Survival Of The Fittest

The fall made Clive's back go into a very quick stinging pain, added to the pain he's going to feel if anyone saw just what the hell happened.

Fortunately, a majority of people at the bonfire were currently wrapped up in their own little adventures, that no one noticed, also the fact that they were a pretty good distance away from them that he and Eduardo couldn't be seen unless someone REALLY paid attention.

"That... was NOT supposed to happen."

But then he noticed that Eduardo wasn't making much of an effort to alleviate the situation, and just seemed to accept it.

The booze in him made him think what the hell, he WAS speaking of taking what you can get and then proceeded to make a move on Eduardo.
===================================

Siouxsie hadn't been given much time or chance to meet with Clive's classmates. They were all doing their own thing, but being in this atmosphere reminded her of being at her old school... with all of her old friends. It was rather bittersweet for her, but she proceeded to just gather a few drinks, and engage in random chitchat with a few people here and there.

She took a look at her watch, and started realizing that it was getting a bit late, and she knew that a very drunk Clive is walking around, probably doing some stupid shit, because he is one REALLY bad drunk.

She went up to a random girl in the place, and proceeded to tap her shoulder and ask, "Hey, I'm looking for my cousin... Clive Maxwell... have you managed to see him around here at all?"

There was another hiss as the next bus on the beach-line shift let a passenger disembark. This one seemed to be the complete opposite of Eduardo though, an African-American girl who looked slightly tomboyish but still convincingly feminine. She wore light, slightly sporting casuals and a skirt, which all concealed a one-piecer underneath in case she wanted to go swimming, along with a mild smile on her face. She was definitely here to have fun, and that she wouldn't let anybody stop her (unless she got sufficiently drunk.)

Of course, Tanya Bonneville had barely stepped onto the sand when she was tapped on the shoulder by another girl at the party. She turned to see someone just taller than her, asking where one of her classmates was. She looked around from where she was but couldn't exactly make out any faces...though somewhere down the beach she could see what appeared to be two people making out, causing her to raise an eyebrow.

No way Clive could be THAT drunk already... she thought, before pointing toward the main bonfire area. "Clive should be over there somewhere."

((Will write Tanya's bio later. Seriously.))

===

Eduardo could seriously have felt his eyes bugging out as Clive moved in, the liplock also sending shockwaves all the way down to the extremities (though the only noticeable result was severe eye twitching.) Fortunately for him, the first parts of his body to register any significant movement after that were his arms, which hadn't been pinned down by the drunken boy. He immediately and reflexively grabbed Clive's sides below the hips and desperately tried to shake him off. His legs also started to kick about in his struggle, though he did have an advantage in that he was still completely sober and mostly oriented.

If he thought getting bitchslapped by that slappy bitch Melina Frost was bad, he was certainly fearing something worse than being beaten up by a run-of-the-mill school mob if someone noticed him being exploited like this.

Clive eventually noticed that Siouxsie was walking in their general direction, and then immediately accomadated to Eduardo's fighting, and got off of him, and got up as fast as possible.

Siouxsie, after having been pointed in the direction of the bonfire, hadn't found Clive, but then proceeded to look for him closer to the water, away from the crowd. She eventually saw who looked like Clive near the water, just as she thought.

Luckily for Clive, Siouxsie saw NOTHING. So he managed to act as if absolutely nothing had happened. He proceeded to walk towards her, stumbling as if he had just NOW learned how to walk, making sure she didn't see Eduardo.

"I need to get you out of here before you do something stupid," said Siouxsie.

"It's a bit late for that," Clive said in as low a voice as possible.
She raised an eyebrow and looked over to see someone on the floor.
"Another fucking fistfight, seriously, Clive, I love you to death, but you're way too much of a punch drunk."

She grabbed his shirt and walked away from the area, pulling Clive along with her.

"You honestly shouldn't have brought me here, you knew someone was gonna get hurt."
"Well, I'm sure my job would be easier if you had a girlfriend to babysit you, so I don't have to. Seriously, your lack of interest in dating reminds me too much of Andi-- I mean, someone."

Eventually they were actually at the area with all of the people at the bonfire. Where Clive eventually pulled away from her.

"I think I'm going to head to a club somewhere."
"I'm not driving you."
"Then I'll walk."
Siouxsie sighed heavily, and then just glared at him.
"Can you ever go a night without going home with some random chick?"

She let go of her anger a bit, and just tried to be civil and nice.
"You're my favorite little whore in the world. You're awfully good at it," she said, with Clive chuckling at this insult/compliment.
"...but you really need to cut that shit out. Why don't you date like normal people?"

"Because I'm apparently a whore, as you just said."
"It's not that far from the truth."

Clive eventually got a little bored of this conversation, and proceeded to ask, "So, are you going to give me a ride, or do I have to walk?"

She sighed.
"You're hopeless."
"No, I'm horny."
"Same difference. We'll stay here for another five minutes. I want to have a few drinks before we go. You're not the only one who gets to have too much fun."

Siouxsie walked away and left Clive alone. Again.

Eduardo thought he was actually making progress in trying to get this crazy pretty-boy off of him. Of course, he was helped along by someone...though he didn't realize THAT until he literally felt a lot of weight removed from his chest.

Once Clive was safely pulled off, Eduardo sat up as if from a horrible nightmare, and gasped for air as if he had breached the surface after being locked in a chest underwater. Every time his mouth closed he tried to wipe it with an arm...only to wince as he also found out that he'd caught sand on his arms. Fortunately, he didn't manage to scrape any skin off of his already injured face. The girl who pulled Clive off of him also acted like she had been beating him up, which was a lot more tolerable an impression than him trying to...well...that was something he didn't want to think about right now.

At least while Boxer wasn't around.

Unfortunately, the girl had been followed by by a classmate of his, and she seemed amused by the sight.

"Hey, Ed," Tanya said, putting her hands on her hips. "The party's barely started and already you're getting to the fun parts?"
"Fucking 'ey, he tried to beat me up," Eduardo grumbled as he briefly looked up to Tanya, then out at the bonfire area. He was thankful she wasn't exactly the school gossip queen, though she had noticed the marks on his face weren't exactly from punches.
"Heh...just forget about it. Not like telling anybody would do any more damage." She offered a hand to help him up, and Eduardo accepted.

"Thanks. Looks like you're here to party too," he said as he dusted himself off.
"Yeah...you really don't look like you're having fun."
"Eh. Nothing else to do. Maybe a few drinks will fix that."
"Heh...let's go."
"You go on. I'll follow, don't worry."
"Okay...guess I'll see ya at the fire then. Later." Tanya said before turning and trudging across the sand back to the beach.

Eduardo watched her go all the way back to the bonfire before staring out across the starlit horizon again and slipping his headphones back on. He massaged his face with one hand and switched some house on his MP3 player as he started to walk back too.

Sean grinned as Michael came over to him. The baseball team was his home away from home, and despite some of the guy's shortfallings, Sean especially got on with Michael Hardy.
"Nothing much Michael," his accent was only slight. "But it looks like things are just starting to get rolling now," Sean laughed when Michael asked where the beer was. "I've got some here," Sean told him, and fished out a can from a pocket of his jacket. Sean had maybe two or three more in there, it wasn't hard to get ahold of at his place.

***

"Hey Mac!" Tyson called. Tyson liked Troy in truth, but the guy just annoyed him sometimes. Hell, he thought the guy annoyed everyone, why the heck was he so fixated on being "gangsta"? Tyson guessed that part of the reason was because he was black too, it was irritating because it made him feel as if Troy thought that was how black guys should behave, which was just wrong.
"Mac, I was looking for you," Tyson managed to look sincere, which was one of his talents, Tyson was a very good liar when he set his mind to it. "I reckon I seen something which can make you look like a proper tough gangster man, want to hear it?"

"Are you serious?" replied the now upset Kara. She hated when her boyfriend didn't have a plan. That ment she'd have to take control of the situation, and at this point she really didn't want too. Pushing away from Gabe and walking back to the party to turned to face him only quick enough to say "Come get me when you know what you're doing." and ran off into the crowd of people. Maybe a couple cute guys who actually knew what they were doing would be there. If Kara was sober, she was sure she'd feel alittle more sad about ditching Gabe.. but seeing as she was doing pretty well for herself, she didn't have a care in the world.

In the distance she saw Lance Barrett talking to one of the football players Gabe played with. She had noticed his glance he gave her while walking past her and Gabe. It made her feel special and sexy. It was one thing to hear it from her boyfriend, but the fact someone she's had her eye on noticed too was the cherry on top. Making her way over to him, as the footballer was walking away, in her most cute/ look at me voice she introduced herself.

"Lance, Hey, Kara, how are you doing?"

Don't get to flirtly, you don't want Gabe to notice.

Lance was a guy, through Kara's rose coloured glasses, who had it all together. He was tall, good looking and just what Kara wanted at her drunken moment. She's always had a small thing for him, seeing him in the halls at school and what not, though she never really knew why.

"Want to get a drink with me?"

Kara stummbled a bit, letting her hand land on Lance's waist for support. "Oh.. sorry." She giggled.

Gabe trudged slowly back down to the party, his eyes fixed on the ground ahead of him. At this point he'd had only two of his beers, so he cracked open a third. He took a few sips, and was sad to discover it had gotten a bit warm and tasted like shit. He proceeded back down to the fire and the party. "Shit" he thought to himself, "I guess I'd better go after her". As he approached the fire he looked around and saw people laughing, puking, and passed out. Typical party. The music was loud, and he had no idea where it was coming from. Somebody's car stereo no doubt, but certainly not Evan's. If only he'd given the keys to Gabe...

Gabe's head snapped up and he scanned the crowd for signs of Kara. No good, too many tall people in the way. So he headed down into the middle of the fray. He got a few drunken "Hey man, where ya been hiding?" from some of his classmates, but ignored them. He was set on finding Kara and making her happy. At this point he didn't care about getting laid, he just wanted her to feel better. If there was one thing he hated, it was making his sweet Kara upset. He contunied scanning the crowd, until he beheld a sight that made his heart sink...

He'd found Kara, she was giggling with her arm around Lance's waist. LANCE! A guy Gabe had played football with for god-knows how long. A guy Gabe had confided some serious shit to. A guy he trusted. He was angry. Kara was flirting with his friend, and he didn't stand for stuff like that. Part of him wanted to go over there and break Lance's nose. But he paused. He knew Kara, she was trying to make him jealous again. She does this when they fight, it's her way. It wasn't Lance's fault, it was Kara's. Gabe plopped down onto his ass, legs stretched out, beer in hand. He looked down at his warm beer that tasted like shit. He looked up at Kara. Without breaking his gaze, he poured that beer straight down his throat at unsurpassed speed. Then he cracked another...

Troy had been scanning the surroundings for someone he could pick up when someone came to pick up his own attention. Said person happened to be Tyson, so Mac wasn't exactly enthusiastic to respond unless it involved gaining respect. In which case, Tyson had made him an offer that sounded like Troy shouldn't refuse. Of course, as much as Troy was desperate to be gangsta, he certainly was no grade-A sucker, in both spellings of the word.

"Hold up, hold up. Now I know that pimpin' ain't easy, so bein a gangsta ain't as easy as dat, man!" Troy responded, keeping a serious-biznasslook on his face, "I mean, my man T here, got shot in the face and narrowly survived, but he din't want that to happen but hey, what gangsta does, right? Whatchu got in mind?"

"Well, I'm tempted to get wasted...but you know, when you grow up with the thought that the scouts are watching you at your little league games, you kind of are worried that if you do something wrong they're going to pop out like some strange creature out of a George Orwell book and mess up your scholarships.", she smiled a little bit, "It's kind of funny, in November we'll be playing our last game together...early December if we make it to playoffs."

She smiled at him as she looked up, it was still deathly amusing to her that she was such a small person, of course while that had it's advantages (as she is a smaller target), she still recalled the pain from when the monster of a defensive line men basically Bob Sapped her unto the opposing team's benches...needless to say she did tell coach that she envied the boys that day. Anyways as she looked up at Darnell the grin was still plastered on her face.

"After that we go and we start playing against each other, possibly telling our respective coaches our weaknesses and this pattern will continue until you're in the NFL, because honestly I don't even know if I'll be drafted...I'm kind of suffering Jon Michaels' syndrome where I'm part serious athlete and part publicity stunt.", she paused, "Well look at me just rambling on like this...I suppose you're right I should relax -even vocally- occasionally.", she looked at him and then towards the cooler filled with alcohol

"Imagine how my mother would react to this big black guy getting me drunk at a party?", she said snickering.

"Well look man," Tyson began, feeling that his little scheme may be falling into place. "To be the best and the hardest, you gotta beat the best and the hardest. That's my view, and I got just the right guy for you to beat down on," Tyson knew exactly what he was doing. He disliked Troy; well, not exactly disliked but they weren't exactly the best of buddies either, but he hated Bobby Jacks, and that was the guy that Tyson had been speaking about.

Tyson hated the way Bobby acted like he was some kind of badass, either that, or like he was better than everyone else. Tyson had tried to make friends with him once and Bobby had pretty much ignored him. What an asshole! But anyway, it wasn't Bobby Tyson was talking to, but Troy, he needed to stay focused.
"Bobby Jacks reckons he's a tough guy, and I think that you're just the man to put him in his place Mac. I mean, there ain't nobody tough as you round here, they just don't know it yet," If everything went well, Bobby would be on his back KO'd by the end of the night and Tyson wouldn't have even had to have done it himself.

"Fo' rills?" Troy replied with a chuckle before scanning the surroundings for Bobby Jacks. He had a general idea of his appearance, at least compared to the other African-American jocks around here.

Bobby apparently did not look like someone he could take down so easily. Still, he was willing to give it a shot, as big person like that probably was probably only quick with his arms, and evidenced this outwardly with a confident nod toward the subject. But even then Troy wasn't quite confident enough to just go up, tap the guy's shoulder and then whack him as he turned around.

"Ay man, that sound's cool, but I don' wanna be the one startin' shit. Don' want no fightin' between bruthas, man!"

Vicente kept walking slowly as Ric talked. He was mildly pressed with the thought that this little wandering of his was clearly bothering Ric. He hastened towards the beer case and took out two cans. The mildly cool water felt slimy and unpleasant, so he knew what to expect from the beer. He took a wild, reflexive look around the makeshift bar the bows had set up. People were scattering, and things were somewhat balanced between the quietness of some and the half-hearted racket of others. Evidently, this was the part were stories were formed. This latter half of the night was the productive one, the one that kept school myths living.

After giving a thought to it, he was tempted to spit it out. "This is one of those comments of yours that keeps my mouth shut. " It happened often, and that was one of those things that caught his attention about Ric. There were some comments that were too mysterious to allow him to answer; they kept his mind binded and his ears alert.

He then turned towards the wooden way that led up to the parking zone.

Melissa grinned a little bit wider at Lauren's suggestion, the cup in her hand getting a little emptier as minutes would go by.

"Honestly, if people all thought that, they'd have to point at both of us for cheating on our boyfriends. Stephen, remember?" she giggled a little, which wasn't necessarily something her friends or anyone would see unless she was faking friendliness at work.

Taking a quick glance around the crowd for any sign of Lauren's boy, Melissa took another sip from her drink and raised an eyebrow in interest.

"Where's your hip attachment gone to? Some photo-op? Is that him over there?"

She pointed to some guy with blonde hair, but their back was turned away.

Paul kept on talking to her, feigning politeness to her sarcastic comment about his failure of Senior year the year prior, and Andrea just continued to smile and nod in response, giving a few "uh-huh"s in reponse here and there. It wasn't that she didn't like Paul Smith. Paul was a good guy, when he wasn't being a total attention whore, which was almost all the time, but completely besides the point. Paul was quite the character... the sort of person that could seem to make almost anybody smile with one of the ridiculously stupid stunts he seemed to pull. In that respect, Andrea was glad to see him back for round two of senior year. At least it wouldn't be boring.

"No Jack for me, thanks," she responded politely to Paul's offer to fetch her a drink, "Somebody has to babysit you crazy kids. I'm all for the get-together, hell, I planned it. Still, I'd hate to see somebody in a coffin tomorrow 'cause they did something really stupid."

Basically, that's just the way it was. Andrea had orchestrated this entire party, but she was here to hang out more than to drink. She never had been a big fan of alcohol, but when you put a whole bunch of high school seniors on a beach, it's almost to be expected. Still, maybe it was the role model figure speaking in the back of her mind, she couldn't bring herself to partake in the festivities of the party. She didn't like drinking anyway, she didn't like the feeling of being mentally impaired and not in the right state of mind. Everything she needed was right here. Good times with good friends.

~~~

Tyrese nodded in response to Troy Mac's comments about prom. He hadn't been able to attend his own senior prom, he'd been hospitalized throughout the end of the school year, so he was definitely looking forward to this years. As Tyson Neills approached them and Troy Mac's response seemed to turn elsewhere, Tyrese politely excused himself and headed off into the crowd in search of some of his closer friends.

~~~

Michael grinned as Lucky supplied him with a beer. For a moment, he contemplated bringing one back to Lauren, but inevitably decided against it. It would've been a nice gesture on his part, he supposed, but she probably would've just refused it and looked at him like he was stupid for wagging one over to her in the first place. Sean commented on the party getting started, and Michael responded with a nod and a toothy grin.

"Definitely. First party of the school year's always fun. It's gonna be a great year, man. I can feel it. We're gonna go places this year."

At least, that's what he hoped. From Michael's perspective, things couldn't get much better. He'd managed to enroll in some pretty easy classes for his senior year. It was Coach's idea. He wanted Michael to keep those grades up so he could continue to play baseball, and to Michael, baseball was a lot more important than academics. Baseball was what was inevitably going to get him into college. That, or the inheritance his father had received when his grandmother passed away a few years back.

Either way, he was almost guaranteed to get into school next year. The baseball team had a kick-ass lineup for the year, he was certain they'd make it to the finals this year. That'd be a great way to end senior year, after all. Plus, he'd met a great girl, and somehow, Michael entertained the thought that things might work out with this one. He didn't know for sure, really. He hadn't thought that far ahead. Still, she offered something that most of the other girls at Southridge High didn't. He supposed that was why he was so attracted to her.

"I'll catch ya later, man. Gotta get back to the old lady."

And, I've got some messy business to take care of...

~~~

Lance couldn't help but grin micheviously as none other than Miss Kara Holmes herself sidled up to him, stumbling around and practically falling on him as she invited him to go get a drink with her. Lance knew good and well that Kara was Gabe McCallum's girlfriend... but that was irrelevant. The way he looked at it, she was coming on to him, so she was fair game. Plus, it's not like Heather would care anyway. Hell, Heather would probably want in on it. In fact, he knew she'd be all for it.

"Sure," Lance mused, "Let's go get a drink."

He cast a sidelong glance at Gabe, who seemed to have witnessed his girlfriend fawning over some other guy, and the mischevious smirk that started in the corners of his mouth widened significantly. He pretended not to notice Gabe, but instead, felt the need to comment on the whole scenario. It was just too funny to say nothing about. Plus, he was high as a kite, so he didn't really care about pissing people off at the moment.

"Man," he muttered amusedly, "Yer fucktoy is gettin' pissed."

He started laughing loudly after he said it, obviously amused at the fact. Kara might've thought Lance "had it all", but all Lance had was a pile of drugs that tended to make him a very mellow, easygoing person... most of the time, anyway. Whatever he'd popped the other day made him paranoid, and he sure as hell didn't plan on taking any of that stuff again.

"I've got some pills in my pocket," he offered Kara, the grin spreading even wider, "I'll give one to ya, if you want."

He chuckled lightly to himself. The thought of getting Kara Holmes totally fucked up off of some pills amused him to no end. Gabe's girlfriend or not, it didn't change the fact that she was hot. He'd hit it, and Heather'd probably join in. That'd be a hell of a threesome, he mused to himself.

"They'll fuck ya up real good... a lot better than that booze yer pourin' down your throat will."

~~~

Lauren laughed halfheartedly as Melissa commented on her statement about how idiotic the majority of their senior class was. She wasn't really trying to be funny, moreso to point out a fact. She just wasn't a party person. This was all Michael's doing, and she'd just gotten to tag along. She didn't mind hanging out with someone she considered to be in her small circle of friends, but this whole party thing just wasn't her style at all.

Her thoughts went back to the sandy-haired baseball player she was supposed to be in the company of as Melissa asked about his whereabouts. Lauren shrugged lightly and a light sigh escaped her lips.

"Said something about getting a drink. He probably just... got sidetracked or something. You know how Michael is, he has to stop and talk to everybody he sees. He'll wander back here eventually, or he'll be answering to my grandparents when he goes back to my house empty-handed."

Melissa pointed toward some blonde guy, thinking that it was perhaps Michael. Lauren's line of vision followed Melissa's, but she shook her head lightly in response. It wasn't Michael. In fact, she didn't see him anywhere. He'd disappeared somewhere into the crowd of drunken seniors. She couldn't help but hope he'd return soon, though. The longer she stood there with only Melissa for company, the more awkward and uncomfortable she started to feel. Her vision scanned the crowd of kids and out past them, to the ocean. If she weren't so self-conscious about her body (which was ignorant considering she was a very attractive girl) she might've opted to go swimming. She just didn't feel secure enough in herself to strip down in front of her entire senior class. She envied those people who did, though. She could see a few of them out in the water.

Good times with good friends was the complete opposite of what Eduardo was expecting at this function, but at the same time it was what he was fully expecting. Happy, beautiful people doing their happy, beautiful thing. Hell, even once-fellow-persecuted-dork Troy "Mac" McCann looked to be on his way to making hook-ups and getting some in the process. Although his poker face didn't exactly show it as he trudged through the sand, he actually felt some kind of humorous irony as his perma-shuffled MP3 player switched into a teen-show theme that he somehow took a liking to.

Eduardo started to make his way toward the parking lot, hoping to eventually loop around out to the sidewalk and then across the street to the bus stop going in the other direction, catching some fresh air on the way. If a bunch of severe bitch-slap marks and drunken man-sex was only the beginning of what he hoped was his last year in formal education, then he figured he might as well get fully rested so he could just take the rest.

But first, he decided to traverse the remainder of the beach grounds, just to make sure everyone who was everyone was there. That and pick up a beer or two. Hopefully the alcohol would help put him to sleep for the night...and if he calculated it right, he could at least stay awake on the bus ride.

((Anybody want to try to break his ice...or him...or him in...go right on ahead. Right now, he's headed in Andrea's general direction but anyone can come in.))