It was now 8:00 at night. But the party had just begun. More and more people were pouring in and it was getting even more exciting by the minute. Emma nervously hung around with Chris while eating some pretzels. Just a few minutes later, she glanced at the doorway and saw Sean come in. Many thoughts ran through Emma's mind. She really didn't care what happened to him anymore, but it felt totally wrong not to warn him about what she heard. Emma didn't want anything on her conscience. 'But why should I care? I'm so sick of him and I've helped him enough. All I ever get in return is him stealing laptops from men with cancer.' But Emma just couldn't pull back her natural intentions. She had to get into this, even if she didn't want to.

"Um, Chris, I'll be right back, okay?"

"Alright. I'm gonna go see Jeff over there. Just come find us when you're done." Chris replied with a nod.

Emma smiled a little. "Cool." With that, she made her way over to Sean. Once she was in front of him, she said "Sean..."

He looked annoyed. "What is it, Emma?"

"Look, I just need to tell you something, okay?"

"Emma, can't I at least go to a party without you getting into my life?"

"It's important, Sean!"

"Yeah, okay, what could be so important that you have to –"

"Jay is here."

Sean became silent. He had a look of fear in his eyes. "He – he is? Wait, how do you...do you even know about –"

"I over-heard them, Sean. I don't know what you did! All I know is that whatever it was, it made them mad and now they're up for a little pay- back."

"I know, I know, I'm the one actually involved here, remember?"

"Just tell me what's going on!"

"Why do you care?!" Sean yelled angrily.

Emma stopped. She really didn't know the answer to that question. "I – I don't know."

The two became silent for what seemed like an eternity. Eventually, Sean started to walk over to the stairs and motioned for Emma to follow. "I'll explain if you promise to keep quiet. I'm just not saying anything down here." Emma looked around really quick to make sure no one was looking and then quickly ran up the stairs to follow Sean.

Manny and JT were at the other side of the party looking through some CD's. But Manny wasn't having any fun. JT spoke up. "Manny, what's going on with you tonight?"

"Nothing." Manny lied as she avoided eye contact with JT.

"Well, then...why are you so quiet? You're never like this."

"I'm fine, JT." Manny muttered quickly. 'No, I'm not fine.' she thought. 'Sully is a loser to me, everyone thinks I'm a slut, none of my old friends will speak to me and you, JT, are the only one who still likes me but you hang around me way too much, watching my every freakin' move!'

JT looked disappointed. "Okay, well, uh, I'm gonna just go and get some food." But once JT left, he decided he wasn't going to get food. He was too pissed off at Manny to hang out with her any longer. He could tell that she wasn't having any fun with him tonight. 'Fine. Geez, if she's gonna be so stuck-up toward me then I'm just gonna go hang out with someone else tonight.' On that note, JT made his way through the crowd to find some of his other friends.

Manny, however, had no idea what JT was up to – and frankly, she didn't care. She turned her head toward some older kids at the party and noticed the packs of beer near them. 'Well, drugs are one thing. Beer is another.' Thinking that beer was nothing but soda with extra flavor to make you feel good, Manny walked over and slyly took one of the beer cans. She opened it, hesitated a little, and took a sip.

(A/N: oh, and this is just the beginning! All of these are setups that lead to bigger, juicier stuff. So please please please w/ another cherry on top review!)