Chapter2: "Is This Real Life?"

This story includes adult themes, please be advised.

Sammie made it to the stairs first, and was quickly followed by Cheyanne. Styx came out from her room with Julia and joined them. When they made it down stairs, Sammie was a bit bewildered. They found Emma in a gorgeous formal outfit and some strange, unfamiliar man who was wearing ripped, dirty clothing. Both of them were just standing there.

“What on earth is going on down here?” Cheyanne asked and then pointed towards the strange man and asked, “Who are you and what are you doing here in the middle of the night?”

At that moment, Skip came running up from the basement. “Darn it Chuck! Go back downstairs.” She motioned him towards the door. “Cheyanne, I’m so sorry. I told him there was left over pizza in the fridge upstairs. I didn’t actually think he would come get it. I swear he was heading towards the bathroom. So what was all the screaming about anyway? Why are you in a prom dress?” Skip finished, clearly trying to change the subject.

“Alright ladies, let’s get some of this straightened out. It’s way too early for this type of disturbance. Since we are all here, lets go sit around the table and talk about everything.”   

As they were walking over towards the table, Cheyanne looked towards Sammie and said “I’m guessing since she’s not here, Orange hasn’t found her way home yet?” Sammie nodded. Everyone took their seats and Cheyanne turned her gaze towards Emma. “First of all, are you alright?”

“Yeah, he just scared me. I had a strange craving, so I made myself some spaghetti. There are some leftovers in the fridge for dinner tomorrow, by the way.  I was heading up to my room with a pint of ice cream when I turned the corner and a strange man walked into me. I couldn’t help but scream. I threw the ice cream towards him, but it just fell on the floor. He didn’t do anything to me or anything, he just stood there, staring at me even after I screamed. He didn’t say a word and he didn’t even move until Skip told him to go downstairs.”

Cheyanne breathed a small sigh of relief that Emma was unharmed and looked at Skip. “Okay, now the bigger question: who on Earth is Chuck and why in the world is he in our house at 3AM?”

“Look, Cheyanne, I’m really sorry. He wasn’t staying the night, we were just working late. A few of the guys came over after our little get together last night to work on our project and time slipped away from us. They were never supposed to leave the basement.”

“That’s just not a good enough excuse, Skip. It’s three in the morning and look at the chaos this caused. The whole house is awake! What a wonderful way to welcome Sammie into our home,” Cheyanne said sarcastically. All eyes drifted towards Sammie as if everyone remembered she was there for the first time.

“But sleeping beauty over there stays the night all the time,” Skip retorted. She was referring to Julia, who’s eyes were closed and didn’t appear to be conscious. Styx reached over and shook her knee a little to get her to wake up a bit.

“Yes, she does, and it’s fine because each and every time she does, Styx talks to me about it first. Don’t you remember the first few times she stayed here? We had a group meeting about it so everyone knew she would be staying the night. That way, there were no incidents like this. Besides, everyone in this house knew Julia for months before she started staying with us. Besides you, I don’t think anyone has laid their eyes on Chuck before. You’ve got to imagine it was pretty scary for poor Emma.”  A tiny snoring sound escaped from Julia and Styx nudged her again. She looked a bit embarrassed and tried to make herself look awake and alert.

“Yeah maybe, but it’s not the only time this has happened. Orange has brought home random men up to her room without asking you before,”  Skip argued

“That is it,” Cheyanne called out in a louder, angrier voice. She slammed her hand down on the table, which instantly woke up Julia and shocked everyone. “I’m done with all this gossip, Skip, you're making this worse on yourself. I think we are going to have to chat privately. We are going to head down to your room and talk. I want to know what the devil is going on down there at this hour anyway!”

“NO!,” Skip yelled out, clearly startled. She took a moment to regain her composure and then continued in a calmer voice, “I mean, I’m really sorry for everything Cheyanne. Please, can we talk up in your room? I promise I’ll tell you everything when it’s just us. Please! Please! Pleeease,” she begged.

Cheyanne shook her head and placed her hand to her face to rub her forehead, obviously a bit exacerbated by the whole situation. Finally, she half said/half yelled, “Fine. I’m too tired to deal with this, run up to my room and I’ll meet you up there in a minute. You better have a good explanation for all this.”

Skip got up quickly and ran out of the room as fast as she could. Cheyanne again started to rub her forehead, as if trying to alleviate a headache. “Alright, I have a least one more issue to resolve. Why the heck are you running around the house at 3AM cooking dinner in a formal gown?” Everyone’s attention turned back to Emma.

“Umm… well you see… umm… well… I don’t know. I just wanted to… to… to… see if it fit and it did. I got hungry, so I decided to come down and get some food and I…I just forgot to take it off that’s all.”  Emma stumbled trying to get the words out.

“Fine. Whatever. Get upstairs, get some sleepwear on and head to bed. All of you!” Cheyanne exclaimed as she pointed towards the stairs. Everyone got up and made their way over to the stairs. Cheyanne put her hand on Sammie’s back and walked with her a little. “What an introduction to your new home, eh? I promise it’s not like this every night. I just don’t know what has gotten into everyone tonight. I’ve got to talk with Skip now, but I’d like to have a talked with you in the morning as well. Get some sleep.”

Just as Cheyanne finished speaking and gave Sammie a pat on the back, they heard the police siren.  Everyone turned and looked towards the door. The lights were shining in through the windows as the police car pulled into the driveway. Everyone stopped dead in their tracks and were completely silent. Cheyanne made her way towards the door and motioned everyone to come back down and join her. Everyone was standing together when the heard the knock. The officer was a bit taken a back with how quickly the door was answered and he looked even more shocked to find not one, but five women standing at the door.

The officer gained his composure and said, “Good evening, ladies, I am sorry to disturb you so late, but I believe this is the residence of Orange Plumbob. Am I correct?”

Everyone huddled a bit closer and began to brace themselves for bad news. Cheyanne spoke up “Yes sir, Orange lives here.”

“Are you the one responsible for her?”

“Well, I guess, but she’s a grown woman she is really responsible for herself.” Cheyanne couldn’t hold back anymore and rushed in her burning question, “Is she alright?”

“Yes, Ma’am, but it looks like she is going to need to be escorted home this evening. She was found passed out half naked on the second floor of the Red Rendezvous with Ms. Amy Bull. It looks like they had themselves quite a party up there. We might not have found them, but it appears one of them threw something and broke the window. When a neighbor came to investigate, he found the women in the throes of lovemaking and decided to call the police instead. By the time we got there, we found them both passed out. The paramedics have checked them both, and we took Ms. Bull to the Hospital for what appears to be alcohol poisoning. Ms. Plumbob should be fine, but she is still passed out on the ground. We need you to accompany us back to the bar and take her home. Bring as many of you as it will take to carry her. One or two of you can drive with us and at least one of you will have to take a car to bring her back” the officer said in a rather rushed tone.

“Thank you, Officer,” Cheyanne said as she turned to face the other girls. “Styx and Emma, come with me. Sammie or Julia, will you please let Skip know what is going on and tell her if she is not up in my room waiting for me by the time I get back, I will be going downstairs to find her?”

“Wait, I’m sorry Cheyanne, but I can’t go out like this,” Emma said.

“Fine, than get changed. You have about 10 seconds.”

“I can’t.”

“What do you mean you can’t?” Cheyanne demanded.

Sammie jumped in, “Cheyanne, would it be okay if I go instead of Emma? I don’t mind going out in my pajamas and I’d really like to make sure Orange is okay.” Cheyenne hastily agreed and the two followed the officer to his car.

Sammie rode in the police car with Cheyanne and Styx drove her Wornado Triage. The ride there was very solemn; everyone was in deep thought of what could have happened to Orange. Of course everyone was thankful she was okay, but they knew it could have been worse. When the got to the bar, another officer was guarding the entrance. He held the door opened for them as they all walked in. Sammie was the last one in and to her absolute shock, the officer at the door smacked her on the butt when she walked passed him. She turned around in complete shock only to see him wink at her. Sammie was beyond creeped out by the pervert, but decided there was already too much going on to make any fuss about it. She turned around and ignored him, and headed upstairs with everyone else.   

Orange was a mess. They did what they could to get some of her clothes back on her and cover her up a bit. They carried her all the way to the car, although they bumped her head once against the railing while they were trying to get her down the stairs. It didn’t take them long to get her to back home. Styx and Sammie carried her inside and Cheyanne ran ahead to get her some water. Before they took her upstairs, the got her conscious enough to get some of the water down. After all that alchol, she was certainly dehydrated.

They carried her upstairs and tried to get her into sleepwear. They put a bucket next to her bed just in case, but she was out like a light. By this time, it was almost 5AM. Sammie crawled back into bed and woke  up sometime around noon. She got up and noticed her suit case was next to her bed again! She was sure it definitely hadn’t been there when she went to sleep, though.

When she awoke, Orange was still out cold. She went downstairs to get herself something to eat. She came back up with some orange juice and vitamins. She was certain Orange would wake up with a hangover and one heck of a headache. Within a few minutes of coming back upstairs, Orange began to stir.

“Uwwwwhhhh,” Orange moaned. She sat up and put her head into her hands, “How did I get back here last night? I don’t remember anything.”

“We’ll get to that,” Sammie said as she walked over and handed Orange the vitamins and juice, “but first, why don’t you take these and maybe you’ll start to feel a bit better.”

“I feel terrible,” Orange said as she devoured the pills. “Uggg I haven’t felt this hung over in a very long time. Uggg I can’t handle sitting up. I think I’m going to go back to sleep. Just fill me in when I wake up, okay?” Orange half mumbled as she almost instantly fell back to sleep.

Sammie tucked her back in and decided to leave the room to give her some privacy. She headed over to the stairs when she heard Cheyanne call from above, “Hey, Sammie, is that you? Come on up here and let’s have a chat.” Sammie was surprised that Cheyanne knew it was her, but headed upstairs without any hesitation.

Cheyanne was sitting over in the comfy chairs Orange had told her about. She motioned Sammie over and said, “Come on, take a seat over here and make yourself comfortable.” Sammie walked over and sat down. Those chairs definitely lived up to their hype; they were probably the comfiest chairs Sammie had ever sat in. Even though she knew she was a little nervous to be talking with Cheyanne, she felt completely at ease.

“Between RJ’s outburst, Skip’s friend, and Orange last night, I just wanted to know how you were holding up. It was a lot to take in and I promise you this type of chaos is not the norm around here. It seems like all the crazy came out at once. I just want to know how you are handling all of it.”

“Honestly, I’m holding up just fine. Yeah, all this stuff is a bit much for one day, but it’s nothing completely out of the ordinary.” Sammie explained.

Cheyanne accepted her answer and continued “I want you to know that we always try to be as open and honest in this house as possible, that why I kept you all downstairs together last night, so you would all know what happened and wouldn’t be worried or starting rumors, or anything like that.” Sammie smiled and nodded and Cheyanne continued, “Alright, Hun, why don’t you fill me in a little bit about yourself, your hopes, your dreams? Tell me more about you.”

The question seemed so broad, but it worked. They sat and talked for what seemed like hours about Sammie’s past, present, and future. She told Cheyanne about growing up in Sunset Valley with her mother. She never had a father, the subject didn’t really come up but from little snippets she has heard, she was pretty certain her mother wasn’t even sure who the father was. When she left for college, her mother moved in with one of her boyfriends into the house, which is why Sammie didn’t really feel comfortable living at home again. She and her mother were always very close and Sammie still spoke with her fairly often. The talk actually lasted about an hour when Sammie finished the majority of her background.

As the conversation came to an end, Cheyanne added, “You are always welcome to talk to me about anything. Please don’t ever be afraid to come to me if you feel like you have a problem. I will always do my best to help. Also, feel free to let me know if there is anything I can do to make your stay in this house more enjoyable.”

“Actually, I do have a question for you,” Sammie said, “do you mind if I try and clean up the garden area out back? I’d love to start a little garden for us so we can save money and use all organically home-grown fruits and vegetables.”

“Of course, of course. Here, wait here a second,” Cheyanne said as she got up and walked over to her desk. She started ruffling through her drawers until she pulled out a small pouch and brought it back over towards Sammie. “Here, use these. A friend of mine gave them to me, they’re all nearly perfect seeds, but I’m pretty sure you’ll need some pretty high gardening skill to grow the ones at the bottom.”

“Thank you so much, Cheyanne!” Sammie said with a hug, “I’m going to head out right now and work on clearing it out!” Cheyanne waved goodbye and took up her paintbrush, getting ready to continue working on the beautiful masterpiece she was creating.

Sammie descended the stairs, but when she got to the bottom of the first set, she decided to take a peek and go check on Orange. She was still sound asleep, so Sammie quietly shut the door and headed back to the stairs. However, when she got close to them, she heard a crying sound coming from Emma’s room. She got closer and put her ear against the door. Someone was definitely crying inside.

Sammie briefly considered what to do. She thought about knocking and asking if she was alright, but she remembered the other day at the firehouse and thought it would probably go very similarly. She didn’t want to embarrass the poor girl, she just wondered why she was always crying. She was warned about RJ and Skip, but everyone seemed to view Emma as relatively normal. She decided to leave it be for now, but Emma remained in her thoughts as she went downstairs.

As she approached the foot of the stairs, she heard hushed voices whispering. She wasn’t trying to listen but she overhead them anyway. “What do you think has gotten into Emma lately?” said one of the voices, which sounded like Julia’s.

“I have a good idea what’s going on: I heard her throwing up in her bathroom yesterday while I was putting in a load of laundry. Between that, her midnight meals and trying to fit into her old prom dress, I’m thinking she might have an eating disorder. I don’t know whether to talk to Cheyanne about it or give her some time,” said the other voice, who Sammie couldn’t quite make out, but deducted it was probably Styx’s.

Sammie couldn’t believe her ears. She didn’t mean to overhear the conversation; she wasn’t even sure who exactly was talking, but it sounded like it was Styx and Julia. She decided to quickly walk out the back door through the kitchen so she could remain unnoticed and headed to the back yard, still thinking about Emma. An eating disorder was really serious and everything seemed to add up, but still, Sammie had this strange feeling that something else was going on with her. It was odd how connected she felt with her housemates already. It seemed like she’d been living there for weeks already, but it had only been one night. She shrugged to herself and tried to let her thoughts about all that go for now.

She was standing in front of the incredibly cluttered garden and wanted to get a game plan together so she could tackle this mess as efficiently as possible. She needed to take the clutter, like the tires and broken items, down to the junk yard. She paused for a moment to wonder where all the oil drums came from, but decided not to worry about it. She also needed to get rid of all the weeds and fill in all the holes.

She decided to try and get some of the clutter taken care of first. She learned that the oil drums stack easily inside each other, so that reduced a lot of space. She also stuffed most of the tires inside for the drums. There was an entire junk pile she still had to go through, but the next thing she decided to do was work on filling up some of the holes. That took a lot longer than she thought it would, but the results of all her hard effort were starting to show. She realized that since she didn’t have a car, she didn’t really have a way to bring the clutter to the junk yard, so she piled it all into one corner and began to tackle the weeds. She went through and not only removed all the brambles in the garden, but every single weed in the yard. She had four wheel barrows filled with yard brush before she finished. The sun set just as she pulled out the last buckhorn.

Sammie decided to head inside. She had spent the majority of the day in the garden and wanted to go check on Orange. She walked in to find the downstairs empty and went to her room to see if Orange was there. When she walked into the room, it was empty, but she heard the shower running in the other room. It wasn’t necessarily Orange. The way the bathrooms were set up, it could have been anyone; even Skip had to come upstairs to shower.

She sat down on her bed and took a deep breath. It was the first time Sammie had been able to just relax and process everything since she got into the house. That’s when she saw it: the broken picture frame. She forgot all about it until just then. She picked up the broken frame and held it in her hands, examining it. She probably should have talked to Cheyanne about it, but it just slipped her mind. If she went to talk to her about it now, it would look like she was holding it back from her while they were chatting earlier. She also probably should have talked to her about someone rummaging through her stuff. Sammie decided to just let these things be, since they were probably nothing.  Orange walked into the room in her bathrobe. She pointed to the broken frame and asked Sammie, “Hey, what’s that you have there?”

Sammie shook her head and said, “Oh this? Don’t worry about this, it’s nothing. How are you feeling?”

“I’m fine. My head hurts a little, but I’m fine. I just woke up about half an hour ago,” Orange said as she lay back down on her bed. She patted the spot next to her on the bed. “I think I need to relax for a while though. Come over here and join me so we can talk about everything. Considering the bucket I found next to my bed, I’m guessing I did something stupid last night. I just don’t remember what.”

Sammie joined her and asked, “What’s the last thing you remember about last night?”

“Well, I went to some club and had a few drinks. I remember getting kicked out for closing time. I got into a taxi with a couple and we decided we were not done having fun for the night. The girl’s name was Amy, but I don’t remember the guy’s name. I remember we had a few bottles of nectar on the way to a place they kept saying was open all night long, but I don’t remember getting there, the next thing I knew I woke up to you feeding me vitamins,” Orange recalled.

“I’m not going to be able to fill in all the details for you, but basically a neighbor called the cops after someone broke a window and heard the sounds of woohooing. By time the police got there, they found you and Amy passed out on the second floor of a bar. They sent Amy to the hospital and came to the house to get some of us to carry you home.”

“Aww man, I can’t believe they woke you all up in the middle of the night. Gosh, I need to stop doing stuff like this. I don’t remember any of it.” At that point, Sammie filled Orange in on all the other events of the night prior. They talked about everything for a while, but Orange brought the conversation back to her eventful evening. “I have to stop doing things like this, Sammie. I’m going to get myself into a situation I can’t control again.”

“Again?” Sammie asked

“I might as well tell you,” Orange said, “you knew I was holding back the last time we talked; I could see it in your eyes. You know me too well. Things got out of control with Meat and I; you knew they would. I wished I had just listened to you in the first place. This is a really long and complicated story. You better get comfortable.”

 “A lot of it has to do with RJ. Did you know Meat and RJ were in a relationship when he started dating me?” It was more of a rhetorical question and Orange got her answer by the horrified look on Sammie’s face. “Yeah, I know. I was shocked too. I had no idea it was going on; he kept dating us both for months apparently and got away with it. Eventually, RJ found out about me. When she confronted Meat about it, he just broke up with her, and I was none the wiser. It explains why RJ hated me all those years, though.”

“I feel bad talking about her like this, but it’s all stuff she told me herself, so at least it’s not hearsay. Still, she has a really troubling past. Both her parents died when she was only a toddler. So was bounced around in social services for a while. No one ever taught her how to walk or talk or any of that properly. That put her significantly behind by the time they made her start school. She was harassed by the other children because she wasn’t as advanced as them. Anyway, right before high school, she moved here to live with her biological uncle. From what she described, he was pretty abusive to her, but I won’t go into any details about that. He mysteriously passed away of starvation even though RJ seemed healthy. When she told me about his death, she smiled. Apparently, Julia was there the day he died. They had grown to be BFF’s while at school, and Julia begged her parents to let RJ live with them. She only stayed there a few months before moving off to college, but that’s why she and Julia are so close. I think the whole thing really screwed her up and maybe that’s why she is so insane,” Orange continued.

“I know all this sounds terrible and you might not want to know it, but it’s necessary to understand what happened. A few days after graduation, a bunch of us girls went out to celebrate our last night together. I don’t remember why you weren’t there. Actually, you know what? I do. You were on a plane for France while all this was happening. Sorry to digress. Anyway, we were all out partying at a dive bar and Sammie, I swear to you I did not have that much to drink. I mean, after last night, I’m sure you think it’s possible, but honestly I didn’t; I know my limits.” At this point in the story, Orange hesitated a moment. She knew once she crossed this line, there was no taking it back, but she chose to continue anyway.

“RJ put something in my drink. I know she did, I just can’t prove it! I don’t remember anything; it was the first time I ever blacked out. Sarah told me I got into a cab with RJ, because I wasn’t feeling well and wanted to go home. Well, I never made it home. The next thing I remember, I woke up lying in bed with this random guy I’d never met before. I was in my undergarments and my entire body was sore; the whole room was spinning. I found my clothes, or at least some clothes; apparently the shirt was his; and walked outside to hail a cab. I just wanted to get home. I need Meat’s support, since I felt so dazed and confused. He was waiting for me when I got home. He never stopped yelling; apparently RJ told him I went home with another guy and I came home wearing the proof. He never let me get a word in edge-wise; I never had a chance. He ripped the other guy’s shirt off me and hit me, more than once. He had hit me on one other occasion, but it wasn’t that bad. Unfortunately and stupidly, I forgave him when he told me it would never happen again. Well, it happened again and I passed out. I woke up the next day in a hospital bed. It was pretty bad, but I think I healed up nicely.”

“I don’t know if it was a dream or what, but I swear I woke up and saw RJ standing over me laughing maniacally. Meat came to visit me once to apologize, but I just pretended to be sleeping. I should have filed a police report, but I just wanted to leave it all behind. They gave me a laptop a few days before I was released and I used it to try and find housing. I was lucky enough to find Cheyanne’s ad. I don’t know what I would have done without this place: it’s changed by life. As soon as they released me, I left and moved into Pheasant Hollow right away.”

“So you see, that’s what happened last time. Since then, though, I keep putting myself in dangerous situations. Last night wasn’t the first time I blacked out, but not again. I’m going to get over this. When I go out for a few drinks, it’s going to be for fun like old times, not to hide from anything. I don’t really want you to say anything; I just needed you to listen. The only other person I’ve ever told about this is Cheyanne. It feels so good to tell someone else; it’s like a bit of weight has been taken off of my shoulders. I know I can trust you Sammie, I just wanted to let you know what happened.”

“I’m glad you trust me enough to let me know,” Sammie responded, still taking in everything Orange had told her, “I’m so sorry for what happened to you. No one deserves anything like that, but you should be proud of yourself. At least this time, you were smart enough to stay away from Meat.” Sammie reached over to give Orange a big hug.

“I’m starving,” Orange blurted out, “I guess that means I’m feeling better, let’s go downstairs and grab a bit to eat.” They went downstairs and had some left over pasta for dinner; Styx even came and joined them. They all started small talk and everyone was pretending as if last night hadn’t happened. It was probably better that way. Styx complimented Sammie on the garden and offered to give her a ride to the junk yard to take care of all the trash. Sammie was thrilled; she couldn’t believe how nice everyone had been to her today. She was really glad she decided to move in, even with all the craziness. After they finished dinner, they all sat around the TV and watched a movie. At one point, Emma came down to browse the internet. Sammie noticed she was still wondering around in that formal dress. When Emma went upstairs, Styx excused herself. It looked like she was going to try and talk to Emma.

When the movie finished, they started to head upstairs, but Orange took a peak out the window first. She saw the driveway filled with Twizy’s. She looked over to Sammie and asked, “What is she doing down there? What could possibly be so important that they want to meet about it at crazy hours of the night?” Sammie shrugged and they both went upstairs.

Sammie fell asleep peacefully and woke up at a normal hour. She thought to herself it was nice that she actually got to sleep through the night. The night before was probably a rare side-effect of so many people living under one roof. She was safe and comfortable here, even though some things still unnerved her a little. On her way to the rest room that morning, she realized she heard the shower running. In order to get to the other restroom, you had to go through Emma’s room. Sammie knocked on Emma’s door, but she didn’t answer. Sammie went downstairs to the first floor bathroom, but she heard water running in there as well. She really had to pee and she remembered the restrooms in the basement. Orange had told her she used them before, so she didn’t think too much about it. There were a ton of stalls in there and Sammie rushed into one to relieve herself.

Almost as soon as she locked the stall, she heard someone walk in. “I can’t believe it’s finally almost here; we’ve been planning this for almost a year and it’s only a few days away,” said the strange masculine-sounding voice. Sammie wanted to speak up and say something, but suddenly was overcome by fear when she heard the next part. “As long as she knows how to hook those explosives up without blowing this whole place to smithereens... hahaha,” the strange voice laughed, “It’s going to work! We are going to have the entire town so frightened about the bomb that there will be no one to stop us from robbing the National bank, especially with Sinbad working security that day! They will never know what hit them. The plan is genius; it can’t fail,” the strange voice continued while using the stall next to her. She was terrified. “Chuck, I know you’re the quiet type and everything, but ignoring me is a bit childish, don’t you think?” the voice said this as he was washing his hands. She was hoping he would just leave so she could get out of there. Although, she remembered that Chuck was the name of Skip’s friend from the other night.

Then, the door opened. She was excited at first because she thought he was leaving, but she quickly realized she never heard him walk over to the door. “Chuck? What the…? If you are there, then who is in the stall?” said the voice, “Who’s in here? Who are you?” yelled the voice as he started banging on the stall. “Get out here right now!” Sammie was frozen; she didn’t know what to say or what to do. She just stayed in the stall and didn’t move. “Darn it, I’m going to have to go get Skip, I may or may not have told whoever’s in there our plan.”

“You did WHAT!” yelled the other voice, which was presumably Chuck’s. “You moron, you might have just ruined the whole thing! Go get Skip NOW! I’ll stay here. Whoever it is won’t be able to get passed me.”

Sammy put the seat down on the toilet and crawled into a kneeling position on top of it, hoping that maybe they would just go away. Maybe they would think the door was locked from the inside or something, she thought to herself.

It felt like only a second went by when she heard Skip walk into the room and yell, “What is wrong with you idiots? Who is in there?” When no one responded, she gave a frustrated grunt and yelled, “Well get them out of there so we can find out.” At that, Chuck put his arms around the door and yanked the entire door off the stall. Everyone was staring at Sammie.

Skip gave a sigh which almost sounded like relief, “It’s just the new girl,” she said. Then, she grabbed Sammie by the wrist to pull her out of the stall. “Don’t you dare say a word!” she screamed as she pulled Sammie out the door. She dragged Sammie into the room behind the door with all the gears and sat her down at the table.

Sammie noticed the basement was filled with scrap metal and oil drums, she feared what was going on. Also to her dismay, she recognized one of the men. It was the officer who had smacked her butt the evening before. How can a police officer be in on a crime like this? Sammie thought to herself. Skip put her face right up close to Sammie’s and yelled, “What did you hear?” Sammie didn’t respond and Skipped turned towards one of the men, who all looked rather intimidating, and asked, “Well, Shark, what did she hear?” Shark repeated exactly what he said in the restroom. “Well if she didn’t hear it the first time, she definitely heard it now,” Skip roared, “I work with a bunch of idiots,” she called out to no one in particular.

Skip turned back to address Sammie, “Sammie, you better listen and listen good. I swear if you tell anyone about what you heard now here today, there will be serious consequences. We have influence all around the world; we can hunt down everyone you love and care about. We are capable of many things. Don’t you doubt it! Get up and follow me!” Skip yanked at her arm and pulled her out of the room and across the hall and into her bedroom. She shut the door and they were completely alone.

Sammie looked around Skip’s bedroom and she was frightened by what she saw. Out of few of the doorway, Skip had covered a corner of her room in newspapers and had up a bunch of plots and sinister sounding messages on a tack board. This girl was definitely missing a few screws herself. She threatened her and was making an explosive, but her entire room was covered in peace signs.

Skip stomped around her room a little as if gathering her thoughts, and then she gave out a sigh and put her hands on Sammie’s shoulders. “Look, I had to put on a bit of a show in there; just don’t do anything stupid. If you keep your mouth shut, no one will hurt you or anyone else in your life. You don’t understand the things they are capable of. Don’t even bother going to the police, we have them under our finger, they will never believe you and Cheyanne already knows what’s going on, so you might as well not even bother with her. Just keep your mouth shut! Do you understand me?” She finished her statement by shaking Sammie by the shoulders. Sammie was still frightened out of her mind and just nodded at Skip. “Get out of here, and keep your freakin’ mouth shut!” Skip yelled.

Sammie practically ran upstairs. She didn’t watch were she was going and ran right into Styx. Styx was a little startled at first but then she looked at Sammie and said, “Hey, you okay?”

“Yeah” was all Sammie could muster.

“You look like you’ve just seen a ghost or something. Oh well. Hey, I planted a few vegetables in the garden back there. I know it’s your project and all, but I just couldn’t help myself; it looked so plantable. I only planted a few, so there is still plenty of room out there. I’m on my way to work now, but I can take you down to the junkyard tomorrow to get rid of all the rubbish out there.”

“Sounds great,” Sammie said, “I’ll go check it out now.” She walked right out the front door and went out back to the garden. She noticed where Styx planted and she was excited to see them blossom soon, but all she could focus on was what happened to her. She couldn’t help but feel like she was being watched. She walked into the barn and sat down on the couch. She woke up a few hours later; she didn’t even realize she had fallen asleep. She decided to walk up to her room and continue her nap up in her own bed.

When she got there, the room was empty, but there was a box wrapped up like a present with a bright blue bow around it on the ground at the foot of the bed. The Card on top read “For Sammie, A token of our new friendship.” Sammie sat on her bed and placed the box on her lap. When she opened it, the box seemed empty. She turned over the lid and saw a message written underneath. It read, “Keep Your Mouth Shut.” At first, Sammie was confused and then she started to feel light headed. The next thing she knew, she was laying on the ground of a completely dark room. There were no windows and Sammie couldn’t see a door anywhere. As she sat up in her still half-drugged state,  she thought to herself, Is this real life? She was so confused. Where was she? She stood up and started banging on the walls.

It didn’t take long, until she heard some movement on the wall next to her. There was a hidden door there, she couldn’t believe it. Skip came through the passage way and told Sammie to get out of there. Sammie emerged from the hidden room to find that she was in the basement. Skip look at her and said, “Now you have seen with your own eyes exactly what we are capable of. Don’t worry; I didn’t let anyone hurt you while you were out. They just brought you down here and stuffed you in that room. It was just to scare you. Do you get it now? They already know everything about you. They know your mother’s home address, they know about the host family you stayed with, they know everything. They can do terrible things. All you need to do to prevent all this is to keep your mouth shut! Go head upstairs and pretend like nothing happened.”

Sammie wandered back upstairs and realized some of the girls were sitting down to dinner. She took a seat at the tabled and joined Cheyanne, Orange, and Julia. Emma was nowhere to be seen and Styx was still in the kitchen, and it looked like smoke was coming out of there. Cheyanne noticed the panicked expression on Sammie’s face and said, “Don’t worry, this is normal, nothing is actually on fire.”

Styx brought out a half-seared plate, which looked like it may have once been macaroni and cheese and declared, “I didn’t do so bad this time, bon appetite.” Sammie thought to herself that she begged to differ, especially after she actually mustered up the courage to try a bite. It was horrid, but she politely ate through it anyway. Sammie decided to stay downstairs after dinner and use one of the computers to browse the web for a little while, since she still needed to find a job. Curiosity got the better of her and she began to search the web for “vegetarian club” information. She was shocked at what she read. Apparently, that was a codename for a group of underground eco-terrorists. They were alleged to be responsible for multiple bombings of meat packing plants and mega-corporations around the world. Their most recent attack was in Champs Les Sims and it was responsible for the deaths of over a dozen innocent sims.

If this was the same organization meeting in the basement, Sammie had the ability to stop their next attack. She knew their plan, and she could foil it and make sure that no one was hurt. But how? They were obviously very serious about this whole thing, and she could be putting herself at risk, and not only herself, but everyone she cared about. But she couldn’t live with herself if innocent sims were injuried or killed and she could have prevented it. Then, the next problem was who to tell? She couldn’t go to the police; they obviously had an inside man there. She thought seriously about talking to Cheyanne; she couldn’t imagine that she actually condoned anything like this. She thought Skip might have just told her that to frighten her. Thoug,h she knew that Skip and Cheyanne had that talk the other night? What if she really did tell her about it? Skip seemed almost afraid for Cheyanne to see the basement. Sammie didn’t know what to do, so she decided to go to her room to think about it.

When she got into her room, she was shocked at what she saw. Someone hung a picture of her host family above her bed. It was a blown-up version of the small one that was taken from her, except this one had a bright red target over both Pascal’s and Sammie’s head. That was the last straw. Sammie wasn’t going to keep taking all these threats. Who knew what kind of crazy stunt they would try to pull off next to scare her. Sammie ripped the picture down off the wall and brought it upstairs to Cheyanne.

“Cheyanne, I need to talk to you,” Sammie said in a rushed tone.

“Of course, is everything okay? What’s wrong? What are you holding in your hand?” Cheyanne asked.

Sammie was unraveling the picture and said “Skip and her vegetarian club downstairs are planning on using a b-” As she was saying it, there was a massive explosion! Both Cheyanne and Sammie hit the ground to take cover. They heard the sirens almost instantly.