A/N: Alright, so I was planning on waiting until after I put up the final chapter of Tortured Truth before I put this one up even though it was already written since that's my order, but Tortured Truth is taking forever, so I decided to screw the order and put this up.

Just a quick thanks to everyone who reviewed and continues to give me constructive criticism! I really appreciate it and I hope you enjoy! Jacob and Noelle are introduced in this chapter, which makes me excited because I love writing them!

Chapter Three
The Plagues of Being Popular

"Cutting it kinda close, aren't we?" her father joked as Kimberly dashed into the dining room for breakfast. She noticed her plate of French toast, bacon, and eggs and immediately started eating. Her younger sister was already eating and her mom and dad were each eating while reading the newspaper.

"I think someone didn't want to get out of bed," her mother answered, smiling over her paper at Kimberly.

"Let's just say I really like the new bed set," Kimberly stated back with a smile while continuing to eat.

In truth Kimberly's delay was due to her thoughts concerning the boy in her dreams. She dreamed about him again last night. She couldn't get his face out of her head, it was just so entrancing. His face looked so happy, so peaceful, and he looked around her age. It wasn't like she had a crush on him, but the way he looked at her just made her feel like home, like family. She had been comparing his face with her alternate appearance and noticed that he looked like an exact twin, an exact replica of herself except the opposite gender.

She finished off her plate and drained the last of her orange juice. She jumped up, kissed her mom and dad on the cheeks, and ran towards the garage, her sister following behind her.

"Your bags, Miss Kimberly and Miss Nichole," the butler stated as he held out their backpacks for them. "Which vehicle will you be flying today Miss Kimberly?" he asked in his dry voice.

"Um, let Nichole pick."

"Ooh, the pink bug, the pink bug!"

"The pink VW it is then," Kimberly announced cheerfully as she grabbed the keys from the butler and headed into the garage. She opened the garage and wound her way through the hover cars until she found the pink bug. They jumped in and Kimberly headed towards the elementary school to drop off her sister before heading to the high school.

A large group of students started waving enthusiastically to Kimberly as she walked towards the front of the school. She heard people calling her name and she just smiled at them or waved if she knew them, which didn't happen very often. It seemed that everyone at the school knew her name, but she only knew the large group that she hung out with most of the time. It wasn't that she didn't care; it was just that there were too many people at the school to know everyone's names.

She reached the large group of friends she usually hung out with and immediately they flocked around her, pestering her with questions about the previous day's events.

"So, how was the party last night? Did you get to talk to Tucker Foley and Danny's sister?" Michelle cooed, trying to get some details. She was the gossiper of the school and wanted to know everything. She was the most popular girl in town until the Jordans moved in. Kimberly knew that her parents' past connections with the Fentons and their association with the top politicians in the nation were the only reasons why Michelle bothered to even talk to Kimberly.

"Yeah, and I really don't want to talk about it."

"Why not?" she pressed.

"Because they're just nice people who have been through extremely hard times. You don't know what it's like being with them, to hear them talk about him! He was their best friend and brother, not just some great philanthropist. Sure that's what they may say in the speeches, but hearing them talk about him by his grave makes your heart break! They still think he may be alive, and that just tears me up inside! So, if you don't mind, I would really not like to talk about it!" Kimberly snapped. She heard a light bulb break from a nearby street lamp and she realized that she let her anger get the better of her again. Fortunately no one heard it or if they did they didn't think anything of it. They were too busy staring at Kimberly, stunned at her outburst. She never usually got so snappy with them. They'd always ask her how dinner parties went and she indulged them, but she needed to draw the line somewhere, and a memorial ceremony for someone's death was definitely past the line.

Finally, Alice (Michelle's number two) changed the topic to a new dress she bought and the other girls started talking from there, completely forgetting what just happened. As they walked inside, Kimberly continued to think about her outburst. She knew they couldn't understand and probably never would, but she needed to find an outlet for all the pain she'd been feeling since yesterday. She realized they were at her locker and she shook her herself out of her thoughts. She opened it and started grabbing her books while only half listening to the rest of the group's conversation, nodding and smiling when appropriate.

"You look really nice today Kimberly," a smooth voice cooed into her ear as she shut her locker. She turned her head to find the attractive face of Jonathan close to her ear.

"Thank you John," she replied.

"May I escort you to class?" he asked smoothly.

"Of course," she answered. He grabbed her books as she felt a powerful arm wrap around her waist as they walked towards her first class. Jonathan Stevens and Kimberly Jordan had been dating since freshman year. Of course, Kimberly technically didn't believe they were dating that long, since they spent almost the same amount of time apart as they did dating. They would date for a few weeks and then break up, only to end up together again a few weeks later. It wasn't that he was a bad guy. He was extremely attractive, well built, looked fabulous with his shirt off, gentlemanly, and nice when he wanted to be, but she just couldn't get over his superior attitude and his fondness for bullying. She knew that she didn't love him, although she did have feelings for him, but she could tell that he didn't care about her at all. He only dated her because it was expected since he was the quarterback of the football team, and the quarterback always had to date the most popular girl, which unfortunately happened to be her. Right now they were currently apart, but she could tell he was trying to win her back.

As they walked to class, she felt someone bump into her shoulder. She didn't think anything of it, since the hallways were busy, but Jonathan seemed to notice and took great offense to it as he spun around quickly, noticing the retreating form of a brown haired girl dressed in black.

"Hey you!" Jonathan screamed after her, but she continued down the hall. "I said hey you!" he bellowed as he stomped down the hall and grabbed her by the shoulders and turned her around.

"What do you want?" she asked angrily.

"Why did you bump into Ms. Jordan? Is that anyway to treat your superior?" he asked, pinning her against the lockers.

Kimberly fought her way through the crowd that was gathering around them and rushed to Jonathan's side.

"John, it was nothing. It was just an accident, she didn't mean to!" Kimberly started to protest. "Please just let her…"

"Look, I didn't mean to. It was an accident," the girl pleaded.

"Accident, I'll show you an accident!" Jonathan thundered as he hit her against the lockers again, her head leaving a dent in the metal. He lifted her by the collar of her shirt, prepared to stuff her into an open locker when a teacher yelled from the crowd.

"Gulliver's Travels Mr. Stevens! What are you doing?" Mr. Lancer asked as the students parted for him. Everyone knew not to disobey Mr. Lancer on the thirteenth of November.

"This girl here thought she could hurt Ms. Jordan. I was protecting her."

"Were you going to stuff her in a locker?" Mr. Lancer asked maliciously. In Mr. Lancer's book, nothing harbored a harsher punishment than shoving a fellow classmate into a locker. It was well known that Dash Baxter used to shove Danny Fenton in his locker throughout most of his high school years, so Mr. Lancer had made it his personal goal to rid the high school of locker-shoving permanently by assigning the strictest punishments to anyone who decided to be smart and shove another into a locker.

"No, of course not sir. I was just holding her so she would stop charging at Ms. Jordan. I was going to hold her until a teacher came to remedy the situation," he lied smoothly. Unfortunately for most unpopular students, Jonathan was not the usual stereotypical stupid jock. He was actually quite smart and could weasel his way out of anything with his smooth talking voice.

"Well then, Mr. Steven, Ms. Jordan, I suggest you hurry off to class. Ms. Johnson, this merits another detention, follow me."

Jonathan grabbed Kimberly around the waist and they continued off towards their first class while Kimberly continued to glance behind her at the girl being led away by Mr. Lancer.

She turned back to face him. "You shouldn't have done that."

"Done what?" he asked, pretending to be innocent and flashing her the smile that made girls swoon in the halls.

"What you just did to that girl. You lied to Mr. Lancer and you know it. She doesn't deserve detention, and it wasn't like it was that big a deal."

"Not that big a deal? Kimberly, she purposely bumped into you because she wanted to hurt you because you're popular and she's not, so she got jealous."

"So? It was just a bump!" Kimberly defended. "It's not like it hurt or anything, I barely felt it!"

"It's because she's weak. I could see it in her eyes, she wanted to hit you harder if she could," he argued back.

"And you were going to shove her in a locker!" she yelled as she ignored his comment. "Don't you remember what yesterday was? Mr. Lancer would do everything just short of killing you if you actually did!"

"Relax, I knew that old bat was coming. Plus she deserved it."

"She didn't deserve anything!"

"Hey, I was protecting you! I thought that's what boyfriends are supposed to do!"

"We're not going out right now," she stated bluntly.

"Whatever. Besides, why do you care anyways? She's just a freak."

"So was Danny Fenton, and look what happened to him."

"But he never hurt anyone, did he? That Dash guy just picked on him just to pick on him. At least I had a reason."

"You still shouldn't have done it. I hate it when you bully people around," she pouted.

"Hey, I didn't bully anyone," he argued as he stood right in front of her, looking into her bright blue eyes, trying to make excuses so she'd get back to liking him. She smirked at him, showing him that she knew he was lying. "Alright, maybe I did, but she was bullying you in the first place. I was just standing up for you." Kimberly still looked pouty. "Alright, I promise not to do anything to her for the rest of the week, alright?"

Kimberly smiled. "It's a deal." She lifted herself up on her toes and kissed him on the cheek as she grabbed her books from him and walked into the classroom. She sat down next to Noelle and Jacob who smiled at her.

"Busy day?" Jacob asked sarcastically.

"Haha," she replied dryly.

"We heard you two yelling from inside the classroom," Noelle informed her.

"What? Oh my gosh," she muttered as she buried her face into her hands.

"Yeah. We were expecting something to blow up any minute," Jacob stated.

"Oh, your confidence in me is reassuring."

"Isn't it?"

"What's with you today Kimberly?" Noelle asked concerned. "First you blow up at everyone this morning…"

"Not to mention the lamp," Jacob interrupted as he earned a glare from Kimberly.

"…and now this whole thing with Jonathan? Is something wrong?"

Kimberly was about to answer when her teacher walked into the classroom and started writing the daily notes on the board.

"I'll tell you later."

Kimberly never had a chance to explain her new attitude to her friends until lunch. In between classes there were just too many people around for her to have a private conversation.

After eating lunch with the rest of the group, Kimberly signaled to Noelle and Jacob to leave the table, stating that they needed to go to the car for something. They found a nice shady spot under a tree and sat down, which was their usual retreat.

"So Kimberly, what's going on?" Noelle asked, concerned.

"I just feel kind of down today, what with the whole Danny Fenton thing yesterday."

"But you go through this every year, and you have yet to blow up at fellow teenagers just for being who they are."

"Yeah, but for some reason this is different. I just can't seem to get it out of my head. I don't know why, but I just can't stop thinking about the Fentons."

"Do you think it has something to do with Jazz being the speaker this year? I know you always hate it when she gives the speeches," Jacob pondered.

"Maybe, I don't know. All I know is that it's making me depressed and agitated, and I don't like it at all. Plus, I've been having these really strange dreams."

"What do you mean?" Jacob asked. "You mean stranger than usual?"

"Well, maybe not strange, but just strange feeling." She used to get a lot of strange dreams when she was young, not really knowing anything about them. She still had yet to figure out what they meant, if anything. "In the dream, I'm flying next to this boy who looks like me in my other form, and for some reason I feel really comforted when I'm with him. I can't really describe it, but I just feel like while I'm flying with him, nothing can go wrong."

The three of them sat in silence, not really knowing how to interpret this dream.

"Well, not all dreams have to mean something," Jacob stated hopefully.

"Right, just like not all tests affect your grades," Noelle remarked back. "Look, the only advice I have is to just not worry about it. Don't worry about the Fentons and try not to think about them. They're dead, and though it's tragic, there's really nothing you can do about it. And don't worry about your dream. Just enjoy it while you have it and once it becomes significant, then you'll know."

Kimberly smiled at her two friends as they heard the bell ring, signaling the end of lunch. As they stood up and journeyed back to their lockers Kimberly thought about the two people walking with her. They were always there for her, always there to comfort her in her times of need, to help her understand the abnormal life to which fate had so generously bestowed upon her.

The rest of the day continued in a haze of books and notes and though the thoughts of their conversation still entered Kimberly's brain, she was grateful for the distraction the class work brought.

Right before final hour, Kimberly retreated into the bathroom, promising her friends she'd meet them at class. As she washed her hands, she glanced at her appearance in the mirror and again thought of the boy in her dreams. Why did he look so much like her? If she didn't know any better, she'd claim he was a twin brother or at the very least a cousin, but she knew that she didn't have a brother and she knew all her cousins, and none of them looked like him, at least normally. As she lost herself in her thoughts about the dream boy again, the bell rang, signaling the start of class. Kimberly cursed herself and looked around the bathroom, glad that it was devoid of girls. She turned invisible and intangible and flew towards Mr. Lancer's door. She stopped just outside it and returned to normal before entering the classroom.

"Ms. Jordan, thank you for joining us. Please take a seat," Mr. Lancer welcomed as he smiled. That was one nice thing about being popular, the teachers didn't care about whether you were late or not.

A minute later, another student entered the classroom, trying to sneak in while Lancer was writing notes on the board.

"That's a detention Mr. Matthews," Mr. Lancer stated, not taking his eyes away from the board. The boy nodded his head sadly and slunk to his seat, looking depressed.

Kimberly felt bad as she looked at the boy. She was late and she didn't receive detention, yet he did, and even though she appreciated not receiving detention, she still felt bad that not everyone received equal treatment. She'd always known Mr. Lancer to be a bit harsh on everyone, including the populars, but it seemed like she alone received special treatment, and since freshman year she'd wondered why. Why did Lancer favor her above all the other students at Phantom High?

Finally class was over and as she was about to leave Mr. Lancer called her name.

"Ms. Jordan, may I speak with you for a moment?"

"Of course Mr. Lancer," she added sweetly.

"Now, Ms. Jordan, I've worked hard at building my reputation. Ever since…well…let's just say I like to be known as the model of equal treatment among all students. In that manner, I'd like you to inform Mr. Stevens that he may have escaped punishment this time, but next time he chooses to pick on a student, he will have me to answer to, do you understand?"

"Yes sir. And, if you don't mind me asking, why did you spare him?"

"Well," Mr. Lancer looked a little uncomfortable. "He hadn't done anything wrong yet…so I didn't think he deserved to be punished. Later I found out that he had started it, so I immediately felt bad, so just be sure to convey my little message, alright."

"Yes Mr. Lancer," she agreed. She stood in front of the desk, waiting for Mr. Lancer to dismiss her, but he just kept staring at her, looking like he was lost in memories. "Um, Mr. Lancer? Are you alright?"

"You just look so much like…oh never mind. Off you go now. School's over, there's no need to stay longer than necessary."

Kimberly walked out of the room and she heard Mr. Lancer sigh and then open his drawer. He usually did this after they had a conversation, which happened quite often. She never knew what he pulled out, but she had long since wondered. She met up with Noelle and Jacob outside the school beneath their favorite tree.

"What did Mr. Lancer want?" Noelle asked.

"The usual, tell me that he wasn't giving anyone special treatment while he gives me special treatment."

"I don't understand him, why does he talk to you about this stuff all the time?" Jacob asked.

"Why does he talk to me about stuff period?" Kimberly asked in confusion. "I mean, it would make sense if I was a troubled teen or something, but I'm not. I mean, he asks me about my family and how I'm doing all the time. I just don't understand!"

"Me neither. Did he stare into space while looking at you again?" Noelle asked.

"Yup. And then started going on about how I look like someone. Then I left and he sighed and opened his drawer."

"I still think you should spy on him. You can go invisible and intangible, you might as well use it," Jacob urged.

"You know, I think I will. I don't think my curiosity can't take it anymore. Once he leaves his classroom, I'm going to see what he has in his drawer."

A/N: Again, I know there's really no action, but this chapter and the next are designed to set up the necessary background for the story (which is a lot) and to develop Kimberly, Noelle, and Jacob and their interactions together. But, chapter five is where the real fun begins...

And just a note before people start flooding me with reviews about the explosive power, that has nothing to do with A Secret Uncovered and there is no correlation present. I just liked the power so much that I gave it to Kimberly as well. There's nothing special about it at all, and you can take that to the grave.