"A party?" Sarah gapped as she walked home from Grab N Go with Vance. "A real party?"

"Yes, without teachers and party hats." he mocked her with a nod. "If we go, you can't be weird. You have to be cool."

"Oh, I can be cool!" Sarah laughed as she gave a wave of her hand. "I can rap the alphabet backwards. Doesn't get much cooler then that."

"Holy shit." Vance squeezed the bridge of his nose. "Okay, Sheeps, let me explain something to you. Your version of cool is....school cool. You think education is cool. Other people don't. No one thinks your way of cool is actually cool."

Sarah's jaw fell. "Not even you?"

"Not even me." he shook his head.

"Finney thinks school is cool." Sarah rolled her eyes. "And we happen to have plenty of space parties every single eclipse."

"Fine, then go spend the last day of summer with your middle school boyfriend talking about space while your high school boyfriend goes to a loud party with people actually our age." Vance shrugged his shoulders.

"There's not an eclipse tonight." Sarah rolled her eyes. "I just don't get why I have to be different to be cool. I think i'm pretty cool."

"You don't have to be different, I just don't want to have to hurt anyone because they make fun of how cool you are." Vance shrugged his shoulders.

Sarah nodded. "I guess that does make sense. Wouldn't want to ruin a good party with some unnecessary fist throwing."

"See. I knew you'd get it." he wrapped his arm around her shoulders and pulled her closer to kiss the side of her head. "Tonight will be fun. Parties are fun...most of the time."

"Yeah, i've never been to a high school party." Sarah shook her head. "Just school parties and once a work party with Mr.Yamada. And my eclipse parties with Finney, then there was Gwen's birthday at the Drive-In. I also threw Billy a surprise birthday with a bunch of tomatoes I drew smily faces on. But, aside from that, never."

Vance exhaled and hid a smile. "Sounds like you're the life of the party, Sheeps."

"I can't believe this day has actually came." Gwen gushed as Sarah walked into her room with a bag. "I've been waiting for you to get invited to a party."

"Woah, thank you, Gwen." Sarah dropped the bag on the bed. "I was too afraid to get ready at home. My Dad would kill me if he knew I was going to a party. He has to break them up all the time."

"You're lucky Daddy is out, he'd kill you too." Gwen shook her head as she turned around so Sarah could change her clothes. "Are you gonna wear makeup?"

"What do you mean? I always wear makeup." Sarah shrugged her shoulders, pulling the new shirt over her head.

"Not your mascara, actual makeup. Like....eyeshadow and lipstick." Gwen gushed with dazzling eyes toward her wall. "And glitter on your face. Everyone always has glitter on their faces at these things. Can I turn around yet?"

"Yup, you're good." Sarah sat down on her bed as Gwen turned. "Party attire?"

"Very party attire." Gwen nodded her head. "I still like your sweaters more."

"Me too. I feel so weird." Sarah said honestly in her current clothes. "I'm gonna hold one just in case."

"Yeah, just in case." Gwen agreed as she handed Sarah the little mirror and held the tube of mascara for her. "Sarah?"

"Yeah?" she hummed, sitting very still to blink her eyelashes.

"You know I think you're cool with your sweaters and math books, right?" the little Blake gave her a look. "I thought you were cool before you started dating Vance Hopper."

"Thanks, Gwen." Sarah had to smile at her. "I really don't wanna go to this party."

"Then why are you? Just stay here with us. Finney just got a new space book he's been wanting to show you." Gwen shut the mirror with a pleading look. "Bad stuff happens at parties. You could wake up giving birth."

"What about the nine months in between?" Sarah gapped with a dropped jaw.

"I said what I said." she shrugged in return.

"I have to go because I have to at least get one high school party in. For the teenager experience." Sarah crossed her legs with a deep exhale. "Billy and I made a checklist a few weeks before he went missing. Going to a party was one of the things we needed to check off the list."

"What were the other things?" Gwen asked her curiously as Sarah pulled it from her bag. It was written in a glittery red pen.

sarah barns and billy showalters teenage experience check list
1.go swimming with sharks.
2.fall in love.
3.go to saint bellmont.
4.go to a party.
5.graduate high school.
6.jump off a roof.
7.shop lift.
8.get detention.
9.get into a fight.
10.go to a concert.

"I haven't done any of these expect for one." Sarah shook her head. "I only have three years left to get all of this done or he's gonna be so mad at me in the afterlife, or when we find him. I'm gonna die and he's gonna kick my ass or we're gonna find him and the first thing he does is kick my ass."

"What does swimming with sharks have to do with anything?" Gwen gave a frightened look. "I hate sharks."

"Me too, that's why he put it on there." Sarah shook her head. "I gotta get going. You sure I look okay?"

"Like a mom to be." Gwen smiled as Sarah stood up. "Don't come home with a baby on your hip. I'll sale it."

"Got it." Sarah nodded as she pulled her shoes on and made sure her curls looked okay. "I hope you have a really good first day back to school tomorrow, Gwen."

"You too. I'll see you after?" she smiled from her bed.

"You know it." Sarah smiled one more time before she shut her door and headed down the hallway. She stopped at Finneys door to tell him bye but caught sight of him in the living room. "What are you watching?"

He practically jumped out of his skin, dropping his bowl of popcorn and clutching his heart. "Sarah, you....look not like yourself."

"I know." she cringed and held out her arms. "Terrible?"

"No, you look nice." he nodded from the couch. "Are you going on a date?"

"No, a party." she walked over and sat with him with a pleading look. "I don't wanna go."

"Then don't go." he shut the tv off. "Is your boyfriend making you go? Because that's a horrible boyfriend thing to do."

"No, he's not." Sarah exhaled. "My maybe dead best friend is."

"Oh." Finneys eyebrows shot up. "Well, i'm not gonna call Billy a horrible best friend. But, I still don't think you should go. Parties seem scary."

"I know. Like, what am I suppose to do? Drugs? Snort alcohol? Kiss strangers? Skip nine months and pop out a baby?" Sarah listed on in fear, eyes getting wider and wider by the minute.

"What?" Finney gapped at her words.

"I hate being a teenager." Sarah put a hand on her head and fell backwards onto the couch. "Never do it."

"Sarah, i'm already a teenager." he rolled his eyes. He hated when she forgot he was as old as he was.

"I know, but don't be an actual teenager like i'm trying to be." she backstepped her words. "I wish there was an eclipse tonight so i'd have an actual excuse to stay. But, Billy will know, and then i'll have to swim with sharks twice."

Finney was beyond confused but nodded. "We should go to space. No parties and no sharks happen there."

"We should." Sarah nodded her head. "We'd just need a bachelors degree in engineering, biological science, physically science, or mathematics and then we'd be all set."

"Easy." Finney waved her off, making Sarah smile. "Sarah?"

"Yeah?" she hummed.

He shrugged his shoulders and bite on the inside of his mouth. "Do you wanna ring pop?"

"What?" Sarah laughed as Finney stood up. "That's what you wanted to ask?"

"Mhm." he walked to the kitchen. "Is blue okay?"

"Blue is good." Sarah stood up and followed him, having to get going soon. "Did you have one?"

"Yeah, but it was green." he popped it from the wrapper and slid it onto her finger for her. "I hope you like your party. If you want to come by after...i'll be here."

Sarah went to the door. "Finney?"

"Yeah?" he looked over the couch her way.

"Start working on that bachelors degree." she teased him with a little grin. "See ya."

•

kylie speaks

all i'm saying is y'all
better soak up next
chapter.