Asking her father for another book didn't go so well. Kim asked James Possible for a book on the stars, but a more advanced one which would give her more information as well as be more accurate. She pointed out the section where the book stated: Hercules was the name of the Greek demigod instead of stating that it was the Roman name. Needless to say, her father's reaction was strong and much more negative than Kim would have ever thought her father capable. Kim didn't understand why her father reacted the way that he did and quite frankly, he scared her a little. She never saw him react so intensely before except for that one time when she was about ten years old and she tried to run through the field.

Kim sat in her room close to tears with the stupid simple book on her lap. She couldn't let herself cry because the corset was too tight and wouldn't let her take in the deep breaths when she sobbed. "Kimberly," her father said to her before, "You have absolutely no business going through books like that in the library. What would your future husband say if he found you questioning his views of the world?" And it wasn't like he stated it gently.

Kim's head shot towards her bedroom door and hoped it wasn't her mother coming to comfort her. The last thing she needed was for Ann to come in and tell her that her father was right and that she should know women don't read books like that for a reason. Kim sighed in relief when it was just Monique who came in to check on her. The dark skinned girl shut the door behind her softly and gave Kim a comforting smile.

Monique heard what happened, but she didn't dare chase after Kim when she ran up the stairs into her bedroom in case her parents saw Monique about to go comfort their daughter after Kim was told she did something wrong. "C-can you?" Kim started, but she didn't need to finish her sentence because Monique helped her out of her layers of clothes until she got to the corset, which she loosened and tossed to the side, and Kim could finally let her pent up emotions out. "I just don't understand why my father wants me to remain ignorant of the world!" Kim stated through angry tears. "He wants me to be a perfect little wife in a few years, one with a mind which only thinks about producing children and looking pretty and perfect. Why can't I live my life the way I want to live it? Why does it have to be the way everyone else wants me to live it?"

The room was silent after Kim's rant, only her heavy breathing could be heard as she tried to calm herself down. Monique sat down on her bed and looked down at her hands on her lap. Years ago when Monique was admitted into the Possible home, Kim told her she could do whatever she wanted in her room, including sitting on her large bed, without permission. Kim recalled her reasoning back then- it was because she thought it was too much effort to remain so formal all of the time and it was easier to let Monique do what she wanted rather than instruct her.

"Miss Kimberly, if I may, we all have a place in this world and we have to play specific roles. Yours is to make someone a good wife and have children, probably boys. Mine is to serve. There's nothing we can do about it," Monique explained in a somber tone. She didn't look up at Kim.

"We don't have to accept it," Kim finally said, her tears dried and gone, but her face still stained red from her earlier outburst. She looked in the mirror and noticed the whites of her eyes were bloodshot from crying and she had a feeling she wouldn't be leaving her room anytime soon until she looked presentable enough so that she wasn't questioned. She did have a welcoming look of determination in her olive eyes despite the redness.

"You'll be shunned and I'll most likely be sent to the fields," Monique pointed out nonchalantly.

Kim frowned. Her friend was right and although Kim wanted to do whatever she wanted, she knew she'd break if she was no longer accepted in the community. Not only would it hurt her, but it would hurt her family as well. She didn't need her family to suffer because of her quirkiness. "It's just not fair!" Kim sighed and flopped down on her bed, thankful she slipped out of her skirts. The freedom to simply move and even just taking a deep breath to let out a frustrated sigh was welcome and she wondered who invented women's clothing styles.

"Miss Kimberly, nobody said life would be fair." Monique twisted her body so she was looking down at Kim. She grinned, and Kim smiled back.

"You should come with me," Kim started. "At night, I mean. Come with me."

"I can't do that!" Monique's smile fell, her eyebrows raising at the appalling idea.

"Why not?" Kim pouted, sticking her lower lip out just a little bit more than usual. "You never got caught staying in my room on very cold nights during the winter. And I never get caught at night when I leave the house." At the back of her mind, Kim wondered how long that could last. She was fantastic at being unnoticed when she wanted to be, going as far to slipping away during the last barbeque for a couple of minutes and was ecstatic when she managed this.

"Miss Kimberly, you may think you're sneaky, but you're anything but," Monique teased. "I always know when you leave."

"You're the only one who found out," Kim laughed. "I would say I'm rather decent. At least come with me tonight," Kim urged. She pulled Monique down so they both laid down on the bed, their legs hanging off the side.

"I will not leave the house," Monique stated sternly, her body rigid and unrelaxed.

"I was not going to leave tonight. I want to go to the library and look at all of those books," Kim replied. "I want to find something good to read, something that will make me intelligent."

"You already are intelligent," Monique complimented, her body less tense.

"Knowing which forks and spoons to use during a multicourse meal is not intelligence," Kim told her. "No, Monique, we are going to read great books and be aware of the world."

"We? Miss Kimberly, I can barely read," Monique bit her lower lip, embarrassed, and turned her head away to the right to stare at the headboard.

"I can teach you," Kim grinned. "If you come with me to the library and help me."

"Oh, so there's conditions?" Monique joked, but then sat up quickly. "I am so sorry, Miss Kimberly…I…"

"Monique," Kim sat up and put a hand on her shoulder. "Never apologize for anything. And you know I wouldn't make you do anything that you are uncomfortable with. But I will teach you how to read whether or not you come to the library with me."

The two sat in comfortable silence after Monique nodded. Kim had no intentions of leaving her room other than to use the facilities and grab food from the kitchens, so she wasn't going to bother putting most of her clothes back on. She was more than content with her simple underclothes. "I will come with you tonight," Monique broke the silence.

"You don't have to, Monique," Kim smiled.

"I know I don't, but I want to," Monique decided. Kim brought her in for a tight hug; she didn't know what she did to deserve a friend as great as Monique.

Late at night when Kim was sure everyone had gone to sleep, she crept out of her room in her nightgown with a candle in hand. She didn't put on her slippers because she was afraid they might make a tiny bit of noise as she went down the hall and passed her brothers' bedroom. Although their house had a total of six bedrooms, Kim's brothers preferred to share one. Kim, on the other hand, was more than happy to have her very own room at the end of the hall. She had one of the largest rooms in the house, only second to her parents', and didn't think she could ever give that up for a better location near the stairs.

Thankfully, Kim never had to pass by her father and mother's room since it was at the other side of the house. The last thing she needed was her mother to hear her and send her father out to check on the noise. That had happened once when Kim was about four years old and fell down the stairs in the early hours of the morning to grab a cookie she eyed the night before. Back then, she was only four and it was cute. Suddenly when she turned seven, she miraculously turned into a little lady and she'd be scolded for doing something of similar nature.

She suppressed a sigh as she went down the large staircase. She was forced to grow up so quickly, and yet, her brothers acted however they wanted. Their responsibility was minimal; all they had to do was maintain good grades so her father could send them off to university. Kim briefly wondered if there was a university that accepted women. She'd have to ask Shego because she seemed to be rather knowledgeable about a lot of things.

Kim carefully opened a door to the large library and quickly shut it behind her. There was someone else in the room, but it wasn't Monique. It was a boy of a larger build who looked at her with fear in his eyes, dropping the book he had been looking through. He couldn't speak as he trembled. Kim's heart went out to the poor boy even though he was obviously a slave and he wasn't permitted to enter the house. Kim set her candle down on a side table. She knelt down to pick up the book. She held it next to the candle the boy had been reading beside. "Critique of Pure Reason written by Immanuel Kant," Kim said in a soft voice, which she hoped was comforting or at least less intimidating. "You can read?" The boy didn't answer, most likely afraid to admit that he could. "It's okay if you can," Kim smiled. He slowly nodded his head.

Kim thumbed through the book, noting that this definitely wasn't meant for a child of his age. "You must be a great reader if you can read this," she complimented. "What's your name?" The boy went to speak, but choked on his own words. Kim turned around when she heard Monique enter the library. Monique stood slightly behind Kim.

"Wade, what are you doing in here?" Monique gasped. Kim, still kneeling, didn't take her eyes off of the boy who now had a name.

"It's okay," Kim said before Monique could potentially scold him because what he did was dangerous and could have him sold quickly to someone who wouldn't be so nice to him and would treat him poorly. Kim didn't want that. He was only a boy. "How old are you, Wade?" Kim queried.

"Ten," Wade's voice was barely audible, but Kim read his lips and made out what he said.

"Oh, you're the boy who sometimes runs around with my brothers," Kim recalled. She remembered how a couple of years ago, her mother told the boys they couldn't play with Wade. However, Jim and Tim won the argument because they said they were men of the house and Ann had to do what they said. Ann, for the most part, wasn't a pushover. But for some reason with her two sons, they got away with everything, so it wasn't surprising that they got to continue to play with their new friend.

"Wade," Monique said and knelt beside Kim. She put a hand on Wade's shoulder to comfort the terrified boy. "Miss Kimberly would never tell on you for being in here. She will never do anything to put you in harm's way." He seemed to trust Monique more than Kim, so she just smiled and nodded, allowing Monique to take control of the situation. "She's actually gonna teach me how to read better. That's why we're here."

"Well, part of the reason," Kim stood up. "I want to read books that my father does not want me to read. I want to learn about things, anything really, and be aware of what is out there. So, if you promise not to tell on me, you can definitely stay," she smiled.

"You're not mad?" Wade asked.

Kim shook her head. "Not at all." Kim thumbed through the book Wade had been reading, noting the complexity of the text. "You must be very intelligent to read something like this."

Wade blushed and nodded, looking down at his feet trying to hide a grin.

"Wade's really smart, Miss Kimberly. In fact, I'd go so far as to call him a genius."

"Why haven't you told me about him before?" Kim asked Monique. "Wade," she turned to him, "You're just the person I need, I think. Help me pick out a book?"

"What kind?" Wade beamed at the compliment. Kim explained to him that she needed a good source for information, anything that would teach her something she didn't know. She wanted to read something that wasn't going to lie to her and give her misinformation. As she explained this, she wondered if a ten year old slave boy would be able to determine which books were good and which weren't so good. "Some things are just theories," Wade explained. "They could be disproven at any moment as long as there's enough evidence. So, today something could be true, but tomorrow it may not be if someone had some kind of breakthrough. But," he said as he approached one of the many books on the shelf. "It's not bad to read these books. We have to understand things and be wrong before we can fully understand them."

"So basically all books can be lies," Kim frowned.

"Not necessarily," Wade said as he moved to another shelf. "Miss Kimberly, if I may be so bold to ask, why do you want to read books that are forbidden for you to read?"

Kim opened her mouth to respond, but then closed it. She wasn't even sure why the interest in her sparked other than the fact that Shego had put the idea in her head. She bit her lower lip as she thought deeper, and she finally said, "I want to be someone. I guess I want to make a difference."

"I guess we have something in common," Wade turned to meet her gaze. But then he got nervous again and mumbled an apology.

"Wade," Kim said, putting a hand on his shoulder, "never apologize to me for having something in common with you. It's an honor, really, on my part."

"I told you Miss Kimberly is quite a unique person," Monique piped.

"Well, thank you Monique," Kim smiled, glad that her friend had been telling the others only good stories about her. Kim did have a temper, though, and she hoped Monique didn't go around revealing that to anyone, not that Kim would ever do anything about it, of course, but she didn't need to be embarrassed on her own property.

Monique acknowledged her with a slight bow with her head before instructing Wade to find something suitable for Kim. She began to explain what Kim had already learned as Kim herself wandered the library, looking at the various book titles. She came across the area where she used to look for a good book to read before she was aware of anything else. Before Shego, Kim never really thought about other types of books because she did truly enjoy her fiction and poetry. However, it was time for her to read some nonfiction and learn useful facts and expand her mind, unlike her mother who had the potential to be extremely intelligent, but never seemed to pursue anything.

"Miss Kimberly," Wade approached her with a book. "I read this book myself," he said, handing it to her. "It's about the Vikings."

"The Vikings?" Kim queried, thumbing through the book.

"Very interesting," Wade nodded. "It is believed they used the constellations to travel by ship. Monique said you read a little bit about them."

"I did," Kim said with happiness. "Thank you so much, Wade. How often do you come to this library?"

"About once a week," Wade admitted.

"Maybe we could coordinate meeting here once a week?" Kim queried. "I need all the help I can get," the fourteen year old explained.

"That would be so fun!" Monique exclaimed.

"Sure," Wade replied to his friend and his newest one. "I should get going so my mama doesn't worry," Wade explained.

"Of course," Kim replied. "Take whatever books you want."

"Wow, Miss Kimberly! Thanks a bunch!"

"Anytime," Kim laughed. "And don't call me this around anyone else but Monique, but you can call me Kim. No miss. Just Kim."

"You got it, Kim," the ten year old said as he picked up four books to take back with him.

"Goodnight, Wade," Kim chuckled as the boy left with a bounce in his step. "See, Monique? It's not that hard to call me Kim."

Monique just gave her a look and crossed her arms. Apparently, Kim wasn't that lucky. She was too happy to scold Monique for being too formal, so Kim went to find some poetry to teach Monique how to read.

Thank you so much for the amazing reviews! I know slavery can be a controversial subject, but Kim obviously doesn't treat any of them poorly. In fact, she just found Wade, a new friend. And no worries, Wade still has genius level intellect- he just has to sneak around to learn things. Slavery isn't what this story is about, it's just the time period. There will be no graphic scenes. This story is primarily about Kim's growth as a person in a time period and location where she didn't have the opportunities she had in today's world.

As for other characters like Ron, Dr. Drakken, and others, they will make appearances, don't you worry. Introducing them all at once in one chapter is too much, so Kim will be interacting with them in future chapters. In this chapter, Kim finally interacts with Wade of this time period.

And no, we have not seen the last of Shego. She plays a significant role in Kim's self discovery :)