List of Strange Days at Blake Holsey High Characters - Vaughn Pearson

Vaughn Pearson

Born in 1987, Vaughn Pearson (Robert Clark) is the son of Victor Pearson and Sarah Lynch Pearson, both of whom attended Blake Holsey High before becoming scientists at Pearadyne Labs. His mother disappeared in an explosion at Pearadyne on October 4, 1987, and was presumed dead. Following Sarah's disappearance, Victor brought up Vaughn on his own. Whereas his parents displayed prowess in academic subjects such as science, Vaughn expressed more interest in sports such as football, softball and wrestling. Victor often pressures both Vaughn and the teaching staff of the school to improve Vaughn's performance in all of his subjects, and this may be one of the reasons that his father has almost always kept Vaughn at arm's length. It is unknown whether or not Victor knows that Vaughn suffers from dyslexia.

Vaughn develops into a popular male student at Blake Holsey High, but also something of a bully, making snide remarks in passing about members of the Science Club in particular. Following the arrival of Josie Trent at the school in 2002, Vaughn accidentally peeks at Josie's journal, which mentions suspected wormhole activity on the school grounds, as well as the accident at Pearadyne labs that killed Vaughn's mother. Vaughn informs his father of this, who orders Vaughn to steal Josie's journal and bring it to him. Vaughn reluctantly does so, but it is stolen out of his bag by the Janitor.

Victor then asks Vaughn to join the Science Club to spy on Josie and the other students, and report back to him. Vaughn initially does not like the idea of being a member of the Science Club at all, much less to spy on his classmates. He eventually warms to the Club as he witnesses the interesting consequences of life on top of a wormhole, which he would not have been aware of otherwise. His participation in the Club's activities and discussions, as well as friendships with each of its members, boost his self-esteem.

Longing to learn more about his mother, Vaughn travels through time, using the wormhole, to 1977, followed by Josie. There, Vaughn meets the future Principal Durst, as well as his parents as teenagers, before they met each other. But when he takes something to remind him of his mother, he accidentally creates a grandfather paradox and changes the course of history, as Victor would never meet Sarah, and Vaughn would never be born. Vaughn returns to normal reality when Josie is able to set everything right.

Though he continues to relay conversations that took place in the Science Club, Vaughn develops a friendship with Lucas Randall, as Vaughn admits that he envied Lucas and Marshall Wheeler being roommates. In a show of friendship, Lucas gave him cheat codes to a computer game that they play. Vaughn manages to keep his conflicting feelings about his father and his friends to himself until they manifest as a series of storms directly above his head. As the Science Club come to realize that he is hiding something, Vaughn is forced to admit that he had stolen Josie's journal and told his father about their conversations. Lucas never fully trusts Vaughn again.

Vaughn and Lucas come to a better understanding of each other's lives, however, after they switch bodies as the result of one of Lucas' experiments. They discover and deal with each other's strengths and weaknesses until Marshall and Professor Z fix the device that caused the problem and switch them back. While in Lucas's body, Vaughn is finally able to read easily, without having dyslexia, and shares a kiss with Josie in a scene from Romeo and Juliet.

Vaughn's relationship with Josie later elevates above the platonic level. After a date with Josie, Vaughn insists to his father that Josie is not a threat to him, but Victor reveals the floating Chi Ball, saying that Josie wants it. Vaughn cancels his next date with Josie to learn more about the ball, but Josie uses her time-slowing stopwatch to allow her enough time to switch the floating Ball with the ordinary one from her room. This brings tension and distrust between Vaughn and Josie, as well as the rest of the Science Club (and especially Lucas), as Vaughn neglected to tell them about the Ball. Josie does not learn until her series of "waking dreams", which happen to be Vaughn's memories, that Vaughn was defending her when Victor had showed him the Floating Ball. By that time, Vaughn has moved out of his dormitory and back into his home. He is, however, able to convince Lucas to come back to the Science Club.

On October 4, 2004, the anniversary of the Pearadyne accident, a device comes through a wormhole in the sky and lands on the grounds of Blake Holsey. The device opens when Josie touches it, and is activated when Vaughn touches it. It contains a holographic message from Vaughn's mother, that can only be played when a pendant that she had left for Vaughn shortly before her disappearance is placed in it. Vaughn persuades his reluctant father to give him the pendant without telling him about the device. In her recorded message, Sarah Pearson reveals that she is still alive, and instructs Vaughn to leave the pendant in the device so that she will know that he received the message. Josie suggests that the sender of the device may be an impostor, but Vaughn chooses to follow his mother's instructions.

When Josie is about to leave the school following the disintegration of her relationship with Professor Z after his rapid personality change, Vaughn expresses his true feelings for her in order to make her stay, although it is comments from Principal Durst that finally convince her. Shortly after the problem is resolved, Josie and Vaughn learn that they have the same DNA structure; they both have left-twisting DNA, whereas it is supposed to be right-twisting. This leads to a brief paranoia that the pair of them are related, and they speculate that they may be the only two people in the world with that DNA structure.

Vaughn cannot stop thinking about the possibility that his mother is alive, and eventually begins to pressure Corrine Baxter, who was present at the Pearadyne Labs accident after being sucked through the wormhole, to give him answers. Friction develops between the two, which then causes them to be stuck together due to the strange forces at work in Blake Holsey. Vaughn and Corrine explore the old Pearadyne building, and Corrine recalls a brief encounter with Vaughn's mother. Shortly before her disappearance, Sarah had been arguing with Victor about the dangers involved in the experiment that will transported in the future, which threaten the lives of all the Pearadyne employees, including Victor. She tricks Victor into leaving her during the destruction of Pearadyne, and subsequently uses a device to erase Corrine's memories of what she saw and heard. In other words, she planned to leave her family on purpose, something that Vaughn did not know until that point.

Vaughn's sadness at the revelations about his mother lead Josie to consider that he might enter the wormhole to reach 1987. When Lucas' gravity sensor picks up wormhole activity, she assumes Vaughn has done this and follows him, only to find herself stuck in 1879. Vaughn and the Science Club members track Josie down and come to rescue her, but find themselves being pursued by the authorities. Vaughn allowes his friends to travel through the wormhole as he helps Blake Holsey prevent a police officer from entering the room. He dives into the wormhole at the last moment, and arrives in 1977, at a critical point in the history of Pearadyne and Blake Holsey High. Josie returns for him and they arrive home safely, but Josie made a headstrong decision to try to prevent the Pearadyne accident by stealing back the Chi Ball. When she returnes to the present, Blake Holsey High is deserted (and has been since 1987), and Vaughn and the other Science Club members are nowhere to be seen.

However, the regular universe continues without Josie. Vaughn develops a closer friendship with Corrine as his relationship with his father falls apart entirely. Broke, broken and despondent, Victor has lost everything, including, Vaughn thinks, his sanity. Bitter at all the lies, secrets and manipulations of their mutual past, Vaughn turns on his father, and is vulnerable to Andreas Avenir's promise to find Sarah if Vaughn will bring Avenir the Chi Ball. Vaughn is finally reconciled with his father after Josie returns to defeat Avenir, bringing Sarah home in the process.