They say there’s nothing as powerful as a mind-blowing night of hot sex with a sworn enemy turned frienemy … but Bianca Bishop knew that was untrue. As she returned to her suite at Dalton Hall the next morning, she felt an even more powerful feeling, one that can only be felt during the post-sex walk of shame.
Outside her room, she took a deep breath, thinking of ways she could explain missing bed check to Grant, who didn’t like her already. But, when she opened the door, all thoughts of Grant and explanations evaporated. Instead, the only thought she could process was three letters…
…W.T.F.?
Alison: Good morning, Bianca.
Bianca: Why are you wearing my robe? And, my headband!
Alison: I also made love to your boyfriend on your precious duvet. Or, should I say, my boyfriend?
Bianca: Well, good for you. I’m going take a shower and go see Grant.
Alison: Oh, don’t worry, I covered for you at bed check. Sam and I wanted our privacy. Where were you anyway?
Bianca thought for a minute, she could tell her the truth, that she spent the night with Jasper, but she didn’t want to do that. Who was Alison that Bianca would have to explain anything to her? Instead, she said only:
Bianca: Franklin’s. And, by the way, Kansas, I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but this house already has one psychotic bitch, me. And, trust me, on your best day, you couldn't out psycho bitch me on my worst. See you in chapel.
Sam Winston sat at Jasper’s desk, looking for a piece of paper to leave him a note. He’d hoped they could have some best friend advice time last night, when Sam came home, but Jasper never came back from the social. He wondered where he got to, but stuffed some pillows under his bedspread and shut off the lamps when Grant came by for bed check.
Just then, the door opened and Jasper, finally, came home. He was still wearing the clothes he wore last night.
Sam: There you are.
Jasper: Hey, man.
Sam: We need to talk about Bianca.
Jasper felt a surge of panic rip through him. Did Sam know? No, how could he? Maybe Bianca came by this morning and told him all about their night of passion as revenge. She did seem to greatly enjoy herself. He knew he sure did, more than he could remember enjoying himself since … well, ever.
She’d slipped out of bed this morning before he woke up. He’d never felt so disappointed to wake up alone, an unusual feeling in the boy who prided himself on having sex with girls and promptly kicking them out of his bed and his life.
Bianca was different – irritating, beautiful and different.
Jasper swallowed hard and said:
Jasper: W—what about Binx---ianca? Bianca.
Sam: I’ve screwed up. I should’ve listened to you. You’re my best friend, you always have my best interest at heart. Alison was, I don’t know, this fantasy of what I thought the perfect girl was supposed to be, but what I thought she was for one humid afternoon in Kansas doesn’t compare to who I know Bianca is.
Jasper: What are you saying?
Sam: I’m saying I have to figure out some way to get Bianca back. I like Alison, but, last night, I was in bed with her –
Jasper: You slept with Alison?
Sam: No. That’s just it. I wanted to, I was going to, but every time I looked at her, I saw Bianca.
Jasper knew that feeling. Most of the time, he saw Bianca’s face with other girls, too. And, various other choice parts of Bianca.
Jasper: What do you want from me?
Sam: Talk to her? I know you two are becoming more friendly, which surprises me, since I know how much you dislike each other. Could you just … I don’t know, see where her head’s at right now? Give me an idea of what to say to her when I try to talk to her after chapel?
Jasper: Sure.
Sam: Thanks. You’re a good friend, Jasper.
Poor Sam. If only he knew that Jasper had his own teeny, tiny heart set on Bianca … and Jasper always played dirty.
Ready for morning chapel service, Bianca made a quick stop off at her B.F.F. Franklin’s room. She knew Franklin didn’t get out of bed before ten on Sundays, so that he was sitting there, in his pajamas, did not surprise her.
Bianca: Hey, you! That eye’s healing nicely. Oh, Rebecca made those delicious chocolate chip waffles you like.
Franklin: I know. I’ll eat in a minute.
Bianca: You got something on your mind?
Franklin: Couldn’t sleep.
Bianca: You’re still thinking about Cynthia?
Franklin: Yeah. Every time I close my eyes, I see her and I feel sick.
Bianca: Then, don’t think about her. You know, you never told me much about Vincent. Why don’t you tell me about him now? Take your mind off of her?
Franklin smiled. Bianca didn’t like Vincent, she’d always been very protective of him, no boy was good enough for her Franklin, but he liked that. He was sure if Vincent had’ve been around long enough for Bianca to get to know him, she would have liked him. Or, at least faked it for Franklin’s sake.
Franklin: Let’s see. I guess it started when I got recruited by Majors to tutor him in American History...
Most of the time, we went to the quad or to his room in Hamilton House, but his roommate was always around. One day, we went there and there was a scarf tied to the doorknob, which meant his roommate had a girl over and did not want to be disturbed. So, we came back here, to the sitting room downstairs. I think I made him nervous, he seemed very jittery around me that day. He liked me, but I was completely clueless. I didn’t know there was another gay boy here.
He tried to put his arm around me and I looked up and got an eyeful of his elbow, which mortified him beyond belief.
I went outside, to get some air, he followed, apologizing profusely. I asked him what he was trying to do and he said, “Well, see, I have this – you’re – I mean, well --” and, then, he kissed me.
Just like that, my first kiss. I asked him if he was gay, too, and he laughed at me and said no, he was straight, just liked kissing other boys. He was joking, of course. For the next few weeks, we were inseparable. I fell so in love with him, Bianca, I swear, my heart stopped beating if he wasn’t near me. And, then, he was gone. His parents pulled him out, put him in another school and, according to Facebook, he’s happily involved with a girl named Jennifer.
Bianca: You think –
Franklin: I know. Cynthia alerted his family to inappropriate behavior with a fellow student, they removed him. That’s how she isolated me.
She came to me, to tell me Vincent was gone and that her next call would be to my family. She had a video – she showed me – somehow she’d recorded Vincent and I in bed together. I didn’t care, but, my father, you know how important his political career is to him. He was running against an incumbent, was already down six points in the polls and his whole platform was family values. She knew as well as I did what that video could have done to his campaign. But, she said we could work something out, she would keep quiet about Vincent and the video if –
Bianca: You slept with her? Oh, Franklin...
Franklin: Yeah. I thought it’d only be one time and it made my skin crawl. After, I didn’t eat for days, I couldn’t keep a bite of food down. And, she just kept coming back and coming back, each time flaunting that video in my face. I hated her more than I’ve ever hated anyone in my life and I swear, Bianca, I wanted to kill her.
Bianca: Did you?
Franklin: What? No. If Cynthia is dead, it wasn’t me. Wait, did you just come by to tell me there’s waffles?
Bianca: And to ask for a favor from my bestie?
Franklin: Name it.
Bianca: If anyone like Sam or Alison asks where I was last night, could you tell them I slept here, with you?
Franklin: Yeah. Where were you?
Bianca: Nowhere.
Franklin: You had to be somewhere.
Bianca: I went to the boathouse after Sam and I broke up and, I sat on the swings for a while and then it started to rain, so I went inside and fell asleep.
Franklin: Is that all? Why don’t you just tell them that?
Bianca: I may have fallen asleep after …
Franklin: After what?
Bianca: After losing my virginity to Jasper.
Franklin: You did what?! Jasper Mancini!?
Bianca: Do we know another Jasper? Look, I know what you’re going to say –
Franklin: Well, I figured it’d happen eventually.
Bianca: Okay, maybe I don’t know what you’re going to say.
Franklin: The constant bickering, the “I hate you,” “I live to torture you” thing … it was only a matter of time before you and Sam broke up and you hit the sheets with Jasper. I’m only surprised it didn’t happen sooner. Every time you come out of a good snarking session on top, you glow like you’ve just had the most incredible sex of your life.
Bianca: It was pretty incredible.
Franklin: Don’t need the details.
Bianca: Right. So, you’ll cover for me?
Franklin: Mm-hmm. Just try not to be hurt too bad when Jasper doesn’t want a second go at you?
Bianca: Oh, don’t worry. I know how Jasper operates. Hit it and quit it, deflower and dump. I won’t be surprised if he never even speaks to me again. See you in chapel.
Every Sunday morning, the students of Winthrop Prep were invited to an optional, multidenominational chapel service. And, while most students blew it off to catch up on their sleep, Rebecca Turner was there bright and early to light a candle, in memoriam to someone she never met.
She’d come there to the chapel last Sunday, when they all arrived on campus, but she hadn’t gotten much of a chance to light a candle or pray, as she’d been quickly bombarded by Cynthia.
Cynthia: Is it proper to mourn someone you killed?
Rebecca: I don’t know what you’re talking about.
Cynthia: You’re here about the baby, aren’t you? Yours and Noel’s?
Rebecca: How do you know about that?
Cynthia: Last May, during finals, I saw you going into the clinic in town. I wondered to myself what Rebecca Turner, star pupil and daughter of one of Sunset Valley’s wealthiest citizens, could be doing going into the free clinic, and that’s when I remembered how sick you’d been. I had assumed it was stress, you and Noel didn’t strike me as the types to steal away having naughty, teenage sex with each other, more the type to steal away and do algebra equations with each other. He should know that you aborted his baby, Rebecca.
Rebecca: Please, don’t say anything to him.
Cynthia: Why shouldn’t I? As his dorm adviser, it’s my place to look after him.
Rebecca: Noel’s education matters so much to him. I couldn’t tell him we’d gotten pregnant. We were fifteen, we’d have to leave school and he wouldn’t want to terminate and I couldn’t ask him to give up his future. Please, don’t tell him.
Cynthia: I won’t. But, there’s something I want from you.
Rebecca: What could I possibly have to offer you?
Cynthia: Fifty thousand dollars.
Rebecca: What? There’s no way I can come up with that kind of money.
Cynthia: By tomorrow, or I go to Noel … and your family … and tell them what you did.
Rebecca: I swear to God, if you say a word to Noel, I’ll kill you!
Bianca went to morning service incognito – or as incognito as Bianca could get without messing up her hair. She didn’t know what annoyed her more, when Alison sat down beside Sam, or when Jasper sat down beside her. He normally blew off service, even though his father, as headmaster, delivered the service each Sunday morning.
Bianca: Do you ever change clothes?
Jasper: It’s my trademark, like your red hair wrap thing.
Bianca: A little color wouldn’t kill you.
Jasper: If you hate my clothes so much, why don’t we get out of here and I’ll let you take them off of me. You seemed to enjoy yourself well enough last time.
Bianca: Huh?
Jasper: I’ve been thinking, we should have sex again.
Bianca: I hate you.
Jasper: What does hating me have to do with having sex with me?
Bianca: Oh. Fine, but I am not your girlfriend.
Jasper: Wouldn’t ever use the word, gives me hives.
Bianca: Just so we’re on the same page. Boathouse tonight?
Jasper: Boathouse now?
Bianca: We’re in church!
Jasper: That’s why God made boathouses.
Bianca: Good point.
Jasper: Besides, you spent enough time talking to God last night. The way you kept screaming His name, honestly, I was about to develop a complex.
Bianca: Shut up.
Bianca: No. I am not kissing you in church.
Jasper: Eskimo kiss?
Bianca: You are such a dork.
Jasper: I'll show you a dork.
Two pews up, oblivious to the knife being jabbed into his back, sat Sam. He’d done his best to avoid Alison all morning, but there she was, sitting next to him. Twice, she tried to hold his hand, he didn’t have the heart to tell her she was sort of starting to creep him out. Sam only hoped that, wherever Bianca was, she was with Jasper, and he was doing everything he could to plead Sam’s case.
Bianca: Are you kissing my nose? Seriously? Of all the parts of my body to kiss, you have some weird nose fetish?
Bianca: What?
Jasper: I don’t think I want to have sex with you.
Bianca: How come?
Jasper: Because, I’m beginning to think you only want me for my body. You know, I’m a human being with feelings and needs and –
Bianca: Fine, I’ll just go get it from a freshman.
Jasper grabbed for her, pulled her back down on top of him when she tried to get away.
Jasper: No, you won’t! Come back here.
Bianca: That’s what I thought. Can I ask you something?
Jasper: Seriously? You want to talk right now?
Bianca: Why did you want to do it again? I thought one time was your policy or whatever?
Bianca: You know what I mean. Do you like – like me?
Jasper: Do you really want me to answer that question? Because, if I say yes, things are going to get weird and if I say no, things are going to get weird. Let’s just say I don’t mind that you have this unnatural desire to hold me down and have your way with me. Okay?
Bianca: Works for me, but, for the record, don’t fall in love with me. The last thing I need is to fall in love with you and get dumped for someone from Kansas that’s clearly gone crazy from too much pesticide exposure.
Jasper: I’ll do my best.
Once again, in the aftermath, they cuddled. Bianca again questioned him, and he chalked the snuggling up to the drafty boathouse, claiming if they kept their bodies tight against each other, they could share body heat and, thus, would not catch their death of cold. That she smelled good and he liked having her in his arms was irrelevant.
But, when they drifted off to sleep, Jasper found his mind drifting elsewhere – to a place it hadn’t gone in quite a while. He remembered last year, when Cynthia found out about the drugs.
Jasper: What are you doing in here?
Cynthia: Someone should tell your father all that money he spent on rehab was a waste. God, look at you. You’ve got purple bags around your eyes. Are you even trying to hide it anymore?
Jasper: I’m clean.
Jasper: What do you want?
Cynthia: Not to hurt your father. He’s been through enough pain, losing your mother, watching your first battle with drugs. If he knew you’ve relapsed, it’d break his heart. Your secret is safe with me, just cut me in for half the profits.
Jasper: What are you doing?
Cynthia: I love your father, Jasper, but he’s just not enough. I don’t have the heart to leave him, but –
Jasper: I’m not having sex with you.
Cynthia: Then, I’ll tell him everything. He’ll send you back to the rehab center and this time, they won’t let you out for a year.
Jasper: And, I’ll tell him his slut of a girlfriend came onto me.
Cynthia: The desperate ramblings of a druggie eager to not go back to rehab. He’ll never believe you over me.
Jasper: Get out.
But, she didn’t get out. When he came back from the showers, she was waiting on him.
Jasper: I don’t want you.
Cynthia: Fine. Then, I’ll just go tell your father you’re hooked again. It’s not like anyone will miss you, especially Bianca.
Jasper: Wait!
Cynthia: That’s what I thought.
And as he pressed his lips against Cynthia’s, as he got into his bed, the only thing on his mind was Bianca.
That night, when Bianca got home, she was met by Grant in the hallway outside her room. Apparently, Alison didn’t take too kindly to the redecorating she’d done … or the single, squeaky-springs bed Bianca left in place of Alison’s. And, she in turn voiced her own concerns, mostly about Alison’s going through her things, so Grant offered her the one thing that could maybe keep the peace on the girls’ floor.
A room of her very own.
So, she called her father and had him send over a new bed, just in case Alison wasn’t lying about defiling her precious duvet, and she moved into Cynthia’s old room with a promise not to bother her things, boxed up in the closet and waiting for her to contact the school with an address to ship them to.
As she settled into bed, she felt kind of weird, sleeping in the same room where she knew someone died. But, it would provide an excellent opportunity for snooping, she thought. Tomorrow. Tonight, all she wanted to do was get some much needed sleep, since Jasper had spent the day thoroughly wearing her out. Not that she minded one little bit.
But, before she could lay down, she heard the most peculiar scratching noise coming from inside the closet. She’d seen enough horror movies to know better than to investigate strange noises, but just this once, she decided to throw convention to the wind and investigate.
Bianca went into the closet, saw the things she’d hung on the racks, saw the boxes of Cynthia’s things waiting for a shipping address that would never come, saw –
A door?
There, behind the boxes, she saw it. A door. Cynthia’s things were already packed when the police came by to investigate last Sunday night, they must have all missed the door.
Quickly, she cleared away the boxes and decided to see what was on the other side. That’s where she found …
Jasper?
Bianca: What is this?
Jasper: This is your room?
Bianca: Cynthia’s room. Alison and I got separated because we can’t play nice together. And, this is?
Bianca: So, whoever killed Cynthia wouldn’t need to have used the entrance to get her body out if they knew about these tunnels?
Jasper: That’s what I was thinking. Do you want to keep exploring or – Bianca: Yes! This is so Scooby Doo. Of course I want to explore. Do you even know me?
Jasper: Alright, Velma, which way?
Bianca: Velma? Do I look like a Velma to you?
Jasper: Shaggy? Fred? You are a little domineering…
Bianca: I severely dislike you.
They moved through the winding corridors, finding more doors and stairwells whichever way they went. Where they came out wasn’t anywhere near where they’d gone in.
Bianca: Door.
Jasper: Maybe we should see what’s up here?
Bianca: I’d rather know all of what’s down here, first. We could split up –
Jasper: Forget it. I’m not leaving you down here alone, not and it as dark as it is. I know you don’t like to be in the dark and I’d kill myself if something happened to you down here.Bianca was taken aback by that gesture, but before she could say anything, they both heard the sound of a door squeaking shut and footsteps scurrying away.
Jasper: Door, it is.
Bianca: Dead end – wait … I wonder what’s in there?
Jasper: One way to find out.
Jasper: Oh my God.
Bianca: Cynthia! This must be where they stashed the body. But, why are they keeping her here and, why did they cut off all of her hair?
Jasper: I don’t know. All I know is this proves you were right, she’s dead. The only question left is --
Bianca: Who killed her?
