TITLE: Running Alone at Night
RATING: High PG13 (for swearing)
SPOILERS: I have no idea. You tell me.
DISCLAMER: I don't own Everwood. Blah-di-blah-blah. Please don't sue me. I'm a teenager living on my parent's money.
AUTHORS NOTE: I'm begging yall to review. I'm such a sucker for constructive criticism it's not even funny. Just tell me what you think.
AN II: '---' = thoughts
ANIII: I am soooo sorry you guys. I've posted this chapter before but it was the rough, rough, ROUGH draft. Please don't pay any attention to it.
Running Alone at Night"Are you sure you don't want me to come with you? You know, just to help you in the office?"
"Mo-om! For the bazilionth time, I'll be fine." Quinn O'Connor responded to her mother. Then, seeing her worried face, "Really!"
Her mother frowned." I just feel so bad about leaving you all alone for your first week of school."
"I'll be fine mom. I've stayed by myself before."
"You know I tried as hard as I could to get out of this right? I would've-"
"Mom!"
"Fine, fine. But if anything goes wrong, anyone gives you any problems, you call me. You remember my new cell phone number?" Her mother asked. Not waiting for an answer, she started scrambling around in her over-large purse for a piece of paper to write it down on.
"930-1983" Quinn recited. She'd been forced into memorizing it the day her mother bought it.
Her mother wrote it down anyway and folded the receipt she'd improvised with, in half. Then leaned over to hand it to Quinn while pecking her on the cheek. "Have a good first day."
Quinn raised two fingers to her forehead and saluted her mom. "Will do."
She opened the passenger door and hopped out of the SUV, adjusting her messenger bag and fixing her hoodie when her feet touched the ground.
"Bye honey!"
"Bye mom." And with that, Quinn shut the door to the car. And walked towards her fate.
Quinn walked along the sidewalk taking in the temperature and the snowy peaks to her left. 'God. It's so pretty, I think I'm gonna puke.'
As she walked she started to hum a few bars of "Your Body is a Wonderland" By John Mayer. As song that had slowly been driving her insane since the previous night, when she'd heard it on the one decent radio station she'd been able to find.
Her mood started to darken a she approached the school. 'Fed to the lions by my own mother.'
Quinn looked at her reflection in the glass and smirked. She couldn't wait to see the teacher's faces when she walked into their classrooms. Her brown hair was just above her shoulders and had electric blue streaks in it. Her outfit consisted of a black stretch hoodie with one of her old softball tee shirts underneath (she'd made it look more her style by cutting a tear down from the collar to reveal a slight hint of her cleavage.), a pair of overly flared jeans and her orange Puma sneakers, the ones with the swooshy things on the sides. She looked at her face and smiled when her recently acquired eyebrow piercing wasn't swollen at all. Her big blue eyes were rimmed with black and glitter eyeliner and her lips bright red from the cold. Oh, yeah, she definitely looked like she could cause some trouble. She sniffled a little as rolled her eyes and pushed open one of the double doors, a bit to forcefully. As she stepped over the threshold the winced as the door slammed into the wall. ' So much for a good first impression.'
She couldn't believe her eyes as she walked down the halls, following the signs directing her towards the main office. 'This place is even worse than their,' and she couldn't believe they called it this,' town square.'
The halls were impeccably clean, and the wall to left seemed to be made entirely of windows, save for the small cluster of lockers every few meters
The place was a far cry from her old school. Where there was graffiti and chaos at her previous school, there was new paint and order here. She couldn't tell whether she hated or liked it.
Perfect, just perfect!" Quinn wandered the halls trying to find her first class. Well, technically it was her fourth class but seeing as she had spent the first half of the day (including lunch) in the counselors office discussing her schedule it was the first class she'd been able to go to. She still couldn't figure out how they'd managed to give her 4, 1st period classes.
As she rounded the corner to go down New C hall, 'New C hall? Where's Old C hall? Is there a plain ole C hall?' she only had enough time to identify the dark form coming at her as a teenage boy before she was knocked to the ground.
Ephram Brown waited a few minutes before leaving the bathroom. He knew his Dad would probably heave a "shit fit" if he found out about Ephram skipping, but he had a biology test he couldn't possibly pass. So he figured he'd just pass the time by wandering the halls. He eased the door open and looked down both halls checking for any stray teachers or hall monitors. When he was sure no one was there, he started to walk to his locker. Until that is he saw Mr. Russell walking down the hall. He turned and started
To run back to the bathroom but before he could stop running he only had enough time to identify that the obstacle between him and his escape route as a teenaged girl, before he knocked her to the ground.
"Ugh!" Not the daintiest sound Quinn could have made, but its what came out of her mouth when her head hit the ground right after her butt.
"Shi-'thud." Her "attacker" hit the ground and there was an explosion of papers.
Ephram pushed his torso off the ground with his arms. Then after realizing what had just happened he looked around frantically, and his gaze rested on Quinn sprawled out on the ground on the other side of the hall. After getting over his initial shock from the collision. He pulled himself off the ground and walked over to the girl he had run into. "I am so sorry, are you okay?" He asked as he crouched down in front of her.
Quinn groaned and struggled to prop herself up on her elbows. " Peachy with a side of keen." She replied sardonically. Her forehead hurt really badly and it felt kind of wet. She lifted her hand to touch it and when she brought it back down her fingertips were coated with blood. "Fabulous."
"Oh my god. You're bleeding." He stated frantically as he tried to get a better look at the cut.
"No shit Sherlock." She smacked his hands away from her head and attempted to get up, but lost her balance and fell back down. She looked at Ephram as she scooted to lean her back against the wall.
Ephram hovered next to her. " Do you want some help?"
Quinn favored him with a glance. The guy was cute. He was tall, but not too tall. He had clear blue eyes and, if she wasn't mistaken, dark purple hair. Which told her right off he wasn't like the rest of the people she'd met in this town. And she could already tell he had a nice smile even if he looked anything but happy at the moment. She caught herself staring and tried to cover. "No, no. I'll be fine, just as soon as the room stops spinning." She replied as she pulled the end of her sleeve over her hand and pressed it to her head.
" I don't think so. That fall looked pretty nasty." Mr. Russell said as he came up to the pair. He leaned down in front of Quinn." Here, let me take a look."
Quinn hissed as she removed her hand. " 'S not that bad."
Mr. Russell looked at her skeptically, "It's bad enough" then sighed." Well, let's get you to the nurse's office.
"No that's okay, really, 'cause, ummm….." Quinn looked at Ephram pleading him with her eyes to help her.
Ephram caught her look and quickly said," Uh, B-because I was about to take her." Ephram supplied and Quinn smirked at him behind Mr. Russell's back. He then smiled politely at the teacher and added. " I mean, it's the least I can do after causing all this trouble."
"Yeah 'cause he was about to take me." Quinn affirmed.
"Fine. But, aren't you supposed to be in Ms. Chen's biology class Ephram?" Ephram had the decency to look half guilty. Then Mr. Russell rounded on Quinn. "And," He looked at Quinn. Trying to remember if he'd ever seen her before. " I don't believe we've met."
"Well that's probably because I just started today. I'm Quinn O'Connor. I would offer to shake your hand but I don't know how you feel about blood." She held up her hand to show him her blood-covered sleeve.
"That's alright. Are you Irish?"
"Indubitably." Mr. Russell looked at the girl inquisitively, then at Ephram.
"Alright well, welcome to Everwood Quinn. Ephram, get this girl to the nurse."
"Yes sir." Mr. Russell left and Ephram sat down next to Quinn. " Wanna try gettin' up again?"
"Yeah."
Ephram stood up and lent down, moving to grab her arms and help her. But she shifted out of his grasp.
"I can do it by myself."
Ephram held up his hands above his head. "Fine." He looked at her expectantly
and crossed his arms.
Quinn glared at him and shakily got to her knees and proceeded to try to stand. She was bringing her left leg up when she lost her balance and started to stumble. But Ephram was beside her and he grabbed her shoulders to steady her. As soon as she had her footing she leant against the wall for support. "Thanks." She mumbled, just loud enough for him to hear.
"Listen, I get this whole independent thing you have going for you, but unless you want to stay here for the rest of the day, you're gonna have to let me help you."
She look at him with her head cocked to the side. " Okay." She said with out looking away.
Ephram smiled tightly and nodded. He took her arm and put it around his shoulders. Which was hard considering he was just over six feet and Quinn was somewhere around five foot three. He looked up and down the hall, looking for a chair or something she could rest on while he picked up his stuff when he spotted an extra desk sitting outside a classroom he started walking very slowly towards it. After they he'd managed to stumble all the way to it he sat her down and let her arm fall from his shoulders." Can you sit here while I pick up my crap? Then I'll take you to the clinic." Ephram turned to walk towards the mess.
"No!" Ephram snapped his head around and raised an eyebrow at her. " I mean, yes I can sit here, but no I don't want to go to the clinic."
Ephram continued walking and bent down and started to collect his papers, shoving them randomly into a binder. "Why not?"
"Because I'm fine." Quinn said, exasperated, as she slumped a little lower in her chair.
Ephram shoved his things in his backpack haphazardly. And slung it over one shoulder as he stood up. He smirked at her, "Oh really? So, that would explain the whole 'not being able to stand' scenario a few minutes ago."
"Well, I will be fine. Just give me a few minutes."
Ephram raised an eyebrow. " I didn't know a human being could heal that fast." Then dropped the eyebrow and asked her sincerely, " Are you sure you don't want me to help you to the nurse's office?"
"Yes."
"But-"
"Hey! Since you seem to be so eager beaver to help why don't you grab something for my head 'cause I don't think my sweater can absorb anymore blood."
"I can't believe your being so okay about this. I mean most people would-"
"Scream and faint at the sight of blood?" She rolled her eyes. But hissed when it caused her head to start throbbing again. "Whatever. I guess I just have a high tolerance for pain."
"Sure, well, you sit here and be all tough, and I'll go get you some paper towels."
As Ephram headed back to the scene of his original crime, he looked back at Quinn who was slumped down in the chair and looking utterly miserable. 'I know how you feel.' He thought.
Quinn rested the non-damaged part of her head on the desk and sighed, a little over dramatically, but she figured she'd earned it. Then mumbled, "First day of school and I already have a head injury."
"What?"
She looked up to see Ephram standing in front of her, a few of those nasty generic paper towels they have at all schools crumpled in his left hand.
Quinn smiled contemptuously," I was just going over my first day of school in my head. It goes a little somethin' like this. Woke up, didn't have any food in the house, so I skipped breakfast, couldn't find my favorite shirt, couldn't find my favorite pants, couldn't find any socks period, got to school, spent four and a half hours talking to the idiots that work in the main office, couldn't find my fourth hour class, so I was stuck wandering the halls 'till you ran into me, and practically giving me a concussion."
Ephram smiled a little and lent against the wall next to her. " Sounds like fun."
She just glared at him.
They sat in an uncomfortable silence until Ephram tried to lighten the mood. "So what brings you to Everwood Quinn?"
"How do you know my name?!" She asked. Looking at him anxiously.
He chuckled. " You know memory loss is a sign of brain damage. You introduced yourself to that teacher that came over earlier." Then eyed her dubiously. "Quinn O'Connor."
She looked outraged. " I told him my LAST name?!"
Now Ephram was just confused. " Yeeaahhh." He said slowly. " What's the big deal?"
"Only that it sounds so fricken Irish my nickname was leprechaun at my old school." Her eyes widened in embarrassment. " Uh, I mean, I have no idea what I'm talking about! I've never had a nickname in my life! I'm not even Irish. A-a-and why are you even listening to me? I have a concussion! "
Ephram was slightly amused. "Ah." He said, knowingly. " Trying to escape an embarrassing nickname? Lemme give you some advice, don't bother. Everwoodians have an obsession with 'em."
"What? Nicknames?"
"Yup. Everyone gets branded with one."
"What's yours?"
"Ham."
Quinn smiled an actual smile and gave a short laugh. "Mind if I ask why?"
"Not really. It's a lot less embarrassing than it sounds."
"How's that?" She asked genuinely curious.
" Well, it's short for Hamlet. I looked like the guy on the cover of the book and someone told me I act like the guy in the play." He stated.
"Oh. Well still it's better than leprechaun." Then she realized something. And looked at him in disbelief. "Hey! I don't know your REAL name!"
Ephram furrowed his eyebrows. "Wow. I guess not." He turned to her with a straight face and stuck out his hand. "Ephram Brown, nice to meet you."
She giggled but shook his hand with her clean one. "My pleasure, I'm sure."
She leaned back in her chair suddenly tired and took the paper towel from her head and examined it. She sighed, the bleeding wasn't slowing down and she was starting to feel a little nauseous. " How much time's left in this period?"
Ephram glanced at his watch. " About fifteen minutes. Why?"
She looked at him resignedly, " Is that enough time to get me to the clinic before the halls get busy?"
Ephram nodded as he stood. "Yeah, so what changed your mind?"
She shifted do he could better help her out of the desk. " I dunno, I still really don't wannna go, but I think I need to."
"Oh, you were going to go whether you liked it or not. I was just waiting for you to pass out." He joked as he once again grabbed her waist and put her arm over his shoulders.
Quinn shifted in his grasp so his shoulder didn't poke into her arm as the corner of her lip turned up into an almost smile. " Fun-ny."
As they started walking Quinn put more and more of her wait on Ephram. The walk ended up taking a lot out of her. When they got to the Clinic Ephram found another chair for Quinn and went to talk to the nurse on duty, but there was a sign on the door that read, 'OUT TO LUNCH'.
"Shit." Ephram leant against the wall.
Quinn heard Ephram and looked up to see the sign he was next to. " I'll second that."
"Okay, well I guess we can just call you parents." He walked over and took the seat beside her. He ran his hands through his dark hair. "Do you have a cell phone?"
"Yeah. But there's no one I can really call. I mean my Dad lives in Chicago and my Mom's in Denver for the week."
"Why's your mother in Denver?"
"She's got a business conference down there."
Ephram sat there. Contemplating what he should do. He could only come up with two options. One, they could wait till the nurse came back. But Ephram never was one to sit and wait. And two, he could call his Dad. After much deliberation Ephram decided to swallow his pride and settle on the later.
He turned to Quinn. "Alright here's what we're gonna do. I'm gonna call my Dad, who happens to be one of the two doctors that work in this town. I'll tell him what happened and he'll come pick us up and take you to the clinic."
Quinn sat up in her chair. "I can't. I can't go to a real clinic. My mom and I don't have insurance."
"It's free."
Quinn looked surprised. "Really? No joke?" Ephram nodded. Quinn back down in her chair. "Ok, cool. Do you wanna use my cell phone?"
He nodded. "Yeah, sure."
She picked her messenger bag off the floor and opened one of the many pockets and pulled out a small orange phone. "Here."
Ephram took the phone and looked at it. He really didn't want to talk to his father in front of someone he'd just met, and almost killed at that. " Um, do you mind if I…." He jerked his head in the direction of the front doors and held up the phone.
"Oh, no, not at all."
Ephram stood, "I'll be right back."
"Yeah, yeah." She said quickly and shooed him away.
Ephram dialed the number to the clinic quickly and put the phone to his ear. After three rings he heard the phone being picked up.
"What d'ya want?" Asked a gruff voice on the other end of the line.
"Hey, Edna. This is Ephram. Uh, can I talk to my Father?"
"Aren't you supposed to be in school kid?"
"I am, I, uh, can I just talk to him please?"
Edna heard the urgent tone in his voice and needed no more convincing. "Sure thing, kid." She put the phone on hold. "Doc! Your Kid's on the phone!" Andy Brown peeked his head out of the door to his examining room. "Which one?"
"The son."
Andy dropped the case files in his hands and rushed to the phone. "Ephram? What's the matter? Is everything alright?"
His father fired the questions so fast; Ephram was taken back for a second. But Ephram pulled himself together enough to tell his father he was fine.
"Oh." Andy didn't know whether to be relieved or suspicious. "Then why are you calling me during school?"
Ephram cleared his throat. "Well, see, here's the thing……." Ephram proceeded to tell his father the whole ugly story. His father stayed silent for a minute after Ephram had finished.
"Dad?" Ephram asked a little nervously. Then he heard his father laughing into the phone.
Andy struggled to catch his breath. "I'm sorry Ephram, but, what a way to meet a girl." He continued to chuckle.
Ephram groaned in frustration, and his father could easily picture him rolling his eyes. "Are you coming or not?" His son asked impatiently.
Andy coughed, trying to get any excess giddiness out of his system before he spoke. "I'll be there in five minutes."
Ephram pressed the 'End' button, and glared at the phone for a few seconds before he put it back in his pocket. He couldn't understand how he'd managed to get himself into this much trouble in one class period. And Quinn, god, he'd thought he'd had a bad first day. And this whole incident was starting to get on the freaky side. The two of them were so alike it was scary, besides the whole "rebel without a cause" thing they both had going on, they both lived with one parent, they both seemed to hate Everwood with the same gusto, and they had both lived in big cities. Well he assumed she'd lived with her dad at some point. He shoved his hands in his pockets as he leisurely walked back to the chair Quinn was occupying. He sat back down in the chair he sat in before and looked over at her. Her head was back and her eyes were closed. Then he remembered what his father told him when Delia had gotten hit on the head with a baseball, you never leave a person with a concussion unattended. Ephram's stomach clenched as he leaned over to gently shake her arm. "Quinn? Hey, Quinn, wake up." He didn't get a response. Then he shook her arm a bit more forcefully. "Quinn?!" Ephram started to panic; he grabbed both of her arms and shook her roughly. "Quinn!" Her head only lolled around, her body sagging when he let her go. "Fuck!"
Ephram jumped up from his seat, and looked frantically around for any sign of his Father, when Ephram saw him enter the double doors down the hall to his right. "Dad! Come quick!"
Andy Brown rushed over to his son. "What? What's wrong? Where is she?"
Ephram about lost what little sense of control he had left as he walked his father over to Quinn. "She won't wake up. I-I tried to, but she didn't, or, she couldn't."
"Shhh, Ephram. Help me get her on the floor." Ephram obeyed without question. Each man took hold of the girl's upper arm and carefully lowered her off the chair and on to the floor.
Andy checked Quinn's vitals. "It's alright Ephram. She's just unconscious." He said as he timed her pulse. The he reached in to his bag and brought out a short white stick, which he broke under Quinn's nose.
Ephram had been hovering around the pair and looked instantly relieved when Quinn's nose scrunched up and she groaned.
Andy turned to Ephram "What's her name again?"
"Quinn."
"Quinn? Can you hear me?"
Quinn weakly opened her eyes and focused on Andy then on Ephram. She relaxed on seeing the semi-familiar face, then looked back at Andy. "Who're you?"
"I'm Dr. Brown, Ephram's father."
Quinn thought about this for a moment. "Oh. Well I don't like brownies so you can leave." She stated.
Ephram and Andy laughed. "I don't think so. Listen, Quinn, I'm a little worried about that bump on your head. So I'm going to take you to my office. Okay?"
Quinn looked at him for a moment. Then nodded.
Andy looked at her with softened eyes. "Alright." Then he looked at Ephram. "I'm going to go talk to the people at the front office, let them know I'm taking her. You stay with her, make sure she doesn't close her eyes, alright?"
Andy started to stand when his son caught his arm. "Dad, today's her first day the teachers wont even know she's gone. Lets just get her to your office, okay?" Ephram's eyes pleaded with his father.
Andy didn't like the idea of taking a student off campus without permission. But truth be told, he was worried about the girl, the cut on her head didn't look so horrible, but the mere fact that she'd already passed out had him a little apprehensive. "Are you sure no one will get worried?"
Quinn looked up from her spot on the ground. Rapidly recovering from "Can I vouch for the "going to the office" option? I mean, I haven't even gone to any of my classes or anything."
Andy frowned at the girl. "Why not?"
Ephram groaned. "Because she was stuck in the front office until after lunch, then I used her as a tackle dummy." Quinn giggled a little. Ephram ignored her. "Now, can we just go?"
Andy nodded curtly. "Alright, but we're calling her parents a soon as we get there."
Quinn sat up quickly at this. Then yelped at the pain. Ephram and Andy put a hand on each of her shoulders and pushed her gently back down on the ground. " Ugh, there will be no calling of my parents."
Andy looked shocked. "What?"
Quinn hurried to explain. "Well, see, my Mom's in Denver. And she's supposed to be down there for a whole week for business conference. And it's really important to her and I'm not gonna bring her back here 'cause I got a boo-boo." Quinn clenched her jaw and narrowed her eyes. Then pointed at her face and looked back and forth between the two men. "See this face?" She asked, and they both nodded. " This is my resolve face." She put her hand down but kept her face the same.
"What about your father?"
"He lives in Chicago." Quinn replied dismissively. "I don't mean to whine, but, can we figure this stuff out after I get some pain medication?"
Andy smiled. "Alright, let's get you to my car."
Both men helped her stand, and the three of them made it, slowly, out to Andy's car.