Chapter 56:

Ace woke up in a random bed, his instincts warning him of the potential danger in an unknown space. Then, memories from the night before stormed his barely woken mind, and he turned around, confirming his doubts. Another figure was in the bed with him, from his angle, he could only see a head full of long, brown hair. He got up from the bed, his first instinct was to run, but that would not be exactly nice. Instead, he meandered around the house, it was big, and when he finally made it to the kitchen, a butler was ready to serve him breakfast.

"Uhh, good morning?"

"Good morning Sir", the butler replied, on his face a light grin

"Do you know what happened yesterday?"

"Well as I remember, you had your chauffeur drive the young miss home, here, but she then invited you in, you accepted, and here we are."

"How old is the young miss exactly?"

"17 sir"

Ace let out a sigh of relief, at least no problems would come if his age came to the conversation. As he relaxed, he began to remember things from the night before, he had not drunk or taken any drugs, so as he relaxed, he could remember the events. His perfect memory was helpful once in a while.

He had driven her home when he found her crying on a chair, she was sad about something, but he had never found out why, probably a cheating boyfriend. As they got to the house, she invited him in, and things ended up happening. Ace wondered how she would feel if she knew that she had taken a poor 14-year old's virginity, Ace laughed internally. He remembered the deed, it had been pretty awkward at first, with all the not knowing sh*t about each other, but as they got more into it, awkwardness turned into something else.

Ace wondered whether she would remember anything that happened, after all, the chances of her being on something were high, considering the fact that she was in a party full of things that would get rid of negative emotions, but Ace was not sure. He probably should call the house just to let the others know where he was, even if the chauffeur had already done that.

"Excuse me? May I use a phone?"

"Of course", he then pointed to where a landline was located.

Ace made his way there and then called, he waited for about 5 rings, then a tired voice answered, "Yes?"

"Hey it's Ace"

"Son of a-, why are you calling at 7 in the morning? Unlike you, by the time I got home, I was drunk and stoned of my mind, and now, it's killing me. Maybe takes raincheck for the surf? I am pretty sure the others are just as bad as me, by the time I left, John was still going strong, doing shots with a group of people, and Sam was doing drunk surf with some girls. Let's just reconvene for lunch."

"Ok Luke, enjoy your sleep."

Ace went back to a chair and sat down, he had finished his breakfast, but he was a bit hungry, "May I have some fruit? Whatever you think is best."

"Of course", he came back a few minutes later with a bowl of grenadine and pineapple, a spoon inside the bowl already.

Ace ate calmly, thinking over last night's events, it was the first time he had just enjoyed himself without having to worry about anyone watching. He understood why people ended up going to those parties, it was a true release for many, a way of just having fun, taking away all the backstabbing and politics of their respective camps of interest.

Ace had jumped off the roof many times, yet he remembered every single one. Nevertheless, to the contrary of pretty much everyone else, he had not had a single drink, the offers of expensive cocktails or cold beer not affecting him in the slightest. He had a strong belief in controlling himself, and even if he let loose yesterday, what he saw simply made his belief stronger, people puking out of their minds or giving away company secrets like they were merely rumours. Luckily, it was all controlled, and no one could get in if he was not wanted. Technology was banned so no recorders either. However, it was the action that mattered.

His grandmother was with him in that one, she was fine with him doing as he wanted, but they both knew that it would end badly if Ace got drunk and said something he was not meant to.

Ace finished his bowl, stood up and asked for a piece of paper and a pen, he wrote down a couple of digits and handed them to the butler, "My number, just in case she wants to know what happened yesterday."

The butler seemed surprised at this, used to boys just coming and going as they wished. And yet, here was one, much better looking than any other, that treated him as a person for once, both him and his employer, not simply walking out the first chance they had.

"Yes sir, do not worry about that, If she needs anything, she will call. May I know your name?"

"Ace"

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Ace stood up on the board, weaving his way to one side of the wave and then the other. He was surfing alone, but it was fine, it was deeply relaxing, and he seriously needed some peace and quiet now. He still had to go over the events of last night, he had used protection, so that was not an issue. He just wondered whether the others were ok. He had gone to the house, and all he found was Luke in his king-sized bed with a girl wrapped around him. Neither Sam nor John were anywhere to be found. He was most likely worrying about nothing, yet he could not help to do so. In the hours they had been together, they had been some of the first true friends Ace had made. They were kind, and they were caring enough to warn him about what he should and should not do.

Ace paddled back to shore, laid down on his board. He then picked it up, and walked into the house. It was right in front of the beach, so he did not have to wear even shoes. He took a shower, then took out his laptop, intent on finishing any work that had been set. He had some questions to complete for the Knowledge Tournament and some Puzzles to do as well, he finished it all in 15 minutes. He then did all his classwork, helped any student that had emailed him for any, and then logged into some forums, to see what the happenings were around the world.

As a general rule, nothing too interesting was happening, a member of an embassy got absolutely wasted yesterday, and he crashed his car, which was of course quickly covered up, but that was just the daily. He then logged into some R6 forums, people were hyped about the new update, some leaks had already come out, and Ace had even seen the new map and the new operators, someone had data mined the whole thing, and posted it on the internet, it was quickly taken down. But there were already more than a few protected links in the more underground forums.

They seemed interesting, the attacker especially, he offered a new way to play, since not only would he have a way to quickly break through walls, but it could also act as a powerful shotgun, which meant that he would be strong at all quarters.

Ace was taken by the train of hype, he was looking forward to the convention, as well as meeting fellow streamers. Some of which he was most definitely a fan of.

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It was almost time to eat, when John walked in through the door, he said hi to Ace, but waved half a metre to the right, so he was probably not yet over the backlash of whatever he had taken. Ace made him take a shower, and then, John went to bed, after Ace had given him some sleeping pills. He apparently had a 'killer headache', and that was the reason as to why he had woken up and come home at all.

Luke's partner for the night also left, seemingly with the same headache John seemed to have. Ace laughed, he wondered why it had been so quiet on the beach and on the streets but it made sense, until later in the day, almost at night time, people would not wake up from slumber, they would then go party again, and the cycle would repeat until the week was over.

Luke slept for about thirty more minutes before he came out, he was already groomed and showered, and after taking some pain killers and headache relievers, he looked like a new man. He said hi to Ace, teasing him for having finally 'become a man', to which Ace only responded, that if he had just become a man, Luke must be on the verge of dying from old age. Luke laughed at that, but quickly stopped, 'Probably his headache acting up again.'

It was a relaxed afternoon, and Sam finally came home, he was dressed and showered, and he looked a lot better than Luke did. "Man, that party was wild."

"Wilder than any other that ever happened here that's for sure.". Luke nodded, wincing as he did.

Sam then looked at Ace and smiled, "And you man, what the hell was that? You jumped like fifteen times, and every single one was a crazy stunt. You know, you made us both gain some mad props for bringing you to the party. Most of the time that someone jumps, they do maybe a half-assed flip before landing back-first, and then no one tries again, but yesterday, you were going strong for the whole time. You know, the host asked me if she could record you doing some flips to the pool, just so that she could post it on her socials. They are having another party today, and honestly, it looks like it might get even wilder.

Ace thought about it, he did not really want to be known as a crazy party-goer but oh well, it would be good fun. Cool, I'll let her record, but she had to give all four of us full admission to any other 'event' she hosts, for life.

Sam grinned and whooped, then got his phone from his room and made a call, "Hey! Elene, yeah he'll do it, but you have to give us full admission to events and post his tag was the jumper of course!" Sam seemed more than a little bit excited, but it was all trumped when Ace heard a loud "Yesss!!!" on the phone. Sam almost dropped it from the pain, and Luke groaned.

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They got there a bit earlier than it started. They were let in instantly and a girl was waiting for them, she had black hair, with dyed blond highlights, the contrast was pretty weird, but she was pretty enough to make it work.

"Hey! How are you guys doing?", she grinned and gave them all hugs and kisses on the cheek.

"Ok, so here is the deal, once the party begins, give it about thirty minuted to ramp up, then, you climb to the roof and do your craziest and coolest jump. The crowd will probably go wild, and I have already warned them that I will record that jump, they are all cool with it, as long as nothing else is recorded, which it, of course, won't.", she went to the bar, "Hey! You guys want a drink?" Ace asked for a coke but the others asked for various cocktails, which she mixed and then set on the bar. They sat down and enjoyed themselves talking, Elene was interesting enough, she was an orphan, but her parents had left her enough money to live like a princess for a hundred lifetimes, and then not even make a dent in the fortune.

She spent her time hosting parties and having fun, she was 18, and said she would be going to a university next year, she was taking a year to just have fun. She could simply buy her degree, but she wanted to experience school life, aka: partying her brains out.

For all her wildness, however, she was kind enough and seemed even pretty smart, she was planning on studying marketing, even if she would not do anything with her degree. She had good enough grades to get into an Ivy League without having to pay any extra money, so she must be pretty hardworking.

As people trickled in, they came to say hi to Ace, apparently remembering last night's events somewhat. Then, after some time passed, Ace took his usual route jumping from window to window and getting to the roof, preparing for his jump.

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"Well, that was a crazy week, but thank you for having me.", Ace smiled and hugged every single one of them. Then, he hugged Elene and she pulled him in for a deep kiss. The night of the jump, things happened and it ended in a repeat of the second night's events. They had then consistently been together for the function of the week. She knew about who he was, which meant she knew his age, but she did not care, and Ace had no plans to press charges. This week had definitely caused him to mature. He had finally seen a bit of his world, the world outside of work and games, and while he did not like it as much, he could not say it was bad.

Now, it was time for him to make his way to the convention. He was looking forward to it, the fact that he could not go to parties not even a problem, he had had enough of those for a while. On Wednesday, Elene had hosted the biggest party yet, 24 hours straight of debauchery and degeneracy, it had been pretty fun, but he had barely got any sleep, for once thing and another. It was pretty cool, but Ace was now pretty saturated, he also knew, that at this point, not many parties would be as much fun. Elene was a great party planner, hell she had managed to make each party better than the next, ensuring that no one got bored, even after four nights of partying, she still pulled off an awesome party, one that lasted 24 hours. For Ace, none of them made his blood rush as much as the first one, but that was more because of the jumps than anything else.

For the last party, however, Elene had set up another platform, one even higher than the roof. Jumping from there would be dangerous, and the fact that Ace knew that only made each jump even more blissful. Some people had tried the roof, but no one had even attempted the platform, and as a general consensus from party-goers, a graffiti artist had done a massive spray of his name on the massive platform, and another piece on the pole one climbed up from. Elene had declared it was his platform, and anyone that went for the jump from it would know that.

Ace finally got on the car, it had been an eventful weekend for many reasons, but Ace was ready for some of the normality the con would offer, or so he thought...