Chain Reaction, Part 1

    This is a little story I was working on before I even got on the internet.
I hope you like it!!! I must warn you there is some strong language in the
story so if that offends you, read no further. I would enjoy feedback from
anyone.



    CHAIN REACTION


    Part 1: The Party


    School was almost out. Lisa Everson was happy and sad at the same time.
She would miss the popularity she had gained this year. She had moved here
four months ago and was already very popular and dating the Quarterback for
the school team. She hoped that her popularity would not go away over the
summer.


    She had been an average girl at her other school and had vowed to become a
popular girl when she moved to her new school. She was quickly befriended by a
popular girl named Sara Parker. They began to hang out a lot soon after she
moved. She went to parties and was accepted into the popular group of people
rather quickly.


    Today was the first day of her exams and she studied her ass off for every
one of them. She was very nervous about them because she had failed her exams
last year from lack of studying. Sara and Lisa studied all night for two weeks
for the exams when a girl named Trisha Robertson invited them to a party on
the Friday they got out of school. They quickly accepted and began to help
Trisha with the preparations.


    It was the Wednesday before the party and they were all at school waiting
around after school for their grades on their exams they had taken so far.


    "Oh god I know I failed my Algebra II exam," Sara said slowing her pace as
she reached her locker. "That thing was as hard as shit!"


    "I know," Lisa answered her friend opening her own locker. "But I feel
like I studied good enough; I hope."


    They walked up to the door of their classroom where the grades had been
freshly posted by their teacher.


    Sara covered her eyes. "Well?" she asked still scared to look.


    Lisa let out a short shriek. " I got a 91! I got a 91!" she exclaimed
jumping up and down with excitement.


    Sara ran her finger along the paper searching for her name and let out a
shriek of her own. " I got an 88! I can't believe it!" Just then Trisha rushed
down the hall towards her friends.


    "What did I get?" she asked excitedly. "Hurry tell me!"


    "Ummmm..." Lisa said looking for Trisha's name. " You beat both of us! A
95!" She grinned widely as her friend also shrieked with surprise. All of them
were happy with their scores and all of their party attendances depended on
the scores of their exams.


    They all walked down the hall chatting about the exams and the party and
boys. They decided to go on over to Trisha's house and get the preparations
for the party. They set up the tables some chairs and put up some streamers.
They had called a D.J. for the party so they set up a larger table for the
stereo and all the CD's he was bringing with him. Finally they were done but
they still needed some food and were setting that up Friday.

    They sat there and sipped on the Cokes that Trisha had brought them
earlier. "Hey why don't we grab some burgers for dinner," Sara asked becoming
bored.


    Lisa took one last sip of her Coke and stood up stretching her long legs.
She pushed her long blonde hair out of her face and walked over to the trash
can and tossed her empty Coke can into the garbage can. "Sure let's go," she
said grabbing her car keys. They always liked to go in her car whenever they
went somewhere. She owned a Convertible because she had been saving up since
she was 7 and her parents matched the 9,288 she had some how saved up. She had
always been good with money. When she was 13 she invested in some stock and
cashed in for 4,000 dollars doubling the amount already in her possession. She
now only had about 300 dollars in her account at the bank from her recent
purchase and had gotten a job at the local mall as a sales associate at
Parisians. It wasn't a new convertible, rather it was four years old but her
dad rewarded her good money management by getting it a glossy new paint job
for the fading car. They all piled in a headed for the local Burger Joint and
got some burgers and brought them back to Trisha's house and settled in for a
little party.


    They got a couple of beers as their ritual was after every meal at
Trisha's they would have a beer because her parents didn't mind it all that
much. As they finished their beers they sat in silence until about 9:00PM and
Lisa announced that she should be going. Sara complied and they both left for
home.

____________________________________________________________________________


    It was Friday night and Trisha's house was packed to the rim full of High
Schoolers. From Freshmen to Seniors there was about eighty kids in the large
playroom in Trisha's house. Trisha only invited about fifteen people knowing
word would spread to the other party members filling the room to capacity.
They had refused entrance to some people because they no longer had room for
new party members.


    Lisa, her boyfriend Darryk, Sara, Trisha, and her boyfriend Todd hung out
together mostly at the party while other people came up to them and chatted a
while before roaming off from them to another group. They sat and talked an
had a significant amount of beer, Sara overindulging herself slightly, as
Trisha and Lisa cuddled with their boyfriends until Darryk and Todd excused
themselves from the party due to curfews.


    There were still quite a few party members left in the large room. The
punch had been spiked four times over so that anyone taking a drink consumed
three bottles of rum and a good proportion of tequila. Lisa, just trying to be
in the in crowd naturally took a cup and drank it feeling the effects of the
stronger alcohol. She decided that was the last drink of punch that she would
have and promptly threw up after hurrying into the bathroom. She noticed the
stench of throw up already in the bathroom, relieved in knowing she wasn't the
only one her with a weak stomach.


    She returned to her friends rather embarrassed. "I can't believe I did
that." she said rubbing her eyes. She glanced at her watch. No wonder I am
tired, she thought to herself. It's 1:30.


    "Don't worry hon," Sara said encouragingly. "I saw a couple of guys
rushing over there earlier too."


    "Yes I know," she commented. "I smelled them in there," she said drawing
laughter from her friends.


    "So did you two have fun?" Trisha asked trying to stir up conversation as
she munched on some chips glancing around the room at the remaining party
members. She guessed there were about thirty left there still dancing and
talking, a few brave individuals taking a dip of the punch and sputtering at
the strength of the juice.


    Lisa answered the question cheerfully. "Yeah I sure did. Except for the
punch," she commented offhandedly again drawing laughter from her friends. She
noticed a pungent odor as she realized that there was a group of about fifteen
girls over by the punch smoking cigarettes and realized that the room was
filled with the haze of cigarette smoke.


    "Hey have you two noticed how smoky it is in here?" she asked quietly.


    "As a matter of fact, yes," Sara answered glancing over at the group of
girls smoking.


    "What's the big deal?" Trisha asked her friends. "It's a party. They're
supposed to have fun and if smoking is their idea of fun then so be it.
Besides are we going to go tell Racheal Helmsly and Terry Bonnard to stop
smoking? We would be laughed out of popularity forever!"


    Lisa thought about it and realized that Trisha was right. She wasn't about
to give up her popularity just so she wouldn't have to smell a little smoke.
"Well when you put it that way I guess you're right" she admitted to Trisha.


    They sat and talked for another hour and the smoke thickened to where
every breath held the scent of cigarette smoke. After a while the moment that
Lisa hoped would never come came.


    Racheal Helmsly and Terry Bonnard, the two most popular girls in school
walked up to them, each smoking a cigarette. Racheal was a tall girl with long
blonde hair and a quick wit, a little snobby but she was incredibly nice to
her friends. Terry was shorter with shoulder length black hair and a great
sense of humor. They walked up to the group of friends and sat down.


    "Hi Lisa, Sara, Trish," Racheal said cheerily to the girls she rarely saw
at school.


    "Hi," Trisha answered in a friendly voice. "Are you enjoying yourselves?"
she asked.


    "Oh yes Trish," Terry answered taking a quick drag on her cigarette
inhaling it audibly. "We're having a great time," she said smoke accentuating
her words.


    "I noticed you rushing to the bathroom earlier Lisa. Are you alright?"
Racheal inquired taking a long drag on her cigarette and inhaling a ball of
smoke appearing on her tongue.


    Lisa blushed noticeably. "I kinda thought I could take a cup of punch and
it kinda overwhelmed me," she said fearing the "I'm better than you" laugh
notorious of Racheal Helmsly.


    Instead Racheal smiled knowingly. "Yes I know it gave me a hack attack
myself," she said taking a final puff on her cigarette and crushing it out in
a plastic ashtray. Lisa wondered where that ashtray had come from and figured
she had brought it herself. She exhaled a long plume of blue-gray smoke
towards the ceiling as Terry crushed out her own cigarette exhaling her own
cloud of smoke.


    "Hey Lisa, you still dating Darryk?" Terry asked smoke still escaping her
nose and mouth.


    Lisa nodded her head. "Yeah but he had to go home," Lisa answered. Terry
looked up at her inquisitively and Lisa put in "Curfew." Terry nodded smiling.



    "Too bad for him," Terry said. They chatted a while longer about boys and
school and summer plans. Lisa was really enjoying their company and Terry was
a great person to be around, always quick to joke about something and always
drawing laughter from the other girls.


    About then Racheal reached for her pack of VS 120's and lit up another
cigarette. Terry followed suit and lit up her B&H Menthol. She looked up and
noticed Trisha watching her intently. "You girls ever smoked before?" she
asked exhaling a cloud of smoke.


    "No," Trisha answered simply. Sara and Lisa simply shook their heads no.


    "Well, then would you like to try?" she asked holding out a long white
unlit cigarette. Mesmerized Trisha surprised her friends by taking it from
Terry. "Good now do you know how to smoke," she asked Trisha.


    "Not really," Trisha answered.


    "Well, first of all just take a little drag but don't inhale it just yet.
You need to get used to the taste.," she said lighting the white cigarette
hanging from Trisha's lips. Trisha applied some suction and removed the
cigarette from her lips and blew out the smoke immediately. " That tastes
bitter," she said. "You have to get used to the taste," she said taking a drag
of her own and inhaling it deeply. "Take another drag." Trisha took another
drag obediently and felt the cool taste of mentholated smoke enter her mouth
again. This time it was not as bad and she exhaled it into the air. "It does
taste better," she said taking another drag and blowing it out immediately.
"Now comes the good part," Terry said. "I am going to warn you when you inhale
for the first time it will make you want to cough so don't fight it. But I
promise you it gets better. Now take a drag and at the same time exhale
through your nose. This creates a vacuum. Then instead of blowing it out
breathe in a little." Trisha complied with Terry's instructions and took a
small puff. Now instead of blowing it out she inhaled it a little and suddenly
started coughing. She recovered and started to feel dizzy but she wanted to
impress Terry so bad she took another drag and inhaled it. Surprisingly, she
did not cough but instead exhaled a plume of smoke through her mouth. "Wow! I
did it," she exclaimed taking another longer hit on the cigarette and once
again inhaled it. She giggled as a thicker cloud of smoke exited her mouth.
She began to feel a little light headed so she put out the cigarette and sat
there examining the physical sensations she was feeling.


    All through this Lisa and Sara stared at Trisha astonished by their friend
smoking. They were snapped back into reality by Terry. "Well," she said taking
two cigarettes out of her pack and offering them to the other two girls. "You
want to try?"


    Suddenly Lisa was overcome with a sense of intense curiosity. She followed
Sara's example by taking the cigarette and allowing Terry to light them for
the two girls. An unpleasant taste flooded Lisa's mouth but she kept on
drawing smoke from the cigarette and then took it from her mouth determined to
do the popular thing and inhaled deeply. She broke out into a hacking cough as
smoke poured from her mouth and nose. She became dizzy as her body was not
used to the huge amount of nicotine that had just entered her bloodstream.
Terry laughed and said "you're supposed to get used to the tasted before you
inhale. Especially not that much." Lisa noticed that Sara had not inhaled yet
and waited until her friend had inhaled her short puff and was frustrated to
see she did not cough." Good girl Sara," Terry said. "You're a natural."
Determined not to be left out Lisa took a smaller puff this time and still
quite dizzy from that first puff inhaled the smoke. Her body saw this a much
more tolerable amount and accepted it without an urge to cough and Lisa was
pleased as a small plume of smoke appeared from her mouth. A little light
headed she set the cigarette down and enjoyed the sensations taking place in
her body. She took one last puff, almost as large as the first drag and
inhaled it. She felt a catch in her throat but she repressed the urge to cough
and exhaled a large cloud of smoke before she crushed out her cigarette.


    "Congratulations girls," Racheal piped up. "You have officially smoked
your first cigarettes." Lisa felt proud of herself and knew she wanted to do
that again. Her chance came soon after that when Terry and Racheal lit up
again.


    "Umm... Racheal," Lisa asked timidly.


    "Yes," Racheal answered. "Would you mind if I tried one of yours?" Lisa
asked pointing to the pack of Virginia Slims 120's next to Racheal's arm. "Why
sure. Here you are," she said handing her a cigarette and her lighter. Lisa
noted that these were much longer than Terry's. She lit the cigarette and
tasted a different taste than the ones she had earlier. She inhaled a large
puff and exhaled a large plume of smoke. "Well?" Racheal asked taking a drag
of her own and inhaling it deeply. Lisa took another drag tasting the
unmentholated smoke. "I like the way Terry's taste but I like the length of
these." "Well," Racheal said. "You can get these in menthol too you know. and
there are always Capris and Mistys. They both have 120's like these Virginia
Slims." Lisa pondered this and decided to buy her own pack of some 120's
menthols as soon as she could.


    The party died at about 3:30 and Lisa drove home and entered her house
quietly. She walked quietly to her bedroom and slipped into her bed and
thought about tonights events. She decided she was definitely going to smoke
from now on but she would not tell her parents just yet. She fell asleep and
dreamed about smoking all night long.


    End Of Part One

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