“Join the Party”

CHARLIE:
Those speakers are pulsing and pounding,
the bass is turned up way too high.
The bodies are packed in around me,
there’s nobody I recognize.
There’s a guy and a girl,
they’re on top of each other,
he seems to be eating her face.
Just a typical college party
in this typical college place.

This room’s soaked in sweat; it’s disgusting,
but nobody else seems to mind.
They’re dancing and bumping and thrusting around
But I’m not sure I know how to grind.
I don’t know what to do,
I don’t know where to go,
I’m just waiting for sparks to ignite.
Just a typical college party
on a typical college night.

PARTYGOERS: Come join the party, Charlie!
CHARLIE: I don’t think that I can!
PARTYGOERS: Come join the party, Charlie!
CHARLIE: You just don’t understand!
What if I mess up or do something wrong?
I just don’t know how to be part of the throng.
PARTYGOERS: What the hell’s wrong with you, Charlie? This isn’t what you planned.

CHARLIE:
It’s not like this is my first party.
I have been to parties before.
But that was in high school; we’d all just play games
and then fall asleep on the floor.
There was no pressure then,
I knew everyone there,
and they already knew me as well.
Not like this full-of-strangers party
in this typical college hell.

And I’m not like a total fiasco.
It’s not like I’ve never been kissed.
But each time was just luck, a mysterious fluke
or a random, bewildering twist.
‘Cause I never was suave,
and I never was cool,
just endearingly clumsy, at best.
But now here at this college party,
I’m a typical college mess.

PARTYGOERS: Come join the party, Charlie!
CHARLIE: I don’t think that I can!
PARTYGOERS: Come join the party, Charlie!
CHARLIE: You just don’t understand!
What if I mess up or do something wrong?
I just don’t know how to be part of the throng.
PARTYGOERS: Get it together, Charlie. This isn’t what you planned.
CHARLIE:
In high school I always felt awkward.
In high school I felt out of place.
But I said to myself, “Just wait until college.
where everything old is erased.”

In high school I always felt left out.
In high school I always felt strange.
But I said to myself, “Just wait until college,
‘cause that’s where it’s all gonna change.”

So I got my shit together...
And I got my acceptance letter...
And I came here this September...
But it didn’t make anything better.

PARTYGOERS: Come join the party, Charlie!
CHARLIE: I don’t think that I can!
PARTYGOERS: Come join the party, Charlie!
CHARLIE: You just don’t understand!
What if I mess up or do something wrong?
I just don’t know how to feel like I belong.
PARTYGOERS: Get out of the corner, Charlie. This isn’t what you planned.

Where are you going, Charlie?
You’ve proved our doubts about you.
Get back to the party, Charlie!
We’re all having fun without you.

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