Chapter 55:

"So, what did you think?", Sophie asked, she was curious and would be lying if she said she wasn't a little concerned.

"He is definitely something.", he said with a rueful smile

"What do you mean?"

"He noticed me watching.", he said this with a small laugh at the end

"What? That's not possible, you were on the other side of the glass the whole time."

He shook his head, "I am not sure how he knew either, the room is partitioned perfectly, and the mirror should be inconspicuous enough, but I am sure he saw me."

"How can you be so sure?"

"He told me", he said, this time letting out a loud laugh."

"Come again?"

"Well you see, as the cardgames started, he tapped his fingers on the desk, it was angled in such a way that it could not be seen easily by the others, but I could observe it clearly. He was tapping in morse code, and what he was tapping was crazy."

"What did he tap?"

"Come out and play."

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Ace got his bags from the trunk of the car, and began to unpack all of it in the room he was directed to. They were in a mansion that seemed made out of a dream, it was on the beachfront, and big enough to be a mall. A maid directed him to the room, where he had a shower and changed, preparing to go out for dinner. As of now, in the house, it was him, John, his brother Luke and Sam. His brother's best friend. They were all extremely kind, and seemed cool with John and him being around, but warned them to be careful, they knew what could happen here, and they did not want to take an OD'd teenager to the hospital.

John and Ace both agreed, Ace had no intention to drink or do drugs but he sure as hell wanted to go to one or two parties, he wanted to experience. And plus, he looked old enough that he could even get away with going on his own or having some fun if the mood struck him.

He also thought of the last week of school, Elizabeth had not come, and her helper had moved in as the President of the Rank 1 Homeroom. He had also made contact with Bong and his group of pals, they were all fine, and excited at the prospect of new information. They also told Ace they would scour the net for information on Elizabeth, but to not get his hopes up, she had most likely 'disappeared', and would not be seen or heard from again.

He dressed in a light blue shirt and some white chinos. They were a slightly tighter fit than usual, and had been handpicked by Samantha in one of her shopping sprees, and tailored exactly to match his form, he had gotten more muscle in his legs with made them tighter than intended, and more than Ace would have liked, but his grandmother seemed to love it, so it was the first thing she had made him pack.

His hair had been recently cut, short on the sides and a bit longer and spiky at the top. The look matched the icy cubes he had for eyes, and Ace was now ready. He went downstairs, they were all dressed in a similar way. And when Luke saw Ace he nodded, they got into the car, a luxurious white sports model, and drove to the restaurant.

It was a classy place, with the decor giving it a sailor-y look to it. Ace just hoped the food was good. A waitress spotted Sam and Luke and smiled at them, directing them to a table without asking for their reservations, it seemed they came here often.

They ordered a mix of seafood, it was all spectacular, and Ace promised himself to take his grandmother here sometime. After they finished eating, Luke began to discuss the plan for their week-long holiday. They had come on a Friday night, and Ace would be leaving the following Friday early in the afternoon to go to the convention. This meant that he had one week to enjoy himself surfing and having fun.

"Ok, so, I assume you do not know how to surf?", he looked at Ace, and he nodded, "Ok, so tomorrow we will see how far we can go - ", "Don't worry, I am a quick study.", a large part of surfing was body control, and Ace had that to at, so he would just have to learn about the waves, and of course, the techniques to get on the board.

Luke looked into his eyes, trying to find something, it seemed he did, and he nodded, "Ok, we will see if we can get you up to speed tomorrow, we will surf the whole day, eat on the beach, and at night, we heard that there will be a party so we will be going." Sam nodded with an excited grin on his face. "We are not going to be parents, but I will say this, if you get drunk or high, try to at least do it together, trust me, when the backlash comes, you will want someone with you. If you are going to have sex, use protection, I don't want any accidents on my watch. Also, remember, you are both underage, you", looking at Ace "by quite a bit even if you don't look the part, be careful of what you do, I know you look older than you really are, but don't let it get to your head. And finally, make sure to have fun.", he gave them a grin and downed a shot.

'It is going to be a sick week', Ace thought

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"Holy crap man! How did you get so good so fast, are you sure you never surfed?", Sam shouted at him, his voice making its way to his ears through the crashing sound of waves. Ace was surfing, and keeping up with them. He had spent a large part of the night looking at techniques and as much theoretical knowledge as he could, memorising it all, and forcing his brain to convert it to muscle memory. Once they started surfing, he was quite stiff, but as the hours swept by, he was getting better and better. The other three were stunned with his level at that point, technically, he was cleaner than all of them, the only reason he was not as good was due to his lack of experience, but after a few more days, they shuddered at how good he could be.

Now that it was time for lunch, they all rested, they had been at it since 7 in the morning, they had all gotten up early and on time, something Ace could appreciate. They had ordered food, and had taken showers to wipe as much sand and salt as they could before eating. They all got into clean trunks, and Ace was shattered, but immensely content. They sat down in towels on the beach, eating Chinese take out, and enjoying the amazing view. Now that it was getting to the later stages of the day, more and more people could be seen on the beach, and Ace even spotted a few kegs being rolled for a party that would most likely happen in a matter of hours.

They ate in relative silence, enjoying the atmosphere, but they soon went back at it again. They had been surfing for about three hours when they all convened and decided to make their way home. Ace did not think he would have gotten so tired, but he was absolutely shattered, all he wanted was to rest. As they got home, they all took showers, and changed into comfortable clothes, they had some time to rest before they would have to make their way to their nighttime activities.

Ace used the time to rest while reading, it relaxed him immensely, and while he did not sleep, he felt even more refreshed, his enhanced body paying dividends, a gift that just kept on giving.

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After a few hours of downtime, they reconvened in the kitchen, where Ace picked up an apple and began eating. Sam began with: "Ok boys, the party is supposed to start in about an hour but I and Luke are going to help, you guys can make your way whenever you want, if anyone tries to stop you, just say you are with us. If they ask for IDs just laugh and walk on. Now, Mr Celebrity, I assume people are going to recognise you, this means that you may feel… suffocated at times, if you got a problem, holler and me or Luke will come to save your ass. This is a private party, so no police will come, if for some reason they do come, it's cool, just go inside the house, and the law students we got will make it impossible for the police to leave. If it gets worse, we'll just wave a wad of cash and tell them who we are, they should back off then.", he looked at them to see if they had gotten it, and Ace nodded, grateful for the heads up that he would not need to dash if the cops came. He had already assumed people would recognise him, but honestly, he couldn't care less, it's not like any of them there would take pictures, no one would dare, otherwise, the might of some of the most powerful families in the world would come against them, and it would not be pretty.

Luke had let them know that it was a pretty high-class party, so only people that 'mattered' would be attending, they would value privacy most of all, and Ace would not be surprised if they swiped for electronics before anything. Ace was going to leave his phone in the house anyway, now way would he be giving it to unknown security personnel.

This was a swimming pool party, so everyone was meant to wear swimsuits, Ace just wore some plain black trunks that came up to his knees. He put on a simple black short-sleeved T-Shirt, and went down to wait for John. He was wearing some trunks with an island sundown theme on them, and a sleeveless shirt, that was a blend of oranges, yellows and reds.

They walked to the party, it was a short 10-minute walk, and they could hear it from a block away, EDM and House music were being blasted loud enough to put any club at shame. They could already notice the party goers, and as Ace got there, John let out a breathless "Holy Sh*t"

The house in itself was not big, but the yard was massive, it had a vast pool, where countless people were messing around, Ace saw various jacuzzis were dotted around, where people had gotten an early start to activities that usually took place much later in the night. People were jumping into the pool from various places, a tree, a trampoline, the roof of the house, it was crazy…

There were kegs of beer around the compound and a bar where people were mixing drinks and handing them out to anyone that dared to try them. The DJ was up on a stage to one side, massive speakers to his sides Just with one look, Ace noticed at least three drug deals going on, and a crowd of people were sharing a bong like it was a bag of sweets.

Suddenly, Ace understood a lot of things. It made sense that it was the rich kids that usually ruined their lives in this way, they had all the money they would ever need, no motivation to try at anything. And well, if after a bad day, you were invited to one of these parties… Let's just say it made sense why so many people got hooked on drugs. As they got near the entrance, a guard stopped them, and they just said they were with Luke and Sam, not bothering to show their IDs. As they came in, a few people looked at them, some staring at Ace with interest, but he continued on, moving to the bar and asking for a Coke. The guy asked if he wanted rum with it, but Ace just replied that he was just thirsty, and wanted something quick. The guy ruefully smiled and handed him a coke, it was in a decorated glass, and he had added a slice of lemon to the cold coke, it was heavenly.

Ace turned around and swept his way, observing anyone and everyone, he noticed that John was already embroiled in conversation with a group of people, and Ace considered jumping to the pool in order to get his blood pumping.

He decided what the hell, and used his parkour skills to make his way to the roof of the house. He had no interest in going inside, who knows what he would find, probably a coke-fueled orgy in the living room, and some people eating calmly in the kitchen. Suddenly, Ace was not sure that the parties in the con could top this [A/N: Oh he has no idea…], as he made his way to the roof, people noticed a new jumper was coming in, people usually began with the trampoline and made his way to higher and higher jumping zones, but Ace went directly to the tallest one.

The pool was deep enough in this part that you could jump in any way, and your feet would get nowhere near the floor. Because of this, Ace decided he would do his first jump as a double backflip, then landing feet first. He had been practising flip in his P.E. lessons, and could now do crazy stuff both on a trampoline and on the floor. Therefore, a jump with so much air time would be perfect.

As people noticed he was going to jump, they began to chant it: "Jump! Jump! Jump!", a booze and drug-fueled chant that caused Ace's hair to spike and goosebumps to appear. He knew how adrenaline junkies could get addicted to this, it was intoxicating. Feeling his heart pound, Ace smiled, took a deep breath and jumped. The cheers grew wild, but Ace saw and heard nothing. He was living the moment, that blissful space in time where you feel you can do anything, he flipped once, twice and then a third time before landing, Ace saw nothing.

But the crowd saw it, they saw how a good looking young man leapt, how he did three consequent backflips in the air, and how he landed perfectly in the water. They saw it, and let him know. The cheers were deafening, the people were going wild, and the DJ had synched the music to the jump, which meant that when Ace landed and the adrenaline was at its peak, the beat dropped.

People began going crazy, it almost looked like a mosh pit in some areas, albeit much lighter, and more drunken swinging of the arms, and less coordinated circling.

Ace stayed in the deep end of the pool as much as he could. His brain raced and his blood was galloping through his system, for the first time since the Event, he felt truly alive, and that scared him. He steeled his mind under the surface of the water, he would have to sort through his thoughts later, but for now, it was time to enjoy the party, and enjoy he did...