Alone, Together - A Julian Casablancas fanfic

Chapter 1 - The Modern Age

The time is August 1994. The location is a bedroom in the village of Harrison, New York. A Grateful Dead poster hangs on a yellow and pink floral print wall in this room. Various 60's vinyl records are scattered all over the floor, which is covered in a mustard colored shag carpeting. All over the teak night stand are rainbow colored beads and bright headbands, each with its own pattern. The morning sun, breaking through green branches, shines through a white flower print into this room, rudely awakening its lonely resident.

Clementine Rosalie Decker, a junior at Harrison High School, lives in this room. The 17-year-old, nicknamed Clem by her family and closest friends, is the modern embodiment of a 60's flower child. She has always considered herself to be a flower child, despite growing up past the era.

Clem has lived in this same house since she was born with her parents, Simon and Marlene Decker, who are both devout Christians. They have always supported Clem's lifestyle without fully approving of it. She has two younger siblings, a 14-year-old brother named Russell and a 10-year-old sister named Justine.

This morning started off as every other school morning. Clem dreaded having to wake up for school. It was the first day of her junior year, and she was far from excited. She got passing grades in school, but that was the last thing she thought about. She wanted to be free from this small town, living in touch with nature. She wanted to get away.

None of the students there were like Clem, except her two closest friends, Aleks Harrington and Morgan Peterson. It'd been a whole summer since she'd seen either one of them, with Aleks visiting his mom's family in Russia and Morgan on vacation in California. The trio became friends in elementary school; Morgan's family moved from southern California next door to Clem and Aleks came to Harrison from Michigan soon after.

Clem struggled to get out of bed on this particular morning after the end of summer break. Her beeping alarm went off and the clock read the time. 6:30 am. She slammed her hand heavily against the snooze button and groaned loudly. Slowly, she crawled out of bed. One foot on the floor, then the other. She sat there and almost fell asleep sitting up in bed. Finally, she got the motivation to stand up from her mom banging on her door.

"Clementine, you better be up and at it in there!" Marlene called from outside the door.

"Yes, ma'am!" She answered back. Once she stood up, she began getting ready for school. Her biggest chore was brushing her long blonde hair which was still tangled from sleeping. She put on her favorite outfit, a floral flannel shirt and white flowing skirt paired with a brown leather belt. Topped off with her rainbow headband, she was ready to go.

She joined her family downstairs for breakfast by 7:00. Her dad, Simon, sat at the table reading his paper and drinking coffee. Like usual, Russell took one of Justine's bacon strips to his little sister's dismay.

"Russell, give Justine her bacon back," Marlene scolded from the stove. Russell refused at first.

"Russ, listen to your mother," Simon added. In this family, Marlene's word was law. Simon was more of a passive father. Russell finally gave his sister her breakfast back and she reveled in her victory.

"Good morning, Clem," Justine greeted her big sister.

"Good morning, Justine. Ready for the fourth grade, I see."

"Yeah, I guess so."

"Clem, come get your breakfast." Clem grabbed her plate and ate quickly so she could pick up Morgan and Aleks for their traditional ride to school. She ran back upstairs to her room and grabbed her school bag. It felt a lot lighter after not holding it for two and a half months. She bid her family good-bye and headed off to start another boring year at Harrison High.

"Long time no see!" Morgan said happily as she crawled in the passenger side of Clem's Toyota Vista. Clem's favorite band, The Beatles, blasted out of its stereo.

"Yeah, I know! How was the second half of your summer in So. Cal.?"

"Great! So many hot guys down there, I can't understand why my parents wanted to leave so badly. You?"

"Boring, as usual. No where to go, no one to see."

Morgan pulled down the visor mirror and put on her lipstick. Her parents had no idea she wore it. "What about Aleks? Where was he?"

"You didn't know? Aleks was off in Russia seeing his mom's family."

Morgan fluffed her brown curly hair and brushed off her yellow top. "Ha! Poor guy, I hope he knew a little bit of Russian."

Aleks' house was a five minute drive from where Clem and Morgan lived. He lived in a Russian style flat with his mother Claudia and step-father Vincent Folland. He still took the last name of his father, who died in a car accident when he was eight. Clem parked in front and honked the horn twice.

"Bye, mom. Bye, Vincent. See you guys later," he called before closing the door.The tall, lanky, black-haired teenager hopped down the high staircase. He opened Clem's back door and slung his forest green messenger-style bag in the back seat.

"Wow, not even a hello?" Morgan joked as Aleks crawled in.

"I was getting there, Morg. Hey, guys." He reached through the two front seat and hugged his best friends. "How have you guys been? It's been so long."

"Yes, it has. How was your summer abroad?"

"Great! I could barely speak the language, but it was good."

"We were just about to ask that." Clem joked.

"My family did most of the speaking for me. I'm going to learn it soon." Clem and Morgan laughed together. "What, what's so funny?"

"Nothing," Clem said, straightening up.

"You know, we joke around with you a lot, but we love you, Aleks." Morgan looked in the rear view mirror at their scowling friend. He could never be really mad at them.

Aleks scoffed. "Yeah, I'm sure you do."

The Vista pulled up in front of the school at 7:30, plenty of time to hang out and chat before class.

Aleks was the first to get out while the girls finished last-minute primping. He was always the eager bug for school. "Girls, you look very pretty. Now c'mon."

"What's the rush, Aleks?" Clem asked nonchalantly. "We still have half an hour before school starts."

"I know, but it can't start fast enough. Hey, don't we have a class together, Clem?"

"I think so, Biology with Mrs. Meyers."

"Awh, I got it with Mr. Kuttner," Morgan commented.

Aleks opened Clem's door to talk to his friends. "Don't worry, there's always fourth period English. We're all there together!" Aleks was far more excited about this idea than either of his friends. Both girls looked at him and rolled their eyes playfully.

Morgan opened her door to get out. "Alright, can't delay it anymore. Ready?"

"Yep," Clem answered.

"Ugh, about time," Aleks remarked as he moved to let Clem out.

About 800 students attended Harrison High, and about half of them were in the school yard now. Groups of friends squealed and hugged each other's necks after being apart for a whole summer. Because of it being such a small school, everyone knew each other quite well. There was, however, a new face at school - one that would change Clem's life forever, although she didn't know it yet.

A/N: This story is broken into five parts, all named after different albums by The Strokes. The page identifying the parts will give the basic information about the album to signal the change. These go in chronological order (this is part 1, "Is This It", and the story will end at part 5, "Comedown Machine"). Each chapter in each part is named after a different song in the album named to compliment the theme.