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The next morning Claire woke up to find JJ was gone. She did find a full glass of water and small note on her bedside table though that he'd written on explaining he'd left to let her rest alone. Claire would be lying if she said she wasn't a little disappointed, but she appreciated that he stayed the night. At the thought of him, she looked down at the shirt she wore to bed and smiled to herself, remembering clearly the night he left it here. She'd just forgotten about it until now.

When Claire stood up, her entire body ached. She felt her neck and it was still swollen, worse than last night, and she new there was no way she could leave her room without having to explain. She took a sip of water from the glass and winced as it hurt to swallow. She placed the glass back on the table and decided that today, she wouldn't do a single thing. After the last however many days of non-stop moving and running from danger, Claire's exhaustion seemed to have finally caught up with her and, with the added pain of her neck, she simply crawled back into bed and went to sleep.

After a couple of hours, Claire woke up and felt so much more refreshed than she had before. She was still tired and her body still ached, but a few extra hours of sleep was just what she needed. She got changed and grabbed her makeup kit before sneaking out of her room and into the bathroom so that her mother wouldn't hear her. She quietly pulled out her foundation and brushes and started to apply the product as best she could to cover up the  bruises. It only took her a few minutes, and there were only faint traces left in different spots. Claire concluded that if her mother did notice and ask, she'd blame it on hickies.

Luckily, Jackie was nowhere to be found.

Claire assumed she was probably out with the real estate woman and avoiding Claire after their argument yesterday.  The brunette didn't mind of course, because for the first time in forever she had the place to herself.

As she wandered the house, tidying up things along the way, she came across her mother's bedroom. Jackie always had the door locked shut when she wasn't in there, to keep everyone out–Claire included. She never understood why, but she figured it was because of her father and that most likely all of his stuff was still in there, packed away in the back of the closet. But this time the door was unlocked and ajar. Claire walked into the room and wasn't surprised to see what it looked like now. Compared to hers, Jackie's was bland and sad. There weren't any picture frames of any kind on the walls, the bed covers were an ugly shade of grey and the closet was only half full, with a few suitcases lying on the ground beside the bed, actually filled with stuff.

Claire scoffed. "Of course she's started packing already." She muttered to herself.

The sight of the room made the brunette wonder what happened to the woman she used to once know as her fun-loving, carefree, happy mother. Instead, what she saw in front of her was a room that belonged to a stranger. Someone who had shut herself off from the world and spread every bit of sadness inside of her with the whole room. Claire understood that her mother was still hurting, but she also knew that running away from your problems never solved anything and that's exactly what Jackie Hastings was doing. She was running.

Claire closed her mother's door and went back to her own room.

If there was one thing she would never do, it was to become like her mother.

➸

Later on that afternoon, Kie came over unannounced and barged into her house without knocking. Claire was definitely surprised to see her.

"Hi?"

"Hi. Come on, we're going to mine."

"Why?"

"Well, as a close personal friend of my family, you're invited to Midsummers." Kie explained. "And if I have to endure that Kook festival, so do you." She added.

"I appreciate the invite but in case you hadn't noticed, I'm not exactly Kook party material." Claire declined, then looked down at her clothes and added, "besides, I look awful and have nothing to wear."

"That is why you're coming to mine and we're gonna get ready together. I will help you cover the marks as best I can, although it seems like you've covered them well enough already, and you can borrow the dress I wore last year."

Claire raised her eyebrows. "How many times have you been to this event?"

"Too many." Kie scoffed. "Please come with me."

"Alright, alright. Let me grab some stuff. You're a Kook so you have power and I haven't showered in a while so I'm going to be using yours."

"Fine by me."

Claire grabbed the things she needed and still being unsure of her mother's whereabouts, she locked the house and off the girls went to Kiara's.

When they arrived, Claire instantly felt out of place. Kiara's house was so different to her own and the thought of stepping inside made her stomach turn.

"Your house is amazing. Why don't we hang out here more often instead of at the Chateau? You have air con and hot water." Claire said as they entered Kie's bedroom.

It was similar to her's except for the posters of rock bands from the 80's and the flyers for different animal-rescue related events. Otherwise, it was your average teenager girl's room.

Claire dumped her backpack on the floor beside Kie's bed and sighed.

Kie rolled her eyes. "If you wanna trade for Kook life, be my guest."

Claire chuckled. "Nah, it's too fancy for someone like me."

"The shower is down the hall there to the left. I'll get you a clean towel and I'll have a look in my closet for the dress."

"Thanks, Kie."

She grabbed her toiletry bag and made her way to the shower; Kiara handed her a towel and Claire locked the door, then she stripped and stepped in, turning on the water and letting the heat soak through her body. It was a relief and Claire hadn't realised she'd been longing for a decent shower until now. She felt bad for using Kiara's shampoo and conditioner but it smelt nice and her hair desperately needed a wash. When she'd finished, she switched off the water and stepped out, wrapping the towel around her body and quickly dried herself off before drying her hair.

A soft knock on the door came a few moments after and Claire unlocked it. Kiara opened it just enough for her to stick her arm through and hand Claire the dress.

"Found it, here you go."

Claire thanked her friend and took it. Kiara closed the door and Claire relocked it before slipping the dress on.

It was an ankle length, deep blue colour with a halter neckline and backless. Claire zipped it up and sighed as she looked at herself in the mirror. All of the foundation had washed off and now her bruises were once again visible. She ran her fingers along them carefully and felt tears prick her eyes as the feelings of Rafe's hands around her neck filtered through her mind. Even just thinking about it made her nauseous.

She looked away and picked up her dirty clothes and hung the wet towel over the shower door, before leaving the bathroom and making her way back into Kiara's room.

"Better?"

"Much. Thanks for letting me borrow this dress, by the way. It's beautiful."

Kie shrugged. "No biggie. You look way better in it than I did."

Claire raised her eyebrows. "I highly doubt that."

"It's true!" Then Kie's expression faltered as she noticed the bruises. "Holy shit...that bastard."

"Yeah...at least my voice is back. I was worried I'd have to whisper for like a week."

"Does it hurt to talk?"

"Sometimes. I think if I don't speak too loudly I'll be okay."

"Well, sit down and I'll help you cover it up. And then do the rest of your makeup."

"Okay. I don't want much though. Makeup is irritating to get off."

"Trust me, I know. But, as they say, beauty is pain."

Claire chuckled as she sat down in front of Kiara's mirror and let her best friend do her thing.

➸

"This is disgusting." Kie said as she looked at her Midsummers outfit in the mirror.

It was a long lavender dress with spaghetti straps, and her hair was done up in a neat bun with a flower crown on top and some of her curly strands hanging loosely on either side of her face. Claire thought her best friend looked absolutely stunning and was jealous at how she pulled it off without even trying.

"I know. It's just horrible." Mrs Carrera replied sarcastically. "I'm asking you to relax and go to a fun party."

"I look like a bourgeoisie pig."

"I think you look great." Claire said.

"You're biased."

"So? I'm telling the truth!"

"Will you please not worry about socioeconomic injustice for one night?"

"Mom, people not three miles from here have no power, no running water, and we're going to Midsummers. That's so tone-deaf."

"Honey, do you know how hard we had to work to get into the Island Club?"

"Yeah, mom, how could I forget? You had to grovel for like, ten years–"

"Twelve, and we also had to cough up a huge chunk of dough, and do you know why we did that?"

"To keep up with the Joneses?"

"No. So you could have the same experiences that I had as a child." Anna said. Claire felt a small knot in her chest at Kie's mom's words.

She hadn't heard her mother say anything like that to her for a long time and wished that just once, she would not act so negative and shut off and actually go back to the happy, bubbly mother she was before Claire's dad passed away.

"Honey, do you know what the Island Club is?" Anna asked.

"A factory farm for debutantes." Kie answered. Claire chuckled.

"It is a nice place, with nice people, where you can do fun stuff."

"With out of touch rich people, while the island sinks slowly into the ocean."

"Okay, I want you to put on your party face, Kie, if you wanna live."

And with that, Anna left the two girls without another word.

When they arrived at the venue, Claire was completely awestruck. She'd never been to anything like this before and felt even more out of place than she was at Kiara's. But, she plastered on a fake smile and followed the Carrera's through the crowd of fellow rich people.

They were all dressed in suits and different coloured dresses, some women even wearing head pieces that made them look like their outfits belonged in a costume shop rather than at a fancy party. Or maybe that's just what was expected at these kinds of things. After all, Claire looked just like them (minus the enormous head pieces–she simply had a flower crown on) and nobody even bat an eyelid.

Eventually Kiara dragged Claire away from the adults and the two girls walked over to where Pope was standing at the barbecue, sorting out food for the night.

"Excuse me, sir, do we have to shuck these ourselves?" Kiara asked Pope with a fake British accent. Pope turned around and stared at Kiara in awe. "Cause it might mess up my costume."

"We wouldn't want that now, would we?"

"That accent was bad."

"Yeah, it was. I was gonna let it go."

"I've never seen this many Kooks in one place." Claire said.

"I have. Last year." Pope said.

"We're in the lion's den."

"Exactly." Pope said, then a moment later asked, "Hey, have either of you heard from, JJ?"

"No. He'll be alright. He's got the survival instincts of a cockroach."

"What happened to JJ?" Claire asked. The other two looked at her and realisation spread across their faces.

"Shit! I forgot to tell you back at mine, Claire." Kie said. "This morning JJ was arrested."

Claire's eyes widened in shock. "What?! Why?"

"Deputy Shoupe came to arrest me for what happened to Topper's boat, but JJ took the blame to save my stupid ass." Pope explained.

"Oh god."

"I know. It's all my fault."

"No it's not, Pope." Claire assured him.

"Yeah, Topper almost killed you, remember?" Kie added.

Suddenly there was a round of applause and the three teenagers looked up to see the Cameron's entering the lawn.

"Here come Lord Capital and the Exploiters." Kie muttered. Claire chuckled.

"She's definitely gonna poke someone's eye out with that." Pope said, referring to Rose Cameron's spiky head piece.

"I hope it's mine so I don't have to look at it all night." Claire muttered, earning laughter from her friends.

As the night went on, Claire had never been more bored in her entire life. She'd spent a bit of time with Kie, but they somehow got separated and Claire ended up being hit on several times by several different rich guys–none of them remotely interesting to talk to despite them thinking so and only a handful were attractive. Of course, Claire had been thinking about JJ the whole time, and how attractive he would look in one of the tuxes. And then she started thinking about how much better this party would be if he was here with her. They could dance together,

When the guys realised she wasn't interested in hearing them talk about themselves, they left her alone. One more guy tried to hit on her but she ended up sculling her soda and excused herself to go to the bathroom. Claire was a little annoyed that Kiara had abandoned her for this length of time and all she really wanted to do now was go home.

But she convinced herself to persevere a little while longer.

When she came out of the restroom, she could hear all this commotion coming from the men's locker room, and went to investigate. She recognised their voices as she got closer and walked in on Kelce holding JJ yet again and Rafe appeared to be taunting him.

"What are you guys doing? Let him go." She said.

"Ah, if it isn't miss 'I'm-from-down-under'." Rafe said, using a British accent. "Your neck's looking a lot better by the way..."

JJ thrashed in Kelce's grip but Claire simply rolled her eyes. She was tired of feeling afraid of Rafe and was now simply at the point where she was just sick of his existence.

"If you're gonna make fun of me you could at least get the accent right, dickhead." She retorted. "Now let him go."

Rafe clicked his tongue. "Can't do that. I was about to play my shot until you interrupted."

"How unfortunate for you."

Suddenly the lights flickered on and off and Kelce let go of JJ. They all turned to see a security guard entering.

"Gentlemen–and lady–is there a problem?"

"Oh! Pardon me, officer. No there's not an issue. I just–actually yes, no, there is an issue." JJ stuttered. "Uh, we got a criminal trespass in progress here. Beep! Call it in, right? Blatant disregard for private property. I'm in violation of all kinds of shit, sir."

"JJ, what are you doing?" Claire muttered.

"But these young gentlemen..." JJ continued, ignoring her and fixing Kelce's bow tie.

"Don't touch my shit." Kelce said, brushing him off.

"...uh, caught me, sir, and they're about to take me away. And that's what you should do, escort me out of here. You got me."

"Come on." The guard said, taking the blonde boy away. Claire followed after them without a second thought.

"Alright, fix that tie, son." JJ said to Kelce, then pointed to Rafe, "you're lookin spiffy, too. You Powerpuff Girls have fun."

"Hey, Claire, forgot to mention that you're looking pretty damn hot for a Pogue." Rafe called out. JJ immediately released himself from the guard and ran at Rafe angrily.

"JJ, no!" Claire yelled.

"Hey, hey! Come here." The guard said, breaking up the brawl and dragging JJ away.

"You think I'm afraid of you, bro?" JJ asked Rafe.

"Come on!" The guard urged.

"Hey, safe travels back to The Cut." Rafe said.

Claire followed the guard and JJ out the door, flipping the Kooks off without even looking behind her.

"Bye, assholes." She said.

The guard continued to shove JJ out the door and Claire tried her best to keep up behind them.

"Hey, look, look, man, I can walk myself." JJ said. "I got legs. Can you see that, brother!"

"Claire, what's going on?" Kiara asked, immediately pulling her aside.

"I'm not entirely sure." She replied.

"I really appreciate what you did back there...let me just walk out by myself. Mr Dunleavy, I see you got your drink. Good, that's really nice of you." JJ continued on rambling. "I'm actually gonna down that." He downed the old man's drink without hesitation.

Claire stayed watch with Kie as the guard escorted JJ further away from them.

"Hey, it's okay everybody! Leave it to the men and women in uniform, huh." JJ announced, then started clapping. "Let's hear it for them! Rose! You look like Lady Liberty."

"Let go of him!" Kie yelled.

The place was silent now as everyone was watching the scene unfold.

"You can't just boot him!"

"Excuse me, ma'am?" The guard asked.

"I invited him here."

"Kiara, stop it." Mike ordered.

"I'm a member of this club."

Then JJ did the stupid thing and shoved the security guard, causing him to knock into a waiter with a tray full of wine glasses.

"Sorry about that." He said. Then turned to the girls and pointed. "Hey, mandatory power hour at Rixon's. You as well, Pope. Rixon's Cove. Let's roll."

Claire and Kiara stood frozen to the spot, unsure of what to do. Unlike Kie, Claire wasn't here with her parents nor was she a member and this was the perfect excuse she'd been waiting for all night to leave anyways.

"Alright, Kie, Claire, come on."

"You can't hang around these kids–" Mike started but Kiara cut him off.

"I'm sorry." Kie ran off, ignoring her parents protests.

"Thanks for inviting me, and also please don't fire me. Bye!"

Kie grabbed onto Claire's hand and the two girls ran down the middle of the green together, laughing as the adrenaline pumped through their blood. Claire let go of Kie's hand and jumped on JJ who had his arms wide open. He caught her and spun her around, both of them laughing. It hurt her neck to do so but in that moment she didn't care.

"Later losers!"

And just like that, the five friends abandoned the Kook's castle and headed to Rixon's Cove.

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Hi! Hope u enjoyed this one, midsummers is such a good episode so I had a lot of fun writing it haha