It is late morning in Persephone Pointe and the people in the village are out and about enjoying all the village has to offer. Tourists and townspeople alike are on the beaches, soaking up the rays, fishing, swimming, boogie boarding, or just hiding away on a quiet dune catching up on their summer reading.

The tourist industry pumps major dollars into the town’s economy, almost as much as the DeLongpre shipping and fishing interests. The village’s population increases twofold during the late spring and summer months. Because of the town’s upscale tourism community, many specialty shops, galleries, boutiques, and cafes have popped along the waterfront in old warehouses and cannery buildings, that may not have otherwise located in Persephone Pointe.

At the Eglasca house, Emery Origen is asleep on the family room floor. Emery and Saga went to Ryan Blaisdelle’s party last night and Emery drank more than he should have. After several beer bongs, liquor shots, and various other substances, Emery became quite sick and would lose consciousness. Many at the party feared that he had alcohol poisoning, including his brother, Briggs, but as they were about to take him to hospital, he suddenly regained consciousness, threw up again, and started to drink glass after glass of water. It was decided that Emery would spend the night at Saga’s house, so that he could avoid his parents until he sobered up.

Saga is asleep on the couch, dreaming of Briggs Origen and the moment they almost shared at last night’s party. Briggs occupies not only Saga’s dreams, but her almost every waking thought. She is determined to be his girlfriend, no matter what she has to do to make that happen. Last night at the party they almost kissed, but Ian Montgomery interrupted them to tell them about Emery.

Emery begins to stir. His stomach is still churning from his overindulgence from the night before. He sees Saga, asleep on the couch, with a smile on her face. His head is pounding. He feels like he’s going to get sick again, but is too weak to move from his spot on the floor. He can feel the toxins in his stomach trying to reach the surface.

"Saga," he whispers. "Saga." She begins to move around. "Saga I need the trash can."

"Wha," says Saga half-asleep and half-awake.

"Saga," Emery whispers again. Saga opens her eyes and thinks that she’s seeing Briggs, but refocuses and realizes that it’s just Emery.

"What do you want," she says almost completely awake now.

"The trash can," he moans. It finally registers with Saga what is going on. She gets off the sofa, runs to the trashcan, and places it in front of Emery, just in time for him to christen it, in his own special way.

"Puke. Puke your damned guts out," says Saga.

"Hey," say Emery lifting his head out of the can. "What happened to all of that friends forever crap from seventh grade?"

"You weren't a friend last night. Because of you, I missed my golden moment with Briggs."

"What are you talking about. I hardly saw you."

"Briggs and I were about to get closer than we’ve ever been and you screwed it up."

"What did I do?"

"You did seven beer bongs, five Jagermeister shots and God knows what else. We thought you were going to die or something. Me, Briggs, and Ian were totally freaking out."

"Forgive me for getting’ sick," says Emery.

"It could have been avoided," says Saga.

"Don’t give me any fricking lectures."

"You have no idea how close I was to getting everything I wanted. Everything, Emery."

"Maybe it was a sign. Briggs is all wrong for you anyway," says Emery.

"Don’t say that. Briggs and I would make the perfect couple."

"Perfectly revolting."

"Oh, you don’t get it. Wait until you meet the girl of your dreams, you’ll understand how I’m feeling. By the way, you talk so much smack about Briggs, but he was so worried about you last night. He really loves you."

"Briggs doesn’t love anybody but himself. You got any ginger ale?"

"Why?"

"To settle my stomach," says Emery.

"I’ll check." Saga walks into the kitchen, finds a two-liter bottle of ginger ale, pours a big glass of it, and brings it out to Emery. "Here."

"Thanks."

"I guess you’re welcome."

"Aw come on. I did you a favor. Getting involved with Saint Briggs would be a huge mistake."

"Getting involved with Briggs would be my dream come true."

"Do you have any aspirin?"

"Do I look like your maid?"

"C’mon, I’m in pain."

"Good, I’m glad."

"Hey."

"Just payback for ruining my evening," says Saga.

"You’re cold."

"I was hot last night -- thanks to your big brother."

"Aspirin — please."

"Hold on… I'll go get ya some,"

"You're a regular Florence Nightingale." Saga leaves the room. Emery manages to get over to the couch. He can still smell smoke and alcohol on his clothes. Saga returns with a tall glass of water and two aspirin.

"Here," she says handing him the glass and the aspirin.

"Thank you. Are you still mad at me?" He takes the aspirin and finishes the entire glass of water.

"Yes -- but I'll get over it, if you help me out."

"Help you out? How?"

"Tomorrow night. I want to be alone with your brother."

"What's so special about tomorrow night?"

"With your help, it's gonna be the night when Briggs and I finish what we started last night."

"What do I have to do?"

"We'll talk about it later. Right now I'm going to get a shower."

"Can you at least tell me what part I'm gonna play in this wacked scheme of yours?"

"All in due time."

"Do you need help scrubbing your back in the shower?"

"Not even if both of my hands were broken and you were made of loofah."

"Hardy…har…har…"

________________________________________________

Briggs Origen has just gotten out of the shower. There is towel wrapped around his waist and he is combing his fingers through his wet hair. He walks into his room, finds a clean pair of boxers and a new pair of hiking shorts, and a white University of North Carolina t-shirt.

He goes downstairs to the kitchen for a bowl of Cocoa Pebbles. He turns on the counter TV to ESPN Sports Center and starts to eat his breakfast. Ian Montgomery comes racing through the kitchen door, dressed in a long sleeve shirt, a blue and white rep tie, and Gap Khakis. Ian's mom, Leslie, got him a job working as an intern for a judge, this summer. Ian has gotten to do some fun things, but most of his job consists of being a 'gopher' and doing web research for the Judge's Chief of Staff.

"Hey," says Briggs swallowing a spoonful of Cocoa Pebbles.

"Hey, do you have my wallet?" Ian asks.

"Oh yeah, it's in the car," says Briggs.

"I was totally freaking out. I thought I had lost it."
" Want some cereal?"

"Nah," he says noticing that Sports Center is on. "Are you doing that fantasy football thing this year?"

"I was waiting to see if you were going to do it."

"Oh."

"Are you?"

"Why the hell not, it'll give us another excuse to watch football."

"Like we need an excuse now," says Ian.

"True."

"Emery gotten home yet?"

"No. I haven't heard from Saga so I guess we can assume that he didn't die last night."

"Gosh -- man -- I was freaked, when I saw him like that."

"Thanks for letting me know what was going on," says Briggs.

"Well I didn't mean to interrupt anything," says Ian.

"What does that mean?"
"You and Saga? The flower garden? Moonlit night? Remember?"

"What are getting' at?"

"You and Saga looked like you were getting quite cozy, if you get my drift."

"Cozy? Me and Saga?"

"I didn't interrupt anything?"

"It was me and Saga. There was nothing to interrupt."

"It looked like something was going on from what I could tell."

"Well nothing was going on, we were just hanging and drinking her wine," says Briggs.

"If you say so."

"What? You don't believe me?"

"No -- if you say nothing was going on, then nothing was going on. It just looked like you two were about to do some lip lockin'."

"Me and Saga?"

"How much wine did you drink?"

"Well, we were sittin' kinda close and…"

"And?"

"There was a moment that I thought about it,"

"And?"

"And nothing."

"Saga's hot."

"She's very hot, but she's a friend. She hangs with my little brother."

"So."

"Saga's cool and all to hang with, but I'm not into her," says Briggs.

"You mean you've never once thought about…"

"She's got a killer body and she's got this intense thing going on. When she walks into a room, you almost have to notice her. It's easy to think with the wrong head when you're around her." Ian laughs. "But, like I said, I'm not into her."

"I bet I know, who you are into," says Ian.

"I'm going to find out who she is this morning?"

"How ya gonna do that?"

"I'm going to ask Saga's mom. I sure she knows everyone that was at that party yesterday."

"I gotta go. Are you off today?"

"No I'm working this afternoon."

"Must be nice. Smell ya later."

"No. Smell you later."

"Late." Briggs gets up from the counter and puts his now empty bowl into the dishwasher. His mom has left him a note with some errands to run, so he'll do the errands then drive up to the DeLongpre Compound to talk to Claudia and find out the name of the girl he can't stop thinking about.

_____________________________________________

Rachel Ontkeen has gotten out of bed and put on a bathing suit. She had decided to do some laps in the pool, before she really starts her day. She didn't sleep well last night. She kept having dreams about dead bodies and haunted ponds and it caused her to toss and turn for most of the evening.

She hopes that doing laps in the pool will erase all of those bad dreams from her brain and help her start the day on a positive note. Before going to pool, she decides to stop by her mother's room, to see if she would like to join her in the pool. Both Pamela and Rachel are excellent swimmers. At one time Rachel toyed with the idea of trying out for the Olympics, but hasn't really given that too much thought lately.

Luckily, Pamela's room is right down the hall from Rachel's room, so Rachel doesn't need a road map to find her way to her Mom's room. When she get there, she discovers that her mother is gone. Rachel calls for her, but gets no answer, "Hmm, I wonder where she went?" Rachel decides to wait for her Mother. "She'll probably be right back, I'll wait here for her."

_________________________________________________

Pamela is standing outside of her younger brother, Thad's bedroom with her father's new wife, Jory. Jory has just come out of Thad's bedroom. She went into the room by accident and to avoid waking Thad, she quietly backed out of the room, which Pamela saw her doing.

"The unabridged version?" Jory asks.

"I've got the time, so please share. Why were you coming out of my brother's room?" Pamela asks.

"It was an accident. I was trying to find my way to the staircase and got turned around," says Jory.

"So why did it look like you were sneaking out of Thad's room?"

"He's asleep and I didn't want to wake him," says Jory.

"I see," says Pamela wishing that the explanation didn't make so much sense.

"I'm really glad that you're here Pamela. Can you please show me how to get downstairs?"

"Of course."

"Thank you. It's going to take some time learning my way around this place."

"I'm a runner too," says Pamela noticing Jory's outfit and the Walkman. "We’re going to have to go together one morning."

"I'd like that," says Jory.

"Good. I hope we can be friends Jory. Good friends."

"I would like that very much Pamela."

"I have to ask you, you're a healthy young woman, what could you possibly see in someone old enough to be your father?"

"Age is unimportant. Love is."

"That may be good and true, but to the viscous public, love is unimportant and age is."

"Well we can't really care what the public, viscous or otherwise, thinks now can we," says Jory.

"Well, hon, the DeLongpres are in the public eye and we have a certain image uphold."

"I really don't care what anyone else thinks about my marriage or my choices. The only person that matters is my husband," says Jory.

"It's nice to see that you're so dedicated to my Daddy."

"I love him."

"Well isn't that special."

"It is -- Very special."

then another immediate right and go through the double doors -- you can't miss it," says Pamela.

"Thank you." Jory leaves through the double doors. Pamela is left standing in the corridor, alone.

"Oh that little bitch is good. She's got the whole loving wife thing down perfectly." She reaches in her pocket, pulls out a cellular phone, and dials a number, but gets an answering machine.

"Earl where in the hell are you? When you get this message, call me, I've got a job for you." She ends the call and walks toward the double doors. "You're acting all high and mighty now, you little gold-digger, but I've always enjoyed bringing the high and mighty to their knees -- and with a little help from my private investigator, that's what's going to happen to you stepmommy. That's exactly what's going to happen to you."