It seemed like the party was in full swing from where Lola and the rest of the boys stood, their classmates all stood before them, enjoying the last remnants of summer. The bonfires dotted on the shore, provided enough light for Lola to observe the coming and goings of one the biggest nights of the year at Spenser. The music was blasting and from where she stood, Lola could see her classmates laughing and having fun, without a care in the world. The annual back to school party at the Dells was something that Lola always looked forward to, but this year it was tinged with a bittersweet feeling. For most of them here, Lola included, this would be the last ever end of summer bash she would be attending, as in a couple of days she would be starting her senior year.

This was like the beginning of the end, and Lola couldn't help but feel nostalgic as she saw her classmates drinking and dancing. She couldn't help feeling a bit of sadness as she was going to miss all this insanity. Well not the diving cliff but, but the rest of it Lola would miss.

So much was changing, some for the good and some for the not so better.

"You guys ready to have some fun?" Lola asked, a coy smile etched across her face.

"Eager, are we?" Reid questioned with a raised brown and taking that as a challenge, Lola took his hands into her own and began dragging him into the throws of the party.

There had been so much sadness in her life lately, along with so many unanswered questions that for one night Lola just wanted to forget it all. She wanted to be like the rest of her peers for the night, and be a regular teenage girl. To dance on the beach and perhaps have one too many drinks. Tonight seemed to be full of possibilities and Lola intended to take advantage of it, she laughed as she continued to drag Reid along with her, greeting classmates as she weaved between them. The music was being pumped out at such a loud level that it was impossible for Lola to even get a word out to any one, but that didn't bother her much. Words could come much later. Now it was time to party, but to do that Lola was going to need a very special person.

This seemed like a far cry from the girl who less than fifteen minutes ago was pondering whether or not she was making a good choice before tossing her moral high ground to the side and jumping off a cliff. No matter how much Lola hated doing the cliff's jump, or rather being forced to use her magic, there was no feeling that even came close to it; the almighty feeling of falling from the heavens. It was pure ecstasy. Even with the speed that her body was plummeting towards the ground, Lola felt in control. She felt alive.

Her carefree mood was no doubt the result of her using her powers, it always left behind this feeling of euphoria. A buzz of some sorts. Or a drug induced haze. Things were coming in and out like a wonderful blur of colours.

"Lol? You feeling okay?" Reid questioned, one brow raised as he grabbed onto Lola's waist, pulling her in ever so slightly to steady on her feet.

"Is this Reid I'm talking to? Because you are starting to sound like Caleb." Lola retorted, knowing full well that her answer was guaranteed to rile her blonde hair friend up. If there was one thing that Reid hated, it was any kind of insulation that he was boring in any shape or form and since he was the polar opposite of Caleb, a few idle phrased words would definitely do the trick.

"As if!"

All Lola could do was laugh as Reid spun her around briefly, before she focused on the task at hand. Even though they were at the party, apart from Reid there was another person that Lola knew who was also the life and soul of the party. Her former roommate Kate Tunney. This was the person that Lola was desperately looking for as she continued to make her way through the crowd, hand in hand with Reid, offering passing greetings to any one who sent them her way first. Lola would find time to catch up with them later.

Her eyes were constantly scanning the crowd, but classmates inviting her to join them to have a drink or join them for a dance was a constant source of distraction. But eventually Lola caught sight of her target, about 20 yards ahead. It wasn't too hard to spot Kate, after all the girl stood out no matter where she went with her warm complexion, that often reminded Lola of caramel which perfectly suited her darker features and envious dark hair.

She wasn't alone, which Lola knew would be the case. As things would be pretty tragic in life if Kate Tunney was by herself at a party, the girl was one of, perhaps the most liked person at Spenser. People were always flocking to be with her.

The girl with Kate wasn't someone that Lola recognised, a petite blonde who was chatting animatedly with her companion. She gave off typical girl next door vibes to Lola. Whoever this girl was, Lola would find out soon enough as she quickly detached herself from Reid and made a beeline for her former roommate.

"KATE!"

The surprise was clear as day on Kate's face and it warmed Lola immensely to see her friend light up just by seeing her and to be honest, she felt the same way. It had been a couple of months since Lola had seen Kate, they hadn't kept in touch much this summer, this was mostly on Lola's part for obvious reasons. Yet, all of that aside, it didn't change how fiercely Lola had missed her friend. Lola couldn't help but let out a wide grin. Kate Tunney was the best friend that every girl needed. Supportive, check. Bad ass, check. Always has bleach, black bags and a shovel on stand by just in case, check. If Lola didn't have her powers, Kate would be the first person she would call in a crisis.

"Lola! You're here! I've missed you so much..." Kate began, a bright smile on her face before Lola crashed into her friend, pulling the young woman into a bone crushing hug. "I left you like a hundred messages! I didn't think you were going to come."

Yeah, Lola kind of felt bad about that.

But she had more pressing priorities than returning a few calls.

"I'm here now and that's all that matters!" Lola quipped back.

"Where's the rest of your entourage?"

Lola tilted her head in the direction that she had come from and there, in the distance were her four playmates making their way over. As the saying went in this town, where one child of Ipswich was, the rest were sure to follow. It was cliche as hell, but it was the god's honest truth as the five of them were pretty much attached to the hip.

"Whose that?"

"The Sons of Ipswich." Lola snorted in response, turning her attention over to Kate's new friend. Despite being in the circle as one of the Children of Ipswich, the titles themselves always sounded completely ridiculous and she often only used it in jest. Yet there was never any attempt to shake off the name, as embarrassing as it was, all of them including Lola took some small amount of pride in it.

"Hey Kate."

"Caleb." Kate warmly greeted before her launching herself into Pogue's embrace as not only was she one of Lola's closest friends, she also happened to be Pogue's girlfriend. "You're late!"

"I had a thing with the family." Pogue quickly shot off, his eyes trailing off to meet Lola's to share a matching grin. It was a lie of course, but no one outside of the Children of Ipswich needed to know what. It was one of their many 'in house' jokes.

"My bad… You know how I can't function without dragging this one around with me everywhere I go." Lola retorted.

"So who's your friend?"

"My new roommate." Kate proudly stated as she pointed to the petite girl next to her.

"Oh, my replacement?" Lola questioned, although it shouldn't have come as much as a surprise as she knew this was going happen. Her and Kate had roomed together since freshman year and had carried on doing so up until the end of their junior year, the plan was to do the full stretch up until graduation. But things changed. Nick's death had changed everything and Lola was compelled to return home and remain there for her senior year.

The admiration that Lola had for Kate would never falter, the young woman in front of her would always be her closest female friend. Yet it was safer for them all if Lola put some distance between the two of them. Privacy was something that was a bit of a foreign concept to Kate and there was too much at stake for Lola to risk having her endearingly nosy roommate stumble across. The covenant had to be protected at all costs.

"Like you could ever be replaced, just a new friend to fill the gaping hole that you left in my room." Kate retorted in a light hearted manner and Lola couldn't help but beam. She was really going to miss rooming with Kate this year.

"I've heard a lot about you Lola."

Lola couldn't help but raise an eyebrow. "If it all came from Kate then none of it's true."

"I don't know, she was very convincing about this story about you and a tequila bottle."

"Ohhh, I like her."

"Now that you ladies have got that out of the way, how bout the rest of us get an introduction?" Pogue interrupted and Lola just lazily rolled her eyes, that cousin of hers sure loved being the centre of attention.

"Sarah, now that you have finally met my girl Lola Pope this is Pogue Parry, Tyler Simms… Reid-" Kate began, making an introduction like a good hostess would.

"Garwin. Reid Garwin."Reid began, interrupting Kate and pushing himself to the front of the group, no doubt in order to get a good look at the fresh meat joining them at school this year. Sure that was a vulgar way of putting things but then again, Lola spent the majority of her time with boys and her best friend/cousin was the most vulgar person she knew. Pogue's habits had been something that Lola had learned to absorb over the years, whilst retaining some sense of decorum. At times.

"Good evening."

"Good evening."

"You know, Sarah's my grandmother's name and you remind me of her."

"Oh god, I did not just hear that… Excuse me while I die of second hand embarrassment." Lola loudly interrupted, mortified at what she had just heard. That had to be without a doubt the worst pick up line that she had ever heard in her life and of course it just had to be Reid to say that, and with zero shame in the slightest. Of course one of the many things that Lola loved about Reid was his ability to say whatever the hell was on his mind, no matter the time or place with zero regards of the consequence.

But this? This was so many levels of wrong that Lola didn't even begin to know how to process this. Someone needed to cut off her ears, or better yet, get her the first of many stiff drinks so she could forget about this horrific moment.

"Caleb Danvers, and you don't bring my grandmother to mind in any way."

Dear god. This was going to be a very long night.