Notes: For Flufftober - "Have You Heard?"
The Latest News
"Have you heard?" Kara asked, practically vibrating with energy as she got into Alex's car.
There'd been some major gossip flying around school today, so Alex can only assume her sister is referring to whatever was going on there. She's been busy studying for her SATs and trying to decide where she'll go clubbing to celebrate getting another item checked off her 'get into college' list - the eighteen plus club or the twenty-one and over place with the fake id her mom doesn't know about? - so drama from a different grade level than her own was just... not going to be important for her to pay attention to. But Kara secretly loved that sort of thing. Which was good considering the girl had super hearing and was going to know what's going on regardless of whether she wanted to know or not.
So, being a good big sis, Alex said, "I know something big happened, but not what. Fill me in."
Kara made a little upset huffing noise as Alex pulled her car out of the lot. "Okay, so Angela and Gracie were both secretly dating someone and it turned out they were dating the same guy. They had a big cat fight about it this morning and now the cheerleaders are split down the middle taking sides. But, like, neither of them knew they were dating the same guy. He was cheating on them and he's the one being awful, but instead of blaming him like they ought to they're just... ruining years worth of friendship over some guy who isn't worth it. It makes me so angry, but everyone so wrapped up in the drama of it all that no one is bothering to put the blame where it belongs."
Alex frowned. She sort of knew who Kara was talking about. They'd never been mean to Kara about being weird when a lot of other kids did. So their friendship souring was, in and of itself, kinda sad to hear about. For it to be happening because they were manipulated by a boy... that did suck.
"Well, what can you do about it?" Alex asked.
Kara pursed her lips. "I don't know."
"Maybe you could write down how you feel about the situation and it'll help you get your thoughts in order?" Alex thought that sounded like good advice, anyway.
Finally smiling, just a little, Kara nodded. "That's not a bad idea."
It turns out that Kara does not just write down her feelings to get her thoughts in order. She composes an entire think piece about the situation and submits it anonymously to the school paper.
If nothing else, cousin Clark would be proud.
The school winds up fired up about the whole thing all over again, some still playing the blame game with the girls and excusing the boy's part in the whole mess. Others recognized that the anonymous writer of the op-ed was right and that it is a sign of internalized misogyny for girls to blame other girls when they're both manipulated by a cheating boy. By the end of the day it sounded like Angela and Gracie might even be taking steps to reconcile while the boy they'd been dating had dropped to the bottom of the dating pool, being snubbed by practically every other girl in school... especially when it came out he'd actually also been dating a third girl who'd been afraid to come forward after the rather... volatile situation with the cheerleaders first arose.
Kara is absolutely prancing with pride as she got into Alex's car that afternoon.
"So, I take it your day went well?" Alex asked. She lightly swatted Kara in the face with her copy of the school paper when the girl beamed a little too widely and sunshine-brightly for her own good.
Kara just laughed and snagged the paper, opening it to the page where her opinion piece on cheating and victim blaming had been printed. "One day I'm gonna be brave enough to put my name on a by-line for something like this."
"I have no doubt," Alex agreed, smiling. "I'm proud of you, Kara."
The only thing that surprises Alex, years later, when Kara says she got a job at CatCo is that it's as a personal assistant and not a junior reporter. But when that transition finally happens and Kara starts making the news instead of fetching coffee... something in Alex's chest relaxes, just a little, and murmurs 'finally'.
Alex frames her sister's first by-line. It goes right next to the anonymous op-ed from high school.
