Chris made his way out of the boys bathroom, now wearing a pair of sweats, and a Neptune High t-shirt. He wasn't the happiest camper.
"Well, it could be worse." Penny said looking him up and down.
"Is this all you could find?" Chris asked.
"Well, I mean, it's not like a stylish wardrobe is going to make up for the fact the the entire school saw you in your birthday suit." Penny shrugged. "And you're hot...so it's totally okay." Penny said, wincing at her last statement.
Chris smirked. "You think I'm hot?"
"Just a little bit, Casanova." Penny smirked. "But I was actually quoting a Ms. Claire Casablancas." Penny said as she continued walking, leaving a stunned Chris behind.
Neptune High School - A few hours later
Random locker searches. Me and my mom would make fun of the stories she would say about these particular locker searches.
I had them at my old school, and with my mom always said, an office aid was a girl's best friend. Thankfully, I had made friends with Jane in first period. My gramps always said I had my mom's winning personality.
Chris makes an annoyed walk over to his locker where Principal Mayes and an older Sheriff Lamb were awaiting his arrival.
"You guys do know that it's my first day, right? What could I possibly have in my locker?"
"We heard about a small altercation between Mr. Echolls and yourself, and being a new student, we want to assure safety for all our students." Principal Mayes stated.
Chris rolled his eyes as he put the combination of his locker in and pulled up, and the locker opened revealing a picture of Principal Mayes in the center of a heart. "Wow...this is really embarrassing."
Principal Mayes looked irritated, while Lamb seemed uncharacteristically ammused.
"I hope gay students are allowed at this school, I'd hate to have to start a new school already." Chris joked.
"All right, smart guy. My office. Now." Principal Mayes stated as he headed towards his office, expecting Chris to follow.
Chris looked to Lamb. "Am I free to go?"
"Keep out of trouble, Mr. Mars." Lamb stated still a bewildered smirk on his face as he headed off.
Chris followed Principal Mayes' footsteps and met him in his office. Slouching in a seat, he looked to the man in front of him.
"Mr. Mars, I'm well aware of you current situation, and I'm also aware of your mother's colorful past with this fine institution, but I'm hoping you can turn over a new leaf here." He looked down at a piece of paper on his desk.
"It says here you're not in any extra-curricular activities,
why is that?"
"I'm a busy man, Principal Mayes." Chris stated, then sighed.
"It's the middle of the year, only openings were dance and home-economics, and I'm already a damn fine cook." Chris said seeing a jar of candy on his desk. "May I?" Chris asked pointing at the jar.
"No." Principal Mayes responded. "I see you were on the track team at your last school, unfortunately there are no openings at this time."
"Too bad." Chris said mocking an actually disappointed reaction.
"How about newspaper?" Principal Mayes asked.
"Will it get you off my back?" Chris asked.
"Yup." He responded.
"Sign me up, Boss." Chris said as he stood up, grabbing his backpack along the way.
"I look forward to many, many more meetings with you, Mr. Mars." Principal Mayes said as Chris headed for the door.
"As do I, Principal Mayes." Chris stated before he closed the door behind him.
Neptune Navigator - Day
Chis made his way towards the Navigator's home room.
Journalism was never a real interest in mine, not until I started learning what it was that my mom actually did while in high school.
Like my mother, photography had been a hobby that we shared together rather frequently, so to make this quest to please the high school administration more to my liking, I'm hoping I can find some silver lining in this organized school function.
Chris made his way into the room, giving a quick glance at his fellow classmates. Unrecognizable.
So, far so good.
Chris' eyes landed on none other than Lincoln Echolls and Claire Casablancas.
Crap.
Chris' attention was twarted by another girl. Pretty. Brunette, and beautiful blue eyes.
Heeeeelllllllllllllooooooooo!
"Can I help you?" The girl asked.
Chris held up a note. "I'm been sentenced to a lifetime of writing about the newest trends and cafeteria food scandals, I think I'm pretty much helpless."
The girl laughed as she looked down at the paper. "Chris Mars. You're the one on the flag pole."
"Please...bring that up as often as you can." Chris stated uncomfortably as he could tell the class' eyes were now drawn to him.
"Sorry." The girl seemed a bit bewildered. "Hi. I'm Izzy.
Izzy Montgomery." She said with a smile. "I teach this class."
"You are my teacher?" Chris stated a bit shocked.
"College student. Requirement for one of my classes is I have to teach a high school course, and since Neptune High doesn't actively have a newspaper instructor, and I'm a journalism major, it was my lucky day." Izzy took a deep breath. "Sorry, I'm babbling
anyways, what are you into? Sports? Entertainment?"
The class seemed to get back to whatever it was that they were doing. "I like photography."
"Oh, good, we seem to have a lack of someone who knows how to work a camera that isn't inserted into a cell phone." Izzy said with a smile. The bell rang, and Izzy looked around.
"Okay, guys, I want some actual story ideas tomorrow."
The students began to disperse. "That includes you as well,
Mr. Mars." Izzy said with a smile as she walked over to her desk.
Chris' eyes watched as she walked away.
Okay. Maybe this wasn't going to be SOOOO bad.
Neptune High - Day
Chris and Penny made their way out of the school grounds, and into the parking lot. There was yet again, another comotion.
Chris and Penny made their way through the crowd and saw a girl, dressed in a leather jacket. She was tough, yet extremely beautiful. A crowd of other boys were around her also wearing leather, one was holding Lincoln Echolls tight,
so he could not break free.
As the girl finished what she was doing, she backed away revealing '09ers suck' that had been keyed on the hood of Lincoln's car. "Let him go." She said with a smirk.
"Next time, you should play nice." She stated as she walked over towards Chris, his face full of worry.
"I'm Coop Navaro." She stated with a smirk. "Our parents were friends back in the day, and I guess he owed her one"
Coop said as she nodded and walked over to her motorcycle,
and drove off, as the others followed her.
Mars Investigations - Night
So, as it appears, I'm not as unpopular as it seems. Coop Navaro is the head hancho in the PCH Biker gang. Mom told me stories of her and Weevil. How he was one of her best friends growing up.
Although, no one ever does something for nothing, so I'm assuming I'll be seeing Coop around, coming to claim her repayment for the revenge on Lincoln.
Chris pulled out his laptop and placed it on the desk, followed by his camera. Plugging the camera into the computer, he pressed a few buttons.
Now to check on the lisence plates from Goon's. Clicking on the P.I. website his mother told him about, all he needed was the password.
Thankfully, mom was never good at keeping her password secret.
I'm betting Gramps was still smarter than that. Dates and algorithms were just too easy to decipher. It was always good to have random numbers. Problem with that, is, you have trouble remembering them, so you usually write them down.
Chris began searching on Keith's desk. Staring at his calendar, he smirked.
As young and hip as my gramps thinks he is, I doubt he has scheduled a Magic Mountain trip for me anytime soon.
Chris typed in the password and he was in. Taking the first car, he typed it in. Getting a name, he quickly jotted it down before going onto the next, and the next, and the next.
What?
Chris' face begins to frown.
What was Gramps doing at Goonies when he said he was going out of town? Why would he lie to me, unless he was the person Logan was trying to meet up with. Which begs a harder question,
Why?
Chris heard the door, and quickly closed the lid of his laptop.
"Gramps, what are you doing here? I thought you weren't coming back until tomorrow."
Keith was a bit startled, but smiled as he walked in. "Hey,
Kiddo. Oh. It ended up not taking as long as I had planned."
Liar.
"So, what were you up to...?" Keith was interrupted by Cliff making his way into the door. "Cliff."
"Hello, Keith. Chris." Cliff said with a little wave. "I was driving by, and I saw that your car was here and wanted to make sure you got the Echolls file, I brought in earlier."
"Not yet, but I just got in." Keith stated.
Chris stood up and looked to Cliff. "He isn't cheating."
"What?" Keith and Cliff said in unison.
"Logan Echolls, he isn't cheating. I followed him to the Goon's last night, and he wasn't meeting anyone of the female persuasion." Chris' eyes went directly to Keith, who had a guilty look on his face.
"Alright. Well, I'll contact Mrs. Echolls first thing in the morning." Cliff said with another wave as he exited the office.
"What the hell are you doing, Chris?" Keith yelled. "Following Mr. Echolls around, taking pictures. This is dangerous work.
This is my work. What could you have possibly been thinking?"
"I'll tell you what I was thinking as soon as you tell me what you were doing at Goon's last night with Mr. Echolls." Chris quickly retorted. "Why did you lie to me?" Chris yelled. "I'm so sick of being lied to. You. Mom."
"You're mom didn't lie to you." Keith said in a softer tone.
"Really? Well, she could have talked to me. She could have told me what was wrong, so I could help her, but she didn't. She was weak and she left me. She left me all alone." Chris yelled, a few tears falling down his face.
"Chris. No. You're mom wasn't weak." Keith said walking over to his grandson. "She was one of the strongest people I've ever known." He said hugging Chris tightly. Keith let go of him and walked towards his safe. Putting in a combination,
he pulled out a large box and opened it, and took a folder out of it.
He walked over to Chris and handed it to him.
"What is this?" Chris asked as he opened it.
"It's your mom's autopsy findings." Keith stated.
Chris cringed at the thought, but knew his gramps wouldn't give him this if he couldn't read it. "And?"
"Look at the ruling." Keith stated.
Chris' eyes shot up to his gramps'. "It was ruled as a murder"
Chris said confused. "But how? Why wasn't there an investigation?"
"You're mother told you how the sheriff's work in this town.
They would have done a sloppy investigation, and we'd be in the same place we are now." Keith stated. "I'm friends with the coronor, and asked him to write up a fake report so I could carry on my own investigation."
Chris sighed a sigh of relief, which was still etched in sadness. It still didn't bring his mother back. "I want to help with the investigation."
"Out of the question." Keith stated bluntly.
"Either I do it with you or I do it without you, but I'm now officially an employee of Mars Investigations." Chris said as he grabbed his computer and stuck it in his bag. "I'll see you at home." Chris stated as he walked out of the office, leaving Keith with a worried look on his face.
Mars Apartment - Night
Trajedy blows through your life like a tornado, uprooting everything. Creating chaos. You wait for the dust to settle and then you choose. You can live in the wreckage and pretend it's still the mansion you remember. Or you can crawl from the rubble and slowly rebuild.
How do you rebuild? You face the tornado head on and make it pay for what it took from you, at least that's what I plan on doing. They said it was suicide. That she didn't want to go on living.
I now know that to be false. She WAS murdered, I'm sure of it.
Now, the only thing left is to find out who did it.
Chris sat at the desk in his room, typing on his computer. Checking his email, he stopped, his gaze became intense.
One new email from...VMars.
He opened the email, and began reading.
Chris,
If you are reading this email, it means that I'm no longer with you. That's a lie, because I'll always be with you, but you just can't see me.
There's so many things that I wish I would have gotten to see.
Your graduation. You getting married, having a child. All things you still need to do. Do them for me. Mourn, but move on. Don't let life slip passed you as I have.
I know you have so many questions, and this letter is meant to answer them for you. First off, take care of your Gramps.
He'll need you more than you'll ever know. Be each other's strength, and you'll both get through this.
Secondly, I always told you that your father didn't want anything to do with you. It was a lie, and I'm sorry, Baby,
but it was what I thought was the best thing for you at the time, but I don't want you to always think about why he didn't care to be around. It's because I never told him about you. I just left. Left and started a new, safer life.
Things are going to get tough for you, now. Just follow your insticts. And I want you to have the chance, when you're ready, to meet your father. His name is L...
L? L what? Why would she just stop writing? Maybe she was interrupted?
The letter just ended. Chris' eyes went wide.
Did mom know she was going to die? Or was this just a precautionary measure she took in case something DID happen to her? I don't know, but I'm going to find out. I owe her that much.
Please read and respond. Thanks for all the feedback I have gotten so far, and am looking forward to more reviews. Hopefully, they will all continue to be possitive. I know who Chris' father is at this stage, and I'm sure you guys have your theories, which I'm glad to hear, but let me just say it may or may not be what you all are thinking. I'm definitely gonna throw some twists in about that. And I think Veronica's murderer is going to suprise you all as well, but that's down the line, for now, I hope you enjoy the new characters, as well, as the old ones that are own by the brilliant Rob Thomas.