Changing the Rules (Richter Book 1)(39)

The kid took a drink out of his red cup. “I know. Total douche. How do you know Russell?”

“Who?”

“The guy who lives here.”

“I don’t,” Claire said.

Jax leaned in to talk over the music. “My friend Ally invited us. We go to Bremerton.”

They took a step forward in line.

“Are you coming to the big party Nunez is talking about?”

“Free beer? I’ll be there.”

In Claire’s ear, she heard Sasha’s voice. “Get him to point out Russell.”

“Which one is Russell?” Jax asked.

Todd did a three-sixty. “I don’t . . . wait, yeah, he’s over there.”

Claire followed the pointing finger to see a huddled group of eight to ten people. Couple of them looked a little older than the high school group. “He’s the big guy.”

“They’re all big,” Jax said with a flip of her hair.

“He’s cool.”

They stepped up to the keg, and Claire filled two red cups.

“Does he have these parties a lot?” Jax asked.

“He and his friends rotate. Keeps the cops from showing up.”

“The parties in my old neighborhood always got busted when they were this big.” Claire handed Jax a beer.

The three of them stepped away from the keg. “I was at Brandon’s last one. Cops showed up at midnight. No one got busted or anything, they just told everyone to leave.”

Claire had no idea who Brandon was. She nodded toward the group of guys that apparently included Russell when Elsie and Kyle intercepted them. Elsie walked in, arms open. “Is this cool or what?”

There were hugs, hellos, and introductions. Elsie said something about Jax’s outfit, the compliment was returned.

The line to the keg kept growing, so they moved away.

Twice she tried to redirect the conversation to the people giving the party, both times she was interrupted.

“There’s a lot of Auburn kids here.”

“Hey, we go to every Bremerton party we can. They have better booze,” Todd told her.

“Well, if it isn’t the algebra protégé.”

Claire turned to see Sean Fisher and two of his sidekicks flanking him.

“Hey, Sean.”

From the gleam in Sean’s eyes, it appeared that he’d either been pregaming for the party or he’d been there longer than everyone else.

Todd and Sean did a little fist bump. “That was some crazy shit you did in Eastman’s room.”

So crazy it seemed that’s all anyone wanted to talk about.

“Jax, move to Claire’s left, look behind Sean.” Cooper’s voice added a layer of distraction.

“I wish I had seen it.”

“Epic, ballsy shit.”

Claire listened while the small group she stood with yammered on and on.

“Did you really get pulled out of Dunnan’s class?” Kyle asked.

“Coach Bennett made it happen.”

“Sucks. I had Bennett last year. He’s the hardest math teacher at Auburn.”

“Did you have him for algebra?”

“Physics.”

“A little more to the left, Jax.” Cooper’s voice was a whisper in her ear.

Claire kept the conversation going. “That’s pretty advanced math.”

“I want to get into USC.”

Elsie leaned into her boyfriend’s arm. “You’ll get in.”

“Got what we need, Jax.”

“There you guys are!” Ally came bouncing into their circle. “Is this awesome or what?” She slid up next to Sean, smiled.

“It’s—”

“I need a drink, do you need a drink?” Ally couldn’t stand still. The nystagmus in her eyes was off the charts.

“I do. We were headed to the keg and ran into—”

Ally didn’t let her finish. “You don’t want beer. C’mon,” she said, pulling on Elsie’s arm.

“Hey, babe. Go easy, okay. Your parents . . . ,” Kyle tried.

“Parents? Who cares?” And Ally pulled her away.

“Wow! What did she take?” Jax asked.

“Never know with Ally,” Sean said.

Claire turned to him. “You know her? She doesn’t go to Auburn.”

“Not anymore, no. We went to the same junior high and sophomore year at Auburn, before her mom ended up in some rehab and she went to her grandmother’s. Even back then she seemed to always know where the parties were.”

Claire and Jax exchanged glances. “Any idea what her mom was taking?”

“Heroin, I think. That was the mom rumor anyway.” Wasn’t Sean a wealth of information?

“Mom rumor?”

“My friend’s mom was the PTA mom from hell. She always talked about everyone’s parents.”

“I can’t picture a woman taking heroin being on any PTA,” Claire told Sean.

“I read an article a couple years ago that heroin was on the rise with the soccer moms. I think that’s what the paper called ’em. Heroin Soccer Moms,” Kyle told them.

“Why heroin?” The question was asked by one of Sean’s friends.