Butterfly

003- The Party

As soon as the two teens pulled into Harrington's driveway, they were met with the familiar sight of Lane's car as he was beginning to leave. Teddy jumped out of the car, running to the boy's window and knocking on it so he would roll it down.

"Where the hell were you today? Eddie and I were nervous," Teddy said through a smile.

"Skipping. My brother got himself into some weird shit, and I had to help him with it."

"And Cleo?" Teddy asked, raising an eyebrow.

"She was closest," Lane explains. "It was urgent, and I wasn't about to drive twenty minutes out to go get you when Cleo was only five."

Teddy wanted to question him more, but as Steve approached them, she let the subject drop. While Lane had never said that he disliked Steve, he never stayed long when he was around. Lane always had an excuse. None were ever good, but it was hard to be when you were always high.

"Hi," Steve said, walking up to the car next to Teddy.

Lane nodded, turning the key in the ignition to start the car. "Hey, thanks for picking this weirdo up."

"No problem. Do you-" Before Steve could finish Lane was rushing out of the driveway.

The boy turned to Teddy to ask if he had done something wrong, but the girl had already begun to make her way inside to her best friend. Steve rolled his eyes, grabbing her stuff out of the back of his car and taking it to the front couch for her. By the time he had done all this, she had already run all the way up the stairs and slammed the door to his sister's bedroom door. He shrugged and went to the kitchen turning his mind back to tonight's plans. He was going to make this a great night.

Upstairs, Teddy leaned against the door to the bedroom and crossed her arms staring at the brunette girl as she rummaged through her closet. After a minute of not being noticed, Teddy coughed to get her friend's attention.

"Oh, Teddy. I didn't hear you guys come in," Cleo said, pulling out a box and placing it on her bed.

"Where the hell have you been?" Teddy asked, not taking any of the bullshit.

"Well... it's hard to explain. Dustin swore us to secrecy. You know party rules and all."

The other girl raised an eyebrow, "And since when do you follow their rules? They're ten."

Cleo collapsed onto the couch, a huge smile still playing on her face. "It's nothing important. We got it all sorted, I honestly just took it as an excuse to skip school. Anyways, we need to worry more about this party Steve mentioned."

As much as Teddy wanted to push the subject, she would never miss the chance to plan a way to infiltrate Steve's parties. They were usually boring, just Carol, Tommy, Steve, and whoever Steve was dating at the time. Most of the girls were shallow, only caring about what Teddy did because they were worried she would go after Steve herself. This was fun for the two girls the first couple of times, but just got monotonous as Steve began to use it as a way to gauge if he wanted to stay with the girl after the events of the night took place. However, as Teddy had already observed, Nancy was different, which meant Teddy and Cleo could have a little more fun while sticking to the confines of Steve's request of course.

"Why would you make that deal?" Cleo asked exasperated as they got ready.

"Two words. Free. Beer."

"Good point..." Cleo trailed off, teasing her hair in the mirror. "What if we messed with Carol and Tommy instead?"

Teddy turned from where she was looking through all of Cleo's tapes, with a wide grin finding its way to her face. "That sounds like a fantastic idea. What would that entail?"