Disclaimer: Ok, I don't own DC, but I did make up the names of most of these characters. So have fun reading or whatever
Note: This story is a little on the different side. I was prepping for my Retro Sweet Sixteen Bash by going through Mum's old records. Anyhoo, I was singing along to "The Boy From New York City," dancing around the living room and whatnot, when I got the inspiration for this story. Enjoy!
Another Author's Note: I know it sucks, so don't flame me. If you do, I'll only have two words to say to you. "Bite Me"
"Unforgettable
In every way
And forever more
that's how you'll stay"
-"Unforgettable" by Nat King Cole
Joey had been walking around all day like a zombie. Every year, when this day came around, there was nothing anyone could do to reconcile her. It was exactly three years ago that her mother had died.
Dawson had tried to make her feel better. Jen had offered to bring over cookie dough ice cream and Brad Pitt movies to help her cheer up. Even Pacey had relented with the "Prude" jokes. Nothing helped.
After calling Dawson to cancel movie night, Joey decided to visit her mother's grave. It was a ritual. Whenever she felt down or lonely, she just went to her mother's grave and told her everything.
It was a cold night, extremely cold even by Capeside standards. When Joey made it to her mother's grave, the sun had set and there was nary a star in the sky. A starless, moonless night. How fitting.
Joey pulled her faded denim jacket closer around her and sat down by her mother's grave. Feeling the need to be close to her mom right now, Joey ran her fingers along the chiseled stone of the tombstone.
Sandra May Tyler Potter
1950-1995
Beloved Wife and Mother
"Rough Winds do shake the buds of May
...But thy eternal summer shall not fade"
Joey felt the tears well up in her eyes. It was a beautiful quotation for her mom. Bessie had chosen it. It somehow seemed as if it was written for her mother. She had been shaken by rough winds. Cancer, Joey's father's affair, she had weathered them....although cancer got her in the end. But even though she was no longer around in the physical sense, there were times when Joey saw her mother around her. Whenever winter relented and spring came out of hiding, Joey saw her mother in all the new spring flowers. Sometimes Joey saw her mother in Alexander, at least when he laughed. Joey saw a lot of her mother in Bessie, and even some in her.
As she sat there crying, Joey felt a warm blanket of air envelop her. Drying her eyes, Joey looked up in time to see a blinding flash of light....
Looking around, Joey found herself in the halls of Capeside High, but somehow it wasn't Capeside. Gone were the anti-drug posters and graffiti. In there place were....Anti-war posters? Um, Joey hated to break it to them, but peace in the Middle East had been declared. And how on earth had she ended up at school.
The posters were the only difference. People were dressed differently. There were no J. Crew kids running around with Gwyneth Paltrow and Neve Campbell haircuts. In their place where girls with beehives and long poofy skirts and guys with slicked back hair and cardigans.
Humming the Twilight Zone theme, Joey looked down at her own clothes. What the...a pink dress? First of all, Joey had to be dragged kicking and screaming into a dress. Second of all, pink? No thank you, too Nellie Olsen for her.
"Hi, are you new here?" asked a female voice from behind her. Joey turned around and came face to face with....her mother?
Yes, it was her mother no doubt, granted she was about 30 years younger than when Joey had last seen her, but it was still her mother. Joey would have recognized those haunting blue eyes anywhere.
"Uh, yeah," Joey said, nearly dropping some of the notebooks in her hands.
Joey's mother laughed. "Yeah, I've been there, Hi, I'm Sandra May. Call me Sandy, call me May, heck call me Sandy May, but if you call me Sandra, I'll have to kill you."
Joey laughed. "I understand," she said, "my name's Josephine, but I prefer to be called Joey."
"Josephine's a pretty name," Sandy/Joey's mom said, "It reminds me of the girl from Little Women. I like Bessie as a name a lot too."
Joey just smiled.
"So, what classes do you have?" Sandy asked.
"Um," Joey said, fumbling around. She finally noticed a schedule in her hands. Whoever sent her here sure was thorough.
"Hey, you're in all of my classes," Sandy said, looking at the schedule, "Come on, I'll show you where Mr. Dando's class is."
It was lunchtime, and Sandy led Joeyto the cafeteria, over to a table that had several people sitting at it. Immediately, Joey recognized them all. Dawson's mom, Gail was there, only she was Gail Tunney then. Dawson's dad, Mitch Leery was there. So was Police Chief Witter, which surprised Joey some. And at the far end of the table was Joey's dad, Jack Potter.
"Guys," Sandy said, leading Joey to the table, "I want you to meet Joey. Joey this is Gail Tunney, Mitch Leery, Jinx Witter, and Jack Potter."
"Nice to meet you," Joey said, trying to keep down the laughter of surprise.
"It's such a pleasure to meet a lovely lady," Police Chief...er..Jinx Witter said, smiling at Joey. Joey nearly laughed. Mr. Witter was so much like Pacey, that must be why they didn't get along. Pacey was Mr. Witter's punishment for his teenage years. Plus, they both had weird names.
Gail and Mitch obviously were attracted to each other. They kept stealing sidelong glances. They must not be together yet, Joey realized. She had recalled hearing that they were best friends for years before they hooked up. Similar to Joey and Dawson.
Suddenly, a tall dark-haired man with a striking resemblece to Abby walked up and kissed Sandy on the lips. "And this," Sandy said, smiling, "is my boyfriend Johnny Morgan."
Joey could barely conceal her surprise. She would have guessed that her dad would have been her mom's boyfriend. From the look on Jack's face when Johnny kissed her mom, Joey guessed that her dad liked her mom, but hadn't told her. And from the looks of things, Johnny Morgan was an arrogant jock.
"Sorry babe," he said, smiling devilishly at Sandy, "I had to go tutor Judy Collins."
Sandy made a face. "You are always tutoring her."
Johnny shrugged. "What can I say," he said, "the girl needs a lot of tutoring."
Joey rolled her eyes and felt sick. Obviously she was getting more than tutoring. But Joey didn't say anything. She didn't want to upset anyone.
"Oh," Sandy said. Sensing something was up, Johnny leaned down and kissed Sandy on the lips.
"Enough with the tonsil hockey," Jinx said, looking like he could gag.
"You're just jealous," Sandy said, leaning in to kiss Johnny some more.
"Hey you two!" said a girl that Joey recognized as a young Mrs. Tringle, the librarian, "you two should get detention for that!"
"You have to come to my party," Sandy said to Joey while they were hanging out at an ice cream parlor after school, "it's tonight. I know it's short notice, but you should come. I'm having a lot of people come."
"Sure," Joey said, smiling.
"Great!" Sandy said, beaming, "although I don't really want everyone that's coming there. Usually when I have a party, people just show up, so it'll be cool to actually have some people I know there. I mean, even people I don't like, like Judy Collins just show up. Although she just shows up to make eyes at Johnny, but he would never go for someone like her."
Joey didn't say anything. If she remembered her mom correctly, she didn't like getting bad news, and it upset her terribly when she did.
"Anyways," Sandy said, continuing, "it's from seven to eleven tonight."
"I don't really have anything to wear," Joey said, looking at her outfit.
"Well come to my house and you can borrow something," Sandy said, smiling, "come on!"
It was time for the party, and Joey was decked out in one of Sandy's pretty blue dresses. A bunch of people had shown up, mostly strangers. Gail was over by the record player, looking at the songs on Sandy's records, and Sandy was trying to convince Mitch to go ask Gail to dance.
"She likes you!" Sandy argued.
"No she doesn't," Mitch said, "she just sees me as the best friend. I can't ask her do dance, she'd never dance with me."
"You'll never know unless you ask," Sandy said. Mitch just shook his head.
"Listen to me Mitch," Sandy said, "you and Gail are closer than anyone I've ever seen. Hell, she's spent the night at your house pretty much every weekend since you were five. Trust me, she likes you back. But you need to make the first step, because if I know Gail, she's too shy to."
"Ok," Mitch said, nodding, "I'll do it."
Joey was struck with a memory that she had overhead Mitch talking about. "I have an idea," Joey thought, "why don't you ask her if she'd like to go for a boat ride down the creek. It's a perfect mood, and you can kiss her."
"That's a great idea!" Sandy said.
"I can do that," Mitch said, smiling.
"Oh," Joey said, reaching in her pocket and pulling out Chapstick, "don't forget this."
"Thanks" Mitch said, walking off to go talk to Gail.
"Mission accomplished," Sandy said to Joey. They both laughed.
Sandy looked around. "Now where is Johnny, I saw him enter."
Sandy and Joey started looking around for Johnny. Joey heard Sandy gasp and start to cry. Turning her head, Joey saw Johnny kissing Judy Collins in the corner. Just then, Judy turned and gave Sandy an evil smile.
Sandy rushed off into one of the rooms in the house. Joey didn't know what she was going to do. That's when she noticed Jack Potter, her future dad, looking after Sandy sadly.
"You like her," Joey said, walking up to Jack. Her looked startled at her.
"Like who?" he said nervously.
"Like my mo- Sandy." Joey said, correcting herself.
Jack sighed. "Is it that obvious?" he said.
"No," Joey said, "I'm just very perceptive."
"Yeah," Jack said, "I do, a lot. But she's too hung up on Johnny."
"I don't know," Joey said, playing matchmaker, "I think she kind of has a 'thang' for you."
"You think?" Jack said, brightening.
"Oh yeah," Joey said, smiling, "and the best thing you can do is go comfort her now. She'll see what a great guy you are and everything will work out. Trust me, I know."
"Thanks!" Jack said, "You're really great Joey, it's amazing that no one's snatched you up yet. Although I would be careful. Jinx has been giving you the eye. Granted, he gives every girl the eye, especially Miss Jackson, the English teacher."
Joey laughed. "Yep, he sure is another Pacey." Jack gave a a 'who?' look, and Joey just shook her head and said, "Nevermind."
Sandy sat in her room, crying and listening to "It's my party." The song jsut completely fit the situation.
"Nobody knows where my Johnny has gone
But Judy left the same time
Why was he holding her hand
When he's supposed to be mine?
It's my party and I'll cry if I want to
Cry if I want to
Cry if I want to
You would cry too if it happened to you."
Sandy heard someone come inside. Thinking it was Joey, she said, "Men suck."
"I don't know," Jack said, "There are some good guys out there."
"Jack!" Sandy said, surprised, "I thought you were Joey."
"Actually Joey sent me in here," Jack said.
"She did?" Sandy said, "Oh. Jack? Why are men such jerks?"
"Well," Jack said, "not all of them are. Some of them, example, Johnny Morgan, are just controlled by hormones. Others, example me, are just nice guys. Unfortunately," he said, sighing, "the girls tend to go for the guys with enough hormones to last them a lifetime."
Hugging him, Sandy said, "don't worry, you'll meet someone."
"I already have," he said, looking at her, "but I don't think she knows it yet."
Sandy didn't catch on. "Well," she said, "next time, I won't make that mistake. I'll go for the nice guy. If I could just find one who liked me back."
Jack hugged Sandy. "He's probably right in front of you. You just need to look."
"Yeah," Sandy said, looking at him thoughtfully. She had never noticed just how blue Jack's eyes were. Or how he always seemed to be sad. Or the way his hair hung right in his eyes. Or his lips. They were very kissable lips.
A stray strand of hair fell out of Sandy's ponytail. Jack reached over to push it out of her face. As his hand touched her face, Sandy noticed it's warmth and how it lingered on her cheek. The way it played with her hair, wrapping it around his fingers.
Sandy reached up to brush his hair out of his eyes. Moving her lips closer, she murmured, "you have beautiful eyes."
"Not as beautiful as yours," he said, making her blush.
"I'm not that pretty," she said.
"Yes you are," he said, "you're the most beautiful, radiant creature alive. I've just never told you that, I guess. I'm not good with words."
"There's a way you could say it without words," she said softly.
"Oh yeah?" he said, "how?"
"Like this," Sandy said, leaning forward and kissing him right on the lips.
Joey stood in Sandy's doorway, watching Jack and Sandy kiss. It was so sweet.
Someone cleared their throat. Joey turned around and saw Jinx Witter smiling at her. The resemblence to Pacey was uncanny, right down the the Julius Caesar haircut.
"Care to dance madamoiselle? We can dance anyway you like. Vertical or horizontal" he said mischieviously.
Joey just used the words that she had always said to Pacey. "Bite Me."
Joey suddenly woke up, aware that she had fallen asleep on her mom's grave. "What a dream," she said, rubbing her eyes. But how realistic it had been.
Looking at her mom's grave, Joey began to wonder if it was only a dream, or if it was her mom communicating with her.
"Nah" Joey said, shaking that thought off. She didn't go in for the whole spiritual hoopla.
Joey felt that familiar blanket of warm air around her. "Mom?" she whispered. The only thing that answered was the night wind, shaking the buds on a tree. That was all the answer Joey needed
The End