Disclaimer: I am not the owner. The Great Rat God's company is. I merely play with the puppets.
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Author's notes: This is the third time that I have started this chapter. Let us hope that this time it comes out okay.
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Friday morning was different. Ronald met Justine as her brother pulled up to drop her off at school. Ronald opened the car door and offered his hand as she went to get out of the vehicle. A smile developed as she took his hand and didn't let go after she was out of the vehicle. She waved goodbye to her brother and closed the door, then turned to Ronald, "If I pull away; please don't think that it is you. I still have a long way to go."
Ronald nodded, "I understand, my precious. Time is not of the essence, only progress forward."
"This coming from someone that was cursing himself for not being able to develop a Unified Quantum Theory over the course of a long weekend?" chuckled Justine.
"That was a long time ago," sniffed Ronald.
"Ronald, it was Labor Day weekend."
"I meant in the microcosm, not the macrocosm."
"Do you mean the microcosm that a day is equal to an eon?" smirked Justine.
"More along the lines of an epoch, but yes… You do like to vex me, do you not?"
Justine nodded, "I do find much fun and pleasure in it, yes. You are so vexable. Plus, I like the way your eyebrow twitches when I do it."
"For the last time, my eyebrow does not twitch," Ronald said as he felt the familiar popping of muscles above his right eye.
Justine couldn't contain her giggle, "No, just like it isn't twitching right now?"
"Gah, women!" Ronald exclaimed as he went to walk away. His momentum was stopped by a tug on his arm. Justine hadn't let go of his hand, and when he turned to look at her, she had a serene smile on her face.
"I thought that you wanted to walk with me today, Ronald. If this is not the case, then I will not keep you from gallivanting away. Though do not be surprised if I do not have someone else to escort me," Justine said as she heeled him in to her. As he stood next to her she smiled to him, "Your acquiescence is appreciated, Ronald, and may be rewarded in the future."
Ron sighed and nodded. He felt his armed pulled this time and noticed that Justine had bent her arm to be behind her back, bringing his arm around with it. A shock look at Justine was the entirety he could muster as words left him entirely. A coy smile nee smirk was his only reward in answer to his unspoken question.
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As the entered the cafeteria, Justine released Ronald's hand. "I suppose that you would like to spend time with your little angeliques now."
"Not really," Ron shook his head, "but I suppose that I should put in an appearance. Would you like to come?"
"I suppose that I could be sociable for civilities sake," responded Justine as she straightened up and stood next to Ronald, her books in her arm closest to him.
This little action was not lost upon Ronald. Every move toward Justine's area of familiarity was met with an equal and opposite move from him. She kept the distance slight, noticeable, constant, and cold. As they approached the table, her aloof demeanor reappeared in spades and the area filled in frost from her disposition. She could hear the chattering of the three girls sitting at the table, and she wanted nothing to do with them. The incessant babbling that she heard reminded her of the saying, 'There, but for the grace of God, go I.'
She finally allowed her ears to open up to listen to the three when they were talking to Ronald. "So Kim here starts a webpage for babysitting and all that, but puts on there, 'I can do anything,' and she gets a hit on the site from Paisley, you know the billionaire in Upperton?" Ron nodded his knowledge so the brunette continued, "So anyway, it seems that he is trapped by his security system and he asked our girl here for help. Of course, Tara and I tag along to help her, and when we get there, it is amazing; his house is H U G E. Anyway, we get inside after slipping through the bars on the gate and we go into his house and there are these light beams everywhere."
This is when the blonde interjected, "Cohesive lasers, Bonnie. It would have been so cool, if you know they wouldn't have sliced us into pieces at touching them."
"Right, right, right, whatever, anyway, this guy tells us that we have to hit the red button on this remote thing in the middle of the floor. Tara and I just started to shake our heads, but Kim here," with this she sidearm hugged the redhead, "Goes… Come on, K, say it."
Justine saw Kim take a big breath and let it out as a sigh, "No big…"
"See, no big, that is all that this death trap is to her. No Big… So, she glances around and tells Tara and me to get ready for a launch. I know what she is going to do isn't going to be competition legal, but it will be cooler than anything. We get ready, and she launches at us, we give her enough height to do anything that she wanted. Long story short, she does a routine that is impossible, and lands with her right toe on the button turning off the lasers. It was so, cool." Bonnie's face then gets serious, "And then do you know what she does? When she is offered money, she turns it down."
"Bonnie, I just don't think it's right to accept money for saving someone's life. Besides, he said that he owed us, and that he always pays back favors. Plus, I got to see a Flamingoat in person."
"I must say that is quite an impressive afternoon," commented Ronald.
Kim leaned forward with a self-satisfied grin on her face, "So what was your afternoon like?"
"Ronald went with me to my psychiatrist appointment and was finally able to start to come to terms with what was done to me, so we can move on with our lives," interjected Justine.
Ronald let out a breath that he didn't realize that he had taken. There was a pause from the three girls at the table. It was Bonnie that spoke up first, "You go to a shrink?" she snorted with an attempt to withhold a laugh.
"Yes, Bonnie, unlike others I try my best to face the trauma that has happened to me in the past, so that I will be able to put it behind me."
Bonnie snorted, "What kind of trauma could someone like you have?"
Justine's icy façade did not melt as she leaned into Bonnie's ear and whispered her tale. As Bonnie tried to pull away from the graphic description that was being presented to her, Justine's hand held the brunette's head fast. Bonnie tried with all of her might to block out the litany of horror that had been visited upon her, but it was to no avail, the soft droning bade her listen. Suddenly the hand was removed from her head and the cold voice stopped. Bonnie could do nothing but shiver with a blank look on her face.
"But through it all, Bonnie, the one thing that kept me going was my friendship with Ronald. That is what true friendship is. Even after knowing all that happened, he stood beside me and treated me no different. What type of support do you have?" Justine turned to Ronald and sighed. "I am going to class Ronald, I will see you later."
As the blond walked away, she turned to Bonnie, "You can tell them if you would like. I know it will be all over the school shortly." She returned to her path and started to walk out of the cafeteria.
Bonnie looked up with distraught eyes. She looked deep into the murky depths of Ronald's and spoke, "Go to her, we can get to class on our own today."
Ronald nodded a bow to the three girls and turned and hurried to Justine's side. The three girls could see their hands interlace and Justine move Ronald's arm around her as she pressed her face into his body; her sobs were evident even across the room. Tara and Kim turned to Bonnie as one when the pair left through the double doors.
"What did she tell you?" asked Kim.
The look of shock slowly drained from her face and was replaced by overwhelming horror as she placed her face into her hands and wept out, "I can't, please don't make me."
