Opportunity knocks, but it asks for $9 for a movie ticket; another $10 if you want to toss in popcorn, sodas and maybe some kaki mochi. Your older friends are heading to the clubs. Your younger friends are doing the high school scene.

You?

It's 10:30 on a Friday night and if you're Patrick Guild, 19, you're cooking up a cheese quesadilla with girlfriend Wendy Chu. An inexpensive but nice evening.

Last year, when Guild returned from the Mainland for spring break, he improvised a romantic date with Chu, at Kahala Beach Park. They picked up some Zippy's chili and trucked over to the spot on the beach where his parents were married years earlier. After watching the sun slide into the ocean, the young couple returned to Guild's 1990 white Subaru Legacy a few hourse later — and found the cheap night out came with a $45 price tag. They were ticketed for parking in the beach lot after 10 p.m.

"It's very frustrating," said Melanie Guild, Patrick's mother. "The kids can't even go to the beach. What are they supposed to do, then? What kind of night life do they have there?"

Guild's question isn't new. As long as couples have parked up on Tantalus — maybe even longer — young adults ages 18 to 21 have struggled to find something fun — and legal — to entertain themselves with at night.

Friday night fun

It's 10:30 on Friday night. While Guild and Chu have a quiet night at home, Michael Azuma, 18, is changing gears as his silver 2003 Nissan Sentra SE-R Spec-V zooms around Tantalus' curves. For a while, he'll cruise before meeting with friends and talking story about cars, girls, life.

In Kane'ohe, meanwhile, Wellyn Sonpaine, 18, and her friends are also moving quickly — running and screaming down a dark and empty Old Pali Road after taunting the myth of the haunted, deserted path.

In town, at Club Noblesse, tucked away behind Kapi'olani Boulevard, a girl in a hot pink tube top lowers herself over a table top, laughing in an unnaturally high-pitched giggle. The boy she's trying to impress looks coolly amused.

Different places, same story: All of these people are from 18 to 20, and they're all trying to create their own nighttime entertainment and excitement on a Friday night.

"We're always trying to find something to do," said Azuma. "'cause there's not that much to do around here."

Options, good and bad

Illegal activities, regrettably, have been too common an option. According to the state Department of Health's 2002 Hawai'i Student Alcohol, Tobacco, and Other Drug Use Study that involved more than 28,000 students, 43 percent of high school seniors reported drinking beer, wine, or liquor in the past 30 days.

"I would suspect that when kids don't have a lot to do or they don't have positive activities to get involved with, the simplest thing is hanging out with friends," said Sgt. Ford Ebesugawa of the Juvenile Services Division at the Honolulu Police Department. "Sometimes they use alcohol to enhance that time together."

Since December 2000, 193 citations or arrests have been made for underage possession of alcohol or consumption in public, Ebesugawa said. The penalty can run up to six months imprisonment and/or $1,000 in fines.

And that's just for underage drinking.

Not all is grim. Many young adults choose the safer alternative of hanging out at each other houses to eat or play video games. Most parents love having their kids safe at home, with friends. It takes the guesswork out of life.

Then again, there can be too much of a good thing, and parents may need some down time.

"My house isn't a big house," Melanie Guild said, "If my kids should bring their friends over, we have to stay away from the kids. My husband and I stay in our room."

What do YOU wanna do?

Sonpaine graduated from Castle High School in the spring. She's spent the summer living it up before she starts at Windward Community College.

"It's a struggle to find something to do," she said.

Often, she and her friends end up playing pool at Hawaiian Brian's, a popular pool hall that stays busy into the pre-dawn hours. But you can only play so much pool.

On this night, Sonpaine and her friends decide to go to the Ice Palace.

It's just after 7 p.m. when they arrive. As the rest of the crew slaps on the slightly damp and rubbery skates, Michelle Nishii sits. She paid $7 for her size 7 blades, but has no intention of taking her sneakers off. Nishii says she's perfectly content to sit on the side, even though she looks bored. The group spends plenty of time encouraging her to start skating, but she refuses until the last 15 minutes the rink is open. After one round, she sits back down.

"It's not my thing," she explains.

Daniel Walker, 20, on the other hand, is determined to get his $7 worth. He smiles easily and talks comfortably, but behind his easy-going manner, he's anxious about the $6,000 he'll owe for his education at Heald College in Honolulu. Although the GI Bill has taken care of some of the tuition — Walker's in the Air Force Reserves — he's working this summer at Blockbuster to help pay it all off. Cost is a consideration for Walker when trying to decide what to do. Inexpensive activities are preferred.

The ice rink closes at 10 p.m., and the group is once more at a loss for what to do.

The conversation is typical:

"What do you want to do?"

"I don't know. What do you want to do?"

Finally, they opt to go to Morgan's Corner on Old Pali Road, where legend says a young man died a violent death and was left hanging from a tree by his feet with his throat slit. Their plan: Hug the tree at midnight.

They've got two hours to kill before their tree-hugging ceremony, so the group drives to a 7-Eleven to hang out in the parking lot, drink Slurpees and eat Pixie Sticks.

Then it's game time.

At 11:30 p.m., they park their cars on Old Pali Road in the jungles behind Kailua and Kane'ohe. It used to be a commonly used route, but has long since been closed off.

During the day, the road is quiet, colorful and pleasant. But at night it's too dark, too curvy and too narrow.

After darkness falls, the road takes on a mysterious (and creepy) new personality. The group scrambles forward, nobody wanting to be the one left behind. The girls cling to some of the guys, who cling back.

Finally, they approach a clearing where the road turns sharply. A yellow street light from the H-3 shines down ... it's Morgan's corner.

Midnight strikes, but where is the tree? No longer there, apparently.

They laugh with each other, and go farther down the road to spook themselves with an abandoned shack.

In da club

The gang isn't meeting until 10:30 p.m., early by clubbing standards. Azuma still has two hours to kill, so he takes a drive up Tantalus.

"You don't get carsick, do you?" Azuma asks.

He shifts gears and takes a turn. He doesn't go fast, cruising up the hill at right around the speed limit, but the engine growls and thrashes beneath the hood. He slows down and then speeds up to show the car's power, and the Nissan jumps forward.

Azuma keeps his eyes on the road as he talks about the gears and the car's fuel, and how he bought all the parts for his silver Sentra working full time at his uncle's pharmacy for two summers.

Then he smiles and talks about another way he gets an easy thrill on Tantalus: He and his friends sneak up to parked cars sitting on the side of the road with couples inside. They'll rock the car, jumping and pushing, and then run away laughing. It's a trick that teens have pulled on romantics since at least the '50s, and it never seems to get old — unless you're the couple in the car.

Most of the time, Azuma and his friends take the Tantalus drive after midnight when there are fewer cars on the road. Other times, he uses the Hawai'i Raceway Park in Kapolei, where he and his friends can drive together on the track, but it costs $8 to use the facility. "It adds up, you know?" Azuma says.

Some of the cars that go up Tantalus late at night will "drift," sliding sideways in a controlled way. Azuma doesn't have the right kind of car to do this, but he enjoys parking on the side to watch. Watching, to him, is in many ways more attractive.

"It's dangerous," he says. "It's reckless driving, driving left of center, driving exhibitionist speed."

Azuma isn't worried about himself and his pals, though. It's not so dangerous, "not if you're going slow," he says.

On this night, following the quick trip up Tantalus, Azuma pulls into the parking lot next to Club Noblesse. His friend, Dane Kanehira, is waiting, and soon more friends drive up. They spend time standing near the cars and talking.

Around 11 p.m., they pay $10 each to enter the club.

Club Noblesse has a reputation for attracting Asians, for no apparent reason other than silent clubber consensus. It's smaller compared to other clubs. Originally, the space was used for a bar only, but then the owner laid down a dance floor and brought in lights and a turntable.

Anyone 18 or older can come in, and those 21 and older get a bracelet allowing them to buy drinks at the bar near the front.

There are few people inside, just one other group sitting in a circular booth near the empty dance floor. There are more people than the booth can hold, and the people are piled in on top of each other, maintaining their sense of coolness by bobbing their heads to the music with occasional sips from their glasses.

People really don't start flowing in until nearly midnight. Between the dark and the excessive make-up, you can't see the girls faces, but you can see that they're hardly wearing any clothes. The guys seem to like it that way — they take short — but attentive — looks, "checking them out."

Azuma and Kanehira sit in the booth with their hands over their eyes horse-blinder style, quietly repeating, "Girlfriend. Girlfriend. Girlfriend. Girlfriend. ... "

Azuma leaves the club at 12:30, feeling tired; the temptations loom too greatly. The club activity will peak later, but Azuma abandons the pulsing bass for his girlfriend's home in Kapolei.

Facing reality

Though they try to stay occupied, Sonpaine, Azuma and Guild all come up against their limited options on the island once in a while. They get stuck trying to think of something fresh and come up short. But relationships take precedence over specific activities, anyway.

"As long as we're doing it together as friends, it's good," said Azuma. "I wouldn't want to go to the track by myself. What's a party if you're the only one there?"

When Sonpaine and her friends can't find something to do, they usually end up piling into a car and driving to random places — destination unknown, company certain.

As for Guild and Chu, these days they spend some evenings in the Costco parking lot. Chu wanted to learn to skateboard, so she bought a $140 Local Motion longboard to last her the summer and beyond.

Guild brings his board, and they ride together real slowly.

They're not going to get a ticket on these wheels.

Reach Noelle Chun at 535-2413 or nchun@honoluluadvertiser.com.