Episode Thirty Six

Grant Poolhouse

Diego and Aaron pulled apart, both at a loss for words. Then, Aaron's eyes widened as he looked over Diego's shoulder. "Maria!" he said, jumping up.

"How could you?" Maria asked them.

"Maria, let me explain..." Aaron started.

Maria didn't let him finish, instead she ran out and got into her car, driving off before Aaron could get outside.

Golf Course Across From Med Center

Drew sat on a bench, looking out over the empty course, as he ate his lunch. He heard someone approaching, and looked up. "Hello, Jennifer," he said.

"Hello, Andrew," Jenny replied, smiling. "Can I sit down?"

"Of course," Drew said, moving over to give her room. "Are you starting to regret volunteering?"

"Never. How else would I spend time with you?"

"We've talked about this," Drew said, shaking his head. "It's illegal."

"And if it wasn't? If I was 18?"

"Then we'd have a chance."

"Why can't we have a chance now?" Jenny asked pouting.

"I'm not interested in ruining my professional life. And if we... if we had a relationship it would. I'd be ruined."

"So we keep it quiet! I'm good at keeping secrets."

Drew sighed. "You don't give up, do you?"

"Nope," Jenny said, laughing.

Outside The EdiSigns Building

Summer and Jamie arrived at almost the same time for the meeting Toria had called a few days before, and Jamie glared at Julian until the man agreed to just wait in the coffee shop across the street. In the elevator, each of the teens noticed the other was being quiet.

"So," Summer asked. "Why was Officer Roberts with you?"

Jamie summarized the reason for the guard, then added, "So no private time for a while."

"Unless we manage to ditch him," Summer said.

"And then he kills me for it," Jamie pointed out, laughing. "So, why are you so quiet?"

"Well," Sumemr started nervously. "I..." she stopped as the elevator doors opened, revealing Toria and Linda, deep in discussion.

"Summer, Jamie! Toria said, smiling. "Welcome to the offices! Come on, the other three models are already here, I picked them up at the airport this morning." She grabbed them by the arms and pull them into the main office, were Ronnie and Walker were waiting. Ronnie sat in a chair, he legs crossed, while Walker sat on the edge of the desk, tossing a golfball in the air and catching it. "Where did you get the golfball?" Toria asked.

"His pocket," ronnie replied, not looking up. "He insists on always carrying one."

"It's a good luck charm!"

"Try a rabbit's foot, it's luckier."

"Not for the rabbit," Jamie replied with a snort.

Ronnie looked up then, and smiled as she looked Jamie over. "And who are you, handsome?"

"Ronnie, Walker, meet Jamie Bowen and Summer Brady, our local talent. Jamie, Summer, meet Walker Andrews and Veronica Johns, from Seattle."

"I thought you said there were three others?" Summer asked.

"There are," Nicole said as she entered from a side room. "Surprise!"

"Nic!" Summer said, running to greet her best friend.

"And here comes the screeching," Jamie said jokingly.

"Girls do tend to do that, don't they?" Walker said, grinning. "I know Ronnie did whenever she had a sleepover. 'Ooh! Makeovers'!" he added in a falsetto voice.

"Shut up!" Ronnie said. Then she turned to Jamie and smiled as she walked over. "It's so nice to meet you Jamie," she said.

"Skank alert," Nicole whispered to Summer, glaring at Ronnie.

Summer turned and furrowed her brow. Then she walked back to Jamie's side and put her arm through his. "Jamie, sweetie?" she said. "You're going to invite Nicole to the next party at the lodge, rgiht? I mean, you wouldn't leave the best friend of your girlfriend uninvited, right?"

"Of course I wouldn't..." Jamie said, not quite getting why Summer had even bothered to ask. "I'm gonna invite Walker and Ronnie, too."

"I'd love to do a shoot out on that dock," Toria said. "Maybe for the swimwear line..."

"As long as there's some one pieces," Ronnie said, eyeing Summer. "Some people wouldn't look so good in a two piece."

"I'm sure none of us have any reason to be insecure or worried about our bodies, Ronnie," Summer said with a smirk. "Nicole works out just about every day, and me... well no one complained when I wore my bikini at the last Lodge party. But if you're worried about how you'll look, I'm sure Miss Edison can find a cover-up for you."

Toria put a hand over her mouth and coughed lightly to hide the laugh. "We'll discuss all this later," she said. "But it's very sweet of you to invite them, Jamie."

Jamie blushed slightly. "Yeah, well, that's me, the nice guy," he said with a shrug.

The Falls Park

Matt finally got bored of bugging Laura at the diner, and found himself wandering around the park, not having anything to do or anywhere to go. He heard a sound as he passed a gazebo and stopped to look in. His curious expression changed to one of concern when he saw Maria hunched over, her shoulders shaking as she cried. "Maria?"

Maira looked up, tears falling down her cheeks. "Matt?"

"What's wrong?" Matt asked, sitting next to her.

"Nothing," she said, wiping her face and trying to calm down.

"I don't buy that. What's wrong?" he repeated.

Maria looked at Matt for a long moment then started crying again. "Aaron and Diego!"

"I thought you were handling that," Matt said, not sure what to do.

"It was all a prank! Or at least it was suposse to be! They'd pretend to date so that when Aaron 'took me back' Miranda would be more accepting! But I saw them kissing! And it wasn't just pretend, it was a real kiss Matt!"

Matt let out a low whistle, then wrapped his arms around Maria and let her cry into his chest. "It's okay," he whispered.

Evanston Police Department

Malcolm sat in an interviewing room, patiently listening to the young woman in front of him tell her story.

"I wish I'd seen his face," Jeannie Webber said, shaking her head. "But he kept the blindfold over my eyes."

"It's okay, Miss Webber," Malcolm replied. "Just tell me what you do know and remember."

Jeannie sighed. "He was tall, maybe 6 feet. And he kept saying these things..."

"What things?"

"How pretty I was, how perfect. I kept asking him to stop, and he kept saying 'Not until we have our fun.' How could he call what he did fun?"

"He's obviously a very sick individual," Malcolm said. "Was there anything else you can remember? Other than the blindfold, were you restrained in anyway?"

Jeannie nodded slowly. "When I tried to scratch his face, he... he used handcuffs."

"Handcuffs?' Malcolm asked.

Jeannie nodded. "Yeah. I'm sorry, that's all I remember," she said. "Can I go now?"

"Yeah, you can go," Malcolm said. After she left, he sat for a minute, trying to find something new in what she had said, soemthing to help him figure out where to go next. His thoughts were interrupted as Officer Rick Evans walks in.

"Any ideas?" Rick asked.

Malcolm shook his head. "Unfortuantely, no."

Rick sighed. "Evanston's a good town. This kind of stuff doesn't happen."

"It doesn't happen in Heaven Falls, either. But guess what?" Malcolm replied, shaking his head. "There's no such thing as a 'good town' anymore, Officer Evans."

Outside The EdiSigns Offices

After the quick meeting, everyone started heading off. Once they got to the lobby, Summer grabbed Jamie's arm. "Can we go and talk? In private?"

Jamie nodded, his brows creasing in concern. "Sure. How about we go to the park?"

Summer nodded. "Can we walk?"

"Yeah, sure," Jamie said, putting his arm around her.

Summer leaned her head against his shoulder as they walked the few blocks to Falls Park. They wandered around until they found a secluded spot to sit on the grass. "There's something I need to tell you," she said.

"What?" Jamie asked. "What's wrong?"

"Jamie," Summer started, opening and closing her moutha few times. "Jamie, I think we're in trouble."

"Why?" Jamie asked, starting to worry.

"When we... I went to Med Center for a test today..."

"A test?" Jamie asked, the blood draining from his face. "Oh god no."

"No! Not that," Summer quickly assured him. "But there's something we never thought of, Jamie."

"What?"

"We never thought of it, Jamie. We were worried about HIV, or AIDs, or something like that," Summer said, starting to cry. "We never thought of this..."

"Of what?" Jamie asked.

"Jamie, I'm pregnant."

"What?" Jamie replied, shocked.

End Of Episode Thirty Six