Winthrop Prep -- Episode #5 -- Damages

The French playwright Chamfort once said, “There are two things that one must get used to or one will find life unendurable: the damages of time and injustices of men.” As the coroner removed Cynthia’s body from the tunnels and the kids of Dalton House sat around the dining room table, absorbing the gravity of their situation, none of them had any idea of how on the nose Chamfort was. For time had already been damaging to them, as evidenced by the things they did to, for and because of Cynthia, and a great injustice would soon befall at least two of them by the time morning came.

Rebecca: Where’s Noel?

Franklin: I don’t know. I went by his room when Headmaster Mancini called us to the dining room, but he wasn’t in there. I figured he was in the bathroom or something.

Bianca and Jasper exchanged a look…a look that was not lost on Sam.

Headmaster Mancini joined them in the dining room. His expression was that of a grieving man trying his best to do his job, managing a house full of unruly murder suspects.

 Headmaster Mancini: This is a difficult time for all of us. Cynthia was a good woman, a good partner, a good dorm adviser. While I’m sure you are all grieving for her in your own way, there is the matter of the police investigation to deal with. You’ll each be meeting individually with Detective Carr in the sitting room. Bianca, you’re up first.

Jasper: Wait, can they be questioned without a parent or guardian present? What about lawyers…

Headmaster Mancini: Their parents have been notified, it’s been left to my discretion. Miss Bishop, if you would, please.

In the sitting room, Bianca found herself once again facing down the detective.

Bianca: As you can see, Cynthia is dead. Like I told you. Do all police detectives suck this hard, or is it just you? 

Detective Carr: I want to apologize for not believing you, but you have to understand with the evidence I had –

Bianca: Forget it. What do you want to know?

Detective Carr: You can start with how you came to discover the body.

Bianca: Okay. My boyfriend and I broke up because he said he was in love with this skank from Kansas. So, I’ve been sleeping with his best friend, hopefully we can leave that part off the record, and, we’ve been sneaking down to the old boathouse, where my arch-nemesis-turned-bed buddy discovered an entrance to the tunnels that run under the school and through the buildings. Since Kansas and I can’t live together, I was placed in Cynthia’s room, where there’s also a door to the tunnels. Jasper came out on my end, we went exploring and found dead Cynthia. You’re up to speed.

Detective Carr: A simple “my friend and I found her in the tunnels” would have sufficed.

Bianca: Oh.

Detective Carr: One more time, how’d you find the body?

 
Jasper: My best friend and his girlfriend broke up because he said he was in love with this skank from Kansas. So, I’ve been sleeping with his ex-girlfriend, hopefully we can leave that part off the record, and we’ve been sneaking down to the old boathouse, where, after my arch-nemesis-turned-bed buddy left, I discovered an entrance to the tunnels that run under the school and through the buildings. Since Kansas and Bianca can’t live together, she was placed in Cynthia’s room, where there’s also a door to the tunnels. I came out on her end, we went exploring and found dead Cynthia. You’re up to speed.

Detective Carr: This is going to be a long night.

As they waited for their turn to give their stories to the good detective, Alison met Sam in the alcove off the kitchen.

Alison: How are you holding up?

Sam: Fine. You?

Alison: I’m good. I can’t believe something like this happened. Nobody ever got murdered in Petunia Plains. Hold me.  

Sam: Alison, don’t.

Alison: Why? What’s wrong?

Sam: I thought you understood. I want Bianca. Alison, I can’t live in this fantasy I built around one afternoon in Kansas. You’re a sweet girl and I hate how Bianca has treated you, it’s completely unfounded, but she’s my girlfriend.

Alison: No, she isn’t.

Sam: Not now, but we’re going to get back together, as soon as –

Alison: You don’t know, do you?

Sam: Know what?

Alison: Bianca is sleeping with Jasper.

Sam: Bianca hates Jasper.

Alison: I didn’t want to be the one to have to tell you. After chapel this morning, I went down to the boathouse. That’s when I saw them through the window. I'm sorry, Sam.

Sam: I have to find Bianca.

 

Bianca found Jasper right where she thought he’d be after giving his statement to Detective Inefficient, waiting for her out on the back deck opposite the workout deck. She was developing quite the Jasper radar and only hoped it was because of their growing bond and not because he was radioactive and slowly poisoning her with each kiss.

Bianca: How’d it go?

Jasper: Well, I think. I told him Cynthia was the greatest thing since sliced bread and I was shocked something like this could happen. Did you tell him –

Bianca: No. I wouldn’t do that. I did exactly what you did, played it up like Cynthia was the darling of Dalton House. I don’t think he suspected otherwise. Could you do me a favor?

Jasper: Anything.

Bianca: Could you just hold me? It’s a completely lame request, but I’m kind of stressed and, when you hold me I don’t feel like I’m one breath away from imploding.

Jasper: Funny, I feel the same way.

Bianca: Not that I like need you or anything…I don’t even like you and your cologne is stinky and you wear like an entire can of Crisco on your head and this is just some weird biological fluke that you’re the Bianca equivalent of catnip.

Jasper: You do know catnip attracts and excites cats, right?

Bianca: Oh. Well, either way, you’re like catnip. I guess, what I’m trying to say is –

Jasper: I get it. You hate me, but you’re hot for me and kind of, despite yourself, don’t mind having me around.

Bianca: Yeah. Except, maybe I don’t hate you. I mean, not as much as I claim to hate you. I wouldn’t want you to die in the tunnels either.

Jasper: Is that what this is about? What I said in the tunnels?

Bianca: Jasper, what’s happening with us?

Sam: That’s what I want to know.

 

Bianca: Sam!

Sam: You son of a bitch.

Jasper: I can explain. Bianca, can you give us a minute, please?

Bianca: Yeah.

Sam: I’m your best friend. How could you do this to me?

Jasper: To you?

Sam: What was it? Were you scared that the window of opportunity would close and you wouldn’t get a shot at her again? Who cares that she’s your best friend’s girl, it’s all about you racking up another score, bonus points that she was vulnerable and hates you.

Jasper: It’s not like that.

Sam: Then, tell me, Jasper – what was it like? I asked you to talk to her for me so I could go to her after chapel and fix this. Instead, you took her to the boathouse and had sex with her? Were you that obsessed with being Bianca’s first time?

Jasper: No. Yes. We went to the boathouse after chapel but …

Sam: But, what?

Jasper: But, it wasn’t the first time...

...The first time was Saturday night, after the social.

Sam: Wow, you got to her when the vulnerability was still fresh, huh?

Jasper: No. I went to her because I thought she could use a friend and, aside from Franklin, I was pretty much the only one she had. No one believed her about Cynthia, you’d just dumped her for Alison and I didn’t want her to be alone. So, I went to the boathouse, we talked for a while on the swings and then it started to rain... 

...So, we went inside and one thing led to another and we kissed. I didn’t want to push her into anything, I asked her if she was sure and she was. I took her to the bed and I spent all night making love to her and trying to ease the pain you had caused. Then, the next morning, I wasn’t prepared to hear you wanted her back. All I knew was that I wanted her, too, and unlike you, I would kill myself before I would intentionally break her heart.

Sam: Do you hear yourself? You’re Jasper Mancini. Breaking hearts is just what you do. Girls aren’t human beings to you. They’re scores, they’re marks…

Jasper: They weren’t Bianca. I know you don’t want to hear this, but all that time I spent using those other girls was because I couldn’t have her. I thought she hated me and, even if she didn’t hate me, she was your girl and you’re my best friend. But, then Saturday night she didn’t hate me and she wasn’t your girl anymore.

Sam: And, I’m not your best friend anymore. You’re going to be all alone. She’s in love with me. She’s going to come back to me. You’ll have no Bianca, no best friend, nothing except dumb freshmen girls and whatever you get off your little friend Asher. And, if by some chance she picks you, then all that tells me is you’ve turned her into another one of your brainless, spineless sluts. Why would I want her then?

Jasper: I wish you wouldn’t have said that, man.

And, just like that, best friends resorted to fisticuffs over the most classic of reasons – a beautiful girl.

Sam: Bianca, help!

Bianca: Jasper, stop! You're going to kill him!

Jasper: He called you a slut.

Bianca: Oh. Never mind. Kill him. I'm going to go get some juice. Carry on. Wait, no...Let him go. Jasper, can you give us a few minutes? Sam and I need to clear the air.

Jasper didn't want to leave him alone with her. He wanted to throw him over the railing. But, Bianca asked him to, and there was nothing Jasper would refuse her. So, he left, hoping Sam was wrong, that Bianca wouldn't take him back. Jasper had survived many things -- the loss of his mother, two periods of drug addiction -- but he didn't think he could survive that.

In the sitting room, Detective Carr continued his investigation with Rebecca.

Detective Carr: Miss Turner, can you think of anyone who would want Cynthia dead?

Rebecca: No, none. Everyone at Dalton House loved her.

Detective Carr: I’m told you are close with a Noel Redding. Do you have any idea where he is this evening?

Rebecca: No. Noel and I used to be involved, but we aren’t anymore. We’ve barely spoken since school started back. But, I can assure you, Noel doesn’t have the capacity to kill anyone. He’s brilliant, don’t get me wrong, but he can’t even swat a housefly, much less take a human life.

But, Rebecca wasn’t so sure. If Noel had nothing to hide, why wasn’t he here now? And, where the hell was he?

In the lounge on the boys’ floor downstairs, Franklin removed his phone from inside his pocket and dialed in Bianca’s number. He’d looked all over for her, but could not find her. Dalton House was big, though, and people got lost easily. The call went straight to her voicemail.

 

Franklin: Hey, Bianca, it’s almost my go at Carr. I was hoping we could compare notes, so I can see what page we’re all on. I mean, I don’t think you’d mention anything about Cynthia and me and the affair, but -- Anyway, call me when you get this.

Bianca might not have gotten the message, but someone else did loud and clear. If only Franklin realized voices carry … and find their way to far too receptive ears.

Bianca waited until Jasper was gone before she and Sam went over to the railing. She felt like she could see all of Sunset Valley from here, at least all of the Winthrop Prep campus. In the distance, she saw the boathouse and a fond memory of Jasper played inside her mind. She banished it, forcing herself to focus on the task at hand.

Bianca: I owe you an apology.

Sam: Look, I’m not mad at you –

Bianca: I don’t care if you’re mad at me or not, Sam. What’s happening with Jasper and me, whatever it is, it has nothing to do with you. Honestly, that’s what I want to apologize for.

 

Sam: Are you in love with Jasper?

Bianca: No. No, I’m not in love with Jasper, but I wish I were. This past week has taught me that there has always been a connection between Jasper and I, something completely different from what we let on was there. Love, lust … I don’t know. But, I’ve shared some of my darkest moments with him and each and every time, he did not judge me. He just held my hand, and later held me, and offered to be whatever I needed. Friend, lover … didn’t matter. All I had to do was ask. I’d like to be able to say it was just one stressful week, but truth be told, we’ve always been here.

Sam: No, you haven’t.

Bianca: There are things you don’t know. Do you remember when your dad had his first heart attack and I blew off classes to go home with you? I was so far behind there was no way I was getting my work made up. The school was threatening to throw me out my grades plummeted so far. But, one day all of my makeup work was turned in and graded and I was back on track. Jasper paid Noel to do it all, with the caveat he never tell. He did tell, of course, but he said it was because I’m scary. Don’t you see? He’s had my back all this time. Me finally wising up that, hey, maybe we don’t hate each other all that much, was inevitable.

Sam: So, you’re friends. But, you’re in love with me.

Bianca: I am. Even after everything you did, doubting me, turning your back on me, dumping me for Kansas of all people…I still love you. Do you know why?

Sam: Why?

Bianca: Because love is not finite. Love is not something you do, something that whiles away the time. Love is an extension of who you are. My love is suffocating, that’s what you said—

Sam: I didn’t mean –

Bianca: No, let me finish. My love is suffocating because I am suffocating. My love is terrible and selfish because I am terrible and selfish. My love is deep and imperfect and far too easily given to people who don’t want it and don’t return it. But, one thing it is not is easy to turn on and off. I can no more decide I don’t love you than I can fly. Because, love does not come with a switch you can flip. It isn’t a ring you can give someone and take back when you want to give it to someone else and it does not die over the course of one afternoon in a diner in Kansas. That you could say those words so casually to a girl you’ve known a few days mortifies me and devastates me, because now I know that my favorite memory of you, of that day you first said them to me, is as weightless as the air.

Sam: I did mean it.

Bianca: You didn’t, or maybe you think you did. If you loved me, you would never have cast me aside for someone else. And, if you loved Alison, you wouldn’t be here now. You want what you can’t have and never what you do have. Your love is an extension of you, too, Sam. It’s shallow and conditional. So, yes, I do love you. I love you so much that, when I think about not being your girlfriend, I ache down in my bones. But, as much as I love you, I love me more, and I will never be yours again, not when you’ve proven to me how careless you are with my heart and how you’re willing to treat me and talk about me when your ego is bruised. I spent a good portion of my childhood watching my mother allow a man to treat her like that. I refuse to let you do it to me.

And, just like that, she was gone. She left Sam to think, to go be with Alison, to do whatever he would do. She had a better place to be, a place as surprising as it was safe…with Jasper.

Alison: Detective Carr, I’m sorry, I know it’s not my turn, but I have something I need to tell you.

Detective Carr: Please. Go on.

Alison: She’ll kill me, but I can’t sit on this any longer. My roommate is, was, Bianca Bishop. We’re best friends, but we had to be separated because of a terrible argument we had about Cynthia and her friend, Franklin. Franklin was sleeping with Cynthia. When she left, I believed Bianca that she was dead, and when I found out about Franklin and Cynthia, I wanted to tell you. But, Bianca threatened me. I can’t sit on it anymore. It’s wrong. Franklin Winters killed Cynthia.

Detective Carr: What proof do you have?

Alison: The night she died, we all went to the boathouse to hang out, everyone was there but Franklin. Then, the next day, he’s in the infirmary because of an injury to his eye? I think he got it in the struggle with Cynthia.

And, while Alison was throwing Bianca’s bestie under a bus … Sam was revving up a bus for his own best friend.

Headmaster Mancini: You’re sure this is his?

Sam: I went to his desk to leave him a note and I found it there, in the drawer. Honestly, sir, I’m as disappointed as you are. I thought he was clean.

Headmaster Mancini: Thank you, son, for giving me this. I was hoping he would be able to avoid returning to Sunset Valley Inpatient Rehab, but now it seems unavoidable.

Sam: I can only hope they can give him the help he needs, sir.

On the top deck, Jasper Mancini searched the stars which remained in the fading night skies, in hopes he might find one as brilliant and beautiful as Bianca. Naturally, he did not. When he heard the soft shuffle of her slippers on the deck floor, he pulled away, an unsettled feeling overwhelming him. What if Sam was right? What if she went back to him?

Jasper: Here to let me down gently?

Bianca: No. I’m here to tell you nothing has changed.

Jasper: You and Sam –

 

Bianca: Are still over. I’m going to tell you what I told him and, this might be difficult to hear. I’m still in love with him, I can’t will myself to stop, though I would like to, and I appreciate that he changed his mind and realized that I’m a thousand times more awesome than Kansas, but that doesn’t negate that he treated me like garbage. He ran around behind my back declaring his love for someone he knew all of a few hours, then decided he loved me, which only tells me he has no idea what it is. But, you do.

Jasper: Bianca, I –

Bianca: No, please, don’t say it. I already know. I think I knew the second you said you believed me, when you had no reason to. I knew the way you spoke to me as if my evils were as much a part of me as my goods, and that you saw and liked both. I knew that night at the boathouse, when I felt like my world had just spun off its axis and you talked to me, asking for nothing. And, when I chose to give you everything I had to give you, you took it as gently and tenderly as you could, never once putting your needs and your happiness above mine. And, I knew in the tunnels when you refused to leave my side because you were afraid I would get hurt and I know each and every time you leave the lights on for me because you know I’m afraid of the dark. So, I don’t need to hear you say it. I don’t even want to hear you say it, not until I can get myself past my own broken heart and I can give it to you the same unconditional way you give it to me.

Jasper: I can do that, if you’re sure.

Bianca: I’m sure. And, if you’ll have me, I would like very much to go out on a date with you, Jasper Mancini.

Jasper: I’ve never been on a date before, but I’d be honored to go on my first with you.

Bianca: You do realize this makes me your girlfriend, right?

Jasper: You’re my girlfriend.

Bianca: Need your Epipen?

Jasper: No, I think I’m okay.

Bianca: And, no more freshmen.

Jasper: Wouldn’t know if there was another girl on this planet, let alone this campus, when I look at you.

Bianca: You’re so corny. Kiss me!

Bianca had no idea, but as she kissed her new boyfriend, her old best friend was facing hard time. As Franklin Winters sat down in the sitting room and met with the one-man firing squad.

Detective Carr: Answer the question. Were you or were you not having an affair with Cynthia?

Franklin: Yes! Alright? Yes. She blackmailed me into having sex with her. Are you satisfied?

Detective Carr: Blackmailed you with what?

Franklin: A video tape that could have ruined my father’s career.

 

Detective Carr: So, you killed her, to keep out of her bed and keep her quiet.

Franklin: I want a lawyer.

Detective Carr: You can call one down at the station. Franklin Winters, you’re under arrest.

But, while Franklin had rights to exorcise, Jasper only had the law of Winthrop Prep to answer to.

Jasper: Dad? What’s this?

Headmaster Mancini: That’s what I want to know. It was found amongst your things. Are you using again?

Jasper: No.

Headmaster Mancini: I wish I could believe you, but after last time? I’m sorry. As your father, I have signed off on having you committed to Sunset Valley Inpatient Rehab. As your headmaster, I am forced to follow the mandates of this school’s zero tolerance policy. You, being in possession of drugs, is an immediate violation and I have no choice – 

Jasper: Dad, don’t do this.

Headmaster Mancini: Jasper, you’re expelled. An officer will be here soon to escort you to the rehab center.

In the morning light, the damages of time became even more apparent, helped along by the injustices of men (and mice from Kansas). In their wake, there was only one option – to recover as best they could and try to repair the damage with smarter choices. And, while some chose to settle for second best... 

...others faced impossible decisions.

Bianca: What’s going on?

Jasper: Franklin’s being arrested.

Bianca: Oh, no.

Officer Rose: It’s time to go, Jasper.

Bianca: Wait, where are you taking him?

Jasper: I’m being sent to Sunset Valley Inpatient Rehab.

Bianca: Why? You’re clean.

Jasper: That’s what I tried telling my father and this fine officer. He found a syringe in my room.

Bianca: It wasn’t his! And, I’m not going to let you lock him away in that place.

Headmaster Mancini: Are you trying to tell me how to parent my own son?

Bianca: Someone needs to if you’re so quick to lock him up with no proof that syringe belonged to him. For all you know, it could’ve been Sam’s.

When Headmaster Mancini told her it was Sam who discovered the contraband, Bianca saw red (and for the first time, did not enjoy it). She knew what this was, and she wasn't going to let him get away with it.

Franklin: Bianca?

Bianca: I want to go with you, Jasper, but I –

Jasper: It’s okay. I don’t think they’d let you go with me anyway. But, thank you for wanting to. Besides, he needs someone to be his mouthpiece while he’s waiting for his folks to get here.

Bianca: You’re going to take him to Sunset Valley Hospital and have a blood and urine panel run on him. And, when that shows that he’s clean, you are going to release him because you will have no grounds to hold him. Am I clear?

Officer Rose: Yes, Miss Bishop.

Jasper: Best. Girlfriend. Ever. 

Bianca: Just come home to me?

Jasper: You know I will.

If only someone was there to warn Jasper that he might have gotten the girl, but Sam got a girl of his own … one who made up for what she lacked in diabolical genius with pure insanity, and they were not done with Jasper (or his precious Binx) yet.