Scott Guber was at home. He had thrown on a cd of his favorite Dvorak music when he gotten home. Soon after
he relaxed and allowed himself to be swept away by
the melody. He sat in his favorite chair with something to drink. The last two weeks have been hectic since the
arrival of Lizzie. He had yet to tell her that it had
been him that was in the shower that morning. That
might not last long, however. If anyone managed to identify him from the clip he saw on holt45.com, it
will be all over the school before he had a chance
to tell her himself. He hoped it wouldnt happen. He
knew she was at a birthday party being held by the rest of the faculty tonight. He would wait a while, then
he would call her at the hotel she was currently at. Right after he had a little shut-eye. Just a little snooze. He felt his eyes shutting slowly. He fought them, briefly, then he fell into a deep sleep.
He dreamt he was in school. He was walking down the hall with a stack of folders. What was in them? Where was he going? It didnt seem to matter, because he stopped cold
in his tracks when he saw Lizzie in the hall with a pink blouse on, and blue slack-pants. She waved. He hesistated then waved back.
"How you doing Scott?" She asked.
"All right I guess." He said hefting the folders to one side. "And you?"
"I was going to take a shower." She said. "Would you like to join me?"
"Whaa?" He said started by her question.
"Oh come on, I know it was you in there the first time." She said undoing her hair clip. She let her hair fall drop to her shoulders. Since this was a dream, her hair fell in a slow motion like manner. She shook it out and let the hair fly around her head. She had a mischevious gleam in her eyes. "You know you want to." She continued. She raised her hands to her blouse top. "Maybe this time you can stick around and do my back." She said as she started to unbutton it.
"Wait a minute." He said as the people passed by. Her hands were halfway down her blouse now. Some skin was showing. No one seemed to notice this, not even Harry as he passed by with Lauren. It must haved seemed like an everyday event to them. Scott rubbed his eyes. "Stop it!" He cried out. He took his hands off of his eyes. Lizzie was now dressed in a large pink fluffy towel. She had her hair wrapped.
"Come on Scott." She said as she passed him. "Hurry, while the water is still hot." She said as she walked around the corner. Scott started to follow but stopped as the large pink towel hit him in the face. His eyes flew open. He sat up abruptly. His face felt wet. He ran his hand over it. It was covered in sweat. He felt cramped and uncomfortably. He then realized he had somehow slid onto the floor. He went to the bathroom and splashed some water on his face.
"Forget it." He said. "I gotta tell her the truth before someone else has a chance to! I hope shes home now." He said racing to the phone. He looked up the phone number to the hotel she was at and dialed the number. The woman at the desk said she had not come back yet. "Where are you? I have so much to tell you." He grumbled as he hung up.
Across town
Cheryl Holt finished washing the last of her own vomit
out of her hair. It had been hard to wash out. She had
gotten sick all over herself after what had happened
in the pep rally and in the wildcat suit.
"Dammit that Lizzie BITCH." She cursed. "I will get her. If its the last thing I ever do, I will get even."
She wrapped her dripping wet hair in a towel. After the fourth shampoo job she did to it, the smell started to subside, her head finally felt like her own. She sat down in front of one of the many computers she had. As she connected to the internet, she heard a ping pong noise on her second monitor, which was already connected. It was her america online instant messenger. Someone had contacted her.
DP20001- I been looking for you.
Holt45- Who are you? Why are you looking for me?
DP20001- Never mind who I am.
Holt45- Fine, what do you want?
DP20001- Is the offer for info on the coaches shower pal still in effect?
Holt45- Yes.
DP20001- I have information you might want.
Holt45- What is it?
DP20001- Not here. Meet me at the school in ten minutes. And bring the money!
The window abruptly closed without Cheryl even touching the keyboard. Cheryl looked at the screen where the box had been. Dp? Who was that? There were several people with those two initials, but one person stuck out in her mind. But what if it wasnt her? What if it was Lizzie, setting her up for yet another fall? Cheryl realized she let her guard down way low when she thought she had a promising expose on her hands. The only one who was exposed was her, and at the pep rally. There was no way she was ever going to make the same stupid mistake twice in this lifetime.
Cheryl tapped her pen. Some messages uploaded on the screen. Mostly false leads or completely wrong answers. Some guessers failed to see the small point that Lizzies shower pal as not a woman and black so Harper and the other female teachers were out of the question. Still DP20001's IM was on her mind. She wanted to know what
she had to say. She looked at her watch. She had eight minutes to get to the school. If she didn't go now, she would never find out what was going down. She quickly tore the towel out of her hair, dressed, and ran out the door.
Lizzies place
Lizzie reached her hotel room in about twenty minutes. The snow was coming heavier now, and public transportation was hard to find in weather like this. It felt like she had walked most of the way home. She had come home because she had a feeling about who had sent her the charm bracelet. She first set down the back box the item of bracelet came in. She thought she heard something soft move inside of it. She pickedp the box and shook it lightly. It sounded like it was in the box, undeneath the foamy thing that held the bracelet in place. Lizzie went to the silverware drawer and took out the loan plastic knife she found in it. She took the flat edge and stuck it in the box. She pried the mount out. She surprised herself when she managed to flip it over the side of the box and onto the ground. She then put her fingers in and pulled out a folded piece of paper. It was folded four times. She slowly unfolded it and read what said. "IOU charm bracelet." It said. "No name." She muttered. "But somehow the writing is familiar on the note." She pondered. Her thoughts went to her yearbooks. She went to where she kept her yearbooks, they were one of the cardboard boxes she had brought to her room. She had brought her senior yearbook to the school, but she had put the book back after she got home the other day. She picked it up off the top of the box, whe she had left it. She flipped through it looking at all the messages that were written by classmates and some teachers. She reached the last page. There were some notes from her friends on it. Then tucked at the bottom of the page there was someting neatly written, almost nearly hidden by the other messages.
"IOU charm bracelet." She read aloud. She closed her eyes and thought.
"I lost my favorite charm bracelet the afternoon of the graduation ceremony. It was something given to me by an ex-boyfriend, Bobby. I kept it however cause I loved it. The clasp must have broken or something cause it vanished very quickly." She remembered. "I looked all over the place where we were having the ceremony. I was going to look at something shiny that caught my eye, then I ran into Scott. We talked for a little bit as we went to the thing that caught my eye. We didnt find the bracelet, only a bit of the chain part." She opened her eyes and saw that part of the chain taped to the page where she had left it.
"He said one day I would get it back. I wasnt so sure." She said aloud now. "He remembered." She said as she looked at the charm bracelet on her arm. "I can't believe he remembered after all that time."
Winslow High
At the same time Lizzie visited memory lane, Cheryl awaited her "deep throat" as you will, in a secret location. She stood next to the door to the room where she had her computers and other equipment. She had waited there fifteen minutes. As she was beginning to think that she was victim to yet another McCarthy prank, her informant showed up. Cheryl was getting a drink of water when she felt a tap on her shoulder.
"I'll be done in a minute!" She growled. "Someone always wants the water fountain..." She stopped. She was alone. At least she thought she was. She turned to face the person who tapped her on the shoulder.
"You?" She asked as she glimpsed at the person. "What do you want?"
"I have something for you." The voice said. The person was female. She stepped into the light. It was Dana Poole. The girl famous for kissing Harry. She handed her a disk.
"Look at the file." She said. "If you look in the reflection of the mirror in the bathroom, then you have your answer." She held out her hand. "Wheres that money?"
"Just a second, what do YOU have to gain from exposing
the shower pal?" Cheryl asked.
"I'm in it for the money." She said. "That and I want to get back at this person too."
"What person?"
"You'll see, on the disk." Dana said with her hand still out. "I'd like my money now."
"Fine." Cheryl said. She paused. "After we look at it together!"
"Whatever. Its all the same to me." Dana said as she followed Cheryl to her office.
Cheryl started up her computer. They waited for a couple of seconds. She stuck the disk into the drive and punched up the file. It was a segment of the shower cam, except it was focused specifically on the mirror. Some fog from the hot water obscured the image but after Cheryl tweaked with the file a little, the image came in all too clear.
"Scott Guber." Cheryl said with an air of victory.
"Exactly." Dana said.
"You've done well." Cheryl said handing her the money. She guided her to the door. "Thanks for dropping by. I gotta put this up ASAP.
Dana counted the money. "Hey, you're five bucks short!" She said as Cheryl slammed the door.
"You're mine now, McCarthy." Cheryl snarled as she went back to her work. Within minutes the new images would be up on all computer screens that accessed it.
Lizzies place
Lizzie was about to grab her coat to head over to Scotts house to talk about the bracelet. Something stopped her however. She had the strange urge to check her mail. She had been expecting an email from an old classmate. She started up her laptop. She clicked onto her mail folder
but something distracted her. Since the first animation on holt45.com she had made the muckracking page as her
start-up page, aka the one her internet browser went to first. As the mail piled in, she saw something the shocked her. At first it was the image she remembered seeing from the now famous shower cam, but it was a smaller picture. A closeup she decided. The picture continued to come into focus. It was of the bathroom mirror that waas opposite the bathroom sinks. It seemed to have a reflection in it. It seemed to be a mix of utter horror, and at the same time, a small hint of delight. The pictured finished uploading. The person in it was clear.
"Oh my god, its HIM!" She said.
Scotts place
A few minutes after he got himself a nice drink, Scott settled down with some important looking papers. He heard someone knock at the door. He got up and crossed quickly to the front door. He opened it. It was Lizzie, her clothes soaked to the skin with snow and ice.
"Lizzie, what?" He asked.
She held up her wrist, the charm bracelet hung from it.
"Scott, we gotta talk." She simply said.
Scott blinked, he had no idea what to say.
