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AN: This chapter starts during "Don't Look Back"; as previously established, Kim and Ron's storyline will run basically simultaneously to Claire's storyline for the first few episodes, so there won't be any appearances from the other Heroes yet, but the storyline will start to diverge from canon once we get to the right point, I assure you.

The Not-So-Average Girl

Standing in line with the other cheerleaders, Kim wondered what the point of this impromptu meeting was.

The eclipse yesterday had been relatively straightforward, but it was still pretty cool to see something on that scope, even if her father and brothers were the ones who were more interested in the science of the whole thing. She and her mother had appreciated being included, and even Ron had been impressed in his own confused manner, but in the end, it had been an interesting spectacle that had been and gone, and now it was back to daily life in Odessa.

Of course, ever since she'd seen the reference to a 'Mysterious Good Samaritan' in the local paper this morning, Kim had been fully aware that 'regular life' was going to have its problems, but she was left torn between worrying that she and Ron had been caught out and were in trouble for not mentioning it earlier and wondering if this assembly was to identify the 'guilty party' who'd been involved in the train crash, even if she had no reason to believe anyone had seen anything clearly enough to realise that the 'Samaritan' was a cheerleader. She and Ron had each promised each other that they hadn't said anything about the crash to anyone else- mainly because they didn't want to attract awkward questions about why they'd been in a position to see anything like that in the first place- but it wasn't like they could guarantee that none of the fire department would have seen what had happened either…

"Girls!" the sheriff said, as the cheerleaders stood in the amphitheatre, lined up in a row in front of the principal, the sheriff, and a man who'd identified himself as the fire marshall. "This isn't a… criminal investigation. Nobody here is in any kind of trouble. Quite the contrary. There just happens to be a very grateful man lying in the hospital who'd like to thank one of you for... saving his life yesterday."

"I've never seen anyone so reluctant to be called a hero," Principal Marks observed from behind the sheriff, glancing over at the marshall. "You're sure it was one of our cheerleaders?"

"The uniform said Union Wells High," the marshall said, squinting along the line before he pointed at the end of the group. "I'd have to say it was… her on the end."

"That's Claire Bennet," the principal said, as Kim followed the direction of the fireman's finger to a short blonde girl at the end of the line; she knew Claire to say 'hi' to, but Kim wouldn't say that that the two of them were close.

"Claire," the sheriff looked curiously at the girl in question, "where'd you go yesterday after cheerleading practice?"

"I, uh…" Claire began hesitantly.

"It wasn't her," Jackie Wilcox said, stepping forward from her position beside Claire. "It was me. I was taking a shortcut home from school, and… I saw the wreckage of the train… wreck. And… I just had to help."

"Why didn't you say something?" Principal Marks asked.

"I guess I didn't want all the attention, you know?" Jackie said as she kept wringing her hands. "That's not why I did it."

The nonchalant way she said that affirmed to Kim that Jackie was lying. Kim could say for a fact that she and Jackie weren't friends, but unlike with Claire, where she'd just never had a reason to register the other girl outside of practise, Kim knew that Jackie had a particular chip on her shoulder. It might be petty to judge a girl based on her actions in high school, but when Jackie always did her best to take a fairly prominent role in the cheer routines, Kim had her doubts that the girl was even capable of being quiet about anything that showed her off in a good light.

Looking over the rest of the squad as they cheered for Jackie after the sheriff announced her as an honorary firefighter, Kim's eyes fell on Claire Bennet, who had walked up to talk quietly to the sheriff about something.

Jackie could take credit for the rescue if she wanted, but even if Kim didn't have any evidence she could use to prove it to anyone else and didn't even know enough to tell herself she'd cracked this yet, she was sure that the cheerleader who'd been at the train yesterday had been shorter than Jackie, and she was also sure that Jackie never wore her hair loose like the girl yesterday had done anyway…

After nearly a decade in his current position, Ron had concluded that the greatest downside to being the 'loser' who was nevertheless the closest friend of the most popular girl in the school was that you got all of the attention without any of the benefits.

It wasn't that he especially minded not having to worry about everything Kim had to deal with- he had tried to help her on a few of her school activities, such as the yearbook, and he had no idea how she coped with all that pressure- but there were times when it sucked being on the outside with everyone. He'd managed to get a few extracurriculars on his record with such moments as his role as an extra tutor in Home Ec, as well as acting as a general assistant for Kim on some of her own extra activities, but it was never enough for anyone to really notice him in a positive light…

"Hey there, squeeb," a familiar voice called out to Ron before elbowing him sharply in the back, sending Ron crashing into the locker in front of him.

"Gil," Ron said, rubbing his forehead as he turned to look at the lanky, dark-haired bully who was giving him a trademark smirk. "What's up with you now?"

"Just testing the waters, squeeb," Gil shrugged, the bully demonstrating his usual self-confidence despite Ron's awkwardly disdainful glare. "Y'know, when I'm taking the school to a good place, I was thinking about the look of it all, and I realised I'm missing a good bit of eye candy."

"Uh… OK," Ron looked at Gil in confusion. "And you're telling me about this because…?"

"What's the deal with your little redhead?"

"KP?" Ron looked at Gil incredulously. "I'm- you seriously think you could get Kim Pierce to do anything with you?"

"Why not?"

"She actually has a brain."

"Eh, everyone gets those urges," Gil shrugged dismissively. "And considering how wild that girl can be on the field, there's got to be some really freaky stuff going on when she lets rip-"

"Hey!" Ron said, deliberately ignoring the angry chattering from his pocket as he stepped forward to glare at Gil. "Don't talk about her like that?"

"Why not?" Gil retorted with a mocking grin. "Don't like getting your face rubbed into it?"

"Don't like- what are you even talking about?"

"Don't like getting your face rubbed in the fact that you've been FriendZoned by a hottie?"

"OK, she's not- I don't think- we're friends, OK!" Ron insisted, fighting to ignore the small part of himself that even he wasn't willing to admit might have thought about trying for something more at some point in his existence…

"You are such a squeeb, you know?" Gil grinned mockingly at him. "You get all the right bits in there to make something of yourself, and all you are in the end is a pathetic squeeb who missed every shot he ever had."

"Yeah, well… at least I know what I am!" Ron countered, feeling ashamed at the retort even as he made it.

"And what does that mean?" Gil smirked.

"It… well…" Ron waved his arms for a moment before he stuck them in his pockets, fingers briefly brushing against Rufus's head as the mole-rat reached up from the lower pocket. "Gil, really, what's the point of this? I mean, are you really impressing anyone with it?"

"Like you're not trying to act tough by taking it?"

"Actually, I'm just dealing with it; you're the only one who's making a big thing about this," Ron responded, before he turned back to lean against his locker. "Look, just forget about any idea of making KP 'arm candy' and move along before you make yourself look like a bigger idiot…"

The sensation of being slammed against the locker door was never a pleasant one, but Ron had become used enough to it by now that he could just take it and wait as Gil walked sullenly down the corridor, attracting his usual mix of impressed glances and disapproving stares.

Under normal circumstances, Ron liked to think that he would have felt sorry for the guy, but when Gil's attempt to get over his issues involved making Ron the target of his various jokes, Ron lost most of the sympathy he might have had for Gil, and moments like throwing Ron into the lockers just reinforced Ron's dislike of him.

Like Ron, Gil occupied a relatively uncertain place in the school hierarchy, but in his case it was more to do with his own abilities rather than who he was friends with. Gil was the star of the school's swimming team, but apart from that particular detail he never had much else going for him, and that wasn't saying that much considering the limited opportunities for the swim team to really stand out in this school. He was smart enough to do well in various classes, including biology and technology, but Gil didn't do overwhelmingly well in either of them, and swimming was his only real strength in terms of his athletic ability, so he hovered on the edge of most of the accepted social groups without ever belonging to any of them. Ron had tried to talk to him when their parents sent them both to the same summer camp a few years ago, but although he'd agreed to trade his Arts & Crafts with Ron's swim time because Ron had been uncomfortable at how choppy the river had been, Gil had never even thanked Ron for the switch and just kept teasing him for being too afraid to get into the water in the first place.

I wasn't a good swimmer back then; he doesn't have to keep rubbing my nose in it…

"What's the sitch?"

"KP?" Ron turned to smile at his friend as she walked up to him, out of her cheerleading uniform and back in her usual green top and blue trousers. "Just Gil being Gil."

"Sorry about that," Kim smiled at him in understanding. "Nothing else noteworthy about today?"

"Nada apart from the news this morning; how about you?"

"Both a bit more and a bit less than you'd think," Kim explained, shaking her head in amusement as she and Ron fell into step alongside each other. "We were just changing for some lunchtime practise when the sheriff and the fire marshall showed up trying to find out who helped save that guy from the burning train yesterday."

"Really?" Ron looked at her in surprise as the two of them began walking to their next class.

"And of course, Jackie Wilcox swiftly took credit for it and now they want her to be the Grand Marshall of the Pioneer Day Parade."

"Huh," Ron raised his eyebrows. "That's… kinda cool…"

"Which is why I don't think she's the one who saved that guy."

"Huh?"

"Ron, Jackie's got one of the biggest egos on the team; if she did save someone from a fire, even if she was willing to put herself at risk like that, she'd have stayed on the scene to tell her name to everyone and get the word out as soon as she could, not run away once the guy was safe and wait until someone else came to ask the team about it," Kim explained. "Besides, I never saw her asking about what happened to the guy she 'allegedly' saved; anyone willing to dive into a blazing train to try and get someone out would probably want to be sure they'd done it for a good reason."

"Good points," Ron conceded, looking curiously at his friend. "So if Jackie's out, and I know it wasn't you… who do you think did it?"

"I'm… not sure," Kim shook her head apologetically. "Jackie basically got everyone's attention after she took credit for the rescue, and then everyone spent more time working out what they were going to do next to 'honour her heroism'…"

She shook her head and sighed. "Well, it's probably not a big deal; we've got that game coming up in a day or two, so we should probably be focusing on that."

"Good call," Ron shrugged. "I mean, hey, whether or not Jackie did or didn't do it, so long as the guy's alive and nobody else wants to take credit for it, what's the big deal?"

Kim had to concede that Ron had a point, but she still couldn't entirely shake the feeling that she'd missed something about everything that had happened on that field during practise.

Why do I keep remembering Claire getting knocked over…?