Sketchmobile: Excerpt from the Chapter – Dakota Daniels

During high school we almost always partied at my grandmother’s house. I liked it because I didn’t have to go anywhere, and everyone else liked that it was a safe spot to let loose. 

There were a handful of parties that we were a part of that were not held on my land. One of my personal favorites was when Dakota and Brenden threw down at their house when their mom had gone out of town.

There was a basketball game that night. Everyone would be out and about. We had already gone on our beer run before the game, and Brenden had set up the house for the party.

While we attended the game a storm had set in. The storm had gotten so bad that at one point the gym lost power. Everyone decided to leave at that point. We needed to go to my house in town to get the beer.

At the time I was driving a hand me down van that my mom had left at my grandmothers. This van had seen some shit. It was aptly named “The Sketchmobile”. The license plate said 420 LYF. The breaks were basically gone. The tires were bald. The front door was held closed by a bungee cord. Worst of all, considering our current situation, the windshield wipers didn’t work.

Dakota, Dean, our friend Stephen and I piled into the sketchmobile. The rain was coming down crazy hard. The street lights were out, so it was really dark. We had figured out a way for Dakota to use the wipers from the passenger seat with a rope, but it was not very effective.

As we got to the end of the road to the school I was over it. I stuck my head out into the rain to be able to see where I was going. The entire time, Stephen is screaming bloody murder in the backseat. I, with my head out the window in the pouring rain trying to drive, can’t stand it anymore. 

I pull into the car wash at the intersection and turn on Stephen. I’m stressed, wet and angry at this point. I let the poor guy have it. I basically tell him if he wants to get out and walk his happy ass home he can, but if he’s going to stay in the car he’s going to keep his mouth shut. There was some more colorful language and more threats in there, but I think you get the idea.

The rain had actually slacked off a tad while I tore into Stephen, so I was able to make do with just Dakota moving the windshield wipers. We made the rest of the drive to my house in silence. We grabbed the beer and headed out.

When we arrived at Dakota’s house the party was already on. Brenden had brought some of his friends. We had our car load and our friend Keelan and his girlfriend.

There was a door set across a small table to play beer pong on. We played a whole ass tournament on that table. We got crazy drunk that night. We had already played quite a few and had quite a few when I destroyed the table.

I was on a team with a random guy someone had brought to the party. All my friends had talked my skills up for me, so I was prepared to show out. I was hammered drunk, but we came out ahead by a good margin.

In beer pong, when an opponent bounces towards your cups you are allowed to swat the ball from the air. If the bounce goes in, it is worth two cups. I was very good at seeing bounces coming. Apparently, my depth perception was a little off at the time.

The other team bounced towards our cups. I, thinking I was invincible at this point, swatted the shit out of the ball. My hand went through the ball and into the table. The table, being just a door balanced on a smaller table, fell and spilled all of the cups onto the floor. Where I come from, that’s a party foul. You lose automatically.

The table was on the ground. Everyone was dying laughing. I was drunk, but I had just been winning the game. My teammate turned to me and said, “Way to go bro. Thought you were good.” and walked away.

We all just started drinking more at this point. Keelan’s girlfriend ended up starting a ruckus. She’s a lightweight, and she likes to scream when she’s drunk. They were asked to leave at some point. 

I ended up passing out on a couch. In the morning we all woke up extremely hungover, but we made sure the house was clean for when their mom came back.