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Hello PC As i mentioned in my intro topic i write pirate stories so heres my first fan fic......More to come =)
Don't stare into the light directly, you'll be temporarily blinded, forget where the stage ends and stumble to your death.
Those were the words ringing in Patrick O'Connor's ears as he walked down the center of his high school stage to a sold out theater.
Starring out into the audience, faces lost their identity, even though he'd possibly met them all one time or another, they didn't matter. The only people who he was worried of falling in front of were sitting in the front row.
There was his mother who, as she swore she wouldn't, was waving at him. Next to her was his father wishing he had raised a boy athletic enough to kick a soccer ball or catch a football.
His eyes glanced to the next seat, it was empty, the seat next to that? There sat an identity-less stranger. The piano had begun to play, the bright lights shifted to him and he began to sing though his mind was still boggled by the empty seat.
Deep in December, it's nice to remember,Although you know the snow will in December, it's nice to remember,Without a hurt the heart is hollow.
I knew she'd never come, even though I reminded her twenty times, and she promised, he said to himself between gasps for air. It should be interesting to hear her excuse this time…
Deep in December, it's nice to remember,The fire of September that made us in December, our hearts should rememberAnd crowd applauded Patrick and he swiftly made his exit.
"Are you joking me? You do understand this is not New York, this is a high school!!" cried an outraged girl to a student in charge of letting people in to see the musical playing just on the other side of the door.
"I'm sorry, the play has began, I can't let you in Felicity, you should have came earlier."
Felicity rolled her eyes, "Oh really? Sorry but some of us have lives and… listen Pat O'Connor is playing the lead, he worked so hard and I promised him as his best friend I'd be here tonight and if you don't let me in you are most likely the meanest person I've ever met."
The girl at the door didn't budge in her opinion as she clutched a pile of playbills for the show, she looked to the upset girl with no apology, "Do you not know my name?"
Felicity thought for a moment suddenly at a loss for words, "I want to say… Sarah."
"Felicity, we sit next to each other in Math and Chemistry!"
"Samantha?" guessed Felicity again.
"No," said the girl in a loud whisper.
"If I guess right will you let me in?"
"No!"
"Come on, have a heart, please!" Felicity pleaded in one last attempt only to be abruptly denied.
"You have to leave now, we're sold out any way."
"I had a seat saved for me," she mumbled as she walked away sulking.
Great, now I'll have to make up some sort of excuse, Felicity complained inwardly.
She stepped outside the school into the sunlight and searched the parking lot she stood before. She stayed there, shifting her weight between legs then and again refusing to walk away. Patrick was her friend, she met him long ago when she was just a little girl, he had always been a bit more mature than her - the beginning of their differences, the list only went on from there. As the years past and walks on the beach they lived closed to turned to nearly forgotten memories, their differences only grew greater.
Some say that years don't matter, friends should always be friends. Though, through fights and tears, love or loss, the relationship of Felicity Pratt and Patrick O'Connor only became more reserved. Felicity grew away from her old acquaintance and Patrick craftily hid his feelings as they had begun to change from friendly to something more, something completely forbidden.
She was aware she wasn't the prettiest girl in town when she was younger, she was too skinny, her cheeks too round, and her teeth too large - but to another, she was perfect and had always been since the day she moved in next door. It Didn't matter to Pat, as she often would call him, he thought she was something of an angel. It wasn't until somewhere around the age of thirteen that she suddenly grew into herself and others had began to notice her angelic qualities also. Yet, Pat still saw the awkward young girl he met years ago, he just hoped she still didn't look to him as the pale, freckled, red headed, Irish boy.
Felicity swiped the long blonde locks away from her face and sighed heavily, I believe in signs, she thought looking toward the sky, I know when something's not to be.
A car horn caused her to jump and pull her from her thoughts, she looked to see a red truck stopped in front of her, she pulled a smile when she'd rather cry.
She ran to the car greeting the young man driver with a laugh and as soon as she got close enough, a kiss.
"You ditched that lame play?" asked the man from the window, she leaned closer to him and smiled.
"You bet, I nearly died of boredom."
He laughed, his head titled up in a cocky way, "told you it would be, it has that hag you hang around with in it."
Her smile stiffened and became harder to fake, "I told you not to call him that…"
"Whatever," he began blocking out her sentence, "there's this thing at Mark's, you're coming with me."
"I told my parents I'd be home early after school today, I have too much homework anyway."
"Wow," he said taking the wheel again, "don't want mommy and daddy to know you still hang around with the drop out, huh?"
"You know it's not like that, Jason."
"Then come with me!"
Felicity glanced back to the doors of the high school before she looked back to her boyfriend.
"Home by ten?" she asked hopeful.
"Home by ten."
The hallow promise was enough for her, she took the passenger seat and they sped off with a loud screech and streak of smoke in the air.
"No Pat, she still isn't home," came the voice of an irritated father on the other line of the phone from Patrick's ear.
"No? It's getting late isn't it?"
Felicity's father sighed heavily, "I'll be sure she calls you as soon as she walks through the doors… how did that play go today any how?"
Patrick was quiet for a moment, "It went fine Mr. Pratt, thanks for asking."
"I'm sure Felicity will only have the best to say of it tonight to us when she comes home."
"I'm sure too sir, goodnight."
"Goodnight Pat."
Pat dropped the phone and buried his face in his hands.
He wondered what was more important to her then his play, Jason crossed his mind and he almost gagged at the thought.
"Pat, take out the trash!!" called his mother's voice from down the hall from where he stood in the kitchen.
He dragged his long, thin body out of his chair and to the front door.
He continued to think of Jason, why was it that the decent girl always went for the indecent, jackass?
He lugged a great green trashcan to the street just as a car, a red truck, came speeding around the corner. He of course heard it first before actually seeing it, the base was so loud it made the car shake. He was halfway back to his home when he heard a familiar laugh, he looked to see the truck had stopped in front of his neighbor's house, in front of Felicity's house.
"Ten thirty, Jason! It's practically eleven, it will be all your fault if I'm grounded."
"Shut up, it's not even close to eleven!"
Felicity got out and slammed the truck door behind her, he frowned his next words taking offended tone.
"So that's the thank you I get for taking you out?"
She turned back to him as Patrick continued to look on from his doorframe.
"What were you expecting?" she suddenly lowered her voice taking a step closer to the truck, "If my parents hear you out here, I'll never leave home again."
He smiled the same way he had before at the school parking lot, "You could still live with me, no curfews, no rules, just you and me every night."
She crossed her arms, "My answer won't change, stop asking me."
"College is over rated," he scoffed.
"Well too bad I need it to be a teacher."
"You'll never make it out there alone, you won't be anything without me."
She could only stare to him in disbelief, she shook her head, "Goodnight, Jason."
"Call me," he said before abruptly speeding off into the night.
She gasped watching him, "Honestly? We'll see if I call you now, that party was stupid… that truck is a piece of crap," she mumbled walking down her driveway.
Patrick quickly tried to turn into his house but in the light of his patio lamp, he caught Felicity's eye.
"Pat?"
He froze and turned to look to her, she laughed without humor looking away from him, "Did you hear all of that?"
"I… uh, well it was kind of hard not to."
She smiled but this time it couldn't cover her true feelings, she looked down as her eyes misted over.
"You're mad at me, I would be too."
"That's where you were, with him?"
"No!" she protested looking to him and his disappointed green eyes, "I came to the play but got there too late, this girl wouldn't let me in because it had already started."
"My first lead and you couldn't even be there on time?"
Crickets chirped and a gentle summer breeze blew as they looked to each other, Patrick with a confused grin, Felicity still red eyed.
"What happened to the girl that moved here ten years ago? The one who listened to my stories and laughed at my jokes."
"She grew up, Patrick! She realized that stories children share with each other on a beach aren't true, they don't mean anything!"
"They meant something to me. You think you're all grown up spending your time with idiots like Jason Horns?"
"Don't talk about him like that, I love him!"
"How could you love him? He treats you like nothing, like all his other girlfriends. I thought you were at least smarter then girls like that. He's using you Felicity."
His words were rare and as sharp as jiggered metal tarring away at her skin, she crossed her arms tighter.
"At least he's there, you know we don't even look at each other when we pass in the hallways? You have your theater friends and I have him."
"And who else? What will you have when he leaves you hanging high and dry?"
"He'll never leave me, once I'm out of college he's going to marry me."
Patrick laughed as she spoke angering her further, "Don't laugh at me! You think you have Jason all figured out don't you? You never even met him!"
"He's a drop out, he never was loyal to thing in his life, what makes you think he'll stick around with you?"
"Maybe he thinks there's a reason to stick around."
"Well I'm glad at least you won't be lonely," he said sarcastically.
She was quiet and so was he for a long minute, she finally decided to say the words that were on the both of their minds.
"I… I don't want to talk to you anymore Pat, I don't think were at all the same."
He shook his head and was about to protest when his moth got the better of him, "Good then."
She was shocked, innocent, kind Patrick hadn't apologized then and there? Her once best friend didn't even bother to try, to put a fight? She took his words and nodded, "Good," she stormed off and he slipped into his home.
Felicity slammed the front door closed too mad to notice the streams of tears on her flushed cheeks.
"Felicity Pratt where have you been, I said ten thirty!!" her father demanded an answer standing between her and the stairs to her room.
"I don't want to talk, I'm too tired," she looked away hiding her eyes.
"Are you drunk, is that what your trying to hide?"
She pushed by him ignoring his last question, "I said I'm tired leave me alone."
"Wait, your eyes are red… are you high?" he asked as she ran up the stairs.
She rolled her eyes finally making it to her bedroom, she locked the door behind her before collapsing onto her bed.
Never had she fought like that with anyone especially her best friend. She refused to take back what she said in the argument though, it would mean for a sleepless night but she knew she couldn't take back a word. Minutes passed as slow as hours and yet before it seemed possible the sun had rose, she felt like she had not even had a chance to catch her breath.
A life without a friend next door seemed impossible, come Monday though it would be a hard reality. She wouldn't even have a ride since he was the only one between them to have a car. She begged that morning wouldn't come but it arrived quicker then ever as it always seemed to do when you were dreading it's arrival.
Summer had finally arrived and college seemed closer then ever, maybe their fight was for the best anyway, their colleges where to be miles apart from one another, Patrick to Yale and Felicity to Georgia's State University. She had thought that he might as well have been moving to Antarctica.
Patrick had always been the smartest boy in the school, he had his mother to thank, she had always forced him to read, by the time he went to High School he had already read every book on the American Literature list, he had just began the English.
To Kill a Mockingbird had always been his favorite, Felicity could recall cheating off of him on a test for it in tenth grade English. Subsequently, his squeaky clean permanent record received it's first detention since he had lied and told the teacher he had copied off of her when she saw their two tests were exactly the same. Something Felicity never would get the chance to repay him for.
All in all, High School had gone far too fast, just a few moths ago they had been freshmen and in a blink they had nearly graduated. With Prom directly around the corner there was no time to look back, Felicity had just found the perfect dress; nothing too formal but still years from eighth grade flings, thank goodness.
Patrick had told Felicity numerous times he was about to ask a girl to prom but in reality he had never came close. He was waiting for another girl to decide to ask, a girl who had just found the perfect dress and already knew whom she was going with for nearly two years. He only wanted Felicity to be the one to give the corsage to but it seemed it would never happen. She after all now hated him and only saw Jason.
Felicity briskly walked past Patrick's house keeping her head as low as possible. She heard him starting his car in the garage and began to walk faster her eyes still starting to the sidewalk. In the back of her head she was trying to think of what to say if he woud ask her if she wanted a ride.
No thanks, I'd rather walk then ride with a guy who can't stand to be near me.
She shook her head breathing heavy from her fast pace.
Why of course, I'd love a ride from a boy who thinks he's better then everyone! A dumb, stupid boy with bright orange hair!! A boy who thinks he's the best actor ever!!
Just then she stopped walking to watch Pat speed by her in his car. Her pensive smirk turned to a miserable pout that would last until lunch.
"I know it's summer, I'm also aware that school ends in less than a month and a half, and yes you are all seniors… but this project will be due at the end of next week," said Mrs. Rich to a outraged English class. She smiled through their yells of how prom was next week and of how they had twenty other papers due.
"This is not a paper but a presentation," their cries only grew louder.
As the people around her moaned and complained Felicity sat silently staring out the window, Patrick across the room starred to her.
"Mrs. R, you can't do this to me, I got things to do other then some lame power point! Prom is like three hundred dollars this year!" complained a boy from the back of the room.
"Well perhaps if your class wasn't so lazy and you actually paid your dues and raised some money with those cookie dough fundraisers, it wouldn't be."
"It also wouldn't be the YMCA," commented a student to get a few laughs.
Felicity continued to gaze out the window as the rest of the class went on about prom and other senior worries.
"Felicity!" called the girl sitting next to her, Felicity looked to her flashing the girl her dark circles found under her eyes. "What's wrong, you're never this quiet, it isn't Jason is it?"
Felicity looked to Patrick who was drawing on his folder, "No it's not Jason, I just didn't get much sleep this weekend."
"You gotta learn to save some of that partying for college, girl," she commented looking to a worksheet that was being passed around.
"Yeah," said Felicity with a laugh too tired to argue.
She looked to the paper in front of her as her teacher read it aloud, "You task; after reading about the town of Salem in The Crucible find out something interesting about our town's lengthy history and present it to the class in either a power point or poster. Must be at most fifteen minutes in length and you must work with only one other person. This project will be worth half your grade, take it seriously."
The room was silent for a moment before Mrs. Rich confirmed their fears; she would be assigning partners.
Felicity froze but was relieved in remembering her teacher would never partner friends together.
Mrs. Rich walked in font of Felicity's desk with a large smile, "Hmmm, Patrick."
"What?" she cried wondering if she had began hearing things as a side effect of getting an hour of sleep in two days.
"Patrick O'Connor, it's the last project of the year, I decided to be a bit more lenient with partners, I trust you two won't take advantage of my decision?"
As the class celebrated Felicity hung her head, Patrick was the one to speak up, "No Mrs. Rich," he mumbled, "we'll work together fine."
She quickly assigned partners to the rest of the students as the final bell of the day rang and class was dismissed.
Felicity ran out of the room, Patrick watched as she walked by him making her hasty exit.
He collected his papers and decided to follow her, for him the fight had been over dramatic, pointless and completely blown over, he wondered if she felt the same.
Felicity dropped her backpack at her locker and hit her head against the cold metal before opening it.
Of all the people in that class, why him?! Maybe I could ask her for someone else, wasn't there at least one person absent today?
"Felicity."
She looked up from her locker and saw him standing at her side.
"Pat I don't really want to talk right now, I have too much homework to do today to waste time with arguments."
"I didn't follow you to fight, I came to apologize."
She rummaged through her locker pretending to sort out her folders and notebooks wishing he would just decide to walk away.
"You wouldn't be apologizing if it weren't for this project, you wouldn't even be talking to me."
"Okay, you're right, you do love that don't you? Being right all the time, being right about showing up to my play, making it to your curfew on time, about Jason…"
She slammed her locker closed, threw her backpack over her shoulder and walked away, he followed closely at her heels.
"Stop talking about him, my boyfriend is none of your business."
"Alright, hey look! There you go being all right again."
She sighed heavily still wishing he would leave, "Okay so are you going to leave now?"
"No, we have this project to do, I figured with prom next week we should just get it out of the way, you're free today aren't you?"
She pushed open the exit doors and continued onto the sidewalk to the parking lot before stopping.
"Look Patrick, I'm still mad at you, I don't want to talk to you, I don't want to sit in a library with you, and I sure as heck don't want to waste my time with you when I should be trying to lose five pounds before next week."
He smirked down at her as she tried to push him away, "You're being completely ridiculous Felicity!"
Just as those words were spoken Pat felt a heavy shove that knocked him to the pavement. He looked up to see a dark figure standing over him blocking the sun, "Jason?"
"Stay away from my girl, kid!"
Felicity tried to pull her boyfriend away from Pat but he continued to stare realizing that he had seen the boy who lay sprawled out on the floor before him.
"Ha, it's just O'Connor, the theater hag."
"Stop it now, come one I'm leaving," warned Felicity to no avail.
"What did you just call me, Horns?" asked Patrick getting up.
"Oh sorry hag, do you prefer another name? Pansy? Homo? Cloyster perhaps?"
Jason's comments had formed a gathering around the boys, Felicity became just another face in a small crowd of students.
"Come on man, just stop it, your girlfriend and me were just talking."
"Come on man, just stop it," mimicked Jason in a shrill voice getting a few laughs from the crowd.
Patrick was about to walk away when he was grabbed by the shirt and pulled back, "Hey bro, kinda rude to walk away when someone's trying to talk to you don't you think?"
"Stop it, I've had enough!"
"Really, you've had enough? That's not what I heard you say to your boyfriend last night."
The crowd had begun to cheer and clap for Jason's cheep one-liners, Patrick remained levelheaded but was becoming increasingly annoyed.
"Good one Horns, too bad I didn't catch you watching us, I would have invited you to join in."
The crowd laughed even harder to his dry sarcasm, Felicity's concerns hadn't left her though, she had experienced her boyfriend's violence first hand and knew how vicious it could be.
"I ain't no goddamn haggit, O'Connor."
"Forgive me then, I had forgotten you're more of a hands on kind of guy," said Pat signally a rude movement with his right hand.
A fire ignited behind Jason's eyes, something only Felicity caught onto, she knew all too well what was to come next.
As the crowd laughed Jason raised his hand, Felicity through herself between the two boys just in the nick of time.
Jason held has hand back before running it over his greasy hair, he smiled to himself, "A girl, really O'Connor? Thought you could be a man with at least on thing."
Patrick starred to Jason and Felicity looked between the two, "This is ridiculous Jason, you're embarrassing me. I was just… staying after school with Pat for a project. I wanted to be completely free for you next week."
Pat raised an eyebrow to her just as a local police officer ran to the scene shouting at the kids to break it up, with a long stare to her silent boyfriend Felicity walked off. The crowd expressed moans of displeasure as the cop forced them away from the sidewalk.
"Any problems here boys?" asked the police officer to Pat.
"No sir, no problems," said Jason.
The cop eyed the drop out suspiciously having been familiar with his face, "Back at school Horns?" he asked, "Thought I'd sooner see myself a millionaire."
"Just here checking in on old friends," he said looking to Patrick's eyes with a smirk.
"Alright then, stay outa trouble boys," said the cop walking away.
"See you around, Horns," said Patrick but the man was already half way to his beaten up truck.
Patrick searched the high school Library for Felicity until he saw her sitting at an out of date computer in the corner of the room. Without a word he pulled up a chair next to her.
"He was wrong to call you those names," she said not looking away from the screen.
"Doesn't bother me, I've heard lots worse."
"I can't imagine."
"It's true, this fight wasn't my first."
She looked to him concerned, "All this time, I didn't know you were a member of fight club."
"Hey," he said with a chuckle, "don't forget the first rule of fight club."
She laughed then too, he briefly thanked god, he thought he wouldn't live long enough to ever see Felicity laugh at another one of his jokes.
She quickly remembered whom she was sitting next to her and her smile turned to a frown, his did the same.
"Did you find anything yet?" he asked changing the subject to the project.
"We were once a port, people stopped here for peaches and cotton, is that interesting enough you think?"
"Do we have much of a choice? It's not like I'm expecting to find out much else about Winston."
He looked to the google search she had done, "Why don't you try the town hall's web page?"
She entered it and was met with a list of important upcoming meetings and such.
"What are we supposed to find here?"
"Keep scrolling."
She came upon a link that read, town historical artifacts, he ordered for her to click on it, it brought them to a group of pictures. One was of various odd out of date utensils like an old set of china. Another picture bragged it was the first toaster showing what looked like two metal spatulas where bread was put in between and held over a fire.
"If someone invented that here, that wouldn't be so boring, huh?" asked Felicity.
"Wait, what about that?"
He moved the curser over a picture of an old book that read Piracy across the cover in bold print.
"Piracy, like pirates?" she asked.
"We were once a staple port."
She shrugged, "Better then peaches and cotton."
He clicked on it and a page came up of a close up of the book, "Piracy: the dictionary to every salty sea dog to ever sail the Caribbean, catchy title," joked Patrick.
Felicity took the mouse from him and scrolled down to a picture of the book showing the back cover, she began to read the side note, "At the back of the book a long forgotten note was found scribbled on the last page."
She clicked on the picture to enlarge it, the writing was nearly impossible to read, Patrick made a small laugh, "Wow, even almost three hundred years ago people wrote as messy as you."
"Shut up," she snapped, he took the mouse from her and scrolled to the bottom of the picture, he was about to leave the page when the name at the bottom of the note caught his eye. He continued to stare at it in disbelief as she toyed with her cell phone.
"Hey, Felicity… would you mind signing your name on a piece of scrap paper?"
She looked to him oddly, "Why?"
"Just do it."
She hesitated for a moment but he didn't say anything so she decided to humor him, out away her phone and jot down her name on a piece of paper from next to the computer, she had felt bad for getting him involved in that fight after all.
She gave it to him, "Here, but why is it you need it? If you're going to make fun of my handwriting again, I'm just telling you now; I will not laugh."
As she went on Patrick held the piece of paper up to the computer screen, his mouth fell open.
"It's not like that, look here, this note wasn't written by a person who lived three hundred years ago, it was written by you."
"What?" she asked looking to the screen, he held up the paper next to the signature at the bottom of the note. She couldn't believe what she was looking at, they matched!
She pushed him aside and took her signature in her own hand to compare for herself. She looked back and forth between the two only noticing the most minuscule of differences. Both signatures read Felicity Pratt, on both the i's weren't dotted, and on both the y's were curled under the entire first name. The P's both larger than usual, and the double tt's were crossed with a single line. It was her exact writing and there was no denying it.
Don't stare into the light directly, you'll be temporarily blinded, forget where the stage ends and stumble to your death.
Those were the words ringing in Patrick O'Connor's ears as he walked down the center of his high school stage to a sold out theater.
Starring out into the audience, faces lost their identity, even though he'd possibly met them all one time or another, they didn't matter. The only people who he was worried of falling in front of were sitting in the front row.
There was his mother who, as she swore she wouldn't, was waving at him. Next to her was his father wishing he had raised a boy athletic enough to kick a soccer ball or catch a football.
His eyes glanced to the next seat, it was empty, the seat next to that? There sat an identity-less stranger. The piano had begun to play, the bright lights shifted to him and he began to sing though his mind was still boggled by the empty seat.
Deep in December, it's nice to remember,Although you know the snow will in December, it's nice to remember,Without a hurt the heart is hollow.
I knew she'd never come, even though I reminded her twenty times, and she promised, he said to himself between gasps for air. It should be interesting to hear her excuse this time…
Deep in December, it's nice to remember,The fire of September that made us in December, our hearts should rememberAnd crowd applauded Patrick and he swiftly made his exit.
"Are you joking me? You do understand this is not New York, this is a high school!!" cried an outraged girl to a student in charge of letting people in to see the musical playing just on the other side of the door.
"I'm sorry, the play has began, I can't let you in Felicity, you should have came earlier."
Felicity rolled her eyes, "Oh really? Sorry but some of us have lives and… listen Pat O'Connor is playing the lead, he worked so hard and I promised him as his best friend I'd be here tonight and if you don't let me in you are most likely the meanest person I've ever met."
The girl at the door didn't budge in her opinion as she clutched a pile of playbills for the show, she looked to the upset girl with no apology, "Do you not know my name?"
Felicity thought for a moment suddenly at a loss for words, "I want to say… Sarah."
"Felicity, we sit next to each other in Math and Chemistry!"
"Samantha?" guessed Felicity again.
"No," said the girl in a loud whisper.
"If I guess right will you let me in?"
"No!"
"Come on, have a heart, please!" Felicity pleaded in one last attempt only to be abruptly denied.
"You have to leave now, we're sold out any way."
"I had a seat saved for me," she mumbled as she walked away sulking.
Great, now I'll have to make up some sort of excuse, Felicity complained inwardly.
She stepped outside the school into the sunlight and searched the parking lot she stood before. She stayed there, shifting her weight between legs then and again refusing to walk away. Patrick was her friend, she met him long ago when she was just a little girl, he had always been a bit more mature than her - the beginning of their differences, the list only went on from there. As the years past and walks on the beach they lived closed to turned to nearly forgotten memories, their differences only grew greater.
Some say that years don't matter, friends should always be friends. Though, through fights and tears, love or loss, the relationship of Felicity Pratt and Patrick O'Connor only became more reserved. Felicity grew away from her old acquaintance and Patrick craftily hid his feelings as they had begun to change from friendly to something more, something completely forbidden.
She was aware she wasn't the prettiest girl in town when she was younger, she was too skinny, her cheeks too round, and her teeth too large - but to another, she was perfect and had always been since the day she moved in next door. It Didn't matter to Pat, as she often would call him, he thought she was something of an angel. It wasn't until somewhere around the age of thirteen that she suddenly grew into herself and others had began to notice her angelic qualities also. Yet, Pat still saw the awkward young girl he met years ago, he just hoped she still didn't look to him as the pale, freckled, red headed, Irish boy.
Felicity swiped the long blonde locks away from her face and sighed heavily, I believe in signs, she thought looking toward the sky, I know when something's not to be.
A car horn caused her to jump and pull her from her thoughts, she looked to see a red truck stopped in front of her, she pulled a smile when she'd rather cry.
She ran to the car greeting the young man driver with a laugh and as soon as she got close enough, a kiss.
"You ditched that lame play?" asked the man from the window, she leaned closer to him and smiled.
"You bet, I nearly died of boredom."
He laughed, his head titled up in a cocky way, "told you it would be, it has that hag you hang around with in it."
Her smile stiffened and became harder to fake, "I told you not to call him that…"
"Whatever," he began blocking out her sentence, "there's this thing at Mark's, you're coming with me."
"I told my parents I'd be home early after school today, I have too much homework anyway."
"Wow," he said taking the wheel again, "don't want mommy and daddy to know you still hang around with the drop out, huh?"
"You know it's not like that, Jason."
"Then come with me!"
Felicity glanced back to the doors of the high school before she looked back to her boyfriend.
"Home by ten?" she asked hopeful.
"Home by ten."
The hallow promise was enough for her, she took the passenger seat and they sped off with a loud screech and streak of smoke in the air.
"No Pat, she still isn't home," came the voice of an irritated father on the other line of the phone from Patrick's ear.
"No? It's getting late isn't it?"
Felicity's father sighed heavily, "I'll be sure she calls you as soon as she walks through the doors… how did that play go today any how?"
Patrick was quiet for a moment, "It went fine Mr. Pratt, thanks for asking."
"I'm sure Felicity will only have the best to say of it tonight to us when she comes home."
"I'm sure too sir, goodnight."
"Goodnight Pat."
Pat dropped the phone and buried his face in his hands.
He wondered what was more important to her then his play, Jason crossed his mind and he almost gagged at the thought.
"Pat, take out the trash!!" called his mother's voice from down the hall from where he stood in the kitchen.
He dragged his long, thin body out of his chair and to the front door.
He continued to think of Jason, why was it that the decent girl always went for the indecent, jackass?
He lugged a great green trashcan to the street just as a car, a red truck, came speeding around the corner. He of course heard it first before actually seeing it, the base was so loud it made the car shake. He was halfway back to his home when he heard a familiar laugh, he looked to see the truck had stopped in front of his neighbor's house, in front of Felicity's house.
"Ten thirty, Jason! It's practically eleven, it will be all your fault if I'm grounded."
"Shut up, it's not even close to eleven!"
Felicity got out and slammed the truck door behind her, he frowned his next words taking offended tone.
"So that's the thank you I get for taking you out?"
She turned back to him as Patrick continued to look on from his doorframe.
"What were you expecting?" she suddenly lowered her voice taking a step closer to the truck, "If my parents hear you out here, I'll never leave home again."
He smiled the same way he had before at the school parking lot, "You could still live with me, no curfews, no rules, just you and me every night."
She crossed her arms, "My answer won't change, stop asking me."
"College is over rated," he scoffed.
"Well too bad I need it to be a teacher."
"You'll never make it out there alone, you won't be anything without me."
She could only stare to him in disbelief, she shook her head, "Goodnight, Jason."
"Call me," he said before abruptly speeding off into the night.
She gasped watching him, "Honestly? We'll see if I call you now, that party was stupid… that truck is a piece of crap," she mumbled walking down her driveway.
Patrick quickly tried to turn into his house but in the light of his patio lamp, he caught Felicity's eye.
"Pat?"
He froze and turned to look to her, she laughed without humor looking away from him, "Did you hear all of that?"
"I… uh, well it was kind of hard not to."
She smiled but this time it couldn't cover her true feelings, she looked down as her eyes misted over.
"You're mad at me, I would be too."
"That's where you were, with him?"
"No!" she protested looking to him and his disappointed green eyes, "I came to the play but got there too late, this girl wouldn't let me in because it had already started."
"My first lead and you couldn't even be there on time?"
Crickets chirped and a gentle summer breeze blew as they looked to each other, Patrick with a confused grin, Felicity still red eyed.
"What happened to the girl that moved here ten years ago? The one who listened to my stories and laughed at my jokes."
"She grew up, Patrick! She realized that stories children share with each other on a beach aren't true, they don't mean anything!"
"They meant something to me. You think you're all grown up spending your time with idiots like Jason Horns?"
"Don't talk about him like that, I love him!"
"How could you love him? He treats you like nothing, like all his other girlfriends. I thought you were at least smarter then girls like that. He's using you Felicity."
His words were rare and as sharp as jiggered metal tarring away at her skin, she crossed her arms tighter.
"At least he's there, you know we don't even look at each other when we pass in the hallways? You have your theater friends and I have him."
"And who else? What will you have when he leaves you hanging high and dry?"
"He'll never leave me, once I'm out of college he's going to marry me."
Patrick laughed as she spoke angering her further, "Don't laugh at me! You think you have Jason all figured out don't you? You never even met him!"
"He's a drop out, he never was loyal to thing in his life, what makes you think he'll stick around with you?"
"Maybe he thinks there's a reason to stick around."
"Well I'm glad at least you won't be lonely," he said sarcastically.
She was quiet and so was he for a long minute, she finally decided to say the words that were on the both of their minds.
"I… I don't want to talk to you anymore Pat, I don't think were at all the same."
He shook his head and was about to protest when his moth got the better of him, "Good then."
She was shocked, innocent, kind Patrick hadn't apologized then and there? Her once best friend didn't even bother to try, to put a fight? She took his words and nodded, "Good," she stormed off and he slipped into his home.
Felicity slammed the front door closed too mad to notice the streams of tears on her flushed cheeks.
"Felicity Pratt where have you been, I said ten thirty!!" her father demanded an answer standing between her and the stairs to her room.
"I don't want to talk, I'm too tired," she looked away hiding her eyes.
"Are you drunk, is that what your trying to hide?"
She pushed by him ignoring his last question, "I said I'm tired leave me alone."
"Wait, your eyes are red… are you high?" he asked as she ran up the stairs.
She rolled her eyes finally making it to her bedroom, she locked the door behind her before collapsing onto her bed.
Never had she fought like that with anyone especially her best friend. She refused to take back what she said in the argument though, it would mean for a sleepless night but she knew she couldn't take back a word. Minutes passed as slow as hours and yet before it seemed possible the sun had rose, she felt like she had not even had a chance to catch her breath.
A life without a friend next door seemed impossible, come Monday though it would be a hard reality. She wouldn't even have a ride since he was the only one between them to have a car. She begged that morning wouldn't come but it arrived quicker then ever as it always seemed to do when you were dreading it's arrival.
Summer had finally arrived and college seemed closer then ever, maybe their fight was for the best anyway, their colleges where to be miles apart from one another, Patrick to Yale and Felicity to Georgia's State University. She had thought that he might as well have been moving to Antarctica.
Patrick had always been the smartest boy in the school, he had his mother to thank, she had always forced him to read, by the time he went to High School he had already read every book on the American Literature list, he had just began the English.
To Kill a Mockingbird had always been his favorite, Felicity could recall cheating off of him on a test for it in tenth grade English. Subsequently, his squeaky clean permanent record received it's first detention since he had lied and told the teacher he had copied off of her when she saw their two tests were exactly the same. Something Felicity never would get the chance to repay him for.
All in all, High School had gone far too fast, just a few moths ago they had been freshmen and in a blink they had nearly graduated. With Prom directly around the corner there was no time to look back, Felicity had just found the perfect dress; nothing too formal but still years from eighth grade flings, thank goodness.
Patrick had told Felicity numerous times he was about to ask a girl to prom but in reality he had never came close. He was waiting for another girl to decide to ask, a girl who had just found the perfect dress and already knew whom she was going with for nearly two years. He only wanted Felicity to be the one to give the corsage to but it seemed it would never happen. She after all now hated him and only saw Jason.
Felicity briskly walked past Patrick's house keeping her head as low as possible. She heard him starting his car in the garage and began to walk faster her eyes still starting to the sidewalk. In the back of her head she was trying to think of what to say if he woud ask her if she wanted a ride.
No thanks, I'd rather walk then ride with a guy who can't stand to be near me.
She shook her head breathing heavy from her fast pace.
Why of course, I'd love a ride from a boy who thinks he's better then everyone! A dumb, stupid boy with bright orange hair!! A boy who thinks he's the best actor ever!!
Just then she stopped walking to watch Pat speed by her in his car. Her pensive smirk turned to a miserable pout that would last until lunch.
"I know it's summer, I'm also aware that school ends in less than a month and a half, and yes you are all seniors… but this project will be due at the end of next week," said Mrs. Rich to a outraged English class. She smiled through their yells of how prom was next week and of how they had twenty other papers due.
"This is not a paper but a presentation," their cries only grew louder.
As the people around her moaned and complained Felicity sat silently staring out the window, Patrick across the room starred to her.
"Mrs. R, you can't do this to me, I got things to do other then some lame power point! Prom is like three hundred dollars this year!" complained a boy from the back of the room.
"Well perhaps if your class wasn't so lazy and you actually paid your dues and raised some money with those cookie dough fundraisers, it wouldn't be."
"It also wouldn't be the YMCA," commented a student to get a few laughs.
Felicity continued to gaze out the window as the rest of the class went on about prom and other senior worries.
"Felicity!" called the girl sitting next to her, Felicity looked to her flashing the girl her dark circles found under her eyes. "What's wrong, you're never this quiet, it isn't Jason is it?"
Felicity looked to Patrick who was drawing on his folder, "No it's not Jason, I just didn't get much sleep this weekend."
"You gotta learn to save some of that partying for college, girl," she commented looking to a worksheet that was being passed around.
"Yeah," said Felicity with a laugh too tired to argue.
She looked to the paper in front of her as her teacher read it aloud, "You task; after reading about the town of Salem in The Crucible find out something interesting about our town's lengthy history and present it to the class in either a power point or poster. Must be at most fifteen minutes in length and you must work with only one other person. This project will be worth half your grade, take it seriously."
The room was silent for a moment before Mrs. Rich confirmed their fears; she would be assigning partners.
Felicity froze but was relieved in remembering her teacher would never partner friends together.
Mrs. Rich walked in font of Felicity's desk with a large smile, "Hmmm, Patrick."
"What?" she cried wondering if she had began hearing things as a side effect of getting an hour of sleep in two days.
"Patrick O'Connor, it's the last project of the year, I decided to be a bit more lenient with partners, I trust you two won't take advantage of my decision?"
As the class celebrated Felicity hung her head, Patrick was the one to speak up, "No Mrs. Rich," he mumbled, "we'll work together fine."
She quickly assigned partners to the rest of the students as the final bell of the day rang and class was dismissed.
Felicity ran out of the room, Patrick watched as she walked by him making her hasty exit.
He collected his papers and decided to follow her, for him the fight had been over dramatic, pointless and completely blown over, he wondered if she felt the same.
Felicity dropped her backpack at her locker and hit her head against the cold metal before opening it.
Of all the people in that class, why him?! Maybe I could ask her for someone else, wasn't there at least one person absent today?
"Felicity."
She looked up from her locker and saw him standing at her side.
"Pat I don't really want to talk right now, I have too much homework to do today to waste time with arguments."
"I didn't follow you to fight, I came to apologize."
She rummaged through her locker pretending to sort out her folders and notebooks wishing he would just decide to walk away.
"You wouldn't be apologizing if it weren't for this project, you wouldn't even be talking to me."
"Okay, you're right, you do love that don't you? Being right all the time, being right about showing up to my play, making it to your curfew on time, about Jason…"
She slammed her locker closed, threw her backpack over her shoulder and walked away, he followed closely at her heels.
"Stop talking about him, my boyfriend is none of your business."
"Alright, hey look! There you go being all right again."
She sighed heavily still wishing he would leave, "Okay so are you going to leave now?"
"No, we have this project to do, I figured with prom next week we should just get it out of the way, you're free today aren't you?"
She pushed open the exit doors and continued onto the sidewalk to the parking lot before stopping.
"Look Patrick, I'm still mad at you, I don't want to talk to you, I don't want to sit in a library with you, and I sure as heck don't want to waste my time with you when I should be trying to lose five pounds before next week."
He smirked down at her as she tried to push him away, "You're being completely ridiculous Felicity!"
Just as those words were spoken Pat felt a heavy shove that knocked him to the pavement. He looked up to see a dark figure standing over him blocking the sun, "Jason?"
"Stay away from my girl, kid!"
Felicity tried to pull her boyfriend away from Pat but he continued to stare realizing that he had seen the boy who lay sprawled out on the floor before him.
"Ha, it's just O'Connor, the theater hag."
"Stop it now, come one I'm leaving," warned Felicity to no avail.
"What did you just call me, Horns?" asked Patrick getting up.
"Oh sorry hag, do you prefer another name? Pansy? Homo? Cloyster perhaps?"
Jason's comments had formed a gathering around the boys, Felicity became just another face in a small crowd of students.
"Come on man, just stop it, your girlfriend and me were just talking."
"Come on man, just stop it," mimicked Jason in a shrill voice getting a few laughs from the crowd.
Patrick was about to walk away when he was grabbed by the shirt and pulled back, "Hey bro, kinda rude to walk away when someone's trying to talk to you don't you think?"
"Stop it, I've had enough!"
"Really, you've had enough? That's not what I heard you say to your boyfriend last night."
The crowd had begun to cheer and clap for Jason's cheep one-liners, Patrick remained levelheaded but was becoming increasingly annoyed.
"Good one Horns, too bad I didn't catch you watching us, I would have invited you to join in."
The crowd laughed even harder to his dry sarcasm, Felicity's concerns hadn't left her though, she had experienced her boyfriend's violence first hand and knew how vicious it could be.
"I ain't no goddamn haggit, O'Connor."
"Forgive me then, I had forgotten you're more of a hands on kind of guy," said Pat signally a rude movement with his right hand.
A fire ignited behind Jason's eyes, something only Felicity caught onto, she knew all too well what was to come next.
As the crowd laughed Jason raised his hand, Felicity through herself between the two boys just in the nick of time.
Jason held has hand back before running it over his greasy hair, he smiled to himself, "A girl, really O'Connor? Thought you could be a man with at least on thing."
Patrick starred to Jason and Felicity looked between the two, "This is ridiculous Jason, you're embarrassing me. I was just… staying after school with Pat for a project. I wanted to be completely free for you next week."
Pat raised an eyebrow to her just as a local police officer ran to the scene shouting at the kids to break it up, with a long stare to her silent boyfriend Felicity walked off. The crowd expressed moans of displeasure as the cop forced them away from the sidewalk.
"Any problems here boys?" asked the police officer to Pat.
"No sir, no problems," said Jason.
The cop eyed the drop out suspiciously having been familiar with his face, "Back at school Horns?" he asked, "Thought I'd sooner see myself a millionaire."
"Just here checking in on old friends," he said looking to Patrick's eyes with a smirk.
"Alright then, stay outa trouble boys," said the cop walking away.
"See you around, Horns," said Patrick but the man was already half way to his beaten up truck.
Patrick searched the high school Library for Felicity until he saw her sitting at an out of date computer in the corner of the room. Without a word he pulled up a chair next to her.
"He was wrong to call you those names," she said not looking away from the screen.
"Doesn't bother me, I've heard lots worse."
"I can't imagine."
"It's true, this fight wasn't my first."
She looked to him concerned, "All this time, I didn't know you were a member of fight club."
"Hey," he said with a chuckle, "don't forget the first rule of fight club."
She laughed then too, he briefly thanked god, he thought he wouldn't live long enough to ever see Felicity laugh at another one of his jokes.
She quickly remembered whom she was sitting next to her and her smile turned to a frown, his did the same.
"Did you find anything yet?" he asked changing the subject to the project.
"We were once a port, people stopped here for peaches and cotton, is that interesting enough you think?"
"Do we have much of a choice? It's not like I'm expecting to find out much else about Winston."
He looked to the google search she had done, "Why don't you try the town hall's web page?"
She entered it and was met with a list of important upcoming meetings and such.
"What are we supposed to find here?"
"Keep scrolling."
She came upon a link that read, town historical artifacts, he ordered for her to click on it, it brought them to a group of pictures. One was of various odd out of date utensils like an old set of china. Another picture bragged it was the first toaster showing what looked like two metal spatulas where bread was put in between and held over a fire.
"If someone invented that here, that wouldn't be so boring, huh?" asked Felicity.
"Wait, what about that?"
He moved the curser over a picture of an old book that read Piracy across the cover in bold print.
"Piracy, like pirates?" she asked.
"We were once a staple port."
She shrugged, "Better then peaches and cotton."
He clicked on it and a page came up of a close up of the book, "Piracy: the dictionary to every salty sea dog to ever sail the Caribbean, catchy title," joked Patrick.
Felicity took the mouse from him and scrolled down to a picture of the book showing the back cover, she began to read the side note, "At the back of the book a long forgotten note was found scribbled on the last page."
She clicked on the picture to enlarge it, the writing was nearly impossible to read, Patrick made a small laugh, "Wow, even almost three hundred years ago people wrote as messy as you."
"Shut up," she snapped, he took the mouse from her and scrolled to the bottom of the picture, he was about to leave the page when the name at the bottom of the note caught his eye. He continued to stare at it in disbelief as she toyed with her cell phone.
"Hey, Felicity… would you mind signing your name on a piece of scrap paper?"
She looked to him oddly, "Why?"
"Just do it."
She hesitated for a moment but he didn't say anything so she decided to humor him, out away her phone and jot down her name on a piece of paper from next to the computer, she had felt bad for getting him involved in that fight after all.
She gave it to him, "Here, but why is it you need it? If you're going to make fun of my handwriting again, I'm just telling you now; I will not laugh."
As she went on Patrick held the piece of paper up to the computer screen, his mouth fell open.
"It's not like that, look here, this note wasn't written by a person who lived three hundred years ago, it was written by you."
"What?" she asked looking to the screen, he held up the paper next to the signature at the bottom of the note. She couldn't believe what she was looking at, they matched!
She pushed him aside and took her signature in her own hand to compare for herself. She looked back and forth between the two only noticing the most minuscule of differences. Both signatures read Felicity Pratt, on both the i's weren't dotted, and on both the y's were curled under the entire first name. The P's both larger than usual, and the double tt's were crossed with a single line. It was her exact writing and there was no denying it.