6 - BABY

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GOLDEN
BABY

KIM walked to school on her own

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KIM walked to school on her own. It was usual for Kim to tag along behind the scooby gang on the way to school. Dawson had avoided her as much as she had avoided her parents. Her parents, who were now fighting every waking hour of the day. Instead, she played Viva Forever by the Spice Girls through her old walkman, as a way to replace the chattering of Dawson and Joey that she would normally listen to. 

When she reached the school gates, she removed the headphones from her wavy black hair and stuffed it in her back, knowing that Mr Peterson would confiscate it if he caught sight of it. Her red tennis shoes jogged up the steps to school. She was immediately invited by a swarm of loud teenagers that she tried to push herself through. She held her books for her first two periods, english and history, close to her chest as she squeezed past Grant Bodean and his moron squad. The gossip and cheers were a static blur as she solely focused on reaching her locker. 

Behind her, Justin caught sight of her midnight black hair through the crowd, removing himself from the moron squad. The boys hollered loudly at his sudden departure which he ignored. His hand grasped her shoulder, slightly pulling her back for attention. Kim was puzzled by the hand until she looked up at who it was connected to. "Hi." 

"You're friends with Pacey right?" He asked in urgency. He gripped his bag tightly with one arm as it hung over one shoulder. There was a mixture of worry and concern in his eyes but about what was lost on Kim. 

"Uh kinda." She answered hesitantly, unsure of where this conversation was going."Why? What's going on?" 

The two began walking slowly towards Kim's locker. Justin leaned in closer, not wanting to broadcast the information further around school. "Grant just told me this weird rumour about Pacey and Ms Jacobs. About them being like, together." 

Kim's feet scuffed the floor as she froze in her tracks. The boy slightly knocked her shoulders at the unexpected stop. She looked at him, trying to hide her panicked face with an incredulous one. "What? That's ridiculous." She laughed nervously. Justin narrowed his eyes, not finding her calm exterior believable. "Why would he think that?"

"Everyone's talking about it. Apparently Kenny Leaverton overheard Pacey talking about it while he was smoking in one of the stalls."

Students began to squeeze past the two, mumbling curses as they occupied the majority of the hallway. Kim's head hung back as she moaned. "Oh god." As if her life couldn't get more hectic, Pacey had to screw up.  

Observing her reaction, Justin's face dropped. He dashed forward so he was right next to her ear. He asked in a hushed whisper. "It's not true, is it?"

Kim's head shot forward. "Of course not." She scoffed, her face still inconvincible. Her eyes caught sight of Pacey. By the look on his face he was completely oblivious to the gossip circulating about him. "I mean, look at him, it's Pacey. He likes to think he's a hotshot but no one actually wants to date him." She assured the raven haired boy. 

          

"Right." Justin decided to agree. "On the note of dating, how are we?"

"What do you mean?"

Justin's shoulders shrugged. One of which was connected to his thumb looped into his jeans pocket. "Look, I didn't want to pry but when you were avoiding me, I asked Jen if you were okay. She didn't tell me everything but said that the whole Regan thing has you freaked."

"I'm not freaked." The noirette denied, her voice raising an octave higher at the lie. She wasn't mad at Jen for spilling her secrets to Justin because in all honesty, she didn't know half of Kim's secrets. 

"Kim." She looked into his eyes that were staring at her sternly. He wanted the truth. 

"Okay, fine. I'm a little freaked." She confessed, biting into her bottom lip. "I just don't understand why you would demote yourself from Regan to me."

"Because I like you." He exclaimed with an almost laugh. As if he found the entire situation ridiculous."You're cute and kind and funny. I'm not downgrading. It's an equal playing field." 

Kim looked at him pointedly. "It's never an equal playing field."

"Kim." He said and she looked him in the eyes. The hand that was stuffed into his trouser pocket reached out to hold hers. He took it loosely and allowed their hands to dangle."Would you just trust me, please? Regan and I broke up for a reason and now I'm moving on."

Kim looked deeply into his brown eyes reflecting her own. Her gaze dropped to their hands. She liked how it felt. They felt gentle. "Okay."

"Okay?" He asked, his voice perking up. 

She giggled slightly before saying again. "Okay."

A wide smile formed on his face. He was glad this was resolved. The looked back at his group of friends who were staring intently at the two. "I'll see you later." Kim nodded, a goodbye slipping from her lips. Justin ran back towards his squad. The noirette turned around and walked up to her locker with a newfound smile on her face. She tried biting it away and hoped no one would notice the tint to her cheeks. 

"So, is it true?" Kim was in the middle of turning the dial for her locker. Two polar opposites, Nellie Oleson and Abby Morgan nearly joined at the hip, up close to her face. The smile on Kim's face hit the floor and her eyebrows furrowed. The two girls held the most excitable smiles on their faces. Like they were children and Kim was the candy store. 

"Sorry?"

Nellie rolled her eyes at the girl's obvious deflection. "Pacey and Ms Jacobs. You're friends aren't you?"

"Come on, tell us the dirty details." Abby urged. 

Kim released a scoff as she tried to summon words. They were lost on her. "I really don't know anything."

Nellie rolled her eyes again. "Please. With the amount of time you two spend together, he got to have told you."

Kim didn't understand this theory that her and Pacey were best friends. They had only spent time together as of late. It was only the recent tragedy in their lives that had slowly brought them back together. She slowly foraged through her locker, searching for words to satisfy the two. However, all she found was wasted time. 

"Unless it was a three way thing." Abby teased. "Now that's scandalous." 

That was the thing with Abby Morgan. She hoped that if she made such an accusation, she would refute it by telling in the truth. If Kim was quicker with responses, she might have accidentally spilled the beans. However, she knew this wasn't something she could just slip up on. She had to be careful. 

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