Three Alarm Wakeup

Sunday, December 30th

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The teenager woke up with a start. Barely able to lift her heavy eyelids, she could tell in the moonlight that she fell asleep in an unfamiliar room. The sounds of a ceiling fan spinning and a person breathing next to her didn't ring any bells.

BRRRING-BRRRING

The loud noise breaking the silence of the room caused the teen to jump in shock. The movement led to her rolling out of bed. The cold wooden floor caused her to hop across the room to the desk with the annoying phone. Halfway to her goal, she shivered and realized upon looking down that she was naked.

BRRRING-BRRRING

Snatching the ornate receiver off the old-fashioned phone, the groggy girl answered it.

"Hello?"

"Shortstuff, that you?"

"Cat?"

"What the hell is going on up there?" the cheerleader co-captain demanded to know through the telephone.

"Uh, what time is it?" the half-asleep Lacey asked.

"I don't know, almost five-thirty or six."

The click of another extension picking up sounded.

"Six? Six in the morning? What the hell, Cat?" Lacey grumbled, blinking her eyes to wash away the sleep.

"Lacey? Oh. My. Gawd! You missed the party of the year last night!" Kaitlin screeched excitedly.

"Katie, you call every party the party of the year. I'm trying to ask-" Caterina cut in, but to no avail.

"So, Delilah's parents are of town for the weekend, and she threw one hell of bash," Kaitlin explained. "I can't believe you missed it! I mean, it was like a party you see in a movie."

"It was not--" Caterina started dismissively.

"You will not believe who tried to hit on me? Are you going to guess?" Kaitlin asked at the same time as another click sounded on the line. "It was Denny, Lace. As if I would ever date The Denster. And that's even before what I saw on his phone the other day. He said that he heard I was having problems with Palmer. Sure, we've had some issues as of late--ooh, I bet you didn't hear about them. So the other night at Metropolis--"

"Katie, would you let me talk?" Caterina questioned.

"Hi, Lacey!" a third voice joined with a strange echo.

"I'll tell you later about what he did, but you'll never guess who made a fool of herself last night. You wanna guess?"

"Um, you?" Lacey responded, already feeling a headache start.

"Oh, good one, Lace! No, it was our old cheer captain, Kelly!" The girl supplied, referring to Kelly Nomura, Whitney's predecessor and royally all-around goody-goody. "She was all over Tyler Blick, like peanut butter on jelly, with her tongue down his throat, and her hands--oh, my gawd! I think Kelly might be ready to have her slut phase after only one semester in college. I bet Molly is a bad influence on her. Did you hear about Mol--"

"Can we save this for later? We have important things to ask Lacey." The original caller's growing anger was evident in her voice.

"Hi, Lacey!" The newer voice greeted in an echo again.

"But that's not even the weirdest part of the night. Because it was Delilah's party, the Sugarbees were even more uppity than usual. We really could have used you and Whitney there. Roxie came with us, but we really missed you two and Rory. Did you know Rory's grounded?"

"She's dating his brother, of course, she knows," the co-captain of the squad answered in exasperation for Lacey. The same Lacey, who struggled to keep her head raised as the sandman threatened to drag her back to his realm.

"So, those dancing bitches thought they were the stars of the party. Delilah's cool, of course, but the others were real bitchy. Oh! And Violet showed up with a few of the Sugarbees from last year. And because Delilah banned sophomores--everyone's still making way too big a deal about what happened at Fletcher's party with them--that meant we were even more outnumbered. Most of the juniors were there, but boy do they suck."

"Okay, now you're rambling, Kate. I want to ask Lacey about--"

"Hi, Lacey!"

"Yumi, are you in my brother's room?" Caterina asked, her voice rising higher after looking around her room. Yumi had just been at her side when she called.

"Oh, hi, Yumi," the sleepy redhead finally responded.

"I miss you guys. Why couldn't you have been at the party last night?"

"Yumi, my brother's phone sucks. It echoes like crazy; it's fucking annoying. So get off it!" Caterina demanded.

"I'm sorry, Yumi, we have this thing for Finn's mom this week. I told you about it right before Christmas," Lacey reminded her absentminded friend.

"I know, but I still missed all of you. Cat's been cranky ever since her mom started making her work at her brother's shop."

"I wouldn't have to work there if you had remembered our cover story! The one where I was with my new lover and told my parents I was staying with you for the weekend!" Caterina screamed down the phone line.

"You don't need to be mean again. I said I was sorry."

"Yeah, geez, Cat, Yumi feels bad, so let it go," Kaitlin remarked.

"You're not the one dealing with dumbass car questions all day!" Caterina yelled back. "And get out of my brother's room before you wake him. I don't need him deciding to open up the shop today. Then my mom will make me go in too."

"He's sleeping like a bear right now," Yumi stated. "Snores like one too."

"Yumi, get out of his room." A door could be heard opening, and then another. "Get out of here, now!" Cat hissed from inside her brother's room.

"So, I haven't even told you the craziest part of the night, Lace," Kaitlin continued. "As in crazy enough that Nosy Nectar had a post about it!"

"Kaitlin, you're the one that sent the story into Nosy Nectar!" Caterina's loud voice echoed in the hallway.

"Dammit, Caterina, it's not even six yet. Would you girls keep it down and go back to bed? Your father and brother worked late last night!" A fourth voice could be heard.

"Sorry, Mom, but some crazy shit--"

"Language, Caterina!"

"Sorry, Mrs. Quill. Good morning, Mrs. Quill!" Yumi apologized and greeted Cat's mother.

"Hello, dear. Now, why don't you get out of Jaxon's room before he wakes up?"

"Okay, I was doing that before Cat stopped me."

"Aargh! That's not what I did!"

"Lace, you still there?" Kaitlin asked, jolting Lacey back awake.

"Yeah, I'm here."

"So, the crazy part came when somebody picked the lock to Mrs. O'Dell's private studio. And you will not believe what happened. You won't! Rosita and Tandy must have lost their damn minds," Kaitlin said in reference to Rosita Veliz and Tandy Cantrell, two seniors on the dance squad. "I don't know what they were thinking--maybe Kessler tossing wads of cash at them had something to do with it--but they put on a striptease--in Mrs. O'Dell's studio with her dance poles."

"Wait; what? Seriously?" Lacey asked, perking up.

"They sure did. Like every guy in the house rushed into there to watch. Delilah tried to stop them, but she got pushed to the side. One of the other Sugarbees--I think maybe Jasmine-- must have ran off to find Bianca with whatever guy she was with because she came storming into the room. And then she went off. You would've loved it. I don't think I've ever seen her that furious. Screamed that no Sugarbee under her watch would end up working at a strip club. At that point, both Rosita and Tandy were down to only their panties. You so have to check out the story on Nosy Nectar!"

"Give me that phone!" A rustling sound could be heard as Caterina grabbed the guest room extension from Kaitlin. "Now, get back to my room with Yumi."

"Geez, what's your problem?" Kaitlin could be heard in the background.

"She's working for the man," Yumi replied over Cat's bedroom phone. "Well, that's what you said."

"I did not say it like that; I said that Jaxon said--ugh, it doesn't matter. Get into my room!"

"Cat, did you wake me up just to tell me about a party?" Lacey questioned.

"No, I did not! What the fuck happened to Whitney?" Caterina challenged, causing Lacey to sit up straight up at the den's desk.

"What did you hear? How did you hear?"

"Kaitlin's been on the toilet all morning and saw a story on her phone."

"Cat, you know how my stomach gets when I drink beer. It's supposed to be a secret," a hurt Kaitlin complained softly from Caterina's side.

"Nosy Nectar has a story about Whitney?" Lacey repeated, grabbing Mr. Diamond's laptop and waking it up.

"No, they don't have anything up. Katie found a story on that The Stinging Truth. That weird-ass site has several articles about Whitney and Harv--her dad," Caterina revealed. " So we're not sure what is real and what isn't. And why were you reading that crap, Katie?"

"I wasn't! I told you that I got a message from--

"Hold on a sec," Lacey said, typing in the name of the opinion-laden, scandal-mongering website.

The Stinging Truth had one messy and hard-to-navigate front page. There were breaking news posts, repeated posts of the most popular news, guess commentary, polls, and pictures splashed everywhere. The first article Lacey saw, "Mayor Dunkley: Traitor To Honey Hollow?" spoke volumes about the brand of stories the editors attempted to label as news. The next article, "Ice Fisherman: A Phantom Seduced Me At Wynwick Lodge," caused the redhead to roll her eyes even more. Then they shot open when she saw it.

"Careless Heiress Plunges Into Icy Waters." Clicking on it, Lacey quickly scanned the paragraphs. Whoever wrote it had some of the basic facts right, but a whole lot more wrong. They had a ranger discovering Whitney, who was said to be drunk, and bashing Harvey for not watching his daughter while he partied with friends. Nothing was said about Sean or Whitney's drowning, but the writer kept on calling her a spoiled heiress who only cared for herself.

"So, is it true?" Caterina asked, afraid for her friend.

"A little bit."

"Oh, my gawd!" Kaitlin screamed near the phone.

"Girls!" came the warning from Mrs. Quill.

"Whitney did fall through the ice, but it wasn't a ranger that saved her. Sean did, and she didn't walk out on the lake. She fell off a cliff," Lacey relayed.

"What?! A cliff!" Cat screeched. Crying, almost certainly from Yumi, could be heard too. "Where's Whitney? Is she there? At the hospital? What room?"

"What the hell is going on?" Kaitlin could be heard questioning.

"Whoa, calm down, guys. Whitney's going to be fine. Yes, she's in the hospital for the night, but that's because she has hypothermia," Lacey said, skipping the part about drowning. She didn't want her fellow cheerleaders to freak out even more. They could hear that detail later once they saw Whitney in person.

"Do you know what room? I can stop in, or even just call," Caterina questioned, speaking rapidly.

"I don't know the room number, but maybe you should wait. My mom got the details, and she said the doctors wanted Whitney to get a lot of rest. You should see her in a couple of--well, I guess it would be tomorrow for New Year's Eve."

"Can we send flowers?" Yumi inquired, grabbing the phone from her friend.

"Give me that back." Several beeps sounded as the two girls hit the buttons as they fought over the phone, with Cat winning the struggle. "We're not sending flowers. Whitney's not dead, Yumi."

"What the hell?!" Lacey explained as she came across another article about yesterday. "Entitled Playboy Threatens Hospital Staff."

"What?" Caterina questioned over the line.

"Whitney's dad got into a fight at the hospital?" Lacey asked aloud.

"Didn't you hear about that too?"

"Not really. My mom said he made a scene but nothing like what this story says. Threw a punch? Strangled the administrator? Tased by security? Okay, this is all bullshit," Lacey proclaimed. "None of this happened. If it did, he would've been arrested, and we would've heard about it. Shit, my dad's office would've called him."

"But they have pictures of Har--Whitney's dad at the hospital, looking pissed," Caterina pointed out, worried over her secret lover's safety.

"Yeah, I don't know how they got those pictures, but Mrs. Tarver called around ten last night with an update, and Mr. Diamond was there with her. None of this happened, or at least not on this level. I can promise you that."

"Mrs. Tarver, huh? So, what's the deal with the other fucking story?" Cat demanded, her voice taking on a different kind of edge.

"What other--holy shit!"

Lacey hurriedly clicked on the third article. Scanning its salacious premise, she saw details after shocking details. The speculation was out of control, but the names the articles named without care started to cause the petite ginger to tear up. Sean Tarver. Peyton Tarver. Bridget Fallon-Tarver. Beverly Fallon-Baccaro. Willow Rycroft. Sister's boyfriend. Seduction. Underage. Cheating. Mistress. Lovechild.

"So, what do you know about this one?" challenged the angry lover.

"There's no way..." Lacey trailed off, staring once again at the pictures of Sean, Peyton, and the headline as she felt a pair of arms hug her from behind.

"A Secret Lovechild For Harvey Diamond?" Skye read aloud in shock.