Survival Of The Fittest

A lone figure was walking through the neighborhood, wearing a large bag on his back and smoking something that looked like a cigarette - and yet, the smell betrayed it was in fact not. With every step, loud sounds of glass hitting against glass erupted from his backpack, revealing the content inside to be hard alcohol. Pure vodka, tequila, and whiskey. No mixers to speak of. In between the tokes from his "Secret Agent", he was whistling the tune from an old Disney movie. His black dyed hair, intense eyes, and general demeanor was enough to keep the people he ran into on the street from taking more then one look at him.

Finally, after several minutes of walking, the figure stopped in front of a well lit house, which was erupting with music and laughter. He inhaled the smoke a final time, smiled as he looked up at the night sky, and finally stomped out the roach of his now finished joint.

He went up to the door like he had so many times before, and didn't even knock. He knew the inhabitants of this house well enough already.

Signaling his entrance to the party, the figure let up a shout towards the host himself:
"JOEY, MY MAN! I BRING YOU ALCOHOL APLENTY, AND DRUGS AS WELL FOR ANYONE INTERESTED! WOOOOO!"

Travis Webster had arrived.

Parties were Susan's thing. Raucous, wild parties were also her thing from time to time, just as long as she was able to abstain from anything she wasn't into. Other nights, she wasn't in the mood for much rowdiness.

Tonight, Susan was all about the social aspect and not so much about the crazy debauchery. After what had happened earlier in the year, well, she'd promised her parents there wouldn't be any repeats. A week on crutches had taught her a little discretion, at least.

This evening, she was just hoping to have a cool, drama-free time with friends from school, and maybe to meet some new people and make some new friends. She had no idea who all was going to be here, but she hoped that there wouldn't be anyone out to cause problems. She also hoped that the music would be acceptable. She didn't really know Joey beyond a bit of his reputation, and certainly had no idea what he'd be into. Hopefully nothing too terrible. Nothing wrecked an evening faster than poor music selection. Some of Susan's favorite artists were woefully inappropriate for party settings. In fact, she felt that a lot of how music was treated these days was downright disrespectful. What a party called for was something inoffensive and brainless, something designed to be tuned out. It demanded something one would be hard-pressed to term art.

A party also required good provisions. For her contribution to the stockpiles, Susan had brought a dozen cans of O'Doul's and a couple large bags of Cheetos. These were both things she was rather fond of, so she figured it made sense to ensure that they'd be available if she wanted them. After all, there was no guarantee anyone else would share her tastes. She was pretty well ensconced in the party circuit, but a party's character could vary wildly depending on who was around. Susan didn't want to end up standing around hungry because all the food had been laced with pot.

Speaking of, it looked like this was going to be a rowdy one. Susan could see Travis stepping through the doorway, making a fuss. This was not surprising. She followed close after, though paused to knock on the open door, just as a courtesy. She didn't know the host so well, and she didn't know who was here, so making herself entirely at home would be rude and presumptuous.

"Hey," she called out. "I heard a rumor there was a party here. Any truth to it?"

Ethan smiled at Joey as he walked into the door. Though he had not hunk out with him much, he always seemed like a lot of fun to hang out with, so Ethan had high hopes for how this party would go.

"I am good now that I am finally here. Let me get warmed up and I might take you up on that offer to take a Celebrity shot, but first time to get to the good stuff before its all gone."

Ethan waved at everybody currently at the party as he walked to the drink table. The only person he knew outside of Joey was Claire, and that was because she filmed the games and not because of any meaningful interaction with her. Ethan mentally shrugged to himself.

No matter, some people from the team should get here soon, and this gives me a chance to get to meet some more people outside of the team. Now, time to wake myself up with some vodka.

He quickly poured himself a shot of vodka and drank the bracing shot just as quickly. Feeling a lot more awake Ethan turned to face the party again. Ethan was immediately greeted by the sight of Jaquilyn in the door smiling at him. She was definitely one of the more attractive girls in the school which was only helped by her exotic looks. Feeling that this was too good a chance to miss out on, he grabbed a beer and headed over to greet her, only stopping to nod at Travis as he burst through the door.

"I am glad to see you came Jaquilyn"

Mallory caught the ball that Joey tossed at her. "Alrighty." Mallory rolled it around in her hand for a moment as another girl entered the house after Ethan did. Damn, more names to remember. Ah well. It was to be expected and such.

To Ruth's offer to take the first drink, Mallory shrugged. "Okay. But if this is chivalry or whatever don't worry about it. I can hold liquor like whoa. It runs in the family. I think Dad is part-Irish or something? Wait, maybe I'm confusing stereotypes. Anyway, if it's just because you wanna drink then yeah, guess I'm cool with that."

Mallory then attempted what was gonna be a fucking awesome... hitting-the-ping-pong-ball-maneuver-thing (did ping-pong ball maneuvers have a name) when there was this giant slamming noise from the door and ALL THE NOISES OH MY GOD THE HOUSE IS COLLAPSING--oh it's just that weird guy yelling something about booze aplenty. Crisis averted.

Now ...where'd the ping pong ball go?

"Unless the aim of the game is to lose the ball I think I fucked up. We have more ping-pong balls, right? Whole bag of them." She put the paddle down as another girl--oh hey, it's Susan, I finally know someone here--appeared in the doorway. "If someone else wants to take over go ahead, I'ma find that ping-pong ball... No take-backs on the drink, R.J."

With that, Mallory dropped to the ground and started crawling around, looking for the ping-pong ball. Because losing shit that belonged to the host was just bad manners. She was pretty sure of that, anyway.

Claire was surprised that Ethan wasn't the last person to enter the house. Soon after he arrived, a few other people came in. First was Jaquilyn Locke. Claire knew Jaquilyn was into stunts, and had considered using her for a film of hers. However, Claire hasn't made any films that require a lot of stunt work, so she hasn't really found a way to use her.

Then Susan Clarke came in. Claire knew Susan was a member of the softball team. She filmed a few games, and Susan was an awesome third base player.

Lastly, Travis Webster came in. Claire thought he looked kind of creepy, and the fact that he was a drug dealer made her worry about the kind of drugs he sold. But whatever, he was invited to this party, so he had to be okay.

She turned back to the beer pong game, only to see that Mal had lost the ping pong ball.

"Uh, whoops," Claire said. "Here, I'll help."

Claire got on her knees and began feeling around on the floor. She began to feel around, hoping to find it, when she felt something round and plastic.

"Oh! Got it!"

*bang*

"Dammit!"

Claire had quickly sat up when she found the ping pong ball and hit her head on the underside of the table. She slowly crawled out and set the ball on the table, rubbing the injured spot.

"Jeez, I haven't even had anything to drink and I'm already being stupid. So, uh, should we start?"

Jaq smiled at Ethan. "Thanks, you!" Remembering she was a host, she held up one finger and asked, "where's our host?"

She found Joey looking bored at a folding table covered with cups. She extended her arms as she neared, and he looked up, very happy to see her. With the heels she was wearing, she had to bend down a little bit. The embrace lasted a little longer than appropriate before separating. Jaq moved back toward Ethan.

Joey then left to go high five Travis. It probably wasn't the polite party thing to do, but his other pongers would probably realize that, ad a host of a banging party, he would have to be social with everybody. Mallory had gone and lost the ball anyway.

After a quick high five/handshake with bro Travis, Joey went for the bag to see the new toys. He heard a female voice from the doorway.

Looking up to see Susan, he called back, "HELLZ YEAH BABY!" His swag then vanished when he found himself unable to unzip the back pack. Quitting? He looked up to Travis.

"So, whatcha got in here?"

Jaq reunited with her pal. Unsure where the conversation was, or where it was going.

"Sorry, where were we?"

Mallory had something about chivalry, which amused R.J. on how silly that would be.. He imagined himself as a gallant knight riding on his mighty steed, across the plains of Ireland, to meet with the stocky and masculine princess. When suddenly a pothead dragon bursts through the kingdom chambers, incinerating all the villagers with his beer breath.

Wait,what?

Oh, It was just Travis. R.J. did know who Travis was, but not that well. One more girl came in, but R.J. didn't who she was at all. Mallory had dropped the ball, so R.J. took a cup from the table.

He was about a quarter away from finishing the bag of chips, and his throat was starting to get dry. With a quick swig, he finished the beer in a few gulps. After that, he took out another ball, not knowing Claire had found the original, and bounced the ball off the table and into the cup that was on the bottom right.

"All right, so who's gonna drink?"

He realized that only Claire, Mallory, and himself were the only one's still at table. Joey had left to go greet Travis and the other girl, and Ethan and Jaq seemed to be busy with each other. R.J. had just successfully got the ball in the cup, and since Mallory was on his team, so that left the girl who just bumped her head on the table...

"Hey, um, Claire...you OK? It's your turn to drink."

(( Sorry for keeping you all waiting. I've been a tad busy lately, so this post won't really measure up to much. M'bad :3 ))

Travis highfived his bro with a wide grin.

"How y'doin man?"

He looked at the party goers who had arrived. A decent collection, and more were surely coming. Oooooh, beer pong!
When the beer was finished, they should play vodka pong. Much more interesting, mwahahah.

Hmmm, and there were some possibilities for getting laid as well... Excellent.

"Hey, Joey, is it okay if I smoke in here, or should I do that outside?"

Susan saw Mallory over at the ping pong table. It looked like everyone was playing beer pong, which struck her as an odd way to open a party. Usually, that stuff came when everyone was already a bit trashed. She was especially surprised to see Claire over by the table. The girl seemed like she'd probably be a lightweight. Well, whatever. Susan wasn't her keeper. Claire could take care of herself, and the girl seemed even less likely to go get knocked up or something than to get falling-over drunk.

The host, Joey, gave out a nice enthusiastic affirmation that Susan did indeed have the right place for a party. She beamed at him and flashed him a thumbs-up, before making her way to the snack table and depositing her contributions. She then snapped loose a can of O'Doul's, popping the top and taking a nice drag of the foamy liquid. The bitterness was very pleasant on her tongue.

Meanwhile, Travis had wandered over to Joey, and was asking something. Susan got close enough to hear that he was asking if he could smoke inside. Normally, etiquette would have dictated that Susan not chime in. After all, she wasn't the hostess tonight. She didn't exactly have faith in Joey to make the right call, though. He seemed like a cool, laid-back kind of guy, which made him perfect for most parts of the host's job. She didn't really expect him to say no very easily, however. He'd probably want to please his buddy, and that wouldn't be good at all.

"You should probably at least smoke away from everyone else," Susan said, hoping the boys wouldn't mind her interjection. "Smoke can really mess up people with asthma, and if someone passed out, we'd probably get cops here along with the ambulance, and nobody wants that."

Of course, Susan's motivations were not entirely due to concern for her classmates or the party. She didn't really care for the odor of smoke. Cigarettes were the worst, but pot and incense also got to her after a while. If she could catch a break from them tonight, she was pretty sure she'd have a much better time.

Taking a moment, she tipped her can back and drained it in a few smooth swallows. It was a skill that had taken some time to acquire, and she'd spit up ginger ale on herself more often than she cared to remember, but she was pretty sure it looked cool now. She wiped a bit of foam from her lip, then glanced back at the table, all ready to go and grab seconds.

As Jaq left to go find Joey, Ethan took the time to work on his second beer. Though it did not have the same punch as the vodka did, he could still feel it enter his system. As he started to enjoy that special after taste that beer has Ethan took another look around the room. It seemed as though there was nobody new had come in since Susan had came in, and everybody seemed to be settling into the swing of things. The pong game was in full swing and soon the rest of the party fun should begin.

With nothing else of interest going on, Ethan took the time to recenter himself and figure out just how he wanted to handle Jaq. He could always try and be ultra blunt, but chances are that wouldn't work, especially since he was unsure what exactly he was hoping for. He could always just offer up some lame excuse about why he came over, but doing that would make the entire evening a miserable experience. It seemed like the best option was to just go with the flow and see how it went.

"I was just checking up to see how things were going for you."

Claire found the ping pong ball before Mallory did, and preceded to immediately bang her head on the table. Mallory snorted as she crawled out from underneath the table.

"That ain't a good sign for what your motor skills are gonna be like later, is it?" Mallory clambered to her feet as Ruth batted a ping pong ball successfully into the cup. "Nice shot."

The teams seemed uneven. Mostly because two-against-one was so rarely a fair deal. Really, as long as people were still arriving a game of beer pong would probably be hard to keep going properly, especially with the fourth player wandering off to do his hosterly duties.

"Beer pong is awesome and all, but maybe it'd be better for when everyone's actually here and all," Mallory said. "Besides, if we both team up against Claire, then that's two times the alcohol she'll be getting shoved at her."

She picked up a beer with a grin. "Besides. Thirsty now. Anyway, gonna wander off and stuff for a bit. It'll even up the teams if you guys are gonna keep playing and stuff."

Taking a long drink from the beer can, Mallory looked around to see what other people were doing. Since Susan was basically the only person Mallory recognised, she wandered in that direction in time to catch the end of a 'why smoking is bad' talk. Something about it making cops turn up.

"Oh yeah, smoking totally sucks," Mallory said, shuffling up to the conversation. "Smells like ass. But all the best parties have policemen turn up at the door, right? Like in the 'Girls On Trampolines' song, where two of the cops were all 'whoa, no man. No parties, gonna smack some bitches' and the third guy was all 'let them party' and everyone was all 'hooray for Officer Three!'"

At which point Mallory realised she had no idea what the conversation at large was about. "Er, so what are we talking about? Smoking?"

Well damn.

R.J. managed to get the ball in the cup on the first go. She had to drink. She promised Mason, but she couldn't look like a pussy in front of R.J. and Mallory.

"Okie-dokie, first drink," Claire said. "Here I go."

She picked up the red Solo cup and stared at the liquid inside. Before she took a sip, Mallory mentioned leaving so it wouldn't be completely stacked against Claire.

Well, that was nice of Mal. Okay, no clue what this beverage is, but I better just chug it down. Better keep the game going.

Claire put the rim of the cup to her lips and tipped it up. The beer began to pour down the throat. It was, in a word, unpleasant. Claire still didn't have a taste for alcohol, and whatever beer they poured into the cups was something Claire wasn't really prepared to drink.

That's when she felt something in her throat. She quickly coughed, spilling some of the beer out of her mouth and onto the floor. She continued to cough.

*cough* Goddammit *cough*.

She set the cup down and ran to the nearest bathroom. She spit into the sink, hoping to clear some of the leftover beer from her mouth. She then turned on the faucet and held her hands under the running water. She collected some water in her cupped hands and drank from them.

Okay, maybe I will just stick to soda tonight.

It had occurred to R.J. that this game of beer-pong wasn't going to go particularly well. Mallory had just left in order to even out the odds, but you can't exactly play a party game with just two people. Everybody else seemed to be more interested in the art of when and where to smoke.

He turned back to Claire, who was chugging down the drink like a champ. She looked a little pale, so R.J. went to give her a light pat on the back in order to make her feel better.

"Look at you! Our little drinking p-"

Before R.J. could finish the word pro, Claire dolted to the bathroom. R.J. scurried after her to make sure she was OK. To him, it looked like Claire was throwing up in the sink.

There was something you were suppose to do when your friend was throwing up, or at least something he had seen in a movie, but he couldn't remember what it was. So, all he could was pat Claire on the back and ask if she was okay.

"M-maybe we should find something else to do, yeah? Somethin' that doesn't need you to drink..."

R.J. was worried for Claire. He also had drunk a beer from the game, and he felt fine so far. Maybe she had drunk a different brand, something that was way to strong for her. Regardless, Claire wasn't well.

"You need anything, like a cup or some food?"

Joey scooped up Travis's bag and hande it back to him. He turned to walk away and beckoned over his shoulder.

"Let's keep the smoking in the kitchen, guy. Ladies don't seem to be approving of the activity."

He led the way to the kitchen, hoping Travis was following. He struggled to think of something ironically sexist to say, but it became too much work. He called behind him without looking, "so you got pot?"

Pot was his usual, but Travis seemed especially proud of his bringings.

Meanwhile, Jaquilyn returned to Ethan. She didn't directly face him, wanting to keep her eyes on the door to see if anybody else cute walked in.

Her eyes turned back to him with her passive interest.

"Me too, just glad to be outta the house. Had to climb down the side of my house to get hear, but I'm hoping it'll all be worth it."

She showed the scrapes on her soft hands.

"Wanna go get something to drink with me?"

Oh, great. Can't ask one of your bro's ONE simple question without an irritating ex girlfriend and a... sasquatch(?)showing up. Suddenly the mood in the room felt... different. Less warm and happy.

Susan and him had clicked rather well, at least for a little while. Trav wasn't sure what had gone wrong. She didn't appreciate his recently picked up drug habits, he knew that much, nor had she liked his many attempts to "go further" with their relationship. Either was a valid reason he supposed, looking back at it. Granted, he had been a bit angry at first, but quickly got over her just as she got over him, and they kept an amiable relationship with one another after.

"Heh, don't worry Susan. I'll behave..."

He got a rather sarcastic tone in his voice as he continued.

"... I mean, I can't even begin to think about all those poor asthmatics at the party who would be affected by my terrible habits..."

He gave her a rather bitter smile as Mallory came up and started rambling. Just as Trav was about to say something abnormally rude to her (Who the fuck was she to judge his habits? He enjoyed smoking! And what the hell was she talking about? Policemen at the door!? WHAT!?) Joey quickly solved the situation by leading him into the kitchen. Thank god. He proceeded to answer Joey's question.

"Pffft, do I got pot? And here I thought you knew me better!" he said with a wide grin on his lips. The good mood was back again.
"Heheh, I might have some other stuff as well, but we're saving that for later!" he said and winked at his friend.