TIME & TIED: DESTRUCTION

ARC 3.2 - With The Group

PART 56b: TONE DOWN 2

"I’m out!” Carrie screamed, flinching backwards.

However, as Chartreuse was still grasping onto the blonde’s hands, the sudden movement served to jerk her off balance. With a little yelp of astonishment, she fell forwards into Carrie, both girls collapsing back onto the floor of the classroom. Chartreuse faceplanting into the blonde cheerleader’s body.

And Chartreuse found that her first instinct wasn’t to roll away. Rather, it was to grab harder for Carrie, to press her ear against Carrie’s front, to better hear her friend’s heartbeat. Still there. So fast. Mirroring her own, beating away, racing, because of this shared experience. Between the two girls with powers.

She had only felt this sort of close connection with someone once before.

Last time, the feeling had been instantaneous. This time, it had crept up on her. Because the blonde did look so pretty, in that dress with it’s plunging neckline. More to the point, Carrie wasn’t as shallow as Tope had been, the cheerleader did care about people. In fact, even after learning about Chartreuse being bisexual, Carrie had kept it quiet, and hadn’t called off any of their sessions.

Both of their hearts were racing now. Almost in synch. So maybe it was time to accept what that meant, it was time to take their relationship to the next level...

“Unhh,” Carrie groaned.

Chartreuse knew she couldn’t have pushed herself up and away any faster, not even if she’d been lying on a bed of hot coals.

“C-Carrie?” she choked out. What the hell was she thinking? She’d almost nuzzled in against Carrie’s neck. Carrie was her friend. That was it. Only her very close friend...

“Chartreuse?”

“C-Carrie?” Chartreuse repeated. She swallowed, trying to bury the flood of emotions welling up inside. "Ah, so, are you, like, you know, okay?"

"I'll manage," Carrie said. Her chest was heaving - don’t look there, idiot! - as she sat back up. Thankfully, as their eyes met again, Carrie didn’t seem to notice Chartreuse's discomfort.

“I just saw..." Carrie looped some hair around her finger and tugged. “I don't know what I saw. Either way, I've had enough of this for tonight, okay?”

Chartreuse nodded vigorously. "Yes, um, we've certainly discovered enough here.”

"Hello? Someone in here?" came a new voice.

The two girls on the floor turned as the classroom door opened and Clarke poked his head inside. "Ah! I thought I heard voices. Laurie thought she'd lost you." Clarke turned to look back into the hallway. "They're in here."

There was the sound of running feet, and then the freckled girl poked her head in next to Clarke. "Chartreuse, thank goodness,” Laurie said, not trying to disguise her relief. "Are you two okay? What happened? Have you figured out what's wrong with my brother?"

"With your bro... right!" Chartreuse jumped to her feet. "It's Tim. Tim's going to snap and throw his keyboard at the guy, that starts a chain reaction in their equipment. We've got to get in there, fast!"

"Tim?" Clarke said, shocked. "What are you talking about?"

"No time, hurry,” Chartreuse said, charging past the two of them and out into the hall. As much to get away from Carrie’s perfume as to get back to the cafeteria.

***

Julie took another step closer to the student quartet. Since they really were quite good, and she wanted to hear them better - okay, no.

She knew the primary reason for her approach was to distance herself from Joe Drew. He’d been giving her irritated looks ever since Clarke had moved off with Laurie. Hoping to ignore his scrutiny, Julie had moved away. Only to have Joe leave the vicinity of the coat check in order to move closer to her position.

So why was she moving towards the band? Why not outside? Heck, why react at all? Was it because Corry Veniti was one of the few people (aside from Clarke) who bothered to stand up for her on those occasions when she was being mistreated? If so, Julie knew this was a poor decision - Corry was busy right now. Besides, Joe wasn’t much of a threat on his own.

She made the decision to stand her ground. Turning away from Joe completely. It was then that Julie looked beyond Corry - catching sight of the look in Sue's eye.

Julie knew Sue from when they had been allies. She knew that look, knew it meant trouble. Her suspicions were confirmed a moment later, during a drum solo, when Sue used the opportunity to let go of her guitar and reach for something back in the shadows, next to the stage.

Tim apparently noticed her action as well, and when he saw what she was grabbing, he stood up, reaching out towards her. But his leg buckled, sending him crashing into his own keyboard, palms first. The keyboard stand gave out, pitching forwards, sending the equipment towards Corry.

That’s when Chartreuse charged through Julie's field of vision, reaching out in vain for the toppling instrument. Feedback erupted from the nearby speakers as it hit the floor at Corry’s feet. Then Clarke was there, catching Tim, and everyone’s attention was on what was happening with them - so it seemed like no one but Julie saw what Sue was about to do.

"Watch out!" Julie shouted, sprinting as fast as she could.

She threw herself at Corry, catching him around the waist, using her momentum to jerk him off his feet. The microphone Corry had been holding in his hands jarred loose and fell to the floor. An exposed wire created a small spark in the fresh pool of water.

Water that had been thrown by Sue, who had not been able to check her swing. A few more sparks were seen, but Lee quickly reached his foot out to kick the power bar near the drums, killing all the electronics.

Corry could have been electrocuted. Julie breathed a sigh of relief.

The brunette then discovered that, somehow, she had managed to land largely on top of Corry. One arm was caught underneath him, the other encircling his waist, and her sweater was pressed up tightly against his silk shirt. She quickly pulled back with an apology on her lips, but her voice got caught in her throat when she saw the bemused look on the redhead’s face.

"Julie, what the hell?” he said, arcing an eyebrow.

"Noooo!" came a cry of frustration from above them.

Freeing her arm, Julie rolled away from Corry, looking up to see the brown haired guitarist. Sue was now being restrained by both Lee and Clarke. Carrie and Chartreuse had replaced Clarke at Tim's side. Glen was there too.

"No, no, don't you see?" Sue wailed. "I attacked him for you, Julie. Corry's never been as good as you were. He never should have beaten you out the way he did. So I pretended to go along with him until I had this chance, this opportunity to shake him up a bit, to let him feel once again the wrath of Julie LaMille! So... so why did you save him, Julie? Aren't you proud of me?"

Julie blinked up at her former ally. "I... am going to be sick," she realized, lurching to her feet and clapping a hand against her mouth. With a burning sensation at the back of her throat, she dashed for the nearest exit.

***

By departing, Julie didn’t hear the increasing chatter of the student body. Or how it was soon dispelled by the sound of an irate chemistry teacher, clearing his throat at the DJ's independent electronics setup.

"This dance," Larry Fisk stated authoritatively, "is..."

"Going to continue shortly with more great songs from DJ Tuneup," Mrs. Willis, the music teacher interrupted, grabbing the mike away from her colleague. "So please calm down and return to enjoying yourselves. I'm sure we all agree that it would be a shame to see this event come to an early end.”

***

Frank let out a low whistle. "I can't believe it. Sue, out to get Corry. Who could have guessed?"

He and Luci had pulled back from the crowd of other teenagers, to stand by the wall. With the DJ back in control, the dance was gradually getting back up to full swing.

Carrie and Clarke had run out of the room after Julie, Chartreuse had gone over to talk with Laurie, and all the members of Corry's band had been taken to the office to talk with Principal Hunt.

"I suppose I could have worked it out," Luci decided, looking towards the stage. "If my mind hadn’t been wandering this week. After all, Sue’s appeared distracted lately. Possible family troubles. And she lost her grandmother back around the same time as she 'lost' Julie... so it could be a case of displaced emotion? Not to excuse her actions, but that might be why she went a bit nuts."

“Your whole school’s a bit nuts,” Glen remarked, approaching the both of them. “From what I’ve heard, some people are siding with Sue and her assault on your friend?”

“For real?” Frank raised his eyebrow. “I guess Corry doesn’t have the same support in his ranks that he once did.”

“On the bright side though,” Glen continued, “If Sue is out, there will be a vacancy in my fellow redhead’s band. So I can offer up my own guitar playing skills instead.”

Frank’s eyebrow twitched. "Uh, Glen? That’s not exactly a bright side.”

"No?" Glen shrugged. “It’s just, I would hate to see Corry’s band dissolve on account of this. Wouldn’t you?”

"Hey, Carrie," Luci shouted, waving.

Frank turned, seeing that Carrie had entered the cafeteria again. Luci lowered her voice again once the blonde girl had paced over to join them. "How's Julie faring?”

“She'll be all right," Carrie sighed. "Her stomach's settled anyway. Clarke's gone with her to the office, to give a statement to Mr. Hunt along with the band. That's mostly a formality. Should be pretty clear that Julie had no direct involvement in what happened tonight.”

Carrie linked arms with Glen, leaning some of her weight onto him. "Still," she admitted. “Now I feel guilty for insisting to Julie that she come. It's not like she’ll have had a very good time."

"It is a good thing she was here though," Frank pointed out. "Or Corry could have been hurt."

"That's right," Glen agreed. "Of course, one must still take care when using one's powers of... persuasion. I imagine the results can be misleading, until the user has sufficient experience."

Carrie turned to look into Glen's face, and Frank wasn’t sure if it was her expression, or something in Glen’s tone that he found troubling. The redhead simply looked back at his date with a quiet smile.

“Oh, whatever,” Carrie said aloud. “Come on, Glen. Let's dance again?”

"I would be honoured," he replied.

Frank and Luci exchanged a quick glance themselves as the new transfer student took the head cheerleader out for a spin around the dance floor.

Meanwhile, a short distance away, Chartreuse turned away from Laurie. Watching the pair herself, while biting down on her lower lip.