Ryans Basement

The basement in Ryan's house. About half of it is finished,
furnished with a couch and various chairs. The other half -- where the washing
machine is located -- is unfinished.

Andrew
Gaidry

Red allows Cece to
lead the way to the room she had seen in the hallway and waits for Cece to open
the door.

Maya
Rice

Cecily opens the
door to a flight of stairs descending to a lower level. "Hm. It looks like
a basement?" She takes a step down, wondering if it's actually finished
and furnished. "You want to check it out?" She turns back to look at
Red.

Andrew
Gaidry

He raises his
eyebrows and gives her a shrug. "Uh- sure! Why not?" He peers over
her a bit down at the basement.

Maya
Rice

Cecily nods and
begins to head down the stairs, peeking around the corner as she does. She's a
bit surprised to see the basement finished with actual carpeting and a few
various pieces of furniture. "I wonder if anyone else has been down here
yet."

Andrew
Gaidry

He slips in after
her, shutting the door after him and following her down. "Huh.... doesnt
look like it. Maybe we're the first? I guess most people are still
upstairs?"

Maya
Rice

"It seems
like it," Cecily notes, hopping off of the stairs. "I bet this place
will be flooded once people realize it's down here," she comments, looking
around. The area was fairly small -- at least in comparison to her own home --
but it could certainly hold a decent amount of guests.

Andrew
Gaidry

He nodded and
chuckled softly as he examined it. "... it certainly does look like a stereotypical
high school party location."

Maya
Rice

"The only
thing missing is a bunch of red solo cups scattered around on the floor,"
Cecily replies with a laugh. "I always feel so bad for the hosts of these,
you know..." she wrinkles her nose. "Having to clean up afterwards
and all."

Andrew
Gaidry

"Ooff,
yeah..." Red grimaces slightly. "... I was gonna say I could stay
behind and help clean up, but... I have a feeling the party's gonna be /far/
from over when we leave." He chuckled softly, looking over the room again.
He could just see the oncoming mess. "... maybe I could clean up as we go
along..." He murmered to himself thoughtfully.

Maya
Rice

"You're
definitely right," Cecily confirms with a nod. "There'll probably be
people here who stay all night long..." For a few moments she wishes she
could as well, but she knows she would never be able to without serious
consequences.

Andrew
Gaidry

Red nods and walks
over to the couch, sitting down on it. The house was actually pretty nice. It
was cozy, in a way.

He was grateful
for Cece. Although he wasnt /glad/ her situation was so similar to his..... he
certainly was glad for someone who understood.

Maya
Rice

Cecily walks
around the basement a bit more, exploring before eventually heading over toward
the couch too. She flops down onto it, leaning back with a soft sigh, her head
coming to rest against Red's arm. She shifts around a bit to get comfortable,
pausing when the distinct sound of something falling and hitting the ground is
heard from upstairs.

Cecily winces at
the noise. "What do you think that was?"

Andrew
Gaidry

He shifts a bit so
she can easily and comfortably rest against him. He blinks with surprise up at
the sound and chuckles softly. "... I have /no/ idea. Hopefully not a
person....?"

Maya
Rice

Cecily considers,
eventually laughing. "What if it /was/ a person?" She tilts her head
back to look at Red. "Do you think Eli would be blackout drunk already?
Has he had enough time?"

Andrew
Gaidry

Red cant help but
laugh. "God, I /hope/ not. What are we, ten minutes into the party? Has it
even officially /started/ yet? You'd think he'd want to remember /some/ of the
party."

Maya
Rice

"I don't
know..." Cecily says dubiously. "Didn't he end up sleeping through
the majority of a party once?" She chuckles lightly at the vague memory.

Andrew
Gaidry

He thinks
carefully. "....... That certainly sounds like Eli." He concluded
with a laugh. He sits there for a moment. "...................... should
we check? What if that /was/ Eli?"

Maya
Rice

"Mmm..."
Cecily mutters, not /really/ wanting to get up...still, they probably /should/
go to make sure that their friend was still alive, or at the very least not
passed out somewhere on the ground. "I /guess/ we should," she
finishes with a sigh, sitting up reluctantly.

Andrew
Gaidry

Red laughed
softly. "I mean.... I'm sure he's fine... he's got Dean with him, right?
But.... still. It's /Eli/...." He pulls himself up too, stretching a bit
before standing.

Maya
Rice

Cecily's starting
to climb up the stairs just as she hears footsteps approaching. She's about
halfway up the steps when the door opens, voices flooding in. She hesitates,
turning back to look at Red with a vaguely concerned expression on her face.

Andrew
Gaidry

Red follows and-

He raises his
eyebrows. "What should we...??" He whispered over to her, brow
furrowing with concern.

Maya
Rice

"Just
--" Cecily starts as people begin to hurry down the staircase, shoving
past her, " -- move to the side for now," she finishes.

Nova steps down
the stairs with Shanelle, trying to avoid bumping into too many people.

Andrew
Gaidry

Red tried,
pressing as close to the wall as possible.

Jerith
Walker

My characters
filter down. Woooo.

(Skylar, Chase,
Stuart, Gale, Shanelle)

Maya
Rice

Cecily moves to
the side, pressing herself up against the wall as well, wincing when she's
elbowed or shoved by arriving guests.

Lydia heads
downstairs with Fiona. Roz is following a short distance behind.

Dean's making his
way slowly down the steps, keeping a close eye on Eli. He's starting to stumble
around a bit, although he's still capable of walking.

Gail hurries down
the steps and into the basement.

Ryan walks down,
presumably with Mason.

Andrew
Gaidry

Red tries to be
inconspicuous, hoping to wait out the crowd to get back upstairs. Well... looks
like Eli is..... well, not /fine/ hes clearly already wasted, but hes alive,
so.

Mason walks down
with Ryan, looking around at house as he follows.

Nicholas and
Michael have joined the crowd.

Marlene excitedly
follows as well.

Alex joined in the
group as well. Basically, all of my characters who are at the party.

Maya
Rice

As Eli is making
his way down the stairs, he notices Red and Cecily near the wall. His eyes
brighten and he waves them back down the stairs. "Hey, guys! C'mon
down!"

Dean guides Eli
down the steps, pausing when Eli turns back to call after Red and Cecily.

Nova makes it down
into the basement with Shanelle. She glances around, wondering what exactly to
do next.

Jerith
Walker

Skylar and Chase
are goofing around.

Stuart is
continuing to be a sleaze, Gale is continuing to giggle and busy herself with
her drink whenever she feels awkward. Which is a lot.

Shanelle seems
happy to be with Nova.

Andrew
Gaidry

Red glances over
at Cecily immediately. "Uh-" He hesitates, seeing what Cecily thinks.

Maya
Rice

Cecily also
immediately looks to Red. She hesitates for a few moments.

Eli raises his
eyebrows. "Were you two --"

"Come on,
Red," Cecily says suddenly, interrupting Eli. She begins to head back down
the stairs, hoping that she hasn't just made a huge mistake.

Once a decent
amount of people have made it down into the basement, Ryan claps his hands
together. "Alright, everyone! Find a place to sit, settle down."

Jerith
Walker

"So what are
we doing?" Skylar calls to Ryan.

Stuart sits next
to Gale. Gale looks vaguely uncomfortable but doesn't move away.

"Wanna bet
it's some dumb party game?" Shanelle whispers to Nova.

Andrew
Gaidry

Reds gaze snapped
back to Eli at his started comment, eyes widening. Cecily cuts him off before
Red could even think of saying anything. He nods and joins her as she heads
down.

"Yeah, Ryan,
what're we doing?" Mason adds, sticking by Ryans side. Marlene joins them,
taking her brothers side.

Nicholas joins up
with Eli and Dean, giving Nova a smile from his place in the room when he gts
the chance.

Maya
Rice

"Of course
it's some dumb party game," Nova replies, leaning closer to Shanelle. She
finds them a spot to sit and settles down, waiting for more information.

Nova glances
around the room as she waits, curiously searching for Nic. She smiles in return
when she spots him, hoping that Shanelle won't notice.

Gail, while
searching for somewhere to sit, notices Gale with Stuart at her side. She
smiles brightly, heading over and taking up a spot on her other side, nudging
her gently with her elbow. "Hey!" She says to Gale, waving as a
greeting to Stuart. "I didn't know you were going to be here."

"We're doing
a high school party tradition," Ryan explains. "Truth or dare."

Dean rolls his
eyes but is smiling despite this.

Cecily finds a spot for herself
and Red just as Ryan explains their activity. She fidgets a bit, knowing that
this is going to end up getting out of control rather quickly.

Jerith
Walker

Skylar nudges
Chase, they exchange a few words and laugh.

Gale, startled,
stares at Gail for several seconds before recognizing her as her classmate from
theatre. "...Oh! Hi!" She looks back at Stuart, ready to introduce
her, but realizes she doesn't remember her name. Looks at Gail, ready to
introduce Stuart, realizes she doesn't remember his name either.

She sits there in
a sort of weird silence. Stares down into her cup.

"Friend of
yours?" Stuart asks with a small frown on his face.

Gale nods.
"From theatre class."

Shanelle stares
down at her lap.

Andrew
Gaidry

Mason raises an
eyebrow with a grin. "Truth or dare?" He laughed softly. "Its
been a while since I've played /that/." He grinned. It sounds pretty fun actually.

Marlene smiles
too, but looks a bit nervous. Well... it'll be fun! Hopefully things don't get
too out of control though.

Red follows
Cecily, sticking to her side and gratefully taking the spot next to her. God
bless Cecily. Hes genuinely so glad he has her. He looked around the crowd of
other kids. Truth or dare... admittedly, he was kind of intrigued- he /did/
want to do these kinds of fun high schooler things but... he felt like this
could be pretty risky too.

Nicholas grinned.
This would be fun.

Michael is
sticking to Nic's side, grateful to be a part of the party, but still seeming
nervous.

Maya
Rice

"My name's
Gail!" Gail pipes up when Stuart asks about her. She glances over to Gale
with an amused smile, still not quite over the fact that their names were
nearly identical.

Nova breathes out
a laugh. Of course. What else should she have expected? "This isn't going
to end well," she mutters over to Shanelle.

Lydia raises her
eyebrows when she hears Ryan's explanation. "What is this," she
huffs, "middle school?"

Ryan grins over at
her. "Sounds like someone's afraid to play," he taunts.

Lydia straightens
up, expression indignant. "I am /not/ --"

"Great! I
guess that means you won't mind going first."

Lydia glares at
Ryan but eventually groans and gives in, nodding. "Fine."

"So,"
Ryan begins. "Truth or dare?"

Lydia seems to
consider for a few moments, eventually settling on one option.
"Truth," she responds.

Turning to look at
the rest of the guests, Ryan asks, "Anyone have any questions for Lydia, hm?"

Jerith
Walker

"Wait...isn't
/your/ name Gale?" He points at Gale, wondering if he'd just been tricked.

"Oh!" Right, how could
she have forgotten?

She giggles.

"Yeah. We
share a name."

Shanelle rolls her
eyes. "Considering the last time /I/ played, I got dared to go
home..." she shrugs a shoulder.

Andrew
Gaidry

Alex is there too,
seeming pretty excited. A game sounds good! A game sounds fun. Truth or dare
was fun.

Mason glanced over
at his sister. His smile falters. he had a feeling.... this wouldn't go in a
Marlene-safe direction. "Uh- Marlene?" He whispered over to her.

"Hm?"

"Do you think
you could give me some, um..." He glanced over at Ryan and then back at
her. Her eyes lit up. She winked.

"Yeah of
course!" Mason and Marlene exchanged smiles, both feeling a bit relieved.
Marlene slips away, giving Ryan a wink if he looks over. She heads back
upstairs.

Maya
Rice

Seeing that no one
else seems to have any questions on their minds, Roz decides to take over.
"How many people in this room have you slept with?"

Lydia turns, not
having expected the question to come from one of her friends...although she
wasn't entirely sure she would consider Rozlyn a friend most of the time. Eyes
scanning throughout the room, Lydia responds with, "Two."

"Two?"
Rozlyn's eyebrows go up and she looks puzzled. Her gaze flicks to Eli for a
moment -- she was already almost certain he was one of the two, but...who else?
Roz looks at each football player in the room, trying to figure out who the
second person could possibly be.

"Well,"
Cecily says with a light laugh. "I hoped that it might take us a while to
get to this point, but I guess we're diving straight in."

After Lydia has
given her answer, Ryan speaks again. "Alright, then! You get to choose the
next victim." He grins.

Lydia's immediate
instinct is to go after Rozlyn, get revenge...however, she eventually decides
against it. Spotting Cecily and her boyfriend across the room, Lydia glances
between them. Not wanting to make her friend suffer, she says, "Carter?
You're up."

Andrew
Gaidry

Alex was willing
to help brainstorm a question if no one could think of any- but someone did!
Thats good. He couldn't think of any super good ones anyways.

Red jolts the
faintest bit at his name, looking over in surprise. Well. He hadn't expected to
go the whole game without getting picked but /damn/.

"Uh-" He
thinks carefully, glancing over at Cecily then back at Lydia. Fuck. Which one
was even safer here? He finally settled on- ".... truth."

Jerith
Walker

Shanelle returns
her attention to the game, with a glance over at Nova to check her reaction.

"Have you
ever cheated?" Shanelle calls out at Red. "On your partner?"

Andrew
Gaidry

He raised his
eyebrows in surprise at that. "No, of course not!" He shakes his
head. "I would never do that sort of thing." He relaxes a bit,
looking over and giving Cecily a smile. That was a pretty easy one. "Oh-
uh, my turn then?" He waits for confirmation before looking around the
room. His gaze lands on Eli. The corner of his lips qrieks up with a half amused
half concerned smile. "Eli."

Maya
Rice

Cecily's eyebrows
go up when Shanelle asks her question, a bit offended on Red's behalf that she
would have even thought to ask such a thing. She smiles at Red in return after
he answers, leaning a little bit closer.

Eli perks up when
his name is said, taking a moment to find the source in the crowd. He grins
when he spots Red, giving some sort of salute. "Dare," he says
immediately.

Dean breathes out
a sigh and prays that whoever gives him a dare is merciful.

Andrew
Gaidry

Red speaks up
before anyone else can.

"I dare you
to avoid alcohol for the rest of the night- not a /single/ drop more. Your new
drink of the night is /water./"

Maya
Rice

Eli's grin falls
quickly. "You can't be serious," he says, frowning over at Red.

Although Eli seems
to deflate, Dean brightens, laughing and smiling. He tosses a grateful look in
Red's direction, making a mental note to thank his teammate later for
essentially saving Eli's life.

Cecily laughs in
response to the "dare," rolling her eyes as well. Typically she would
have expected a challenge to drink even /more,/ but...it seemed as if Red was
looking out for his friends.

Jerith
Walker

                                Shanelle
leans closer to Nova and murmurs, "What do you wanna bet he's lying?"

"Looking out for your
teammate, huh?" Skylar laughs. "You're a good man."

Andrew
Gaidry

Red gives Eli a
wide grin. "What? surely the challenge isn't too difficult for you? You arent
gonna chicken on your first dare are you?"

Trashley
Marie

Jax, Ari, and Sara
all walked down the stairs into the basement and saw the circle. Jax ignores
Shanelle and sits down with the his girls. "Sara-" Jax stopped
himself "Or I don't remember to be honest. Anyway, don't chicken out
okay?"

They rolled their
eyes at Jax' comment "Yeah okay."

Maya
Rice

“I don't
know," Nova responds quietly. "His girlfriend seems to believe
him."

Eli scowls,
pouting at Red. "Why don't you want me to have any fun?" He whines,
eventually sighing and crossing his arms. "I mean, I accept...but you're
going to be the one I blame for ruining my night."

Jerith
Walker

Shanelle laughs
loudly and makes some sort of sympathetic comment about her that isn't actually
sympathetic at all. Along the lines of "rip in fuck", but not that
because she hasn't been exposed to that phrase.

Skylar rolls his
eyes. "He'll be saving his life." he murmurs to Chase.

Andrew
Gaidry

Red rolled his
eyes. "I'm sure you'll fine /something/ to do." He said with a soft
chuckle, settling back, satisfied. This was going much better than expected?
Hopes that truh or dare /stays/ this nice and easy.

Nic pats Eli on
the back sympathetically. "Good thing you had as much as you did before
now, huh?" He laughed softly. It was smart to cut him off though. Wouldn't
want him getting alcohol poisoning.

Trashley
Marie

Are glances to
Shanelle and stares for a short minute before looking to Jax. -No wonder they
got into a fight. They are both so out there and open minded. It seems she may
not have a filter as well. Sara has a similar issue~I mean Cameron... I called
them that all summer and then they just told me to stop...inner to talk with
them later-

(Will be referring
to Sara as Cameron now)

Cam looked to Ari
with begging eyes for help.

Ari reached for
her hand and gave it a reassuring squeeze. Jax was already drunk. Ari would be
driving them home later that night.

Jax looked around
to the cute guys and smiled. -ugh they are all so perfect-

Maya
Rice

Eli continues to
pout, although deep down he knows that one more drink likely would have sent
him over the edge. Sighing, he realizes it's his turn to pick someone. His gaze
moves around the group and he eventually picks out Shanelle, remembering her
question from just a bit earlier. "Shanelle?" He says, trying to get
her attention. "Truth or dare?"

Jerith
Walker

She's startled at
being addressed. She turns her head to stare at him. If she picks dare, the
same thing could happen as last time, but if she doesn't, she'll look like a
wuss.

"...Dare."
she flips her hair pointedly.

Andrew
Gaidry

Alex crossed his
legs and looked over across at Shanelle. A dare! Pretty brave. What would he
choose if he was asked? Dare actually sounds pretty fun. Well... as long as
they came up with a fun dare.

Mason nudged Ryan
gently and motioned for him to move closer so he could whisper. If/when Ryan
does so, he whispers "Who are these people."

Trashley
Marie

 Jax looks to Shanelle and rolls his eyes. He
leans into Cameron and whispers."Did you see that. Trying to act brace.
Pfft." Jax sips at what was still the same drink, though it was slowly
fading.

Cameron rolled his
eyes. "Jax shush. Don't get started in something else."

Ariel chuckled.
Smiling at Cameron for not saying something back to Jax about Shanelle.

Maya
Rice

Nova gives
Shanelle a worried look, quickly trying to think of a mild dare to give so that
she doesn't have to suffer through too much -- however, her chance is ruined
when she hears someone else speak up first.

Cecily,
recognizing Shanelle from the question she'd asked Red earlier, volunteers a
dare. "Kiss whoever you think is the most attractive person in this
room," she says, already trying to guess who Shanelle will pick out.

Ryan tilts his
head but shifts closer to Mason, laughing a bit at his question. "I mean,
there are a lot of people here...it would take me a while to explain who
/everyone/ is." His gaze shifts to Shanelle, as she is currently the
center of attention. "That's Shanelle." He lowers his voice even
more. "She's a little..." he trails off, wincing a bit with an almost
sympathetic smile. "...hard to get along with?"

Jerith
Walker

Shanelle's eyes
widen.

Well! This is
actually a pretty fun dare.

She looks around
the room.

Her eyes catch on
Jax, and she curls her lip in disgust before continuing to look.

She sees Nicholas
and snorts. Nah, she wouldn't do that to Nova.

Then her gaze drops
to his little brother, and she smiles and walks up to him, leaning over so that
she's face to face with Michael.

Andrew
Gaidry

Mason chuckled
softly, nodding understandingly. He paused as Ryan explained, giving the girl a
bit of a sympathetic look as well. "Hard to get along with, huh...?"
He looked to Ryan for elaboration.

Nicholas was
interested to see who she'd choose as well. And then he saw her gaze land on-
Michael? He raised his eyebrows.

Michael doesn't
even realize until shes almost directly in front of him. It takes him a moment
to put two and two together. Remembers the dare. Recognizes that shes there,
looking at him. His eyes widened in surprise. "...... /huh???/"

Maya
Rice

 Nova relaxes a bit when she hears Cecily's
dare. It wasn't too hard for Shanelle to handle. She watches closely as
Shanelle searches for someone to pick, feeling her heartbeat speed up a bit
when she realizes Shanelle is moving in the direction of where Nic is. Surely
she wouldn't --

A sigh of relief
escapes Nova when Shanelle grows closer to Michael rather than Nic, shaking her
head at herself. She needed to stop getting so worked up over everything. Now
that she knows Shanelle has picked Michael rather than Nic, Nova seems a little
bit amused, assuming that Shanelle's choice hadn't been entirely truthful.

Jerith
Walker

Shanelle kisses
Michael on the lips without hesitation, then pulls back and grins.
"Michael~! Truth or dare?"

Stuart, Gale, and
maybe Gail are probably still chatting.

Andrew
Gaidry

Michael didn't
have enough time to properly respond to the kiss. In fact, as she was pulling
away, he was /still/ processing what just happened. He blinks blankly at her
question, no sign of it registering. He blinks a couple more times before
stammering out, "... w-whu.... what???" It doesnt seem particularly
in response to the question, more the everything.

Nic laughed softly
and patted him on the back. "Truth or dare, Mikey."

Michael shook his
head, still clearly thrown. "Uh- I, um...??" Truth or...???
"Uh.... tr-uh, d- um. T.... ruth?"

Maya
Rice

"Was that
your first kiss?" Eli asks quickly, a lopsided smile on his face. He
glances between Michael and Shanelle, laughing softly at how stunned Michael
seemed.

Andrew
Gaidry

".....
w-well, um..." Michael thought carefully, gaze dropping and looking
nervously to the side. ".... I-i dunno if I would, uh.... it was a truth
or dare kiss, I don't think those /count./" He said with a tiny nervous
chuckle.

Jerith
Walker

"It
counts." Shanelle says, taking her seat next to Nova again. "Now
answer." Haha oh god was she really this poor boy's first kiss?

Maya
Rice

Eli raises his
eyebrows at Michael's rather shaky response, laughing once again. He nods when
Shanelle presses him for a real answer. "Kinda sounds like you're avoiding
the question," he comments.

Dean elbows Eli,
rolling his eyes. "Leave the poor kid alone," he mutters, casting a
sympathetic glance over at Michael.

"She's just
really...moody," Ryan responds. "You say one wrong thing and suddenly
you have to fear for your life."

Nova smiles a bit
as Shanelle returns to her side.

Andrew
Gaidry

Michael fell
silent, fidgeting a bit when they call him out on avoiding the question.
".... y-yes." He finally said.

Nicholas gently
patted Michael on the back.

Mason nodded.

Jerith
Walker

Shanelle cackles.

Maya
Rice

"Aww,"
Eli laughs, ignoring Dean's nudge and protest. "How sweet."

Returning his
attention to the game for a moment, Ryan says, "Your turn to pick someone,
kid."

Andrew
Gaidry

"... huh?
O-oh, uh..." Michael looked around, hesitated, then.... let his gaze fall
on Nova. ".... um. Nova."

Maya
Rice

Nova perks up when
her name is said. It takes her a moment to realize that it's her turn to pick
between truth or a dare. She hesitates for a few moments, considering. If she
goes for truth...well, she'll be forced to answer whatever question comes her
way honestly. The thought makes her feel nervous...still, a dare could turn
into a disaster...but none of them have been /too/ bad...

"...Dare,"
she eventually mutters, hoping she won't regret it.

Jerith
Walker

Shanelle leans
over, nudging her softly with an elbow. "Good luck, boo."

Andrew
Gaidry

"Um-"
Michael halts, frowning. He... hadnt thought this far ahead. "I... dare
you to....... um, jump in the pool with all your clothes on right now?"

Trashley
Marie

Ariel scoffs and
en begins to giggle slightly at nova's date. She looks to Cameron and smirks.
"I hope you get picked first. You always do the craziest things."

Cam looked to his
sister and smiled. "I know. I love the crazy dares..." she looked to
Jax who was tiredly looking at his now empty cup. He could tell he was bored.
"Jax, go get more of you are so bored."

Jax nodded and
sighed, he stood up and headed up the stairs.

Cameron looked to
Ari and frowned. "I don't know what to do Ari." Cam look into his lap
and twiddled with his fingers. "I don't know how to tell him..."

Ari chuckled.
"He is part of the community, I doubt he will judge you for your choice of
gender Cam.." she rubbed his back and smiled sadly at their lost and confused
face.

Maya
Rice

Nova's eyes widen
at Michael's dare. She hadn't expected him to come up with something even
remotely challenging. Trying to put on a brave face, Nova laughs nervously and
says, "Were you inspired by what happened to Sydney?"

"You know,
it's almost /boring/ the second time..." Ryan comments.

Leaning over to
Dean, Eli mutters, "How many people do you think will end up in the pool
tonight?"

Dean shrugs.
"I don't know. You're the one who started this," he says with a shake
of his head.

Jerith
Walker

 Shanelle gasps, then narrows her eyes at
Michael. "/Little bitch!/" she says in an offended tone. As usual,
she doesn't bother regulating her volume control.

Andrew
Gaidry

Michael shrunk
back a bit, feeling sick almost immediately. Maybe that was a bad idea. It was
probably a bad idea. Why did he do that? Why did he say that? He shouldn't have
done that. God, he shouldve kept his mouth shut.

He shrugs
slightly, gaze fixed on the ground, not certain what exactly hes responding to.

"... so who
are they?" Mason whispered to Ryan.

Maya
Rice

Nova gives
Shanelle a concerned glance, hoping that she doesn't say anything too harsh to
Michael...they were playing a game, after all.

"So,
uh." She shuffles her feet as she stands. "I'm just going to go..."
Nova trails off, making a vague gesture back toward the stairs that will lead
up to the first floor and to the pool.

"That's
Nova," Ryan responds with a quick gesture toward her. "She's
Shanelle's best friend. Classic high school nerd...honestly, I'm surprised
she's here. She usually skips out on parties."

Jerith
Walker

When Michael
shrinks back, Shanelle feels bad for a moment. But she fluffs out her hair to
brush off the feeling and stands, following Nova. "I'll help you dry off,
okay?"

Skylar leans over
to Chase. "I wonder if their whole group is going to wind up dripping
tonight."

Andrew
Gaidry

Mason nodded.

Nic stood up,
giving a slightly concerned and almost disappointed look down at his brother
before looking to Nova. "I'll grab you a towel, alright?" He said
with a sympathetic smile.

Red decides hes
not going to be choosing dare at all tonight.

Alex thinks the
dare sounds fun.

Maya
Rice

A bit of tension
is relieved from Nova when Shanelle stands and joins her. She gives her a nod
just as Nic speaks up, offering help as well. Nova freezes for a moment before
eventually recovering and responding with, "I think Shanelle has it
covered." She leans over in Shanelle's direction, probably brushing her
shoulder up against her friends.

"Thanks,
though," she adds in a softer voice to Nic before returning her attention
to Shanelle and starting to head upstairs. She's hoping that no one else will
follow...she doesn't exactly want anyone to see her as a soaking wet mess.

Ryan, probably too
distracted by how cute Mason is, doesn't notice that Nova leaving means she
won't be able to pick someone to go next. He briefly considers running after
her, but... "Well, since Nova is gone," he speaks up, "does
anyone want to volunteer to go next?"

Jerith
Walker

Gale, apparently
pretty fucking tipsy by now, shoots her hand in the air. "PICK ME!"
she seems to realize what she'd just done a second or two later and her face
flushes even redder. She covers her mouth and giggles too loudly.

Sky's attention is
drawn over to her and Stuart. He cocks an eyebrow at his friend, who doesn't
notice.

Chase just laughs.

Andrew
Gaidry

Alex, only a
moment behind Gale, also calls out, "I ca-" Cuts himself off quickly
because he had accidentally cut into her volunteering. He giggles softly a bit
as well, sitting back. She's got it!

Nic nods, glancing
over at Shanelle and then hesitantly sitting back down.

Maya
Rice

Ryan raises his
eyebrows at Gale's outburst, looking both amused and alarmed. "Fine with
me," he says, leaning back. "Truth or dare, then?"

Jerith
Walker

"Um.."

Stuart leans close
to her ear. "Pick the dares; they're more fun.”

!!! Ear whispering
omg.

"Dare,
then!"

Stuart's about to
suggest something, but he meets Skylar's gaze and decides against it.

Skylar shakes his
head in disgust. "I dare you to do a handstand!" he calls out before
someone can suggest anything worse.

Gale looks over at
Skylar. "Oh..." this is gonna be tough.

She sets her drink
to the side and begins trying to work out her position, trying feebly to find a
way to do that.

Andrew
Gaidry

"You can do
it!" Alex cheered, cupping his face with his hands.

Red smiled
pityingly at the clearly drunk girl. Someone should spot her. Should he....? He
does a quick glance to see if anyone moves to help her. Gets up if nobody else
does to just stand by and make sure she doesnt fall and get hurt, after
whispering to Cecily, "I'm just going to make sure she doesn't hurt
herself."

"Whos
that?" Mason whispered.

Maya
Rice

"You know,
you /could/ try introducing yourself to people and getting to know them rather
than asking me everything..." Ryan laughs, shaking his head at Mason.
"That's, uh. I don't remember her name, actually --" he frowns "
-- but isn't she in first period with us?"

Lydia watches Gale
with a look somewhere between amused and disgusted. She's almost tempted to
intervene and correct Gale's sloppy form, but she remains seated.

Cecily nods to Red
as he gets up, glad that /someone/ had decided to help Gale. The potential of
an injury happening was too great to just ignore.

Jerith
Walker

 Shanelle enters.

"The best
friend, though." She grins back at Nova, winking.

Stuart's a bit
irritated at Skylar, but returns his gaze to Gale. He claps supportively,
deciding to keep it safe and friendly while Sky's attention is on him.
"You can do it, girl!"

Gale gives herself
another push upwards and she gets closer to managing it, but tumbles back down
with a little 'ahh!'

Although she's
wearing a skirt, it doesn't flip up due to the nature of the fabric.

Andrew
Gaidry

Red hovers close,
moving forward quickly and grabbing her gently to break her fall, lowering her
carefully to the ground and giving her a soft smile. "You did it! Good
job."

Nic gave a
supportive cheer and then looked over at the entering Nova. He raises his
eyebrows, a bit in amusement and a bit in concern. She still seems pretty, uh,
wet. Wasn't Shanelle gonna help dry her off?

Maya
Rice

Nova hesitates by
the stairs, pouting over in Shanelle's direction. "You promised you were
going to help me dry off," she whines.

Jerith
Walker

Shanelle rolls her
eyes. "What, only best friend if I help you dry off?" She makes a
move to hug her, but... "Let me find a towel." She heads back out.

Whoa, someone had
caught her. "..." She's upright. She had won? "..." She giggles
again. "Now I pick someone, right?"

Andrew
Gaidry

Red nods.
"Now you pick someone." He confirmed.

Nic looks over at
Nova still, making sure the situation is actually getting handled.

Maya
Rice

Nova grins when
Shanelle goes to fetch a towel, nudging her on her way out. She waits by the
stairs, not wanting to leave a trail of water all throughout the basement.

Jerith
Walker

"Hmm..."
she looks around, and sees Nicholas. "You?"

Andrew
Gaidry

Nicholas raises an
eyebrow and smiles. "Me?" He thinks. ".... dare." He gives
her a grin.

Maya
Rice

Eli's interest
seems to be piqued when one of his friends selects a dare as an option.
Grinning, he speaks up. "I dare you to..." he trails off, gaze moving
toward Ryan. "You have whipped cream, don't you?"

Ryan smiles a bit,
having a feeling he knows where this is going. He nods in response to Eli.

Grin widening
proudly, Eli repeats, "I dare you to eat whipped cream off of someone's
stomach."

Lydia perks up
from her spot beside her friends. Ooh. Things were actually starting to get
interesting.

Nova, hearing the
dare, instinctively shrinks back a bit, trying to make herself appear less
visible. She was hoping that she would avoid being noticed.

"Someone?"
Ryan speaks up, looking to Eli. "That's...well, pretty vague." He
laughs.

Eli shrugs.
"Well I don't know who...can't you just like, pick a name at random?"
He looks to Nic. "We could have him close his eyes and --"

Ryan interrupts,
shaking his head. "I'll just pick a name," he replies, fetching his
phone from his pocket. He glances around at each person in the room as he taps
away at his phone, inserting everyone's names.

Eventually, the
sound of a soft laugh comes from Ryan. He lifts his gaze from the phone and
announces, "Nova."

Nova straightens
from her spot over by the stairs, looking alarmed. Of all names, how had it
ended up being /her?/ She casts a helpless look over at Nic, eyebrows furrowing
together as she feels anxiety and concern begin to rise up within her. For a
moment she wonders if Ryan was lying about the results, but...it wasn't as if
he had any reason to.

Jerith
Walker

Gale, tired, leans
back against the nearest person.

Stuart gives a
quick glance back at Skylar when she does so.

His attention is
directed at the other stuff going on now. Nice.

He taps Gale on
the shoulder and murmurs something by her ear.

She nods.
"Okay!"

The two of them
get up and head out of the room.

Stuart gives a
last glance back at Sky, and their eyes meet. He gives a sheepish grin.

Skylar glares at
him and pulls out his phone.

Andrew
Gaidry

Nic raises his
eyebrows when Nova is selected. "Wait- /seriously/? Okay, theres no /way/
that was randomized." He gives Ryan a playfully suspicious look, chuckling
softly. He looks back at Nova with a bit concerned and amused look. "....
you dont have to agree to this if you aren't up for it- its my dare not
yours." He said gently, giving her a reassuring smile.

Michael tenses at
the dare, especially when hearing with who. His gaze darts over to her and he
frowns a bit.

Alex thinks that
dare sounds fun too- a little weird to eat off of someones stomach, but the
whipped cream part certainly sounds fun.

Maya
Rice

"It
/was/!" Ryan protests, placing his hands up in mock surrender after he
returns his phone to his pocket. He watches for a moment when Gale leaves with
Stuart, but doesn't seem too concerned. They were probably just getting bored.

Nova slowly moves
away from the stairs, arms wrapped around herself. She tries to keep from
fidgeting with her hair. Her face is probably bright red, and she's avoiding
all eye contact. "I..." she trails off, risking a glance up for a
moment. She didn't /want/ to do this, but she knew that if she refused she
would have to deal with everyone else complaining, calling her names for
ruining the fun...

"I can do
it," she forces out, nodding just a bit. She's still avoiding making
steady eye contact with Nic -- with anyone, really.

After Nova agrees
to the dare, Eli begins to get up. "I'll go get the --" he stumbles
as he stands. Dean reaches over and grabs a hold of him, pulling him back down.

"No,"
Dean says, shaking his head as he gets up instead. "I'll go get it. I
don't trust you around stairs right now."

Jerith
Walker

Chase shouts
"GET SOME"

Andrew
Gaidry

Mason scrunches up
his nose at Ryans suggestion. "/Introduce myself/ to people?" He said
quietly with mock offense. He grins a bit at Ryan not knowing her name.
"Maybe you should introduce yourself to her." He looked over and then
nodded slowly. "Yeah, I think so...?"

Mason rests back a
bit and falls quiet as Ryan engages more in the game, grinning a bit at the
dare.

Nic nods gently.
He nudges Michael a bit, looking over at him. Michael scoots back to make room
for Nova. Nicholas casts Nova a sympathtic smile. Casts a slight grin and
eyeroll over at Chase.

Maya
Rice

Nova slowly makes
her way over to Nic's side, wincing when Chase shouts. She wishes she could
just leave, walk out now, but she's already gotten herself in too deep.

She begins to look
around instinctively for Shanelle before realizing that she had left to grab a
towel. Nova frowns. She had been gone for a while...was she alright? Would she
be coming back?

Mitzi descends
down the basement steps with Courtney nearby, peeking her head around to see
what's going on. The sound of voices makes her curiosity increase, and she
hurries to the bottom of the steps.

"Oh,"
Mitzi says when she sees the gathered group. She turns to glance at Court.
"I guess this is where everyone disappeared to."

Dean eventually
returns to the basement, whipped cream in hand. He tosses it over toward Nic,
giving him and Nova a sympathetic look.

Jerith
Walker

“I wonder what
they're doing..." Courtney's eyes fix on Nova, and she raises her
eyebrows. Glances at Mitzi.

Andrew
Gaidry

Nic catches the
whipped cream and looked over at Nova. Gives her a soft half smile. He leans
over a bit and whispers to her, dropping the smile to examine her face with
concern. "He didn't specify how much- I'll just do a bit, it'll be over in
a flash... okay?" He said gently, reassuringly. ".... its not too
late to back out... you dont have to do anything you arent comfortable
with."

Michael pulls back
a bit more, scooting backwards and frowning, looking off to the side.

Maya
Rice

Zee shrugs,
noticing Nova as well. "We could ask..." she suggests, although she
feels reluctant about doing so. Lowering her voice a bit, Mitzi questions,
"Why does it look like she got the same treatment as Syd?"

Nova winces when
Nic catches the whipped cream, further realizing that this is a real thing that
is currently happening. When Nic mentions backing out, she briefly considers
it...still, the thought of having to face everyone else mocking her for backing
down is more humiliating than actually having to go through with the dare. Nic
was right, it would be over soon...

"Alright,"
Nova responds finally, forcing a shaky smile. She hesitates for a few moments
longer before slowly beginning to lift up her shirt and expose her torso,
feeling her face grow more and more hot as she does so. This was a mistake,
parties are a mistake. Nova leans back a bit and waits, resisting the urge to
squeeze her eyes shut. It was just a dare.

Eli watches the
pair eagerly, glad to see his dare being carried out. When Dean returns to his
side, he shoves him a little /too/ hard, grins, and says, "This is
perfect. I'm a genius."

Jerith
Walker

"I guess
we'll ask her later." Courtney continues to watch the events unfold.
"....Uuhhh...."

Shanelle walks
down the steps, looks up, and--

Her jaw fucking
drops.

Andrew
Gaidry

Nicholas uncaps
the whipped cream and leans over, moving to spray some on. Then pauses. He
pulls it away a bit, looking up at Nova. He looks at the whipped cream and then
offers the can to her. "... would you like to be in control of the whipped
cream placement?" He gives her a faint smile.

Michael isnt
watching. He feels a bit sick.

Maya
Rice

Nova considers for
a few moments before eventually nervously shaking her head. "You can
just...do it," she murmurs, biting down onto her lip. She swears she can
feel everyone in the room watching her...she starts to feel a bit grateful that
Shanelle or any of her other friends /aren't/ around.

Mitzi's eyes widen
as she watches Nic and Nova. She looks both startled and entertained. /Was/
that even Nova? Maybe she was seeing things. "Who's that?" She asks
Courtney, gesturing toward Nic.

Dean snorts.
"Nova looks like she's about ready to pass out," he says to Eli.
"I'd hardly call that a genius move."

Eli pouts.
"You're just mad 'cause /you/ didn't come up with it."

Jerith
Walker

"Nicholas.
Football player. What the HELL is Nova doing?" Courtney is absolutely
astounded.

Shanelle is taking
a large breath. She'll probably scream very soon.

Andrew
Gaidry

He nods.
"Alright. I'm going to do it now." He warned her, watching for any
sort of affirming response- a nod, anythig- before spraying some whipped cream
on her stomach just abover her belly button. He piled it upward so only a bit
was on her skin, but there still being a good amount.

He leans over and
closes his mouth around the whipped cream, his lips barely brushing her
stomach, and then pops back up, swallowing. Gives her a gentle smile.
"See? Over in a flash." He offers her the whipped cream.

Jerith
Walker

Shanelle

Fucking

SSSSSSHHHHHRRRRRIIIIIIIIIEEEEEEEKKKKSSSSSS

Maya
Rice

"Football
player?" Mitzi immediately begins to frown. "With Nova?"

Nova tries to
subdue her flinch when the whipped cream touches her stomach, a shiver going up
her spine at the chill of it. When Nic leans down, Nova feels herself
instinctively tense up. She tries her best to relax, forcing her mind toward
other thoughts, anything that can distract her from what's going on.

Nova lets out a
small, startled laugh when Nic licks the whipped cream off, nose scrunching up.
God, that tickles. Whenever he moves away, she begins to rise as well, and then
--

Shanelle's shriek
makes Nova jump, sitting up abruptly. She scoots closer to Nic, shrinking down,
eyes wide with fear. She glances around, trying to find the source of the
scream, and finally notices Shanelle.

Mitzi jumps as
well when Shanelle screams, moving a bit closer to Courtney. She glances
nervously between Nova and Shanelle, praying that this won't end in a
bloodbath.

Andrew
Gaidry

Nic flinches as
well, looking sharply over at the sourc- Shanelle. Of course. Why wouldn't it
be? He moves a bit closer to Nova, noticing how she shrunk back towards him.
Perhaps she felt safer.

Michael jumped a
bit at the scream in bafflement, and then struggled to bite back a laugh.

Alex jolts at the
scream, looking over at the source in confusion. What was /that/ about?

Jerith
Walker

Courtney had been
shocked at first when the whipped cream was applied, then begun an
"Oohhhhhh" when she realizes what's likely taking place--

She startles
violently, and whips around to see her friend screaming on the staircase.

Courtney is
wide-eyed, her heart pounding in her throat and mouth.

Shanelle screams
until she can't scream anymore.

Then she swivels
on a heel and stalks back up the stairs, stomping with each step.

She throws the
towels down vaguely in Nova and Nicholas's direction. "TAKE THE TOWELS,
YOU WHORE!"

She leaves the
basement, slamming the door on her way out

Maya
Rice

Mitzi watches as
Shanelle storms away, wincing at her shouting. She casts a worried look over at
Nova, knowing that she's not going to take this very well. She then returns her
attention to Court, moving closer and gently bumping her shoulder up against
Courtney's in some small attempt to comfort her.

The more Shanelle
screams, the closer Nova moves to Nic. Eventually she's basically pressed up
against him, gaze focused on Shanelle the entire time. She flinches backward
when Shanelle tosses the towels down, too shocked to do anything but continue
staring as she storms away.

Everyone is
essentially staring, shocked, at Shanelle.

Andrew
Gaidry

Nic's jaw
practically drops at his, eyes wide. Holy. Fucking. /Shit./ He loosely wraps
his arms around Nova protectively, watching Shanelle storm off. After the door
slammed he shifted his gaze down at Nova, brow furrowed with concern.
".... Nova?" He spoke softly, gently.

Alex flinches
back, curling into himself a bit more, recoiling at the screaming. By the time
shes stopped screaming he's extremely tense. He can feel his heartbeat pounding
hard in his chest. He can practically hear it. He felt dizzy. Frozen. He didn't
move even after she was gone, wincing back.

Michael is staring
after Shanelle with a mix of amazement and shock.

Red is just
shocked.

Masons eyes are
wide. Well. He could tell this place wasn't going to be boring.

Jerith
Walker

Courtney is just
fucking gaping after her.

She feels
comforted at Mitzi's contact, and reaches for her hand, finds it, and clutches
it.

Maybe they could
escape later just by themselves.

She resists the
urge to start laughing nervously, but she can't hold back a wavering smile and
soft chuckle.

Skylar had just
stood up to head out after not receiving any answers from Stuart when Shanelle
screamed.

"Holy fucking
shit!" He stumbles back, and now just stares after her, in a state of
shock for a moment or two.

"Um..."
he breaks the silence. "Was that your girlfriend?"

Chase is having to
cover his mouth to stifle laughter.

Maya
Rice

As soon as
Courtney gives an indication that she's alright with contact, Mitzi relaxes a
bit. She gives Courtney's hand a gentle squeeze, leaning in a bit closer and
lowering her voice to a whisper. "Do you wanna go? Or sit down?
Or...?" She trails off.

Nova startles,
breaking out of her trance-like state. She seems confused and out of it for a
few moments, but eventually she regains a sense of where she is, what's
happening. She slowly becomes aware of the fact that nearly everyone is focused
on her and Nic, and when she glances around she spots Courtney and Mitzi
nearby...god. Had they seen all of that?

Without responding
verbally, Nova simply moves even closer to Nic, essentially curling up at his
side. She leans against him, resting her head on his shoulder.

"Well,"
Cecily mutters, looking over at Red. Her eyebrows are furrowed. "That went
well."

"Holy
shit..." Eli whispers. "Holy shit," he repeats, this time a bit
more loudly.

Dean has a frown
on his face, looking at anyone who may be laughing disapprovingly. "Is
anyone going to --"

"ANYWAYS!"
Ryan speaks up, trying to redirect the attention. "That was a mess."

Andrew
Gaidry

Nic squeezes her
gently and holds her in his arms, supporting her gently. He looks over at Ryan,
letting him take control of the situation.

Michael looks over
at Nic and Nova. Immediately changes his mind about that decision. Looks away,
pulls knees to his chest.

Alex stays like he
is.

Red is staring
over in concern. ".... /jeeze/...." He looked over at Cecily,
grimacing slightly.

Jerith
Walker

Courtney nods at
Mitzi. "Let's get out of here." She whispers back.

"Are we going
to continue, or..." Skylar is staring at Nic and Nova, but the question is
directed mainly at Ryan.

Chase has the
better sense to keep his mouth shut.

Maya
Rice

Tugging lightly on
Courtney's hand, Mitzi begins to lead them back up the stairs. "I wonder
where Shanelle ran off to..." she comments as they begin to walk back up.

"Well,"
Ryan says, scanning the crowd. "Seeing as this ended so terribly...why
don't we move on to a /different/ game?"

Nova remains
quiet.

Andrew
Gaidry

Nic gently rubbed
Novas arm comfortingly. "What did you have in mind?" He asked.

Michael fidgeted,
staring down at the ground.

Alex tried to calm
himself. Tried to focus on being okay.

Jerith
Walker

Courtney shrugs a
shoulder and leaves with her.

Skylar plops back
down on the floor with a contented sigh. "Any in mind?"

Chase lets out an
'awwww'

Maya
Rice

Ryan looks over to
where Nic and Nova are, smiling when he realizes the whipped cream bottle is
still over by them. "You guys up for spin the bottle?"

Sydney opens the
door to the basement, strolling down the stairs. She smiles when she finds
that, yes, this is where everyone had gone to.

Ryan raises his
eyebrows when Sydney enters. "You're a little late," he comments.

"Aww, you
noticed! Did you miss me?" She grins as she finds a place to sit down.

Andrew
Gaidry

Nic raises an
eyebrow and grins. He looks over at the bottle and then slides it across the
floor, over to Ryan.

"Spin the
bottle?" Mason grins slightly. Now, thats one he /hasn't/ played. He
actually isn't sure he fully knows the rules.

Jerith
Walker

Skylar smiles and
reminds himself to regulate because he isn't in a room full of his friends.

Just a shallow,
simple game of spin the bottle.

Chase elbows him
softly and smirks.

Sky rolls his
eyes. "Play it cool." He mutters at him, still smiling.

Maya
Rice

Ryan seems to
brighten when he notices Mason's grin, completely forgetting about responding
to Sydney. Fetching the bottle, Ryan says, "Alright, everyone come a
little closer, get in a circle..."

A few people who
were scattered on couches and chairs move to the floor, joining in on the ring
of guests.

Ryan sits down as
well, making sure to leave some room nearby for Mason. "We all know how
this works, right?" He slides the bottle into the center of the circle,
glancing around and waiting for confirmation.

Sydney joins the
circle, a little upset that Ryan hadn't responded to her...still, she isn't
going to let that ruin her night. She moves closer to where Nic and Nova are,
flashing a smile to them when she sees that they're practically cuddled up
together. It was surprising to see Nova actually initiating contact with
someone who wasn't Shanelle.

Andrew
Gaidry

Mason watched,
tilting his head a bit. ".... I think so, but go over the rules real
quick?" Nic looks over at Sydney, catching her smile and returning it.
Gives a small wave before returning his attention to Nova and Ryan.

Trashley
Marie

Jax, Ariel and
Cameron school their way into the circle. Jax was sitting away from them simply
because of where spaces were.

Cameron smirks at
Mason as she overheard him, it was almost adorable how he might not know how to
play.

Ariel looked
around and she decided she really wouldn't mind kissing anyone in this circle.
Some people seemed too douchey, and none of /her/ friends were here, but they
didn't look like bad kissers necessarily. -I'll be a disappointment in the kiss
department, that's for sure...-

Jerith
Walker

Skylar and Chase
do whatever Skylar and Chase do.

Maya
Rice

Ryan can't help
but smile at Mason requesting to go over the rules. "Basically, we go
around and take turns, you know, spinning the bottle. You have to kiss whoever
it lands on."

Andrew
Gaidry

Mason nodded.
Alright, not too bad. He knew that much already. "Okay- is there anything
else? Any consequences for backing out or rules or whatever?"

Red glanced over
at Cecily. Trying to see what she thought about all of this. Red..... wasn't
too certain. It could be... potentially not good. He was already here,
though..... hm.

Alex closed his
eyes and breathed in, exhaling slowly. He still felt shakey. But it was over,
she left, it was fine. It was fine. Its okay.

Trashley
Marie

Cameron look
around nervously. He wasn't super interesting in kissing anyone in particular.
He did however notice a poor guy shaking, he slowly uncoiled and Cam kind of
wanted to hug him. "H-" he stopped himself, immediately feeling
uncomfortable with the confrontation and looked to Jax who was already scouting
out possible good and bad kisses.

Ariel smirked to
Cam as he spoke just slightly. She followed his eyes to the boy that looked
frightened. He was about one or two away from Cam. To the right

Jerith Walker

Skylar suddenly
remembers, and he frowns.

Pulls out his
phone again.

To: Weed Hacker -
7:01 PM

'Stuart, fucking
answer me.'

Maya
Rice

"You aren't
/allowed/ to back out," Ryan laughs, leaning back. "...Unless you use
Shanelle's method, I guess."

Dean frowns over
at Ryan, wishing he could have kept himself from making a joke about what had
just happened.

Nova, hearing
Shanelle's name, bites down onto her bottom lip.

Cecily,
surprisingly, seems eager. She's not too focused on her boyfriend, but is instead
meeting gazes with Lydia, who winks over at her and starts to laugh.

Andrew
Gaidry

Mason snorted
softly. Nodded. "Alright. And thats it? Theres no other rules?"

Red relaxes a bit
seeing Cecily doesnt seem too concerned about it. Okay.... maybe this would be
fine? If Cecily wasn't worried....

Alex took another
long slow breath and exhaled before straightening up and fixing his position.
He looked around at the circle and ran his fingers gently through his hair,
half fixing it and half fiddling with it.

Nicholas smiles
faintly at the joke before looking down at Nova with concern. "... are you
up for this?" He asked quietly.

Michael glances
over at his brother and Nova, frowning a bit.

Trashley
Marie

 Jax looked to Cameron and followed his eyes
-Who is she~ohh- the boy right by him was Cam's target.

Cameron looked at
Alex and he straightened, that gave Cam comfort. He played with his hair and
Cam blushed for some reason. It was kind of adorable.

Ariel smirked to
Cam and chuckled. She spoke up "Well, no rules. I guess we should start.
Who first?"

Jerith
Walker

Skylar waits for a
response from his...friend,

Maya
Rice

Nova simply gives
a quick nod as a response.

Leaning forward
into the circle, Syd pipes up. "I'll go," she offers, volunteering
herself up. "Then we'll move around the circle clockwise."

Ryan can't help
but smile at the fact that Sydney is already attempting a takeover.
"Alright. Go ahead, Syd."

Sydney moves for
the bottle, taking it in her hand and spinning it. She watches as it whirls around,
keeping track of the people it passes by.

Eventually, the
bottle stops and lands on Fiona.

Syd smiles. She
didn't really know her, but...at least it wasn't a boy.

Fiona, realizing
she's been chosen, sits up. She elbows Lydia. "Hey, look Lyd! First one
picked!" She winks over at Sydney, waiting for her to approach.

Lydia watches
Sydney with a vaguely disapproving look.

Syd scoots over
toward Fiona. "Seems like it's your lucky day," she laughs before
leaning forward and kissing her. She pulls away rather quickly, smiling and
waving before returning to her spot.

Once Syd's turn is
over, Dean is up next.

"I guess it's
my turn, right?" Dean says, moving toward the bottle once he notices a few
nods as a response. Placing it in the center of the circle, he spins and prays
that it lands on anyone but Eli. He doesn't want to have to deal with
practically tasting alcohol after just kissing him for a second.

The bottle twirls
around, eventually lands on Red.

Cecily glances
over at her boyfriend and then at Dean. Thinking immediately of Red's father,
she wonders if Red is going to be the second person to flee the basement
tonight. "Um..." she smiles sheepishly at Red. "Good luck?"

"Oooooooh,"
Eli coos, eyebrows wiggling up and down. "Dean and Reeeed..." he
grins, earning a jab from Dean directly in the ribs. "Owww!" He
whines.

Dean looks
apologetically over to Red, hoping he wasn't too bothered by Eli's...teasing.

Andrew
Gaidry

Reds heart
practically stops when the bottle lands on him. Oh. Oh no. His gaze immediately
darts over to his girlfriend, locking eyes with her, grimacing slightly at her
good luck. He looks over to Dean, face flushing a bit at Eli's teasing.

"Uh- I dont,
um-" God, what should he do? He scanned everyone else in the room. If
anyone- no, but, they wouldn't, he- gah. His gaze stops back on Dean. Red gives
him a rather worried look.

Maya
Rice

Dean, clearly
catching on to Red's discomfort, glances around at the rest of the group.
"...He --"

"Nope,"
Ryan interrupts before Dean even has a chance to speak. "No stalling, no
backing out."

Dean looks to Red
again, feeling almost guilty. While he didn't have an issue with it, he knew
that kissing a guy in a public place like this probably meant a lot more to
Red. Dean grimaces as he remembers the one time he'd met Red's father...he'd
tried his best to keep his mouth shut about all of his awful opinions, but that
hadn't stopped him from hearing all of them.

Dean starts to
move over toward Red. "No one here cares," he says in a rather quiet
voice, hoping to offer a bit of comfort.

Trashley
Marie

Jax stares between
the two. -Aww- he thinks to himself. He's trying to be so comforting.

Jerith
Walker

Skylar isn't
focused on the group. He's still texting.

To: Weed Hacker -
7:03 PM

'She looks like
she's 12. And she's drunk. Leave her be.'

Andrew
Gaidry

Oh boy, no backing
out. Although, that was almost kind of comforting. Because then its not really
a choice, right? He's not /choosing/ to kiss Dean, and they all know that.

He watched Dean
worridly as he moved over, biting his lip a bit. He hesitated before nodding.
It... it was Ryans party. The resident gay. Of course not. And it was a game.
Thats the sort of things that happened at these kinds of games. And it didn't
look like anyone was recording or anything. ".... m-make it quick?"
He said nervously with an awkward little chuckle. Dragging it out would be
too...... it would raise too much attention anyways. He shouldn't put up too
much of a fuss. Just. Quickly.

Maya
Rice

Dean nods in
response to Red's request. With only a few more seconds hesitation, Dean
eventually just leans forward and gives Red a light, quick peck on the lips
before distancing himself from his teammate again.

"Weak,"
Ryan mutters, rolling his eyes.

"What?"
Dean turns to look at him.

"Nothing,
nothing!" Ryan smiles innocently. "Onto the next player!"

As soon as Red and
Dean are done, Cecily shifts a bit closer to Red, leaning her head up against
his shoulder.

Eli gives Dean
what he thinks is a friendly thump on the back when he returns to his spot.

It knocks the
breath out of Dean. His eyes widen as he splutters out a cough. "Eli
--"

" -- is up
next, isn't he?" Sydney speaks again, gazing over at Eli. He was most
definitely drunk. She smiles. Whoever he lands on...well, she wishes them good
luck.

Andrew
Gaidry

Reds breath
catches in his throat and he closes his eyes when Dean kisses him. His heart
was beating hard in his chest. His eyes open when Dean pulls away and he gives
him an awkward smile. He relaxes a bit more when Cecily moves closer,
gratefully putting an arm around her and resting his head against hers. What
was he so worried about? Its fine. He has Cecily. Its spin the bottle and he
has a girlfriend. It was fine. And he got to kiss a cute guy. It'd be forgotten
pretty quickly, this was.... its okay.

Trashley
Marie

Cameron smirked
and the. His attention went to Eli. -Poor person to whoever gets picked for
that.-

Maya
Rice

Eli nods rapidly.
"Yeah!" He doesn't seem to notice he just almost killed his friend.
"My turn." He essentially crawls toward the bottle, messing up the
first time he tries to spin it...and the second time.

"I think this
thing might be rigged against me," he announces as he tries a third time,
managing to get a half decent spin. He watches closely as the bottle moves from
person to person, not really sure what to expect...

A laugh is
startled out of Eli when Alex is picked as his victim. "Wait, dude, are
you like. Actually in high school?" Eli asks. "Not trying to be rude
but you sort of look like a baby. A little bit."

Cecily snuggles up
to Red, similarly as to how Nova had pressed herself against Nic. When the
bottle lands on Alex, she winces a bit. "Ooh. Poor kid."

Andrew
Gaidry

Alex perked up
when hes suddenly adressed. He blinks a couple times, processing. "Huh?
Yeah, of course. I'm 15!" He sits up as straight as possible. "Almost
16." He added. Paused, thinking. "... well, in a few months. Uh,
closer to 15 and a half I guess."

Red looked
sympathetically over at the kid as well, wrapping his arms around Cecily. She
was soft. He was glad the attention had shifted so easily though. Thank god.

Trashley
Marie

Ariel glances to
Cam. His jaw is so wide open she thinks it may have been unhinged.

Jax coughs
laughing as he looks to Cam. "Shit." He says louder then expected.

Cameron
immediately snaps his head to the person the bottle lands on and almost
gaps,but controls it as to not draw attention to himself. He looks to Ariel who
is currently stifling giggles,he smacks her. "Shush." Cam looks back
to Alex. He's 15. -Same...though, I'm newly 15...hm-

Maya
Rice

Eli laughs loudly.
"Fifteen? God, you're tiny." He seems to consider something. "I
could probably break you in half if I tried."

Dean, finally able
to breathe again, groans. "You know, Eli, maybe you /shouldn't/ be
threatening kids,"

"It's not a
threat! Just the truth."

Nova is watching
the exchange as it's happening rather close by. She's smiling just a bit, sort
of amused by how ridiculous Eli is.

"Anyway,"
Eli says before quickly leaning over to Alex, giving him a sloppy but quick
kiss. "There." He turns, looking at the gathered guests. "Wait,
does that count as like...child assault?" He sounds terribly worried. His
eyes start to widen. "Could I be arrested for that?"

Trashley
Marie

Cameron clenches
his jaw and looks away he smirked a bit at what Alex said about the kiss and
rolls his eyes at Eli's idiotic remark. He pulls his legs into his chest.
"No idiot." Cameron says rather loud and rude.

Ariel officially
loses it and lets out a loud laugh, she slams her hand over her mouth.
"Sorry..."

Jax chuckles
slightly at the remark his friend made.

Andrew
Gaidry

Alex raised his
eyebrows at the comment. He wasn't going to /try/ break him in half, was he?
Well, doesnt seem like it.

He scrunched up
his nose a bit at the kiss, recoiling a bit. After he pulled away he coughed
softly and wiped his mouth. He smelled like alcohol. Really really badly of
alcohol. "You're not a very good kisser." He stated.

Maya
Rice

"I'm
/drunk,/" Eli whines, feeling hurt. "Give me a break." He
retreats to his place beside Dean. "...You think I'm a good kisser, don't
you?"

Dean holds back a
laugh. "Eli."

"Yeah?"

"How would I
possibly know?"

"...Shut
up," Eli huffs.

"Anyway,"
Sydney speaks up once more. God does she love having control. "Who's
next?" She looks beside Eli, smiling when she spots her friend.
"Nova?"

Nova finally seems to break out of
her distracted state when her name is spoken by Sydney. She sits up, tilting
her head until she realizes. "Oh! Uh," she begins to move for the bottle,
spinning it quickly before she has much of a chance to think about it. She
probably shouldn't have agreed to doing this, either, but --

The bottle lands
on Nic.

Nova stares at it
in disbelief. There was no way. She looks up, watching different people in the
circle. Was it possible to rig spin the bottle?

Ryan laughs when
he sees what pair has been picked this time. "Seems like that whipped
cream is your good luck charm," he says with a wink to Nic and Nova.

Nova's face goes
red.

Andrew
Gaidry

Alex smiled
sympathetically over at Eli. "Well, I doubt you're a worse kisser when
sober!" He added helpfully.

Nicholas stared in
shock at the bottle before letting out a pretty loud laugh. He covered his
mouth quickly and looked over at Nova with amazement. "What are the
/chances/?" He shook his head with amazment, still laughing softly.

Michael stared in
shock at the bottle. Was it rigged??? No, Nic wouldve told him if he rigged-
there was no way! How would he even-????

Maya
Rice

When Nic speaks up about just how
improbable this seems, Nova makes a mental note to do a few quick calculations
regarding the odds of the situation when she has a bit of spare time. While she
knows it's illogical and impossible, she still feels as if someone is
controlling all of this. Who knows. Maybe Sydney is behind it.

Taking a breath,
Nova doesn't allow herself any time to hesitate, knowing that if she does
she'll end up sitting there awkwardly twirling her hair for the next minute or
so. She simply leans up to Nic, lets her eyes flutter shut, and presses her
lips to his. She prays that she isn't somehow doing this wrong -- she wouldn't
know even if she was, but she can just imagine the laughter from all the other
guests, the stares she would get.

Distracted by her
thoughts, Nova lets the kiss linger for a bit longer than she had intended.
Eventually she breaks away, immediately lowering her face and refusing to meet
Nic's gaze. She didn't want him to have to stare at her face which she was
certain was flushed from embarrasment.

Andrew
Gaidry

Nicholas leans
down a bit to meet her, letting his eyelids shut as well. He gently slipped a
hand around the back of her head, supporting it, and kissed back gently. He
lets the kiss linger until she pulls away, pulling back as well. He lets his
hand slide down from her hair to rest on her back, gently rubbing it
comfortingly. He gives her a soft smile.

".... so, my turn then?"
He looks over, leaning a bit and taking the whipped cream in his hand. Pauses.
".......... if this lands on Nova...." He laughs softly before
spinning it.

The bottle spins
and spins and lands on....

Eli.

Nicholas
instinctively grimaces, chuckling softly and almost pityingly at Eli. "I
got the bad kisser, huh?"

Maya
Rice

Nova's gone quiet
again, afraid of saying something stupid if she dares to speak. She simply
remains at Nic's side and tries to push down her anxiety.

Eli seems to cheer
up a bit when the bottle lands on him -- he'll have another chance to prove his
totally incredible kissing skills -- but he deflates when Nic speaks.
"Don't be rude," he huffs, reaching over Nova to give Nic a shove.

Andrew
Gaidry

Nic chuckled,
taking the shove good naturedly. He removed his arm from around Nova in order
to move over to Eli, leaning over and taking his face in his hand before
pressing his lips to Eli's. He kisses his teammate for a couple seconds before
breaking it and moving back to his spot, slipping his arm back around Nova.

Maya
Rice

Eli gives it his
all -- or what he thinks is his all -- but in the end the result is yet another
rather sloppy kiss, perhaps a little bit better considering Nic was the one to
initiate it.

"...How do
people do things?" Eli says once Nic moves away. "Like. When they're
drunk. How does this work?"

Sydney laughs at
Eli's questions. God, being thrown in the pool may have actually been worth it
to see him like this.

Andrew
Gaidry

Nic laughs. Then
looks over to his side. Looks like Michaels next.

Michael blinked in
surprise, confused for a moment before realizing. "...... oh! My
turn?"

Nic chuckled and
nodded.

Michael scooted
forward and spun the bottle. Spun it and held his breath as it spun and slowed.
Part of him was hopeful. Part was nervous. And another part was /very/ nervous.
He exhaled softly when the bottle landed pointing at the complete opposite of
his side. He followed the point to..... the party's host, Ryan. He sat up
straight, pausing.

Maya
Rice

Ryan, quite
honestly, is disappointed that his first kiss of the night won't be the cute
boy sitting next to him...still, he's not going to be rude about it. Still, it
feels a bit odd being paired up with a freshman.

Grinning over at
Michael, Ryan says, "Promise you'll tell me if I'm a better kisser than
Shanelle?" with a pleading tone to his voice.

Sydney leans
forward, interested. What had she missed while she was up in the bathroom? Had
something happened between Michael and Shanelle? And speaking of Shanelle,
where /was/ she? Syd had assumed that she'd likely be hanging around Nova, but
it seemed as if she was nowhere to be found.

Andrew
Gaidry

Michael tries to
return the grin with a soft nervous laugh but it honestly comes out looking
more like a nervous grimace. He looked over at Nicholas anxiously before
crawling over to where Ryan was sitting. He hesitated, not quite sure how to go
about this. "Um-" He shifted up, placing a hand on Ryans shoulder to
steady himself, and pressed his lips to Ryans. He lets Ryan lead, if Ryan does
anything else kiss wise, otherwise he leaves it at a peck on the lips before
pulling back.

Maya
Rice

Ryan simply sits
back and allows Michael to kiss him quickly, figuring that he'll do whatever he
feels comfortable with. Although he's tempted to put on a show, Ryan doesn't
want to fuck around with a nervous freshman.

Once Michael pulls
back, Ryan winks at him and laughs lightly. "So? Best kiss you've ever had
or what?" He says jokingly, knowing that it hardly even qualified as a
kiss. Still...probably better than kissing Shanelle. Turning to look around the
circle, Ryan nods over toward Alex. "Looks like you're up now," he
says.

Andrew
Gaidry

"Oh!"
Alex clapped his hands together, looked around, found the bottle (he had gotten
distracted) and scooted forward. He took the bottle in his hand and twisted it
back as far as he could and then spun it as hard as he could.

When it finally
stopped it had landed on Dean. Alex looked over to him, giving a slight smile
and a wave.

Maya
Rice

Dean seems a bit
surprised to be up again already...and not to mention with the same kid who Eli
had kissed. Offering his best friendly smile, Dean beckons Alex over.

"You know, I
think I'm realizing a trend here..." he comments, taking a moment to
glance around the room at his teammates. He wonders if Red's spin will somehow
end up landing on Alex...now that would be interesting to see.

Andrew
Gaidry

Alex grins at the
friendly smile and crawls on over to Dean. Alex pauses at his words and glanced
around, following Deans gaze. A trend...? Alex thinks. ".... me getting
paired with senior boys?" He guessed. Then remembered the game. He placed
his hands on Deans shoulders and leanded over, kissing him. He's certainly
kissed people before, but his kiss isn't too much more than a peck. He pulls
back, gives a smile, and then crawls back to his spot.

Maya
Rice

Dean doesn't get a
chance to answer before Alex quickly kisses him. Once he moves back, he laughs
with a nod. "Senior football players, yeah. Now you just need to get
Red."

Gail perks up when
Alex moves back. "My turn!" She grabs a hold of the bottle, twirls it
around and waits to see who it lands on.

The bottle points
toward Fiona.

Lydia rolls her
eyes, looking over at her friend. "Can't you just get a /boy/ for
once?"

"Hey, it's
not my spin!" Fiona defends herself, raising her hands in surrender.
"You can't blame me."

Lydia gives her a
look that implies that, yes, she can indeed blame Fiona.

"Aaaanyway,"
Fiona says, moving her gaze to Gail. "Come on over."

Gail casts a wary
glance at Lydia but approaches anyway, trying to make her kiss with Fiona quick
and innocent. If Lydia hadn't been sitting so close by, then maybe she would
have actually given Fiona more than a quick peck on the lips, but...Gail moves back
to her spot, bringing her knees up to her chest and resting her chin on top of
them.

Ryan's likely been
side-eyeing Lydia quite frequently. When Gail's turn is over, he speaks up.
"Cecily? You next."

Cecily
straightens, not having realized it was already her turn. Moving reluctantly
away from Red, she reaches out to spin the bottle. "Hope I get someone
decent," she mutters rather quietly.

The bottle lands
on Skylar.

Cecily looks quite
disappointed. Well, there went her chances of actually having a good outcome.
She watches Skylar for a moment -- she knows a little bit about him, his friend
group. They've always seemed...annoying, to say the least.

Jerith
Walker

Skylar is staring
at his phone. He seems irritated, distracted. He looks, up, and--
"Oh."

He glances over at
Red and gives him a sheepish grin.

Then gets on all
fours and crawls over to Cece, deciding to be the one to initiate it.

Andrew
Gaidry

Red casts a wary
look over at Skylar, frowning a bit. He glances over at Cecily, noticing her
less than enthusiatic look. He reached over and gently took her hand in his,
giving it a soft reassuring squeeze.

Maya
Rice

Cecily moves her
gaze from Skylar to Red when he takes her hand, smiling over at him. She
honestly wishes the bottle had just ended up pointing in his direction...it
would have been much easier that way.

Turning back to
Skylar, Cece takes advantage of the fact that he's now much closer to lean
forward and press her lips to his. She moves back rather quickly, hardly even
bothering to close her eyes when she kisses him. As soon as she's finished she
moves back to Red, leaning back against him. "Ugh," she mutters
softly, under her breath.

Jerith
Walker

Skylar lets out a
laugh. "What; I'm not THAT bad, am I?" he crawls back to his space.

Andrew Gaidry

Red laughs softly,
giving her a very sympathetic smile and wraps an arm around her, hugging her
gently. Pauses. ".... oh, it's my turn now isnt it?" Red casts Cecily
a worried glance. Hoo boy. What if it landed on a guy....? What if it landed on
a girl? Ugh, there was no winning here. Even the wins are....... cant really
/enjoy/ them. Maybe he'd get lucky and it would land on Cecily.....

He hesitates
before reluctantly pulling away from Cecily to spin the bottle.

His eyes widen
with a touch of fear when it slows down by the boy Cece had gotten stuck with.
And then it stopped on.... the boy directly next to him. Oh boy..... why
couldn't it have landed on Dean again? From what Red had seen of Chase so far
this night..... god.

Maya
Rice

Cecily simply wrinkles
her nose in response to Skylar's question. Now that it's Red's turn, she
focuses on where the bottle is spinning.

For a few moments
she thinks that they'll both end up being fortunate, that it will land on her,
but it spins a few spots over and points at one of Skylar's friends instead.
Cecily glances up at Red to check on his reaction, frowning when she sees how
concerned he looks.

"It'll be
fine," she murmurs encouragingly to him.

Jerith
Walker

Chase snorts and
rolls his eyes, then beckons. "Come on, Red...Come touch these dirty lips.
No homo, right?"

Andrew
Gaidry

Red made a small
concerned noise of protest at Cecilys words, then looked over to Chase.

Red recoiled a bit
at Chases demeanor and words, frowing, a spark of irritation flashing in his eyes.
He doesn't make any move to go over.

Jerith
Walker

"....Oooor do
you want me to come over there?"

Andrew
Gaidry

Red scowled and
rolled his eyes, not looking over at Chase. He shrugged. "Sure,
whatever." He doesn't sound happy about this at all. A part of him kind of
just wants to go upstairs.

Jerith
Walker

Chase sighs and
crawls over, giving Red the quickest peck on the lips before returning to his
spot.

Andrew
Gaidry

Red flinched back
a bit but let him press his lips to his own. He doesn't look at Chase. He
presses back close to Cecily, curling his fingers around her hand and squeezing
softly. He rests his head against hers.

Trashley
Marie

"Aww. No
homo. That's cute." He says sarcastic. Jax stretches forward and grabs the
bottle, literally smashing his face into the ground as he does so. "Oh
yeah. By the way. I'm drunk. So," he shrugs. "sorry." He slurs
every other word and spins the bottle. It slides a little, but in the end it
lands on Lydia. Jax coughs out a hollering laugh. After straightening himself
out he looks to her. "So, uhm, am I initiating this? Or are you coming
over here?"

Cam chuckles
slightly at Jax' straight forward words. "Oh my god." Is all he
whispers to himself. -This one will be fun.-

Maya
Rice

Lydia's already
watching him with a disgusted look -- however, when the bottle points toward
her, her expression changes to one of distress. "Are you kidding me?"
She looks around the gathered circle, as if trying to find someone willing to
rescue her. When no one seems to offer up any assistance, Lydia groans and
reluctantly returns to looking at Jax.

She tries to
repress a groan when he questions her. "Just.../ugh,/" she huffs as
she scoots over to him, quickly grabbing a hold of his face and pressing her
lips up against his for a few seconds. She pulls away wincing, quickly
returning to her spot beside Fiona. "You literally reek of alcohol."
Lydia huffs, speaking to Jax.

Trashley
Marie

Jax winks and bows
a little. "Thank you. I try." He nudges Cam. "Alright Sara. Your
turn."

Cam winces at the
name. "Ye. He spins the bottle and looks at it. Just wanting to get it
over with. It stops and he looks up it lands on. -You have got to be shitting
me- Alex.

Andrew
Gaidry

Alex blinked.
"I got chose again!" He said, sounding genuinely surprised and a bit
amused. He looked over at Cam with a grin. "... I think the cycle is
broken though! You don't look like a football senior boy."

Trashley
Marie

Cam looked away.
"I'm not." His face flushed a bright red. "Uhm you can call me
Cam."

Jax scoffed.

"That's it.
Cameron." Remembering the name he was told.

Cam looked up to
Alex. "I'm a new freshman this year..." He could feel his face was a
bright red, he hid it and looked down.

Andrew
Gaidry

Alex giggled
softly. Cameron.... that sounded sorta like a boyish name? Well, he couldn't
tell. Didn't really matter. "I'm Alex! I'm a sophmore." He extended
his hand to Cam. "I'm also not a footballer."

Trashley
Marie

Cam stretched out
of his fetus position and scooted through the circle. He grabbed Alex hand and
shook it up and down slowly. "Uhm hi." One hand still resided over
his face to hide the blush.

Andrew
Gaidry

Alex took his hand
and shook it! "Hi!" He smiled brightly. "Oh- and welcome to our
school!"

Trashley
Marie

From across the
circle Ariel watched. She smiled at Cam.

Trashley
Marie

Cameron looked
into Alex' eyes. They were just so blue. "Uhh. Mhmm. Ye thanks."

Maya
Rice

"Anyway,"
Lydia speaks up loudly, a frown on her face. "Are you two just going to
keep sitting here and chatting or can you /stop/ wasting everybody's time and
just get on with it?"

Ryan raises his
eyebrows at her harshness...although he has to admit he agrees.

Trashley
Marie

Cam's face
immediately flushed even more at Lydia's words. Has it been long.

Andrew
Gaidry

"Huh?"
Alex looked genuinely surprised. "Oh! Whoops, sorry!" He squeezed
Cams hand and pulled him closer, holding his face with his other hand and
kissed him. He holds the kiss for a couple of seconds before pulling away and
opening his eyes, giving him a smile. "Nice to meet you!" He rested
back in his spot.

Trashley
Marie

Cam sits shocked
in his spot. "Uh. Ye. Uh."

Ariel scoots to
the center and grabs Cam by the shoulder. "Come on baby bro."

Cam nods and
scoots back. "Nice to meet you."

Ariel moves
forward to the bottle. "Sorry about him guys. He's a shy boy." She
finishes her statement with a smirk as she spins it.

Cam punches her
shoulder lightly, his cheeks still a rose pink. "Whatevs."

It landed on quite
an adorable girl who sat a few people from her. "Sorry if you are against
kissing girls."

Maya
Rice

Rozlyn had seemed
to be mostly uninvolved with the game up to this point -- she was occasionally
checking her phone, mostly just sitting to the side and watching. However, when
the bottle finally ends up pointing in her direction, Roz seems to regain
interest, perking up.

"You kidding
me?" She responds to Ariel with a laugh, shaking her head. "It's the
/boys/ I have a problem with." Roz moves over toward Ari but waits for her
to initiate the kiss. She doesn't want to seem pushy.

Lydia is watching
Rozlyn with narrowed eyes. She hates it when her friend feels the need to bring
up her sexuality...she /could/ just stay quiet about it, couldn't she?

Trashley
Marie

Ari looks to her.
"Oh. Okay." Ariel giggles and stays where she is. She didn't like to
push people into things.

Maya
Rice

When Roz realizes
that Ari isn't going to make the first move, she assumes it's alright for her
to just go ahead and initiate the kiss. She leans toward Ariel, using a hand to
cup the side of her face and bring their lips together. She allows the kiss to
linger for a few moments before drawing away. She gives Ariel a wink and then
returns to where she had been sitting before, reclining in a lounging position.
"Who's next?"

Ryan straightens
up, eyes brightening. Finally. "My turn," he says, moving into the
circle to get a hold of the bottle. He hopes and prays that it lands on who he
wants it to and then gives it a spin, watching intently.

Ryan has to resist
the urge to cheer when the bottle does indeed end up pointing toward Mason.

"Well,"
he says, turning toward him. "It seems like the whipped cream gods have
spoken." He grins.

Andrew
Gaidry

Mason raised his
eyebrows when the bottle /actually/ lands on him. He let out a laugh and looked
over to Ryan, grinning back. Ryan seemed... genuinely interested in him. He
ignored his sisters voice in the back of his hesd insisting that of COURSE he
is theres no surprise THERE.

"So they
have." Mason turned a bit so Ryan could more easily kiss him, smiling
slightly. His heartbeat seemed to pick up pace when he realized that this was
actually /happening/. Not that he would admit to that though.

Trashley
Marie

Ariel looks in
shock and glances to Cam.

Jax chuckled.

Cam leans to Jax.
"Her first kiss with a girl."

Jax clamps his
hand over his mouth to keep from bursting out laughing.

Maya
Rice

Mason's grin
convinces Ryan that all of the ridiculous drama and bullshit that's gone on so
far has all been worth getting to this point. He leans a little closer to
Mason, having to tilt his head downward due to their height difference. Ryan
lets his eyes fall shut as he gently presses his lips to Mason's, still
practically grinning as he does so.

After a moment he
applies a bit more pressure, resisting the urge to reach out and pull Mason
close against him. He's desperate and gay as hell, sure, but he doesn't want to
scare Mason off already by coming off too strong.

Andrew
Gaidry

Mason sits up as
best he can to hopefully help the gap in their heights- at least the difference
wasnt as drastic sitting down. He pressed a bit closer to help cut down the
distance Ryan had to go to reach him, closing his eyes after Ryans lips made
contact with his own.

He prays that Ryan
can't hear how hard his heart is pounding- it sounds /far/ too loud to Mason.
Mason lets Ryan lead the kiss, not entirely sure what to do, but does try to
kiss back. Was he doing this right?

Well, whatever, it
was just- it was a kissing game, it didn't matter that much, right? He
shouldn't get so worked up, it was just. Just. Uh. Should he pull back? Should
he- hes just gonna leave it to Ryan, it was his turn anyways, he probably knows
what hes doing, just stop /thinking/.

Trashley
Marie

Jax stands up and
looks around. "Sorry to interrupt, my gay babies, as cute as this is, but
I have an announcement."

Ariel's eyes go
wide. "Jax don't you-"

Cam playfully
tackles Ari, causing her to be quiet.

"Anyway. Can
we just applaud and thank, Rose it think it is, for giving one of my closest
friends her first ever gay kiss." Jax applauds drunk with a red cup in his
hand, it spills a little. "Oh sorry..."

Maya
Rice

Ryan probably
would have kept on kissing Mason had it not been for Jax raising his voice and
speaking up. He reluctantly, slowly draws away, probably fixing Jax with an
incredibly bitter glare.

Rozlyn doesn't
initially realize she's the person Jax is referring to -- however, when she
sees both Lydia and Fiona staring at her... "Oh!" She laughs,
surprised to hear Jax's announcement. "It's Rozlyn, but...close enough, I
guess." She chuckles when he spills his drink, shaking her head a bit.
She'd been there before, she could relate. Moving her gaze to Ari, Roz's lips
curl up into a smile. She blows a kiss over in her direction, giggling as she
does so.

Andrew
Gaidry

Mason drew back a
bit with the outburst of Jaxons and Ryan pulling away. He was a bit relieved at
Jaxon drawing the attention from him, honestly, and kind of disappointed at the
kissing ending. He glances over at Ryan, who seemed to be focused on giving
Jaxon a dirty look. That was fine with Mason. He's pretty sure his face is red
right now anyways, and he doesnt quite know what to say or do. He is perfectly
fine with the distraction. Thanks.

He took a deep
breath and pulled himself back, sitting up a bit and running his fingers
through his hair, brushing his locks back a bit.

Alex smiled at the
announcement. That was cute! He clapped as Jaxon requested.

Trashley
Marie

Ariel groans and
jumps up, she leaves the basement and goes to the nearest bathroom.

Cam looked around
and saw Alex clapping. "Uhh. Maybe we shouldn't clap." Cam stood up
and walked toward the stairs. "Jax stay. She will only be more upset to
see you."

Jax nodded and sat
down. "Whoops." He chugged the rest of his booze.

Andrew Gaidry

Alex stopped
clapping immediately, his hands freezing, looking concerned and frowning a bit.
Oh.

Maya
Rice

When Ariel
abruptly gets up and runs off, Roz freezes. Shit. Had she done something to
upset her? She frowns as she watches Ari's sibling run after her.

"...Well,
that's two more down," Ryan says after Cam and Ariel flee. "Anyone
else feel like a dramatic exit is necessary?" He pauses for a moment.
"No? Alright, then. Moving on."

Andrew
Gaidry

"Ah- my turn,
yeah?" Fuck. Mason gave a smile, trying to quickly pull himself together.
/Fucking compose yourself, Jesus fuck./ His heart was still racing. He leaned
over and spun the bottle. Wow. Two kisses in a row. God. Time for his Second
Kiss then.

The bottle lands
on Dean. Mason looked over at him.

Maya
Rice

Ryan is honestly
hoping that the bottle will, by some miracle, end up pointing towards him. He
knows it's unrealistic, and isn't too surprised when it ends up on Dean. He
does feel vaguely disappointed, though.

Dean smiles over
at Mason. "Two kisses in a row, huh? Guess you're pretty lucky." His
tone is light and teasing. He remains relaxed, assuming that Mason will come
over and approach him first.

Andrew
Gaidry

Mason laughed
softly. "Two whole kisses! I keep getting paired with the big guys."
He actually felt LESS nervous kissing this guy. Probably because he didn't care
as much. Uh. Not that he cared about what Ryan- fuck. He's ignoring that. He
crawls over to Dean and places his hands on his shoulders, pulling himself up
and pressing a kiss to his lips. Not much more than a simple peck on the lips.
"There you go." He gives a grin and then crawls back over, glancing
at Ryan as he takes his spot.

Maya
Rice

Ryan's totally not
jealous of a few seconds long peck. Nope. Not at all. He seems to brighten a
bit when Mason returns to his side, trying to casually move just a bit closer
to him without being noticed.

Jerith
Walker

Zach is sitting at
the top of the stairs now. He wants to ask Sydney if she's doing okay, but the
game makes him too anxious, so he's staying away from everyone.

Skylar takes the
can of whipped cream and spins it boredly, holding his face in his hand. He
smiles at Michael when he sees it lands on him. "You, again?"

He crawls forward,
hesitates at remembering him mentioning that he's a freshman, and gives him a
quick peck on the lips before retreating.

Andrew
Gaidry

Michaels face
flushed at the 'again'. He shrugged, glancing down. The kiss ends up being just
a peck, so no big deal or anything. He sits back a bit, looking over at his
brother and Nova again.

Jerith
Walker

"Allll
righty." Chase leans forward and gives it a spin. It lands on himself. He
frowns. "Uhh..." looks around at everyone to see what he should do.

Maya
Rice

Ryan laughs loudly
at Chase's result. "Spin again," he suggests. "Unless you'd like
to try to kiss yourself."

Jerith
Walker

"What fun is
that?" he mutters something under his breath before spinning it again,
and--"ughhhh." just his luck.

Andrew
Gaidry

Red was only half
paying attention. And then he saw the bottle aimed in his direction. He lifted
his gaze to the spinner and grimaced. ".... its your second spin. I vote
kiss youself."

Maya
Rice

Cecily frowns when
Chase lands on her boyfriend. Really? A second time? "Should he spin a
third time?" Cece asks. "I mean...it's sort of boring to have the
same people paired up, right?"

Andrew
Gaidry

Red nodded in
agreement. God. Thank god for Cecily. Cecily is an angel, a blessing. Hes so
thankful for her. SO thankful.

Jerith
Walker

Chase kisses
himself on the hand and passes the bottle onto Rozlyn.

Maya
Rice

 Ryan is almost tempted to protest against
Chase's half assed "kiss," but...he honestly can't be bothered.

Roz takes the
bottle from Chase, moves it to the center. She whirls it around, hoping that at
the very least she doesn't end up being paired with a boy.

Roz's wish comes
true when the bottle points to Fiona. She grins, elbowing her playfully.
"Looks like you got stuck with me."

"Well,"
Fiona laughs, "you aren't the worst option here..." she trails off,
leaning over to Roz and pressing a gentle kiss to her lips.

Lydia watches the
two kiss with crossed arms and a shake of her head. Why were they letting it
linger for so long?

Roz is the first
to draw away. She notices Lydia glaring daggers at them. "You jealous,
Lyd?" She teases.

Lydia snorts.
"Hardly."

"Well,"
Fiona passes the bottle over to Lydia. "I guess it's your turn, Lyd."

Lydia takes the
bottle from Fiona, placing it down and readying herself to spin it. She glances
around the circle, trying to decide who the most ideal person would be. She
certainly wouldn't mind kissing one of the football players.

Lydia spins the
bottle. It lands on Fiona.

Lydia's face
falls. "Really?" She whines. "Do I /have/ to?"

Fiona gives a
nervous laugh. "You've gotta do it, Lyd. There are rules."

Lydia groans,
shaking her head. She eyes Fiona warily for a bit before sighing and muttering,
"At least you aren't Rozlyn."

"Hey!"
Roz protests. "Rude!"

Lydia rolls her
eyes before eventually leaning toward Fiona, closing her eyes as she kisses
her. When she draws back, she quickly shoves the bottle off to the next person.
Her face is a little bit red, and her eyebrows are furrowed angrily.

Fiona takes the
bottle from Lydia when she hands it off, trying to brush off how she was acting
after their kiss. Had it really upset her /that/ much? Shaking her head as if
to clear her thoughts, Fiona focuses on the task in front of her.

Taking the bottle
and spinning it, she watches as it moves and eventually lands on Cecily. Fiona
hasn't talked to her too much -- she mostly knows her through Lydia -- but she
certainly doesn't mind kissing her. Hopefully it won't be an issue with her
boyfriend.

Fiona eyes Red as
she approaches Cece. "He's, like...not going to beat me up for this,
right?" Fiona jokes with a laugh.

Cecily giggles,
immediately shaking her head. She glances back at Red for a moment, hoping that
he doesn't mind. "Red's a good sport," she confirms. "Besides,
this is all just a part of a game, right?"

Fiona nods in
response. "Right. Just a game." She moves a little closer to Cecily,
waiting until the other girl distances herself a bit from Red and then leaning
in. She uses one hand to cup the side of Cecily's face as she brings their lips
together, not letting the kiss last for /too/ long. She trusted Cecily's words
about Red, but she still didn't want to push it too far.

Lydia watches as
Cecily and Fiona kiss, still looking quite upset. Once they're finished, she
comments, "Guess we have one more thing in common now," watching
Fiona as she returns to her side.

Cecily responds
with a small laugh and nod. "Yeah. Guess so."

Andrew
Gaidry

Red blinked with
surprise at the joke. He gives her a worried look. "No, no, of course
not!" He said, sounding genuinely worried that she'd think that. "Its
a game, its fine." He insisted.

He sinks back a
bit, feeling a bit bad that /thats/ the vibe he gave off. He... supposed it was
for the best, but he didn't want people thinking he would /beat them up/.

He gives Cecily a
concerned smile after the kiss. She didn't seem concerned about it, so that was
good.

Maya
Rice

"So,"
Ryan says, interrupting the game for a moment. "We've been around the
circle once, yeah?"

A few people nod
in response.

"Why don't we make things a
bit more interesting, then?" Ryan grins.

"Interesting?"
Sydney tilts her head curiously.

"How many
people do we have here?" Ryan begins to count the guests in the circle.

Sydney beats him
to it. "Twenty," she answers.

Ryan's grin
widens. "Perfect! We'll have a nice even number, then."

"So what
/are/ we doing, then?" Lydia asks, eyebrows furrowed.

"Seven
minutes in heaven," Ryan responds. "We can pair everyone up at
random...see what happens." He winks.

Andrew
Gaidry

Reds gaze almost
immediately snapped to Cecily in concern. "Should we...??" He
whispered, biting his lip. This..... seemed like a not so great idea. But what
did Cece think?

Mason raised his
eyebrows. Seven minutes in heaven. Intense. He wasn't too certain about
this..... uh, thats usually like making out, right? He'd never even /kissed/
anyone before tonight... well.... he's not going to chicken out at this point.

Nicholas looks to
Nova. "... you wanna stay for this game or...?"

Trashley
Marie

Ari sighs loudly
and looks to Cam, squeezing his hand. She releases and looks down afraid.
She'll have to do more then just a lip peck tonight. She doesn't think she'll
be able to handle much more of this.

Cam squeezes back
before she lets go. Cam awkwardly looks up to Alex and smiles. He low key was
hoping to be paired with him. It would be one of the most comfortable options.

Jax looks around,
"I apologize in advance to who I get paired with."

Jerith
Walker

Skylar snorts and
Chase barks out a laugh. They begin chatting with each other.

Valerie walks down
the stairs. "Hey! So, what did I miss?"

Maya
Rice

Cecily's already
looking at Red. She knows that he probably won't want to stay -- remaining here
for truth or dare and spin the bottle was already a risk. She doesn't want to
seem selfish, but she /is/ having fun... "If you want to leave,
then..." she trails off, leaving the choice up to Red. She hopes that
he'll choose to stay, but doesn't want to pressure him into doing so.

Nova, once again,
considers backing out. She's already participated in two games -- one of which
ended in an awful way -- which is more than she usually would do at a party.
Maybe it's good for her to get the experience? "We...we can stay,"
she says finally with a small nod.

Lydia gives Jax a
look full of disdain, praying she doesn't end up stuck with him.

"I'll start
pairing everyone up," Ryan announces, pulling out his phone and beginning
his work.

When Val enters,
he looks up for a moment, simply answering with, "A lot. Like, a
/lot./" He laughs. "We're doing seven minutes in heaven right
now." He taps away at his phone.

Jerith
Walker

Zach hears the
name of the next game and draws a breath, forcing himself to stand up.

He descends the
stairs and approaches Sydney, smiles at her. Realizes that this may come across
as 'I'm joining now because I'm hoping to get paired with you ;))' quickly
drops the smile.

"Are
you....doing all right?" he checks.

He hopes he's
doing this in the right way.

Maya
Rice

Sydney takes a
moment to notice Zach. When she does, she offers him a slight smile in return.
"I'm fine," she confirms with a nod when he asks. "Perfectly
fine." She looks to Ryan for a moment and then back to Zach. "...Are
you going to join in on the fun, finally?" Her smile widens.

Andrew
Gaidry

Cecily seemed to
be pretty on board with all of this. Red hesitated, thinking carefully. There
were certainly risks but.... well, if he got paired up with someone, they didnt
necissarily have to do anything.... maybe he should? And it probably wouldnt
look good, leaving his girlfriend to play a game like this. "I'll.... I'll
stay." He nods. Then pauses. "...... probably." He squeezed her
hand gently.

Nic smiled gently
at her and nodded. "... as long as its alright with you." How funny
would it be if they got paired up again?

Michael leans
against the couch, frowning a bit. He wasnt sure how he felt about this.....
but whatever.

Maya
Rice

Cecily smiles
softly at Red, grabbing his hand and squeezing it, grateful that he wasn't yet
backing out. "You don't even have to do anything other than stand in there
for seven minutes, really," she reminds him, hoping it will relieve a
little bit of stress.

"...Do you
think Ryan will end up putting us together again?" She still doesn't
believe that them ending up as a pair has been completely up to chance.

Ryan, hearing the question, laughs.
"Maybe I will," he calls over to Nova.

Nova startles,
blushing.

Jerith
Walker

"Damn
it!" she places a hand on her hip. "Anyone care to fill me in?"

Zach is #worried.
There's a chance she's lying about being all right, and he doesn't want to
allow her to get hurt just because he wasn't doing his job well enough.

He tries to reason
with himself that she's been able to handle herself just fine before.

And now she is
asking him a question.

"Oh! Nah, um,
I...prefer to stay out of party games."

Andrew
Gaidry

Red nodded,
laughing softly. "... I hope I dont ruin the fun for anyone." He
gently rests his head against hers, holding gently onto her hand.

Nicholas snorts.
"Don't worry." He whispered. "If we get paired up at least then
it'll be whatever you want- we can just straight up chill in there."

Maya
Rice

"You'll be
fine," Cece replies, leaning against Red as well. "Maybe if we're
lucky we'll end up trapped in there together." She laughs.
"Although...I don't know if we'll both be able to fit together in a closet."
She glances up at him. "You're too tall for your own good."

Ryan's too focused
on his phone to help Val out.

Rozlyn, noticing
she needs filled in, speaks up. "Well Ryan's working on pairs right
now...we were playing spin the bottle just a few minutes ago. Truth or dare
before that." She thinks of Shanelle. "We had some, uh...issues with
that."

"Aww,"
Syd whines, nudging him a bit. "You're no fun."

Andrew
Gaidry

Red laughs too,
but his voice has a touch of hurt to it. Possibly a joking hurt, but its hard
to tell. "Awh, c'mon, I can't help being tall." He hoped he got
paired with Cece as well. Well..... no, its the safest. Safest with Cece.

Jerith
Walker

Zach laughs
quietly, awkwardly. "I mean...I guess I could, if you really wanted me
to." Sense of self? Sense of preservation? What are those.

"Issues?"
Valerie raises her eyebrows. "Those sounds interesting."

Jerith
Walker

Stuart returns.
Chase catches him up on what's going on. Skylar pointedly ignores him.

Maya
Rice

Sydney brightens.
"I mean, you might as well. You /are/ at a party, you know? Why not enjoy
yourself?"

"I know, I
know," Cecily laughs with a little shake of her head. "Still,
though."

"It
was...dramatic," Roz says with a half smile, half grimace. "Lots of
screaming."

Trashley Marie

Cam smirks at the
thought of the game and hides his face, sort of hoping to talk to Alex some
more.

Ariel keeps quiet
and to herself.

Jax looks around
at his choices and groans. None he particularly liked.

Maya
Rice

Ryan finally
raises his head, looking up from his phone. "Alright! Pairs have been
chosen! We have...Ariel and Fiona. Lydia, you're with Chase. Cecily and Rozlyn,
Dean and Red," Ryan pauses for a moment, looking at the pair he'd just
mentioned with a small smile, remembering their rather awkward kiss from
earlier.

"Nicholas and
Nova, Eli and Gail...the, uh, one freshman kid," he says with a look over
at Cam, "with Alex. Michael is with Jax, I --" Ryan freezes,
frowning. "...I'm with Sydney." He tries not to groan.

Sydney's gaze
snaps over to him. "What?"

Ryan nods slowly.
"Unfortunately," he says, "It seems like we're stuck
together."

Sydney breathes
out a very, very loud sigh.

"Mason, you're with
Skylar." Ryan's voice displays clear disappointment. Checking over the
rest of the people in the room, he realizes a few people still don't have
partners. "Uh..." Shit. There isn't an even number, is there?

The sound of the
basement door opening is heard, and Eden descends down the steps. "I'm
here, bitches!" She announces, loudly.

Roz grins when she
spots her little sister, waving her over. "Where the hell where you?"

"Drinking,"
Eden responds with a loud laugh.

"That's not a
location," Roz smirks, shaking her head.

"You!"
Ryan says, suddenly pointing toward Eden. "Seven minutes in heaven, yes or
no?"

Eden brightens
immediately. "Uh, hell yeah."

Ryan smiles,
nodding in satisfaction. "Alright. You go with..." Ryan looks.
"Stuart. Val, go with...him." He makes a vague gesture toward Zach.

Andrew
Gaidry

Reds heart skips a
beat. He cast a half concerned half amused look over at Dean.
"Sorry." He said with a soft chuckle.

Alex looked over
at Cam and gave a bright smile. Hey! Now they can actually get to know each
other. Or whatever.

Michael frowned at
the name. He didn't recognize it... who was Jax? And.... Nicholas and Nova. He
felt his stomach tighten, looking warily over at Nova. He scooted closer to his
brother and tugged at his sleeve.

"Nic?"

Nicholas frowned
slightly and looked over, giving Michael a raised eyebrow. "Yeah?"

"What should
I...?"

He glanced over at
Ryan. Nicholas followed his gaze then looked back to Michael and shrugged,
giving him a smile. He ruffled his hair. "Make...." He thinks
carefully. "Good choices."

Nic looked over to
Nova and smiled slightly, raising an eyebrow. "So, you think Ryan's rigged
this or what?"

Mason blinked and
looked over at Skylar, grinning slightly. The one singular other person at this
party he actually sort of knew- or at least, had already reasonably spoken to.

Trashley
Marie

Cameron looks to
Ryan. "I legit said my name bro. It's Cameron."

Jax scoffs.
"Sarah stop being weird."

With a gasp of
pain Cam look away from Jax. The only good news is that he randomly was picked
to be with Alex.

Ariel reassuringly
goes to run Cam's back but he shoves her off to quick.

Jerith
Walker

Zach is nervous.

When Ryan reads
out the names, he relaxes a bit, figuring he came in too late to be added. But
then--

He glances over at
the girl he's paired with, someone he doesn't know, and gives an odd smile.

Valerie looks over
at who she was paired with and beams at him. She wonders if he'll be up for
actually making out.

"Tell me all
about it later." she says to Roz before heading over to meet her partner.

"Hey
there~" she wiggles her fingers in a greeting wave.

Zach waves hi and
stares at the ground. Maybe this was a mistake.

Chase widens his
eyes when he hears he'd been paired with the second homophobe. "Are you
fucking kidding me?"

"Tough
luck." Stuart says to him, then smiles and gives him a nudge when he sees
who he himself has been paired with. He glances over at Eden.

Skylar gives Mason
a grin. The two rich boys. Nice.

"Hey, no
offence Ryan, but you're totally rigging those two--" he indicates Nic and
Nova-- "to be together."

Maya
Rice

"Sorry for
what?" Dean asks with a laugh. "Honestly, I'm /glad/ you're the one
I'm going to end up trapped with." He casts a sideways glance to Eli.
"It could be worse. So much worse."

"He's rigged
it for sure," she responds with a confident nod. While she feels vaguely
nervous at the thought of being locked in rather close quarters with Nic, she
supposes that he's the best option she has right now. She /could/ have ended up
with Sydney instead...Nova shudders at the thought.

"Ehh,"
Ryan says, shrugging. "Fine, Cameron, whatever." He raises his
eyebrows a bit at the rather odd interaction between Cam, Ari, and Jax, but
doesn't say anything, simply moving on.

Lydia looks
offended when Chase speaks up. "Do you have a problem?" She says with
raised eyebrows as the approaches him, hands on her hips.

Eden honestly has
no idea who the fuck she's been paired with. She manages to eventually figure
it out when she notices Stuart looking over at her. Raising a hand, Eden gives
an overly dramatic wave.

"You know
what?" Ryan huffs indignantly. "If I really /was/ rigging this, do
you think I would have paired myself with Sydney?" He looks to her for a
moment. "I mean, no offense, Syd --"

She wrinkles her
nose. "God. None taken. You /should/ have rigged it."

Seeing that Red
seems to be occupied with Dean, Cecily slowly shifts away from him, gazing over
at the girl she's been paired up with. She's met her once or twice, usually
when around Lydia. She's always seemed like an odd friend choice for Lyd --
Cecily never understood why she'd keep someone like Rozlyn around.

Andrew
Gaidry

Red gives a
relieved smile. Maybe Dean wasn't super into the game either? That was a
relief. "Heh... just, y'know.... Hoping I'm not stealing your shot at,
like, getting a few minutes alone in a closet with, like, some girl you could
have fun with." He shrugged a bit. He was honestly glad it was Dean too...
it wouldn't be so bad. They could just hang out in there, probably. Nobody ever
said they had to like.... do anything. Dean was his friend. So this would be
fine.

Nic laughed
softly. "Why on /earth/ would he be rigging us though?" He looked
over at Ryan and whispered to Nova. "Whats his ulterior motive?"

Mason moves to stand by Skylar,
looking at the two Skylar were talking about. Who are they?

Jerith
Walker

Chase rolls his
eyes. "Just that you're a major bitch."

Stuart steps away
from his friends to approach Eden. "Hey, there...I guess we're
partners."

Skylar snorts at
the interactions between Ryan and Syd, and heads over to where Mason is
standing.

Maya
Rice

Dean shakes his
head and chuckles. "No, really, don't worry about it." He turns to
look around at the gathered group, lowering his voice a bit. "There's not
really anyone here that I'm interested in anyway."

Nova pauses,
considering. She honestly hadn't thought of /why/ Ryan would do it...maybe for
a bit of amusement? Drama? She wasn't sure. "Who knows..." Nova
mutters with a little shake of her head.

Lydia's eyes
widen. "Excuse me?" She says with a huff, arms crossing over her chest.

"Guess we
are!" Eden responds. "I'm Eden," she introduces herself,
extending a hand with a grin.

Andrew
Gaidry

 Red smiled, shoulders relaxing with relief.
God, he really was lucky getting paired with Dean. His gaze shifted to the rest
of the group when Dean commented on his lack of interest. "Really...? No
one?" He looked back to Dean. "... is there anyone you /are/
interested in?" He asked curiously.

Nic nodded in
agreement. Weird.

"Hey, closet
buddy." Mason greeted Skylar.

Maya
Rice

"The only
thing I'm interested in right now is passing calc," Dean responds with a
pained smile. He thinks for a moment, trying to remember whether or not he has
a test on Monday...oh well. It doesn't matter now.

"Anyway,"
Ryan says, drawing the attention of the pairs. "The first pair that we'll
be sending in is...Nic and Nova." His gaze moves to them, and a smirk
forms on his face. "Wanna complain about how this is rigged some more
first, or...?"

Nova looks away,
feeling embarrassed. She shifts toward Nic, heartbeat starting to speed up.
This was real. This was a thing she was actually doing.

Andrew
Gaidry

Red gives him a
sympathetic smile. He leaned over and whispered. "Maybe we can sneak some
study supplies into the closet."

Nic snorted.
"Nah- I think you're just /messing/ with us at this point." He gave a
soft smile over to Nova. "... might as well get it over with?" He
said gently.

Jerith
Walker

Chase crosses his
arms, electing to ignore her and focus on everyone else.

"Heey~"
Skylar greets Mason, then swivels on a heel to watch the others. "I wonder
what we're going to be doing in the meantime.

Maya
Rice

"Maybe I am,
maybe I'm not," Ryan responds with a nonchalant shrug, watching the two.

Nova is quiet for
a few moments, but she eventually nods, lifting her head.

Ryan perks up.
"Great! In you go, then." He gestures over toward where the basement
storage closet is located, on the other side of the room. He ushers Nic and
Nova over, winking at them as they go.

Lydia lets out an
exasperated sigh and begins to ignore Chase as well. God, it's going to be a
long seven minutes.

Andrew
Gaidry

Nic gives her a
soft reassuring pat on the back and lets himself be herded to the closet. He
holds the door open for Nova and then slips in after her after the door closes.

Michael stares
after them, frowning slightly.

Mason shrugged.
"Another party game, maybe? Or just.... socializing?"

Jerith
Walker

"Probably
another party game..." Skylar grins lopsidedly. "Honestly, I'm just
waiting for everyone to get drunk as shit."

Maya
Rice

Eli, from his
place in the room, laughs and calls out, "Meeee," in response to
Skylar.

Andrew
Gaidry

Mason laughed.
"You not gonna drink then? Just gonna enjoy the show?"

Jerith
Walker

Skylar laughs
loudly when Eli joins in. "Oh, I'M enjoying the SHOW."

Maya
Rice

"God,"
Dean grins. "Can you imagine?" He laughs with a shake of his head.
"Clearly that would make for a /great/ round of this game."

When another party
game is suggested, Ryan interrupts. "We always /could/ play never have I
ever while we wait." He glances between Mason and Skylar, trying not to
feel jealous. Why were they getting along well? Did they know each other?

Andrew
Gaidry

Red laughed.
"Seven minutes in heaven... quiz show style."

Mason looked over
at Ryan and smiled. "Sounds good to me." He felt like he had a pretty
good chance of winning that one. He hadn't done much. Or... wait. was it
getting the most stuff and you win....?

-Jerith
Walker

Skylar turns to
stare at Mason. He considers making a comment a bout him having said the exact
words he was about to, but decides against it and just flashes Ryan a thumbs
up.

Trashley
Marie

Cam smirks, that
sounded like something Ari would be good at, him not so much.

Jax groans, can
they just make out with some people and let that be done with.

Maya
Rice

Eden brightens at
the mention of the game. "Hell yeah, I'm down!" She announces.

Ryan nods and
smiles as more various guests agree. "Alright...in order to keep everyone
from dying, I think we're going to have to play the version of this that
/doesn't/ involve drinking..." he trails off, glancing around for a
moment. "Everybody knows how it works, right?"

Trashley
Marie

Jax groans and
sets his already empt cup aside. "It was empty anyway."

Cam chuckles at
Jax' words. "I think we are all good." Cam glances to Alex for a
quick second before pulling his knees up to his chest once again.

Ariel looks to
Alex and then to Cam. She gives a soft smile and nods to Ryan's question.
"I think so, and I agree. No drinking."

Andrew
Gaidry

Alex smiles at Cam
and sits by him. Should probably stick close to his closet buddy- that would
make things easier when it's their turn.

Mason hesitated.
He really hated to be the one person who didn't know... he already spoke up for
spin the bottle. ".... go over how it works?" He asked after a
moment. He didn't even know that drinking was usually a part of the game.

Trashley
Marie

Cam immediately
hugs his legs tighter and gives Alex a quick smile before burying his face into
his knees again. -He's right next you. Just chill. Breathe.- He feels a hand on
his back and jumps to find Ariel's hand on his back, he re-buries his head and
hugs his knees. He feels his good fall over his head.

Ariel notices
Cam's discomfort and rubs his back. He jumps at the sudden contact at first but
then hides his face again, she places his hood over his head, knowing he always
found comfort in that for some reason.

Jax scoffs as Alex
sits between him and Cam, but ignores it. He nods to Michael, was that the cute
gay one he noticed earlier?

Maya
Rice

Ryan is just about
ready to explain when...

"It's super
simple," Eden pipes up. "Everyone sits together, holds all their
fingers up." She shakes her head a bit. "Which is totally boring
compared to preparing shots, but since we're not drinking..."

Ryan takes over
the explanation. "You hold up your fingers, and every time that someone
says something that you /have/ done, you lower one. Last person standing
wins."

Jerith
Walker

"Were you
homeschooled before this?" Skylar teases Mason.

Andrew
Gaidry

Mason snorted.
Opened his mouth to object. Hesitated. "Not /entirely/." He crossed
his arms.

Alex tilted his
head, frowning slightly. "Is-" he hesitated. "... Cameron
okay?" He asked Ariel.

Michael missed the
nod at him. But he did see the stare. He looked over at the boy and gave a
slightly confused look. Oh... was /that/ Jaxon?

Trashley
Marie

Ariel chuckled at
Alex. She heard the hesitation in his voice. "Ye, /he/ is fine. He just,
is nervous."

Cam freezes at the
words he hears, they were talking about him, he didn't appreciate it totally.
He popped his head up and looked to Alex ready to say his usual snarky comment.
"Loo-" what was gonna be the word 'look' became dragged out as Cam
saw Alex' blue eyes closer. He gulped, ducking his head again, his face
immediately flushed, he could feel the redness spread across his skin and
goosebumps formed on his neck.

Jax look around
away from Michael. -Don't seem excited.-

Maya
Rice

Ryan, overhearing
the conversation between Mason and Skylar, has to hold in laughter. God, /had/
Mason been homeschooled before? That would certainly explain the lack of
knowledge in terms of party games.

"Sooo,"
Eden says, eyes moving around the group. "We gonna do this, or...?"
She pauses for a moment. "Who'll go first?"

Jerith
Walker

"Online
school, or...?" Skylar looks around the group, wishing they--or at least,
some people--were taking the shots. It would be amusing to watch everyone
getting increasingly drunk playing this game. Buuuut, he has the good sense to
hold his mouth shut.

Sky finds a cushy
spot on the ground and sits back down dramatically.

Andrew
Gaidry

 Mason shrugged, glancing over at him and then
following to take a seat beside him. "Partially... some tutors. And I did
go to actual school when I was younger."

Michael frowns
slightly when he looks away. Maybe.... not Jaxon? Who knows. He looks over at
the closet, frowning still. They weren't.... /doing/ anything in there, were
they?

He! Alex nodded.
"Oh, because the game? Don't worry, it'll be fun! Nothing to worry
about." He gives Cam a reassuring smile.

Trashley Marie

Cam looks up
toAlex. He sees the smile and his face flushes again. "Uh. Well.
Uhm."

Ari giggles
"He is just always nervous when it comes to new people. The situation
doesn't help but you know, he's weird.

Cam scoffs.
"I'm not that weird." He hides his face again.

Maya
Rice

Seeing as no one
else was responding to Eden's question...

"Never have I
ever been blackout drunk," Ryan speaks up, raising the fingers on his
hands, waiting for everyone else to join in and do the same.

Hearing Ryan speak
up, Eli starts to join in and raise his fingers -- however, he immediately
pouts when Ryan comes up with a statement. He reluctantly lowers a finger.
"This is rigged," he determines. "You're rigged."

Eden gives Ryan a
grateful nod when he starts things up. She joins in immediately, lowering a
finger when he gives the first condition. She starts to laugh when Eli comments
on the fairness of the game, rolling her eyes.

Fiona puts a
finger down and then turns to give Lydia an expectant look.

Lydia raises her
eyebrows. "What?"

Fiona smiles,
winking at her.

Lydia glares back
in return before eventually groaning in and joining in as well. She puts one
finger down.

Jerith
Walker

Valerie tilts her
head in thought, then lowers a finger.

Chase smiles and
lowers a finger.

Stuart proudly
keeps all ten up.

Zach glances
around himself, unsure he'd really fit in at all. His fingers remain up.

Skylar thinks
carefully. He calls out, "What if you're been drugged, but like...you
weren't technically drunk."

Andrew
Gaidry

"Its not weird!"
Alex agreed. "That totally makes sense. But I promise I'm not scary, okay
Cam? New people are sometimes just new friends you dont know very well
yet!" He shifted his attention to the rest of the group when Ryan spoke.
Oh! He lifted up his hands, fingers spread. Frowns at the question. No, of
course not. Um... well.... he doesn't.... /think/ so? No, no, he doesnt think
so. He keeps all his fingers up after a moment of hesitation.

Red thinks for a
moment and kept all fingers up. Nope. God no. Blackout drunk is an /awful/
idea.

Michael thinks
carefully. He doesn't think hes gotten to blackout point quite yet.... no,
thats a no from him.

Mason looks over
and raises an eyebrow. His fingers stay up. He pauses. "Wait, no, I dont
think that counts. Being drugged is entirely different than drinking until you
blackout." Mason looked to Ryan for confirmation.

Maya
Rice

Ryan's eyes widen
at Skylar's question. Damn. What kind of situations was he getting himself
into? Ryan's tempted to question him further about it out of curiosity, but...
"You weren't blackout /drunk,/ then," he says, confirming Mason's
statement. "It doesn't count."

Once everyone has
finished either lowering their fingers or keeping them raised, Eden asks,
"Ooh, can I go next?" Without waiting for an answer, she quickly
says, "Never have I ever..." she trails off, considering. Eventually
she smiles and says, "had sex with a guy."

Ryan pouts as he
lowers a finger. "Stop being homophobic," he grumbles.

Eden grins over at
him. "Just trying to win."

Lydia lowers
another finger, frowning. Things weren't looking good for her so far.

Fiona puts a
finger down as well, laughing as she does so. "Worst mistake of my life,
honestly."

"Thank god
I'm straight," Eli sighs with a relieved smile. He glances over toward
Cecily and Red, watching Cece almost expectantly.

"Thank god
I'm /not,/" Sydney laughs in response to Eli's comment, sitting up a
little bit straighter. She still had all of her fingers raised, although she
knew it was only a matter of time before she'd have to lower a few.

Andrew
Gaidry

Mason looked over
at Ryan with surprise. Well, not that he was surprised because he didn't think
that Ryan could- well, it's just, wow. Not that..... not that it was like there
was a lack of people in the room putting a finger down. But.... Ryan was pretty
experienced, huh? He had.... yeah this was certainly the sort of game where you
win by losing. God. All of his fingers remain up.

Alex hums softly,
not even needing to think about this one. All fingers stayed up.

Michael hesitated.
He knew the answer but.... he wasn't certain if he should..... no, it would
draw attention to him, absolutely. He glanced around to see if anyone was
watching him. No.... he shouldn't put his finger down. He didn't want that sort
of attention. He curled an arm around himself, keeping his hand up and trying
to fade into the background as much as possible.

Red keeps all
fingers up, looking around to see who lowered theirs curiously.

Trashley
Marie

Jax had already
had one finger down, from the previous blackout drunk question. Now he had to
place another one down.

Cam glanced over
to Alex with a smile. "Thanks." He kept all his fingers up as well.
He looked to Jax and chuckled. "I haven't blacked out right?" Cam
making sure he was playing fair.

Jax nodded.
"Please, you barely hit drunk before."

Ariel smirked and
had all her fingers up, but so did quite a few people. So did Cam, which
comforted her, and with hearing what Jax said relieved her quite some. He
wasn't as bad as Ariel has thought.

Jerith
Walker

Zach blushes at
the suggestion, and keeps his fingers up.

Chase, Stuart, and
Skylar all lower one, probably uttering various complaints as they do.

Valerie purses her
lips in thought. Keeps hers up.

Andrew
Gaidry

Mason thinks
before calling out. "Never have I ever kissed a girl." He figured
that one would get out a good amount of people.

Alex smiled and
lowered a finger.

Michael kept all
fingers up. Then paused. Oh right. That girl in truth or dare. What was her
name again...? Shanelle, right? The one who called Nova a whore. He resisted
the urge to smile remembering that. He lowered a finger.

Red lowered a
finger.

Trashley
Marie

Jax groaned.
"This is so rigged." He grumpily lowered a finger.

Cam did as well.
"Who isn't gonnA have a finger down for this one?" He said glancing
to Alex and admiring his smile for a few seconds before going back to examining
his scrawny knuckles.

Ari had all 10
fingers up but then she saw a glimpse of Roz. Her face flushed a bright red.
"Oh right." She muttered to herself.

Cam looked up
toward his older sister for a second and smirked.

Maya
Rice

Eden is the first
to put a finger down. She lets out a rather smug laugh. "I've done a /lot/
more than kissing," she states.

Roz elbows her
sister in the ribs as she lowers a finger as well, rolling her eyes. "No
need to brag," she says in a teasing tone.

Eden snickers in
response to Roz, giving her a light shove as well.

Ryan, with a sigh,
lowers a finger. "Middle school was a mistake," he grumbles, shaking
his head at the memories.

Eli puts a finger
down, winking over at Lydia. He grins when he gets a disgusted look and an
eyeroll in response.

Lydia waits until
Eli's stopped staring over at her to very subtly lower a finger, praying that
no one in the circle catches onto it.

Dean puts his
first finger down. At least this wasn't something that would be embarrassing to
admit to.

Cecily glances
over at Red to make sure he isn't watching her before cautiously putting one of
her fingers down, ready with an explanation if it was needed.

Quite a few more
fingers go down in the group -- Fiona, Sydney, Gail.

Jerith
Walker

Zach finally
lowers one. He casts a glance over at Sydney, feeling the urge to check up on
her, but quickly glances away again. Not wanting to seem weird or like he's
coming onto her or anything.

Chase smiles and
sighs as he's left with only seven up.

Stuart rolls his
eyes, and he's down to eight. "Rude,"

Skylar lowers one
and leans back, putting an arm up behind his head but still showing his hand.

Valerie lowers a
finger. Spin the bottle, 5th grade. Also that girl in 8th grade who randomly
kissed her, but would that even be counted as a kiss?

Andrew
Gaidry

"Are you
/fucking/ kidding me? I mean, I knew it would be a good one, but-!" Mason
groaned and leaned back against the couch. Well. At least hes winning at the
game.

Alex giggled
softly.

Red glances over
the room, seeing whos putting down a finger. Surprisingly, pretty much all the
girls? Huh. He didn't see if Cecily had put one down or not... might have? He
swears she had one more finger up before... he doesn't question it.

Maya
Rice

Ryan gives Mason
an amused look, tempted to comment on the fact that he was the only one remaining
after that round...he decides to let it go, however, not wanting to embarrass
him.

Moving onto the
next round, Rozlyn decides to speak up. "Never have I ever been out of the
country." She knows it's not the most interesting topic, but there really
isn't much that she hasn't done or tried at least once.

Sydney is one of
the first to lower a finger. "It barely even counts..." she complains
with a shake of her head.

Dean lowers a
finger, earning a suspicious look from Eli.

"Wait, have you really?"

"I took a
week long trip to Canada," Dean says with a little sigh. "You don't
have any memory of that?"

Eli shakes his
head. "Nope."

Lydia puts yet
another finger down, starting to think that she'll end up being one of the
first ones out.

Jerith
Walker

Zach thinks on
this. It's odd; he hadn't been out of America. He really ought to do that
sometime.

His head is tilted
to one side as he daydreams of possibilities.

Chase, Stuart,
Skylar, and Valerie all lower a finger.

Valerie nudges her
friend and makes a comment to her about it, chats a bit.

Andrew
Gaidry

Masons eyes light
up and he sits back up. "Thank /god/." He lowers a finger.

Michael keeps his
fingers up.

Alex thinks,
squinting. He doesn't.... think so? Not as far as he can recall, anyways.

Red scrunches up
his nose, thinking. No... he thinks all his travels have all been well within
the states.

Trashley
Marie

Jax scoffs.
"Seriously rigged. My dad took me on a trip ONCE ugh, whatever." He
quickly and frustratedly lowers a finger.

Ari chuckles and
keeps hers all up. "I'm still winning. Only one down."

Cameron thinks, if
Ari didn't then neither had he. Cam also notices Alex hasn't either. Hmm. He
seemed like the spontaneous type tho the "lets go to Mexico for the
weekend" type. He shrugged his thoughts away and look to the others in the
group

Andrew
Gaidry

Red figured he
should go ahead and go. The earlier he does his turn, the less likely his safer
ones would be taken. More in the early middle is the safest. "Never have I
ever.... gotten into a fist fight."

Mason thinks.
Hmm... no.

Alex frowns. It
was possible......? He didn't remember anything like that though...... he keeps
his fingers up.

Michael thinks
carefully. Not...... /really/.

Maya
Rice

Eden puts a finger
down. "Stupid asshole ended up with a black eye," she chuckles,
remembering one of the many fights she'd been a part of.

Smiling at Ari's
comment, Roz calls, "You're not the /only/ one," wiggling her fingers
to prove that she still had yet to lower more than one. She felt as if she was being
beaten by her sister, but maybe that was a good thing.

Eli cautiously
lowers a finger, muttering, "I...think?"

Dean has to keep
himself from rolling his eyes. "You know, it's pretty concerning that
you're forgetting things like me being gone for a week and apparently getting
into fist fights."

"You're not
my mom," Eli huffs at him in response, crossing his arms.

Dean inhales
loudly, casting a weary glance to his nearest teammate -- Red. He mouths, 'help
me.'

Gail puts a finger
down with a small frown on her face.

Trashley
Marie

Jax puts a finger
down. He was down to just one hand. "Imma be out real quick."

Cam looks down and
places a finger down. He looks away from Alex and to Ariel.

Ari rubs Cam's
back and smiles. She had not. She still had 9 remaining.

Cam looks around
as other talk. "Never have I ever....uhm, done anything worse then
cigarettes and weed. So like maybe you have smoked cigarettes or weed but you
haven't done like worse drugs." He kept his fingers up.

Jax smirked.
"Finally. Something I haven't done." He admired his nails on his left
hand, which were the only five fingers he had left up.

Ariel smiled her
brothers 'Never Have I Ever' she kept all her fingers up. "I'm guessing
like prescribed stuff doesn't count?"

Cam nods. "Ye
anything prescribed by a doctor for like a medical reason or like that doesn't
count."

Ari nods.

Andrew
Gaidry

Alex thinks
carefully. Nnnope! Not as far as he knows. Only one finger down so far!

Aaaand back to
stuff that Mason hasn't done. Well... at least one was down for him?? God, how
awful would it be to go through the entire game and not get anything. Sure he'd
/win/, but at what /cost/?

God no. Red
grimaced at the thought. If he got caught doing any drugs..... god, no. Seems
like the only thing hes done so far is kiss a girl.

Michael keeps his
fingers up.

Maya
Rice

Eden lowers a
finger again, curiously glancing around to see who else would put a finger down
this round. She knew that the crowd here generally tended to be less extreme
than the people she typically spent time with, but maybe some of them actually
liked to have /real/ fun.

Roz also lowers a
finger, although she seems a bit hesitant.

Lydia smiles and
leans back when finally she doesn't have to put a finger down. Maybe she won't
be the first one out after all.

Ryan initially
doesn't lower a finger, but after a few moments of considering he eventually,
slowly, does. He looks almost distant, lost in memories.

Jerith
Walker

Zach had warily
lowered his second finger when Red had brought up the fist fight.

He casts a glance
over at Sydney, per usual, but remembers that considering they'd officially met
when he fought Caleb...she clearly wouldn't mind.

He hasn't taken
any drugs, so he's good for this round.

The fist fight
question gets Chase, Stuart, and Skylar, but the drugs one only gets Chase and
Stuart.

They discuss this
loudly.

Valerie lowers two
fingers, then calls out, "Never have I ever had sex for money."

Trashley
Marie

Jax rolls his eyes
and lowered a finger. "I wasn’t selling myself. He just paid me." (4)

Cam coughs out a
laugh but slaps his hand over his mouth, a smile very wide. "Uhh, I think
I'm good." (8)

Ariel chuckled to
Jax and and rolled her eyes. She nodded. "Same here, I'm safe." (9)

Cam looked to Alex
for a second. And the. His face flushed at a thought. He looked over to Ariel
and she smiled. He clenched his jaw and tried thinking of some other stuff.

Andrew
Gaidry

Alex giggled
softly and shook his head, keeping his fingers up. No, never for money.(9)

God. Mason had a
feeling the majority of suggestions for this game would be........ not fitting
with his life. (9)

Red bites back a
laugh. No. (9)

Michael thinks
carefully. Nah, he hadn't. (9)

Maya
Rice

Eden raises her
eyebrows, almost upset that she wasn't going to have to lower a
finger."Huh. Something I actually /haven't/ done." She pauses for a
moment, looking as if she's considering something.

Noticing her
sister's thoughtful look, Roz gives Eden a little shove. "Don't you even
think about it," she scolds.

Eden gives her best
impression of an innocent smile.

No one else in the
group lowers a finger. Ryan looks around the circle, laughing a bit when he
spots Jax. "Looks like you're the only one." Moving his gaze around
the circle, he then asks, "Who's next?"

"Never have I
ever held a gun," Cecily says, taking the open oppurtunity to go ahead
with her statement. She cautiously watches the rest of the group, a bit
concerned to see who would put their fingers down.

Eden frowns.
"Damn it. Again?" She doesn't lower a finger.

Roz keeps all of
hers up as well.

Dean lowers a
finger.

Eli looks at him
with wide eyes.

"...What?"
Dean frowns a bit. "It's...not that uncommon...?"

Eli grins,
bursting out laughing. "I'm just --" he has to pause for a moment.
"Just trying to picture /you/ holding a gun."

Dean crosses his
arms defensively, pouting as Eli's laughter continues.

Fiona puts one of
her fingers down with a sigh. "My dad is like...the ultimate redneck. Our
garage is full of them."

Lydia also puts a
finger down, nodding to Fiona's words. She would have made it through the round
had it not been for the sudden hunting and camping trip Fiona's father had
dragged them along on.

Sydney keeps her fingers raised.
She looks a little intrigued by the results of the round.

Trashley
Marie

Jax sighs.
"If taking a gun off of someone else counts as holding it." He
glances over to Cam. His emotion completely changes to sincere. He would reach
over, but Alex would question. He puts his finger down, he was done to three
fingers. (3)

Cam look at his hand
and almost refuses to put the finger down. He gulps and holds back tears. He
puts is down. He looks over to Ariel. (7)

Ari puts her hand
on his back and rubs it. She smiles sadly but she still has 9 fingers up. (9)

Cam hugs his knees
again, awaiting the next question.

Andrew
Gaidry

Oh! Theres one
that Red had /certainly/ done. Red lowered a finger, looking over at Cecily- he
felt a bit obliged to explain. "Hunting." He clarified. "With my
dad." He added, giving her a slight smile. He turned his attention to his
teammates, grinning slightly at Elis reaction. "Its not /that/ weird, is
it?" He laughed softly. "I got a gun for my fourteenth
birthday." He paused, thinking. "... then again, my dad is..... well,
super into that stuff, but still.... is it really that.... uncommon?" He
asked, sticking to Deans wording. (8)

Alex bit his lip,
nose scrunching up as he thought. He doesn't.... remember ever holding a gun.
He doesn't think he ever did, from what he knows. He doesnt think so? (9)

Alex looks over to
Cam, surprise lighting up his eyes. He'd held a gun before...? He didn't seem
happy about it..... it was probably a really bad bad experience. His gaze
softened with sympathy.

Michael speaks up.
"Does a BB gun count...? Probably not, right?"

Mason kept his fingers
up. (9)

Trashley
Marie

Cam felt eyes on
him and looked to his right, he saw Alex' eye and his breathing hitched. He
looked over to Ari. "A-Ariel. Can we switch spots."

Ari looked at her
brother. "I-I don't know." She decided. "No, you are fine Cam. Just
try to push through this."

Cam gulped and
looked down. He nodded.

Jerith
Walker

Zach hesitates for
quite a bit before lowering his finger at the gun suggestion.

He doesn't seem to
happy about it, either. (7)

"FINALLY, one
that I HAVEN'T done." Chase exclaims at Valerie's suggestion, but easily
lowers a finger at the next. He looks over at Dean, Eli, and Red. "No, not
that uncommon." (3)

Skylar lowers his
fingers with a smile at the first, then things for several long moments about
the second. Had he? Yeah, he supposes, technically.

Down to four.

With the gun
topic, Stuart's left with four fingers.

Valerie lowers a
finger, too. (4)

Maya
Rice

"See?"
Dean says rather smugly when multiple people side with him. "I'm surprised
you /haven't./" He says to Eli.

Eli gives a little
shrug. "I don't need a gun when I have /these/ guns," he says as he
starts to roll up the sleeves on his shirt. Dean reaches over and puts a hand
on his arm, stopping him short.

Cecily is a bit
startled to see that so many of her friends /had/ held a gun at some point --
however, she seems to relax a little bit when the hunting explanation is given.
She hadn't really thought of it, but it did make sense. Pulling her knees up to
her chest, Cece shakes her head and says, "I just can't even imagine
having one around..." When Michael asks his question, she shakes her head
a second time.

Sydney watches
Zach with a curious half-smile. Interesting.

Andrew
Gaidry

Alex watches Cam
for a bit more before noticing Cam's not so happy reaction about that. Oop!
"Its okay!" He piped up. He gave Cam a slight smile and then returned
his gaze to the circle.

Red laughed
softly. "You've really never been hunting before? I mean, if you want you
could-" He thinks. "... probably come with, uh, me and my dad- hm. Or
we could just, uh, organize a hunting trip? I dunno, just, if you're
interested." He shrugged. He glanced back at Cecily to guage her reaction.
He smiled softly and sympathetically at her comment. "... well... they
aren't so bad. I dunno.... I think having a gun feels... a bit reassuring, to
me." He added, thoughtfully. "... safer. Like.... knowing I could get
to it if I needed it?"

Michael nodded and
kept his fingers up.

Maya
Rice

Eli perks up at
the offer Red proposes, but is quickly shut down when Dean intervenes.

"He'd
probably shoot himself in the foot," Dean laughs with a shake of his head.

Cecily responds
with a small shrug and smile in response to Red. "Yeah. I guess that makes
sense." She still doesn't quite understand, but she doesn't want to
comment any further on it. Trying to shift the topic, she starts to say,
"Who's going --" but is abruptly cut off by the sound of vibrating
and Ryan's voice.

Ryan fetches his
phone, checking it and swiping away a notification to stop it from vibrating.
"Seven minutes are up," he announces with a grin. "Time to check
on our first couple."

Getting to his
feet, Ryan heads over to the closet. He knocks on the door and announces,
"Time's up!" loudly so that Nic and Nova will be able to hear.
"Go ahead, come on out."

There's a few
moments of nothing, and then the door swings open. Nova stumbles just a bit as
she exits. The sweater she's wearing is slightly askew on her shoulders. She
smooths down her hair as she walks out, keeping her gaze on the ground rather
than on the expectant crowd that she knows must be watching her and Nic.

Andrew
Gaidry

Red laughed
softly, giving a little aww. "We'll just have to keep an extra close eye
on him- oh, and prohibit alcohol of course. No drinking and shooting." He
looks back to Cecily, smile fading a bit. She doesn't seem quite as
enthusiastic about it. Probably wouldn't want to join them on the hunting trip.

Nic walked out
after Nova, moving quickly to help her as she stumbled out, offering her
support with a soft chuckle. "Careful." He said gently, lifting his
gaze to everyone else. "So, whos next?"

Michael stared in
shock at Novas stumble, her disheveled hair, her sweater- No, no, there was no
way- they had /just/- she /wouldn't/- but she- she-! "You /wh-!/" He
managed to catch himself and quickly downed the rest of his cup and stood up
sharply. "I, um, I'm out of- drink." He turned and bolted up the
stairs.

Nic stared in
shock, jaw dropped just sligtly.

Jerith
Walker

Zach doesn't care
much about the couple who'd just exited, as he doesn't really know them. It
doesn't even register that Nova is a part of Sydney's friend group.

He just casts a
nervous glance over at the person he was paired up with, not anticipating his
turn.

Skylar snorts at
Michael's swift departure. "Hell couple hell couple hell couple." he
mutters, loud enough to be heard, casting a glance up at Nic and Nova.

Chase starts
snickering into his knees.

Stuart leans over.
In a decently quiet voice, "Was that the girl who...?"

Chase nods.

Stuart snorts, and
then laughs loudly.

"SO
ANYWAYS," Valerie speaks up loudly, giving a friendly but /very firm/ look
about the room, "Next turn?"

Maya
Rice

"Well now
you're just ruining all the fun," Eli pouts with a shake of his head.
Doing anything without alcohol was always significantly less entertaining than
it was /with/ it.

Nova goes to reach
for Nic's arm for support for a moment, but stops just before she's able to
grab onto him. Although Michael's comment is faint, she's still able to catch
it. Glancing up, she finds Michael in the circle. Her eyebrows furrow together,
and for a moment it looks almost as if she's about to cry.

Blinking a few
times, Nova remains still as she watches him rush away. The other comments from
the rest of the group seem faint and far away. Swallowing, Nova turns to look
at Nic and mutters, "I'm...I'm going to go get another drink too."
Before he has much of a chance to say anything, Nova separates herself from his
side and heads up the stairs, cheeks flushed a bright red.

Sydney's attention
has shifted from Zach to Nova. She watches with a slight tilt to her head as
Michael leaves, and then Nova follows soon after. She remains sitting for a
moment before sighing and standing up. "Save our turn for later,
alright?" She says to Ryan.

Ryan raises his
eyebrows but nods.

Looking to Nic
now, Syd mutters, "Don't worry, I'll go take care of her." She gives
him an almost sympathetic smile before leaving up the stairs as well.

Dean is looking between
Nic and where Michael had been sitting, very obviously concerned. His mouth is
turned downward into a frown.

Ryan, sensing the
tense atmosphere, clears his throat. "Like Val said -- anyway," he
claps once to draw attention. "Our next couple is up. Hopefully it won't
end as badly this time." He chuckles a bit, using his phone to generate
the next pair to go. After a moment he looks up from his phone and announces,
"Dean and Red." Glancing over at them, Ryan laughs. "You two
might want to keep your heads down when you go in."

Andrew
Gaidry

Red rolled his
eyes slightly, giving a faintly amused smile.

Nic looked
worridly over at Nova. "Nova, I am /so/ sorry, I-" He trails off and
lets her speak. He nods and reluctantly lets her go. He looks over to Sydney
and sighs softly, giving her a soft smile and a nod. "Thank you. I
should.... go check on my brother." His brows furrowed slightly and he
sighed then headed up after Sydney.

Red looked over
when theyre mentioned. Oh. He had almost forgotten. He got a bit distracted by
the gun talk. He frowns. "What do you-" And then he gets it. He rolls
his eyes and scoffs slightly, giving a slight smile. "Ha ha." He
climbs to his feet. "Uh.... time for us to go.... stand in a closet
together then." He looks to Dean.

Maya
Rice

Dean's attention
shifts when his name is called. The concerned expression on his face gradually
begins to fade, although he still looks a little bit distracted. Looking over
to Red, Dean stands with a nod and a faint chuckle. "I guess so."

Ryan ushers them
off into the closet.

Trashley
Marie

Cam watches as the
drama unrolls and bends toward Alex a bit. "Uhm, is ours gonna end like
that?" He said not even glancing to Alex, he was just hugging his knees
and leaning a bit toward him. (7)

Ariel rolls her
eyes, it was unreal how dramatic some people were, then again. It seemed like
Nova was genuinely embarrassed and upset. (9)

Jax chuckles
slightly. "I wonder what they did in there. God, imagine. I'm too drunk
for this tbh." He watched Michael run out. "Well he's no fun."
(3)

Jerith
Walker

"Pfft. I
guess Dean and Red get to drop out of the game...cheaters," Valerie
teases.

"Never have I
ever won a game of Never have I ever." Chase says. Then pauses and thinks.
"Nevermind, there was that one time. I retract."

Skylar scoffs.
"Only because everyone playing was crazier than you."

Andrew
Gaidry

Alex's eyes widen.
"God, I /hope/ not!" He whispered back. "I hope that girls
okay..." He mumbled.

"Holy
shit." Mason mumbled to himself with.... literally all of that. He rested
back a bit, looking over at Chase with his attempt at a never have I ever.

Trashley
Marie

Cameron chuckled
at Alex' reaction. "Yeah. I do too. What do you think they did in
there?" Cam said still reaching over. (7)

Jax smirked.
"Ok, I'll give one. Never have /I/ ever won a game of never have I
ever."

He smiled and kept
his 3 fingers up. (3)

Cam smiled.
"Well, I've never played so." He places a finger down. He smirks to
Alex and sits straight again. He was growing a little more comfortable around
him. (6)

Ariel frowns.
"I have... but I gues that means I'm good." She keeps her fingers up.
(9)

Andrew
Gaidry

Alex frowns and
thinks. ".... kissed, probably." He paused. "... maybe more?? Or
maybe they just talked?"

Alex looked over
at Jax when he spoke. Okay, so, never won a game of never have i ever... so,
thatnwould be, put down a finger if you'd won? He thinks carefully. Not as far
as he knows! He keeps his fingers up. (9)

Mason had never
played before, so... that was a no. Although he ceetainly thinks he has a
pretty damn good chance to win here. (9)

Maya
Rice

Gail considers
this for a moment before eventually putting one of her fingers down. It had
been all the way back in middle school, but she /had/ been the
winner...probably due to the fact that all of the statements had something to
do with kissing boys or wanting to date them. Her nose wrinkles at the memory.

Ryan keeps all his
fingers up as he returns to the group, leaning back when he sits down. He'd
honestly thought that he'd be doing a lot worse than he currently was...maybe
he'd win /this/ game. Glancing over at Mason, Ryan starts to reconsider. Maybe
not.

Eden shakes her
head, laughing a bit. God. Imagine how embarrassing it would be to
"win" at this game.

Jerith
Walker

Ironically enough,
Chase is the only one in my group of characters down there who /has/ won.

He lowers a finger
and is down to 2.

Andrew
Gaidry

Nicholas returns
from upstairs with Michael. Michael doesnt look up as he trails closely behind
his brother. Nicholas takes his seat and Michael sits close to him, avoiding
all eye contact and trying to be... as unnoticable as possible. Trying not to
attract attention.

"What'd we
miss?" Nic asks.

Maya
Rice

Ryan looks up when
Nic and Michael return, a small, amused smile on his face as he watches how
Michael nearly tries to use his brother to hide himself. "/You/ missed a
bunch of rounds of never have I ever," he says to Nic, and then,
"your brother only missed one round or so." Looking to Michael, Ryan
asks, "Have you ever won a game of never have I ever, kid?"

Eden, waiting for
things to pick back up again, starts to survey the group. She counts how many
fingers each player has up, impressed by a few people. However, when she
notices Mason, a laugh is startled out of her. Wow. Only /one/ finger down?
That was sort of sad.

Andrew
Gaidry

"Um..."
Michael grimaces slightly. "Uh, no." Michael dropped his gaze to his
drink and took a long sip before setting it down and raising his fingers again.
How many did he have up again? Uh... nine? Yeah, nine. (9)

Nic raised an
eyebrow. "Oh, never have I ever huh?" He chuckled softly. "I
guess its a little too late to join?"

Maya
Rice

Ryan nods to
Michael and then shrugs in response to Nic. "You could join in now if you
want. It's not like we're playing for a reward."

Eden glances over
to the new player -- Nic -- and then to Mason. "Wanna bet he'll have all
his fingers down before you even hit eight?" She calls over to him in a
rather smug tone, laughing as she does so.

Andrew
Gaidry

Nic nodded,
chuckling. "Sure."

Mason looked over
to Eden with a frown when she spoke, feeling a spark of indignance. "Its
not like I've had much of a chance to do most of these things. I'm sure theres
plenty I've done that very few people here have done, but all the never have I
evers seem to be a very /particular/ niche that I haven't had much access to,
so. " He shrugs, trying to ever sound and seem nonchalant about it.

Maya
Rice

Ryan gives Nic a
little smile and nod. "Nice." He looks around, realizing that they'll
need another person to take a turn so they can move on. Glancing once more at
Nic's younger brother, Ryan suggests, "Why don't you go?"

Eden listens to
Mason's rambling with raised eyebrows, eventually laughing, shaking her head,
and saying, "That sounds like a bullshit excuse for being a shut-in who
has never done anything fun in their entire life."

Andrew
Gaidry

Mason feels a very
sharp flash of irritation and smiles over at her. "Sorry, I didn't realize
it was such a huge difficult accomplishment to slut around and take drugs and
get drunk. The more you know, huh?" He smiles cheerily at her. "I
could probably finish off most of these never have I evers at this
/party./"

Michael jolted a
bit at Ryans voice. Was he speaking to- ah. Uh. Michael grimaced slightly. What
/hasn't/ he done? "Um.... never have I ever, uh..... had... um....
called....... a partner..... Daddy?" He feels like he just rolled dice to
come up with something but it works. He certainly hasn't done that. "Or
uh, vice versa. Like, been called Daddy?" He added, to hopefully make it
more fair.

Maya
Rice

"Ooh,"
Eden says, her eyes widening a bit. "Did I hit a nerve?" Despite his
rather aggressive comment, she seems to be quite unaffected. After all, it
wasn't as if she hadn't heard worse comments thrown her way. She's about to say
something further when Michael speaks. She seems quite surprised to hear his
statement -- it wasn't something she would have expected someone like /him/ to
say. She keeps her fingers up, feeling maybe a little annoyed that she hadn't
been able to lower one just to spite Mason. Turning back to him with a smile,
she asks, "You sure you could handle all of the things you've missed in
/one/ night?"

Ryan sputters out
a loud laugh when Michael speaks. He lowers a finger while shaking his head.
"I don't think I've ever broken up with somebody so quickly," he
comments. He can vaguely catch a bit of Mason's discussion with Eden, but
doesn't seem too concerned or interested just yet.

Nova and Sydney
descend back down the basement stairs just as Michael takes his turn. Nova's
eyes widen a bit, and she wonders what the hell she's just walked into.

Standing at the
bottom few steps, Nova glances over at where Michael sits with Nic, a frown on
her face as she watches him. Was he trying to take the spot she'd had at Nic's
side earlier? Feeling a small flare of something similar to jealousy, Nova
readies herself to head over and simply sit near him despite their conflict --
however, she's stopped short by Sydney, whose eyes are alight.

"Put a finger
down," Syd encourages in a hushed tone. For a moment Nova is puzzled, but
she eventually manages to work out what is going on.

"Come
on," Syd pleads. "He'll --"

Leaving Syd behind
and taking a step toward where Nic and Michael are sitting, Nova puts a finger
down on the hand that isn't holding onto her drink, making brief eye contact
with Michael as she settles down on Nic's other side.

Ryan, gaze
following Nova and Sydney, starts to speak. "Oh! Look who else is..."
he trails off when he notices her lowered finger. He glances to Nic, then back
to Nova, and then once at Michael before breaking into a grin.
"Ohhh."

Sydney returns to
the group as well, selecting a spot fairly close to Ryan, praying that he'd be
distracted enough to not comment on it. She practically beams over at Nova,
feeling immensely proud.

Andrew
Gaidry

Mason snorted.
"Sure. They certainly don't seem particularly /difficult/ to
accomplish." He thinks. "... the gun one might be a bit difficult,
unless someone happened to bring one tonight."

Michael glanced
over when he hears Sydney and Nova come back down. He quickly averts his eyes
ad stares down at his cup. He glances up and over at Nova just in time to see
her lower a finger and make eye contact. He snapped upright, anger flashing in
his eyes. His fingers curled against the carpet and squeezed. He glanced over
at Nic, frowning. She was /lying/. She was just a lying /bitch/ there was /no/
way.

Alex thinks. Lets
see.... he thinks ummm..... yeah, that one girl did once? He thinks she had
been half joking, but that still sorta counts, right? He lowers a finger.

Jerith
Walker

Skylar lowers a
finger with a very long, loud, annoying sigh.

He's quickly
distracted, however, when he hears snippets of the conversation going on between
Eden and Mason.

"Whaaachu
talking about?" he lies down and props himself up on his elbows and grins.

Valerie feels a
blush spread across her cheeks.

N...no, she hasn't
done that.

Chase and Stuart
simultaneously lower a finger.

Chase stares at
his one remaining finger, then looks around to see if anyone else is also down
to one.

Maya
Rice

"Well,
yeah," Eden says, shifting a little closer toward Mason so that it's
easier for them to talk. "Clearly /I/ couldn't make it out of the country
tonight..." Seeming to have an idea brewing, Eden grins. "You think
you could get more done tonight than I could?"

When Skylar slides
closer, Ryan decides he's going to start paying attention. Glancing over at
Mason and trying to be not incredibly obvious about the fact that he was
listening in on his conversation, Ryan waits to hear more.

Once the round is
finished, Nova takes a quick sip of her drink before clearing her throat and
asking, "Can I go next?"

"Huh?"
Ryan's attention is drawn away from Mason for a moment, brows furrowing
together. Eventually he seems to realize what is being asked and gives Nova a
nod of confirmation. "Go ahead."

Nodding, Nova
begins. "Never have I ever been jealous of somebody else's
relationship." She feels vaguely guilty as she says it, and even more
guilty when she turns to give Michael a pointed look, but it doesn't stop her
from doing so.

Sydney has a wide
grin on her face. "Holy shit," she whispers.

Ryan, glancing
between Skylar and Mason, slowly puts a finger down. He's too focused on the
pair and Eden to notice the tension in the room, notice that no one else seems
to be responding or even moving.

Andrew
Gaidry

Mason glances over
at Skylar before looking back to Eden. He responds to her first, lips curling
into a grin. "/Think/ I can? I /know/ I can." He looks back to
Skylar. "We're...." He looks back to her. "... making a
bet?" He said, raising an eyebrow to see if his wording was accurate.

Michael stiffens
at Novas statement. His fingernails dig into the carpet and he feels tears well
up in his eyes. He hates her. He fucking hates her. Who does she fucking think
she is?

Michael.... isn't
putting up with this, he can't take any fucking more of this. He shoves himself
off the ground, grabs his cup and shoots back upstairs, slamming the door
behind him.

Trashley
Marie

Jax smiled, 'Daddy
is my middle name.' he proudly puts a finger down. He looked like a small child
that just learned to count.

Ari rolled her
eyes, her and Cam both kept their fingers up.

Jax, Ari, and Cam
had all been jealous before.

J.1 C.6 A.7

Jerith
Walker

 "About...trying new things?" Skylar
thinks he can piece together what's going on, but he wants to be sure.

Chase snorts and
elbows Stuart, watching Michael ascend the stairs. "You seeing this?"

Stuart rolls his eyes.
"Freshman bitches." he mutters back.

Zach lowers a
finger without much thought, then scoots closer to Syd with a frown. Or gets up
and walks over to her discretely. Whatever is relevant for everyone's current
sitting positions. "Is everything okay...?"

Valerie makes the
:I face. Leans back. Welp.

Trashley
Marie

Cam leans to Alex
a bit. "I wanna talk to you, but like should I wait for the closet
time?"

Andrew
Gaidry

Alex's eyes light
up and he scoots closer. "We can talk!" He whispered over. "We
can do whatever in the closet, we don't gotta wait to chat."

Trashley
Marie

Cam smiles,
sitting up straighter and stretching his legs out. "Hi." Cam placed
his arms back and leans on them, smiling. He gives a small giggle and looks
over to Alex.

Ariel looks to
Cam, -Where did that come from?- she didn't ask him, he'd cower back into his
hole like a rabbit who was frightened by something. She simply smiled and
focused on the conversation.

Maya
Rice

Eden nods in
confirmation to Skylar. She's too focused on the potential bet with Mason to
pay much attention to whatever drama is currently going on. "About doing
things we've never done," she says with a sideways glance to Mason.
"Which for you seems to be a /lot,/" she says with a chuckle.

As soon as Michael
leaves, the vague traces of guilt Nova had been feeling start to become more
intense as she realizes what she's done. Stomach churning, Nova begins to curl
in upon herself, resting her chin on top of her knees and anxiously fidgeting
with a few strands of her hair, curling and uncurling them around her fingers.
She can't bring herself to look over at Nic. She can only imagine what he must
think of her right now. /God./ Why had she /done/ that?

Sydney glances up
when Zach approaches, scooting over just a bit so that he has room to sit
beside her. "Everything is /great,/" she laughs lightly, still gazing
over at Nova. Syd never would have thought that she had it in her.

Ryan is still
fairly distracted by Mason, Skylar, and Eden. As he starts to understand what
exactly it is they're planning, his concern for the two -- although mostly
Mason -- rises.

Andrew
Gaidry

Mason snorted.
"I'd offer some things for you to do that I've done, but they arent
really.... easy one nighters." He crossed his arms and leaned forward a bit.
"We putting any stakes on this bet ooor...?"

Nicholas watched
his brother go with concern before looking back over at Nova. he opened his
mouth to speak, hesitated and bit his lip, looking back over at the stairs. He
glanced back over at Nova. Sighed softly before speaking gently to Nova.
"... I'm gonna to go after him. I'm... I'm sorry about all of this."
He pulled himself up and went after his brother.

Alex giggled
softly. "Hey." He tilted his head gently after a small pause.
"... do you go to Kingswood? I don't think I've seen you around
before."

Trashley
Marie

Cam nods. "I
just started. I did homeschooling and I'm a freshman. So not only do I not know
any upper class man, but I also don't know anyone in my own grade." Cam
says sort of sadly. "That's why I came here, in hopes to mingle, but I
just didn't work great Ig."

Andrew
Gaidry

Alex gazed
curiously at Cam. "Wow! Have you always been homeschooled?" He smiled
a bit at the second part. "... well, you made /one/ new friend at
least!"

Trashley
Marie

Cam smiled.
"No, it's a long story. I started in the middle of 6th grade." He
looked down shyly and looked back to Alex. "Thanks, I'm glad we are
friends."

Cam diverted his
attention to the drama that had just occurred. He watched as a testy eyed
Michael ran out, he of course had just tuned in and had no idea what just
happened. Alex had distracted him too much. "Wait, w-what the hell just
happened?"

Jerith
Walker

"A-alright..."
Zach says uncertainly, taking a seat near to Syd. He has to remind himself that
she's...like this.

Still doesn't seem
to be a very pleasant situation, however.

Skylar snorts.

Kids.

"Don't go
/too/ over the top."

Chase glances
around at the other people in the room. "Are we continuing the game?"

Stuart shoots a
glance up at the doorway Michael had disappeared through. "Never have I
ever ran out of a room crying."

Skylar hears this
and sits up again, scooting back. "Wait; what the fuck's going on?"

"Romance
drama." Stuart replies.

Valerie shoots a
glare over at Stuart when he takes his turn. "Oh, shut the fuck up!"

She's about to do
or say something more, maybe go up after the kid, but...his brother seems to
have that handled.

She can't think of
anything else constructive to say so she just lets herself fade back in with
the crowd.

Ryan will probably
take control.

Maya
Rice

Eden shrugs.
"I don't really have anything to offer...the satisfaction of
winning?" She laughs when Skylar comments. "Please. Over the top is
my middle name."

Nova doesn't look
up when Nic talks, still afraid to meet his gaze. She avoids meeting anyone's
gaze, really, trying to tune out everything that's going on.

Turning to look at
Zach, Syd asks, "Is this your first party?" She grins. God, what a
great first party if so.

Ryan's attention
is finally drawn away from Mason when Valerie shouts at Stuart. Eyebrows
furrowing together, he tries to piece together exactly what is going on.

Andrew
Gaidry

Alex looked at the
situation with surprise, looking worridly over at Cam. "Do you think he's
alright?" He whispered.

Mason shrugged
slightly. "Alright." He smiled. "Thats fine with me." He
looked over at Skylar and grinned, then followed his gaze and attention back to
the situation. Oh. He'd gotten a bit distracted as well.

Trashley
Marie

Cam was thinking
of going up to talk to him, but him and Michael had actually left off on the
wrong foot last he checked. He'd better stay out. He glanced to Alex and shook
his head. "I don't think so. I probably can't go talk to him, I was a
bit... forward last one we spoke..." Cam said nervously. He listened to
the Never Have I Ever and shook his head. "Is that really necessary?"
He said sort of offended. "Considering it just happened, maybe be a bit
more sensitive."

Jerith
Walker

Stuart snorts.
"Boy, high school is a lot different from when I was a freshie." He
mutters. Hanging out with the normal groups is weird.

Chase nudges him.
"You kinda deserved that.

"You kinda
did." Skylar has an amused smile on his face.

Valerie highkey
waits for Ryan to move them along. She flops backwards onto her back.

Zach chips away at
his nails anxiously.

Maya
Rice

Although he isn't
entirely sure what he missed, Ryan can tell from the tense feeling in the room
and the general mood of those gathered that it was probably something intense.
He frowns a bit with a glance over toward Mason. Had he /really/ been that
distracted?

"...Well,"
Ryan says, clearing his throat. "I'm going to be honest, I have /no/ idea
what the hell just happened, so..." He glances around with a sheepish
smile. "Somebody want to continue so we don't all have to sit here in this
awkward silence?"

Andrew
Gaidry

"Oooh..."
Alex looked sympathetically at Cam. Forward? He glanced over in the direction
of the person who gave the Never Have I Ever. He starts to put a finger down
before hearing the protests. Oh. Oh, that was probably a- oh. He hesitates.
Should he put down a finger?? Or was he just... making a mean joke. Does he put
down a finger anyways?

Mason raises an
eyebrow at the stuff. He tries to piece together what happened. Someone ran out
of the room crying.... those two guys are gone- ah, it was probably that one
guy. Huh. What happened?

Mason looked over
at Ryan. Glanced over at Eden. Hmm... he didn't really know enough about her to
know what she has or hasn't done.... but he was rather tempted to try and get
one that she really wouldn't want to do that he'd be okay doing.... He crosses
his arms and thinks.

Trashley
Marie

Cam rolls his
eyes. "Never have I ever been a huge dick to someone else simply because
they are different." (6)

Ariel smirks and
keeps a finger up. She playfully shoves him very lightly and shakes her head.
(7)

Jax groans.
"Oh my god, whatever. I'm out." He puts down his last finger and
slides out of the circle, grumpily." (0)

Jerith
Walker

"I'll take
that challenge." Skylar says, then clears his throat and raises his voice.
"Can we all agree that the game is over? I mean, people are coming and
going, and the game seems to have taken on a rather sour note,
soooo........"

Maya
Rice

Ryan's gaze shifts
to Skylar as he speaks. He seems vaguely annoyed by the suggestion, although he
is correct in noting that things seem to be going downhill. With a huff, Ryan
crosses his arms and leans back. "Is there any party game that this group
can manage /without/ someone having a breakdown?"

Eden looks to
Mason once again. "Well, now that the game has been ruined...we /could/
start working on our little challenge." She grins. "...You think you
can manage a few of yours while you're locked away in the closet?" Eden
winks over at him.

Andrew
Gaidry

Mason turns his
attention to Eden when she speaks. He raises an eyebrow and thinks. "Lets
see... what all was said? We should probably make a list before starting."
Mason flips out his phone and unlocks it, pulling up a notepad.

Trashley
Marie

Cam nods agreeing
with Skylar, he looks to Alex and then around the group. "So what are we
doing now?"

Ariel smirks.
"You just don't want to be bored."

Cam rolls his
eyes. "Yes because love being bored."

Ari giggled
slightly and sat back. "I am a people watcher, I am always
entertained."

Jax cuts in and
coughs loudly. "All I know is that we need to do something." He
stands up and leans against the wall. "And I need a water. I will be right
back." He marches his way up the steps.

Jerith
Walker

After observing
everyone's reactions, Skylar goes on, "All right, what do you all think of
Would You Rather?"

"Sounds fine
to me." Valerie speaks up. "We'll see how /this/ one ends,"

Zach continues to
sit there awkwardly.

He thinks about
leaving the basement, but it's his responsibility to make sure Sydney doesn't
get hurt--she had /requested/ that--and if she gets hurt while he's gone...

Also, what would
he even do?

Parties definitely
aren't his thing.

"Pfft..."
Chase stares at his last remaining finger before reluctantly putting it down as
the game ends. "Pussies."

Stuart rolls his
eyes. "I feel like this is partially my fault." he mutters mostly to
himself, not feeling bad about it.

Chase hears this
and snorts quietly back at him. "High school drama; what do you
expect?"

Gale enters the
basement with Marlene.

Andrew
Gaidry

Nic headed down
the stairs shortly after Marlene and Gale entered, glancing over the room for
Nova.

Marlene walks
slowly down the stairs holding onto Gales hand to make sure she's steady.

Trashley
Marie

Jax walks down
with a bottle of water in hand and pops back into his original spot.

Maya
Rice

"Fine,"
Ryan responds with a shrug and a sigh. Even something as tame as this would
probably result in somebody else storming out of the basement while crying.

Eden watches
curiously as Mason works on creating the list, already thinking of how she's
going to complete some of her tasks.

Jerith
Walker

Skylar's attention
is drawn to Marlene and Gale as they enter. "Hey, Ryan, there are newbies.
Should we add them to the 7 minutes in heaven game?"

Gale tenses when
she sees Sky's gaze on her, wondering if she did something wrong.

Stuart glances up,
feeling annoyed. Too late, he's already with Eden.

Andrew
Gaidry

Nic sits down back
at his spot next to Nova.

"... hey
Nova." He said softly.

Maya
Rice

Nova startles a
bit as he sits beside her, quickly trying to play it off. She gives a nervous
almost pained smile, muttering, "Hey," in response.

Andrew
Gaidry

He gives a faint
smile in return, his eyes still showing his worry. His smile faded.
"I'm... I'm really sorry about tonight." He rubbed the back of his
head, looking away. "I promise you he isn't usually like this. He's...
he's a good kid."

Maya
Rice

Nova's smile drops
slowly as well. "It's..." she trails off. "Don't worry about it.
I should have, um..." she trails off once more, starting to wrap a strand
of hair around one of her fingers.

Andrew
Gaidry

He shook his head
gently. "No... the way he was acting was...." He sighed softly.
"... I think he's been drinking, honestly. And I know that's not an excuse
but... just, this isn't about you, I promise you. You haven't done anything
wrong. I'm really sorry about... all of this."

Nic pauses when
others entered the basement, his gaze landing with surprise on Michael. He
hadn't expected Michael to return on his own... especially not this soon.

"Michael?"
He calls over.

Michael hesitates
at the bottom of the stairs, his eyes drifting over to his brother. And Nova.
He drops his gaze, his stomach feeling like it dropped too. He felt a tiny
spark of indignance, but mostly just felt sick. He stands there for a moment
more before heading over.

Michael stops in
front of them, pausing before sitting down. His gaze locked off to the side,
downcast. Not looking over at Nova. ".... 'm sorry." He mumbles
softly, his gaze flickering over at Nova for a second.

Mason glanced up
from his list at the newcomers, pausing when he spots his sister. Oh. That
could complicate things. He knows for a /fact/ she would not be down with this
little bet they have going on.

Marlene blinks in
surprise and stops at Skylars comment. Seven minutes in heaven? Seems the games
have... intensified? She glances over worridly at Gale. "Um... no, it's
alright. Uh... we should probably sit this one out, I think. Don't worry about
it." She smiled over at Ryan.

Trashley
Marie

Cam grins and sits
to face Alex. "Do you have any clue what is even going on?" He holds
his forehead with his index finger and thumb rubbing in circular formation. He
closes his eyes lightly and sighs. "I am getting a head ache."

Ari looks to her
left to see Ryan and sighs, she bites her lip nervously and sighs. She looks
around watching people.

Jax took a sip of
water and laid back covering his face. "Tell me when our lives are getting
interesting. Thanks."

Maya
Rice

Nova watches
Michael with an uncertain, anxious expression. Although she had doubts that the
apology was sincere, it would be for the best if she just accepted it. "Me
too," she responds quietly, fiddling with a strand of hair as she speaks.
She shifts a little closer to Nic subconsciously.

Ryan gives a
little nod to Marlene. "As you wish," he responds, gesturing for her
and whoever she had dragged along with her to take a place in the group.
Clearing his throat, Ryan says, "Alright. Would you rather. Anyone want to
go first?"

Jerith
Walker

"N-no, it's
okay!" Gale squeaks. She casts her gaze to the ground, thinking of all the
many games she has yet to experience. "There's a lot I haven't tried out
yet."

"Pretty sure
the only person who would still be available as a partner is her." Skylar
says with an amused smile, indicating Marlene.

Andrew
Gaidry

Alex thinks.
"Uh.... I think- um... Not sure really." He gave a slight apologetic
shrug. "Uh, do you want to take anything for your headache? Ryan might
have something around the house? An Advil or something."

Michael lifts his
gaze to meet Novas, a touch of worry in his eyes. He drops his gaze quickly and
nods gently. He quietly sits down close to his brother and looks out at the
rest of the room.

"Are you
sure?" Marlene still looked uncertain. She looked over at Skylar when he
spoke, looking a bit surprised. Well... that actually could be a good idea. She
could certainly make sure Gale was safe that way.... "Do you want to do
that?" She asked Gale. "Partner with me for the game?"

Mason finishes
writing the list and shows it to Eden to see if he missed anything. He glances
over at his sister. He wonders if he can manage this without her finding
out....?

Ash Marie

Cam groans.
"Idk. I will be okay. I sometimes think I probably shouldn't have
came." He sighs and lays back.

Jax rolls to his
side.

Ariel sighs.

Maya
Rice

Eden gives a nod
after quickly looking over the list. "Seems like you've got
everything," she confirms.

Ryan watches
Marlene and Gale, fingers tapping impatiently on the ground. His phone buzzes a
moment later. "You should figure it out quickly. We're onto the next
pair." He gets up from his spot and approaches it, knocking loudly on the
door.

Jerith
Walker

Gale smiles and
nods. "Sure!" she casts a quick glance over at Stuart, who is
pretending not to pay attention to her.

Andrew
Gaidry

"Aw... not
having fun?" Alex asked, looking sympathetically at Cam.

Marlene gives Gale
a bright smile. "Alright! We'll be closet buddies then. Where do you wanna
sit?"

Mason glances over
at Marlene again nervously before returning his gaze to Eden. "So, whoever
does the most from this list by the end of the party wins then? Or should we
say by midnight?"

The closet door
opened and Red stepped out, sort of ducking his head a bit and not looking at
anyone. He glances back at Dean after getting out. His eyes look a bit red and
wet.

Maya
Rice

Eden hums
thoughtfully. "By the end of the party. That way we can maximize our
fun." She grins.

Dean exits shortly
after Red, his eyes fixed on him. He gives a small smile before heading back to
the group, sitting down in the circle. "So...who's being sent in
next?"

Ash Marie

Cam shrugged.
"I don't know. I am not used to social events like these." Cam
watched as Dean exited and frowned. Directing to Alex. "Are we-?"

Sarah smirked.

Jax groaned and
shuffled around.

Andrew
Gaidry

"Ooh..."
Alex lifted his head. "Oh! Is it our turn?"

After a short
pre-arranged exchange with Ryan, presumably with Ryan telling them to go ahead,
Alex heads off to the closet with Cam.

Red returns to the
circle as well, sitting down next to Cecily.

Mason returns
Edens grin. "Sounds good. Any particular stakes for this bet, or is this
just for fun?"

Jerith
Walker

Valerie is
occasionally casting concerned glances over at Nic. She'll check up on him
later.

Skylar claps his
hands loudly. "SOO, 'WOULD YOU RATHER', ANYBODY?" He calls with the
intent of bringing everyone's attention back to the proposed game.

Zach continues to
sit there anxiously, keeping an eye on Syd.

"I wonder
what the fuck went on in there." Chase comments quietly to Stuart.

"Was Red
crying?" Stuart snorts. "Never a dull moment in there."