly damnwell miss the whole thing… Freaking… Perfect…

He sighed to himself as he looked about to see if he could spot Joshua. He felt guilty for leaving him back there; after all he only meant to finish his snack then return to standing around chatting about whatever the hell they were thinkging about at the time. Ah well, with any luck the lucky bastard probably had way more fun then I ever would have…

Still, he moved along to see if he could figure out where Joshua went. He was sure he'd come across him eventually, after all the guy wouldn't of just left him there to rot. As he walked along, he looked down at his watch to check the time. Wow, I really WAS in there for a long time wasn't I? Might as well call it a day soon as I catch up with Josh…

At that moment in time, however, he really ought to have been paying more attention to what was going on around him…

Hearing herself being addressed, Gloria lifted her head again and tried to make eye contact with Rob. What did he want with her...?

"A pleasure to meet you, Gloria. Or would you prefer Glory? I must say, you seem to be almost as nervous as I am," he laughed.

Gloria's cheeks burned even worse than ever, coloring her face a few shades darker. She resisted the urge to duck her head, hide her eyes, and instead reached up to toy with a strand of hair, giving it a few tugs. Don't break eye contact...remember what Mom said... she told herself, suddenly feeling a bit weak-kneed. "I...I uhm..." she stuttered before taking a breath and trying again. "I...I like being ca-called 'Glory...' I-If it's al-al-lright with y0you, you d-don't ha-have to call me..i-if you don't..." Unable to help it anymore, Gloria bowed her head and covered her face with her hands, face still feeling like it was on fire. "Oh, I'm sorry!" she cried out, voice muffled by her hands. "I-I'm not used to...t-to these types o-of events, s-s-so I...I'm sorry," she concluded lamely, lowering her hands and looking sheepishly in Rob's direction. In her embarrassment, a few tears had sprung to her eyes, and she wiped them away.

Yeah, she was certainly making a fine impression on these people. Idiot! she cursed herself. And Rob had acted so nice to her, too...

Robert mouthed uselessly a few times, before patting Gloria on the shoulder awkwardly. "Er.... There, there? Um.... I-it's alright. You don't have to be sorry about being nervous. Th-these social events are difficult to manage sometimes. I entirely understand your problem, heh," he said, stuttering and pausing while trying to find proper words.

He bit his lip and thought for a moment, then pointed out a couple chairs out of the way. "Do you, er... wanna sit down?"

Ema looked back over, the decidedly odd commotion drawing her attention away from the implausibly slow movements of the clock hands. Truth be told, she was glad to have something to think about, to pass the time, even if it was someone else's distress.. not that she'd admit it, that's kinda wrong, isn't it?

Time enough for such thoughts later, she decided, or words to that effect, and focused on what was actually happening. Apparently she was being offered a ride home, and Gloria had burst into tears for some reason. The girl had to admit, it was a little unexpected, at an event that was supposed to just be an end-of-year celebratory dance, or at least, she thought that's what it was supposed to be; plenty of others might well disagree, citing it as the most important day of their young lives, or some such melodrama.

"Seriously, pay attention." she told herself, quite firmly, as she caught her thoughts going off on a tangent to the ways of cool kids and popular crowds, far away from what she was meant to be paying attention to, the stuff that was actually happening here and now. She leaned over to the odd pair, Robert and Gloria, and asked the former "Uh, is she alright? I didn't say something stupid or something, did I? Because I sometimes do that.." The sentence trailed off at the end, Ema's own face self-consciously turning a little red as well, though not nearly as noticably as Glory's. And it was at that point she remembered that Isaiah was trying to ask her a question as well - just as well, the Gloria situation provided a good excuse to put off responding to it, for if his request to dance earlier was anything to go by, he was being a little more than friendly, something she wasn't exactly planning on.

Still mentally scolding herself, Gloria shook her head, lowering her hands further. "N-No, it's o-okay...'m sorry..." She took in the look on Rob's face, and the way Ema was leaning towards them. That only made her feel worse. "I--I'm fine, really," she continued, voice getting quieter. "I--I just...not...good w-with people, a-and I've never b-been t-t-to one of..." She looked down at her feet for a moment before glancing up again, trying to calm down.

"I-It's no one's f-fault, or...i-it's just me--sorry..." she whispered weakly. Gloria couldn't help feel she'd just ruined something. ...or made a spectacle of herself. Imagine coming back to school and having to hear that all rest of year, she thought glumly. Glory Benson, the girl who made a scene of herself and started crying at Prom because she was too shy. "Sorry," she whispered again, making eye contact with the group again. She had to do better... "I'm fine."

Making one last effort to alleviate the situation, Gloria managed a tiny smile at Rob, hands twitching slightly. "Y-You say you're n-nervous too...B-bet you're not...not th-this bad. You s-s-seem well put-together."

Robert smiled kindly. It was an odd feeling, because he didn't often smile at people. "Oh, not this nervous. But I was... am nervous. I tend to avoid social gatherings like this myself, because usually all I do is stand in the corner and glower at people when they get too close." He laughed to indicate that it was a joke.

"But really, what's to be so nervous about? Ema's nice, from what I can judge of her, and I know I don't bite. Relax a little bit. Smile! Have fun! Or something...," he said, petering off near the end as a slightly perplexed look crossed his face. "I don't know if I can help much with the nervousness thing. I know I've never gotten over it, all evidence to the contrary none withstanding. I just happen to be a good actor." He ended with a nervous laugh, fighting the urge to fidget with his hair.

((Carol Burke continued from The Dance Must Go On!))

Still no sign of them.

Seriously, it's almost over, and there was still no sign of them. It was really starting to get worrying. Carol still thought that they could not have left without her. But, she had looked all evening.

Did they think she ditched them?

But she wouldn't have! All she had been doing was being out on the dance floor before they all disappeared! She was right next to them! How could this have happened? She wasn't a ditcher, and she had a feeling they weren't ditchers either, and-

Calm, Carol, calm.


After taking a second to calm herself again, she tore her shades off almost subconsciously. In a way, the sunglasses were fun to screw around with at times. Seriously, they were like a small prop for her to play with.

Eh... now what? Could she just start to look around again? Or go back to enjoying herself?

It was a shame, however, that the way she tore off her sunglasses involved her right arm ending up outstretched, in a way where it could easily cause someone behind her to be hit and fall over, just like she had worried about earlier in the evening. But, Carol wasn't paying attention to this, not one bit. Right now, she was more focused on finding the rest of the group than anything else.

_______________

Aileen stared at the group slowly forming around that one girl.

Now, that was odd.

Why were they crowding around her? She wasn't hurt, so that can't be it. Was she popular? Well, Aileen had barely seen her before. She must at least have a ton of friends, though, judging by the amount of people she was talking to. Heck, the only reason Aileen was sitting where she was sitting was because she needed to rest.

Oh, what the hell. Might as well see what's going on.

With that, Aileen lifted herself out of her seat, and walked a few steps towards the crowd, just to see what was going on, of course. After getting a closer look, she could see one timid looking girl trying to introduce herself. After a few seconds of talking between her and another member of the group, Aileen could barely make out what she was saying, due to stutters and whispers. Not only that, but the girl was visibly shaking. And, suddenly Aileen was concerned.

She looks like her pet just died! It's just a party... okay, might as well ask..., she thought to herself.

After taking a few more steps, she asked "Is everything alright here?"

She had a feeling she was going to regret this.

In spite of herself, Gloria managed a bit of a laugh at Rob's comments. She then felt embarrassed again, but a lot less so, and for another reason. She'd just acted like the others were going to murder her or something--completely untrue, of course. "I--I'm not n-nervous 'cause I want t-to be..." she tried to explain. How could one explain nerves anyway? What was Gloria supposed to say? That she was always like that, or that her mother had forced her to go to the Prom? That second explanation would get her laughed at, definitely. "It's...I c-can't help it," she whispered, trying to smile. Be calm, be calm...

Another girl approached. "Is everything alright here?"

Oh, no...now she was attracting a small crowd. Gloria covered her mouth with her hands, face a dark, deep red. No, don't do this again! she scolded herself. Rapidly shaking her head, Gloria lowered her hands somewhat and squeaked. "E-Everything's fine!" It ended up coming out a lot more high-pitched than she intended.