Anywhere But Here

I kept my eyes focusing on the scenery passing out the window and nervously bit at one of my fingernails. There were six of us crammed into Brian's little car, which was technically only meant for five people, which didn't help the anxious feeling I had. I was expecting to see blue lights at any time. First we would get a ticket for having so many people in the car, then they would find the beer under the seats, and then of course we'd be in jail for the rest of our lives.

"Zack!" I heard someone shout as they slapped my shoulder. I jumped, startled because I had been so deep in my thoughts. I looked to my left and saw Jimmy looking back at me and laughing at my reaction. I rolled my eyes and looked back out the window.

"Dude, what's wrong?" Jimmy asked. "We've been planning this for months! We've waited and waited for this night to come, and you're supposed to be excited."

I guess Jimmy was right. He had first suggested the idea at the beginning of the school year, but everyone had just laughed and then pretty much immediately forgotten the idea. Then, a few months before graduation, we saw people getting certain invitations, and we most definitely heard the talk. Jimmy brought up the idea again, saying that this was our perfect opportunity and we couldn't pass it up. Everyone thought it was a great idea, and at the time, I thought so too. Now, as we all sat in the car headed toward this particular destination, I knew it was nothing but bad news. But there was no turning back now.
We were going to crash Hollie Ellison's graduation party.

It was going to be the biggest graduation party in Huntington, because, well, her parents had the biggest house in Huntington. It was no secret to anyone that they were a wealthy family. The father was some kind of surgeon and from what I'd heard the mom was a doctor too. Then there was Hollie, who looked like a rich kid from every angle. She'd been wearing designer clothes since her first day of kindergarten, was always freshly manicured, every hair was always in place. Plus, she had the best car of anyone in our high school, maybe even the nicest in Huntington Beach.

However, Hollie wasn't necessarily the target of our party crashing. It was basically her whole group of friends, which included the entire cheer squad, the basketball and football teams, and every other person who tagged along by the backs of their jerseys. Over the last four years, we'd gotten into so many fights with quite a few of them. They were never nice to us, to say the least. Jimmy's opinion was that, now that we were no longer high school students, this was to be our final revenge.

Brian pulled into the driveway, and my stomach turned just from looking at the enormous white house in front of us. I pushed one of my hand's back through my hair and looked over at Jimmy. "I really don't think we should be doing this."

He looked at me with a frown and started reaching under the seat for the beers. "Zack, what the fuck are you talking about? We've already planned this whole thing out, there's no way in hell we're backing out now."

"Seriously, Zacky," Matt said, leaning forward to look at me from his seat, which was on the other side of Jimmy. "We're just gonna go in and act like assholes. It's not like we're gonna get in trouble or anything."

"It's not that I'm afraid we're gonna get in trouble," I said, rolling my eyes again.

Johnny, who was in the passenger seat, began to squirm around. "Maybe Zacky's right. I don't know how I feel about this either."

Val groaned and started shaking her head. She was still wearing her graduation cap, and since she was sitting on Matt's lap, it hit the roof of the car each time she shook it. "Well, it's still four against two. Unless anyone else wants to back out, we're still doing this."

"Whatever, Val," I grumbled. "The only reason you're saying you want to is because Matt wants to. If he changed his mind-"

"Okay, okay," Matt stopped me. "Let's not fight over this, let's just get it done. Come on, Zack, this will be great. This is for every time one of these assholes gave one of our bands shit. For every time they called us faggots in the hallway. Every time they said we would never be worth anything."

This pumped up everyone else in the car, and they all began to whistle and cheer. Everyone started getting out of the car, and for a moment I considered just sitting there until they were done, but I knew I'd never hear the end of it if I did that. Sighing loudly, I opened the car door and stepped out. I had to run to catch up with everyone since they were already halfway up the path to the front door.

Jimmy was leading the group, as usual. Matt and Val were next, his arms all around her and her tassel hanging from her cap and swishing back and forth with each step. Johnny and Brian were behind them, talking quietly and laughing most likely about something they were planning to do once we were inside. And then there was me, walking in the very back, with every fiber of my being telling me not to do this. But it was too late. Before I could even change my mind and turn around, Jimmy had thrown the door open and we were walking into the gigantic house.

Heads turned from every direction to look at us, the intruders. It didn't get completely silent, but I could see as some conversations gradually died off and most people began to whisper. Jimmy laughed loudly, slamming one of the cases of beer down on a small table. "What's everyone getting so quiet for? Isn't this supposed to be a party?"

"Come on," one guy shouted from the back of the room. He began walking closer to us. I didn't know his name but recognized him as someone that had been involved in the many fist fights we'd had. "Don't come in here and start being a jackass."

"Oh, you're absolutely right," Jimmy said, dramatically placing a hand over his chest. "I am being rude, aren't I? I haven't even greeted the hostess yet. Would anyone care to tell me where she is?"

"Look pal," the guy said, stepping even closer to Jimmy. The were close to the same height, and eventually got so close that their noses were almost touching. "Just get out. No one wants you here."

"I don't really care, pal," Jimmy replied, somehow managing to keep his voice calm. "I'm just here to hang out with everyone from high school for the last time, and maybe drink a few beers."

"Hey, you can't have beer here!" someone else shouted. "Hollie's parents made a clear rule about not having alcohol at this party!"

That's when I noticed Matt, who was standing behind Jimmy so that he was mostly hidden. He had a can of beer in each hand and was shaking each of the as hard as he could without being seen or heard.

Jimmy chuckled softly. "Oh, come on now. There's nothing wrong with just a little beer. No one will even know we had it! Plus, some of you look like you could use a little loosening up."

One of his hands slowly inched behind his back and he took one of the beer cans from Matt. Then, they brought their cans up at the same time and popped the tabs and instantly beer was spewing everywhere. Johnny and Brian were already shaking two more cans and they opened them up just as Matt and Jimmy's were dying off.

Girls were screaming and freaking out over the beer in their hair and how their caps and gowns were going to be ruined. A large group of the guys, on the other hand, were closing in on us, which was something I was pretty used to seeing. I knew exactly what was coming.

One of them threw the first punch, hitting Jimmy square in the jaw, and then all hell pretty much broke loose. I tried to step back, not wanting to fight with anyone at the moment, but someone grabbed me by the collar and I didn't really have another choice. He was a pretty big guy and was slinging me around everywhere, so I could barely see, move, or focus on anything for more than a few seconds. All I could hear was people screaming, and eventually felt a different set of hands on me, pulling me away from the other guy.

When the room stopped spinning and I could see straight again, I looked up and realized that Brian had been the one to pull me away. One by one, the rest of the fights either ended or broken up, and suddenly the room was dead silent. The crowd around us thinned out a bit, and that's when I saw her.

Hollie was standing in front of our group with beer in her hair and a mixture of tears and mascara streaming down her face. "Please," she said softly. "I don't want to cause any trouble with you guys. But I also don't want to cause any trouble with my parents, so please...just go."

The rest of the guys and Val started snickering and fist bumping each other, but I just stood them feeling like the biggest asshole on the planet. We started walking out in the same order we came in, and I had to force my eyes away from Hollie because looking at her was making me feel even worse.

When I saw her standing there crying she was no longer Hollie Ellison, the girl who was cheer captain and had the awesome car and was probably richer than anyone in Orange County. She was just Hollie, the girl whose last night with her friends had been ruined by a group of dumbass boys looking for some revenge.