Scene: Entrance of Holly Hills High School
Brooke and Naomi walk into the school; Naomi is telling Brooke about her dream the night before until she realizes that Brooke is not paying attention to her. Rather the teen looks lost in her own thoughts.
Naomi: "You look lost. Did something happen last night? How was your date with Max?"
Brooke takes two more steps before realizing that Naomi has asked her a question.
Brooke: "what? Oh, um…it was okay. I didn't expect much so…you know."
Naomi: "You've been lost in thought all morning. Are you sure everything is okay?"
Brooke: "Of course. I…" [glances around to make sure nobody is listening in] "I merely had an odd dream last night. You know those kind that don't leave when you wake up?"
Naomi: "Like the time I dreamt that giant lizards were attacking the school and woke up terrified that I was about to be eaten."
Brooke: [murmuring] "Something like that yeah."
She tossed her hair over her shoulder and straightens her spine, her expression changing from thoughtful to arrogant.
Brooke: "No matter. It'll fade soon enough. Now, did you see those horrid shoes Amber was wearing yesterday? They were bad enough but the matching bag?"
Naomi laughs and picks up where Brooke left off. As the two girls walk further down the hallway the crowd almost parts to reveal Theodore walking on the other side of the hall. His arm is tucked into Helen's, escorting the blond and talking softly to her. She watches him as they approach, the images of her dream coming back vividly in her mind. As if he senses someone watching him, Theodore looked up in time to spot Brooke and Naomi walking past them. Their eyes meet and he tilts his head in question just slightly before following it up with a careful smile. She watches him for one more minute before they pass and the moment is over. She doesn't turn around, but the confused, thoughtful look is back on her face as they reach their classroom.
S4E10 "Confessions"
It took closer to ten minutes. Going down twenty-five floors in an elevator that seemed to stop on every other floor to pick people up or drop them off. Finally, it stopped in the lobby and Arnold got out following the signs to the restaurant. He nodded to the greeter who smiled pleasantly at him. Briefly he wondered if blonde outnumbered any other hair color in this city as she politely asked him if it was just him this afternoon.
"I'm meeting a friend."
On cue, he noticed Tad standing up and raising a hand at him. He nodded in acknowledgement and the blond looked back. He passed her and headed towards the table where Tad was standing, hand outstretched as Arnold approached.
Arnold clasped his hand, pulling him in for a brief clasp on the back.
"It's good to see you." He said, releasing Tad's hand. Tad grinned back as he sat. He pulled his sunglasses from the top of his head and tucking one earpiece into the neck of his tee shirt.
"It's good to see you too. I didn't know if you'd be out seeing the sights or playing tourist so honestly, I just took a chance."
"No, I'm glad you did." Arnold insisted as the waiter filled their water glasses. "Honestly, I was planning on ordering room service and watching season three that Daphne and Ronnie got today."
Tad feigned hurt. "You haven't seen season three yet? For shame Arnold."
He chuckled. "I think that was pretty much the same reaction I got from Anne also."
"Yeah, I fear I may be rubbing off on her." He said, picking up the menu.
A comfortable silence fell as both men scanned the menu for something to eat. Tad closed his menu and looked across the table at Arnold who was still scanning the menu with a contemplative look.
"I know I promised I wouldn't come out here alone."
Arnold looked at the dark haired man over the menu before closing it and putting it down.
"There's probably a good reason. And honestly, I can't claim I'm surprised."
"Normally, I would've dragged her here kicking and screaming and hurtling obscenities in my general direction. But she literally crashed not three hours ago."
"Crashed?"
"When I came home last night she was on her computer typing out storylines. She gets that way sometimes, inspiration strikes and she'll be there for hours until either she finishes or she runs out of steam." He took a sip of water. "I'm willing to bet she has done at least two rough drafts for scripts last night. I was in the kitchen this morning making breakfast when I heard her finally moving around upstairs and then nothing. When I went to check on her, she'd managed to pass out across her bed still dressed in what she was wearing yesterday."
Arnold swallowed down the sudden lump in his throat with some water. He looked into the water glass silently for a moment before looking back up at Tad. "You and Helga…live together?" He wasn't sure why his stomach twisted at the thought, it wasn't like they'd been close for years. In fact, if he hadn't come on this trip he would've been unaware of this fact.
The waitress came over to take their order and the knot tightened as he watched Tad flirt with the waitress. Again, he hadn't seen either Tad or Helga in years but the blonde woman didn't deserve to have someone she obviously trusted disrespect her by flirting with blonde waitresses when she wasn't around. Or did he do it when they were together also? He gave the same woman his order and handed her the menu.
Tad waited until left before speaking. "Oh yeah, we've lived together since we moved here. Started out in a dingy studio apartment we paid way too much for before we both made it enough to upgrade to a less crappy apartment and then finally the condo we own now. As always, Hel's been the only one who is willing to put up with my eccentricities." His eyes widened and he shook his head. "Oh…Oh no, you don't think…no, Hel and I aren't together. God no, we'd kill each other. It's not like that at all."
The knot loosened in his stomach and he felt confused. Why was he upset about the lifestyles of a woman he hadn't seen in almost twenty years?
"It's not my business." He finally said. Tad laughed.
"I saw the look on your face. The fact that I was blatantly flirting with our waitress while my supposed girlfriend was at home, offended your ever present sense of honor." He shook his head slowly in amusement. "Glad to see some things haven't changed. You'll be happy to know that if Hel and I were dating, she'd pound my ass into the ground if I even thought of flirting with another woman."
He tried to hide it but he felt the edge of his mouth lift slightly. "Glad to see some things haven't changed." He parroted.
"It looks like Anne has found her people." Lana stated dryly as the six walked down the white sidewalks of Beverly Hills with Max in tow. Beside her, Tamara snorted lightly.
"I always knew she was a closet fan."
Ariel gave them both a slight amused frown. "There is no closet about it. She and Allen go online and role-play their characters on twitter. Nobody wants Brooke and Theo to be together as much as Anne and Allen. I'm surprised they haven't started dating in real life."
Lana grinned knowingly. "You mean like some other people we won't mention?"
"Exactly like that."
Walking in front of them Daphne was still talking, her hands waving around elaborately at times. Every once in a while Ronnie would throw in a comment or a dissent but for the most part it was Daphne's show.
"Out of all the couples on the show, Sophie and Marcus have been the most loyal and steady. Even with the added stressors of them being best friends with the most dysfunctional non-couple in the show, they've managed to stay strong. So although I don't think it's going to be a teen pregnancy, I do think that something major is going to be thrown in their way that they'll have to overcome. Teen pregnancy is an obvious troupe and Tad and Hel don't do obvious."
"Even if they don't do obvious, somebody has to end up with the obligatory drug issue." Anne argued. "As troupe as it is, it's a reality in high school."
"And I totally agree they're going to pull it out, but there's going to be a reason for it and it may or may not have a happy ending." Daphne agreed.
"Whose happy ending it is anyway?" Ronnie asked as they stepped into a store. "The line Not every story has a happy ending doesn't necessarily mean that there won't be any happy endings, merely that the happy ending might not be expected. What isn't a happy ending for one person might be someone else's happy ending."
Anne looked at her and Ronnie almost retreated into herself. Suddenly Ariel laughed and clasped a hand on Ronnie's shoulder.
"That is a damn clever explanation." She said. Anne narrowed her eyes.
"I agree. I never thought of it that way." Brightening, she threw an arm around Ronnie. "Come on, we've got some shopping to do."
The teasing from earlier about Anne having to be given a deadline or she would shop until the stores closed were not exaggerated. Over three hours had passed since they'd started the trip and Anne didn't even look tired. Ronnie, on the other hand, had taken to sitting next to Max at each new stop and reading on her phone while the other girls discussed colors and fabrics and which shoes matched which shirt.
Anne picked up a jumper and turned to ask Lana a question when her eyes fell on Ronnie sitting quietly leaned up against Max. Turning around fully, she lifted the jumper just enough so from her view the jumper covered part of Ronnie. Then she grinned widely.
"Ronnie!" she called out still holding up the jumper. The dark haired girl glanced up, her glasses sliding halfway down her nose. She eyed the jumper critically before shrugging.
"Come here!" Anne called out. Ronnie's head jerked up and she looked at Anne like she had lost her mind. Daphne poked her head around a rack of clothes to watch the exchange.
"Why?" Ronnie asked cautiously.
"You need a makeover."
"I don't do makeovers."
"That's ridiculous, everyone likes a makeover."
"Not when you've been made over your entire life." Ronnie retorted, looking back down at her phone.
"Come on, Ronnie," Anne cajoled. "I'll be fun."
"For you maybe. I've had quite enough of people dressing me up in my life, thank you."
"You know you'll have to get make up for the show, right?"
"That's different."
"One outfit." She bargained. "An outfit for tomorrow's lunch. Something that turns Allen's head."
Daphne hid a grin at Ronnie's head lifting at that comment.
"Trust me, putting me in the skimpiest, flashiest thing isn't going to turn anyone's head. At least not for the right reasons."
"Like I would put you in something skimpy." Anne frowned. "Who do you take me for? That would be tres tacky. I would never put me in anything tacky therefore I would never put you in anything tacky. We look too similar for me to do something that mean." She wiggled the hanger holding the jumper and the outfit flapped. "Trust me, I would never put anyone in anything they felt uncomfortable in."
Ronnie studied her for a moment, before looking at Max. The big man didn't look up from his paper.
"I'm only here to protect you from over enthusiastic fans and paparazzi. I can't do anything about 108 pound forces of nature."
Sighing heavily, she shut off her app and slid the phone in her back pocket. "One outfit."
The smile was triumphant. "One outfit." She promised.
"…and I've been working at the American Museum of Natural History for well over twelve years." Arnold finished.
The two men had talked through lunch and wandered over to the bar to continue their conversations.
"And your parents?" Tad asked. Arnold smiled fondly.
"About two years after we graduated, my grandma broke her hip. No longer able to move as easily as she used to send her into a depressive state. I sent a letter to my parents to tell them about grandma and grandpa couldn't take care of her. Plus, he was getting slower too.
I guess about five months later they showed up on the doorstep with all their stuff and stayed in the States to take care of grandma and grandpa. Once my mom and dad came home, grandma's mood improved. She still couldn't move as well but she was still crazy in a fun way. Grandma finally passed away a couple of months before Lila and I were married." He grinned thoughtfully. "Which was kind of good because for whatever reason Grandma really didn't like Lila. Now, I think she was psychic. Grandpa died a year later. Mom and Dad renovated the entire building into four apartments instead of boarding rooms and live in the upstairs one. They're really nice apartments and the other two families that live there seem nice too."
He stopped to take a drink and ran his finger through the condensation on the glass after he put it down. "After Daphne was born, my parents got bored with staying at home so they decided to travel the globe. They come back once a year for about a month or two and then they're off again to whatever location takes their fancy. They're currently traveling Indonesia right now."
"Damn, who knew you'd have the jet setting parents." Tad laughed. "And you never felt the itch to just drop everything and go with them?"
Arnold shrugged. "I think it would be fun for a while but I grew up with a stable household. I prefer stability. The year I spent with my parents back when we were younger was great but one of the reasons I came back was because living in that environment was too much for me. Call me spoiled but I couldn't handle not having routine and having to worry if the hut we were living in would survive the spring rains and a potential mudslide. Because those happened."
Tad laughed.
"So I came back, got married, had a child, got a job and went to school. It was even better because my job paid for me to finish my education." He gave a mysterious smile. "Just last year I finally received my Doctorate in anthropological studies. Lila doesn't know because we were separated when I got it and I only use the title at work. My parents and Daphne know but…I haven't told anyone else."
Tad lifted the bottle to his mouth to cover his gaping. "You're a Doctor? That's pretty big."
Another shrug. "It makes my paycheck at bit more, and it means I have to publish at least once every ten years but other than that." He lifted his beer. "I'm sure you'd rather hear about something else other than my school habits. How did you and Helga land the most popular teen show of this generation?"
"Right place at the right time." Tad answered. "We wrote for a couple of sitcoms and police procedurals and then we were hired on for Modern Susie,the dramedy, a couple of years back. The rating sucked when we came on and they were looking for anything to pull it out of the crapper. It lasted another season before being taken off the air because they just couldn't come back from the ratings drop, but Hel and I won an Emmy for one of the episodes we both co-wrote. The critics called us the hottest thing in the SWG and suddenly we became the people to go to if a show needed saving. About four years ago we came to the CEO of WCB and shot him the idea for Ever After. We pulled Urban Legends back from the brink and pushed it back to being the powerhouse it started out as, which was no small feat, so he owed us. He approved it and three years later, here we are with the highest rated show on the channel."
"It sounds as if you two have been very successful."
Tad picked up his glass nodding slowly and swirling the ice before he took a drink. When he looked back to Arnold there was a curious gleam in his eyes.
"Do you see any of our old classmates?" He asked casually. Arnold shrugged.
"A couple. Harold and Patty are married and have a daughter who is one of Daphne's close friends. Gerald, of course, he works as a detective on the Hillwood Police department. I see Eugene usually when he's in town for the holidays."
"And Veronica's mother?" He asked. "How is she?"
Arnold glanced up watching Tad's calm expression. The man's lips twitched just slightly.
"Ronnie has too much of the Wellington-Lloyd look in her for me not to figure out whose child she is." He looked back down at his glass swirling the ice again. "I'm also one of the very few people to know that Veronica was her favorite grandmother and she was planning on naming her daughter after the woman if she ever had children. I think Nadine might be the only other person to share that secret."
Arnold swallowed hard. He'd walked right into that conversation. "She's…she's good. She's not the Rhonda you remember from high school."
Another lip quirk. "Ronnie is anything but aggressive and haughty. I figure Rhon's changed a bit."
Arnold nodded, relaxing. "She lives in town. Ronnie goes to public school and Rhonda works in the city."
"And Ronnie's dad?"
"Dashiell?" Arnold smirked. "Rhonda once said that the only good thing that ever came from her marriage was Veronica."
"So you two are friends." It wasn't a question. Arnold took a slow sip of his drink watching Tad as he did. The other man didn't seem agitated, annoyed or in the least bit aggressive. He sat on the other side of the table calmly drinking and not saying anything.
"Rhonda and I were always friends." Arnold finally answered. "There is a tight group of teen girls involving both her daughter and mine so I see a lot of Rhonda, Patty, and Timberly. Plus, she allows her inner Rhonda out when Lila is being particularly annoying as both women still can't stand each other. But that's just a bonus."
Tad chuckled as he lifted the glass to his lips again. "I always did love when Rhonda release the inner bitch on someone deserving."
Arnold was sitting on the couch watching the premiere of season three when the door to the hotel room opened and two girls rushed in carrying bags.
"What in the world are those?" he asked, pausing the show and staring at both girls.
"Clothes!" Daphne exclaimed. "We had some money and Anne bought us some things. Well, she had to twist Ronnie's arm, but we found something."
"Daphne," Arnold chastised. "We came here to see your favorite actors not to have them buy you stuff."
"It's not my fault!" Daphne exclaimed. "Anne insisted. She wouldn't take no for an answer."
"It's true." Ronnie confirmed. "As much as I tried to get out of it, Anne had me trying on clothes and insisted on buying us both an outfit."
"You tried on clothes?" Rhonda couldn't get Ronnie into a dressing room without threats at any time so for the teen to willingly try on clothes…
"I didn't want to." Ronnie confirmed. "I was outnumbered and they ganged up on me."
"Maybe a tiny bit." Daphne agreed. "But it was so worth it. What are you doing?"
"Huh? Oh, getting ready to watch season three."
"Without us?" Daphne dropped her bags by the kitchenette and started to walk towards him. He held up a hand before she took a step.
"Hold on, you're not leaving those bags right there. Take them into your room. I'll wait."
She scooped up the bags with one hand and grabbed Ronnie's arm with the other hurrying towards the other bedroom. "Don't start it without us!" she yelled back. Arnold grinned and sat back on the couch and pulled out his phone to text Rhonda.
Someone got your daughter to try on clothes.
A moment later his phone beeped letting him know he had a text.
What?! Who is this magical person?
He grinned and texted back.
The girl who plays Brooke on the show.
The girls came running out of the room as his phone beeped again.
I don't care what you have to do Arnold, you bring that girl home with you!
"Your mother wants me to kidnap Anne Cummings when we come home." He mentioned to Ronnie as the girls sat down. The dark haired girl rolled her eyes as she pushed up her glasses.
"It was a one-time deal." She answered. "Not even Allen Adams could get me to try on more clothes."
The response elicited a giggle from Daphne and a sigh from Arnold as he pushed the play button.
"I'm sure you mother would be delighted to hear that." He told her as the screen brightened.