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Chapter 10

“Dude, over here!”
Jace dribbled the basketball and bent his back to block his opponent, Ryan, from stealing it from him.
“Jace, behind you!”
He turned, looked up, and then tossed the basketball to Ty, who was waving his arms like a lunatic. Catching the ball, Ty turned, jumped up, and made a slam dunk into the basket. Ty, who was six-foot eight inches, never missed a shot.
“Nice one Ty,” Jace grinned, and high-fived his teammate.
“Seriously guys, I don’t even care about the game anymore, we’ve got a party to go to tonight!” Their other friend, Erik, shook his bleach-blonde hair out of his eyes and threw his arms up. “It’s last period. And I have a new girl to go with now.”
“Who?” Jace asked, only half interested in the girl of the week for Erik.
“Her name’s Veronica. Veronica… Peri? Yeah, that’s it.” Erik grinned sheepishly. “Actually, she’s the one that asked me, but I was going to go anyway!”
“Sure man, sure you were,” Ty told him sarcastically. “When are you going to get a decent person to go out with?”
“Never.”
“Good luck with that Erik.”
“Hey! Don’t be a jerk about it! Jace hasn’t even got a girlfriend. Bother him!” Erik threw one last shot over the stretched arms of Ryan before the teacher called the end of class.
Jace, who wanted to avoid the question, quickly exited the gym and headed down the hallway, although his usual group of semi-friends caught up. Just then, a trio of girls walked by and glanced at him.
“Hey Jace, going to the party tonight?” one of the girls, Gwen, asked.
“Um, thinking about it,” Jace replied, shrugging, and the girls went on ahead.
“You could have said yeah. You could have taken Gwen. But then again, you turn down every girl,” Nathan, a closer friend of his, muttered next to him so that only Jace could hear.
“Almost all of them are snobby and you know it,” Jace retorted, and walked on ahead to his locker, where he grabbed his backpack and walked back down the hall to the parking lot.
Groups of people were already roaming around the campus, heading towards cars, waiting for the bus, or just hanging around with friends. Jace tugged his cap out of his backpack, placed it on his head, and headed towards his truck. Last night, his parents hadn’t been too pleased with his sneak-out, but they’d allowed him to still take the truck to school as long as he didn’t repeat the previous night. Somehow, Nathan was already waiting by his truck for a ride.
“Nate-” Jace began to warn, but his friend cut him off.
“I know, I know. I won’t say anything. But we’re still going tonight. You’re my only ride. If you’re going to chauffer, you may as well party.” Nathan grinned.
Slowly, Jace grinned back. “Yeah, I’m going. I wouldn’t miss a party at the Warehouse.”
As Jace backed out of his space and drove out onto the main road, Nathan spoke again.
“Cory coming with us?”
“Yeah,” Jace replied. “He’s bringing Caitlyn.”
“Like we didn’t see that coming. So I guess you’re my date!”
Jace cracked a smile and laughed. “Right,” he told Nathan.
“Hey, why don’t we just pick up Cory and Cait and just drive up to the Warehouse now?” Nate offered.
“We should, it’s an hour and a half drive. Let me call my parents first before they freak out again.”