Brave New World: Stargirl

Chapter 18

"So is there anything you want to tell us before we go to your open house tonight?" Pat asked Courtney and Yolanda as they, along with Barb and Mike, prepared to go to Blue Valley High for their open house.

"No, nothing." Courtney said and Yolanda nodded in agreement.

"Good. Because if that story doesn't check out, you'll be grounded for a month. Both of you, since then you'll both have lied to us." Barbara said.

"And I can still use the guilt card on you." Courtney reminded her mom.

"That's not gonna work forever young lady." Barbara told her.

"I know. That's why I'm enjoying it while I can." Courtney said as Yolanda rolled her eyes and followed her out the door.

"Still not sure what is going on and I'd like to be in on what Courtney has on you." Mike said to Barbara.

"Yeah, not gonna happen cause it's none of your business Mike. Now come on, let's go." Pat said and he chuckled at the disappointed look on Mike's face.

"You know we're going to have to tell him eventually right? About everything." Barbara said.

"I know, it's just, I feel bad enough that Courtney got dragged into this world, along with her friends. The whole reason I got out of this game was because I wanted to keep my family safe." Pat said.

"Well unfortunately Courtney has too much of her father in her to allow that to happen." Barbara said.

"Honestly, I'm trying to figure out how I never realized that Courtney was Sylvester's daughter to begin with, since now that I know, I can actually see a few resemblances. But anyways, we better get going before we're late." Pat said and Barbara nodded as they headed out.

After the opening assembly led by Principal Bowin, Pat was walking around the gym, looking around when he heard a voice that was actually kind of familiar to him, but he was thinking that it wasn't possible that it belonged to the person he thought it did. Nonetheless, he decided to check it out and followed the voice back to its source and was very surprised at who he found his wife and stepdaughter talking to.

"Pat, just in time, I was just talking to Courtney's English teacher Ms. Saunders." Barbara said as Pat did his best to conceal his shock at the woman standing in front of him.

"Please, call me Kendra, everyone besides my students does." Kendra Saunders said, though Pat knew her by another name. Several other names in fact. But the one he knew best was Hawkgirl.

"It's nice to meet you." Pat said as he held out his hand, which Kendra shook.

"Pat, are you okay?" Courtney asked.

"Courtney, can I talk to you for a second? Outside?" Pat asked and Courtney nodded as she followed him out, neither of them noticing the look that Dr. Henry King was giving them or that he was following them.

"Pat, what's going on? You got all weird when you saw my English teacher." Courtney asked him.

"That's because I've seen her before." Pat said.

"Okay, so I'm still not getting it?" Courtney said.

"Courtney, that's Hawkgirl out there." Pat said.

"Wait what? Are you sure?" Courtney asked, wondering how she'd never noticed that one of her teachers was a Golden Age JSA member.

"I'm positive." Pat said.

"Okay, but why didn't she recognize you and how is she even still alive? You said that she died that night?" Courtney asked.

"I don't know. I thought she was dead. Clearly I was wrong, since it's clear that she did not reincarnate, because if she had, she'd be your age right now." Pat said.

"So what do we do now?" Courtney asked.

"For now, try to act as normally as possible, we'll bring Yolanda, Beth and Rick up to speed later and then we try to figure out how to jog her memory, remind her of who she is, since it's clear that she doesn't remember being Hawkgirl and while I don't know how that's possible, we are going to find out and we're going to get her back." Pat said.

"This is what my dream meant. Pat, I saw her in my dream, I just didn't recognize her since I never saw her face." Courtney said and Pat nodded.

"That also means that Hawkman is still alive somewhere, so once we figure out what happened to Kendra, we'll start looking for him." Pat said.

"Well, at least now we'll have some extra veteran JSA help should we need it." Courtney said.

"Yeah, but something tells me that if Kendra is here, then the ISA must be here too and it sounds like they are a lot more active than I thought." Pat said.

"So, guess that means we should up our training and get costumes for the others." Courtney said and Pat nodded as they headed back in, unaware that a member of the ISA had heard everything they'd said and was smiling, since after reading their minds, he now knew exactly where to find the staff, but rather than telling Jordan, he decided that he'd go after it alone, since it would draw less attention.

"Hey, where did Courtney and Pat go?" Yolanda asked Barbara as she joined back up with her.

"Not sure. Pat said he needed to talk to Courtney about something, but I haven't seen either of them since." Barbara said.

"Well, maybe we should go, since it looks like things are starting to die down." Yolanda said and Barbara nodded as they moved to leave the gym, only for Barbara to freeze at the sight of who else had shown up.

"Barbara, what's wrong?" Yolanda asked before she saw who Barb was staring at and she immediately paled and had to fight the urge to run away.

"Well well well, look who it is." Mr. Montez said as he and his wife approached them.

"What are you two doing here? You don't have any kids who go to this school anymore." Yolanda said, reminding them that she no longer lived with them.

"Technically all legal forms regarding you still come to us, so yes we do and we are here to find out what you've been up to since you ran away from home." Her mother said.

"It's not like you left me any choice." Yolanda said angrily.

"Yolanda, go find Mike, Pat and Courtney and tell them we're leaving. I'll handle things here." Barbara said and Yolanda nodded, eager to find any reason not to have to talk to her parents, not that she even really considered them to be her parents anymore.

"You stole our daughter from us." Mr. Montez accused Barb.

"It's my understanding that you didn't want her anymore simply because of who she loves." Barbara said coldly.

"You're making a mistake encouraging her to pursue this choice. We were getting through to her before she met your manipulative daughter." Mrs. Montez said and Barbara glared at them, since it was bad enough that they were emotionally abusive to their own daughter, but insulting Courtney was crossing the line.

"You should know that I'm talking to a lawyer about getting your parental rights to Yolanda revoked, since honestly, she deserves much better parents than you are. And as far as her lifestyle goes, it's not a choice. She didn't ask or choose to be the way she is, but she is gay and instead of being understanding and supportive, you made her feel like a criminal in her own home. You two don't deserve to be parents with thinking like that. Parents should support their children and on that scale you failed miserably. I hope the bible was worth losing the only child you have and I hope that if you do decide to have another one that you won't push them away like you pushed Yolanda away. And by the way, never speak ill of my daughter again. I'll see you in court." Barbara said as she walked away from them, leaving the Montezes shocked by what they'd just been told.