Beach Party: Chapter One

We get the ball rolling.

Abbey

The party has just stared. The men from the Marquee company are the last to leave, packing up their tools and waving a cheerful goodbye from their vans. I beams happily as a farewell, and turn to the first guests arriving. First one to come and shake my hand in praise is my bestie Annabelle.
"Abbey!" she says, in an awed voice, "This is... this is snazzy."
We laugh, embrace and she gives me a present. I place it in the box discreetly positioned under a table. I don't want someone to go and steal my pressies!
More are arriving. Chase, Holly, Jack, Smithy, Gabe, Julia, Hannah, Morga D. and Sally. Everyone gives me a gift - some are wrapped, like Chase's, and others are free from paper, like Smithy's.
Sally gives me a crate of beer. I raise my eyebrows. She's only just eighteen. She's been leagally allowed to drink since two Tuesday's ago.
Sally shrugs it off. "Hey," she says nochalantly, "It's a party!"
I nod, and let it go, opening the crate. I hand her a can. She opens it and sips it slowly. "Don't want to get pissed until the real fun begins," she says, winking at me. For some reason, I can't respond to that.

Emily

When I arrive at the site with Gordon, I'm astonished to see Sally's already knocking back some booze. I'm just about to scold her when I spot Abbey talking to some of her Uni mates. Quickly, I grab Gordon's hand and we sprint down the beach towards her. When she spots me, her face cracks into this ginormous grin.
"Hey little sis!" she exclaims, giving me a hug. I laugh and wriggle out of it, handing her a present. She puts it away somewhere, ut I'm too busy looking at the older Uni students who are eyeing me up. I put on a realistic smile and say "Hi, I'm Victoria. I'm Abbey's sister. Who are you guys?"
The tension between us melts away. I'm soon chatting with Julia, Morga and Holly. They are all in the same Lecutre Classes as Abbey.
"So," asks Morga, beer in hand, "How old are you?"
"I'm 17," I answer, smiling. Morga's face seems to wrinkle with stress. "Do you drink?" she asks me, "Because you're underage."
I laugh and pull out the huge bottle of fanta from my bag. The three ladies laugh and we continue chatting.

Gordon

Emily, ever the social butterfly, is busy striking up conversation with some Uni students. I slip away, unnoticed by everyone eccept Abbey, who laughs quietly.
The sun is beginning to set, and the party's really heating up. I wander over to a very full marquee. There are heaps of people I know in a circle, and they're all chanting "DOWN DOWN DOWN DOWN DOWN!"
I peek through a gap in the crowd, and in the middle of the circle is 14 year old Marc Gallipoli, the end of a long tube in his mouth. The other end has a funnel in it, and some 7th Formers I vaugely reconginzed were pouring beer into it. Poor Marc had beer flowing from his mouth, but he was obviously gulping it down as fast as he could.
Finally, the bottle of larger was finished. Everyone applauded Marc and then someone pushed me into the spotlight.
"You go," shrieks my best mate, Jonah, "You've got a good throat on ya!"
I try to protest, but someone has already handed me the tube. I shrug. What could happen?
I put the tube in my mouth and the seventh former pours the beer in, thick and fast. But its true - I am good at drinking things fast. I glug the beer down as fast as I can, drinking, drinking, not letting the taste fully overcome me, not letting the negative thoughts overpower me. 'Who care's if you're only 16?' said my mind, and I had no choice but to agree.
At long last, the bottle was empty. I wiped my mouth of any run-away beer, amidst a loud applause, full of "Bravo!"s and "Awesome Stuff!"s.
Sitting down on a bench a few minutes later, I suddenly began to feel very, very happy.