AN: Just saying quickly that I'm new here to the site! This is the first fanfic I have posted. I've been writing a bit recently for The Good Wife because how amazing is it?! Plus I've been reading some fics for a while. And I'm devastated about recent events because I am a huge Willicia fan. Anyhow, I wrote this very AU thing. I just wanted to experience Alicia and Owen as teenagers (especially with how bad Owen was) but I also didn't want to give Will up because I love him dearly. So I put them all together. Now some things from the show will probably be incorporated, regarding A and O as teens because that is what inspired me. Please review and let me know if whether you like it enough for me to continue!
And of course, I do not own The Good Wife or its characters; I'm just messing with 'em.
Alicia Cavanaugh was a good girl by anyone's standards. She always did her homework on time, helped with chores around the house, kept her room clean at all times, didn't go out and party recklessly like her brother. She was polite, quiet and extremely nice. She didn't have time to be a bad kid because her brother had been bad enough for the both of them. Not to mention that her parents fought a lot and she had to be a grown up long before she turned eighteen. She was never fond of chaos or disorder in her life and didn't see a reason for that to change. That was of course until the new kid in town caught her eye. She once told herself to never let her life become one of those books where the girl's life suddenly changes just because of one boy, but no one had told her that life was actually like that. Her mother should have let her into the secret of how much everything changes when you meet a boy who you think (and could be) the one.
She had never put much credence in believing there was a one for her.
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The first day of her last year at high school... Alicia Cavanaugh hated high school as much as the next person but she had survived through it so far and she knew she could get through the last year. She did of course have to keep an eye on her younger brother Owen, who was always getting into trouble. She didn't know why he did the things he did because he was a smart boy. She knew it, and she knew that he knew it but he never applied any logic to his daily activities and she couldn't understand it.
"This is going to suck." Owen said at the breakfast table, not eating the pancakes his dad made.
"Sophomore year is easy Owen, you'll do great." Alicia tried to encourage him as she took a bite of her own food.
"Maybe it was for you. You're the great one." He smiled at her with a snarky look.
"I'll take any sort of compliment so, thank you Owen." She smiled at him sweetly, choosing to ignore his look.
"Anybody want more?" Their father called from the kitchen. They called out 'no' in unison and then their mother came into the room.
"Morning kids." She said dully.
"Morning." Owen greeted back, but Alicia nodded her head and remained silent.
"Alicia, you'll be driving today, won't you?" Her mother asked her tediously.
"Yeah. Is it okay if I take your car? Mine was making a weird noise so dad is taking it to get it looked over."
"Sure, that's fine." Her mother tried a smile and then left the room.
"You're taking me right?" Owen asked his big sister.
"No, I was going to let you walk." She said sarcastically. "Of course I'll take you." Owen smiled at her then picked up his plate and took it to the kitchen. Alicia continued to finish her pancakes and eat some fruit before she took her plate out to the sink. Her dad was standing at the counter drinking a cup of coffee.
"How were they?" He asked.
"Perfect as always dad." She smiled warmly at him and placed her plate in the sink.
"Big day!" He exclaimed. "Excited?"
"I guess. I don't know. Nervous." She replied, placing her right hand over her left elbow and pulling one leg around the other.
"Don't be nervous sweet pea. It'll be great." Alicia always loved her dad using that name. He'd used it since she could remember. She was definitely daddy's little girl and wasn't ashamed in saying so. She'd always had the feeling inside of her that her mother never really liked her much. The affection she was given had gotten better as she got older but as a small girl her mother never did anything with her. She had her hands full with Owen, not that Alicia was blaming him for being a better little brother, and she just wished her mom could have been as attentive with her.
"Alicia!" She heard Owen call to her from upstairs.
"What?" She yelled back.
"Are you ready to go?"
"Yes." Alicia ran upstairs and grabbed her school bag and went on a search to find her mom, whom she found sitting on the couch on the porch out the back of their house reading the newspaper and drinking coffee.
"Mom? I need your keys." Her mother looked up at her daughter and smiled. She put the newspaper down and went to Alicia.
"I don't say this enough, but you are a beautiful girl." Alicia carefully tried not to roll her eyes, knowing that her mother was getting one of her sentimental strokes.
"Okay. You are too, mom. Keys?" Her mom brushed back some of Alicia's wild hair.
"In the bowl by the front door."
"Thanks. I'll see you when we get home." Alicia smiled and turned around, walking to the front door. Veronica was an interesting woman and Alicia hoped she could one day figure out who her mother was, but she knew it seemed unlikely.
"Owen!" Alicia called up the stairs as she passed them and waited by the front door. Owen trudged down the stairs, slipped his shoes on which he left by the door and started to leave.
"Ugh, let's go."
"Wait a minute." Their dad called out from the kitchen. "You both have everything you need?" He asked. The both nodded to him and he smiled, proud of them. He wouldn't admit it, but Henry Cavanaugh was excited to not have his kids roaming around the house any longer. They were usually insufferable when they had to spend so much time together, but he loved them more than anything. "Well, learn some stuff and get inspired." He told them this every time they went to their first day of school, a special tradition. The kids hugged their father and left for school.
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"I hear there is a new kid doing senior year here." Alicia's friend Claudia said to her as they walked through the school hallways trying to find their new lockers.
"Oh, have you seen them yet?" Alicia asked with minimal curiosity, focused on where she was going.
"Not yet, but Sam saw him in the front office this morning."
"Him?"
"Yeah, it's a guy. I wonder if he's cute." Her friend said to herself more than to Alicia. Claudia was just as good and pristine as Alicia but had a lot more interest in boys and being social. She had gorgeous long, dusty blonde hair that hung way down to her lower back. Everyone envied her hair, especially the way it never tangled. It was a mystery. Alicia would have done anything to have that kind of hair, but she was stuck with a heap of unruly curly dark chocolate brown hair that was always difficult to deal with on a daily basis.
"Of course you would wonder that." Alicia joked with her friend. They both laughed and stopped by a row of lockers that they discovered was theirs.
"I hope I have a class with him, or see him at lunch. I have to know what he's like."
"What classes do you have? Because if I get stuck with Mr. Baker on my own in AP English then I might die." He wasn't a particularly awful teacher, but he had a habit of talking excessively about nothing to do with the class work and making the class listen to him. And excessive talk could not be tolerated in the last year of high school.
"Oh, sorry, I'm in Mrs. Bell's class." Claudia said with regret in her voice as she piled in some fresh and empty folders into her new locker.
"Damn it. Well, I'll be fine. I'm sure someone will help me get through it."
Claudia turned to her and leaned against the hard, cold metal, "You are going to come to the start of year party aren't you?" She asked.
"I… Uh… Can't." Alicia only went to one other high school party in her life and it was a disaster. She had gone with Claudia who eventually got drunk and left Alicia alone who didn't have a ride back to her house, so she had to walk home after one of her drunk classmates groped her breast and tried to kiss her.
"You have to, Alicia! I know you hate parties but you have to go to this one, and the end of year party. It's pretty much mandatory for seniors." Claudia pleaded with her.
"I just don't think it's necessary I go. I probably won't have any fun and be gone an hour after it starts."
"No, please go. I won't be insane like last time and we'll have fun together. It's at Andrew's house and remember, he has a pool. It'll be so fun." Claudia tried her hardest to sell it as a good thing but Alicia just wasn't convinced, but for the sake of school traditions she'd decide to think it over.
"I'll think about it." Claudia squealed loudly and clapped her hands, then threw her arms around Alicia and hugged tight. "Okay, okay. It's only a maybe. Don't get too excited." And at that moment the first bell rang out into the hallways, almost deafening them.
"First day back and I'm ready for it to be over." Claudia quipped then gave Alicia a wave goodbye as she headed off to her first class. Alicia shut her locker with a single folder in her arms and made her way to her AP English class. She pulled out the small piece of paper that had her timetable printed on it and looked for her classroom number. She weaved her way easily through the masses of younger teenagers to the classroom. She reached the door and looked back down at her timetable to read what her other classes were and when. She walked slowly through the door and bumped hard into someone else. She immediately dropped her folder and bent down to pick it up.
"Crap, I'm sorry." The male voice said. Alicia pulled herself up and looked at the person she had crashed into. She had never seen his face before. She was sure she'd remember that smiling face with the gorgeous brown eyes and floppy light brown hair. She'd definitely remember seeing him...
"It's fine…" She said softly, taken aback at how cute he was.
"This is Mr…" He whipped out his own timetable from his pocket and studied it. "Baker's English right?" He drew his attention back to her and gave a shy smile, which Alicia thought made her blush slightly.
"Uh huh, yep." She always knew what to say and now she was at a staggering loss for words.
"Good. I'm new."
"Oh… I figured." Should she have expanded on that? Asked him something? Like where he had moved from? She was so rarely in an awkward situation and from experiencing one now, she wanted to never be in one again.
"I'm Will." He smiled at her again, seemingly unnoticing her embarrassed teenage girl state.
"Alicia." She darted her eyes to around the room, trying not to stare at his attractiveness any longer.
"Nice to meet you, Alicia. I'll see you around." She nodded her head absentmindedly and watched as he walked away and sat by the back of the class. She had never experienced something like that before. She never noticed how attractive the boys in her year were. It probably had something to do with seeing them all grow up around her. They were still thirteen year old boys who wore dirty clothes and burped in your face in her mind. This new encounter with someone knew, someone she didn't even know was a strangely exciting feeling. She decided to take a seat in one of the middle rows of the classroom beside the windows. She nonchalantly looked over her shoulder and tried to catch a glimpse of this Will. He was just sitting there, and he looked so cool while just sitting there and she didn't know how he did that.
No, get it together. Stop ogling him. Alicia told herself and snapped her vision back to the front of the class. She couldn't be distracted and she wouldn't let some new kid she knew nothing about let her be distracted. Even if he seemed really nice and even if he was really cute. She wouldn't go there, she said to herself. She wouldn't go there…
