Spin The Bottle

01 | Senior Year

Chapter One: Senior Year

Stephanie Valentine hops into the passenger seat of Brooke Dawson's car in the morning.

"Hey," she says as she buckles her seatbelt.

"Good morning," Brooke replies.

"How was your night?"

"Okay," she answers. "Yours?"

"Normal. You ready?" Brooke asks as she grabs the steering wheel.

"Yeah. Let's go," she replies and Brooke turns on the ignition and slowly backs out of the driveway.

Brooke is Stephanie's best friend. They've been best friends since freshman year. Brooke drives her to school and back almost every day. They're seniors now and they're still best friends.

"I know we just started senior year like two weeks ago but I can't wait for this year to be over. It has been boring so far," Brooke says giving Stephanie a quick glance.

"Me too," Stephanie agrees.

The ride to school goes silent for a while before Brooke decides to break it.

"Did you hear about the party?" She asks.

"What party?" Stephanie asks with confusion written all over her face.

"The one Jason's throwing over the weekend. On Friday night," she explains.

"Didn't hear about it. Don't care about it," Stephanie replies nonchalantly.

"You know," Brooke sighs. "It wouldn't hurt to have fun."

Stephanie rolls her eyes knowing where this conversation is heading.

"I have fun, B. But not that type. I don't do parties," She tells Brooke.

"Fun? You call reading fun?"

"Yeah. I watch TV too," she replies.

It takes all in Brooke not to face-palm herself or even better, hit her head against the steering wheel.

"You know, I do parties and it doesn't extract anything from me. It's your last year in high school, Steph. Giddy up. Enjoy it as best as you can," Brooke gives one of her speeches.

"Don't you sometimes feel like you're missing out?" Brooke speaks again.

Stephanie's lips form a thin line as she thinks about Brooke's question.

Sometimes, she does wonder what she's missing and she knows it's a lot of high school experience but really doesn't care.

She stares out the window as they enter the parking lot.

This isn't the first time such a conversation is happening. Brooke gives her a special motivational talk once in a while. Telling her to let loose and live high school to the fullest.

Whatever that means.

Stephanie really likes how she is though. Not drawing attention, getting good grades, and having a great best friend.

But Brooke doesn't seem satisfied with that. She wants her to be more social. Brooke actually has other friends but she isn't one of the popular crowd. Brooke loves parties so whenever she gets a chance to go to one, especially one that has the popular crowd, she doesn't take it for granted.

Stephanie isn't socially awkward or anything, she just likes solitude. She prefers to be alone than get in social gatherings. That's why she tries her best to be discrete and unnoticeable in school but everyone knows her in her neighborhood. She sometimes babysits. She's the PG kind of girl. She doesn't drink, doesn't smoke, and doesn't party. The last time she remembers going to a party was in middle school and it was a cousin's birthday party. She isn't shy either. She just prefers things to be the way they are.