1Author's note: Before I begin, here's the 411 on My character:
Marcus Van Zandt
Nickname:" Max"
Age: 15
Height: 6ft
Weight: 155lbs
Eyes: Black
Hair: Dark brown
Bio:
The Oldest of the Van Zandts, Marcus's expertise is in Auto Racing, he's won numerous go-kart races and championships in Canada, and now he's taking his show to America. When he's not racing, he's taking pictures at Degrassi for the grapevine, the school newspaper which his sister is the Editor of. Marcus does his best to be there for his siblings, giving them advice, and a shoulder to cry on when needed. He is especially concerned for Liberty. His sister is changing rapidly, and with the amount of stress she's under, he's concerned about her mental well being. His biggest nemeses is Emma Nelson. Max is annoyed by her "Activist" mentality, he thinks that the greatest strength of an activist, is knowing when to speak, and knowing when to shut up. Something he thinks Emma hasn't mastered yet.
Chapter 2:
The Activist VS. The Racer
The weekend brings relief to school children all over the world, but for Degrassi students, it's a welcome break from the drama that is Degrassi. For some, the work never stops. Case and point, Marcus Van Zandt's work to prepare his Daytona 250 winning ARCA car for display during the interview coming that night. As usual, this would also bring a visit from his most vocal on again-off again critic. This starts with Marcus doing his final checks, with Danny's help.
" Hey Danny, what's the air pressure on the left rear tire"
" 21.5."
"Coo, we're done here, so you can go on back in the house."
"Ok."
Danny walks back into the house and returns to his room, while Marcus finishes his under the hood checks on the car, when Emma Nelson walks into the garage.
"What are you doing?" Emma asks.
Marcus stops working, sighs, and turns around "I'm making sure this car is presentable for tonight. They're doing a sportscenter interview Monday night with me sitting infront of the car."
"An Interview?" Emma says
With an annoyed look, Marcus Responds "Yes, interview."
"Let me guess, your gonna wear a hat with your sponsor on it"
Marcus closes the hood on the car and faces Emma "What are you getting at?"
"The fact that your being used to sell soda"
Marcus shakes his head " I don't have time for this Emma, why are you here? By that I mean other than bugging me."
"I'm here to drop this article off for the grapevine" Emma responds, showing him the disk.
Marcus sighs "What are you trying to save, protest, or suggest now?"
"I'm starting a fund-raiser. We're giving out these pins for a dollar, and the procedes will go to a charity helping women that are victims of domestic violence." Emma shows him the pin. Marcus's mood begins to change rapidly when he thinks of what this pin is really being used for.
" Does this..., no, this DOES have something to do with Rick being back at school."
"Why do you think that?"
Marcus mutters to himself, then responds " I'm gonna say this once, leave that nut job alone"
Emma jumps on the offensive "This has nothing to do about Rick"
"Radditch may believe that, but I don't." Marcus replies, with the tone in his voice building.
"Max, he put Terri in a coma"
Marcus has had enough by now, and lets Emma have it.
"I know that dammit! Look, if he did THAT to Terri, what the fuck do you think he's going to do to you if you keep messing with him?! Do you think before you act? Because if this guy snaps, he's gonna bring a gun to the school at blast you, and everyone else! Will you be happy then after one of these "episodes" finally ends with your ass put in a box?!"
Emma shoots back "So what, your defending him?"
Marcus steps to within 3 inches of Emma's face. "I'm not defending him, I'm saying he's an unstable maniac that'll go crazy and kill innocent people, and if ANY of my Siblings gets shot because of you, I'll kill you. My sisters out back, give me the disk, I'll take it to her, then get out of my garage!."
Emma hands him the disk and walks out, and Marcus closes the garage door and walks to the backyard. His Sister is sitting at the table, working on the design for the newsletter on her laptop.
"Emma wanted me to give you this." Marcus tosses the disk onto the table.
Liberty looks up, "This was supposed to be in yesterday, it'll have to wait until next week."
"I knew you'd say that." Marcus responds, looking over her shoulder. "How's the paper coming?"
"Fine, I'm putting a story in here about your races."
"Really?"Marcus asks.
"Yep." Liberty responds, smiling at him.
"Cool" Marcus says.
J.T., Liberty's new boyfriend as of Monday, walks into the back yard.
"Hi guys"
"Hey J.T." Liberty and Marcus respond together as Liberty closes the laptop. J.T. takes a seat next to Liberty and kisses her on the cheek.
"So what's up? Marcus asks, wondering why J.T. has come to the house.
Grinning, J.T. replies " Not much, I just came to see my favorite Liberty."
Smiling, Liberty replies "Your ONLY Liberty." And gives him a quick kiss on the lips. Marcus's look goes from humor to utter disgust at both of them.
"God you two are sickening"
"We know!"They reply, smiling.
Marcus shakes his head "Anyway, We're going to Michigan on Tuesday for the COT test."
"It's that soon?" Liberty asks.
"Yeah, your coming to keep time, right?"
" As always."
"Keep time? Liberty is your time keeper or something?" J.T. asks.
Liberty answers "Have been since I was 5"
"Good thing your handwriting has improved."
"Shut up Marcus" Liberty replies, hitting her brother in the arm
"Hey, it was just a joke."Marcus says, taking a seat on the other side of the table. "Besides, having Liberty on the pit box helps keep it a family affair." he adds. " Well, I ran into Emma when I walked up here." J.T. says.
Marcus sighs, obviously annoyed with the mere mention of Emma's name " Was she pissed?" he asks.
"I believe so."
Smirking, Marcus says "Yeah, that was me."
Liberty asks one simple question.
"What did you two fight about this time?"
"It's on the disk she gave me." Marcus says.
J.T. opens the disk case and take's the disk out"We'll lets see what it's inside." He says, handing Liberty the disk.
Liberty restarts her computer and places the disk in the drive. Once the disk is verified by the computer, Liberty opens the file titled "Fund-raiser." Reading the file, they find out what Emma's planned. Handing these pins out, she planned to make Rick feel unwelcome or at least that's what Marcus thinks.
"She's trying to make him an outcast." Marcus says, slamming his fist against the table.
"We don't know that." J.T. Reasons.
"I have to agree with Max, Emma has a history of doing stuff like this, with disastrous results. Remember the GM foods thing?" Liberty says.
Marcus looks at J.T. and adds " Don't forget the article on the spirit squad, which she wrote after Manny joined the squad, or the Boycott NASCAR petition because she believed they where sexist because there are no women drivers. Which is not NASCAR's fault by the way."
"Ok, so Emma's made some, "Questionable" stands in the past, but this might be different."
"Dude, are you high? She attempted to get me fired."
J.T. sits dumbfounded "How"
" That's another story for another day." Liberty says, taking the disc out of the computer and turning it off. "I'll put the article in the newsletter, but not this weeks paper." She adds. Marcus takes the computer and restarts it. "Is the video from the Arca race on here?"Marcus asks.
" I know just what your looking for." Liberty gets up, walk's around to Marcus's side of the table and clicks on the video file titled "Survive.wmv". After clicking on it, Windows Media Player loads up, and after the file buffers, the title image, black background, with the words "Surviving the flip!!!" in red letters, with a picture of Marcus's car below it, and "by Liberty Van Zandt" below the car.
(A/N: OK, just to let people know, I will be using the script format for the race commentary and interviews. I'm doing this for the convenience of the reader, thank you)
Commentator #1: Starting lap 39 of the Arca 250, here at the Daytona International Speedway, Joey Lagano continues to lead as they go into 1, but Marcus Van Zandt in the # 68 car is moving up on the high side.
Commentator # 2: Yeah, he's been running well in his previous starts so far, WHOA!
Commentator #1: Trouble on the backstretch! 5, 10, 15 cars crash right infront of the field! Now Erin Crocker's car is in the air flipping, and the 68 car goes right underneath!, and we're under caution.
The in car audio audio is played over the TV broadcast. Where Liberty can be heard screaming "Max!? Max are you ok?! Max!" To which Max replies "I'm fine! I'm fine! I made it through alright! 4 tires and fuel guys, and take a little wedge out, we're too tight on exit! Whew, that was close!"
Commentator #1: (chuckles) A little jumpy on the radio there, now let's take a look at this again. As there coming out of turn number 2, it looks like the 5 car gets loose, and just shoots up the track, and then they come right back down and they just pile in after that.
Commentator#2: Now while this is going on, the Marcus Van Zandt in the Barq's Root Beer car is in their somewhere, escapes without damage somehow, and as he's coming out of the smoke, Erin Crocker gets turned, and at that speed, her goes flying into the air, and here comes the 68 car right under, and JUST gets through!
Commentator#1: Let's ride along with the 68 car
The in-car video starts, the viewer gets a roof-side ride as Marcus maneuvers through the melee. He drops low as the field comes down, as he weaves through the chaos, and then the 98 car in the air appears out of the smoke, he drives right under the car just moments before it lands, on its roof, and flips down the backstretch., after the video, the screen fades to black.
"Wow, that's crazier when you see it." J.T. says, stunned. "I know, I see you cut the feed before they played you screaming over the radio if I'm ok." Marcus says, smirking. Liberty smiles uneasily and looks towards the gate, where Toby was walking through.
"Hi guys" Toby says. "Hey Toby, what's up?" Marcus says.
"Maxine Jones is looking for a rematch" Toby says.
"Shit." Liberty says, illicting a stare from Marcus and J.T.
"Did you just cuss?" Marcus asks.
"Your point?" Liberty asks back.
"Nothing, I just never heard you do that."
"How did you find out this news?" J.T. asks. "Manny called and told me that she heard from Paige who heard from Hazel..."
"Of course." Marcus interjects
"... Who heard it from Jimmy who heard from Ellie who heard from Heather Sinclair..."
"Who the hell is Heather Sinclair?" Marcus whispers, Liberty and J.T. shrug.
".. Who heard that Maxine Jones wants a rematch after the choke slam you gave her" Toby says. "You know, that fight's a Youtube classic brawl now." J.T. says, smirking. "Shut up J.T., this is serious. Toby, I'm not gonna fight her again. The first one was a mistake to begin with." Liberty says, her head landing on the table with a thump.
"That had to hurt." Marcus says, sarcasticly.
" Marcus, fuck you."
"Did she just cuss?" Toby asks?
"We've been over that." Marcus says. "Look, we've gotta stop that fight from happening" he adds. "Don't worry, its just a rumor" Toby says.
"Well, rumors have a strange way of coming true." J.T. says.
Marcus looks at J.T., re-adjusts his glasses, and says "I KNOW you aren't talking about rumors, do we EVEN need to revisit "the snake"?" J.T. turns away, Liberty and Marcus laugh at the memory of that infamous James Tiberious Yorke moment.
"Not funny" Is all J.T. can muse.
"What are we gonna do about this rematch, I mean we just passed off the bruise as Liberty's clumsiness. If she gets rocked in a rematch, if it happens, we're screwed." Marcus says with an air of seriousness in his voice. "If it happens, it won't be until she gets back to school, so we have time to plan" Toby says. "Well, I guess all we can do is wait, right now, I have an interview to prepare for." Marcus says, and leaves the table.
That night, Marcus sits infront of the car. An ESPN video team with him, as he prepares for his interview with ESPN anchor Eric Casillias about his recent activities.
Eric: Now, we're joined by RCR developmental driver Marcus Van Zandt, live from Quebec, and, Marcus, that car behind you looks familiar.
Marcus: Uh, yeah, that's the famous "Silver bullet" that I ran during the Arca 250 at Daytona, where I went through the big one without damage, which is the craziest thing I've ever been through.
Eric: Yes, I think the most familiar piece of audio is when your sister is on the radio practically screaming over the radio, can you tell me how that felt?
Marcus: I felt like "Wow, she must think I'm dead, and I probably should be because I just drove under a flying car! (Laughs)
Eric: Marcus, you've had a lot of success recently, do you think you'll be able to keep up this type of dominance in the Nextel Cup Series?
Marcus: That's probably a question I can't answer yet, because in the Nextel Cup series its 43 guys that have probably done as much as you did or more on there way to getting to this level, so you've got to step your game up a lot more because it's the big time, and you've got so many different tracks to deal with. With the plate tracks and the Superspeedways, and Pocono, which is a... Roval, as I've heard it, it's a completely different experience.
Eric: Yes, I know you're going to be driving NASCAR's Car Of Tomorrow for RCR during Tuesday's test at Michigan.
Marcus: Yes, it's a great opportunity to be driving the new car, It's something I'll have to get used too since this'll be the new car for the Nextel Cup Series, so the more chances I get to drive it, the better.
Eric: Marcus Van Zandt, RCR developmental driver, charging to through the ranks, thank you.
Marcus: My pleasure.
The interview over, Marcus helps the crew pack up, once they leave, he heads to the backyard, and sees J.T. and Liberty making out in the hot tub.
"That can't be good" Marcus says.
It would get worse, as there father walks in from the drive way.
"LIBERTY VAN ZANDT!" her father yells, causing everyone to
jump, including Marcus.
"Dad!" Liberty says, with the "uh oh" look on her face
"That, is worse" Marcus says, shaking his head.
End chapter 2
My parting shots: Ok, Cliched, but it happened in the show, and it's my favorite moment, I don't remember the words from the event in the show because I was rolling on the floor laughing at J.T. and Liberty's dad. I still hate him though, I know your daughter messed up and got knocked up by her boyfriend, but at LEAST they have a half-way decent plan on what to do, unlike most teenagers. Remember to read and review, chapter 3 coming soon!