TIME & TIED: AWARENESS

ARC 1.2 - Of Her Peers

PART 12b: THE CLARKE SIDE 2

Clarke had never been able to identify when his feelings for Julie had expanded beyond the scope of a simple friendship. It was merely something that had happened. He supposed part of it was that, throughout Grade Nine, Julie had kept herself at such a distance from most people that, in a weird way, Clarke couldn't help but feel sorry for her.

Oh, sure, she got to know people, and after the initial period of adjustment to the school, Julie had gained steadily in both popularity and the amount of respect shown to her.

But even Carrie had never struck Clarke as being a true friend for Julie. He’d commented on it to others, but of the people he had spoken to about Julie's detachment, many didn't believe him, and of those that did, many didn't care, and of those that cared, many were resentful of Julie's growing notoriety anyway. Then it all became a moot point, for once Julie heard that he was saying such things, she had demanded that he stop immediately.

Some of Julie's problems, Clarke reasoned, might be due to a lack of family ties. Her parents were sometimes – in fact, often – conspicuous in terms of their absence from the town. It also hadn't taken long for Clarke to discover that Julie spent an inordinate amount of the time she had away from school by herself, making personal plans.

Which almost never made her happy. Not really. It was almost like she was simply doing things out of a lack of anything else to do - or maybe to prove to herself that she could? Which was really a shame in Clarke's mind, and had ultimately been the main motivation for his visit to her that fateful fall day last year...

***

"What's up, Clarke?" Julie inquired upon walking into her sitting room. She crossed her arms. "I wasn't expecting you to drop by."

"Surprise visit," Clarke indicated with a smile. He produced a medium-sized box, which he had been holding behind his back. "For you!"

Julie's brow furrowed as she approached. "What's inside?"

"Open and see."

Julie retrieved the box and did as Clarke had suggested. Her eyes opened wide. "Chocolate eclairs,” she said in surprise. Then she looked back up at her guest. "Why?"

"Because I know you like them and it seems to me like you could use a little cheering up," Clarke stated.

"What do you mean by that?" Julie asked. "Nothing bad is happening to me. On the contrary, I practically guaranteed myself a seat on the student council this week.”

"But does that make you happy?" Clarke pressed.

"Happy?"

Clarke sighed. "Julie, ever since our return to school for Grade Ten, you've been spending even MORE of your time all alone. You haven't been seeing Carrie as much, and you've been seeing me even less. Is there something bothering you?"

Julie made a dismissive gesture. "Why does it matter to you?”

"It matters."

Clarke wasn't even sure where those words had come from, but the intensity behind his tone surprised even him. Julie's eyebrows rose in response and it was a couple of seconds before she spoke. "It is no business of yours how I run my affairs," she retaliated.

"I'm not concerned about your affairs, I'm concerned about YOU," Clarke insisted.

"I'm just fine!" Julie snapped. “Everything is going according to plan! Now Clarke, you were very useful in providing me with information last year, but seeing as we're both a little older and wiser now, I believe it's in both of our best interests for you stop spending so much time around me. In fact, you should leave. Now."

There was momentary silence. "If that is how you truly feel," Clarke said. Julie turned to leave the room. "But I will only leave if you tell me that doing so will make you happy."

Julie stopped in her tracks. "Haven't you figured it out?" she said in annoyance. "Happiness doesn't enter into this."

"It does for me."

"Why?" Julie demanded again. "Why do you give a damn?!"

"Because," Clarke forced out. "I care about you, Jewels."

Julie spun back to face him. He was half expecting her to be absolutely exasperated at this point, so the look of complete shock and confusion was oddly comforting. "Jules...?" she vocalized after a second.

Clarke smiled weakly. "Jewels... I mean, it sort of sounds like your name, seems to jibe with all the money you have around here, plus, I don't know, makes me think of a diamond in the rough, kinda." He cleared his throat. "Just sort of slipped out, really. Sorry."

"Don't be," Julie replied, her tone soft. "It's... I’ve never had anyone..." She froze. “Is this part of a scam?" she asked, sizing Clarke up. "Has someone put you up to this?"

"No!”

"No? How can I be sure of that?" Julie demanded, pointing her finger. Her arm shook slightly. "Do you have any proof?"

"Julie... Jewels... you know me fairly well by now," Clarke said as sincerely as he could. "Do you honestly believe that I would do what I'm doing now because someone TOLD me to do it?"

Julie began to chew on her lower lip. "I... I'm suddenly not sure what to think," she mumbled uncomfortably. Her lips finally parted. "Clarke..."

"Phil. Please, call me Phil," Clarke interrupted.

Julie blinked but otherwise seemed unmoved. "Phil," she attempted again. "I'd like to think your intentions are honourable. But past incidents have caused me to become naturally... wary. I'm... I'm going to need some time to think through the repercussions of this.”

Clarke nodded. "Anything I can do to help? Sometimes it's good to talk things out with a friend."

Julie stared at him for another long moment. “No. You've helped enough already," she concluded. Not sharply, he was pleased to hear, but gently. “You really should leave now. Feeling free to come back whenever you like," she hastily added.

Clarke nodded. "Count on that," he remarked. He took a couple of steps towards the doorway.

"Oh, and Cl-- Phil?" Julie stated. He turned back to see Julie's gaze upon the box she was still holding.

"Jewels?" he responded.

Julie cleared her throat uncertainly before looking back up. "Thanks. That is, for the eclairs," she quickly quantified.

Clarke watched as the severe colouring seen all too often in Julie's features became overshadowed by the genuine, if hesitant, smile upon her face. 'She needs to smile like that more often,' he realized. 'I need to get her to smile like that more often.'

***

Julie grinned triumphantly. "We're almost there," she declared. "Left at the next corner, Jeeves." The butler, who doubled as chauffeur, simply sighed and did as requested.

"We're heading for the edge of town," Clarke remarked. "Why would Carrie come all the way out here?"

“I can't say for sure whether this is Carrie we're tracking," Julie reminded. "All this thing has picked up is some device or devices which transmit on the same frequency. Ignoring the one I still have, there was the one somewhere in the ravine near Carrie's, which stopped transmitting while you were making that phone call. Then there's this one, which is out... wherever we're going."

"Do you know why the ravine signal stopped sending?” Clarke asked.

"No. I'll work it out in due course," Julie muttered through clenched teeth. "Jeeves, stop here! We're almost on top of it."

The car pulled up on the outskirts of town, in a fairly recently built subdivision. Julie jumped from the car with her receiver in hand, and peering down at the display in the darkness, she made her way into a small park playground. Clarke also emerged from the car, lagging behind Julie a bit.

He found himself reflecting upon Julie's current plans again. This Carrie affair was escalating unexpectedly. But why? Until his relationship with Julie had become ‘semi official' last year, he had never fully grasped the scope of what she had been doing... in fact, even now Clarke still wasn't positive he understood it. What was Julie’s goal, exactly?

More to the point, how far was he truly willing to go when it came to backing up Julie and her plans? Would there come a time when he would have to put his foot down? To stand up to her? Clarke rubbed the back of his neck. He wasn't sure he could do that.

For some reason, the words spoken to him by Lance several years ago came to mind: 'Be careful who you cross in the future. Not everyone with the power to pull strings around you is likely to be as... forgiving as me.'

But no, that wasn't why he was unlikely to side against Julie. He didn’t like the idea of leaving Julie with nobody in her corner. One of her rare smiles had the ability to light up a room - she wasn't a bad person. All she needed was somebody to save her from herself. The question was, could he be that person?

"Aha!" came a shout, and Clarke hurried to catch up.

He need not have rushed. When he reached Julie’s position, he merely found her kneeling in front of a clump of bushes. The receiving device was on the ground next to her, a small mound of freshly dug up earth sat in front of her, and there was something else in her hands.

"What've you got, Jewels?" Clarke asked tentatively. Julie rose and turned to face him. She held out the object she was holding and Clarke squinted at it in the darkness.

It was a dirty and smudged piece of possibly blue plastic in a vaguely horseshoe shape. A hairband? No... well, maybe, but only if it had been left here by someone for, what, half a century?

"Phil," Julie began slowly. "I'm about to say something that is going to sound totally loopy, yet fits the facts in every conceivable way that occurs to me. In retrospect, it even makes a strange sort of sense. Please bear with me."

Clarke nodded and Julie took in a deep breath. "Phil... I have the feeling that somehow, Frank Dijora has managed to invent himself a time machine."