As Miki looked at her Jackson, the only guy who probably could look her up and down and she didn't feel grossed out, she then scanned the party from where they were at. It was developing nicely and she saw people she was friends with and others she barely knew (other than knowing them from her classes, of course). And she almost wanted to tell Jackson she'd be back later. Maybe she would take him up on his suggestion and go have some fun, then come get him later. But that thought brought a series of guilt-ridden thoughts out, causing her to frown at him.

Not even a moment later, her frown became defined in the way when she was genuinely upset. Golden locks filled half of the sight in front of her, dark eyes narrowing. She knew who those dark locks belonged to long before her voice made everything from the roaring partiers and the music they were dancing to be white noise.

"Maybe watch where you're going, Missy." Miki stared at the trashy Queen of Thorns. She couldn't stand this bitch. Acting all high and mighty and having the nerve to insult her Jackson! Unforgivable. "Now apologize! Go on! Queens are supposed to set an example right? You clearly ran into my friend and spilled your cheap drink over his shoes, so apologize. Now!" Miki tried to control herself. It may not have sounded like it as her tone became firm and authoritative, but this was her holding back. The fact she didn't insult Missy further was the very definition of taking the high ground.

Besides, based on what Missy was wearing, nothing she'd say could compare the atrocity that the Queen of Thorns felt was appropriate to step into the public's eye in.

When Hunter heard a girl’s voice that wasn’t Alina’s unique tone, he turned around, looking up. And when he saw no one, for a moment, he became visibly confused.

But that was only a moment. Common sense kicked in and he caught the top of dark hair that drew in his eyes to go about five inches (give or take) down to meet the source of the new voice — the new, unknown voice of someone he couldn’t say he knew. Between her comment about him possibly ‘being like the other guys’ and then Alina, who came to his defense — or at least, that’s how Hunter chose to take it — Hunter centered on Raven.

He had nothing to go off other than that she was the good friend of a girl Hunter has known for less than ten minutes — twenty tops if you’re counting the time it took to make his way to her initially. In all that time, the most Hunter managed to find out was her name. And that she knew Dee.

And apparently short people befriend each other. Not exactly an important fact, but it’s one Hunter suddenly found himself thinking about.

Right. Back to what matters.

He held out his hand for Raven. Call it a sign of goodwill or whatever. “And I’m not like most guys.” He felt the need to defend himself despite Alina doing that for him. “We were actually about to have a drink. Maybe you’ll like to join in? Hell, if you still don’t trust me, we could make a game out of it.” Somewhere inside, Hunter knew that might be a bad idea. But she seemed nice enough and Alina was about to drink, anyway. So for all he knew, it would be a mistake that might result in a new batch of friends for him.

Once the pair had finished their song to a standing ovation (as if anyone who wasn’t already making out was sitting down), Theo took Lilith’s hand once again and helped her off the stage and back onto the floor. TVC was someone who certainly prided himself on being able to read people and when Lil first made her way over to him, he most definitely didn’t pick up on the fact that she could sing and that they would end up singing together in front of their classmates. Theo definitely wasn’t any kind of musician; he could hold a tune but that was about it.

”Well that was something” He grinned that stupid, irresistible grin of his as he picked up their drinks from the side where they had left them and handed Lil hers. ”You’ve got some decent pipes, Lil.”

The alcohol and weed had combined in Lilith's system, giving her a sort of euphoric feeling while she and Theo rocked out on stage. How she managed to keep up her confidence the whole time, she wasn’t quite sure, but none of that mattered now. She had nailed it.

Taking her drink from Theo, Lilith couldn’t help but let her eyes linger on his for a brief moment. There was something nice about that grin that she couldn’t quite explain. Breaking her gaze, Lilith took a drink from her cup in a desperate attempt to help her cottonmouth.

”I practice in the shower sometimes,” she joked. ”You weren’t all that bad yourself. Now. What do you think we should do next?”

Immediately as the girl asked the question, Theo’s mind went to a sordid place; his bedroom specifically. The more time the athlete spent with Lilith the more he wanted to know what was underneath the clothes and just how dangerous those curves really were.

”I can think of a few things but how about a game of pool? Chris has a games room over there.” He motioned with his head to a door just over yonder. He glanced over to the open kitchen and could see Raven chatting with some floppy haired Rosefell ruffian and he couldn’t lie, it pissed him off. Still he wouldn’t let that worthless slut ruin a perfectly good evening. ”We can even make it a little more interesting, a wager or two perhaps?”

Nodding her head excitedly in agreement, Lilith couldn’t help but take a quick glance around the room herself. Ellie was a strong person, and could handle herself - but that didn’t mean that Lilith didn’t worry about her other half.

Truth to be told, Lilith had only ever played pool twice, and both times she had sucked. She knew the basic rules, and what to do - it was just her execution that was the problem.

”I like the way you think,” she responded. ”Lead the way.”

With a smirk wide across his lips, Theo took Lil by the hand once again and began to lead her through the crowd. He ignored the growing row between a quartet of idiots and pushed towards the games room. Darting his eyes back towards his ex, the Franchise player couldn’t help but wink in her direction. Raven was not worth his time anymore but he sure did miss fucking with her. It was so easy and just so fun.

Arriving at the pool room, he allowed the brunette to enter first before following suit and closing the door behind him. The room was theirs, they would not be disturbed as they played their game. Nonchalantly locking the door behind him, Theo moved over to a rack on the wall which held multiple pool cues. He grabbed two and handed one to Lilith.

”We’ll keep it simple; you go for solids and I’ll go for stripes.” He reached under the table and began to set up the balls. ”Dealers choice; what’re terms gorgeous? What’re we playing for?”

Picking up the chalk square from the edge of the pool table, Lilith turned it over and over between her fingers while Theo spoke. Taking the pool cue from him, she took a deep breath. Lilith was lucky that Theo had given her the time of day in the first place, and she sincerely hoped that she didn’t fuck things up with her shitty pool skills.

It was up to her to choose the prize for the night, and her brain was completely blank under the mild pressure of doing so.

”We could go classic,” she said slowly, her voice shockingly loud in the much quieter room. ”Money, drugs.” The brunette shrugged her shoulders, letting her eyes linger on his for a moment. ”But I feel like we should do something with a little more flare…. Loser has to jump in the pool in their underwear? Unless you have something better in mind, of course.”

”Hm.” Theo thought about what he could say in the moment. Lil didn’t seem like the type from their short interactions that would want to push the envelope...at least not immediately. There was an edge to her that was obvious but it was hidden by a nervous, almost innocent energy. It was his job to bring this out.

”Well, how about loser jumps on the pool, winner decides what we do next and in the meantime…”

Leaning down towards the table, the football player struck the white ball hard, breaking the racked up set and sinking one of the striped balls into the back corner pocket. ”Every ball successfully sunk, the other person has to tell a truth? And I’m talking about something real, not some plastic shit. Strangers make the best listeners.”

”Sounds reasonable,” she replied, watching as the striped ball sank into the pocket. ”Are we asking questions here, or just blurting out our deepest, darkest secrets at random?”

”Questions” Theo grinned from ear to ear as he realised that this girl may just be a challenge after all. ”I’ll start off easy for you. Tell me about when you lost your virginity? Was it as special as every girl dreams about or was it a massive let down?”

It was a hell of an icebreaker question but it was also a pure question. No reason to lie.

When Theo said questions, Lilith simply nodded her head as she walked around the pool table to where the cue ball was. Laughing as the memory Theo asked about came flooding back, Lilith was happy to see that she had a fairly easy shot. The cue ball was directly in front of the solid blue ball, which was right beside the left front corner pocket.

A smile still on her face, Lilith glanced up at Theo while leaning over the edge of the table. ”Picture this, okay?” she began, turning her attention back to the game at hand. ”It’s Sophomore year, and some friends and I decided to go to Senior Bash. Last party of the year, excited for summer - all that shit. We got drunk, the party got busted, and we all ended up back at my place because gramps is cool and mom was at work. We all agreed that they could stay there because I didn’t want my friends getting in trouble with their parents. Some of them slept in the spare bedroom, Casey took the couch.” Taking a deep breath, Lilith took the shot and sank the ball. ”Senior guy sneaks into my bedroom, we start making out - nothing special. He could barely get it up, it lasted like three minutes, and I’m not even sure if it actually counts.”

”Well shit, senior guy may not be memorable but he’s a damn sight lucky bastard” Chalking his cue up, Theo scanned the table for a shot but couldn’t find one that would get him another question. Lining up the ball, the struck the white directly into its target and rebounded it off of the far wall of the table and directly in front of one of Lilith’s more easy looking shots. ”You got the last one, so you get to ask the question. So Lil, what you got?”

A light blush in her cheeks, Lilith laughed quietly as Theo set up his next shot. While he gave his shot a good effort, it ultimately failed in the end. It was hard to not get her hopes up as Theo missed the shot. Perhaps her initial assumption had been wrong and she actually did have a shot.

Thinking for a moment, Lilith blurted out the first question that came to mind.

”What’s the worst thing you’ve ever done to a person?”

This was an interesting question. What was the worst thing he had ever done to a person? Obviously for Theo, what he considered bad was almost completely different to what others may think. As he went through a list in his mind, the Franchise player tried to decide how best to answer. He could be as honest as he promised but then there was a huge possibility that his chance with Lilith may go up in smoke like the rolls up she obviously loved so much. Deciding against this, he quickly thought up something else.

”Well, last year I was in a relationship with this girl and I’ll admit I wasn’t the best boyfriend. I had a lot on my mind, football, school elections, my sister was sick. Anyway, I neglected her and she cheated on me. I didn’t take it well. I demolished the guy that she fucked but he didn’t even know I existed, so it wasn’t really his fault so I felt awful because I really messed him up. Pretty much squandered his college chances”

As she listened to Theo tell his story, Lilith took the opportunity for another easy shot. Theo’s last shot had caused the location of the cue ball to be perfect for her to get the purple ball into the pocket. Sinking the shot yet again, Lilith took a second to let the information sink in.
”I can’t say I blame you,” she said simply. ”I might be fucking overdramatic, but cheating isn’t one of those things that you can just forgive, ya know? Don’t get me wrong - you probably shouldn’t have beat him into a coma or whatever, but your feelings were justified either way. Why on Earth someone would ever cheat on you, I have no idea, but anyway.”

”Actually I shattered his knee but I digress.”

With every shot taken, every drink downed, Theo began to feel a lot more in tune with Lilith than he had originally anticipated. He had thought that she would probably be a one and done fuck but the more time he spent learning about her; like about how her father left her or about her weird friendship with some chick named Ellie, the more he thought that there was more to her; maybe a girl named after a demon would have more uses than he realised.

There was a mention of writing; something that reminded the boy of a former life where he would watch a girl he cared for draw. He wondered if one day Lilith would allow him to read her stories. He was a sucker for those artsy types.

She wasn’t sure why, but the tone of Theo’s voice when he stated that was enough to cause Lilith to laugh. Any normal person would have seen someone breaking another person's knees as a red flag. But Lilith? Nah. She just found it strangely impressive in some sort of fucked up way that Lilith found fucked up things interesting.

A few more rounds of shots and...well shots and Theo was down to one ball. ”I hit this, you’re going in that pool Lil. Last chance to submit” Before the brunette could respond he sank the ball deep into the corner pocket and that grin crossed his face again. ”Oops, too late”

”Oh no!” Lilith exclaimed, obviously being fake and over exaggerative. ”What ever shall I do,” she said, already pulling her shirt over her head.

Fortunately for Lilith, she had planned on this being a pool party. Instead of a regular bra being hidden underneath her top, there was a black bikini top. There was no way she would ever parade around in her actual underwear. In her mind, a bikini was just different.

Theo’s eyes did not leave her body as she undressed, she was definitely hiding something beneath the denim. ”Well well” Without a second thought, he pulled off his own extremely expensive shirt and rushed at Lil. He pulled her over his shoulder and ran to the door. He swiftly unlocked it and holding Lilith tight he charged out of the games room and out into the garden. ”Hold on tight!” Leaping into the air, the pair tumbled into the pool, splashing everyone in the vicinity.

Coming up for air, Theo brushed his now soaked hair back and smirked from ear to ear as Lilith joined him. ”Fun enough for you?”

Barely having time to appreciate his abbs, Lilith was surprisingly tossed over Theo’s shoulder. In a state of shock, Lilith playfully protested between laughs.

”Dude. Please don’t fucking drop me,” she shouted over the noise of the crowd.

Before she knew it, Lilith was surrounded by water and was sinking to the bottom of the pool. She hadn’t expected Theo to jump in the pool with her, but she was glad that he did. Once her head was back above the water, Lilith frantically searched for Theo before the sound of his voice told her that he was right behind her. Turning around, Lilith smiled back at him.

”Absolutely,” she responded. ”Why’d you jump in with me though,” she asked, splashing him. ”This was supposed to be my embarrassing punishment.”

Chuckling as she splashed him like a child, he threw the water right back at her. Before he could speak however, Theo caught sight of someone looking at them through the window of the kitchen; someone whose electric blue eyes he could never forget; Raven. As often they did, evil thoughts began to circulate in the young politicians head.

”Embarrassing punishment? No this was just an excuse for me to get you out of your clothes” Easing himself closer towards her, he brushed a loose strand of hair off of Lil’s face ”Your real punishment is to kiss me” He cupped her neck between his large hands and pressed his lips to hers, his eyes looking passed her and at the girl in the window.

Attempting to follow his gaze, Lilith didn’t have the chance to see what Theo was looking at before their lips were locked together.

”If you really think that’s a punishment, you’re fucking insane,” she laughed. Wrapping her arms around his neck, Lilith returned his kiss with one of her own.

Satisfied that Lil was now under his control and Raven was thoroughly pissed off, Theo closed his eyes and smiled into the kiss as it deepened. He moved his hands down her body and wrapped them around the small of her back, almost slightly lifting the girl off of the floor of the swimming pool.

Game. Set. Match. And your winner...

Nicholas met Billie’s sass equally with that of his own, and Billie would have expected nothing less - just like Nicholas should expect that his sass would only piss her off further.

”You’re really going to stand there and act like you aren’t flirting with your Tramp of Choice?” she retorted, crossing her arms across her chest.

The truth was that Billie needed her brother, but there was no way she was ever going to admit that. She was too proud, and way too independent. The truth was that the transition from Liberty to Rosefell had been stressful on the twins - not to mention that both of their parents were out of town for work, and Fiona was away at college.

”You always do this, Nick. You find some red head, flip on the charm switch, become a complete ass and settle for someone completely beneath you. It astoundingly perplexes me every time.”

Had it been just Melissa, Miki would've been able to deal. She was an insufferable bitch who needed to know the difference between them, but there was nothing she'd could say about her or Jackson that Miki couldn't handle. She was, of course, a true queen. It was liberating to see her look at Miki with such a nasty expression.

But that wasn't all. Unfortunately, as that tall boy who looked like someone who didn't belong anywhere near her or Jackson, Miki could tell before he even opened up his mouth that it was going to mean an extended stay of disgust that she would've preferred.

She wanted to say something demeaning to Dee. She wanted to say something mean to him. Maybe comment about how he didn't even compare to Jackson and how the only thing he might be good for is a featured spot on some adult entertainment. Or some reality show down the road. Out of all the things she wanted to say, nothing came up. She found herself mostly just observing, watching Jackson and Dee exchange words.

Too bad that was cut short.

Before Melissa opened her mouth, Miki was already preparing herself for the word vomit.

And sure enough, just as she had always been right, Missy Elliot came out the gate swinging. What she was swinging at, now that left Miki thoroughly amused.

While she laid into both her and Jackson, Miki smiled and smiled more when she went on about threatening her with mascot duty. The thought of that made her feel repulsed. Actually, it downright sickened her. To think that she could have that much influence. But then Miki remembered this school was just about as trashy as it got. Melissa going off on her like this was proof that, at the end of the day, it took flexing her inflated ego in attempts to prove a point.

She contemplated doing something about this queen of trash because that's what she was. No amount of huffing and puffing would ever change her mind about that. the longer she sat on it and the more the scene before her began to devolve, it was clear that was what Missy wanted. She wanted a reason to punch Miki. And really, could she give her the satisfaction of having a reason to hit Miki's perfect face? No she couldn't let that happen. Besides, as furious as she was, which don't be fooled by her entertained smirk, Miki was boiling red underneath, there were easier ways to get one over this bitch.

"As much as I'd love to go on about how Stuart little and Yogi bear are in the way, this is the one time I'm free to do whatever I want, I'd rather not waste it on Rosefell filth."

When Jackson put his arm around her waist, she looked up at him with a smile and nodded. But she'd quickly look at Melissa and Dee. "Count your blessings, Missy. Because I'm going to choose the high road and going to spend the rest of the party with my Jackson." Miki proceeded to tighten her grasp around Jackson's waist as he did to hers. "But know this isn't over. Not by a long shot." She'd say as she walked away, pulling Jackson with her.

When they were far away from them, she'd say the following to Jackson. "She'll regret messing with me. That Queen of Thorns is no match for my premium clippers."

The main goal of Christians party was for people to meet other people, and it turned out that standing by the grill was the perfect place to do just that.

Sipping on his drink and stuffing his face, Christian listened to the conversations going on around him while he quickly ate his first burger. An interesting figure that apparently went by the name of Grisha had approached that party. Christian wasn’t really sure what to make of the guy, but welcomed his presence nonetheless.

Nodding his head simply at Tylers statement, Christian watched as she walked away - very tempted to follow after her. However, Cade’s comment was what drew him back in.

”Don’t say shit like that dude,” Christian said, looking at Cade with a hint of concern. ”I spent money on all of this shit for everyone. So please. Go grab a bottle of the most expensive shit you can find, eat some shrooms, do a line of coke off of someone's boobs - I don’t care. But I would prefer if you had a good time tonight, ya know what I’m sayin’?”

While Alina gave her the run down on the nameless boy, Raven looked him up and down. He had this sort of quiet, reserved charm to him that Raven couldn’t quite explain, but she found it quite intriguing. Her thoughts were interrupted by a certain someone smirking at her from behind Hunter.

Theo was headed somewhere with a helpless girl's hand wrapped in his own. Raven silently began praying to the gods, her blood running cold. Theo was a monster, and someone had to warn the other girl about him - but Raven was too much of a coward. Theo had done massive damage to her last year, and Raven wasn’t quite sure she wanted to get re-involved with all of it.

After Alina was finished singing his praises, Raven took another much needed drink from the bottle of Patron and shook Hunters hand. Alina’s body language didn’t go against what she was saying, so she must have truly meant what she was saying. That was a good thing for Hunter.

”Alina vouched for you, so you’re off to a good start,” she stated emotionlessly. ”We could absolutely play some sort of game. I need to get wasted.”

Enter Theo running through the house with Random Girl slung over his shoulder.

Visibly cringing, Raven did her absolute best to not dart out the door and back to the safety of her own home. Alina was the one who sent the SOS, but Raven was the one that really needed the support.

The sound of a huge splash and a group of people cheering from outside caused Raven to look right past Hunter one more time - just long enough to see Theo kiss his newest target.

Another drink.

”What are we waiting for,” she asked, looking back and forth between Alina and Hunter. ”Let’s party.”