"After that, Gwen came over after school almost every day," Cassie said with a smile. "I really was helping her with her homework. Like she's said, she had some odd gaps in her knowledge. It led to some strange conversations..."
"Oh, tell them about Career Day," Gwen said, chuckling at a memory.
"Oh God, I'd forgotten about that," Cassie laughed.
"What happened on Career Day?" Mariah asked.
"Well, it was a pretty strange day," Cassie said.
"OK, what happened on Career Day?!" Miranda insisted, knowing all too well what her family's threshold for "strange" was.
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Buckingham High School, 2000
It started out as an ordinary school day. We spent the morning sitting in class listening to our teacher drone on about... oh, I have no idea what she droned on about (and probably didn't even at the time).
"Remember students," Ms. Coombes said as she wrapped up her morning lecture, "today is Career Day. After lunch we will be gathering in the gymnasium to learn about some possible future careers for you. We have some very distinguished guest speakers today and I expect you all to be on your best behavior."
Well, at least it was a break from an afternoon of listening to her drone on about something.
The gym at Buckingham was in a separate building. Honestly, it always seemed to me to be just a big room with terrible acoustics and a funky smell where the sweat of generations of teenage athletes had long ago sunk into the wood.
At least they'd made some effort to decorate it for career day.
As for distinguished guest speakers... well, that's where things start to get interesting.
First, we had Jacques Villareal talking to us about... well, he called it Finance and Business Consulting Services.
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"Wait, Jacques Villareal?" Mariah interrupted. "As in Jacques Villareal, the gangster!?"
"That's the one," Cassie nodded.
"Your high school had an organized crime kingpin as a guest speaker at Career Day!?" Mariah gasped.
"Yeah," Cassie nodded.
"You know, when I was in Moonwood Mill, the school had a Career Day," Miranda mused, "I think we had a guy from the lumber mill and the manager of the local Gas n' Gulp."
"I'm pretty sure he recruited someone that day too," Cassie added, a shadow passing briefly across her eyes. "But that's a different story."
Miranda looked at her mother, puzzled, but Mariah quieted any question she might have asked with a gentle shake of her head.
"Another day, perhaps," Gwen said softly.
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Anyway, as if that wasn't weird enough, we had another distinguished speaker, this one from the government.
Director Shantel Bridges spoke at length, and rather eloquently, about the importance and value of government service. Interestingly, as I recall, she didn't actually say anything specific about the nature of the government service.
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"Wait a minute," Mariah said. "Shantel Bridges. I know that name. Where do I know that name?"
Cassie and Gwen just sat there, looking mysterious.
"Liberty!" Mariah gasped. "Shantel Bridges was... I can't say."
"She was Liberty Lee's boss at the Agency," Gwen supplied.
"So, wait," Miranda said. "You had a crime boss and a spy captain at Career Day, and all I got was the pervy manager from Gas 'n Gulp?"
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Not that we knew it at the time. We just knew we had two distinguished speakers, like Ms. Coombes said. We had no idea neither of them was anything but exactly what they seemed.
We certainly didn't know that one of them was there with a very specific agenda that would eventually end up directly involving us.
Even not knowing any of that, it was still a weird day. I once again found myself running into the odd blind spots in Gwen's knowledge of the world, and my own blind spots when it came to Gwen.
"So, what's the point of all of this?" Gwen asked me after we'd listened to Director Bridges' presentation.
"Well, for one thing, I'm pretty sure I don't want to work in finance or for the government," I answered. "What about you?"
"No, I mean this whole Career Day thing? What is this about?" Gwen looked genuinely puzzled.
"Oh, you know, trying to teach us about the various jobs we can get," I said. "So, we can decide how to slowly kill our souls."
"Why would anyone do that?" Gwen asked, clearly appalled.
"You know, for money," I said. "I'm going to be a musician. I hope. That is, if I can make it in the music business. I know my family is rich," I added self-consciously, "but I don't want to just live off the family money forever and..."
Gwen just looked confused.
"Oh, come on!" I laughed. "They have money in Windenburg. What did your family do for work?"
"Nothing," Gwen shrugged. "Well, I mean, we served the Council, but I don't think there was money involved."
"So, what did you do for money?"
It was my turn to be genuinely puzzled. I realized I had thought of Gwen in terms of the Brown family, who were definitely not well to do.
"Grandmother always had some to give us when we needed it, which wasn't often," Gwen said. "I've never really thought about it before."
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"Um, how rich are you? Mariah asked.
"Oh, come on," Miranda laughed. "It's not like your family is struggling. Danielle is a best-selling novelist and Londyn is an award-winning actress."
"Yeah, but I grew up with Janet, the struggling lounge singer, and her parade of petty thief and drug dealing boyfriends," Mariah reminded her. "I have a lot of different life experiences."
"Gwen has occasionally used the term 'treasure horde' when referring to her money," Cassie put in.
"As much fun as Gwen's relationship with money is," Miranda said, "I think we're getting off track. You had gangsters and spies at Career Day. That's something beyond even our usual strangeness."
"Is it really, though?" Mariah asked wryly.
"There was definitely strangeness going on," Cassie agreed.
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Author's Note: Some quick links to earlier stories referenced here.
Jacques Villareal: first appearance, learning more.
Mariah likely encountered Shantel Bridges's name when reading Confidential Files of Agent Liberty Lee.
