TIME & TIED: ESCALATION

ARC 2.1 - From the Past

PART 26a: TIME ZONES 1

"What do you mean Chartreuse ran off for lunch with Laurie?" Julie said, slamming her locker shut. “You said you could speak with Corry’s sister during Home Ec.”

"Sorry, Julie – the mystic beat me to the punch,” Carrie apologized. “You think maybe she used her weird powers to sense the future?"

“Hmph. I’m not wholly convinced she can do that,” the brunette grumbled. “Anyway, it’s irrelevant. Damn it, Carrie, the one week me and Corry have rescinded our truce in order to make a play for the freshmen – and now I can’t maneuver Corry’s sister into whatever trap he had planned for me?"

“Look, I’m sorry. I thought you had contingency plans," Carrie said.

"Oh, of course I do, but none will be quite so satisfying," Julie sighed. The two girls walked in the direction of the cafeteria.

"We could always go somewhere else for lunch," Carrie suggested. Julie gave her a look. "Or not," the blonde amended hastily.

"We're not running away," Julie stated firmly. "No, Corry is sure to try and show me up at the start of lunch. All we'll need is..."

"Frozen yogurt?"

Julie paused long enough to turn and regard the person who had spoken to her. "I beg your pardon?" she said with exaggerated patience.

“Want me to buy you a frozen yogurt, rich witch?” Lee said easily, leaning against the wall beside the cafeteria. "It would go nicely with your icy demeanour today."

That comment would have been a cardinal offence coming from most people. But it was Lee, so Julie merely rolled her eyes and walked past without a second glance. She heard Carrie offer up the phrase, "Take a hike, Lee," before following after.

Yet Lee was not so easily dissuaded. "Aw, I'm hurt, track tease," he protested, following the girls into the cafeteria. "Can't you two take a joke? Look, I'll buy you some fries instead, to make up for it."

“We need vigilance, Carrie," Julie said, pointedly ignoring Lee while maintaining a wary eye on her surroundings. “This first week is critical, we can't afford any slip ups."

“Are you saying you’d prefer bananas? They do say you are what you eat," Lee piped up again. "Here, mind if I join you two?" Without even waiting for an answer, Lee slipped past the girls to sit down on Julie's usual bench.

It collapsed under his weight, dropping him unceremoniously to the floor. Julie's eyebrows shot up, and she took a few quick steps backwards as all around them, heads turned and stared.

"It's all right! I'm fine," Lee said, glancing around and offering the crowd a quick wave. He tried to use the table to prop himself back up, but it too fell apart as soon as he'd put enough weight on it. "Aha," Lee concluded from the ground. "School's gotta do something about these termites."

Having edged a respectable distance from the action, Julie turned her gaze slowly in the direction of her redheaded nemesis. He was watching the proceedings with a frustrated look on his face. Nodding slowly in understanding, Julie plucked at the sleeve of Carrie's shirt and went to sit at a different table. Julie continued to watch as Lee struggled to his feet again. His eyes went towards one corner of the cafeteria.

Julie followed Lee’s gaze. There was a young asian girl there, her hair done up in two ponytails. Luci Primrose. As Julie stared, the young girl gave a thumbs up to Lee, then beckoned to Julie before walking out of the area.

Julie stood. "Carrie, watch my stuff," she ordered. "I'll be right back."

***

"Oh, Luci," Frank said in surprise as the young girl exited the cafeteria right in front of him. "Hi! How are you doing with things around the school today?"

Luci seemed to flinch away. "Oh, ah, I’m fine," she said, glancing furtively behind her.

Frank nodded. “Oh, good. Actually, I wondered if yesterday I was a bit, I don’t know, abrupt with you, so I was thinking, if you want to talk about stuff again some time, like schoolwork..."

"Frank, it’s not a good time," Luci interrupted. "I'm meeting someone. Later, okay? I'll... get back to you."

"Oh, er... sure," Frank agreed even as Luci brushed past him to head down the hall. He watched as Julie strode out of the cafeteria moments later, following after.

He nearly fell into step behind them, before deciding that it obviously wasn't any of his business. More to the point, Luci seemed to be fitting in just fine without his help. He went in to have lunch by himself.

***

Of all the times for Frank to approach her, it had to be RIGHT then? Luci sighed. She'd avoided speaking with Frank thus far, figuring that it would only complicate matters even more than they were already. What with her being a time traveling version of herself. But given that encounter, was it any wonder that they hadn’t hit it off initially?

Luci shoved those thoughts aside as Julie caught up with her outside the library. "All right Luci, what's your game?" the brunette demanded, hands on her hips.

“To get your attention," Luci replied evenly. "I'm glad to see you recalled our earlier conversation."

Luci didn’t add that she had engineered things today by playing the odds. Namely telling Chartreuse to take Laurie out for lunch, followed by steering the one person who could defuse ANY situation into hanging close to Julie. Thank goodness Lee was such a good sport.

As if she was reading Luci’s thoughts, Julie fired back, "If you think I’m going to be impressed because of how you got Lee to act out, that’s normal for him. He’s also a sucker for hard luck cases such as yourself. So don’t start making demands of me.”

"Don’t I get some added respect for preventing a humiliating incident for you in there?”

"No. Because I would have checked the bench, and that should have been Laurie, not Lee - in fact, for all I know, you’re the reason Chartreuse got Corry’s sister out of the way today,” Julie countered. “You succeeded here only because I didn’t factor you in. Furthermore, as to any plot against me tonight, I've checked with certain sources and found no indication."

Julie had checked. Luci seized on that. “Are you saying you don’t want to listen to a potential recruit here? One who has information so secret that not even your sources are aware of it yet?”

Julie grimaced. They stared at each other. Two seconds became five, then ten... "Listening," Julie said, grudgingly.

Gotcha. "Thank you," Luci said with a partial smile. “So, you know how Clarke is planning on coming over tonight? Well, he won't. And I think it would be in your best interests to find out why, by being at his place at 8pm."

Julie's eyebrow twitched. "What are you implying?" she challenged.

"You'll find out at 8pm," Luci countered smoothly. "That is, assuming you don't ask Clarke in advance, or tell anyone else about this conversation. Not even Carrie. If you did, I’m sure certain plans would... change.”

"Is that so,” Julie said, folding her arms across her chest. “Is this related to another of Corry's plots?"

"8pm," Luci repeated inscrutably.

Julie glared again, but it quickly became obvious to her that Luci wasn't going to budge. "Fine," the brunette concluded in irritation. "But don't think that jerking me around is going to earn you special privileges.” She spun on her heel and stalked back towards the cafeteria.

Once she was out of sight, Luci sank back against the wall. 'I cannot believe I pulled that off,' she thought. 'Thank goodness there's only a few more details to fix up.’ Pausing only long enough to rub her temples, Luci went to find Clarke.

***

"You're sure Julie asked me to bring you to her house?" Carrie grumbled. “Because she never said anything about it to me.”

It was a quarter to eight that night. Luci and Carrie were on their way over to the LaMille mansion. At this point, Luci could only hope that the timing of the situation would work out. "Trust me," she reassured her blonde companion. "It's part of some master plan. And you know Julie and her plans."

Carrie sniffed. “Even so, she usually gives me more information. Well, I think she does. Look, you're sure I wasn't supposed to call ahead?”

"Positive. Make a phone call to Julie, it will put the whole plan in jeopardy," Luci insisted. "Don't worry, it's not like anything bad can happen at her place, right? She has a butler and security and stuff.”

"I guess," Carrie yielded. "But I've got my eye on you. Don't try anything funny.”

"Perish the thought." They walked the last two blocks in silence. Getting to the front door of the LaMille mansion wasn’t actually difficult - if you didn’t mind being under surveillance - the sticking point was how Jeeves would never let anyone in, unless they had an appointment, or he knew them personally. Fortunately for Luci, Jeeves knew Carrie.

"Yes?" the LaMille butler said archly as he opened the front door.

Carrie smiled broadly. "Heya Jeeves! I'm here with Luci, Julie's expecting us."

Jeeves frowned. "Is that so? Because Miss LaMille left about five minutes ago and gave no word."

"Oh...?" Carrie turned to look suspiciously at Luci.

"Julie's very busy with a lot of things right now, it must have slipped her mind," Luci suggested. “Maybe we can wait in the sitting room for her? I’m sure she won’t be gone long."

There was a pause as Carrie glanced back and forth between Luci and Jeeves. "You ARE putting in a good word for me with Michelle, right?" the blonde athlete asked.

"I... I’ll try," Luci agreed. Even as she said it, she knew she had no recollection of ever having done so. But given the stakes here, this wasn't the time to quibble over social niceties. No wonder Carrie would harbour a grudge.

Carrie nodded. "We'll wait inside." The butler inclined his head slightly in acknowledgement before ushering them in. Luci would have let out a sigh of relief, if only there weren't so many other things that could still go wrong.

***

"Surprise," Julie said, hands on her hips and one foot tapping on the ground. "I bet you weren't expecting to find me here."

"Oh! Well... no," Clarke admitted. He opened his front door a little wider. "I mean, I'm just on my way out. Is there a problem...?"

"Depends where you're going," Julie countered. "I know it's not to my place.”

“No, it's to the cafe. Tim’s been concerned about some new rumour about me leaving town, so I’m meeting with him now. I can still drop by your house tomorrow. Did Luci not pass on that message? I mean, it was her idea for me to meet with Tim in the first place.”

“It was..." Luci. In that instant, everything clicked. Plot against her indeed... it was a plot by Luci! “I may have misunderstood what she said,” Julie realized. “My apologies, Clarke - I have to get back home now. Thank you for your help here.”

“Uh, any time," Clarke replied.

Julie supposed his confusion was natural, but she had to no time to explain. Luci was in big trouble! Julie pulled out her cell phone.