You Must Remember This

Chapter 25: Obstinate, Headstrong Girl

As the junior class slowly earned their driver's licenses, a great number immediately set about finding ways to utilize their new power. Some snuck out during lunch periods when the parking lot was unguarded, returning late to class smelling of fast food. Many spent their weekends exploring their region's natural bounty, vast beaches and hiking trails; through the bonds of shared sweat, unbreakable friendships formed.

Weekend parties at beaches were frequent, or "bonfires" as they were known: a few hours before the party began, the leaders would assemble and stack piles of wood gathered from the beach or bought at the store, making artful arrangements layered with newspaper, and with the early winter sunset the blaze began, coursing through channels in the wood and producing tendrils of smoke. More and more students would arrive and set up chairs circling the fire, upon which they would make offerings of marshmallows, graham crackers, and chocolate squares to consecrate the space. Tom let out a mild obscenity when he discovered upon disembarking that he had left his potato chips at home.

"Regina, did you bring the snacks?"

"You were supposed to, Tom!"

"Don't talk back to me!" Tom snapped. Before they had left from Tom's house, they scoured Tom's kitchen for anything that would make the party more awesome. Regina originally did not want to go, and knew perfectly well her parents would not allow it, so she had lied and told them they were seeing a movie. After gathering what supplies they could, Tom looked outside and saw the sky's gray threatening to turn dark, and so he announced solemnly that it was time to leave. They bid his house adieu, and so they drove on toward death in the cooling twilight.

Regina searched the small trunk of Tom's car again, but found no portal to an eldritch dimension from which she could retrieve the potato chips. It was clear that the fault lay with Tom, but no matter; these bonfires were communal events, and others had plenty to share. They idly chatted for what seemed like hours, feet scraping in the sand, until enough people arrived and Louis, the host, saw fit to truly get the party started. Louis opened his cooler and pulled out a rack of tubes, and jokingly shushed his girlfriend before she could ask where he got such a large amount—it must have cost him a pretty penny, but good friends deserved as much.

"I didn't know this was going to be that sort of party," Regina quietly remarked to Tom. As Tom turned his head toward Regina, his face changed from a pallid yellow to infernal red due to the angle of the light, which still flickered fiercely.

"I didn't either, but we are here now, and it would be most rude to decline Louis's hospitality! With how much Alan charges, you know this was a great sacrifice."

"Wait, how is Alan involved?" Regina asked hesitantly, her hand trembling.

"He sells this stuff all over the school, haven't you noticed? It's all very scientific, he said, and he promised me it was all completely safe. You're so blind sometimes, it's adorable."

When everyone got their vial, some still not quite sure what exactly they were drinking, Louis counted to three and they all drank the contents in a big gulp. Regina, having never done this before, and having not really wanted to until everyone else started, expected an instant hit of nausea or giddiness; she did not expect something slightly vegetal, perhaps metallic, and more befitting of Jamba Juice than a cooler Louis pulled out of his truck. Most of the others were laughing, or staring into the flickering embers and thinking they saw sprites dance, or gazing mouth agape at the beautiful starry sky. She shook the vial again, hoping to find some last drops that would provide the promised effect, but nothing. Tom told her yet another joke about coffee and she chuckled as conditioned—but, she thought, was that what she was supposed to do? Everyone was having a fun time, and she enjoyed the company, so she stayed quiet about her lack of reaction. Perhaps she should ask Alan, she thought, what exactly it was that she drank, but whatever it was, it clearly wasn't poison.