Chapter 3: Stacey and Kate
The worst thing at first was that at first no one believed it was really her. I mean, fuck, mom had my casket exhumed to check if it was really me-seeing as it ended up magically empty-that finally made her stop thinking I was some cursed doppelganger. Now everyone seemed used to the fact that somehow a couple dozen Shadysiders reappeared overnight-because apparently this town is just used to weird shit happening at this point that it didn't even get to the local news. Thank God for that one, I don't want the feds dissecting me. Which meant that Kate was back at high school and seriously pissed about the month of schoolwork she had to make up.
"Seriously, I'm not losing valedictorian to that smug asshole Mike Henderson just because I was dead for a month." She growled as she flipped through a calculus textbook held together with duct-tape and the desperation of a math teacher denied new books for the ninth year in a row. "If that bastard thinks I'm gonna crack because I have to make this shit up he's mistaken. He's only in band, Academic Decathlon, the Reading Olympics team, and drama." She stabbed her agenda with a pencil as she made notes of the meetings she had for the clubs she'd rejoined and reclaimed leadership of. "I'm in cheer, performance choir, debate, yearbook, and head of the homecoming committee. One month of making up assignments is nothing!" Even if it means I can't babysit anymore because every fucking second of my free time is occupied now… And with my connections perma-dead I'm out of supply, so I guess I'm gonna stay broke for a while.
"Katie! Dinner's ready!"
"I'll be down in a minute mom!" She yelled, stowing her agenda. She'd caught up on her math assignments for the week, now just an English paper and a few dozen worksheets for French…
Stacey was sitting at the table already, kicking her legs back and forth. The eleven year old had taken to the modern world surprisingly well, and for all intents had ended up as Kate's new little sister instead of her aunt-at least in her mother's eyes. It's kinda weird, considering we'd technically met when I was a baby-I mean, I was two when she died, mom has pictures of her with me at my second birthday looking exactly like she does now.
"Thank you for joining us Katie." Mrs. Schmidt said, a tight smile on her lips.
"Yeah, no problem. Only 19 more French worksheets to do and then I'm finally caught up on all the shit for that class." Kate snarked as she helped herself to some of the meatloaf in the middle of the table.
"Katie, language-remember Stacey's only eleven, we don't want to swear around her."
Kate rolled her eyes, but remained silent.
"So Stacey, how was school?" Mrs. Schmidt asked, placing a scoop of mashed potatoes on her sister's plate.
"It was pretty good today, I guess. We got back our science tests from Monday and I got a B, and Mrs. Donahue handed out these." Stacey paused, reaching under the table to grab her backpack. After some rooting around she handed her sister a slip of paper, "Because I read over 20 books I earned a free pizza at the Parma Pizza. Maybe we could get that tomorrow?"
"Of course we can Stacey! I'm so proud of you! Who knew my little sister was such an academic?" Mrs. Schmidt beamed with pride.
"Yeah, real great." Kate mumbled, jabbing her broccoli before deliberately chewing loudly.
"Katie, be nice, Stacey has worked really hard to catch up-she hasn't been in school for over 15 years and things have changed a good bit."
"Sorry, guess I'm not used to positive reinforcement in this house." Kate grumbled, After all, you and dad were always too busy screaming at the top of your lungs to give a fuck about anything I did with school.
"And what's that supposed to mean?"
"Since when have you cared how anyone did in school?" She snatched the science test off the table. "This is the same test Mr. Nelson gave when I was in his class and I got a perfect score. I remember because he hung it in the front of the room during the week of parent teacher conferences. You didn't seem to care much about it then, given how you and dad had to be escorted out of the building because you were screaming at each other."
Mrs. Schmidt ruffled slightly, "Whether or not that happened, the important thing now is that we focus on Stacey's successes."
"Whatever. I'm going over to Deena's."
"But we're in the middle of dinner." Stacey said, confused as to what was happening.
"I can tell the time, half-pint." Kate scooted across the floor, chair squealing as she did so. "I'll be back later, not that you care."
***FS***
She hadn't gone to Deena's, well, she hadn't gone into Deena's. Deena's dad had managed to finally get a decent job, which meant he was actually at home with her and Josh. When Kate arrived she saw the living room lights on through the open blinds, the three were sitting around the coffee table playing some board-game and they all actually looked happy. Shit, I can't break that up…She'd thought about visiting Simon, but he was at work, even resurrected from the dead the Grab N Bag was happy to have him on shift. While he didn't mind being in the place where he'd been axed to death (Which is fucking weird, by the way), she had no interest in ever being near that bakery counter again. So she ended up just walking around for a few hours, first in the mall, then when that closed, just around her block.
It was almost midnight when she unlocked the back door and walked in. No one was up waiting for her, no surprises there, so she just walked to her room and got changed. After slipping on her sleep shirt she opened the door, nearly running into Stacey.
"What are you doing awake?" Kate grumbled, "Deborah's gonna be mad if she finds out you were up this late."
Stacey tugged slightly at the sleeve of her nightgown, "I'm sorry."
"Sorry for what?" Kate crossed her arms.
"I'm sorry about dinner."
Kate scoffed, "It's not you who should be sorry pipsqueak." She paused, looking down at the girl, "Just leave me alone, okay, I'm only gonna be here for a few more months anyway, once I graduate I'm out of Shittyside and into the wide open world of equally terrible places." She pushed Stacey out of the way crossing the hallway, "Now I have to use the bathroom, good night."
***FS***
It was the following Thursday and Kate was not in the best of moods. That fucking French midterm had none of the shit on our homework assignments, what, does Mrs. Lingle want us to fail? Jesus, I hate that woman-why did I sign up for French, I should've taken Spanish with Deena, it's boring with Mr. Paulson, but at least he gives everyone an A… She interrupted her own mental rant as he paused a moment, before turning onto Maple Avenue, And the cherry on this shit sundae of a day is that I have to pick up my 'perfect little aunt' from school because mom's at work. She's 11 and we live 6 blocks from her school, but I still have to go and get her and listen to someone else praise the little shit for being perfect.
Salk Elementary School was a large brick building built in the 1950s, back when Shadyside had been optimistic that the building boom that had blessed Sunnydale with more residents would do the same for them. It hadn't, but with the curse lifted the town was starting to see at least a marginal interest in potential new residents, so maybe the dreams of the long-dead school board members would come true. In either case, Mrs. Schmidt had told Kim to get her aunt from the rear of the building by the gym, next to the playground. Kim was late-not that she cared-which meant that aside from a few stragglers, chances are that there wouldn't be a crowd to navigate.
As she rounded the corner she heard a few boys shouting something, and while indistinct at first, it grew gradually clearer as she turned the corner. "Hey zombie girl! Why don't you use some of your zombie powers and get your backpack back?"
"Give it back!" Stacey yelled.
Kate picked up the pace and arrived in the back of the gym, two boys from Stacey's grade were tossing her backpack back and forth, occasionally pushing her if she got too close to try and grab it.
"Hey!" Kate shouted, walking authoritatively toward the boys. They turned to see her.
"So what? You have your sister come and tell us to stop?" One boy sneered, crossing his arms.
"Yeah, like some dumb teenage girl would scare us?" The boy holding the backpack tossed it over his shoulder and into a mud puddle. "Oops."
"Alright, you little shits want to be scared?" Kim threatened. "How about this, if either of you two so much as lay a finger on my aunt again I'm going to shove your heads through a bread slicer like mine was. Fun fact, you're alive until it hits your eyebrows so you'll get to see and feel the blades scraping through your soft little heads. And unlike me, you pubescently challenged bastards won't come back."
"Jesus Christ, lady."
"We'll leave her alone."
"Now, get the fuck out of here."Kate ordered, pointing at the gate. A moment later the boys had complied and fled.
Stacey picked up her backpack, waterlogged and covered in mud, "Thanks."
"Don't thank me yet." Kate pulled out a pencil and her agenda, "What were those boys' names?"
"Jason and Phil, they're in my class."
"Perfect." Kate finished scratching down a few words before putting her agenda away.
"You're not really gonna put them through a bread slicer, right?" Stacey asked, slightly worried at her niece's calm writing a few moments prior.
"No. But they are going to have some consequences, but for your sake I won't go into that."
Stacey nodded, understanding that it was generally a bad idea to mess with her niece.
After confirming that everything in the backpack was still okay the two departed from the schoolyard and walked down the quiet street toward home. "I'm sorry for taking all the attention at home, my mom never really cared, so it was nice to have someone who wanted to." Stacey stated.
"I guess we have that in common, my mom-Deborah-never really cared about my stuff when I was your age. My dad and her were always fighting, it wasn't until he left that she even really noticed I was around. And now, it's not really your fault that she isn't paying a ton of attention to me, my mom never really got over your death, now with you back it's a new chance for her-she gets to be a mom and sister again. With me, I was only gone for a month… It's almost like mine never happened."
Stacey frowned, "But just because it wasn't as long, doesn't mean it didn't happen."
"It seems like it didn't. No one even noticed outside of a few people I go to school with. With you there was a whole ceremony, they leveled the camp because they didn't want to deal with the negative image… Your death mattered. I was just some druggie sent through a bread slicer."
Stacey was quiet a moment, before she hugged Kate's legs, nearly causing the teen to trip. "I'm sorry Kate. I'd care if you were gone, and I'm sorry nobody else did. Thank you for being here."
Kate felt a smile tug at the corner of her lips, "Yeah, no problem, same with you Stacey."
***FS***
It was Christmas Break. Shadyside schools had two weeks off, and Christmas was smack in the middle. The town seemed festive, and without the weight of the usual potential holiday themed mishap or massacre occurring courtesy of the curse being broken, the citizens seemed to buy into the spirit. "Hey Mom, I'm taking Stacey to the park!" Kate shouted, as she and her aunt stood by the door.
"Okay, be back before dark!"
"We will!"
Fourteen minutes later Stacey arrived at the park and was greeted with a surprise.
"Hey Stacey!" A young boy's voice called out.
Stacey turned to face the voice and saw two women-one with auburn hair, one with brown-and a boy wearing thick glasses waving as they trekked down the snowy hill.
"Jeremy?" Stacey called out.
A moment later the boy arrived, along with Cindy and Ziggy.
"Thanks for setting this up Kate, Jeremy's been wondering how the others have been." Cindy smiled.
"Yeah, sure." Kate shrugged, trying to hide her face beneath her scarf.
"Why don't you two go and play, we'll watch over here." Ziggy motioned to the open park.
The two ran off as the teenager and adults watched.
"So, what's it been like for you, being back?" Kate asked, glancing at Cindy.
"It's a different world, that's for sure." Cindy replied, still amazed at how much had changed in a few years, "But, in this case, different actually seems pretty good."
"Yeah, things are pretty good." Kate replied, glancing at her aunt tossing a snowball at Jeremy, "Different, but good."