The next thing Lucy knew she was driven home by one of her Dad's assistants at the end of the day. Lucy squirmed in her seat,trying-and failing-at finding a comfortable position to sit in on the way home. When Lucy reached the front door of the estate, she greeted the groundskeepers along with the maids and butlers. They had all practically raised her when her mother passed and her father was swamped with work. Smiling and giving them all a small wave she ushered herself to her bedroom and began picking out an outfit for the party.

It was her first official party with people her age and not some stuffy old men who saw her as a prized mare and child bearer. She didn't know what the norm was, worrying her lip, she began looking through her wardrobe and seeing if anything would be suitable for a high school party and not a gala. She brushed through the pink dress that her mother used to wear, 'too dressy', she thought, sliding the next dress into view on the hanger, a black dress with gold accents, 'if i wanted to be noticed I'd wear this for sure." a smile surfaced her face, Lucy knew she was good looking as was her mother and father, but she wanted to be humble about it and wear something that made her feel confident. Looking at the next outfit she saw her blue and white tank top along with her white pleated skirt. 'Perfect!' she beamed.

Pulling the outfit out for later she began doing her normal routine of finishing her homework and relaxing with a good book. When the sun was completely gone and the house maids had gone to their chambers she snuck out of the house careful to not make a sound. She wished her father a good night already and had eaten dinner so as far as her father was concerned it was like every other night before. Lucy ventured out to the cars and found hers that she had gotten for her 16th birthday, she did have a license but father preferred if someone drove her. She remembered when she passed the test, thinking that this would somehow open up a new door to freedom and escape every once and a while when her father was being too overbearing or hang out with friends on her own terms.

Lucy opens the car door as quietly as humanly possible, bracing her other hand on the door frame she opens the car door and slides in. She shoots Hibiki a text for the address and copies it into her navigation app, she starts her car, rolling out of the driveway without creating too much noise aside from the engine she begins following the instructions present on her phone. Within twenty minutes she's at her destination.

Her phone pings with notification, glancing at the screen Hibiki messages, 'Are you here yet?'

'Just got here, where are you?'

'I'll meet you outside, it's kinda crazy here already. Everyone is already pregaming.'

'Pregaming?'

'Let's just say most people are either tipsy or drunk at this point.'

'Ah I see.'

'So where are you?'

'Front lawn I think?'

'Comin now.'

'See you in a second.'

As Lucy puts her phone in her purse,waiting patiently for Hibiki to arrive. Fidgeting with her skirt and smoothing out any wrinkles that were only visible to her eye she stood there awkwardly on the well manicured lawn.

The house in front of her was the type you'd see in a movie, full of drunk teenagers and blaring music that made your ears ring, LED lights strobed different colors through the glass pane windows and laughter came roaring out of any open window or door.

"Hey there you are!"

Turning around Lucy sees Hibiki jog towards her eyes alight with glee. A blush dusted his cheeks as he reached her and grabbed her hand. His hand was smooth with no sign of a callous anywhere.

It was Lucy's turn to blush, this would be her first boyfriend or first anything. Reading romance books was nowhere close to the real deal, her heart began to flutter and Lucy feared that if he gave her one more of those charming smiles it would escape her chest and never come back.

"Hey." She whispered out.

"You ready to get your party on?"

"Is it weird that I'm kinda nervous?"

Hibiki tilted his head in contemplation, "Well it is your first party, but the point is to have fun." His smile is dazzling even in the night air. "So if you are not comfortable then let me know and we can leave."

Lucy smiled then, ever the gentlemen, she took hold of his arm and with the bravado of someone who knew what they were doing marched forward into the frey.

Going inside of the house the temperature rose by several degrees, making her glad of her outfit choice. Hibiki began taking the lead when they entered the house, keeping as close as she could they both trudged and squeezed by the crowd that seemed to have a mind and rhythm of its own, there was a push and pull in the movement of everyone. Like they all knew how to move to the songs that were louder than she thought possible for speakers, looking around she noticed that everyone was years younger or older than her, being a senior she noticed college students and underclassmen of the like. Some held the necks of hard alcohol or the iconic red solo cups, glow bands were distributed and some were worn around necks, bracelets, halos, or ankles. Seeing everyone cheering it brought on this giddyness in her. Call it crowd contagion but seeing everyone having a good time made her feel more comfortable as well.

"Where are we going?" Lucy tried screaming over the music, but failed as she could barely hear herself think with the music and the base fighting over who would be heard more. She tried squeezing his hand instead, earning her his attention, his eyebrows rose in question. "Where are we going?" she repeated making sure to enunciate every word.

"We're finding everyone! I left them by the table. I just saw them."

Lucy had an equally hard time understanding him but got the gist of the message, nodding as they began walking through the never ending tide of bodies, she hadn't seen a crowd like this since she was at her last birthday and even then she was never in the crowd. This was exhilarating as it was miserable, some of the people she passed were soaked with sweat, or someone's perfume was clinging to the people around them with the strength of the artificial sweetness of rose and vanilla. The males seemed to own only one smell of body spray and she was appalled at why they thought they needed that much. The smell was pungent and strong. That's all she smelled. Chemicals. The smells around the crowd intermingled and meshed together and it made her eyes water at the combination.

When they parted from the sea of bodies she couldn't help but notice the temperature drop around them and she was never as thankful as she was now with being in such breathable material. Looking ahead of her she noticed everyone at the table drinking and laughing. Hibiki shouted at them and waved a hand, gaining the attention of Ren and Eve. Both gave smiles back and held their drinks in greetings.

"Good to see the crowd didn't swallow you whole." Ren raised his cup.

"I thought it would for a second there." Hibiki said, scratching the back of his head bashfully.

"Yeah I had no idea you could fit this many people in a room." Lucy joined in, Ren turned to her smoke filling his smile.

"Oh believe me, I can fit more if I have to."

"Well Lucy since it's your first party let's start off with some shots." Eve suggested holding shot glasses in both hands, where he got them in such a short time she didn't know, but she was excited to live the high school life.

"I've never done shots before but I'm willing to try."

"Atta girl!" Jenny boasted.

"Someone get this girl a soda before we start. She'll need it." Hibiki asked one of them.

"Well Lucy," Eve tossed her a can of soda, "Welcome to the party. You ready to get fucked up?"

Lucy looked at all of them and with a smirk of her own she pumped a fist, "Hell Yeah!"

"Cheers!" they all said at once and the partying began.

A/N: Hello everyone! I'm back from the dead. I needed a week to myself after finals and I won't lie this chapter fought me tooth and nail. Sorry for the filler but we are leading up to something. XD I promise. I know this is kinda late too. But I hope you all are doing well and for those in the States, HAPPY SUMMER VACATION. My semester ended leaving me with work and writing. Hopefully this will help me plan out my time better but we will see.

Hope you all are having a great day/night. Love all of you!

~Baccei 3

Special thank you again to those who favorited the story and those of you who reviewed!

Wadeparker, Amanny, MaraDragneel3113, Kinakina, and Copperreign12 I love seeing your guys' comments on the story. It definitely makes my day!