Forever Night Chapter 14, a true blood fanfic

A/N: Hey! I'm back! I have an amazing set of chapters for season 2 set up, so buckle your seatbelts! This was my favorite season of TrueBlood so far (and I haven't seen any of Season 5 yet so that may change!) so I am going to have a lot of fun writing this! Also, this is the season where a very important character comes into play, Godric. I've noticed that whenever there is a fic with Godric in it there is always a huge controversy over whether or not to have him die. I myself have been having this dilema, so guess what? I'm going to let you decide! That's right, it is entirely, 100% up to you! I ask you to vote in the poll on my page and, if you are so bold, leave a review or PM argueing your point.

One other thing before I let you read, I want to mention that I am aware of the different timeline. I basically quadrupled the normal time jump of two weeks between season one and two and made it more like two months. Other than that, all the times should be correct. I do extensive research (ie, re-watching episodes) to make sure everything is pretty accurate, so I just felt like fessing to my inacuracies would be better than admiting it when someone catches on. Without further ado, here is Chapter 14!

Ch 14

Here comes summer

Chirping robin, budding rose

Here comes summer

Gentle showers, summer clothes

Here comes summer

Whoosh –shiver- there it goes

-Shel Silverstein

Beep...beep...beep

Claire swung her hand out, slapping at the clock to stop the buzzing, but only ended up groping around with her hand upside-down. Groaning, she pulled her body into a sitting position and felt the clock to find the off button before flopping back down and immediately falling asleep.

Ten minutes later, what felt like mere seconds to her, the room became bright as an annoyingly chipper voice sang an off-key "good morning!"

"Mom," she groaned back, squeezing her eyes to block out the explosion of white light.

"Happy first day of school," Ms. Winfield continued, still in that annoying singsong voice.

She whined unintelligible mutterings in response and crossed her arms over her eyes. Ms. Winfield moved on to phase two of the wake-up routine and walked over to Claire's twin bed to try and pull the sheets off. Claire knew this trick though and just curled up her legs to conserve heat. Ms. Winfield went for Plan B: to ambush her dangerously ticklish armpits. Claire snapped her arms down and proceeded to convulse in a tickle-induced seizure as she wiggled her fingers.

"Ooh! Somebody needs to shave! You don't want to be fuzzy for your first day!"

"Mom, stop!" She tried to yell while laughing. Claire's shouts were completely ignored until a tickle-seizure knee landed on her mother's ribs

"Ow! Claire!" she giggled while removing her hands from her daughter's underarms. She continued her light laughter as she left the teenager's room, closing the door behind her, taking pride in a job well done.

After showering and dressing in an outfit that had been meticulously planned out for two weeks already, perfectly matching with accessories Claire knew she would never wear again, she walked downstairs. Her hair was wrapped in a towel and smelled of the rosemary-mint shampoo her grandma brought her on the Fourth of July. She had claimed that, upon seeing it, she immediately thought of her granddaughter, but Claire knew the truth. Her grandmother knew of their financial situation and pitied them. She does it all the time too, buys them stuff. She always tried to pass them off as a holiday gift, but really, who gives groundhogs or Labor Day presents?

Claire's layered necklaces jangled as she went down her twisted staircase to the kitchen. The smell of fresh brewed coffee was coming from the living room to her left, obvious signs of her mother's presence. Ms. Winfield used to put flavored creamers in it, but now she either drinks it black or with some sugar. Claire opened the cabinet with cereal and stuck her arm in before Ms. Winfield shouted from the living room, "It's on the counter sweetie!"

Claire got up and walked towards the island counter, at which point Ms. Winfield started shouting directions at her.

"No, turn around. Left. No left. The other left."

"Mom," Claire tried to say calmly, "I can find it on my own."

Ms. Winfield watched her daughter run her hands over the counter until she knocked over the box of Froot Loops. She felt her eyes water up as she watched her daughter, her baby girl, make her cereal just like she had since she could reach the counter. She looked so beautiful now, so different from last year, radiant. She was tan from spending the summer out with friends, not cooped up inside like last year. She went to parties almost every weekend and hung out with friends constantly. She never had any over to the house though which, if she was being honest with herself, was a little insulting. She would have been more than happy to play hostess to some teenagers. Ms. Winfield got the sense that Claire thought she was embarrassing, which reminded her of her feelings toward her own mother during her adolescence many years ago.

Another thing happened this summer that caught Ms Winfield's attention. One Friday night Claire came home from a party, smiling like she'd gotten away with murder. Ms. Winfield had been waiting for her to come home and was reading "the Lovely Bones" in the living room. She turned up to the door when it opened and saw the almost painfully ecstatic smile on her daughters face and had to question it.

Claire hadn't even been fazed by her mother's voice, as if knowing she would be there. She bit her lip and Ms. Winfield could have sworn she saw the glistening start of tears gather in the rims of her eyes.

"Roy… Roy asked me to be his girlfriend." A small, happy gasp from Ms. Winfield. "And I said yes"

Ms. Winfield was shaken out of her daydream by the sound of a porcelain bowl hitting their wooden table. When she looked up, Claire was pulling out a dining room chair, the one that had a long scratch down the back showing the contrast between the wood and dark paint, to eat her Froot Loops. It was funny really, how she couldn't seem to remember how that scratch had gotten there. She smiled again as she realized the irony of the situation, her nearly grown child who was beginning her senior year in high school settling down to eat a bowl of children's cereal.

45 minutes later, after Claire had blow-dried her hair and put on her make-up, two things she had never done before this summer, a series of loud knocks came to their front door. Claire rushed down the main stairs and ripped open the front door.

"Hey," said a smooth, deep voice. If it was possible, Claire smile became even bigger as she embraced the tall, tanned, and handsome boy.

Last year, Lauren, a student-to-student counselor, picked up Claire every day. Claire didn't have any stipulations about being picked up by her. In fact, she and Lauren had become pretty good friends over the years. In Claire's mind, it was just nice to have someone different take her to school. It made her feel more normal, it made her forget that she couldn't, nor would she ever be able to, drive. Many girls at her school were driven by their boyfriends, so by driving with hers, she could blend. As she sank into Roy's car though, she couldn't help but wonder about Lauren, and how she was feeling right now. Would she be upset over Claire not wanting to ride with her anymore?

As Roy parked in the student lot, right next to his ex-girlfriend's car, Claire got her answer.

"Oh my God, Claire!" Screamed a high-pitched voice a couple cars away.

An athletic looking, tanned girl with layered clothing despite the heat ran up to Claire, or at least she tried to run. She had an extra long and very heavy looking patchwork bag banging against her muscled thighs on every stride, making running difficult. She still managed pretty well though, being a cross-country runner.

She had wildly wavy dark brown hair, with golden highlights interspersed next to three feather extensions and little, twisted braids. Black Ray-Band wayfarers, identical to the ones Claire was wearing, sat on top of her head, and where they reached her ears, dangly earrings hung. She wore a flowing peasant top in earth tones that cinched half an inch above the waist of her cutoff jean shorts, leaving a strip of tanned skin exposed. Her feet were adorned in a pair of TOMS shoes, the only simple thing on her. Overall, she was a sight to see among the plaid button down shirts and the cotton summer dresses.

Claire wasn't aware of any of Lauren's getup until she pulled her into a bear hug, and then only half of it was noticed through their touch.

"Oh my God, I feel like it's been forever Claire! Why didn't you call? It's been like, two weeks! I was dyin' girl!" Lauren pulled away, leaving her hands on Claire's shoulders as she seized her up. As Claire knew only too well, Lauren was the self-proclaimed fashion police of Bon Temps High.

"Are those the pants we picked out? They fit you so well, totally worth the cash." Lauren looked up as Roy popped out of the car, his book bag over his shoulders, the straps fully lengthened so that it hung over his butt. In his right hand, he held out Claire's bag, a worn canvas tote with blue straps, for her to take. Lauren quickly squeezed Claire's shoulders and quietly squealed "Boyfriend alert!" before leaving to go catch up with her other friends.

"Here's your bag," said Ray, gently brushing her with the canvas to help her find where to grab. She slung it over her left shoulder, checking with her right hand to make sure her white cane was folded in the side. Taking Roy's calloused hand in hers, she followed him into the schools double doors.

Claire always believed first days were overrated. Everyone (or at least the girls she knew) planned their outfits for weeks, they decorated their binders with pictures of the summer, and they bought all their school supplies in coordinating colors. Everyone became so excited for the new school year, but Claire felt like she was the only one who knew that in one-week everyone would be begging for it to be summer already. She also knew that the one week at the beginning of every school year was in the top three worst weeks of the year, number one being finals week. The first week is one of the worst because it's basically an orientation week, where you have to learn, or in her case, relearn every teacher's individual classroom rules. Which teachers wanted papers turned in online, which wanted hard copies, which only accepted work in pen, the specifics on how to put away graphing calculators, how you were allowed to go to the bathroom, and more, all laid out in perfect detail on a syllabus. But, of course, no teacher ever thought to give her a syllabus in Braille. They had known for weeks now that Claire Winfield would be in their class, and up until that summer, more people knew her as "The Blind Girl" than by her given name.

At least, thought Claire as she half listened to the lecture on safety from her Chemistry teacher, at least I have a class with Roy.

The day ended much the same way it started, in the school parking lot. As many student's joined the initial rush of cars to get out of the school, Claire sat on the tailgate of one of Roy's friend's pickup truck to wait it out. The friend's girlfriend sat next to her but didn't talk much, leaving Claire to eavesdrop on other conversations, a guilty pleasure she had. From nearly across the lot, she could heard the obnoxiously loud and nasally voice of Paige, Roy's ex-girlfriend. She was talking about one of her favorite subjects, Roy, probably to large gaggle of girls.

"… so then he was like 'I don't know how you found those, there was never a girl in here.' Like, are you shitting me? Where the hell did the panties come from then? Unless you like to walk around in girl's underwear, which I seriously would't put past him!" The girls laughed, Claire rolled her eyes. "So he kept on denying that he was cheating on me, so I said to him, I said 'You wouldn't have panties in your car if you weren't cheating on me, so give me some explanation.' He couldn't tell me why so I said, 'Fine, you're not going to tell me, I'm going to be your girlfriend.' And I broke with him."

"Was he, like, really upset?" asked one of the girls airily.

"Oh yeah, I heard from Kitch that he was a mess. But I mean I'm not going to go out with someone who's seeing someone else."

Claire tuned out, getting angry at Paige's lies. She used to not talk about it, her breaking up. Claire assumed that she just didn't want to accept the fact that Roy wasn't with her anymore. She avoided going anywhere where Roy or Claire would be, missing the numerous trips to the river and even several parties. Her avoiding of them ended in late July and things stopped being so awkward between them; Paige fudged the story by telling people that she had broken up with him because she simply didn't like him anymore, which was a lie. Roy told Claire that he didn't mind, that he didn't want to stir the pot by disagreeing. The latest story is that he cheated on her with another girl. Though Paige claimed to people that she never found out who the girl was, the fact that Claire was dating Roy now gave more fodder to the rumor mill. She made a mental note to ask Lauren about it the next time they spoke.

"Alright man, see you at the Bonfire Thursday," Said Roy, closing the conversation with a quick bro-hug. The other girl on the tailgate jumped off. Claire followed suit, grabbing her bag from behind her in the truck bed. Roy's hand found her's as he led her away from the pick-up and to his faded blue Honda Accord.

When they drove together, Roy usually did the talking. He wouldn't really tell her anything personal, just events that happened in general. Like how in his pre-calculus class some girl tried to pass off her Iphone as a calculator, or about how there was almost a fight in the hall outside the gym between two freshmen. On their drive to school this morning, he was going on about the murder of that woman in the Merlotte's Parking lot. Claire didn't mind having him dominate their conversations though. She thought the stories were entertaining, especially since Roy learned to be more descriptive with her. He used to talk to her very plainly, telling her just the basics, which frustrated Claire to no end. She tried to just deal with it for a while, but that didn't last long.

At Tammy's End-of-the-Summer pool party, Roy tried to describe the layout so Claire would have an easier time getting around without him. Becoming frustrated with his insufferable blandness, she snapped.

"You're going to have to do better than that Roy. What's the pool look like? What color is it?"

"Well, it's an in ground pool, looks like a kidney bean, with the diving board on the far end. The water is blue, ya know, because of the liner. And, uh on our end are some stairs going into the pool."

"What about the people? Who is here? What do they look like?"

That was how their conversation went, her asking him things, and him describing them to her. It wasn't very interesting for Roy at first, he really just wanted to grab a beer and avoid Paige, as she had started going to the same parties as him. After a while though, his descriptive juices started flowing and he really got into it. He only ended up leaving her when a friend asked him to join in on a Chicken fight in the pool.

Roy pulled into Claire's driveway and quickly got out of the driver's side to open Claire's door. He didn't do this because she needed him to open it for her or because he was naturally just that gentlemanly, it was because he knew girls liked it. He knew that acts of chivalry made any woman's heart melt, so he preformed them in excess. He knew about his reputation as a player, proud of it even, but he also knew that he could never keep that reputation if he was a jerk to girls, so he played to their emotions and girlish wants. So what if his friends called him whipped? He knew they didn't get nearly as much tail as he did.

Claire blushed when the door opened. He had done this before, but she could never get used to it. He was just too sweet, much too good for her. He drove her crazy with puppy love to the point where she often mistook it for the real thing.

"Thanks for driving me home Roy," she said, still blushing. He gave her a charming smile, for even though she couldn't see it, he knew that she could feel its warmth.

"Hey, no problem Baby."

He shut the door and reached down to hold her hand, running his fingers gently over her soft knuckles. She turned her head away shyly, but he brought it back towards him with his other hand. It was warm and rough against her smooth cheek, but she rather liked it. Her plump lips parted slightly, silently calling him to come closer. He leaned forward, sliding his hand backwards so his fingers reached the edge of her hairline, teasing her. He closed his eyes before gently pressing his lips to hers. He kept them there for one second, then another before pulling away too soon, purposely leaving her breathless and wanting more.

"I'll see you tomorrow morning," He whispered, leaving his hand lingering on her cheek.

All she could do was nod. She waited to hear him walk back to the driver's side before reaching in her bag for her cane. Unsnapping it, she rolled it across the ground to find her way to the walk that led to her front door while she listened to the engine start and her boyfriend roll away.

Once inside, Claire dropped her bag on the kitchen table and reached in the side pocket for her newly bought cell phone, a gift, yet again, from her grandmother. It had been specially programmed with accessibility features for the blind. Opening it, she pressed a button on the side of the device that allowed her to speak to her phone. She checked her voicemail, as she expected a call from her father, because he had forgotten to call her on Sunday, his usually day. Instead, it was a message from an old acquaintance.

"Hey Claire, It's Sookie! It's been so long since I've seen you, you haven't been in Merlotte's for ages! I was just wondering if you'd want to spend some time with um… With Bill's…" there was some unintelligible mumbling, in which Claire thought she heard Bill's voice. "With Bill's progeny?" She asked it like a question, as if she was unsure of the word. "and I. Her name's Jessica and she seems real nice. I thought it would nice for us Vampire Girls to have a night to ourselves, without the boys, don't you think? Text or call me back with whatever works, I'll pick you up if you want, Just let me know! Bye Claire!"

A/N: Let me know what you thought of this new chapter! How does it compare to my previous chapters? Do you like or agree with the way I've presented the characters?