CHAPTER 7 - HAPPY ANNIVERSARY, KELLY
Here's the final chapter in this entry, focusing on the aftermath (as promised) of the sci-fi convention's movie event at the Paramount. I've also included a little something in the beginning of this chapter that was inspired by a review of Chapter Five by Super Guest (so if you're reading this now, Super Guest, check it out and enjoy :D ).
After the late movies ended for the night and the last of the theatre patrons had left the Paramount, the Surfer's Paradise gang were gathered in the theatre lobby while David closed the security shutter over the passageway that connected the lobby to the Cinema Brew, which would remain open until midnight while the theatre itself closed up for the night.
"Alright everyone, I want to thank you all for helping out with the Paramount's opening night," David addressed the seniors, the groms and Kahuna after he finished closing the shutter. "Thanks to your efforts in pinch-hitting for the regular staff here, tonight's sci-fi convention movie event and the theatre re-opening were both successful."
"Don't forget the movie itself," Kelly reminded David. "Your choice to book the director's cut of War Star helped save the convention from disaster. Everyone went home happy...for the most part, anyway."
"That's true, tonight mostly went along smoothly, but it did hit a couple of speed bumps along the way," David said. "Like when someone found out the hard way why we don't allow texting or talking on cell phones in the theatre during a movie - right, Sabrina?" he added with a raised eyebrow while looking toward Sabrina, who, knowing that David had a point, simply glanced at him and pouted her lips sheepishly.
"Hey, that reminds me," David then said before he walked over to the theatre supply room, ducked inside for a moment and came back out carrying two big garbage bags filled with what turned out to be popped popcorn. He did that several more times, while some of the gang snickered at what they saw, until David brought out a total of a dozen garbage bags with popcorn inside. "Here you go, Sabrina," he said as he indicated the bags, "a few souvenirs from that prank you played with the popcorn machine earlier. Now you have enough leftover popcorn to take back to the hotel to last you to about Halloween at least."
While most of the gang continued laughing at the consequence Sabrina paid for her earlier antics, an amused Fin commented at her with a grin, "Maybe now you'll learn it doesn't pay to mess around with a popcorn machine, does it?" Sabrina, who was not impressed, turned her head and directed a resentful glare at Fin as she spoke.
"Hey, if it'll make you feel better, I could take a couple of those bags of popcorn off your hands," Greg offered. "Gotta have somethin' to munch on while watchin' TV back at the staff house after a surf sesh."
"Me and Johnny could each take a bag too," Reef joined in. "And knowing Broseph and his appetite, he'll probably take two bags."
"I'll take a bag," Trevor spoke up next. "Just need some butter to nuke in the microwave and a little popcorn seasoning and I'm all set."
"I can split a bag with Fin and Lo," Emma then said.
"I'll take a bag and split it with Ash and Bonnie," Kelly added. "Don't know how much of it we'll eat, but it's better than letting it go to waste."
"I can get my munch on with a bag too," Kahuna said.
"And I'll bring a bag up to the penthouse for Ty and George to split," Lo spoke. "I could bring half of it as is and use the other half with melted caramel and peanuts to make Cracker Jack. I know they'd go for it."
"Well, there you go, Sabrina," David said after everyone else finished. "Instead of leaving you stuck with a dozen big bags of popcorn that would've gone to waste otherwise, the rest of the gang's offering to take them off your hands. You even still have a bag left over for yourself to snack on when you need it, so I'd say it's really not all bad, right?"
Taken by the positive spin David gave to being relieved of most of the popcorn she had inherited because of her prank, and seeing that the gang was willing to help her out even after her earlier shabby treatment of them, Sabrina said to David with an embarrassed grin, "Yeah, I guess. At least I won't get sick of eating popcorn that way."
"That's what I like to hear," David then said before he began handing each of the gang their night's pay for filling in for the regular theatre staff. After that, Lo (who was finally able to legally drive upon getting her learner's driving permit shortly after turning 16 the month before) drove Broseph, Reef and Fin back to Surfer's Paradise in her Jeep, while Johnny, Emma, Ripper and the groms rode back with Kahuna in the Whalebus, leaving David and Kelly to close up at the Paramount.
"So, those little misadventures with Sabrina aside, tonight went pretty smoothly like you said, right?" Kelly said while David locked up the theatre's front entrance doors.
"Yep, it sure did," David agreed. "I wouldn't want something like what happened earlier this week to happen again, but if it does, at least I know who to turn to in a pinch if I need eleventh-hour help again."
"Don't give it a second thought," Kelly said reassuringly. "You know we've got your back when you need it."
"Speaking of Sabrina, I remember hearing you and the others had been having trouble with her back at the hotel even before I got here, right?" David said.
"With Sabrina, 'trouble' is kinda understating it," Kelly replied. "You know of the pranks she pulled with your movie booking earlier this week and with the popcorn machine tonight, but you should've seen the things she did when she first came here. She's made enemies with just about everyone on staff at the hotel - and not just because of her pranks either. She slacks on the job most of the time, she lips off at us and starts fights, she refuses to take responsibility for her actions and she lies to get out of trouble when she's caught doing wrong, and worst of all so far, she even bullied Bonnie several times before I had to crack down on her for it. What really grates my cheese is that after we call her out for what she does, she refuses to take how we feel seriously and claims that we 'can't take a joke'. She's been nothing but antagonistic to us since she first set foot in Surfer's Paradise."
"That's understandable," David said sympathetically, nodding his head. "Funny thing I've noticed when I've dealt with her, though - the times when I've chastized her for what she's done wrong, she never backtalked at me or gave me attitude like you said she does with you and the others. I don't know, maybe she sees me differently than she does the rest of you for some reason."
"Yeah, I've noticed that too," Kelly said. "You've somehow managed to get through to her when the rest of us haven't. You just seem to have more patience and understanding than the rest of us do, but she does have a way of testing people's patience and pushing limits, so I'd be careful if I were in your shoes."
"Has she ever tried pushing limits with Mr. Ridgemount?" David asked.
"Come to think of it, I don't think she'd dare try," Kelly said. "After two summers of working for Mr. Ridgemount, I know him well enough by now to know there's certain things he won't tolerate, and the type of attitude Sabrina has is one of them. If she even thought of trying to cross Mr. R like she does us, she'd be gone from the hotel in a heartbeat."
"Then maybe it's certain types of people in authority she wouldn't be disrespectful to," David said. "Like on one hand, people she'd be afraid of crossing like Mr. Ridgemount..."
"...or on the other hand, guys like you," Kelly added. "People she'd actually admire for some reason."
"Sounds about right," David said with another nod.
Meanwhile, as David had been speaking, Kelly noticed that he had been holding his hands behind his back the whole time. "David, is there something you want to tell me?" she said.
"What do you mean?" David wondered aloud.
"Like, what're you hiding behind your back?" Kelly asked out of curiosity. "I saw you try to hide something there right after you locked up the front doors a few minutes ago. C'mon, give it up, let's see what you got," she continued, gesturing with her right hand and then holding it out.
"What, you mean this?" David said as he produced what he had been hiding - a bouquet of roses, which he then handed to Kelly.
Kelly gasped with surprise when she saw the bouquet, which she noticed had six red and six white roses. "Wow, David, you got a mixed bouquet this time?" she said, marvelling at what he gave her.
"It's a little something different from the bouquet I gave you for our first date - which happened one year ago tomorrow," David said with a grin. "And don't worry, I checked the bouquet before I gave it to you. No yellow jackets inside."
"Glad to hear it," Kelly said with a nervous giggle, remembering the incident with the yellow jacket that had flown out of that first bouquet onto her nose right after she and David had met up in the Surfer's Paradise lobby for their first date. Taking a sniff of the roses, she then said as she looked at her boyfriend, "Thanks so much, David. These are just as beautiful as that first batch."
"I'm glad you like them," a pleased David said. "Happy anniversary, Kelly." After Kelly smiled at David's anniversary wish to her, the couple drew close and looked into each other's eyes for a moment, just as they had done in the hotel lobby following their first date a year earlier, then they began kissing as they embraced in front of the Paramount entrance, this time able to enjoy the moment without interruption. Although Kelly was still holding her bouquet of roses as she wrapped her arms around David, she paid no mind to it at that moment as she raised her left foot up from the sidewalk and blissfully enjoyed the kiss.
When the kiss ended after about a minute, Kelly smiled again as she pulled her lips slowly away from David. "Happy anniversary, indeed," she said wistfully after a small giggle, blown away by her kiss with David. "So far, it's been a good one."
"And it's just getting started," David said while he caressed Kelly's left cheek with his right hand. "You feel like having a late dinner right now?"
"Really?" Kelly said. "You want to do that?"
"Well, there are some restaurants here in town that're open late on the weekends, right?" David said.
"Yeah, there's the Jade Pagoda not far from here," Kelly said. "Then there's the Tradewinds, where we went for our first date last year. They're both open until 2 a.m. on the weekends."
"Hmm, okay," David said, contemplating the choices. "So what sounds good to you, the Pagoda or the Tradewinds?"
After a pause, Kelly put her left arm around David's waist. "Surprise me," she said with a smile as she made a motion to start walking in the direction of the nearby restaurants.
"Sounds good to me," David said in agreement as he put his right arm over Kelly's shoulders and started walking with her. "I was just thinking too, maybe tomorrow we could go for a drive out of town and spend the day over in Courtenay. Grab lunch at a cafe somewhere, take a stroll around town or do what sounds good to you, then go out for dinner and then maybe either take in a movie or go dancing. How's that sound?"
"Sounds like a good way to spend our first anniversary as a couple to me," Kelly said with a blissful sigh as she and David continued strolling slowly along Main Street, leaning her head against her beau's shoulder along the way.
Later at the Surfer's Paradise staff house, after the rest of the gang had gone off to the Office for a bonfire party and night surfing after returning from their night at the movies, Sabrina, who had remained behind in her room on the third floor, was surfing the Internet on her laptop and snacking on some leftover chocolate and some of the popcorn she had taken back from the Paramount when she decided to make a call on her iPhone. After Sabrina heard three ring tones over the phone, she then heard a click and a female voice answer, "Hello?"
"Hey, sis, it's me," Sabrina replied. "Figured you'd be up at this time anyway, so I thought I'd call."
"What makes you sure I wouldn't have been, like, out on the town 'round about now?" the voice said.
"Just a hunch," Sabrina said.
"Mm-hmm," the voice said. "So, how goes your new summer job?"
"It sucks," Sabrina replied. "I got assigned to be a hotel maid." When she heard the sound of snorting over the phone in response to what she said, she was not impressed. "What's so funny?" she demanded.
"I'm trying to picture you pushing a cleaning cart around and scrubbing toilets," the voice said. "So you got, like, stuck as a glorified janitor, huh?"
"Hey!" an offended Sabrina said. "I didn't wanna work that job, but my boss gave me a choice - either take the job or leave and head back home. I would've rather joined the 'rents down in Malibu for summer vacay, but Dad said I needed to work and learn the value of a dollar."
"Well, you know Dad," the voice said. "Besides, some lines of work aren't so bad."
"Yeah, I'm sure. Department store catalogue modelling sounds reeeal hard and junk," Sabrina retorted, referring to her sister's occupation.
"It earns me extra green besides what Dad gives me," the voice said. "Anyways, it's a warmup for my overall plan - marry someone with a load of cash, live like a socialite and wait to eventually inherit Dad's company, all while I put other plans I have in motion."
"Uh, don't you mean we'll both inherit Dad's company?" Sabrina pointed out.
"Sure, of course," the voice said. "But those things, like, take time and you have to have patience. Anyway, what else are you doing besides mopping hotel floors?"
"Being stuck with a bunch of losers for roommates at the hotel staff house," Sabrina griped. "None of them got a sense of humor, either. I try to rib them a little and they all flip out on me. They just can't take a joke."
"I've heard about the ribs you pulled before, Sabrina," the voice said. "You have to expect they won't appreciate it, but you can't let it stop you from having fun at their expense."
"Yeah, I know," Sabrina said. "There's this one chick working over here who manages the hotel restaurant, named Kelly..."
"Wait, hold on a sec," the voice said, interrupting Sabrina. "You said her name's Kelly, right?" When Sabrina confirmed it, the voice then asked, "Her last name wouldn't be Francis, would it?"
"Sure is, sis," Sabrina said. "Anyway, she gave me a hard time once and threatened to duct-tape me to a flagpole and junk 'cause she didn't like me pulling a rib on one of her food jockeys."
VICTORIA, BRITISH COLUMBIA - IN A FANCY CONDOMINIUM SOMEWHERE DOWNTOWN
"Sounds like something she'd do, all right," the voice said while in the living room of her eleventh-floor, high-end condominium overlooking downtown Victoria as the phone call continued. "I've known her since high school and we've, like, crossed paths before."
"Hey, yeah, now I remember," Sabrina said at the other end. "Didn't she run against you for Homecoming Queen one time?"
"She did, and I would've won it too if she hadn't, like, gotten involved and messed things up for me," the voice said in a resentful tone. "So, she's managing a restaurant at the hotel where you are now, is she? What's the name of the hotel?"
"It's called the Surfer's Paradise, up in Sunset Beach," Sabrina said.
"Ah, good," the voice said. "You know, I think I just might head on up to this Surfer's Paradise and pay Kelly a little visit, just to see how she's doing and catch up on old times. It's been nearly a year since I last saw her and I sure wouldn't mind seeing her again."
After talking a few more minutes with Sabrina (who also gave her sister the hotel's number to call) before ending the phone call, her sister then dialed up the number she was given. "Surfer's Paradise Ridgemount Resort, can we help you?" a voice at the other end answered.
"Hi there, I'd like to book a room at your hotel, the best room you have available," Sabrina's sister said. "When's the earliest you have one free?" When she heard that a suite would be available for her on Monday, she then said, "Excellent, I'll take it for a week. My name?" she then said when asked for payment details. "It's Drake - Rebekka Drake. Right, that's two K's in my first name."
Right after she finished booking her room at Surfer's Paradise, Rebekka stood up from the chair she had been sitting in and walked over to the living room windows, which had a northern exposure and overlooked the night life in the streets below. Looking toward the northwest, the blonde girl who had been the queen bee of Kelly's high school in Nanaimo before she and Kelly crossed swords during the senior year of both girls put on a malevolent smirk as she looked in the direction of Sunset Beach. "I'm going to enjoy spending a little time out your way, Kelly," Rebekka said slyly while looking out the window. "And when I get there, that's when I'm going to pick up right where we left off last year...and you're not going to enjoy one moment of it," she added ominously as her smirk transformed into a scowl, an indicator of what she had in store for her planned trip.
TO BE CONTINUED...
And cue the suspenseful music... :O
Now, how's that for a big reveal? Sabrina has a sister, and she turns out to be none other than...the notorious Rebekka Drake (of "Old Rivals" infamy)? I figured it best not to give anything about it away until chapter's end, just to give the story's ending a little extra punch.
But while that ends this story, the chapter's end is just a taste of what's to come next - when Trouble Comes Calling...
Reviews and comments are welcome.