Salja and Ashley's pre-game

You knock on the door of Salja's room. "Just a second!" comes her voice from behind the door. She opens it slightly, half her face visible through the crack. "Is Luke around?" she asks quietly. Your friend is, as always, wearing a pair of raggedy old jeans. Tonight she's wearing red high-top Chucks and a baggy sweater, the sleeves pulled up around her elbows. Her hair is down for once-- likely at the pleading of her roommate, who it seems has left little braids in her chin-length black hair. Perhaps in protest, she's wearing basically no makeup on her semi-tan Filipino face.

You look around. Unless the dorm adviser has found some way to become invisible, it doesn't seem like it. "No," you say. "Let me in."

"Yeah sure," Salja says. "Just a second." She opens the door and you understand her reason for caution. Ashley, Matt, Mike, and Mary taking shots that they are absolutely not allowed to take, according to both the law and the rules of the residence. That's not even mentioning the pile of fake IDs on Salja's desk. Most illegal of all might be Wally in the corner, Ashley and Salja's bong in his hand and smoke pouring out from his lips.

You slide through the door, shutting and locking it behind you. "You guys ready for a good time?" you ask.

"Hell yeah!" Mary announces. "I honestly haven't been out to the bars since-- well, since that Friday in first semester." She blushes when you look her in the eye, but you detect a little bit of a smile.

"When do we head out?"

"Soon," Ashley says, slamming a shot glass down on her table. She's wearing her dark hair down, and it's been curled. Contrary to what mothers say, Ashley is showing legs and cleavage in her tight white dress, and she looks great. "Now that everyone's here. Mystic is already open, but I don't want to be the first ones there."

You check your watch. It's five minutes to midnight already, which means that the club has been open for nearly a full hour by now. There should at least be a solid crowd now.

"Plus, I didn't want to have to get drunk on $6 shots," Salja says.

"Me neither!" Matt announces. He passes another shot to his twin brother, and then to Ashley. The twins are dressed nearly identically, as usual, which makes it a pain to tell the two apart. You only know that it's Matt handing out the shots because he's wearing a white sweater, which you happen to know to be his favorite color, while Mike wears green.

Mary passes on the shot, seemingly happy to be drinking from her bottle of Jack Daniels. As usual, Mary's red hair has been tied into a side braid. She's wearing a black lace choker around her fair and freckled neck, with a shiny gold dress tight to her body. You take care not to stare, but in all honesty, you sneak a few peeks anyway.