Wild Card

Wild Card- Chapter One

"No piece of paper should be as intimidating as this," Alexandra thought out loud as she stared down at the college applications spread out on her bed. The ceiling fan in the center of her room was making the papers flutter gently, threatening to scatter them around the room, but there was no way she was going to turn it off. It was late August and the humidity was making her house feel like a sauna, despite the air conditioning.

"Really, they are just paper. Made from trees. Dead trees. So in reality, I've already conquered them. I'm alive, they're not," she continued. Senior year was starting soon and Alex still had no idea where she wanted to go, so she was applying everywhere. She was still contemplating her future when a series of loud beeps echoed through her room, interrupting her thoughts. Running across the room, she rummaged through the textbooks and notes on her uncommonly messy desk to find her cell phone.

"Hello," she trilled into the phone.

"Hey, Alex, what are you up to tonight?" Her best friend Britney's voice responded.

"I have to-" She started, but was immediately cut off.

"Johnny Banks is throwing a huge party tonight, and we have to go."

"I don't know. I have to finish my paper for AP history."

"Alexandra! It is the last Friday night of our summer. Senior year starts next week. You are not going to spend it sitting in your room finishing your homework! We are going to this party," she said. It was a demand, something that could have been ignored, Alex could stay home that night, but it would be entirely less painful to placate her friend. If she didn't go to this party, Britney would never let her hear the end of it.

"Okay fine. Pick me up at 9:30. You're driving."

.

The party was in full swing when they arrived. Cars lined both sides of the street. The bass from the music could be felt on the grass as they made their way up to the front of the house. No doubt this party would end with the police coming because some neighbor couldn't sleep.

Britney had been late as usual, so they entered the party almost an hour later than originally planned. There were kids Alex had known her whole life grinding up against one another, splashing their drinks all over the furniture, hooking up, talking over the loud music, and fighting.

Alex immediately made her way to the keg avoiding the empty beer cans that littered the floor. Set up in the dining room were three kegs, an array of liquor bottles, and what seemed like hundreds of red plastic cups. Grabbing two, she poured a beer for herself and one for Britney before walking in the direction her friend had gone.

She had gotten no more than twenty feet through the mass of bodies lining the halls when a drunk boy she recognized from the grade below her stumbled into her, making her spill one of the beers on herself and drop the other one completely. "Dammit!" she yelled out. The boy just stood up, gave her a sheepish grin, and staggered off.

She was interrupted from a string of muttered curses when she heard a voice come from behind her. "You look a little wet. Maybe you should take your shirt off." Alex turned around, ready to give the person that said that a piece of her mind and a glare that could kill, when she saw who it was.

A grin broke out on her face, despite the sticky beer that had seeped into her white shirt. "Caleb!"

"Let's go get you cleaned up," he said smiling as he grabbed her hand, leading her away from the mass of people. His hand was warm and felt right in hers. His thumb was gently rubbing circles on the back of her hand, sending tingles up her arm.

They walked up the stairs, weaving their way through the crowd unnoticed. Once upstairs, Caleb started tugging her down the long hallway. Alex had no idea where they were going. She didn't party much, so, despite the fact that Johnny Banks threw the most parties and his house was practically open to the public, she didn't know the layout of it. The mass of people started thinning as they got farther down the hall, until they reached the end. Caleb led her through a door on the left, into a large bedroom.