The Rich Girl

## Blurb

### *Whom can you trust?*

Emma Taylor and her best friend Sydney Shue always share their secrets. And now they have a *big* one. They found a duffel bag stuffed with money.

They swore never to tell anyone. But Sydney broke her promise. She told her boyfriend, Jason, about the money.

Now Emma is terrified. She doesn't trust Jason - and she thinks he would do anything to get the money for himself. Even kill...

## Plot

Emma and Sydney are gossiping while on the job at the concession stand in the Cineplex at the Division Street Mall. Cathy Harper and her on/off boyfriend Marty Griffin are on again. As Sydney refills the napkin dispensers, she thinks about how Emma hates her new boyfriend Jason Phillips. Naturally she invites Emma over to eat pizza with she and Jason after work. Emma declines because she's gonna talk to the manager after her shift to see if she can get more shifts as Emma's mom injured her knee when she was younger, it never healed properly, and now she needs an operation so Emma needs to make as much cash as possible before her impaired speed gets her fired from Shadyside Diner.

Emma is blond, short, has parents who are divorced, and lives in the Old Village (Shadyside's poverty-stricken part of town) whereas Sydney is a tall brunette whose parents have been married for 20 years and lives in a giant mansion in the North Hills (the rich part of town). Sydney thinks aloud about the fact that she's working because her parents want her to learn responsibility and how Emma works because she has to. They later go into the alley behind the mall to take out the trash. Sydney's silver charm bracelet falls into the dumpster and since it's a family heirloom, she dives in after it. After she comes upon a rat that inhabited the dumpster, it scurries off and eventually Sydney finds the bracelet and a duffel bag filled with money. Sydney wants to take it to the police, but Emma lights up at the thought of all the things she could do with her half of the money. The girls finally come to a compromise and condition that they'll keep the money for a while without spending it. If there's anything on the news about it, they'll turn it in. If not, the money's theirs to spend as they wish. Neither one of them wants the loot in their house so they decide to bury it under a willow tree in the Fear Street woods.

When Sydney gets home, she sees her boyfriend Jason in the driveway under the hood of one of her dad's cars. He needed something to keep him occupied while he waited for Sydney and their "study" date. As soon as she gets out of the car, he goes ballistic and questions her whereabouts. When she doesn't answer, Jason pouts and starts to walk off, but she catches him and decides to tell him about the money and where it's hidden. Jason says it's too bad that Emma found it and the only way he and Sydney can split it is to kill Emma. Sydney is shocked but Jason just says he saw a movie once with that plot and he was just joking.

On Monday afternoon, Emma catches up with Sydney in the hall at school to report that there hasn't been any news about the money. However, Sydney isn't as enthused as Emma. In fact, she's been a total wreck all day. As the girls approach the stairs, a large group of people come up behind them. Everyone is trying to hurry down the stairs and Emma ends up getting shoved down them. Sydney tries to run down to her, but she gets shoved against the banister by Jason.

Luckily, Emma is still alive and well, minus feeling really sore and being bruised. Sydney is at Emma's house after school. Emma adamantly claims that she didn't fall early at school, but was instead that she was pushed by Jason. Sydney freaks out and says that isn't true even though she was standing next to him immediately after Emma fell. Emma asks if Sydney told Jason about the money and Sydney confesses everything. Emma says that's why he pushed her, but Sydney argues Jason doesn't need money *that* badly. Emma then points out that Jason is incredibly selfish and constantly gets Sydney to buy him pricey things he can't afford himself.

The next morning at school, Sydney confronts Jason and tells him what Emma said. Of course he denies it all and says he tripped and accidentally pushed her. To atone for the "accident", Jason says he'll try to make it up to Emma by fixing up her dingy car.

Later, Sydney gets a call from Emma who says her car is "actually purring like a kitten!" instead of rattling all thanks to Jason. Emma says she still feels lousy, but a trip to the mall to window shop for all the things she's gonna buy with her money would make her feel so much better. Sydney agrees to go with her and Emma says she'll drive. A moment later, Jason calls and when Sydney says she's going to the mall with Emma, he starts acting suspiciously, telling her to call Emma and cancel, but Sydney's mom just got home so she says bye and hangs up. A few minutes later, she drives to Emma's house and they leave in Emma's car. As they're going down a hill, Emma steps on the brake, but it's not working. The car flies through an intersection, nearly side swiping several people on the way. Finally Sydney reaches over and pulls the emergency brake just before they crash into a minivan. Emma says Jason really is trying to kill her and once again Sydney defends him because she thinks he's emotionally incapable of murdering them both. The girls get out of the car to take a look under the hood and immediately spot the cut brake lines. Emma repeats that Jason wants her dead and at first Sydney claims it isn't true. But she thinks about her earlier conversation with Jason and how strange he was acting. She tells Emma how Jason tried to convince her not to go and Emma takes that as a sure sign he purposely cut the lines. Then she tells Sydney that after he finishes her off, he'll go after Sydney. Sydney says she'll talk to Jason and they start looking for a pay phone to call a tow truck. While they wait for it to arrive, Sydney says maybe she should just turn Jason in to the police, but Emma brings up the fact that they have no evidence. Then Sydney says the stress over the money is just too much and they should turn it in to the cops. Emma nixes that idea because her mom is getting that operation no matter what and that convinces Sydney to drop the idea. In Emma's opinion, the only way to deal with Jason is to give him a cut of the money.

Later at Emma's house, Sydney calls Jason and tells him to come over so they can talk. He arrives pretty quickly and Sydney immediately tells him about the brakes. He says they were fine when he tested them and sometimes they get brittle and just snap due to old age. Emma pulls Sydney aside and says she's not sure whether she believes him or not. Sydney automatically believed him the moment he opened his mouth. Then they offer him his share of the money: $33,000 (they figure there's roughly $100,000 in the bag). Jason gets all excited and begs them to go look at it with him and they agree to...

It's already dark when they reach Fear Street Woods. Jason gets a shovel out of the trunk. Halfway into the woods, Sydney runs back for her sweater. Suddenly she hears an ear-splitting scream and runs toward it. She finds Emma and Jason fighting over the shovel. Emma finally gets it and when Jason turns away to look at Sydney, Emma cracks him in the head with it. Jason falls face down in the mud and both girls run to him. He appears to be dead, Emma tells Sydney that Jason was going to take all the money and run and he tried to hit her with the shovel so he could get away. Sydney wants to call the police because they're now murderers. But Emma says she was the one who killed Jason so she'll take care of everything. Which consists of dragging him over to Fear Lake and dumping him in the water. But he refuses to sink so Emma yells for Sydney to find something they can weigh him down with. Sydney is too nauseous to even move and says she can't help. Emma says she'll find a big rock and asks for Sydney's belt so she can tie it to Jason. Emma says she'll be right back and runs off to find the rock. The moment she leaves, Sydney vomits everywhere. Finally it's over and as she's leaning against a tree trying to calm down, she hears voices. She panics, spots Emma coming, and asks if she heard voices. Emma heard nothing so they leave.

Sydney pulls up to Emma's house and tries to comfort Emma as she cries about what she did. At home, Sydney takes a bath and goes to bed. She wakes at 3:30 AM to the sight of Jason's algae coated corpse standing at the foot of her bed. It's only a dream, but it intensifies her guilt.

The next morning as Sydney is getting dressed, she spots two muddy footprints on the carpet. At school, Emma tells Sydney that it had to be a dream. She proceeds to go on to say that the footprints were probably Sydney's from their trip to the woods. Throughout the day, Sydney is repeatedly asked where Jason is by her friends to which she replies that he must be at home sick or something. By the end of the day, Sydney is panicked to find an envelope in her locker containing Jason's class ring. Emma manages to calm Sydney by saying "Come on. Let's get out of here. Today was the worst. It will get easier after this." Once they reach Sydney's car, Emma's reassurance is quickly dismissed because the dirty, bloody shovel is in the back seat.

Emma swears she didn't put it there last night, insisting she just threw it down after hitting Jason. Then she claims that those people Sydney heard last night must have seen everything and now they're blackmailing her. Sydney puts the shovel in the trunk and she and Emma drive away. A few minutes later, she notices a blue car that appears to be following them. When Sydney and Emma get to Sydney's house, they go upstairs to her room where Sydney finds a note for her in a stack of mail. "I saw you in the woods. I know your name. It's Murderer." Sydney proceeds to panic and says she and Emma have to go back to Fear Lake to retrieve her belt before someone finds it, thinking that it may be evidence. Emma agrees to the plan so they go to the lake, once there Jason's body is missing. Emma is certain they're in the exact spot where she dumped him. Back in the car, Emma says someone had to have moved him and Sydney just sits there shaking.

Sydney drops Emma off and goes home where she sneaks upstairs to avoid her parents from seeing her covered in residue from the lake. After Sydney takes a shower, her mom comes upstairs to tell her that she and Dad are going out for a while. Once they leave, Sydney goes into her room where she finds a gift: her red belt and a piece of paper that says 'Murderer'. She recognizes the handwriting as Jason's, starts screaming, and calls Emma. Emma listens to Sydney's rambling and calmly mentions she received an identical note as well, reasoning that it's just someone from school, possibly a friend of Jason's.

A few minutes later, Emma comes over and tells Sydney to show her the belt. They rush to her room and the belt and note are missing. Sydney trashes her room looking for them until Emma tells her to calm down because there's nothing to find in the room. Sydney decides to go downstairs to get a Coke...and spots Jason lurking right outside the sliding glass door. He's all moldy and wet and Sydney thinks she can smell rotting flesh as well as spying her belt is tied around his leg. He creeps inside, whispers that she helped murder him, and starts choking her.

Later, Sydney is at the hospital...the mental hospital. Emma and Jason are nearby, overjoyed that their plot to drive Sydney insane and get rid of her actually worked. Their motive was all for the money as they both believed Sydney got more than enough from her rich parents and didn't need a cent more. To prevent her from telling anyone about it, they had to put her away. Now, if she ever mentions the money, no one will believe her because of her gaslighted belief of Jason being dead.

To celebrate their fruits of labor, Emma and Jason go on a little shopping spree. At the first store they go into, the cashier laughs when they hand him the money: "It took Emma a few seconds to see what the clerk was talking about. She was totally confused until she read the words across the top of the bill: United States of America. Then her eyes lowered to the engraved portrait of Benjamin Franklin. His eyes were crossed and he wore a backwards baseball cap over his wig. Emma grabbed the counter to keep herself from falling. Slowly she raised her gaze to the red-haired salesclerk. 'Did you bring any real money?' he asked."