Chapter 4-13: Masterpiece Conspiracy

                “So, you ready to get taken down,” Brielyn joked with Moshe as they met up for a friendly rock climbing wager.

                “Ha Avendale. Like you could beat me.”

                 They hurried inside and changed into their work out clothes. Brielyn still had not worked up the courage to tell Moshe that she liked him. She didn’t want to ruin their friendship because he was really a great friend to have. She thought that perhaps she could live with him as a friend instead of losing him because she admitted to liking him.

                Across town, Camille was meeting with Kori and Becks with whom Chad had tagged along. It didn’t take long for playful Kori to convince everyone to play a two on two game of foosball. Both girls missed the twitch in Chad’s jaw and Becks rolling her eyes at her brother.

                “Oh man, I’ve gotta pee,” Becks proclaimed.

                “Yeah, so do I,” Chad excused himself from the game as well. Surreptitiously, he grabbed Becks’ arm and pulled her to the side. “What the hell Becks? You didn’t tell me she was bringing that girl.”

                “I didn’t know, okay! Kori’s a little, well, eccentric though “sweet” in Cam’s words so she invited her when Kori heard us talking about hanging tonight. I couldn’t exactly say no.”

                “How in the hell am I supposed to talk to her alone now? You better figure this shit out,” he gave her arm a twist and then stormed off to the bathroom.

                 “Yo, Kori! Check this out,” Becks nodded toward the photo booth. “Let’s go take some goofy pictures!” As they headed towards the booth, Becks glanced over her shoulder to make sure that Chad was paying attention and ready for his cue.

               

                “Just in time. I need a drink. You look like you need one too,” he said, steering Camille towards the bar. Age appropriate drinks in hand, they headed to a nearby table where Chad had to endure mindless drivel about school and boys and things that he could care less about. He did his best to nod and smile and look empathetic. Luckily, she didn’t seem to notice that he was bored near to tears.

                “What’s the matter,” she said, catching him looking sadly at his sister as the waitress cleared their glasses.

                “Oh, it’s nothing. Don’t worry about it,” he waved her off.

                “No, Chad, I’m your friend. You can talk to me,” she insisted, just like he thought she would. He smirked inside thinking that, regardless of all her bullshit talk about being independent and not needing anyone, she really would do anything for her friends. “Too bad for her that she picks the wrong ones.”

                 “It’s just; I told Becks I was in town visiting. But, really, I had to come home.”

                “Is everything okay with your family,” she asked, clearly worried.

                “Yeah, it’s not them. It’s me. See, I was working on this project for my company and my developments were ground breaking. I mean seriously awesome stuff. But, if they credited me, they’d have to pay me the big bucks so they fired me and kept my work, saying it was company material, not personal and I had no claim to it. When I went to pick up my things, they had restricted my access to the computer systems so I couldn’t even recover it. So I’m here to start over.”

                “How could they do that to you,” Camille angrily asked, hurt for her friend.

                 Chad signaled for another drink and, just as he began to answer, Becks came bounding over, pulling Camille off to go play darts. As she joined her friends again, Chad let a small smile reach his lips before he left.

“Damn it,” Brielyn scowled as she landed on her butt on the blue foam padding. It really didn’t hurt anything but her pride but she hated losing. Especially to a boy she was trying to impress.

                “Bri, are you okay,” Moshe jumped down, landing gracefully on his feet and coming over to her to make sure she was fine.

                “Yeah, I’m okay.” She stood, brushing herself off, trying to calm her anger.

                Moshe laughed.

                “What the hell are you laughing about?” She stomped her foot, placing her hand on her hip, irritated that he was making fun of her.

                “You’re cute when you get mad,” he smiled at her.

                “You, you think I am cute,” she baffled, all anger forgotten.

                “Yeah, I always have. You just never seem to pay much attention.”

                Quickly, before the mood was broken, she leaned in, sharing her first kiss with him. As it was obvious the attraction was mutual, they wasted no time deciding to go steady.

                 “My Watcher, you’re beautiful,” Lyric smiled at Yalena as she plodded around the bedroom, trying to get things straightened up. Neither of them were actually the cleanest people around but, with the baby coming soon, she was going into overdrive trying to get ready.

                “You really think so? I look like a whale,” she pouted, hating her figure.

                “Even so, you are my whale. And that makes you beautiful to me. Especially since that’s my baby you’re carrying,” he smiled as she scrunched her face up, unsure whether she should be flattered and touched or annoyed that he agreed that she was a whale.

                 In no time at all, Brielyn was ready to become an adult. Yalena decided that a big party was in order with Brielyn’s closest friends and, of course, her father. Ever since Yalena had realized that Lyric was the one for her, she had kept contact with Glen at a minimum. He hadn’t tried asking her out or seducing her again and both of them just were Brielyn’s co-parents, nothing more, nothing less.

                 Just as she blew out the candles on her cake, after deciding on the perfect wish, an unexpected thing happened: Yalena’s water broke. It was time to rush to the hospital. As Brielyn clapped her hands, excited about this next chapter in her life, everyone turned to her mother, concerned about getting her to the hospital for the birth of the baby. Though surrounded by a group of people, Brielyn aged into an adult all by herself.

                 After agonizing hours in labor, Yalena and Lyric finally returned home with a daughter they had named Dahlia. Dahlia Sabo; Lyric thought it had a nice ring to it. Cody had kept his mother’s last name, at Katherine’s insistence, so Dahlia would be the only child to carry on the Sabo name. Of course, only moments after leaving the hospital, the tabloid sites were buzzing with the scandal. Apparently it was still taboo to live together and have a child together without being married and the fact that both Lyric and Yalena were considered minor celebrities now escalated the media attention.

                As they walked into the house for the first time as a complete family, Lyric decided he couldn’t wait any longer.

                “Yalena, I’ve loved you since high school, and we’ve been through hell to be together. With Dahlia now, I want to make it official and I feel like a fool for not doing it earlier.”

                “Oh my Watcher, Becks, Lyric is proposing to my mom, right now, in the middle of the living room. Gag me with a spoon,” Camille moaned into the phone as she watched from the patio.

                 With a few stragglers left over from the party earlier, Lyric and Yalena opted for a ceremony, right there, at that moment. They could go down to city hall in the morning to file the paperwork.

                 The following week, Yalena made sure to take time to visit Brielyn, who had moved out the night of her party. She had chosen a small apartment in the same complex that they had lived in when she was growing up.

                “Honey you just left in the middle of the night, I’m worried about you.”

                “Mom, you’ve clearly got stuff going on right now. I’m happy to be on my own, really. It was time for me to start a life on my own.” 

                 After spending the afternoon just catching up, Yalena went home to her new family, confident that Brielyn would succeed and be happy in whatever she chose. Her daughter had a strong sense of self and would do just fine on her own.

                “I don’t know where she is,” Chad threw his hands up in exasperation. They were all supposed to be meeting for a night out but Becks had flaked at the last minute. “Probably has some secret date she doesn’t want to tell us about. Bet you it’s a nerd that she always makes fun of.”

                 “Well, just because she’s not coming doesn’t mean we can’t still have fun. Why don’t we get something to eat,” Cam suggested.

                “How’s your job search going,” Camilled broached the topic gingerly. She knew that Chad was still sensitive about getting fired.

                “Pretty crappy. Without my work, I can’t really showcase my abilities. And the company just refuses to let me have it. I feel like I’m letting Becks down. She looks up to me, you know?”

                “Have you explained the situation to her?”

                “No. I don’t want her worried. I wouldn’t have even told you but, I don’t know. You’re different. Easy to talk to.” Camille blushed as he said this.

                “Well, um, I’ve been thinking about that. It’s your project, right? Not theirs? You were the one that did all the hard work. Shouldn’t you have possession of it?”

                “I should but there’s nothing I can do about it.”

                “What if I could help? What if I could hack into their system and get it for you. Unless they’ve got hard copies lying around, it would be yours again. And you already said they manage everything digitally.”

                Chad had to fight keep from laughing out loud. This was much easier than he ever thought it would be. He had thought it would take months to recruit her and that he’d have to lead her to drink, so to speak, but here she was coming up with the idea all on her own. Becks was right; Camille was certainly different than the last girl they had tried to get to help them.

                “Camille, that would be fantastic. You would be saving me from going bankrupt and disappointing my family and just, thank you! We’ll work out the details later but I’ve got to run for now.”

                Cami smiled to herself, pleased to know that she was going to be able to help a friend in need.

                The night that Dahlia turned into a toddler, Camille shared her plans with Hunter, who was still her best friend out of all the close friends she had.

                “Um, don’t you think that sounds kind of dangerous,” he asked skeptically.

                “Maybe a little. But it’s his work Hunter. He deserves it.”

                “Why can’t he get lawyers involved?”

                “He has no money. Lawyers are too expensive.”

                “I just find it fishy that he would ask you to do something illegal like that.”

                “He didn’t ask, I offered. Now stop being such a stick in the mud,” she glared at him, clearly disappointed by his lack of support.

                 She headed inside to find her other cousin. She hadn’t seen Cody in a while, not since Brielyn’s birthday anyway and he had since become a teenager himself. Katherine, though not invited, had come along for the party, since she was “Cody’s mother” after all. Yalena looked on, contemptuously. Though she had two daughters by other men, she didn’t like sharing Lyric with anyone, especially with Katherine, knowing their history. She kept her mouth shut though and tried to play the civil hostess.

                 The large family gathered around the table to watch as Lyric blew out the candles with his daughter. Katherine was clearly upset though one could not be too sure if it was because Lyric and Yalena (never her favorite person) were together or if it had something to do with the three vampires in the room.

                 Dahlia aged into a beautiful little girl with her father’s coloring. She looked to be a perfect mix between her parents; something that both Lyric and Yalena looked upon as perfection.

                 After prom. Mom doesn’t expect me home till late ne way. Meet u @library.

                Camille texted Chad, letting him know when and where they would get together so she could finally return the property that was rightfully his. She had butterflies in her stomach, wondering if she would be able to get into the computers from remote access and wondering what firewalls they might have in place. She smiled at the thought of the challenge.

                “Oh baby, you look beautiful,” Yalena gushed as Cam got ready to leave for prom.

                “Thanks mom. I love the dress.”

                “I thought you might. Make sure to take lots of pictures for me! Remember, curfew is midnight tonight. Be safe and don’t get in the car…”

                “With anyone who has been drinking. Yes mom, I know,” Camille rolled her eyes before leaving to join Kori and Becks in the limo downstairs.

                 Once at prom, she began taking pictures rapidly. She wanted to make sure to get enough of the decorations and them dancing and goofy pictures taken in their dresses before she snuck out to meet Chad. She was going to fake an upset stomach and pretend to go home so Becks wouldn’t be suspicious either.

                Finally, 10pm rolled around and she found Chad waiting for her on the second floor of the library. He glanced around warily ash Camille sat down and turned the system on. Luckily, this late at night, only college students seemed to frequent the place and most were half asleep in the reference section or making out in the dark corners so they had little people to worry about.

                 She quickly accessed website Chad had given her. He had written down the specifics of the information she was looking for but it would take a little while to get through these firewalls. She had known he worked for a private contracting company but she had no idea that their security was so tight. It was more effort than she had been expecting but she knew she could manage to get in.

                 “Chad, it’s Becks. Get out, we’ve got company.” Becks spoke into a small walky talky she and Chad had rigged up so she could keep a watch while Cam hacked into the database.

                Damn, they’re closer on my tail than I thought they were! He turned and began to run towards the exit. Camille pushed back from the computer cubicle.

                ‘Chad, where are you going? Is everything okay? Chad,” she called, just to have him glance over his shoulder and run even faster.

                Before she knew what was happening, she was being cornered by an officer, handcuffs placed on her and being put into a police car. When she tried to explain that there was just a misunderstanding, the officer informed her of her rights and told her not to say another word until her parents had been contacted. The drive to the station went swiftly and she could scarcely believe that she had just been arrested. 

                It looked like she wouldn’t be making that midnight curfew after all.

Chapter 4.12                                                                                                                                           Chapter 5.1

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As all of you probably know by now, Camille is the heir winner. I am blown away that I got 25 votes. I was expecting maybe 13 or 14 and, instead, it more than doubled from my last heir vote. You guys make my heart all mushy with love. Camille's generation will officially start with the next chapter and with it I will be updating the side menu to include what her generational goals will be. Remember, this will be a hybrid generation as I switch from standard legacy to random legacy.

Also, thank you to Reya for naming Dahlia. I figured it was only fitting since Reya is Lyric's original Watcher and all. And he is right; Dahlia Sabo certainly has a nice ring to it. I'll be updating the downloads page in the next week to add all 3 of Yalena's girls (that's right, I'm not making you wait for Dahlia to age to YA to get her.) Spoiler of grown up Dahlia here: Dahlia Sabo