Surprised

For the day of their arrival Courtney made sure to reserve two rental cars to get everyone to the villa. In one car there was Courtney, the driver, Belle, Alexie and Tom; and in the other car was Ben, the driver, Kyle, Tyler, and Dominic.

Courtney and Ben navigated the mountain and tried to drive with as little difficulties as possible. They drove rather slowly up until they reached the flat ground and bridge that led to the villa. The bridge goes over the river, surrounding the forest that encloses the Green estate. As the second car was crossing over the bridge, Tyler looks out of her window into the water. Ripples begin to form and she continues to watch in interest. As the ripples subside an object begins to emerge from the water. Tyler squints to see what the object is and makes out the shape of a hand. The hand reaches straight up and then plunges back into the depths of the river. Tyler jumps once the hand disappears and Dom turns quick toward her. "What's the matter?"

"I thought I saw something in the water. But I think I was just imagining it. It's…it's nothing." Until they get to the villa Tyler can't stop thinking about the hand she saw or at least she thought she saw. It must have been a piece of driftwood. As the cars pull up to the villa, they are directed to a parking area by a man wearing overalls with garden shears in hand. The groups exit the cars and the man addresses them, "I'm Preston Yates, the gardener here. Your luggage can be left in the cars just make sure to leave your keys with the butler or his assistant and they will deliver it to your rooms. You'll see me around here a lot considering I live in one of the guest houses out back along with the other staffers here. I do ask that you stay off of my garden, Mr. Green likes his flowers, even though they never really make it; and I hope you have a great stay." As the group walks away Preston gives a fake smile as if excited to have the visitors. Though the only thing he can think about is the clean up required outdoors after this extravaganza

Walking toward the front of the villa, everyone is in awe at the size and beauty of the architecture. "Wow this is one hell of a place, this guy must have tons of money," Tom expresses while Ben uses the knocker on the door. A few seconds later and the enormous front door swings open and a man, with graying hair, answers, "Oh hello you must be the rest of our guests. My name is Fredric Turner, the butler. Later we will get you more acquainted with the villa but for now I will take your keys and escort you to the main dining hall where the rest of the guests are partaking in a late lunch prepared by our resident chef Tai Miyazaki. Please follow me."

They all begin to make their ways down the hallways. The walls are plastered with many paintings and photos of what they guessed were family. Courtney takes closer looks at one of the older looking pictures. It was twins in the hospital still that were resting she thought that Oliver didn't have any children; but she guessed they could have been relatives. She collected her thoughts and continued to follow the group. As they passed miscellaneous rooms Courtney would take peeks inside them to get herself more accustomed to the villa. She didn't want to get lost and end up in a place of the estate she shouldn't have been. She looked ahead at her kids and their friends and smiled at how they have developed into great teenagers. She notices that Alexie and Ben were holding hands as they walked down the hallway and that Kyle and Belle were acting very "close". But she wasn't at all afraid of what her kids might get in the middle of , she knew that her kids were grown up enough to deal with the choices they make. She did what a parent was supposed to do and now she is letting them into the world to learn firsthand. Courtney continues to smile as she catches up to the group as they arrive at the dining room.

Walking in Courtney notices a lot less people than she had expected. There were only about 40 of them maybe. This must have been a really private party, she thinks to herself. Inside the dining room was about six tables that could each seat 8 comfortably, which seemed to be more than enough seating for the amount of guests. The only people that were visibly missing, thanks to pictures Belle showed her, were the staff and Oliver Green himself. His wife had been sitting at a table with 4 other woman and 2 men all of whom looked rather young. At another table were people that Courtney had known for years, the Harris's and the Webber's.

The Harris's only consisted of Brad Harris and his wife Elaine. The Webber's had roughly the same make up, With Jenn Webber, the wife, Harrison, the husband, and their foster child, Rachel Edwards. Courtney wondered that if she didn't invite them, then who invited them. Perplexed she looks away to avoid staring and around the room at the other tables. The first table she glances at has only one person. The man seemed out of place and he seemed restless in his chair. But again she continued to navigate her eyes through the dining room so she didn't seem rude. The second table contained 3 Hispanic people, one female, and two males and a strange white female who wore close to no clothing. The next table had two people she didn't know, like a lot of the guests; one man and one woman. The last table had two people, both of whom she was quite familiar with. One of them was her ex-husband and estranged father of the twins, Nick Espero. The other was Rylan Monroe. He is a professor at the twin's college and she had had multiple "conferences" with him about some of the grades he had given her children.

Courtney just couldn't seem to keep her eyes off of her ex-husband and began to wonder what really happened to them. Besides the kidnapping scare and the not paying child support she thought they had once had a great relationship, and somewhere deep inside herself she knew that she still loved him. Maybe she was just trying to convince herself that under all of his not so greatness, there really was a great person; but if there was something good there she hadn't seen it since they had first had the twins. Courtney quickly refocuses her attention to the front of the room as a well dressed man with short blonde hair enters the room, which she immediately recognizes as Oliver Green. Oliver addresses his guests and as he does the room goes silent, "Welcome everyone to The Green Villa. I am your host whom all of you should know and I will be visiting with all of you throughout dinner. I hope you all enjoy yourselves." After the announcement the guests go back to the conversations they had put on hold for the short commercial break.

Oliver begins to make his way around the room first stopping at the table in which his wife was seated. As he walked toward the table Gina, his wife, quickly stands to introduce her husband to her friends all of whom he had met before but didn't remember. In a speedy manner she begins to introduce them. "Ok Hun, this is Darcy Janssen," she waves her hand toward the goth girl. They shake hands. "And this is Haley Falero," She moves her hand toward Haley, A skinny blonde with shoulder length blonde hair. "I think we've met before," Oliver says after he shakes her hand. "I think your right," she retorts. "That's her boyfriend Joey Dean," she utters and Joey nods his head as his name is said. "And this is Trishelle Remington."

"Ahh Trish it's nice to meet you."

"Likewise," Trishelle says as she shakes his hand. "Well Hun I have to go introduce myself to the rest of those who don't know me," Oliver says as he kisses his wife and begins to stalk toward another table. Gina didn't bother introducing Celeste and Syrus both of whom were sitting at the table. Partially cause Gina is a horrible person but mostly because Oliver knows both Celeste and Syrus from work.

"What is up with your husband Gina, he is such a square," Haley comments once Oliver was a safe distance away. "I don't know all I have to do is sleep with the guy and say a few I love yous; and I get to live like a princess," Gina responds flipping her nose up. "O.M.G. you are so lucky I wish I could just like date some dork and just spend his money. Your life is so easy. I'm like totally jealous," Trishelle states to Gina with a sigh.

"Yeah I would be to if I was a flight attendant who barely makes enough to live," Gina replies under her breath.

"What was that?"

"I didn't say anything."

"I think you guys just need to chill out. We're here for one of the best times of our lives. Well all of us but you Gina since you, you know, live like this," Celeste explains as Gina smiles smugly. " All we have to do this week is enjoy ourselves and possibly be a little bit nicer to people." Celeste was always trying to get her friends to stop being so superficial but that was no easy feat. But she continued to try because she still wants to be friends just without the high school drama. She didn't really have to try with Haley to be nicer because she generally was except when she was around Gina and Trishelle, the main causes of the childish behavior. Celeste turned to her brother in hopes that he could somehow help her make a point. But alas Syrus said nothing; in fact he just kept eating in hopes to get away from Gina faster. Celeste decided to shut up and follow her brother's lead. Joey sat at the table amused at how brutal the females were. HE just couldn't believe that Haley's friends were really such big bitches but they had yet to prove him wrong. He took notice to the fact the mostly everyone at the table was eating at a vigorous pace, he was guessing it was to get away from Gina; she seemed to be the most intolerable. As Syrus was finishing his meal his phone rang. Syrus knowing he was on call swiftly stepped out of the dining hall and into the hallway to take the call.

After leaving his wife Oliver made his way over to the closest table. This table had the Webbers and Harris's. "Oliver how's it going," Brad Harris calls as Oliver approaches them. "It's going fine, well all except my recent blunder with the law. But I was cleared and that's all that mattered… How is everyone?"

Jenn Webber responds with a smile and a doing fine; as does Elaine Harris, Rachel Edwards, Jenn's "daughter", and her husband Harrison Webber. Oliver tells them that he'll have to catch up when they have more time later. He had to address the rest of his guests before lunch was complete. So Oliver once again heads toward another of his guest's tables.

The next one was not the one with the squirrely man instead he passed this table and ends up at the table of the Hispanic group. Oliver looks at the table uneasy as he had told this group of guests specifically that it would be bad idea for them to be there. They hadn't cared and didn't want to lose an opportunity for business. Julian Carranza, the man who looked the oldest and to be the one in charge, stood up to greet his host, "Ahh Oliver you finally grace us with your presence." Oliver continues to look uncomfortable and he lets anything he can think of out quietly. "Why are you here Julian, and why did you bring all of your lackeys with you? Do you want everything we've worked for to be ruined? That woman over there," Oliver points toward Courtney, "and that man over there," He now points toward Nick, "were a part of the reason why I'm not going to jail for helping you. All of my money could be taken away if they found out everything and you would more than likely get to see the inside of the big house that your buddy here has grown to love." Cruz hears him mentioned and turns angrily toward Oliver and grabs for the knife on his belt. Alejandra, the Latina, swiftly grasps Cruz's arm to stop him, "Are you stupid that would just draw more attention to us you really need to figure out another way to let your anger out. Damn." Alejandra just goes back to eating once Cruz had calmed down. And Oliver continues his silent tirade, "Seriously Julian, I'm gonna need you to leave this could end horribly for both of us. I especially have a lot to lose." Julian puts on a stern look and moves his face closer to Oliver. Once his mouth was close enough to Oliver's ear he whispers, "We're not leaving, if your pals that helped with your case even remotely stand in my way. They will get taken out." With that Julian lowers back down and continues to enjoy his meal.

Oliver stands in shock for a few moments before picking himself up and walking to the next table. Oliver was glad to see his next two guests since they were the only friends he thought he could trust. "Jodi, Connor, it's so good to see you." They both share hugs with Oliver. "It's been so long Oliver; you haven't invited us up here for years now."

"Yeah, well I've been really busy lately and stressed so I wanted to see two of my favorite people before work just became too much."

"Oh well, we are glad you invited us and we are hoping that you will just relax and enjoy yourself. You deserve it." Jodi then just smiles at Connor and back at Oliver until Oliver tells them he will see them later for dinner and that they can catch up more then. They again thank him for the invite and Oliver looks at his watch to see that the it was 10 past the time lunch was to be over so the maids could clean the dining area for dinner. Oliver makes his way to the front of the room. "My guests I'm sorry I didn't get to meet all of you during lunch. My maids will be coming in just a few minutes to clean the hall. So if you could make you way into the halls the staff would highly appreciate it. The Villa is open to all of you to do whatever you please; the festivities won't start till tomorrow. The guests begin to make their ways to the miscellaneous places they would be spending their time.

The Drakes and company decide to locate Fredric to find their rooms. Courtney told them it would be best to wait outside the dining hall, since Oliver had said the staff would need to clean the Hall. But considering the size of this place there were probably plenty of people to clean the room without the butler. They waited and Courtney began to realize that there weren't nearly as many people working in the villa as she had originally thought. With her occasional looks into the room, she only saw two women cleaning. After what seemed like hours, Fredric appears down the hall to gather up the guests. "There you all are, I have been looking all over for you. Let me show you to your rooms. Your luggage had been delivered and Mr. Green has given everyone free time for this evening. There is a pool in the south wing and the rooms are in the east wing. The west wing is this wing where the dining facilities are along with the private theatre Mr. Green had put in, it screens the latest films. The north wing is off limits as it is where the Green's bedroom is located along with the offices. So if you will follow me I will show you to your rooms." They had followed Fredric into the east wing and up a flight of stairs to get to the rooms.

Once they had all made it into their respective rooms they took note at who was where. In the room closest to the stairs was Courtney and Belle. In the room across from it were Ben and Kyle. The room to the right of that one was shared by Tyler and Alexie and the one across from the girls contained Tom and Dominic. Courtney, Tom, Dominic, and Tyler all decided to stay at the rooms since they were tired from the trip and Belle, Ben, Kyle, and Alexie made their way down to the pool.

Back outside the villa was Syrus. He had slowly made his way down toward the river since it seemed he had the best signal there. "No, I'm sorry ma'am you are gonna have to do everything I ask you to."He spends a few more moments talking to and instructing the woman. Once her situation had been fixed he became relieved since the company will stop directing call to his phone. After sliding his phone into his pocket he finally takes a moment to see where he had walked to. The water from the river was loud but he had drowned out the sound when he was on the phone. He decides to take his time making it back to the villa and goes to stand on the bridge. Once he set his arms down he just relaxed and took in the scenery. He didn't get to see stuff like this in L.A. so he wanted to take in every moment of it. Even with the sound of the river Syrus had heard something walking toward him. He just didn't care enough to look. After a few moments he had no longer heard the sound. So he continued to bask in the essence of the woods. His moment was abruptly ended when he hears someone yell "Hey!" from right behind him. With a quick turn Syrus had no time to call for help as a knife was plunged into his trachea and another into his heart. Syrus just gasped as his blood flowed steadily out of his wounds and was soon dead. The killer threw Syrus' body over the bridge and into the river. They watched as the body made it way down the river and away from the villa. They cleaned up the blood tossed any evidence into the river to follow the body including their clothes. With the darkening sky they knew they had little time to get back to the villa. So they quickly put on the extra set of clothes they had set aside and made their way back plotting their next move.

Well this was my longest chapter yet. Hope you enjoyed it and I hope it wasn't too confusing, have yet to have that many characters in one place. Please please review.

I have yet to start the next chapter so I don't know how long it will take to get it out.

Characters who Died:

Ricky Turner- 1st Victim (Chapter 1)

Syrus Maman- 2nd Victim (Chapter 3)