"Wait, wait, calm down, slow down, and start from the beginning of the story." Sasha said.
Dana took a deep breath, sitting down on her couch.
"So I was at my aunt's house…"
"Who is your aunt?"
"Aunt Serena, uh… she has a shaved head, she used to be an alcoholic-"
"Used to be an alcoholic… interesting, continue." Sasha said, pulling her phone out.
"Well, the CD was just at her house, I asked about it and she changed the subject, so I-"
"What did you say and what did she say?"
"I said 'hey, where'd you find this CD?' and she said 'don't worry about it' and started talking about something else, so before we left, I grabbed it."
"The person who had the other CD was a former drug addict that AJ's fiancé helped, that has a shaved head. Your aunt is a former alcoholic with a shaved head…"
"What are you saying?" Dana asked, confused.
"I'm saying maybe the root of the theft is closer to AJ than she thinks."
Seth and Charlotte sat in the Rollins family living room.
"So how's Dean?"
"Uh… good, he's fine."
"That's good. What are they accusing him of?"
"I think they suspect he's selling drugs." Seth said, scratching his neck.
"That doesn't make sense, they wouldn't just accuse him of that. They must've saw him buying them or something."
"Yeah, I don't know about Dean sometimes. How's the band going?"
"They want me back to do this dumb battle of the bands thing."
"Are you gonna do it?"
"Maybe… I don't want to at all, but Bayley and Becky really want me to… I don't know."
"Becky is the girl's name?"
"Yeah, the orange-haired girl."
"No, I mean the purple-pinkish haired girl."
"I don't know her name. We're not friends."
Seth looked a bit confused, but nodded.
Just then, Roman and Dean walked into the door, with the backpack.
"We're ready to meet Del Ri-Charlotte's here, hey, Charlotte." Dean said, a bit startled by her presence.
Before Charlotte could respond, Seth cut her off.
"I'll be right back, we need to go somewhere."
"I'll go with." Charlotte said.
"You can't." Roman, Seth, and Dean said, in unison.
"Oh… okay cool, I'll wait here I guess."
Charlotte awkwardly changed the channel on the television as Seth followed Dean and Roman out of the house.
Becky and Bayley walked into Club Caesura.
"We're ready." Becky smiled.
Teddy looked confused.
"It's been less than 48 hours."
"Yeah, we learned a song, there's other parts to it, but there's only two of us, so-"
"What song?"
"Strange Fruit." Becky said, as Bayley stood behind the grand keyboard.
"Classic. Interesting. Not much drums on that one." Teddy said.
"Yeah, Kanye West has a song called 'Blood On The Leaves' that heavily samples Nina Simone's rendition of 'Strange Fruit", so I used drum patterns from that song and added them to our rendition of it." Becky smiled, proudly.
Teddy smiled too.
"Creative, I like it. Hey! Montel. You know Strange Fruit right?" Teddy asked.
Becky and Bayley noticed the man in the corner of the room, holding a trumpet, who nodded.
"You guys need a singer?"
"Eh... I was gonna sing it, but it'd be a lot easier to just focus on playing drums." Becky admitted.
"Cameron, you wanted to perform right? Here's your chance." Teddy said, to a girl cleaning one of the tables.
"Really!?" Cameron asked, excitedly.
"You know Strange Fruit?" Bayley asked with a bit of a smirk, amused at Cameron's excitement.
"Yes."
"The stage is yours." Teddy smiled.
Roman and Seth sat in the car, waiting for Dean to return.
"What if something goes wrong and they kill him?" Seth said.
Roman sighed.
"You watch too many movies, bro."
"It happens in real life too."
Just then, Dean walked out of the house, with a navy blue backpack.
"Alright, perfect." Dean said, entering the car.
"What's that?" Seth asked, pointing at the backpack.
"More shit. We have some time on our hands to move it though."
"DEAN, WHAT THE FUCK!?" Seth and Roman exclaimed in unison, as Dean looked confused.
"What?"
"THIS WHOLE THING WAS TO GET YOU OUT OF THIS!" Seth exclaimed.
"Get me out of this? You think I can just sell for him, then walk away knowing all his secrets and locations?"
"So you're just gonna sell for the rest of your life?" Roman asked.
"Until he goes back to Mexico."
"Well I'm out, you're on your own with this one." Seth said, starting the car.
"Okay, that's fine... oh, here's your thirty-five hundred dollars by the way." Dean said casually, reaching into the backpack as Roman's eyes got huge.
Seth sighed.
"i'm driving." Seth said.
"Oh, yeah, right. Here you go, Roman."
"WAIT, YOU SAID WE ONLY GET ONE FOURTH OF THE MONEY!" Roman yelled.
"We did."
"YOU SOLD $40,000 WORTH OF DRUGS!? WHAT THE FUCK!?"
"Yeah. We each get $5,000 now that Seth's out."
Seth gritted his teeth, realizing Dean was trying to make him regret his decision.
Seth entered his house, to see Charlotte, still on the couch.
"Where'd you guys go?"
"Oh, uh... Dean had to clear some stuff with his P.O."
"What's a P.O.?"
Seth chuckled a bit, at Charlotte's innocence.
"Parole officer."
"Oh."
"He could only bring 2 guests."
"Oh, okay... I was just about to ask something."
"Uh, go ahead."
"So... remember in the car after the performance..."
"Oh, boy." Seth said, sitting down, as Charlotte chuckled.
"Did you say that it was Roman's idea?"
"Y...yeah, I'm sorry, it was st-"
"Do it again."
"...what?"
"Do it again. I think I have something on my lips." Charlotte smiled.
Seth chuckled a bit, before kissing her.
Becky and Bayley sat on the train on the way home, still excited from the performance.
"That went so perfectly!" Becky exclaimed, grabbing her phone.
"That was the most fun I've ever had! And Cameron is really good!" Bayley added.
"I just got a text from The Boss saying 'emergency band meeting tomorrow at AJ's house, bring Trust Fund'."
Bayley sighed.
"Great." She said, sarcastically.
Charlotte walked into the house to see Ric, sitting in the living room, holding four letters.
"Hey, Dad."
"Some college letters came in. Kentucky, Texas A&M, Georgetown." Ric said, handing Charlotte her mail.
"That's grea-OH MY GOD! OH MY GOD, OH MY GOD, OH MY GOD!"
"What?"
"NC STATE! THERE'S A LETTER FROM NC STATE!"
"Oh... yeah, them too." Ric shrugged.
Charlotte took a deep breath.
"I'll open Texas A&M first."
Charlotte slowly opened it, and smiled.
"Accepted, basketball and volleyball scholarships. Let's check Georgetown."
Charlotte opened it and smirked.
"Accepted, basketball scholarship. Okay, Kentucky."
Charlotte opened that letter and smiled as well.
"Accepted, basketball scholarship. Moment of truth."
Charlotte opened the NC State letter.
"ACCEPTED! BASKETBALL AND VOLLEYBALL SCHOLARSHIPS!" Charlotte yelled, jumping up and down.
"That's nice, Charlotte. Duke is still coming tomorrow, right?"
"WHO CARES ABOUT DUKE!? I GOT INTO NC STATE!"
"Duke is a Flair family tradition. I went to Duke, David went to Duke, your younger brother wanted to go to-"
"NC State."
"He wanted to go to Duke."
"YOU wanted him to go to Duke, he wanted to go to NC State, Dad."
Ric sighed.
"I picked you out a nice dress for tomorrow."
Charlotte rolled her eyes.
"This interview is a waste of time I'm not going to-"
"There's nothing wrong with Duke."
"Okay, Dad." Charlotte said, tired of arguing.
Becky walked into the train station.
"Oh! Badlass is here! Great!" Dustin said, trying not to laugh.
Finn began laughing too.
Becky looked confused.
"Is there something I should know?"
Finn and Dustin shrugged.
Becky looked around the train station, before seeing Naomi's portrait.
"...what's this?"
"What's it look like?" Finn asked, with a laugh.
"...who did this?"
"Storm."
"Why!?"
"I don't know, ask her when she gets here."
Becky waited, for a while, sitting down next to the portrait.
After about 30 minutes, Naomi showed up.
"Sup, Badlass?"
"Just relaxing... next to your portrait of me."
"That's not a portrait of you. What's your phone number?" Naomi said immediately.
"Um... it really looks like me."
"I'll just put my number in your phone."
Becky hesitantly handed Naomi her phone.
"So you painted a portrait of me, and now you want my phone number?"
Finn laughed, as Naomi rolled her eyes.
"So we can meet up and ride to the party tomorrow together."
"Oh. Okay... you still didn't address painting a portrait of me."
"It's not you."
Becky looked at the portrait again, skeptically, before shrugging.
"If you say so. What time is this party?" Becky asked, as Naomi handed her her phone back.
"Midnight."
Becky nodded, as Naomi began painting.
"Can you do one of me?" Finn asked.
Naomi flipped him off as Becky chuckled a bit, uncomfortably. Still confused by the portrait.