Check out our episode here! One of Us Is Lying by Karen M. McManus
Monday, September 24th
Bronwyn
Heading to detention instead of a Mathlete meet-up, Bronwyn runs into Simon, the notorious school gossip, so notorious in fact that he's developed his own gossip app. Bronwyn is sure she’s been set up because she's not the type to get detention. Mr. Avery has a strict no phones in class rule and she always leaves hers in her locker so she doesn’t know whose phone he found in her bag. It turns out Simon, popular girl Addy and Captain America look alike Cooper were also victims of the same practical joker. It’s unclear if Nate, bad boy and permanent resident of detention, is there for the same reason or if he got detention all on his own. Mr. Avery won’t listen to reason, really why wouldn’t someone have two phones? He tells Bronwyn and the others to write a 500 word essay on how technology is ruining American high schools. By hand. Ugh.
Cooper
Within minutes, Cooper’s hand is hurting. His father insists that he only use his stronger left hand for pitching and do other, non-essential stuff like writing, with his right hand. Watching Simon grab a glass of water from the sinks in the back of the classroom, his water bottle that he always has with him apparently missing, Copper thinks about how dangerous Simon is with his gossip and seems to have it in for his crowd. Suddenly there is a loud crash outside, two cars have banged into each other. Mr. Avery goes to take a look leaving them alone in detention. Simon starts monologuing and takes a sip of water which he says tastes awful, then suddenly, he starts to choke. It seems he’s having an allergic reaction. Nate is first to Simon and Cooper digs into Simon’s bag looking for an epipen while Bronwyn calls 911 and goes for a teacher. Mr. Avery comes back, Simon’s turning blue, and sends Cooper to the nurse's office for epipens, but there aren’t any. When Cooper gets back to the detention room, the paramedics are there and they take Simon away. It’s not looking good.
Addy
Completely wrecked over what has happened, Addy desperately calls her boyfriend Jake. Unable to speak, Cooper takes over the call. They’re best friends, so it’s okay for him to comfort Addy. The students are allowed to leave detention after confirming that Simon has a severe peanut allergy, and they only saw him take a drink of water from a cup already in the classroom. The cup is taken for investigation. Jake takes Addy home and her Botox to the max mom gushes theatrical sympathy while her much younger boyfriend looks on. Jake handles her mom and settles Addy down.
Nate
Standing in the school parking lot with Bronwyn, Nate is at a loose end. Bronwyn admits to not having her car today, she was meant to get a lift after Mathletes with a boy, Evan, who she has a crush on but that didn't happen and now she doesn't really know what to do. Nate offers to give her a ride, she declines the death trap that is his bike but does take a few swings from his hip flask that he swiped from his father that morning. They sit on the ground and talk about what just happened and offer condolences. Nate lost his mom and Bronwyn her uncle around the same time. After 15 minutes and a few deep drags of the flask, Bronwyn accepts the ride with him. As she gets off the bike, Bronwyn receives a call. Simon is dead.
Tuesday, September 25th
Bronwyn
In homeroom the following morning the announcement of Simon’s death is made. Grief counselling is being provided for the 4 in detention. Bronwyn goes about her morning in a daze. She expects Simon’s gossip app, About That, to have some sort of announcement of the juicy information he was bragging about on the way to detention, but it’s still the news from last week. Bronwyn says hi to Nate, which is out of the normal and realizes she doesn’t really like Evan anymore. Too much has happened. When she heads to her counseling session, the guidance counselor has her recommendation from the Model UN organizer, just in time for her Yale submission. Yale is a family tradition and her chemistry grades nearly brought her grade average down which would have meant she could kiss Ivy League goodbye, until she managed to get her grades up, in a way her guidance counselor would not suggest imparting to other struggling students… *cough CHEATER cough*
Thursday, September 27th
Cooper
Keely, Cooper’s girlfriend, is desperate to spend time with him but he’s trying to avoid committing to arranging a date when he and the others from detention are called to the principal's office. Officer Budapest, who is conducting enquiries, asks them to confirm what happened. Later that evening after dinner, Keely unexpectedly turns up at Cooper’s house with Red Vines, she’s perfect. Cooper however is smiling at a text he’s just received from someone calling him handsome and wanting to come over, but now isn’t a good time...
Addy
Sitting at her vanity brushing her hair, Addy is waiting for Jake to arrive, but when she hears the doorbell, it’s at least ten minutes before he enters her room. Her mother can be exhausting! Addy is thinking how she looks next to Keely who is the beauty of their group, Addy would be the generic best friend in the movie. She remembers a year ago drunk Keely kissing Simon for five minutes at a party. Simon was never part of their group, just floated on the edges. When Jake finally arrives, he tells her Simon’s mom asked him to be pallbearer. He said yes, he could hardly refuse, they used to be best friends until middle school when Jake became a jock. Simon also seemed to be begging for attention after that, and when he broke a sexting scandal he became the person with all the gossip about everyone. Jake checks that Addy is still okay to go to the beach the following night, and she is, but she secretly hopes TJ won’t be there. Unlucky, Addy...
Nate
Home for Nate is a dump, the chimney is crumbling, the yard hasn’t seen care for years, paint is peeling. It’s the kind of place you avoid. At home, Nate’s father is passed out drunk on the sofa. He’s always had a drinking problem but it got worse after Nate’s mom left, and worse still after she died. When he was still a functioning alcoholic, he had an accident which left him with a disability and social security checks which meant his drinking didn’t get interrupted. His mom was bi-polar, off her meds and addicted to cocaine. She would take off and come home all the time, until the one time when she never came back. Placing his bearded dragon Stan on his shoulder, Nate sits and eats leftover Chinese. He’s thinking about Bronwyn, how she was the only other non useless person in detention, and he laughs remembering her comment about no one having more than one phone, Nate has three; his personal, one for his customers and one for his suppliers. Nate is a drug dealer, but only weed and painkillers. He gets a text from a girl he’s hooked up with a few times, Amber, and arranges for her to come over, then he gets another from a friend with a tumblr link. Someone is claiming to have killed Simon, he was hated by everyone so would not be missed and the supposed killer took inspiration from Dateline.
Friday, September 28th
Bronwyn
Half watching retro vampire TV show Buffy and half reading Ulysses, Bronwyn is hanging with her sister. Everyone at school was talking about the tumblr post and looking at her differently and she can’t get it out of her head. Maeve, looking out her bedroom window, spies Nate sitting on his bike, parked on their drive. Her parents are out so she invites him in, Maeve is watching them like it’s a spectator sport. Nate ambles around the house until he sees a piano and asks Bronwyn to play. Though technically proficient, her music does not hold emotion, until tonight when she plays “Variations on the Canon” perfectly and with all the feels.
Addy
Officer Budapest is at Addy’s house asking the same questions about what happened at detention, getting more details about her visit to the nurse the day of the detention and about the tumblr post. Her mom flirts with Officer Budapest then mentally checks out, her sister Ashton bugs Officer Budapest about his line of questioning. When he finally leaves, Addy can get ready for the beach and Ashton follows her upstairs. While Ashton’s short marriage is falling apart, she thinks Addy and Jake are going strong. This makes Addy uncomfortable. Luckily the doorbell rings, it’s Jake aka Mr. Perfect himself. He’s brought TJ with him. Oh joy. Jake makes some comments about Addy’s sweatshirt and canvas sneakers, asks her to put on something “cuter” which she knows means more form fitting and she does even though it’s a cold night. When they get to the beach Addy feels sick, she hates everything now. Jake runs off to correct Cooper and Luis’s bonfire building efforts and leaves Addy and TJ alone. It turns out Addy slept with TJ over the summer, not a month after her and Jake's first time together. She got blind drunk, instigated everything out of insecurity and now wants to forget it. TJ is happy to do the same.
Saturday, September 29th
Cooper
Playing at an invitational baseball game before Simon’s memorial service, insert sports talk here, Cooper is pitching well. So well that a scout approaches him as he’s leaving with his dad and Luis. The scout comments that he’s had a striking improvement in only a few months. Insert pregnant pause here. At the memorial, heading toward their group of friends, Cooper and Luis run into Leah, a girl who tried to kill herself over the rumors Simon published about her on his app. She isn’t upset he’s dead and says everyone here is a hypocrite. She also shows Cooper the latest tumblr post. It’s written like the murderer was in the room and watched Simon die, that they planned the doctored water cup because they’d noticed he only ever drank from his own water bottle and his food was in inches of wrap. This is not good. But during the memorial Cooper can’t stop thinking about how Keely is too close and how the scout was right, that sometimes the improvement can be too good to be true.
Sunday, September 30th
Nate
Officer Lopez, Nate’s probation officer, is sitting at his kitchen table with him and Stan trying to get Nate to actively participate in the conversation. As far as probation officers go, she’s a decent one. She even goes to Simon’s funeral with him which is in half an hour, she has blackmailed him into going with a good evaluation report next time one is required, but still. The church is uncomfortable and Nate wants to bolt at every opportunity. The other detention kids are there and a few plain-clothes cops, but he spots them easily enough. The poem “Song of Myself” is read by the weird goth kid who always hung around Simon is an interesting choice. As the funeral party leaves, a buzz cut officer steps over and asks for a word.
Addy
After the service and as Simon’s body is being lowered into the ground, a female plain-clothes police officer approaches Addy. She wants her to come to the station for a few more follow-up questions. Addy doesn’t know what to do and when Jake saunters over and gives his permission. It seems he has made the decision for her. At the station the detective shows Addy an article from About That. It claims Bronwyn cheated on her chemistry test, Nate is dealing drugs, Cooper is taking performance enhancers and she slept with TJ. Addy is freaked out that Jake has seen it because she’s built her world around him. It’s actually an unpublished article. Simon died before publishing it. The Detective wants Addy to admit the truth, as she sees it Addy went along with the group's plan to kill Simon. She can help her. Something gets through to Addy’s brain that she doesn’t have to stay, she isn’t under arrest, so she gets up and leaves. The only person she can call for help is her sister Ashton.
Cooper
Reading what Simon found out about the others first, Cooper is stunned by his rumor. The juicing allegation is not what he was expecting. The Detective wants Cooper to tell them who planned the murder, Cooper suggests they look at who set them up with the cell phones but the Detective admits their line of enquiry will remain on the four. Cooper calls his dad who loudly rants at the Detective and orders Cooper to leave the station. The Detective tells Cooper that the others are being told the same thing, and that one will talk and be treated better than the others. Cooper thanks the officer for his time and leaves.
Bronwyn
At the station, Bronwyn has her parents instead of a school district child representative with her so she doesn’t spend long answering questions. Her father is very silent on the way home, her mother vocal at the allegations. Then Bronwyn tells them everything, how she used the computer after her chemistry teacher and he hadn't logged out and all the tests were there on his google drive so she downloaded them to a flash drive and had been using them to pass for months. Her parents are disappointed, but it seems more in that it doesn’t discredit her motive. When her mother asks if there is anything else she needs to tell them, her mind goes to the question “Did you have any reason, beyond this, to dislike or resent Simon?” She looks her father in the eyes as she lies “no.”
Nate
Office Lopez stays with Nate throughout his questioning and even has his back by dialing the detective back. He’s lied to her every week during their meetings and still, she is helping him. When she drops him off at home she doesn’t pull any punches and warns him that if the accusation is true, she can’t help him. The others have steady homes and involved parents, making him the obvious outlier and scapegoat. Nate heads inside to the stale smell of vomit. At least his dad made it downstairs to the sink this time. Kicking the kitchen cabinet a few times and throwing cleaner and water at it, he leaves. The puke will be Future Nate’s problem. He gets on his bike and drives to Bronwyn’s. Her dad is outside, he wants Nate to go away and tells him he doesn’t want to have police involved. Looks like he really is the outlier and scapegoat.
Addy
Ashton takes Addy back to her apartment, they can’t get in touch with their mom and Ashton thinks it better to get a lawyer. Over coffee on the balcony, Addy tells her everything. Ashton has never been a fan of Jake and insists that Addy be honest with him before the truth does come out as it always does. Addy agrees and they go to Jake's house. The conversation is not pleasant. Jake shouts, swears and punches the wall until paint falls and blood splatters his knuckles. He tells Addy that she ruined everything.
Monday, October 1st
Bronwyn
A nicely expensive but discreet lawyer has been put on retainer by Bronwyn’s wealthy parents. She tells Bronwyn not to talk to the others from detention or the school administration or police without her present. So of course when Bronwyn gets to school, who does she look for? Nate. He admits he needed to see her the other night and talk through things and he gives her a burner phone so they can at least talk and text. She’s sure her lawyer would disapprove of associating with someone who happens to have a stash of cell phones which landed her in detention in the first place.
Cooper
There’s tension within Cooper’s friend group which comes to a head when Jake punches TJ ahh! TF in Addy’s gossip was TJ Forrester! So Jake gets sent home, TJ’s face is a mess and Addy is the group pariah. The others are hypocrites since they’ve cheated and done worse than her. There is also an awkward moment at lunch when Cooper doesn’t have hold of his phone and he gets a call from Kris with a K. He blabs something about them being German and a baseball buddy. On his way out of school the Coach approaches him with a list of interested colleges and their initial scholarships offers. Then Cooper bumps into Mr. Avery carrying a heavy box who spits something about paying attention, texting and gossip. In his car, Cooper gets a text from his mom. His Nonny has had a heart attack.
Nate
After having his house searched, Nate has called all his suppliers and put his dealing on hold until things blow over. It’s past midnight now and he's watching Japanese horror movies when he decides to call Bronwyn on the burner he gave her. They talk for a while, about his mom, how the gossip is true but they didn’t kill Simon. Bronwyn even explains how she doesn’t think Nate is a sociopath. As she hangs up, Bronwyn admits she did have a crush on him back in 8th grade, Nate only admits it in his head. He reaches over and texts Amber back for her to come over.
Wednesday, October 3rd
Addy
Ashton won’t let Addy skip school. Pretty much as soon as she walks in she spots Jake. He looks and speaks to her with hate and her “friend” Vanessa has scrawled whore on her locker. This sends her into the bathrooms for a 3 period crying fit. Deciding to sneak out and go home, she runs into TJ who is heading to a doctor's appointment about his nose. He swears he told no one, so how did Simon find out? Addy realizes Simon’s post only implied but didn’t outright state they had slept together, but realistically, she wouldn’t have been able to keep the whole truth from Jake. TJ tells Addy the next day, she should sit with him at lunch and give everyone something to really talk about.
Thursday, October 4th
Bronwyn
At lunch, the cafeteria suddenly goes silent as everyone looks at their phone. Maeve lends hers to Bronwyn, there has been another tumblr post. This one details word-for-word Simon’s post and adds at the bottom that they need to connect the dots, that the four will lie. Bronwyn, Nate, Addy and Cooper are called into the principal's office and Principal Gupta tells them they are in a safe space, the police will start interviewing the student populace the following day. None of them speak. When she leaves for a moment, the awkward silence is broken. Turns out Addy has her own thoughts and opinions, she hates Simon for what he did to people, his long exposés that really harmed people. She also knows what kind of peanut oil is needed to kill someone, thank you Food Network. When Principal Gupta comes back in Cooper, southern accent in full effect, says that with all due respect they shouldn’t say anything and they leave. Just after midnight, Nate makes his usual call to Bronwyn. It’s her turn to pick the Netflix movie to watch together, as she’s scrolling she points out that the planted phones haven’t been investigated, which seems odd.
Friday, October 5th
Cooper
Lucas and Cooper head to the hospital to see Nonny. She’s frail but looking and sounding better. She throws $20 at Lucas to go and fetch them some candy and take his time about it so she can talk to Cooper. He tells her exactly what’s been going on and how he’s feeling. Nonny listens and believes him, tells him not to worry about lawyers, she’s paying and that she has seen the way Cooper is with Keely. She isn’t the one for him, the person he’s texting is and he needs to be with that person, he deserves to be happy. Cooper feels better and goes in search of his little brother and the candy.
Nate
When Nate gets home early from a party at Amber’s house he finds his father still up and muttering about hearing his phone ringing. Ignoring him, he heads into his room and calls Bronwyn, it’s his turn to pick the movie. Half way in, she complains it’s too much to watch alone. They joke-not-joke about her sneaking out and watching the rest as his house, she can meet his lizard. Stan the bearded dragon, get your mind out of the gutter! In the end, Bronwyn is getting pings about her minutes nearly being up so they hang up and go to sleep, Nate will get a new phone to her. All this time he’s been ignoring texts from Amber on his other line.
Saturday, October 6th
Addy
Ashton hands Addy a 10am beer. They need to do something but Addy lived by and for Jake, and now she needs to find her own identity. When Addy tells her she needs to go home to her husband and not babysit her, Ashton confesses that her marriage is over, she caught Charlie cheating. A vase was thrown and everything. Now Addy needs to tell her why she lied to the police about being in the nurse's office on the day of the murder, Addy’s tells were obvious. She confesses that she went for pain killers for Jake, not herself. She didn’t want to say anything because Ashton doesn’t like Jake. Doesn’t matter now. They decide to rent bikes and go for a ride around the park. In a coffee shop after, Addy realizes she’s starting to come back together. She’s also grateful Cooper isn’t treating her differently like the rest of their social circle.
Bronwyn
As part of their usual routine, Bronwyn finishes her run and heads into the library to pick up Maeve. She finds her logged on a library computer looking at the admin access to the About That app. She committed identity theft of a 6 year old to get untraceable computer access. She’s found an encrypted file she needs to download about Cooper that is older than the piece Simon was going to post, which was time stamped for the day before his death. Maeve doesn’t like the app, doesn’t like what it does to people or the hold it has on them. She got the admin access a couple of months ago when she spotted Simon using the library to make his posts, she just copied the logins from the computer’s search history. On their way home they stop by a housing development where Nate has stashed a new burner phone for Bronwyn. It has a picture of Stan on it with a caption, actual lizard.
Cooper
At a party that night, Cooper spots Vanessa pawing at a disinterested Nate. Heading outside, Jake is there and already very drunk. He lays into Cooper for defending his cheating ex and confesses that his mom cheated on his dad a few years ago. Yes, they’re still together but nothing is the same. Others in their group drift over. Luis tells him that he and Jake have been invited by Simon’s mom to take something of his to remember him. Cooper was obviously not included. It’s creepy though. Then Luis’s girlfriend and party host, Olivia, hands her phone to Cooper. He and the others in the detention group are featured in the Bayview Blade due out the following day. All their secrets are laid out and they are noted as persons of interest in the case.
Monday, October 8th
Nate
News vans crowd the outside of the school. Deciding to avoid them, Nate will take the dirt road through the woods. On his way out he spots Bronwyn who is standing with Maeve and a friend. She’s looking scared and anxious. Nate offers to take her on his bike to avoid the cameras, and Maeve arranges to meet them at the Mall food court. Off they go. An off handed joke about taking her glasses off as a disguise has Bronwyn squinting round the mall. At the food court over a giant pretzel she expresses her concerns about Nate’s lack of legal counsel and suggests Until Proven, a pro bono legal group. Nate gets mad as he feels she’s trying to manage him and moves to leave once Maeve gets there. Bronwyn catches up to him, kisses him on the cheek and says she needs him to keep talking to her as it’s the only thing that keeps her sane. He feels the same.
Tuesday, October 9th
Addy
The next morning there are no news vans waiting on the street. Addy goes about her day and during history goes to the toilet. In the end stall she hears crying, it’s Janae, Simon’s friend, the goth girl who read at his funeral. Offering a tissue and eye drops to her, Addy gives her condolences to Janae over Simon’s death. When Addy acknowledges to Janae that she is terrible at reading social cues and realizes that she rode Jake's coattails of popularity, the tension in the bathroom changes. Addy offers an open invitation to listen if she ever wants to talk or sit with her at lunch. The conversation which started off bitter, ends with not a friendship but certainly an understanding and truce. When the lunch bell rings, Bronwyn approaches Addy and offers her a seat at her table which she accepts. After school Addy is able to ride her new bike home and en route stops at a Supercuts. Her hair, which was her pride and joy, needs to go. The hairdresser is reluctant, even calls her supervisor over. Why won’t anyone listen to her now that she is finding her voice? So Addy grabs the scissors and cuts a chunk off telling them to fix it.
Friday, October 12th
Bronwyn
Lying on her bed, Maeve on the floor tapping at her laptop, Bronwyn is waiting for Mikhail Powers Investigates to start. It’s one of those deep dive investigative programs and Simon’s death is being featured. Mikhail calls them the Bayview Four which Maeve enjoys. Since none of them or their lawyers participated in the show, they have lawyer Eli Kleinfelter from Until Proven giving his expert opinion, which is that they need to examine other suspects because Simon was not the most popular boy in school. Someone else could have had admin access to About That. Bronwyn wants to talk to him and tells Nate later that night while watching Battle Royale. Nate suggests again that she come over, he’ll even pick her up, but she declines… for now.
Saturday, October 13th
Cooper
Finally in the privacy of Keely’s living room, Cooper breaks up with her. She’s upset and crying and she accuses Cooper of being a robot and using her to be an accessory. She tries to make him jealous, telling him she hooked up with Nate shortly before he asked her out. Nothing. When she accuses him of drug use, he fires back that it is untrue and walks out. It’s not that Cooper is unemotional, just tired and he’s worried about other stuff not her.
Monday, October 15th
Addy
It seems that Addy is addicted to looking up stories about herself and the other Bayview Four. Over lunch with Bronwyn, Maeve, Janae and Bronwyn’s friends, she is constantly scrolling and sharing what she has found. It seems true crime is sexist because everyone loves Cooper and Nate. In her next class, she ends up sitting next to TJ during a seating reshuffle and he compliments her new haircut, saying he can finally see her. When she gives him shit for a comment he makes, he tells her that she is funny and he likes the real her more than the passive person hiding behind Jake that she used to be. As she leaves class, Jake approaches, offering to be there if she needs to talk, but then makes a snide comment about her.
Nate
The Mikhail Powers crew are parked outside the school so Nate helps Bronwyn leave through the woods again. They go to Marshall’s Peak, the scenic spot for hookups, drugs and drinking. Bronwyn tells Nate she contacted Eli Kleinfelter from Until Proven and he agrees with her that not enough attention is on Simon and the police should be investigating other suspects. Nate promises Bronwyn that he will not murder her now or anytime in the future and Bronwyn promises the same. As she has whispered this in his ear Nate takes the nearness as an opportunity to kiss her which Bronwyn throws herself into full gusto. They eventually stop when Bronwyn’s phone won’t stop beeping. The police want to ask follow up questions. The texts are from her mom and Maeve. Arranging to meet Maeve at Nate’s house which is on the way to the police station, they head to his house. As they approach they see a figure knocking at his door. Not police or journalists…. it’s his mother!
Bronwyn
Maeve has pulled up outside Nate’s house, he hasn’t said a word and Bronwyn is feeling sick which is useful because that’s the excuse Maeve has given to their mom why Bronwyn hasn’t answered her phone. Nate never mentioned his mom was still alive, but he’s always been evasive about her. Maeve drops Bronwyn off at the station, their mom and Robin, her legal counsel, are already there with the detective. The Detective has a laptop and shows them a post several months old from a sister website to About That, one with longer posts. It’s talking about MR, a cancer survivor getting drunk at a party after 1 beer, throwing up in a washing machine and flirting with SC who is out of her league. MR is Maeve, obviously, but the damning thing is Bronwyn’s email address attached to a comment against the post that says, fuck off and die, Simon.
Addy
Riding her bike over to Jake’s house, Addy isn’t sure what he wants to talk about. He takes her into the formal living room which she’s spent less than an hour in for the whole of their three year relationship. Jake tells Addy that Cooper won’t talk about the investigation and he deserves to know what’s going on, he has journalists hounding him too. Addy is unsympathetic and makes something up about a detective and doughnuts. She does tell him about Bronwyn’s theory that they need to look at other suspects and take a closer look at Simon. Jake gets very defensive of Simon at this point, saying it’s victim blaming. Addy repeats that they used to be friends but what Simon did to people was terrible. Realizing she doesn’t have to listen to or talk to Jake any more, she gets up and rides off, feeling freer than she has ever felt before.
Cooper
The attention comes and goes, but it’s always there, a Facebook fan page, going viral, normal pictures being blown out of proportion and all because of murder, not winning the World Series. There is a TV journalist with a cameraman waiting at the gym. Luis helps Cooper disguise himself when he leaves by swapping clothes and cars. Instead of heading straight home, Cooper heads to a newly renovated condo area and heads up to the top floor. He needs to see Kris and talk about the whole Simon thing, but Kris doesn’t let Cooper speak. He grabs him and they have a passionate kiss.
Nate
Well, this isn’t awkward at all. Turns out Nate’s mom was in Oregon the whole time and is now three months sober. She’s on a cocktail of medications that don’t make her feel worse and has a team of people supporting her. Must be nice to have support, Nate thinks. He’s concerned about explaining this to Bronwyn. It was easier to lie than tell the truth and then the lie never stopped. He doesn’t want to hear how sorry his mom is so he leaves. He drives around for hours, remembers their one family vacation and ends up at a party. Two drunk girls recognize him regardless of his protesting they’ve made a mistake. They don’t think he’s the murderer anyway, the girl with the glasses obviously is because she looks like a stuck-up bitch. This annoys him, so he leaves. As he’s going, Bronwyn calls his burner, she wants to talk.
Tuesday, October 16th
Bronwyn
She’s terrified but Bronwyn sneaks Nate into her house. After talking with Maeve about the post, it turns out Maeve had pretty much forgotten about it and didn’t know Bronwyn had made a comment, Bronwyn needs to speak to Nate. She takes him into the media room which is conveniently soundproofed. They talk for an hour about his mom, he tells her the whole truth. When it’s done Nate makes a comment about his mother thinking Bronwyn was his girlfriend. Bronwyn wonders why that’s not a possibility. Well... a little more flirting results in a lot more kissing and over the clothes stuff. Yey first base. They’re going to be super secret boyfriend/girlfriend murder suspects together which is totally sweet. To “gather themselves” they watch a movie on his phone.
Cooper
It’s dinner time and Cooper’s dad asks him what he got up to after he and Luis pulled their switch. Cooper doesn’t tell him the truth that he was with the man he loves. Even though Kris is premed, part-time model and a total catch, his dad would wash his hands of him. Cooper is struggling with it himself, he’s known since he was eleven but finds it hard when members of his family and the sport he wants to be a big player in would reject him. There is one openly gay baseball player and he’s playing in the minors. He knows it’s the real thing with Kris, he isn’t the robot Keely described him as, his Nonny could see every time he got a message from him. At one point Cooper thought Simon was gay and drunkenly coming on to him. It freaked him out and he got Vanessa to disinvite him from the prom after party. Cooper realized he was a jerk to Simon because he couldn’t deal with who he is and really, he still can’t.
Nate
Arriving half an hour late, Nate is meeting his mom for lunch. He doesn’t want to be there. He calls her out by saying he can’t pay for this meal so she needs to confess now if that’s what she is expecting. Instead she pulls out two $20s. She has a job as a medical transcriber that lets her travel and she wants to help Nate out. The conversation is awkward and basic. Nate resents it because it’s information a mother should already have. No longer able to take it, especially when she brings up Bronwyn’s name, Nate leaves. Outside is Mikhail Powers and a crew, he wants to talk and the court of public opinion matters. Nate backs his bike out and leaves.
Wednesday, October 17th
Bronwyn
Lunch conversation at school is about nail polish, which makes a nice change from murder. Until that is they find out Mikhail Powers is outside taking sound bites from anyone and everyone. Leah approaches the table and asks Bronwyn if she will admit to cheating, Maeve moves to her sister's defence saying Leah is a hypocrite calling Simon out in one breath and repeating his posts the next. She also tells Leah that she should step up and let people see the real damage Simon’s posts can make, she has the scars on her wrists to prove it. This shocks everyone. Leah walks away saying that maybe she will. Maeve pulls her phone out and starts typing frantically, she’s sending all the weird 4chan stuff she found with Simon’s user ID about school shootings to the Powers show. They’re journalists, they can investigate. This makes Janae mad. She stands up telling them all that they didn’t know Simon and storms off.
Friday, October 19th
Addy
On the track Addy has lungfuls of air, power in her legs and energy bubbling over like never before. Seems that the bike riding is helping her. She’s overtaken some of her old friend group and she’s going to overtake Jake when suddenly she hits the ground, scraping her hands and knees pretty badly. Vanessa, after some fake concern, leans down and whispers “serves you right, slut”. She stuck her foot out and tripped Addy up. The coach asks Janae to take her to the nurse's office but Addy refuses to go and just has a shower. Janae does get her some bandaids for her knees. Tentatively Janae asks Addy to hang out after school. Addy isn’t sure if they are acquaintances or friends but agrees. At Addy’s house Janae asks if she misses her old friends. Yes and no. They obviously weren’t her friends but they made school easy. Janae tries to explain that people didn’t know Simon but asks for a drink and never finishes because she leaves as Addy is coming back. Addy texts Bronwyn about it and she gets a response straight away, “Be careful, I don’t trust her.”
Sunday, October 21st
Cooper
The police want to question Cooper some more. They have new evidence. At the station, Cooper’s lawyer asks Cooper’s dad to wait outside the interrogation room, she’ll get him if needed. Good thing too as the detective shows Cooper and his lawyer a post from Simon’s site that was encrypted and looks to be the original post that was replaced with the doping lie. It mentions that Cooper has been stepping out on KS with a German model, K, who wears briefs not bras. Cooper is frozen, the police are forcing the issue, his lawyer pleads constitutional rights and privacy laws. The police are going to keep digging and it will come out. Kris is openly gay and doesn’t want to sneak about, but Cooper was hoping to wait until he was in the majors and untouchable. His dad won’t understand, he doesn’t know Cooper, he only sees Cooperstown, the son who will make it big and make him money. The car ride home is quiet, he’ll tell everyone at the same time. Lucas is playing Xbox downstairs so he has the full attention of his mom, dad and Nonny. Cooper tells them he is gay, his dad denies it, laughs even. Nonny shouts at him that Cooper isn’t joking and his smile dims.
Monday, October 22nd
Addy
Police are back at the school and Cooper has been walking around like a zombie. It doesn’t occur to Addy that the two may be linked until Cooper pulls her aside before homeroom and comes out to her, he needed to tell one person on his own terms. Addy is totally fine with him being gay, in fact it answers a lot of questions. He tells her about the encrypted post, she tells him Nate’s mom is alive and Bronwyn sent Simon a threatening post and really, they should get together and swap notes as Bronwyn has previously suggested. Over the next couple of days the rumor mill is going and whispers of Cooper’s sexuality start spreading. At lunch when Cooper walks into the cafeteria he is heckled by his old group of friends. Nate walks in a second after him and calls everyone out for being dicks, especially Vanessa who had her hand down his pants a few days ago and he doesn’t even know her name. The tension is broken as focus moves to others, especially when Nate approaches Bronwyn who stands up and kisses him in front of everyone like they are the only two people in the room. Addy grabs Cooper and tells him to sit with the murder club table. Luis leaves his group and sits next to Cooper. Noticing Cooper doesn’t have any lunch, he offers Cooper his banana. This makes everyone, including Cooper, laugh. Luis wishes it was apple day… oh Luis, he’s a true friend to stand by Cooper when all this stuff is going on.
Thursday, October 25th
Nate
Sneaking into an under construction condo, the Bayview Four are having a murder club meeting. It’s the safest place, no eyes and no connection to them. They spitball ideas, but seem to dismiss all or need to find more information. Leah is suspicious because of her connection with Simon and Bronwyn from the Model UN project and how Simon made her life hell, but she doesn’t seem sneaky. Janae seemed to be drifting from Simon toward the end, she’s hanging out with his supposed murderers now even with Addy inviting her to, but they need more information. Keely is possible, she had links to Nate (hooked up), Simon (hooked up), Cooper (ex) and Addy (ex-friend) but it’s tenuous and she doesn’t seem like a planner. The car crash is interesting and Cooper will ask Luis to check in with his uncle who runs a body shop; the car, a red Camaro, was never seen at school before or since. As they talk, Nate realizes two things, he really likes these people, especially Bronwyn, and none of them are murderers.
Friday, October 26th
Bronwyn
Time for another edition of Mikhail Powers Investigates and it is a complete turnaround from the first. Mikhail calls the police out for releasing personal information in the name of evidence collection and violating constitutionally protected rights. Bronwyn remembers a few years ago Mikhail was also outed against his will and is on the attack. By the end of the program, Eli Kleinfelter throws doubt on the teacher, the only person from the room being treated as a witness and not a suspect despite having the greatest opportunity. Simon’s reputation is being dirtied with the 4chan posting, Bronwyn, Nate and Addy are being pictured as innocent bystanders and Cooper is being made into a saint. Things even seem to relax at school the following week, even the Tumblr poster is half-hearted. That is until Saturday morning when the news shows Nate being handcuffed with the headline Arrest in the Simon Kelleher Murder Case.
Saturday, November 3rd
Bronwyn
Doing what she seems programmed to do, Bronwyn tries to manage Nate's arrest. She knows Nate won’t have legal counsel and whichever public defender he gets will be next to useless, so he needs Eli Kleinfelter. She calls him, he says his workload is too great, but she wears him down with the truth about Nate and his home life. Eli agrees to a consultation the next day but needs to be with one of Nate’s parents. Bronwyn and Maeve shoot over to the motel Nate’s mom is staying at, there is no answer at her room so Bronwyn leaves her number. On the way home Bronwyn calls Addy, she hasn’t heard anything new but invites her and Maeve over that night to do a girlie sisters night. When they get home the street is filled with journalists and their parents are home. Bronwyn confesses her relationship to her mother, at least the parts that won’t send her into fits, and her mom agrees that Nate needs proper legal counsel. Nate’s mom calls and Bronwyn is relieved she hasn’t hightailed it back to Oregon.
Cooper
The exhibition game goes great for Cooper but nobody cares, a few scouts were there but only one approaches him. As they leave, a journalist asks Cooper what he thinks of Nate’s arrest and he is stunned, Luis points out that he's off the hook. The drive home is silent and awkward, Cooper’s dad can’t even look at him. When they get home there are some journalists waiting and his dad says it’s all because of Cooper’s “choices,” but Cooper’s response is lost in the noise. Inside Nonny tells him to bring Kris over for dinner and to remember things have been at their worst, the only way is up now. Bronwyn calls and asks Cooper to chase up the Camaro clue, she’s hoping to have Eli Kleinfelter take Nate’s case and the information would help. That brief respite of not being a murder suspect was nice.
Sunday, November 4th
Bronwyn
Sunday morning sees Bronwyn, her mom and Nate’s mom in Eli Kleinfelter’s office. It’s crowded and everyone looks tired, busy and stressed, most of all Eli. They go over the details of the arrests. An anonymous tip-off led the police to Nate’s school locker, inside which were the missing EpiPens from the nurse's office and Simon’s personal EpiPen and water bottle. A search of his home found a computer with the tumblr posts on. Currently Nate is in Juvenile Detention but the DA wants him moved to federal prison even though he’s only 17. What started off as a consultation ends in Eli taking the case as Nate’s court appointed representative hasn’t even made contact. Bronwyn is so happy until she’s forced out of his office as talking to other legally represented suspects could get him disbarred. Bronwyn wants to help. She wants to tell him about the Camaro.
Monday, November 5th
Addy
So this is the new-normal. Newmal? No police, no calls from the lawyer, no journalists. Addy’s mom starts laying into her about not having a boyfriend and how she’s let herself go and is not exactly college material so needs a man to look after her blah, blah, blah. This is made worse when TJ pops round to drop off her text book he picked up by accident. Addy pushes him out the door pretty quickly because her mom is practically drooling. Thankfully Bronwyn calls and invites Addy over, Cooper is coming too and they are going to talk about the case. She wants to look at the tumblr posts - there has to be a clue there. Just as Addy is growing bored, Cooper spots something. The October 20th post mentions them all being in the station at the same time and it being a “cliché” as the Detective ate a pile of doughnuts in the interrogation room. That never happened… but Addy told Jake that it did.
Tuesday, November 6th
Bronwyn
In Bronwyn’s bedroom, she, Maeve and Addy are putting up post-its of all the things they know about the case. It’s not a murder wall, it’s an information wall. Cooper arrives but can’t stay, he has a licence plate for a red Camaro that had a fender fixed. They talk about the connections between people but nothing stands out. Bronwyn, before school starts, heads to Eastland High and meets Sam Barron who owns the red Camaro and confirms he and his friend were paid $1000 each to have the accident. The person who paid them is very close to the investigation… oh no, it really was Nate... No! It was Simon!
Wednesday, November 7th
Cooper
The Murder Club, which really needs to find a new name, has new members: Ashton and Kris, though they’re not suspected of murder. They all meet at a coffee shop which just so happens to be under Eli Kleinfelter’s office. Bronwyn has set it up, unbeknownst to everyone else, to try and intercept him and make sure Sam got in touch. Eli comes in, near has a coronary at them all there and whiplash at his double take of Ashton. Refusing to speak to them, he grabs his order. Ashton intercepts, finds out Sam has been in touch and passes on Eli’s message which is “mind your fucking business.” Kris speaks up when everything seems to be going in circles that there was someone else in the room who could have doctored the glass… Simon. They note he was depressed and some of his 4chan posts talk about making a big splash and taking out others with him. Jake could very easily have been his accomplice. This upsets Addy and she and Ashton leave. Bronwyn and Maeve go too and Cooper and Kris shortly after. Cooper had found it difficult being out in the open with Kris, but when they leave, they have a very hot and very steamy kiss against the coffee shop window! Phew!
Nate
In Juvenile Detention Nate is following the rules, keeping a low profile, answering his lawyers' circus of questions and not thinking about what’s outside. Especially if she is better off forgetting about him.
Thursday, November 8th
Addy
Reading the About That Tumblr posts something stirs in Addy’s memory. The morning of the detention Jake took her bag from her because it looked heavy, he could have slipped the fake phone in then. Janae hasn’t been in school all week so Addy is going to speak to her. Cooper drives Addy over and waits in the car while Addy surprises her at home. Janae is a mess, her skin is red and blotchy, she’s lost loads of weight and she looks so tired. Janae shows Addy Simon’s manifesto, she was supposed to release it after a year. He planned his suicide for months and wanted to take down those he hated the most. Bronwyn because of her perfect grades and screwing up his Model UN project, Nate for stealing Keely, Cooper for getting Simon blacklisted from Vanessa’s after-prom party. Addy was Jake's victim. Simon told Jake about her and TJ months ago. Setting her up with the nurse's office and the Epipens; Janae was supposed to plant the computer and Epipens at Addy’s house when she went over. Addy is the one who was supposed to be arrested, not Nate, but Janae couldn’t do it. Addy was the only person to show her compassion and they are friends of a sort and now Jake is blackmailing her. He has an edited recording of her sounding like the whole plan was hers. Jake keeps coming to her house too, bullying and pressuring her. Speaking of which, guess who is knocking at the door… yup. Jake. Addy decides to record the conversation between Janae and Jake, Janae can try and get Jake to confess to everything. As she is hiding in the adjoining dining room getting lots of Jake's boasts, Cooper texts and her phone is not on silent. Addy runs out the back door and into the woods, twisting her ankle. She screams for help, but Jake finds her, hits her, throws her down where her head bashes off the ground and starts to choke her. Addy can hear Janae shouting at him when suddenly Cooper’s face replaces Jake’s.
Friday, November 9th
Nate
Eli is waiting for Nate in the Warden’s Office, he is free to go. Jake has been arrested, Addy is in the hospital with a hairline skull fracture and concussion, but thankfully no brain damage. Janae has a busted jaw for helping her, and Cooper is a superhero. Bronwyn was super sleuth along with Kris and Maeve. He did nothing except be easy to frame. Nate is like a zombie, barely registering his mom or Bronwyn outside the detention center or in Eli’s car. He only asks if someone fed Stan. Bronwyn did. Of course she did. He can’t look at her but he feels he is disappointing her right on schedule.
Saturday, November 17th
Cooper
Coming downstairs, Cooper spots Nonny reading People magazine with a picture of him and Kris leaving the police station. Kris is getting all the credit from Eli for cracking the case open, and he looks amazing on the cover. Lucas is happy that Cooper's Facebook fan page is over 100,000 likes, and is not really bothered his big brother is gay. Cooper and Keely are starting a tentative acquaintance, both sorry for how they treated each other. He hopes they can be friends one day. Cooper’s dad has started looking him in the eye again and the baseball dialogue has opened up again, Cooper doesn’t want to tell him just yet that he wants to go to Cal State since they were the only ones to have his back when everything went down. It’s starting to feel newmal.
Addy
Ashton drives Addy to her doctors' appointments since her ankle is still busted and her head still tender. No bike riding for a while. Emotional injury is still raw, she can’t believe Jake would do that to her, to anyone but then, after the way he really was it shouldn’t be such a surprise. TJ has been asking her out but she can’t do it, he’s associated too much with the bad times and it wouldn’t be fair. Nate visited her while she was in the hospital and Addy is worried. She’s gone quiet and seems to think he felt useless while in jail. As they drive along Ashton tells her about her non-dates with Eli and that she has something to show Addy, it’s a gorgeous apartment and she has instantly fallen in love with it, but it will be hard to not have her sister around. Joking about having a spare room for visits, Ashton rejects her. Instead, she wants Addy to move in. Living with their mom is not healthy. This is the fresh start they both need.
Sunday, November 18th
Bronwyn
The one and only interview Bronwyn gave was to Mikhail Powers who turned on his charm after her lawyer had given final media statements. It wasn’t what he was expecting but it was her confession that she did cheat, she’s let herself, her hard working parents, the institutions she wanted to apply to down, but mostly she has let Simon down. She can’t forget that. At Nate's house later, it looks different. His mom has moved in and made improvements, it’s clean, and his dad is trying rehab. The conversation between Bronwyn and Nate is awkward, they can’t look at each other. Nate thanks Bronwyn for her help and persistence but he has a job interview lined up with a construction company in twenty minutes so…. Bronwyn confesses she still feels the same about him and wants to make whatever they have work. Nate turns her down, she leaves and cries at home with Maeve holding her. When she is cried out, Maeve shows her a tweet from Yale University, “To err is human @BronwynRojas. We look forward to receiving your application”
Friday, February 15th
Bronwyn
It’s three months later. Bronwyn is sort of seeing Evan Neiman from Mathletes but really, he is always an afterthought or a no thought whatsoever. She’s playing solo piano at the San Diego Symphony High School Spotlight and didn’t bother telling him. Her family is there, Maeve taking her role as Guinevere in the drama club’s production of King Arthur so seriously it’s influencing her fashion choices, Addy has gone full purple and her hair is the same length as her sisters, she’s also on the track team. Cooper and Kris are still adorably together. Ashton and Eli are an official couple, Bronwyn has been interning at Until Proven on a weekend and has her college applications in. They’ve all come to support her and when she plays, her heart and soul flow with the keys. After the Spotlight, as she, Maeve and their mom wait for their dad to bring the car around, Nate pulls up. He is so sorry, he understands Bronwyn may never forgive him, his only excuse is that he didn’t recognize permanence and functional relationships. Things are better for him, his mom is still around and his dad is trying his second rehab which the doctors say is a good thing. He wants to be friends again if Bronwyn would let him, and take her as friends to see Insurgent at the old cinema. He is wearing her down. If he can say “Insurgent is a cinematic tour de force and I’m dying to see it.” she’ll go. Without missing a beat he does. Bronwyn will wait till they’ve seen all the movies before they leave the friend zone. She tells him to call her, she still has her burner phone. It’s been plugged in charging for the last three months.