The Subjects
Brianna Calhoun had a very wierd week. It all started when her began to break down, after she had retrieved the payment from the client for her and her dad's last private eye mission. She had planned for this to be a five minute drive to grab the money and go back home, but instead she was stopping in the middle of nowhere. Sighing, Brianna looked behind her rear-view mirror. No one was behind her for quite a ways. It was a residential beachfront area, so of course there were no gas stations nearby. All of the houses behind her had their lights off, considering it was 9 PM.
She pulled out her celluar phone and it had died, along with the car's engine that might have charged the phone. Slowly, Brianna pulled her hands away from the steering wheel. She had wanted to smack the wheel with all the might her tiny hands had. Yet, her hands were stuck to it as if it was ninety degrees farenheight outside. It was only seventy. Bri grumbled. Walking forward was her only option. After locking the money in the trunk, Brianna started down the beach.
Never had she been so thrilled to hear a party going on. It was a casual reminder to her exclusion, yet it most likely had a phone and a way out from this mess. It took her a few minutes to get to the front door, which was left open to practically anyone who wanted to work their way into the house. The lack of security and the music so loud the ground shook definitely made Bri aware of her middle class status. People were lined wall-to-wall, dancing all night long. The only thing that wasn't present of a stereotype party was the liquor. No one was getting drunk or high at this party, yet everyone looked to be having fun. That was another thing Bri found out of place.
There was one crowd in the center that formed a circle around this one guy. Bri's casual glance quickly showed her why. A man slithered onto a table and formed his body into a perfect S shape. She knew that watching one thing for too long in a hazardous environement was a bad idea, but something about that attracted her. At the same time, she had a gut feeling to run back to her car and wait for the police to bust her for vagrancy. That much flexibility just seemed eeriely sexy. All the other women in the room seemed to be drawn to "S" as well. Bri shrugged and turned away, pretty sure that she wasn't going to even get a chance to speak with "S" anyway. He would be too busy getting numbers from several blondes and ladies with a single breast bigger than their brains. As the crowd applauded, Bri made her way away from the crowd and up the stairs.
Her first stop was the door on the left, completely unaware that Andrea, the party's host, did not allow guests in her room. The wings slowly emerging from Andrea's back made Bri mistake Andrea for a performer. "Excuse me," Bri interrupted, "Do you happen to know where the host of this gathering is?"
"Right here," Andrea replied in an almost condescending voice. She let out a chuckle before continuing, "Obviously you don't party much. Jeans and a tank top don't really work for a party like mine most of the time. Everyone who goes to beachfront parties know my all-inclusive ones are the best. Someone dragged you here right?"
Bri shrugged, used to statements like that towards her social life. The difference between her and them was that she would have her college paid off and earned every dime of the money for it. "Car broke down. Do you use those wings to perform at your own party?" Bri should have asked for a phone, but the still-growing owl wings distracted her. That question elicited a wierd look from Andrea until she looked in the mirror and saw the wings herself. Bri accidently added insult to injury by inquiring, "You do remember putting those on right?"
"GET OUT!" Andrea stomped her foot on the floor. "Whoever you are, you never saw me or these wings! People are banned from my room during parties! Why are you here?" Andrea's rantings clearly signaled to Bri that the winged-girl was panicking. Usually kicking people out is a poor interrogation strategy. People either share the information or leave, not both.
Talking to Andrea frustrated Bri. Bri thought Andrea should be concerned with her future, not throwing big racous parties to be the "it" girl at school. "Like I said before, my car broke down. My cell is dead too. I was wondering if I could use a phone to call for repairs to the car. Those wings distracted me though, they are amazing."
Andrea tossed Bri her cell. Bri caught it and turned around, noticing a triangular gem on the table. As she knocked open the phone, Bri took a closer look. It was indeed a spy camera, but it was made to look much more extravagant than it should have been. Bri had gotten put on hold, so she figured to at least try and make small talk while she waited. "Are either of your parents private eyes?"
"No, Mom's a vet and she adopted me as a single parent, why?" Andrea rambled. It was a simple yes no question, but Andrea managed to turn that into something much longer.
"For your parents not being private eyes," Bri mused, "You sure have a fancy spy camera in the triangle thing on your desk. My dad is a private eye, so he's been teaching me how to identify spy tech. Unfortunately, his job makes him paranoid of all the kids so I don't get invited much. He'd probably do something stupid like order a background check on everyone at the party anyway."
Andrea picked up the pyramid from the table. "This little thing. Please. Troy gave it to me. It's not like he's a spy or something." From the way she talked, Andrea appeared to be attracted to this Troy character."
"Open the base," Bri insisted and Andrea did. "What you have just pulled out is a very tiny camera. Whether or not you were intended to have that, who knows? But I know one thing, someone has probably been listening in on your conversations. If you lend me that black thing, I can find out who for you." Then the phone came back and the operators told Bri that it would take fourty-five minutes to get to her car and fix it. Bri hung up the phone and offered it back to Andrea, who didn't take it back just yet. "Thanks for letting me use your phone. I suppose I'll get going now."
"Wait. I'd actually like it if you gave me your number so I could call your dad and he could tell me about this spy camera stuff. It's not everyday a girl gets told there's spy crap in her room. Plus, if you left the party after just coming it would so not look cool. It's not like you've got something BETTER to do." A devilish idea must have come into Andrea's head because her devilish grin probably didn't get much use in the rich, elite circles. "Bonus if you can get Sam to hit on only you. He's a great dancer but a bit of a ladies' man."
Resigningly, Bri nodded. "Well, I suppose I'll hang out until my car gets fixed. Anyway, my dad has a database of all the spy cams and disposal directions." She withdrew a pen and a piece of scratch paper from her jeans. "Here's my houseline in case you need anything else. I suppose I'll use my phone and explain things to my dad. He won't charge you anything since you let me use your phone." Bri explained everything to her father and returned the phone to Andrea, who accepted it this time. Again, the phone was on hold but this time it was because Bri's father was getting the right databases set up on his computer.
The pair traded names, phone numbers and other contact information just in case they needed anything. Little did they know, they would need each other a lot more than they expected. Bri walked down stairs while her mind was still musing about Troy and Andrea. Was he a stalker? Was she just one of the "popular" girls or did she have more color to her? Was their relationship built on trust, or lies? Did he like her at all, or did he just want to have the popular queen under his thumb? Was the camera an accident?