Who: Danny & Eliza Where: Scarlet Oak High grounds When: Shortly before the vigil and on
It had been over a year since Danny had set foot inside of Scarlet Oak High. The place that had defined him for four years. The place that probably defined him for the rest of his life. It was kind of pathetic to think about it like that, but it was true. Danny had always been the person who told people the truth, regardless of if they wanted to hear it or not. They said that turnabout was fair play. The also said that payback was a bitch. Danny, sadly, was realizing just how true the statement was. Clichéd or not.
Normally, he would not have gone back. Yes, a huge part of him wanted to turn back time and just be back to being that high school teenager who had almost everything that he could have ever wanted when within the halls. Like an invincible bubble of status. Status that he worked hard to gain and really had no right to. The high school ladder was so easy to climb… the college one was infinitely more difficult.
But he wasn’t at the high school for himself. Far from it. People who he knew had been hurt. People who he knew were missing. Some of them he barely knew. Some of them he probably didn’t really care all that much about. But they were still people that he knew. Danny kept his heart shielded from the world at large almost entirely to protect its true frailty. They thought it didn’t exist. Danny was frequently content with that. It was there, though. And it hurt.
His father did a little convincing in getting Danny to go back. It didn’t take a lot of convincing though. Tim merely had to point out that the whole thing was important to the town. And Scarlet Oak, for its many flaws, was still his hometown. That would never change.
Danny supposed that he could have parked closer to the stadium. Instead, he purposefully made it a point to start at the furthest point of the school. No, he didn’t wear a letterman’s jacket (though the thought had crossed his mind before he decided against it…). Each step brought back more than a few memories into his head. The one that was most vivid was his picture n the wall near the admin office. Alongside all the previous student body presidents before him, as well as the one person after him. Danny Montgomery would be immortalized on that wall… but outside of it? It was debatable.