Winthrop Prep -- Episode #1 -- Brave New World

Alison Roberts could hardly believe it, but finally, she was matriculating at the Winthrop Preparatory Academy of Sunset Valley. Her acceptance had been a long shot, she thought, what with the late application and all, and the scholarship she'd put in for an even longer shot. But, she'd been accepted by a unanimous vote of the school's admissions board and the scholarship was granted in full.

Now, here she was, standing outside her suite in Dalton House, mere seconds from meeting her roommate. With such a pretty name as Bianca Bishop, Alison couldn't imagine her being difficult to live with. They were going to be great friends, Alison thought, as she pushed open the door.

Bianca Bishop was FaceBook stalking her boyfriend, Sam, when she heard her new roommate come in. That she had to share her top-floor suite of Dalton House with someone else annoyed her to no end; that she hadn't seen Sam yet annoyed her even more.

"Hey there!" Alison said. "You must be Bianca. I’ve heard such good things about you."

"From who?."

"Cynthia Christian, the dorm monitor."

Somehow, Bianca doubted Cynthia had much good to say about her.

Alison went on, oblivious to Bianca's lack of interest in her or anything she had to say.

"She met me down in the lobby and was nice enough to point me in the right direction. This big ole campus, I got lost something awful."

"What Podunk village where cousin marriage is legal did they dig you up from?"

"Well, I’m from Petunia Plains, Kansas, but I don’t think it’s legal to marry your cousin in Petunia Plains."

"God, people actually come from Kansas? I always thought that was a story parents told their children so they’d eat all their vegetables and pray."

"It’s real nice in Petunia Plains. I bet you’d like it a whole bunch."

Almost as much as she’d like being on the receiving end of water-boarding. 

"So, roomie, quick compatibility question – which Ingalls girl do you most identify with?"

"Ingalls?"

"You know, Little House on the Prairie? Laura? Mary? Carrie? Me, I always identified the most with Mary and when she goes blind --"

"Look, Alison, I’m sure you’re a nice girl, for someone who comes from Kansas, but we’re roommates, okay? I’m not going to be your B.F.F., we’re not going to braid each other’s hair, I’m not going to confide in you about my life and aside from a few cordial hellos coming and going, I’m not going to speak to you very much. So, if you want this little experiment in cohabitation to go smoothly, try to remember my three rules."

"Three rules?"

"#1 – If I want to talk to you, I’ll talk to you. Don’t talk to me otherwise. #2 – Don’t borrow my things and don’t even think about asking because I’m not going to let someone from Kansas touch my stuff. I don’t know if you’ve had all your shots. #3 – If you or your alarm clock wake me up before six a.m., I will throw you off our balcony."

Alison quickly committed those to memory, but hoped Bianca's stance on her would soften as they got to know each other. 

"Got it," said Alison.

"Good."

Alison surveyed the sleeping area, assessing her place. She didn't know where to put her things.

"Hey, Bianca?"

"You’re forgetting rule #1 already. What?"

"Which bed’s mine?"

"It would be the one wearing the school’s standard issue comforter and not the four-thousand-dollar duvet mine’s wearing."

"Okay. Well, I guess I should get going, classes start tomorrow and I want to meet some people. Other than you, I only know one other person."

"You make friends quickly."

"Oh, this guy, we met over the summer. He actually told me about this school and I absolutely fell in love with it. So, I applied for a scholarship and here I am."

Bianca almost choked when she heard the S word come out of her new roommate's mouth. She couldn't have just said what Bianca thought she said. No way, no how, was Bianca Bishop, heiress to the Bishop Fortune, rooming with someone who came here on scholarship. 

"Scholarship? You’re on scholarship? Full or partial?"

"Full. My folks could never afford tuition here."

"How the hell did a scholarship student get into Dalton House?"

"I don’t know, this was just where they told me to go. Anyway, I’ll see you later, Bianca. It was real nice meeting you, even if you don’t want to be friends."

Bianca felt a pang of guilt. The bumpkin couldn't help it if she was obnoxious and poor and pretty much doomed when it came to the epic fail that was her life. She didn't want to encourage the communication thing, nor did she want to make a habit of being nice to anyone, let alone scholarship students. But, she thought, just this once, she would show some mercy. 

"Hey, Kansas," said Bianca.

"Yeah?"

"I was always more partial to Nelly Olsen."

When Alison was gone, Bianca opened her laptop again, surprised to find an inner-dorm instant message on the screen. 

Cynthia was becoming a problem, one Bianca would need to take care of quickly.

*****

Jasper Mancini loved freshmen. So pure, so dumb, so unbearably easy. He'd only been on campus half an hour and already he had one. Unfortunately, now came the post-sex breakup. He always dreaded this part. Freshmen girls could be so whiny.

"Look, Mindy, it’s not that I didn’t enjoy our time together, it was the best five minutes of my life. I just think that you and I have grown apart as people. It’s not you, it’s not me – it’s just the cruelty of fate."

As Jasper hung up on his latest conquest, he realized he had a visitor. Bianca Bishop had, apparently, never heard of knocking.

"A basement unit, how fitting for my favorite bottom-dweller," she said.

"Better in the basement with my best friend than on the coveted top floor with the scholarship girl."

"How did you know about that?"

"Mindy Weston and I shared a moment together this morning in the headmaster’s office while he was away. I may have caught a glimpse of Alison’s transfer record, housing assignment and scholarship award."

Oh the perks of attending a school where your father, Roger Mancini, is headmaster.

"Mindy, huh? Getting an early start, Jasper?"

"You know freshmen are my favorite hobby. What brings you down here?"

"I’m looking for Sam. Where is my beloved?"

"You just missed him. He went to get a few more boxes."

Just then, Jean came out of the bathroom. Before Jasper could introduce her to Sam's girlfriend, Bianca said:

"At least he’s hauling his own boxes and not making his maid do it."


Jean gasped.

"I beg your pardon?"

"Sorry," Bianca said, her lack of sincerity as apparent as her beauty. "I keep forgetting you people have a union now – 'housekeeping specialist.'"

"Child, you best be joking or otherwise heavily medicated to stand there calling me anybody’s maid."

Jasper struggled to keep his amusement inside, lest Bianca hit him...not that he minded all that much when Bianca got rough with him.

"I don’t get it. What's so funny, Jasper?"

"Bianca Bishop – Jean Winston, Sam’s mother."

Bianca hurried over to her love's offended mother. 

"Oh my God, Mrs. Winston. I didn’t recognize you. You’re so much thinner in your pictures. Wait, I didn’t mean that like –"

"I am not much of a seamstress, but I’d be doing you a world of good if I sewed those pretty red lips together, keep you from jamming your foot in your mouth so often."

 

Jasper could tell Bianca was beyond mortified. If only he'd had the forethought to video tape this, for posterity's sake. He could almost see himself, ninety, in the retirement home, reliving this moment between screwing his nurses.

"I’m really very sorry, Mrs. Winston."

"Mm-hmm."

"Tell Sam I dropped by?"

"Oh, you can count on it, in excruciating detail."

Before she left, Bianca said goodbye to Sam's mother.

"It was nice meeting you, Mrs. Winston."

"For you, maybe. If anybody needs me, I’ll just be scrubbing the toilets or something, since I look like a damn maid."

"Housekeeping specialist," Bianca said softly. Then, to Jasper, she said, "I hate you," before leaving.

***************************

Alison came down to dinner later that evening. Bianca was already at the table in the dining hall, along with another girl Alison had yet to officially meet, but she thought her name was Rebecca.

She sat down next to Bianca, whose interest in eating seemed to disappear as soon as she appeared.

"Aren't you going to eat?" Alison asked.

"No, I just lost my appetite."

Bianca went into the kitchen, ready to begin her clean up duties. She still hadn't seen Sam and it was starting to unnerve her. They'd been apart all summer, nothing but text messages and the occasional phone call to keep them in contact while he drove across the country with Jasper.

She'd thought when they came back to school, he would race right up to her room, grab her, kiss her passionately and demand she spend the entire day with him, making up for lost time. He hadn't so much as come by to say hello.

Bianca realized she was not alone and brushed a stray tear away, unwilling to let anyone see it, let alone Jasper.

"Kitchen work, Binx? Who'd you piss off?"
"Cynthia. She put me on dishes duty for the month. If she weren’t your father’s girlfriend, I would’ve had her fired by now."

"Cheer up, I hear that dish detergent’s good for your skin."

"Like I’m letting this skin come in contact with grimy dishwater."

Outside, in the dining room, Bianca saw Sam. He'd been down to the pool. She could tell from his swim trunks. Swimming was his favorite way of keeping in shape, but she'd been thinking about it all summer and now maybe they were ready to start a new aerobic activity of their own.

Sam must not have seen her, as he sat down at the table.

With Alison.

"Ugh. I can’t stand her." Bianca mumbled.

"Scholarship girl?"

"It’s bad enough she’s breaking bread with my boyfriend, whom I have not seen all day but … now she’s sitting in my seat!"

"At least she’s not sitting on your boyfriend."

Bianca was unamused.

"Come on, she doesn’t seem that bad."

"You don’t understand, that girl is impossible to live with. She hums, Jasper. Incessantly. And, always the same thing – Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star. If I didn’t already hate that song, her humming would make me despise it. It’s the first day and I’m already planning a temporary insanity defense for when I kill her."

"Is it temporary if you’ve been insane all three years I’ve known you?"

"Why are you even in here?"

"To torture you. It’s my second-favorite hobby."

But, Bianca didn't care about Jasper's sadistic slant towards her. She was much too preoccupied with wondering what Alison and Sam were talking about in the dining hall.

*************

Alison's heart skipped a beat when she saw Sam again. He was as handsome as he'd been that day at the diner, when his car broke down and he stopped in for a bite to eat. She'd been his waitress and the moment she saw those big, beautiful eyes, she was in love.

Sitting here now, with him again, she could hardly contain herself. "I love you!" she wanted to scream. But, she didn't for fear he might reject her.

"What are you doing here?" Sam asked. "I can’t believe it."

"I know, it’s crazy, right? When you came into the diner that day and you told me about your school, it just sounded so incredible, so I looked it up and applied on a whim. I didn’t think I’d get in."

"But, here you are. This is amazing. Who are you rooming with?"

"Bianca Bishop. Are you friends? I don’t think she likes me too much."

Alison noticed the way Sam's face blanched at the mention of Bianca's name.

"Um, well, she’s kind of my girlfriend."

Girlfriend? Alison's stomach knotted. He had a girlfriend? Of course Sam had a girlfriend. Why, just look at him! Beautiful blond boys didn't stay single -- and they didn't fall in love with waitresses from Kansas.

"Oh. I didn’t know you had a girlfriend."

"Yeah. Hey, are you coming down to the boathouse with us tonight at midnight?"

"Boathouse?"

"Yeah, it’s like a first day tradition at Dalton House, sneaking down to the lake and hanging out."

"But, that’s past curfew."

"I know, but it’s tradition."

 When Rebecca came back from the kitchen, Sam said, "Rebecca, tell her it’s tradition."

"Totally. And, if you come, you can meet our other friends, Noel and Franklin."

"Alright, I’d love to go. I just hope we don’t get busted and get into trouble."

"Don’t worry about it," Rebecca said. "Once Cynthia goes to bed, she is dead to this world. A tsunami wouldn’t wake her up."

***************

That night, when Cynthia was asleep, Sam slipped out of bed and walked down to the boathouse to meet his friends. He saw Alison was already with Rebecca and Noel, they were getting the fire going. Franklin was nowhere in sight.

She looked so beautiful. Theirs had been a chance meeting. He'd been passing through Petunia Plains when his car broke down. The guy from the garage towed it in, said it'd be at least a couple of hours before he got it fixed, recommended the diner down the street. The second Sam saw her, he felt something he'd never felt in the years he'd been Bianca's boyfriend.

He needed to tell her, but before he could go to her, Bianca came out of the boathouse and intercepted him.

"Sam! There you are!"

"Bianca, hey."

"I haven’t seen you all day. Do you know how much I missed you this summer?"

"I missed you, too. I heard about your run-in with my mom this morning."

"Don’t remind me."

Bianca pulled him to her, hugging and squeezing him tighter than he'd ever been squeezed in his life. Too tightly, he thought, silently wishing he were by the fire with Alison.

"They’ve got the fire going, we should—

"We should just do this."

 

Bianca could tell by the tension in Sam's body he wasn't as into kissing her as he'd been before they left for summer break. Had she done something wrong? She didn't know, all she did know was that she loved Sam and wanted him to kiss her like he used to, like she was the only girl in the world. 

"What’s wrong, Sam?"

"Nothing."

"Really? Because you and I haven’t seen each other in three months and instead of kissing me, you seem more interested in hanging out by the fire with Rebecca, Noel and Kansas."

"Sorry, it’s just that I’m the one who invited Alison and it’d be rude if I didn’t hang out with her."

"She seems to be making friends just fine on her own. We should get out of here, go start a fire of our own."

"We can’t just ditch."

"Franklin ditched. Come on, let’s go inside the boathouse and make up for lost time."

"Bianca, I can’t. Not like this. Do you really want our first time to be in the boathouse? Babe, I promise we’ll spend lots of time together. I just need to go be with our friends right now."

"Okay. I love you, Sam."

"You, too, Bianca."

Sam made his way over to the others, addressing only Alison.

"Can we go somewhere and talk, Alison?" 

"Noel’s in the middle of a story about his mission trip to Africa this summer."

"It’s important. Five minutes? Please?"

**************

Bianca returned to the boathouse to get dressed. She didn't feel too welcome amongst her friends now that Little Miss Petunia Plains was here. For a while, she stood on the porch, watching her friends going on without her, until she sensed Jasper's unholy presence nearby.

 

"I don’t like that girl," she said.

"Because she hums?"

"Because my boyfriend is just a little too preoccupied with her. I tried to get him to have sex with me and he wanted to hang out with her, instead."

"He picked Kansas over sex with you?"

"Yes. Something is clearly wrong with this picture."

"I’ll say. Your boobs are more fascinating than Kansas’ whole body."

Jasper leaned down to further inspect Bianca's chest. For that, Bianca elbowed him in the mouth.

"Ow!"

"Focus!"

"I was trying to. Oh, you mean on the Kansas conundrum?"

"I know what we have to do."
"We? When did your issues with Kansas become my issues?"

"Trust me, you’ll like adopting these issues, especially when the remedy is your third favorite hobby."

"You mean–"

"Seduce and destroy. I want her so damaged by you she runs home to Kansas crying to Ma and Pa about the big, bad world outside the prairie."

"What’s in it for me?" Jasper asked.

"Other than the satisfaction of shattering an innocent, young heart? I’ll keep my mouth shut about your little arrangement with Cynthia last year." 

Jasper groaned. This was what he got for making fun of her earlier.

"How do you know about Cynthia?"

"I have my ways. You of all people should know that. So, do we have a deal? My silence in exchange for your services?"

"It'll be my pleasure."

Bianca was pleased.

"Kansas won’t know what hit her. I’m going to bed."

"Goodnight, Binx."

"Goodnight, Jasper."

***********

Alison and Sam slipped around to the back of the boathouse when Bianca was gone.

"Why did you come here?"

"I told you. The school interested me."

"Was it the school … or me?"

Alison didn't want to do this right now.

"You’ve got a girlfriend."

"Something happened between us this summer. I felt it the second I walked into that diner, and I know you did, too."

"Maybe I did, but it doesn’t change anything. I have to go."

Alison turned and ran back for Dalton House, despite Sam's cries for her to come back.

**************

Bianca Bishop was almost ready for bed. She went to the bathroom and removed her makeup, and was brushing her teeth when she heard the most peculiar screeching noise come from Cynthia's room across the hall. A thud followed.

 

Bianca shut off the water and made her way down the hall.

"Cynthia?"

She pushed the door open. Nothing seemed out of place ... not at first, until she moved deeper into the Dorm Adviser's suite.

 

That's when she saw Cynthia, lying on the floor, her face bashed in.

"Oh my God!"

Bianca screamed.

**********

Sam hurried to catch up with Alison, only catching her when she'd made it back to the building.

"Hold on. Will you just talk to me, please?"
"What is there to say? Your girlfriend is my roommate, Sam."

"We can work this out."

"How? She already hates me. She’ll hate me even more if she finds out I’m in love with her boyfriend."

Sam didn't know how, exactly, as Bianca tended to be as vengeful as she was beautiful. But, just hearing Alison say she loved him, Sam decided it would be done. One way or another.

"I love you, too. I promise, we’ll figure this out. Just give me a little time. Please? I want to be with you Alison, not her."

"I want to be with you, too, Sam."

They hugged. Alison wanted to kiss him. It'd been so long since their one kiss at the diner back in the summer. But, before she could, they heard a blood-curdling scream, followed by Bianca running down the stairs.

"Sam!" Bianca cried.

"Bianca? What’s wrong?"

"Cynthia’s dead!"

"What?"

"I was brushing my teeth and I heard a noise in her room. When I went to check, she was laying on the floor and –"

"Just calm down. Maybe she fainted."

"She didn’t have a pulse, Sam! I know dead when I see dead."

Jasper came running in as soon as he heard the scream. He found Alison standing mere yards from what looked like an ugly fight between his best friend and his girlfriend.

"What’s going on here?"Jasper asked.

"Something happened to Cynthia." 

"Call campus security."

Jasper approached the quarreling duo. Bianca looked upset. He didn't like to see her upset -- unless he was the cause of it.

"Hey, what’s going on?" Jasper asked.

"Bianca thinks Cynthia is dead."

"She IS dead! Jasper, will you please go up there and see for yourself?"

"Yeah. Stay here with Sam."

Jasper went upstairs, to Cynthia's room. He'd seen a dead body before, and he never liked Cynthia all that much, so he was prepared to see hers lying on the floor.

But, he saw nothing. No body, no sign of foul play, not even anything that might clue him in that something was amiss. 

If Cynthia was dead, she wasn't here anymore. So, where did she go?