Chapter Ten
As soon as school had let out, Trace ran back to her aunt's house. After cautiously sneaking in and closing and locking her bedroom door, she carelessly dropped her bag on the floor and flopped onto her bed. She took a few minutes to contemplate her ingenious plan and to imagine the look on Captain Harkness' face when Aunt Clarice would, undoubtedly, slam the door in his face.
Trace frowned, however, when she thought of having to watch a movie with that boy, Todd. You can always ditch him, she reminded herself. She glanced at her clock and sighed. While she still had some time before meeting Todd, Trace decided to go ahead and leave.
After exiting through her bedroom window (seeing as she'll probably spend time wandering around afterwards just to be safe), the teen slowly made her way through town to the movie theater. Once she arrived, she leaned casually against the cold wall of the building and waited.
About ten minutes later, she looked up to see her "date" rushing towards her. Trace couldn't help but chuckle at the lad. He had apparently decided to change his outfit after school, as he was now wearing a nice pair of blue jeans, a green button-down shirt, a sports coat, and nice shoes. Not to mention the fact that his hair, which usually hung in his eyes, was brushed neatly out of his face.
Todd slowed as he approached the girl and he nervously held his hand out. Trace looked at it quizzically and wondered how she could have missed the red rose he was holding.
This kid's not gonna give up, is he? Trace took the flower from him with one eyebrow raised. He shifted nervously under her gaze and hurriedly asked what she wanted to see. She shrugged and told him anything action-adventure-y. So, he bought two tickets to a movie of that genre, some popcorn, and two sodas before they went to find the perfect seats.
Trace picked out two seats dead center and the two sat down. Todd seemed to have some trouble deciding what to do with the popcorn which was annoying Trace to no end. After another minute, she finally took the popcorn roughly from him and put the bucket in her own lap.
When she looked over at him, the poor boy turned red and avoided her gaze.
Once the movie finally started, the two settled into a comfortable pattern of taking turns reaching for some popcorn (Well, she had to make sure their hands would never be near each other's). About twenty minutes into the film, the action started, but the teens were unimpressed.
It all started about fifteen minutes later, when Trace couldn't take it anymore. She whispered a sarcastic response to one of the character's questions and Todd suppressed a smile. As the movie continued, her comments became more and more regular and grew funnier and funnier. Soon her "date" couldn't take it anymore and laughed.
She looked over at him, eyebrows raised, amused, and imitated the main character. Todd laughed again, and did his own impression. Surprisingly, the boy was good and made Trace chuckle. Not long after, they had each other laughing so hard their sides hurt.
Five minutes later, an usher appeared and told them to keep it down. The two became silent, for a while at least. It wasn't long before they started up again, only quieter. They kept at it throughout the entire movie.
When they exited the building over an hour later, the two agreed that it was the worst film they had ever seen, and Todd surprised the girl by asking if she wanted pizza.
Trace glanced at her watch. It was only around seven-thirty. She knew that by now, her "father" had to, after being turned away by her aunt, be long gone, but, just to be safe, she agreed. As they started walking towards the pizzeria, she was startled when her stomach growled. Maybe she really was hungry after all.
While Trace and Todd were joking throughout the movie, Jack drove up to Clarice's home. He mentally prepared himself for whatever was about to happen and walked up to the door.
The Captain rang the bell and stepped back, waiting patiently to be let in. When nothing happened, he tried the bell again. A minute later, he rang it a third time and started to wonder if Trace was skipping out on their dinner like he considered she might.
Just as he pushed the buzzer a fourth time, the door swung open, and Jack was met by a very angry, drunk woman.
"Who the hell are you? Ringing my doorbell? What the hell do you think you're doing? Go away and leave me alone, you son of a bitch! Just what the hell are you thinking?"
Captain Harkness took a step back and winced at the woman's reaction. He knew this had to be Clarice, as she looked just like Anne Marie. She was around 5'4", curvy, had long, brown hair, dull, grey eyes, high cheekbones, and a button nose.
The woman continued to yell at him, now threatening to call the police, as he tried to get a word in edgewise.
"I'm Cap- I'm Ja- I'm here to- I know Tr- Didn't she tell…" Jack suddenly got the picture. He knew that Trace hadn't told Clarice he was coming; he doubted the girl was even there. But that wasn't going to stop the Captain from speaking with his daughter's aunt.
"If you will please just listen to…" Jack trailed off when the door was slammed in his face.
Harkness closed his eyes and took a deep breath before saying to the closed door, "I'm Trace's father."
He jumped back when the door suddenly flew open.