Bright Young Things by Scarlett Thomas

were chosen from all the applicants,’ says Emily.
    Bryn frowns. ‘Are you saying we were picked on purpose for this?’
    ‘How else would we have got here?’ asks Emily.
    Everyone nods.
    ‘Lots of people must have applied for the job,’ says Jamie.
    ‘I wonder if we were the best or the worst of them,’ muses Anne.
    ‘I’ve got an idea,’ says Emily. ‘Why don’t we all say the most ridiculous reason we can think of for why we’re here, completely off the top of our heads.’
    ‘Why?’ asks Thea. ‘Haven’t we just done that?’
    ‘It’s a good way of coming up with solutions,’ says Emily. ‘My dad always makes me do this stuff. He’s always saying that to enable original thinking, you have to include ideas you’d usually dismiss as ridiculous. It’s like you have to count what you’d usually automatically discount, and often that frees up your thinking or sometimes even provides a solution in itself. Once I was going to this party and I couldn’t think what to wear, and Dad said, “Why don’t you get all the most inappropriate things out and stick them all on your bed, and try to make an outfit from them. It’ll give you some ideas.” Anyway, I did, and I ended up wearing some of it to the party, and everyone thought I was some style icon.’
    ‘What does your dad do?’ asks Jamie.
    ‘He’s a management consultant,’ giggles Emily.
    ‘So what did you wear?’ asks Anne.
    ‘Jeans and a T-shirt,’ she replies.
    Everyone looks confused.
    Emily smiles. ‘You see, my friend works in fashion, and it was this big after-show party and everyone was going in Versace and Moschino, which were very cool at the time. It was meant to be really smart, and so by just turning up in jeans, I got loads of attention. There’s no way I would have even considered doing it, but the more I looked at them lying there on my bed, the more I realised that this was the only way to make a real statement. I got laid as well.’
    ‘You’re a genuine bimbo,’ says Paul, sounding shocked.
    Bryn doesn’t know if he’s joking or not.
    Jamie’s writing something. His defence shelter design lies in a ball on the table. No one said anything when he screwed it up and threw it away. Bryn would actually feel better if they were all nailing the doors shut, rather than just sitting about drinking wine, but no one’s come to murder them yet. It occurs to him that these people have probably never felt real danger before. OK, maybe one of them almost ran their BMW into something once, or flicked a light switch with wet hands, but nothing more than that. Maybe they just don’t know how to act scared. Well, Thea’s pretty good at it, but then you get the impression she’d be just as scared in the Ghost House of her local funfair.
    The kitchen table is a mess of ashtray-saucers, cigarette butts and bottles. Bryn can’t shake off the feeling that whoever owns this house will be pissed off if they make too much mess. Stupid, eh?
    ‘Maybe they’re going to breed us with aliens,’ says Anne.
    ‘What?’ says Thea nastily.
    Anne looks hurt, although it’s a fair guess she isn’t.
    ‘Calm down. It’s my ridiculous suggestion,’ she says.
    Thea sighs and lights a cigarette.
    ‘Your turn,’ Emily says to Bryn.
    ‘I can’t think of anything,’ he says.
    ‘Come on,’ prompts Emily. ‘Just the most stupid thing you can think of.’
    ‘All right. What about a trampolining competition?’ he says.
    ‘A trampolining competition,’ repeats Emily.
    ‘Yeah, that’s why they’ve brought us here.’
    ‘But that’s stupid,’ says Emily.
    ‘No,’ corrects Anne. ‘It’s ridiculous. I think it’s cool.’
    Girls like Anne don’t usually say Bryn’s cool.
    ‘Well, what’s yours then?’ Paul asks Emily.
    ‘Porn,’ she says. ‘They’re going to film us having sex.’
    ‘Who?’ says Thea. ‘I’m not having sex.’
    ‘I will be,’ says Emily enigmatically, looking from Paul to Bryn and back.
    ‘Well,