Chapter 3: Nothing

"Anyone seen Piney?" Clay asked the entire parking lot. Opie walked out of the clubhouse, his boots pounded on the pavement as he strutted over to Clay.

"My mom just called me." Opie said to Clay "My dad's been in an accident on 18, flew over his handlebars, they rushed him to St. Thomas."

"My god" Jax said "How is he?"

"Cracked his head open." Opie struggled to say "I don't know what's going on now, my mom didn't tell me much."

"Let's go" Clay said as he rounded up Chibs, Tig, Bobby and Otto. They were on their bikes in less than two minutes. Clay took the front, as the President always did. With Otto to his right and Tig to his left. Uncle Toms's bike roared behind Otto, and Chibs behind Tig. Bobby and Happy rode side by side, Jax and Opie directly behind them.

They arrived at St. Thomas Hospital ten minutes later. St. Thomas was the one and only hospital in the Charming area. All of the members of Sons of Anarchy had been inside for medical care at one point or another. Opie lead the charge into the hospital, marching to the front desk and demanding his father's room from the secretary. They took two separate rides up the elevator with the MC being too big to go all together. Opie ran down the hall with lightning speed to room 189. "DAD?"

"Be quiet." Mary said to Opie as he entered the room. Piney was laid out in the hospital bed, connected to machines with wires and tubes. He was unconscious, and didn't seem to be waking up anytime soon. His heart beat was still steady, but the bloody bandages wrapped up against his head didn't bode well.

"What happened?" Opie asked his mother as the rest of SAMCRO flooded the room.

Mary shook her head "People who were there said he flipped over and smashed his head on a rock."

Opie plopped down in the chair next to his mother. "Damn" he said as a small tear rolled down his cheek.

Jax walked over to Piney We just saw him a couple of hours ago he thought He looks so goddamn frail. Jax grabbed Piney's hand and squeezed lightly. "He's gonna be fine Op."


It was Monday again, the most dreaded day of the week.

Tara Knowles was sprawled out on her bed. When the alarm went off, it felt like a dull throbbing pain to her. She switched it off as she got up, rubbing her tired eyes and standing up straight. Tara walked out of her room and into the hallway of her small house in Charming, California. She stretched out her arms and yawned as she turned to the bathroom. Locking the door, she finally straightened her back and looked in the mirror. Her long black hair was scraggly and all over the place. Her eyes were puffy and red, and when she tried to breathe through her nose, her breath was nasally and harsh. She was sick, and she hated being sick. Why did she hate being sick? Because she still had to go to school. Her father was passed out on the couch, too drunk to stand, and wasn't going to call in to excuse her absence. It was a choice between dying in a classroom or losing credit for a day the administration thought she skipped. Tara was an academically able student, and didn't want to risk it.

She pulled off her tank top and shorts, she threw her underwear in the hamper and stepped in the shower. After a short, cold shower, she couldn't decide if she felt better or worse. The teenager wrapped a crisp clean towel around her body and walked back to her room.

"Please tell me I didn't forget to do the laundry." She said as she looked inside her drawers for anything to wear. She had to settle on a pair of denim shorts. Tara struggled for anything else, the pants weren't exactly school appropriate. When she looked for a shirt to go along with them, she got lucky. An extremely oversized tee shirt one of her father's old Led Zeppelin concert shirts. Tara slipped the tee over her head and found that it the black shirt fell almost to her knees.

"Tara Knowles gets bonus points for creativity" She told herself, smiling. Her smile turned into a scowl when she walked into the living room, her dad was laid out on the couch, snoring deeply with a can of beer sitting next to him.

She ate a small breakfast, two pieces of toast with a slice of cheese in between them. She would have made something more elaborate, but besides beer, bread, cheese and salami, all that was left in the fridge was mold.

Not bothering to wake her father, she snatched her sandals from the floor. Tara stepped into the garage and grabbed her keys from the hook on the wall. She walked past her father's car and wished she could drive it. The Cutlass was a slim black form of American muscle that Tara wasn't allowed anywhere near. She got to drive quite possibly the crappiest car in the entire town of Charming. Tara's Pontiac Grand Am was rusted, the wheels needed air, the engine was fried and Tara didn't have the money to fix it.


Tara's mouth formed a scowl again as she came into view of Charming High School.

She had spent two and a half entire years and Stockton High, and never had set foot in Charming HS. Her only friend Katie, she only got to see during lunch. Tara wished she could go back to Stockton, but since the medical intern program was killed by budget cuts, her father saw no incentive to her commuting almost an hour when there was another school ten minutes away. On top of everything, her chemistry class was being moved as well, so she would have to throw away the entire week of friendliness in that class she spent trying to get people to like her and shift it to this new class.

She pulled into the parking lot and was forced to park in the back. With all of the spots in the front taken. It was eight fifteen, she was going to be late. She turned left and entered the outskirts of the parking lot. She thought she finally caught a break when she saw an empty spot. When she was about to park, a red Toyota swerved into her parking space.

"BITCH" she yelled at the blonde girl who exited her car and started walking towards the school.


She had almost made it through the day, almost. It was time for the most dreaded part of the day. Her new eighth period chemistry class.

Tara slowly made her way to room 245 on the second floor. The stairs felt like torture as she grinded her feet on the floor. She was the last one to enter the room. The teenager opened the door as the bell rang.

"Oh" the teacher at the front of the class said "I almost forgot, we have a new student."

Tara walked to the teacher's desk. "I'm Tara" she said as he scanned a piece of paper "Tara Knowles?" he confirmed.

"Yes," She said as she bounced on one foot from another. Every eye seemed to be on her as she looked around for an empty seat.

"Okay Tara, I'm Mr. White" he shook her hand "The only empty seat I have is in the back, right there" he pointed at an empty seat next to a blond boy in leather. He was tall, even sitting down, Tara could tell that he reached six feet. A chain dangled off of his desk and was wearing the baggiest jeans possible. He had a leather vest on over his plain white tee shirt and his blonde hair was swept back behind his ears.

Tara walked back to the desk and set her bag down on the floor. She looked around at her neighbors and grabbed a notebook and a pencil.

"You wearing anything under there darlin'?" a voice asked.

Tara turned to look at the boy on her right. He had the deepest blue eyes she had ever seen. He had a thin beard growing from his chin and cheeks. He's actually kind of cute. Tara finally realized he was looking at her funny. "Um" she stammered. "I ugh… I'm" Tara felt all the blood rush up to her face and she turned beet red. "I'm… I'm wearing shorts. Does that bother you?"

He laughed and chuckled softly, "No, nothing wrong with that baby."

"Baby?!" She said loudly, much louder than she meant to.

Tara heard a loud cough and the boy turned his head away from her, everyone else in the room turned to her. "Miss Knowles" Mr. White said "What do babies have to do with compounds?"

Tara found that blood was rushing to her head again. "Well, when… I…" she found herself turning to the blonde boy "There's a… nothing, Mr. White… nothing." He finally went back to his board.

Tara was exasperated, she turned back to the blonde boy, who was laughing hysterically.


"Give it back Tig" Happy yelled angrily as Tig walked away from him.

"Give what back, my tan skinned, psychotic assassin friend?" Tig asked innocently.

"It was the last one Tig" Happy said "It was the last one in the box, I had my name on the box, Trager."

"I have no idea what you're talking about man" Tig said as he turned and walked away. Tig slid his hand into his pocket.

"It's in your pocket you SOB" Happy lunged at Tig, knocking over a bottle of beer at the bar and tripping Happy's intended target. Tig pushed at Happy, trying to get him off.

"What the hell is going on here?" Jax walked into the clubhouse shaking his head. Chibs was walking out of the chapel room at the same time. "Whoa boys" he chuckled and scoffed, "What's happening lads?" he asked as he pulled Happy off of Tig.

"He took it!" Happy said "He took it."

"Took what?" Jax asked

"The last Twinkie" Happy said with scorn.

"You guys are fighting over a Twinkie?" Chibs asked with disbelief.

"Yeah" Happy said "It's a cream filled delicacy."

Jax laughed as he walked into the Chapel Room to find Clay. Sure enough, the SAMCRO President was sitting at the head of the table with Otto. "What's up?" Jax addressed Clay as he walked into the room.

"Shit keeps piling up." He said, looking over a set of documents. "We're about to ride out to San Francisco to meet with Henry Lin. Can you come along?"

"You don't have to ask Pres."


Tara was sitting in bed, reading her chemistry book, refusing to get over what had happened in the class. Who did that blonde asshole think he was? Some kind of king?

Tara was wrapping his head around elements when she heard a knock on the door. "Tara?"

"Yeah dad?"

Her father opened the door. His hair stuck up wildly and his shirt torn. He wasn't even wearing pants. "Did you buy beer?"

Tara sighed "I'm sixteen dad, I couldn't buy beer even if I wanted to."

"Oh… right" he turned around and stumbled back into the living room.

The phone by the bed started ringing soon after that, Tara reached over and grabbed it from it's cradle.

"Hello"

"Tara, it's Katie."

"Hey Kate, what's up?" Tara closed the book and set it on the nightstand.

"Well, me and some friends of mine were gonna take a ride out to San Francisco. Get dinner, do some shopping. Can you go?"

"Well, gee Katie I don't know… I got a lot of homework and I'm just really busy right now."

"Busy doing what Tara?" Kate asked. "Besides, the clothes you were wearing today, you need a serious wardrobe fix"

"Your being delusional. I have plenty of nice clothes." Tara stammered.

"Honey" Katie pleaded "All you wear is ratty tee shirts and rattier jeans. How are you ever gonna get a boyfriend if I don't help you?"

Tara laughed "Maybe I don't need a boyfriend"

"Now look who's being delusional." Katie laughed "Meet us outside your house." She hung up

Tara shook her head "Here I come, San Francisco."


Shorter chapter this time, but I decided to break this chapter and the next one in half instead of one big one. I wanted to put Jax and Tara's first meeting in one chapter and then put what happens in San Francisco in the next one, which should be up soon.