I carefully scan the cafeteria as Nathaniel and I join the lunch line. It's a nervous habit I've developed lately to make sure I'm not being watched conspicuously.

I note the absence of the boys at our lunch table, but I remember them mentioning something about tryouts for the senior inter school water polo tournament a couple of days ago.

Dropping my lunch tray unceremoniously on our usual blue plastic top table in the corner of the cafeteria, I slump into the vacant chair next to Madison. She has a pretty brown notebook with a thick leather cover and a suede string to bind it close. And she's busy chattering excitedly with Cyana, both of them so absorbed in their conversation that they still haven't changed out of their bright blue cheerleading uniforms after gym class.

Nathaniel sits across from me, nodding politely at the two of them before turning to his lunch wrapped in a brown package.

"Hi girls. What's up?" I greet them with a small smile, "You seem excited about something."

"Hey!" Cyana smiles blindingly at Nathaniel and me, showing off her pearly whites.

Her voluminous dark brown pony tail bounces in a greatly annoying manner on the top of her head as she bobs her head, glancing at Madison.

"So, in case you don't know already," Madison leans forward onto the table, her gaze flitting between Nathaniel and me, "Tomorrow is Jordan's birthday and his parents have allowed him to throw a party in their beach house. So we thought we could invite everyone in the grade since it's our last year of high school and you know- we need to make as many memories as possible."

"Jordan?" I ask, sitting up, "Like our Jordan? He never mentioned his birthday to me."

"Well, you know now." Cyana giggles, bringing her left hand to cover her mouth as she chews, "And you know what the best part is?"

"You got into your dream college?" Nathaniel asks thoughtfully, since the university application buzz is beginning to fire up up among the senior year students of Wolfrock, "Or I presume Jordan did and tomorrow will be a double celebration?"

"No silly!" Cyana laughs mirthfully.

Nathaniel's mouth curves into a frown and he reverts back into his silent shell. I don't think he's used to being called silly in public.

Madison notices this and immediately dives into the conversation to explain in a whisper, "Jordan asked her out two days back after ages of them silently pining over each other."

"Oh." I breathe out, grinning, although I expected something bigger for all the hype they created, "That's so cute!"

Cyana falls into a fit of giggles once more. She leans in and adds, "But we're taking it slow right now. So like umm- don't tell anyone ok?"

I pretend to zip my mouth and throw the key, making her grin wider. Everyone pretty much already knows about them even if they haven't acknowledged it publicly.

"Also, the two of you have to come for the party tomorrow!" Madison declares, pointing a finger each at Nathaniel and me, "You already missed the summer festival last month because of that unexpected flu. So no excuses this time."

"Right, about that-" I laugh nervously, chewing the inside of my cheek as I turn to Nathaniel and widen my eyes slightly, "We'll have to see. You know how military fathers can be pretty strict about the no partying rule and all."

"Cyana, Madison." Nathaniel smiles angelically, diving in with what I hope is a believable excuse, "I know that Ariya would love to come. But she's trying to make sure I don't feel left out since my therapist has asked me to stay away from dark, crowded places until the frequency of my panic attacks subsides."

I bit back an impressed smile as Nathaniel fibs smoothly.

"Oh." Cyana mutters glumly, pouting at Madison who returns her frown, "Well, just try to come for a little while if possible."

"Certainly." he nods in agreement, his eyes twinkling as he cracks a joke that he knows only I can understand, "I wouldn't miss it for the world if I could."

I roll my eyes discreetly, biting back a smile.

Going to Jordan's birthday bash is a designated grey area, and asking Dad about it is definitely not an option.

The rest of the day flies by quickly, the latter half packed with the first meeting of the Girl Script community where Nathaniel passes out handouts with the month's agenda printed on them. Not many girls show up but that's ok. I know that there will be others who are too shy to come or are intimidated by how male dominated the tech scene is. They will definitely show up soon.

I'm sitting curled up in the armchair next to my window on the evening of Jordan's birthday, reading dramione fanfiction on my laptop, when a knock comes on my bedroom door.

I groan, stretching my feet and setting my laptop on the bed with the screen bent down halfway.

"Coming!" I shout, "Give me a minute."

I tie my hair properly and adjust my clothes, quickly glancing in my dressing table mirror, before flinging the door open to find Nathaniel leaning against the staircase bannister outside.

"Why are you dressed like that?" I narrow my eyes, giving him a not so subtle once over.

He's wearing one of his perfectly pressed black silk suits, his hair is gelled and tousled to look like he just woke up and combed his fingers through it.

"For Jordan's birthday party, of course." He smiles, "We've been invited, remember?"

"Right." I nod, "I thought you knew that we cannot go."

I shrug, walking back into my room and sitting cross legged on the edge of my bed. Leaning to the side, I grab the half filled tupperware bottle from my side table and unscrew the lid.

"Besides, we don't know who's following us around in school and they'll probably be there since the entire grade is invited."

This doesn't seem to perturb Nathaniel at all.

"Well, I think that's all the more reason that we must make an appearance there." He replies simply.

I cough on the water in my mouth. If I remember correctly, Nathaniel was the one that went absolutely ballistic when we faced a minor security breach at the mall. Right?

"Now Ariya, I know that I may have had strong qualms about the strength of security during our previous public outings. But I now realise that I need to take action as you so strongly have been trying to convince me of." Nathaniel continues earnestly, "We get to keep an eye on our lovely classmates, I get to observe another aspect of an unopulent life as a teenager and you get to have a little fun. Besides, whoever it is will not risk doing anything to us with so many people around."

"Hmm," I hum, "Sounds tempting. But no."

Nathaniel nods his head in response, looking down as he adjusts his cufflinks.

"What if I tell you that I already convinced your father to let us go?" He raises his brow slightly, "That he's going to drop us himself, patrol the perimeter with his team and bring us back himself so there's no scope for error."

I cock my head to the side and lean back on my hands, biting back a smile.

"I suppose there's no getting out of this now, is there?" I say, biting my lower lip, "It's rather surprising how insistent you're being about this party though."

Nathaniel shrugs, "Not really. I simply thought that we deserved to have a light evening."

Turning to leave, he says, "I suppose I'll leave you to get ready then."

"One second!"

Nathaniel pauses as I walk up to him. Wordlessly, I pull off his suit jacket and unbutton the first two buttons of his dark grey silk shirt.

Ignoring the blush rising on his cheeks, I motion towards his sleeves and say, "Roll your sleeves up. You'll fit in better."

Huffing softly, he does as he's told.

"Better?" he asks flatly.

I nod, grinning, "Much better."

As he turns to go downstairs, I shut the door behind him and skip into the bathroom to freshen up. I'm actually excited and I'm not even going to try and deny the fact. After Dad's daily reminders of always making sure to keep the intelligence agency's protection program above all else, I'd pretty much given up on the idea of having a fun and laid back senior year.

High school parties don't particularly interest me, there's nothing appealing in watching people acting out of character in an alcohol fueled bold streak or practically dry grinding on each other. There's also the fact that Izzy and I were complete lightweights and had a tendency to do absolutely embarrassing things when we were drunk. So it was either being sober and dying of secondhand embarrassment from our classmates' antics, or waking up the next day with viral videos of us doing nonsense on top of a pool table or something circulating within the student body. There was just no middle path, so we tended to avoid any unsupervised student get together that had free alcohol.

But I suppose it is true that absence makes the heart fonder. Now that I have perpetually no choice of turning down invitations, I miss the laid back vibe that these parties give off. A place where you get to enjoy with your friends and simply be yourself because everyone is far too tipsy to care about what you're doing. You get to be free for those couple of hours when no one is scrutinising you and falsely judging your self worth.

Teetering with anticipation, I get dressed. I wear a lilac swimsuit and a pale blue bodycon dress paired with blue glow in the dark eyeliner and golden accessories. A little extra, I know, but then when am I not?

Dad pulls his mouth into a thin line when I step out of the door, shaking his head, and Nathaniel averts his gaze.

We ride to Jordan's beach house in Dad's car. He drops us a little distance away from the house so that no one sees him and the rest of his team.

"Now Ariya, I trust you. I'm not sending you in with an earpiece to listen in but I want you to be responsible. I want you to send me a text every half an hour as proof that you are not drunk." Dad says firmly, killing the ignition, "And stay with the boy at all times. If you see anything suspicious, and I mean anything, you will immediately call for me and transport Nathaniel Ross out of that house."

"Yes, Sir." I nod.

"Don't have too much fun!" Dad calls out behind us as we shut the car door and begin walking to the beach house a little distance away.

We hear the party before we see it. The electronic beats of the music, no doubt chosen by Madison and Cyana, welcomes us as we round the corner and enter the wide driveway that is lit up with fairy lights.

There are a bunch of boys playing some kind of beach volleyball drinking game on the lawn in the courtyard, some girls cheering them on zealously.

Inside the house, people are dancing without inhibition, balancing styrofoam cups half filled with beverages of their choice in their hands.

"Hey Ariya, Nathaniel!" Truck shouts into the microphone and waves at us, he's standing near the karaoke set up with a large crowd gathered around him and cheering as he breaks into song again.

I half salute him, smiling, before brushing forward through the crowd.

"Let's go find Jordan?" I ask, looking around.

"Yes, ok." Nathaniel nods, curiously eyeing everyone around us. I can tell that this certainly wasn't what he was expecting.

Laughing, I pull him outside towards the pool.

Madison spots us from the poolside, and squeals excitedly before leaping into the water and swimming towards us.

"You guys came!" she screams happily, climbing out of the pool and running up to us.

"We did say that we would try our best." Nathaniel smiles sauvely.

"But the panic attacks you mentioned-" she trails off, her smile falling a little.

"Yes I know, but he was pretty positive that he would be fine today." I pat his shoulder lightly, "In fact, he was very eager to come today!"

"Well, whatever it is, I'm very glad that you could make it," Madison squeezes the water out of her wet hair, "Jordan is upstairs on a video call with his grandparents so he'll be down soon. Cyana went to mix her non alcoholic fruit punch in the kitchen- she hates the taste of alcohol, you know. And Dev-"

She looks over her shoulder and frowns slightly, "He was right there, beside the ladder. I wonder where he went. Anyway, we were just about to start a new game of water tag. Would you like to join us?"

"What is water tag?" Nathaniel questions, his tone slightly hesitant.

"Oh it's simple really," Madison smiles kindly, not judging him in the least, "One person is chosen using rock-paper-scissors and he must try and catch the others. Whoever gets caught is out and the denner continues to catch people until there's no one left."

I lean closer to him and whisper, "You'll have to strip down to your boxers if you aren't wearing swimming trunks."

"Umm, I didn't know I was supposed to bring my swimming gear." Nathaniel mutters under his breath, "Did you bring yours?"

"Yeah duh, they did tell us clearly that it was a pool party. I expected you to figure out that bit on your own." I state in a matter-of-fact tone, "Nevermind. He'll be the referee, Madison."

We play a few rounds of tag in the pool. It gets so competitive, that one boy pulls off another's boxers in a desperate attempt to catch him. When a girl scratches another girl's thigh with her nail extensions leaving her with a broken nail and the other with a bleeding leg, we decide to end the game before it gets any uglier.

Cyana raises her brow and puckers her lips, as she walks up to us with Jordan flanking her side, "My goodness, that was pretty intense."

I shrug before turning to Jordan.

"Happy birthday big boy!" I grin, giving him a quick hug, "The party is absolutely lit!"

"Thanks Ariya." He lights up immediately, " Man I'm so fucking happy that you guys could come. Cyana said that you might not be able to make it."

Nathaniel slips his hand into his left pant pocket and fishes out something, handing it to Jordan, "Happy birthday Jordan. God bless you."

"Fuck!" Jordan's eyes widen when he opens his gift, "Nathaniel I love you, man. Come here."

Without warning, Jordan throws his arms around Nathaniel and squeezes him tightly.

"He got me tickets for the soccer league final next month." Jordan announces, since all of us are wondering, "Come on guys let me get you a drink. Do you want to play those drinking games you were talking about?"

"Yes!" Madison hoots deafeningly, "Seven minutes in heaven!"

"No, Mads!" Cyana pulls a face, "Let's play never have I ever instead. Jordan, what do you say?"

Jordan raises his hands and takes a step backward, "You guys decide. I'm just going to be the host and make sure the beer doesn't run out."

"Ariya?"

"Honestly, I don't mind anything." I say diplomatically, shrugging.

"Come on, C we've played it so many times and there's so many newbies to match make with today. Please?" Madison pouts childishly.

Cyana's eyes light up at this, her eyes flitting across me and Nathaniel before moving on to a couple of others behind us, "In that case, ok."

"Great, I'll get the empty bottle and chilled beer. Apple juice for you, babe?" Jordan grins.

"Yep, thank you so much." Cyana nods, quickly pecking his lips.

Right. So much for not telling anyone.

After drying myself with a towel from the closet next to the shower stalls, I quickly slip on my dress before sending Dad his designated text.

Holding my stilettos in my hand I make my way to the deck where the others have made a small circle and are waiting for Madison and me. Madison sits down next to Dev and I squeeze into the space between Nathaniel and another girl who scowls at me.

"So who's going first?" Jordan asks, placing an empty green bottle in the centre of the circle, "Ariya or Nathaniel maybe, since it's their first party with us?"

"Nathaniel will go first." I smile slyly.

"All right, I suppose I shall." He breathes out, "I simply spin the bottle and wait for it to land on someone right?"

"Yes." Madison nods, assuming that Nathaniel already knows how to play.

I laugh inwardly, waiting for the moment when Nathaniel finally realises that he has to make out with whoever the bottle points towards when it stops spinning. Sucking my cheeks into my mouth, I watch with anticipation as Nathaniel gracefully sends the bottle into a long spin.

The bottle spins fast, then a little slower, and then it's almost about to stop.

Jordan. Cyana. Dev. Madison. And then- the neck of the bottle points towards- me?

Someone kill me!

•><•

Ahhh, I'm so excited for the next chapter!

Also a lot of new readers have joined the TAOU family this week and I really hope you're enjoying the story so far!

I urge you to vote, comment, share and don't forget to spread the love!