The Swing Chapter Nine

The doorbell rang and Ace answered. "Chalice, good your finally here. Uh welcome to my party." They started laughing a little. "That sounded lame didnt it?" 1

"No, its a greeting. Hi." She walked in and everyone was dancing to the pop music. Not really Chalices favorite, but it wasnt her party so she wasnt going to complain. 2

"Sorry, I know your not a fan of pop." 3

"Thats ok, Ill deal."4

"So do you want to meet some of my closest friends."5

"Sure." Ace walked through the crowd of people to a group hanging by the fire place. They werent dancing like everyone else, just talking and one of them had a notebook in his hand. 6

"Hey, guys. This is Chalice." They all turned around and surprisingly smiled. His friends seemed alot like him, willing to make friends. 7

"Hi, Im Clark. No not Clark Kent either." Chalice smiled alittle at that, Clark smiled back. He was the one holding the notebook, he closed it and put it down on the ground. "Sorry you had to hangout with Ace before you got to meet any real people." Ace gave him a punch on the arm. Clark reminded Chalice of Billy from Good Charlotte. He had blue eyes and his hair was pure black, probably natural and was spiked in the back a little bit. "Doesnt he have bad taste in music though, I mean pop?" Chalice liked Aces friends so far, for popular they werent snobs.8

"Heya, Im June." A girl with long choppy red hair stood up, she had green eyes and seemed nice.  She smiled, "Thank you for saving me from a night with all guys, they're starting to creep me out."9

"Well, its not our fault you hang out with us, I mean there are other girls in our school." The guy who spoke back had green hair, definitely dyed and blue eyes. When he smiled his teeth were practically perfect like a movie star. These people seemed really cool, they were friends with everyone and were rockers she guessed. "Hi, Im Dice." 10

"Dice?" 11

"My parents are kinda strange, but their cool at times so." He shrugged.12

"No, its cool, dice are like my favorite thing." 13

"Awsome, you wont have a problem remembering my name I take it." 14

"No, not at all."15

"Ok well," Ace started naming everyone. "Thats James back there, hes a wicked drummer. This is Dan, he knows everything you need to know about music, including pop." They all laughed at that, I suppose it was because the rest of them kindof hated pop except him and Ace so they stuck out when it came to music taste. "This is our good friend Ticket, we call him ticket because he used to work at a movie theater and would let kids into rated R movies as long as they payed him an extra fee, he made about 500 dollars a week with that job, richest out of all of us. And finally but not least, this is David, our guitar player who can play pretty much any song, even Stairway To Heaven." James had dirty blonde hair and green eyes, when he smiled he had a retainer, Dan was blonde with hazel eyes, Ticket and David were tall black kids who could probably play in the NBA, but none of them except Dice and June were interested in sports as Chalice learned later.16

"its a slow song." Ace came up behind Chalice while she was getting a drink.17

"Uh huh." 18

"So, do you want to dance."19

"Um."20

"I understand if you dont want to."21

"No, its fine. Sure Ill dance."22

Ace placed his hand around her waist as Chalice put her hand on his shoulder. Ace took her other hand in his and they started to dance. Chalice gulped, this felt weird. The only other person she ever danced with was Tom. 23

"So, do you like my friends?" Ace was trying to start a conversation.24

"Yeah, their cool." She wanted to talk because it was better then dealing with an awkward situation that only seemed to be awkward to her. What was Clark writing in his notebook, I thought we didnt have any homework."25

"We dont, he draws and writes stuff."26

"Oh thats cool, like what?"27

"What do you mean?"28

"What does he draw and write?"29

"Oh." The song ended. "Do you want something to drink?"30

Chalice found it strange how he ignored her question, but didnt think much of it. "Sure."31

"Ok, Ill be right back." Ace headed over to the drinks. Clark was there and they started talking. 32

She walked over to June who was sitting by the fire place still with headphones on, probably listening to real music. "Hey."33

"Oh hi, are you enjoying the party?"34

"Yeah, its fun." Then Chalice caught the plain black notebook in the corner of her eye. She started to reach down to look at it because it was right on the ground by her feet.35

June stopped her and grabbed the notebook first. "What do you think your doing, this is Clarks personal stuff." She said it calmly, not like she was mad or anything, but she did seem kindof scared.36

"I just wanted to see what was inside. Ace told me he draws."37

June quickly replied, "He doesnt like to show it, he doesnt believe hes any good and I dont want to invade by showing it to you behind his back." 38

"Oh ok, I understand. Thats nice of you, protecting it for him."39

"yeah, I suppose."40

"Oh wow."41

"What is it?"42

"Oh nothing, just the time, I have to go." Chalice started to get up.43

"Oh ok, well Ill see you later."44

"Yeah, bye." Chalice headed over to Ace to say good-bye before she left, after all he did invite her. Clark and Ace were still talking, so she just left figuring she would see him plenty of other times. 45