The Good Parts Version


Thank Yous: To Ep, SB, and Kaytee for reading. Sometimes I suspect they're the only ones.

Special Thanks: To Ep and SB for being fantastic betas. To Ep for the lovely banner.

Rating: If you're under 18 don't read this. I don't want to corrupt anyone's children.

Disclaimer: I don't own the characters. I don't own their past histories. That's all Stupin and Co. So don't blame me if you're repeatedly banging your head against the wall on Wednesday nights around eight. Or is that just me? Huh. I'm pretty sure any product placement, quotations, and songs will also belong to smarter minds. I don't even own the title of the story or the chapter names or the little quotations at the beginning of each chapter, which are merely signs of my devotion to William Goldman and my favorite story of all time, The Princess Bride. Don't give me that look...I didn't title the story "As You Wish" or "My Name is Inigo Montoya. You Killed My Father; Prepare to Die." And I was oh, so tempted.

Rant: This is really my way of venting over the thing I hate the most about this show. Namely, the belief that the people you were friends with in high school are the most important people in your life forever. I understand that crap coming from some hopeful teenagers, certainly I knew some that believed they would be friends forever. I'm sure I even wrote some stupid yearbook inscriptions to that effect. But, in general, it's not true. And none of the writers are in high school [unless they've hired someone new yet again] so they should bloody well know better.

Fortunately for me, I wasn't under that illusion so much. I went to two elementary schools, a junior high school, and two high schools, so it's safe to say I wasn't all that clingy with my friends. I had a few really close ones over the years, but mainly the only people I know for certain I'll love to my grave are blood related.

And the people I did expect to keep in touch with? A couple lasted for a few years of long distance correspondence. One didn't last past grad night. And this was the guy that drove me home from said party, the guy I was at several points in my life desperately in love with, the guy who spent a large majority of my high school years being my best friend.

Right now, I am actively in touch with one person from high school. Only four years later. And it isn't the person I expected to stay in touch with at all. We email and we actually see each other in person from time to time. That wasn't supposed to happen. But by the grace of whatever, I receive postcards from him whenever he takes a trip anywhere. And that's enough.

Really, you'd have to be pretty fortunate to even attend the same college with someone you knew from high school, and still damn lucky to maintain any kind of friendship with them once you get to college. Because, wait for it...This. Choice. Changes...Some Things. Not everything, but enough. So, when I call this fic The Good Parts Version, remember how overly optimistic I'm being.

Reality wise, Joey would end up working hard and doing fine. She'd get over her issues because no one would care enough to humor her. She'd be like my friend Emily. Who had this freak show of a mother. We all thought so, and we all predicted she'd choose a school as far away from her mom as possible. Well, by mid-semester freshman year Emily went to Europe to continue her studies. And her mother thought the East Coast was as far away as she could get. Ha.

And Pacey. Oh, Pacey. He'd end up working somewhere, probably just outside of wherever Joey was going to school. Because he can't seem to drop his baggage off the dock anymore than Joey can. Please, the whole Black Sheep of Capeside routine is wearing very, very thin. But some day, he might decide that it's okay to not like school. That it's not for everyone and joining the work force earlier than your friends doesn't make you dirt.

And I firmly believe that schmucks like Dawson would either suck it up or go home. And USC? The neighborhood alone would eat him alive.

Most of them would go through that first month of crying at night. My freshmen dorm was filled with the sounds of sobbing that first month. All of them would get over it. Hopefully. They'd end up graduating, some might get great jobs, some might have to struggle for awhile.

But notice how none of them would spend all that much time worrying about each other?

They might keep tabs, or their mother might keep tabs for them. Thanks, Mom. But it wouldn't be that big of a deal.

Well, I've rambled enough. So that does it. In the real world the only main characters that I believe would stay in touch are Andie and Jack. Because of that blood relation thing. And maybe Pacey would send some nice postcards to Joey.

But, since this fanfic wouldn't be much of a fic if it didn't include members of the show, their families, the hometown, and some similar strife, we'll all have to pretend that at least the majority of the group would care enough to still include each other in their lives...even if the codependency of it kills them all. So, here are the Good Parts. Meanwhile, I've got a really nice postcard from San Francisco to read. My guy's starting grad school. Aw.


 
 

Prologue
Part One
Part Two
Part Three
Part Four
Part Five
Part Six
Part Seven
Part Eight
Part Nine
Part Ten
Part Eleven
Part Twelve
Part Thirteen
Part Fourteen
Part Fifteen
Part Sixteen
Part Seventeen
Part Eighteen
Part Nineteen
Part Twenty-One
Part Twenty-Two
Part Twenty-Three
Part Twenty-Four
Part Twenty-Six
Epilogue