TIME & TIED: AWARENESS

ARC 1.4 - Of Herself

PART 23a: ROCK BOTTOM 1

Principal Dell Hunt rose, his gaze shifting away from Carrie and onto the new arrival in his office. "Excuse me...?" he said pointedly.

"It’s Chartreuse. Chartreuse Vermilion."

"Yes, I am aware of who you are. Am I to understand that you are claiming responsibility for what was discovered?" The principal waved off the office staff member who was now standing uncertainly at the door. She nodded and left, closing the door again behind her.

"That's correct, sir," Chartreuse said. "Though in fact, I don't own the drugs either. So, well, okay, like, you might want to take a seat, this is sort of complex what I'm about to say."

Mr. Hunt slowly sank back down into his chair. "I had a feeling." He gestured at the seat next to Carrie.

Chartreuse moved to sit down as she spoke. “See, I actually found the bag in question this morning on my way to school. I thought 'whoa! I'd better, you know, turn these in somewhere' so I put them in my bookbag."

"In your bookbag."

"Yes, sir, just temporarily. I figured I'd better get them out of the area lest the dealer, like, double back and retrieve them.”

"Indeed," Mr. Hunt said dryly. “And where was it that you found this bag?"

"Yes, it was... well, Carrie do you remember where I said I'd found it?" Chartreuse said a bit desperately, turning to the blonde next to her.

Carrie simply blinked at Chartreuse in confusion. Chartreuse lifted an eyebrow, jerking her head in the direction of the principal.

"Oh,” Carrie said at last, turning her gaze back to Mr. Hunt. "Well... sir, you of course remember how I said I had never seen that bag before? I'd forgotten that Chartreuse had given me a package to put in my locker. It contained something she said she'd found in the ravine earlier, that must have been the bag."

"Right, I found it in the ravine," Chartreuse confirmed. "I took a walk through the ravine before school. Part of a thigh building exercise."

Carrie fired a pointed look back towards Chartreuse, who shrugged. Mr. Hunt folded his arms across his chest. "And why is it you never got around to reporting this until now?"

"Ah. Good question," Chartreuse agreed. "In fact, I was... going to be late for class. Because of, you know, being in the ravine. I didn't even have time to get to my locker. Which is why I, like, tossed my stuff into Carrie's locker."

"We both forget after that," Carrie remarked.

“Totally,” Chartreuse affirmed.

The principal looked back and forth between the two girls. "Ms. Vermilion," he finally stated, "I believe you missed my introductory remarks to the effect of telling the truth." Chartreuse looked down at the floor, abashed.

"However, I can recall no troubling incidents with you of late. Thus I must ask, how DID you know why Ms. Waterson was called down? And why the outburst on her behalf?"

"I can't explain, sir," Chartreuse murmured. "It all, like, relates to a personal matter."

Mr. Hunt remained quiet for a time. "Perhaps I should simply suspend the both of you while we let the authorities figure this out," he remarked. Neither girl replied. There was more to this than met the eye - but then, he’d known that after seeing the Waterson girl’s initial reaction.

The real question was, would a suspension get them any closer to the truth? The principal steepled his fingers and turned his chair away to face the window.

"Two weeks detention for each of you," he concluded. "Effective immediately, so you will both now report to the detention room. Don't make me regret this decision. If, during these two weeks, I hear of any negative reports concerning either of you, there WILL be suspensions involved. Please use the opportunity to resolve your 'personal matters’ - in the guidance office if necessary."

In the reflection of the window glass, he saw Carrie’s look of surprise. "Understood, sir,” she said.

"Thank you, sir," Chartreuse chimed in, looking relieved.

“Now then, one of you please tell Ms. LaMille to come in on your way out," Mr. Hunt added, turning back towards them and opening his desk drawer.

The two girls departed his office.

***

Upon seeing Julie outside, Carrie immediately averted her gaze and walked out of the area. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Chartreuse jerk her thumb at the principal’s door and remark, "You're, like, up next." The pink haired girl then hurried to catch up.

"Carrie,” Chartreuse whispered as they walked out the main office doors. "What was that about?"

Carrie spun. "Yes, what WAS that about?"

"I asked first."

"Why did you jump in to my rescue?" Carrie said, ignoring Chartreuse's comment. "I never asked you to do that.”

"I know. But when I found out, I just couldn't, like, sit back and do nothing. Besides, we ended up an okay team, don't you think?"

"Yeah, great. What exactly were you expecting from me in return?”

“Nothing.”

“Nothing?”

“Nope. It’s not always about you - see, there's these powerful forces at work," Chartreuse explained. “Meaning you should probably, you know, just take it easy for a few weeks, as the principal indicated. It might do you some good actually, your aura looks to be unbalancing."

“My..." Carrie pressed a hand to her forehead. “Oh God, I’ve sunk so low I’m getting advice from the school psychic," she realized.

“So, what was the deal there?” Chartreuse pressed. “Corry?”

“Who else?” Carrie said bitterly. “Now if you’ll excuse me, I’m obviously at the point in my life where I need to go and crawl into a small hole and die. Give my regards to anyone who actually cares.”

“Aw, Carrie, you’re not skipping our detention, are you?” Chartreuse countered. “After Hunt was kind enough to give us that out?”

Carrie nearly said yes. Except... doing so might have repercussions for Chartreuse. Which seemed needlessly cruel. ‘So what?’ argued a small voice in her head. So - Chartreuse deserved better.

Carrie fell back against the nearest wall, rolling her eyes heavenwards as she realized which voice in her head was now the most dominant. “Yeah, I’m going. I can always kill myself later."

***

"Touchy, touchy," Lee mumbled to himself as he ambled down the hall, hands in his pockets. It wasn’t like he'd purposely set out to trip Corry with his music stand. Hey, if the guy couldn't look down and see what was lying right out in front of him, that was hardly Lee's problem.

Oh well. As usual, Lee had some time to kill after school, before his job at the public library. He supposed he might as well hang out at the coffee shop again. However, he'd better check his image first.

Pulling a comb out of his worn sports jacket, Lee headed for the men's washroom. Entering and proceeding to the basin-like object that passed for a sink, he was briefly taken aback by the sight of a bag of wet clothing sitting inside.

"Odd place to do laundry," Lee noted with a frown. He peered into the bag and fished out a sports bra. "Totally odd," he concluded.

***

"I think it's cause for concern," Frank insisted.

Clarke shrugged. "I'm concerned in my own way."

Frank ran a hand back through his hair. "Well... yes, all right. But come on, don't you know ANYTHING about why Carrie and Julie were called to the office? Like, maybe Corry has lashed out at the two of them, a revenge tactic after the dance incident," he said, thinking aloud. "Which means when I was calling Carrie this week about, ah, studying, she was ignoring me in order to keep me out of Corry’s line of fire. What do you think?”

Clarke leaned back against his locker, frowning. “I think it's possible that Corry's not involved."

Frank shot a look at Clarke. “Okay, not helping. Don't you care about what’s happened to Julie?"

Clarke glared back at him. "More than you probably realize. But why are you getting so concerned? I don’t recall you ever having this much interest in Julie or Carrie before."

"It's..." Frank stopped to gather his thoughts. “I happen to know that Carrie’s been under some strain lately. So I suppose I'd rather she not get in more trouble on top of that. Look, sorry, I didn't mean to sound judgemental, things all have been a bit confusing for me the last few weeks.”

The tall blonde’s expression became a wry smile. "You're telling me."

Frank adjusted his glasses. "Okay, Clarke, let me level with you. I have no quarrel with you, or Julie, but I’ve been kind of pulled into this situation... meaning, I just might be forced into taking firmer action. Last resort sort of thing of course, but, uh, well, look, can't you get Julie to stop whatever's going on before I’m forced to do something?”

Clarke’s frown returned. “The thing is, Julie is as much a victim here as everyone else."

“I know she got called to the office like Carrie, but..."

"Not like that," Clarke interrupted. “It's... it’s something I can't really explain. Even to myself sometimes."

Frank blinked. "You're not making sense."

"Yo, guys,” Lee said as he approached. "You want things that don't make sense? How 'bout some of Carrie's gym clothes and her home ec recipe cards drowning in the men's washroom.” He tossed the wet bag at Frank. "Here, math whiz. You know her better then me, right? Give the stuff back to her, 'k?"

“Whoa, what?” Frank protested. "Carrie and me, we're not studying this week. We're not even speaking.”

Lee turned away with a vague gesture. “Cool, that'll give you something to speak about then. Sorry, can't stay, places to be."

Frank opened and closed his mouth a couple of times, but he was unable to find words before Lee had turned the next corner. He looked over at Clarke, who was now watching him with a slightly raised eyebrow. He then looked down into the bag he was holding. There was a bra sitting on top of the pile. He felt himself turning red.

Upon exiting detention an hour later, Carrie was surprised to find a damp bag of her possessions tied anonymously around the lock of her locker.