Gregory Girls Gone Wild - Chapter 36: Chapter 36

Burning the midnight oil. An expression used back in the day when people used to burn oil lamps in order to read late into the night. Rainey was reminded of that kind of determination as she pondered over the mysterious note's meaning at her desk.
"Do you know how to read code?" Rainey spoke clearly to her phone.
A familiar feminine voice spoke. "How nice to hear from you, Rainey. I thought you forgot about me."
Rainey felt warm around her neck. "Sorry, things have been busy around here. How have you been, Loralie?"
"Not so well, honey. No one to talk to. But that's not the reason you called. What's on your mind?"
"I received a note from the Phoenix Kings," Rainey explained. "It's written in some code that I don't understand."
"Are you still involved with the Phoenix Kings? After all this time?" Loralie asked.
"Aren't you?"
Loralie clicked her tongue. "I've been involved with Sam for over ten years now."
"Involved with...Sam?" Rainey repeated, confused. "You don't mean—"
"Yes, I do mean involved in that sense," Loralie said, sounding amused. She was chattier than usual. Rainey had an odd feeling that it had been a while since Loralie had talked to someone else. "I met him my freshman year at college."
Rainey's mind raced. "You met Sam Stabbings at Gregory College?"
"Precisely. So many wonderful but painful memories of my college years," Loralie said, reminiscing. "I'm one of those people that peaked in college, you know. It's all been downhill since then."
Rainey felt awkward. "Oh, I don't think that's case. I'm sure you've been successful since then."
Loralie laughed bitterly. "I'm a personal assistant to my ex-husband. How successful do you think I am?"
Rainey scratched her head, trying to get her head wrapped around the idea of Loralie and Sam together. "I thought you were a dyke," she said, confused.
"Some of us realize ourselves too late," Loralie said sadly.
Rainey didn't know what to say.
"Never mind all that," Loralie said, recovering. "Explain the code to me and I'll try to see what I can make of it."
Rainey spelled out the note for her. "It sounds like jumbled nonsense to me."
"College girls are not the brightest, are they?" Loralie said, a joking tone coloring her voice. "Let's see. 'FDPSLQJ'—that's not a lot of help. But, 'WUHHV' contains two of the same letters. She sounded thoughtful. "Listen Rainey, official Phoenix Kings codes are incredibly complicated and, many times, require a word cipher in the solution."
"Is that so?" Rainey said, downcast.
"But this looks like a simple Caesar shift cipher," Loralie said, sounding disappointed. "I see that things have gone downhill since Sam delegated the note writing to other members. Whoever wrote this note must be a amateur. Try decoding the entire message by shifting each letter by three. See, I've already deduced the 'WUHHV' as 'trees'."
Rainey squinted at the letter, scribbling down the combination.
By three letters.
Rainey pressed the letter close to her face. Now the letter read as:
CAMPING TRIP, LOSERS. LEAP DAY, SMALL GROUPS. FOREST OF GLASS TREES.
"Thank you, Loralie," Rainey said, leaning back on her chair. "I've got it."
"Looks like you're going on a camping trip with your small group." Loralie asked, sounding amused. "Any idea where this Forest of Glass Trees is?"
"I'm not going on a camping trip," Rainey said firmly. "And I'm done associating myself with the Phoenix Kings."
"Good for you," Loralie said. "But when you say you're done associating yourself with the Phoenix Kings...doesn't that mean you've already done so?"
"Not exactly—I mean—"
Loralie laughed. "I'm just teasing you, Rainey. But I do have a favor to ask you. Can you manage it?"
Rainey blushed, despite herself. She recalled their last steamy phone conversation. "S-sure."
"Can you meet me at this address?"
"You want to meet me? Why?" Rainey asked, taken aback.
"I'm afraid I can't say more than that," Loralie said. "It has something to do with me leaving Sam and the Phoenix Kings forever. I was going to ask someone else, but it seems like fate is prodding you and I together for some reason."
"Loralie, I'm not sure—"
"I'll be so grateful," Loralie said silkily. "Friday at the Greenhouse. Midnight."
The phone went dead.
Rainey lowered her head on her desk. Why was she always agreeing to these vague, baffling tasks where she would likely be in danger? She should have never called Loralie.
A camping trip, however. In the Forest of Glass Trees...she had never even heard of such a place...
***
The rest of the week passed by in a blur of activities. Rainey found herself swamped with homework that she didn't understand and assigned group projects with useless teammates. In her spare time, she worked as many hours as she could. Danika was absent until Thursday, so Ethan and Rainey steadily ignored each other until then. Rainey was angry that Ethan had tricked her into a crime scene.
"I didn't tell you to pick up a hammer and smash things," Ethan said scornfully. "You did that yourself with that snake Stella."
Irritated, Rainey gave him most of the responsibilities during their shift. She was relieved when Danika returned on Thursday, acting mostly like herself again.
"Are you feeling better?" Rainey asked her, slapping her on the back as a warm welcome.
"Extremely better now," Danika said, sounding embarrassed. "I don't know what came over me. It must have been the sickness. I'm sorry, Rainey, I probably said a bunch of stuff that didn't make sense."
"That's alright," Rainey said. "What happened? You were talking about a secret, or something?"
Danika leaned in. "Did I? I guess I do have a secret. Wanna know what it is?"
"Yes."
"I found a stray mutt behind my dorm building," Danika said confidentially. "Me and Sheba have been feeding and housing him behind our RA's back."
"Was that the secret?" Rainey asked, taken aback. "Just a dumb mutt?"
"Don't talk about Honcho like that!" Danika exclaimed. "He's apart of the family."
"Where was this Honcho while I was at your dorm?" Rainey asked, bewildered.
"Sheba took him to the dog park," Danika said. "That's why I wanted you to leave in case they came back early."
They headed towards Nutty's Ice Cream Parlor, Rainey pulling on her black cap. She recalled Danika's miserable face and the hole in her bathroom wall.
"Are you sure nothing else is wrong?" she insisted.
Danika seemed to be hard of hearing. "Hey, did you read your article in the newspaper?"
"No, I didn't," Rainey answered, having been occupied with the vandalism article. She fished out yesterday's newspaper from her backpack and flipped to the last page.
"We look cute, don't we?" Danika commented.
A picture of them with Dean Perry was printed in a neat square picture, along with a commemorative paragraph about Rainey and her life. Danika turned out quite pretty in the picture, beaming, much nicer looking than Rainey, who looked more annoyed than happy to be apart of the shot.
"That's alright, I suppose," Rainey tucked the article away.
"You're happy about this, aren't you?" Danika said suspiciously.
"No."
"Going to pin it up on your wall?"
"Right next to my framed letter from the president thanking me for my service to this country."
"Better not then," Danika said, smiling. "You might get a big head out of this ordeal."
Nonetheless, a pleasant warmth spread across Rainey's chest. She couldn't remember winning an award since elementary school, when she had been awarded best hall monitor by her geeky homeroom teacher. This was an article in the school's newspaper. She would need to tell her mother about it—perhaps her mother would clip it on her refrigerator, or whoever's refrigerator she was living with now. That would be nice, wouldn't it?
Rainey tied on her black apron and cleaned the counters with a Clorox wipe. Then she attended to the customers who were beginning to line up quickly.
"What are you doing Friday night?" Danika asked her.
"Oh, I have plans with Fiona," Rainey said absentmindedly.
Danika took a large bite out of her sprinkled cone. "That's nice."
In fact, she did have plans with Fiona, who had invited her to her friend Cordelia's party. Rainey hadn't wanted to go but Fiona had mentioned something about her ex being there, a rather bulky butch lesbian by the name of Kris, and so Rainey decided to escort her rather hastily.
On Friday night, Rainey entered Cordelia's apartment, which was lined with bottles of empty vodka bottles and cat litter boxes. It seemed like everyone was boozing and celebrating.
"We're seniors, bitches!" Cordelia shouted, standing on a table top. "We're going to throw the best Spring Shows Gregory College has ever seen!"
Rainey watched in sober amazement at the unison of sloshed down shots. She made herself the designated driver of the night, having made the decision to head to the Greenhouse before midnight. It was fine anyway, being the sober person in the midst of these arts and theater major. Otherwise, she would have said yes to the million questions about being the star actress in their plays.
"Somebody just asked me if I could play Danielle LaRusso in gay Karate Kid," Rainey told Fiona who was sitting on her lap. They were both on the couch, Rainey enjoying the weight of her girlfriend as she shifted imperceptibly.
"You have a face for acting, baby," Fiona said easily, kissing her neck. "But if you're going to be in a play, you should be in mine."
"Not Rapunzel!" Rainey protested weakly.
"You would be a great knight in shining armor."
"Maybe an extra. Like a talking animal."
"Do you want another drink?" Fiona kissed her. "You look like you could use another drink."
"No, I'm DD, remember?"
Fiona stood up unsteadily and walked over to the drinks table. Rainey shook her head, entertained. Fiona had the tendency to forget that not everyone was drinking tonight.
She was on guard for Fiona's ex, Kris, and stretched her arm over the couch to surreptitiously check the other way. A small white dog leaped onto the couch besides her.
"Oh, hello."
The dog sniffed her hand and then coughed. Then it licked her hand like an ice cream cone. Funnily enough, Rainey was reminded of someone.
"Who do you belong to?" Rainey scratched his furry white head. His leg thumped. She wasn't a dog person, but he was cute, she admitted that.
"Honcho!" a voice shouted. Rainey looked up and did a double take.
"Rainey, what are you doing here?" Danika asked, astonished. She was wearing a blue and white top with slits cut off at the arms and sides. She looked brilliant, as usual, her dark lips smeared in pink lip gloss. Cotton candy.
"Me? I'm with Fiona," Rainey stood up. "Why are you here?"
"It's a Theater party! Half of these people are my cast members."
"Oh, right," Rainey nodded. "So this is your kind of scene, huh? Guess I'm the outsider."
"I can't believe you're here." Danika sat down. "And you've already met Honcho!"
"Why did you bring a dog to the party anyway?" Rainey asked, confused.
"He's the ultimate party favor," Danika replied, rubbing Honcho's belly. "Everyone goes crazy over dogs."
She was right, Rainey noticed. Drunk people were beginning to flock to the couch to admire the tail-wagging Honcho. A girl began to cry at how cute he was. Definitely drunk out of her mind, Rainey thought. Fiona returned with a drink, and Rainey thanked her, placing it on a lamp stand.
Honcho yelped and ran to the other side of the room, where people were playing card games.
"Hi, Danika," Fiona said. "Cordelia invited you?" She wrapped her arm around Rainey's torso and stood on her tip-toes to give her a kiss on the cheek.
"Yes," Danika answered. "She wants to cast me in her Spring Show."
"I hope things go smoothly this semester," Fiona said sympathetically. "I was at the Peter Pan play—Rainey remember, we sat next to each other. What happened at the auditorium was so horrible! I had never heard such a sound as dreadful as the lights crashing down."
"It was horrible," Danika agreed. "At least Rainey got a Student of the Year Award out of it. You two must have celebrated, huh? How was Outback Steakhouse?"
"Outback Steakhouse?" Fiona blinked. "How would I know?"
Rainey cleared her throat awkwardly. "I didn't actually take her out yet, Dani."
Danika looked confused. "Then what were you doing after the meeting?"
Cordelia butted in. "Hello, friends! We're playing Blackjack but a little dog keeps chewing on my cards. Does he belong to anyone?"
"Oh, he's mine, sorry," Danika plucked Honcho by the back of his neck. "Honcho's being a naughty boy, isn't he?"
"No, he's such a cute puppy," Cordelia crooned. "But we need the playing cards slobber-free."
They gathered around the table where a group of people were playing a spotty game of Blackjack. Honcho curled up in the middle of the table, his large, sad eyes watching the cards he was forbidden to chew. He really was a hit with the group, Rainey shook her head, grudgingly admiring Danika's prescience for parties.
"This is a throwback," Cordelia giggled. "The last time we were all together was Jessica's party last semester."
Rainey twitched at the mention of the party. She and Danika exchanged a glance before looking away quickly.
"Jessica isn't here," a girl named Meghan said. Rainey vaguely remembered her from somewhere. She realized that Meghan had been at the party too.
"That was a weird night, wasn't it?" Cordelia said, teasing. "Especially the hot tub?"
Rainey flushed. "Oh—er—"
"That was the night me and Fiona made out," Cordelia said, winking at Fiona.
Fiona giggled.
"Hey!" Rainey said, outraged.
"She's kidding," Fiona grinned. "Cordy has a boyfriend. She's gone over to the dark side."
"What about you and Danika?" Cordelia asked Rainey. "I've been meaning to get you two in the same place. What happened that night? Were you like drunk out of your mind?"
"Basically, yeah," Rainey said evasively.
"Lots of drinks," Danika said. "Of the alcoholic kind."
Rainey shot her a look. She didn't recall Danika drinking that much.
"You were so homophobic at that party, Danika!" Cordelia said. "Like I love you and you're a great actress and all, but that doesn't excuse what you were saying."
Surprised, Rainey found that quite a lot of people who had been in the hot tub were nodding their heads in agreement.
"I-I was not homophobic!" Danika said, indignant. "Are you serious?"
"Kissing guys is not better," Cordelia said, sniffing her nose. "Trust me, I have a boyfriend."
"Kissing guys is like kissing an eroded rock," Meghan interrupted. "Kissing girls is like kissing an ocean full of wine."
"Thank you, Rupi Kaur."
"Are you homophobic, Danika?"
"How can you be homophobic and enjoy Theater?"
Danika looked speechless. Feeling partially bad, Rainey resolved to rescue her from the pit of social notoriety.
"Danika is not homophobic," Rainey said firmly. "She's a great friend. We'd just been...drinking a lot that night and things got misunderstood. She's really supportive of my relationship with Fiona, and we work together too, so I'd know if she was homophobic. She's not, okay? So, lay off."
Danika shot her a grateful look.
"Well, if you say so," Cordelia shrugged. "It was just a joke."
"You're supportive of me and Rainey together?" Fiona asked Danika suddenly.
Danika took a sip from her cup. "Of course. Rainey talks about you all the time."
"That's really sweet."
"Obviously, she barely has time to hang out anymore," Danika said, smiling as if to enforce that she was joking.
"Oh, that's no good. I'll share her with you sometime," Fiona said, also smiling. Maintaining her territory, Rainey thought. "Are you dating anyone?" Fiona asked casually.
Danika scratched Honcho's ears. "Dating around. I'm on Tinder."
"Rainey, it's your turn," Cordelia said bossily. "Play."
"Boys or girls?" Fiona asked.
"Strictly boys." Danika said.
Fiona's smile grew wider and she looked quite pleased. She kissed Rainey again. From her lips, Rainey felt almost buzzed, like an electric shock was spreading throughout her body. They continued to play blackjack, the atmosphere friendly and amiable, while the night of Jessica's party disappeared from everyone's minds.
"I have to go soon," Rainey reminded her girlfriend, closer to midnight. "I have work in the morning."
"Very sad," Fiona pouted. "It's okay, I'll stay with Cordy for the night."
"After her comment about making out with you, I'm not sure about that," Rainey said disapprovingly.
"It was a joke."
"Plus, your ex didn't even come tonight," Rainey sighed.
Fiona put her arms over her shoulders. "Maybe I just wanted to spend some time with you."
Again their lips met, and Rainey was met with the powerful urge to take her home and sleep with her. She resisted, however, and bid everyone good-bye, right as the party was beginning to turn into a nerdy reenacting of popular film moments. After exiting the apartment, she headed towards the Gregory College greenhouse, a glass one-story building with exotic greens and fauna of endangered species. The streets were populated by several drunken students, and she passed by a mariachi band on her way there. As she walked through a deserted alley, she heard a trail of footsteps behind her.
She turned around. Nothing. A possum maybe, eating from the garbage bin. She resumed walking.
BARK.
She turned around again, anxious. A figure emerged from behind the dumpster. It was Danika, holding her dog. She looked incredibly suspicious.
Shit, Rainey thought. Busted.