The principal wanted to see Alex alone, but Kara insisted on staying with her sister, and the principal relented. Maybe Kara being there was OK because she was family, but Kara also thought he was intrigued that one sister would stand by the other, even after being publicly insulted.

As soon as the Danvers girls sat on the bench seat in the principal's office, he excused himself, saying he would be right back.

Kara heard him talking to a teacher outside of his office. The teacher expressed her shock that Alex was the "little bully bitch", especially after she had praised Alex yesterday in front of the class for her heroics. The principal said something about finding the assistant principal and some other teachers, and he wanted to get the superintendent on the phone. Kara guessed that she and Alex would be alone for at least a few minutes.

"Did they mention anything about mom?" Alex asked, knowing Kara was listening in. Alex was a nervous wreck.

Kara shook her head.

Alex sighed, "It doesn't matter. It's inevitable. What am I going to do?"

"WE will figure out something," Kara insisted, showing plenty of undue confidence. "We are not going to let Cookie win."

"OK," Alex said in a challenging tone. "What are WE going to do?"

Kara shrugged. "Why don't we just tell them the truth? The whole truth? I felt a lot better about what you did once you told me the whole truth."

"Didn't you hear what Cookie said?" Alex said, rolling her eyes. "She has pictures or us doing ... stuff, and who knows what else."

"So?" Kara asked innocently. "So what if everyone knows? Is it illegal or something? -Just because people call us sisters?"

"We ARE sisters," Alex said, looking down, looking devastated, tears flowing freely. "Everyone in the school would talk behind our backs. Or to our faces. That's all we'd ever be to them, ever! And what would mom say? What would she do? Maybe your cousin will take you away. This is all my fault!"

Kara didn't know what to say, so instead of saying anything, she leaned into Alex, like a cat seeking attention. Then she lay her head on Alex's lap. Alex stroked her hair. Kara felt a few tear drops fall on her face. After a minute, the tear drops stopped, and Alex's fingers stopped trembling.

"I can stop Cookie," Kara finally offered.

Alex's fingers stalled over Kara's hair. "What do you mean?"

"I can take her camera," Kara said calmly. "She'd never know it's missing. I can destroy her computer, so she can't post the pictures."

Alex thought about that for a moment, then shook her head. "It's not good enough. Cookie is too smart. She'll have a flash drive hidden somewhere that we don't know about. Even if we destroyed everything, something new would pop up. We'd be looking over our shoulders, whenever we touched. You don't know her. Even if we pretended to be normal sisters, she'd find some way to get back at us!"

Kara closed her eyes, soaking in Alex's gentle caresses.

Then she sat up and looked into Alex's eyes. "Well, I guess we just need to get something on Cookie, so she doesn't dare use what she has on us."

"What?" Alex replied, as if the idea hadn't occurred to her as well. "What did you have in mind?"

Kara shrugged. She hadn't thought beyond the obvious threat of mutually assured destruction. "You know her a little, right? She is so popular, she must have something about her she doesn't want people to know."

Alex wiped away her tears, as a glimmer of hope glowed in her eyes. She bit her lip in concentration. "I know her locker combination, but I bet she already changed that. That was the only secret any of us have on Cookie. She is really mean, but somehow she always keeps her hands clean. She got us to do the dirty stuff."

Kara furrowed her brow. "So we've got nothing? She never told you any secrets?"

Alex shifted through her memories. "Well, she did tell us that she once fantasized about making love to another girl, but I think she only said that to get me to confess my feelings for you. Then there was that time a boy got her drunk and then felt her up. She wouldn't want me to tell anyone that, but nobody would blame her for that happening." Then Alex's eyes opened wide in excitement. "Then she told us about another time she got drunk with some rich jock after a football game, and he took her out to a tattoo parlor. Cookie lifted her blouse and showed us the tat she got just above the bikini line. It is a small tattoo of the cookie monster salivating over a cookie, with the words "Eat me" on it. Her mom is super strict and she'd freak if she knew. She made us promise to never tell anyone about it, she was so embarrassed. That's why only wears a one piece bathing suit to the beach, if she ever goes there at all."

Kara smiled. "So all we need to do is tell her that if she shows anyone those pics of us, we'll tell them about her tattoo!"

Alex nodded. "I did promise not to talk about it, but I guess after what she did to me, well, nobody would blame me for, you know, breaking that promise."

Kara nodded and said. "Totally!"

Just then, the door opened, and the principal and his assistant entered the room. They did not acknowledge the two girls. The assistant moved a chair and sat beside the principal, who sat behind his desk and pressed a button on his desk phone. A dial tone sounded through the speaker phone, and then the principal pressed a bunch more buttons.

A pause. Two rings. Then a clicking sound. "Hello, Hank, hold on a second…" A few more clicking sounds, then the voice continued with a less clear, more echoey sound. "OK, go ahead."

The principal cleared his throat and continued. "OK, I have my assistant Katie here. You've met, right? And we also have Alexandra Danvers and her sister Kara."

"And she is the one…" the voice began on the phone.

"Yes," the principal jumped in. "Kara is one of the girls cruelly insulted by the list, though she is actually quite pretty."

The principal and his assistant both smiled at Kara, as if to apologize that anything so mean could happen at their school.

"I'm sure she is," the voice on the phone said impatiently. "But I was referring to the other girl. Isn't she the girl who saved the bus driver in that horrible accident the other day?"

"Oh yes," the principal said apologetically.

"Pick up," the voice came on the phone sharply.

The principal grabbed the handset, and said, "OK."

Kara heard a faint sigh on the phone handset, then: "This is not good, not after we've just praised her to high heaven on the news. This could blow back in our faces. Is there any way we can let this slide?"

The principal shook his head, as though the superintendent could see that. He said firmly, "We've had several complaints from parents about distraught daughters. Many students were there when we found the evidence in the locker. This isn't going away."

Kara heard another sigh on the handset, then, "Alright, alright! I don't want to hear any more distressed groups of parents complaining that we are doing nothing about bullying. But coming down hard on a local hero is not going to go well, either. OK, let me talk to the girl."

The principal switched the speaker back on: "OK, go ahead."

"Hello, Miss Danvers," the voice said more gently, with a tone often used when talking down to students. "How are you doing today?"

Alex was startled by the absurd question, so she replied with the absurd answer: "OK… I guess."

"I'm having trouble understanding how a girl such as yourself could be so hurtful to your fellow classmates. Can you give me any explanation?"

Alex looked down at her lap and paused. She wiped away a tear and hardened her face, preparing to face her judgement. She said, "No, sir, I can't."

Kara gaped at Alex. Had she forgotten what they had just talked about?

"I'm sorry to hear that," The voice sighed yet again, then talked as though practicing a press release rather than punishing a subversive student. "Ranking girls as a kind of beauty contest is so damaging to the self-esteem of the young women in our schools. But then grading girls on how unattractive they are is simply abusive. I have to consider the anguish of the twenty girls on this list that you have publicly insulted, including your own sister, I hear. Apparently, she is supporting you on this, but when push comes to shove, families tend to stick together, so I guess it's no surprise. Therefor, I see no other choice..."

"She was forced to!" Kara finally blurted out. She had tried to be patient and quiet, the way her family had trained her to be. She had waited for Alex to defend herself, but she couldn't let this go on any further.

Alex glared at her, but Kara wouldn't shrink away. Kara's eyes were turning fierce. She was not going to let Cookie get away with this.

There was a long, awkward silence, as everyone digested her outburst.

"Who was that that?" asked the voice over the phone.

"The sister," the principal answered. "Karen Danvers."

"Kara," Kara corrected.

"Well, Kara, what did you mean?" The voice asked with a tone teetering between impatience and curiosity. "How can someone be forced to offend 20 girls?"

Alex glared at Kara.

Kara glared right back at her, then she waved her arms, trying to urge Alex to defend herself.

Alex coughed and took a deep breath. "I wasn't exactly forced to do anything. But I didn't want to post the list."

"Is this Alexandra talking? Please explain yourself. If you didn't want to post this list, why did you, for goodness sake?"

"I was afraid of what people would think of me. I was afraid of myself," Alex said, struggling for the words.

"What were you afraid of?" the voice asked, now with a tone full of concern and almost desperate curiosity. Suddenly, Kara realized the superintendent must have a daughter. A daughter he didn't really understand.

Maybe he would believe the truth! she thought hopefully.

"I was afraid of my feelings for my sister," Kara imagined Alex confessing.

Kara would be surprised and relieved. She hated how deceptive people on Earth are. She hated that people wanted for her to tell lies, too. She had been urging Alex to open up and be honest.

Now, having stepped over the enormous wall of fear that had trapped her, she would run from the trap that had held her as fast as she could. She would confess just about everything, maybe even about Kara's true origin.

She would tell about how messed up she was when Kara was adopted. She would tell about how messed up she was when her dad died. She would tell about how impossible it was for her to admit to herself, much less to anyone else, that the flashes of jealousy and hate and confusion she had towards Kara were really just a deformed version of her love, after being beaten down and locked away deep inside, because the lies were internalized.

She would educate her rapt audience about bullies by telling how Cookie took her into her group of friends. She would tell of how Cookie found out about her insecurities and used them against her and against her other friends, and pressured her to post all of the lists and lies, and making her feel like she would lose everything if she didn't.

Then the superintendent would praise Alex for her honesty. She would receive an obligatory three hour detention, then the school would investigate Cookie and punish her and expose her so that she might never hurt anyone again.

But of course that is not what happened. It was a daydream that lasted for about five seconds. Only in dreams do people say what they really feel to strangers. Only in dreams do those strangers respond with sympathy and encouragement. Only in dreams can people dare to tell about things as they really are.

Instead, Alex stammered and said simply, "I was afraid of disappointing my friends. It wasn't my idea, but we all wrote the list, and they pushed me into taping it to the walls. Then Cookie was angry with me today for avoiding her, so she planted the extra copies in my locker...She has all of our locker combinations."

Kara was disappointed. What Alex said was true, but it left out so much that it felt like a lie.

The principal and superintendent were also disappointed. Kara thought the superintendent was hoping to learn something about how teen aged girls think. After all, he was charged with educating hundreds of young women. Instead, Alex told him the same tired old tale of cliques and backstabbing. So useless. So boring.

"The first thing we tell you in school is not to give away your combinations, but students never listen to us," the principal complained aloud, as though somehow the superintendent might blame him for what happened.

The voice on the speakerphone ignored his comment and asked. "Who is this Cookie person?"

The assistant principal finally spoke. "I, uh, believe there is a student named Cookie. In fact, I think she is on the list. But the person who came to me, telling me about the lists, was named Linda."

Of course she was, Kara thought, as she and her sister looked at each other. Cookie would never get her hands dirty.

The principal glared at his assistant. Apparently Kara and Alex were not supposed to know who accused Alex.

"We will talk with both these Linda and Cookie girls and find out where the faults lie. If they were a part of the creation and dissemination of these lists, they will share in your punishment, but succumbing to peer pressure is no excuse for hurting people. You have chosen their approval over compassion for the innocent and even over your own sister, so while I sympathize with the pressure you might have felt, I cannot let this misdeed go unpunished."

"I understand," Alex said with resignation.

"Good," the voice continued, then to the principal, "Pick up, please."

The principal switched off the speaker, and the superintendent continued talking in private (he assumed). "I will leave the investigation and the matter of punishment up to you , Hank. Be quick about this. Wrap it up tomorrow. No doubt gossip is already spreading throughout the school even now that school is out, thanks to texting and email and MySpace. We need to appear both strong and fair and decisive. Remember at least right now the only thing we have on that girl Cookie are the words of these two girls. The only thing we have on that other girl- what is her name again? - all we have is whatever she might have said to your assistant. We have good evidence against Alexandra, but need to consider her recent heroics. I don't know if we have the grounds to suspend anyone, but perhaps a combination of detention and a meeting with their parents would be sufficient. I will leave that up to you, but please keep me abreast of any developments."

The two men then considered the matter finished and went on to talk about routine school affairs, crack a few jokes, then said their long, drawn out goodbyes, while the Danvers girls waited anxiously.

The principal was pleasant and friendly while hobnobbing on the phone, but his attitude sank as soon as he hung up the handset.

He stared at Alex, appearing more upset than when they had entered the room. Apparently, he was not too happy about all of this work and responsibility suddenly dropping onto him.

"Well, I think that will be all for today. We'll pick this up tomorrow," he said while stretching his arms. He waved his hand towards the door, indicating that the girls should move along. "Just wait at the bus stop, and I'll have someone drive you home."

X X X

The girls were quiet, until they were standing at the bus stop, but Kara could see the arguments Alex was having with herself in her head. Alex's heart was pounding, her eyes were darting left and right, but the dark stare on her face was not of fear but anger.

"What do you think your mom will do when they tell her," Kara finally asked, not able to take the intense silence any longer.

Alex paused, then said, "It will be OK. She'll probably ground me for a week and yell a lot and tell me how much she is disappointed in me, but I don't think she cares very much about this sort of thing."

Then Alex stared like a laser into Kara's eyes and declared: "But that's only because she's never going to find out about us!"

"So we're going to threaten to tell everyone about her tattoo if she shows those photos?" Kara asked, remembering the plan they were formulating earlier.

Alex thought about that for a moment and shook her head. "It's not good enough. She could just deny it and refuse to show anyone and nobody would make her, based on anything I'd say. I'm sure everyone already hates me now, after that show at the locker. If I start bitching about stuff, it will just make me look worse. But if we can get a picture of the tattoo, it doesn't really matter what people think of me. The photo will say it all. She'll have to drop this pure, 'nice girl' act. Her mom will kill her!"

Alex had a wicked smile on her face, as she plotted her next move.

Kara didn't mind. She wanted to see Cookie get brought down a couple of notches, too. She offered, "I can do this. I can fly in really fast, snap a picture, then get out before she knows what happened."

Alex shook her head, suddenly cautious. "No, mom would REALLY kill me if anyone found out about you. Besides, I need to do this myself.

"What do you want to do, then? Do you want to ring the bell, then when she opens the door, I pull open her clothes and you snap the picture?"

Alex laughed. "I'd like to, but I think we can do better. Dad had this telescope-like camera, and Cookie's house has lots of big windows. It's perfect!"

"But how are you going to get her to show the tattoo?" Kara asked, doubtful. "It's not like you can ask her."

"I don't know. Maybe if we just camp outside, we'll get lucky. Or maybe we'll just have to destroy her computer and camera, like you suggested. Maybe Cookie doesn't back her stuff up," Alex shrugged like that would not be a big deal, then added eagerly, "but I REALLY want a picture of that tattoo!"

X X X

As soon as the girls arrived at home, they said hello to Eliza, then went straight to Kara's room and checked out the chat room.

It was as bad as they had feared.

5:48pm Watcher: I hate bullies

5:48pm Motorhead: I hope they expel her

5:49pm PeggySue: Yeah, I felt kind of flattered at first, I guess, but when we found out it was one of us, it doesn't mean anything at all. I can't believe Alex could be so mean.

5:50pm Watcher: it was a bitchy thing to do but least she has good taste in girls

5:52pm Cookie: Thanks, I guess, but I never liked being on that list, because I know some other girls were getting hurt. Girls shouldn't be judged on how they look. Alex is just so shallow.

5:54pm Motorhead: shes a fuckn bitch

5:55pm Cookie: No need to be vulgar. Maybe Alex can learn something from this, that you can't just be mean to people, and maybe we can be friends again.

"That does it!" Alex snapped. She so wanted to yell that Kara thought her head might explode, but Alex kept her voice down to a moderate roar. "The meaner she gets, the nicer she sounds! They make me so … AAHHH!… How can they play so innocent? That does it! Let's go!"

X X X

They left about an hour later, after finding Jeremiah's telescopic camera and figuring out how to work it, which was not as easy as Alex was expecting. Then they dressed in all black clothes like a couple of teenage spies and looked very conspicuous as they slunk down the streets. But then again, teenagers always seem conspicuous, so nobody gave them a second glance.

Alex had been to Cookie's house once before, but she still needed to consult a map to find it.

When they finally arrived, the sky was black with only a half moon lighting the sky, but much of the yard was well lit. They found what appeared to be the perfect hiding place about 30 feet away, which was cloaked in near total darkness. The ground was too far below the windows to photograph anything, so Alex climbed partway up a tree, but she couldn't keep the camera steady, because the telephoto lens was so heavy, so she tried various positions and then tried switching lenses.

While Alex was fumbling with the equipment, Kara was watching the distorted X-ray ghost of Cookie through the walls. She was excited when she saw that Cookie was in the bathroom, apparently taking off her clothes. She nudged Alex, whispering eagerly, "Hurry up!"

Alex, fearing a missed opportunity, pointed the camera up before she was ready, and the telescopic lens detached from the camera and fell ten feet to the ground below. "Damn!" she said way too loud, then whispered, "What did I miss?"

"She's about to take a shower, I think!" Kara said.

"How does that help?" Alex snapped. "I know you can see her, but there are no windows to the bathroom, and we're not taking photos for Playboy, anyway... And now the telescope is broken."

"So we can't take any more pictures?" Kara asked.

"Well, we can still take regular pics," Alex said, as she attached a much smaller lens. "But not from this far away."

"So should I…" Kara started.

"No," Alex insisted. "This is my mess. I'll take the picture."

"OK," Kara sighed, wondering why Alex even brought her along.

"But I do need your eyes," Alex said more softly.

Kara smiled, feeling useful again.

After a quick look around, the girls were satisfied that nobody was watching. They hurried through the lit yard into a shadow beside the house. They were safe from sight there, but the entire ground around the house was lit, so they could not get into any position to take photos. Instead, Kara leaped like a cat onto the shallow roof over the rear porch, which was completely in shadow, then she reached down and helped Alex up beside her.

"This is perfect," Alex whispered with a little more hope now. There were five windows to three different rooms that looked over the roof. Alex scurried with remarkable stealth to the middle room, and Kara nearly floated behind her.

Alex was about to raise her head and look into the window, but Kara whispered an urgent "No!" so Alex stopped.

Kara watched through the exterior wall as Cookie stood only a few feet from her bedroom window. Cookie was wrapped in a towel, but her hair was still dry, so she was probably preparing to take a shower. But she had stopped and was staring towards the window. If Cookie had been standing at the window, she would see Kara and Alex as clear as day even in the shadows, but she would need x-ray vision to see them from where she stood. Instead, Cookie just stood there, as though sensing something, but she did not investigate.

Then, almost at the worst possible time, Alex slipped a few inches on the roof, making a loud scratching sound. She covered her mouth as if to silence any other sound she might make. She closed her eyes, as if that made her less visible.

It would have been fitting had they been caught right then, Kara thought, given that they had already screwed up just about everything to this point.

Yet, miraculously, when Kara looked back through the wall and into the room, Cookie wasn't looking towards them at all, anymore. Instead, she walked across the room, appearing deep in thought, and then she sat on her bed and started laughing at seemingly nothing.

"I think it's OK now," Kara whispered to Alex, then both girls crawled up to peek through separate corners of the window. Alex spied through the camera viewfinder.

Now both girls could see their target clearly, but only for a few seconds, before Cookie stood up from the bed, untied her bathrobe and tossed it aside like a stripper, then sauntered teasingly into the bathroom, never facing the girls, but flashing a magnificent ass in their direction.

Alex pressed the button on the camera to take a picture, but nothing happened.

"Damn!" she whispered in exasperation. "I forgot to turn it on."

"It doesn't matter; she was walking away from us, so you couldn't see the tattoo, anyway," Kara lamented.

"Yeah, " Alex admitted, "but what was I thinking? We were lucky to get this close. If her parents were home, we wouldn't have had any chance at all."

"Yeah, we really suck at being sneaky," Kara said, laughing.

Then Alex joined her laughing. "I should have been taking more notes when I was Cookie's friend. She's the master of sneaky."

They smiled at each other.

"At least we weren't caught," Kara said.

"What is she doing now?"

"Shaving her legs, I think," Kara said while squinting and focusing her vision into the bathroom. Then she looked away with a sheepish grin. "Actually, I think she is shaving somewhere else."

"Eewww!" Alex laughed awkwardly. "I don't like thinking of Cookie naked."

"Yeah," Kara said, suddenly looking playfully sad.

"What?" Alex asked.

"It's nothing," Kara replied, but when Alex's stare demanded an answer, she sighed. "It's just that she has a really nice body. It doesn't seem fair that a mean girl could have such a nice body."

"Oh, I see. Are you fishing for compliments?" Alex asked with mock disapproval.

"No!" Kara insisted, though she absolutely was. "But don't you think she's really pretty?"

Alex shook her head and teased, "What, just because she's got perfect tits and perfect measurements and perfect skin?"

Kara knew Alex was teasing her, but now she was feeling genuinely insecure. "Well, yeah."

"Well, it's your ass I daydream about during math class, not hers,' Alex said, laughing, as she leaned forward to stare Kara in the eyes. They both smiled, as Kara leaned into a kiss. Then Alex added, "And Cookie would be so jealous if she knew what your body can do!"

"Oh, flattery will get you everywhere," Kara said naughtily, as she tried to pull Alex closer.

But then suddenly Kara remembered where they were. Their heads were right in front of the window.

She gasped, then nudged Alex.

Cookie had just come out of the bathroom, and she was looking right at them.

Cookie was wearing this luxuriously white, lacy underwear fit for Victoria's Secret, eliciting Kara's envy again, but more importantly the muppet tattoo was clearly visible above her tiny panties.

Despite the surprise, Alex was ready with the camera, which emitted several electronic clicks and buzzes, as if the state-of-the-art camera was winding through film. But those sound effects meant the camera was working. It felt like a miracle.

Alex glanced at the preview window with a big smile on her face.

Cookie rushed to the window and lifted it open. "What the heck are you doing here? You can't just come here and spy on me! It's an invasion of privacy!"

"Well, you can't just go planting evidence in people's lockers, either." Alex replied triumphantly. "Or snap private pictures of us and threaten to show everyone. Now, I've got a few pictures of my own, Miss Cookie Monster!"

Cookie's mouth dropped in almost a comic expression of indignation. Cookie reached out of the window, as if to shove Kara and Alex off the porch's roof, but the front of the porch was only about 7 feet off the ground, so they simply crawled to the edge and climbed down.

Alex ran ahead of Kara, who laughed and watched as Alex jumped gleefully in the air like a cheerleader for a winning team. Almost forgotten was the disastrous day behind them, or the various punishments that awaited them tomorrow from faculty, students and even Alex's mom. Because for this one moment at least, Alex had beaten Cookie. She never knew how trapped Cookie had made her feel until just then, as the chains broke away. Now she could accept her punishment with grace, knowing that Cookie did not get the best of her in the end.

X X X

Eliza gave them a verbal thrashing when they snuck into the house late at night. A few half truths and outright lies kept her wrath in check at least for today.

They escaped into Kara's bedroom and locked the door, but they did not dare relax yet. They could not relax until they saw what people were thinking.

They clicked on Kara's computer and watched Windows XP boot up. They held hands, feeling suspense. What would they see.

The chat room opened.

They waited for the accusations and insults to start flying.

Five minutes passed, with nothing but beautiful silence.

They lay down, Alex behind Kara, holding her, spooning, while they watched the empty screen stay empty, until their eyelids grew heavy and they fell asleep, until Eliza finally knocked on the door at 12:30 AM and sent Alex into her own room.

X X X

The bus ride to school was stressful the next morning, as the eyes of a few other students snuck looks at the Danvers girls. Kara heard a few whispered comments about Alex and the list.

Stuff like: "Do you think she did it?" "Why would she keep the lists in her locker?" "I think it's terrible." "She's so mean."

Kara relayed the whispers to Alex, and Alex shuddered after each one, mortified. Kara hated her role.

When they arrived at school, the stares and whispers continued, but at least one thing brought a smile to Alex's lips: As soon as they walked through the front door, they saw Cookie and Peggy being escorted into the principal's office.

Cookie glared at Alex with such fury in her eyes, Kara's knees felt weak, but Alex just glared right back until Cookie disappeared from view.

Lena and Eric found them by Alex's locker.

"Shouldn't you get a new lock?" Eric said.

Alex laughed as if it was a joke. "I think it's a little late for that. But you are right."

Lena smiled weakly at Alex. "Well, it looks you won't be taking the fall alone. Cookie and Peg look really pissed."

Alex smiled. "Yeah, they do. I don't know if they will get in any trouble, but at least everyone saw them dragged into the principal's office."

Lena nodded. "Yeah, but if Cookie is involved, everyone is going to assume she orchestrated it."

A glimmer shone in Alex's eyes. She hadn't thought of that. "Really?"

"Yeah. People will wonder, anyway," Lena replied. "But I thought Cookie threatened to expose...you know… if you ever implicated her."

Now Alex smiled brightly.

And Lena gasped: "You didn't!"

Alex nodded.

"Wow, outsmarting Cookie at her own game! Congratulations!" Lena said, impressed, then thought for a moment. "But be careful. This is like a chess game to her. You have to think several moves ahead."

X X X

Kara couldn't pay attention in her first period class yet again. She was going to get a terrible grade for her first semester ever in school, she just knew it. But that didn't feel very important right then.

She was worrying what Alex was going through in her class on the other side of school. Kara squinted her eyes. She could see Alex's shadow if she stared, but the blurry image of her just sitting at her desk didn't answer any of Kara's questions: What were other students saying to Alex? Were they assaulting her with their eyes? What rumors were they telling?

Then, during the second period, the loudspeaker called Alex to the principal's office. Kara watched helplessly as Alex walked to the principal's office, where she sat for ten minutes, then went back to class. Kara was on pins and needles until class ended.

She hurried to meet Alex in the halls before Biology class.

"So?" Kara asked.

Alex stared at the ground. "They called mom."

"Oh," Kara murmured. They knew this was coming, but knowing that didn't soften the blow. "What did she say."

"She was OK at first, until they told her you were on the list," Alex said without much emotion. "I think I'll be grounded for a week."

"Sorry," Kara said.

"No, I'm sorry, It's my own fault," Alex reminded.

"What about the school? Did they suspend you?"

"No," Alex smiled weakly. "Just three hours detention."

"That sucks," Kara said.

"Not so much," Alex said. "Things would have been much worse if I had done it alone."

"So they punished Cookie, too?" Kara asked eagerly.

Alex shook her head. "No, they didn't have any evidence, but they believed us and said they would keep a close eye on her."

They coasted through the rest of the day.

Kara, Lena, Alex and Eric ate lunch with full appetites, and they actually cracked jokes. A few people stared at the Freaky Four and whispered, but the gossip was more about Cookie now, and what she might have done. The Danvers girls could live with that.

Kara paid attention in her remaining classes. She actually raised her hand once to answer a math question, and she learned several words of Spanish.

Before she knew it, the bell rang signalling the end of the school day.

X X X

For the second day in a row, Kara hurried to meet Alex at her locker, and for the second day in a row, they got a horrible surprise.

All of the lockers in the school had four slits around eye level. Kara had wondered what those slits were for. Whatever their intended purpose, they were a great place to deliver messages.

When Alex opened her locker, a folded sheet of paper fell out onto the floor.

They just stared at it for a moment, as if it could not hurt them if they just left it there.

"Fucking Cookie," Alex said through her teeth.

"Has she ever heard of email?" Kara asked sarcastically.

"She thinks paper is more powerful," Alex said, suddenly realizing that Cookie was right.

Kara picked it up.

It was another printout, this time with three photos awkwardly arranged on stock white paper. All three photos showed Kara and Alex expressing their love in a very unfamilial manner. The two photos taken in the cinema were amazingly clear given the dark environment. They must have been taken with a flash, and Kara and Alex were simply too involved with each other to notice anything going on around them. Kara's face was clearly visible in one photo, and Alex's equally visible in the other, as their hands and lips were all over each other. The third photo was taken in the gymnasium. It was taken from only a few feet away, where nobody could possibly have been hiding, so the camera itself must have been hidden. Remotely controlled? On a timer? The quality was crap, and the girls were only identifiable by their distinctive clothing. Kara's shirt was mostly off, so one breast was fully exposed, though it was not much more than a blur.

Alex stared at the page as if mesmerized.

Kara felt too weary to respond right away emotionally, but she knew this was bad. Really bad.

Kara and Alex looked down the hallway. Other students were also at their lockers, preparing to go home. A few were gawking at a similar sheet of paper, and a few others were looking back at them with varying expressions, none of them comforting.

"You should probably destroy that," a voice said from behind them, causing them to jump and turn around. It was Cookie. Her voice had a sweet coating. Her demeanor was casual and friendly. You had to know her to sense the bloodlust behind the exterior. She continued: "You see, just holding those pictures is a crime. My dad is a lawyer, so I picked up little tidbits like that. In fact, just holding that pic is more illegal than what it shows YOU two doing. Messed up, right?"

Alex was shaking, she was so mad. "Don't give me that shit! I know you did this!"

Cookie raised a hand to her chest and protested her innocence. "Oh, no, I was in classes all day. Except, of course, when I was with the principal. You know, that wasn't very nice of you."

"Of me?" Alex lunged forward to strike Cookie, but Kara held her back.

None of this was supposed to happen. Cookie was supposed to hold on to her scandalous pictures, while Kara and Alex held on to the pictures of the tattoo, under the theory of mutually assured destruction. In hindsight, though, it was now clear that Kara and Alex were very much under-armed. The threats were hardly comparable. But now there was no reason to hold their one bomb back. They could not destroy Cookie like she was destroying them, but they could hurt her.

By now an audience had surrounded them.

"You have given us no choice to show everyone the photo of the tattoo," Kara threatened, playing the only hand they had left, hoping to do nothing except to save some face.

Cookie smirked. "Oh, you mean how you invaded my parents property? How you took pictures of me coming out of the bathroom? I guess you didn't know that my dad is a district attorney, so we have a state of the art security system with cameras and monitors all over the place. You never know what kind of creeps might show up. This time, you were the creeps, and we got that all on tape. By now you must know, cameras are not your friend. But go ahead, show your illegally recorded pictures. You see, you only caught me having a little fun."

Cookie then took something out of her pocket and tossed it Alex.

Alex unfolded it. It was a small piece of water-permeable paper containing the image of the Cookie monster eating a cookie. Alex looked up, now knowing their defeat was complete.

Cookie then grabbed the belt of her skirt and let Alex have a peek of as much of her belly as was decent. The skin was completely clear. The tattoo had been temporary, and Cookie had been playing them the whole time.

She leaned forward and whispered so only Alex and Kara could hear. "You are so silly, thinking I would ever give you something you could use against me! But if you ever say anything bad about me again, I'll give the security tapes to my daddy, and your trouble will be doubled."

Then Cookie walked away like a model on the runway, thoroughly enjoying the show.

Students witnessed it all. They watched as Kara and Alex collapsed to their knees and hugged each other for support. Then they looked at the photos of them holding each other intimately.

They would never see the Danvers sisters the same way again.