My Bendy BFF: Chapter 1

Chapter 1

May 29th, 2004
Spies' Villa, Beverly Hills

It was one of the most beautiful days that anyone living in Beverly Hills could ask for.  The summer heat waves that plagued the Los Angeles area during the summer were still a ways off, and so were the periodic rains that rolled off and on over Death Valley on their way westward towards the Pacific Ocean.  All this good news was being presented on the weather forecast of a morning news broadcast on television.  One of the many people in the Los Angeles area who was tuned into this broadcast was, in fact, a teenage girl.

Samantha Simpson was a girl in her late teens, with green eyes and long, straight orange hair.  She considered herself to be very intelligent, even when compared to her two best friends, Clover and Alex -- although this did not make her think any less of them.  In fact, she was looking for something for them to do together in order to take advantage of the Memorial Day holiday, but to no avail.  Exasperated, she fell back along the couch, letting her arms fall above her head.

Just then, she heard the muffled thumps of someone coming down the stairs.  It was her friend, Clover Erwing, who came over to Sam and greeted her with and energetic, "Good mooorning, Sammy!"

Overwhelmed by the sudden sight of her friend's face, with its blue eyes and medium-length blonde hair, Sam only managed to respond with a tired groan.

Taking offense, Clover got out of Sam's face but scoffed and said, "Geez, like, what's eating you, Sam?"

"Aah, it's a three-day weekend and there's nothing to do!"

"Well, that's why you've got me!"

"And me!"  Clover and Sam turned their attention to the peppy voice coming from the stairs.  That voice belonged to their other friend, Alex Vasquez.  Her short black hair bobbed along with her as she traipsed down the stairs, and her brown eyes met her friends' gazes.

Clover nodded and reassured Sam, "Cha, like, three heads are better than one, Sam!"

"You're right, Clover.  Perhaps we'll think of something after breakfast."


Ocean Avenue, Santa Monica

It took half a morning's worth of thinking and planning, but the three friends eventually decided to eschew their usual hangouts and spend the day in the Santa Monica area.  After hitting the Santa Monica Pier, with its ever-popular amusement park, they took a stroll down Ocean Avenue, looking for a place to eat lunch.  By the time they sat down at an outdoor table of a café, Sam had become completely rejuvenated and was buzzing with her friends over what shops they would tackle first.  Alex, however, had other plans.  "Hey, I saw someone setting up for something at a park nearby there," she said, gesturing towards the general direction of the park she was talking about.  "Did you guys see what was going on there?"

Both Sam and Clover shook their heads.  Thinking out loud, Alex added, "Maybe a concert or something?"

"Yeah, who knows?" Clover contributed.  A squeak of excitement escaped her as she explained, "It could be someone really cute playing, too!"

Sam thought for a minute before suggesting, "Just as well.  I can't decide what I want from here!  And between you and me, this place is a little high-end for my budget.  And I'm not even hungry, so let's go!"

The girls hurried over to the park, only to discover a crowd growing where the performance was set up.  From brief glimpses in between all the people, they could not see any stereo equipment, so they deduced that it was not, in fact, a musical performance.  Stumped, they decided to simply climb on top of each other's shoulders.  Sam knelt down and let Alex climb up on top of her.  "Can you see anything, Alex?" she asked.

"I don't know, Sam, take me up higher!"

"I'll try."  Securing Alex's feet with her hands, Sam slowly pushed herself up to a standing position.  Once she was finally up all the way, Alex took one good look past the crowd -- and couldn't believe her eyes.  Everyone's attention was focused on a contortionist, and by her standards, a real cute one at that!  His bright blonde hair remained neatly parted to the sides of his face as he pulled off his stunts, such as bending over backwards until laying his head and chest in between his legs, with apparent ease.  He was dressed only in khaki shorts and sneakers, allowing his audience to have a better look at the twists his body made.  From time to time gasps would escape the audience as they saw the shape of his rib cage starting to protrude during some of his more intense back-bends, but all the while he never broke a sweat.  

Bearing witness to such a combination of talent and beauty, Alex was rendered completely speechless.  She was snapped back to earth, however, when Clover called out from below her.  "So what is it, Alex, what's going on?"

"...?  Oh, it's some contortionist guy.  And he's so dreamy-yaa!"  Alex swooned and, as a result, lost her balance, only to be caught by Clover.  Meanwhile, Sam was pulled back from the force of her falling friend and landed on her backside.

"So..." said Sam, groaning slightly as she got up, "Is this something we should try to take a closer look at?"

Alex's answer was automatic, her thoughts centered on the young man.  "Only, like, totally!"  Brimming with the anticipation of seeing some more of him, she led her friends through the crowd until they were at the front row.  Unfortunately, they turned up next to their least favorite person whom they met on a regular basis.  Mandy Luxe -- a girl, with sleek black hair, who went to the same school as Clover, Sam, and Alex.  "Ca-lover?" she scoffed in her usual snobbish voice.  "What are you doing wasting your time watching this fa-reak?"

Sam stepped in before Clover or Alex could think of any sort of comeback.  "Uh, Mandy, ever thought of raining on someone else's parade for a change?  Besides, why are you here in Santa Monica anyway?"

"If you must know, Sam, I have a date, unlike you losers!"

Acting unimpressed, Sam crossed her arms and asked, "Oh!  Well, you wouldn't be so kind as to point him out for me, huh?"

"For your information, he's over there."  Mandy pointed to someone a few spots over to her left.  Sam couldn't discern who exactly Mandy was pointing to, so she simply nodded.

Then Alex stepped in and taunted, "So, the joke's on you now, Mandy!"

"Pfft, what are you talking about?  In case you weren't following, I have a date and you don't!"

"What-ever.  I guess you don't care that I've got my sights set on someone way cuter, especially if you think he's a freak!  Well, good luck on your date, Mandy," Alex added sarcastically.  Mandy merely turned her nose up at her and left, pulling her boyfriend du jour out of the crowd on her way.

Now that Mandy was finally out of the way, Alex and her friends could finally enjoy the act in peace.  She left just in time, too -- the contortionist was just about to start his finale.  He dismounted from the handstand he had been holding for the last minute and then got out a cardboard box, smaller than one yard along each side.  Then, against what anyone watching thought was possible, he started to squeeze himself into the box.  He started with one leg, and then bent his body forward to fit it inside the box before sliding it in and finishing by pulling his other leg in.  When he gave a final flourish of his hands and closed the box's flaps, the crowd burst into applause and Alex was on the verge of swooning again.

After a few moments, the applause subsided and the contortionist got out of the box slowly, to let his audience savor his finale.  When he was done, he was greeted by even more raucous cheering.  Trying to calm everyone down, he put his hands up and said, "Thank you, thank you.  If you'd just give me a moment, I'd like to tell you something.  For the next few weeks, I will be holding contortion classes.  My assistant will now hand out some flyers detailing when and where they will be held."

The assistant who wordlessly distributed the flyers to some of the crowd seemed oddly creepy to Sam in particular.  She had long black hair, narrow green eyes, and a voluptuous figure.  Despite her suspicions, Sam took three flyers for herself and each of her friends.  Alex rejected her flyer, instead explaining, "Can't right now, Sam.  There's a certain hottie who's wrapped up his act and I've just got to learn more about him while I've got the chance!"

Approaching the contortionist and taking him away from the crowd so they could hear each other, Alex muttered to herself, "Omigosh, what do I say, what do I say..."  As he slipped on a tank top and a white shirt, she regained her composure and told him, "Umm...  Hi, my name's Alex and I, like, totally enjoyed your performance."  After a moment of awkward silence, she nervously added, "Please, I'm not always a total spazz!"

The contortionist held up his hand to try and calm Alex down.  "Not at all, mademoiselle.  My name is Claude and you're pretty cute yourself."  His French accent was tempered down, as if he had actually spent most of his life in America.  "You have a question to ask about those classes I'm giving?"

"No, it's just a huge pleasure to meet you... Claude.  I'll see you soon!" Alex said with a wink before going back to her friends.  Without a moment's hesitation, Sam handed her one of the flyers.  Alex read it as she told her friends who Claude was.  Of course, her description was limited to just, "He was totally awesome."

Without looking up from the flyer, Clover nodded and suggested, "So why not give this course a try?  I mean, like, it'd be kinda cool to learn to bend like that.  And it should be no sweat for us, what all our experience with..."  She stopped herself because she was about to mention something very critical that could she could not run the risk of being picked up by a passing ear, so she continued, "...our earlier yoga classes."  This was also the truth.

On the other hand, Sam's attention remained elsewhere.  "There's just something about his assistant though, she's just so... creepy...  Say, Alex, maybe you could ask Claude who she is!"

"Okay, but just saying, couldn't you ask her yourself?"

This suggestion caught Sam off guard.  "Oh, well...  A) I didn't think of that, and B) if she's bad, I don't want her to remember my face."

"Oh, when you put it that way...  One moment, please."  With that, Alex went off to ask Claude about her.  Neither Sam nor Alex could pick up on the conversation, given the ambient noise, but Alex returned in no time and told her friends, "He said her name's Morgana."

"Morgana, Morgana...  Well, she's no one I know.  But if we're going to those classes, I have a feeling we'll be seeing a lot more of her."

"What-ever, with a guy like Claude, it'd totally be worth going to!"

"When you put it that way...  What the hey!"  This put both her friends in a terrific mood as they left the park and found a new place to eat lunch at.  Afterwards, they aimlessly strolled around Ocean Avenue until their attention diverted to a young couple coming out of a photo booth.  "Hey, you guys wanna take a picture together?" she asked.

"Only if it's with Claude.  Call me a broken record, but you so have to meet him!"

"I'm pretty sure he's packed up and left by now, Alex," Sam explained.

"Killjoy...  Alright, I'll do it with you two."  With that, the three friends crowded themselves in the photo booth and arranged themselves for the picture.  But once they closed the curtain, instead of the machine taking their picture, the floor of the booth opened beneath them, dropping the girls down a long, sloping tunnel.

They had been, as they like to call it, 'WOOHPed'.