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The auditorium is opened for the cast. crew, families and assorted guests of same.  The part does not have the rocking atmosphere of a typical Janush party, but the food is a hallmark of his hand in the events.

Sammy finds herself more often than not in Nick's company.  At some point early in the evening she says "This party needs music."  She goes over to the kids who did the orchestral work for the different performances and forms a huddle.  She comes back smiling and grabs Nick's hand.  "Come on, buddy boy.  You're on in a couple of minutes."

"This had better not be some elaborate ruse to dump pigs blood on me."  Nick says as the pulls him away.

"Only if it is aimed at me, Carrie" is Sammy's reply.  As she guides him along, she explains her "plan".  "This party needs music.  You know all that karaoke we've been doing in your basement?  I thought we could start there.  Then, if you want, you could do that comedy act you were giving for the mirror last night.  Or not.  The musicians here can do a bunch of dance music too, so how much we do between the two of us is strictly up to us.  Heck, if you want, we can just lead the crowd in Christmas carols.  The wholesome act will go over big with the parents and faculty in the room."  She gives him the big eyed treatment.  "Come oooooooon, it'll be fuuuun.  Pleeeeeeeease?"

Nick smiles and sighs, "Who can resist those big vacant eyes."  He follows her lead.

Nothing happens right away.  Somebody has run off to the music rooms to get the right sheet music, and the others take their time setting up their instruments in a corner.  Somebody else starts playing jazzed up versions of Christmas classics on a piano.  Nick and Sammy start out with Christmas / holiday music, since that's most likely to go over well with most of the crowd.  They go through some songs, then the band takes a break.  Someone starts playing some dance-able music from their iPod into the room's sound system.  Sammy whispers into Nick's ear "Want to dance?"

Donnie sidles in with his mom in tow. He sees Sammy whispering and giggling with Nick and his eyes widen. He looks around but sees none of his other friends had arrived, so he goes over to the food table and pours himself and his mom a cup of punch.

Nick smiles, "I'd love to."  A space becomes the unofficial dance floor and several of the others begin to follow Sammy and Nick's example and start dancing.

The mood of the room is fairly festive, and parents have begun to gather together and get introduced.  After Donnie and his mom arrive she makes her way into some of the parent groups and chats, she actually seems to be having a good time before long.

Donnie is there for a couple of minutes and one of the girls from the drama group comes over, "You're Donnie right?  I've seen your around.  I think we P.E. the same period.  Anyway, you wanna dance?"  Donnie recognizes her, she's a cute red head that tends to be a bit of wall flower from his recollection.

Donnie gets all bashful, but smiles and says "Sure." He gets his boogie-woogie on as only a white boy can. Ever conscious of his mother watching from the sidelines, of course.

After they dance a little bit the girl laughs, "Oh my god.  I feel silly."  She puts a hand on his shoulder, "I'm Jessica, Jessica Sherman."  She laughs again, a sound Donnie does not find unpleasant.  "I realized you probably didn't know who I was."  Her hand slides down his arm slowly towards his hand before she removes it.  "It seems like everyone at school sort of knows each other.  I always forget to introduce myself."

Sammy does her best to forget about her troubles, to relax and to be happy with the moment.  She sees Donnie dancing and for a moment thinks about speaking to him, but decides it might be better for both of them if she keeps some distance.

Donnie laughs, feeling a little giddy. Normally girls don't even notice him, but now an attractive one was actively flirting with him? Should I be worried about this? Is this some plot of Torrance's unravelling and trying to pull me in again? Paranoid much? Only if Sylvia catches me slow dancing with her.. He shakes her hand.

"Donnie Douglas. We'd better stick to fast dances, Jessica. My girlfriend might be annoyed with me for slow dancing with another girl."

Sylvia is, at that moment, sitting invisibly outside the party on a bench, wondering whether or not to go in.  She's worried about Torrance.  She's worried about Smith.  She's afraid she can't go in and put on a happy face, and she's worried that, if she's not here, something will go down that she could have prevented.  It's pure neurotic paralysis.

She's definitely not worried that somebody's trying to poach her boyfriend.

Her face falls slightly, "Oh.  I'm sorry.  I didn't realize you had a girlfriend."  she seems to shrug off the disappointment after a moment, "Fast dances are good too."  She laughs, "Keep us from getting into trouble.


Darklighter sits on the bench next to her.  "Not going in?  He's wrapped in a Navy Wool Coat with a black knit hat.  He suddenly strikes her like a world traveler.  Sylvia can fully imagine him walking out of the fog on a foreign shore, then blending into the natives.  And he knows she's here?

That's the first pressing question on her mind, and she's barely conscious of how paranoid she sounds when she says, "You can see me?  How can you see me?"  Then she prods him in the arm with her fingertips as if suspecting he might be some kind of mental projection.

Without Sarah, Colin doesn't feel much like dancing. So he looks around for Dave, Greg, John, and Rob, wondering if they are busy with girls too or not.

He gives her an amused grin and pokes her back, apparently amused by whatever game she's playing.  "Were you supposed to be invisible or something?"  The words for in her mind, just as she remembers Smith saying them.  'It's not fool proof.  You'll run into people that aren't fooled by it.  They are either strong enough willed that it doesn't fool them, or fool enough that they don't get it.'

"Yes," she says plainly, even peevishly, but there's a certain comfort in being seen despite her best effort.  "I didn't think you came to these things.  Did you bring a date?"

"I do sound work for the drama club productions.  And as for a date, no.  Should I have?  Are you asking if you can serve in this capacity?  Is this like you trying to be invisible?"

"Now you're just making fun of me."  She realizes that Logan seems to be at ease, and since he's not boiling over with Mr. X hints at conspiracy, it might be all right for her to relax, too.  She lets out a breath that she feels like she's been holding for days, and it steams away on the chilly night air.  "It's been a terrible week," she says.  "I mean, there've been worse weeks since the start of school, but this ranks pretty high."  She glances at his face and finds her eyes lingering on the shape of it with an intimacy a freakish freshman should not feel toward the junior class's golden boy.  "I'm not talking about the concert, of course.  I bet it was terrific.  I bet the sound work was the best part."

"Flattery will get you my undivided attention."  He says, leaning back on the bench.  "We can talk about things, or just sit and listen to the music and watch our breath.  I love winter, constant proof we're alive. right under our noses."

"I read somewhere that Chicago's four seasons are winter, winter, winter, and the Fourth of July."  She pulls her coat a little closer.  "I keep waiting for it to warm up, and I'm afraid it never will."  Relieved to find herself shivering because of the cold and not because of sheer nerves, she looks up at the clear, dark sky and the smattering of stars that makes it through the obscuring haze of suburban light.  "When you go off to college, are you going east to the Ivy Leagues or west to, like, Berkeley?"

"Virginia Tech gave an honorary degree to Wile E. Coyote.  they have a good engineering program.  I think I'll start there."

"That's sort of unambitious for a valedictorian, but at least it's warmer than Cambridge."  She shakes her head.  "This school thing has been getting harder with all the weird stuff that's been going on.  I feel like all of us should be getting some kind of handicap points or extra credit, a hundred bonus points on our SAT's for constant emotional trauma.  You always seem so unruffled."  It's almost an accusation.  "Doesn't it bother you?"

[Apologies to Kat.]

OOC:  The tone dropped after I graduated.  But they did give that degree...

"I'm not in the position you are.  I'm not rooting for a particular outcome to any particular situation.  Save for one.  And that one has got me bothered.  I was basically used as a delivery system for a weapon.  It's shaken by neutrality some."

"Did Colin's notes help?  He keeps asking me to ask you about them.  I guess he's hoping you'll chew through the data and spit out the answer, Mr. Roboto."

Logan nods.  "They helped.  They put some things into place, but the answer isn't as useful as it is interesting."  He tugs his collar closed a bit more, "Torrance actually stumbled on the answer by accident, and used it to put herself in an interesting position.  Trouble is, now she has no way to get out of that position and when the house of cards topples it'll leave the authorities more confused then before."

Sylvia knows he won't give her the answers, not so neat and simple like that.  Not without a little quid pro quo and an order of lamb chops, extra rare.  She asks anyway.  "Is someone going after her now that she's been defanged?"

"Probably the police.  She's also going to be exposed as being behind some things that might win her some unstable enemies.  She's not the person I'm after though.  She's just stolen the throne."

Sylvia shakes her head looking, again, a little worried.  "Torrance.  She really got to me.  She has really gotten to me.  I can't help but think about what she's done and start to worry that I'll always find myself on the edge of this lawless zone where telepaths have shoot-outs in Main Street, you know what I mean?  Wild West.  Guns blazing.  Black hats and white hats and the whole thing stacked toward a tragic ending.  The only difference between Torrance and me is that, I dunno, I give a damn about people.  The more I see, the more I begin to think that's a rare trait."

"According to a research paper the suicide rate among telepaths during adolescence is twice the national average, but the numbers are hard to get an accurate fix on.  Some of the stats are projected based on forensic psychological analysis of the deceased."  Logan stops talking for a second, and then shifts on the bench to look at her.  "If you ever need an anchor.  Someone that you can talk to that wont ever judge you, or the things you do.  Call me, find me, send up smoke signals, whatever you have to do.  I will always make time for a friend.  It's easy since I have so few of them."

She shakes her head, smiling a little.  "Anyone who knows me will tell you I'm too much of a stubborn jackass for suicide, but thanks."  She kicks up her feet like a kid, but slowly, just to stretch out the cold that pierces through her absurd hand-knit legwarmers.  "What makes you think you have so few friends?  Rather, why do you choose to have so few of them?"

"Stubborn Neutrality, and the fact that some of the people that I thought were my friends started to see me differently when other people started to take interest in me.  I have to assume I did change, and I decided that I wasn't interested in having friends if they weren't able to accept that fact that I'm going to change.  So the few who were left became important to me.  They either accepted my neutrality and the changes or they didn't find themselves noticing a change.  That number has gotten smaller.  People's interests change, they drift apart.  It's natural."

After a couple of dances with Nick, Sammy excuses herself to go to the restroom, leaving Nick to the tender loving care of his buddies.  She doesn't really have to use it, she's just starting to feel... guilty?  For having fun without Elrod?  For having (a lot of) fun with (not just) another boy when Elrod is footing the bill _and_ still in the hospital?  She's not sure.  She's not even sure if she should feel guilty about any of it.  That makes her feel guilty too.  She stares into the mirror for a couple of minutes pretending to fix her hair and makeup, washes her hands, then makes her way to the relative safety of her father's side.  Nothing ambiguous there, just good old reliable daddy.

"Hey Dad!  Having a good time?"

Dad puts an arm across Sammy's shoulder.  "Yep.  The show was really a hit, you guys deserve this for all the hard work you put in."  Dad gives her a squeeze.  "How about you, enjoying yourself?"

Sammy's phone rings.  The caller ID is Elrod.

Sylvia finds it hard to imagine life without the Suspects, but attrition has already taken its toll.  "Tell me, as a friend:  is there any reason I shouldn't rip Torrance's head open with a can opener and find out what she knows about what's going on here at school?"

"Yeah, it's a lot of fun..."
As soon as the phone began to vibrate against her hip, Sammy instinctively grabbed for it.  She glanced at the caller ID, paused, then set the phone back where it came from.  She can't tell her dad it's Elrod, and she isn't sure she can talk to him where her dad might overhear and guess.  That business with the police still isn't officially settled, and there might be objections.  She smiles and says words her father may not have ever heard pass her lips before this moment.  "It's too noisy here, and anyhow I'm busy talking to you.  I'll call them back in a couple of minutes.  Did you try any of the barbeque?  It's killer."

The party continues.  Dad admits to trying all the food, "Don't tell your mom. You know how she gets when I eat a bunch of stuff that isn't good for me."

Sammy giggles.  "I won't tell.  I ate a lot too."  She hangs around for a minute or two, then tells her dad she's going to return that phone call.  She goes to a quiet, more private spot and checks to see if Elrod left a message before she calls him back.

No message was left.

Sammy calls him back.

"I was beginning to think you were over me."  He answers brightly, "Geez, go away for a couple of days and you wont take me calls or anything."  He laughs.  "I saw the show, it was jumpy but awesome."

Keeping her voice low, Sammy makes an amused noise.  "As far as I know, right now you're still forbidden fruit.  I didn't want to risk talking to you in front of my dad or some other people.  I had to wait until I could get away."   She slides down a locker door and sits on the floor.  "I'm glad you liked the show.  I wouldn't have been singing at all if you hadn't wondered if I could, so... thanks.  I just wish you had been able to see it live.  You still getting out of there tomorrow?"

"That's the official plan.  My folks are insisting I go with them for the holiday break.  And if I go Lisa has to go, but this whole thing has sort of given her a wake up call.  She's been examining her life, and she's not happy with what she sees.  So this will be a family holiday, so I'm gonna have to pass of being there with you.  I hope that you're okay with that?"

Oddly enough, she is fine with that.  "Dude, if Lisa gets herself together, then you win for keeps.  Why would I be upset about that?  You go, you get better, you let them spoil you silly until it gets annoying.  Then you come home, and maybe things will be all figured out by then."

"I will.  And, listen I know things are weird right now.  And I'm glad you've having that get together.  You looked like you were having fun with Nick dancing.  I'm glad you two are ok.  I'd hate to think this thing might have screwed up a good friendship."

This... doesn't sit well.  He'd been watching her?  Was he spying or... maybe they just kept the feed open so he could enjoy the party too.  That's probably it.  Probably.   Sammy keeps a lid on it.

"Yeah, its been a good party.  It seems like everyone is enjoying themselves at least a little bit, most a lot.  Its cool that you've been able to enjoy it too, even if its over a web feed.

"Yeah, the music cuts out a lot."  He laughs, "But it's better than game shows which apparently is all that's on TV.  Hey, was that Donnie dancing with some girl earlier?  I've been wanting to ask you how's he doing with all this business?  I wanted to talk to him, but I just couldn't think of anything to say to him."

"Was he?" Sammy asks absently.  "I haven't talked to him at all since you wound up in the hospital.  I've been staying far away.  I know what happened wasn't really his fault, that his mind was controlled by Torrance, but I can't bring myself to talk to him yet."  She pauses.  "You're not going to ask me to talk to him for you, are you?  Because I don't know if I can do that."

"No.  I think he needs to see me and hear me tell him I don't blame him.  I thought that might help him, if he was feeling guilty.  Listen, I need to go before the Nizi-Nurse gets back.  You have a good time, and I'll see you after break."

"OK.  See you after break."  Sammy says her goodbyes and ends the call, then sits alone in the hall for a few more minutes, slowly banging the back of her head against a locker while she thinks.

OOC:  I should have posted the second part as a separate message, so it would show up as new.



Then she stands up, straightens out her clothing, and goes back to the party.  She walks over to where Colin is standing with the other wallflowers and nods a general greeting, then partly turns so she can see the crowd.  "Donnie is dancing with somebody who isn't Sylvia tonight," she comments, mostly to Colin since she is standing right next to him.  "Elrod noticed.  Elrod wants Donnie to know that Elrod doesn't blame him for what happened."

Colin turns to Sammy and raises an eyebrow. "Ehmm, I'm not sure I got it. Would you like me to speak with Donnie? Does the fact that Donnie is dancing with..." He looks into his memory. "... Jessica, I think, have anything to do with Elrod? I've been wondering why Sylvia hasn't showed up."

Sammy has a peculiar expression on her face.  She's not annoyed with Colin, but something isn't quite right.  "No.  Elrod phoned me just a few minutes ago.  He was...  Elrod is watching the party; there are webcams set up someplace around here.  He watched me dance with Nick.  He also noticed that Donnie was dancing with some girl, and said he wasn't mad at Donnie."  She shifts uncomfortably.  "I guess it can wait.  Elrod can tell him when we all come back after Winter Break."

"Knowing that he's watching bothers you?" He hands her a glass of punch. "Or is it dancing with Nick that is bothering you?"

"Knowing that he's watching me dance with Nick bothers me," Sammy admits.  She accepts the punch and takes a delicate sip.

"Why? You're afraid he might get the wrong idea?"

Colin sips on his own punch.

"Elrod isn't your whole world. You like him a lot, but you happen to like Nick too. There's nothing wrong with that, as long as you're honest with them both. I think Elrod is wise enough to know he can't keep you in a cage. This way, you may dance with Nick, and really enjoy it too, but you'll come back to him. Isn't it so?"

"Maybe.  Maybe not.  At least not the same way I was before I wandered away."  She stares at her punch as if its a crystal ball that can answer all of her questions.  She adds softly, "I really like Nick too."

Colin doesn't judge. "What do you like of him?"

Sammy looks up swiftly, and colors a little bit.  "A lot of things.  He's funny, and he's smart.  When he sings, I can feel it in here."  Her hand touches over her heart.  "It's like it echoes inside of me.  It makes me feel good just to be around him.  I feel good around Elrod too, but for different things.  Its like they each have something I need."

"Our heart has a way to decide for us when our brain cannot. The only advice I have is not to obsess about it. Give it time. You'll figure things out." He says, looking at her.

"I know.  Getting there is always the hard part."  She gives him a little smile.  "So I hope you don't mind if I hang out over here in a safe place while my heart and my head negotiate some things between them.  I can just relax with you and the guys."

"Of course I don't mind." he says smiling too. "We deserve some relaxation. I think I'll spend most of my winter break napping on the sofa. What are your plans?"

"None, at the moment.  The plans I did have all fell apart pretty suddenly.  I guess I'll just find a warm spot to curl up like a cat and sleep."