The secret of secrets is inside me again.
Peter's on his motorcycle riding on a gravel road near a mountain top where he and Sophie designated as their meeting spot. He parks his bike and hopes off walking on the grass but not seeing her anywhere. He stars calling her name out but then he looks up and sees Sophie on a cliff with a back pack on. She smiles at him and places her protective goggles over her eyes, makes sure she's all strapped in and places her helmet on. She takes a second to gather her thoughts and then she goes for it and jumps off the cliff, free falling down the mountain towards Peter. When she gets to the appropriate height she pulls the tag and her parachute pops out. She navigates her way right into Peter, knocking both of the down as she lands laughing.
"Hey Darling" She greets him
"Sophie," He smiles widely at her, "Always have to make a grand entrance don't you?"
"You were expecting less?"
"Not from you. Boy you sure look good."
"You don't look so bad yourself mountain man" she replies.
"Yeah?" "You do woods-y well."
"Yea, it's all the fresh air and clean living."
"Hope all that "fresh air and clean living" hasn't made Peter a dull boy." She teases finally standing up.
Peter gets up too and leans in close "Don't think so." He says as he closes the gap to kiss her.
Peter sighs, "So how was Tibet?"
"Tibet is still in need of a Dahlia Lama, other than that, spectacular."
"I'm glad you could find your way back to my little part of the word."
"Well I'm glad you're glad." She says with a flirtatious tone.
"Maybe you should stay away this time." Peter says turning their conversation away from the lighthearted mood, hoping she realizes how much he missed her.
"Should, could, would. Story of my life, you know that Peter, I've never been one for dropping anchor."
"You need to start."
"You think so?"
"I do. Something brought you back here Soph, as much as I'd like to think it was me."
"Awww, you're my rock Peter."
"Yea?"
"Yea." She leans in to give him a reassuring kiss. "Lately I've just been feeling this need to touch home base."
"Last time you touched home base, I didn't see you for 3 years." He says and walks over to his motorcycle, his way of letting her know that he doesn't want to talk about it anymore.
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Meanwhile, back at Horizon, Joey, Andie, and Dawson are sitting outside on a picnic table working on their homework. Joey gets up and walks towards Jack, who's sitting alone. "Hey Jack, I um, I need a read on these mushrooms. Do they have any hallucinatory promises?" Jack takes a quick look at them. "Not unless death is a hallucination. These are Adam Skullcap, you eat one, you turn green, you eat two, you turn black. What you need are some magic mushrooms, pointy tops. " "Well then I guess I talked to my pharmacist." Joey says patting him on the back as she gets up and heads back to the table.
"Look" Dawson tells Andie, showing her his drawings.
"Cool, what is it?"
"It is what it is, what it wants to be."
"What it isn't is biology homework." She says with an eye roll. "Mitosis, please tell me my life will never be reduced to mitosis. Is that all we are a glump of splitting cells" Andie says.
Joey starts to look around and see Pacey walk out from the lodge. "Speaking of cellular activity" Joey says just as Pacey walks up to their table.
"Umm I'm supposed to go to Kennedy's office." He asks them.
"Administration building." Dawson tells him.
"I can show you" Andie says while trying to flirt.
"I'll get there." He says causing her smile to drop.
"Frank's office can only mean one thing, consequences. You're about to be rewarded for running off." Joey says.
"It won't be too bad, Jack only got pulling weeds for falling off the bridge" Dawson says.
"That was Hannah's punishment, not Frank's." Andie reminds him.
"And you were a runner, Jack was just a faller." Joey adds
"It's going to be nasty. Frank can get pretty harsh with his consequences." Jack says.
"Can?, always, we call it "let's be Frank about it." Joey says.
"I'll handle it, thanks." Pacey says walking away.
"I bet you can handle a lot of things." Joey says but not loud enough of him to hear.
"He doesn't like you" Andie tries to tell her.
"The day is young."
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Pacey walk's into Mr. Kennedy's office, and looks around, trying to avoid eye contact with him. "You are going to my errand boy for a while." Frank tells him.
"Okay" He finally looks at him.
"Hear you're a pretty good athlete."
"Yea"
"Track?"
"Some, football was my main sport."
"You can run right?"
"Yea" Mr. Kennedy signs a form and hands it to him. "I want you to take this signed voucher to Mr. Valente, he's doing some repairs to the girl's dorm. You got three minutes to get there and back."
"You want me to run my tail off?" Pacey asks, confused with this request. Mr. Kennedy clicks on the stop watch "Or else"
"Or else what?" he demands.
"Trust me son, you don't want to know your or else."
Pacey looks at him for a second and then takes off running and ends up running right past the picnic table.
"Bet you can't wait til he breaks a sweat, huh?" Joey asks Andie.
"Looks like the new kid is getting his first Horizon lesson." Dawson comments. "Run Pacey Run!" He yells out.
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A few hours later Peter and Sophie take the cliff hangers into the woods where they have a ropes course set up. Pacey comes up in an exhausted light jog. "Mr. Kennedy told me to report to you." He tells Peter. "Mr. Kennedy told you to run? Alright put this on" he hands him the harness. "Andie help him out. Alright everybody I want to you to the top and back down again. Joey?" He looks to Joey who is sitting on the ground looking emotionally upset.
"I heard you." She says
"Alright, nothing to be afraid of, just pace yourself. Who's going to be first?"
"That'll be me" Dawson says, putting on his helmet.
"Alright Dawson, way to set up." Peter says as he hooks the carabineer onto his harness.
"Let's show the newbie how it's done. Huh?" Dawson says with a smirk.
"You do that." Pacey replies back. Dawson completes the whole course quickly and is now back on the ground.
"Alright, who's next? Pacey?" Peter asks.
Pacey doesn't reply but he walks over to Peter so Peter can hook him up. Pacey starts his way up the net with a beaming Andie watching him. Joey looks over at Andie, who has the biggest cheesiest smile on her face, and just scuffs at her. Joey can't help but think how ridiculous Andie looks. Pacey has no problem completing the course just as fast and Dawson. When he finally finishes he walks over to Dawson, "Not bad." He tells Pacey, but he doesn't respond. He just glances up at him and he's taking off his harness.
"Alpha males" Sophie whispers to Peter, with a small laugh.
"Okay guys good job." Peter tells them both.
"Alright who's next?" Joey, who is still sitting on the ground, puts her hand on Jack's butt to push him forward.
"Jack" Peter announces,
"Ahhhh" Jack says with nerves as Peter starts to strap him in. He walks over to the net and starts to climb up. He's making his way up the net but he's not as graceful as the other guys.
"You can do it Jack!" Sophie cheers on. She looks down at Joey, "You can too."
"I didn't ask you to be my cheerleader, okay?" She says as she gets up and turns around to walk away and pushes who ever won't move out of her way.
"Joey!" Peter calls after her "Joey!" he starts to go after her but Sophie stops him, "let me go after her" she says.
Sophie finally catches up to her. "Joey"
"What?!"
"You've got an old soul."
"Oh gee, whoopee"
"Hard shell too, always a good thing in a woman."
"Do you work here or you just giving this out for free?" Joey says finally looking at her.
"I'm just a visitor."
"From what planet." Joey says and she picks up her pace to continue to walk ahead of Sophie.
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Back at Horizon, Sophie's sitting in Peter's office and she asks him to see Joey's files. "See for yourself. Joey's intake folders" He says handing the folder to her.
"I've met a lot of tough kids in my life, but Joey, man, she's hard as concrete." Sophie says.
"Reinforced concrete. She's been here 8 weeks and nothings changed. Chipping away at that wall only to find another one right behind it"
Sophie looks up from reading the folder. "What, This is it!? Habitual runaway?"
"About a dozen times since she was 13, her mother brought her here after she found her living on the streets for a couple of months."
"Street kid, that'll toughen a girl up real fast….Wait she's never tried running from here?"
"Nope, doubt she'll ever try. Horizon's her sanctuary, she probably feels safer here than anyplace else."
"Well what about home, family? School?"
"All apparently normal, whatever that means. Her feelings of alienation, abandonment, her anger, it just doesn't make sense. Whatever her demons, she knows what they are, so hopefully she'll find a way to tell us someday." Peter says
"And in the mean time? What?" Sophie stands up, not really liking how hopeless she feels with Joey's case.
"Her demons just shadow her everywhere?" Peter doesn't know what to say, so he just looks out on the ground.
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Meanwhile Joey is sitting outside the lodge waiting for Peter to tell her what her punishment will be for not doing the course. She is sitting outside staring at the ground, deep in thought. The look on her face is a mixture of fear and anger. She doesn't move when Peter finally comes outside and takes a seat next to her.
"Got a cigarette?" she asks, still only looking straight ahead.
Peter gives her a muffled laugh. "Can't just walk away Jo."
"So I can't scale the heights, we all have our phobias."
"So you're afraid of heights." Peter says nodding his head "that's your excuse?"
"You tell me?" She replies quickly, as she finally turns to face him and makes eye contact. "You're the one with all the answers remember?"
"All I know is that walking away gets your nowhere, fast."
Joey just rolls her eyes.
"I want a thousand word essay by tomorrow."
"What's the topic?" She asks
"Me and my shadow." She just looks at him out of the corner of her eye as he gets up and walks towards the car that just pulled up near by.
Afternoon ladies." Peter greats them as the Mom and her 5 year old daughter hop out of the car.
"Afternoon." She replies.
"Whose watching the finest eating establishment in town?" He askes holding the car door open for them.
"You mean the only eating establishment." She smirks "Its closed today, gone fishing." She says laughing.
"Want me to show you a good fishing hole?"
"Well actually I was hoping you'd give us direction to the wild flower establishment, were going to have a little mother daughter camp out."
"Here let me show you on the map." Peter offers as she hands him the map and he places it on the hood of the car so that they can spread it open to read it.
The little girls sees Joey still sitting on the steps with her knees to her chest and her arms are cross and placed on top of her knees and her chin is resting on her arms and she is just staring down at the ground.
The little girl walks toward her, and Joey notices only because a pair of small shoes invaded her vision. She doesn't move her head off her arms, but Joey's eyes travel up the young girls body finally making eye contact with her.
"What are you thinking about?" Gracie asks her, noticing the sad look on Joey's face.
Joey finally lifts her head "You know anything about shadows?" She says with a slight attitude.
"There dark, hide things, secrets. You have a secret?" She asks softly
"Thats my secret." she replies with sadness in her voice as she gives the girl a half smile. The little girls returns it with a full smile. And walks back toward her mother. Joey just puts her chin back down on her arms and stares back down at the ground, fighting the tears that are struggling to stay in.
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Later that evening the women and her daughter and at their camp site sleeping in a tent. The mother is asleep but the little girl is awake and starring at the walls of the tent. Its dark outside but there are so many stars in the sky that the night is quite luminous. Their are shadows of the trees on the tent and this has the little girl mesmerize and in a trance. She sits up and whispers "shadows" to herself as she remembers her earlier conversation with Joey. She's so fascinated with these images that she gets up and walks out of the tent to follow them.
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The morning is now here and the woman is just know waking up and is noticing that her daughter is not beside her in her sleeping bag. "Gracie?" She sits up starting to get worried. "Gracie?" She says with more panic in her voice. She gets up and is now looking around the tent and the camp site yelling "Gracie" a few more times. When she hears nothing she goes and runs to the jeep and gets out her cell phone.
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Back at the school Andie is standing beside a building holding a cup of water, waiting to see Pacey run by as he's still doing his errand runs as his punishment. She spots him walking out of the administration building with Frank. Frank hands him a folder and he starts jogging lightly. Andie jogs across the grass to meet up with him spilling all the water that was in her cup. She catches up to him an holds the cup out to him.
"Water?" She says and Pacey stops running and grabs the cup.
He turns it upside to show her that there's nothing in it. She just looks up and him and smiles. She then looks to the left and to the right, to make sure that no one is watching and quickly gives him a peck on the lips.
He just looks back at her confused as to why she just did that.
"I've never done that before." She says
Pacey's not too sure what to make of it, "Thanks? I, uh, I got to go." He says and gives her a little smile as he hands her back her cup and starts running again.
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Inside the cafeteria Dawson Joey and Jack we sitting at a table "Jackers, um"
"Jack" He says emphasising his name again.
Joey is now leaning close so that Dawson cant hear their conversation.
"Um yea, describe to me again those magic shrums. Points?"
"Oh, pointy tops, they got sort of pointy tops."
"Ah, and um, you were telling me that they grow around here?" Jack nods his head abundantly and Joey smiles. "Excellent" she replies and goes back to writing her assignment for Peter.
"What are you writing?" Dawson asks her.
"Oh, um, one of Peter's stupid learning tools for not climbing the rope towers again."
"What's it about?" Jack asks.
"Me & my shadow."
"What's it about?" Dawson asks, not really getting it.
Joey replies a little annoyed now "Me and my shadow"
"You know what Peter Pan did? He had Wendy sew his shadow back on him." Jack says, Dawson just laughs and Joey just silently mouths "what."
Joey then looks up and sees Pacey run in and go to the food line to quickly grab his tray. He looks back and sees Frank standing in the doorway with a stopwatch. He grabs the tray and sets it down at another table without looking to see who's already sitting at it. He starts to stuff his mouth when Andie speaks up.
"You shouldn't chew your food so fast."
"Frank only gave me two minutes to eat. I don't have time to chew." he says as he picks up his glass of water to wash the food down.
"I guess when you're as big a guy as you then you don't have to chew as much huh?" she says a little perky. Pacey just looks at her but doesn't reply.
Joey is sitting at the table behind them and shuts her notebook, obviously upset about the interaction going on with Pacey and Andie. She gets up from the table and walks to Paceys table and sits and the empty chair at the head of the table. As soon as she sits down Pacey gets up to leave, not because she sat down but because he is being timed and wasn't really paying attention to his surroundings. Joey frowns and looks at Andie.
"What did I say?"
"I already told you. He doesn't like you" Andie says in a teasing sing song sort of way.
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Later that afternoon Peter finally gets word that Gracie is missing. He runs out of the administration building and runs over to Jeff. "Jeff, Manny's daughter Gracie, she's lost somewhere in the woods."
"Want me to call search and rescue?"
"No they've already been called, it's going to be hours before they can get up here. Group the kids, I want the Trackers, the Cliffhangers, and the Ridgerunners. Hike them up there ASAP." Peter decides.
"Got it" Peters turns and walks towards Sophie whose in the shed working on his bike.
"Sophie, need some help, we've got a lost little girl were heading out right now to try to find her." Sophie gets a worried look on her face and she stands up from her kneeled position. "Got it."
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All the troops have now gathered at a starting point in the woods. Peter's in the middle of the huddle when he finally speaks up. "Alright everybody, listen up. Pacey, Dawson, you're going with me. Jeff, you take Andie and Joey. Um, Jack, go with Curtis. Rest of you fan out. You've all got you gear and whistles, blow them if you need anything. Be careful. Come on." he says to Pacey and Dawson and everyone starts to fan out.
Andie walks over to Joey "It's so sad isn't it?"
"Just another lost kid, there's millions of them"
"Wow that's cold."
"Yea well at least we're looking for her! That's more than anyone ever did for me." she replies and walks ahead of Andie. Leaving her stumped.
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On top of a hill Gracie is calling out Mommy but doesn't see her anywhere. She looks down and see a pretty violet flower. She reaches over to try to grab it and loses her footing, causing her to go tumbling down the hill. She manages to grab onto a hanging branch on the side of the mountain and looks down to the ground below. When she notices that she is about a good 15 feet above the ground, she squeezes her eyes shut out of fear of falling.
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Some where else in the woods Peter catches up to Dawson and Pacey.
"Anything?" he asks Dawson. "Nah" Pacey walks over to them with his pants wet up to his knees.
"What happened to you?" Peter asks,
"I got into water. Up to my knees." he says annoyed.
"Did you check the top knots." Peter asks him,
"Ya know, I think I did," he says pointing back into the woods "but in case you haven't noticed, I'm not exactly an expert on top knots." Pacey replies sarcastically.
Dawson points to the side "Right over there. You see that big bump" He says
"How would you like a big bump." Pacey snaps back to him.
"Would you two just back off each other, come on, we've got more important things to do right now." He says and starts walking again.
"So this is what we do here? Look for lost kids." Pacey asks with little motivation in his voice.
"When necessary. Pacey, tell me the difference between nature, and human nature?" Pacey looking defeated just replies "I dont know"
"Dawson?" Dawson shrugs "Got me?"
"Nature goes on without you, human nature goes on within you. At Horizon we try to find the lost, cause every kid is lost, one way or another. Every single one. Come on lets keep looking."
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Meanwhile Joeys near the ground looking for shrums and Andie runs over to her to see what she's doing. "You!" Andie exclaims
"What!? Oh were you preparing your queen of the rescue speech?"
"What are you looking for?"
"Getting my hands on some natural wonders. Some shrums Jackers told me about."
"Your gonna eat something you found on the ground?" Andie said slightly disgusted with the idea.
"And Im gonna say yum yum when I do." Joey says just dripping with sarcasim.
"She's lost. That little girl, think if it was you." Andie pleads with Joeys try to get her muster up an ounce of concern.
"I was! Now I plan on finding some shrums and getting good and lost again."
"Your disgusting."
"Look princess, these aren't just for me, plan on sharing these with Pacey, who happens to share my fondness for getting wasted."
"He's not gonna be with you because of a bribe."
"OH really?"
Jeff finally walks over to them after hearing their voices raise. "What are you two arguing about?"
"Flora and fauna identification." Joey quickly speaks up.
"Very good Joey, but this isn't the time. Let's fan out."
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On another side of the woods.
"How long we gonna look for her?" Pacey moans,
"As long as it takes"
"Hey" Pacey calls out and Peter turns around, "What?"
"I hope we find her." Pacey says softly
"Me too." Peter replies
Pacey sits down on a log to retie his shoes and Dawson walks over to him. "Nice kicks, where did you think you were going? The mall?"
"Man, they hauled me outta my house in these, wasn't planning on going mountain climbing."
"So your looking for some slack huh? Fine, just remember, playing newbie gets old real fast." Dawson tells him trying to get under his skin.
"Wow, did you think that up yourself?"
"What I think? What I think is that up here, for the first time, somebody like you just might need somebody like me."
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Back to where Joey Andie and Jeff are, "I don't believe you. There's a lost little girl out here and instead of looking for her, you're looking for shrums."
"It's not everyday we get out on our own to shop."
After a while Joey's walking along by herself and decides to take a break and sit on a rock. She puts her hands on her knees and stares at the ground for a second before hearing Gracie call for help. Her head quickly shoots back up and she sees Gracie hanging onto the branch. She gets up and smiles to herself at the irony. "Wouldn't ya know it. Had to be me." She says to herself and she runs over to the wall and starts talking to Gracie. "Okay just stay right there."
"Im afraid."
"I know you are." She tries to comfort her, "Who's not." She says a little quieter so that Gracie doesn't hear. "Just hang on. I'll get some help" She turns to look behind to see if anyone is around, but no one is. She yells out to Jeff and Andie hoping they might hear her. But the branch Gracie is holding on to is starting to slip.
"Im falling" Gracie yells in a panic, "Don't fall okay just, don't fall." she drops her backpack when she realizes she's going to have to climb up the side of the mountain wall.
"Alright." she says to herself to boost her confidence and she works her way up the wall, not noticing Jack is coming close to them and sees them.
Joey starts free climbing up the side of the hill that Gracie is hanging from and carefully makes it right up next to Gracie.
"Alright, we're going down."
"I cant"
"Look I came all the way up didn't I? Now don't give me a hard time." She tells her, but not with attitude, so Gracie doesn't shy away from her. Instead Gracie lets go of the branch and grabs onto Joey for dear life and Joey hugs her back. She then pulls her away so she can talk to her. "Okay, let's not get carried away, come on." She says and she puts Gracie on her back so she can climb down carrying Gracie piggy back.
"Hold on tight." She says and starts going back down. When they reach the ground, she puts Gracie down then picks her back up and picks Gracie back up again to now carry her around her waist. She is shocked to see Jack standing there when she finally looks up.
"What?" Joey demands.
"You? You're such a fraud, it's all an act." Jacks says.
"I want my mommy."
"Here just take her to her mommy." she says as she transfers Gracie into Jacks arms. "What me?" Jacks says surprised
"Just, tell them you found her. And if you so much as breath a word of this to anyone, you'll beg for death." she says and walks away from them leaving a very confused Jack as to what just happened.
They return to the site where the rest of the groups are. Joey just watches as Mother and daughter finally unite in a warm embrace and people cheer on Jack, believing he found her.
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It's now night back at school, all the girls are asleep in their dorm but Joey just lying in bed looking at the ceiling. She's hearing Gracies voice in her head, and is thinking about when she asked "You have secrets?" she also can't stop thinking about watching Gracie finally be united with her mother, and the hug she received.
Joey shuts her eyes not wanting to think about these thoughts and feel these emotions but it doesn't work.
She gets out of bed and walks outside to a pie of logs that have been cut for firewood. She pulls out a box of cigarettes that she's hidden there but notices that she has no lighter.
"Son of a" she says to herself and takes the cigarette out of her mouth. She looks over the center of campus where she sees a bear statue. It's a statue of a mother bear with her baby cub standing in front of her. The Momma bear has her arms resting on top of the baby cubs head.
She walks over to it and stops in front of it to observe it.
She then climbs up and sits on top of the little bear's head and underneath the momma bear's chin. She brings her knees up to her chest and tucks her head under the momma bears head and sheds some unwanted tears .