Ch 13

Charlie Farnsworth had expanded his camp. Approaching, Cameron saw three tents up now a larger grill and a couple others with him. 'CHarlie," she called as she came up to them. Holding up the movie script she and Delilah made, she said, "Tell me what you think of this."

Charlie perked up. "The movie?" he asked eagerly.

Cameron handed it to him. "Yes, the aword and sorcery movie you wanted."

He quickly began to look it over. "Joan Tanner, Malinara Tanner, Montgomery Weston, Jackie Connor … Great cast!" He begin reading the script and giggled. "Oh this is good .., a vigorous sword fight right in the beginning … This princess is a real ball of fire!"

As Charlie became absorbed in the script, the taller man there got up. "Hi, I'm Montgomery Weston. I was hoping something was coming soon."

"Cameron Connor," she replied and shook his hand. "Delilah and I finished it as fast as we could. We knew you were waiting for it."

"Cameron," Charlie said, lifting his head to look at her. "There's a problem, how can we simulate the witch casting fire and not burn her or anyone else?"

Cameron grinned. "You don't have to simulate. Malinara does cast fire straight out of her hand."

"She is a witch!" Charlie exclaimed.

"No, but she does cast fire. Later on in the script, Jackie assured me she can do those stunts too."

"Amazing," Charlie breathed and went back to reading.

"You're Jackie's sister then?" Montgomery asked.

Cameron grinned. "I'm her Mommy One. Delilah is her Mommy Two. Jackie is 2.1, Delilah's first child."

Montgomery screwed his face up. "Huh?"

"I'm Thing One, Delilah is Thing Two."

Charlie laughed, then sang, "Thing one and thing two, thing two and thing one! They can do anything, anything, anything, under the sun!"

Looking lost, Montgomery asked, "You're her mother? My God, you look way too young to be her mother!"

"We age well," Cameron replied. "The thing one and two was before your time, Montgomery."

"How old are you?" he asked.

Cameron frowned at him. "Women never tell their age. You should know that."

Charlie chuckled. "Cameron, you do look just as good as you did 20 years ago."

"Thank you."

"Come to think of it, Sonya does too," he said in amusing tone.

To get off her age, Cameron said, "Charlie, to cut production costs, we can build a set near here for the movie. Use CGI for the tower and larger structures. That will also help prevent pirate copies from getting out. There are also woods nearby for the forest scenes."

"I like it" Charlie beamed.

"But!" Cameron said firmly. NO one goes into Driftwood before we clear them. Absolutely no one."

"It's a radiation area," Montgomery said, understanding why.

"You live there," Charlie countered.

Cameron cast him a smirk. "Think of it as Hotel California. You can check out any time you like, but you can never leave."

"Hotel California?" Montgomery asked.

"Again, before your time," Cameron replied.

"A song by the Beach Boys," Charlie explained.

Montgomery shook his head. "Never heard of them." Eyeing Cameron, he asked, "You are old, aren't you?"

Cameron frowned at him. Charlie laughed. "Monty, look up the Iron Maiden. That will give you an idea."

Cameron waved and said, "I got other things to do today, see you later."

Montgomery watched her go. If he had to guess, she couldn't be more that early twenties. She just looked too damn good to be an older person. He decided he needed to look up the Iron Maiden. After Cameron left, he got on his laptop and began to research.

.

It took him a while, he had to go to the old Youtube videos to find the reference. He selected 'The Iron Maiden humiliates UCLA'. He watched the game. There on the field was Cameron, looking just like she did now. His jaw dropped as she and Delilah, 'the bulldozer' literally ran through the much bigger male players knocking them down and jumping over them. The initial favorite, UCLA, conceded the game pointless and with injuries from Cameron ramming though them.

Searching more, he found a fan site for her. Cameron had the fastest pass on record at 146 miles an hour. As quarterback, Cameron never lost a game. After being shot, point blank, taking three bullets in her back, she was back on the football field the very next week.

Yes, Cameron was indeed an Iron Maiden. By the dates of the games, he also calculated Cameron had to be at least 47 years old. That was if she began college at 18. For a 47 year old woman, Cameron looked fantastically good, like she didn't age at all!

Montgomery then thought about Jackie and how tough she was. Was she an Iron Maiden too?

.

After their test of intestinal fortitude, Lee found the people up at the hotel here were decent people, even though some of them weren't even human. While Cameron had stressed strength and stealth, Joan worked with them on speed and dexterity. In the mornings Joan tired them out with fast runs and doing exercises as fast as they could go. Some things they were bad at. Like Joan's version of Martial arts.

It seemed Joan could pick up anything and use it as an effective weapon. Things like a simple stick lying on the ground, or going to an abandoned house, Joan broke a window and flung a chunk of glass to impact a tree and stick into it.

One thing Joan showed them looked impossible. Going to a flat topped garage, Joan pointed to it and said, "Run up the side."

Looking at the ten foot tall roof, Mie asked, "How?"

"Speed and dexterity," Joan explained. "Run at that wall as fast as you can. Just before you get to it, jump. On your next step, step on the wall and launch yourself vertically. You may get another step in, but reach for the top. When you got it, pull up hard and fling yourself up on the roof."

"That's possible?" Lee asked.

"Watch me, then follow me," Joan said. She took off running at the garage. With a jump, she got a foot on the wall and catapulted herself up. She flew up to grab the top and landed standing on the roof. Looking down at them, she said, "Now you."

Joan had made it look easy. It wasn't. Lee charged the wall first, tried a step against the wall, her foot slipped and she hit the wall face first. Mei's attempt got her high enough to hit the wall a couple feet short an fell back down to hurt her ankle.

"Try again" Joan called down. "When you step on the wall, do it full force and push!"

Lee backed up and ran at the wall again. Again she jumped and got a foot on the wall, and kicked off to fly away from the wall and land hard. Upon landing she cried out in frustration. She went to get up and fell back down. She'd twisted her knee.

Joan jumped back down. "You'll get it," she assured them and got them up to help them limp back to the hotel.

"Why learn something like this?" Lee whined.

Flatly, Joan said, "You're being chased, let's say by a cop in the city. There's other cops around and if you just tried to run away, you'd be caught. There's a building say three or four stories right in front of you. Your initial jump gets you up to the second floor where you can grab window sills or ledges to keep you moving up. You make the roof, who's going to follow you?"

"You can do that?" Mei asked.

"I raced my sister up an 80 foot vertical cliff. Not climbed, we raced. That was tougher than going up the side of a wall," Joan told them. "Once you're healed, we'll do this until you make that roof."

"It seems impossible," Lee said meekly.

Joan frowned at her. She then stated, "If you believe it is impossible, then it will be for you! Make yourself believe you can do it!"

.

Joan told Allison and Bob about the Chinese girl's training. Bob thought about it, then figured out a way to help them. He talked to Joan about it, it sounded like a good idea. Lee and Mei were swimming anyway for exercise and to help build stamina.

With Allison's help, at the end of the dock Bob laid tracks then build a wall with bars on the sides that let them lift the water end of the wall up. On the bottom of the wall where there were tracks, he had pegs in so the wall would stay however high they put it. Early afternoon, they had the wall up at an angle a little over the slant of a low roof.

Mei and Lee came out in their swim suits. Bob called them over and said, "Ladies, run to the end, up over the wall and hump in the water."

They nodded and took off running. Bob watched them go. There wasn't much fat on them, he enjoyed the sight.

Allison noted this. "Like watching that, huh?" she asked with a smirk.

Bob grinned and shrugged. "Well, I'm a guy! Yeah, they got a good butt wiggle going on."

"Perv."

"No, just male."

"Like I said, perv."

Lee and Mei made the ramp and jumped off the end. They swam around to the ladder on the dock and got back up.

Allison called out, "Come back a ways then run up the wall again and jump off it!"

The pair did.

"Too easy, ya think?" Bob asked.

Allison eyed the wall and said, "It's fine for today, we'll make it steeper tomorrow."

Day by day, Bob lifted the wall a little more vertically. When it was up to a steep roof angle, Mie and Lee ran harder, but ran right up it to leap off the end. A bit higher and they began having trouble, and had to leap onto the wall to jump themselves to the top. A couple days of that and Joan had Bob help her get it up to near vertical.

Joan watched the pair focus on the wall and charge it, jumping up to get a foot on the wall to propel themselves up. Lee was doing a little better at it, getting two steps in, but the both made the top to jump off in the water.

The last day, Joan and Bob made the wall vertical, the side supports on this side now, the wall was right at the end of the dock. When Joan took them out, she pointed at the wall and told them, "You did it yesterday, you can do it again today. Go!"

The girls took off running. Lee hit the wall first with a jump and got a good step in against the wall. She shot to the top and pulled herself up and over.
Mie just missed the top. She fell back down, then in an angry growl at herself, charged the wall again. This time she made the top with enough momentum to push up on the top to stand and dive in the water.

Yes, they did it!

The day came when Joan was called to go do movie things with Jackie. Jackie's friend, Montgomery decided he wanted to stay at the hotel. Cameron pondered, then let him.

Their first day in the Quonset hut Cameron had set up outside of town was reading scripts of short scenes. Joan was the 'Queen' Jackie was the 'Princess'. They got the idea of friendly bickering, and expanded on the scripts they had. Jackie was to marry the hero, Montgomery, but she had a demand before she would do so.

Jackie : "OK, he's not a bad guy and I really like him, BUT! If he wants to marry me, he has to defeat me in a duel!"

Joan stared at her. "Princesses do not make demands like that! You're suppose to be a lady!"

Jackie stuck her chest out. "I AM a Lady. I'm sure not a guy!"

Joan growled, "You know what I mean! Ladies DO NOT fight duels!"

"Why not?" Jackie asked, flinging her arms in the air. "I want to be sure he can protect me."

"You aren't suppose to prod your mate into poking you with something hard!"

Jackie replied with a shrug and asked, "He's going to poke me with something hard anyway. And if he never does, I don't want him as a husband!"

Joan pretended a face plant as everyone present laughed. Joan giggled into her face.

Charlie wasn't sure about that dialog, Cameron told him it was best to keep it. Montgomery just turned to try and hide his blush.

.

Jackie was having fun with these scenes that were going to decide who got what part. She saw Joan was having fun with it too. Even though Joan tried to be the 'stern' parent for her daughter, she busted up laughing a couple times. The man playing 'King Robert' was indeed named Robert. Joan was Queen Linda, which she did have a bit of trouble getting used to. Jackie was Princess Lisa. Charlie wanted to call her Princess Buttercup. Cameron told him no, Jackie stated louder that she was no 'buttercup'. Jackie was happy about one thing, there were a few fight scenes she had to do, with a sword.

Having Jerry in school, Jackie had to get back to Collinwood Sunday night. She took a copy of the script with her to study it.

Duncan flew her home in time for a nearly-late dinner. She found Jerry had a good weekend up at the Bach's house with a few kids one day, then Sunday, some of his friends came here. They did the typical kid thing, played outside then watched some videos.

Monday, Jackie had Duncan practice lines with her, then they did some fencing and talked about 'movie' hits, striking close but missing do the camera could see the 'hit'. The day went well until Jerry got home from school. He didn't look happy.

Upon coming in, after the greetings, he showed Jackie a paper. Jackie read it and frowned. "She gave you an 'F' on your opinion? Says you were mocking the essay."

Jerry let out a huff. "Yeah. She had us write down our honest opinion of swapping our gender."

"Your teacher did this?" Duncan asked.

"She wanted to know what I thought about being a girl, so I wrote it down!" Jerry complained. "The class liked it. They were laughing."

"Can I see it?" Jackie asked.

Jerry frowned, "She made me throw it away and apologize."

"I think we need to talk to this teacher," Duncan said firmly.

"We do, and go see her." Jackie agreed. "I don't see how an opinion can be wrong if it's Jerry's opinion." She got her phone out. "Jerry, if you gave your opinion, then the teacher is wrong, you're not!" She then called the school and demanded to know HOW Jerry's opinion could be wrong if he wrote down what it was. The teacher, Ms. Barker wasn't there, but the secretary assured Jackie she could see Ms. Barker when she came in. She wanted the Principal there too.

"I'm coming too," Duncan stated.

.

In the morning, Duncan and Jackie took Jerry to the school bus stop and reminded him his teacher was suppose to come to the office. They went to the school and straight to the office to see the Principal. He showed them in and Jackie described the problem. Seeing it was Jackie Connor here, and knew she had fame and wealth, he called Ms. Barker in.

The woman with short dark hair was a bit pudgy. But her suit was impeccable. "Yes, Mr. Wilson?" she asked.

The Principal motioned to Duncan and Jackie. "Their son, Jerry, got a failing grade on his opinion. Explain how that is possible."

Straightening herself up, Ms. Barker stated, "He made a mockery out of the exercise, being crude and lewd!"

"Where's this paper he wrote?" Duncan asked calmly.

"I made him throw it away." she stated.

"So, you destroyed the evidence?" Jackie asked. "How convenient for you."

Ms. Barker glared at her. "What he wrote was trash!"

"So you say," Jackie replied. "Could it be that you just didn't like his opinion? It was his opinion, not yours."

Ms. Barker stated, "I hold the highest respect for everyone's opinion and maintain the highest standards in my clssroom!" she announced haughtily.

Jackie shrugged. "I still fail to see how an opinion can be failed. The only reason it could be is if you are lying about your respect for others or … "She tipped her head slightly, "Is it because he's black?"

The Principal's face dropped. Ms. Barker blanked. She gasped and said, "I am not racist! As I said, Jerry wrote something that mocked the exercise! It was crude and lewd."

"I have never seen or heard anything like that from Jerry," Jackie shot back. "You say it was, but you can offer no proof to support your claim."

"Mrs. Connor, I must support my teachers! Ms. Barker has no reason to lie!"

Duncan offered him a slight grin. "Then you won't mind an inquiry into your, or your teacher's behavior? Right now, I see a bad trend. I am sure lawyers will see the same tend. Jackie is correct. Ms. Barker got rid of this lewd, crude evidence against Jerry. If it's as she says it was, why didn't she keep it to show her side of the story? If Jerry was crude, we want to know. Right now, he says he wasn't, she says he was, but has nothing to prove her point."

"I do not lie!" Ms. Barker stated.

Jackie let out a sigh. "And the more they speak of honor, the closer you watch the silverware."

Ms. Barker glared at her. In a growl, she said, "I'll go check the trash can, see if it's still there!" She then stomped out.

Duncan shrugged at the Principal. "If she can find it, that will clear this up."

"I am sure Ms. Barker will be proven innocent," the man stated.

"Then make a deal with me," Jackie said. "If what she says, that Jerry was lewd and crude, the we will apologize and make sure it doesn't happen again. If not, she has to come to the fencing center and go one saber match with me."

He shrugged. "I can't do that."

"Then you're not willing to put your reputation on the line?" Jackie asked. "YOU can do the match if she won't."

Duncan winced, "Not a good idea, Jackie."

Jackie shrugged. "Fine with me. That just proves they have no honor and Mr. Principal here doesn't truly believe what he says."

"I have no time for foolishness. I have a school to run." the Principal stated.

Jackie looked at Duncan. "Like I said."

"He should be afraid," Duncan stated.

"Look, there is no point in having a … duel over this matter," the Principal said firmly. "It is sad that a teacher's decision has even come up. Unless there is proof, I will stand by my teachers."

"That is why you need to look into it," Duncan said firmly. "Teachers aren't infallible."

The door opened. Jerry came in holding a crumpled paper. Behind him, Ms. Barker said, "Jerry, read that aloud."

Jerry straightened the paper out and scanned it over.

"READ IT!" Ms. Barker snapped.

"HEY!" Jackie snapped back, "Yell at him again and you will be sorry!"

"I just wanted to be sure everything's here and nothing was changed," Jerry said defensively.

Duncan nodded. "Jerry, read."

Jerry did. "My opinion on becoming a girl. I don't want to be a girl. I have never even thought about it. I don't like other boys that way but I do like girls. I would also miss those things between my legs, and I have seen 'that time of the month', and I don't want anything to do with it. If I was forced to, I suppose it would be cool being in the showers with other girls. Then again, if I was a girl, what would be the point? I had to go on for a hundred words about this, even though I'm not sure what else to say. The only thing I can think to add that if I had to be a girl, I'd want to be like my new Mom, Jackie. She's awesome, and can do things I didn't think were possible. She can wail on a guitar and beat the crap out a man who was twice her size and put him in the hospital. This is my opinion."

Jackie smirked at him. "So, Miss Barker, what was wrong with that?"

Firmly, she said, "He talked about personal matters, which is crude, and watching girls in the shower, which is lewd. He also rambled on about how he had to do that assignment, which is mockery!"

Duncan asked, "Did he put one single swear word in, or say anything about doing anything to anyone? If he had to go on about his opinion for a hundred words, did he put anything in there about you?"

"No but he pushed the limit as far as he could!"

Jackie eyed the Principal. "No wonder you wouldn't fence with me if Miss Opinion there was wrong. I also see nothing bad or wrong in what Jerry wrote. She wanted his opinion, he gave it." She paused and added, "Are you sure this isn't a case of she failed him because he's black?"

"It IS NOT!" Ms. Barker yelled, becoming red faced.

Jackie eyed her. "Wow, I suppose you wouldn't dare fence with me to attempt to hold up any honor you think you have."

Duncan face planted. Jerry tried to hide a grin and failed.

"Look!' I'm the teacher! What I say on my classroom GOES!"

"Even if it's wrong," Jackie agreed, then looked at the Principal. "Sure you still want to defend her?"

"If we fenced, I would BEAT you with that sword!" Ms. Barker spat.

Jackie brightened up. "Oh goodie! Shall we say Friday night so you have some time to recover?"

"Enough!" Duncan announced. He pointed at the Principal. "You heard, she asked Jerry's opinion, he gave it. He didn't swear or use any questionable language. Can you still support an 'F' on an opinion?" He then told Jackie, "And you're not fencing with her. You'd beat her bloody and we both know it."

"But she was going to beat on me," Jackie countered. "Let her have the chance!"

Duncan let out a sigh. "The last guy you fenced against angry, you took out both his knees, broke his collar bone and ripped his arm out of the socket. He was over twice your size and an experienced fencer. No."

Jerry pursed his lips together trying to stop the smile.

Looking frustrated, the Principal said, "All right. From hearing Jerry's opinion myself, he did ramble on some, but as was said, he did give his opinion and went on the required length of that essay. I will take a few points off due to in the essay he spoke about having to do it. I think his paper deserves a 'B'. Don't you Ms. Barker?"

"Fine." she grumbled.

The Principal then said, "Thank you all for coming, Ms. Barker, I want a word with you. Jerry, you may return to class."

Duncan, Jackie and Jerry filed out. They got back into the hallway. Grinning, Jerry said, "Thanks Mom and Dad. Ms. Barker didn't look happy."

Jackie stopped briefly then grinned. She could hear Ms. Barker getting her ass reamed. "No problem Jerry. She was wrong, you were right. Just be sure you behave in class. I'm thinking she's going to hold this against you."

"Yeah," Jerry agreed, losing his smile. "So, why'd you bring up the black thing?"

"To get them irritated. The word 'discrimination' carries a heavy weight with these people," Jackie explained. "It made the Principal took what we were saying a little more seriously."

"Your mother likes to poke the bear," Duncan said. "She almost had your teacher prodded into a fencing match that she would have come out of feeling a lot of pain."

"She would have, too," Jackie stated.

"I bet." Jerry agreed. He smiled again. His new Mom was awesome!

.