Disclaimer: I own Clarissa and her various friends. Everyone else belongs to Sutter. Also, no songs or movies in this story belong to me.

Author's Note: Just a few quick things. Clarissa is (was?) Thomas's twin sister. She's six years younger than Jax, which makes her eighteen at the start of this story. I don't think we ever get Juice's exact age, but I'm guessing him to be have been born somewhere close to Jax and Opie, so I put it at 1980. Just so there's no confusion.

And I'd give up forever to touch you

Because I know that you feel me somehow

You're the closest to Heaven that I'll ever be

And I don't wanna go home right now

I'll I can taste is this moment

And I'll I can breathe is your life

And sooner or later it's over

I just don't want to miss you tonight

And I don't want the world to see me

Because I don't think that they'd understand

Where everything's made to be broken

I just want you to know who I am

- The Goo Goo Dolls

June 2002-

"Mom's looking for you." Jax Teller said to his younger sister, Clarissa, as soon as she pulled up. "And she is pissed, Ris."

"Fuck." Clarissa flicked her cigarette butt out of her car window. "Fuck. Fuck."

Jax shrugged. "Something to do with blowing off your morning shift…" He said it with a hint of a grin.

"Shut up." She told him as she climbed out of the car, a red Mustang her Mom and stepdad had gotten her for her sixteenth birthday two years before. "I slept through my alarm, okay? I didn't even get to have my run."

Jax held up his hands. "I'm out of it." He said. "All I know is that you were supposed to be here over an hour ago. And you look like shit, by the way."

Clarissa rolled her eyes, the exact same blue as Jax's, and pushed her light blonde hair out of her face. She realized she wasn't exactly looking tip top that morning. She'd been out with her friends the night before and had poured herself into bed a little after 3:00. She was supposed to be up at 8:00 for work…but that hadn't happened.

"Clarissa Rochelle!" She sighed as her mother shouted her name. "Where the hell have you been?"

"I slept through my alarm, Mom." She said, walking into the bay area of the garage. The other guys, her stepdad included, dropped their heads and busied themselves with whatever they were doing. No one wants to be on the wrong side of Gemma Morrow. "I'm sorry."

"You're sorry?" She asked. "You were supposed to be here an hour ago to show the new Prospect what to do with the computer systems!"

"I'm sorry!" Clarissa repeated a little louder. "Shit, what do you want me to do?"

"Get your skinny ass in there and help him!" Gemma said.

Clarissa sighed and pushed her way through the door. There was a guy sitting at the desk. He looked up at her when she came in.

"You the new Prospect?" She asked, tying her long hair back. He nodded.

"Yeah. I'm Juice."

"Clarissa." She replied in like. He nodded again.

"I know. I mean," He faltered a little at her raised eyebrows. "I've seen you around. You run track at the high school, right?"

"I did." Clarissa said. "I graduated last month."

"Oh." He looked back at the computer. "So you're eighteen?"

"Yeah…why?"

He shrugged. "Just wondered."

They worked in silence for a bit. She snuck a look at him out of the corner of her eye. He was cute, she thought; with that short cut mohawk and those big brown eyes. She cut her eyes away from him when her mother banged back into the office.

"You too hungover to help him?" Gemma asked. Clarissa shook her head.

"I'm not hungover, Mom." She said. It was a lie and they both knew it. She had the hangover from hell.

Juice dropped his head and acted like he couldn't hear them.

"You told me you weren't going to drink, Ris." Gemma said. "That's what you said when Summer picked you up last night."

Clarissa sighed. "That was the plan."

"And when exactly did the plan go off rails?" Gemma asked. "Jesus Christ, Clarissa, you're barely eighteen! You want Hale or one of those other yay-hoo's to slap underage drinking on you?"

Clarissa looked up at her. "I started drinking when I saw Chris come in with his new skank, okay?"

Her mother's face changed when Clarissa mentioned her ex-boyfriend. She glanced at Juice. "You. New kid. Out." She jerked her thumb towards the door.

He nodded. "Yes, ma'am." He left quickly as Gemma pulled his vacated chair up beside her daughter.

"Oh baby." She said. "Why didn't you just tell me?"

Clarissa shrugged. "You didn't give me much of a chance."

Gemma tucked a stray piece of hair behind her daughter's ear. "Did he see you? Chris, I mean."

"Yeah." Clarissa said. "And he made sure I saw her. Tiffany or Britney or whatever the fuck her name is. And that's what I don't get. We broke up in March. He didn't want to be with me anymore, okay, I get that. But why does he have to flaunt these bitches in front of my face every chance he gets?"

Gemma sighed. "Because men are assholes." She said simply. "And him knowing he's hurting you? Its making him feel pumped up."

"That's stupid." Clarissa said. Gemma nodded.

"Doesn't make it any less true, though."

"What can I do about it?" Clarissa asked.

"What you need to do is find a new fling of your own." Gemma told her. "You got any on the line?"

Clarissa shook her head. "Not really."

Gemma glanced through the window. "What about the new kid?" She asked. "Juice? He's cute."

"Mo-om! For God's sake, he's a Prospect."

"They all start out that way." Gemma replied.

"I just met him. I don't even know him." Clarissa told her. She didn't mention that he apparently knew her, though.

"Do you think he's cute?" Gemma asked. Clarissa shrugged.

"He's okay, I guess." She stared at her mother. "What's with you trying to push this guy on me?"

"I'm not trying to push him on you." Gemma replied. "It was just a suggestion. Don't get your panties in a knot."

Clarissa laughed. "Shut up." Gemma stood and kissed the top of her head.

"You know how much I love you, right?" She asked.

"To the moon and back." Clarissa gave her standard reply. It was something they'd been doing since she was a kid and it always made her feel better.

Later on that day, she was sitting at one of the picnic tables outside when someone tugged on her ponytail. She turned to see Clay and Tig.

"You want Tiggy here to beat the piss out of him?" Her stepfather asked. Tig grinned.

"I been wantin' to have a go at that little shithead for a long time." He said.

Clarissa shook her head. "Let it go. He's not worth it."

"Yeah, well, you might wanna tell you brother and Ope that." Clay said, nodding towards the two of them. "Because they're ready to wring the prick's neck."

"Shit." Clarissa sighed. "Did she tell everyone?"

Tig nodded. "Pretty much."

Clarissa let her head drop on the table. "Kill me now."

"Ah, don't worry about it." Clay told her. "None of us liked him too much, anyway. You can definitely do better."

She smiled. "Thanks."

He sat beside her, nodded to where the new Prospect was lighting a smoke. "What's your gage on him? The new kid?"

Clarissa looked at her stepdad in surprise. "Since when does what I think matter?"

He shrugged. "I just wondered what you thought of him."

She studied Juice from across the lot. He was talking to Chibs, who was his sponsor. "He knows computer shit, I'll give him that. And," She grinned. "He's pretty cute."

Clay rolled his eyes. "Not what I meant."

Clarissa laughed. "I know, I'm just messin' with you. He seems okay." She lit up her own smoke. "Did my mother put you up to this, by chance?"

Clay grinned. "Ask me no questions, I'll tell you no lies." Clarissa snorted and threw a wadded up piece of paper at him.

"Shut up."

Across the lot, Juice watched her laugh with her stepfather. Chibs lounged beside him, smoking.

"What's her deal?" He asked, nodding in her direction and trying to sound nonchalant.

"Clarissa?" Chibs spoke around his smoke. "Ah, she's a good lass. Real sweet, smart as a whip. Going to business school in the fall, you know. Probably gonna end up the boss of this whole garage before its all said and done."

"She, uh, got a guy?" Juice asked. The Scotsman grinned.

"Not at the moment, she don't." He replied in an offhanded kind of way. "She had one, up till a few months ago. Real asshole, he was. Treated her like shit. You lookin' in that direction, boyo?"

Juice shrugged. "Just wondering." He said, trying to sound flippant about it.

Chibs snorted. "Ah, she's not a bad way to go. Not much up on top, but she's got legs for days. Sweet lass, real smart." He said again.

Juice nodded. He was trying to act cool, but he was not about to admit that a very small part of why he was interested in the M.C. was because he wanted to get closer to Clarissa Teller. It probably wouldn't be a good idea to mention that, he thought.