Chapter 1
Davia Cooper was a sixteen-year-old teenager with a babysitter. Yes, you read that correctly. Davia wasn't a babysitter. She had one. And Davia almost felt bad for the old woman too as she lay immobile on the couch, passed out from the ungodly amount of sleeping pills she had just slipped in her drink.
"Yeah, could you come over?" Davia said over her cellphone. It was the newest Blackberry 2006 model. Only the coolest girls in school had it. Davia had to nick a few hundred bucks from her mother's purse just to afford it since she wasn't given allowances anymore. "Yes, right now. She's too heavy."
While waiting for the arrival of her friend Jess, who lived just a block away, Davia mass-texted nearly everybody she knew from school.
party at my place 2night, losers! c u there!!
It was perfect. It always was. And to make things even better, Davia's mother was off to meet a client in Toronto, which was literally in another country. So even if her babysitter were to wake up, she wouldn't even be able to call Davia's mother since the latter would be boarding a plane around the time the party would start. Which meant that no matter what happened, Davia would still be able to successfully host this party.
And now that the old lady was knocked out cold... Davia likely had until morning to clean up after the party. It was a fool-proof plan. No one would suspect a thing. She could just tell the babysitter they fell asleep watching TV together.
The door rang, and Davia rushed over to open the door for her best friend.
Jess was always ready to do the craziest things with Davia, which is why she called her. Their friendship should've been classified as odd seeing as they looked like they frequented different circles. Jess was your typical scene girl with big side-parted blonde and pink hair, while Davia was your typical Paris-Hilton-obsessed mcbling teenager. Her hair was bleach-blonde, and her eyebrows were plucked thin like a barbie doll.
"She's on the couch. Let's go," Davia said semi-urgently. She led Jess to the living room, where the old babysitter was snoring very loudly on the couch, her arms sprawled out. "The guest bedroom is near the kitchen. I'll grab her legs, you grab her head or something."
"God, I so wasn't ready for this," Jess said, apparently discouraged by the size of the babysitter. She shook her thoughts away and just went ahead and grabbed the lady's arms.
After struggling for a couple of meters, dropping the old lady on the ground to catch their breaths, and then lifting her up again, the two best friends managed to bring her all the way to the guest bed and even tucked her inside the sheets.
"We'll have to lock the door," Davia instructed as the two began leaving the room. She clicked the door handle lock and closed the door behind her and Jess. "Perfect... Now, we're ready to party."
Leo was the one to secure the alcohol. He had a really chill stoner older brother who always helped the them get whatever they needed. Weed, pills, alcohol, fake ID... You name it. You just had to give him the cost of the supplies plus an extra twenty bucks, and he'd do it no questions asked.
As expected, the house was practically flooding with teenagers by the time it was ten O'clock. Unfortunately, that meant that even bitches like Madison could get in, but Davia was chill. She wanted to be chill. She didn't want to let it bother her —
"Ew, it's the girl with the weird hair," Madison said loudly to her friend as the two passed by Jess. They giggled just as loudly and obnoxiously and seemingly reveled in the vexed look on Jess' face.
"Ew, it's the walmart version of Hilary Duff. You do know what DUFF stands for right? Designated... Ugly... Fat Friend? Yeah, that's you," Davia sneered, crossing her arms at Madison who just raised an unimpressed eyebrow at her.
"Who's talking to you? Those little voices in your head?" Madison retorted snarkily. Her friend, who was tall and lanky, and, according to Leo, was a bad kisser, cackled like a banshee.
"I'm the one who's hosting this party, Duff. You want to stay? Don't talk back, and especially, don't insult my girl Jess," Davia asserted, challenging Madison with her eyes. Madison scoffed mockingly.
"Whatever," Madison said, glancing around the room with disinterest. "Oh, My God! Is that Liam? Hey, Liam!"
Davia didn't even have time to roll her eyes at Madison before the girl sauntered across the room, squeezing past dozens of people to get to Liam, Davia's ex, of all people.
What the Hell was he even doing here? Didn't he have the self-awareness or any ounce of human decency to know that he wasn't welcome here anymore?
"I need a beer," Davia announced half-heartedly to Jess.
"Same," she replied, fixing her pink and blonde hair along the way.
Apparently, two beers was enough to get Davia to stand on top of the table and wave her arms around in the air as the music played, "Uh-huh, this my shit!"
"Come on, Jess!" Davia called her pink-haired friend who was standing in the crowd, beaming up at her. "Get up here!"
Jess, having had quite a few drinks herself, gave her beer to the first person she saw and climbed onto the table, joining Davia in her drunken delirium. The two girls chanted the lyrics to the song and lost themselves in the intoxicating air of the party.
Soon, dozens of people were joining in, climbing on the table too and singing along loudly to the lyrics of the song.
"Cause I ain’t no hollaback girl! I ain’t no hollaback girl!"
Only one room away, Leo was smoking a joint with some other kids from their school.
"Are you guys hungry?" he asked them. "I'm so hungry — Hey, where'd you get that huge oatmeal cookie?"
Meanwhile, Madison, Liam, and a bunch of other kids were playing Marco Polo in the backyard pool.
"You guys have to say Polo!" Madison exclaimed as she waved her arms around aimlessly with her eyes closed.
While all of this was happening, Mrs. Cooper was pulling up in the driveway, returning home forty-eight hours earlier than planned due to a last-minute schedule change with her firm's wealthiest client.
"Ooh, this my shit, this my shit — AAH!"
Two girls jumped upon Davia's sudden scream, tripping, and falling off the table.
"DAVIA COOPER! GET DOWN HERE, RIGHT NOW!"
"Uh, party's over guys. Sorry," Davia called out. There was a crescendo of disappointment. Davia gave them all an apologetic look."Sorry, my mom's here. You guys have to go..."
The music turned off, and more and more people, instead of leaving the premises, just gathered around to watch the confrontation.
"Davia!" Mrs. Cooper shouted. "Don't be so flipant about this — You are in serious trouble, young lady!"
There was a wave of "ooooooh"s in the crowd as the teenagers just stood by and stared at the scene, beers in hand.
"GO HOME! ALL OF YOU!" Mrs. Cooper yelled, waving her hands around to shoo them all away. Reluctantly, the teenagers trailed out of the house. Mrs. Cooper shook her head vehemently, landing her gaze back on Davia who was still standing atop the table. "You—"
Mrs. Cooper halted, smelling the air. Her face morphed into a look of utter outrage. "Is that weed?! Are we really mixing weed with alcohol?! DO YOU ALL HAVE A DEATH WISH?!"
"Mom, chill," Davia said with a laugh, glancing around at her departing peers self-consciously. It was embarassing enough that her mom had ruined the party, but even more so that she was openly scolding her.
"That is it! I am done! I cannot even deal with you right now. I just caught you going out clubbing, last week, and now, I can't even trust you to be home with a babysitter? Really?! Are you serious, right now? Where is she—?"
Soon it was only Mrs. Cooper's voice echoing throughout the house as all the party-goers were now out the door.
"Are you done? We've got a lot to clean up, here, you know," Davia said, casually slipping off the table. She grabbed a random red cup, turned to her mother and said, "I'll get the trash bags—"
"No. NO! This attitude ends now, Davia! You are going to boarding school. I don't care! I don't want to hear it. I'm shipping you off to Canada!"
"What? No, you're not. I'm not going to fucking Canada," Davia replied, affronted.
"Oh, yes you are! I'm so tired of dealing with your nonsense. I am so sick and tired of this. I can't even control you, anymore! You are going to boarding school, and you are coming back a changed woman—"
"No, I am not! I'm not going to Canada! Are you crazy?!"
"Too late. I'm enrolling you. You're going in September. I don't care!"
"But Mom! All my friends are here! It's my senior year! I can't just re-do everything! That's absurd! You can't do this to me!"
"It's done! You're going! End of discussion."
Davia flung the red cup on the ground, shrieked maniacally and stormed up the stairs to her bedroom, slamming the door shut behind her. She was going to die in fucking Canada! Her mom was ruining her life!
