[txt: Emily] Hey Emily. It's John-Paul. JP. I got your number from Duck.

"And then the whole fucking system crashed. The POS guys said they can't get here until Monday morning." Her irritation was clear in her voice as she lowered herself into her desk chair, the ash off the joint between her fingers flying off and disappearing somewhere, unnoticed or cared about.

"Oh, thank the hair on a grizzly's ear, I am so happy you're here." Birch all but trotted to the door of her classroom to meet the pretty young woman who had come to be her superhero. "I swear, this contraption hates me with some sorta vengeance." And the look she gave her computer made it clear that she truly believed that. "I swear, I click the mouse and it just decides'ta close on me. No matter what I do, I cannot get it'ta connect'ta the smart projector."

In the days leading up to New Year’s Eve, Nathan had heard about this house party from a friend, who heard about it from a friend of a friend, and on and on it went. It was on the outskirts of town, meant to be lowkey, just a few friends hanging out, but when they got there, the street was packed with cars, music boomed from the house, and a crowd was visible through the windows. It looked like word about the party had reached more people than just Nathan.

He weaved his way through the crowd to get back into the house after abandoning his pursuit of the pretty redhead with the loud laugh he’d spent the past hour chatting up. She had tried to drag him into the pool, but Nathan wasn’t about to swim in sequins nor was he taking his pants off in this random house. He was looking for sparkly clothes to identify Emily, but in the time that they had been here, more people had already filtered in from the community center, so that was no longer an option. It was a relief though, because at least now they weren’t the only ones sparkly and overdressed.

It took him a minute to spot Emily in the kitchen, fetching herself a drink. His grin was bright and playful as he walked up to her. “Hey, twin!” he greeted, still calling her that even after his jacket was long gone. He had taken it off somewhere and lost track of it and feared it was lost forever. “So, things with the redhead aren’t going to work out. Bianca,” he informed further, giving a name to the face. Emily had given him a thumbs up when she spotted them together earlier, so he figured he should give her an update. “Lost her to the pool. How’s it going with Freckles?”

Too much was happening in this town lately. To much that was too personal, too history laden to not carry weight across so many. This town, for all it's small stature, was large in drama and just when things had been starting to get quiet, she'd found herself looking over a broiling, angry, ocean. When it rained, oh did it pour, it seemed.