The Girl with A Bike

This is an AU story where Randall is an avid motorcyclist, he introduces both daughters to the hobby, but Clare's the one who falls in love with it. Eli isn't bipolar and he and Clare don't break up. The Eli/Fitz war never happens. There is one short smutty scene, so I left it T, since it's mostly T. I marked the smut, so skip it if it offends you.

Prologue

Clare Edwards 3 Years Old

"Ready to go, Buttercup!"

"Yes, Daddy! Let's do it."

This was Clare Edwards first time on a motorcycle. She was in her dad's sidecar just riding around the suburban neighborhood, safe and little traffic. Clare was instantly hooked. Darcy was 9 and was allowed on the back of the motorcycle, but she had a sleepover today. This day was a Randall and Clare day. Helen watched affectionately from her window. Some days, she went riding too, but other times, she was content to just watch her family on them.

Clare Edwards 8 Years Old

"Today's the day!" Clare yelled as she hopped out of bed, washed up, got dressed and ran down the stairs. Her dad was finally taking her out on the back of his bike. They went around the block and then he took her in a loop through the neighborhood. She was finally on the bike. She felt awesome. She held onto her dad. She knew she was safe with him. Darcy was old enough to ride on her own now, but she only went on her bike sometimes. She'd rather do power squad and flirt with boys.

Clare Edwards 11 Years Old

Clare finally got her own bike, a youth bike, but it was hers. She got to be the driver. She went out with her dad and when she got used to driving, which happened very quickly, she would go on rides with the whole family. It was the best summer of Clare's life and it would be for a long time.

Clare Edwards 14 Years old

She was finally in high school in grade 9. She had been in catholic school, so most of her shirts were plain blouses and skirts, but she tried to have some style, mainly a bracelet or a ribbon in her hair, but her clothes were a bit drab, her hair, pretty, but never well styled and her glasses blocked her perfect eyes. Despite all of this, she managed to find a boyfriend a one K.C. Guthrie.

He was her first kiss, her first french kiss and her first makeout session. She thought they were perfect until she overheard K.C. with his friends.

Bianca: What is with that Christian goody two shoes?

Owen: She's so lame. Seriously, look at her.

Fitz: I wouldn't be caught dead with her as my girlfriend, but that Jenna girl, she'd be great.

Clare was crushed. She cried all afternoon and wouldn't even tell Alli what was wrong. She reluctantly told K.C., who said his friends were jerks and that he liked her not Jenna.

Too bad two weeks later, he dumped her for Jenna, the girl who bullied her all throughout middle school, the girl who said she was sorry and wanted to make up with her in high school, the girl who flaunted K.C. in front of her, kissing him in front of her. Clare wanted to cry every day for the rest of that year; her sister was gone and had been for 3 years. Her friends didn't understand. She was a nobody and she hated it.

Clare Edwards 15 years old.

Randall knew his daughter was down and offered to take her out on a bike ride. She went to get on Darcy's bike to discover it was not in working order. They went to look for used parts to fix it and they found a run down Harley Davidson Sportster. It was the perfect bike for Clare. She's a small girl, so she needed a short bike and this bike was beautiful, on the inside. It's outside needed a lot of work.

She and her father spent the summer restoring the bike together, replacing broken parts, giving the bike a tune up, fresh oil, paint, emerald green with a gold stripe, and her helmet matched. It was a beautiful bike and she loved it. She and her dad had a deal. She could go riding with her dad once she got her permit and once she got her license, she got her own keys. She could take her bike out on her own, with curfew and location restrictions, of course, and she had to keep her grades up.

Clare decided to make herself over along with her bike. Her parents let her get lasik surgery, she got a hair cut and a new warddrobe. She couldn't ride her bike to school yet, but she could wear her new clothes to school, the leather jacket, the new jeans, the tight tops. She wasn't a scared grade niner anymore.

First Day of Grade Ten

When people saw Clare, they thought she was a new student. Even Wesley, who has known her for years, got confused. Even though K.C. was with Jenna, he went to flirt with her, just to realize she was his ex.

"You look good," he said walking up to her from behind.

"Thanks K.C.," she mumbled as she ran away.

Clare? Shit?

The same kids who made fun her now wanted to be her friends. Fitz asked her out. Bianca invited her to sit with them. Owen asked if she wanted to go to the boiler room.

"You all are a bunch of stupid jerks," she snapped at them. "I'm the same girl I was three months ago, the same girl who cried every day because of how horribly you talked about her and how her boyfriend left her for another girl to appease your stupid prejudices, the same girl who loves God, and now you think I'm magically cool enough for you because I have a haircut and bigger boobs. I've always been too good for you. It just took me too long to see it."

She stormed off, not saying another word about them or to them again.

Jenna of course, told everyone she got a boob job and she did it to get K.C. from her and when Wesley asked her about it, Clare confronted Jenna.

"You are a pathetic excuse of a person, Jenna. You've done nothing but bully and belittle me because your jealous. At the end of the day, I'm going to make it in life and you'll never amount to anything because you are so weak that you have to bring people down because you don't have the strength to pick yourself off the ground. You're ont he ground because you are a manipulative, lying, filthy whore and you can only get guys to notice you by opening your legs. Good luck being a teen mother."

Little did Clare know, Jenna was actually pregnant.

At the end of the day, Clare was furious with her peers and ready to leave, she ran smack gab into a one Eli Goldsworthy, causing them both to fall down. "Sorry, I didn't see you," she said.

"I'm Eli."

"Clare."

"I"m new, so I am just getting my class assignments. I don't start class until tomorrow. Could you show me around?" She showed him his classes and they had advanced English together.

"I'll see you around, Blue Eyes." He was gone.

Her day was finally looking up.

Over the next month, it wasn't long until Eli and Clare were totally into each other. They liked the same books and both were fans of AC/DC and Florence of the Machine. They even had a best friend in common, a one Adam Torres. Eli loved his car and said he'd teach her how to drive. Clare loved her bike and said she'd teach him how to ride. "Kinky!" he joked as she rolled her eyes.

Clare Edwards 16 years old.

As their love grew, her parents' love for each other dissipated. When Clare turned 16 and was getting ready to take her motorcycle test and get her license, her parents were too busy feuding to remember it was her birthday. They were divorcing, she knew, but couldn't they forget about that for one day? Her boyfriend Eli took her to get her license and once she got it, she promptly went home and got her key as her dad promised. She took him for a ride that went on for hours. She felt free for the first time in months. Eli held on tight, having never been on a motorcycle before, well other than some loops in the neighborhood that Clare could do when her father was supervising. Eli got himself a helmet, so he could go with Clare as she wished. She could also now ride her bike to school.

"I love my bike," Clare told him as they had a picnic under the stars.

"I can see why," Eli told her. "I never felt anything like that before."

"I've been on bikes since I was three," she told him. "It's apart of me, like in my bones."

"It's one of the many reasons I love you."

"You love me?"

He kissed her like the world was ending.

"I love you too."

When they came back, her parents didn't even notice her absence or wish her a happy birthday. Her dad remembered the next day and felt bad that she got her license without him. He did update his insurance and give Clare her own card.

When she rode her bike to school, heads turned. Bikes had always been apart of her life, but most people didn't see that unless they went to her house and the only people who came over were Eli and Alli. She usually went to Adam's to hang out with him. Clare had a different demeanor when she rode her bike to school. She had her swagger back. She had a confidence that could not be shaken, despite Jenna starting a rumor that she was having sex with Eli and gave him her virginity in the ravine.

When she came home, she found out her dad was moving out, into a condo and her mother and she were staying in the house.

Helen: I don't want you riding your bike to school anymore.

Clare: What? We had a deal. I kept up my end. I got my license. I drove safely. I kept my grades up.

Helen: I don't think it's safe.

Clare: Dad and I fixed the bike ourselves. A mechanic double checked it. It gets regular maintenance.

Helen: Weekends only, that's final.

Clare: went up to her room. She skipped dinner. She was in no mood to spend time with her mother right now.

A month later, her childhood friend Jake Martin moved back to Toronto with his father, Glen. She was happy to see him again, but she spent a lot of her time with her boyfriend and didn't pay much mind to how often the Martins were in her house. At the end of the year, her mother announced she was marrying Glen. Already? Clare was kind of weirded out. She didn't really feel like she knew Glen anymore, and now he and Jake were living in her home. Weird?

Over the summer, Clare rode her bike every chance she could. All weekend and after work on weekdays. During the day, she would work in her dad's law office shredding documents. They always needed to shred documents.

One day, Helen mentioned going to spend Christmas with the extended Martin family in Alberta. Clare showed no interest in going. "I want to stay with Dad."

"Why?"

"Because he's my dad. I don't have any family in Alberta. Christmas is for family."

"The Martins are in Alberta."

"You're a Martin. You should go with Glen and Jake. I'm an Edwards. I should be with an Edwards. I hardly see Dad enough as it is."

Her mother refused to consider Clare's position. Clare had a few choice words for her and the next day, Helen tried to sell Clare's bike. She thought it was causing Clare's attitude. Clare saw the sign and when a prospective came to check out her bike, she screamed her head off, scaring him and all of her neighbors. She called her dad and she put his name on the bike with her, so Helen couldn't sell it without his signing the title. Helen told her she couldn't keep the bike at her house, so Randall parked it in the garage in his condo and gave Clare a key to the condo, so she could get it.

The relationship between Clare and Helen was strained to say the least. Clare felt like Helen wanted her to give up riding because she did, because it reminded her of Randall and Helen thought Clare was using her father to fight her battles in the home. She spent more time at her dad's condo during the summer, so she could be with her bike and take Eli around. She taught him how to ride one of her dad's older bikes. It was taller than Clare's bike, which was good for Eli, and it wasn't as fast of a ride. He taught her how to drive Morty.

Grade Eleven

Clare went one one last ride with Eli the day before school started. They made out in the abandoned church for hours. She just needed to feel like she had escaped. When she got to school, she was surprised when Bianca approached her. "I know we didn't get off on a good start before, but I was wondering if you would maybe think about giving me another chance."

"I can do that, but what sparked the change?"

"It just became too much drama, dealing with Jenna and her way of using people. It's like being trapped in Disturbia."

"Sure. Wanna check out my bike?"

"Really, that would be sweet."

"We'll have to go to my dad's condo to get it."

After school, Eli drove Clare and Bianca to Clare's dad's condo. She got the helmets from the condo and the bikes from the garage. She showed off her baby; her name was Sasha. Bianca was amazed. "How did you afford such a nice bike?"

"My dad and I got it from a junkyard and fixed her up. It took us all of last summer."

"You made this bike!"

"Yep. She's my baby. Her name is Sasha."

"I've always wanted my own bike, but my Auntie says no."

"Let's take her for a spin. She was built to ride." Bianca grabbed hold and Clare took her around the block. There was a bigger loop that Clare liked and she went fast. Bianca knew how to ride, so she was fine, but Clare had taken no prisoners. She brings the car back to where Eli was and Bianca was giddy.

"Someday," Bianca said. Someday!

The trio hung out at the Dot afterwards. Clare thanked Eli for driving them and after his goodbye kiss, and said they should ride together tomorrow. He smiled at that.

Over the next month, Clare was glad she became friends with Bianca. They actually had a lot in common, once they got past Clare's faith and Bianca's promiscuity: movies, music, bikes. She was a good friend to have around. Of course Jenna shunned Bianca for her "betrayal." Bianca didn't care. Her grades went up and her detentions went down once she stopped hanging out with Jenna and her crew. Clare and Eli only grew stronger as a couple and they even took Adam with them on a couple of their rides through town. They had to keep it on the DL. If Audra knew, all three of them would be dead.

Once Helen found out that Eli was becoming a biker, she was not happy. She started being more restrictive as to when Eli could come over and for how long he could stay when Jake had different girls over all the time with no restrictions. Clare hated the double standard, so she started spending more time with Eli at her dad's condo. The tension between Clare and Helen only grew.

The Candy Bandits

One day, Clare and Eli were riding in the neighborhood and Clare saw a familiar face. It was Jay. He couldn't see her face with her helmet on. She revved her engine, challenging him to a race. They took off. She smoked him. Her bike was very fast. He asked her? "Dude what's your name."

"You don't recognize me Jay," she took off her helmet. "It's Clare Edwards."

"Baby Edwards! You grew up gorgeous and you can ride like a champion. How long have you been on the bike?"

"Sidecar since I was 3, on the back since I was 8, driving since I was 11 and now I'm 16."

"You were pretty much born on a bike. I want that for my kids."

Jay was with Sean Cameron. They were on their way to meet Alex and Towerz and they invited Clare and Eli. They went and they had fun. The others smoked cigarettes and Clare did not, but she liked hearing their stories about back in the day, especially the ones with Darcy, since she was so far away. Jay didn't exactly get along with Darcy, but Clare liked him. He was also a much better guy now than he was then. Eli was surprised that Clare fit in so well, since she was the youngest, but she seemed to have found her niche. She started riding with them on the weekends, and she'd Bianca on the back of her bike sometimes. Bianca and Alex were quite similar. Eli would come sometimes, but he also would spend time with Adam, since Adam wasn't allowed in this world. Clare would too, but she loved to ride so much. Eli understood. "You should keep this passion going. You're happier even when you get off your bike after riding."

She would make it up to him with extra kissing time during the week, which he always enjoyed.

Clare would also help fix bikes in the shop for some extra cash, tax-free and parents need not approve. Her dad wouldn't have minded at all anyway.

The more Clare argued with Glen and Helen, the more she sought solace in Eli and in the Candy Bandits. She needed to stay away from her house as much as possible. It was not her home anymore. It hadn't been since Glen moved into it. It was his home and she was like an unwelcome tenant.

Jay and Sean told her about a biking convention and show coming up in a few weeks. "It's from Wednesday to Friday and we know you got school, but maybe your dad would let you come up on Friday. It's a 5 hour ride away, Calgary."

Clare really wanted to go. The convention had a presentations on a bunch of topics, biking and the law: knowing your rights, advanced repair, how to open your own bike shop, how to plan a cross-country ride, pretty much anything a biker would want to learn about, talk about, meet people who have done it. Also, the show to see awesome bikes and chances to share stories in the bar and in restaurants.

Clare asked her dad if he could take her on Friday. Randall asked Helen who said absolutely not, even if they drove a car instead of riding. Clare was crushed.