4

Janice's POV

I push my way through the crowded room filled with nothing but drunken Homo sapiens,with Lucy Miller trailing behind me. I frown as one drunken girl staggers and falls right in front of me.

Without having to look, I can picture the startled look plastered on Lucy's face. Just to confirm, I turn around to catch a glimpse of her face behind me. True to my assumption, her eyes are widened and her mouth is opened but she doesn't say anything. 

"Just ignore and walk around her." I sigh and walk a bit to the left to avoid having to step on the passed out girl fallen in front of me. Lucy does the same and shakes her head as we keep moving. 

"I'm not sure I like it here." She opens her mouth to say. Just then, the guy handling the music seems to think it right to increase the volume of the song playing ultrasound loud from the speakers.  

I chuckle a bit before replying her,"Don't worry, in time you'll get used to it. Maybe even one day, you'll be like them."

"Be like them!" She exclaims as her eyes go even wider than before. "I'm not sure I want to be like these people, they look nothing but wasted."

I don't give her a reply but I smirk. We keep walking, trying our best to make it through the crowd of "Wasted" teenagers. 

I squint my eyes a bit to see if I can sight the group through all these people. "I don't see the guys anywhere." I announce to Lucy who in the last five minutes, has tugged at the hem of her mid-thigh length gown,at least twenty times. 

"Maybe dial Eric?" She suggests and frowns as a dirty blonde guy suddenly snakes an arm around her waist from behind her. 

"Hey baby." the guy speaks and hiccups. "Care to dance?" he winks at her and staggers a bit but still manages to keep his arms beneath her waist. 

"Get away from me!" She snaps and wiggles her waist so his hand can fall. She scoffs and starts to walk forward but he stops her by grabbing a hold of her wrist. 

"Attitude huh?" he growls and she lets out a deafening shriek. I groan and frown before palming my face and walking up to him. 

"Hey! Why don't you pick on someone your own size?" I snap at him and he sticks his tongue out at me. 

"Ugh, what is wrong with your voice? Did you swallow a man?" he says and turns to leave. He grabs a drink from a random girl's hand and hops off. 

"Are you okay?" I direct at Lucy and she nods. 

"Let's just hurry and find the guys. If I stay here any longer, I might just puke even without having a drink." She tells me and tugs at the hem of her gown again. 

I nod and bring out my phone to dial Eric. Eric Burner is head of our little friendship group, The Rebels. He literally adopted me after my father passed away two years ago. Right now, Lucy reminds me of the 'me' back then.

"Hey man." I call into the phone as he answers on the third ring. "Lucy and I have been here for a few minutes now and we can't spot you guys, where are y'all at?" I inquire. 

"Where are you guys?" he answers my question with a question. I look around to see if there's anything specific that can describe where we're presently standing. That's hard because parties are just places with people  so I'm basically where there are people and so are they. 

"Uh, there's a guy that serves drinks right across from us." I tell him the only thing that seems to be able to be describable to a person that wants to know where you specifically are at a party.

"Oh okay got it. Just stay right there." he says and directs to somebody else in the background, "Hey Fred,the girls are right across from Anthony,go get them."

"Sure." Fred Scott's voice comes out as distant in the background as he agrees to do as told. 

I hang up before he can say anything else and turn to look at a nervous Lucy. "Are you ready for this?" 

She smiles at me but doesn't say a reply. I know as hell that she's trying her best to put up fake confidence but screw, I can see beyond that. I can see beyond anything. 

"Just trust me, stick with me and you'll be fine." I tell her and give her a reassuring smile. She nods but still doesn't say anything.

"Hey girls!" Fred says as he taps on my left shoulder. I turn around to meet his gaze and he gives me a welcoming smile. He turns to look at Lucy. He eyes her from head to toe, twice before saying something, "You must be Lucy."

Lucy looks between me and Fred repeatedly before replying him with a nod. She extends her hand for a shake and he gracefully accepts it,giving it a gentle kiss before releasing it. 

"This is Fred Scott. He's twenty-two and trust me he's the guy to hang with." I tell Lucy as all of three of us start to push our way through the crowd as Fred leads us to meet the others. 

"Oh." Is all she says before tugging on her dress again. 

I sigh and roll my eyes, "Lucy really, stop doing that. Nobody's paying any attention to your dress. These freaks are dressed way worse than you and not that you're even dressed any bad." I tell her and point to a girl that's literally almost dressed in nothing but a bikini. "See? Like her for example."

"I guess." She sighs and keeps her hands to her side. Fred chuckles and shakes his head."

"She's kinda acting like you two years ago." he points out and I give him an amused grin. 

"I was thinking the exact same thing ." I tell him.

I spot Eric and Bill sitting around a table with at least seven chairs surrounding it. Bill has ear buds plugged in and his head is moving in a slight motion, probably just shaking his head to the beat of the music he evidently seems to be enjoying. 

Bill Benny is nineteen years old and is supposed to be in college but like I have also decided, he's not going to college. He says he wants to stay committed to the group and be in full time. Our little friendship group is more family than friends anyways.

"Hey guys." I greet them both and take an empty seat beside Eric. Lucy just waves awkwardly and sits beside me,Fred takes the chair next to her and since Bill's already seated next to Eric from the other side, we have two empty chairs in the middle. 

"What's up, no drinks on the table tonight?" I raise an eyebrow at them. Knowing them, there should be at least five empty bottles and five full ones. 

Bill unplugs his ear buds and nods in my direction, "Nah. Eric said to stay sober so your friend here wouldn't think we were drunken freaks."

"Yeah he's right." Fred backs up. "We guessed she'd be pretty shook up with all of the mess she'd come across before getting over to us so we wanted her to feel calm around us." 

I laugh a bit louder than I intend to, "Since when are you guys reasonable? The first time Eric introduced you to me, Fred, you were ten bottles up and you were beyond wasted."

"Hi Lucy." Eric speaks for the first time and offers Lucy a smile. "Ignore the knuckle heads. Welcome to The Rebels, I hope you know what it is you're getting yourself into."

She looks at me and I give her a little head nod. She gulps and turns to look at Eric, "Yes I do and I'm prepared for it."

Eric smirks, "I like you already. Don't worry about anything okay? We are not major thieves or anything. All we ever do is steal food to eat and make money from selling it."

"Don't you have to worry about getting caught?" Lucy queries. 

"Not exactly." Bill answers, "If you ever get caught,which you most likely wouldn't ever be, most families would let you go out of pity and probably even give you the food willingly." he tells her. 

"But what if you don't get pitied?" She asks again. 

"Oh come on..." I start to say but Eric cuts me off with a snap and a cold voice. 

"We never think of the negative possibilities." he frowns, "Janice, tonight the Bailey mansion and you're taking Lucy with you."

I gasp and I bang my hand on the table reflexively. "What?! No, no, no Eric don't go there..."

"Are you defying my orders?" he scoffs and crosses his arms across his chest. Sometimes he acts like his way older and not twenty-four. 

I frown, "I can't take her there. That place is dead beat security sealed and I cannot risk her life. Isn't that her point for becoming one of us, to live?" I point out and Bill nods in support. 

"I think Janice is right. It's too risky, even I can't attempt there. Yes Janice came back with a lot of items last night but she only escaped by a hair's breath." he says. 

"It was hard enough making it through that secret pathway by myself. Two of us just isn't..." I add to my point but Eric's voice cuts in. 

"She needs to know what she's really in for. She needs to see the risks and everything. Now would the both of you shut the fuck up and let me talk." he snaps. 

I roll my eyes but keep my mouth shut. 

"Fred," Eric nods at Fred who just stares blankly at him in response. "Get the costumes ready."

I frown and bury my face in my hands and mumble to myself, "I have a bad feeling about this." I don't even want to see the look on Lucy's face right now. 

Hello. I haven't been bothersome with the author's note, I know a lot of readers don't fancy that but that doesn't mean I'm not going to ask for the votes and comments, please, that's literally all that w*****d writers ask you in return for the hours they spend on writing. (Except for the paid ones)

I'm presently sixteen and it's hard to keep up with writing and carrying on with my teenage life. Y'all can relate. But here I am pleasing you, I hope you like the story so far, I promise it gets better. 

Just incase I get famous in the future by any chance, here's my i*******m : @faithodulesi . Hehe.