Free Minds

Chapter 29.

   Ridgeton High School parents were the only ones gullible enough to believe that their kids actually went over to each other's homes for parties. It was a harsh reality check when they found out that that wasn't the case. The weird thing was, although this lie had been the rite of passage for students for years now, the parents who eventually found out the truth never failed to express shock.

   Or maybe they knew about what students did all along. Parents may just have assumed that their children weren't dumb enough to have alcohol, drug-infested parties at the banks of the most infamous river in Ridgeton, Clearwater River.

   Oh, but they were.

   This wasn't even my first rodeo. I knew the drill by heart. The party thrower would tell her parents that she was going to a party being thrown by a trusted friend who'd then vouch as the party thrower instead.

   Everyone else then gets stuck with the easy part; telling their parents they were going to their friend's house to just hang out.

   Having their respective alibis and whatnot, Ridgeton High students met up at Clearwater River for a night of good drugs (the irony, right?), drunken fun, hook up mistakes, among others. And of course, who could forget the killer hangovers the following morning?.

"Okay." I wiggled out of the passenger's seat to get a better look at the road ahead. "This is the last road that leads to Clearwater. We'll have to walk from here."

"This must be some party." Camila said, as the cab slowed down to a stop.

   Sitting between me and Dorian in the car, she looked like could jump out of her skin any second at the unexpected burst of bass beats from the ear splitting music presumed to be traced to the areas near the river.

   Dorian and I followed suit as she stepped out of the car. Rav had already gotten out of the front seat. His gleaming eyes matched with the sorry excuse of his attempt to remain calm.

   Camila, on the other hand, was visibly shrinking back at the light that blared from the venue. That would have been funny if she didn't keep bumping into me as we inched closer to Esi's party.

   The party was in full view a few minutes after we walked ahead. In a typical Ridgeton High fashion, there were teenagers everywhere.

  The wasted ones who weren't passed out on the grassy land leading to the river were dancing around a DJ booth, the source of booming sounds everyone else was drunk enough to believe was music. Others had formed little groups under the trees around.

"How about this?" I stopped, trying not to let out a yell of frustration when Camila bumped into me for the tenth time. "I think it'll be for the best if you guys maybe stay beside me. Just so I can see everyone and no one gets lost."

"Speak for yourself!" Rav, already a few feet forward, replied, walking faster.

   Camila didn't think twice to cling onto my back.

   I felt her stiffening when some people under one of the trees came into view. They were teenagers I recognized as former schoolmates from Ridgeton High. The air that surrounded was visible with smoke but they didn't seem to mind.

"Whoa." Camila's whisper was between shock and horror.

   I would have seriously been concerned with why a sixteen year old was in awe of a typical high school party if I had let it slip my mind that the students that were with me were Zavolonians. Whatever Rav had planned for Liberation Week was probably not as crazy as I had first imagined.

   Or maybe she was just a buzzkill who wouldn't have gone to his thing either.

   As we got closer to the river, the music got louder, the crowd thicker, the heat and smells stronger. I pushed through the cluster of people, hoping I didn't get any sweaty bodies thrown my way.