She had thought that going to school after the moodulator had her crushing on Ron was awkward. She had thought that going to school after the Heather and Quinn sitch had been awkward. He had thought that going to school the day after that amulet had her turning partially monkey...and Ron had mistaken a monkey for her had been awkward. She had thought that going to school after last year's prom, when she and Ron had first become a couple had been awkward.
It turns out, she didn't know the meaning of awkward until today.
As it was, she was torn between being relieved that this was as awkward as her life was ever going to get and the terror that, at some point in her life, something might come along to redefine awkward again.
This morning, she had received notification that while her brothers could come to school at the normal time, she would have to wait until noon, and then go straight to Mr. Barkin's office. Her father took her brothers to school while her mother prepared to go to work, stressing that the teen could call her or her father at any time, should she wish. By the time her father returned, her mother had already left for the medical center. Friday, she had been ready to talk about where her relationship with Ron was going but today, it seemed so trivial. Instead, the two debated what they thought the school day would bring. To both her horror and relief, her father chose to take her to school and accompany her to see the vice-principal.
Ron had warned her that rumors were starting to fly and all of the looks directed her way confirmed this. She tried to look as normal as she could on the walk through the halls.
"You brought a parent," Barkin noted, as he ushered the two Possibles into his office. "Excellent. Let me be blunt."
As if he was ever anything but.
"I have already had a meeting with the faculty," he informed the teen. "Especially your teachers. With the exception of one, all have agreed to continue teaching you, even though they know you are being formally charged with an assault on Miss Allen. Currently, the police are taking advantage of the staff's free periods to conduct interviews."
"So, one teacher thinks I would attack someone without reason," Kim sniffed. "Who is it?"
"Your physics teacher, Mr. Hill," the vice-principal told her. "You will attend Mrs. Mander's class during third period."
"And my English Class during third period?" She asked.
"You will attend that during fifth, with Miss Wall, when you used to take physics," Barkin informed her. "There have to be some modifications. I only hope that you understand how fortunate you are that so many of your teachers chose to continue to teach you."
"I should be grateful," she answered him. "How about the students?"
"I addressed the student body this morning," he informed her. "I stated that legal action is taking place and that no students are to perform any sort of investigations of their own. The police will also be conducting interviews with various students. All have been instructed to not share what they have been asked with others."
"It's been half a day," her father noted. "Is it working?"
"No," the big man shook his head. "And I didn't think it would, but you still have to try. Rumors and speculation are running wild. I would suggest that you speak to nobody about this. I have no doubt that by the end of the day, some unsubstantiated rumors will reach tabloid level while other students will show impressive deductive and investigative ability." He sighed. "The sooner we can deal with all of this and get it behind us, the better."
With that, her father gave her a quick hug and returned home. She had felt less apprehension when sneaking into a lair, but it turned out that she was far from alone in this. Somehow, Ron and Monique had learned that she was back in school and had decided to run interference. Whenever she left a class, one or both was immediately at her side and between her and any students who wanted to talk to her. As much as she appreciated this effort, it drove home how much she had missed them both over the weekend.
She always knew that she liked being around Monique and Ron, but being apart from them for just a weekend had been rough; and she hadn't appreciated how rough it had been until she was with them again. Unfortunately, she didn't have the opportunity to hang and talk with Monique, to talk and joke with Ron...or to have a little makeout with him. Still, being with them made her feel better. All too soon, school was over and it was time to go home.
In a way, it felt like she was a kid again. There was no cheerleading practice after classes, no clubs or committiees to attend. She simply met up with her brothers and stalked home, trying to be polite as she brushed off other students' trying to start conersations with them.
Don't talk to strangers, come straight home.
The three siblings weren't children, so they were able to modify those old instructions a little. Sharing a quick, conspiratorial glance; two blocks from school they suddenly turned into an alley and sprinted halfway through. Behind them, Kim could hear a couple of cars suddenly start while another had to maneuver itself to fit into the narrow roadway.
Scandal rag photographers, she was sure.
Her brothers knew the route as well as she did, halfway down the alley, they jumped over a fence into a particular back yard. The owner, who Kim had helped with his yard and garden years ago, had given the three permission to use his back yard as a short cut as long as they kept on the stepping stones. That was no problem for the three, who quickly crossed to another fence, through a gate and to a rough path along a creek. This path led them to their own neighborhood, where they jumped over their backyard fence. The three were actually giggling with each other, imagining what the photographers...or reporters...or maybe just gossips, were doing right now.
That cheerfullness went away when they saw their father's expression.
"Bad news?" Kim asked him.
"None that we weren't expecting," the middle-aged man sighed. "But something we'll wait until your mother gets home to discuss."
THAT didn't exacty make it easier to concentrate on getting caught up with her schoolwork...not that she really needed any effort to catch up. Still, hitting the books helped her keep her mind off of what was probably going to be another rough piece of news. She didn't trust herself to talk to her friends, so she contented herself with texting Ron and Monique, as she could review what she was going to "say" before hitting the send button. All too soon, her mother returned home, so she steeled herself and went downstairs to confront the latest disaster.
Shortly after dinner, Agent Smith showed up again.
"It's pretty much what we expected," he told the family. "Miss Allen is claiming that the boys coerced her into this situation."
"But we didn't!" Tim protested.
"We never said we wanted this!" Jim added. "She just started doing those things and we went along with it!"
"Perhaps we should let you see her interview," the agent told the adult Possibles. "Do you want your children to see this?"
"Yes," her mother announced. "We've already discussed this. But they will only be allowed to see this footage while we're present."
"Fair enough," the agent nodded. A few minutes later, the teacher's image showed up on the family television.
Despite how angry she was at the woman, Kim had to flinch at the obvious damage she had done to her. Bandages covered one of the woman's eyes and half of her face. Bruising was evident and her speech was slightly slurred. On a practical note, Kim was forced to admit that this would make Miss Allen more sympathetic if this was viewed by a judge or jury. After asking her name and age, the unseen interviewer asked her to describe the events of the evening Kim had attacked her.
"It started like every lab did," she murmured. "At least every lab since it was just the three of us there. I prepped the lab, like they told me to, then let them in. I smiled and waved at their father, like they made me do, and made it look like everything was fine. Once I got back to the lab, they were working on their drone. I didn't want to, but I knew I would lose my job if I didn't, so I disabled the security camera and let one of them have his way with me."
"Which one?" The unseen voice prompted her.
"I'm not sure," she groaned. "I think it was Jim. I can't really tell them apart. I think it was Jim who was forcing himself on me while the other was working on the machine."
"Forced?" The voice asked.
"Maybe not physical force," she answered. "But they made it clear that if I didn't do what they wanted, I would be sorry!"
"Let's stick with the night in question," the voice told her. "After...the boy we will call Jim finished, what happened next?"
"Just like every time," she grumbled. "They changed places. It was Jim's turn on the machine while Tim had his fun with me. Partway through, Kim Possible barged through the door and yelled for me to get off of him, then she didn't even give me the chance. She tore me off and hit me...or at least I think she hit me. Everything went dark. I woke up on a gurney."
"Let's discuss how this came to be," the voice asked. "How did you get into that situation?"
"Those boys weren't a problem at first," she murmured. "They had an awful lot of energy, but they were actually polite towards the teachers. They were such geniuses that it was great having them in the advanced science lab. It all changed when the last two other students left at the end of the last quarter. A couple of weeks into the quarter and they confronted me. They showed me a video clip they had pirated from the school security system and then modified. It made it look like I was stealing things from the lab and going through lockers in the faculty lounge."
"What was the purpose of this?" The voice asked. Kim noted that her brothers were shaking their heads with distraught expressions on their faces.
"They told me that if I didn't do what they told me, they would frame me for theft," she sobbed. "Then they showed me this dangerous rocket fuel and said that they could plant this in my lab and report me. They told me that it wouldn't be rough on me, that they only wanted to know how to make a girl happy. That's when they put an app on my phone that jammed the camera in my lab."
"So, what happened next?" Voice asked her
"At first, it was what they said it would be," she groaned "They only asked me how I would react to men making various approaches to me and how they should approach girls to get dates. I really didn't mind this, thinking I could teach them that they had to treat girls with respect. After that, it turned into instruction. They made me touch them and made me let them touch me. They treated it as technical experimentation, learning how to arouse a woman. After a couple of weeks, it was intercourse."
"And you never thought to report this?" Voice asked.
"They had hacked all the physical evidence," she sobbed. "If I claimed that they were forcing me to do this, they would make it look like it was all my idea!"
Agent Smith stopped the recording and looked at the family. Kim looked around and realized that while her parents looked tired, her brothers looked horrified.
"That's not what happened at all!" Jim protested.
"What we said at the police station was the truth," Tim added.
"It isn't anything that we didn't suspect she would do," Agent Smith told them all. "To be honest, I showed this clip so that I could observe the boys and confirm that they told the truth at the station. Their expressions told me that they were truthful."
"You suspected them?" Kim's dad wasn't happy with the agent.
"These are serious accusations," the agent was completely unfazed. "If they hadn't been outraged, I would have changed my advice to you. The way it is, I'll be able to tear her story apart in any courtroom."
"Oh?" The rocket scientist seemed intrigued.
"According to both her and the boys, this had been taking place for many weeks before Kim discovered it," he pointed out. "If this had been coerced on her part, and done on a schedule, she could have easily set up her own recording device or had a witness hidden in the classroom to observe what was happening. Furthermore, I notice that she started by claiming that the boys were framing her for theft and and having dangerous fuel in her lab, but changed her story to suggest they would be able to claim the sexual misconduct was was her idea. She's trying to come up with a explanation for putting her into this compromising situation while still trying to make the story follow reality as much as possible."
"If it's so easy to pick the story apart, won't her lawyer know this?" Kim's mom asked him.
"Of course," Agent Smith shrugged. "Which is why this is going to go into negotiations. We both have our strengths and weaknesses. On our side, we have her admitting that sex took place and we can pick apart her story in court and prove that it was her doing. On their side, they have the boys admitting that they obtained dangerous fuels and hacked the security system. They also have solid evidence of Kim trespassing on school grounds and attacking her. We have proof of a more serious crime while she has solid proof of lesser crimes."
"So what happens now?" Kim asked him. "Do you and her lawyer get together and hash out something?"
"Not quite yet," Agent Smith seemed unaffected by her sarcastic impatience. "Both her lawyer and myself will want to get additional information to strengthen our arguments while discrediting the other. I'm all for letting the police conduct interviews, as I know that we're advantaged by more truth coming out."
"And if we hadn't been angry when we saw Miss Allen's interview?" Tim asked him.
"Then I would be pushing for immediate negotiations and not wasting the police's time on these meaningless interviews," Smith informed the family
"You seem to have flexible morals," James noted.
"I'm simply on your side," Smith answered. "My job is to represent this family so that Kim will be free to keep assisting Global Justice and perhaps join it eventually. I simply have the advantage that the truth strengthens our position." He offered them all a somewhat evil smile. "Just be glad that I'm on your side."
Two more nerve-wracking days of school. Two more days of more and more odd looks and whispers. Two more days of no cheer practice, two more days of just enough contact with Monique and Ron to make her crave more.
On Thursday, she asked for and gained permission to briefly address the cheer squad. Mr. Barkin accompanied her to the gym, only to get called away due to a disturbance in the lunchroom. Taking a deep breath, Kim stalked in and saw the squad hard at work. They all soon saw her and gathered around.
"Everyone, I'm not going to be the captain anymore," she told the squad. She had expected to see expressions of surprise and pity, or opportunistic smugness in Bonnie's case. Instead, they all simply nodded.
"I can't talk about what's brought this on..." Kim tried to continue, only to be interrupted.
"We can make some guesses," Bonnie informed her. "We don't have much time, Ron's running interference to keep Mr. Barkin busy, but he thinks it's so we can discuss electing a new captain."
"What are we really going to talk about?" Kim was immediately on her guard.
"Relax," Chrystal told her. "We're just trying to figure out what's going on. We can guess that your brothers have been accused of something sexual, because the police questioned all of us. They asked each of us if your brothers ever behaved inappropriately towards any of us."
"I thought you weren't supposed to discuss police questioning with each other," Kim noted.
"Did you really think we wouldn't?" Liz shook her head. "Did anyone really think we wouldn't compare notes when the police asked if our mascots had made inappropriate sexual advances towards us?"
"Have they?" Kim didn't think they ever had, but she wanted to be sure.
"No," Tara answered. "In fact, they completely innocent...even to the point of being easily tricked." This last statement was made with a harsh look at Bonnie.
"Fine, K," the brunette rolled her eyes. "Let's be honest about this. We're always trying to get the dirt on each other and I managed to get your brothers talking about things that could have been embarrassing to you. There's something serious happening here between you, Miss Allen and your brothers. I'm not about to lie about anything and get someone into legal trouble." She paused a moment. "At least not someone who shouldn't be in legal trouble."
"There's more to it than that," Crystal added. "The police also talked to Felix Renton and Justine Flanner. We did some checking and found out that they were in Miss Allen's extra credit after school lab, just like your brothers were."
"The last two involved before it was just Miss Allen and your brothers, alone, in the lab, every week," Liz added.
"Ron knows more than he's saying," Marcella announced. "He has to, because he isn't saying anything other than he doesn't know what's happening. Okay, I'll buy that he doesn't know exactly what's happening but he must have made some guesses; but he isn't sharing them."
"We don't want to start rumors," Hope told her. "So we're asking you to clear some things up."
"It's really better for you to not dig into it," Kim told them all. "The easiest way to avoid spreading rumors is to not say anything."
"Not good enough for us, K," Bonnie sniffed. "There's some sort of sexual ickyness going on and we're not about to just sit back and let someone else figure it out. If nothing else, we want to know who to avoid."
"It's most likely not your brothers," Jess took up the tale. "The police interviewed every one of us. They asked if they had ever tried to sneak a peek, or groped us, asked us on dates or even said anything sexually inappropriate. The answer to that was no; they were only interested in perfecting their routines and mixing up the pyrotechnic charges they used for the show." She paused a moment. "I don't think that we mentioned that we had to tell them to dial those charges back."
"But the police did ask us about the boys," Hope added. "So either they or Miss Allen must be suspects. Somebody did something."
"It's kind of a shot to the ego," Tara admitted. "It's not that I want boys to act that way towards me, but I have to wonder why they would act that way to a teacher and not a pretty cheerleader, closer to their age."
"Maybe they get turned on by big brains," Bonnie shrugged.
"These are my brothers you're talking about!" Kim snapped at her rival.
"Relax, Kim," Chrystal told her. "Like we said, we really doubt that your brothers did anything they shouldn't have; well, at least sexually. The final run of competition season is coming up and we were hoping that they could be the mascots again. They never messed with us, but if they messed with a teacher, we'd like to know so we can look for another mascot."
The rest of the squad nodded in agreement.
"Okay," Kim conceded the point. "I can tell you this; they're not being investigated for sexual misconduct. Anything else I say would be too much. In fact, what I just said is probably too much."
"Fair enough," Liz nodded. "But that still leaves us with you being moved in a couple of your classes. One or more teachers don't want to be around you, so we can guess that you did something to Miss Allen."
"We know it wasn't sexual," Tara assured her. "The police never asked if you made inappropriate comments or advances to us. Instead, they asked something else."
"They asked if you had ever gotten physically rough with any of us, or threatened any of us," Bonnie told her. "Or if you had ever threatened or gotten rough with any of the competition or anyone at school. I have to admit, you never have."
"So the police are wondering if you attack people," Chrystal summarized. "While asking if your brothers are sex fiends. Putting the pieces together, it seems that we have something going on with your brothers and sex, but the police aren't charging them with crimes. We have something going on with you and violence and a teacher that was with your brothers, alone, missing. What do you think we're coming up with."
"You should be coming up with nothing," Kim told them. "Let the police handle this. Don't go spreading stories. I've already told you that my brothers aren't being charged with sexual misconduct. If you don't believe me, tell Mr. Barkin that you're uneasy being on the squad with my brothers, because of the questions the police asked you. Maybe he'll talk to the cops and find out what he can tell you." She dropped her gaze to the ground. "I loved being a cheerleader, but I have to give it up now. I wish I could tell you more, but I can't. This...thing could take weeks and like you said, the final competition season is coming on. I won't be able to practice with you, so I'll only be a liability, even if I can get back on the squad."
She wasn't ready for the tears. She thought she was ready for this, but she wasn't. She had been a cheerleader since her middle school days and it seemed so unfair that she couldn't make the last competitions of her high school career.
"All because I lost my temper and hit Miss Allen," she reminded herself. "If I had just pulled her off of Jim and restrained her..."
"NO! I will not blame myself for this. This is Miss Allen's doing!"
"Kim, are you okay?" Hope asked her.
"No," she answered truthfully. "I'm really shook up because I never thought I'd be off the squad until we graduated. I love cheerleading and now...because...because of something I can't talk to you about, it's over for me. Please, go out and win! I won't be on the floor with you, but I'll be more than happy to talk to you and tell you what I think! I'll help any way that I can, if you'll have my help."
"Of course," came the reply from most of the girls.
When Kim managed to blink the tears away, to her surprise she saw that Bonnie didn't have a snarky look of superiority.
"It's not the same when my rival can't fight back," the brunette shrugged at Kim's odd look. "Watch us practice, when you can. Give us your critiques and when you can, tell us what happened."
Kim could only nod and share embraces with the squad. Then, knowing that even a capable distraction like Ron could only keep Barkin occupied for so long, she turned and walked out of the gym, feeling like she was leaving a piece of herself behind.
A/N: Sorry for the long delay. I was hoping that the site would sort out a little. I guess it's not about to come completely on line with visitors stats an all, so it's no use waiting for it.
Anyway, enough complaining. Best wishes to all.
daccu65