The constant, irritating beeping of the alarm finally brought her out of her dream. She stayed in it as long as she could because it was such a good dream. In it, Brad finally wised up and dumped that over developed psycho who would adopt a tree stump if it looked like a person and instead ran away with her to give her the life she always knew she deserved. They dined in fancy restaurants, flew first class all over the country, went to red carpet premieres of his movies and did everything a Hollywood power couple did. It was exactly what she always wanted.
Which is why she fought so hard to stay asleep and get back to her wonderful dream life. It was so much better than the way her real life was going at the moment. Here, she didn’t have to worry about working long hours for enough pay to just barely get by, nor did she have to worry about ducking in and out of crowds in fear of one of her old high school friends-or enemies-seeing what her life has become. No, in her dream world she could be happy and content and just enjoy life.
That is if the damn beeping would every stop. With a groan she rolled her body over and slammed her hand down on the clock/radio. A sleepy, satisfied grin crossed her face after the beeping finally ceased, but was gone when she realized she couldn’t get back to sleep. She flopped onto her back to simply lay there for a moment with her eyes still closed.
OK, here we go. Today’s the day, Bonnie thought eagerly. Today’s finally the day when I wake and realize the last few months have all just been one long nightmare. I’m going to open my eyes and see the ceiling of some expensive dorm room in some exclusive college my dad was able to get me into because he’s not in jail. I’ll find out that I have some cool roommate who I share gossip with and I’m dating the hunky star quarterback. Like Brick, only a little smarter. Bonnie thought eagerly.
With a heavy sigh, she slowly cracked open her eyelids to find the same old yellowish/brown stain on the drop tile ceiling above her. She let out an irritated groan that, once again, her wish hadn’t come true and she was still stuck with her pathetic excuse for a life. It took great effort for her to pull herself into a sitting position on her bed/couch. She looked bleary eyed around the single, dingy room that made up the bulk of her apartment, and just like every morning the only changes she found were ones for the worst. Like the crack above her 13 inch TV that seemed to be getting bigger with each passing day.
She looked over her right shoulder to the corner that represented the kitchen area and wondered briefly if she should make something to eat before going to work. A quick glance at the clock told her she didn’t have enough time to fight with any of the appliances to make something that even passed for breakfast and resolved to pick up something on the way to work. She threw back the covers and swung her legs off the lumpy mattress to plant her feet firmly on the shag carpeted floor. She was still disgusted not only by the choice of fabric, but by the beige coloring that showed off every single stain. She was convinced it was the landlord’s way of billing her even more once she finally moved out of his dumb regardless of whether the stain had been here before she moved in.
Forcing herself to her feet, she stumbled a few inches away from the fold out couch before banning her toe against the leg of the coffee table she had to move every single nice.
“Ow! Dammit!” she cried out as she hopped up and down while rubbing her now sore toe.
“Quiet!” a tenant of one of the other apartments shouted through the paper thin walls.
Bonnie muttered a few extra curses under her breath as she now hobbled over to the only other door besides the exit in the apartment. It lead to the bathroom, which she was extremely thankful to have. She’d heard horror stories of some complexes around her that had communal bathrooms and with the amount of perverts around here there was no way she was ever doing to use one of those. Of course her bathroom wasn’t that much better. It was really nothing more than a glorified closet that happened to have a toilet, sink, and shower stall in it. Still, it was better than having to share it with dozens of other people and at least it was it’s own separate room instead of just a curtained off area like some of the apartments had.
After fighting a bit to the door to shut properly, she quickly undid her blue and white checkered flannel pajamas and let them fall to the cracked tile floor below. Her underwear quickly followed before she stepped over to the shower stall and slid the door open, wincing at the high pitched squeal the ungreased wheels made. She twisted the hot water knob and let it run for a second before sticking a tentative hand in. Breathing a sigh of relief that it actually was hot this time, she adjusted the cold water to just the right temperature then stepped inside. Another high pitched squeal followed as she closed the door but she didn’t let disturb her shower. She stuck her head under the flowing water and let out a content sigh as it helped sooth away her problems. In the back of her mind she knew it was sad that this was probably going to be the highlight of her day, but she didn’t care. Right now she focused on the calming effects a nice, warm shower could offer.
It lasted all of a minute as the hot water abruptly cut out and she was pelted with an icy cold waterfall. She screamed at the sudden change as she stumbled around the small glass enclosure to find some relief from the freezing water but to no avail. When she finally got her wits about her, she yanked open the shower door and stepped out into the bathroom with her arms hugged around herself in an attempt to get warm again. After a bit of shivering she let out an loud, frustrated scream.
“Shut the hell up!” the neighbor’s voice shouted again.
“Bite me!” Bonnie called back.
Once she recovered from the freezing cold of her not shower she thrown her pajamas back on, quickly brushed her teeth then went back into the main part of her room. She walked over to the dresser and instinctually went for the drawer where she kept her Smarty-Mart uniform. She paused for a moment to look over the small, four cabinet dresser as a whole and sighed. She remembered a time when she had something twice that big just for her summer clothes with her main wardrobe of dresses, shirts, skirts, jackets and what not filling out her spacious walk-in two door closet. Now, she didn’t even own a closet, much less enough clothes to fill even half of one.
She shook her head in irritation and forced herself to focus on the present, most importantly the job she had to get to. It wasn’t the most glamorous job in the world but it paid enough to keep her in this crappy apartment and off the streets and for now that was the only thing she had to hold on to. Her resolve restored, she quickly switched from her pajamas and into her work clothes before she zipped out the door, clipping her name tag to her orange vest as she did so. She raced down the stairs, careful of the railing she had broken a few days ago, then high tailed it to the bus station with hopes that maybe, just maybe her day would get better.
Her day did not get better. It stayed exactly the same as it had for the past few months with the exact same stupid routine of dealing with the exact same stupid people that somehow found their way into the store. Case in point being the rather large woman who was looking through a rack of dresses that were two sizes too small for her. Bonnie was convinced Al sent these gargantuans over to her from the shoe department so she could share in the never ending misery that was his life. As she continued to stare in horrified fascination, she started giving serious thought to banging her head against the sale desk to knock herself out before the inevitable happened.
“Excuse me, miss,” the woman called to her.
And here we go, Bonnie thought irritable. On the outside she forced a smile and greeted the woman with an obviously faked cheery, “Yes?”
“Which one of these dresses to you think fits me best?” the costumer asked, holding a red dress in front of her and then a blue one.
“I think if you bought them both and sewed them together then maybe they would fit you,” the brunette sniped.
The woman let out an loud, horrified gasp as she dropped the two dresses.
“Well I never!” she screamed indignantly.
“Turned down a free meal? Obviously.”
Now the woman’s cheeks were burning a bright red. “You people are the rudest employees I’ve ever had to deal with! First that horrible man over in shoes and now you, you little bitch! Where’s your manager? I want to report you.”
“Yeah, good luck finding one, they’re never around when you need them,” Bonnie remarked offhandedly.
“Fine. Then I’m leaving and never coming back!”
With that, the woman turned around in a flourish, the hem of her moomoo swaying a bit as she did so, an action that caused Bonnie to shudder a bit in disgust. She recovered in time to wish the obnoxious customer one last goodbye.
“Everyone in the grocery department thanks you!” she called out in response to the woman’s threat.
When she was finally out of sight, which took longer than the brunette would have liked, a small, sly smile crossed her lips. That made her day a little better.
Unfortunately, her good mood didn’t last long, because her actions somehow did get back to one of her managers. After being given a five minute lecture on the importance of customer service and how “the customer was always right”, she was told that she would receive a write up for her little indiscretion and eventually be fired if she kept it up. So for the rest of the day she had to force a smile and pretend to be interested in all the moronic questions people asked her. Even when she saw a group of teenie boppers gawking over some new Baby-Ts and skirts she was forced to bite her tongue instead of telling them to go to Club Banana where they would get some real clothes. Apparently, talking trash about the merchandise was bad as well.
She finally found some relief when she ducked into the employee break room for lunch. It wasn’t the best place to eat as it was dimly light and sometimes a little cramped but it was better than the store’s built in Pizza Shack do to the simple fact that here the customers couldn’t bother her while she was eating. They just couldn’t seem the grasp the concept that she was on a break so of course she was the bad guy for taking up their precious time. She shook her head in disgust as she sat down at one circular tables. Thankfully, it wasn’t that busy at the moment with the other only people being Shaun from electronics and Ash from housewares. She made sure to sit far away from them. There was just something about the two that rubbed her the wrong way. Mostly it had to do with Ash’s weird stories about some dead book or something, she didn’t really know because she generally tuned him out.
She set her pop and the three slices of pizza she brought at the Pizza Shack down on the last table on the left, far enough away from the other two so she didn’t have to worry about being bothered or overhearing their weird conversations. She opened up the first of the small, triangle shaped boxes and held it up to her nose to take a large whiff. She let out a small satisfied moan as the smell of the freshly baked bread and cheese reached her nose. The scent of fresh pizza was probably one of life’s littlest pleasures but right now she was taking what she could get. She held the slice up as long as she could before her stomached protested with a loud groan. Heeding to its advise, she brought it down to her mouth and started to devour it like some rabid beast. In the back of her mind she knew it wasn’t an attractive sight and knew that if she saw anyone in high school eating like this she would have teased them relentlessly, but right now she didn’t care. She far to hungry to worry about what others thought about her. Working half an eight hour shift with no breakfast and having to put up with completely incompetent did seem to work up one’s appetite. As she finished off the last of the crust she made a mental note to never leave home again without getting something to eat first.
She took a sip of her soda to wash down the first slice, then popped open the box for the second one. This time she forced herself to slow down so she could actually enjoy what she bought. While it certainly smelled good, the taste wasn’t quite up to the standards of a real Pizza Shack. Still it was better than starving or microwaving some frozen TV dinner tray. Which she actually needed to pick up before she left work today. She filed that thought away for later then picked up the second slice. She took a much more moderate bite this time and fought with a particularly difficult strand of cheese that just didn’t want to break away from its home. When the thin line finally did snap, it caused her to lose her grip slightly so the rest of the slice flopped down onto her shirt and left a large, red stain of pizza sauce right over her left breast.
“Aw! Awww!” she cried out through a mouth of crust and cheese. When she swallowed the bite she had her turned her head skyward and asked pitifully, “Just why?!”
“You okay over there?” Ash asked from across the room.
It was then that Bonnie remembered she wasn’t alone. Her cheeks turned as red as the quickly setting stain as she tried to recover some of her dwindling dignity.
“Uh, no I’m fine. Just fine,” she stated lamely.
She ignored the strange looks her co-workers were giving her and concentrated on trying to get the stain out. After practically throwing the pizza on the table, she picked up a handful of napkins and briskly began to rub the stained area. Unfortunately, the only thing that succeeded in doing was reminding her that she hadn’t felt anyone else’s hands aside from her own in a long time.
Brushing that thought aside for the moment, she decided to focus on the more immediate problem of the stain not coming out. She gave a few more hard scrubs before giving in with an irritated sigh. She tugged at her shirt to examine the stain more closely and found out she only made it worse. She shook her head in defeated and just decided to try and enjoy the rest of her pizza before checking her locker to see if she had an extra shirt.
No use in taking the risk of ruining another one, she thought bitterly. I just hope I remembered to keep an extra one here cause I really don’t want to try to find a manager just to get another shirt. she thought bitterly.
With her mind made up, she continued to eat the small portion of pizza that made up her lunch in relative peace and quiet. She didn’t have to deal with her co-workers annoying her, but wouldn’t stop trying to figure out what she did to deserve this. Sure, she wasn’t the nicest girl in high school, or for most of her life for the matter, but everything that happened to her lately just seemed kind of excessive as payback for all that. There were certainly worse people in the world besides her and they seemed to be living the good life. So then why was she being punished to much? Did God or Buddha or fate or whatever really hate her that much? And what if this was as good as her life was going to get? What if it was all just down hill from here?
Her thoughts were interrupted by the hollow slurping sound that stop her she had finished off her soda. She shook the cup a bit in an attempt to clear the ice away then tried for another sip only to be met with more slurping and watered down soda. Taking that as her cue, she gathered up the empty boxes then stood to dump them in the trash can when the goateed and slightly dimly looking face of Shaun filled her vision.
“AAAHHHH!” she cried out in surprised, jumping back a bit and dumping her trash on the floor.
“AAAHHHH!” Shaun cried back, as he took jumped in surprise.
Bonnie took a few deep breaths for a minute to calm herself then glared venomously at the hapless fellow.
“What?!” she shouted.
“I just wanted to make sure you really were alright,” Shaun replied with his usual British accent.
“I’m fine! Really!”
“You’ve got red on you,” he pointed out, motioning to the stain.
“It’s just a bit of pizza sauce, I’m fine.”
“Alright, alright. I’m just checking because we’re all suppose to be a family here at Smarty-Mart. You know, a team? And like the managers like to say, there’s not ‘I’ in ‘team’. Though there is an ‘I’ in pie, as in meat pie and ‘meat’ is an anagram of ‘team’ so…let’s all jump into the pie. I-I don’t know…something like that,” he explained in a half hearted mumble.
Bonnie just blinked in response.
“Right,” she said after a second. “Well I’m going to go over there now so you have fun with your pie or whatever.”
She waited for him to leave before bending over and picking up the empty cartons and cup she had dropped. She tossed them into a nearby trash can as she walked back to the locker room area. Her wish of having an extra shirt increased as she turned the dial on the lock. She hesitated for a second after turning to the final number for fear that her recently bad luck would hold true and there wouldn’t be an extra shirt. Or if there was one it’d be even more of a mess than the one she was wearing. Finding her courage, she pushed up on the latch then pulled the door open. To her great relief she found a clean shirt hanging inside. She wasn’t sure why, but that fact brought a small smile to her face. It was just nice to know something was going her way today. She slipped off the orange vest and laid it on a nearby bench. She started to unbutton her shirt, but stopped right as her hands held the first button when a thought a occurred to her. She peaked her head out from the row of lockers to look back and fourth to make sure no one was going to try to spy on her. When she was sure the coast was clear, she undid the shirt as quickly as she could then tossed it into the locker while almost instantaneously grabbing the other shirt. She flipped it on and buttoned in with record speed, flashing the world the white lace bra she had on for only a few seconds. Once the shirt was secure she slipped her vest back on then closed the locker door and headed back out to her counter to deal with the freaks once again.
And of course there’s one already waiting for me, she thought in dismay when she spotted a man standing by her counter.
She paused mid-step when she got a good look at him. He was kind of a scruffy looking guy with mangy black hair and a thick mustache. As if that wasn’t bad enough it looked like he hadn’t shaved in a few days. The brown and tan flannel he wore looked like something even Smarty-Mart wouldn’t sell and was obviously being worn long after it was suppose to be thrown away. His jeans were similarly worn and scuffed up and overall he just looked like someone who would try to steal something rather than buy it. Which is why she was a little surprised when she saw three large, and very tacky, sun dresses sitting on the counter while he looked around for the salesperson. Whether that was to buy them or make sure no one was watching while he stole them, Bonnie wasn’t sure but she did know there was no way she was going to let some trailer park reject get her into anymore trouble for shoplifting on her watch.
“Can I help you?” she asked in a stressed tone as she walked up to the other side of the counter.
He seemed to jump a bit at her appearance but quickly recovered.
“Uh, yeah I need to buy these fat lady dresses,” he explained in a slightly raspy voice. He then seemed to think over what he just said. “They’re not for me, they’re for some fat lady.”
“Who, you’re wife?” Bonnie muttered.
Again he seemed to think about that.
“Well she’s my ex-wife now and I think if I brought her these she’d kill me. And I don’t mean in the funny, sitcom kinda way either. She’d really kill me.”
“Whatever,” she sighed as she started to price the items.
The man looked at her more closely which made Bonnie even more nervous and made her wonder if there was a way she could press the silent alarm button without him noticing.
“Look I don’t mean to get too personal, but are you alright?” he asked.
“Oh I’m just fine,” she snipped with a roll of her eyes. “Why do you care?”
“Well you just looked kinda depressed. Kinda like someone I met a few months back who tried to kill himself. A lot.”
“Well I’m not that depressed so don’t worry about it.”
“If you say so. Still, looks like you’re have a bad day.”
“Yeah try a few months worth,” Bonnie sighed.
“Let me guess, life not going so great for you? Everything’s just going wrong all the time? Feels like someone or something is out to get you?”
The brunette stopped what she was doing and stared at the stranger in completely surprise.
“H-how…did you know that?” she asked after finding her voice.
“Well because I went through the same thing,” he informed. “And if I had to guess I’d say that in high school you’re the stuck up, cheerleader type, right? Kind of a bitch?”
That statement snapped Bonnie out of her daze and right into outraged anger.
“Excuse me?!” she shouted.
“Whoa! Whoa! I didn’t mean anything by it!” the man shouted, throwing his hands in front of him in a form of defensive. “I was that way too! I mean, obviously I wasn’t a bitch cause I was a guy but I was still a jerk. And I continued to be one pretty much my whole life until recently.”
“And I should care…why?”
“Because I’m trying to tell you I had to change my life when I learned about karma.”
“Karma?” Bonnie asked, raising an eyebrow. “You’re serious?”
“Yeah. See I won the lottery then got hit by a car and lost the ticket. When I was laying in bed recovering I saw Carson Daily talk about it on TV.”
“Carson Daily? Really? Well I guess it can’t all be made up if he believes in it.”
“That’s what I thought too,” he replied with a nod. “He said that if you do bad things, bad things happen to you, which is exactly what I was doing and they were. So I decided to make a list of all the bad things I’ve done and one by one I’m gonna make up for them.” As he explained this he pulled out a small, folded sheet of yellow paper from his breast pocket. “Soon as I decided to do that I found the ticket again and ever since then I’ve been trying to help people on my list. That’s why I’m here actually. Number 134, ‘Stole fat ladies dresses to make a tent’. Figured if I give her some new dresses in return, everything will be right and I can cross her off.”
At this point Bonnie looked at him like he was crazy again. Still, she couldn’t help by feel what he said made some kind of sense. At least it the only reason she could come up with as to why her life was such a crap hole right now. She was kind of a bad person in high school, hell even before that, and maybe this was karma paying her back. But did she really have to go through a list of all the people she had wronged to make it all better? That might take her the rest of her life! Maybe if she just acted a little nicer to the costumers then that might help the process and things might turn around for her. Of course with the people she had to deal with, that was easier said than done.
“Hey Earl!” a voice called out from across the room.
Both Bonnie and the man turned their heads to see another shaggy looking man that was a bit heavier than Earl. He also appeared to be a little…well slow was the only thing Bonnie could think of. Still he looked harmless enough, especially since he was holding up a pair of giant ‘granny panties’.
“Look, they got that kind of underwear for old people,” he stated. “Maybe we could buy this lady some of them too cause you know fat people like big underwear.”
“We’re not buying her underwear Randy, then she’s just gonna think I’m a pervert,” Earl countered.
“But it could go good with the dresses.”
“Put it back!”
“Yeah, but-”
“Put it back!” Earl half shouted, half muttered before he turned back to Bonnie to give her a friendly, ‘nothing wrong here’ smile.
Bonnie just shook her head and began to wonder again just how her life came to this.
Bonnie let out a frustrated growl as she walked down the steps to exit the bus. It had been another wonderful ride full of the usual freaks and perverts who kept trying it hit on her. It was sad that it had become part of her daily routine and she tried not think about it as she started to walk through the park on her way home. She just wanted to get up to her apartment and find sometime to relax so she could somehow find the strength to go through all this crap again tomorrow. However, when she looked up and saw the overwhelming shadow of her delapidate apartment building looming in the distance, that hope quickly began to fade.
“Bonnie?” a voice from behind asked.
The for the second time that day the brunette screamed in surprised as she spun around and pulled out a can of mace from her pocket. Thankfully for the person supposedly sneaking up on her, Bonnie recongized them before she could give them a face full of the noxious spray. Although who she saw still didn’t make her feel any better.
“Kim?!” she asked, astonished and a bit embarrassed.
“Uh, yeah, hey. You can put that way now, I’m not gonna hurt ya,” Kim replied as she held up her hands and nodded to the can of mace.
Bonnie thought about it for a second, but eventually placed the can back in her pocket then cocked her hip and crossed her arms over her chest in a familiar annoyed stance she took whenever she was around the redhead.
“So what are you doing here?” she asked crossly.
“I…was just in the neighborhood,” Kim started lamely. “The question is what are you doing here?”
At that, Bonnie’s stance wavered a bit but she struggled to keep up appearances.
“I was in the neighborhood too,” she tried to sound nonchalant.
“So then we were both in the neighborhood at the same time. What a coincidence,” Kim said, keeping the charade going.
“Of course. Unless you’re, like, following me or something.”
“Well…actually…”
Bonnie’s eyes grew wide and her stance finally collapsed as her jaw fell slack.
“You were following me?!” she shouted indignantly.
“Look Bonnie, I know!” the redhead revealed.
“Know…what?”
“About you living in Sterling Apartments and working at Smarty-Mart?”
“How?!”
“Well for starters…” Kim remarked, gesturing to the brunette’s cloths.
Bonnie looked down and realized for the first time since the conversation started that she was still wearing her Smarty-Mart uniform. She sighed and rolled her eyes at her own stupidity but quickly recovered and returned to glaring at Kim.
“Fine, so you know. Good for you! Now you can go ahead and tell everyone we went to high school with about how Bonnie now works at Smarty-Mart and has a crappy apartment! I hope you have a good laugh about it!” she ranted.
“Bonnie I’m not going to make fun of you cause you’ve fallen on hard times,” the other girl explained.
“You’re not?” Bonnie asked, sounding genuinely confused.
“Of course not. I’m not that kind of person.”
“Oh that’s right I forgot, you’re little Miss Goodie Two-Shoes who has to go around helping everyone.”
“OK I am that kind of person.”
“Well I don’t need your help.”
Kim quirked an eyebrow as she looked at the uniform the former cheerleader was wearing then peeked over her shoulder to study the building she where she now lived.
“You’re sure?” she asked, unconvinced.
“Yes! I’m doing just fine on my own!”
“Bonnie, I’ve seen where you live and where you work, you’re not fine.”
“And what if I’m not! Why do you even care?!” Bonnie screamed, throwing her arms in the air as she grew more and more frustrated by the minute.
“But like I said, I help people. I save them, even from themselves sometimes.”
“Possible, listen to me very, very closely. I. Don’t. Need. Saving!”
“Yes. You. Do!” Kim insisted, drawing each word out. “Bonnie, have you taken a good look at yourself in the mirror lately. You’re not exactly the same…high spirited Bonnie you were back in high school.”
“Even if that was true, why do you even care?!”
“Because I’m afraid you’re going to kill yourself!” the redhead blurted out.
That revelation brought the conversation to a screeching halt. It was never an easy topic to bring up even with someone you liked, so when it was someone you didn’t really get along with it was especially hard. But Kim was determined not to leave until she was sure Bonnie would be okay. She just had to make sure to think about her next words more carefully rather than blurt them out like an idiot.
“Look, I know we weren’t exactly best friends in high school and all, but that doesn’t mean I’m just gonna ignore what’s going on,” she said. “When I know someone’s really in trouble I just can’t walk away, no matter who they are.”
Bonnie was still silent as she looked around nervously. Kim waited a few seconds to give her time to speak, but when it didn’t seem like she was going to say anything, she started to give it another try. Before she could even open her mouth though, the brunette finally spoke up.
“So…what could you do to help?” she asked, sounding genuinely curious.
“Well for starters I could at least offer you a better place to live. The house I’m living in now has an extra room so you could stay there if you wanted,” Kim offered.
Bonnie scoffed as she rolled her eyes and crossed her hands over her chest again.
“Oh yeah, right. Like I really want to move in with you and your dyke girlfriend. You’d probably try to make some move on me while I was asleep or something,” she muttered.
“Oh don’t flatter yourself!” Kim shouted. “There’s only one girl I’m attracted to and it’s definitely not you.”
“That’s right, I forgot. Your type is pale green and criminal. Hmmm…wonder what that says about you really want K?”
Kim growled and was about to tear into the irritating girl, when she remembered why she came here and used all her willpower to calm herself down. She took a few deep breaths then pulled out a piece of paper from her pocket and quickly wrote something on it before holding out towards Bonnie.
“Here’s my new number, if you reconsider or even just need to talk about anything call me, alright?” she begged, sincerity in her voice surprising even her.
Bonnie’s eyes bounced back from the paper to it’s owner suspiciously a few times before she finally gave in with a sigh and snatched it from her one time rival’s hand.
“Whatever,” she scoffed.
The redhead let out a small sigh then turned around and started to walk away. She’d be lying to herself if she said this was the ending she was hoping before but at least it was some progress. She just hoped she didn’t make the situation worse somehow.
As she walked away she failed to notice Bonnie roughly stuffing the note in her pocket. She might have fallen on hard times at the moment, but there was no way she was ever going to ask Kim for help. She was just going through a rough patch, but she’d find a way to pull through it. A way that didn’t involve turning to Miss Perfect. She just…needed figure out exactly what the way was.
The dull rhythmic thumb of clothes tumbling in the dryer along with the controlled swishing of water from the washers nearly put Bonnie to sleep. The natural heat of the laundry room didn’t help any, nor did the fact that she was doing her laundry late at night after a long day at work. But she wasn’t about to trust the weirdos in this place not to steal something of hers while she was gone. So instead she shook her head to keep herself awake and focused on the computer screen in front of her.
In addition to the laundry room, the basement of the building was also considered the computer lab which mostly consisted of table holding four computers that were about five years out of date. It didn’t help that they were also using dial-up so everything was running incredibly slow. Still it gave her something to do while waiting for her laundry and was also one of the few connections to the outside world she still had. Or at least one that didn’t let people know the state of ruin her life was currently in.
It was something she was extremely grateful for, especially when she was looking through the “Let’s Keep in Touch!” message board her classmates set up. She wasn’t sure why she kept checking because all it really did was make her feel worse about herself, but just the idea of being able to talk to familiar people made her feel…well almost normal again. Of course that feeling was usually squashed when she looked through the “Where Are They Now?” list and saw what everyone was doing with their lives. She only searched through the ones she knew really well but even that was enough to depress her even more.
Tara Strong: Moved to New York to being a career in voice acting.
Monique Symone: Currently attending college in Los Angeles where she’s studying to become a fashion designer.
Justine Flanner: Information Classified.
That last one she only really knew because of Barkin’s stupid, “Life Is Unfair” course where she had to be paired up with the super genius for a science experiment during senior year. No one’s heard from her since graduation, but the rumor was that she had been moved to some super secret town of geniuses run by the government. It sounded pretty stupid to her but if there was a chance she didn’t have to run into the smug girl anymore, Bonnie was all for that. Now the next two names on the list she really wished she wouldn’t have to run into at all.
Ron Stoppable: Attending Middleton Community College while still helping Kim Possible frequently save the world.
And of course:
Kim Possible: Still saving the world while trying to raise a child with her recently discovered lesbian lover. We wish her the best.
Bonnie ground her teeth as she gripped the mouse harder, threatening to break it. Even when she had a freak baby and living with another woman, a very creepy woman at that, people still wanted to see Possible succeed. But if she put up anything about how her life was going, she doubted people would send her messages telling her to “Cheer up!” and “Things will get better!”. No they’d probably tell her she got what she deserved.
And they’d be right, a voice from deep in her mind spoke up. Face it. You were a bitch in high school. You treated anyone different from you like crap and whenever anyone in your little clique showed any kind of thought other than yours you shunned them. That guy from Smarty-Mart was right, this is karma kicking you in the ass. a voice from deep in her mind spoke up. were
She lowered her head again but this time it was in defeat. She knew that part of her mind was right, she brought this all on herself. But what could she do to make it better? Start being nice to everyone? Make a list like that weirdo did? The problem with that is A) she didn’t have the money to just go around and fix things and B) she probably couldn’t even remember half the bad things she did.
But maybe she was looking at it the wrong way. Maybe all she needed to do to get her life back on track is to stop being so proud and take some offered help. Maybe if she just…
No! she screamed mentally when she felt her hand reaching for the note in her pocket. I don’t care how bad things are I am not asking her for help! The only way I’d every consider doing that is if things were so bad there was no turning back. Like if half my apartment fell in something. But only then! she screamed mentally when she felt her hand reaching for the note in her pocket. heronly
With her mind made up on a way to make her life better on her own, Bonnie waited out the last few minutes on the dryer then hurriedly threw her clothes in the basket and started the long trek up the stairs. By the time she reached her apartment she was nearly out of breath and even more tired than before. She juggled the basket to get the door open and when it finally she did she stumbled forward into her living room/bedroom. She made her way over to the dresser where she planned to set the basket down then get a good night’s sleep before worrying about folding and putting anything away. She doubted she would even pull the couch out and just rough it for the night. At least she had the next day off so she could afford to be a little lazy.
Unfortunately, her plans for a quiet evening of sleep and a lazy day tomorrow were all abruptly canceled when she dropped the heavy basket with a loud, tired sigh. A second after she did so, she heard a low rumbling throughout her apartment. She didn’t even look back when it turned into a loud crash that shook the entire room and could only be the sounds and effects of half her apartment falling in. Most likely it was from the crack in the wall that the landlord refused to fix. Letting out another sigh, the time of complete and utter surrender, she pulled out her cell phone from one pocket while the other pulled out a crumbled piece of paper. She soothed out enough to read the number and with great reluctance her fingers moved over the number pad. She supported her elbow with her free hand as she held phone up to her right ear and waited for someone to pick up.
“H-hello?” a tired voice asked from the other end.
“Hi Kim? It’s Bonnie. Is that free room of yours still available?” she asked in overly friendly voice.
The next few days were a blur of packing boxes, digging stuff out, and of course having to deal with Bonnie’s former landlord threatening to sue over breach of contract. Once Kim threatened to have Wade tell the authority of all the safety and tenant rights violations going on in his property, however, he quickly came around and wished the brunette well. So finally here she was, the very last of her stuff moved into the medium sized room in the Possible household. She stood in the doorway as she surveyed her new living space. It was smaller than her apartment but then again that’s because it was a room in a whole house rather than a room pretending to be a house.
Still, the sight of most of her stuff being able to fit into this one room depressed her even more than the fact she had to rely on her former rival for help. But she supposed it was better than living in a half buried apartment or being homeless. It was just going to take a lot of getting use to. A lot!
“So you’re sure you’re OK?” a familiar voice asked from behind her.
Bonnie jumped a bit then turned to see Kim standing in the hallway dressed in a pair of sweats and a small tank top and looking ready to get to bed.
Guess it is kinda late, she thought. Out loud she said, “I guess I’m as OK as I can be, considering.”
“I guess that’s true. Still, at least you didn’t get hurt. That’s something to be thankful for, right?” Kim tried to sound cheerful.
“Yeah I guess. I just…” Bonnie stopped and shook her head uncertainly. “This is just going to take some time to get use to is all. But I do appreciate it. Especially since we got everything done so late.”
“Well don’t expect that to become a habit. I’m already sleep deprived enough as it is, thanks to Shin, so I don’t need to add taking care of you as well. I think you’re old enough to get your own food in the middle of the night.”
The two shared a quick, quiet laugh at the simple joke. It wasn’t much, but it was enough to help ease the tension.
“Don’t worry, I’ll be quiet when I get something to eat or use the bathroom or just come home from a night shift,” Bonnie reassured her.
“Good. Better keep it that way,” Kim told her in a mock serious voice.
“Oh yes ma’am!” the brunette returned with a salute.
Kim flashed a quick smile. “Alright, alright that’s enough. It’s late and I want to get some sleep before the usual routine begins.”
“Right. I guess I’ll see you in the morning,” Bonnie replied as she started to close the door. “Oh and Kim? Thanks. For all this.”
“Hey it’s no big,” the redhead remarked with a dismissive wave.
The other girl nodded then closed the door, knowing that no matter what Kim said, this was “a big”. A very “big”. It not only changed everything about their relationship but also the way things were going in Bonnie’s life. Maybe, just maybe, this was karma’s way of getting her on the right track.
Well if that’s true, karma’s about as subtle as a freight train, she thought as she fell back onto her new bed. But, maybe now things will start to look up for me. At least, I can hope. she thought as she fell back onto her new bed. will
“Well seems like Bonnie’s all set up for now,” Kim explained as she walked into the room she shared with Shego.
She stopped when she noticed her lover standing in front of the full length mirror in just a small green tank top and a pair of black panties and apparently admiring herself very much. She shook her head in amusement as she watched Shego twist a bit to try and get a good view of her butt.
“It looks fine from here,” she quipped with a smirk.
“Hmm…I think you’re right,” Shego returned with a smirk of her own. “Still, can’t help me from admiring a thing of beauty, can you?”
“Only when it starts to become really weird and self absorbed,” Kim said as she walked behind the other woman and placed her head on her shoulders to gaze into the mirror with her. “Still not convinced you lost all the baby weight?”
“Not quite yet,” she admitted as she patted her stomach. “Few more inches and I’ll be good.”
“Please tell me you’re not turning anorexic.”
“Oh you don’t need to worry about that. I’m not one of those prissy little models who thing they’re fat when they can wear a size 0. I just need to get able to get back into my catsuit without groaning at all.”
Kim nodded absently as that mention of Shego’s trademark suit made her remember her run in with a certain group of superheroes a week ago. More specifically about one of the comments Ron had made after the group left. She didn’t know why it stuck out so much or way it seemed to bother her, but it was there.
“Something on your mind?” Shego asked, breaking her though.
“Maybe.” Kim told her as she took a few steps back. “Can I ask you something?”
“Sure.”
“Did you ever think I was cute?!” she blurted.
Shego's eyes went wide and she spun around on her heel to face her.
“What?!” Shego demanded, staring at the redhead, who suddenly felt very self concious.
“Do you remember about that super hero team I told you GJ put together?
“Yeah?”
“Well they have this one member called Catgirl who’s in this skintight outfit and well…she started flirting with Ron.”
“So?”
“Well, I asked him about it and he said that surely I understood what it was like to have the hot girl in the skin tight outfit thinking he was cute.” Kim sighed. “I just… I just wanted to know if you thought I was cute and-”
“Hot girl?” Shego asked quietly, staring at Kim.
The redhead stared for a second, and then her face slowly heated, turning bright pink and then red. “I… I…”
“Ron calling me hot, I can understand. For all his buffoonery he has taste in women. Maybe not the ability to do anything with them, but he has taste.” The green woman raised a smooth eyebrow. “But innocent little Kimmie calling me hot? That's new.”
“I… um…” Kim stared down at the floor. “You…”
“Oh, Kimmie.” Shego chuckled and then leaned in close, her voice becoming husky. “Well, well. Pumpkin found me hot a looong time ago it seems. It was the suit, right? You liked the suit and the fact that it hid nothing to the eye… riiight?”
“mmrppl” Kim replied, her voice so quiet Shego could barely hear her.”
“What was that Pumpkin?”
“It wasn’t just the suit!” Kim blurted, making Shego blink in surprise. “It was that lovely hair of yours, your emerald eyes… your face. And… and…”
Shego watched her shrink slightly and a guilty expression pass over the redheads face. She smiled.
“And the fact that I wasn't just hot. Right, Pumpkin?” Shego began to play with her hair and Kim shivered. “It's that I was a baaadd girrrrrl, right?”
Kim whimpered, blushing, and nodded, her voice cracking. “Such a bad girl… in that tight suit. I… I…”
Shego grinned. “Have excellent taste, Princess. You have excellent taste… and yeah, I found you cute.”
Kim smiled at the statement then wrapped her arms around the taller woman’s shoulders to pull herself in for a quick kiss. Shego had other ideas, however, and turned the supposed quick peck on the lips into a passionate, heated kiss as she wrap her arms around the redhead. The younger woman was so wrapped up in the sudden kiss that she failed to noticed they had been moving until her legs hit the edge of the bed and sent her falling down onto it with Shego on top of her. After a few more intensive seconds, she finally regained enough of her sense to pull out of the kiss.
“Shego,” she pleaded breathlessly. “We can’t.”
“Why not? Shin’s still asleep and it’s not like she’ll even understand anything if she did hear us,” Shego countered as she slowly began to pull Kim’s sweat pants down.
“Yeah but Bonnie’s here now and she’ll definitely understand what we’re doing.”
“That’s not my fault. You’re the one that wanted to help her by letting her live here.”
“Yeah but-” Kim’s protest was interrupted by a soft moan as the pale woman’s hand traveled a bit lower. “This isn’t the best first impression.”
“Tough! Then you’ll just have to scream quieter now,” Shego retorted as she started kissing Kim’s neck. “And don’t try to tell me you don’t want it because I can tell otherwise.”
“I do,” she breathed huskily. “I just…”
“Need a pillow to scream into?”
“Yes!”
Shego gave a triumphant smirk at the exclamation because she knew it was only the first time she’d hear her Kimmie cry out like that.
Bonnie laid in bed and stared at the unfamiliar ceiling as she tried to get to sleep. It wasn’t just the fact that she was in a new bed or even a new house that was really preventing her from getting to sleep. Nor was it the thought of the entirely new direction her life was taking, terrifying as that was. No it was mostly the heavy panting and the occasional cries of “Oh Shego!” coming from the room down the hall that kept her wake. She rolled over onto her side and wrapped the pillow around her head in hopes of drowning out some of the noise.
Maybe this wasn’t such a good idea after all, she thought in dismay.
To Be Continued…
Author’s Notes: Well after a longer than I would have liked absence, I finally got the second chapter done. Hope you guys enjoyed it and that it was worth the wait. Sorry about that, by the way, I took a week off for Spring Break and then just seemed to have trouble focuses on it. Mostly because I have too many plot bunnies fighting for attention. Might have to go on a little hunt here later.
Anyway, I’m sure you’re all still wondering just what the hell happened to Bonnie, right? Well don’t worry that will be revealed in the next chapter. For now just enjoy that she’s getting a bit of her comeuppance from all the crap she pulled in high school. As they say, karma’s a bitch.
Speaking of which, I’m sure by now most of you figured out that the man giving her lessons in karma is Earl Hickey from “My Name Is Earl”. If not, well then shame on you for missing out on one of the best sitcoms of the season. I know I say that about all the stuff I recommend or use but it is a funny, funny show. There are few more cameos besides Earl and his brother Randy in the Smarty-Mart scene, but I don’t want to give those ones away just yet. You guys will have to figure it out on your own. I still think I made them fairly obvious, but that’s just me.
Oh and I should mention that much of the scene between Kim and Shego came from Hobnobrev, author of the very popular and very long “Mind, Body, and Soul” fic. It came about from a conversation on the KP Slash Haven and just was too good to pass up. Had to change it a bit to fit into the scene, but it’s still relatively intact. And the line “Tough! You’ll just have to scream quieter now” is borrowed form a picture done by the incredibly talented Yogurth over at DeviantArt.
That’s all for now. How you guys enjoyed it. Later!