"Everyone" [Skins!chars ONLY]

It was dark outside and a layer of frost was already forming on the glass. A warm breath licked the cool glass as a young brunette slowly let out her breath. Her blue eyes stared at the area where the warmth met the chill as that section of the frost began to melt to small droplets. To any amused 5 year old, it would have appeared as a miracle of life, a wonder of nature. To Sarah, it was just another occurrence in the daily life during the cool wintertime. Usually she would have some work to preoccupy herself with, but her parents had decided to give her a day’s worth of break and Sarah consented. There was something else she would have to worry about anyway, so it didn’t matter if she relaxed for one day.

Unfortunately, one day of relaxation had a way of stretching into one long day of boredom. It had all felt like a complete waste as she just sat by the window throughout the whole day. To some, the idea of sitting idly was rather torturous, but not doing anything else was worse by Sarah’s standards. She didn’t want to leave her room either; that would be saved for the nighttime. She was never one to go outside unless she could be with her friends, and lately she had not been given quality time so she was going to use up all of her energy when the gang held the party. It seemed rather odd that they were holding it before the first day of their last year, but Sarah had long since accepted the quirkiness of the group as it was. After all, they made life fun.

Only half an hour now. Sarah’s fingers drummed against the glass, each nail making a sharp sound. Each. Sharp. Click. “Ugh! This is going to drive me insane.” So who cared if she made it to the shack early? At least she could spend some quality time outside the house. She wondered if she needed to bring anything before remembering that none of the members expected anything from her except something simple like chips. But it wasn’t as if they were going to munch on something as mundane as chips if they had better things to consume. So Sarah was resigned to bringing absolutely nothing but herself. No one seemed to have any problem about it, but she always felt guilty when she tried to think about how much they brought and how little she could offer.

She would make it up to them some day; she was sure of that. At least once she could figure out where and how they managed to grab their stash. Alcohol was always the easiest as it only required a really good story or a drunken father. The rest of the drugs though—that was clearly black market material. Sarah’s conscience was far too good to let her anywhere near that place. Maybe later when she had the guts. After all, they still had a complete year to secretly waste away. It couldn’t be so complicated.

It was time. Sarah placed the palm of her hand under the divider of her window, nudging it open. Her other hand quickly occupied the small space that had just opened up, carefully sliding the bottom half of her window open. Once she had deemed it wide enough, Sarah slipped out of the house. She didn’t have far to fall so the impact only caused her to flinch. She was so used to it though that she found the slight shock to her ankles secondary. She was out of the house and that was all that counted. Turning around, she softly closed the window, placing a small rock to stop the window from closing completely. Her parents never knew about these night outings. In fact, Sarah was pretty certain that they didn’t even know who her friends were. All she needed to do was make sure that she was still doing well in school, and they wouldn’t cast a second glance at her.

The shack was a bit away, but Sarah had done well to memorise the route. It took a while still as she trudged through a neighbourhood she never expected herself to be in. They better not do anything too crazy this time. If we went into school looking like we were partying all night, who knows what kind of hell we’re going to meet? Plus, this is too important for me to blow off. If I want to do well, I can’t keep doing this. But they’re just so damn fun. Ack, I’ll worry about it later. Sarah had reached the shack and searched through her jacket pocket for the key when she noticed that the door was already unlocked. Huh, someone’s here already? She pushed the door to see who else was already in there.

“Hey, Mark,” Sarah greeted as she closed the door behind her and moved to one of the cushions on the floor. Of course there was beer, one of several substances that were always brought to a party. Sarah never really liked the taste of beer, but she enjoyed being able to drink it. It felt like she was the one in control and as long as she didn’t drink too much, she would be fine. With a sigh she sat down and looked at Mark. “Everyone’s going to be here, right?”