Parties and Mysteries

"Ned!" My best friend Mike shouted to me. We are both in the second year of college. Both of us met at the basketball tryouts last year. Unfortunately they said we couldn't participate as first years. This year however we are planning to change the whole outcome.

It's not always easy.

I caught the ball Mike passed to me. I dribbled with the ball halfway across the court but one opponent blocked my way. I tossed the ball back to Mike. Mike caught the ball and moved towards the basket. Unfortunately another opponent blocked well actually shoved him.

"Ugh!" Mike cried in pain.

"Hey? You can't do that." Another second year, Dave who is also our friend shouts at the opponent.

Our opponent, our senior Robbin Shapley a.k.a the bully of Emerson College laughed "Ha! Why, if you want to play like a wimp then don't play."

I stepped up. "Hey! Let's all calm down. Robbin you do know that you get out of the game for foul play?"

He snorted and walked away. "Whatever".

After school day

My friends and I were relaxing in our frat house, Omega Chi Epsilon. I know a frat. It is not as many people think. A frat doesn't only mean parties and alcohol and the rest. It also means best bothers and friends for life.

The only problem is finding a good frat. Luckily I did.

But yes we do go to parties. Only we stay on the clear side.

"Hey I heard there is a party tonight at the girls club. And we're invited." Jacob said.

"Yeah just think of all the girls. Maybe I won't stay single anymore." Howie our cooking boy said.

Well always on the clear side. But hey at least I am not interested in girls. I usually decline to go on small parties usually.

"Uh I don't feel like going tonight." That is me trying to get a pass. First try.

"Oh come on Ned it will be fun." Howie said.

"No I don't really want to. I have a lot of work to do tonight." Second try.

"No you don't. I was there in all your classes." Mike said. "Besides you promised you would come next time when we asked you to come to the Big Boys club." He winked at me.

I glared at him.

Unfortunately I was decided to be dragged here against my will.

When I talk about 'here' I mean this sick place where I see most of my friends act crazy and drunk. At least not all my close friends. I saw people from other frats enjoying themselves completely focused on having fun. Most of the boys were having girls by their side. There was one group of girls sitting at one corner and discussing something. There was another such group, only difference it was of boys.

And yes I am included in it.

Howie looked at others and me and exclaimed. "Let's go party!"

And that started chaos my friends left me and went to have their own fun. I tried copying them but failed to do so. I was being pushed by others and I absolutely did not drink.

One reason why I hate parties: I feel out of place. Worse part is girls always ask me to dance.

Halfway through the party things got even stranger. I clashed into another girl. I immediately moved away not wishing for her to ask me in a dance. So I was surprised when she just said, "sorry" and started walking fast in another direction.

I noticed her behavior was a little weird. So my great plan?

I followed her.

It's not like it's the worst thing a guy can do. But hey I was curious.

I followed her into the private room and tried to eavesdrop on her.

"I didn't find much today." She seemed to be saying.

Another voice came from within, "well I didn't find anything on the web. And the photo shoots didn't develop yet it seems. "

The before voice continued speaking, "well let's hope Bess can find something from David. He seems to be our only lead with the exception of Craig. "

"Don't tell me you are planning to go after him. He can hurt you. "

"Yes but we need to find the culprit before the match tomorrow."

Then I heard footsteps and I quickly rushed behind the door and squeezed myself. I saw two girls coming out, fortunately they didn't seem to be focusing on me. One was really tall and looked tomboyish with her jeans and long shirt and short black hair. The other girl... Around 5'7inches, strangely red hair and a long blue dress, she was the one I had collided with before.

I followed them slowly. The black-haired one positioned herself near a bar looking carefully at the other.

The red head was moving towards the party's blowers. Well it's kind of a name I had given to them actually. They were the ones who really gave the bad name to college parties.

They drank till they lost their senseless. That is not the worst though. On some days they look for a good time. Which means 'cough-cough' raping girls.

Fortunately though most of them don't actually do that. Also the girls they go after want to have a good time to, so very little number of girls were in danger. Very few girls were in danger.

Like the red head I am following.

She is no doubt beautiful. Well that's half the reason I followed her. She fits into the category of girls that those guys like. Tall, beautiful, slim but curvy, long legs, added liking could be that she was red headed. And she looked daring too.

According to the before conversation she and her friends were looking for a culprit. Or maybe that was code word for something else. It sounded like she hated Craig too when she said her name. Well actually I hated him too.

Last summer Craig had made the basketball team lose by doing faults and penalties. Fortunately this time because a girl who had been raped by him had told the seniors of his doing. He was thrown out of the team because of his drinking and actions. He was one of the only two people who had ever raped girls 'cough-cough' completely.

So the red head was putting herself into a very dangerous position. She walked right towards him and started talking to him. I saw Craig smile at her and put her hand in her waist. They continued talking for a while. And I looked at the black haired girl and saw her looking at the two with her jaw clenched and her hand around the glass of water had turned white. I guess she didn't like Craig hitting at her friend either. Suddenly Craig started moving towards her hips and the red haired moved away from him laughing. I saw the black haired girl move out her seat from the corner of my eye. But didn't miss out the signal the red head had given to her.

Craig started talking the red head's hand and started leading her towards the dance floor and my only thought was, 'Don't go, he will slowly try to hurt you.'

The red head made a face and said something and as if hearing my thoughts walked away from him.

But Craig was still looking at her with his weird eyes. And the girl looked uncomfortable. So she went further away from him and moved closer to me.

Suddenly she stopped in front of me and looked at me. Then slowly in a way that Craig wouldn't notice she looked at him from her shoulder.

He was still looking at her with his weird eyes. So she did something I didn't expect. She. Kissed.

Yup she did.

She kissed me.

Well she was kissing me.

But I didn't return it back. Ok maybe I did a little bit. But I dared not put my arms around her. I didn't want to take advantage.

She slowly broke the kiss and gave me a glare and whispered, "Make it look believable." And pulled my hands to her waist and kissed me again. This time I kissed her back. I could feel a spark where I touched her.

After we broke the kiss, I noticed Craig was looking a little mad, as the red head slowly started leading me to the dance floor.

She asked me then, "how good is your acting?"

I answered honestly. "Extremely bad. But I can help you out."

She raised her eyebrows as if asking. How?

I felt my cheeks reddening as I answered. "I...um overheard that you are looking for a culprit…?"

She narrowed her eyes. "It's wrong to eavesdrop…-

I interrupted her. "But I can help you out. I if you want to ask something to certain people, I know many where I can get information."

She looked back at Craig, who was still looking at her, then at me.

She then decided, "I will see. For now you being my 'boyfriend' is enough."

I laughed nervously and asked "but you don't have another boyfriend right? Otherwise I will not help you cheat."

She raised her eyebrows. "Well I don't have any boyfriend. So you can be rest assured."

We were slowly dancing to the soft music along with many other true couples unlike our fake one.

"So who are you searching for?" I asked.

She distractedly answered, "The school coach had recently found some emptied drug packets and so he asked me to find who did that."

"So you are like a famous detective?" wow that was cool.

"No I am just an amateur one. My friends and I came to apply in this college. One of my friends blurted out when we were speaking to the coach that I was a detective. So he put me on the case as he didn't want the police to interfere in school matter yet.

Halfway through the song, another man entered the party. He looked different…

He had a black bag. And was wearing sunglasses and had a beard and moustache.

The red head also noticed and she stopped dancing and moved to the side. I followed her. She motioned to her black haired friend something. And the other girl nodded and took out her phone.

The man with the black bag went towards a private room. The corridor was kind of deserted and no one was actually there. A few minutes later you wouldn't believe who followed the man. Craig.

The red head did a sharp intake of breath. Then she walked towards them in the room to listen. I didn't go otherwise we could be caught. I saw her expressions and her eyes turned wide. Suddenly I saw the door opening and the man pulling her in and closing the door.

I immediately ran towards the door. Her black-haired friend also came running. The door was locked so I tried kicking the door open. It took some time.

When we entered I saw the both of them escaping along with the red head, who was being strangled, from the back door. The black haired girl and I were running after them. She was shouting stuff like, "let her go or I will call the police." We didn't notice where we were running. Suddenly the man caught the red head and turned. He was holding his hand over her mouth and nose and she was desperately trying to get out of his grip.

"Stop, both of you or else I will kill this girl here right now." He said holding the knife dangerously close to her neck.

When the black haired girl moved forward the man moved the knife closer and made a small cut. "I am warning you." Blood was coming out from there. Thankfully not that much.

We didn't dare move after that. Seeing our defeat he said "Craig go bound them up we are going to take them and dump them in the river after killing them."

Craig took the ropes and moved slowly towards the girl and said, "Do we have to kill them? I mean I don't want-

"Fast, you fool! They will report to the police. If you do not move I will kill the girl right here along with you three." He smiled wickedly, "I have nothing to lose."

Craig moved to the black haired girl, with fear and doubt in his eyes. He was tying the girl hands.

I looked at the red haired girl and met her eyes she looked back at me. Then she motioned toward the man holding her. And I nodded slightly.

I understood what she was trying to say.

"OUCH!" suddenly the man left the red haired girl and caught his hand. The girl and the knife were both pushed and thrown to the ground.

As quick as I could I attacked the man. Unfortunately he kicked me and I lost my balance. He started running away but I ran after him. I overtook him and pushed him to the ground and we fought for dominance. I didn't realize how long we were, suddenly my coach came and gave a killing blow to the culprit's head and face.

Coach looked at me and smiled, "well done Ned."

I saw police officers taking the unknown man handcuffed to their car. I walked back to Craig and others and saw Craig was crying.

In his tearful voice he said, "I was only trying to get some money when I came across these people. At first they welcomed me and after helping them they threatened me that they would tell the school ambassadors of what I did. And so they gave me no choice and I continued doing work for them."

The inspector then told, "You will have to give a statement in the station. Please come with me." And with that Craig was escorted out.

I saw the red haired surrounded with her two friends in the ambulance. She had got a bandage on her neck. The black haired girl looked at me and came to speak with me.

"Hi, thank you for helping us. That man might have done worse had it not been for you." She said. "I am George Fayne." She moved her hand forward and I shook it.

"George?" I ask because it was a strange name for a girl.

"Well my real name's Georgiana but I like George more when I was small and I stuck with it." She said shrugging.

"Is that why you act like a boy?" I asked without thinking.

She laughed, "I'll take that as a compliment. But no I don't try to act like a boy. I just like sports. That's all."

Then as if an afterthought she said, "Come you should meet the others." And she led me to the red haired one.

"This is my cousin Bess Marvin, I know we look complete opposites I'll let you know we act like complete opposites. But that's how it is."

The blonde one smiled and said, "Well it's not my fault I hate sports. Not all girls like sports as you do George." Then she looked at me and gave me the sweetest smile she said. "Hi! It is nice to meet you what's your name?" She gave me her hand and I politely shook it. "Ned, Ned Nickerson."

Somehow she looked a little disappointed and she kept her hand in the air for a while.

But my eyes immediately shifted to the red head who was laughing silently along with George. Fortunately I felt that they were not laughing at me.

I looked at her and saw that she looked tired and hurt. But somehow that made her looked more beautiful.

Coach came towards us. "Thank you so much girls for finding the culprit. I am sorry. Are you feeling fine?"

The red head nodded and said, "Yes coach, I am fine. Only a little sad this mystery came to an end so fast."

Bess sighed, "Only you would wish for a good mystery." George chuckled.

"Well I am sorry for putting you all in trouble."

Our headmaster, Mr. Walker, came towards us too, "thank you all three of you. I will make sure that you all get free passes, prizes, and benefits in college. I can't thank you enough, Ms. Drew."

After that they all said bye after wishing the red head thanks. One by one the school ambassador left.

George suddenly smiled, "you know with all this tension I never got to enjoy the party. Now it is only ten. So the party just starting. I feel like dancing. Anyone going back with me?"

"Oh. I am" Bess said. "Do you know how boring David was to talk to? What about you?" the question was pointed to the red head.

"Oh I will join you later." She smiled. Then they both left.

I sat beside the red head on the bench and said, "You know through all this drama I never got to catch your name."

She smiled at me. "Well I like keeping my profile low."

I laughed, "Yeah well, mom's not going to be happy when I tell her that I had a girlfriend for less than 15 minutes and we nabbed a drug-dealer but I don't know her name."

This time she laughed. And it was a beautiful thing to hear.

"Nancy, Nancy drew." She said looking at me with her bright blue eyes.

"I am Ned, Ned Nickerson."

"Well Ned, I don't think my father will like it if he knows that I keep boyfriend for 15 minutes and then dump them." She smiled trying not to laugh.

"Well. We wouldn't want to disappoint Mr. drew, your father right?" I asked.

"Oh no. besides I think I didn't dump my boyfriend yet." She said looking at me again.

I said in the lowest and loud enough for her to listen, "and why have you not?"

"Because…I think I found someone great to hang out with for a while."

"Oh really. He sounds like a great guy. Who is he?" I said in an innocent voice.

She cleared her voice and moved a little closer to me, looking down.

"Well he is tall and strong. Has brown hair and brown eyes. And has this great habit of not touching a girl without permission even when she is. And he is sitting right next to me." She slowly looked at me.

"What about you? Do you have a girl in mind?" she asked in a small voice.

"Well I do. She is tall for my 6' foot 1 inch frame. Has beautiful curves and blue eyes. She has red hair, which gets different shades under the lights. And I think she is the most beautiful girl I have ever seen. So…."

"So….?" She raised her eyebrow.

"Will you do me the honor of being my girlfriend?" I asked looking at her.

She smirked. "For a minute I thought you were talking about someone else.
Yes I will be glad to be your girlfriend. Though I need to know more about you before we get serious."

"Of course." I said standing up. "Why don't we first get to know each other while partying?"

"Why not." She said taking my hand. We both walked while we talked and laughed.

We were moving towards the building from where loud noises and music was coming. There was definitely alcohol there. And maybe people dance too. Perhaps this is the first time that I am walking towards a party building without fear or future regret. Well now, I don't think parties can be that bad.

Because 5 years later, on my wedding, the woman in place of my wife was the girl that I had collided with in the party, while she was solving a mystery.