Evelyn Hart woke with a groan. She stretched her arms high above her head and pushed her legs out as far as she could, pulling her muscles out deliciously before letting out a breath and relaxing again. Her arms resting on the pillow behind her head, she looked up at the ceiling for a second, blinking back the last remnants of sleep. A dream still buzzed vaguely in her mind, but she couldn't recall any exact details, so she let it be and sat up, slinging her legs off the side of her bed and rolling her neck.

Bright sunlight shined through her window and landed on her pillow where she'd been sleeping. Casually, she glanced at the alarm clock beside her bed. 6:32 pm. Summer had just started and already she was abusing it. It didn't matter too much though. Hours ago, she'd come home from her job at the coffee shop: Dean's Bean and lay down, intending to only rest a second, but she'd fallen asleep instantly. But what was the harm really? Afterall, she had a full night ahead of her. It was summertime, and Saturday. There was bound to be a party somewhere.

Standing, Evelyn stretched herself once more before crossing to her closed door. She always kept the door to her room closed and firmly locked. One part of it was the smell. As soon as she stepped out of her little space, being careful to close the door behind her, Ev could smell it. It was a smell that used to bring tears to her eyes and crinkle her nose. Now she was just used to it. The smell of booze, cigarettes, and various other drugs overwhelmed her as she stepped out of her crisply fresh room.

He little apartment was just that. Little. It consisted of three rooms. One was a large room that served as the kitchen as well as the living room with a single little wall separating them. Another was the bathroom, connected to the kitchen area, and the third was her own room, which branched off the living room area. Smoke literally filled the air, clouding her vision and Ev coughed in disgust. In front of her, laying passed out on the couch was her loser of a father. He's gonna burn down the house! She thought angrily. In one hand, he held a bottle of vodka clutched against his chest, slowly spilling it on himself in his sleep. In the other, a lit joint was lodged between his fingers, dangling off the couch. His mouth hung open and a long string of drool puddled on the cushions.

Rolling her eyes, Ev crossed to him and yanked the joint from his hand, stamping it out. It smelled horrible and again, she coughed. This woke her passed out father. He blinked stupidly for a moment before pulling himself painfully into a sitting position and taking a long swig from the half-empty bottle before resting his eyes on her. "Drunk already?" Evelyn smirked and rolled her eyes. Pathetic.

"Shut up brat." He ordered her sharply. "I need you to pick up my shit tonight. I'm out." At this, Evelyn raised her eyebrows and turned to face him.

"Too bad." She smirked. "I have plans. Get it yourself. And try not to kill yourself while I'm out." She held up the joint, then dropped it. "Or do. Whatever." Shrugging, Ev left him there in the living room and slammed her door shut behind her. He knew better then to come in her room, but as soon as she left it, he'd give her hell. She knew that. Might as well get ready well she was in there.

Crossing to her nightstand, Evelyn picked up the little card she'd found in the mailbox yesterday. Lost & Found it read simply on the front in rough red script. Inside, it listed a location, time, and said that one guest was permitted. Otherwise the party was totally exclusive. Ev grinned. Everyone had been talking about this party. Only the coolest kids and hardest partyers were supposedly invited. Probably a senior party. She was a junior and had been invited to a senior party. It was exciting. It started officially at 5, but she knew that real excitement wouldn't begin until the sun was setting so she was aiming more towards 9:30

Grinning, she ran a brush through her long blonde hair, pulling any tangles from it. When she was done, she looked in the mirror and was satisfied. It was a dark, dirty, blonde color and swung down to her hips in beachy waves. It didn't require any heavy styling. She lived in Myrtle Beach afterall, beachy hair was sort of average. After that, she selected her favorite black bikini and slipped a pair of jean shorts on over the bottoms. On top, she selected a baby blue mid-top. It hung off her right shoulder, revealing her tattoo and ended just above her abs, showing off her belly button piercing. She figured she'd probably be swimming and dancing a lot of the time anyway, so dressing up wasn't really necessary.

When she was done getting dress, Evelyn prepared herself to face her father again. She yanked open her door forcefully and glared at him across the room, still sitting in a daze on the couch. His head turned to her slowly as if he were underwater and everything were in slow motion for him. "There you are you little brat. You're not going anywhere tonight but to get my shit. You know I'm sick. It's no wonder why your mother dumped you on me. She'd only had you a few months an couldn't stand you!" His voice slowly raised until he had to stop for a coughing fit.

"Oh please." Evelyn rolled her eyes and slipped a pack of cigarettes in her back pocket. "We both know you're not sick. And we both know I'm the only reason you're alive so why don't you shut your ass up and be grateful for once? My mother was a whore and had to get rid of me. We've been over this." And with that, she left and slammed the door behind her, allowing the sound to make her father wince in pain.

Outside in the bright sunshine, Evelyn slid on a large pair of shades and lit a cigarette, making her way up the street towards the little pathway that lead down to the beaches. From there, she'd walk until she found the one the party was supposed to be on. Checking her phone, she found that it was only 7:56pm and took a drag from her cigarette as her bare feet hit sand. An hour should be a good enough time. It was a long walk, but she loved walking on the beaches. Hopefully this party was worth it.



Mathew Katayview watched as the party was being set up before him. He checked his watch. 6:36pm. Not bad. Everything was almost done. The music area was set up at the highest point of the beach, away from the water so that the speakers wouldn't get wet. Huge speakers. They were at least three times his size. To the right, Food and drinks were being layed out. Lots of typical party snacks. Hot dogs, burgers, and such. Then there were the regular drinks, and then the alcohol. It was a teenage party afterall, and though he was a bit older, 23 instead of 15-18, he knew how teens operated.

He grinned happily to himself. It was so perfect. His plan to steal the graced ones away. They were being hunted. Chased by their government and they didn't even know it. He was their guide and needed to get them away from their lives so that they could realize what they were, that they're not alone, and that he can help them. But why not have fun while he's at it?

So he'd created this mysterious aura about the party. Making it out to be the party-of-the-year. Exclusive. invite only. And it would be. He'd invited over a thousand guests, but eight in particular would be his focus. There was Tate Young, Evelyn Hart, Thalassa Winchester, Shugi Taka, Johnathon Reed, Kyle Twain, Lumin Allars, and Koraline Peirce. Each was graced.

And each was his focus for the party.

While hundreds of humans had been invited, when he'd placed the neat invitations in the boxes of these eight, he knew they were the center of the event. The reason for it. It was a perfect distraction. They'd be safe from their hunters among so many humans, he'd be able to observe them up close, they would get drunk, he'd steal them off, and it would all be insane fun at the same time. How could he be so genius?

The party was to start officially at five, but he knew no one would arrive at that time. seven or eight was more expected. He checked his watch and started the music as the first guests began showing up. 7:59. Everything was ready. The music was started, hammocks were stretched between palm trees, over head little bulb lights were strung across the tops of the tropical trees on the beach, creating a starry night effect, all the way down the beach, the sand was just waiting to be danced on, the water yearning to be swimmed in, and him- hoping everything went alright.

Koraline let out a yawn as she threw a cat shaped backpack on her blue coloured bed. Her Russian cat glaring daggers as it was rudely awakened from it's sleep. Lucky thing, she thought rubbing it's head affectionately. In return, a clawed hand came up and scratched her before her kitty ran away downstairs. Adjusting her headphones, Koraline went down into the den room and pressed a button on the answering machine. Humming a song she heard at the mall today, but couldn't remember the name of it. She hated that.

'Hallo, this is the Pierce residence. Leave a message at the beep.' beeeep Koraline took off her shoes and threw them anywhere, it's not like her mom would care. Even if she was here.

"Hey Kora~" A sickeningly sweet voice said, inwardly cringing, she skipped that message. The girl calling her wasn't her friend, well, a frienemy as Koraline put it. The girl got on her nerves, and just because she was invited to that stupid party.......Well, not stupid, but to Koraline it was as if the party was a bit over hyped. She hasn't even heard of the host before, and from what she heard, the host was a few years older. Which made her curious as to why he was inviting teens to a party?

Half listening to the rest of the messages, she clicked her tongue. All those messages for her mother, you'd think she'd have the decency to tell others she was leaving. Koraline thought frowning. Rubbing the bridge of her nose, she tried not to stress out to much about the party. It better be worth it, or she'd be severely disappointed and probably just come back with a headache. Who knows why she's going, this would be the second biggest party she's been to. She wasn't a drinker though, since alcohol tasted so bitter and burned her throat. She tried it once on a dare, worst decision, right up there with forgetting to bring a flashlight with her to a club her friends dragged her to. Walked around half an hour blind because the light wasn't enough.

I wonder if there will be anyone there I know of, she thought going into the pantry. Fishing out a few cookies, she greedily ate them. Her parents always scolded her about her eating habits, but they've never forced her to eat better, so because of it she took a few vitamin and swallowed them. How nutritious. Rolling her eyes, she watched as her cat, Sunny, began to rub herself against the table leg. Looking at the clock, she frowned. Crap. If she didn't hurry she'd be late.
Running up to her room, Koraline closed her curtains and began to get ready. It was just a simple red blouse with black shorts. Curling her hair, she inwardly groaned. She'd have to drive the car there. Due to her impatient nature, she rarely trusted herself to drive. Putting on her fashionable boots, which seemed way to big for legs, she walked down seeing her cat lying near the stairs. When does this cat not sleep? She questioned smiling. Making sure she had her headphones, and house keys, Koraline headed out.

Even if i dislike the beach, she thought taking in the fresh air, the sunsets sure are beautiful. Going into her silver Saturn car, she began to back out. Trying to hold her giddy feeling down, at least she found something to due. Although going to Europe with her mom sounded better, you should never look a gift horse in the mouth the saying goes.

Jonathan stared down at the letter in his hands, confused. A party? Since when was he invited to parties? Especially one as secretive and elite as this. He’d heard gossip around the school about the coolest party of the century, Lost and Found, but never thought about it twice. Parties never were his kind of thing, and though he had been invited to a few since the school year ended, he’d always declined. Was if this a prank? John looked more attentively at the letter, flipping it over in his hands but unsure of what he was looking for. Two small cold hands pressed onto his shoulders. He looked up to see Natalie, her curly brown hair pulled up into a messy ponytail. Her eyes skimmed the content of the letter, and her eyes widened in surprise.

“You were invited to the Lost and Found?!" She practically squealed, reaching out to the grab the letter from her older brother’s hands. John was expecting that though, and pulled it out of her reach, standing up and turning around to face her.

“You’ve heard of it?” he asked, looking at her pointedly. She sat back down on the bed, the one that they shared, and crossed her legs.

“Well, obviously.” She said, glaring at him with the usual preteen attitude. “It’s going to be the biggest event on this planet.”

John stared at her sceptically.

Natalie continued, unfazed, “So, are you going to go or what? It’s exclusive,” she added, staring enviously at the piece of paper.

John looked reluctantly back at her. He wasn’t sure what all this was about, he was had a bad feeling about it. And he had learned to trust his gut with this kind of thing a while back.

“Can you please go? You deserve it anyways,” she said, sobering up. “It’s summer now, you’re supposed to go out and enjoy life. Relax for once,” she added, looking at him expectantly. She had been acting like this for a while now, more mature. John found it kind of disconcerting, but pleasant in a way. She was growing up fast.

“Fine. I’ll go,” he said, rushing a hand through his hair agitatedly as Natalie jumped off the bed yelling, “Yes!” and hugging him.

“Now go and get yourself ready!” She said, pushing him towards their closet. “I promised to meet Julie at the park, so I gotta go. Have fun for me!” She yelled as she skipped almost violently to the door.

John sighed. Rubbing the back of his neck, he glanced around at their one roomed apartment. Where’d she get all this energy? He wondered. Rolling his shoulders, he opened the closet and pulled out the most decent looking button down shirt he had. Looking down at his faded jeans and worn out sneakers, he decided it would have to do. Glancing at the cracked full height mirror that sat near the entrance, he saw that he had slightly darkened circles around his eyes. Well, that’s what you get for only sleeping three hours a night for months at a time.
Glancing at the blinking alarm clock on his bed stand, it read 8:00. Perfect time to set out. The beach wasn’t too far, and the weather was nice. He might as well take a walk. Locking the door behind him, he headed for the beach.

Summer. The word all kids love to hear, the last few minutes of school watching the clock as it slowly ticks. Then the bell rings and how the teacher somehow was even able to say "Have a great summer!" over all the noise of the kids Thalassa would never know. The end of Junior year, which meant Senior year was just around the corner. Thalassa was trying her hardest to get through the crowd of kids, she even pushed a few out of the way, she wanted to get to her burnt orange colored Jeep as soon as possible. "Thalassa!" Was yelled across the Common's area in the school, Thalassa let out a loud groan. She was never gonna be able to leave at this rate. She wanted to catch some waves, and now. "Are you going to the party tomorrow?" The girl that yelled her name asked, Thalassa just shrugged. "Depends.." She mumbled in a hurried voice, she could honestly careless about the party. Not because she hadn't been invited yet, but more because it was just the beginning of summer and she didn't feel like getting in trouble so soon. The things she had heard about this party made her wonder..to her it sounded like the perfect recipe for trouble. "Listen..not to be rude but I really have to go!" She said with a laugh, she nodded her goodbye and then as fast as she possible could walk. Once she reached her Jeep she quickly hopped in and headed home. The Jeep turned in quickly and was parked in a matter of seconds, as Thalassa jumped out. Forgetting to unbuckle though, which made her bust out in a fit of laughter as her brother show up on the deck of his beach house,"Heard the wave ar-" Her older brother, Carter, had began to yell but Thalassa had quickly cut him off. "Are gonna be big! I know!" She yelled back already slipping out of her clothes, revealing her mismatched two piece bathing suit. The bottom being a pretty blue color and the top her favorite colors, green and yellow. She grabbed her favorite surf board and headed out to the ocean. The rest of her day was spent in the water, she loved the water. It was just beginning to get dark when she finally decided to get out of the water. The odd thing was..she looked as if she hadn't been in the water for hours, normal people would be all pruned but she wasn't. She was use to it though..and she headed inside for maybe some video game beat downs with her brother and his fiancé, play with Copper, maybe have a beer or two then some shut eye.

Most teenagers would sleep in til late in the afternoon and then party all night..right? Well not for Thalassa, up at 8:09 a.m. She was up and quickly slipping on another bikini, this one actually matching as it had this white and blue design on it. She went into the kitchen and got a bagel and then she was heading back out to the beach. With school and soccer practice all the time, she never had all the time she wanted to surf, but now with it being summer she finally had time to catch up on her surfing. A wide grin plastering itself on Thalassa's soft features as she headed outside, little Copper following behind her. The warm morning air welcoming her, but she took a deep breath knowing she couldn't stay in the heat of the day.

After a couple hours of surfing, Thalassa thought it would be a good idea to get her tan on. She let her surfboard down on the sand and she plopped down on it. She was only able to stand the warmth for about thirty minutes before she got up. She saw a few people down the beach waving at her. Probably kids from school, she waved back then headed inside. She plopped down on the couch, grabbing a water bottle and then a blanket. She was gonna take a nice nap, Copper hopping up and making himself comfortable on her belly.

A pillow hit her right smack dab across the face, her dark blue eyes flew open and a growl was heard from the puppy who was rudely awake from his nap on her belly. "What the hell, Carter?!" She growled as she rubbed her eyes sleepily. "Well good evening to you too." Carter said in a smart manner as he handed her a letter. "You've got mail. Me and Clarie are gonna go downtown and hang out, so see ya tonight." Thalassa just nodded, giving her brother a wave as she looked down at the letter. "Lost and Found.." she mumbled to herself as she looked at where it was and what time. She knew the place, wouldn't take long to get there..she could just walk down the beach a little ways. The time, she decided it would be best if she got there around nine, she wanted to seem cool. She rolled her eyes as she laid back down, she took a deep breath she didn't have to leave for another hour or so.

Once the annoying clock in the kitchen struck nine, Thalassa wasn't ready to go yet. She had fallen asleep yet again. She was hurrying as she put on a little make-up and left her hair down and curly. She changed into her favorite bikini. It was a bright orange color with purple paw prints on it. Clemson. She was a fan, she'd been to a few games and was actually considering to go to the college. She went into her room, finding her short white shorts and slipping them on and then going over and grabbing her light gray shirt. It hung over her right shoulder, showing off one of her four tattoos, the others were easily seen too. One on both wrists and the one on her hip was showing too cause the shirt wasn't suppose to be dried but her brother dried it anyway and it shrunk up some. It had some Indian design on it with a dream catcher. She stopped at the mirror to see how she looked. Giving herself a thumbs up as she checked out all her ear rings, she was pretty proud of the three on her right ear. They hurt like hell. She then headed out the door toward the party, barefooted.. It would be interesting.

It wasn't long before she saw the lights of the party in the distance, she glanced down to check her phone. 9:24, wasn't bad she it was just a little later than she expected.

"Thalassa!" A yell was heard across the party, Thalassa shook her head. 'Well everyone knows I'm here now..' she thought with a little grin as she looked to see who it was. That girl again, she was a friend, but Thalassa had a lot of friends so she gave a small wave. Let the party begin.

Tate blinked open one eye, peering around to regain her bearings. In one ear, the last verse of a My Chemical Romance song blared, and into the other, the quiet sound of her apartment. She sat up, realizing she must have fallen asleep on the couch earlier. It wasn't surprising, though, it had been a long day for her yesterday. Busy, all day, meaning almost every minute, hour, and second, Tate was on her feet. Wriggling her bare feet, she folded them under her, sitting the way she was told to in Kindergarten, "criss-cross apple sauce."

She craned her neck, and pulled on one arm, stretching out. Screech, being the dog he is, trotted up to the flaming haired girl, demanding to be lifted into Tate's laugh with those pleading eyes. She was happy to oblige, scooping up the wrinkly bulldog from under and holding him close. Letting out a sigh of relief, Tate let her head loll to the back, relaxing a bit. But, just as quick as it began, the peace ended, as her cell phone went off, playing that generic ring tone.

Groaning, Tate reached out her arm, quickly swiping the iPhone from the coffee table on which it was lying. Talking to people wasn't really her thing, and people rarely called her for Tate rarely gave out her number. It was somewhat unnerving that of all the time it could have gone off, someone chose to call now.

Rolling her eyes, and scoffing, she hit the 'Talk' button, and brought the phone up to her ear. At first, she was unsure how to answer, and no one seemed to want to speak on the other line. So, drawing a sharp inhale, Tate began the conversation.

"Um... hello?" She asked into the handheld device, waiting to receive an answer. There was a slight delay, and a familiar voice began to speak to her. It was an acquaintance she knew from work, blabbing all about some Lost & Found party, or whatever. Tate barely listened, for she didn't care. As her friend kept going on, she gave the occasionally "yeah" and "okay" here and there, so she wouldn't leave her hanging.

Towards the end of the call, her friend even suggested she could come. To that, Tate made some sort of scoffing noise, and explained she lacked the invitation which she would need to get into the party. It was met by an equally sarcastic retort, telling Tate she should actually look at her mail once in awhile. That was a habit of Tate's, just grabbing her mail, and leaving it on her counter top. Even though her friend couldn't see Tate, she knew the remark might of had an impact on her. It honestly did too, for Tate felt her eyes wander over to the stack lying in the kitchen.

"I... have to go," was the last thing Tate said, before hitting the end button rapidly, and reaching for her mail. She thumbed through the envelopes, looking at one after another, and almost each a piece of junk, until she reached the second to last one. A small envelope, an invitation, peeking out of everything else, was in front of her.

She stared at it for a while, wondering what she should do. Should she go? Or should she stay home? The beach was in walking distance of her apartment, and there would at least be someone she knew there. Nodding a bit to herself, she placed the invitation on to the counter, and rushed into her bedroom. Tate was deciding to take a chance, which was something she hadn't done in a long time.

She could feel a smug smile spreading across her lips, as her electrifying eyes met the mirror set in front of her. Then, it faded as she looked down at the raggedy t-shirt displaying the name of a restaurant where she used to work, and an over-sized pair of men's boxers she had on as makeshift pajamas.

"M...aybe I should get dressed first," Tate murmured, and began to do the first productive thing since she woke up.

---

About ten minutes, and a couple of bruises later, Tate came stumbling out of her apartment. A light colored blouse and her favorite pair of jean shorts were her outfit of choice. Her mane of orange was held back by a thin brown head band, that seemed to coincide with the sandals she was wearing. The beach was close by, and so was the party. Tate strode on, unusually confident. She was definitely for the party, or in this case, the party might be ready for her.

"You did awesome this round! 247 points on a 40 centimeter target! You almost advanced a rank. With your best going up like this you will get 250 points in no time." Lumin said to her friend, Sylvia.
"Really? You think so?" Sylvia said. Each week she had been slowly improving her score and she was eager to reach her goal. "Yeah. All you need to do is keep practicing. Your form is pretty good, you just have to keep your arm steady in the end." Lumin encouraged. Sylvia looked at Lumin and smiled. She was glad she had Lumin for a friend and scoring partner.
Hooooonk! The lound noise of a car horn blaring disrupted their conversation. Their attention was drawn back to the road and the car careening towards them. Sylvia turned the car wheel and swerved into another car. The air bags ballooned up, but not before the dented car door crushed Sylvia. Lumin shot forward and she got imapled on a spike that got driven through the car. Pain coursed through her abdomen. She screamed. "AAAAA-"

"-AAAAAAAAHHHHH!" Lumin woke up, jolted into reality by her screaming. Sam barged into her bedroom. "It's okay, Lumin! Just a dream!" he said worriedly. He put his hand on her shoulder to comfort her. Lumin sat up, trying to breathe at a normal rate. She brushed her brother's hand off. "I'm okay, Sam. It's all right. I had that dream again, just like you said."

Sam looked at his sister, still concerned, but he respected her wishes and began to walk out of the room. "By the way, you got some mail. Something about Lost & Found."

Lumin shakily got out of bed when he left. She dressed in a t shirt that had a had the words "Got Oxygen?" on it (a souvinier from Pikes Peak) and some knee-length shorts. After a breakfast of toast she checked the mail. There was a letter addressed to her. She opened it and found that it was a party invite to the Lost & Found. Lumin had heard people talking about this party. It was supposed to be for the "cool" kids. Since when was she cool? She brushed her hair behind her ears, wondering what she did to garner the host's attention. I'm just a person on vacation, she thought, plus, I almost never talk to somone long enough for them to think I'm "cool".

"What's that? A party invite? You should go! It would be good for you. Make some friends for me, k?" Sam said. "Where's Mom and Dad?" Lumin asked. "They're out for a walk for some alone time." Sam replied. "Please, go to the party tonight, Lumin." he said with care in his eyes.

Lumin thought about it. "Yes, I'll go. Just for you, though."
"It's probably gonna last late into the night so you probably want to get more sleep so you can stay awake all that time." Sam said.

Lumin nodded and went back to laying down. Sleeping with a nightmare wasn't very restful anyways. She went back to her bed and lay down, falling into a thankfully dreamless sleep.

The clock showed it was seven o'clock. Lumin got out of bed and put on her bathing suit. It was nothing special, just a dark blue top with a pair of volley ball shorts for a bottom. She put her clothes back over it.

"So you're going to the party? Have fun." her mom said. Lumin nodded and walked out the door, heading to the beach were the party was. It was about eight when she got there.

Kyle's morning had been as uneventful as the previous day, but there was an overall sense of uneasiness that had been bugging him ever since he had stepped out of his bed. He thought he had had a dream, but he wouldn't really bet his hand on it and, if he actually had, he definitely didn't remember what it was about. All he knew was that, the moment his consciousness slowly came back to his head and his mind was finally clear, all he could think about was that he didn't want to be in his own shoes that day. He wouldn't be able to explain why, not even in the most abstract of ways, but suddenly, out of nowhere, he just simply didn't want to do anything.

He had somehow convinced himself to stand up and get dressed, that day he had plans, and despite his odd mental state, he felt like he owed it to himself. He had gone down the stairs to the living room in order to have breakfast and had seen his mother there. His father was nowhere to be seen, so he was probably still sleeping; even though it was summer, he still had to work, but today was his day off, so he probably would remain in an amazing state of deep sleep for a long while longer. Kyle's eyesight hadn't met his mother not even for a second; she was simply staring blankly at the table of the living room, even though there was nothing on it; it didn't look like she had gone through the trouble of doing anything that morning beyond standing up either. Her hair wasn't brushed and she still wasn't dressed to go out (then again, she never did). Kyle got some bread and butter along with his cup of coffee and sat on the opposite end the table; none of them greeted each other and silence filled the room as the young man had his breakfast and the woman just continued to stare blankly at the table.

"I'm going out tonight", Kyle commented after a couple of minutes that, to anyone else, would have seemed like an eternity. He received no response from his mother, as was expected. Confirming that this morning wasn't going to have any surprises, Kyle took hold of his huge headphones and isolated himself from the silence of the living room.

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"DuUuuUUUuuUUUde!" an almost obnoxious and excessively long exclamation that made evident the person couldn't resist the eagerness any longer brought Kyle back to the present. Morning had passed some hours ago and he was well on his way to the beach where a huge and unprecedented party was going to take place; he had been invited to an event that apparently would be greater than anything that had been done in Myrtle Beach for years and would definitely be the highlight of the summer: the Lost & Found. This mysterious and promising celebration was extremely exclusive though, only people who had been invited could assist and they could only bring one guest with them, which was probably the reason why it had become the main subject for talking amongst the youth in the entire city. People who were invited suddenly became the center of attention in their group of friends and the envy of everyone around them. Kyle had been one of the lucky ones who had received an invitation and would assist to this incredible spectacle in the beach.

"We are such lucky motherfuckers!" the obnoxious voice continued. The person who Kyle had decided to share his invitation with was one of his closest friends, Aidan, an easily impressionable and hyperactive classmate he had befriended a few years after his family moved into Myrtle Beach; he hadn't become close with him since the last three years though and, truth be told, while he was probably his best friend, their relationship was actually much colder than one would think. They had many subjects in common they could talk about, but when it came to personal matters, neither would share anything with the other; for one of the many examples, while Aidan had noticed some tension in Kyle's house, he couldn't even begin to guess why that was, and his friend wasn't really going to tell him any time soon. They were simply two teenagers who enjoyed each others company. "I still can't believe you out all people were invited to it!"

"That's exactly what I thought when I saw the invitation", Kyle replied with a faint smile. He was actually happy about being invited to the party, as he himself was able to realize he needed to unwind, but, like with practically anything, he wasn't very expressive about it. Besides, he really was kind of suspicious as to why someone like him would be invited to such a big event. Aidan was right to show disbelief; Kyle wasn't really a person who would stand out in any possible way. He didn't go out that often and, in comparison to the vast majority of his friends, he seemed very sedentary in that aspect. The only thing about him that could make him remotely special was that he had participated many times in swimming competitions and had shown very good results for many years in a row. Nonetheless, unlike more popular sports like soccer or football, swimming wasn't exactly a sport that would make anyone stand out and in fact, Kyle was very hard to notice among the many people in his school or anywhere he went to really. There was another thing that he could think of that made him special, but that had nothing to do with a party thrown for teenagers.

"Oh man, I just wanna let you know that I will name my children after you! All of them!" Aidan was quick to change subjects, as would be expected of his nervous attitude, but at least Kyle was already used to it. Aidan hadn't stopped thanking Kyle for taking him as the guest his invitation entitled him to bring ever since they had talked over the phone about it the other day. It had been a fun situation, as the one who had been talking about the Lost & Found for weeks had been Aidan, while Kyle learned of it only a few days before it would take place and still was the one who received the invitation. He would probably remember forever the face of Aidan when he ran from his house to Kyle's just to check that the name and address written on the letter were, without a doubt, correct. He had been wanting to go to the party at 5:00pm, the time that was written in the invitation, and it took all of Kyle's tranquility to convince him that, like he knew and was the case with every single party, nothing would happen until many hours past the announced one. In the end, they had agreed to go there somewhere in between 8:00pm and 9:00pm and it looked like they would be right in the middle estimate.

However, Kyle already knew that, special as this party was, the formula (or routine, if you may) for it was already predetermined as was always the case when he went out with any group of friends (particularly with Aidan, who was awfully predictable). Around two hours after the party reached its climax, Aidan would be throwing up in the ocean amounts of food that would seem physically impossible to fit in a human stomach and it would fall to an also considerably drunk but still standing Kyle to convince his friend of going back home. After an hour of arguing and trying to fight their disorientation, they would finally manage to leave the place and make it to their respective houses. The next morning Kyle would wake up with an uncomfortable hang-over and a feeling that he could've enjoyed the party for longer if he hadn't taken care of his friend. He was already expecting something along those lines, but at the end of the day, he still felt like he could use many drinks and, who knew? He was bad at flirting, but he did meet someone interesting from time to time, and this instance didn't have to be an exception.

"What time is it?!" Aidan asked, and it seemed like his constant jumping was a sign that he was about to explode. The beach was literally just around the corner.

"8:32" Kyle replied while checking his watch. By the time he was lifting his sight again, they were already there.

Lost & Found was right in front of Kyle Twain's eyes.

Koraline watched in curiosity as she saw some teens already enter Lost & Found. She was impressed by the huge speakers, and the lights that stretched all the way to the beach. She was pissed though because it took forever to find a damn parking spot. Literally cars stretched down the street and she had to park a few blocks away before finding any space. It was ridiculous, but she was glad that she came. Hopefully she would find someone she knew. The last time she went to a party her friends abandoned her, after a while she just gave up and went home. Having to deal with her mom pestering her as to why she came home so early. Seeing as how she dazed off, she quickly entered the house. Curious as to who the host was, she looked around for anyone that seemed older than the rest. Which was a pretty hard feat to do really.

Great Kora, already lost. Sighing, she began too look around for a familiar face. Now Koraline was friendly with everyone, or maybe just tolerant, but she got a bit anxious when she didn't see anyone familiar.

"Kora~ You could make it~" Her eye twitched. Standing infront of her was her sworn enemy. Or frienemy as she always put it. The girl's name was Linda Heartz, and she was as loose as they came. Really, if Linda was a computer her password would be password. Forcing herself to smile, Kora gave a slight nod in her direction. As usual Linda had on skimpy clothes, but she knew that this girl was a seductress and could easily get what she wanted. "So, want a drink."
Linda waved a glass with a weird coloured liquid in it. Averting her gaze, Koraline tried to focus on something else. That smell was making her nauseous. "No thanks, I...gotta go." Quickly leaving, she tried not to go back and slap the woman senseless. Some kids these days don't have any class at all.

After a while of walking around, Koraline realized that she hadn't brought any swim ware. Well, that didn't matter, she actually hated swimming. She admired those who were into swimming though, it seemed really graceful. Drinking a can of soda, she inwardly laughed. Great, she was one of those kids. Those as in meaning the one who didn't drink, or act stupid. There always had to be some, and Koraline fit that picture more than she liked. It wasn't her fault though that beer didn't taste sweet. Burning her throat. Shivering at just remembering the first sip of beer, she shook that thought away. Taking her phone out, she looked at the time.

8:44

"Koraline!" As she was practically tackled from the stool she was sitting on, Koraline looked up to see one of her best-friends grinning at her like crazy. "I'm so glad you're here. I was about to leave. You wouldn't believe how many freaks I've meet already." Rubbing her head, she watched as her hyped friend began to do a victory dance, "Can you believe it! We're really here, well...of course you would be here. You're so popular."

Yet no one remembers me. Koraline thought sighing. As her friend, Amber kept babbling on about something, she watched as others chugged down beers or danced outside. Some were probably at the beach, she thought tapping her chin in thought. "Hey, why don't we go to the beach? I hear that's where all the cut surfer guys are." Amber wiggled her eyebrows. "If ya' know what I mean."
Shaking her head, Korealine denied the invite. "Sorry, I actually need to use the bathroom." Her friend gave her a curious look, "It's loud in here. Plus I need to check my messages in private." Amber just shrugged before heading out. Standing there for a bit, she began to ask around as to where the bathroom was. All these people, you'd think someone would have discovered where it was. Then again, there were still more guests to come.

"...Shugi, dear...it's time to go the party...aren't you excited?..." A light flickered in his hotel room and his mother's voice pulled him out of the book he was reading. He looked up, a flash of annoyance passed through his young face but it had gone as quickly as it had appeared and he schooled his face into its usual emotionless mask "...no , thank you, Mother...I have told you before...I will not go to some random party...I would rather staying in the hotel room and finishing my book..." He said, holding the book he was previously reading closed to himself. His mother sighed and walked toward him. Sitting near him, his mother said, a slight depression entered her tone "...honey...I thought we'd gone through this conversation before...you've got to make friends...you cannot sit here for the rest of your life reading books...you've got to go out there and communicate with others..."

Shugi looked up from his book and observed his mother in silence. Finally, he replied "...your concerns are appreciated and noted, Mother...I , however, do not have the wish to go to the party with hundreds of humans...I do not feel the need to do so..." He added, turning a page of his book "...and besides, Sir Francis Bacon (1561 - 1626), Religious Meditations, Of Heresies, 1597 had said 'Knowledge is power'...I deem that the quote is still true to this very day and I intend to follow it to its fullest meaning..." He didn't even look at his mother while saying so and frowned slightly as he came across an interesting subject in the book. His Mother sighed again and said closer to him, making him unconsciously lean farther from her. The woman took the book from her son's hand and said "...alright, honey...how about something's like this...if you go to this party...I will leave you alone for the rest of your vacation...doing whatever you want...what do you say, hon?"

Shugi almost gave a protest when his mother took his book away from him. He gave his mother a long look, taking in her tired expression and her worry gaze. It looked like he couldn't back down from this party! He sighed finally, a defeated sigh and he gave a small nod "...it is as you wish, Mother...however, you must hold the end of your deal and leave me alone for the rest of the vacation...is it reasonable enough?" His mother nodded her head and smiled sadly at him. She patted his head and said "...sometimes, I always wish I could know what is running through your mind right now, hon..."

Shugi gave his mother a blank look and replied "...I do not understand...I do believe that the things that are 'running through my mind' right now, as you put it, are thoughts...I am thinking about Einstein's law of relativity...I still have something I cannot fully understand yet and I hope I can spend some time studying it before the party begins...are you satisfied with my answer, Mother?..." His mother shook her head and sighed again. She truly couldn't understand what he was thinking right now.

She got up and walked out of the room. Before she closed the door, she turned her head and said "...alright, hon...get dressed...do you need me to take you to the party or can you go by yourself?" Shugi looked at his mother and said in monotone "...I believe I have the address on the table and I know the way to the party so it is only logical for me to go there by myself..." His mother nodded her head and closed the door softly behind him, leaving Shugi alone in the hotel room.

Shugi turned his head and walked over to the closet. He pulled out his usual clothes and changed as quickly as he cold. He looked at his own image in the mirror and nodded his head in satisfaction. He was wearing his usual red jacket, a white t-shirt with black jeans, his hair was neatly combed and his medicine was carefully tucked inside his breast pocket, ready to be used whenever the situation called.

Grasping the book on his bed his mother had left, Shugi looked at his hotel room again and sighed. Well, It was time to go to a party he did not want to attend nor felt the need to. He turned off the lights and walked out of his room silently. Closing the door softly behind him, Shugi pulled up his zipper and readied to go out. Now, he just needed to arrive to that party and sat in a corner, reading his book, waiting for the party to end and then went home. Yes, that would be the most logical course of actions...


7:30

Shugi arrived to the party and he looked at the ones that had arrived before him. Why did they all look so...cheerful? It was just a party, serving no other purpose than making acquaintance and spending time in drinking, dancing. Overall, it served no real purposes. It could not offer him more knowledge nor comfort. He sat down on a corner and took out his book. Might as well started reading. It seemed the party would not start anytime soon.

9:30 (I’m assuming the party has begun)

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John heard the party before he saw it. He had lost himself on his own thoughts on his way, and only as the deep beat of the music cut into his hearing did he look up and see the looming house and expanse of the beach, filled with people talking and laughing. Maybe coming to this party wasn’t such a bad idea… he thought as he reached the party.

John walked into the house, hoping to catch a glimpse of their host, of whom which he had never once heard of. He couldn’t imagine who it might have been, as he knew no one from this side of town and hoped that seeing their face would take a bit of the mystery and uneasiness out of the event. As he looked around for a familiar face, a rough pat on the back caused him to spin around, tense. It was a guy he knew from high school, and John struggled to remember his name for a second. Right, he’s… Dean. The um… Quarterback. I remember now.

“Brooooooo, I didn’t know you were invited!” Dean said, his eyes glazed, holding a hand to John. All his football buddies were there in the crowd too, swaying dangerously and laughing like idiots. John wasn’t surprised though. Leave it to a recently graduated football team to get obscenely drunk an hour into the party. John wasn’t too sure who Dean thought he was, having never once talked to him at school, but decided to play along, having seen no one else familiar so far.

“Nice to see you too, man,” John said with a faked grin, grabbing Dean’s sweaty hand in what he hoped was a gruff handshake. His eyes scanned the crowd of faces over Dean’s shoulder, hoping to see a familiar face.

“What are you doing in here? Come out with us to the beach, that’s where the real fun is,” Dean said, pushing a John towards the back exit. John protested, having wanted to meet the host, but the drunken quarterback would have none of it, pushing him out into the summer air. It didn't take long for a red plastic cup to be shoved into his hand, half filled with beer.

“Go on, you know what to do,” Dean said, gesturing at the beverage. John stared reluctantly at the cup’s contents. He sighed, unsure of his course of action. He ran a hand through his hair, agitated.

But then he recalled what Natalie said. He did deserve this. After all he did in the last few years, it wouldn’t hurt to get a little drunk at a party, right? With a new-found confidence, John raised the cup and chugged…

Evelyn's cigarette had run its course by time she heard the music. With an exaggerated sigh, she flicked the butt off into the sand somewhere, reaching into her back pocket and lighting up another one. Glancing behind her, she found that the music wasn't the only indication she was close. People were filing down the beach, like moths to a flame. Teenagers to a party with booze. She shrugged. Same thing.

When she finally reached the party, Skip found that the water was filled with swimming teens, the beach crammed with hundreds of dancers, and the house was no-doubt packed with the people who refused to drink, needed a break from the pulsing music, or wanted some privacy to make out. From the looks of it, all the hammocks were taken. She glanced down at her phone. 9:43. So she was a few minutes later then she'd intended to be. Oh well.

Quickly, she glanced around for someone she knew. Near the edge of the dancers, by the drinks, Ev spotted the football team circled around a slightly younger boy and his friend, handing them a drink. She'd dated Dean once, over the past year. He was a total jerk, but he was older and looked it too. He was capable of getting booze without getting carded. He'd been able to get her her fathers addictions a lot easier then she could herself. So she'd used him. Who cared? He'd used her too.

Taking a drag from her cigarette, she moved her eyes up the beach until she spotted a girl she knew, dancing at the edge of the dancers. "Linda!" She called across the party to the girl. Dimly, a dark head looked up from her dirty dancing and spotted her. She saw the girls face light up. "Skip, babe! You were invited?!"

Ev made her way to the girl and gave her friend a second to dislodge herself from the boy she was grinding on. A boy she'd never seen before and no doubt Linda Heartz hadn't either. "Hell yeah I was invited." She laughed, puffing smoke off to the side. "You know I never miss a party. Even if I wasn't invited, dear old Dean over there would have taken me as his guest." She winked, knowing Dean would rather wring her neck then take a single car ride with her.

Linda laughed and slipped an arm about Evelyn's waist. Her dark-haired friend was a slut, that much was obvious, but Evelyn liked her. She was lively on one hand, and on the other, she could stand Ev's rough sarcasm and didn't see it as rude. "Oh I wouldn't go near him. He's already drunk and I'm sure he wouldn't have any problems with swinging at a girl. Though... I've seen you kick ass. Maybe you can take him." Sombody shoved past the two girls and suddenly there was a plastic cup in Linda's hand. Ev slipped her arm around her friend and looked over towards Dean and his friends. "I saw Kora here too Ev." Linda said suddenly after a swig from her drink. "It's so obvious that she only pretends to like me. Whatever. Keep your friends close and your enemies closer huh?"

"Is that why you're so fond of me?" Ev laughed and looked at the girl with a teasing eyebrow.

"Nah Skip, you know I love you babe." Linda looked back towards the dancers and winked at a boy who'd been eying her the whole time. "Meanwhile... Delicious over there's about to start drooling. I won't go far. Come find me later. We can dance." And with that, the skanky girl slipped into the crowd of tightly packed, sweating bodies, shoving her cup into Ev's hand.

Ev looked towards Dean with a small smile on her face, taking a drag from her cigarette and a swig from Linda's cup. "Dean! Babe!" She called across the beach, and when he looked up, she gave him a flirtty wave. Though she was being completely sarcastic. She actually hated the guy. "You know... I was a little hurt when you didn't call me up and ask me to be your extra." She shrugged, watching him wobble on his feet a little. "But then I got my own invite and got over it."

"Get the hell outta here Skip if you know what's good for you!" The older kid shouted back.

"Nah. You don't scare me." She looked at the two younger boys that Dean's posse was surrounding. One was... Damn, what was it? K... Kyle? Yeah! Kyle. Though for the hell of it, she couldn't bring up a last name. The other one was Aidan. Glancing at the dancing bodies, Ev wondered if anyone else she knew was here.

Suddenly there where hands on her eyes and a drunk voice piped "Guess who?!"

"Hmmm... Josh?" Ev guessed wrongly, with a smile.

"Oh shut up! It is not and you know it!" Dropping her hands, the schools second slut came around and propped herself on Ev's shoulder and from the booze on her breath, Skip could tell it was more for support then a casual gesture. "What's up?" She gestured towards Dean for she-too had dated the jerk, but for completely different reasons. "Terroizing Dean? Don't you know better then to tempt a drunk boy girl?" She winked over at Dean playfully. "Hey there Dean!" She pipped, waving a manicured hand with a flirty smile. "Who're you're new friends.?"

"Lexi," Ev said, "I think that's Kyle and Aidan." She informed the brown haired girl who swayed heavily on her.

"Well I wanna dance with one!" Quickly, the girl rushed forward, stumbling towards them, but before she could reach them, Ev caught her.

"Don't be stupid Lexi. As soon as your within swinging distance, Dean wont wait. Find another boy. God knows there's plenty." Her friend pouted.

"Fineeee..." She said in a sigh. "Come dance with me later Ev. We'll make all the boys jealous." And with that, her second friend was off.

Evelyn took another sip from the cup and glanced around. She didn't want to dance just yet. She was a pretty good dancer, and her favorite part of every party was the dancefloor, but not right now. She wanted to give Dean a little more hell first. Or maybe find someone else she knew.

"I said get the hell out of here Evelyn, and take your little whores with you!" She heard Dean shout towards her and rolled her eyes. He knew she hated being called Evelyn.

"They may be sluts, but they can count to ten Dean! Honestly, it's a wonder you graduated!" Smirking, she realized a lot of the party could hear her shouting, but wasn't worried about Lexi or Linda hearing her. They knew they were whores and embraced it. Dean on the other hand, lived in denial. Slipping her hands into the back pockets of her shorts, she leaned back on her hip. She could go closer if she wanted to, but it would only start a physical fight and she didn't want to fight him if she didn't have to. She knew her comment would hit home. Even through his stupid drunken head. She could practically see the wheels turning in his head as he tried to come up with a comeback. Come on Dean. She thought, You can do better then that.



Matthew watched the party with a satisfied smile. He was sitting on one of the hammocks with the dark-haired, drunk, Linda Heartz next to him. She was trying to get him to kiss her back, but his eyes just scaled the party. With a sigh, he pushed the girl gently away and stood. "I'm sure you'll find someone else." He smiled and helped her stand shakily, allowing her to lean on him as she wobbled back to the dancefloor. "Don't drive home tonight."

He warned her and opened his palm, turning on his Grace and locking eyes with her. Obediently, she placed her keys in his hand. He had three Graces. One was the grace of seeing. He could see who was graced because they glowed lightly. The other was that he could lower a persons defense system with a single touch. It was kind of the equivalent of a drug, but he had to be touching the person and it's effect only lasted as long as he was. It worked better on girls. The final one was intention reading. He couldn't read someones entire mind, but he could see their intentions.

With a sigh, he slipped the young girl into the packed dancing bodies and walked off. He wanted to see if his gracelings had all showed up. Glancing about the party, he spotted eight glows hovering about. Perfect. Evelyn Hart already had a drink in her hand and was teasing an older football player, Kyle Twain was standing with his human friend in Dean's little circle, Kora was looking for a bathroom in the house refusing to drink, Shugi was looking for a quiet corner to be unnoticed, Lumin had just arrived, and so had Tate, finally, Thalassa was addressing a friend from across the crowd.

He would interact with each of them. Dance with the girls, maybe talk with the boys, get them all to drink, and by the end of the night, he'd steal the group off to some safe beach cave and when they woke, hungover, he'd teach them their first lesson about their Grace. It seemed skeevy, but they wouldn't agree to see him otherwise. Plus, it was the perfect way to hide them in a large crowd, and have fun.

Sighing, he decided to start with Thalassa. He took a plastic cup of beer in hand and stepped up behind her. "Want a drink?" He asked the young blonde, a charming smile on his face.

Tate tipped her head to the side, watching the crowd of dancing teenagers in front of her. She could see some familiar faces, some who had stopped by her work before, but no one she really knew. Watching as girls grinded sluttily on boys, drunk off their asses already, she frowned in distaste. Starting to wonder why she even came, Tate started to wander to the outer edge of the party, observing others. It was weird, how just last year, if she lived here, these people would have been some of her classmates. Tate watched as a drunk boy shouted to a blonde haired girl about taking her whore friends, and leaving, raising an eyebrow at how coolly the girl responded.

Her eyes kept on wandering after that, looking at everyone interacting, dancing, drinking, laughing, and whatnot. The few kids who were just sitting off to side looked as unamused as she did. A blonde boy, and a girl looking for something, or avoiding it. She contemplated whether or not she should try to talk to one of them, going with a no. It's not that they didn't look nice or anything, it just looked like they wouldn't want to speak to her.

"Tate! Tate Young!"

The voice seemed to come from no where, as Tate whipped head around. Finally, she spotted her friend, Katie, the one she had spoken to on the phone previously, standing with their other friend, Seamus. They waved her over, grinning wildly. As she approached, they hugged her close. After she managed to wiggle free, she looked up at them. "Uh, hey guys, what's up?" She asked, a smug smile on her lips.

"You said you weren't coming!" Katie exclaimed, giving her a playful punch in the arm. Seamus looked from the bubbly brunette to Tate, and chuckled.

In return, Tate put her hands up, and shrugged. "I guess I changed my mind," She told her, scanning the area and people around her. "But, I think I'm changing my mind again." Tate folded her arms across her chest, and looked at her colleagues.

Seamus piped up, looking at the redhead. "No, no, you're not," He grinned, and grabbed her arm, pulling Tate into the crowd. From behind her, she heard Katie giggle, and run after the two. Seamus pulled the girls close, and started dancing. Katie jumped right in, while reluctant Tate just kind of stood there, cocking her head.

Tate was unsure how to label the two. Sure, they were close, and they worked together. But, Tate felt they weren't that much of friends, and just a source of entertainment, or someone to talk to when they were all bored at work. Her train of thought was cut off, when Seamus pulled her closer. Tate laughed a little, and finally started to dance. Soon enough, she was into it, laughing, and swaying with Katie, and Seamus.

Maybe this wasn't going to be so bad of a party after all.

(OOC: Ignore this, posted twice.)

"They couldn't have given us the cold shoulder any clearer" Kyle commented to Aidan as they walked through the big mass of people dancing on the beach. They had just tried to hit on a group of three girls, and yes, 'tried' was the perfect word to describe what they had done. For a while they were able to keep the conversation going, but after 20 minutes or so of casual chatter, the girls began to show signs of getting bored and it was all downhill from that point on. Eventually they ended up saying they had to meet someone else, somewhere else and left without even bothering to say their goodbyes or waiting for the boys to say anything at all. Aidan was beginning to show signs of annoyance and was burning brain power trying to think of a new strategy, seeing as this was the third time girls would just walk away from them; Kyle, on the other hand, was keeping his usual calm attitude and would simply take a casual drink on the beer in his plastic cup from time to time as if nothing happened. He didn't have much resistance when it came to alcohol, but he compensated it with being a slow drinker. Normally, and this wasn't the exception, he would start by drinking something relatively light, like beer, and move on to stronger drinks (which usually consisted mostly of vodka) when he remembered he had finished the previous one. This was usually how he would most of the times be able to go through the night without covering himself in his own vomit at any point. As always, Aidan was way ahead of him in that aspect and his line of walking was already kind of wavy.

"It's because you are so dull! Besides you look weird!", as per usual, failure could never be attributed to Aidan (at least not according to him); he did have somewhat of a point though. Kyle wasn't very talkative and normally would only speak to give his name and then answer questions, which of course didn't tend to be much of an attractive quality for most girls, especially in this kind of environment. Besides, it was true that his looks weren't really the most inviting; he was wearing a very thin sweatshirt that opened in the middle and the hood was over his head. At least his pants were normal; he was wearing long ones and, in the unlikely scenario that he decided to get in the water at some point, he had a pair of long trunks like the ones surfers wore under them. It wasn't that bad though, normally he would be wearing a beanie hat on his head (then again, he had one in his pocket at that very moment) and there were all kinds of people there, many of which had styles that were far weirder than Kyle's. "Just take that off, dude!", Aidan demanded, and made his way towards his friend, pulling on his hood so that it stopped covering his head and revealed his messy hair. Kyle simply sighed.

"You called that girl 'Alice'...", he replied, his expression half-serious, as he disliked people telling him how he was supposed to dress himself. He didn't bother to place the hood how it was though, as he was well aware that a drunk Aidan would just keep pulling on it and he knew perfectly well which one of them would get tired/annoyed first.

"What's your point?", Aidan asked with an expression that was clearly exaggerated just to make it clear to his friend that what he was saying made absolutely no sense. His lifted shoulders, which were also meant to exaggerate the gesture, only made him look stupider.

"She told you three times her name was Jenna; you said three times her name was beautiful", Kyle didn't even bother to look at Aidan for that one and brushed him off with the tone anyone would use when talking to someone drunk. He took another drink from his beer-filled plastic cup and realized he would soon need a refill. "I don't think girls are drunk enough for you yet". Kyle had been realizing with time that hitting on girls with his friend was very counter-productive, even with his unfriendly attitude and whatnot. However, this time it also had to do with an odd sensation Kyle had been feeling for a long while now and that distracted him at every turn: his temple and fingers were tingling. Even though he was able to forget about it by distracting himself, he would still recall it from time to time and it was kind of uncomfortable.

He was expecting Aidan to reply to him semi-angrily something along the lines of 'Well excuse me, Casanova!', but instead he remained silent. He realized upon actual inspection that the reason Aidan hadn't defended himself against his words was because he seemed to have spotted someone in the crowd and was confirming who it was or something.

"Bro, Aidan, that you?!", a vigorous voice resounded only slightly over the crowd calling Aidan, who replied to it while lifting his hand and recovering his usual wide smile. "Come over here, man!"

Kyle knew who that man was, although he had never really had a conversation with him. He waited for Aidan to say his name out loud and recalled it was Dean, confirming he was who he had suspected. He didn't know much about the guy beyond that he played football, liked to show that he knew everyone and loved the word 'bro'. The two friends made their way towards Dean and his groups of friends, which Kyle noticed were mostly also football players. Dean greeted Aidan with a vigorous, almost violent handshake.

"I didn't know you got invited, bro!", he said with enthusiasm; then again, being loud and everything, practically anything he said seemed to have a lot of energy to it. Aidan explained that he hadn't been invited and that he was just a guest Kyle had taken with him and only then did Dean realize he was there. "Ky-man! You were lucky, ey?!", he said while offering another of his powerful handshakes. Kyle didn't take kindly to the nickname; he didn't mind his friends saying it, but Dean wasn't a friend and the -man termination just made it sound stupider. "How's the tennis going?"

"Swimming." Kyle replied while shaking Dean's hand without reciprocating his loud enthusiasm. Dean remained quiet and with a static smile for a second, and Kyle understood it was a sign he didn't know what he had meant by that. "I swim; haven't played tennis in my life."

"Ah, right, right..." Dean said, showing semi-subtly that he just didn't care. Kyle noticed that Aidan was kicking him with dissimulation to warn him he was being rude with no reason, but was ignored completely. "Ah right, this is John", Dean continued, pointing at another boy who seemed to be the same age as them. "Aidan and Kyle." he said to the man by the name of John, pointing at the two friends as he called their names respectively.

"Hey", Kyle greeted John with a gesture of his head and left it at that, but Aidan approached him and greeted him with a handshake reminiscent to that of Dean's.

Kyle wasn't really one to judge people, nor did he have a good eye to analyze them, but to him it seemed like the man wasn't really used to going out. It was simply a feeling Kyle got from him without much evidence to support it, but then again, it would explain his presence in this group of people. John didn't look like a football player at all and, having in mind how closed this kind of circles tended to be, his guess was that he was your typical person not used to going out nor drinking they would try to get wasted beyond a healthy point just to get a few kicks out of it. He definitely hadn't chosen a good group to hang out with, but Kyle wasn't going to be the one to pull him out of the fire. Stupid as they were, Dean and co. probably wouldn't dare to do anything excessively bad to him and messing with their attempt at having fun was just looking for needless trouble. Besides, John looked like a serious enough person to fend for himself.

The greetings had just ended when the atmosphere suddenly took a turn for the worse with the arrival of yet another person. It was a girl who looked like the kind you wouldn't want to get in trouble with; her appearance just seemed to be screaming that she had a response for anything anyone could say at her. She seemed to really have something of a conflicting attitude, as it became quite obvious as she addressed Dean that she wasn't there on friendly terms. All of the football players seemed to be paying attention to her arrival too, so it was quite obvious that there was some history there. However, it was a history Kyle was completely unaware of; he barely knew Dean so obviously he wouldn't know anything about his personal life, let alone that of this girl he had called Skip, who he at best could remember to have seen at some point with Dean time ago. Another girl soon appeared before the conversation became more heated, but she soon showed to be both friends with Skip and to also be in bad terms with the quarterback, so she probably would only make things worse. Aidan smiled nervously when the the girl who responded to the name Lexi approached them, and even Kyle had to admit to himself that the idea of dancing with the drunk girl was more appealing than remaining there. However, he found much more interesting the fact that Skip knew his name, as he was quite sure he had never exchanged words again; either Myrtle Beach was smaller than he thought, or maybe she knew Aidan and hence had seen him at some point. Before he realized, Dean had lost patience and was screaming at Skip (he called her Evelyn this time though) to go away, but all he managed was to get insulted by her in return and by the look on his face, he didn't know how to respond.

Kyle couldn't help but let the sound of a poorly contained laugh escape his mouth; the comment had been intended as more hurtful than funny, but the sound of Dean's every neuron screaming in pain in an attempt to think of a comeback to shut Evelyn up with was hilarious. This, however, seemed to be the perfect excuse for the quarterback to stop torturing his own brain and turn to Kyle with a serious and ominous expression drawn all over his face. Noticing trouble coming, Aidan pretended he hadn't been paying attention and didn't know what was going on and, after muttering something about going after the girl called Lexi, he left the circle while stumbling. 'Hooray for friendship', Kyle thought as he watched his friend walk away.

"You think what she said was funny?", Dean asked him with no signs of a smile at all this time. Kyle simply lifted his shoulders indifferently, but there was still a smile printed on his face. The quarterback hadn't walked away from Evelyn a single step, but his head turned from her to Kyle repeatedly, showing he genuinely didn't expect him to be on her side (which he wasn't, as he was barely aware of what was going on).

"It was... alright", Kyle frankly didn't know exactly what to say. Dean's attempt to intimidate him only made him more unwilling to agree with him, but with all the other football players there, he knew that by messing with Dean, he was basically asking for a beating, and he wasn't willing to bet on trying his luck in a fight against that many people. Besides, it was a little too early for the party to turn violent.

Dean didn't seem to take kindly of what he said and his expression grew darker. An uncomfortable silence that could turn into a punch at any second appeared in the group. Dean was already quite drunk, so Kyle had an idea of something he could do to get away from the situation without throwing any punches or calling attention upon himself any further. He didn't support the thought that had crossed his mind very much, it wasn't something he liked to do as he didn't understand it at all, but he could be able to completely throw Dean off balance without touching him and since he was drunk, not only would it be much more effective than usual but he probably wouldn't even be able to get up for a full two minutes. He could then just brush it off as him being extremely drunk. It only worked whenever it wanted, but if he could make it this time, it would be a perfect timing. All he needed was for Dean to meet eyes with him...

John watched the exchange between Ky and Dean and knew that things were heading downhill fast. Dean, already pissed out of his mind, seemed ready to bash Ky’s skull in after he laughed at his failure at a comeback. John did admit it was hilarious, and had to cover his own snort of amusement with a sip of beer. Ky was obviously less lucky. Dean looked like a bull, his face red and his eyes glaring daggers at Ky, who seemed to be handling things well, the calm expression never leaving his face although a small smile lingered. John knew a fight was coming, and as Dean took his first step forward, he put a hand out to stop him. Ky looked like a decent enough guy, and John didn’t really want to watch him being beat up.

“It’s not worth it, man. I’m serious,” John said, glancing at Ky with an expression that clearly read, If you don’t want a beating from this guy and his posse, I suggest you run. Ky looked like the kind of guy who could defend himself, but no one could outmatch a team of drunk football players. John felt the sand underneath him lift slightly, almost unnoticeably off the ground, and his heartbeat spiked. Control yourself, John. Don’t let this get to you. The sand dropped back down, but John was still panicking. I shouldn’t have taken the beer… John thought. He had known alcohol had some effect on his control, but chose to ignore the fact in hopes of having a good time.

“You’re not part of this, John,” Dean slurred, glaring at him, “Get out of my way.”

“I don’t think I will,” John replied, somewhat calmly. Ky still hadn’t moved, and he didn’t want the idiot to get hurt. Shit, shit, shit... was the only thing going through his mind, as he realized that a fight will do nothing for his hold on his ability, which was taking up half his focus.

“Who the hell do you think you are?!” Dean snarled, raising a fist for the first drunken punch. John quickly stepped out of the way easily, grateful not for the first time that he took up boxing. He sent a quick glare at Ky, that read easily, What now, genius?

Koraline looked around the even more crowded area, which still felt cramped and sweaty. Looking at the teens who were dancing, she watched as they practically looked like they were having sex on the dancfloor. Meeting Linda's gaze, the girl gave a smirk, but Koraline didn't feel lice humoring her so she just gave the woman a lifeless expression. Linda seemed confused because Koraline would usually act friendly, but she didn't feel like putting up an act right now. She stopped trying to find the bathroom, and it seemed a little dispute was being made. Averting her gaze, she watched as it ended. It was between a girl named Evelyn, and the quarterback. They dated once, she thought tapping the can of soda. Everyone knew about them. Surprise, surprise~

Looking out towards the setting sun, she cursed. It was getting darker and darker. She needed to find a room that had brighter light or walk around this place blind. Feeling her body start to run cold, she watched as the can she was holding started to create frost. The smooth liquid now slush as she swallowed the Mt. Dew.

"Kora!" Her head snapped up, another one of her friends slung an arm around her. Unlike how most people thought, Koraline hanged out with a mix of people. She liked the otakus -anime obsessed-, then the classier acts, she hanged out with the punks and then the party animals. Although the groups never meet each other, only Amber was her best friend, and she liked to keep it that way.

"Hey Annie, you're drunk." Annie laughed, her pink streaked hair illuminated by the dull lighting. The sound vibrating through the floor boards.

"No duh kiddo. But enough about that, look at that fine piece of meet." Pointing a tanned finger towards a group of guys, Koraline watched as her friend sauntered off. She hated to act like the mother goose, but it seemed like the situation called for it again. Koraline could vaguely remember the man's name was.....Kyle, Kyle twain. As her friend walked over to Kyle, she inwardly groaned. One of the people she could not get along with were Dean and his gang. Aidan seemed alright, but she watched as he stumbled out of the group to probably find some girl. As Annie got closer, the woman turned her sights on Dean. The man who was drinking himself stupid. Or more if that was even possible. She bet Linda would have had a jolly out of this.

The so called stuck-up queen hanging out with someone as loose as Linda. She sighed, and that's why she made sure her group of friends never met up. Their personalities were very clashing. It was almost funny in a way. As she watched Annie walk over, something suddenly happend. Dean exploded, a man seemed to try and help Kyle but she grabbed her friend before she could do anything. "Annie, let's get away from them, okay?"

Annie just nodded like her mother scolded her. As she made sure her friends were away from this, Koraline just stood there as if transfixed by what was happening. She never saw a fight before, and she was curious as to how this was going to end. She mentally put twenty bucks on Dean. It seems like this would end badly. As her soda in the can froze, she didn't notice the temperature get a bit colder.

If my family knew that the party would be like this I don't think that they would of pushed for me to come, Lumin thought. There was loud music, loud screaming, heck it seemed everything was loud. Too loud. There were people who made sexual references to each other and drank large quantities of alchohol. Was this what every party was like? Lumin wished she had brought a book to the party. Then she could of ignored all the other people's blatant abuse of each other and alcohol.

She wandered about aimlessly among the crowds. There were far too many people for her taste. Lumin considered to go back home but she made a decision and she would have to stick with it. Her hands slowly open and closed fists, a repetitive action that comforted her a little. After getting some water to drink (she never liked that after taste of sodas and didn't drink beer) she sat down, enjoying the coolness of her iced drink.

"Hey wanna dance babe?" a tall guy slurred as he wavered around unsteadily. Lumin looked at him, aghast. Here he was drunk and he wanted to dance with her. Plus, he had called her babe when she had never even seen him before.

"No, thank you. You should probably lay down and lay off on the alcohol." Lumin said nervously. Her mind flew to the books she read that had rape in them as the guy wandered away. She really didn't feel safe here.

Lumin went to some lockers that were around to put clothes in while you were swimming and undressed to her bathing suit. She shoved her clothes into the locker and took off running to the water. Running felt good, it relieved some of the stress she felt. She dove into the water, its cold rejuvenating her and clearing her mind. She began to swim to almost over her head and then just floated there, glad to have some peace.

Evelyn watched in satisfaction as Dean struggled to come up with a comeback. Only confirming what she'd said about his stupidity. Rolling her eyes she scoffed, and was about to comment when Kyle laughed. Instantly, she saw his mistake, and glanced at Dean. The older man was glaring at Kyle, as an uneasy quiet settled over the group and Kyles friend Aidan excused himself to wander off after Lexi. Knowing Lexi would be more then happy to dance with him, Skip moved her eyes back to the potential fight in front of her.

If something broke out, Kyle and John would have no chance of winning. At least, not without help. Dean's crowd of football players would have them knocked out before they even registered the pain of the blow. She'd seen it before.

Tossing the butt of her cigarette away, Ev rolled her eyes. Why don't I save an old lady's kitten from a tree while I'm at it? She cursed herself and sauntered over to the boys. If there was a good fight or an asshole to tell off, you could count her in. But avoiding an ass kicking wasn't what she usually did. She'd gotten them into it though, so she owed it to them. If she hadn't run her mouth, nothing would have happened. Until later at least.

"Dean." Evelyn spoke firmly, placing a hand on his shoulder. "Lay off dude. You're drunk. The party just started. Do you really want to get thrown out? Come find me later." Evelyn smirked. "I promise you can beat me up then."

Something in the boys fuzzy mind clicked, and he seemed to realize that he hated her, not these two innocent boys. He turned fully to face her and rose up, grabbing her arm roughly. "You calling me stupid?" He slurred and Evelyn had to use all her will power to keep from saying something that would only make the situation worse. "Dumb little whore. Stop acting tough and get your ass home to your dunk daddy while I beat these punks senseless." And with that, he shoved her back into the sand and turned back to Kyle and John, ready to finish what he'd started.

Her fingers tingled and her temples thrummed. It had been dull the whole party, and she'd figured it was because of the drinks, but now it was flaring. Evelyn dug her fingers in the sand and looked up. Her eyes burned with hate. Dean was chalanging Kyle and John while another girl, Koraline, stood off to the side watching. Koraline. Where had she heard that name? Oh. Right. Linda's "friend".

Ev tossed her blonde hair away from her face and stood, shaking the sand off of her. She wanted nothing more then to kick the boys ass, but not with so many of his friends near by. Stepping forward one more time, Evelyn grabbed Kyle's arm in one hand, and John's shirt in the other, dragging them out of the group. "Sorry Dean. Like I said. It's way too early." She hissed at him as she pulled the two boys away. She'd get Dean later. When he was alone.

Skip's fingertips were burning with such intensity now, it was impossible to ignore. What the hell was wrong with her? Oh. Right. She had superhuman powers. The usual. Still... this kind of thing had never happened.

Once they were far enough away from Dean, closer to the dancers, Evelyn released the two of them. "Didn't mean to get you two mixed up in that." She shrugged and reached for another cigarette. Smoking was only something she did when she was under a lot of stress, or extremely pissed off. Now was one of those times. In the mass of dancing bodies, she could see Lexi and Aidan dancing dangerously close, and some older looking boy depositing Linda back into the group, taking her car keys. Maybe it was for the best that her friend didn't drive.

Looking back at the boys, Evelyn held out her cigarettes and lighter. "Want one?" She asked, trying her hardest to be friendly. She needed a distraction so she didn't rush back to Dean and punch him straight in the face. Or worse... That thing inside her she hadn't completely uncovered would come out again. As much as she hated Dean, she wouldn't subject him to what she could do.

Nonetheless, Evelyn's hands shook with anger as she fumbled to light her own cigarette.

Honestly, Thalassa hadn't been to a party in awhile. She wanted to, but it was just..she was so busy. She slowly made her way through the huge crowd of people as she tried to get to the girl that called her name, Becca was her name if Thalassa wasn't wrong. She really didn't know she would just have to wait for someone else to say the girls name. As she got closer she noticed a lot of her friends from school were in this group. Most of them were surfers, like Layne. He was the typical surfer. He was tall, muscular, tan, he had that beach blonde hair, and to top it all off he just graduated.

"Well if it isn't little Thalassa!" Layne teased like he always did, he was one of her closest friends. The first day she moved to Myrtle Beach, well it wasn't summer so she was taken out of a small public school and thrown into a pretty huge public school. Luckily Layne was in her first class and he helped her find her other classes, ate lunch with her, and before she had a car he would drive her home. After awhile they began hanging out more and more, it was one of those situations where people began to ask them when they would start dating..of course the two of them would deny, deny, deny.

"Well if it ain't big ole' Layne!" Thalassa teased back smoothly with a huge grin on her face, you could clearly tell how she was Southern. Her Southern twang was quiet noticeable, but she didn't care. He was the one that got her into surfing and he was her first crush. Yeah, she will admit it, he was the first guy that she actually got to hang out with and Layne was a pretty cool guy.

Layne had a huge grin on his face as he grabbed her arm and pulled her through the rest of the crowd til she was finally in the group. The group was on the out skirts of the party, near the beach. "Want a drink?" He asked, holding out a cup, then with a smirk he added. "Its your favoriteeeee.."

Heineken. Thalassa quickly took the cup from Layne's hand, taking a sip. She was pretty good with beer. She could have a good five or six before her mind began to get all foggy, she hated the feeling of a foggy mind. Completely hated it, how she couldn't think straight and her already random comments got even more random. "I hope you brought your surf board.." She muttered, a small innocent smile spreading on her face. But when the boy shook his head as a 'no' her face was wiped clean of all innocent expressions and replaced with a rather angry one. "What the-" she had begun to say but she stopped when Layne started to laugh pretty loudly, she pushed him with her free hand pretty roughly. But like usual he grabbed her wrist and pulled her toward him, both of them laughed.

Thalassa felt like someone was behind her, hearing a voice confirmed the feeling. She turned to see a guy, she gave a smile back. "No thanks. I've already got one." She said, tilting her head a little at his charming smile. She arched a brow when she could hear Layne snickering behind her, with a swift movement of her arm she elbowed him. That shut him up, causing a smirk to spread on her face.

Shugi frowned slightly as he tried to read his book and ignored the loud music to no avail. It was so hard to concentrate when music was everywhere like this. His frown deepened and he looked at the page again, trying to understand the complex problem, his lips moved a little but no sound came out.

"Mass–energy equivalence is a consequence of special relativity. The energy and momentum, which are separate in Newtonian mechanics, form a four-vector in relativity, and this relates the time component (the energy) to the space components (the momentum) in a nontrivial way. For an object at rest, the energy-momentum four-vector is (E, 0, 0, 0): it has a time component which is the energy, and three space components which are zero...."

Another song - a rock song this time, attacked his eardrums and Shugi winced in pain. The music was too loud, too noisy that it felt like his ears were being stabbed by thousands of tiny needles. He grasped his book and attempted to move to another more silent spot but quickly discovered that everywhere was filled with people now except where he was sitting. Maybe it had something to do with the fact that he was sitting near a coconut tree, with no food or drinks and nothing interesting except for some crazy music. He bit his lips slightly, controlled himself before he could say anything inappropriate.

Shugi sat down and opened his book once again. Covering his ears with his hands, Shugi read the text out loud, hoping he could focus on it if he did so. At times like this, he wished he hadn't agreed with his Mother. He glanced at the crowd and frowned again. He'd better be left alone for the rest of the vacation or else. And this party'd better be worth it.

"... By changing frames with a Lorentz transformation in the x direction with a small value of the velocity v, the energy momentum four-vector becomes (E, Ev/c2, 0, 0). The momentum is equal to the energy multiplied by the velocity divided by c2. As such, the Newtonian mass of an object, which is the ratio of the momentum to the velocity for slow velocities, is equal to E/c2..."

"Hey, kid...why don't you join in the fun? What are you doing here?..." A voice said and Shugi looked up, blinking blankly at the older teenager in front of him. Sighing, he closed his book and answered calmly "...As you can see, I am reading a book...And I do believe I prefer to fill my knowledge than 'join in the fun' as you put it...I am studying about Einstein's law of relativity..." The older teenager looked at him like he had a second head and said again "...you must be kidding me, right? lighten up, little dude...this's for fun..."

Shugi cocked his head to one side and refused to answer his question. Instead, he opened the book and continued to read. He hoped the other boy would take the hint and leave him alone. He was in no mood for questions and answers. He had planned to study at least half of the book by the end of this vacation and if this kept up, he wouldn't be able to fulfill his own promise to himself, a fact that he really hated.

"...The energy and momentum are properties of matter and radiation, and it is impossible to deduce that they form a four-vector just from the two basic postulates of special relativity by themselves, because these don't talk about matter or radiation, they only talk about space and time..."

"Hey, ya 'kay, little dude? can't ya hear me?"

Apparently, the other boy couldn't take the hint and then leave. Shugi refrained himself from showing his frustration and he looked up. He told the boy in monotone "...I am fine...thank your for your concerns...I can hear you perfectly..." The other boy grasped a cup of beer and offered him "c'mon, dude...drink it and have fun..."

Shaking his head, Shugi answered "...The main active ingredient of beer is alcohol, and therefore, the health effects of alcohol apply to beer. The moderate consumption of alcohol, including beer, is associated with a decreased risk of cardiac disease, stroke and cognitive decline.The long term health effects of continuous, heavy alcohol consumption can, however, include the risk of developing alcoholism and alcoholic liver disease...." Frowning slightly again, Shugi tried to avoid talking to the other boy. He was standing to close to Shugi and it was beginning to make him feel uncomfortable. Plus, with this constant bugging, he would never be able to understand the complex problem. He still needed to finish his book after all. Maybe he should use his power...

Shugi paused, unsure what to do now. Using his power was one of the first few things in his long list of dislike things. Should he use his power to make the other boy go away? It seemed...unfair and evil. Using it was not the most logical choice of actions, either. It affected his health and Shugi just got over his most recent sickness 2 days ago. Should he risk his health again?

"dude...drink it...please?"

Shugi sighed. Well, it looked like he didn't have any other choices in the matter. The boy wouldn't leave him alone no matter what he tried. He locked eyes with the other boy, his lips moved again. His words were spoken too quietly and the music was covering him. However, if one looked closely enough, they would be able to read his lips.

"...this boy is boring...leave him alone..."

Shugi pushed his thoughts into the boy's mind. The effect was instantly. The boy's eyes became glazed and he repeated Shugi's words "this boy is boring. Leave him alone." The teenager turned his head and walked away, leaving a content Shugi alone.

However, the happiness on Shugi's face didn't last as his body shook with a violent coughing fit. He covered his mouth and squeezed his eyes shut. Finally, what seemed like eternity to Shugi but in reality, only for about 10 minutes, the coughing fit stopped and the young boy looked at his bloody hands, his face never lost its calm expression. Licking his lips, Shugi took out his handkerchief and cleaned his hands slowly. His clothes, thankfully, didn't have any blood on them. He sighed, his body was still trembling with suppressed coughs. Well, he supposed everything had a price. And this was the price he had to pay for having an evil power.

Opened the book in his lap, Shugi began reading again, hoping he would be left alone for the rest of the party. It was way too troublesome to deal with...

Lumin eventually began to feel cold in the water. In her mind a feeling of having four legs, fur, and a tail began to grow prominent. She snapped her head up and began to swim back to shore. She wasn't going to turn into a cat now, she would not, could not be a freak now. The sensations that accompanied a transformation went away, much to her relief.

On shore Lumin made a beeline for the locker she had stored her clothes in. Clothes in hand she went to the bathroom to get dressed. After changing she went over to the refreshments area. She picked up some cheese and crackers and water and sat down to enjoy her food choice. Lumin felt some fear for herself. With so many people a fight could break out, someone could get hurt, her confusing ability could emerge, or all three. She had lived a somewhat shelterd life since she was homeschooled. When she went to highschool she tried to avoid as much talking about boyfriend/girlfriend relationshiops, drugs, and dancing as she could. She had heard people say inappropriate things and steered clear of them becuase she didn't want to be exposed to that stuff. Now at this party she was being exposed to a lot of it. It was too much.

Lumin heard the sound of a racking cough. She went over to the source of it and found a boy who was reading a reading a book. At the moment though his hands were all bloody. What caused him to cough up blood? Lumin wondered. Her fingers were tingling since she came around the area he was in. She ignored it as she watched the boy take out a hankerchief and carefully wipe away the blood. He resumed reading again. Lumin stood on spot for a moment, thinking. Should I approach him? she wondered. Thinking back to what Sam said she went over to the boy and said, "Hello, I'm Lumin. What book are you reading?" In Lumin's experience people liked to talk about the books they read. She thought that partly because she liked to talk about books herself.

Koraline watched in slight disappointment as Evelyn went and carried the two boys away. Watching as both her and Dean were fuming with hate, she turned her attention back to the party. Before she got carried away in other things that were none of her business, she had to find her friend. Looking at her phone, she realized that it was almost ten, she stayed here far to long and would be pretty hard for her to drive home with impaired vision. As the music rocked through the floor, she moved past the gossiping crowd. Watching as others harassed teens who refused to drink, she tried to blink away the halos but it refused to go away. Feeling a tap on her shoulder, she turned around a little to fast and almost fell. Her friend Amber was way to close for comfort.

"Relax there Koraline. Can you still see?" She started to wave her hand in front of Koraline's face. Huffing, she nodded.

"Just barely, everything's starting to go a bit hazy. Is it any brighter outside?" Her friend sighed. She was going to assume that was a no, so she was going to be stuck here for a while. As Amber lead her outside, to a quieter area near an empty table they started to talk again.

"Man, this party's pretty awesome. How long do ya' think you're going to be here?" Koraline shrugged, it would be a while till she could see again. She needed a sufficiant amount of light, that's why she rarely stayed at a party for long. Blinking a few times, she smelt the smoke from cigarettes. "Well, sorry about not being there with ya' It's just that I meet up with my boyfriend, and......ya' know."
Amber finished off sheepishly. It was an understatement to say that Koraline was annoyed, but she knew her friend had her own life.

"Yeah, yeah, whatever. It's fine." Her tone becoming snippy, "How long are you staying?"

"Eh, who knows. I really didn't plan anything out. Just told the parents I was going out. You know how they really don't care on summer vacation. I bet tons of people are going to pull all-nighters." Koraline grinned. She felt bad for the person hosting the party, because they'd probably have to deal with passed out teens. Wonder how others would react to seeing passed out teens on the beach? Shaking her head, she pulled on the cord to her headphones.

"So, are you mad at me?" Koraline scoffed at the question. She was never really mad at her friends, and even if she was she got over it fairly quickly unless they really pissed her off. "Well, thanks for the answer." Amber said jokingly. "I saw Linda too," Amber continued on. Hearing her take a swig from a can, Koraline assumed that it was beer. "Some guy made her give her keys away. Wonder how much she drank?"

"Please, some of these people drink enough to get poisoned," Korealine mumbled but Amber obviously didn't hear. As she stared blankly ahead, she sighed. Now all she could see were a mass blur of people and halos surrounding any light source. So she was pretty screwed right now. "I never asked this, but how did you get night blind?"

"Lasik eye surgery," Koraline said exasperated. She explained this to Amber tons of times, but the girl never listens to her. As Amber kept talking on about her boyfriend and what not, Koraline looked at her surroundings. It was hard to tell who was who by now, but that didn't really matter. As her mind went blank, Amber seemed to look around now too. "I feel bad when I see kids being picked on," Koraline wanted to point out that Amber wasn't exactly an adult either, "forcing them to drink......" As she went on about some kid having a terrible cough and another girl coming up to him, she pushed a can across the table.
Staring at it curiously, Koraline couldn't read the label. "What is it?"

"Don't worry, it's just canned coffee. You look dead right now, did you eat anything? There's some really good food here." Crinkling her nose, Koraline took the drink and swallowed. It's been a while and she hadn't eaten a lot today. "Yeah, can you bring me some food."

"Sure, what do ya' want." Before Koraline had a chance to answer, Amber said jokingly, "Cake? Doughnut, anything sweet." Koraline grinned a Cheshire cat grin. As Amber walked off, she sighed heavily. This party was zapping the energy out of her.

John watched as Skip came back to defend him and Ky. As impressed as he was at the girl’s bravery and ability to hold her ground, he was mildly irritated. He didn’t need someone else defending him. When Dean retaliated by pushing her to the ground, John felt a rage get to him that he didn’t expect, and only stopped himself when he realized what it would do to his crumbling grip on his ability, as the sand around him began looking like the waves he saw coming from the water up ahead, tumbling over each other in little hills. He thanked the dark of the night and the booze that kept the others from noticing it. Clenching his fists, the sand stopped moving and he looked up in time to see Skip back on her feet, grabbing him and Ky by the shirts and dragging them off into the other direction, leaving Dean and the rest of his gang behind.

As they neared the dancers, John had a better chance of taking a look at Skip. She was tall, nearing his height, and seemed to be radiating attitude and self-confidence. He admired that, and gave this mysterious girl a silent salute. She was shaking with barely controlled anger, and John made up his mind that if she chose to go back and teach Dean a lesson, he wouldn't hesitate to follow, damn his control. When Skip offered him a cigarette, he reached for it gratefully. He had forgotten his pack at home and had been longing for a smoke ever since. Skip seemed to be trying her best to be friendly, which obviously wasn't the easiest thing that came to her, he noticed, giving a well concealead chuckle.

“Thanks,” he said, taking the cigarette. “...Skip?” he added, curious as to what the girl’s real name was.

"Here, let me help you," he said, when he noticed her hands fumbling with the lighter. He took it from her shaking hands and lit her cigarette, and then his own. He took a quick glance at Ky, curious as to what his reaction to all this would be, but quickly turned his attention back to Skip, waiting for an answer.

"Hello, I'm Lumin. What book are you reading?" A voice spoke next to his ears and Shugi looked up, slightly annoyed by the fact that he just couldn't seem to be able to concentrate on reading for about 5 minutes without being interrupted by one people or another. He observed the girl in front of him silently. She had brown hair and brown eyes. She was looking at him as if she was waiting for an answer. Shugi sighed. He would have to talk to someone else...again. He closed the book and answered, his voice was slightly rough due to his previous coughing fit.

"I believe the book I am currently reading has the title 'Law of Relativity'..."

He answered shortly and to the point. He was not in the mood of talking...but came to think about it, he really never had a mood of talking. He observed the girl, quietly took in her clothes and her shy and gentle face. He turned his head away, his hands covered his mouth as he coughed again. He looked at the blood in his hands and sighed. He was beginning to regret using his power on the previous boy. He should have told the boy to go away instead of forcing him to go away. He took out his handkerchief and began to clean the blood again. The white handkerchief had been tainted with a familiar red color - the color of blood. He wiped the blood from his mouth with his handkerchief and turned to look at the girl again. He didn't know what she would react to this but according to one of the book he had read. Her body language was one of the gentler and shier kind so, it would be logical if she was scared of him and then left. He coughed some more time before looking at her again. He continued emotionlessly "My apologize for the inconvenience you have to endure...my body does not have the best kind of duration and therefore, it often has some signs that might be uncomfortable for people who are not used to the sight of blood..."

The tip of his finger touched the book slightly and he appeared to be deep in thoughts. Should he introduce his name? The girl whose name was Lumin had introduced her name first and it was only an equivalent exchange and logical course of actions as well as an appropriate act if he introduced his name back. Deciding on what to do, Shugi looked up from his book and spoke, his voice was robotic "...I am called Shugi Hikari Taka..."

Evelyn noticed John watching her and smiled slyly, never looking up from the tip of her cigarette as she tried to light it. She liked when people tried to figure her out. Sometimes. If they weren't annoying about it anyway. “Thanks,” he said, taking one of her offered cigarettes. “...Skip?” Before she could answer, he reached forward and took her lighter. She allowed him to light hers for her, then his own before handing her the lighter back. She slipped it in her back pocket, but still held the pack out to Ky incase he wanted one.

Taking a long drag from her cigarette, her hands settled and she leaned back on her hip, with a deep sigh. She looked John up and down before letting a puff of smoke out to the side. "Eh. Yeah, lotta people call me Skip." She explained with a shrug. "It's a nickname I got way back in the 8th grade. Think I was living in Vegas then." Inhaling again, she paused. "My real name's Evelyn. Evelyn Hart. Hate it though. Call me Ev. Or Skip." She smiled, glancing at him a little sideways and sighed softly, glancing at the dancers to do a quick check on her friends. She wasn't a motherly person, but she tended to look out for the two girls at parties. It was something she wasn't even aware of doing. No one had ever been there to make sure she stayed out of trouble, so she did it for Lexi and Linda. Linda was dancing drunkly and Lexi was with Aidan.

Could be worse. She thought with a shrug and turned back to John and Ky. "Sorry about getting you two into that shit back there. If I don't kick his ass tonight it'll be a miracle." She gestured to Dean and his friends. Apparently Evelyn and the two boys were completely forgotten. "Bad blood between us. Didn't mean to drag you guys into it. Hope I didn't ruin your party." She gave a slight smile and another drag off her cig, allowing it to fully calm her nerves.

"So. John? And Kyle? Am I right?" She smiled a bit and glanced at the dancefloor. The music was pulsing and her fingers were tingling. She glanced at the water. Salty and inviting. Not knowing which she wanted to do first, Ev played with the anchor-shaped ring in her belly button. Something she always did while she thought. "Wanna stand around and chat or one of you wanna dance?" She offered, making up her mind with a jerk of her blonde head towards the dancefloor. She just wanted to do what she came to this party to do. Have some reckless fun.

Bleh, it's short -.- Oh well haha.



Matt nodded when she declined his drink and glanced at the one in her own hands, then back up at the man she was with already. He must've interrupted something, but he didn't care.He needed to get to his gracelings each and convince them to drink a spiked drink so that he could begin their first lessons. He wouldn't make them drink alcohol if the didn't want to. He knew there were a few here that already wanted to leave, but he would at least give them the sleeping medication so that he could get them alone.

He smiled at Thalassa and Layne, jerking his head to the dancefloor. "I'm Matthew." He gestured to the party around them. "You two like my party?" He asked with a little glint in his eye. He knew they'd be shocked that he was the host. So many people had been looking for him already.


Short again D: Sorry guys, having a creative issue right now but I wanted to get something up.