(3rd person POV)
"Hello?" Hayley asks. "Who is this?"
"Hayley?"
"Daniel?" Hayley realizes. "Whose number is this?"
"Uh, it's my moms phone, I think," Daniel answers.
"I don't understand."
"I got the ice!" Judy yells from the door.
"I have to hang up." Daniel threw the device back in the bag before knocking it over, spilling everything on the gym floor.
"Oh. What happened here?" Judy asks.
"I knocked over your bag." Daniel goes back to pretending to be hurt. "I'll put everything back in. What is that?" Daniel pointed to the weird device he just talked to Hayley through.
"This?" Judy asks. "Just a makeup compact. You know this doesn't happen by magic."
—————
Hayley returned back to the Greenhouse that night and after curfew waited on a bench outside the school to meet up with Daniel. Daniel reluctantly sat down at the opposite end of the bench from her and said,
"So I guess we need to talk..."
"Look, we both know that something is going on here," Hayley says. "Otherwise you wouldn't have shown up."
"So where'd you find that number?" He asks.
"I found a secret safe in my moms bedroom." She answers. "And inside there was a note with a phone number on it."
"I only happen to be near that thing when it rang." Daniel says.
"It?"
"It's not a normal phone. It's some weird device I found in my moms bag." Daniel explains.
"Okay, what was she doing with it?"
"I have no idea." He shrugs.
"You don't know much about your mom, do you?" Hayley scoffs.
"Doesn't seem like you know much about yours, either." Daniel shoots back.
"Look, you're not crazy about me, and the feeling is mutual, but if we wanna figure out what's going on here, we're gonna have to work together." She says, Daniel just looked at her. "What?"
"Listen, I've been injured for a long time." Daniel says. "We have a game in three days."
"So?"
"So I think this is a little much for me to handle right now." He answers her.
"Fine, whatever." Hayley gets up to leave. "I'm glad to see you have your priorities in order."
"Hayley, wait." Daniel says. "You're right. Something is going on. We have to figure out what it is."
"So now you want to help?" Hayley slowly walks back over to sit down again.
"My mom always told me I was destined for great things in life. That I was special," He says. "Everyone in my family, friends, neighborhood... They all expect me to be this huge success. I've spent my whole life doing what everyone expects me to do. I'm sick of it."
"Look," Hayley jumps in. "You can't spend your entire lie trying to make other people happy. Including your mom."
"But we have to keep this quiet. No one can know we're working together." Daniel changes the subject away from himself. The ended the night with a handshake before heading back to their own clubhouses.
—————
"Guys, it's time for our weekly house meeting!" Sophie calls to the clubhouse of her Eagles. They all sat around the couches and chairs, still ignoring her. Alex stood and walked over to the main couches where they always had the meetings, but no one else moved. "Hello? It's time! You can obviously hear me."
Daniel had left to go on a run and Brooke waved goodbye to him before walking back into the main room of the clubhouse.
"Hey, listen, I need your help." Sophie walks up to her. "We have to stop this nonsense."
"Don't look at me." Brooke says. "I told you not to send in that video."
"What's the matter with you?" Sophie asks. "You're my best friend."
"You refused to listen to me. What kind of friend does that?" Brooke asks back.
"Hey. I'm here for the house meeting." Alex joins them. "The manual says a meeting can be officially held as long as a captain and two members are present."
"Woah, don't count me," Brooke backs away. "I'm not apart of this."
"Looks like you only got one member." Parker teases from his video game.
"Shut up, Parker." Kiara had walked in from the kitchen area over to her captain. "Now you have two."
"Thank you guys." Sophie gratefully sighs.
"Don't worry, we got you Soph." Kiara says.
"Yo!" Parker stands from his game. "What do you think you're doing?"
"Parker, we all get the point." Alex says. "She said she was sorry. Let's just move on."
"Excuse me?" Parker asks. "No one asked for your opinion, all right? She betrayed us, now she has to pay."
"I don't think she did anything to anyone but you." Kiara adds. "She is sorry, and now you're getting everyone in here to ignore her like a bunch of children."
"I didn't ask for your opinion either." Parker points one finger at her.
"Hey!" Alex pushed his hand away. "Would you just let it go already! You're just mad because she rejected you."
"What did you say to me!" The two boys now in each others face, yelling a some light shoving, had to be broken up by Sophie and Kiara just before Louis yelled from the door.
"What is going on! This the kind of house meeting you're running captain?" Louis stood in the door with none other that Michelle Wallace standing behind him.
—————
"What is this place?" Hayley says while Daniel closed the door behind them. "The place that time forgot?"
"You want a place no one goes to in the Greenhouse?" Daniel asks. "The old Biology Lab, now it's a storage room."
"For storing what?" Hayley looks around the dusty old room. "Dead bodies?" Hayley notices and only whiteboard on a rolling easel in the corner and rolls it over to the middle of the room, "Yeah that's fine. Don't help me."
"You got it." Daniel shrugs.
"Now we can start working." Hayley searches around the easel. "Where are the markers?"
"Here you are." Daniel reaches to hand her a marker he pulled from his pocket.
"Do you always carry a marker with you?" Hayley asks, taking the marker in her hand.
"It's not just a marker, it's one of Louis's inventions. Try it out." Daniel motions to the board and Hayley writes 'The investigation begins.' "Now give it back." After Hayley handed him the marker, he hits a button on the bottom and the writing disappears.
"What?"
"It's called quantum ink." Daniel says. "They couldn't market these 'cause each marker costs five grand. Louis gave it to me for my birthday."
"That is so cool!"
Now the investigation begins." Daniel passed the marker back to her. Hayley wrote 'Brooke', 'Ryan', 'Marcus' and 'Judy' out on the white board before looking at it to think.
"Our moms are somehow connected but we don't know how. We also know that Brooke started to behave strangely, and did a full 180 on you and your mom. We also know that Marcus once checked out a book on hypnotism from the library, but that just might be a coincidence."
"Well... Let's think about this rationally." Daniel adds. "Your mom is gone, we'll never get anything outta my mom, Brooke hasn't been herself lately, that just leaves Marcus. He's the weakest link." Hayley drew a circle around Marcus's name.
"Not bad. That makes sense." Hayley agrees.
"Thats how us Eagles work." Daniel says. "We think rationally."
"You mean you always pick on the weakest link?" Hayley continues to look at the board while Daniel just rolls his eyes. "So, my mom was close to Marcus when she was a student here. So there's a connection there." She drew a line from 'Marcus' to 'Ryan'.
"And Brooke suspected Marcus." Daniel adds. "She followed him to the cave that day." Hayley drew another line.
"The same cave where Alex and I saw Judy the night of the dance." Hayley then drew a third line.
"Marcus is our lead." Hayley then walked over to the table to look at the the hypnosis book that Marcus checked out.
"The use of hypnosis for long-term cognitive change." She read from the table of contents. "I think he used this on Brooke."
"This is crazy."
"At least it gives us an explanation of what happened to her." Hayley continued to flip through the book and then came to a spot in the book some one ripped out the pages. "A chapters missing, someone ripped out all the pages!"
"Check the contents to see what that chapter was about." Daniel says while Hayley flipped back to the front.
"The process of dehypnotization." She read.
"You're kidding me right." Daniel sighs as both their Louies chimed. "Louis wants us all in the exam room.
"Perfect timing."
"We should go before someone notices." Daniel gets up to leave.
"Wait. If Marcus used this book to hypnotize Brooke, then that chapter is the only way to bring her back." Hayley says.
"He must of taken it."
"Maybe the book is online?" She suggests.
"It's out of print." Daniel slumps back in his seat. "And even if we did find it we don't have time for it to be shipped over."
"Maybe he's hiding the chapter in his office?" Daniel then pulled a key out of his pocket. "What's that key?"
"It's a master key. It can open any door in the school." He answers. "Louis gave it to me when I was captain, as a safety measure."
"And you didn't think to give it back when you stopped being captain?" Hayley questions.
"The important thing is we can break into Marcus' room and find the missing chapter." Daniel says. "How do we make sure Marcus isn't in his room?"
"I don't know, I'll think of something. Let's go." Hayley used the marker to erase Marcus's name from the board and followed Daniel out to the hall.
—————
"Today, as a leader, if you don't know how to deal with the media you have no chance in reaching people." Michelle says to the group of Greenhouse students as Hayley and Daniel snuck in the back. "During the next hour, you will experience a one-on-one interview with me. This will not be a softball interview..."
"Why are you late?" Alex whispers to his sister. "Why didn't you answer my text? How's dad?"
"Oh, he's fine. Sorry." Hayley brushes him off.
"This is your chance to practice answering my questions without falling into traps, losing your cool, and most importantly without being boring." Parker raised his hand. "Before we start I just want to thank Sophie Cardona for helping me out with background checks."
"Why you filing this?" Parker asks.
"You're Parker, right?" Michelle says. "It's all part of the workshop, to get used to being on camera. It's not a problem right?" She asks Louis.
"It's fine."
"You know what? Since we've already met, why don't you join me as my first interviewee?" Michelle waves Parker up to the front of the room. Parker slowly sunk into the chair across from Michelle and her camera. "How did you feel when you saw yourself in Sophies news item after you confessed your feelings for her?"
"I felt like crap." He shrugs.
"An honest answer," Michelle says to the class. "But it makes you a target. It could end up online as a humiliating meme, that will ruin your image. Try again."
"Hey, I'm going to go to the bathroom." Daniel whispers to his girlfriend before slipping out the door.
"Um, I don't know, uh..." Parker stutters. "I trusted my friend and she betrayed me."
"And that's what caused you to recruit everyone to ostracize her?" Michelle asks.
"You didn't honestly-"
"Answer my question Parker."
"You know what? I'm sick of this. I'm done." Parker stood from the chair.
"Getting defensive is never a good idea." Michelle smirks. "A smart leader keeps his cool."
"You know this is why people hate the media." Parker says, walking back to his seat with some of the students applauding him.
"I have a headache, I think I'm going to go get some aspirin." Hayley says to her brother.
"Kia?" Alex turns backwards to Kiara who sat behind him. "Did you see that?"
"What?"
"I think somethings going on with my sister and Daniel." He says.
"Like what?" She asks while Michelle pulled Leo and Aspen up to the camera.
"They walked in late together, and both came up with excuses to leave." He points out to her. "That's not a coincidence."
Brooke had been watching their short conversation, but still sent a message to Judy.