Chapter 1: Something Is Wrong

“Well?” said Danny.

“Well, what!?” said Peter after a brief pause.

“Oh, come on!” snapped Danny. “You know perfectly well what I mean!”

Peter remained silent but carried on walking. His pensive mood was worrying Danny. Danny had known Peter all his life and had never seen him quite like this before.

“Is everything OK between you and Becky?” asked Danny quietly.

Peter Arnold and Becky Bartell had been sweethearts for as long as anyone cared to remember. They had grown up together as family friends then became childhood sweet-hearts then as the years progressed started dating seriously. Everyone that knew them said what a perfect couple they made and the assumption naturally fell to the thought of wedding bells sometime in the not too distant future.

Peter looked up from the ground then stopped and looked at Danny.

“Of course everything is OK between us. Why on earth would you think otherwise!?” snapped back Peter. He turned his head towards the ground again and carried on walking.

“Well then..., who on earth is BSC!?” blurted out Danny. He was starting to sound a little bit frustrated and annoyed and with good reason he thought. There was an issue of some sort that was obviously bothering his friend but for the first time in their friendship that Danny could remember he was being held at arms-length about something.

Peter had always confided in Danny and Danny had always confided in Peter. That’s the way it had always been. All through their young formative years they had talked about almost everything (Janet Rivers was the one exception Danny Brown NEVER talked about her to anyone) and they had always kept whatever they discussed strictly between themselves. Now something was threatening this relationship and this BSC person, whoever they were, seemed to have something to do with it and Danny didn’t like it.

“I don’t know what you are talking about” said Peter. “And I have no idea what those initials stand for.”

Peter knew that he had just lied to his best friend for the first time - ever! Danny also knew this but was smart enough to read the signals and let the matter drop. It must be something really serious to be affecting his best friend like this and he valued the friendship much too highly to risk damaging it by prying into something he wasn’t meant to.

Danny was also smart enough to know that it would only be a matter of time before he found out who or what this BSC thing was. He had seen those initials scribbled quite a few times throughout the pages of Peter’s school books. The appearance of those doodles seemed to coincide with Peter’s mood change. Those enigmatic letters first started appearing about a month or two ago. It was also about that time when Danny noticed Peter go from the mostly happy and carefree friend that he had always known to someone he sometimes thought he didn’t really know at all.

The two continued their walk home from school in silence. It was the last day of the semester and also the last day at Aurora High School for both of them. Soon they would both be heading off to SJVC (San Joaquin Valley College) in Bakersfield to begin their Tertiary Education. Together they had selected this College very carefully over a two year period from a dozen other possibilities. It was close to Aurora Hills where they both lived and seemed to offer everything they needed. Peter was going to study Criminal Justice and Danny Industrial Technology.

Danny knew that the changes about to take place could make one feel quite heavy and somber but not nearly to the degree being displayed by Peter. Danny knew something was wrong and the initials BSC had something to do with it and he was going to find out - but just not right now. There were a few other things they needed to attend to first. There was Graduation to get through first then they had to spend some time planning their Summer Break together. After that, Danny reasoned, he would be able to put his mind to this new and baffling problem.