Disclaimer: I don't own Justified and no money is being made from the writing of this fanfic.

Author's note

This is my first Fic so I apologize in advance for formatting errors.

Also this contains allusions to child abuse and has the occasional bad word

I have some idea where I want to go with this, it's going to start with flashbacks showing how Raylan and Boyd became friends and introduce an original character, Eleanor, before moving to the present day (which will be the second season of Justified.)

Warnings: I was not alive during the '80's so don't expect accuracy.

March 1985, Harlan

Raylan hated a lot of things; Arlo, Kentucky, and biology. Some may have said he was being dramatic lumping together his asshole of a father and Harlan county in with plant cells. Right now though he was certain whatever God that was there, had it out for Raylan Givens. He didn't mind school not really, and he sure as shit intended to graduate. Right now, he was a freshman and that seemed a long ways away. He was focused on the here and now. Right now, Mrs. Mosely had assigned a group project. He hated group projects, no one did their share and he usually ended up doing the whole project by himself and getting a B-. He especially hated it when the teacher assigned the groups and the topic.

His topic was plant cells. His group was Eleanor Reed and Boyd Crowder. Eleanor always seemed like a nice enough girl, kept to herself, he couldn't remember ever talking to her. She was of average height with brown mousy hair, plain and unobtrusive. On the other hand, he had made a concentrated effort over the years to not talk to Boyd Crowder in any capacity. Boyd seemed nice enough. He was a strange looking kid, not tall, skinny as a rail and his black hair stuck up like someone had electrocuted him. He looked nothing like his father. Everyone gave him a wide berth. Raylan just didn't want to know the kid, knowing who his father is was bad enough.

Once the teacher finished handing out the assignment they exchanged awkward glances and gathered their stuff as slowly as possible in an attempt to delay the inevitable. They met over at Eleanor's desk.

"Hi" she greeted them timidly. Raylan carefully read the assignment and didn't exchange pleasantries.

"Raylan, you want to tell the rest of us what the assignment is?" Boyd asked him softly. Raylan looked up to notice he was the only one that had been given a handout. Apparently they were on a first name basis now; he couldn't stop himself from rolling his eyes.

"Our topic is plant cells. We need to make a poster detailing everything on the inside of a cell and present it to the class in…" he searched the paper for a date "shit, we only got two weeks." Raylan grimaced. Eleanor was flipping through the textbook to find the relevant passages. She opened it to a green square cut open to see tiny geometric figures on the inside.

"How detailed do you think this has to be?"

"Probably wants it copied, word for word" Raylan muttered.

"I'll bring in a poster; do you guys want to meet at the library after school sometime?" Boyd suggested.

"It looks like we ain't gonna work on it in class" Raylan huffed.

"How about Friday?" Eleanor suggested.

"Works for me" Boyd said.

"Does Harlan even have a library?" Raylan knew he was whining at this point. They both looked at him like he was some kind of dumbass. "Friday it is." Did he mention he hated Fridays too?

Raylan didn't speak to them for the rest of the week. When Friday rolled around he took his sweet time dragging his feet the whole way to the library. When he arrived they were tucked in a back corner. Eleanor was drawing the planet cell on the poster board and Boyd was scribbling something in a notebook.

"Hey"

"You're late" Boyd said.

"Yeah" was Raylan's laconic response.

"When she's done, you need to copy these definitions onto the poster." Boyd slid a paper to his side of the table.

"And what are you doing?" Raylan asked.

"Writing the paper" he answered.

They worked in a companionable silence. Raylan had to admit it was nice to work with people who knew how to keep their mouths shut. They worked well together and finished in just under three hours.

"You guys want to get a burger or something, I'm not quite ready to go home yet" Boyd asked when they were packing up.

"Me neither" Raylan admitted. Eleanor gave them a look, like she was reading between the lines; she understood what they were talking about. Everyone in Harlan knew that Arlo beat his wife and only son; it wasn't a stretch of the imagination to guess Bo wasn't much better.

"Sounds like fun" it was the first time she smiled, it lit up her face, made her pretty. They walked to MacDonald's; Boyd bought everyone a hamburger and a soda. Raylan accepted it only because he didn't have any money on him and he ate the burger, paid for with drug money.

"I'm glad we got that project out of the way" Eleanor started the conversation with the only thing we knew about each other, sides the gossip.

"Yeah, now I got time to focus on math" Raylan said when it seemed like the silence stretched a little too long. Eleanor gave him a small smile. Boyd was too focused on the food to make a comment.

"I'm pretty good at algebra; I can help you out if you want. Mr. Kane isn't good at explaining it."

"So it's not just me then?"

"No, I think it's everyone, what about you Boyd?" now that the son of a criminal was done shoving greasy hamburgers down his throat, she again tried to include him in the conversation.

"I prefer the readings, but I do alright in arithmetic" was his answer.

"You mean the readings in English class?" Eleanor asked. Boyd had a funny way of talking sometimes.

"And for leisure"

"What kind of books do you like?" Eleanor had lit up at the mention of books.

"Anything I can get my hands on" He said.

"I like fiction; I can forget my life for a little while" She explained.

"I've been going through Hemingway's works recently" Boyd admitted, happy to find a kindred spirit.

That's how Raylan met the only other people in his class that gave a shit about school and just maybe, getting out of Harlan.


Things started to change at school, nothing drastic. He nodded to Boyd in the hallway and sat with Eleanor at lunch. He joined the baseball team. He wouldn't go so far as to say he had become part of the community or shit like that but, he liked school a little better each day.

"Hey" he sat down at the lunch table on Monday.

"Hey" Eleanor said back, some days she was quiet and other days she just couldn't take the silence. "So my cousin Teddy is getting out of jail tomorrow." She said. One good thing about never talking to people for years is when you finally do talk, there's years worth of material to go through. They were on the topic of comparing wayward family members. This particular subject had sustained lunch table discussion for almost a month.

"He's not going to be staying with your folks is he?"

"Only till he gets on his feet, I'm guessing a month 'fore mama kicks him out." Eleanor grimaced. Eleanor lived with her mother, brother, and Uncle Tim in a two bedroom house. Her and her brother both had their own couches to sleep on. She was embarrassed about her home life, but they didn't hurt her so she supposed it was better than some.

"He was in for drug possession, right?"

"Yeah, Teddy has always been a partier, nice guy though." She said, "I guess he'll be sleeping on the floor somewhere, you would think he would have friends, friendly as he is."

"Maybe he'll reconnect and they'll offer him a place to stay."

"I hope so"

"Hello, may I join your table?" Boyd Crower was standing next to the empty seat. Boyd had never sat with them.

"Sure" Eleanor reached over and pulled out the seat so he could sit down.

"Forgive me for intruding but, I just heard Robby tell Sam that there were only two continents." Boyd looked physically pained at the stupidity of their peers.

"Well what are they?" Raylan just had to ask.

"America and Europe"

"Well, then I guess Australia would be a part of Europe, but how would you explain Antarctica." Eleanor was actually trying to figure out how someone could arrive at this logic.

"No one lives on Antarctica so that doesn't count" Raylan supplied.

"Good point, which must be how he arrived at that conclusion." Eleanor looked pleased to figure out the logic process of their classmates. Boyd just looked amused.