AN: You have no idea how much I enjoyed writing this chapter. Hope you like it.

CHAPTER NINE

It was Friday already. The day my parents left with James, and the day of the party. We'd spent the previous day getting the final details pinned down for the party. It hadn't taken us long to ride down to Cary's home and grab the alcohol. We each grabbed a couple bottles of whatever we thought looked cool, shoved it in our backpacks, and brought it to my house. We'd stored it under my bed, and I'll admit I kept wondering when my parents would walk in and somehow find it. They would have grounded me, thrown it out, and forced me to lave with them this weekend. Maybe that would've been for the best, because the party would've been canceled.

But no, there I was, saying goodbye to my folks at the front door.

"Take care, honey. We'll miss you!" My mother gave me a hug.

"Stay out of trouble." My father reminded me.

My mom playfully hit him in the arm, "You know Preston won't get into trouble."

Dad smiled at me, "I know." My mouth went dry. I almost told them right then and there what I was planning to do that night.

James walked over, "Alright everything's in the car." He turned to me, "Hey, have fun this weekend. But not too much fun." He winked. What the hell? Did he know?

"We'll be in the car." Dad said and took Mom outside, leaving the front door slightly ajar.

"Have a good time," I said to my brother.

He laughed. "Cut the act. I saw what you have under your bed."

My heart sank. He did know. "When? Are you going to tell Mom and Dad?"

He shook his head. "You never do anything, Preston. Live a little. I won't ask what you're planning, but I wanna hear crazy stories when I get back."

I sighed with relief, but my heart was still beating faster than normal. "Ok. Thanks."

"Just don't get any girls pregnant or anything."

"James! I'm only fourteen."

He shrugged, "Whatever. See ya!" He patted my shoulder and shut the door behind him. I hoped he kept his promise and didn't tell our parents. I rid my mind of those thoughts though, because I had to go meet the guys.

Cary, Joe, Martin, and I were all anxiously waiting at our favorite diner, Carols (which had miraculously been untouched during the destruction of The Alien), for Charles to show up with his girlfriend, Kendra. He'd gone to pick her up and then was meeting us here. After weeks of hearing about her, we were all pretty excited to meet her. The two of them were a little late, so the we'd been talking about our expectations of Kendra.

"I think she's a robot." Cary declared.

"What?" Joe laughed.

"It's the only explanation as to why she's dating Charles." Cary grabbed a fistful of fries.

"Shh, here they come!" Martin nodded to the door.

We all watched in awe. Charles was walking into the restaurant and then stopped. He held the door open for a redhead girl behind him. I blinked twice. ..open. For a girl. I couldn't believe my own eyes. Kendra had cut her hair since we'd seen her in the video, and it was now shoulder-length. She brushed some hair behind her left ear and smiled at Charles. He said something to her and pointed at our table, which had fallen silent. She turned her head towards us and waved. The two of them began walking toward us, Charles respectfully behind Kendra. I saw him peek quickly in a glass panel they passed and smooth his hair down. Was he actually nervous? I glanced over next to me at Martin, whose mouth was slightly open. "She's prettier in person," he whispered and clamped his mouth shut.

"Hi." She greeted us when she finally reached our table. "Mind if I sit here?" She sat in the seat next to me before any of us could answer. Charles sat across from her, next to Joe.

"This is Kendra," Charles introduced her, as if we didn't already know who she was.

"It's so great to finally meet all of you," Kendra grinned, looking at each of us. I could've sworn her eyes lingered on me for a second longer than the others. Was it because I wasn't in the Fab Five?

"You too," Joe politely replied.

"See, Cary? She's not a robot." Martin commented.

Cary kicked him under the table. "Shut up."

Kendra sort of laughed. "Yeah, I'm human."

"So did you cheat on Charles while you were in Cleveland?" Cary asked. He was always so cross with girls around.

"Dude what the hell?" Charles glared at him.

Kendra laughed out loud this time. I couldn't help but notice she didn't answer the question, though.

"Just ignore them, they're stupid." I explained to her.

"Thank you," she smiled at me. "You seem nice."

For some reason, when she smiled at me just then, I felt a part of my insides smiling right back.

That evening we were at my house doing the last preparations for the party. Charles was trying out all of his CDs in my stereo, bragging about his music collection to Kendra. I heard her say something about "good soundtrack" and "next film". Martin was helping Joe set out the food, which was mostly just chips and twizzlers.

Cary was trying to decide what to do with the alcohol. "Should I put it all out, or just some of it right now? Or should I give it to people as they come? Maybe I should keep it under the counter..."

I couldn't tell if he was asking my opinion, or just thinking out loud, so I said "Just do whatever you think you think is best."

He nodded without looking at me. I felt useless so I went into my room to get changed. What do you wear to a party? I honestly had no idea. I tried to remember the last time I'd been to a party. It was a birthday party, and was nothing like this. It had been for a girl who I didn't even like and she'd only invited me to get another present. I opened my closet and grabbed a couple shirts. After trying them both on, I decided on the more dressier of the two, a button-down gray one. I figured it'd be fine with the black jeans I had on.

I heard a knock at the door. I took one last glimpse in the mirror and then walked down the hall to the front of my house. Martin was opening the front door. Alice walked in with two girls at her side.

"Hello," I greeted the two girls. I didn't recognize either of them.

"This is Meghan and Danielle," Alice pointed to the two girls.

Kendra walked over and stood by me, leaving Charles to fawn over music by himself. I was about to introduce us when Kendra did it for me, "I'm Kendra and this is Preston." I gave her a sideways glance. I'd never told her my name.

"Hey Alice!" Joe came over kissed her on the cheek. When he'd first started her like that it'd seemed awkward, but I was used to it now. "I'll take this." He took the plate of brownies she'd been holding and walked with her to the counter.

Next, Cary was at our side with two drinks in his hands. "Hey ladies, do you want some drinks?"

"What is it?" The girl who was named Danielle asked him.

"Beer," he answered.

"Oh, no thanks. Do you have anything non-alcoholic?"

He frowned. "Yeah, punch. I'll get you some."

Meghan accepted one of the cups of beer.

"Hey Preston come with me," Cary instructed me and took me over to the big bowl of punch Joe had laid out by the food. "Hold this for a second." He handed me the remaining cup of beer and ran behind the counter. He returned a second later with a somewhat small glass bottle. He unscrewed the cap and scanned the room to make sure no one was watching. Then he quickly poured the clear liquid in the punch bowl.

"What are you doing?" I asked him, but I figured I already knew the answer.

He took the ladle and stirred the punch. "For the 'non-alcoholics'" he rolled his eyes and filled a fresh cup with the upgraded punch.

"What did you put in there?" I laughed.

"Vodka, what else?" He laughed, too and walked away to deliver the special punch to Danielle.

AN: This next chapter is going to be SO FREAKING FUN TO WRITE. Seriously, I can't wait to put all of you in it. I think you'll love it. Review!