<div align="center">(http://i37.photobucket.com/albums/e63/consortium11/7892f069-c958-4e6b-8869-363685cb33ef.jpg)</div><br/><em><em>OOC Thread (http://elliquiy.com/forums/index.php?topic=169359.0)<br/>Character Sheets and background information (http://elliquiy.com/forums/index.php?topic=169361.0)</em></em><br/><br/><hr/><br/><span class="bbc_u">Fairview Woods - Just outside the Campus</span><br/><br/>The woods of Fairview were normally quiet. Dark, mysterious, able to be both breathtakingly pretty and heartbreakingly sinister in the way only woods could be, there was normally a serene sense of tranquillity that wafted through them as if carried on a breeze. People came to the woods of course, sitting as they did between the campus of the college and the town, but they came to be at peace, to commune with nature, to hike, to trail, to watch or just to relax. One could lose themselves in these woods, under the majestic trees, letting time drift by. It was a place for quiet contemplation, for meditation, for rest, for relaxation.<br/><br/><strong>“Chug, chug, chug, chug, chug!”</strong><br/><br/>Not tonight then...<br/><br/>No, tonight was not a night for quiet relaxation or for deep contemplation. No, instead tonight was a night for shots, for beers, for cheap wine, for hard liquor and possibly certain illegal substances. It was a night for drunken debauchery and the truth was virtually anyone who was anyone was going to be there. College was kicking off and it was an open secret that on the night of this party you came to the woods, got stinking drunk, possibly made a fool of yourself and woke up the next day with a pounding head and a warm body next to you that you didn't recognise. It didn't matter if you were a nerd, a geek a jock, a goth, a gangster or whatever other subculture you wanted to lay claim to. This was college, the best years of your life, the times when memories could be made that would last forever. It was a time to let your hair down, to make friends, to meet lovers, to party, to drink and... in between the fun... eventually get some studying done. And while there would be no studying done tonight, the rest were quickly being ticked off.<br/><br/>Fairview had its secrets but people either didn't know, didn't care or just buried their heads in the sand and pretended they didn't exist. Mysteries were covered up, secrets buried, bodies disposed of. But what you don't know doesn't hurt you, right? And most of the teenagers cavorting in the woods didn't know a damn thing about what went bump in the night. They didn't know about what rose from the graveyards or what spewed from the Hellmouth. So they went about doing what they did know... underage drinking and illicit sexual encounters.<br/><br/>The main party was going on in a large clearing where the trees broke ranks and fell back, leaving a  meadow that was instantly claimed by the students and other revellers. A large bonfire roared in the centre, crackling as darkness softly fell. Some of the attendees were obviously more prepared than others... a semblance of a stage had been put together, generators hauled in to power amps as one of those college rock bands the play the sort of inoffensive, up-tempo guitar rock that such bands always play did their thing. A whole row of kegs had been rolled out along with a couple of large vats of what was optimistically called “punch”. More cases of beer littered the ground, free for anyone to grab one, glasses of wine were passed around, bottles of vodka, rum and anything else suitably alcoholic opened up and glugged. The party was already in full swing... lots of people dancing to the music from the band, others involved in an impromptu game of flag football, a couple of tables turned into a beer-pong court, hula-hoops being hula'd, a limbo pole being limboed, others sitting and talking by the fire and yet more were splitting off from the main section, new friends being made, old acquaintances renewed. One could find almost any type of pleasure in the dark corners of the woods if one went looking. Of course there were the two certainties of a student party... several people who had hit the drinks a little hard were passed out and others with more amorous intentions were in various stages of hooking up, some more self-consciously, others openly brazen.<br/><br/>It was going to be a fun night... wasn't it?<br/><br/><hr/><br/><em>I'm bored out of my freaking mind</em><br/><br/>Sam Reid didn't say the thought out loud. He may be bored, but he had no wish to start antagonising people left right and centre. He'd only just arrived in the damn town and he wanted to make some friends at some stage. Telling the crowd how outrageously boring they were wouldn't endear him to anyone.<br/><br/>Not that he cared that much in all honesty.<br/><br/>Two girls were flirting with him as he stood by the fire, part of the rolling mass of humanity. Sure there were lots of new arrivals, many from out of town, but he was the new guy with a father who owned the best bar for miles, came from the celebrity hotspot of L.A, and could talk personally of nights spent dancing with whoever the hot new star of the day was. The stereotype of the small town girl wanting to know about the big city was apparently true.<br/><br/>It's not like the pair were unattractive. They were hot, sure. But when you were used to flirting with stars from TV and films, of doing coke in the toilets with an A-list name, or hanging around while those far more famous than you got their debauched parties going, the attention of two attractive girls from freaking Fairview was never really going to compete. It was all Sam could do to pretend he was still interested in the inane things they were saying. He'd shared a line of coke with Taylor Momsen... these women couldn't compete.<br/><br/><em>Why the hell did you bring me here Dad? </em><br/><br/>Sam was sure he'd adapt. He more or less had to. He didn't see his dad snapping out of this grief-induced social coma any time soon, and Sam was at heart a social beast. Soon he'd think the mundane gossip of who was dating who was the most interesting thing in the world. Soon he'd think that the college football team was the only thing to measure success by. Soon he'd think that Fairview wasn't that bad a town. But right now he really, really, really, didn't.<br/><br/>He sighed as he saw the Quarterback, Maxim or something, take a huge swig from his bottle of whisky, two or three girls hanging around him, desperate for even a glance from the hero of the school. It was Sam's fault for bringing good whisky; he knew that. But it was the first thing he could grab, and he'd had enough of it himself. At least for the moment. Maybe something more... organic... a little later on.<br/><br/>One of the girls was telling some story, clearly trying to impress him, while the other was busy playing with her hair. Give him a few more weeks here... or hell, just a few more swigs of whisky tonight... and he may be interested but for the moment it was just a bit depressing. How did it come to this? How did he find himself sat in a field rather than perched on a barstool with a fake I.D?<br/><br/>Surely something would liven this up? And not a drunk football player collapsing into the fire...