Sex & Drugs & Dungeons & Dragons

D11. Princess in Peril

They didn't get into Donna's party. Having a cute girl with them didn't help, there. Apparently Donna didn't want the competition.

So they piled back into Cobi's dad's station wagon – the car they affectionately called the "Dragon Wagon" -- and drove to Winnetka. There they were let into Kenny Delgado's party, the New Trier high school varsity quarterback whose parents were on vacation in Paris.

Kenny had commandeered his parents' hi-fi system and was blasting an incongruous mix of new wave, ska, and hip hop, with songs jumping from Scritti Polliti's "Perfect Way" to the English Beat's "Sooner or Later" to Newcleus' "Jam On It" to "One Step Beyond" by Madness and then to "Don't Go" by Yaz.

The party spilled out from the mansion to the backyard pool, where Kenny and his two offensive linemen friends were manning a keg tilted precariously in a tub of ice. Boys and girls sat on the concrete pool deck, laughing and shouting and bouncing quarters into each other's red solo cups.

"What do you chicken-shit losers think you're doing?" challenged one of the big offensive linemen as Derek and Cobi approached the keg.

"Getting a beer," Derek proclaimed.

The offensive lineman glanced over at Kenny, looking for permission to kick Derek and Coby out, but Kenny was ignored them, his eyes focused like lasers on Sarah's tits. "What grade are you in, again?" he asked her.

"Tenth," Sarah replied, leaning forward to offer him a better view. "I'm gonna be a cheerleader next year."

"She's going in to tenth," Cobi corrected, adding, "She's only fifteen." He grabbed Sarah's hand and pulled the reluctant girl away from the keg. "That guy's an asshole," he warned her.

"Maybe, but he's a cute asshole," she teased, taking a sip of her beer and immediately grimacing at its bitter taste.

The gang sat down cross-legged on a patch of dewy grass. A group of just-graduated seniors were huddled next to them playing the drinking game "bullshit", a variation of the kids' song "Who Stole the Cookie from the Cookie Jar":

"Gray-shit barfed during P.E.," one of them accused.

"Bullshit!" countered the one nick-named Gray-shit.

"Then who-shit?" asked the first.

"You-shit!" accused Gray-shit.

The whole group erupted into laughter. "Drink! Drink! Drink!" they chanted while the first one yelled out an explanation: "I'm not you-shit I'm blue-shit!"

Gray-shit chugged his beer and the game started all over again.

"So how we gonna kill Strahd?" Cobi asked, trying to talk over the cacophonous drinking game going on beside them.

"I don't know," Derek replied, "I mean we gotta drive a stake through his heart, that's obvious."

"Yeah," agreed Cobi, "but how? If we ever get close he'll just turn into mist and float away."

"What about the rumor Lady D'Espaire heard about that legendary weapon?" Derek pondered. "The sunsword. Think that could kill a vampire?"

"Oh gawd!" Sarah moaned, "are you guys talking about that stupid game again?"

"It's not stupid," Cobi countered.

"Yes it is!" Sarah insisted. "Look around you, what are all the cool people doing?"

"I dunno, playing quarters, getting loaded."

"Exactly! And you know what they're not doing? Talking about Dungeons & Dragons."