The Freshmen by Erin Hayman Finished: September 7, 1997 E-mail: LuvAngst@aol.com Spoilers: None Summary: Scully takes a stroll down memory lane as she ponders going to her 15-year high school reunion. Rating: G Disclaimer: The X-Files and all its characters belong to Chris Carter, 1013 Productions, and Fox. I'm not making any money off this, and no copyright infringement is intended. All other characters belong to me. This story is loosely based on the song "The Freshmen" by The Verve Pipe. That doesn't belong to me either. Actually, not a lot does, except for these little creative bursts my mind commands me to write. Distribution: OK to post as long as my name stays with it. Author's note: Many thank you's to my mother and my sister for encouraging me to write. I wouldn't be doing this without them. I hope everyone who reads this enjoys it for what it is. Any feedback is appreciated (well, as long as it's not too harsh). BTW, check out my sister's X-Files stories (Frances Hayman). They're really great! Of course, I'm not biased or anything.:-) The Freshmen by Erin Hayman Scully's Apartment 9:00 P.M. Two days before her 15-year high school reunion Dana Scully sank into her sofa. In one hand she held a glass of iced tea and in the other, her high school yearbook. She heard the stiff binding pop as she opened the book and smiled to herself when she realized that the faint odor that drifted up to her nose was that one-of-a-kind high school smell: dirty lockers, old school books, and gym clothes. She flipped through the pages to locate her class. Ah, here it was. She stared at the title above the pictures. Freshmen. She'd absently grabbed her ninth grade annual instead of the senior class one that it had been lying by. Now she searched the faces on the page. All smiles, but that year had been anything but happy. She let her gaze drift until she recognized her own young face staring back at her. "When I was young, I knew everything," she told herself. "Never took advice from anybody." She sighed softly and felt the memories come rushing back. Freshmen year, the first year of high school, already hard with its new schedules and little-fish-in-a-big-pond mentality, was made even more difficult by things unforeseen by everyone, let alone the kids themselves. Scully, while still in the eighth grade, had once heard a relative foolishly remark that teenagers couldn't possibly have anywhere near the amount of stress that adults endured. Scully's class had proven the woman wrong. She began to think back over the year. One of the many thoughts that came to mind was that of her first serious boyfriend and the awful breakup that had followed their seven month relationship. She remembered the night it had happened. She remembered coming home and racing to her bedroom to escape the hurtful words that had been said. After slamming the door behind her, she'd noticed the roses he'd so recently given to her in honor of their seven month anniversary. She had knocked the flowers furiously to the floor and crushed them, baby's breath and all, into the fabric of her carpet. How could he have been so mean? She still didn't have the answer to that question. Other thoughts concerning that year followed, and she found herself pondering the death of a classmate. She remembered the girl being a basketball player, awkwardly tall and lanky with thin wispy blond hair. Although Scully hadn't known the girl well, she had talked to her on occasion, and she seemed nice enough. Janet, that was her name. Because of her own self-doubt, the girl had ferociously held on to a boyfriend who was far from faithful. Near the middle of the school year, Janet's boyfriend took a vacation with his parents. It was rumored that Janet called him three and four times daily to check up on him. Apparently the boy felt smothered, because the next time Janet called it sent him into a fit of rage. He told her to stop calling and get a life of her own. Devastated, the girl patiently waited her parent's weekly night out. Once they were out of the driveway, Janet opened the medicine cabinet and overdosed on her mother's Valium. The weeks that followed had been rough on the whole class. Janet's boyfriend endured the stares of his classmates, knowing what everyone was thinking and saying about him. He'd shed no tears at the funeral. Couple that with their last big fight on the phone, and he was now the cause of Janet's suicide. Scully would never forget the day that the stares became too much for him. Whispers and pointing fingers followed him down the hall. Suddenly, a wild look appeared in the boy's eyes as he tossed his books to the floor and yelled at the top of his lungs. "I won't be held responsible for Janet's death! It's not my fault!" A short time later they found him on the bathroom floor, sobbing like a small child. Ninth grade. It had been a year of transition, the year they'd taken their first steps on their journey toward adulthood. Some had traveled in packs, supposedly for protection. Others had preferred smaller groups of two and three. Some had traveled alone, and some hadn't survived the trip. Now, looking back on it, she wondered how they could have thought themselves so wise. Memories are strange things. Ordinarily they're associated with the mind, but it seems memories also lurk at the places where they originated. Scully wondered what other memories might come back if she went to the reunion or *who* might come back. After all, these people had known her at a time when she was just beginning to decide who she was. They'd known her before she became "The Enigmatic Dr. Scully" as Mulder so fondly called her. But, also, these were some of her first real friends and the people she had survived freshmen year with. She didn't know if the pros and cons would ever balance out. Scully drained the last of the tea from her glass and with an air of finality, shut the yearbook that lay in her lap. Her decision made, she readied herself for bed. Finis. Feedback, please! LuvAngst@aol.com