Survival Of The Fittest

((Sorry about the wait. Max Neill continued from A Few Administration Issues))

They had arrived later than Max had wanted to - after all, he was President of the Student Council, it was his job to be overseeing the prom in a sense. However, it had been his own damn fault, faffing around in front of the mirror trying to make himself look as attractive as possible for the night. Given he was currently dancing with the reason for this concerted effort to appear dashing, Max's reason for bothering was fairly clear. Acacia was nothing short of stunning on this night of nights - she looked beautiful, and Max hadn't been shy about telling her, her graceful figure complemented considerably by the stunning blue dress she was wearing.

The duo had been dancing for a while now - so long that Max had lost track of time, which was never a good thing - and Max's feet were slowly starting to throb. He wasn't an amazing dancer at the best of times, but he was turning it on in some respects tonight, and Acacia seemed to be more than capable of picking up the slack he was creating. He'd noted that Thea was dancing a few metres away with James Mulvet, a boy he knew from debating. They seemed to be having a nice night, but that was only his concern insofar as they were a part of the student body he represented.

Acacia separated herself from Max as the song faded and a new one began, finally breaking the general position they'd held for what must have been around an hour. Max smoothed his brown hair back - he'd made sure he hadn't used any product tonight, as that could have had unpleasant effects on the dancefloor, with all the sweat and the throngs of students - and returned the smile she sent him.

"Can we go get a drink or something? My feet are killing me!"

Max could've sworn her voice cracked a little, but he shook it off - there was nothing he knew of for Acacia to be worried about tonight, and if he pressed her on it it could trigger something that he was probably best off not triggering. Max nodded slightly and obliged. "Glad I'm not the only one," he appended, "I think I would've collapsed if I kept on much longer."

Max offered his date his hand, and indicated their path through the mass on the dancefloor and to the drinks table.

"I'm having a wonderful time tonight. Is that what you were going to say earlier?"

"Yeah," James admitted, laughing softly. "I guess that kinda was what I was going for earlier."

James was now embarrassed by his own forwardness. It wasn't that he had not the nerve to speak his own feelings to Thea, or even that he kissed her so suddenly. It had more to do with dancing in front of everyone else, kissing and making a show than anything. James wasn't always the kind of person who would show off for people, hell, he had never kissed anyone in front of another person before. It was way out of his own comfort zone, but he was willing to forget all about that.

James didn't pull away from Thea but just kept swaying back and forth. With those hands in his hair, their bodies close, James seriously did not want to move. He wanted this song to go on forever. HE wanted to stay a kid forever. But it was not meant to be. The song ended a few seconds later and he regretfully pulled away. His left hand held her right, smiling.

"Ahh... S-So. What now?" He asked her, wanting to know her opinion of what to do next.

Sarah didn't notice Maxwell's momentary hesitance, and even if she had she'd have just put it down to the handshake maybe being a bit over-formal. As far as she could tell he was friendly and sincerely happy to meet them. Thankfully he was tolerant too, since he didn't seem to have taken offense when she'd called Reiko her date. In fact she was already feeling a little guilty for disliking him in the first place.

"The pleasure's all mine" She took the friendly response as an indication she'd managed to navigate the semi-formal introductory minefield! Yay!

A short pause followed while she tried to think of where to go with the conversation, she wished he'd finished off with a question, that always made conversation flow so much easier. On an unrelated note, that sugar boost from the brownie sure was starting to kick in.

"So, British huh? How're you enjoying our little worker's paradise?"

"So, British huh? How're you enjoying our little worker's paradise?"

Enjoying? That's a laugh... coping more like it. How can I enjoy myself, when I am surrounded on all sides by moronic imbeciles who like to wave guns around and know nothing about the world beyond their own pathetic excuse for a country. How can anyone enjoy themselves after leaving their home, the only place in the world with people whom you legitimately respect, to go live in an oversized nation ruled by an idiotic cowboy and his court of idiotic cowboys. Back in England, the upper classes actually had some class, and whenever you spoke to them you actually felt like you were speaking to privileged individuals and intellectuals rather then the imbecilic sheep you where used to associating with. Whilst here any idiot who happens to win the lottery is classified as being upper class, for the simplistic reason that they happen to own more money then everyone else regardless of their own intellect or occupation. I've barely lived here for a few months, but quite frankly I'm already sick to death of this country. You honestly have no idea just how much I would rather live in a run down flat in east London, surrounded on all sides by drug addicts and illegal immigrants, then I would another second here in the United States of America.

Of course, thats what he wanted to say. Instead, he simply smiled and replied:

"Well, at first I was a little dissapointed. After all, I'd heard so many great things about this country beforehand only to discover that they weren't actually true. But after a while, I've actually grown rather fond of this country on a whole..." he then turned his head to Vera.
"... Especially the local population" he said with a coy smile, taking a sip of his drink after doing so.

Vera put on a faux grin of amusement to this remark. Good god, what a lame pick-up line... Did he really think that i'd find that charming?

Maxwell then turned his attention back to Sarah. "What about you? Did you move here from China yourself, or have you always lived in America?" he asked, hoping that he hadn't mistaken her ethnicity.

"Duct tape. She made her dress out of duct tape. Well, she made most of the dress but I helped with the striped part," he explained. "But enough about my sister. You asked about man code. You have an older brother. He's never pulled man code on you?"

Samaya was impressed at the fact that the twins had made the dress that Alex now wore. Then she thought about what he'd asked and made a face. "Not really, unless you count stay out of my business as part of the man code." She paused and thought for another moment. "He is my biggest critic. I mean about the clothes, I chose. So yeah, I guess he does initiate the man code. I guess I'm glad Dev isn't old enough yet to try and pull that yet, but I should probably warn Lien about that."

She paused and took a breath, "Hey, now that I've dragged you all over want to go check out what we have in way of snacks?"

********************************************

"Ahh... S-So. What now?" He asked her, wanting to know her opinion of what to do next.

"Well, we could make another pass around and see if anyone else has arrived. But I think I'd prefer stopping by the refreshment table and sitting for a while," she suggested looping her arm around James' waist. She pulled herself closer to him and as the left the dance floor her hand slipped down to rest on his butt, squeezing it lightly as they walked.

"Ugh, I'm not dancing to this!"

Vivien's dancing sessions were always short lived. When he wasn't being picky about the song, it was that he was starting to sweat, or didn't want to dance next to "those creeps over there." Either way, he decided to take a break from dancing and rejoin the girls. But... who to join? He could see a few of the girls scattered about, flirting with the single boys, no doubt. Ah, but there were Sammy and Aislyn and little miss too-good-to-not-have-a-date, Felicia Carmichael! He decided to make his way toward his two fellow stagettes and take the opportunity to talk (or boast) to Felicia.

"Ladies!" he said with smile and a wink. "Felicia, wow! You. Look. Gorgeous! That is soooo you!" He had actually said this without really taking notice. This was slightly merciful of him as, upon further inspection, her hair could have used a lot more work. And it wouldn't have hurt to accessorize better. "Phew, being a socialite is hard work, I tell you. Saying hi to everyone can take quite a bit out of you. I even managed to say hi to that uptight stick-in-the-mud, Maxwell Lombardi... You think he likes me?" Vivien giggled a little, looked over at Maxwell's direction, and gave a flirty wave. It didn't matter if he saw it, just as long as the gals did. It wouldn't have hurt to have his date think he was into people like Viv... unless Maxwell punched him, which would be more than likely.

Other people had come to the table while Gloria was there, but she didn't say anything to any of them. They all had dates and friends, and Gloria was alone. So they wouldn't have wanted her to interrupt their good time. Hastily grabbing a small cup of punch, Gloria backed away from the table, intending to go against the wall and out of sight.

I never should have let Mom take me here, she thought sadly, biting her lower lip and inadvertently smearing her lipstick. I should be at home or hiking or something else...

Unfortunately, the girl backed into someone else, letting out a loud shriek and dropping her punch. The cup fell to the floor, thankfully not splashing the person she backed into (and she wasn't even two feet away from the table, either! How embarrassing!), but getting a little of the red liquid on the lower half of her skirt. "O-Oh my God...I-I'm so sorry! F-For the bumping...!" Gloria squeaked, whirling around and covering her mouth, slightly teary-eyed as she apologized to her "victim."

Felicia winked right back to Vivien and did a double thumbs-up finger point that might've made Buddy Christ proud, not caring how incredibly dorky it might've come off as. Then again, when did she actually care about stuff like that? She turned to the girls next to her, shrugging. "It's been fun, ladies, but I gotta go find Quincy and make sure he didn't get stuck in the toilet... or worse, got into a boxing match with it!" She gave them each another hug before walking towards the restrooms with bare feet.

Just as Quincy was preparing to make his way back to the dance floor and find Felicia, he felt somebody back into him. Clearly, they seemed more upset about the whole incident than he was, on account of the ear-piercing shriek that came, and the dull thud as the plastic cup hit the floor.

He turned round to see who had been so clumsy, and found himself confronted with Gloria. The girl was panicking, and Quince hadn't even been hit by her drink. "Calm, down, girl. No harm done. I ain't gonna hit you, just cause you bumped me." Maybe that wasn't the best plan. The last thing he wanted was for her to panic and think about him hitting her.

He quickly bent down and picked up the cup. "Refill?" He walked towards Gloria, intending to lead her back to the punch bowl so that she could calm down and recover. As he approached, he saw Felicia heading in his direction. "Yo, Licia! Over here!" he yelled at her, hoping that she could hear him over the general hubbub of the hall.

((Brendan Wallace and Erik Laurin continued from Light up the Night))

((Until face has enough time to actually post, this is their intro thread))

After Brendan and Erik walked into the hall and signed everything that needed signing, Erik commented something about going to the bathroom. As he walked off, Brendan officially started to lose his love buzz. Strange name, but it was appropriate to what he was feeling compared to the heafty make-out session he enjoyed with Erik a few minutes earlier. Erik had then made him feel...something. To which he responded. But...gah, Brendan couldn't think right now. He needed to find Chase's table and join her and her new date. She said he was a nice guy. He had to pass the Brendan seal of approval though.
Wee, such a riot tonight, aren't you Brendan?

Brendan scanned the crowd, and spotted Chase's figure being held by a boy at least a foot higher than her. They were dancing, and having what looked like a moment. Part of this new Brendan wanted to go over and say hi, but he stopped himself when he realised what the look on her face meant. It was a look he had only recently experienced, and he knew that it would be simply rude to go over there and interrupt them.
Scanning the crowd, he spotted many familiar faces among the student body, as he simply stood near the wall, hands in pockets, and waiting for Erik to finish up at the can. He saw the school's very own cross-dresser, he saw those two guys who always argued, he saw a girl with a purple beehive for hair, he saw that smug limey bastard and his date, chatting Sarah Xu and Reiko Ishi-wait, what?
There you see? You're not the only one leaving their home closet tonight...

Brendan smiled as he watched the celebratory happenings happening. It would feel great if someone actually came over to talk to him, even if they didn't know him. He could socialize, he could make ammends and aquaintances, he could say that Erik was his date. He could say it. He wouldn't have a problem with saying it now.

Brendan smiled again when he realized that his buzz was officially back.

((Chloe Strong entering prom))

"Gah! How could this have happened?!"

This was Chloe's third entrance into the school's prom. The first entrance was made when she was dropped off and promptly stopped at the door for not having her ticket. When her drive had arrived, she went back home and promptly grabbed it from the entryway's table - where she put the ticket so she wouldn't forget it. Her second entrance was made with the ticket intact, but with her purse in the car, which had driven a fair, but walkable distance to a McDonald's, where her siblings were purchasing ice cream. Finally, at her third entrance, she was ready to go into prom hall... only to realize that, instead of being one of the first to arrive as she would have been on her first trip, she had stumbled in about two hours after it started.

"This isn't a good start to what's supposed to be the most magical evening of my life!"

She really didn't care all that much. She just thought she did.

"Now let's see... I'm supposed to meet Erik and his date here... of course, that plan's kind of already failed... is he looking for me? Should I sit still and wait? Go look for him?" The conversation she was having with herself drew a small amount of attention from those around her. "Maybe I should just look for his date... Brett? Brandon? ...Well, it doesn't matter who he is, I know what he looks like! ... Probably..."

Three guys and three embarrassing conversations later, she finally found Brendan. She greeted him with her usual Chloe Strong-style cheerfulness. "Heeeeey... you! You're with Erik, right?" She smiled widely, scanning the boy up and down. "Hmm, not bad, not bad!" A definite second prize - although first prize would always be out of Erik's reach, and they both knew it.

"Ah, I'm Chloe, by the way!" She finished, saying the exact words she should have started with.

It was ever so much an amusement to watch people go about talking to themselves, so Brendan had a great time watching someone start talking to themselves in the middle of the room. She was muttering something about a date, and where she should meet him. His eyes lit up when she mentioned a recognizable name, though. Could that...could that be Chloe?
Well, in any case, Brendan stood back just to be sure. She was going around asking people, and it was getting rather funny. Until she got to him, in which case he found out she WAS looking for Erik and his date, namely him.

"Heeeeey... you! You're with Erik, right?"
"Uh, yeah. I'm Erik's....date," Brendan reluctantly replied, before noticing that Chloe was staring at him up and down, just like Erik's sister. Brendan felt really uncomfortable. Why were people doing that? Did Erik always take the best and he wasn't up to code or something?
"Hmm, not bad, not bad!"
Exactly.

"Ah, I'm Chloe, by the way!"
"Oh okay, I'm, uh, Brendan. Great to meet you. Erik talked about you a bit, said you were nice" Brendan said, before giving off a smile. He then just remembered that Erik wasn't here.
"Oh yeah, um, Erik went off to the bathroom. He'll probably be done there in a bit."

Felicia looked from side to side as she walked through to the bathrooms. As she noticed random people that she knew on her way, she'd give a telling point, a smile, maybe even a 'hey there!' before continuing on. Her mind running rampant as always, Felicia began to imagine herself getting all the way to the bathrooms and Quincy still being stuck in there. At that point, she'd probably walk right in and drag him out... a mischevious grin spread across her face at this thought until...

"Yo, Licia, over here!"

Felicia looked disappointed for about half a second, then turned to where the voice was coming from. Oh well... no bathroom raid and getting a perfectly good excuse to go into the land where estrogen is forbidden, but at least Quincy would be easy to find! Walking as brisk as she cared to in his direction (which really wasn't that 'brisk' at all), Felicia gave Quincy a light peck on the cheek and looked to the girl with him, finally piecing her name as Gloria.

"Hee hee... what are you two doing? The punch bowl absorbin' ya with its powers or something? I wonder if somebody spiked it..." Felicia said in a manner that was less than hesitant, though still joking.

Sarah found Max's 'local population' remark a bit... smarmy. Maybe. But that was okay she guessed, Vera didn't seem to mind. She was almost a little disappointed that he was only 'a little disappointed' with the US, but the phrase 'laconic British understatement' jumped into her mind from somewhere.

She smirked when he asked about being from China. So what if she looked Chinese, was Chinese, spoke fluent Mandarin and was wearing a qípáo, you couldn't just make that assump... yeah, okay, so he could.

"Ah, I was born here. You can send thanks to Deng for that." Thinking about it lowered her smile a few notches, remembering the family history meant remembering the damage done to Chinese socialism which was bound to remind her of all sorts of other crap. She broke eye contact with Maxwell and slid her hand into Reiko's, squeezing it a little. Looking back up into the crowd she noticed Vivien waving at them and gave him a slight wave back. He looked nice, not enough to distract her from her slightly depressing train of thought, but still.

Reiko sat beside Sarah, not particularly paying attention to the conversation at hand, instead being content on finishing off her brownie. Sarah and Maxwell were striking up a conversation about their origins, and Reiko heard Sarah say something about China. This was something that interested her. She just kind of knew instinctively there was a deep dark part of Sarah that she kept hidden from everyone. There was no doubt her parents went through difficult times, and that somehow translated onto their daughter in some fashion. She may never know, but either way, she wanted to be there for her.

Right around that point, she felt her hand suddenly occupied with Sarah's. She was able to tell by the way she squeezed her hand that something had upset her about talking about that subject. Reiko gave a reassuring squeeze in return, making a mental note to give her a hug at some point.

Turning her head to see Vivien waving, she returned the wave as well, hoping maybe he'd come over and liven things up a bit. Reiko was a little offput by not being the centre of attention, but she would let that pass to spend time with her date.