savetheearth | Trying to forget about the school year [log]

Who: Anyone who might have seen or heard about this post
What: Children behaving irresponsibly. Again.
Where: In the woods.
When: A balmy August night a few days before high school starts up again.
Warning: Booze.

It was a bit of a hike to get out there, granted. A bit of a hike through dark, wet forest with spooky trees. But this time Marisa had added some strips of reflective tape marking the trail to the spot.

"The spot" was at the base of a huge tree about half a mile into the woods. While most of the rest of the forest was muddy at best, this area was relatively flat and dry. You could sit without getting your butt dirty. There was an ice chest, a folding table, a campfire, a lantern, a few board games, and a bag of cookies. Hopefully, some other people brought food, because Marisa didn't.

[The next morning...]

For those who were so inclined, or for those who were too intoxicated to find their way home (if anyone drove, Marisa arranged so that someone who wasn't drinking took all the keys and kept track of them to make sure no one tried to drive drunk. She's irresponsible, but at least she's responsible about it.), Marisa's home was available for sleepovers. She could fit one or two people in her room (girls only.), and maybe three or four in the living room downstairs, though finding enough pillows or blankets might be tricky and you'll have to fight over who gets the couch.

As it turn out, both these rooms were facing east. That meant that at seven AM the sun came up, blasted through the windows and nailed the tired, possibly hungover party-goers like the wrath of god.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

"Well yeah if you just drink it straight. You're supposed to mix it with something."

Marisa grabbed a can of coke someone brought and handed it to her. "Try mixing it with this."

Kanti stares at the coke and cringes. She doesn't really drink soda. Or anything that isn't tea or juice or coffee. But there is apparently a first time for everything, since she has also never had alcohol. She takes the can like it might explode and looks at Marisa.

"Do I just mix it in the can or..."

"Just pour them both in a cup."

Seeing her discomfort, she added on "You know you don't have to drink any alcohol if you don't want to. I just wanted the option there for people who do."

"There isn't a single person here who could make me do anything, really." Which isn't a true statement. Octavia could mind control her, in theory, not that it would work out well if she did.

"I just figured I might as well try some now and see if I like it at all. Then my curiosity will be sated and that will be that."

"In that case lemme help you out."

Orange juice, vodka (Because apparently they have a full bar out here. We're not thinking about this too hard.), plastic cup. Serve cold.

"One vodka screwdriver. You can barely taste the booze, and I made it kinda weak because I don't want anyone getting sick here."

Kanti looks at it, takes it, smells it and squints. She is giving this drink the whole nine yards of general analysis before she takes a sip.

"Oh! It's not bad, actually. It explains how people can even stand this stuff."

Marisa laughed. A little louder than the situation warranted, but she was more than one drink in by now.

"Yeah you don't want to do straight shots of stuff unless you are looking to just melt your brain. The stuff is NASTY by itself."

Kanti cringes and ducks down a little, making herself an inch shorter. It is an inch whose absence makes her no less of a giantess.

"I don't know... There are just a lot of scenes in novels that involve copious amounts of alcohol being drunk with no real reason as to why, aside from that it is done."

"I think movies have everyone drinking so much because they want to appeal to teenagers who think drinking is the cool and grownup thing to do."

She laughed again, though not awkwardly loud this time. "I've seen enough drunk people in real life to know you look like a twit. It's just kinda fun to cut loose every once in a while."

"Does this mean we're playing into their hands then?"

Kanti swirls her drink because it is a very Hollywood thing to do. It lacks a dramatic effect, seeing as she is using a plastic cup, but it serves as filler for her thoughts.

"Exactly how loose do I need to cut?"

"Cutting loose doesn't work if you have to do it. Otherwise you're missing the point entirely. Some people SHOULDN'T relax too much. Like Karson. I think if he relaxed he would literally fall apart. Arms and legs lying in a pile with his head on top, finally looking happy."

After saying this, she played it back through her head.

"I think," said Marisa "That one got a little carried away."

"I don't really know how to not think about needing to do things, so maybe cutting loose is not for me. At least, not the sort you're talking about-"

Kanti just stops for a moment in her interruption and WOW thinking about her best friend falling apart is not really what she wanted to do tonight.

"Oh dear... Maybe I should keep a closer eye on him around alcohol."

"Let it not be said that Marisa encouraged teen drinking with peer pressure. I feel very strongly about the rights of the individual."

"Well it's not as if you have," Kanaya says, then sighs. She looks at her drink and sort of shrugs, and just downs the entire thing.

"Waste not, want not. But still, I don't think I'll be having another..."

Marisa laughed, throwing an arm over Kanti's shoulder as if they were old friends.

Or at least trying to, stupid tall people. After an awkward moment she gives it up as a bad job and settled with "Just try not to walk into a tree or something."

Kanti pauses in literally every small motion she's doing when Marisa gives camaraderie the old college try. She doesn't tense, just freeze and stare and chew on her bottom lip. It's an old habit, one she broke when she started wearing lipstick, but this is a novel situation.

"Um," she says, when it's all over, trying not to laugh. "I'm sorry. Would you like to give that another try?"

"I...I think I'll let that one go. You're very tall."

"So I've been told..."

Trying to forget about the school year [log]

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