The Best Friends You'll Ever Have | 7: Reconnected

[luxken27]

Chapter Title: 7 | Reconnected
Prompt: #080 – Party
Universe: Post-canon
Genre: Friendship/Romance
Rating: T
Warning: Language
Word Count: 4,450
Summary: Stacey and Sam are reconnected in a most unexpected way on the eve of his senior prom. Prequel to ‘Rekindled.’

Links: FF.net | LJ | DW | AO3

I seemed destined to write a prom scenario in each of my fandoms, and I must say - I think I'm growing tired of it.

There was so much interest in the little universe I'd created with ‘Rekindled’ and ‘Reunited’ that I decided to dig a bit deeper into it. I hadn't planned on this, so it took a couple of readings for me to find the openings I'd left - but this was one of them: Stacey becoming Sam's last-minute date to his senior prom. The idea intrigued me, even when I wrote it as a one-off line, and it wasn't too difficult to dream up a scenario to fit it.

I think I'm just growing weary of treading in the same territory. LOL - good thing the prom storyline is still quite a ways away in Stacy in Bloom! There's going to be a little variation on the them over there, though, so I'm not too worried.

Here, though, I faced a new challenge. I actually wrote ‘Reunited’ first (the last in the series), then ‘Rekindled’ - and now, ‘Reconnected’, which takes place about a year before the events in the last piece! Now, not only did I have actual canon staring me in the face from one end, but my own in-universe structure coming at me from the other side. It was a bit tricky to flesh it out, and I'm still not sure I did it to my satisfaction, but I'd been sitting on this for a couple of months, and decided - to hell with it, it's not doing anybody any good just sitting in my notebook, LOL.

In this piece, we go back, filling in a bit more of the gap between the end of eighth grade and the ex-BSC members' reunion in eleventh. I've put Stacey with The Group from #70 Stacey and the Cheerleaders, because those were the first girls that she ever really showed interest in joining - and book #70 is the beginning of Stacey's rebellion from the BSC. Perhaps in part because of the amazingly excellent sl_action RPG, Corinne Baker is forever linked with Gretchen Wieners from Mean Girls. It's been awhile since I've seen that film, but I do remember Regina George, the leader of the Plastics - a little bratty, a little airheaded, and a whole lot of MEAN. That's who Corinne grows up to be, with a little bit of Gretchen mixed in, LOL.

Anyway - in Stacey's quest to become one of the popular people, she falls in with that old, judgmental, professional grudge-holding crowd...and she doubts herself a little bit. She misses the stability of the BSC years, even if she ultimately still finds her former friends to be a little less mature than she prefers. Still, the end is in sight - popularity is just within her reach, and she'll have a shining moment in the sun before her diabetes brings her crashing back down to earth - so she sticks with it. She puts up with Corinne's bullshit, even if she doesn't like it.

I wanted to contrast Corinne with Kristy, who I think is the most difficult member of the BSC. She's loud, brash, tactless, and she can really let her mouth get away from her. She can hold a grudge, too, and I can completely see her being steamed if Stacey had the audacity to quit the club again (even if she was merely the first one to do what the rest of them had been thinking all along), and following through on her vow never to speak to her again. Kristy will always be able to forge her own path, of that I have no doubt. But even if she resents someone, she's able to put aside her pride and anger in order to be civil. I don't think Corinne is that big a person.

So here, we have the very awkward and uncomfortable meeting between Kristy and Stacey. They're both upset and walking on eggshells around each other because of the demise of their BSC friendship. But what I wanted to make clear was the fact that Kristy was doing this out of love for her brother, not because she necessarily wants to mend fences with Stacey. (They won't talk again until the former BSC members visit Stacey in the hospital the next year.) Kristy cares enough about Sam and his personal happiness that she's able to set aside her grief and ask the one person she knows will have a positive influence on him to help.

Sam's backstory is actually fairly well fleshed out in my head, but I didn't want to digress too much in the fic itself. Suffice to say, he and Stacey were "on-again" when he met this girl and just fell head over heels, so in love that he was blind to everything else. We're talking, totally gaga mushy crazy, LOL. And in pursuit of this girl (named Andrea in my head), he lets his relationship with Stacey cool off. And she's okay with that - she respects him and his relationships, and doesn't make a big scene of being jealous. They've both had other people in their lives, even in canon, but their friendship endures nonetheless. That's what I like about them, so that's why I emphasized it here.

With every huge leap of faith comes the horrible crash back to reality, but I played it subtle here for a reason. I wanted the scene between Kristy and Sam to feel poignant, but not overdone. Kristy is intensely loyal and fiercely protective of those she loves, and I don't think her older brothers are any different than her younger siblings in that regard. Hence, allowing him to lean on her when he's feeling vulnerable.

Speaking of younger siblings - the final scene at the house went through quite a few last-minute changes, LOL. What was the point of having them meet at the Thomas-Brewer mansion, when chances were they wouldn't be able to meet alone? So I just invited the entire family (minus Charlie, who's safely tucked away at college :P). Karen would be nine in this piece, Emily Michelle about four, so I think they'd still be a perfect fit for the whole princess fantasy - and Karen's imagination would be plenty big enough to carry her right off into her own version of the prom, with her brothers as convenient, if reluctant, playmates. I was really pleased to receive a compliment on how I portrayed this final scene with all the extra kids, because I wasn't sure how well it would go over - I don't particularly like Karen, but I tried to do her justice nonetheless :)

And, of course, the final scene with Sam and Stacey, were one look and the promise of a magical night is enough to bring all their romantic feelings rushing back to the surface. They're both damaged, and maybe second-guessing some of the choices they made over the last couple of years, but when it counts and they're together, their love for one another is what rises to the surface :) I alluded to the idea of them having a sexual relationship in their past in the first two fics of this universe, and I leave it as an exercise to the reader to decide just when and where that all started... :)

There will be one more story in this universe before I move on, and it will be a prequel to this piece - from Stacey's ninth grade year, and Sam's eleventh. I'm not sure it'll be first person POV as the first three were, considering it's more of a Sam piece than a Stacey piece, but we'll see. I'm steadily moving down my list of Stories to Finish, and hopefully, that one will be sooner, rather than later :)