Nicole was relaxing on the couch when Shannon opened up the front door. Before Nicole could even open her mouth to say hello, Shannon had slammed the door and stomped down the hall in the direction of her bedroom. It was obvious she was terribly upset over something and when Shannon was in that kind of mood, Nicole knew it was best to leave her alone. But she also realized from her recent experience with Chris that it wasn't good to hold such feelings in either.
"I guess I should go and find out what's going on," Nicole mused as she got up off the couch. She headed for the door at the end of the hall and knocked quietly. "Shannon, are you okay?"
"Go away!" Shannon shouted through the door. "I don't want to talk to you right now."
"Please Shannon," Nicole pleaded, "talk to me."
There was silence on the other side of the door. Finally Shannon spoke, "The door is open."
Nicole slowly opened the door and saw Shannon sitting on the edge of her bed and hugging her teddy bear as she often did when something upset her. "Shannon, what happened?"
"Dean, he..." Shannon started, "And then Ryan..., Ugh!! I'm so mad I could just scream."
"Shannon, you're not making any sense." Nicole replied.
"Well, I wouldn't expect you to understand," Shannon retorted. "You're life is so perfect."
"My life is far from perfect Shannon," Nicole responded. "You should know that better than anyone."
"Yeah right." Shannon snapped. "You got Chris. He’s only the sweetest and hottest looking guy on the planet. He only has eyes for you, so you won, all right? You showed me up yet again."
"I'm sorry you feel that way Shannon, but I didn't realize we were having a contest." Nicole replied coolly. "Besides, I thought you were too busy flirting with Dean and Ryan to care whether or not Chris and I got together."
Shannon sat in silence once more as Nicole's comment lingered in the air. She clenched her teeth as she fought back tears. "Well, I don't think either one is serious about me."
"Are you kidding? Chris says you have them at each others throat over you. He thinks that they are going to lose their friendship because of the way you act around them." Nicole quipped while at the same moment realizing she shouldn't have. "I'm sorry, Shannon, I shouldn't have said that."
Shannon glared at her sister as her face turned red. She looked like she was going to yell, but instead she took a deep breath and stared at the wall. "No. You're right. I've been trying to get their attention, but it seems each time I get one of them to turn their head in my direction, another woman walks in the picture. I thought it would be fun if I had two guys liking me, but I was wrong. I can't even handle one guy, what makes me think I can handle two?"
"That's not true." Nicole countered. "You will make one man a fine girlfriend, Shannon, but you need to choose which one you want."
"Maybe I just tried to jump into a relationship too soon. I'm sorry about how I acted." Shannon spoke quietly. "Do you think you could leave me alone for a while? I really need some time to think."
"Of course," Nicole hugged her sister and then headed for the door. "You really are a good person Shannon. I'm glad we could have this talk."
As soon as the door shut, Shannon picked up her teddy bear and threw him against the wall in her frustration. "You're a good person Shannon. I'm glad we could have this talk Shannon!" She spoke mockingly. "Could you be any more condescending, Nicole?"
Shannon walked over and retrieved her teddy bear. "I'm sorry Teddy, I didn't mean to hurt you. You are the only one around here who seems to understand me anymore. But I'll show Nicole and that perfect life of hers. She won't get the better of me. By this time next week, I'll have made her life as miserable as mine is right now. Her and Chris will be history and me and Chris will be fact."
Scene: 5
"HELP!" Willard ran into Alexandra's Anecdote’s in a panic.
"Ex-squeeze me?" Alexandra looked at him confused.
"She didn't drink it, she didn't..." Willard was gasping for breath.
"Calm down honey!" Alexandra exclaimed.
Willard closed his eyes and got himself together. "This woman...she's after me!"
"Alright!" Alexandra said with a huge grin. "I told you I was good!"
"No, you don't understand! The wrong woman drank the potion." Willard screamed.
"Oh. Well can't you like tell her to surf on or something?" Alexandra inquired.
"NO! Nothing works! I'm afraid any minute she'll walk in this door. YOU HAVE TO HELP ME!"
Willard got down on his hands and knees and begged.
"Ok, ok! Dude take some Ridilin!" Alexandra yelled.
"So you'll help me?" Willard looked up at her."
"Yeah just like get off my floor." She said looking at him and shook her head in disgust. "
"ACK! I think she's coming! I must hide!" Willard scurried to the back.
"Ewww, I hate dirty men!" Alexandra said out loud to herself.
Just then Hudson entered the shop. She had followed Willard to the shop, the potion had a definite strong effect on her!
"Excuse me." She said to Alexandra. "But has a man come in here recently? Tall, dark, handsome, you don't want to take your eyes off him?"
"No handsome men came in here sweetie. If they had believe me I would have noticed!" Alexandra laughed.
"I was sure he had." Hudson said disappointed. "Well if you see him would you give him a message?"
"UM ok." Alexandra answered.
"Let's cut the chit chat and just do it." Hudson laughed.
"Like not cool but ok!" Alexandra said and walked into the back where she found Willard huddled in a corner, under a table. She looked at him and “Okay lover boy, you can come out now. She’s gone.”
Willard poked his head out from under the table he was hiding under as if he didn’t believe her. When he saw the coast was clear he stood up and smiled, “Thanks. You’re a real life saver. I could just kiss you!”
”Ewww….no. If you want to thank me, you can go home and take a shower or something.” Alexandra said as she held her nose.
“Uh, okay.” Willard muttered. He started for the front of the shop when he stopped dead in his tracks. “Hey, is there a back exit to this shop?”
“Like totally.” Alexandra said pointing to a door. “It’s over there.”
“Thanks again.” Willard called out as he opened the door.
"Boy that woman is gone if she finds that guy attractive.” Alexandra mused. “We've definitely got to get things straight on her side of the vortex!”
Scene: 6
"It's just not fair!" Shannon moaned as she lay back on her bed and hugged her teddy bear. "It's just not."
"Well death ain't so fair either," said a male voice in the corner of the room.
Shannon shot straight up on her bed and looked around her room for the source of that voice. As she turned to the corner near her bookcase, she saw the ghostly figure of her Uncle Sal sitting in a chair and staring at her.
"Uncle Sal? But you're, you're..." Shannon started to scream but was interrupted.
"Quit with the screamin', will ya?" Sal said as he pointed to his ears. "I may be dead, but I've still got very sensitive ear, ya know?"
"But, but....if you're dead, then how...I mean, why..." Shannon started but found it tough to speak.
"The living! Always asking questions, aren't you?" Sal answered. "Why are you never satisfied with things as they are?"
"Don't you find it a little strange that I'm sitting here talking the ghost of my dead Uncle?" Shannon asked, finally finding her voice. "Cause I sure do."
"Look, I'm dead. I'll give you that much. But it's so boring on the other side. Have you ever tried to sit in a room with a bunch of dead people? It's just not my idea of a good time," Sal replied. "Just between you and me, being dead stinks! Sometimes I just have to sneak out."
"You sneak out of Heaven?" Shannon asked shocked.
"Who said anything about Heaven?" Sal countered.
"You mean you went to..." Shannon stared at him in disbelief.
"I didn't say anything about being there either." Sal interupted. "All I'm saying is that it's just one big waiting room with nothing to do all day but play checkers with a bunch of old, weird, dead guys."
"So you just come back here to scare the living daylights out of me whenever you feel like it?" Shannon asked.
"I suppose I could have taken up a number of other hobbies, like knitting or scuba diving, but somehow those didn't have the same appeal as scaring my favorite neice to death," Sal said sarcastically. "At least that way I'd have some decent company around here."
"Gee, thanks." Shannon replied. "But if you're so bored all the time, why didn't you stay longer at the seance? There were a lot of people there who wanted to talk to you."
"Ah! Don't talk to me about seances. Those things give me an absolute headache." Sal complained. "All that humming and those stupid candles? I mean do they always have to do them in the dark?"
"So, why are you here?" Shannon asked completely at ease now.
"My spirit has been at unrest for a while now," Sal replied. "You see, I think I was murdered."
