What was the point of having a brother who was your English teacher if you didn't even get any perks from it? It was like Lowell expected her to know more than everyone else in class just because she was his sister.

Sure Cindy read a lot, but not the sort of things Lowell was asking about. Magazines, comics, political texts, the odd romance book. But classics? She was already half asleep. Or she was over-analyzing the hell out of it but couldn't get a damn thing down on a page.

So she'd copied one assignment. And Lowell had given her detention. Her own goddamn brother had given her detention! Sure, maybe she could've been better about changing the wording and structure, but still!

Said detention had made her late home and as such late to the party. It might not matter so much and she was usually late to stuff anyways— but still! It was Lowell's fault.

What accounted for a high school party in Briarstead was probably pretty boring by city kid standards. Just hanging out at the cabin by the lake, the Murphy's cabin... or maybe it was the Brewer's. It wasn't important. What was important was that there was a bonfire, some beers and a bunch of people.

Cindy grabbed a beer as she looked around for any sign of Ronnie. Or Frankie. Or Todd. But she found none of them. Rather she found... was it you? She never could quite recall. Either case the girl was sitting out by the bonfire.