Disclaimer – I don't own American Horror Story

Alright, so let's all just pretend that Wednesday's episode didn't happen, and that my fan fiction still makes sense, shall we? For all you new readers (if there are any) if you haven't already noticed, this takes place after Open House.

. . .

"How do guys dress?" Tate asked Violet and Lily Monday morning.

"Uh . . ."

"I mean . . . the last time I left the house for school was in '94 . . . help me out here," he explained, noticing their weirded out expressions.

"Oh!" Violet sighed in relief. "You scared me for a moment there. Guys . . . basically dress the same way. I doubt anyone will notice if you just wear your regular '90s clothes."

Tate nodded. "Alright and what type of music or bands are popular now?"

"Anyone asks, your favorite song is Pumped Up Kicks by Foster the People," Lily told him.

Violet threw her pillow at her. "Not funny."

"I thought it was pretty funny," Lily replied, laughing.

"How does that song go?" Tate asked. Lily walked over to Violet's stereo and plugged in her iPod. She started the song at the chorus. Tate listened, then gave her an annoyed look. "Ha, ha, ha."

"I seriously dare you to say that," Lily said.

"I can't," Tate replied. "Don't you think people might think I look a little familiar? I shot up their school . . . they've probably all seen my picture. I don't need to mention liking a song about shooting children. That won't . . . help."

"Are you sure you handled the Social Security stuff?" Violet asked for the millionth time.

"Yes!" Lily told her. She pulled a small plastic card from her pocket and handed it to Tate. "There's your fake license."

Tate took it. It was his picture, put the information was all wrong. The name said, "Hayden McClaine" and the date of birth was about seventeen years off. The only thing that was true was that it said he was male, and seventeen.

"I don't know, Lily . . . this seems a little too easy. I mean, you made Hayden a guy, and about four years younger," Violet said. "And you got a new license with Tate's picture all in one day."

"I told you not to doubt my computer skills," Lily said. "Besides, the license part was easy. Do you know how many ghosts there are at the DMV? All I had to do was email one of them a picture of Tate and the information and ask to have it overnighted here via FedEx."

"And the gender and age changes?" Tate asked.

"Simple little tweaks I made on Hayden's birth certificate and what not. All I had to do was back up her credit card information—here's that by the way," she handed him another small card. This one was a Master Card. "It was simple."

"So . . . you hacked into some website illegally?"

"Pretty much. Does it matter?" Lily asked.

Tate and Violet looked at each other, then shrugged. "Guess not."

. . .

"And you're sure this is the bus I used to take?" Tate asked. "Because I won't be able to get on if it's not. I can only go places that were significant in my life . . ."

"Tate!" Lily exclaimed. "I know! I'm the one who told you this. And yes, I quadruple checked. This is the exact same bus that picked you up from this exact same bus stop seventeen years ago. You're all set."

Tate nodded and took a few deep breaths.

"You're nervous?" Violet asked accusingly. "No one's going to remember you; they all know your dead."

"What if they ask?" Tate asked.

"Then we'll say he was your uncle or cousin or something," Violet told him. "It's going to be okay."

Tate swallowed. This was unbelievably hard for him.

The bus pulled up, and the three teenagers boarded. They sat next to each other in one of the back rows, Violet on Tate's lap so they'd fit on one seat.

"Another new kid?" the snobby bully from Friday asked.

Tate smiled. "Yup. I just transferred here from Military School across the country."

The bully's eyes widened and he turned around and faced straight.

Lily, Violet, and Tate snickered. Messing with people was so much fun . . .

. . .

First class of the day, English. Violet was kind of nervous, because this was one class that she shared with Leah, and now with Lily and Tate. She was sure that her frienmy would recognize her boyfriend from that day in the basement when Tate had set that . . . thing on her.

"Just act cool," Violet whispered as they entered the class room.

"Shouldn't be hard," Tate said cockily. Violet realized that the word "cocky" included the word "cock". As in, people with cocks were cocky. In other words; guys only. It made sense.

"Who are you?" the teacher asked Tate as he, Violet, and Lily entered the room.

"New student," Tate told him calmly. Being back in the school hadn't been so bad. He wasn't suddenly flooded with old memories of shooting kids like he had expected. In fact, he was just as miserable as he had been on any normal day of school seventeen years ago. The only difference being was that this time he was also enjoying himself a little. But that was probably due to Violet being with him this time.

The teacher checked her rooster. "Hayden McClaine?"

Tate nodded, still not used to his new name. "Yup, that's me."

"Well, I'm Ms. Allegory," she said.

Tate nodded and followed Violet to the window where they sat next to each other. "An English teacher named Ms. Allegory?"

She nodded. "So weird . . ."

"It's like . . . God wanted this for her."

Lily giggled, taking a seat behind her cousin. "Probably."

Leah entered the room then. She looked right at Tate, and her eyes grew impossibly wide. She took the seat furthest from them, and put her head down. She stayed like that throughout the entire class, and didn't approach them until the bell rang.

"You," she said. "What are you doing here?"

She was probably scared shitless, but somehow, her bitchy tone remained intact.

"Going to school," Lily replied in an equally bitchy tone.

"And who the hell are you?" Leah asked.

"Calm down, she's just my cousin," Violet said. "And this is Ta-Hayden, my boyfriend."

"You're dating that monster?" Leah asked, repulsed.

"Lay off, bitch," Tate told her. "I'm not going to scare you again."

Leah gave her best glare, then walked away. Tate laughed.

"You should be careful," Violet warned him. "You're trying to keep a low-profile, remember?"

"What was that all about, anyway?" Lily asked.

"Tate scared her shitless for bullying me a few months ago," Violet explained. "She's still not over it."

"And she's the bitch that gave Vi those pills," Tate added.

Violet clamped her hand over his mouth. "Shut up! Do you want someone to overhear you? They'll ship me off!"

Tate rolled his eyes. "Let's just go to class . . ."

. . .

News of "Hayden McClaine" joining the class spread quickly. When Lily had entered the class last week, no one really cared because she was just a gothic freak. But Tate, he was a rather good looking young man who already had a girlfriend—who was known for smoking on school property and getting in fist fights—on his first day. That was something people liked to talk about, not some weird Goth girl.

"I hate this," Tate muttered. Everyone in the lunchroom was staring at their table.

"Hey, at least they're not staring at you because they know what you did," Lily pointed out.

"Since when are you one to look at the bright side?" he asked miserably.

Lily shuttered at the thought. "Never mind. You're right, this sucks monkey balls."

Violet nodded in agreement. "I need to punch someone . . ."

Lil got a brilliant idea. "Start making out."

"What?" Violet and Tate asked together, surprised.

"Start making out. Like . . . with tongue. Right now. Go!" she hissed.

"Why?" Violet asked.

"Because, they're all staring already. Make it look like it doesn't bother us! Make them uncomfortable!" Lily explained.

Tate shrugged. He grabbed Violet and pulled her onto his lap, then smashed his face against hers. They kissed long and hard.

Everyone in the cafeteria slowly turned around to face their own tables. Watching two dorks make out wasn't exactly something anyone wanted to see.

When Tate and Violet broke apart, they were impressed. "Nice job, Lil. No one's staring anymore."

"What class do we have next?" Tate asked.

"Computers," Lily replied. "In the library."

. . .

It wasn't until they entered the library and saw him that Violet remembered. The same librarian that Tate had shot seventeen years ago still worked here.

"Violet!" Tate hissed. "That's-"

"I know," she cut him off. "I totally forgot . . . I'm sorry. Wanna ditch?"

Tate was just about to say yes when he librarian's chair swirled around and he caught sight of them. More specifically, he caught sight of Tate. You could tell by the recognition in his eyes that he knew . . . that he remembered.

"I need to go talk to him," Tate said.

". . . What?" Violet asked in shock.

"I need . . . to apologize," Tate said. "I . . . I have to explain."

"Oh yeah, that'll blow over well," Lily said, back to her negative self. Tate began walking towards him anyway. Lily and Violet followed. "'Excuse me, Mr. Librarian, I know I almost killed you seventeen years ago but I honestly feel terrible. And it wasn't my fault; I was being possessed by a demon baby in my basement!'"

"Tate, Lily's right," Violet said. "It's not a good idea."

"I have to," he said.

The librarian looked up at them, but when he spoke he addressed Violet. "You wanted to know . . ."

His voice was scared.

"Sir," Tate said carefully. "My name is Hayden McClaine. I'm a new student here and was looking for a book on birds. Could you help me?"

The librarian's expression relaxed a fraction of a little bit. "O-of course. Follow me."

He led them to the back of the library, and into an empty isle about the Civil War. "Okay . . . are you here to finish me off?"

Tate shook his head. "I'm here to say I'm sorry. I didn't mean what I did, and it wasn't right. I feel so bad about it that it hurts. I wish I could go back and make it go away but I can't and it sucks."

Tears were welling up in his eyes. Violet had only ever seen Tate cry twice up to this point. Once when he saved her life, and again when he told her he loved her.

"Do you see this?" the librarian asked, pointing to a metal plaque that was positioned on the wall above him. There were identical ones all around the school. There were two in the library alone. He began to read the list of names aloud. "'Stephanie Boggs, Kelsey Jackson, Michael Rivera, Jay Cannavo, Danielle Levesque, Josh Sathre, Mark Finstein, Luke Maxcy, Chloe Stapleton, Kevin Gedman, Andrew Meyers, Amir Stanley, Kyle Greenwell, Jason Mueller, Jennifer Wright' You know who else died on that day?"

"Tate Langdon," Violet replied for him. Her voice was barley a whisper.

The librarian nodded. "That's right. And there's a damn good reason for it."

Violet snapped. She kicked the librarian's chair back against the wall. The force of impact knocked some books off the shelves. She grabbed his shirt collar and got right in his face. Her voice was still too quiet to be overheard, but fierce enough to get the point across. "Listen up. Tate couldn't help what he did. I'm sure you've heard the rumors about the Murder House, right? Well that's where I live. And before I lived there, Tate did. The rumors aren't lies they're true. I've seen it. The house makes people do things they wouldn't want to normally, and that's why Tate killed those kids. That's the reason. Nothing more than that so if you could come down from your high and mighty throne and except his apology, that'd be great."

She released him and stepped back. The man looked terrified.

Tate sighed. "Please. I just . . . I need you to forgive me."

"What are those scars on your face from?" the librarian asked quietly.

Tate's hand absentmindedly moved to his lips and traced one of them. He replied in a whisper, "The monster in the basement didn't like when I fought back."

Violet laced her fingers with his. "Let's just get back to the computers . . ."

"No, wait," the librarian said. He looked at Tate, who had tears running down his face. "I don't know that I'll ever be able to get over what you did. I don't even know if I believe you. But . . . it's been seventeen years. It's hard to hold a grudge for that long. I guess, I kind of forgave you a long time ago, and I've been hoping there was a good reason for it. Was there?"

"I don't know if I deserve it," Tate admitted. "It's my fault . . ."

"It's not your fault!" Violet insisted.

"Violet, Lily, and Hayden!" Mr. Cox called. "If you're not back to these computers in five minutes I'm reporting you for bunking!"

"Let's go," Lily said, grabbing her cousin's hand. The three returned to their class without another word to the librarian, hoping he believed them.

But in truth, the doubted it.

. . .

Ah! Okay sorry this chapter was difficult for me to write so I'm pretty sure that means it sucked. Ah well . . . Oh God I'm still not over the new episode! Tate's the freaking Rubber Man? NO! Haha but I think I know why he's the Rubber Man and the way I think it is makes it okay so I really hope I'm right. Now I'm not making sense. Okay bye . . . Please review!