BARTON'S PARTY

"Hey Morgan"

"Morrrrrrgan!"

"Morgan, dude"

"Bro!"

"Morgan, buddy"

"About time you got here dude. But, yeah, you're with Trixie."

"Morgan. Whazzzzzzzzzzzzzzz up!"

The teen who said this got a flash of death-glare amber from Ethan's eyes, but Ethan fist-bumped him anyway. "Morgan" hadn't heard much of Whazzz up since Rory was alive.

The way Werewolf Ethan coped with the blaring music was simple. He had "invisible" earplugs stuck in his slightly-pointed ears. Unlike the marching band during the game, Ethan was prepared for this. And obviously enjoying the hero's welcome. With Trixie on his arm it was icing on the cake.

This party wasn't much like the Halloween party Ethan had thrown for his Mathlete friends back in the real timeline; much less the post-Debbie Dazzle party he had given under duress. There wasn't anything in the way of costumes. There was just loud music, a lot of cool people, and beer. Well, there were a lot of pretzels and chips too; and no shortage of beef jerky.

"Duude" said Skyler, "About time you got here. We were waiting for you to start a game of beer pong."

"Yeah, bro, about that . . ." started Ethan.

It was about this time that Erica realized where she was, that is in a crowd of the cool teenagers who were either holding plastic cups of beer or dancing to Skyler's stereo sytem. It was naturally difficult to realize where exactly in the house she was (it looked like the living room) given all the furniture was pushed to the side and the rooms full of teens. It was the type of party that just grew as time went on.

"Hard to believe for a friend of Ethan's" thought Erica. "But . . . I was outside one minute ago, and now I'm here without any memories of getting here. And who am I dancing with? What happened?"

Erica found her thoughts interrupted when a cup of beer pushed into her hand.

"Molson" said Hodges, "made in Montreal, like me."

"Lame' muttered Erica, noticing that Jarod's off-the-wall grin didn't speak well to his sobriety. He had quickly become buzzed. "How many have you had?"

"Not enough. We were going to get hammered tonight" Hodges told her.

"We?" asked Erica sarcastically.

"Hoping for a drinking contest. First to puke loses. I was gonna have the awesomest time with you cheering me on."

"I can't wait" observed Erica in the same sarcastic tone.

"Yeah, I know" said Jarod. "Yeah, but Morgan has this thing about losing control tonight. I promised to support him in his crazy idea not to drink tonight."

"Why does it even matter if he drinks or not?" said Erica, who thought Hodges was considerably less interesting than he had been in the car.

"Yeah, you'd think" said Hodges, scratching the grey streak in his hair. "He won the big game. We know Morgan drinks. It's like he's not part of the team if he doesn't drink with the rest of us. I'm a nobody, but Morgan . . . well, I just promised to help him out. It's not as if Skyler would understand. I don't get it either, but he's my best bud. Maybe he thinks Trixie won't think he's romantic if he's plastered. But she loves him drunk."

Erica tried to imagine this or any other version of Ethan drunk.

"How much beer even is there in one keg?" said Erica.

"No biggie" said Hodges. "The older guys brought some more cheap kegs over. It's the first basketball championship ever!"

"Tonight's a full moon" snapped Erica, taking the proffered drink from his hand. "Think about that!"

Erica immediately regretted saying that. Hodges looked at her perplexedly.

"What's that gotta do with anything? Full moon?"

"Nothing" said Erica.

"Come on" said Jarod. "Let's get out of the crowd. Skyler has a VIP room going on."

"VIP room?" said Erica, with distaste.

That had been Rory's description for the Morgan basement, where, in this reality, Rory , Benny and Stochowski had been chomped, slashed and chewed to death by Werewolf Ethan.

"So Jarod Vincencio Hodges is like a combination of Benny and Rory" thought Erica nauseously. "But . . . what happened just now? How did I get from the front lawn to the living room? Enough time passed for Ethan to disappear with Trixie and for Hodges to have a drink or two. Where was I? I don't do memory lapses!"

Erica wondered whether she should call Sarah. But why? It wasn't as if Sarah could leave. She had made her bargain with Jane.

Erica soon found herself in the large basement rec-room of the Barton house. There was little else she could see besides a stone fireplace, a dartboard, a foosball table, table hockey, pool table, and a bar.

If Erica had wondered before why Ethan was friends with Skyler Barton, here was the reason.

The music blared here too, but there less people. It was a mixed crowd. There must have been at least 100 people here, Erica considered. Erica was annoyed to see Trixie and Ethan walk out of a door in the corner together, Ethan's arm still around his girl in this reality. Trixie was giggling, and wearing Ethan's jacket to boot.

"We were playing seven minutes in heaven" said Trixie, seeing Erica stare at her.

"Then why is no one else . . . oh, you're joking" observed Erica caustically.

"How about us . . ." suggested Hodges.

"I don't think so" said Erica.

"Burn!" observed Ethan. "But I'm seriously looking for food. Yeah, there it is! Beef jerky."

"What is this . . . beef jerky?" said Coquette, who had appeared out of nowhere, accompanied by a gust of wind in the basement room.

"It's by the bar" said Ethan warily, as he looked at her appraisingly and tried to find out what was strange about her. "It's dried, salted beef. I can't get enough of it."

"Naturalment!" said Coquette. "That you should adore viande de boeuf séchée. At least now!"

Ethan looked at her suspiciously

"Yeah" was all he said.

"Hey Morgan" said a rangy blond kid at the pool table, most notable for his Whitechapel Devils jacket and backwards-facing ball-cap. Bartos was his surname. "Solids and stripes?"

"You're on, Pete" said Ethan. "Winner plays Hodges."

"Winner keeps table, Morgan"

"You just gave up the table, you loser. I'm going to be here all night."

"You think?" laughed Pete Bartos.

"Yeah" said Morgan. "It's not as if I can drop the challenge now."

"Smart" muttered Hodges, or rather he thought he was muttering. "You can shoot pool until about 2am. But buddy, you're supposed to have a beer at hand."

"I'll have it . . . at hand" said Ethan.

"I don't get why you're so desperate to be a tee-tee . . . not drink" said Hodges. "It's not as if you've got to drive home."

"I have to go home and take over watching Jane from Sarah" Ethan muttered.

"You're full of crap" said Hodges. "There's something else."

Hodges tried to piece together the something else, and concluded that there was something obvious that he was missing. What it was he didn't know; he only managed to give himself a headache.

Just for the heck of it, Ethan picked up a dart and threw it into the centre of the dartboard.

"Bullseye" he said.

What Ethan meant was "See how awesome I am in darts! I'm going to beat you in pool too!"

"Morgan, buddy, do you want to make it interesting?" suggested Bartos. "What bet's worthy of a game between Whitechapel's student president and the vice president? Hey, treasurer?"

Hodges laughed, a "buzzed" snicker.

"10 lucks-bucks" he said, slightly slurring his words. "But you know, dude, I'm on Morgans's side."

Erica groaned inwardly. She had promised to keep an eye on Ethan. What this meant was that she's have to hand out with Trixie while the guys had their miniature pool tournament. Sure, there was no rule that girls couldn't play pool. But that didn't matter, because Erica didn't play and considered it to be extremely boring.

Did she really have to stay? Ethan looked on the table like a pool shark (was this how he earned his money to keep the car in shape?).

Erica saw how Ethan played pool; and how out of his league Bartos was. Ethan was still a genius at math, werewolf or not, and he seemed to have the ability to calculate the angles of his shots just by glancing at the white ball.

"Nine ball, thirteen ball, fourteen ball, side pockets" he said laconically.

Ethan's werewolf reflexes gave him the chance to actually make the shot.

A small crowd; Coquette, Trixie, Erica and a couple other teenage girls but several teenage boys, collected around pool shark Ethan and his hapless victim.

"Bartos, you shouldn't have given him the chance" said another teen, with a shrug.

"He is amazing" said Coquette.

"If I lose, I'll take Kathy we'll get a burger" shrugged Bartos. "I'm starved. But you know, I'm not gonna lose."

"I gotta find another guy" muttered Erica to herself. "This party is the biggest waste."

She could be dancing. But no, she was watching Ethan versus Pete in an 8-ball tournament!

"This is supposed to be Valentine's Day" Erica muttered. "Cool or not, this isn't the least romantic."

Erica noticed that Trixie went to giggle with two other cheerleaders. One, a hazel-eyed redhead by the name of Kaitlin. The other the dark, black haired Mauricia. They seemed to have a drinking contest of their own going on.

Erica wasn't the least bit interested. She still didn't like cheerleaders; she sure wasn't going to spend time with a trio of drinking cheerleaders . . . although Erica judged it likely that a few boys were soon going to jump at the opportunity.

As Erica left the room she noticed Coquette take a list out of her pocket and look at Pete Bartos. Coquette nodded to herself with a sly, closed-mouth smile.

Erica was no less annoyed as she went along the short hall to the stairs heading back to the foyer. She bumped into another tall, wan teen who had a list of his own he was checking out. This time, at least, on a smartphone. The teenager was displeased to see Erica.

"Oh, hell. It's you Erica" said the teen irritably.

This didn't add up. How did this guy know her when she was supposed to be dead for a couple years?

"How do you know me?" demanded Erica. "I've seen you, but I don't know who you are."

"I've seen you around school" the teen lied.

"I've only visiting my cousin" Erica retorted.

"Then it must have been around town. I'm new myself. The fact is, seeing you, I couldn't be expected to forget your face."

Erica felt she should be suspicious, but for some reason she felt very calm. And then, very interested.

"Where have you been hiding?" Erica asked.

"I was at another party" answered the sallow boy, with a fanged smirk that he was compelled to hide by rubbing his hand over his mouth. "But I felt like crashing a place where everything wasn't dead. You should see them."

The two were suddenly jostled as the red headed cheerleader, Caitlin, walked by.

"Hey, I wanted a blonde but you'll do" said the sallow boy eying her.

"I'm going to meet Kevin" she replied, in a bit of a monotone.

"Kevin!" blurted out the pale boy. "That mug's so recent he has real colour pictures. Dancing disco. He's going before me? She can't treat me like this! After all I have to do for her!"

For a moment, Erica looked warily at the teen . . . but again her eyes glazed over.

"What . . . are you talking about?" said Erica, who felt drowsy and confused.

"I'm not her servant" said the teen.

"I know what you're talking about" said Erica.

"You do?"

"My date's getting too drunk to dance, and he's hanging around with his buddy waiting for a chance to play pool. What's your date doing?"

"She's an old bag" said the teen heatedly. "She may be hot . . . ."

The teen swore furiously.

"She's turned me into her errand boy . . . and there's nothing I can do about it" he finished.

"If you're that much a wimp" laughed Erica.

The teen had dark hair and hard grey eyes. He gazed seriously at the tall blonde Erica, to Erica's annoyance his pupils clearly reading her from head to toe. Erica didn't notice that, almost against his will, the teen's eyes focused too long on the left side of the neck where her jugular was found.

"I do what I want, when I want, Erica" boasted the teen abruptly. "You want to dump your loser boyfriend? Come with me Erica, and you'll have the night of your life. It'll cost you nothing."

"Cost you nothing?" said Erica sarcastically.

"You really want to stay with the guy who dumped you for an eight-ball tournament?"

The teen grabbed Erica's arm with a strong, icy grip. He smiled at her with his brilliant white teeth and his hard grey eyes.

"I'm going with you" said Erica.