“Here take this for a while, will you?” Bryan tossed his backpack to Jack, after quickly whipping around to face him.

Not ready for it and surprised by the weight of the bag, Jack almost fell over as it hit him in the chest.

“Hey! I’m not your mule!” Jack proclaimed.

Laughing, Bryan just shook his head, “Mule? Are you trying to make it easy on me to make fun of you JACK?” Still laughing, he turned toward the crowd, rolling his shoulders and straitened his shirt as best he could. After inspecting his breath by breathing in his hand and sniffing, Bryan finally judged himself ready to attend.

“Alright little brother, I’m off to go to talk to those girls over there.” He announced, nodding his chin toward the sorority girls to their left. “Now you go find your own fun, hopefully as far away from me as possible.”  He looked to Jack with a big smile, excitement clearly written on his face.

As he turned to leave, he saw Jacks almost panic stricken face, Bryan couldn't help but get a pang of responsibility as he heard his parent’s voices screaming in his head.

Moving back to his brother, he walked closer and put a hand on Jacks shoulder as he spoke. “Okay look, try and have some fun, but be safe about it. First off, don’t you dare drink, I don’t want to deal with that mess tonight.” Seeing his brothers non reassured face he tried a different angle, “Second, just try relax Jack, walk around, meet people! It’s our last night here! If you make a fool of yourself in front of any of these people who cares, you’ll never see them again. Now Go! I’ll find you in a few hours… if I’m not too busy” he finished with a smirk, wiggling his eye brows up and down.

“Okay, I’ll see you then” Jack exhaled as he tried his best to relax. He was never a fan of mass social situations and it clearly showed.

As Bryan walks away Jack realized that that was the most brotherly Bryan had ever been in his life to him. He smiled a bit at that, and took his brothers advice to heart.

Glancing around the hill, he started feeling the confidence stemming from his brothers words. “I can do this” he quietly mutters to himself. Lifting his brother’s bag to hang over his shoulder, he started making his way through the crowd.

Seeing all the people dancing, Jack can’t help himself but feel that he should join in. For the most part people were just jumping up and down with their hands in the air, or flailing wildly not even in time with the music. But it somehow made Jack feel a little better about the idea of joining since he knew his dancing skills where dismal at best. As one of his favorite songs came on, he decided it’s time to jump in the mix. Quite literally.

Jack started singing along and jumping up and down, slowly edging his way into the crowd. With the two bags on his back, his movement was quite awkward.

Dancing his way through the people, he had trouble not hitting people with the bags. It was slow going, but he was having more fun than he had ever imagined he would.

Leaning his head back and staring at the meteor in the sky, Jack reveled in the light. Something about it just filled him with both excitement and relaxation.

I cant believe I almost missed this. 

Just as the thought hit him, so did something else.

In all his staring at the meteor, he had completely forgot about dancing.

Jack soon found himself being bounced back and forth between people as they gyrated and grinded on each other. His confidence started to wane about dancing being a good idea as he rebounded like a pin ball from person to person. Out of nowhere, he all of a sudden was hoisted up off his feet. Jack screamed in response but couldn't comprehend what was happening as he quickly gripped both bags for his life as he began being crowd surfed forward through the dancing mob.

Jack at first thought it was fun but he could hear the murmurs of the people below him bring back the panic he originally felt.

“Get this idiot out of here” Jack hears as he’s being passed along.

“Stupid kid, couldn’t dance if his life depended on it!” he can hear being yelled from the direction he started in.

"Ow asshole, watch it!" Someone yelled and the backpacks shifted in his grip.

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Jack was frightened for his life. He tried yelling to get people to let him down but they just kept passing him along belly up with no way to see where they were pushing him to. No matter how hard he tried to turn or craned his neck, he couldn't manage to turn.

Just as quickly as it had started, the series of hands that had been holding him up dropped away letting him tumble to the ground head first. Both backpacks fell after him, hitting him in the head shortly after he hit the ground.

“Ow! Hey!” Jack cried.

The people that had been carrying him snorted with laughter and returned to the crowd.

Staying curled up on the ground, Jack rubbed the back of his head, feeling for the lump he was sure was coming in already.

He rocked back and forth on the ground at the pain in his head, grubling under his breath about how the people were not even Really dancing. Jack heard a light giggle that was barely being suppressed from somewhere behind him and it snapped him out of his brooding. It wasn't like the degrading laughs of the crowd. More of a embarrassed musing. 

Opening his eyes was a struggle, Jack was still seeing stars from the drop. Through his bleary vison he could barely make out the form of a girl sitting on a cluster of huge boulders that had been hidden behind the crowd on the edge of the hill.

“That looked brutal!” the girl out right laughed at Jack.

Jack grew angry at being laughed at, especially when he had no idea who it was. But something in her voice as she laughed gave him a warm feeling inside. He quickly felt the anger melt into embarrassment as he imagined what he must look like laying there on the ground still.

He pushed himself up into a sitting position and found himself smiling and chuckling quietly along with this mysterious girl as he tried to get a better look at her.

Not having much luck seeing through the people moving around the edge of the gathering, Jack brushed himself off and gathered the bags, preparing to stand up.

The giggling returned as he started to stand, but being surprised by the now closeness of the giggling he fell back on his butt, failing to succeed.

“Now that’s just sad, come on,” the strange girl said with pity.  Reaching down she extended a hand to help the red faced and thoroughly embarrassed Jack to his feet.

Jack took the help and looked up at his unknown tormenter as he stood up.

When he reached his feet he found himself looking back down to her as she was shorter than he expected, the top of her head just barely passing his shoulder. Her face small like the rest of her but had a subtle striking exotic beauty to it, the shape of her eyes just barely letting on that she was of Asian descent. Her tan complexion was smooth as silk with just a few freckles spotting her cheeks just under her eyes. But what Jack was most drawn to as he peered in the dark at her was her dark brown eye’s that seemed to have gold flakes in them that glimmered in the pale green light of the night.

Looking into them gave Jack a fluttering feeling in his chest that was completely foreign to him. “Are you alright?” she asked with a face that showed apprehension as she took a half step back.

Jack snapped and realized he must have been staring. “O, yea. Sorry, I’m Jack” he fumbled and put his hand out for a handshake. Only then realizing how awkward he must seem to her. Jack was never good at talking to girls but this was a new low.

“I’m Sara,” she replied with a knowing smile shaking the offered hand with a bit of a chuckle. “What’s with all the bags?” she questioned as she turned to head back to her boulder pile, motioning him to follow.

Taking the invitation, Jack moved quickly to catch up while explaining, “Well one is mine and the other is my brothers. He’s around here somewhere.”

Probably having much better luck chatting up a girl somewhere else he thought to himself. 

Sara had stopped dead in her tracks, and turned questioningly to Jack, “Brother? You’re not a pledge are you?” placing her hands on her hips and adorning a scowl all at the same time.

The look terrified Jack.

“Pledge?” his brow furrowed in thought and immediately he remembered the frat brothers they encountered on road near the cars. “You mean to a frat?” he laughed “Hell no.” breaking into more laughter.

Sara’s scowl dropped to a smile “Good” as she laughed along with him she turn back toward her rocks.

They both climbed a few rocks up and took seats on the pile. It was a little higher up from where she had originally been sitting, but it was a much better view of all the people gathered.

It turns out they both enjoyed people watching so they managed some polite small talk as they joked around talked about the impossible mix of different people in attendance.Jack enjoyed her company, and at least to him it seemed like she enjoyed his as well. Jack looked out over the crowd during a comfortable silence, the crowd of people had settled down a bit and were staring towards the sky. The meteor had been visible for a while now and was slowly growing in the sky, its green light permeated the skyline. Jack checked his watch, having lost track of time completely.

It was 11:58.

Looking up in the green night sky, Jack steered the conversation toward the meteor.

“Did you know for the next half hour they said the meteor supposed to be the closest anything of its size has come to earth in millions of years?”

Sara looked up at the huge blaze of green in the sky, squinting a bit as if to get a better look. “Yea, I heard it on the news on the way over with my cousin. She wanted to come just for the party. She doesn’t care about the meteor at all.” She looked at jack with a innocent yet somehow mischievous grin, “It’s getting pretty cold out here” she hinted as she slid her way closer to Jack.

Jacks jaw dropped, but he was quick to pick it up again, hoping Sara hadn’t noticed. Smiling he slid towards her, still unsure of himself in lou of her obvious age old hint.

Just as Sara started to slowly lean her head toward Jack's shoulder, he saw a commotion near the edge of the remaining people dancing. He could barely discern the yelling and screaming from the already boisterous partying going on.

“Look at those idiots,” he laughed, but it got caught in his throat, it was distant but he swore he could hear Bryans voice.

Of course he would find a way to ruin this moment!