Holy crap. Look who managed to hold onto her scholarship for another semester ... I DID! That's right folks, Kori here got half of her tuition paid for this semester, simply by an awesome GPA! And to think, starting in the Fall, my Uni is starting a program that is dishing out $40,000 to each student whose household makes less than $65,000 a year. Talk about free tuition for the entire four years of 15 hours/semester! Woohoo! Too bad I'm only going to get my last two semesters for free ... oh well, better than nothing!
If you cannot tell, I am in a very good mood. Don't ask me why because I really don't know! If I had my own place, I would probably be rocking out and dancing in my underwear. I'm just saying. Nothing grand happened today except an awesome dinner. I mean really, my mother comes up with the greatest stuff! Check this out: tonight we had ... well, I don't know if it actually has a name, but what you do is ... cut the middle out of a flour tortilla (or w/e tortilla preferred), stuff it into a muffin tin like a muffin wrapper, baking cup thing, then put them in the oven until crispy, take out, fill with refried beans, ground meet (we prefer turkey meat), cheese, lettuce, tomato, or whatever, hot sauce, jalapenos, whatev! Just fill it up and take a big bit! Yuuuum. I mean really, yuuuum. Try it. It's good. Make a video of it. It's super fun to eat. Always a surprise.
Here is an excerpt from Beautiful Disruption. This is a rather sad scene, but a good one. Here it is.
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Before they could make it to the door, Erin opened it for them. "Hey Evan," she said.
"Hi Erin, this is Andria." He said.
"Hi Andria, come on in." Erin smiled at her. "Everyone’s upstairs."
Her smile was shocking. Andria hadn’t even expected a hello, but she was getting a smile as well.
Maybe the party wouldn’t be so bad after all. She thought.
Too bad she couldn’t wear her earphones because then it would be perfect, but Evan was expecting her to be sociable and she didn’t want to disappoint him.
She followed Evan as he climbed the stairs with Erin behind them. Andria heard people yelling from a room down the hall and, of course, it was the room they entered. Her skin went prickly as she instinctively went into defensive mode.
The room was plain with white walls, but it contained several pieces of expensive looking artwork. There was a pool table in the center with barstools lining the wall on the other side and a television at the end furthest from the door where everyone was. They were yelling at Halo 3.
Josh saw them enter and he got up from watching the competition. "What’s up man?" Josh said, slapping Evan’s hand in some kind of cool guy handshake.
"Josh, this is Andria," Evan pointed to her.
"Hi Josh," she said bravely.
Evan was glad to see her making an effort, even if it was just for him.
"What’s up Andria," Josh smiled.
That was the second smile she had received within five minutes.
Maybe this really wasn’t going to be so bad. She thought.
Evan was glad that everyone was being nice to her so far. Andria was tense enough as it was, but Evan got the feeling that parties weren’t really her element. Although he did remember that she had said she always hung out with her friends on Friday nights, so maybe they had their own type of parties.
"Hey guys this is Andria!" Josh yelled at the video gamers.
"Hey."
“What’s up?"
“Yo," they all yelled in unison.
No one turned away from the television to smile at her but she would take the greetings. Maybe she had been worrying for no reason at all.
Evan wanted to see who was winning, so he took Andria’s soft hand in his and took her with him to stand against the wall near the television. Evan didn’t release her hand once they were over there, but she didn’t mind at all. They leaned against the wall shoulder-to-shoulder and hand-in-hand as Evan watched the characters on the television kill each other.
"So Andria, how come your friends didn’t come too?" Josh said.
"Oh, um, I didn’t know they were invited. But I’m just hanging out with Evan tonight." She said a little taken aback.
"That’s cool. You know, Evan’s a good guy." Josh said, slapping Evan’s shoulder.
Evan laughed; he couldn’t believe Josh was playing the wingman.
Andria smiled. "Yeah I know."
Josh continued to make small talk to Andria as Evan watched the constant action of the game. He thought Josh and Andria were getting along fine so he just let them talk, throwing in some comments here and there.
Not too much longer, other people began to show up. No one even bothered to knock or ring the doorbell, but just entered. Evan knew most everyone from either school or previous parties, but Andria didn’t know anyone; she had never even seen half of the people that were there. She should probably start paying more attention if she was going to fit in for Evan’s sake.
He tried to introduce some of the people to Andria, but they mostly glared at her in disbelief; disbelief that she was holding Evan’s hand and disbelief that she was there. Their glares made Evan uncomfortable.
Andria tried to cringe into the wall with no avail. She could take the looks of criticism because she was used to it, but the blood pounding in their veins was starting to get to her. More and more people began to arrive and she stood there with a plastered smile on her face. Evan talked to most of them, but ignored Marcy completely.
Evan thought Andria was having a good time. He tried to include her by pointing out people he knew and telling her their names in hopes that she would talk to them if she ever got the chance. As the party got into full swing, beer and liquor made its way around the room. Evan offered Andria something and she declined. He took a beer himself and drank it as he continued to talk to people.
He turned back to her after a few minutes of drinking his beer and socializing and asked, “Are you having fun?"
“Oh sure," she said as convincingly as she could. Evan heard it as enthusiasm. He thought she was having a good time because of her constant, plastered smile and he liked the way she stood close to him.
The pounding around her was becoming worse, her breathing got faster, and her mouth began to salivate. She didn’t think she would be able to take it much longer. Thoughts of luring one of the humans out of the house began to present themselves to her, but she couldn’t. She didn’t want Evan to catch her, so she did what she thought was best. “I’m going to get some air," she told Evan.
“Okay, I’ll come with you." He said. He followed behind her while drinking his beer. Before they reached the front door, he spotted a friend he hadn’t seen since the last gathering. “I’ll meet you out there. I’m just going to say hi to someone real fast." He said.
“Okay," she said. She rushed through the enormous crowd of people and out the door.
The party hadn’t fully escalated yet because it had yet to spill into the front lawn, which always seemed to happen, but there was still a mass of people inside.
Andria stood in the cooling breeze for a while, breathing deeply, trying to clear the scent and taste from her lungs and mouth. She was feeling better but it would take a little more time for the craving to subside completely. Even when it did, she wasn’t sure she wanted to rejoin the party.
Maybe I could talk Evan into leaving with another bike ride. She thought. After all, he is a sucker for my bike, like most guys.
Evan talked to his friend for a very short time and then went out to find Andria, but a few people stopped him to talk before he could get out the door. Before he knew it, he was feeling like his old self again. He was walking around the party talking to everyone like it was his house. The next thing he knew, Josh was handing him a new beer, his fourth.
“Follow me, there’s someone I want you to meet.” He said.
Evan followed him into the kitchen and Josh introduced him to a couple girls. He started talking with them and Josh about nothing important and they laughed at everything he said. Then another girl came over and joined the group. By this time, Josh had left. Although, Evan didn’t really care because the new girl was joining in the other girls’ laughter and it made him feel like the greatest guy at the party.
After ten minutes, Evan still hadn’t gone outside to meet Andria. She started to think he wasn’t coming at all, but then figured he just kept getting caught up with talking to people. That didn’t really bother her though because she didn’t really want to be inside anyway, but she did want him to be with her. Not in a selfish way of course, but because it hurt when he wasn’t around; she missed him. She felt such a connection with him and began doubting that he felt the same way.
After ten more minutes, she decided to go back inside to find him. As she entered the feeding chamber, she ground her teeth together and stormed through the crowd. She couldn’t see over the sea of heads to locate Evan and she couldn’t find his aura because of the jumble of auras in the room; they were difficult to tell apart.
She walked around people, knocking into people as people knocked her around. She overheard some conversations accidentally, but wished she hadn't. Two girls were trying to figure out why Andria was at the party and with Evan of all people, as if they couldn't believe it. One of the girls said that she was probably his new victim, whatever that meant. They finally decided that she shouldn't have come at all and that she should have just stuck with the other 'freaks'. Deep down Andria knew they were right. She didn’t belong there.
Finally, she found Evan after a few minutes, but what she found she didn’t like. Actually, she thought her heart had stopped beating because of what she saw. He was standing in the kitchen near a counter with three girls surrounding him. He was talking, a new beer in his hand, and they were giggling. Evan’s aura was upbeat, content, and a little hazy. Andria stood there for a moment in shock, but then she understood why Josh had been patronizing Evan so much for wanting to be with her; they had similar personalities and he just couldn't realize why Evan was falling for only one girl, especially a girl who wasn’t popular.
She felt someone staring at her from across the room and realized it was Josh because of his smug and conceded aura. Erin was under his arm and a sly smile covered his mouth and eyes.
Josh set me up. She thought.
He knew how Evan usually acted at parties and figured it was a good way to get rid of her. She didn’t want to let him win, but it wasn’t his fault. At least she was finding out now rather than later. It would have been worse if Andria had decided to turn Evan and then found out. So, in a way, she should have thanked Josh for showing her the light. In a way.
She looked back at Evan and his clan of giggling girls. Before she turned her gaze away to find the door, he caught her stare in his. When he stopped laughing and actually processed a thought, he realized who she was. His face went blank, his heart fell, and his shoulders slumped. He couldn’t believe he had forgotten she was at the party. What had he done? She didn’t give him a chance to say anything, but left before he could even move, almost running out the door.
Evan found Josh’s gaze on him and realized what had happened.
He ran out the front door after Andria, but she was already on her bike and speeding away from the house. She chastised herself for being ignorant and thinking Evan had been someone he wasn’t. He had sure fooled her, but what she couldn't understand was the deep connection she had felt with him the first time she saw him. Maybe she had misread the situation.
As she looked back at the house, Evan stood on the front lawn and wished her to come back. She wanted to turn around, wanted to let him explain, but it wouldn’t do any good. He wasn’t who she thought and probably never would be. He was a josh and she hated Josh. She just couldn’t understand why she needed to be around him so fiercely. She scolded herself for becoming vulnerable and getting involved with a human. Marcus had been right.
When Evan realized Andria wasn’t coming back, he slumped back inside to find Josh.
“Dude what the hell is your problem?” Evan shoved Josh from behind.
“What are you talking about?” Josh said innocently.
Everyone inside was staring at the fight. Some were even peering over the banister from upstairs for a better look.
“You know exactly what I’m talking about. You told me to invite Andria here because you knew how I used to act. You did this on purpose.” Evan yelled in his face.
“Man whatever you did is your own fault. Don’t blame me because the freak saw you with those girls.” He said.
“I can’t believe you would do this to me just because you don’t like her. You knew what might happen and you didn’t even care. You were supposed to be my best friend, but you completely screwed everything up this time. And now the greatest girl in the world will probably never talk to me again!” Evan said that last part louder than the rest so everyone would be sure to hear. He wanted them to know how great Andria really was and that he was going to do anything to be with her.
He turned to walk out of the house but stopped when he saw Erin.
“Oh by the way, Erin, Josh doesn’t really like you. He’s only using you because you’ll give it up to him for free.” He told her.Tears began to roll down her face as he walked out the front door. Then Erin slapped Josh hard across the face.
