"Hold her steady there, Nick! Nice and easy… easy does it…" his best friend coaxes as the black 2007 Honda Civic is slowly lowered down from its pedestal. It took them most of the weekend plus Monday and Tuesday to figure out what exactly the problem was and how they'd be able to fix it, but Luke's never been one to shy away from a challenge.
Especially if that challenge is enough to reward their business with an extra 2K in the pocket. Incentives like those have always managed to put a smile on their faces and a warm feeling in the pits of their stomachs, making them act all giddy like a couple of young boys. It took some major convincing for Nick's uncle Pete to grant them some money to cover some of the start-up costs, but things for the moment seem to finally start getting turned around for the better. No more binge-eating on Kraft Dinner for these two, no sir! Now they can dine like kings – barbecued hot dogs and the cheapest beer that they can afford instead!
Truth be told, however, Luke probably would've taken this operation for free if not for Lee's insistence on paying in full. Lee had taught him for a few years over at the university and had helped him try to find a career well outside of the institution.
And although the degree in art history turned out to be more of a nice sentiment more than anything else, he still appreciates the help that he was given. Lee could've given up on the twenty-seven year old a long time ago, but he knew that there was a fire in Luke's heart, and that if anyone deserved a shot at succeeding with the tools that they had, it'd have to be him. So, besides helping Nick and Luke move a bunch of the equipment into the little building that they had acquired for auto repairs, Lee had also helped with the local advertisements and had gotten the Two Whales Diner to even sponsor their business. The town may be small, but there were still a handful of people willing to come together in order to make a difference.
It's just a shame that many of those same people seemed to have packed up and left Arcadia Bay in recent years.
"Lee, there was so much wrong with this tub that we didn't even know where to begin," Nick truthfully remarks as Lee watches the car slowly descend to the shop floor. As the vehicle lands with a thud, Nick steps away from the control panel before handing the keys over to the history professor. "The engine was malfunctioning, the exhaust pipe was practically on fire, the transmission was totally off setting… why don't you just get a new car and scrap this hunk of junk already? They're selling 'em for pretty cheap over at the dealership."
"Anything's better than the rental I've been using over the past few days. Besides," Lee points out as he starts signing a paper that he's barely had the time to read through, "if it's cheap, wouldn't that just mean it'd run even worse? Old faithful here has brought me through hell and back – she's not kicking the dirt just yet."
Chuckling to himself softly, Nick shrugs his shoulders in wonder at how set in his ways Lee appears to be about this piece of machinery. The guy's been doing pretty well for himself, all things considered. And it's not as if there aren't plenty of other towns besides Arcadia that sell newer versions of the car he's got. Perhaps it's just got some sentimental value for the guy, but Nick can't be sure.
With no other clients coming in today, and Lee not really being in much of a hurry now that he's called in as not being able to come to work today, Luke decides to close up shop and just chat for a little while. That's the beauty of he and his friend running this place together: they determine what the operating hours are, and thanks to the small nature of the town, they can often close up early without any repercussions.
"You said your niece has come over to live with you now, right?" he inquires as he tries to take an interest in something besides the auto body shop. "Clementine, wasn't it? Is she settling in well enough around here? This ain't the most exciting of places, after all."
Not wanting to go into too much detail, since the pain of his brother's untimely demise is still lodged fresh in his mind, Lee takes a second to reflect on how things have been going under his roof so far. "It's been… an adjustment, that's for sure. For both of us, come to think of it," he reveals while leaning back in the driver's seat. "That girl's had to go through more crap than most, and having to suddenly just drop everything in her old life and come straight over here has been a bit of a challenge. Sometimes it even makes me end up feeling like I'm a stranger in my own home."
Noticing the sullen change in Lee's tone as he opens up to them, Luke clears his throat roughly before leaning his hand over the roof of the car and trying to sympathize. "Well… from the sounds of it, I get the sense that she's a real good kid," he acknowledges as he pats Lee on the shoulder. "But uhh… you did warn her though, right? About Blackwell and the reputation it's gotten over the years?"
"…I didn't want to give her a bad impression on her first day. So no, I didn't say a word about it."
"Ha! She might be in for one hell of a shock, then! Those kids definitely ain't like the ones she'll be used to," Nick sniggers as he wipes the oil grease off onto a dry towel nearby. He never went there personally, but all three of them have heard horror stories about how stuck-up and snooty some of the students can be, almost as if they think that they're on top of the fucking magic mountain or something and that all of their peasant followers are getting herded like cattle down below their feet. "But anyways," he discontinues, talking more directly to Luke as Lee prepares to drive off, "where the fuck was Frank today? I thought he wasn't gonna pull anymore shit like this! Have you tried calling his cell or something?"
"He doesn't have one, and I don't know why you keep thinking he does," Luke answers as the two men wave goodbye to Lee, who's exited the building and sped on down the road. "I tried calling the landline, but he hasn't picked up and we basically have no other way of contacting him. Unless of course you'd be willing to drive over to his RV and…?"
"Tsh! Fuck that, I'd rather not get stabbed to death in an alleyway, thank you very much! If he wanted to quit, he could've just said so… He's been pulling this shit for too long now."
Having nothing better to do than to clean up their stations and call it a day (even though it's only one thirty in the afternoon), Luke and Nick keep to themselves as they crank the radio up and rock out to their favourite tunes. They'd look like a pair of monumental dorks if anyone had seen them like this, but seeing as how they're both self-employed and have no other workers in here to help today, they can let their inner rock star shine through in full. Luke's thankful that their pipe dream of travelling across the countryside with a full case of beer and no set destination never really took flight, and although this might not be the most glamorous of positions, it's enough to suit the two of them.
Neither of the young men can really ask for much more than that.
Not even ten minutes after the radio's been blasted, however, has it been turned down as Luke scrunches his face in confusion; worried that they might have to replace the electrical cables that power other machines too. As he goes to investigate, Nick has already beaten him to it as he stands face to face with a couple of uniform-wearing police officers. Neither of them look too pleased to be here.
"Good afternoon, gentlemen," the cop says with a curt nod. "If you don't mind, could you please sit down somewhere that we can have a chat? We'd like to talk about your employee, Frank Bowers."
It's been one day at Blackwell, and Clementine's already starting to have mixed feelings about the place – practically polar opposite notions of what's great and what's shit around here.
On the one hand, the art scene around here is absolutely breathtaking at times. The campus just comes to life in the fall, and she's found it surprising how buzzing the activity can be around the school when Arcadia Bay is such a tiny place. During her lunch break, Clem had sat underneath a shady tree and drew for nearly an hour without stopping, only doing so upon realizing that most of the other students had gone back inside for their afternoon classes. The blank pages of her scrapbook are still begging to be filled with all the vibrant colours of the surrounding areas.
On the other hand, the usual high school bullshit that she had thought would be behind her has actually come back in full force – maybe even more so. Without any warning, Clem had been thrust into this whirlwind of cattiness, backstabbing and gossip, none of which interests her in the slightest. If people have to constantly talk behind each other's backs, play dirty and harmful pranks as well as constantly try to put each other down just so that they can fit into a certain clique, then the girl's not so sure that she'll even survive the wrath of this place. One thing she can be thankful for is that she doesn't have to put up with quite that amount of nonsense since she just lives at Lee's house, and doesn't have to deal with this Victoria person – the Queen of Mean as some have taken to calling her.
More like Queen Bitch, Clementine thinks sourly, watching in silence as she and her little posse start picking on a girl down the hallway. It irks her just to be a bystander to the verbal attacks that the girl is trying to withstand, but this is a new school and a new set of untold rules. If Clementine steps out of line too early, then it could spell doom for weeks to come.
"Maybe you should get a change in attire, huh Kate? And maybe a little plastic surgery on your face so that people won't recognize you at all," Victoria teases, her words breaking Kate down to the core as angry tears start to collect in her eyes. "But now that I think of it, maybe you should just embrace your celebrity! Your video's already gone viral over the internet, so perhaps cashing in on that success would be a win-win! Do us all a favour, alright? Head on down to the sidewalk and start parading around – I'm sure that your skills in that video could line up with being a prostitute. Sad face…"
Who the fuck even talks like that?! she thinks to herself bitterly.
Clementine can hear the choked sobs from way down the hall as she tries to focus on organizing her locker, but the cries are almost drowned out by the chuckling of Victoria and her wicked, dastardly crew. How anyone could say such a thing is beyond her comprehension, but Clem just chooses to keep her head down as the three of them start walking in the direction she's in.
Just play it cool – don't even acknowledge them, she tells herself despite gripping her textbook so tightly that knuckles are turning white. She knows that they're whispering about her right now as they pass by, asking who this new chick is and why she's wearing this grimy-ass hat on her head, but fortunately for Clem, they leave almost as quickly as their gums flap about.
"…screw it," she mutters as she gives up on trying to keep her locker neat; tossing a binder into the back and watching as the books come tumbling down in a heap. It's not as if she's really going to keep it completely spotless all year round anyways, so Clem really doesn't mind its dishevelled appearance right now.
Turning her head slowly to the left, Clem frowns as she looks upon the more pressing issue – Kate Marsh, sitting on the dirty floor and looking as if she really doesn't give two shits about anything anymore. They haven't met, but Clementine somehow can actually feel as though she has some sort of connection with the teen. Empathy would be too strong a word for this, since she doesn't know exactly what Kate's going through… but the pain is definitely similar.
Despite wanting to lay low for the first little while, given what she knows about a certain murder in the area, Clementine can't help but shut her locker door and slowly walk towards the troubled girl. Maybe there's something that she could do about all of this. Maybe she can be the light in this girl's life and really make a difference at this new school.
Maybe all Kate really needs is a friend.
"Umm… hey there…" she awkwardly waves to the girl, getting only a slight reaction as she twirls her foot in a circle. "So… my name's Clementine, and I'm kind of new here. So I was kind of just wondering if you could possibly – "
"…are you in the Vortex Club?"
Puzzled, Clementine arches an eyebrow as Kate finally looks up to her with bright red, puffy eyes. Clem's heart nearly breaks in two as she sees how emotionally damaged she truly is – clearly this bullying hasn't been a just a one-time deal, and the effects have battered her deeply.
"Huh? Vortex Club?" she asks in confusion. "What's that? Some sort of… tornado-watching group or something?"
"Are you in with Victoria, Courtney, Taylor and the rest of them? Did they send you over here to finish the fucking job?!" Kate glares, even though deep down Clem can see that she's struggling to hold it all together. "Because if you are then just… don't bother, alright? You people have already taken away my dignity and whatever self-worth I may have had left… what more could you possibly want from me? Are you all that damn insecure?"
"Whoa, whoa, whoa! Hold on there, nobody sent me, I promise! Umm… scout's honour and all that!" Clementine insists, crossing her fist over her heart to try and lighten the conversation a little bit. "Like I said, I'm new – I don't have a clue what the Vortex Club is, or the people inside of it," she explains as Kate, against her better judgement, starts to relent.
Yanking out a tissue and blowing her nose with it, Kate snivels a little bit as she stares straight ahead at the wall across from her and breathes deeply. Most of the other kids have gone back home or back to their dorms, so the hallway is largely silent enough that neither of them will be disturbed.
"…I've never really seen you around here before, so I guess you're not lying to me… Sorry," she apologizes as Clementine carefully takes a seat next to her. "M-my name's Kate, by the way. In case you didn't hear them taunting me over here."
Sticking out a hand and pretending to not have heard that conversation just now, Clementine smiles lightly and engages in a friendly shake. If nothing else would've come out of today besides the drawings she had created, at least Clem's started to make a friendship around here. Good friends are truly hard to come by in many cases, but she can already tell that this could be genuine.
"So I'm guessing the blonde-haired bimbo over there was Victoria?" Clementine asks for confirmation as Kate nods in spite. "What a bunch of assholes… Why would they be bugging you like that?"
As if she feels dead inside just from thinking about the damn thing, Kate brings her knees up to her chest as she slowly spills her guts out to one of the few people around willing to stop and listen. "It… it's all because of some stupid video of me that somebody posted on the internet…" she reveals, wanting to snatch it out of mid-air and rip it into a thousand, tiny pieces. "I couldn't remember what I was doing after, but I know for a fact that I didn't have enough booze to get drunk. I didn't! There was no way that I could've…"
"It's cool, Kate. I believe you…"
Calming herself down a little bit as her tense muscles relax in her shoulders, Kate nods appreciatively as she continues to explain the details of that fateful night – everything from the kids she was partying with, the sickness she felt after having a little bit of red wine, to Nathan Prescott being with her when he said that he'd take her to the hospital. From what she's gathered so far, it doesn't seem like this guy had been true to his word and that some foul play may have gone down… possibly even sexual assault of some kind. There isn't a whole lot for her to reveal, especially since they had only met not even ten minutes ago, but it's certainly enough to start with.
The two of them sit in a comfortable silence for a little while longer, listening to the muffled voices and sounds coming from outside the school walls as the principal nods over to Clementine. She had noticed upon first interacting with him that the man could be quite stern and proud of his position in the school, along with the funding that's come with it, but Clem can't help but sense something underneath all of that; as if there's something he isn't revealing to anyone aside from the teaching staff.
Unfolding a piece of paper that she had found crumpled on the floor early that morning, Clementine flattens out the creases as she stares at the missing persons poster.
"That's Rachel… Rachel Amber," Kate clarifies, as if the name on the top of the poster wasn't clear enough already. "She used to go here, but nobody's seen her in months. Some say that she got pushed off the edge of the cliff up near the lighthouse and thrown into the ocean, and others say that she just ran away without telling anyone where she was going. Nobody really knows for sure, though."
"Hence the posters," Clem concludes, taking a mental note of her facial features and deciding to keep an eye out for the girl in the future. Not even a week in and she's already uncovered more wickedness than she ever had back in Georgia – the death of her parents included. "…well, I don't know exactly how to make it better for you. I wish I knew, but I really don't," Clem mentions, her voice full of sorrow as Kate looks downcast, "but all of that shit that's spewing out of their mouths? Just try to ignore it. Talk is cheap, Kate, especially when it's coming from bullies like Victoria. Trust me – there's always something worse than teasing out there…"
As Kate's eyes light up in realization, Clementine sighs as she realizes that her cover's already been blown to somebody around here. So much for trying to lay low at Blackwell Academy…
"So you're the girl whose…"
"Parents got killed? Yeah… yeah, that's me…" she unveils as if it's some sort of secret identity that she's been holding onto all this time. "I know it's not right of me to ask with all that you're going through, but do you think that we could keep this just between us? Please? I just moved here, and I'd rather it not start getting around…"
Not even giving it a second thought, Kate wipes her eyes once more as she nods and zips her lips; running two fingers across her mouth as Clementine chuckles slightly. The dark undertone of their conversation has got them both feeling pretty down, but they can at least appreciate each other's company and input on the matters at hand.
"I guess talking about it might've actually… done some good after all," Kate exhales, rolling her eyes at how cheesy she thinks she sounds.
Neither of them are aware that Max Caulfield has just listened and observed their entire conversation from a distance, as she scurries away from her spot around the corner and quickly makes her way back towards the dorm. Her heart is racing as she realizes that their witness is now within their grasp.
Feeling more panicked than ever before, Max rushes towards her room and stops to catch her breath after having ran all the way here. Taking out her phone, she quickly pulls up Chloe's contact info as she begins texting in her haste.
No emoji, I swear this time, but… you'll never guess who showed up at Blackwell…
