Barbara Kinsington hated being the new kid at school, even at a high school. In fact, at a high school, being the new kid was way worse she felt, as the kids were even more judgemental than ever before. Standing in the hallway, opening her locker and stuffing her coat inside, she could almost sense the snickering and taunting, even if she couldn't pin it on anyone. She tried to ignore it, until she noticed a girl opening a locker beside hers. The girl glanced over at Barb and smiled, making Barb smile back.
"Hello," Barb said. "New?" "Yeah, what gave it away?" "The look of a deer caught in the headlights is almost always only seen on new students, or perhaps freshmen," the girl responded. "Would you maybe show me to my class?" Barb asked, "I don't wanna be late on my first day." The girl took her class schedule and looked at it momentarily, before nodding and agreeing. She handed the paper back to Barb, who thanked her, shoving it back into her notebook and pulling her backpack strap up around her shoulder as they started to head down the hallway. "I'm Barbara," she said, "it's nice to meet someone." "Kelly, and the pleasure's all mine." *** "She has every right to want to start over," Jason said as he and Kelly sat in her car, parked across the street from a house; he sipped the coffee she'd brought them and continued, "but the way she explains it, I don't know, it sounds like she thinks I'm a bad father or something. I don't think I'm a bad father. A bad husband? Certainly. No argument there. But a bad father? That's debatable." "You don't get to decide whether you're good or bad to someone, only the person you're good or bad to gets to decide that. They're the ones being treated this way by you. That being said, I agree with you. I don't think you're a bad father, even if you were a less than stellar husband." Kelly opened the lid to her coffee and tore open a sugar packet with her teeth, pouring it in. "I made a friend at school today," she said, "this new girl, Barbara. Out of all the kids there, I was the one who was nice to her. Considering what I'm actually like, who's really the bad guy here? Perhaps my peers are worse than I am, even if I do hurt people." "Is that why we're here? To hurt this guy?" Jason asked, nodding towards the house they'd been watching. "I'm making final notes on his scheduling, but we should be all good to go by tomorrow," Kelly said. "...I don't want her to take my kid away," Jason finally muttered, his voice cracking, "...I...I screwed up our marriage, and there's nothing I can do about that and I wouldn't ask her to take me back anyway and it was all my fault. I accept those things. But...but I guess it didn't occur to me that perhaps she might take our kid and leave. That she might wanna actually move on, literally." Kelly looked at Jason and felt a twinge of pain in her heart for him. She could see he wanted to be a good dad. She could see that he clearly loved his daughter dearly, even if she hadn't seen them interact first hand. She sighed and turned on the air conditioner, feeling the cool wind blow in her face. "...just try not to think about it. Things could change, you never know. She might change her mind," Kelly said. "She's already rented a place," Jason said, taking Kelly by surprise, her eyes widening. "What?" "Yeah, we talked on the phone last night and she's already rented a place. She's got a job lined up. It's happening and there's nothing I can do to stop it," Jason said, "She'll be clear across the country and I'm gonna miss my daughter growing up. I would move too, but..." He looked at Kelly and sighed again. "...I couldn't do that to you, not after what you've done for me," he said, "That would be selfish. I don't know, I just feel torn, you know? Completely stuck in a multitude of situations I am both incapable of dealing with and unsure of how to death with. No matter what, I lose something, and I'm sick of losing things." Kelly wanted to cry. She felt for Jason, she truly did. She looked back at the house as she saw the target pull up in his car, empty his trunk of grocery bags and enter the house. No, she thought, she'd make sure Jason wouldn't lose anything. She'd make sure of it. He was, after all, the only other man besides her father that she trusted. *** Kelly had never had female friends, not really. So to be sitting in a popular eatery hangout spot for kids her age with Barb was kind of surreal. She was so not used to having female friends that she wasn't even exactly sure how to make conversation. Adults she could talk to. Adults she had no problems conversing with. After all, she'd spent the majority of her life in the presence of adults. Her parents, her therapist, Jason, but her peers? That was uncharted waters for Kelly. Thankfully, as it turned out, Barb was quite the chatterbox, leaving Kelly to not have to say much at all, which she was grateful for. "I used to be homeschooled," Barb said as they sat in a booth at the burger place, dipping her fries in mustard, "but I wanted to go here after...well...I wanted to attend the same school my older sister had attended." "She's at college now, or?" "No, she's...she doesn't go to school anymore. She had an accident," Barb replied. "Jesus, I'm sorry." Barb shrugged and bit into a fry, saying, "I mean, she's alive, but she's not in great shape. But I wanted to go to the same high school she went to cause I felt like it'd make us closer somehow, if that makes sense?" Kelly nodded. In a way, it did make sense. It was why she had become overtly interested in fashion, partially to gain her fathers approval since he worked in the industry in one manner or another. Kelly looked around the restaurant at all the other kids their age, large groups, medium sized groups, all eating and chatting away, none of them even remotely invested in the same things she was. None of them aware of the things she did. "It's weird," Barb said, "I thought I'd have trouble fitting in, but making friends is apparently easier than I thought." Kelly smirked. It wasn't, at least not for her, but it did help to have one now. She liked Jason and all, but it was good, she felt, to have a friend who was about her own age, and was a girl. Someone she could confide in about her personal feelings in regards to their classmates. "Well," Kelly said, "For what it's worth, I may be popular, but I'm not elitist." "I see that," Barb replied, laughing. After they ate, they went their separate ways. Kelly asked Barb if she wanted to do anything else that night, but Barb told her she had a lot of homework, and Kelly didn't want to be pushy, so each headed home. Or rather, Barb headed home while Kelly headed to Jason's. When Barb arrived back at the house, she said hello to her folks, then headed up the stairs. She entered her sisters room, and shut the door behind her. She approached the bed, and sat down in the chair beside her, setting her backpack on the floor at her feet. Her sister, Monica - still trying to cope with the pain of having her ear taken off by firecrackers - rolled her head to look at her sister. "How are you feeling?" Barb asked, and Monica moaned. "...everything...h...hurts....all the...time," she managed to whisper as Barbara leaned in and stroked her sisters hair. "Well, you'll be happy to know that I found her," Barb said, "I found the girl who did this to you. Soon enough, we can make your pain her pain." Yes, Kelly Baker never had female friends. By the end of all this, she's going to wish she still didn't. *** "So you have tools and notes and everything?" Jason asked, making Kelly nod as she downed a soda she'd grabbed from his fridge. "Yep," she said. "Can I ask what this guy did?" Jason asked, sitting on the arm of the couch, watching as she walked towards the counter and opened a box of cookies, pulling one out and biting into it. "I'd rather not discuss it beforehand," she said, "Clouds your judgement. The less information you have about someone you're going to hurt, the better. That way you won't feel as though you know them." "But you have all the information," Jason said. "But I'm not the one hurting them," she replied, making Jason laugh, which made her smile. "So what'd you do tonight?" he asked as she walked over to the couch and sat on it, still pulling cookies from the box. "I went out with a friend from school," she said, "this new girl. She's nice, albeit somewhat hopelessly so. But I know what it's like to not have any friends, so I reached out to her. We went and ate something, talked about school and whatnot." "Sounds like a good time was had by all." "Eh, more like an okay time was had by some. Call me a bitch but I don't understand the whole appeal teenagers have with other teenagers. The whole 'hanging out' thing. If I'm going to be with someone, there's going to be a reason and we're going to be doing something. Like you and I, for instance. One might consider this 'hanging out', but in actuality, we're plotting. We're planning. We're not just shooting the breeze. We're talking about shooting others." "You sure have a way with words," Jason said. "My best class is english," Kelly said, shrugging as she offered Jason a cookie, which he happily took. "I guess you're right. I was kinda the same when I was your age," he said, chewing, "I mean, I had friends but I also didn't mind being on my own. I've always been more or less of a loner. Course, when you're a boy and you're a loner, they take that to mean that you're eventually going to kill a bunch of people." "Turns out they were right. They just had the wrong age," Kelly said, making Jason laugh again. Kelly liked spending time at his apartment when she knew her folks were working late. It was nice to have an adult to be around, and it allowed her to ascertain just what kind of father he might be. She could see it clearly now, really. Just how good a father he was. For one brief moment, she regretted he wasn't her own father. "You know," Kelly continued, "when I was little, my mother put me in therapy instead of talking to me herself. None of the other kids would ever talk to me either. Nobody has ever talked to me on their own volition, and perhaps that's why I like this new girl. She decided I was good enough to talk to. You decided that too. My choices in friends might be particular, but I'm also careful because I don't necessarily trust others." She put the box of cookies down on the coffee table and looked at Jason, who looked at her, her eyes wide, like she was about to start crying. She wiped her nose on her hand and sniffled. "...I think you're a good dad," she said, "and I'm sorry you might lose your daughter. But for what it's worth, her loss is my gain." Jason smiled warmly at this admittance. He was scared of Kelly in the beginning, certainly - hell he still sort of was, he'd acknowledge that - but every once in a while she revealed herself to be exactly what she was...a little girl. A frightened, damaged little girl who just happened to enjoy hurting others. He appreciated her. Jason leaned forward and hugged her, patting her back. "I'm your friend," he said, "even if others might not be, you'll always have me." She smiled to herself. Yes, she thought, that's what she was counting on. Loyalty. *** When Barbara Kinsington had gotten the news about her sisters attack, she wasn't even sure how to comprehend it. Someone had hurt her? Violently? Seemed untrue. These sorts of things always happen to other people, she thought, not my family. Except that's what every family tells themselves. We're all just other people to one another. When she saw her sister in the hospital, sans an ear, she couldn't believe the level of violence that had been inflicted upon her. For a while, Monica wouldn't say anything. Not to police, not to psychologists, not to their parents. But after a bit, she opened up to Barb. She told Barb about the girl with the blonde hair and the nice car. The girl in the fancy outfits who spoke elegantly. The girl she attended school with. The girl named Kelly Baker. She told her what she'd done to her. How she'd taken her right off the road, how she'd strapped her down in an abandoned parking lot, how she'd attached firecrackers to her ear then squealed in glee as she sat back and watched the horror. She told Barb every last little thing she could. And Barb, much to her parents surprise, told them she didn't want to be homeschooled anymore. She wanted to go to a regular high school, preferably the same high school Monica had been going to. Not knowing that her sisters attacker attended the school, they relented and agreed. They even took her back to school shopping for the first time in her life. New outfits, new supplies, new everything. Barb requested that specific locker. She requested to be placed right next to Kelly Baker, and she went out of her way to befriend her. She did all this for her sister, because her sister had done so much for her when growing up. She had to pay her back some way. Kelly may have taken Monica's ear, but Barbara was going to take much worse from Kelly if given the opportunity. Oh yes, she didn't care. Damn the consequences, she thought. Her sister had suffered and justice hadn't been served. Nobody but Monica had paid the price for Kelly's actions, because she'd scared Monica enough into not talking to the authorities. But her sister...her sister wasn't an authority, and that's who she told. That was something Kelly hadn't taken into consideration. So yes, Barbara Kinsington didn't care what the consequences would be. She was going to do what nobody else could. She was going to bring Kelly Baker to justice... ...even if it killed her.
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A rich teenage girl befriends a desperate man in his thirties to kill people that get in the way of her or her family happiness and fortune. Slowly, the mans guilt eats away at him, while the girl ego rises to dangerous heights. Archives
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