Olive green

Chapter twelve

The first two weeks of December were over pretty fastly. The school was over until the new year and holidays were around the corner. Comfortable time with family and those closest to us. Supposedly.

  We exchanged Christmas presents in our group earlier in school today before going home and preparing for the party. Well, what could we prepare for that? Those who could were supposed to bring alcohol or some snacks. Everyone just had to bring something.

  Jade and others agreed on going together and I could only guess that they went there as a group every previous year. It's better than coming alone with nothing to do in the beginning. That would be such a boring start.

  It slightly surprised me that Amani was coming with us, too, as she couldn't drink. Although I, of course, knew that it was simply possible to party without drinking. But it still felt weird. Not drinking at such an event.

  Soon enough, our small group entered the Smith's house. Even though we were in a city, I got slightly concerned for their neighbours, but Henry assured me that the party was always held somewhere where the neighbours weren't at home at the time or... there just weren't any.

  Together, we entered the house that was slowly getting fuller. Thankfully, we didn't get in there among the first ones so it was also pretty loud in there as one tried to over-talk another one. I could only imagine how this all would look in about an hour or two.

  "Julia said that we can leave these in there," Leah spoke, as we stood in the hallway, thinking what to do from then on.

  Nodding, we all walked into the room where some people had already left their coats and jackets. I was glad to take my own down because it was getting hotter there. And at that moment I realised that Amani was wearing the scarf she got from me. I was glad she really liked it and didn't wear it just because.

  "I'm gettin' beer," Leah murmured to which I turned myself to face her:

  "Count me in."

  I could hear Jade chuckle behind us as we left them and found ourselves in Smith's kitchen. There still were many faces that I didn't know so I just stuck to one of my five friends. Now it was Leah's turn.

  "What now?" I asked as we both got our drinks and stood in the room with a couple of other people who were busy in their conversations.

  "Well," she breathed out, looking around us. "We can find others."

  We both understandably took our drinks with us as we made our way around the ground floor of the house. I got kind of concerned for the house even when I knew not everyone would come, especially the first year. But there were still a lot of people.

Leah put her arm around my shoulders as we dodged some groups of people moving around us. I looked around even though there was almost no chance of me finding someone I would know. And so, all I could do was to fix my gaze at the door that happened to head into the garden. It seemed like some people were already outside. In the cold weather, in the fresh air. How nice.

  "Thanks god it's not rainin' tonight," Leah laughed, glancing in the same direction as I did.

  "Yeah."

  My eyes turned back in the direction we were heading in. I saw Amani sitting down with Jade while the boys were nowhere to be seen. I wasn't surprised. They obviously wanted to have some fun. At least Henry as I would guess.

  We sat down together with them, accompanied by some music that was slowly getting a little louder. I watched as some of our classmates started to move into the rhythm of the songs in the open space.