2000

3...2...1....

...

... oh well, no end of the world... maybe in 3000...

Since the world wasn't ending, Dave had some time spare and decided to pass all his GCSE's and master the Rubik's cube. Then he needed to find something to do with the other 360 days of the year.

Like every other underage teenager, he partied. Unlike the others, however, despite popular belief to the contary, he generally didn't drink much and the dancing had got his weight down to a less life threatening level of between 12 -13 stone.

Having never been drunk, however, Dave felt he might be missing something. And so, once apon a time in the Flute and Firkin, he decided to find out with Macca's help.

Drink, drink, drink. Not much effect. Drink, drink, drink some more. Still naught. He decided to more or less forget it and go dance.

And then it hit him like a ton of bricks.

The rest of the night is hazy, though it involved staggering around, being sick and asking Macca to call his mum while he went to sleep on some steps. Thankfully Macca decided not to leave Dave for dead and instead helped him home.

Dave never really found the appeal in being drunk, nor the later hangover. His returns to that state were few and far between from then on, an average of less than once a year, and brought on only by a genuine miscalculation in amounts of alcohol or temporary depression.

He stuck to dancing.

Towards the end of the year, the start of AS-levels brought with them some new faces to LC, including two pretty girls from Eastern Europe who were an instant attraction in the largely male student population. An Estonian and a Moldovan named Maris and Alina.

Although undoubtably a pretty pair, Dave did not see the appeal of that either. He was put off by the flocks around them, and in particular found it annoying that they distracted Macca.

Still, first impressions don't always hold...