Never deprive someone of hope, it might be all they have
Jen's mother pulls up to the front of Mount Horizon and angrily gets out of the car and walks to the other side to open the door for Jen. "Jen, please we're here." She says pleading to her daughter for cooperation. "I'd rather be buried alive." "I'd rather do it." She says in a low snickering voice. Jen finally gets out of the car. "Oh nice parking job mom, why don't you have another drink" She says her voice dropping with sarcasm. "I haven't had one drink YET today. "
Just then Hannah walks out to great them. "Welcome to Horizon, I'm Hannah." Jen extends her hand to shake Hannah's.
"We're looking Mr. Peter Scarborrow." Her mother says,
"Mr. Scarborrow is in NY. The owner is in the lodge, Mr. Kennedy, is just down that path."
"Thank you" she says and as Hannah walks away she lowers her head to whisper to Jen.
"Now please, be nice to the man."
"Yea, wouldn't want him to think we have a problem." She bites back to her mother and starts walking in front of her mother towards the lodge.
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
They finally meet up with Mr. Kennedy who intrudes himself to them and gives them the tour of the main area and waits for Hannah to handle the admissions paperwork.
"Excuse me" They hear a man calling out, with attitude, from across the way. He's standing with his wife and teen son, whose standing there looking at the ground in defeat.
"Just a minute" Mr. Kennedy replies.
"Excuse me! Is this going to take all day? When will he be admitted." The father asks, almost as if he's in a hurry to leave his son.
"Someone will be with you shortly." Mr. Kennedy assures them.
"I should hope so."
"Uh, we'll talk inside later, why don't you just go in and relax a moment." He tells Mrs. Lindley as he realizes that Isaac's father is not going to let up. The Lindley's go inside and Mr. Kennedy sees Hannah walking by.
"Hannah! I need your help with 2 admins. The first is Isaac Wilton, and the second is Jen Lindley. Lousie will do Jen's search and medical, then we'll send her over to you afterwards." He hands Hannah Isaac's intake file, just as the Wilton's walks up to them.
"OH Mr. Wilton, let me introduce you to Hannah, she's one of our counselors and Isaac's going to be in her group so she'll be handling the admittance."
"Welcome to Mount Horizon." She says extending her arm for a handshake.
"Bob Wilton. This is my wife Linda and this is Isaac."
"Hello Isaac." Hannah says, but he stays quiet, he's not a boy with attitude, just a shy quiet one.
"Okay, let's see what we've got." Hannah says as she starts his admittance process.
Xxxxxxxxxxxxx
"Isaac" Hannah says as she walks into the interrogation room. Isaac is now sitting at the table "So you've been in therapy with Dr. Miller for the past 6 months. How's that been going?" Silence. "Okay….you don't feel like talking right now, that's alright. Maybe your angry about being brought here? A little bit scared? In other words, your normal." She stands up and grabs his bag and unzips it to start the search. "Your records discuss a recreational drug use. Now that is neither a phrase, or an activity we recognize here. There's no drugs, no sex, not inappropriate touching, no violence. You're safe here Isaac, your body's safe and your mind is safe. There's no bull here, you feel what you feel. Understand?" She's given this speech so many times that it just follows out on auto pilot.
"Well, whenever you feel like talking, whatever you say to me or any other counselor stays between us. I promise you that. Everyone is here to help you, the rules are here to help us help you. Learn them and you'll do fine. Got it?"
"Okay I'll take you over to the cliffhangers lodge now, get you settled, who knows….maybe you'll even talk." She says offering him a small smile which he does not return, and instead just looks away.
xxxxxxxxxxx
Next Hannah goes to admit Jen. She then takes Jen to the bathroom to wipe off the heavy make up she put on her face and wash the color streaks out of her blonde hair. She emerges fresh faced and looking more like a 17 yr old.
xxxxxxxxxxxxx
On the other side of camp Joey is hiding behind some trees and the food truck pulls up. She slowly walks around confidently when she see's the driver hope out.
"Hello." she says.
"You must be Joey." The driver says almost stuttering when he turns to notice her beauty.
"I must be." She replies with a smirk.
"Where's Johnny?" She asks wondering where the regular driver is.
"Oh ahh he could, he couldn't make it. He said, he said for me to come."
She starts walking towards him slowly, her arms crossed in front of her chest.
"I'm Leo."
"Leo." She says he's name, almost growling it out. "Hey Leo" She stops walking and leans against the truck on her shoulder so that she's still facing him and she nods her head up and down at him. Just making him more nervous.
"Ahh Johnny said that ahhh you may be interested in a carton of buds?" He says and grabs them out of the passenger side of the truck. "Thank you Leo." She says giving him a smile "Johnny also said that I should ask for some ID." Joey looks down, "You know cause you got to be 18."
"What else did Johnny say?" She replies lifting her head back up. "Nothing" He says chuckling as Joey steps closer to him now closing the gap between them and takes the carton from him and starts walking away with him following her.
xxxxxxxxxxxx
Meanwhile Hannah has Jen in a room searching her bags and is explaining the rules of the school. "Now that about covers it. I'm going to have one of our cliffhangers, Joey, show you around and help get you settled in. Questions?"
"Nope." She says looking down at her tarot cards.
"Ah Jen, would you mind putting your tarot cards aside for a second please."
"Are you sure? I think there's something you should know." Jen says taping down on one of the cards.
"Thanks, but no. Jen, you do understand why you're here right?"
"Certainly…do you?" She asks looking up at Hannah "I mean really." Jen pushes
"Tell me." Hannah asks
"I'm a child of alcoholic parents. My mother has lost all maternal instincts, and my father, disenchanted with life, is verbally abusive. I'm here because I've become a nuisance to their addition."
"Do you know why else you're here?"
"When my father finally threaten physical abuse, I started hitting him to set him straight."
"Jen, you do understand that trying to injure your father was the wrong way to deal?"
"I wanted to hurt him, and the only reason I didn't….. was I didn't think I could cry for the police. "
Xxxxxxxxxxxx
Back in the boys cabin, Isaac is sitting on his bed while Jack is laying on the bed across from his, reading his book. Just then Dawson walks in.
"What up Jackers….oh new guy in bed 6. Dawson Leery" He extends his hand to Isaac, trying to make a friendly introduction but instead he's met with a blank stare.
"He hasn't said a word for 2 hours. Hannah made me his first day buddy." Jack tells him
"Well I'm going to let that slide, you know why?"
"Why?" Jack asks.
"Cause I'm feeling good. You know why?"
"Why" Jack repeats
"You ever just feel good for no reason?"
"No."
"See, that's your problem."
xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Joey walks away from the driver and heads back into camp and see's Pacey chopping wood next to the shed. She still has a cigarette in her hand as she walks up behind him.
"I love watching a man chop wood."
"Really?" he says without looking up at her as he's focused on getting his work done.
"Actually, I love watching you chop wood." She says and leans back to sit on the stack of chopped wood that's already piled up neatly.
"You know you get caught with that and you'll be the next one chopping wood." He warns her, pointing to her cigarette.
"You smoke right?" she says and holds it out to him to take a hit. She steps forward towards him when she sees him outstretch his arm to grab it. "I got a 198 more where that came from."
"Yea, I heard about that" Meaning to hearing the references people make about how she gets the free cigarettes.
"Don't worry, it's not like he meant anything to me."
"Wasn't worried, and I quit" he says throwing the cigarette down on the ground.
"Hey! Let me give you a heads up about something, everything in life is give and take. I learned that on the streets, give as little as you can and take as much as you can. I learned that, that's reality!" She says angry at his actions.
"Not mine." He says and he continues to chop wood and turns his back to her again.
"You don't have a reality. You have Andrea; Football captain takes the prom queen. That's fantasy land. Oh, speaking of reality, did you know Andrea is crushing on Dawson? I saw them kissing. Your reality sucks, doesn't it?"
She starts to walk away from him leaving him standing there like a dear in highlights. "Just remember who didn't play games with you." And he looks back at her to watch her leave.
xxxxxxxxxxxx
Later that evening Hannah finds Isaac sitting on the dock, throwing skipping stones into the lake.
"Isaac?"
She walks over to him, "It's past 11pm, your in violation, look, I know it's your first day, but one thing you need to understand is that we have rules here, that's how we operate." He looks over at her.
"I couldn't sleep."
"Oh." She says surprised as she sits down next to him. "Now you can talk huh?" He looks back to the water. "Well I'm glad Isaac but now is not the time. Now's the time for bed, that's the rule. Now why don't you get one back, and just be glad that I won't report this." She's stern, but still sincere and he gets up and starts to walk back down the dock. "We can talk all you want tomorrow." She calls out to him, he turns to look acknowledge her, before going back to the bathroom.
There he pulls out his toothpaste which he had hidden a crushed stash of drugs. He looks at himself in the mirror and pulls out the bag. He feels nothing, empty inside.
Xxxxxxxxxxx
The next morning Jack is the first of the cliffhangers to wake up and slowly make his way towards the bathroom, he barely makes it thru the threshold when he sees Isaac unconscious on the floor.
He runs the get Peter and Peter quickly springs into action to call the ambulance. Unfortunately, it's too late.
Hannah, who is on her morning run, just now makes it back to the school to see the ambulance putting someone away in the back, and Peter there talking to Mr. Kennedy. Peter looks over at Hannah and she knows.
XXXXXXX
The next day Peter gathered Jack, Dawson and Pacey in his office to discuss the situation.
"I don't know what happened. We didn't know the kid" Dawson tells him
"What did you guys talk about? Anything?"
"Just that I was feeling good. He didn't say anything so I left him alone" Dawson says and Pacey just glances over at him. "Next time I saw him was on the stretcher."
"Pacey? How you doing?"
"I never even talked to him."
xxxxxxxxxx
Later Peter gathers all the kids in the lodge to counsel them and let them express their feelings and questions about the situation.
"As you're all aware, a boy died here last night. He was sixteen years old. Except for a few of you, no one really got a chance to get to know him. "
"How?" Jen spoke up first.
"How what, Jen?"
"How did he do it?"
"Ewwww." Andie complains.
"Barbiturates. He overdosed on barbiturates. Other questions we can ask are why would someone so young take their life. And what can you do if you're having similar thoughts. Any thoughts on that? Anybody? " He scans the room just to see blank faces.
"Look, he was just the new kid. I mean you said it, none of us knew him." Pacey replies.
"Up until a few days ago, you were still the new kid, remember?" Peter reminds him.
"It could have been an accident too ya know." Jack says "It depends on what types of barbs he was doing, happens all the time, some newbie tries to get high and puts the lights out by mistake." Jack finishes
"Kid's a butt wipe." Dawson says angrily.
"Sorry Dawson, what?" Peter asks,
"I said he's a butt wipe."
"Why's that?"
"Well if he wanted to kill himself, he should have just done it at home, you know, instead he comes in with this bad attitude, and offs himself, in our dorm! And now we got to live there, and I don't know about you guys but that creeps me out." Dawson says and turns his back to Peter for a moment but then he hears Pacey speak up.
"Now, now we're supposed to have all these feelings, and it just sucks"
"How did he get away with it anyhow, aren't you guys supposed to check all that stuff before?" Joey asks.
Frank, the owner is now getting upset listening to everyone's attitudes and lack of compassion. He stands up and looks Peter directly in the eyes before walking out of the room which has now become silent.
"Sometimes it doesn't matter how hard you try or how much you care, sometimes, it just isn't enough. Sometimes, you just lose one. " Peter says and walks out after Frank.
"Frank, you okay?"
"I want those cliffhanger boys suited up and ready to go at sunrise." He says through his teeth "I'm taking them out. " He says and walks away from Peter again.
The session has now been dismissed and Peter is left talking to Hannah. "I've had better group sessions, how about you?" He says, trying to lighten up her mood.
"I've had."
"It's natural Hannah, their in denial. Their anger, the humor, it's all part of the grieving course."
"Peter I was there! I heard the same thing you did tonight. Fact is, great damage has been done here, we allowed harm to come to one of our kids, Peter and that affects the trust of every kid here."
"Yes, it'll take time."
"To think that I gave him the speech. The 'you are safe here' speech."
"It's true Hannah, he was safe here."
"Yea well you know the facts seem to contradict that."
"He snuck the drugs in, right? You did the intake by the book, right? You search everything? The toothpaste?"
"I was wondering when someone was going to ask me that."
"Come on Hannah."
"I checked the toothpaste Peter. I felt it but I didn't feel anything. Obviously I missed it."
"We all know that if a kid really…" Hannah cuts him off "really wants to bring drugs in he can! I know!" she takes a deep breath and continues. "Tell that to his parents. You think they're going to be lawyers?" She asks him.
"They will be, on both sides, but we're on solid ground here."
"Well I'm going to make it a little easier on them, I'm resigning."
xxxxxxxxxxxx
The next morning the boys are all suited up with they're backpacks and carrying a water raft from the shed to the river.
"Man this bites." Dawson complains.
"Every time something happens, they want to take us out on a hike." Jack says
"Yea but its Frank. Can't go too far right? This should be easy." Pacey tells them just as Peter walks up.
"Not for Frank, I don't want you guys making this any harder for him, understood?" Peter says. Pacey walks away from Jack and Dawson and goes to talk to Peter alone for a second.
"Hey Peter, is Hannah really leaving?" He asks quietly.
"We're working through it. Come on, get going."
"Boys ready?" Frank asks as he meets up with them.
"Mind telling me where you're taking them?" Peter asks.
"Hope Falls."
"Hope Falls?"
"Yea"
"Why?" Peter asks but doesn't give him a chance to answer. "You sure you can handle this Frank?"
"I handled this once before didn't I?" He says and starts moving again.
Xxxxxxxxxx
Some where else in camp the girls are sitting on the dock by the canoes. "The popular believe these days that death is just a portal to the next stage. That somehow this life is just a pit stop on a longer journey." Jen says and Joey throws her a 'you've got to be kidding me look.' "Well that's bull." Jen continues. "This is it, death is the end. Blackness, nothingness, no consciousness. This idea that you'll get to see who comes to your funeral is pathetic. You're dead. Dying sucks and you're an idiot if you think it's better than one more sunrise, one more chance to laugh"
"Look can we just spot talking about it." Kat asks.
"Stop talking about what?" Jen replies and Joey hands the girls each a cigarette but Kat is the only one that objects. She's searching her pockets for matches when she realizes that she doesn't have anymore.
"Darn!" she exclaims.
"What?" Andie asks.
"No matches."
"Let me get this straight, you negotiated an entire carton of cigarettes and only one pack of matches?" Andie asks her in disbelief. But before she can reply Peter finds them hiding behind the canoes.
"I don't suppose you'd be interested in 194 cigarettes?" Joey asks Peter smiling
"As you can see, I'm not a smoker, additionally I begged the girls here not to do it." Kat tells him.
"No 1, you're all on report. Meet me in my office in 2 hrs. And No. 2, I want all 194 of these on my desk."
"No number 3" Andie ask.
"You know, number 3, how about you all do your detention in the kitchen with me. " Peter says and walks away leaving all the girls to give Andie a deathly glare.
xxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Meanwhile the boys have just carried their rafted through the woods and down to the river "Man he's dying out here, look at him" Dawson points out, nodding his head in the direction of Frank. "What's so important?!" He asks the guys in his group as Frank gets out of the raft ready.
"Hey Frank, are we here?" Jack asks
"Why do you think we brought the raft?" Frank says with sarcasm as he walks to the raft and drops a life vest into it.
"What's that for?" Pacey asks.
"Missing man" He replies
"What?" Pacey questions him again, not really understanding the meaning behind his analogy.
"The missing man formation" Frank tells him. "Isaac" Jack says and they all lift the raft and get it into the water.
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
In the kitchen, Peter has the girls sitting on bar stools behind a counter waiting for their punishment.
"Alright, we're here today, to bake a cake. A birthday cake…." He paces back and forth and see's their blank stares. Joey is leaning her head in her hand and her elbow on the table and is just staring at him with no excitement in her eyes. "Well come on…." Peter says smiling.
"Peter you know us, you've read our records, our psych evolutions, our raps sheets….where in any of that, was there anything that could possibly make you think we knew how to bake a cake?" Joey asks him softly.
"Ahhhh I dunno, you guys are girls?" Peter says running a hand through his hair.
"We're not girls, we're profoundly dysfunctional adolescents." Jen says.
"Great" Peter replies
"So whose birthday?" Kat asks.
"Hannah's!" Peter says with excitement again trying to motivate the girls.
"You think a cake is going to make her stay?" Joey question with trademark sarcasm.
"Frankly, I'm running out of ideas fast, so it couldn't hurt."
"Alright, I'm in for Hannah" Kat says.
"Ummm whatever." Joey chimes in.
"Excellent! What do we need?" Peter ask looking hopelessly around the kitchen.
"Umm flour?" Jen says
"Flour, very good Jen, what else?" He says grabbing the flour.
"Sugar.." Jen says.
"See, we can do this, we can!" Peter says, but Joey just throws him a 'are you serious' wide eyed look.
Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
The boys are now on the river, rafting their way to their destination, Hope Falls.
"I wonder why he didn't leave a note." Pacey says, thinking out load.
"No really, I'd leave a note" Jack says.
"You'd leave a book!" Pacey tells him.
"Hey, what would you say?" Dawson asks them.
"I would say, 'Dear mom and dad, remember me? Too late. Your son… Jack. In case you forgot.' How about you?"
"Ahhh, Dear World, take a leap, everyone. Your's truly. Dawson."
"Dawson man, quit slacking." Pacey says as he notices Dawson has quit rowing while he's talking about his "note."
"How about you Pacey?" Jack asks him.
"Hey none of this is funny, you know."
Xxxxxxxxxxxxx
In the kitchen, Peter and the girls have just finished mixing all the ingredients and have put the batter into a cake pan and into the oven.
"There's no window?" Joey says
"How are we suppose to know what's going on in there?" Andie asks Peter.
"All we can do is wait" Peter says looking like a nervous wreck. They wait for the 20 mins to pass and soon they hear the timer go off. Peter opens the open door and the girls gasp at the deformed site before them.
"It's hideous" Jen says, with a slight laughter in her voice.
"We must kill it" Joey says as she grabs a spatula, but Peter holds her hand back.
"No, no! It's not a monster, it's our cake, and it's our baby. All she needs is a little frosting." He says pulling it out of the oven.
Xxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Later that day Peter goes over to visit Hannah, while the cliffhanger boys are still out with Frank.
"Hey" Peter greets her as he pulled up on his motorcycle.
"Hey"
"You busy" he asks
"No, what's going on."
"You can't leave Han."
"Don't Peter."
"You don't realize how much you mean to the school." She listens to him but takes a big breath of release before she replies to him.
"I'm burnt up Peter. Getting sloppy. You know there are days where I think to myself, if I have to deal with another students problem I'll scream. It's kind of a struggle just to wake up every day to do it."
"That's because you don't know how to take care of yourself."
She scuffs.
"You know, sometimes Peter, I think all I really want is to just go someplace safe, risk free, you know, be the one taken care of and not the care taker."
"That's not you Hannah."
"How do you know that!?"
"I know that you had no way of knowing what was going to happen. You missed a stash, alright, it happened."
"It's not that."
"Then what?"
"I don't know…"
xxxxxxxxxxxxxx
"What's that sound?" Jack asks Frank as they are hiking up the mountain, hearing a waterfall in the distance.
"Where we're headed, is about a half mile up this trail." He tells the boys.
"Good, this is killing me." Dawson complains about the hike, walking behind Pacey.
"Don't be a wuss." Pacey bites back at him.
"What!?" Dawson questions, as he didn't really hear the remark.
"Shut up." Pacey says, annoyed with Dawson.
"What did you say?" Dawson says and pushes Pacey from behind, the weight of the hiking gear causing Pacey to fall forward, but catching himself with his hands. The quickly gets up and he and Dawson start getting into a physical fight, both throwing punches at each other. "You go near Andie again and I'll kill you" Pacey threatens.
"I didn't touch here." Dawson yells back.
"Alright boys, enough!" Frank yells and Jack runs over to try to break it up.
"Stop it!" Frank yells again but Dawson stumbles backwards and pushes into Frank causing the elder man to fall down.
"Frank! Frank you okay?" They ask him.
"I'm fine, I'm fine!" He says as Jack helps him up.
"Hey what's your problem man?" Dawson asks walking up to Pacey.
"You kissed her."
"Yea, I kissed her, now what?"
"Why?"
"She did something nice for me, alright? She helped me, so I kissed her. Just because, I didn't know what else to say. Alright?"
"Alright" Pacey says shaking his head realizing that he doesn't really care that much.
"Alright it's done, let's go." Frank tells them and the continue on the path until they reach the water fall.
"Hope Falls." Frank finally tells them where they are.
"This was his favorite place."
"Who?" Jack asks.
"My son Tom"
"I didn't know you had a son." Jack tells him honestly.
"Where is he?" Pacey asks.
"Around here somewhere." He says nonchalantly. "He died of a drug overdose around 20 years ago. We buried him here. "
"Sorry Frank" Pacey tells him and Frank just shrugs. "I didn't know." Pacey says trying to defend himself, not realizing that he doesn't need to.
"Don't worry about it, you didn't know him." He says heavily. "I didn't know him either." He looks up at the clouds. "Thought I did. I mean he was my boy. Figured, whatever it was, it would blow over. It didn't."
"Maybe it was an accident" Jack says, trying to provide him with some solace
"Yea, I hung on to that one for a long time. I don't know Jack, are drugs ever an accident?"
Jack looked down at the ground not really knowing what else to say.
"That extra life preserver on the raft, "the missing man" that was Tom." Dawson said, looking up at the bight blue sky.
"Sure Tom, Isaac, you, me, take your pick. Can you imagine somehow having no hope left, in a world as beautiful as this?" Frank said looking at each of the guys and then back to the waterfall in front of them. "As a dear friend of mine once said, sometimes no matter how hard you try…. you just lose one. See, I lost my own in life, that's why I started drinking. One night I went for a drive, woke up two days later in the hospital. "
"That's what happened to your leg?" Dawson asked, commenting on the fact that Frank now walked with a cane.
"Yes." He answered them.
"After that, I sold everything I had in the world, and founded Horizon. I didn't ever want to lose another child again. We better get back." He said standing up again.
"That's it?!" Jack asked, surprised at the amount of work they had to go through, just to hear Frank's story.
"That's it." Frank said looking down at Jack.
"Long way for nothing." Jack commented and Pacey looked back at Jack with sadness in his eyes for Frank.
"You know what the hardest part was? Not being able to say goodbye. I still can't remember the last thing I said to him. Come on, let's go fellows."
Xxxxxxxxxxxxxx
The boys finally arrived back to Horizon just as Isaac's parents were leaving with their lawyers.
Pacey walked over to his mother "Mrs."
"Wilson" She replied.
"Yea" he said, taking a few steps closer to her as Mr. Wilson went to join them.
"I just ah…wanted to tell you, sorry about Isaac." He tells her quietly and she gently cups his cheek for a moment before leaning in to hug him, silently thanking him for his compassion.