Chapter Text
the soft whirr of a vcr filled the small living room of the palmer house as a staticky tv rewound what seemed to be sped up-scenes of Clueless. van definitely hadn’t been watching it for alicia silverstone. resting cross-legged on the floor in front of the box television in a pair of sweatpants and a spare school shirt, van palmer fiddled with the tape case and watched the screen blankly, waiting for it to stop flashing.
the house phone rang from the kitchen, and the teen was knocked out of her boredom stupor, huffing in an attempt to get up off the floor and shuffle through the hallway in time to catch the answering machine.
click. “uhh, palmer house. this is van.” reciting the normal monotone, her droning voice filled the empty kitchen as she leaned against the wall, tugging her copper ponytailed hair tighter, holding the phone between her jaw and shoulder. it was 5 pm on a friday, van was betting telemarketers. or maybe it was the debt collectors, but vickie palmer had given van strict instructions to hang up immediately. this was 1996, they weren’t going to pay for caller id.
“van, hi!” the chirp of jackie taylor’s voice crackled through the phone. van prayed silently for a moment, hoping it wasn’t a three hour long gossip group call tying up all of the landlines in wiskayok. she wanted to at least finish half of Clueless before she started her shift that night.
“jackieeee… hi.” before van could even finish her greeting, the blonde on the other line was already jumping onto her next point of conversation. jackie had everyone’s number as team captain, but she rarely used it for logical soccer reasons- and tonight she had an agenda.
“okayyy, so! you know the drill, team has been invited to a house party tonight off of route 4 and vine street. where the stevens’ live? it’s some junior throwing the party but apparently there’s going to be beer pong and shauna, mari, nat and lottie are already going to be there so like-”
“jackie, sounds great, but i work tonight…so...” van cut jackie off, shrugging complacently as if jackie could see her. she could imagine the homecoming queen’s rehearsed speech that she had rattled off to each team member already, in her very pink bedroom with shauna sulking in the corner, listening in. van picked at her nails, absentmindedly focusing on the messy kitchen table.
“bummer.” jackie’s melodramatic tone paused for a moment, in thought- as if she was thinking incredibly hard on how to remedy this unfortunate situation. van waited.
“i mean, shauna’s dd-ing tonight because remember what happened last time?-” jackie giggled playfully, and van could hear a faint ‘shut-up’ called from behind jackie’s phone. rolling her eyes, she remembered when shauna had thrown up in someone’s house plant and cried about her parent’s divorce all night.
“any-ways, as i was saying.” dramatic pause. “depends on what time your shift ends, but one of us could totally pick you up from work. and by that, i mean shauna will. like, everyone is going to be there tonight. coach has already yelled at us for ‘lacking team camaraderie’ or whatever the fuck that means. we’ll miss you! just come, van!” jackie put on her very good pleading voice, and van crossed her arms, tying the phone cord around her wrist anxiously. she didn’t like being put into these situations, it was always as if she had to choose, and if she made the wrong choice? the team isolated her.
van wanted money for college. unlike some of the members of the wiskayok high varsity girl’s soccer team (buzz buzz buzz!), van was solely relying on that shiny gleaming soccer scholarship hanging above their heads, and didn’t have mommy or daddy’s money or a lifelong college(trust) fund to back her up. also, van wanted to work at the local video store. a lot. good money, free movies. perfect deal. she had applied countless times, but somehow never managed to have enough experience. so that meant not skipping work as a pizza delivery driver to go to a house party.
“look, i really can’t make it tonight. thanks for the offer, and i hope everyone has a good time, but i gotta save for college. i start my shift in like, an hour, so i really can’t talk.” van hurried her speech, emphasizing the need to get back to her movie.
“you suck majorly, palmer. we really could have used your mixtape for this party.” jackie whined, but her line crackled in and out as someone else was trying to reach the taylor’s phone.
“oh shit. gotta go. anyways, have fun with the pizzas, buzzkill. if you change your mind, the address is-”
jackie’s line clicked, and cut off. someone had picked up the phone downstairs. van sighed with weighted relief and hung up, chewing her bottom lip. jackie taylor made van anxious, and not in the good-pretty-girl-gay-panic way. it was in the acid reflux and premature wrinkles kind of way. address or not, van wasn’t going to that party. okay, it meant no beer keg or possible illicit substances, but this wasn’t Dazed and Confused.
padding back to the tv in colorful socked-feet, van messed with the buttons on the vcr machine.
fuck. the car didn’t have gas, because van’s mother had decided to go out the night before, to god knows where. now van wouldn’t even have time to watch her god-damned movie. letting the tv play in the background quietly, van unfolded her work clothes to the sound of Supergrass’s Alright faintly wafting through the room from a movie scene.
grabbing her car keys from the kitchen table piled with dishes and empty beer cans, van’s head whipped around to the tv.
“tai! move in closer.” Clueless. cher was calling to her friend, the character, tai.
but van only had one other certain tai on her mind. wondering if taissa turner was going to that party later tonight, van fiddled with the keys in her palm, watching the screen for the other-tai to appear. jackie didn’t say anything about tai going, but that didn’t mean she wasn’t…
ugh, whatever, they weren’t even that close. but, they did talk during 3rd period american history when van couldn’t finish that project on gettysburg before the soccer team’s away tournament a month or two back. tai, in support of the team, helped van with it during study hall. van, spent the entire time studying taissa’s hair. she sat behind taissa on the bus ride all the way to the hotel that weekend, next to a hungover natalie.
van stared at tai’s hair again. she hoped they were roomed together. they weren’t.
closing the front door and locking it with a forceful shove, van grunted as she nearly broke the handle. piece of shit house, she never understood why she was locking the door in the first place. if someone came to rob them, all they were going to find was overdue bills, empty beer cans and van’s meager collection of used vhs tapes and cassettes. standing on her sinking front porch, van sighed heavily and swung her car keys around her fingers. 5 hours, and she was done.