3:40 PM - December 20, 2025 - Jackson
Art [Clementine]
She liked the snow. The air that made her hands go just a little numb, and the crunch crunch crunch her boots made when they sunk on seas of endless white. It was peaceful in its own right, even with all the bad memories attached to it.
Sundays were as empty for Clementine as they were for the streets of Jackson. Kids - little kids - they played in the snow, yelling bad words, but not a soul more. Even Lee stayed home on weekends, usually. That's where the 'you should go out and play, too' speech kept coming from. That's why she was there, lavender coat to shield from the cold, but falling to quiet sighs that turned to mist.
Clementine's hands, kept warm only by an old pair of gloves, leapt out of her pockets in a shift too quick and sudden not to be reflex. Her two amber eyes quaked.
An old dog - a Border collie, it sniffed the same frigid air as she did, lazily prowling toward the girl. Clem, gulping to hold in a whimper, took a single step back, breathing in and counting to four... only for the animal to follow. Before long, Clem lost her every sense of proper breathing, letting it all out in a string of huffed breaths. Her back slammed against a garage door, even when her feet begged to keep backing away. The dog approached, slowly, smelling the girl's trembling boots. "Easy, boy... Eas- " It let out a soft bark in response, promptly shutting Clementine's eyes while she cowered in fear. Please don't bite. Don't bite. Don't bite. Don't-
Dot [Jenny]
She'd been staring into the hood of that truck for what felt like hours , grumbling things under her breath that her parents would kill her for. Her fingers were covered in grease, a byproduct of the clogged engine she'd been trying to clean out. God, they need to take better care of these things. It's not like engines grow on trees.
A metallic crash caught her off-guard, causing her to drop the metal tool in her hand into the engine. Cursing, she reached further in, pulling it back out before looking towards the closed garage door behind her. She could hear faint mutterings outside, and a soft bark to accompany it. Dang it, Buckley, if you're chasing around the kids again…
She grabbed a rag and began wiping off the grease from her fingers, opening the side door to the outside with her rag-wrapped hands. Outside, a girl had her back against her garage, looking towards Buckley with what could only be described as terror.
Jenny whistled, catching the dog's attention, her voice a sing-song scolding. "Buckley… can you stop terrorizing the neighborhood for like five minutes, boy?"
She bent her knees to squat next to the dog, giving his head a vigorous scratching before looking towards the girl he'd been chasing around. She wore an aging baseball cap on top of her head, and a pair of golden eyes met her own brown ones. She felt bad for her, being chased around without wanting to be. Maybe she had a thing for dogs… or, something.
She put on a wide smile nonetheless, pushing herself back to her feet. "Sorry about that, Buckley likes to play with the kids. Probably thought you were his next companion for the day." She let out an awkward chuckle, shaking her head towards the dog panting next to her. "He's a little menace, but he won't hurt you. Swear."
Her eyes returned to the girl, examining her. She looked familiar, but only just barely. "Hey… you're that new girl, right? The one that got here last month?" Her smile widened, becoming excited by the prospect of finally getting to talk to someone new. "Don't think we've actually gotten a chance to meet. I'm Jenny." She extended her hand out, though at the last second thinking better of it. "Actually… nevermind. Hands are still covered in grease. Damn stuff is hard to get off sometimes. It's nice to finally meet you!" Her words almost tumbled over each other, going nearly as fast as the cars she worked on.
Art [Clementine]
Sighing out in relief, Clementine clumsily put some distance between herself and that metal gate, watching cross-armed while this other girl subdued the dog with head scratches. Clem's puffed red cheeks may as well have been glowing against the white backdrop that was Jackson.
Jenny was the girl's name. Tall... ish. Taller than her. Really wired. Wearing a brown leather jacket on top of a white hoodie. Brownish black hair that went down to her shoulders. And smeared in car oil like you wouldn't believe.
"I got gloves on. You're cool," said Clem, a smirk and a head shake to boot. She grabbed Jenny's nasty hand and shook it twice: Up 'n down. Something screamingnervousness at the back of her head. "I'm Cle-"
Voice cracks. She'd had those before. Part of growing up. Never like this one.
Clementine screeched like a car.
Eyes larger than they should, she scrambled for a do-over, voice lacking in all of its confidence. " Clementine. "
"Thanks for..." Saving me...? Ugh, am I five? "... help...ing."
Running back home sounded pretty cool all of a sudden.
Dot [Jenny]
The long-haired girl simply smiled wider at the baseball-capped girl's response. Most girls here were too preoccupied trying to keep clean, they'd often look at her in revulsion if she showed up with oil on her hands. Maybe she finally found someone that got it , that the world wasn't exactly what it was before, and a little grease never hurt anybody. She shook the girl's gloved hand excitedly, giving Buckley a disapproving shake of her head, nose scrunching, as he tried to squeeze his way between them.
She whistled, catching his attention. "Go on, boy. Go play!" She pointed towards the park across the street, and Buckley happily trotted away, off to find his next victim.
She turned back towards Clementine, who seemed to have calmed down a little, finally answering the girl's thanks from earlier. "No problem. If you ever need a dog whisperer, you know who to call!"
A sudden idea popped in her head then, animated on her face like a light turning on. "I actually do need some help on a project, if you're, y'know, not busy. Besides Tripp, no one else really wants to get their hands dirty, so fixing up cars is usually a slow as heck process. Promise it'll be simple, you don't have to know a thing!"
Art [Clementine]
The offer came and went before Clem could process a thing, zooming past her ears at hyperspeed. Her lips made way for a look of bemusement while a response still worked its way through a labyrinth of cogwheels. "I, ah... "
Furrowed eyebrows complementing her pout, Clementine thought to take the bait. What else was she going to do for the whole Saturday?
Against her better judgement, she yielded to a dumb smile and a nod. "Sure. Sounds... fun."
So, the garage wasn't very clean. Like someone smashed it and a workshop together for fun and forgot to pick up the pieces. It smelled of wax and gasoline, circled by cars she was pretty sure couldn't make it a mile. Like, ever. Clem, she ditched the coat near one of the engines. On top of whatever surface had the least black, inky spots. The gloves came out next, and finally, Clementine rolled the sleeves of her black christmas sweater. Jenny paced back and forth, doing a trillion things a minute, and looking crazy excited doing it. For the baseball-capped girl, woozy didn't quite cover it. It was hard enough to keep up with what she was saying. "Do you... fix cars all day?"
Another great quote lifted from 'Worst Ice-Breakers' by Clementine. Prized winner.
Dot [Jenny]
They were back inside that garage before they knew it, Jenny nearly beaming when Clementine agreed to help her out. Well, what better excuse to get to know her, right? School sucked for that kind of thing, and Clementine, at least as far as she could tell, never really hung out anywhere. People talked, as they usually do, but she always assumed they had the wrong idea.
Granted, she had a feeling a lot of those ideas were propagated by Lydia. The entire town knew about their feud, after all. Another point in the Clementine list, in her opinion. Decking the shittiest person in Jackson? Fuck yeah.
After she'd cleaned her hands enough, she quickly threw her hair into a ponytail, already heading over towards the car in an energetic jog. As Clementine looked into the hood of the truck with a confused gaze, she tried her best to direct her what to do.
"Alright, so I was just about to change the oil. Stuff's all icky now, so we just gotta drain it out. I'll get under the car and start that, and when I'm done, you can pour the new oil in. Cool?" The girl had simply nodded along, as if struggling to keep up, and she took that as a sign to go ahead and get started.
She'd snatched up a new oil filter from their supply a few hours earlier, so she set that down next to the truck's tire, grabbing one of those white plastic containers to let the oil pour into. With half her body underneath the vehicle, Clementine's question eventually reached her as the faint sound of heavy liquid splooshing into the container, along with its vile smell, invaded her senses.
With that draining, she slid herself back enough to sit on the ground, looking towards her. "A lotta the time, yeah. Keeps me busy, y'know? Besides, like… school… and friends, and stuff. I also mess around with old electronics when I can get my hands on 'em. I think half the radios that are still working in this place are because of me." She shifted in her spot, lowering herself to the ground to check on the oil's progress. Slowing down, a little. Shouldn't be too much longer.
"What about you?" She asked suddenly, glancing towards her as she rested against the side of the truck. "What gets you out of bed in the morning? Besides, y'know, punching blonde bitches like Lydia?"
Art [Clementine]
Clem may as well have been staring off into space, looking the best type of awestruck. Jenny's shop was so impressive all on its own, but watching her work, pick apart engines like they were toys... it was kind of super wicked.
So when Jenny shot the question back at plain, introvert Clementine, she felt understandably jittery.
Clem picked up an oil canister from one of the benches with both hands, overly cautious not to spill it over the floor. It's heavy...
And being reminded of you-know-what only made it worse.
The thought to say things like 'I didn't mean to start a fight. It was an accident...' wound up stuck in her throat. Guess everyone knew about it by now. She forced a nervous smile, tilting her head to the side. "I like reading. Like, a bunch. Charlotte's Web, Wrinkle in Time... That sort of stuff."
She set it down next to Jenny, right beside where her self-esteem lay, eyeing the girl sheepishly. "It's not as cool as... you know, what you do."
Dot [Jenny]
When Clementine grew quieter in the moments following her answer to Jenny's question, the taller girl only smiled warmly, a chuckle barely escaping her as she spoke. "Nah, books are cool. I mean, where else are you gonna get to read about cool space dragons or something?"
Admittedly, she didn't read that often. Jackson had a cool library and all, but she found more purpose helping out here than laying on her bed reading. Always doing something, no matter what. It kept the tedium of life inside the walls at bay.
As the final drips of the oil reached her ears, she eagerly returned to the floor beneath the truck, spinning the cap back onto the bottle and pushing it towards the wheel by her leg. Grabbing the new oil filter, she screwed it in, finishing up in quick succession.
With that finished, she slipped back out from underneath the truck, looking towards Clem as she stood up. "Okay, time for the new oil. I'm gonna open up the tank in the engine and hold the funnel, you just pour it in."
While she held the funnel over the empty tank, she finally stopped to breathe for a second. Clementine seemed… well, like a loner. Not in a bad way, per se, but someone that just didn't have the push to do anything beyond what they're told to do. An outsider, trying to fit in but not quite there yet. Maybe she had a chance to change that. She was cool, after all, just needed a bit of a push.
"Y'know," she started, looking towards the girl as she prepared to pour the oil in. "If you ever get bored of reading, you could hang out with me. My friends get together every weekend to hang out and play video games. You're more than welcome to come. We could use a fourth player!" Her voice grew higher pitched with each sentence, an excitement too difficult to contain.
Art [Clementine]
Clementine, canister back within grasp, poured the new oil inside the engine's tank, just as Jenny had instructed. Making sure no drops spilled on her hat. It wasn't so hard, was it?
"I've never played a video game before," Clem answered with a half-chuckle, shoulders bouncing in a light shrug. "Is it fun?"
More of an Ellie thing, right? She couldn't help but entertain the idea.
Dot [Jenny]
Jenny kinda figured that. Video games weren't exactly the easiest thing to find these days; they'd gotten lucky finding one that was still salvageable. The worst part was finding games that weren't scratched to hell, or finding them at all . Any chance she got, she'd scribble in a request for games on the scavenger list, hoping Carl would get lucky and find something, but no dice. Guess she'd keep dreaming.
"Oh yeah!" She exclaimed excitedly, pulling out the funnel as Clementine finished pouring in the oil, twisting the cap back on the tank. "We've only got like… two games, but they're both pretty fun. You'll love it, I promise!"
"You don't have to decide now, though. No pressure, and all! If you can't make it tomorrow, there's always next weekend." She continued through a smile, lowering the hood of the truck until it clicked shut. "And thanks for pouring the oil in. There's still more to do, but I think I'll just pick it back up tomorrow. Don't mean to keep you."
She didn't really need the help anyway, but it'd given her an excuse to try and get to know the elusive Clementine. Those newcomers had mostly kept to themselves the first time they were here, and with that one girl with the reddish hair gone, maybe this was the right thing to do. Better than letting her rot away in that house of hers.
"But yeah, just let me know. My place is right down the street. My dad has one of those silly Christmas snowmen inflatables out front. You can't miss it."
Art [Clementine]
Right around when the gas canister turned lighter, so had the aura around the nervous Clementine. Radiating with broad smiles and butterflies. "Huh."
She really kept waiting - for someone to pull the rug from under her boots, to tell her it was all just a mean prank. Who'd want to hang out with that weird girl with the baseball hat? The bad-tempered Clementine who couldn't stop picking fights with the other kids in class...?
Slowly, it did hit her. Way slower than it had any right to take. Seeing just how lively and... genuine that girl's smile was, aimed right at her, with so much modesty behind it. Clem knew right away that she'd found a new friend in that greasy brunette.
Clem went from mushy to stiff quicker than Jenny could say the words 'my' and 'place,' pulling a noticeable double-take. It sounded just like... typical girl stuff. The type of crap she always fantasized about, back when Mom was like her only friend. She beamed like a dork, hands wrapped around each other near her waist. "Okay. I might... come by, later. If that's alright." Clementine sounded like timidness incarnate, but for once in her short life she projected confidence. Or tried to. Clem didn't want to screw this up no matter what. "Thank you," she quietly added, knowing to be polite about it.
Dot [Jenny]
That was probably the closest Jenny was going to get to a yes from her, and she was perfectly alright with that. Maybe she wasn't as bad as people made her out to be, just had to get to know her a bit. She'd barely scratched the surface so far, but there's time.
"Cool, see you there!" She beamed at the girl before crossing the garage and opening the door for Clementine to head back out, following her. She dug her hands deeper into her jacket's pockets as she waved goodbye to Clementine and headed home.