(REWRITING) The Skylar Experiment : Coveting

24. Ain't No Party Like A Mutant Party (p.3)

*seriously don't try this at home*

The girls had lost the taste for dancing, and decided to cool off on the sunroom after the incidents. Soon, Devin emerged from the house and joined them. She waved a clear glass bottle.

''It's cheap, but it'll get the job done.''

Lauren was watching the ground, her cheeks blotted red already. She reached for the bottle across the table and began uncapping it under Emma's attentive gaze. Beyond the sunroom, the yard was split into two parts, one for playing chess and the other for wrestling matches, with a troupe surrounding the players. Clapping and shouts emanated from the space, which drew the girls' attention there.

Emma turned her chair in time to witness a boy wearing a beanie seize his opponent by the waist like a footballer and dunk the smaller guy in the grass like he was a bag of celeri. The winner jumped to stand quickly and rose his arms. His smile was bright under the moonlight.

''That's Henry.'' Lauren pointed his way with the bottle. ''A bit of a show-off considering that Eli is weaker than him. They go to another school somewhere near this district. And that's, um, Serena right there. Not a big party girl but she's around sometimes. The guy with the purple hair streak is Vincent and he knows a lot about medieval stuff...? He's very unusual.''

Emma couldn't help but laugh. ''You consider him unusual but not everyone else?''

She grinned and offered her the bottle, but Emma refused so she took another gulp. ''Well, our standards are different in some areas. We focus a lot on being good fighters and detail-oriented because it saves our lives. We're not concerned about diversity of interests. I don't know, it's just something I noticed. Ben is also an oddity. He's just so passive. You know most of us have a short fuse.''

''Is drawing a common thing among you guys?'' Emma asked.

Lauren put the bottle down on the table and thought. Across the yard, new opponents stepped up and started circling around each other. From the inside, the music was muffling out any other sound that could have been heard.

''I guess not. Maybe they don't suck at it but it's not their hobby, either.'' Lauren lifted her finger at Devin. ''Your perfect mutant model is more like the one sitting here, all pretentious and shit.''

Devin curled her lower lip and took the bottle. ''And smart. And good-looking. And strong. And with good tastes.''

''Hey, I never said you lacked any of them.''

Devin kicked Lauren's leg under the table lightly and they broke into a giggle. The beats in the house diminished in intensity. From the inside, Raymond's voice boomed.

"Okay idiots, listen up, yours truly is speaking!"

Despite the rude and unnecessary remark, people seemingly quieted down to hear him out. He always had a gift with words. Even the suspicious sounds issuing from another room stopped. 

"I have an idea."

Lauren's head lolled. "Oh boy, he has an idea."

"I'm curious to see what it is, though." Devin rose from her seat, the rest tagging along, and they opened the sliding panel. The interior smelled lightly of musk and sweat, the moving of bodies clustered together, and of beer. All the attention was on Raymond as he stood tall on a coffee table.  

"The person who lasts longer than me on the roof of a zigzagguing car wins a fight against me. If you win, the champion of the year title's all yours. But you can't cheat with powers."