Welcome to Trainwrecks: Season 2 (2005-2006)! If you haven’t read Season 1, please start there! Trainwrecks is a free-to-read fiction serial that follows a group of six Seattle-adjacent friends from the year 2004 to the year 2015. Join Luna Cruz, Sebastian Velasquez, Dimitri and Victoria Hale, Duke Kingston, and Jasmine Nolan as they stumble their way from adolescence to adulthood, falling in love, making mistakes, overcoming their pasts, and staying together through it all.
For series introduction, character profiles, relationship charts, and general orientation, check out the Table of Contents!
Season 1 Episode 1 | Previous Episode | Table of Contents | Next Episode
Dearest Diary,
Summer vacation is officially over. ):
But what a wonderful summer it’s been! Duke and Victoria got together and oh my gosh you wouldn’t believe how cute they are… or how cute they were for the two weeks they got to be a couple before Duke and his parents went to Hawaii. Victoria is going to see him tomorrow for the first time since he left and she is FREAKING OUT.
Top 5 Summer 2005 Moments:
Duke and Victoria became a couple!!!!! <3 <3 <3
Victoria and I went for a jog at the park and she almost passed out. And here I thought I was out of shape!
Seb decided to prove you can teach an old dog new tricks and now Precious leaves the room whenever we say skedaddle
Dimitri hid all of Seb’s underwear in the attic because he called him histrionic (I had to look up what that word meant and I totally agree with Seb on this one)
We went to the lake like five times because Duke wasn’t around to complain about it
~*~
September 7, 2005
“How do I look?”
Luna Cruz stood on her high school’s front walk, tucked under an umbrella that shielded only most of her from the ongoing rainstorm. The scale she’d stepped on that morning had cheerfully announced that she’d lost twelve pounds since starting her diet. She’d even gone down a pant size, which had necessitated her taking in her pleated school uniform skirt the night before. With her blonde hair dye freshly touched up, her hair experimentally curled at the ends, and her fingernails painted ocean blue, she felt ready to take on her sophomore year at Remington Academy of the Arts, Mercer Island’s private school for the artistically inclined.
Her friend Victoria Hale, however, was another story. She’d come scurrying from the castle-like school building where she’d been practicing with her piano tutor for the past hour, balancing an umbrella in one hand and frantically pawing at her hair with the other. Victoria was beautiful: green-eyed, frizzy brown hair, and tan skin wrapped in a prim and elegant package. But the morning’s rain was not doing her any favors. Her hair, which she usually styled to perfection, was expanding by the minute.
Luna did her best to help comb it into place. “Will you relax? I know you and Duke haven’t seen each other in a month, but I hardly think he’s changed his mind about you.”
Victoria batted her hands away, her teapot of a temper boiling over. “Of all the days for there to be a bloody downpour! It’s as if the universe knew I wanted to look decent and decided I could go straight to hell—!”
“There he is!” Luna cried, pointing to the large truck next in the parade of cars dropping off their uniform-clad classmates. The passenger door opened and shut quickly, and a moment later, Duke Kingston stepped into the glow of the truck’s headlights. Victoria let out a tiny squeak.
The Hawaiian sun had turned Duke’s skin dark brown again, and he’d tied his wavy brown hair back into a stubby ponytail. Whereas before, Luna would have rushed forward and thrown her arms around her best friend, she now took a step back so his attention could be wholly fixed on his fidgeting girlfriend. He stepped up onto the sidewalk in front of Victoria, who seemed to be at a loss for words. Rain slid from his umbrella onto hers. “Moon, look away for a sec,” he said.
“Hmm? Why?” Luna asked, only to gasp when he swooped down and kissed Victoria on the mouth. She’d promised herself she wouldn’t fangirl. She’d mentally prepared herself all summer so she wouldn’t make a big deal out of their relationship. But when the kiss ended, she released the squeal that had lodged itself in her throat. “You guys are so cute! I’m dying!”
Victoria covered her face with her hand. “Luna!”
Duke looked similarly embarrassed. “The hell are you two standing out here in the rain for? Let’s go.” But he didn’t start walking until Victoria did, and Luna, trailing behind them, watched as he took her hand and laced their fingers together. As Duke and Victoria’s official matchmaker, she couldn’t have been prouder. Her emotionally stupid best friend had figured romance out, and it had only required a couple dozen nudges on her part.
“So what’d you bring us from Hawaii, huh?” she asked as they entered the school and clicked their umbrellas shut.
Duke unzipped his rain-splattered messenger bag. “Your gift was too big to sneak in here, so I took a picture of it.” He handed her a photograph and Luna gasped.
“Is that a stuffed Ryo-ohki from Tenchi Universe?” she cried.
“It’s a backpack. You can store stuff in her body and ears. Mom’s bringing it after school so don’t leave in a hurry.” He pulled a small wooden beaded bracelet from his bag and held it out to Victoria. “This is for you.”
Victoria blushed prettily as she ran her fingers over the beads. “B-But I told you a postcard would be fine!”
He withdrew a postcard and handed that to her as well. “It didn’t feel like enough,” he muttered.
Luna clasped her hands over her heart as if she’d been struck by an arrow. “I’m sorry, I thought I was going to be normal about this, but I am so not normal right now.”
“Clearly,” Duke said.
Victoria slipped the bracelet on and tucked it under her shirt cuff. “Thank you.” She was smiling now, unable to contain her happiness, and Luna subdued another sigh. She’d known those two were destined for romance almost the moment she met Victoria, and now that the romance had arrived, she felt like all was right with the world. “I’ll have to get you something nice next time I go somewhere.”
Duke grinned. “Just get me a postcard.”
Victoria raised a threatening fist, and he flinched back, raising his hands in self-defense. “Dude,” a voice called out, “don’t tell me you guys are still on each other’s shit list!” Luna spotted Duke’s friend Marcus Flynn walking up to them with their other classmates Scott and Jeremy in tow.
“Actually,” she said, eager to be the bearer of good news, “Duke and Victoria have something to share!”
Duke slipped his arm around Victoria’s shoulders. “We’re going out.”
His friends burst into loud cheers and took turns smacking them both on the back. “Congrats, man!”
“Guess the flowergram worked after all, huh?”
“Shut up!”
“If he gives you any trouble, Victoria, let us know. We’ll set him straight.”
“If Luna doesn’t kill him first.”
Luna could see by the wild look in Victoria’s eyes that she was reaching her people limit, so she spread her arms out and wedged herself between Duke and the guys. “Alright, back up. Give the new couple some space. You can address all your questions to me.” She winked at Duke and Victoria. “See you two later!” And then she continued to shove Marcus, Scott, and Jeremy down the hall. “Move, people, move!”
“Aww, you’re no fun,” Jeremy complained. He was African American like Marcus, tall and thin with his hair done in cornrows. “Luna, you ain’t gonna be jealous now that Duke’s got a girlfriend, will you?”
Luna guffawed. “Why would I be jealous? I’m their number one fan.” She hooked one arm through Marcus’s and the other through Scott’s. Rain hit the windows lining the school passageways like thousands of tiny bombs. “I’ve got bigger fish to fry this year. The fall art exhibition, half a million AP classes, state testing in April…”
“Don’t remind us,” Scott groaned.
“And I’m having a belated quinceañera because Mom threw a fit when I told her I wanted to do a sweet sixteen instead. How am I supposed to convince a bunch of teenagers to dress up and dance—” Luna stopped talking and walking at the same time. Directly ahead of her, wrestling with a locker door, was a guy with long black hair pushed back with styling gel, an aquiline nose, and the most dramatic profile she had ever seen on a normal, non-Hollywood actor human being. “Who’s that?” she asked.
Marcus followed her line of sight. “You mean Patrick? He’s in the literature track, but he does theatre, too.”
“Isn’t he the guy who kept trying to rally people together for a poetry reading last year?” Scott asked.
Luna let go of him and Marcus and walked up to Patrick, her heart racing. He didn’t notice her, focused as he was on putting in his locker combination again. “Hi,” she said. “Mind if I help with that?”
His eyes met hers and heat rushed to her face. He was gorgeous. How had she never seen him before? Her hands fluttered in the direction of the locker door. “My locker was on this side of campus last year. They’re all kind of stuck, so you have to…” She slammed her fist into it and the door sprang open. “It’s silly, right? Like Remington doesn’t have enough money to fix them.”
“Right,” he said. He had the sort of smile where only one corner of his mouth lifted a fraction. “Thank you, uh…”
“Luna Cruz.” She stuck her hand out and he shook it once.
“Patrick Ashley.” His shoulder went up and down self-consciously. “Two first names. Weird.”
She snorted. “Nothing wrong with weird! I’m a regular freak of nature.” Oh my goodness, did those words seriously just come out of my mouth? The warning bell rang, saving her from her mortifying ordeal. “Maybe we’ll see each other around?”
There was that fraction of a smile again. “I hope so.”
Luna giggled and stepped around him. “Cool. I should… bye.” She turned and all but fled down the hallway. She had anticipated many wonderful things happening this year, had fallen asleep imagining the possibilities last night, but a boy had been the last thing on her mind.
And now Patrick Ashley was going to be the first thing on her mind for the next few weeks.
Author’s Note: Tenchi Universe is a harem anime series about a teenage boy who’s surrounded by alien women who are all in love with him. (That’s an oversimplification.) Ryo-ohki is a cabbit (cat + rabbit) who can transform into a spaceship.
Today is Luna’s birthday, and what better way to celebrate than with a premiere and a new love interest? Happy birthday, Luna! May this new year of life treat you well.
Excited for what comes next? Let me know about it!
The gasp I gusped when I saw this in my inbox today! Good to see you back :D
WELCOME BACK TRAINWRECKS I MISSED YOUUUU
Also happy birthday Luna!! And props to her for talking so casually with her brand new crush and establishing a positive first impression!! Luna got rizz!!! 🤣