Okay, first, I don't own any of the characters from Lizzie McGuire, nor do I know any of the cast, much as I wish I did. The characters of Kendall Saunders and those in the Atlantis Fire Department are of my own creation. I also wish I could lay claim to the pairings in the story, but Sweetwater Gal came up with them first. The pairing of Tudge and Miranda is only logical, when you think about it. It worked, she made them real. I just hope my fanfics are a quarter as good as hers are. So, here it is. Hope everyone enjoys it.
Then and Now and Forever
Prologue
Kate Saunders dumped the dregs of the Hillridge High cafeteria's very loose definition of 'Lunch' into the trash then slid the two beige plastic trays, one atop the other, onto the metal roller conveyer leading into the deepest, darkest reaches of HHS's kitchen. Her hair spun and twirled, picking up sun-glitzed highlights, as she did a quick half turn and gave her boyfriend a very unconvincing look of disgust. The corners of her mouth kept tilting up, totally ruining the effect
"Excuse me..." She said to him lightly. "...But isn't this supposed to work the other way around? As in, aren't you supposed to be the one taking my tray up?"
. Ethan Craft just looked at her sheepishly as he navigated HHS's packed cafeteria on a pair of aluminum crutches, his right leg encased in a cast emblazoned with a variety of colorful logos and inscriptions.
"Kate, he had to do something to get you to do a little work." David Gordon, 'Gordo' to his friends, told her with a mischievously cheerful glint in his eyes. Kate just rolled her eyes at him and shook her head as she gave the just-deposited trays a healthy shove. Metal rollers clattered as she said 'Yeah, but really! Don't you think trying to cross the finish line of a motocross before your bike ..." She turned towards the rest of the group, giving them a crooked smirk, her turned-up nose crinkling prettily as she squinted and held the thumb and forefinger of her right hand about a millimeter apart. "...is just a bit much?"
"It DOES show dedication, perseverance, the will to succeed..." Gordo continued
"Stupidity?" Pretty, blond Lizzie McGuire asked rhetorically, her hazel eyes dancing as she spoke.
"There's that..." Gordo nodded as he slid his and Lizzie's trays onto the conveyer to join Kate and Ethan's.
"Uhhh...Guys? Don't I get to say something in my defense?" Ethan asked them with a jokingly pleading whine.
"No!" All but simultaneously from Kate and Lizzie.
"You'd've been out spending money on me, like boyfriends are supposed to..." Kate nodded towards Ethan's crutches. "You wouldn't be on those things."
You tell him, Kate!" Lizzie added, grinning broadly.
"Two of 'em together..." Gordo looked up and over at Ethan, pursing his lips and slowly shaking his head. "They gang up on us; we don't stand a chance..."
Lizzie rewarded Gordo's sage and learned comment with a playful slap across the belly, chirping "Did I say talk?" as she squeezed his arm, which she was hanging on to tightly, and giggled one of those little wind chime giggles that tend to happen when the giggle's perpetrator is in love. She then looked over at Kate"; saying, "I only allow him to speak without permission twice a day..." as she squeezed his arm even more tightly and laid her head on Gordo's shoulder.
"Yeah, right" Gordo told her with psuedo-gruff cheerfulness. Lizzie turned her head to look at him...not a difficult task, as her beloved was actually about a quarter inch shorter than she was. Her nose crinkled adorably for an instant as another little smile lit up her face.
"Oh you're good to him, Liz. I only let it" She jerked her head towards Ethan "speak maybe once a week..." She said, then turned to Ethan, gave him a little grin, inclining her head and puckering up for the quick lip-peck that he was more than happy to give her. "Unless of course he's giving me compliments..." She continued, still looking up and into Ethan's eyes. Or at the moment into Ethan's left ear, as he had turned his head to look at Lizzie and Gordo, slowly shaking is head from side to side."Ah, hello? Remember me? Am I that forgettable?"
Ethan looked back around at Kate, grinning the crooked grin that had turned girls to butter since time began, and jerked his head towards Lizzie and Gordo and said "You're never forgettable, ever, and they're not listening to you right now..." Kate heard another chirpy little twitter and turned just in time to see Lizzie's little smile widen into a grin as she did the little nose-crinkle thing again, then planted a quick affectionate kiss on Gordo's lips.
"Yo...guys...uh, we're, sorta holding up traffic here..." Ethan told them, looking back and nodding towards the line of tray-bearing students stacking up behind them. Lizzie snapped out of her momentary daze, glanced behind them, giggled another little bell-tinkle giggle, and said 'oops...sorry guys...' before yanking Gordo along by the arm. He switched his arm downward, cupping Lizzie's waist with his left hand and pulling her in close to him even as her right arm went around his waist in a similar fashion.
"Speaking of your little adventure, Ethan, how's your leg?" Gordo asked as the two couples made their way through the conversation tumble and restrained chaos that was HHS's 'C' lunch period.
"It just itches like crazy under this cast..." Kate stepped sideways, letting Ethan expertly sidestep a backpack that had been placed next one of the cafeteria's picnic tables by one of its occupants. "Doc say's its healing ok, and I should have the cast off before Thanksgiving. At least this..." He rested his weight on the right crutch for a second as he held his right hand up. "Was just a sprain..."
"Shoulda seen him when he first got the crutches and had a cast on his wrist...poor thing..." She shook her head. "I almost had to carry him around..."
Ow...come to think of it, this wrist does..."
"Don't even try it, Craft..." Kate told her boyfriend affectionately
Gordo pursed his lips, rubbing his chin with his free hand. "Thanksgiving with only one free hand...noooo, not fun..."
"You'd manage..." Lizzie told him, looking over at him. Her eyes were dancing with mirthful mischief. "One way or the other, you'd manage. Turkeys quiver in terror at the mere mention of your name..."
"Uh huh..."
"Thousands of pecan pies have died by your hand..."
"Only hundreds..."
"Whatever...no mere mortal can match you at Thanksgiving Dinner, or indeed, any dinner..."
"So I enjoy a good meal..."
"And Rice Pudding of seriously questionable origin..."
"It wasn't bad...Ok, it wasn't that bad"
"Gordo..." Lizzie tilted her head, one eyebrow inclining at a giddy angle. "Miranda and I had to drag you away from it"
"Speaking of 'Rand, where'd she disappear to?" Kate asked, sounding and looking puzzled.
"Good question...I've been wondering the same thing..." Lizzie replied, her face also knotting up in puzzlement. "I saw her right before first lunch, she and Tudge were gonna sneak over to Mickey Dees, and grab lunch..."
"Real nice..." Kate noted. "Leave us to suffer horrible fates at the hands of what ever it is we just ate..."
"Ever tried to eat a Big Mac that's been sitting around for an hour or so?" Gordo asked her. "It actually starts going through chemical changes..."
"EEEEWW..." Kate replied.
Lizzie glanced at the inevitable Seth-Thomas wall clock set high in the white-painted cinderblock wall of the cafeteria. "Actually, I'm getting kinda worried... that's been an hour ago..." Lizzie's word s popped all three of her friends with the same little pinprick of worry that she felt when she looked at the clock and realized how long her best friend had been gone. All of them were remembering a morning six months earlier.
The group exited the cafeteria into the wide asphalt tiled hallway and hung a left towards the front of the building. The cafeteria was in the new section of Hillridge High School, built on behind and easily twice the size of the stately, three story original school building. Walls were painted an off white, lockers alternated, colors, alternate banks of ten painted either the gold or Royal blue that were Hillridge's school colors.
Ethan looked down the long hallway leading towards the main building, his height allowing him to gaze over the heads of most of the lunchtime throng. A sigh of relief escaped as he spotted a familiar head of dark hair, framing a pretty, olive skinned face making her way towards them.
"Here comes the better looking of that pair now, believe it or not..." He told them as Miranda Sanchez slalom-walked through the lunchtime crush, gold pleated blue skirt swishing as she gracefully made her way towards them. Miranda's face lit up with a smile that gleamed at them like a bank of floodlights.
"Hey, guys, hold up..."
Lizzie and Kate both turned their heads to glare at her in mock-anger. "And where have you been, young lady?" Kate asked.
"Cutting class again...told 'em they shouldn't have given us different lunch periods..." Lizzie noted, shaking her head. "Now there's no one around to keep her in line..."
Miranda tilted her head, big brown eyes going huge for an instant. "You guys didn't hear?"
"Nooo...see, if we'd heard, we wouldn't be asking..." Lizzie told her, mischievous little smirk on her face as she waited for whatever new mischief her long time best friend had up her sleeve.
"You an' Tudge finally snuck off an' got married...over lunch no less..." Gordo announced, wearing that deadpan expression that caused his best friends, on many occasions, to wonder whether he was being serious, or seriously pulling their legs.
"Ohhhh..." Kate clasped her hands beneath her chin, batted her eyes in exaggerated fashion, then announced "..How romantic..." She then looked over at her boyfriend, and noted, deadpan "You never eloped with me over lunch." Both of the guys just looked at each other, shaking their heads. Miranda looked back and forth between Kate and Lizzie, rolled her eyes, then stood hip-canted, fists resting on her hips
"Nooooo..." She told her friends. "Some idiot with a cell phone growing out of his ear hit us in the back end while we were waiting to turn into MacDonald's..."
All of them waited for the punch line, faces slowly going serious as they realized there wasn't a punch line. Lizzie was the first to speak.
"Oh ma God, 'Rand, are you guys ok?" Lizzie blurted, wide eyed. Gordo turned, looking at her, hands now in his pocket in a gesture that all of them knew meant that what he was about to say was serious.
"Ok, you look like you're in one piece...where's Larry?..".
"Larry's ok guys, the back bumper an' tailgate of his truck were the only casualties. When last seen, my beloved was standing in the student parking lot, blubbering, making little kitten noises, and staring at the back end of his truck." She tilted her head, resting her chin in the 'V' formed by the outstretched thumb and forefinger of her right hand. She cut her eyes up to the left, looking thoughtful. "In fact, I think he may have been crying..."
"I would've been, definitely..." Ethan noted. "He hadn't had it but three months." He continued, referring to the decked out silver Nissan Frontier 4x4 that had been a belated birthday present and was Larry Tudgeman's second (Miranda often claimed it was his first) love.
"You guys didn't get caught did you?" Lizzie's voice climbed the scale to her trademark squeak, her eyes widening at the same time.
"Not yet, anyway. .." Miranda smiled a semi-wicked little smirk. "And if Maguilla..." She continued, using their nickname for Hillridge's assistant principal. "...Takes even one look at that poor, forlorn expression on Larry's face even he won't be able to do anything to him."
"Greetings, gang..." A familiar voice hailed them, Miranda looked up, her already pretty face breaking into a one sided little smirk as he boyfriend walked up, almost preppy in a gray Abercombie sweatshirt and a pair of jeans. "Who do anything to who? Whose forlorn expression?"
"We're truly sorry for your loss..." Gordo noted deadpan. Larry Tudgeman ran his right hand through an unruly shock of dark hair, shook his head, and breathed . He took hold of Miranda's hand, interlacing his fingers with hers as they all moved towards the front of the building.
'Idiot...'least he had insurance... Ran right smack dab into me ,then, when 'Rand and I get outa the truck, and get back to him he tells me, and I quote, 'I'm callin' my insurance agent now...'
Miranda rolled her eyes, then continued the narrative." Asked him if he was gonna call the cops an' he says 'I don't think that's necessary!'
"Cops Come?" Gordo asked, even as Lizzie, Kate, and Ethan all three asked some version of 'They say anything about you guys skipping?'
"He was cool, just told us to get on back to school, even let me run in and get our lunch while he was takin' the report." Miranda told them. "Though eating a Quarter Pounder while standing in the middle of Hillridge Parkway is not my idea of a getaway lunch with my boyfriend..."
""Least yours was still hot..." Larry Tudgeman told his girl, a smile in his voice. He then continued his rendition of events . "Guy that hit me got the ticket, an the cop said he figured when our parents did to us when put two an' two together, it'd be worse than anything the court could do..."
"Poor thing...I've corrupted him..." Miranda noted lightly.
Larry just rolled his eyes, continuing without missing a beat. "...which is probably true. But for now all I have to do's avoid our sadis...I mean esteemed assistant principal for two more periods, and we're home free..."
"Sounds like a real fun way to spend lunch, guys...least you two were Ok" Lizzie told them, to have Gordo and Ethan, at almost the same instant, jibe good natured 'That depends on what you call Ok.s". Miranda reached up and over to pop Gordo playfully on the back of the head, saying 'Only because I wouldn't want to have to get rid of witnesses am I going to let you get by with that...this time.
They had reached the 'Back Road' as the long hall running the entire length of the new part of the building was known. The six of them formed up into a loose huddle to the side of the hall, awaiting the bell for fifth period, the only class period that none of them had a class together in. Lizzie looked thoughtful for a second.
Well, that's three, guys..." Lizzie informed them. All five of her friends gave her puzzled looks.
"Three what, Liz..." Kate asked her, a sheaf of blond hair sliding off of her shoulder as she tilted her head. A sudden look of realization crossed her face, she knew exactly what Lizzie was talking about.
Lizzie did a little head tilt of her own. A shock of blond bangs swept gracefully downward. 'You know, things happen in threes..." She swept the hair out of her eyes. "Tudge and Miranda today..." She counted off on her fingers. "Ethan last month, and..."
A loud, screeching clang echoed through the halls, repeated further away in the old section of the building as the bell timers kicked in. The halls erupted with teenage energy as 1,862 students all tried to change classes in four minutes. Miranda leaned up, gave Larry a kiss, then said 'Gotta scat guys, see ya later...' before joining the flow of humanity heading up the back road.
Gordo and Lizzie exchanged three quick kisses, each just a little longer and deeper than the one before Gordo said, softly, 'Catch ya next period'. Intertwined fingers slowly unclasped, both arms outstretched so their hands could touch just a nanosecond longer. The two of them exchanged one of those looks...quick, fleeting actually...that contains enough energy to light up a small city.
"Well...on into the teaming throng..." Larry told him as the spell, the kind which quieted anyone around Lizzie and Gordo into awed silence, broke.
"Something like that..." Gordo agreed, saying 'Bye guys' as he and Tudge disappeared into the mob heading towards the front of the building. The remaining three hung a right, making their way to their respective classes. Kate looked over at Lizzie, something like concern in her eyes.
"You gonna be Ok tonight?" Kate asked her. Lizzie turned her head, dragging a fall of blond hair from her left shoulder.
"Yeah, Miranda an' I've got it down. I hate to brag but..."She repeated the age-old gesture of blowing on the nails of her right hand ."We're gonna be awesome. Magnificent, actually..."
Kate flashed a smile at Lizzie, one without a trace of malice or snobbishness "Yeah, you two looked great at practice yesterday...But I mean are you ok?" She tilted her head, looking concerned."
Oh...Yeah., I'll be fine....". They walked past an open classroom door, the rectangle of light falling across the hall, just for a second, highlighting the network of scars, barely visible now, on Lizzie's left leg. She only limped, very slightly, if she stepped wrong, and it had stopped hurting ages ago.
."You sure? I don't want ya doin' to much too quick..."
"Kate .I'm fine..." Lizzie repeated, just the slightest tough of friendly exasperation in her voice even as her friend's concern touched her. "We've been practicing it for a month an' I haven't had any problem. With that thought in mind, you do know you're a slave driver at practice, by the way?"
"Hmmmm..." Kate looked thoughtful, then smiled the one sided little smirk that her friends had come to know well. "Yeah...I work at it you know..."
The same rectangle of light brought out the colors in the snappy HHS varsity cheering uniforms the girls were wearing, identical to the one Miranda Sanchez had been wearing save for the gold megaphone with CAPTAIN monogrammed with in, sewed on Kate's uniform just below her right shoulder...
WAIT a minute!!! WHAT is going on here? Lizzie and Miranda cheerleaders. Lizzie, Miranda, Gordo and Kate friends...close friends at that. And what happened to Lizzie's leg? WHAT is going on here?
It's simple. See, Lizzie and Kate were always friends. And, at one time, it was Lizzie, Miranda, Gordo, and Kate. She had been the lighthearted wise-cracker of the bunch then, just as she was now.
Then she went off to camp that fateful summer, and everything changed between her and her three best friends. Notice I didn't say former best friends. 'Cause the kind of friendship the four of them once had is really hard to totally destroy. You can bend it break it, twist it, and even damage it beyond recognition. But when it's a friendship like this one, you can't totally destroy it.
The four of them had just forgotten they were friends
They just needed a little reminder. And when they finally got that reminder...
Well, let's just go back six months.
It started the day before IT happened. In this exact same hallway...