“Kim, the look on her face when Barkin told her she'd been suspended…oh, damn, you had to be there!” Monique laughed. “Priceless.”
“Well, at least that's one less thing I have to worry about at the moment,” Kim said. Dealing with Bonnie, Ron, and Shennen for the rest of the school year would've been a major pain in the ass…
“I gotta jet to work – see ya’ tomorrow!” Monique interrupted Kim’s thoughts.
“Yeah… See you tomorrow, Monique.”
It was the truth. Just not all of it.
“…did NOT just say that…”
Shego sighed. Why the hell had she agreed to this stupid plan? All it was doing so far was bringing up memories – memories she didn’t want to have anymore. Faces – images she didn’t want to see anymore.
And for Christ’s sake, why undercover? That meant she actually had to get along with Kim and her family. Well, the getting-along-with-Kim part was actually pretty easy – but the family…that was the bitch. Those damn 10-year olds could ruin everything if they poked around too much.
Course, it didn’t really help that Drakken hadn’t given her specific directions as to what information she was supposed to be gathering.
And to top it all of, why the FUCK had she just allowed herself to divulge what was the most personal and painful moment of her life to Kim and her family? Until Kim’s nerdlinger went through the documents, she’d have to make sure her acting skills were top notch for a while.
But – Jesus to H. Christ! She hadn’t even been here 6 hours, and already she’d told them some of the most personal things about her life already. How weak was that? Oh, what a reputation she was going to have, once word of all the shit that had gone down got out. “Shego, the most feared woman in the world – turned into a wailing kitten by her arch-foe!” What glorious news that would be! What in the flying face of tarnation had made her feel so calm, so comfortable at that dinner table – what had made her so comfortable as to allow herself to explode the way she did?
There was only one explanation she could think of – and she didn’t like it at all.
“MOMMY! DADDY! GRANDMAMA! WAKE UP! THE FIRE’S WALKING TOWARDS YOU!”
“SHEGO! WE CAN’T SAVE THEM! IT’S TOO LATE!”
CRACK!
“NO! IT’S NEVER TOO LATE! WE CAN STILL SAVE THEM!”
FWOOSH!
“MOMMY! DADDY! GRANDMAMA!”
“Shennen!” Kim nearly threw the guest room door off its hinges, the screams had been so intense.
“What – KIM?” Shego, having started to change for bed, quickly threw the sheets on the bed over her. “WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING? GET OUT OF HERE!” she screamed.
Kim froze, mortified. “I – I’m sorry – I - I just heard you screaming-”
Shego ignited the green fire in her left hands, barely holding the sheets over her naked figure with the other. “OUT! NOW!” she screamed at the top of her lungs.
Kim took the hint, and quickly backed out the door, her cheeks blushing redder than a baboon’s ass. “Oh yeah, Shennen – this isn’t the best time, but Mom put your dinner in the fridge if you wanted to eat it later – said you could get it any time, so long as you don’t wake any of us up at 3 AM.”
There was no response from behind the door.
“Kimmie!” Mrs. Possible came up to her. “Is Shennen all right?”
“She’s – she’s fine, Mom – she was just tired, fell asleep halfway through changing, and happened to have a really bad nightmare. That’s all.”
Relieved, Mrs. Possible left.
But Kim stayed by the door.
After about 5 minutes of silence, she spoke. “Shennen?”
“Dammit, Kim – what are you, a damned voyeur or something? Go away!” came the muffled response from behind the door of the guest room.
“I’m not going to lie here. Everyone's suspicious of you, Shennen.”
“They think I'm Shego. Thank you, Miss Obvious,” Shego spat back through the door, the irony of what she was saying not lost on her at all.
“There's so much evidence: Drakken and Shego get out on a mistrial. Two days later, you show up as a transfer student from Go City, where Shego came from. You have the same pale skin as her; you sound like her; your clothes are almost mirror images of hers; you have the same green fire power as her; you're sarcastic and snippy like her; your backstory is damn near identical to what all we know of hers…I mean, pretty much the only thing that's different between you and her is your hair is shorter. Hell, Shennen - I'm suspicious. I don't think you are who you truly are.”
There was silence from behind the door for a moment.
“…snippy?”
Kim almost laughed.
Behind the door of the guest room, Shego cringed. She couldn’t believe she was about to do what she was going to do. She sighed. Better get it over with – who knows what she’s found out already?
“Kim?”
“Yeah, Shennen?”
“Look, I – I’m sorry for what happened earlier. I shouldn’t have yelled at your brothers like that. They didn’t know what hap-”
“Shennen, you don’t need to apologize. Jim and Tim made an honest mistake.”
“Yeah. I know – but I felt like apologizing anyways. I haven’t exactly been acting hospitable at all.”
Kim’s muffled scoff came through the door. “Pssh, no big. Anyway, I gotta go get my homework done. You’ve had a rough day. Go get some rest already.”
Shego waited until Kim’s footsteps were gone. She sighed.
It was the truth. Just…not all of it.
Back in her room, Kim stared at her bookbag. She couldn’t study. Her mind was too focused on Shennen. And whether Shennen was Shennen. Or the possibility she was another synthodrone, like Eric. But why would Drakken try the same trick twice in a row? Even he wasn’t that stupid…
Or…but no. That couldn’t be.
If this was Shego…it was a different Shego.
The Shego she knew didn’t apologize. The Shego she knew didn’t share personal information. Either it was all a lie, or…
Kim sighed, and decided to put it off. She had to start on her homework soon, anyways. She fished a random textbook from her bag to start.
Psychology.
“Funny,” Kim groused to no one in particular.
A familiar beeping woke Kim up in a heartbeat. Groggy as she was, she grabbed the Kimmunicator and answered it. “Wade, do you have any concept of calling when the sun’s up?”
On the Kimmunicator, Wade blinked. “What’s the sun?”
“Oi…” Kim yawned. “Whaddya got?”
“I did the checking you wanted me to do on that Shennen person – and as much as I hate to admit it, it looks like she’s telling the truth.”
“What?” That woke Kim up.
“Yeah, I know, I’m just as surprised as you are – but I checked with Go City Hall, and all the proper documents are there – birth certificates for both Shennen G. O’Reilly and Shego; former addresses; the death certificates of her parents and her grandmother; court documents of all the times she switched Foster homes; elementary and middle school enrollment forms; dental records – and those fingerprints of hers you gave me don’t match up with the fingerprints of Shego on file here in Middleton, or anywhere else in the world. Even the archived newspaper articles and the coroner’s autopsy reports – they all check out, Kim!”
“No sign of forgeries?”
“None! Scanned ‘em all myself - using my best equipment - and did that 5 times! To add to that, no security alarms - silent or otherwise - have gone off at Go City Hall in ages, and everybody who works there, even the oldest employee in the building – they all remember those documents always being there!”
“Ok, that’s too suspicious,” Kim started to growl, but ended up yawning.
“That’s what I thought, Kim – but I scanned the whole place 15 times in a row, and each time there was no sign that anyone’s minds had been tampered with!”
“Any signs Drakken was interested in making a de-ageing ray before he pulled the Lil’ Diablo stunt?”
“Kim, a de-ageing ray is impossible!”
“Hey, Drakken was able to swap Ron and I’s minds when my brain surgeon of a Mom fervently denied that that was possible – no reason a de-ageing ray isn’t possible for him, either.”
Wade sighed. “I’ll double check, but so far, there’s been nothing.”
“Thanks - now let me get some sleep. See what you can set up as to a ride over to Go City later today. Ron and I should check this out for ourselves after school.”
“Sure thing, Kim. And oh, there's a bit more about her that, but it looked irrelevant to what you wanted - anyway, guess I’ll save that ‘till you’re actually awake.”
“Yeah, do that. Thanks, Wade.”
“No problem!” Wade grinned. The Kimmunicator turned off. Kim immediately fell back asleep.
After about 10 minutes, a shadow at the foot of the stairwell that served as the door to Kim’s room resumed walking back down the hallway – a dinner plate in hand.
When Kim came downstairs in the morning, Shego was already at the table eating breakfast along with her brothers – wearing a plain white T-shirt and a plaid mini skirt with fishnet stockings and white boots.
Kim stopped. Their guest who had arrived yesterday had looked nothing like this. She didn’t look like Shego at all. She looked – normal. Well, at least for someone who clearly shopped at Hot Topic…
“You awake, Kim?” Shego prodded, sneering.
Kim snapped to. “Huh? Oh, yeah, I’m fine. Just a bit groggy, like I usually am in the morning,” she said, getting a bowl of cereal. “Ready for school, Shennen?”
“Not really,” Shego groused. “But then again, I was never a fan of school in the first place. Especially now. Now it’s all just teaching to those ridiculous standardized tests rather than teaching skills actually needed in the real world. Problem-solving in the real world is so much harder than problem-solving in a math class. Even if you know the steps you have to take in going about the process, they’re rarely in such a nice and neat order in real life. You know what I mean – right, Kim?”
Jim and Tim looked at each other in shock. Even Mrs. Possible was surprised.
“Uh – yeah, I see what you mean, Shennen,” Kim stammered.
A few minutes later, Kim came downstairs, finished changing and getting everything in her bookbag. Shego was waiting for her, her own bookbag in hand. “C’mon, Kim, you’re gonna be late for school.”
“Shennen, we gotta wait for Ron.”
“Ron? Oh. Him,” Shego snarled.
“Yeah. We broke up last week, but we’re still friends, and we’ve always gone to school together.” The doorbell rang. “Oh, that must be him.” She opened the door – and was yanked outside by Ron, who shut the door quickly. “Ron, what the hell?” Kim hissed.
“So how are things going with Shego?” Ron snapped bitterly at her.
“You mean Shennen?”
“No, I mean She-”
Shego stepped outside.
“-nnen! Hey, I’m Ron – Ron Stoppable,” he said, extending his hand.
Shego accepted the handshake. “I know who you are, Ron. It’s kind of hard not to, considering what all was on TV during that trial. And we also met in Barkin’s class when I arrived.”
“Oh, yeah! Heh! Forgot about that!” he yelped as Kim grabbed his collar and turned him around. “C’mon, Ron – let’s just get to school already,” she snapped angrily. “Some people actually want to be on time…”
“Dude! Is everything, like, all set up and shit? Cuz if it ain’t, man, then – yeah. Seriously.”
“Yeah, Boss. Everything’s set up over here.”
“Same thing on our side, Boss!”
“Aw, sweet, dude! Seriously! You hear that, bro?”
“Loud and clear, dude… Seriously… Loud and clear.”
VROOM! VROOM!
“Proceed whenever you feel like it.”
“Awright! Seriously, dudes – IT’S TIME TO PARTAAAAYYYY! YEAH!”
VRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRROOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!
END CHAPTER FIVE