The rest of her Saturday was rather uneventful. She didn’t get another notification, so whoever was sending them to her had probably given up. Diane supposed she should have been happy about it, but it just confirmed that she was just having some weird dreams that didn’t matter much. Not much she could do about that, her dreams were not in her control. She hadn’t seen her father much for the day, only exchanging a few words when he returned home and left some groceries on the counter, before retreating into his room. Diane was a bit curious about her father's actions, but she couldn’t really be all that concerned with his strange behavior, especially considering the event that she was both excited for, and absolutely loathed.
Diane had left the house as the time was around seven. The sun had already started to set quite a while ago, as well as some light snowfall. Diane pulled her jacket tighter around herself to fight off the quickly dropping temperature as she walked to her friend's residence. Hannah had made it a habit of hosting various events for the populace of their school, and while she wasn’t the only one, the others among the ‘popular’ crowd who also hosted were usually pressured by the Mocking Jays to have a more exclusive guest list. Hannah, however, always managed to resist the mocking jays and always had her parties open to anyone who wanted to come and didn’t cause too much trouble. The rest of the student body were all fans of Hannah's gatherings, as they all often had a dependable schedule.
While Hannah's family weren’t really ‘wealthy,’ they by no means weren’t well off. They had a rather large house with a big backyard, pool, and other furnishings. People didn’t like to be considered freeloaders or rude, so a vast majority of the guests would bring snacks. It was almost like a potluck that everybody had silently agreed to. While Hannah usually had a large amount of things for the guests to enjoy starting off, it could not compare to the overwhelming amount of stuff that ended up at the party. Some of the more talented students would even bring homemade food. From baked goods to straight up meals, the spread of these gatherings was truly great. The backyard would have almost a quarter of it filled with tables and chairs holding everything. And plenty of people brought disposable utensils, plates and cups. It was an impressive event.
Most of the event would be people just hanging out at the party with music playing, a chance for everybody to just hang out and enjoy themselves. This was not the only thing people enjoyed themselves with, of course, there were also plenty of games. Some people would bring different video game consoles to play with the party goers, but a majority of it was board games. It was a local legend at the school of a particularly heated game of monopoly that managed to last the entire event, consisting of a lot of people. There was of course the pool, but that wouldn’t be available considering the season. And the last event of the party would be the movie. A large sheet would be hung up in the backyard, and they would project a movie onto it. People would bring movies, and they would be evaluated and jugged in a bracket, until a winning movie was picked. Hannah would then bring out a big carnival popcorn maker and everyone would gather in the backyard and watch the movie. It was an incredibly fun time and lots of people looked forward to whatever event Hannah wanted to celebrate. There would be a few staple celebrations, like most holidays and events, but every now and then Hannah would announce a party and people would be excited.
Of course, Diane had never experienced any of it. She was one of the very few people that had never gone to one of Hannah's celebrations even once. It was an impressive merit in its own right, and yet Diane had persevered. The rest of the student body had begun to call those who never attended the ‘unbreakables.’ There weren’t many unbreakables, their number only just passing double digits. Compared to the rest of the students, the unbreakables all had their own small, and jokingly, level of fame. In fact, Diane was slightly special in regards to the unbreakables as she was the first. Sure, there were other students in the beginning that had never gone due to circumstance, but Diane was the first to outright refuse. This had, unintentionally, started the trend as a joke to see who would be last to 'break.'
Diane sighed as she walked down the sidewalk that led into the nicer housing area, holding a box of some cola. Diane was aware of the tradition to bring something, so using her recently acquired money that she found in a garbage can, she bought some soda from a convenience store along the way. Not like she had an allowance to use instead. She didn’t live in too big an area, so walking was her main form of transport. Diane didn’t mind, walking was enjoyable for her. Even with the rather heavy box she was carrying.
As she turned a corner on the sidewalk into another neighborhood, Diane was greeted with rows of cars leading into the large house that belonged to her best friend. Diane sighed and continued with her walk. The houses were a bit further apart around this neighborhood, so the music and partygoers wouldn’t bother too many people. She walked up the small hill the house rested on, and started to hear the music playing. As Diane walked and entered the yard, a few people said hi to her as she walked past. A few of them were shocked that the unbreakable Diane had fallen and came to the party, and the number of unbreakables had gotten one lower of their already small number. It was a very momentous occasion, any party where an unbreakable attended was something to be remembered. Few people even exchanged money as they had bet on who would be the next unbreakable to break.
Despite it being rather cold out this evening, there was a big fire pit in the patio of the backyard, warming the several people who were hanging out around it. There were also several large space heaters scattered around the patio. Hannah was talking to a few people around the fire pit when she saw Diane. Hannah abruptly stopped her conversation and squealed a bit in excitement. She began to run towards Diane, but the introvert had seen this coming and so she set the box of cola she was carrying down onto the floor and prepared herself.
“DIANE!” Hannah yelled as the redhead flung herself at Diane and hugged her. Since Diane had been ready, she had been able to not be tackled straight to the floor from Hannah's charge. Just barely, however.
“Hey, Hannah.” Diane said as she steadied herself, still in the crushing hug of Hannah. Diane was only able to pat the redheads back to reciprocate. Hannah finally let go and moved her hands to Diane's shoulders and looked at her with a wide smile.
“I am so happy you actually came!” Hannah said with a bright smile. Positivity and happiness radiating from her.
“Eh, you can only avoid it so much. And, you were pretty convincing.” Diane shrugged, smiling back at her friend. Hannah continued to smile at that, and gave Diane one last quick, yet strong, hug before letting go and stepping back. When Diane also stepped back, she retrieved the cola she set on the floor and held it up.
“Oh, and you brought something! Really getting into the spirit! You can keep that outside on the tables over there,” Hannah pointed to a line of fold out tables along the wall of the house, lined with various food and drinks, as well as some fold out tables scattered around the yard with chairs that had some other snacks, and some people's personal plates that they had set up at.
“Or you can put them inside the kitchen, a few people brought some hot stuff and we have hot chocolate, it’s all kept there.” Diane nodded and was about to follow directions and walk away, but Hannah stopped her.
“I’m really glad you came here, Diane. I know that you’ll have a good time.” Hannah's tone was a lot softer than before, almost kind of shy. Her overall attitude was a lot less than the usual energy she usually had. But she still had her smile. Maybe not as bright, but full with a genuine warmth. She looked at Diane with such a genuine, sweet look that could melt even the most frozen heart, so soft and happy and she was just so pretty-
Diane blushed and shook her head to clear her thoughts. After a second, Diane smirked and softly punched Hannah in the arm.
“Yeah, yeah. I will. I’ll find you later, it seems like the hostess is quite busy.” Hannah's cheeks turned slightly pink as she looked around and scratched the back of her head, a bit embarrassed about how she left her previous conversation and other party duties. She laughed a bit and said goodbye to Diane, before Hannah returned to the fire pit and apologized to the other people there. Diane sighed and stared at Hannah for a few seconds longer than she would admit before she placed the box of cola onto the table. She took a can from the box, might as well claim some of the bounty she had purchased for herself, and proceeded to look around.
The yard was fairly large, all grass except for the patio of concrete connected to the house and surrounding the pool. The pool itself was drained and had a few people goofing around in the empty bowl. A few people were sitting around the fire pit, chatting and roasting marshmallows. Most of the people were probably inside, but a good few partygoers were hanging outside at the various tables set around the yard. At the end of the yard, it opened up to some woods that ran along the back of the neighborhood. They weren’t very deep, but someone could definitely get lost for a bit if they really messed up.
A small group of some of the jocks, and few of the marching band members approached Diane. Adam, once again, led the group. He and his friend Drake looked rather pleased with something, while the rest of the group seemed upset. Some even glared at Diane with some rather unfriendly looks. When they got a bit closer, Diane noticed that Adam and Drake were showing off some handfuls of money.
“There she is! Guest of honor, the unshakable unbreakable Diane!” Adam stood next to Diane as he proclaimed, hand on his hip and a puffed out chest as he fanned himself with the money, making the rest of the group, except for Drake, groan in frustration. Diane was confused.
“What?” Was all the girl could say as she looked up to Adam for answers. Seeing her confusion, the Jock smiled as he explained.
“You know the unbreakable betting pool?” He asked, and Diane nodded. “Well, Drake and I were the only ones who had bet on you being the next to break. These guys didn’t believe us, so they bet a bunch of money to match our bet, and they lost!” Adam really projected that last bit towards the group with a smug smile. The group of losers started with their own exclamations. Mostly about complaints about why couldn’t Diane also skip this party when they had so much money riding on it. Diane chuckled a bit as she was enlightened to the situation.
This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.
“Sorry guys, Hannah was very persistent. Not much you can do.” Diane said with a mischievous smile as she sipped from her can, laughing a bit more after. Adam and Drake soon joined her, leaving the rest of the group to stew in anger. They almost looked like they were going to actually strangle the laughing trio with how angry they looked before they let out defeated sighs, and laughed a bit with everyone else. It was a game, afterall, nobody was really that mad. A few of the defeated group even made exclamations on how they wouldn’t lose next time. They eventually dispersed, leaving Diane and Adam alone as everyone else walked off. Adam smiled at Diane again.
“I’m going to have to thank Hannah for finally getting you to come to one of these.” Adam said as he resumed the counting of his sizable winnings.
“Probably a good idea.” Diane agreed, amused with the situation. Adam seemed to be finished with his counting. He looked at it with satisfaction before he pulled about a third of it from the stack and held it out to Diane. The raven haired girl looked up at Adam with a confused look as she glanced between the led out money and Adam.
“It’s your cut. You are responsible for me winning, so you should get some. It’s like seventy five dollars or something.” he once again explained.
“No, I couldn’t-”
“Nonsense. I still have like a hundred fifty, take it.” Adam was pretty stern, as he almost shoved it into Diane. Diane sighed a bit before she took the offered money and she smiled softly at Adam.
“Thanks.” Adam grinned with satisfaction.
“Of course. The real prize is the anguish in your competitors' eyes.” Adam said with an almost evil look in his eyes as he glanced behind him towards some of the members of the group.
“Remind me to never gamble with you around.” Diane joked as she put the newly earned money into her pocket with the rest of the money she brought for the trip.
“But then how would I get more competition?” Adam said as he puffed out his chest once more, before he let it go with a small chuckle. “Talk to you later, my good luck charm. I was supposed to look for Zeke after this.” He and Diane parted ways as Diane took another sip from her soda. Maybe this wouldn’t be as terrible as she thought.
Diane had spent the party drifting around the residence. Pretty much everyone greeted her kindly, a few even making a funny comment about her unbreakable status. She even joined a card game a while ago. She kept her identity as an introvert, however, and didn’t really engage much. She was still having a good time, nonetheless, and was currently walking around the backyard without any purpose, listening to the music while drinking from the can of cola. This peace wouldn’t last, however, as a rather infamous group of rude cheerleaders walked up to the recluse.
“Well then. Look what the cat dragged in, the ‘unbreakable’ Diane.” Jessica smugly said as she and the rest of the Mocking Jays approached Diane. Jasmine and Jeremy laughed at the leader of their group's insult as the group stood in between Diane and the house, with the introverts back towards the woods surrounding the neighborhood. They had separated in their stance, ‘cornering’ Diane in a sense.
“So, what gives a weirdo like you the right to just show up to whatever party she wants?” Jessica asks with obvious disdain in her voice, the two cheerleaders laughing some more as Jessica continues to talk.
“Um, being invited by the host? Everyone was invited. You were there when I was invited personally!” Diane replied with her usual sass when conversing with the Mocking Jays. Jessica's expression shifted to visible irritation from her smug look of unearned superiority. Like the rest of the squad, they didn’t really hold their composure long after someone would talk back to them. Unfortunately for them, everyone talked back and didn’t want to play along with their highschool movie tropes.
“Well, whatever!” Jessica huffed in irritation. “That doesn’t change the fact that you obviously don’t belong here! You should just leave before you ruin Hannah's party.” Jessica seemed to recover some of her smugness as she looked at Diane with a cruel smile, expecting her remarks to hurt the girl. Diane, however, was not affected. She took an interested sip from her drink while looking at the group.
“Sure, Jessica. Why don’t you move out of the way so I can definitely leave and go home.” Diane smiled innocently while Jessica began to lose more composure than before and became furious. As she was about to utter some form of remark to belittle Diane, She was interrupted.
The loud howl of a dog could be heard rather close by from the forest behind Diane, followed by two more. Birds scattered from their resting spot within the trees as the sound disturbed them. The anger seemed to leave Jessica as she looked past Diane into the trees. Diane also looked back in confusion, she had a bad feeling that the howl was vaguely familiar. Rustling could then be seen and heard from a patch of bushes that was on the edge of the woods that lead into the backyard of the house. Jeremy and Jasmine took a few nervous steps back, the boy tugging at Jessica's jacket.
Diane's fears were confirmed as a large, muscular block dog with short, pitch black fur contrasting against its bright white teeth. The dog wasn’t the same as the one that had chased her a few days ago, this one was much larger and had a leather black collar with shiny metal spikes. It growled at the teens, exposing those shockingly white teeth once again as it glared at them.
The Mocking Jays did not need much persuasion after that. They completely abandoned their issues with Diane and ran back towards the house. As the cheerleaders made their escape, the dog once more howled into the sky. This time, however, wasn’t met with more howls. Instead, it was met with two more dogs that shared appearance with the one standing at the edge of the woods, if a tad bit smaller and without a collar, jumping through the bushes and standing with their compatriot, also growing at Diane. Diane also decided to run.
As she was sprinting back to the house, she had noticed that the rest of the party goers had also noticed the situation. In fact, they had noticed when the first howl came from the forest. Guests were running back and forth in a panic as they tried to get away from the wild and angry dogs that had just arrived. The dogs quickly took after Diane, barking wildly as they took chase, the guests that didn’t have the time to get inside through down tables and hid behind them. Diane looked back at her pursuers and threw the can of soda she still had at them. This impromptu attack actually worked wonders. The soda in the can splashed out and managed to hit all the dogs in the face, and the actual can managed to smack the biggest dog straight on the head. This had stunned the dogs for a second, and this was all Diane needed to hide behind her own table.
The dogs, having recovered from their momentarily soda based distraction, started slowly moving towards the patio. Growling at the surroundings as they looked around and searched. Diane peaked out from behind her table and also looked around, taking stock of the situation. She managed to catch a glimpse of Hannah, hiding behind a table with a few other students about ten feet away from Diane's own improvised shelter. Before she could be worried, she felt a subtle buzz from near her foot.
Looking down, Diane discovered her phone had slipped from her pocket when she ducked behind the table. It had fallen face up, and she found that the reason it had vibrated was because she had gotten a notification. Instead of her usual lock screen and notifications bar, the screen was all a dark purple, with fancy white text. She had only ever seen it look like this in her dreams.
Diane didn’t have much time to be annoyed or confused as she heard the growl of the dogs get closer. She hurriedly pressed ‘yes,’ hoping that her dream actually meant something.
As Diane read the screen, she suddenly felt a splitting pain in her head. Diane closed her eyes as she clutched the sides of her head, the pain pounding away like someone striking hot iron with her skull being used as the anvil, before the pain left, almost as suddenly as it had arrived. When Diane opened her eyes, she was greeted with a refreshing sense of clarity from the world around her.
Her vision felt sharper, and her previously chaotic thoughts began to clear away. Unfortunately, she didn’t get to enjoy the feeling of being refreshed for very long as she heard the dogs growl grow even closer. Returning to the situation at hand, Diane put her phone back into her pocket as she peaked around the side of the table to see what was happening. What she saw, however, made her blood run cold. The pack of dogs had moved closer to Hannahs hiding spot. Diane could see the frightened look on Hannah's face as the redhead tried to keep down her breathing. Diane couldn’t stand to see Hannah be so afraid, she just couldn’t.
Diane, with both a surprising level of bravery and strength, managed to pick up the table she was hiding behind and she threw it towards the dogs. A surprised yelp came from the one she managed to hit, but that wasn’t Diane's goal. The dogs all looked towards Diane and growled at her, fury evident in their predatory red eyes. Okay, no turning back now.
“HEY!” Diane shouted at the pack as the dog she hit with the table managed to free itself from under the plastic table and stand up, also joining the other dogs in growling at Diane. “Come and get me you dumb dogs!” And with that, she took off running towards the forest.
“DIANE!” Hannah called after her friend as Diane ran off into the forest.
Thankfully, the dogs did start to chase Diane. That much was able to relieve the fear the running girl had that her plan wouldn’t work. The satisfaction of knowing that Hannah would be safe was short lived, however, as she began to realize what she just did. She was currently being chased by dogs! What was she thinking? Diane didn’t have much time to regret her choices or think about her life as she ran desperately for her life.
She jumped clear over the wall of bushes that surrounded the borders of the forest and began to run. If she wasn’t currently busy thinking about running and not getting mauled by dogs, she might have wondered how she could make such a jump so easily, or how she was running so fast. Diane didn’t have these thoughts, for she was indeed focused on running.
