I'm so sorry - earlier in my rush I managed to post my draft rather than the finished chapter - sorry. Hopefully this will make more sense.
...
Randi and a very pregnant Madison walked into Fusion offices to find Kendal pacing back and forth behind her desk like a caged animal.
"What's wrong?" asked Randi, although she already knew the answer.
"Those rags that call themselves newspapers," fumed Kendal, "They are dragging the kids into it now! They put pictures of AJ and Miranda on the front cover!"
Madison reached out and grabbed Kendal by the shoulder to stop her frantic pacing.
"You need to calm down!" she said.
Kendal balled her hands up into fists.
"I can't," said Kendal. "I'm so mad it actually hurts! No matter what we say the papers only seem happy to print lies and half-truths and there is nothing we can do about it!"
Neither Randi or Madison could bare to see Kendal so upset.
"You need some destruction therapy… or you are going to make yourself ill." said Randi, then a thought struck her. "I think we require a trip to the stock cupboard."
"Yeah," said Madison, "That will make you feel better, there is plenty of stuff there to wreck."
Kendal nodded her head, the thought of breaking something sounded the pefect way to vent her frustratioin.
…
The stock cupboard was a little space near to the photographic studio which was home to unwanted costumes, old campaign posters and damaged props.
The shelves were now full to the brim with broken and leftover junk that had built up over the years; stuff that had been kept on the offchance but was only really good to be thrown away.
"Here." said Randi, handing Kendal a poster board for the Silver Shadow campaign, last year. It was something ahe would be happy to see destroyed, she had never liked the picture they used. "This looks as good a place to start as any."
Kendal grabbed it and slammed it against the doorframe where it snapped beautifully in half. She imaged it was the face of the damned Inquirer Journalist.
"Next," she cried.
"Here you go." said Madison, handing over an old organza Roman goddess costume, Amanda had worn for the Venus campaign a few years back.
Kendal ripped it in two, with a satisfied smile on her face.
"That felt good." she said; tearing the fabric into smaller and smaller pieces and dropping it like confetti, much like she wanted to do with every issue of that unjust newspaper.
"Try this," said Madison handing Kendal an old polystyrene genie lamp that had been used as a photo-shoot for Fusion Gold about five years ago and then forgotten.
Kendal happily took the lamp from her hand and threw it to the ground with all her strength and anger.
It bounced, but didn't break.
Kendal picked it up and threw it down again.
It bounced again.
With a scream of rage Kendal slammed her foot into it and finally the spout snapped off. She stamped again and again until fragments of polystyrene littered the floor.
She looked up at Randi and Madison and they all suddenly burst out laughing, the tension finally dispursed.
"So you feel better?" Madison asked.
"Yeah." said Kendal. She looked down at the destruction around her. "Although now, I guess, we need to clear up this mess!"
…
As satisfying as destroying stuff had been, there was also something strangely cathartic about having to clear up afterward.
The job of clearing out the stock cupboard was a something that had been needed doing for a long time, but always seemed to get forgotten, as more and more stuff was piled in.
Neither Kendal, Randi nor Madison were exactly dressed for the job at hand but since they had started going through the cupboard it was now almost impossible to stop.
The act of sorting through the junk led to the discovery items long forgotten, and soon the girls were reminising about old ad campaigns and even unearthed some of the eighties and nineties fashions had been buried, long forgotten, in an old costume hamper. They began getting rid of things that no longer had a purpose and making space in the clutter. Kendal was glad to have something else to think about other then the papers.
A small pile of black rubbish sacks was building up in the hallway outside as they sorted through the junk.
Madison bent down to pick up the next full sack, it was unexpectedly heavy.
"Yikes." she said as she got a painful twinge.
"Whoa there pregnant lady." said Randi, grabbing her arm to stop her. "No heavy lifting. I got that."
Kendal looked up at Madison from her position kneeling by an old costume hamper. Her friend wasn't straightening up.
"Madison, are you alright?"
Madison clutched her stomach. She was leaning against a worried Randi.
"No." she gasped. She collapsed to her knees. She was bent almost double, clutching at her belly "Something's happening…" she sobbed her eyes wide with fear. "I can't have the baby now, it's too soon… I can't do this... I can't lose my baby, not again."
…