Eavesdropping

(Monday morning after the beach trip)

The beach trip had gone better than Rose could have imagined and she was still riding that high when she woke up Monday morning. Just to be on the safe side she had taken some pain meds the night before and was feeling pretty well despite probably overdoing it the day before.

Sam was just on the verge of waking up and Rose decided to get herself ready. They had agreed to give themselves (though it was clearly more for Rose’s sake than Sam’s) today and start working out tomorrow morning again.

The two had talked last night about their days and they both had a great time. Rose showed Sam her bear and Sam showed Rose her necklace. Rose thought the necklace was really nice though jewelry was kind of a next-level thing. She didn’t know if she and JD were there yet nor would she ever ask for something like that. If JD, like Heath, bought her jewelry on his own that would be one thing but asking seemed like a overdoing it.

Rose was getting her things ready to go take a shower when she heard “Morning.”

“Good morning,” Rose said to her best friend.

“You OK?” Sam asked. She really didn’t want a repeat of having to take her friend to the hospital because she overdid it.

“Yeah, the pain meds and sleep did the trick,” Rose said. “I’m fine.”

“Good.” Sam took a breath. “You know I’m really glad you had a great time but can you maybe not push yourself so much? You’ll get back to where you were but you know that’ll take a while.” It hadn’t been even a year since the accident and Sam worried about the way Rose would sometimes seem to forget or not want to think about how her body wasn’t completely healed. 85 - 90 percent but not all the way. It was one of the few things Rose didn’t seem to factor in how she lived her life.

Rose sighed; she knew Sam was not just looking out for her but was right. “I know.” Then a small smile crossed her lips. “You know even if I wasn’t fine today it would have been so worth it.”

Sam couldn’t help but smile at that response. “Ok. I guess I can’t argue too much with you about it. Let’s get ready and get to the coffee cart. I had heard that today was going to be the release of the fall flavors.”

Rose nodded. “Oh, then we should definitely get ready.. The line is going to be crazy.”

The roommates did just that with the normal routine of showering and all the other stuff that goes along with the morning routine and headed downstairs and outside to the coffee cart. They had given themselves plenty of time to get coffee before breakfast which was a good thing because as they reached the doors that led to the area where the coffee was and then out the doors they could see the line forming.

Rose looked down a moment and then said. “Oh, I forgot my phone. Can you get me…,” looking at the sign that announced the new flavors a moment, “A maple cream latte?” She handed Sam some money. “And pay for yours out of that.”

Sam started to argue but Rose put her hand up. “Don’t argue with me about it.”

Right about then, Courtney showed up and said. “New fall flavors?” as her eyes glanced at the line that was forming.

Sam said. “Yup.”

Rose said, “Coffee’s my treat this morning. So, you both pick what you want? Oh, make mine a large. I’ll be right back.”

Sam and Courtney just gave into Rose buying them coffee as the girl went back to get her phone.

Rose went back to her dorm room, grabbed her phone, and headed back downstairs but she heard voices coming from the girls' shower area. She wouldn’t have stopped, as she wasn’t one to eavesdrop but she recognized the names Conner, Matt, Zander and then heard JD being mentioned so she had to figure out what was going on. She snuck in through the doors on the other side of where the girls were talking and took a quick peek to see if she could figure out who was talking. It was some of the rich girls; about six of them or so.

“So, here’s the plan.” One of them said. Candice was the pack leader of this particular group of girls. “We will each bid so high on these guys that we will get them and then on Friday when they are supposed to serve us, we will have leashes and collars for them to wear. Completely humiliate them.”

One of the other girls: Charlene, spoke up. “I get why we are doing this to the nerds, the skaters, and the scholarship students but why are we doing it to the guys like Conner or Matt?”

Candice then said. “Well, because traitors are due to be taken down a notch as well.”

Charlene then said. “Ok, so we have on this list..” and she proceeded to list off the skater guys including Trevor, the nerds including Leonard, and then she got to the list which included the guys that were part of their group. “Zander is part of that group but also a nerd. So, I don’t think the bids for him will go very high. The rest however might get a lot of bids but especially Conner, Kyle, Justin, Matt, and Dante so we need to be prepared.”

One of the other girls who Rose didn’t know then said. “What about that JD guy, the one that Lance seems to hate?”

Candice said. “JD and Rose are apparently a couple or something like that. We can’t outbid her.”

The girl who had asked about JD in the first place then said. “Rose, the blonde girl, I’m confused is she rich or something.”

Candice sighed. “Do you not know who she is? She’s Rose Newhall of the Newhalls of Newhall industries. Very wealthy. Old money from what I hear. Why she’s dating a scholarship I’ll never know. Anyway, we can’t outbid her so we will check JD off the list.”

Charlene then said. “Jack? Who’s Jack?”

Candice said. “That guy that’s around Ashley a lot”

A collective silence ran among the group of girls for a few seconds. Then one of the other girls spoke up. “Are they dating? I’m not sure we should mess with Ashley.”

Candice said nothing for a few moments then said. “There are more than just six of us: I’m sure we’ll get others to go along with this plan. What? Is she going to beat us all up?”

Charlene then said, “I don’t know. Word has it she made a bunch of the football players cry when they tried to hit on her. Could you imagine what she would do to someone who tried to bid on her guy?

Candice said. “We’ll get one of the Freshman girls to bid on him or something. I’m sure she can’t take all of us.”

Rose was actually finding them being scared of Ashley a little amusing.

Charlene added. “Well, Heath is dating Sam and we know she has no money to really bid with so we should be good there.”

Candice then said. “We now just need to figure out which one of us gets which one.”

Rose didn’t need to stay for that part; so she quietly left the same way she had come and went back to the coffee area as her mind tried to figure out what to do about this. By the time she got back Sam and Courtney had gotten their coffees and Sam handed Rose hers.

Sam took one look at Rose’s face and just knew. “What happened?”

Rose asked that the three of them sit down at a table and they did. She proceeded to tell them what she had overheard as they drank their coffees. The three of them went back and forth with ideas for a few moments but eventually came up with a plan. There was no way they were going to let what Rose had overheard happen.