Raise The Bar

chapter two

"Vodka, always vodka." Mads lines up four shot glasses and spills the bottle into each one.

We each take a shot and the liquid burns down the back of my throat. My eyes begin watering when Mads pours more. "I'm gonna need something lighter after this," I cough out.

"I brought some more drinks. Take your pick," Emma points to the disarray of various alcohols on the kitchen bar.

"Thanks, Em," I take the second shot and squint shaking my head and stand up to grab a mango-flavored white claw.

"What time should we leave?" Nellie asks, taking a shot of vodka.

I think about how long it'll take to get there and open the can, "Like fifteen minutes before the party."

Nellie brings out the Uno cards and I don't know why but Nel has a natural talent for shuffling cards. In another life, she could totally be a blackjack dealer, "Ten each. Stacks, wild cards, and switches allowed."

She takes this game very seriously, we all do. Whoever wins decides the movie we watch next week which makes it a competition, and we're all really competitive.

"JJ Cunningham's gonna be at the party tonight," Emma says. JJ is one of the four-star players who lives at the house we're going to tonight.

Nellie looks confused, "The forward who transferred from Westin last year," I inform her.

It's his rookie year and no one knows how good he is. Transferring schools is one thing, changing teams is another, especially when UCC has one of the highest-ranked basketball teams in the country.

"That whole team is built like Greek gods," Mads says.

"Parker's is the shooting guard, right? He got 42 points on the average per game last season," I watched his stats last season, he's the tallest on the team and one of the best shooting guards we've had in a while.

Apart from Adrian turning the team around no doubt, lots of guys joined just for the basketball team and built up an even stronger selection for our school.

"They've built a pretty solid group up. Coach King's been riding their asses all year to prepare them I heard," Mads says.

Everyone's heard of The University of Central Chicago's infamous basketball coach, Wesley King. Late fifties, tough guy and runs a tight ship.

"Uno," Nellie sets down a color change card and switches it to blue and I call Uno my next turn.

"We should change after we finish this round," Em says, setting down a yellow. My turn is next and I set down my final card, a green with the same number.

"So which movie Gigi?" Mads looks at me hopefully knowing exactly which movie she wants.

"Clueless," I smile. Mads gets all excited because I know it's her favorite.

I grab my black lace top that Mads used to convince me to come to the party with black leather bell pants and black heels.

This isn't a regular party, more VIP, and of course, Mads scored us front-line tickets to the show. She has the most connections out of all of us.

"Basketball or football boys?"

"Basketball," we reply in unison. But Hockey makes a close cut.

"I don't think any of the star players are interested in sophomores," Nellie laughs, and she's right. None of them would bat an eye at us.

"How should I do my hair?" Nellie asks. She's the best at doing hair out of all of us, "I think I'll leave it down and do a middle part."

"You should curl it for your debate this week," Emma suggests. She has an event for a law class of hers and she's going against a classmate.