Shannon

This was going to go one of two ways.

I decided to save the other for a later date...


Shannon and Amanda were having a blast. They went around greeting people from the planning committee and meeting other people they'd never even met or heard of before.

A couple of boys, who were friends with Damien, were particularly charmed by Shannon and Amanda. They followed them around the house fetching them drinks and snacks. At some point one of the boys turned on some music and everyone started dancing.

"I'm going to go find Eddie!" Shannon shouted over the noise to Amanda. Amanda just nodded, gave the thumbs up, and kept dancing.

It wasn't hard to find Eddie at all. As Shannon left the kitchen she found a well lit sitting room where Eddie and Ben were both studying. She snickered to herself, the two biggest dorks she knew were studying away together.

"Hey, Eddie! I told you I'd only be a little bit." She said as she skipped over to the study table.

"Well I'm surprised. I almost thought you weren't going to study." Eddie said not looking up from his book. Shannon punched him in the shoulder.

"Hi, Ben! Hows the studying going?" Shannon asked.

"I don't need to study. I'm ready for exams. I only did this to help Beth." Ben complained.

"Don't get him started." Eddie hissed at Shannon. But it was too late, Ben had launched into a tirade.

"She's the one who needs help with her studies. If it wasn't for the dumb Damien showing up we might actually be covering something important. Why does he always have to ruin everything? Why can't he just leave us alone?" Ben lamented.

"Hey, why don't I grab us some drinks for while we study." Shannon tried to rein in the drama "Ben, want a root beer?" she asked.

"No. They're all spiked." Ben stated plainly. "Why do you think all the labels were ripped off?"

Shannon's eyes went wide as she ran back into the kitchen. Eddie followed her quickly. They found Amanda chugging another bottle of ripped label root beer.

"Hey!" She cried as she threw her arms around Shannon. "My bestest buddies!"

"How many did she have?" Eddie asked.

"She'd have to have had a lot." Came Ben's voice from behind them. "There's very little alcohol in each bottle so it keeps its taste of root beer."

"Amanda, how many root beers have you had?" Shannon asked trying to keep eye contact with her.

"A lot!" She said smiling. "I don't know what it is, but I just feel a bit, lighter, ya' know?"

"Amanda, the root beer's been spiked." Eddie informed her.

"There's vodka in it." Ben added.

Amanda just stopped and blinked. "Does that mean I'm drunk?"

"At least, tipsy." Ben said. "She should be fine if she sits down for a while." Ben walked away leaving Shannon and Eddie to deal with the situation.

"Shannon!" Amanda grabbed Shannon hard on the shoulders and stared her in the eye. "I can't be drunk! If I come home drunk my parents will kill me!" Her eyes darted around unable to focus. "You can't let that happen to me!"

"Relax. Ben said if you sit down for a while everything should be ok." Shannon said as she removed Amanda's death grip from her shoulders. "Just come sit in the study room with me and Eddie, ok?"

"Eddie!" Amanda had shifted focus to Eddie now. "Don't let that happen to me." she grabbed him and clung to him. Eddie rolled his eyes and just stroked her hair gently.

"I won't let that happen to you. Just come sit down in the other room."

"You always take care of everything." Amanda murmured into his shirt.

"Come on, lets find someplace to keep her out of harms way." Eddie said leading Amanda out of the kitchen.

For the rest of the night Amanda sat completely still on a chair in the study. They had decided to continue their studies away from Ben who wouldn't stop ranting about Damien. At eight when they gathered their things Amanda had calmed down enough and felt normal again. They waited at the end of the driveway for Fredrick to pull up.

"So, how was your study session?" Fredrick asked.

"Get a lot done?" Meredith added.

"Um, not really?" Shannon admitted. "I think we'll be doing some more studying when we get back home." she added.

Eddie helped Amanda into the car and turned to Shannon. "What are we going to tell them about Amanda?"

"Nothing." Shannon said.