Falling (Bits and Pieces, Book 1) (51 page)

“Am I acceptable now?” He coyly asked.

“That’s debatable. But you certainly smell better.” I retorted. The crew laughed. Cassie and Emily nodded in agreement. “Oh, and I have something of yours.”

“Yeah? What?” He was confused.

“Your stinky germs. Take them back!” I rubbed my face and shoulder into his shirt.

“Hey! You’re ruining my good clothes.” Since it was a game day, he was wearing the required a shirt and tie.

I rolled my eyes at him and pushed him away. “Shut up!”

“Come back here. You know, I’m just joking.” Patrick pulled me back to him. He hung his arm around my shoulders.

I stuck my tongue out at him. “Yeah.”

“Let’s go guys, I’m ready to celebrate and I’m starving.” Bobby interjected.

“Me too. Come on, Cassie.” Jason led Cassie to his car, which was just on the other side of Patrick’s.

We piled into the cars and headed to Beach Burgers.

“Sorry, I didn’t see the whole game.”

“Nah, don’t worry about it. I know you would have been there if you could. How’d the concert go?”

“Really good. There were more people there tonight than last night, which surprised me because you guys were playing.”

“Well, rumor is that the concert was cool and you didn’t want to miss it.” I loved seeing him smile and seeing him so happy.

“Yeah, right.” Sarcasm dripped from my tongue. I highly doubted that. It was just choir.

“No. Seriously. I heard kids from almost every class talking about it.” He sounded sincere. He wouldn’t lie to me. There wasn’t any real reason for him to exaggerate. “Besides, the choir is playing a limited engagement. There are plenty of games left in my season.”

“Well, that’s true.” If I could blush, I would have been. “So, Kraig told me that the rest of the game was pretty crazy too.”

“It was.” Patrick told me his version of the highlight and lowlights of the game as he drove. One thing I admired about him, aside from him always being a great friend to me, was how his face lit up the same way whether he talked about basketball or science. To him, there was no choosing between the two, they coexisted as his passions. “Bobby got into foul trouble and coach sat him out the first 4 minutes of the fourth quarter. That hurt. That’s a big reason why we were behind when you got there.”

“You noticed when I got there?” How could he? He seemed really focused on the game.

“Well...” He shifted in his seat. “During the middle of a time out, I heard your voice… in the crowd yell, ‘Holy crap, we’re down by eight. What the hell?’”

“I said that out loud? Oops. Sorry. I can’t believe you heard that in the middle of the game.” I covered my face with my hand.

He laughed. “I told you I’m good. I know all. I’m on fire tonight!”

“And so modest too.” I teased.

“Of course.” He grinned.

We arrived at Beach Burgers before everyone else did. We hurried in and got a table for the crew. It didn’t take long for everyone to arrive. We toasted the guys’ victory with a round of root beer floats. The entire restaurant had to have heard our glasses bang together and our loud cheers. The guys recapped the game, taking turns in commentating. Their post game interviews with each other kept us in hysterics. I had such a hard time catching my breath and tears streamed down my face because I was laughing so hard.

There was one more thing to celebrate. We had one more day before Winter Break. Dylan, a pretty popular guy who was on the football team, was having his annual Christmas party this Saturday afternoon. One great thing about living in
Southern California
, you can have a pool party and Christmas party all in one. Emily reminded everyone about the party, not that anyone would forget. Now that the basketball game over and there was one concert left, there wasn’t much else on everyone’s mind.

I was really looking forward to vacation. I loved school, but breaks were nice. They gave me a chance to catch up on stuff. The past week had been so busy that I hadn’t gotten much rest. I was staying up late doing homework and studying for tests. I was falling behind on my science fair project, so that was something I really wanted to finish over break. I had to find a piece to audition with for the upcoming school musical and rehearse it. There were those scholarship essays that I had been putting off that were due in the next couple weeks. I wanted to have fun and hang out with my friends. We were making plans to do stuff like maybe go to
Disneyland
. Oh, of course, there’s a little thing called sleep that I’d like to get too. I was already exhausted just
thinking
about winter break. One more day, one more concert and it would be winter break. The party would mark the official start!

35. PEER PRESSURE

I heard epic stories about last year’s Christmas party. The party had started in the afternoon and lasted well into the night. People had so much fun between the deejay, the pool, game room and karaoke setup. Ooh, karaoke, there was something I could have fun with.

I was both excited and anxious about the party. I didn’t know why exactly. I just had a feeling about it. I chalked it up to the fact that the only reason I was going was because the crew and their invite. If it weren’t for them, I wouldn’t be going. I definitely would not have the guts to just crash the party and I wasn’t really a party person. Well, it was that and I heard Becca was going to be there as well. There would be no stopping a confrontation. No teachers, no school administrators, no school consequence of fighting like suspension or expulsion.

We all piled into Patrick and Jason’s cars and carpooled to the party. When we got to the party, there had to be at least 50 people there already, just inside the house and who knows how many outside. The music was blasting. It reminded me of the dance. There were people in the middle of the living room dancing. It seemed weird, only because there was so much light streaming inside. I don’t remember the last time I saw people dancing with that much light. At dances, it was usually pretty dark.

Dylan had a huge family room with big French glass doors which opened to the backyard. There was a huge pool, a Jacuzzi and lots of lounge chairs surrounding it. There were a bunch of people in the pool, splashing each other and those that were close enough to get wet. The pool house contained the game room. It had dart boards, foosball, air hockey and pool tables. I could just picture flying pool balls, darts or pucks hitting unsuspecting bystanders in the head. With my luck and coordination, that’s exactly what would happen.

Most of the food and drinks, and there was a lot of it, were in the kitchen. Pizza, chips, cookies, and brownies were just some of the stuff to eat. It wasn’t Mrs. Connor’s homemade food, that’s for sure.

Guys wanted to go to the game room and play some games. Cassie and Emily were up for it. I didn’t mind going along and watching them, but I was reluctant to play. As we walked to the game room, Bobby challenged Tony to foosball, Jason challenged Patrick to pool and Kraig challenged us girls to darts.

“Yeah, no. I don’t think so. You guys go ahead and play.” I shook my head.

“Come on, Liz!” Emily begged and handed me some darts. “You’re here to have fun!”

“Fun, yes. But possibly cause bodily harm, no.” I tried to hand back the darts, but she wouldn’t take it.

“Just try.” She turned me to face the dart board. “Kraig challenged us, you can’t pass up a challenge.”

“You don’t want me on your team. I won’t add any points to your score.” I shot at her a pleading look.

She was insistent that I participate. “You can’t be that bad. And we always want you on our team. Besides, we’re not all that good either. So, the three of us to Kraig, we should be able to take him.”

There was no convincing her. I stood where they told me to. I looked around to make sure that everyone was a safe distance away from the board. I saw Patrick watching me, looking nervous, but hopeful. I shook my head. I took aim and threw the dart at the board. It didn’t land on the board, or anywhere in front of the board. It ended up a few feet to the left of the board, just missing a lamp.

I could hear the crew chuckling behind me. I winced and covered my face with my hands. “I told you this wasn’t a good idea. I’ll just watch. It’s safer for everyone.”

Emily gladly accepted the darts this time. “No kidding. I didn’t really think you’d be that…”

“Bad?” Patrick laughed. “Why do you think I stood this far back?”

I rolled my eyes and shoved him. “Gee, thanks.”

I knew he was right. Patrick knew what to expect and that I was not exaggerating. Patrick played innocent. “What? Hey, we’re not laughing
at
you. We’re laughing
near
you, you’re just not joining in.”

I corrected him. “No, you guys are laughing
at
me.”

I didn’t mind. It
was
funny. And I knew they weren’t laughing to be mean. They were laughing because I was one of them. I couldn’t help but smile. However, this didn’t mean that I wanted to repeat the dart incident that brought this bout of laughter.

I let Cassie and Emily take on Kraig without me. I tried watching Bobby and Tony’s foosball game, but I had a hard time following. The ball bounced around, going one way then the other so fast. Also, my shortness made it difficult to get a good view of the ball. It was challenging to keep up. So, I opted to watch Jason and Patrick’s game of pool.

I could follow pool. It was slower, more methodical and based on physics. I didn’t know the rules of the game, so that part I didn’t follow. But in my head, I thought about the best shot that could be done to sink the ball. Patrick beat Jason. It was one more example of how Patrick was good at everything. Pool was coordination and skill. The skill being physics. Of course, he’d be a pool shark. I don’t know what the score was. Is there such thing as a score in pool? I just knew who won because Jason wanted a rematch and a handicap.

“What?! You act like I cheated. You know I didn’t.” Patrick laughed.

“Yeah, yeah, I know. But I want a rematch.” Jason looked at me and grinned. “And one where I stand a chance in hell in beating you.”

“So, what? You want me to spot you two balls?” Patrick picked up two solid colored balls and dropped them in the pocket.

“No. That’s not what I had in mind. Where’s the challenge for you?” He grabbed the balls out of the slot. He snickered. “I have something else in mind.”

“You want me to shoot left-handed?” Patrick tilted his head and shrugged. “Okay. Sure, I can try.”

“Nah. That’s not it.” Jason chuckled. “But I’ll have to remember that for next time. No, let’s see how good you really are. Can you get Liz to beat me?’

What? How’d I get dragged into this? My eyes widened and I shook my head. “Uh-uh. I’ve never played pool. Did you not see what happened with the dart?”

Jason rolled his eyes, “Yeah, well, that had a sharp point. You can’t hurt anyone with pool balls.”

I pleaded with Patrick, “Tell Jason that’s not true.”

I could tell Patrick liked the idea of this challenge. “I think I could teach you.”

I looked at him in disbelief. “Really?”

They agreed that the rematch would take place in one hour. Great, I had one hour to learn how to play pool. More importantly, not have them jump off the table. Of course, that presumes that I could actually
hit
the ball. I can’t forget that the ultimate goal is to beat Jason. So, no pressure here. Just learn how to play pool in an hour, hit the ball, keep it on the table and beat Jason. Great.

Patrick handed me a pool stick. “So, what do you say? Want to help me beat Jason?”

Somehow I had the feeling that I was being setup. But I couldn’t prove it. I resigned. “Like I have a choice.”