This is to all the lovely MXers whom I love more than some of my RL friends, and even some family. Thanks for being here for me to lean on. I love you all.
To Kalene and Jess, my sexy and my smart friend. Kalene you are epically awesome, and I love you like another sister. Jess, well you're a genius, hun. What else can I say? I love you both.

Note: No character is a filler. Every single person is based off of someone I know. Names are the same. Personalities are similar. Looks and age are fudged slightly or completely off.

For those of you in the story who have any specific requests about their character, ask/tell me about it and I'll see what I can do.

Again, I love you all. You guys are awesome. *done with mushy/explanatory rant*
*hugs*
*offers Jess and Lamp tea*

Party

We were the best of friends though, how we'd gotten so close I'll never know. Maybe it was the school. The horrid violent, dangerous, hell they'd called a school. Or maybe it was just us. Maybe we'd meant to help each other through our screwed up lives. I don't know and I probably never will. Nonetheless, we were close and it's a good thing, too, because damn, did we need each other.

Our group was fairly large, though it didn't stay that way. There was Nathan, Fishy, Lamp, Pyro, Kayte, Ni, Kalene, Jess, Ranting, and me, Fate. Some of the nicknames were quite random; some of us didn't even have nicknames. All of us were girls; there wasn't a guy in the bunch.

Our ages varied. At the time Lamp, Kalene, Jess, and I were sophomores. Nathan, Kayte, and Ni were seniors. Fishy, Ranting, and Pyro were freshmen. Strangely, there wasn't a junior among us.

I remember the day it all started. The last week of summer vacation. Two days before school started. Ni was having her annual, "Last Party of the Summer" party. She always did it two days before so the students would have a chance to sober up.

Kayte, Pyro, and I were getting ready at Nathan's house.

Kayte was meeting her boyfriend, James, at the party. She was practically glowing while we helped her get ready. I was doing her make up and Py was doing her hair. Nathan was scavenging her closet for something Kayte could wear.

"Don't make me look slutty," she said, giving me a look.

"Fine, fine. Have it your way."

I toned it down a bit. Py was trying to get Kayte's light-red hair to work with the straightener. Nathan was making a mess of her closet, tossing clothing all over the room. She finally pulled out a sleeved red dress that was one of the few non-slutty dresses she owned.

Kayte put on the dress, which made me start giggling.

"What?" she asked, while the others gave me funny looks.

"You look beautiful. The dress just reminds me of Ms. Scarlet from Clue."

Kayte looked into the full-length mirror and Py and Nathan looked at Kayte, before we knew it, we were all giggling.

Next to get ready was Nathan. She put on a black mini-skirt; a button down, white, men's shirt; white knee-high socks; black and white high heels; and a tie. Most girls would have looked slutty in this. She made it look classy, she made everything look classy. Her dark blonde hair was pulled back into a high ponytail.

Py's dark brown hair was in a bun, and she had on a green dress with matching heels. She looked great.

I myself was in a white, blue, and green top and tight black pants. My blonde-brown hair was down and straightened. I had on blue heels the same shade of blue that was in the top.

I shoved a switch blade into my pocket. Half the school will be at the party, the more dangerous half at that. I know Jess always has an extra knife on hand, just in case, but I feel better having my own.

We piled into my car, a Cadillac STS. I'm the designated driver this time. We got to Ni's house within ten minutes. (I was speeding…)

"Back at midnight means back at midnight. If you aren't here, I'll leave without you."

I'm dead serious, too. All of us have been left behind at one time or another, because we have the same policy.

They all nod.

"Now, go get drunk as hell, and have some fun!"

We went into the house and Ni was standing there.

"Is Ranting with you guys?" she asked.

"Nope. She's not here already? Doesn't she always come early?"

"No. I haven't seen her, yet. I wonder what's keeping her."

"Well, good luck finding her. Kalene already here?"

"Yeah. And she's driving so she's sober."

"Oh, good. She's a whoreish drunk."

Ni laughed. "Remember the time she hit on you and you didn't know she was drunk?"

"I wish I could forget!"

She laughed some more and I headed off to find Kalene.

Quite the turnout that year. The place was more crowded that I'd ever seen it. Jess was nowhere in sight, so I was glad I'd brought my switchblade instead of relying on her.

I finally found Kalene, after half-an-hour of searching. She was sitting alone on one of the couches, laughing at a drunken pass a guy was making for her.

"FATE!" She squealed when she saw me.

She stood up and I got my first good look at her outfit. A sexy purple shirt with black skulls and baggy black jeans.

She ran over and hugged me.

"Whore. Where've you been? I've been waiting forever."

"Kayte had a date; we had to dress her up."

"And I wasn't invited?"

"Sorry. You live across town," I shrugged.

"Fine. Here," she replied, shoving an unopened soda at me, and some fattening sugary thing. I felt highly predictable.

"So, I hear you can't get drunk."

"Nope. I'm driving Fishy, Lamp, and Jess home. You?"

"Nah. Driving Nathan, Py, and Kayte home. But it is Piña Colada night. Is that still on?"

"Of course! Since when are you questioning tradition?"

"Since we tried to stop drinking."

She snorted a laugh. "Well, that plan practically exploded."

"I agree. Now, c'mon! Let's go dance and hit on random strangers."

"But-" She protested, looking down at the sparkly ring on her finger.

"Engaged or not, you can at least gawk at the hot guys with me."

"Amen to that, sister!"

We giggled again, and you'd have thought we were drunk.

Then we wandered off into the crowed, laughing, slapping the occasional nice ass, and getting our own asses slapped a few times.

It was looking to be a great night. If only it had been.