Chapter 7: Party Time

Back at the house, Millicent was on the phone, Lucas was coming down the stairs from searching, and Jake and Pudge were tango-ing around the house just for fun.

"There's no answer at Haley's house," Millicent said.

"Well then I'm calling the police," Lucas said reaching for the phone.

"No! There's no need to call the police," Millicent said.

"Um, she took the bus back to Spartanburg," Pudge said, completely making it up. "She wouldn't be there yet. She missed you so much she just jumped right on that bus and went home."

They could all hear Chris Keller trying to sing from the living room. And Jake picked up Mr. Huxtable's binoculars and was looking at Pudge through them, making her laugh. Millicent snatched them away.

"She went all the day back to Spartanburg on a bus!" Lucas yelled. "In the middle of the night, unescorted?"

"She could have gone for a swim," Millicent said.

"A swim?" Lucas was outraged now.

Jake went into the living room to check on Chris who was singing and dancing along with Elvis on the record player. "I saw you in, um. You were great in… that movie," he said trying to make conversation.

"Elvis is over man," Chris said holding up the album cover. "I mean look at that face, he's desperate." He picked up his scotch and took a sip. "I don't get to do jack shit man. Like this is the first real party that I've ever been to."

Jake looked around nervously. What party?

"So," Chris said pulling Jake into a headlock and giving him a noogie. "What I want to know cool daddy, is where are all the girls?"

At that moment Brooke came down the stairs and into the living room, wearing a beautiful gold outfit that was skin-tight and left little up to the imagination.

"I'm terribly sorry I'm late," she said.

"Those are my mother's clothes," Millicent said to Lucas, in awe that Brooke would do such a thing.

"Does anybody feel like dancing?" Brooke asked, flirting.

Chris looked at her, eyebrows raised. "She'll do," he said and dropped Jake on the ground, running over to dance with her.

After twenty minutes or so, Jake and Pudge were dancing also, a medium song on the record player, they were shagging.

"Jake, why did you lie?" Pudge asked.

"About what?" he said defensively.

"You can shag," she said.

"Yeah," he said. "But I never liked it until now." Pudge smiled, blushing. "Hey, what would you say if I asked you a question?"

"What kind of question?" Pudge said as they stopped dancing and got a little closer.

"You want to go on that shag contest with me tomorrow?" Her face fell a little. "You know cause I'm not good enough, right? That's okay, I just thought-."

"No," she said. "I just thought you were going to ask me something else."

"Like what?"

Millicent walked by at the second with lemonade for Lucas. "Hey," she said. "Don't you worry about Haley one bit. She's fine. I'm sure it's just nerves. I'd be nervous too if I was about to marry you." Lucas looked up and Millicent blushed, not believing what she'd just said. But she stood tall and bravely took his hand and they started to dance.

On the other side of the room, Brooke danced with Chris, her head on his shoulder, eyes closed, taking in his "stardom". But he yawned a little and then pulled back. "Listen you mind if I split? Like, I've seen bigger parties in a telephone booth. I need action baby. I dig it the most."

Brooke looked at him, horrified at the thought of him leaving. She ran over to Jake. "We've gotta get some people over here. Don't you have any friends?"

Less than thirty minutes later, dozens of people were pouring into the house, to Millicent's dismay. They had kegs and containers and ice and drinks. Brooke was in heaven, so was Chris Keller. Pudge and Jake were having a good time too, but Millicent and Lucas were not.

Some people set the large tub down and everyone started pouring any and all liquor that they had into the tub making the largest cocktail anyone had ever seen. Liquors of all brands, types, and colors went into the tub. And people started filling their cups up with it.

"Get out!" Millicent said. "Get out of my house." But no one was listening, they were dancing along to the music that had been turned all the way up. Then, someone who was already drunk picked up Jake and was spinning him around.

"Put him down!" A helpless Pudge yelled. "You'll break him!"

More and more and more people started piling into the house. Then someone picked Millicent up and started spinning her around. She screamed and screamed. Over at the "party tub" people were going and going after all the liquor, when finally, the creep from the night before who'd danced with Millicent just took a straw and stuck it right in, slurping it all up. People were picking up the furniture and carrying it out into the yard to make room for all the dancing. And Lucas tried to stop them, but they weren't listening.

"Lucas what am I gonna do?" Millicent cried. He pried her away from the arms of some guy.

"You want me to call the police?"

"No, no, no, they'll tell my daddy, please don't call the police." Then Millicent looked over and saw Brooke and Chris dancing on top of the coffee table. And then behind them were too girls and a guy jumping on the couch. "Get down!" she yelled. "Get down!" But they wouldn't. And she couldn't just push them off. "At least take off your shoes!" she pleaded. "Take them off!" The three did take off their shoes, but Millicent had to do that for them while they were jumping. But the guy took off his shoe and threw it at the Marlin on the wall, knocking it to the floor.

On the coffee table, Chris and Brooke were pressed together, him going at her neck, her arms wrapped around him. "I can't believe I'm making out with Chris Keller," she said.

"Are these your friends?" Pudge asked Jake.

"Um," he said looking around. "Well I know that guy, no. Well I know- no. Only one of them." Then someone stepped on Pudge's foot and she spilled her drink.

"Ow," she said.

Millicent walked into the living room and could see Rachel and Alex trying to get in through a window. "Oh my good Lord!" she yelled. "Brooke!" Brooke ran over with her. Rachel's foot and leg were already in the window and Alex was on the other side peeking in for Chris Keller. Millicent took Rachel's high heel off her foot and started hitting her leg with it. Rachel screamed and Brooke pushed down the window. Rachel pulled her foot back and Brooke locked the window and then went to the door with Millicent who threw the shoe out and ended up hitting a guy in the head. "Oh honey, I am so sorry!" She and Brooke laughed and headed back to the party.

Millicent walked in to find Lucas picking up a picture of Millicent whenshe was little and wiping off the alcohol, setting it back on the mantel. "Thank you, Lucas."

Pudge and Jake had settled into a table that people where dancing on top of. Spilled alcohol was soaked into the doilies and it was dripping down. They were catching it in their glasses and drinking through straws.

"It's raining," Pudge said.

"Nathan says you get drunk a lot faster if you drink through a straw," Jake said. He reached on the other side of the table and grabbed a chip from the ground. "Potato chip?"

"No," Pudge said. Then Jake slurped up beer in his straw and looked over at her and spit it all over her face. "Hey!" she cried.

"I'm sorry," Jake said laughing.

"Nice trick, what else can you do?"

Then, in a voice like Bullwinkle's, he said, "Hey Rocky, watch me pull a rabbit out of my hat."

Pudge laughed. "Do it again."

"Hey Rocky, watch me pull a rabbit out of my hat."

Outside, pissed that they couldn't get in, Alex and Rachel were TP-ing the Huxtable house. There was toilet paper hanging from all the trees and they were doing all the cars too. Anything they could.

"Alright, alright," Rachel said. "This one's for you, four eyes!" And she threw the toilet paper roll up over the tree. People upstairs laughed and laughed, too drunk to comprehend, or just not caring whatsoever. "Damn rich bitches!"

In the hallway, guys had put beer on the floor and were now slipping and sliding down the hardwood floor and into the "party tub" for liquor.

"You are ruining the floor!" Millicent yelled over their cheering. She was trying hard not to slip on the slippery floor. "Now, get out!" A shirtless guy grabbed her and she tried to pull away, but he was too strong. She beat on his chest, but it just made him feel like Tarzan and he yelled. Then they both slipped and she fell right into the "party tub". She tried to protest, but no one was listening. "Oh what the hell?" she yelled and grabbed a cup, got some alcohol and knocked it back.

She got up and saw Lucas being stripped by three girls. They'd taken his coat and his tie and gotten his first two buttons undone. She walked over, drunk already, and he must have been too because he wasn't caring anymore. And she pulled him away, dancing with him while the girls found someone else to undress.

After a while, Millicent looked up to see she and Lucas were the only ones left in the room. Some people were passed out in other rooms, some on the couches in the front yard. But she didn't care. She was dancing with Lucas. "Millicent," he said looking into her eyes. "Your eyes are really beautiful." She smiled.

Upstairs, Jake and Pudge were sitting in the tub together, fully clothed but not caring. She was wiping some vomit off of his shoe with a wet wash cloth. And he was absent-mindedly washing her leg with soap. She noticed, but she didn't care. She liked it.

"Did you know that I'm going off to the United States Naval Academy in Annapolis in a couple of days?" Jake asked.

"No," Pudge said, alarmed. So soon?

"Yeah. I'm gonna be a marine."

Pudge looked down, not wanting him to see the sadness in her eyes.

"Anyway, I was really hoping I would fall in love with a girl this summer so that I would have someone to write to."

"Aww, Jake," Pudge said smiling.

"I mean, you know what I've just realized, I don't have to fall in love with anyone, I can just write to you." Pudge's face fell, but Jake didn't see it because he looked down at his hands and played with the water. "I mean it's not like writing to no girl or nothing. With you I can really be myself and I don't have to worry what you'll think of me." Pudge looked away, hurt, because she really felt like she was falling in love with him.

On the yacht, Nathan and Haley were making out on the bed. She didn't know what was happening, all she knew was she liked it. And Nathan was just so happy she'd even given him a chance. Nathan reached up and undid a button on her shirt, looking in her eyes. Then another, then another. He waited for a protest, but none came. Finally, he pushed back a side of her shirt and leaned down to kiss the top of one breast. She sighed. They were making out in no time and Haley knew he wanted more. She stopped him and sat up, touching her forehead, she didn't know what to do. She was engaged to be married.

"Nathan, Nathan I can't. It's wrong."

"Well I'm not going to force you," he said, although he was disappointed.

She looked at him. "Nathan," she said, "I can't go around sleeping with every boy that likes me." But then she realized that maybe if she did this, got it out of her system, she could go back to Lucas and be happy.

"Haley, don't you know we'll remember this for the rest of our lives."

She wrapped her arms around his neck. "Just don't tell anyone, okay?" And they both laid back on the bed.

At the house, Lucas was outside looking through a telescope that was usually in the senator's study. He'd seen the yacht and turned to Millicent. "Hey, you wanna go for a little cruise?" She was standing over by a couch that had been brought out on the lawn.

"I can't feel my teeth," she said.

He walked over to her. "Millicent, how come we never hung out before?" He got closer. "Because I think you are really really cool." He leaned in to kiss her, and she to kiss him, but she fell onto the couch right before their lips met and passed out. Then he laid down right next to her and passed out too.