Time After Time - 1998 - 2000: The People We Become - Part 6
Title: Time After Time
Pairing: Numerous A.J. Cook and Katheryn Winnick characters (central) with other pairings along the way
Disclaimer: I do not own any of the several dozen franchises and characters that I’ll be using throughout this story.
Summary: A love story spanning two decades and told through multiple parallel universes, and seen through the eyes of Rachel McAdams.
A/N: Well it looks like my love for Andrea Joy Cook and Katheryn Winnick has finally hit its peak, and this is the result.
A/N 2: Due to the fact this is a crossover, I’m going to have to alter some timelines and locations in order to make this work.
Story Arc Summary:
Title: 1998 - 2000: The People We Become
Fandom: Mean Girls/Student Bodies and Higher Ground
Pairing: Holly Benson/Shelby Merrick
Rating: G
Summary: Regina George moves out of Illinois and starts a new life in Canada. As she experiences her final high school years, Regina sees life both from the perspective of the quirkiness of Edison High to the troubled Mt. Horizon High School, located across the border in the Ontario wilderness.
A/N: For this story, let’s assume the events of Mean Girls, Higher Ground and season 2 of Student Bodies all took place around 1998 despite being released later. Also since Higher Ground was obviously filmed in British Columbia, we’re going to have to pretend Ontario has rocky mountains because Higher Ground without mountains wouldn’t even be called Higher Ground. I’m also pretty certain Mean Girls took place in the 11th grade, but let’s pretend it was the 10th.
A/N2: Both of these Canadian series carries a lot of sentimental value to me, and both ended unresolved. So now I feel like I have a lot of weight on my shoulders because I feel obliged to give both of these series a proper ending. Hope I do them justice. Just for anyone who’s unfamiliar with these two shows, Katheryn Winnick is Holly Benson and A.J. Cook is Shelby Merrick. Anyone curious to check out the series, both are up on Youtube. Here are the channels for Higher Ground and Student Bodies. Katheryn is in episodes 2.49, 3.51, 3.53, 3.54 and 3.59 while A.J. is in the entire series of Higher Ground. If I had to recommend one, then by all means watch Higher Ground.
A/N3: Special thanks to Queen of Shadows over at fanfiction.net for being an awesome beta.
Fun Trivia: Both Higher Ground and Student Bodies, despite being Canadian TV series, has Americans Joe Lando (Peter Scarbrow) and Jamie Elman (Cody Miller) as its lead stars while most of the both casts consist of Canadians.
Part 6
Tuesday
The students of Edison are at their lockers, grabbing their stuff. “What class do you have next?” Victor asks his locker neighbour, Regina.
“PE, you?” she replies.
“The student newspaper since Mrs. Morton made it into a class.”
“You look pretty excited,” Regina notices. “I thought the staff there were your rivals or something, and you’re only with them because Mrs. Morton closed down your newspaper and made “Student Bodies” the only one in the school?”
“That is true. I wasn’t too fond of Mrs. Morton taking away “Student Voice” because of that whole award thing,” Victor confirms. “But didn’t I tell you about my weekend with the guys over there?”
“No, you didn’t.”
“Well I went on a road trip with them over the weekend. It was just me and three other guys. They weren’t very accepting of me at first, but after their original plans went wrong, it was up to me to show them a good time. By Monday I was considered one of the guys.”
Regina could see how proud Victor is of himself, so she decides to amuse him. She pats him on the arm. “Have fun with them then.”
*****
The editor of the paper, Emily Roberts, walks into the newsletter room. “I hate Mrs. Morton,” she emphasizes.
Victor gets off his desk and tries to sweet talk her. “Poor Emily. She removed you from running our little publication. Have no fear, I’m ready to retake the reigns.”
“No, Victor, I’m still in charge,” she tells him. Victor lets out his disappointment. Emily takes a seat on her desk and continues, “I’m mad because she’s making us redo this week’s entire issue by Friday.”
“Friday?” Mags says, surprised. “We have to finish this in three days? No way.”
“I don’t want to do it either, Mags,” Emily retorts. “But we’re getting graded on Student Bodies remember? It’s homework.”
“Sorry, Em, you’re going to have to count me out,” Chris comments. “I’m, ah, I’m helping Cody move.” Chris gets off his seat and approaches his colleague.
“You are?” Cody asks curiously.
Mags gets off her seat and stands next to Cody. “Yeah, me too.”
“Me three,” Grace adds.
“Ditto,” Victor joins the others.
Cody gives Emily an innocent look as the other members of the staff is gathered around him. “Hey, Em don’t blame me. I’ve been planning this move for months.”
“Yeah, boss. Cody just can’t wait to be all alone with his... daddy,” Flash says in a mocking voice.
Chris and Victor comments on the daddy factor in mocking voices too. “Okay, okay, tell you what, tell you what,” Cody speaks up. “Tomorrow after you all move me in, we can work in my father’s. I mean in my house.”
*****
Over across the border, the banners for the X-Challenge race are up. The beach of a lake is crowded with tents, each of a different colour, for the visiting schools and the respective participants.
The team of Horizon just been informed they start alongside the team of Lawrence Hastings. The school Peter made a bet with its director, Bob, in which the losing school will be serving the winning school dinner with the added bonus of either Peter or Bob having to sing in front of everyone.
“Go get ‘em, captain,” Peter says and pats Scott on the back.
“We got to get ready, don’t we?” Ezra says anxiously.
“Don’t get an aneurysm.” Scott gets off the table and starts to walk with his team-mate. “Where is everybody?”
A few tents away, Shelby is flirting with the guys from another team in reddish-orange shirts. “So you guys came all the way from Toronto for a race? Should make sure you have a good time then, huh?”
Ezra clears his throat to get Shelby’s attention. “We are next.” He looks at the guys who are all around his team-mate. “Oh, did she tell you that she’s in high school?”
Shelby gives Ezra a frown, then gets back on her feet to follow her two team-mates. In the next tent, where Gatorade refreshments are set up, are Auggie and Juliet. Scott looks down at Auggie who’s lying on the table. “Come on.” The Hispanic doesn’t even turn his head so Scott raises his voice. “Now!”
“Take off,” Auggie responds. “I’m dreaming about your mama.”
“Auggie be nice,” Juliet tells him.
*****
Both the Horizon and Lawrence Hastings teams have strapped on their life jackets and are getting into their kayaks. They are ready to get their part of the X-Challenge started.
Scott looks next to him and sees Auggie isn’t in any rush. “Come on, man, let’s move it.”
The time keeper fires the gun and it starts. Shortly off the shores, the Cliffhangers already have their first problem as Juliet and Auggie bump their kayaks together, causing the others to get caught in the clutter. Scott, who is a far distance ahead of his team, looks back to notice the tangle up. He stops, but once the others managed to straight themselves out again, he continues on again with the rest of his team trailing behind.
Lawrence Hastings, the team wearing black and white, has reached the shores. Scott shortly follows behind. He takes off his gear, ready for the next relay. He looks back and sees the rest of the Cliffhangers are still a few meters from the shoreline.
“Come on, hurry up, let’s go, come on,” Scott tells the others anxiously as he stands near the finish line for the kayak race. “Let’s go, guys, come on.” Scott already starts moving once the others touch the shores.
The Cliffhangers cross the next X-Challenge race banner, marking the start of the next challenge. “Horizon, I’m here,” Scott tells the time keeper in the nearby tent.
“All right, the mountain bikes are out back,” he says and fills in their time. “Hit the trail.”
Scott’s ready to get going again. “Hey wait, can we rest a minute?” Juliet asks achingly. Scott just shakes his head at her. The others, who have just started resting up, get back on their feet.
*****
Regina and Victor are getting their things out of their locker and ready to go home. Flash approaches Victor. “Ready to do some moving, Victor?”
“You’re doing some moving?” Regina asks.
“Not me, someone else in our newspaper team named Cody,” he answers.
“We’re using this as an excuse not to work on the re-edit of the newspaper that Mrs. Morton has us doing,” Flash informs the blonde female.
“You seemed happy to be one of the guys earlier today Victor,” assess Regina.
“Oh, I am,” Victor says confidently. “But that doesn’t mean I’m willing to do their work for them.”
“You two have fun.”
*****
In the forest of greater Ontario, mountain bikes race through the deep woods along a dirt trail. The Cliffhangers are doing their best to keep up with Lawrence Hastings. Well everyone except Scott. The blonde leader can see the other team ahead. He looks back to see how far behind the rest of the team is, and decides to take it up a notch.
“Scott, wait,” Juliet calls out.
“Jerk,” comments Auggie.
“Maybe he’ll run off the side of a cliff or something,” Shelby adds. Ezra’s too tired to say anything.
They come up to a point in the trail where tree logs are scattered across one area. The Lawrence Hastings team and Scott decide to jump their bikes over the logs, while the rest of the Cliffhangers decide to get off and carry their bikes over.
Scott can see the other team right in front of him. He decides to push himself further. Now one by one, the leader of the Cliffhangers begin to pass by the members of Lawrence Hastings. He sees an opportunity for a shortcut and jumps his bike down a ledge. Breathing heavily, the athlete looks behind him and sees he’s out of view of the other team.
Scott has reached the bike challenge finish line. He quickly climbs off his bike and hands it over to the race inspectors. He tosses his helmet down on the bike rack and approaches the tent with the time keepers. “Horizon, I’m here.”
The female time keeper looks back. “Where’s the rest of your team?’
“Back there somewhere,” Scott answers frustratingly. “I’m here.”
“Well good for you, but the time won’t count until they all get here,” she informs him.
The rival team just arrived. The leader bumps Scott out of the way, and Scott responds with a shove of his own. “Lawrence Hastings,” he tells the time keeper. “We’re all here.” He stares back at Scott. “Loser.”
While Lawrence Hastings are well on their way to the next challenge, the rest of the Cliffhangers finally arrive. The sound of tires scraping across dirt gets Scott’s attention. He rushes back on his feet. “Come on, let’s move it, come on.”
The other Cliffhangers go for the cups of Gatorade stacked on the table of the time keeper’s tent to help with their exhaustion. “Okay... can’t move... can’t speak,” Ezra says as he gasp for air.
“We need a minute,” Juliet tells their leader.
“You know what? Fine,” Scott throws the map and compass on the ground in front of his colleagues. “You want to lose, stay here. You want to win, you come with me now.”
Scott already starts moving again, but Auggie blocks his path. “Hey, you got a bad mouth, meat. You’re gonna get hurt.”
“Just step off, all right?” Scott replies back. “I got a race to run.”
Auggie shakes his head, “Look around. You’re here because everybody gave up on you - your parents, your teachers, all of them. They gave up on us, too.”
“We only have each other,” Juliet says from the crouch position she’s in.
Shelby looks at Scott. “Pathetic, isn’t it? You walk away from here, you’re walking away from the only thing you got.”
Scott looks at them, and with a sense of denial, he continues on his path.
for previous chapters:
the master list