Chapter Text
Tara was always the smallest, even before puberty hit the friend group. She was tiny, and quiet. Not meek or shy like most people outside of their friend group usually believed, but she had always been one of those people who really only spoke when they had something to say. Given her nature, and small stature, Tara was usually never the center of attention, and Chad had spent most of his life never really considering her beyond the context of their social group except for when the occasion called for it.
The first such time was when they were eight. Mr. Carpenter was there one day and gone the next. It was all any of the moms in the neighborhood could talk about for weeks. Chad did not really understand what it all meant back then, but he remembered really only feeling sorry for Tara after a while. Sure, he had had a bit of a crush on her older sister Sam, but when Mr. Carpenter left and suddenly Sam and Mrs. Carpenter seemed very different from who they had always appeared to be, Chad assumed maybe he had been wrong about them all along. Maybe this is who they were, and that is why Mr. Carpenter left. It made Chad’s heart hurt even more to think that not only had Tara’s dad left her, but it was also Sam and Mrs. Carpenter’s fault. (He had no idea just how close to the mark he was. That is a secret he would not learn about for another 10 years.)
Five years later, Chad would once again spend a little more time than usual considering Tara Carpenter. This time around, her sister would leave, and Chad remembers not being particularly surprised by the latest turn of events. Sam had spent the last several years acting as though she hated herself, her family and anyone who tried to get in the way of her doing whatever she wanted. As far as Chad was concerned, if she hated being there so much, she should leave and pursue happiness somewhere else. It was a very simplified view of the situation, but to be fair, Chad was only 13 and had his own dreams of how cool life would be once he was 18 and did not have to listen to his parents. He does remember once again feeling sorry for Tara though because it must really suck to be left behind again. However, Tara seemed happier in some ways too once Sam left. Maybe it had something to do with the fact that her house was no longer considered a warzone. With Sam gone, Mrs. Carpenter had no one to square off with on a daily basis, and she threw herself into her work, leaving Tara to her own defenses. And when asked, Tara was always quick to point out that silence was better than what she was used to so she would pick being by herself over just about anything.
Another 5 years would pass, and Tara would become the first victim of a new Ghostface attack. Chad had grown up being very familiar with the tale of Ghostface. Not only did he live in Woodsboro, but it’s how his uncle was killed, long before him and his twin Mindy would ever get to meet him. Chad’s mom had spent his entire life grieving the brother she lost, and made sure the twins knew everything there was to know about him, and about the original attacks. Still, all of that knowledge and it wasn’t enough to save Tara from being victimized in her own home. All that knowledge and it wasn’t enough to stop Wes, or Liv or prevent his and Mindy’s own attacks. All of that knowledge, and it wasn’t enough to suspect, or stop Amber until the damage had been done.
Chad spent a lot of time after it was all over considering everything. His life up until that point, his relationships, and even his hopes and dreams were held under an intense microscope. Also held up to intense scrutiny was Tara Carpenter. As much as they had all suffered under Amber and Richie’s reign of terror, Chad could easily admit that Tara had gotten the worse of it. To be so viciously attacked in your own home by the very best friend who’s life you were trying to save, after having spent the last few years being abandoned by every member of your family, and then finally learning the reason why they had all abandoned you must have been a bitter pill to swallow. Tara didn’t carry herself like a victim though. She was determined to get back out there, and put her best foot forward. She wanted to be free, and live her life, and move on. Chad knew this was a coping mechanism, and not a particularly healthy one, but he’d be lying if he said there wasn’t some part of him that admired the determination.
He also admired a lot of other things as well. Learning her family secret, while certainly devastating, had seemed to free Tara in a lot of ways. She never said it, but Chad wondered if maybe learning the truth meant she no longer had to wonder if she had been to blame for the destruction of her family in some way. Chad wondered if that knowledge had freed her from having to hold herself to such impossible standards.
He also got to know her in a way he had never been privy to before. Before, he had always gravitated towards Liv or Mindy or Wes, while Tara had mostly hung around Amber or Mindy. Now, there was a lot of time for the two to get to know each other, both in terms of who they had been before Ghostface, and who they were becoming after. He hadn’t said it out loud to anyone, but Chad could admit to himself that after everything, Tara was his favorite person to be around. She didn’t ask him to open up about his feelings, or to share memories of Liv or Wes. She didn’t offer up any hollow platitudes, or lame jokes to try to get a reaction out of him; nor did she try to control his every move like his mom did, or like Sam did to her. Most of the time Chad spent with Tara was quiet; just two people sharing space while allowing each other to be in their own heads. And when they weren’t quiet, they spent their time doing what no one else in their lives would allow them to: talk about something other than dead friends or what had happened. Tara allowed Chad to feel a little less guilty about wanting an actual life one day.