How to choose the one

Who is for sale?

After we had completed an obligatory first lap of the gymnasium, we have sufficiently and thoughtfully identified all the important areas;
The bar, the bathroom, the hot guys and the food.
Honestly, it's taking some time for me to get used to the whole "being 21 to drink thing" but to be fare, all it does is leave space for the students to invent new ways to sneak alcohol in to parties and events such as this. Back home, kids are drinking alcohol from their parents stashes at fourteen! This is not a new subject for me. But I feel like even though this age deterrent doesn't stop everyone, at events like this, it's a little harder to get something other than fruit punch.

However, with Candice as my side kick, I have learned that nothing is impossible.

As we finish our second lap of the event in our first hour here, we make our way into the corridor at the back of the gym that contains exits leading to bathrooms, the coaches offices and change rooms. We head into one of the change rooms when the coast is clear and I work as lookout. Candice takes two cups and a baby bottle of champagne from her purse and pours us a drink each. We finish that and then another and when we are suitably but subtlety buzzed, we make our way back to the party.

Giggling away and feeling just a little more relaxed, we set out in search of some food and maybe some of our team mates. We have a few designated tables somewhere and it would be nice to sit down and chat while we eat our surprisingly upmarket selection of snacks.

Here I was expecting cheap supermarket canapés but this committee went all out, I spotted salmon and baby lobster cakes somewhere on our second lap!

As we turn away from the selection of canapés and desserts, plates just slightly filled so we don't over do it and have me busting out of my volcano,I spy lexi waving at me from one of the long tables set up just beyond the designated dance floor area.

I nudge Candice and point my plate in that general direction and she smiles and nods as we make our way, weaving through many a costumed person, to meet up with our team.

It seems no one in our team has slacked on the theme front. Everyone looks amazing. Even the guys of our team have gone all out. They are seriously such a hot bunch, it's like looking at an advert for Halloween in the Hamptons or something. I start to feel slightly out of place and begin to fidget with my dress self consciously.

Candice, who never misses a single beat, spies me out of the corner of her heavily lashed eye and steers me to two empty seats at the end of one of the long tables so that we can sit and we are not standing in front of everyone, begging to be overly scrutinised.

I send her a grateful smile and look over the little plate of delicacies I have in front of me. I'm about to tuck into a pretty little tart of some sort when someone walking by in my peripheral vision makes me stop and take notice.

Bayne.

He is dressed head to toe in black; black button down shirt, tight black jeans and black boots. His hair is slightly neater than his usual messy locks, all pushed back and it suits him. I sneak a look at the girls sitting at my table and notice that almost everyone of them has their eyes on him as he walks past, taking in his appearance in a way that makes me feel weird observing them. And it's not just our table either. All over the room, girls are salivating and it makes me feel nauseous.

I swallow whatever it is I'm feeling down and lower my eyes back to my dessert, that at least that I can control.

"Holy Hell! He looks good tonight." Candice whispers in my ear as I shrug and pretend I have no clue who she is on about.