Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

“I’m sending you to live with your father and sister for the new school year.”

Kim’s really not enjoying how this conversation is going. Her mother sat her down a few minutes ago in the living room, claiming that she had something that she needed to talk to Kim about. Kim knew that whatever her mother was going to tell her wasn’t going to be great, but she hadn’t expected something like this. She realizes now that she should have known that something like this was going to happen, things had been going just a bit too well lately.

“They live in Rhode Island, Mom! That’s like, literally on the opposite side of the country!” Kim blanched.

“I think that a change of scenery would be good for you, Kim. With everything that happened with Amanda last year and then the attack… I don’t think that Angel Grove is the right place for you right now.” Maddy said. Kim practically gaffawed.

“I know that I made some mistakes last year, but I’ve learnt from them. And I’ve just managed to make some friends, real friends. My life is here, I can’t just leave it all behind.” Kim insisted. Maddy gave her daughter a half smile.

“I know how much they mean to you, Kim. I really do know the positive impact they’ve had on your life. But your grades have been slipping so dramatically, and it’s not like you. You shouldn’t be giving up on your studies to hang out with your friends, Kim, no matter how much they mean to you.” And oh, Kim thought, that’s what this is all about.

Maddy Hart was not as much a stickler for good grades as her ex-husband, she let her daughter engage in regular fun teenage activities as long as Kim was keeping her grades to A’s and high B’s. But truthfully, Kim had been letting her grades slip, and she knew that she wouldn’t be able to pick them back up before the year ended. But it was the most frustrating thing, because she hadn’t just been hanging out with her friends. Well, sometimes she was, but that was only because when they wern’t training to save the world or actively saving the world, Kim thought that they deserved a bit of a break. Homework was really unappealing when you were covered in bumps and bruises from a battle against giant rock monsters. And yet, she couldn’t tell her mom any of this.

“I’ll get all A’s next year, I promise. I’ll really commit myself, just please don’t send me to the other end of America.” Kim begged. Her mom sighed.

“Kim, I really do wish that I could trust you, but you’ve honestly lost my trust. You said that you were going to start focusing more on your studies after everything with Amanda, but your grades have gotten even worse since then.” Kim vaguely recalls a conversation the two had had a few months ago, before she became a Ranger. She had forgotten about her promise, with everything that had been going on. Kim lowered her head.

“Please, don’t make me leave.” She said quietly.

“I’m sorry, Kimberly, but this is what’s best for you.” Her mother said.

“Staying is what's best for me, but obviously you don’t care about what I want.” Kim rose from the couch. “I’m going to my room.” She mumbled, making her way towards the stairs. She didn’t long enough to hear her mother's regretful sigh and see her collapse onto the couch.

As soon as Kim got upstairs, she pulled out her phone and sent a text to the Rangers group chat.

kimpossible: emergency meeting rn, dw no ones dead

captaindad: ???

kimpossible: i’ll tell u when u get there

Kim pocketed her phone, opened her window, and sincerely hoped that her mother would not try to check on her in the next few hours. She leaped out the window.

Kim made it to the mines in record time. She was huffing slightly and could feel the tears threatening to spill from her eyes, but she held it in. She was the first one there, so she found a large boulder to rest against and waited.

Zack showed up next, greeting her with a nod and sitting opposite her, wasting no time before he started picking up rocks and chucking them to the other side of the quarry or over the walls of rock and surrounded them. Jason and Billy rocked up together, hastily walking up to them and asking her what was wrong.

“Wait for Trini, I want you all to be here.” Kim said, her voice hitching slightly at the thought of the other girl. Over the months that they had known each other, Trini had become Kim’s best friend. She didn’t want to think about what she would do without the other girl. Thankfully, Trini showed up in the next few minutes, sitting directly next to Kim and setting a comforting hand on her thigh. She didn’t have to say anything for Kim to see the intense worry behind her eyes. Kim gave her a single nod and what she hoped was a reassuring smile before turning back to the boys.

“My mom's sending me away to live with my dad and sister in Rhode Island for senior year.” She said.

“What? She can’t do that.” Zack said hastily.

“Why?” Billy questioned.

“My grades have been slipping and she’s really not happy about it. She thinks that I’m, like, wasting my potential or something. That’s what she said after the Amanda thing, anyways. I think she thinks that living with my dad will motivate me again or something, I mean he’s always been a hardass about grades and shit, it’s honestly really steriotypical.” Kim had been on the receiving end of her fathers pressure along with Mo up until the end of middle school when her parents separated and he left, taking Mo with him. Kim had no idea how Mo had managed to handle it, her and her sister hadn’t really been on the best terms when she had left and neither had made the effort in the past three years since to rekindle their relationship.

“I’m so sorry Kim. Isn’t there anything you can say to get her to change her mind?” Jason asked. Kim shook her head.

“I tried, but she says that she doesn’t trust me anymore. Honestly, I don’t really blame her.” Kim curled up on herself, feeling the tears that she had been trying to keep down start to track down her cheeks. She wiped her eyes.

“God, I can’t believe that I’m leaving you guys. I mean, the Rangers are kind of my life now, without training and you guys I really don’t have anything else.” She said, chuckling darkly. “Oh, shit what’s Zordon gonna say? I can’t just stop being a Ranger.” She said, suddenly thinking about everything else that she would be leaving behind. She had responsibilities here, the world was still going to need saving, she couldn’t just leave her friends to take care of it, no matter how capable they were.

“We’re definitely going to need to talk to Zordon about it, but I think that I might have a solution to your problem.” Billy said.

As it turns out, Billy’s solution was a teleporting device. Kim knew that that should surprise her, but honestly she had seen too much weird shit in the past few months to care.

“Alpha has been helping me fix up these bracelet things that rangers used to use to teleport. We still need to figure out a few kinks because they were pretty beat up when we started on them, but once they’re done you should be able to get from Rhode Island to here in a couple seconds.” He said.

“Holy shit Billy. I could kiss you right now.”

“Please don’t.” Billy frowned. Kim smiled wryly.

“Don’t worry, Bills. It’s just an expression, I’m just really excited. This kind of makes everything a shit ton better.” Kim grinned. Billy smiled back at her. “Oh, well then I’m glad.”

Kim finds it the hardest to say goodbye to Trini. She’s not surprised.

It’s been two and a half months since she found out that she would be moving, and she had spent the majority of that time with the girl. They hadn’t really talked much about the fact that Kim wouldn’t be there for the new school year, but Kim could tell how it was affecting Trini as the days until her departure dwindled.

Trini’s not exactly one for talking about her feelings. She manages it sometimes, at campfires with her friends who are slowly but surely becoming more like her family, or when her and Kim are laying next to each other in one of their rooms or somewhere high in the hills surrounding Angel Grove. Kim has watched her open up to the group, become less of a bitter hermit and more of the mischievous, daring girl that Kim knows was there all along. But as the summer goes on, she watches as Trini retreats back into herself.

On the night when Kim first found out that she was being sent away, she wondered what she was going to do without Trini. Now, she wonders what Trini’s going to do without her.

She knows that she sounds conceited, but it’s true. Trini’s more open with her than any of the boys or her family, and she knows that she depends on Kim just as much as Kim depends on her. And Kim hates to see her like this, hates to see her start to pull away from her because she knows that the girl is hurting and she just doesn’t know how to fix it.

The day before she has to leave, she takes Trini up to the mines and they have their own campfire without the boys. Zack was a bit peeved that he wasn’t invited to their special girls night, but Jason managed to convince him to leave it alone. He could tell that Kim and Trini needed this. Kim started to wonder when he started being able to read them all like a book.

They lay under the stars, fire crackling behind them, dirt and rocks pushing into their backs. Kim couldn’t bring herself to care.

“I’m sorry.” She said, breaking the long silence that they had entered.

“Don’t be.” Trini replied curtly.

“I am though. I know it’s not totally my fault, but it still feels like I’ve let everyone down. I’m leaving because of my own mistakes. I’m leaving you because of my own mistakes.” Trini doesn’t respond for a while, and Kim begins to think that she isn’t going to, but then the smaller girl speaks.

“I’m so mad.” She says quietly. Kim can hear how her voice wavers, and she feels her heart break. “Not at you, really. Well, maybe a bit. I’m mad that you didn’t try harder to stay, even though I know that it’s not your choice. And I’m mad at the boys because they just keep on saying that it’s going to be ok but it’s not. I…god and I’m mad at myself for this the most I think, but I need you. I need you because you make me hate everything less. And I’m so fucking angry because now you're going away and I think that I’ve forgotten how to live without you.” Trini sniffles. Before she can think better of it, Kim rolls onto her side and wraps the smaller girl into a tight hug.

“I’m so sorry.” She knows that it’s not enough, but it’s the only thing that she can think to say.

Jason, Billy, and Zack meet her at her door the next morning. Her and Trini crept back in through her window sometime in the middle of the night, and even though today she is even more mad at her mother than she has been the whole summer, she is still grateful that when she wakes them up she doesn’t mention how they were wrapped up in each others arms.

Maddy makes them all pancakes for breakfast, then leaves them to eat alone. They chatter all through breakfast, but it feels heavier than usual. They wash the dishes in silence.

She says goodbye to them on her front porch. Billy lets her give him a hug. When she gets to Trini, the girl doesn’t hesitate, before pulling her into her bone-crushing grip. For such a small girl, she’s incredibly strong, and Kim figures that if she weren’t also a Ranger, she would probably be squeezed to death. She returns Trini’s hug with just as much force.

“I’ll call you every day.” She says, and she knows that it’s not an empty promise.

“You better.” Trini grumbles into her neck. Kim giggles and sinks further into the other girl's embrace. They stay like that for a few more moments before Kim’s mothers clears her throat and informs them that they have to leave if Kim wants to make her flight. Kim has a retort about how she really does want to miss her flight on the tip of her tongue, but she doesn’t have enough energy to argue with her mother even more than she already has. By this point, it's a lost cause. She gives Trini one final squeeze before releasing her.

She sends a last ‘bye’ to her friends and gets into the car before she can change her mind and run off into the mountains. She doesn't turn to look at them as her mom starts the car and drives off. She doesn’t think that she could stand to see them disappear from sight.

Chapter Text

Kim and her mother had arrived at the Banjaree household the week before Kim was set to start at Mesa High for her senior year. Her mother had only spent two days there in an effort to reconnect with her other daughter, and then had left back to Angel Grove. As a last ditch effort to save herself from what she was sure was her impending doom, Kim begged to head back to California with her mother. She knew that it was a lost cause before she even started arguing, but she needed to at least try. As expected, her mother had not budged and Kim had been left in Rhode Island. 

So far, Kim really hadn’t seen much of her sister. She had known that trying to reconnect with Mo would be hard, after all they had never really gotten along, but she had hoped that the least this trip could do was bring the two girls closer together. Apparently, this one silver lining that Kim had managed to find had been in vain. 

Kim was pretty sure that Mo was avoiding her. It had been four days since she arrived, and the only times that she had seen her sister were at meals with her father or when they occasionally bumped into each other around the house. For the most part, however, Kim was pretty sure that Mo wasn’t even in the house. When she had asked her dad about it, the man had bitterly grumbled something about a band and left it at that. 

Maddy had told Kim that her sister had joined a band in their sophomore year, but at that time Kim felt that she had more important things to worry about than whatever loser band her sister had joined. She really hadn’t thought that any highschool band would last longer than a couple months, never mind nearly two years, but she was happy for her sister. It was obviously something that she cared about if she had spent the entire time that Kim had been in Rhode Island with her band. 

Or she was just avoiding Kim and using that as an excuse. Which, now that she thought about it, made much more sense. Kim sighed in resignation and went back to the guest room where she was staying. She lay down on the bed in the center, feeling the plush soft yellow sheets brushing against her skin and debating whether she should take a nap or call Trini when the door to her room burst open. She jumped to her feet, months of training and battles taking effect as she prepared herself to fight, only to see her mirror copy standing in the doorway looking sheepish. 

“Sorry.” Mo said, an embarrassed blush dusting her cheeks. “I forgot you were staying in here. I just, uh, I needed the printer.” She motioned to the corner of the room where a printer sat on top of the bureau. 

“Right, yeah it’s ok.” Kim said, sitting back down on the bed. Mo hastily made her way to the printer and tapped on her phone for a few seconds before the machine started whirring to life. It was awkward for a moment, Mo staring down the printer as if trying to will it to print faster and Kim looking at her sister, silently debating whether she should say anything. Eventually, she threw caution to the wind and decided that if she was ever going to reconnect with her sister, she would have to start somewhere. 

“So, I heard that you’re still in that band.” She said, trying to sound casual. She winced slightly at how the words might have sounded teasing, but Mo took it in stride. 

“Yeah, we’ve been doing really well. Stella, that’s our lead guitar, she thinks that we should start playing bigger venues or looking for a record deal or something, but Olivia, she’s the lead singer, still has stage fright so she’s not really hyped on singing for more people.” She said absentmindedly. “How’s cheerleading going?” Kim diverted her gaze, picking at the yellow thread that decorated the outer edge of her duvet. 

“It’s not. Or, well, I got kicked off the team.” She said, trying her hardest to make it sound like it wasn’t a big deal. Obviously, Mo didn’t pick up on the fact that she really didn’t want to talk about it. She turned around, abandoning staring down the printer to instead leveled her sister with her calculating gaze. 

“What? But after Middle School that was like, all you wanted to do. It was pretty much the only thing you talked about at the end of eighth grade. And Mom told me at the beginning of Junior year that you got promoted to head cheerleader.” Kim felt a sudden rush of guilt at the fact that her sister had obviously been paying more attention to Kim than Kim had been paying to her. 

“Yeah, well, things happen.” She said in response, still not daring to look Mo in the eyes. She could practically feel her sister's gaze boring right through her skull. It unnerved her how much Mo seemed to gage about her from just a look. She had forgotten that they had grown up together. Mo knew each and every one of Kim’s ticks, just like Kim knew hers. Which also meant that she knew that Kim was hiding something from her. 

“What, you sleep with the enemy or something?” Mo said. Kim was taken off guard by her sister's crudeness. When they were younger, Mo had always been the uptight one. Kim remembers telling her on a multitude of occasions to take the stick out of her ass, and Mo responding by telling on her to their parents. It was obvious that Mo had changed just as much as Kim had in the three years since then. 

“My boyfriend cheated on me with my best friend, so I sent him her nude and then he sent it to the whole school.” She said, finally meeting her sister's piercing gaze. Mo wasn’t able to hide her shock. 

“Well, that was a shitty thing to do.” She said. Kim nodded. 

“I know.” She agreed. 

“Good.” The printer stopped its buzzing, making a final happy noise to alert its user that the job was done. Mo turned to grab the paper - Kim sat up a bit straighter to glance at what was on it and was just able to make out that it was sheet music - and left out the door. She didn’t close it behind her, and Kim didn’t try to make her. It was just such a sister-type thing to do. She remembers doing it to Mo when they were younger, entering her room (once they had gotten separate ones after lots and lots of begging) just to annoy her, being told to leave, and finally doing as she asked but leaving the door open. Mo would always shout at her to close it, and she would always just giggle and run away in the hopes that Mo would chase her and relieve her of her boredom. Usually, the other girl only got up and closed to door, leaving Kim to pout halfway down the hallway. 

She was struck by the bluntness that her sister had given her. She was still stiff in a way that Kim could only describe as so distinctly Mo, but she seemed to have let go of the little things that used to peeve her when she was younger like strong language or sexual themes. Kim smiled slightly to herself, deciding that maybe that conversation hadn’t been the best, but it also could have been worse. And maybe, she thought, maybe her and Mo would be able to get along. 

Chapter Text

When Mo had left Angel Grove, she had hoped that she would finally be able to become her own person. For her entire life, Mo had found herself strapped to Kim. She was always cleaning up her sister's messes, apologizing for what her sister had done, trying to keep her sister out of trouble. 

Mo had always been the more uptight one, she did the work, she got the grades, she didn’t have time for fooling around. Kim had been more free-spirited and impulsive. Together they reached each side of the extremes, but instead of balancing each other out, they amplified each of their traits even more. They had a toxic cycle of bringing out the worst in each other in their mission to distinguish themselves as separate entities, but Mo moving had released them from it. Apart, they could be their own people without having their mirror image around every corner. 

And Mo had managed to do just that in Rhode Island. Here, people recognized her without her sister’s image hanging over her shoulder. She wasn’t the uptight one, she was just a bit uptight. And she had managed to let go of that trait a lot over the years.

But now Kim was in Rhode Island as well, Kim would be going to school with her, and Mo could feel her disdain for her sister creeping back in. 

It wasn’t that Mo didn’t like Kim. Well, if they weren’t sisters they certainly would never have been friends in a million years, but Mo really didn’t mind Kim as an individual. Or, the Kim that she used to know. This Kim, now seventeen and looking like she had battled the world, was different. Mo wasn’t sure how she felt about this Kim. But when they were younger, Mo had liked Kim. It was really their situation that Mo didn’t like. 

People often had trouble distinguishing between Mo and Kim. Anyone who wasn’t their friends or family couldn’t tell the difference between the two, a fact which had peeved Mo to no end. Kim had always thought that it was kind of cool and was always trying to convince Mo of the same, but the slightly older girl had never been able to find the appeal. Sure, she would probably be able to sub in for Kim’s math test without anyone noticing, but that really only played to Kim’s advantage. For Mo, there were only ever negatives. And she knew that that wasn’t Kim’s fault, it was only ever other people who treated them like they were the same person, who called them each other's names, who gave them the same punishment if only one of them had actually done something wrong, but she had always felt a resentment towards Kim for it. 

Because it was Kim getting them in trouble and Kim being popular and pretty and talented and fun and leaving her with the boring traits. Because even though she was the overachiever, she had always felt like she was in Kim’s shadow. 

Leaving Angel Grove had been a way to escape that. Instead of being the less popular, nerdy version of Kim, she could just be Mo. And sure, that meant having to deal with her father's constant high standards and not seeing her mother very often, but it had been worth it. Because out of Angel Grove, Mo had flourished. 

Sure, when she had first moved she might have been trying a bit too hard to become Kim, but once she met her band and they found their groove, she flourished. She had been doing so, so well the past couple of years. She had even finally convinced her dad to come to one of their concerts, and even though he seemed to still not approve of her choice in friends and extra-curriculars, as long as she kept her grades up he didn’t bother her too much about it. Why couldn’t Kim have done the same?

From what she had gathered from Kim and her mother, Kim’s grades had started slipping dramatically midway through her Junior year - probably after she sent that nude of her friend to her ex - and she hadn’t been able to pick them back up before the year ended, leaving her junior year report card streaked with below average grades that neither of the girls' parents would accept. It wasn’t like her sister, Mo thought. Kim had never been an exceptional student, but she made up for it by being an incredible athlete and being able to charm the pants off of anyone. Apparently, that hadn’t been enough to get her through the mess that she had gotten herself into. 

So now her sister was here. With her. And Mo was pretty sure that she was capable of ruining everything she had built for herself. 

“Look, you’re just a regular new student, right? I’m sure you’ve been assigned a student leader or they’ve got someone to show you around or something. You won’t need to sit with me at lunch or anything.” Mo said. She was hoping that her sister wouldn’t take the heavily implied please stay away from me too personally, and from the looks of it Kim didn’t seem phased. 

“Don’t worry, sis. I’m not gonna, like, steal all you’re friends or something.” She teased lightly, but Mo grimaced slightly because even though Kim was joking that was kind of exactly what she was afraid of. Everyone had always seemed to like Kim more than her, and she knew that her friends wouldn’t leave her for her sister, but she couldn’t help the fear that pulled at her. 

“Whatever. The office is over there, I’ll meet you back here once school is over.” Mo grumbled, not waiting for her sister to reply before taking off into the school. She knew that she was being unnecessarily harsh, but she could already feel the looks that they were getting standing next to each other and it was already ticking her off. 

Mo found Olivia at her locker, retrieving her AP Biology textbook even though they probably wouldn’t be needing it for the first day of school. Olivia smiled warmly at her when she noticed her, and Mo felt that familiar fluttering feeling in her stomach. She gave the other girl a half smile.

“Hey.” She said. They didn’t need to have any emotional reconnect after the summer like so many other people in the hallway around them seemed to be doing. Mo had seen Olivia yesterday, and pretty much every other day during the summer except for when Olivia and her dad had taken a weekend-long trip down to coast as a way to reconnect. And even then, they had called each day even with the spotty connection in the little cabin they had been staying in.

“Hey. What’s wrong?” The blond questioned. She had her eyebrows furrowed in that way she did whenever she was worried about something. Mo wondered how the girl was able to tell that something was off so quickly, before realizing that she was back to frowning deeply, watching two girls walk by looking at her and whispering into each other's ears. Mo didn’t get the chance to answer the girl before Stella interrupted them.

“Hey Mo, what’s this I hear about you having a doppleganger?” She asked, joining the two girls at Olivia’s locker. Mo groaned, shoving her hands up to cover her face and dropping back against the lockers behind her. She was hoping that she would at least be able to have a few normal conversations with her friends before the topic inevitably came up, but she had no such luck. God, information at Mesa High traveled fast. Or Stella was just a giant gossip. Mo theorized that both were probably true. She took a moment before answering the punk girl’s question. 

“She’s my twin. She pretty much flunked her junior year so Mom forced her to move over here. She thinks more pressure from dad or, like, not being around her friends is going to motivate her or something.” Mo mumbled into her hands. 

“You have a twin?” Olivia asked first.

“Why didn’t you tell us.” Stella quickly followed. Mo let her hands fall to her sides. 

“I dunno. I mean, I’m sure I’ve mentioned having a sister at some point, but when she was living across the country and I hardly spoke to her it didn’t really seem like relevant information.” She said. Truthfully, she just didn’t like mentioning that she had a twin because people seemed to think that it was a personality trait, like they were some novelty or something. Kim was just her sister, and the fact that they looked pretty much exactly the same right down to the birthmark on opposite sides of their upper lip was just a minor detail. 

“Okay, why didn’t you tell us she was going to be here?” Olivia asked. Mo shrugged. 

“I didn’t want to think about it.” She said. 

“What, is she like a giant asshole or something?” Stella asked. Mo grimaced. 

“No. I mean, she was. She used to be. But I think she’s better now.” Mo remembers the last two years before she left when Kim had been very preoccupied with wearing the right thing and being friends with the right people. That was when her and Kim had started to get along less. But the Kim that she had talked to the other day, the one who appeared at the dinner table in the evenings, the one who she had shown up to school with today, had seemed somewhere between the Kim she used to be friends with, and something new. Something far more mature that she wasn’t exactly able to pin down. 

The warning bell rang, reminding the students that they had five minutes to get to their classes. Mo wasn’t sure whether she was more grateful to be freed from this conversation or annoyed that she would have to actually go to her class now. She heard Stella’s groan from beside her. 

“I’ve got calc first. Who the hell gave me math as a first period?” The girl complained. “I’ll see you guys at lunch.” She said, presumably walking in the way of her class. Mo brought out her own schedule, even though she had already memorized it. She just wanted to be extra sure that she was going to the right place so that she didn’t accidentally walk into the wrong classroom. 

“I’ve got AP research with Alfonso.” Mo said. 

“English Lit with Martinez.” Olivia responded. She gave her another reassuring smile. Mo was pretty sure she felt herself melt a bit on the inside. “Have a good day.” She said.  Mo watched the other girl turn and walk down the hallway, sighing to herself before pulling herself off of the locker she had been leaning against and heading in the opposite direction. She was pretty sure that she was not going to have a good day, but she knew that at least Olivia was going to be there, so maybe it wouldn’t be too bad. 

Chapter Text

Olivia had come into school this morning in a great mood. She had spent the majority of the summer with Mo and the rest of the band, she had seen her dad every week, and her first class of the day was her favorite: English.

Her mood had been tampered a bit by Mo, who she learned apparently had an identical twin, but she was prepared to cheer her best friend up in any way that she could the next time she saw her. In the meantime, she would let herself be amused by Ms. Martinez’s sharp tone and slightly erratic behavior.

They were about five minutes into class when the door opened and Olivia’s mind was sent for a bit of a loop because when Mo had said identical twin she had meant identical. The girl who walked through the door looked almost exactly like Mo, but her hair was cut choppily just below her chin and the beauty mark above her lip was on the opposite side. Her style was probably what was considered more ‘punk’, and Olivia caught herself thinking that her and Stella would probably get along.

Ms. Martinez waved her over to the front of the room where she was in the middle of going over the syllabus.

“Name?” The teacher asked, picking up her roaster again.

“Kimberly Hart.” The girl responded. For some reason, Olivia found it sort of jarring to hear Mo’s voice come from a person who was not Mo but still looked like Mo.

“I’m Ms. Martinez. You can go sit over there.” Olivia had started doodling along the margins of the syllabus the teacher had passed out to keep herself from staring at the girl. She had been so focused on the outline of a flower she had been tracing with a pen when she realized that the only open seat in the classroom had been the one to her left, a fact that she realized when the new girl plopped into the chair. Olivia startled, blushed, and went back to trying to draw.

Ms. Martinez only had a few slides to go through before she told them that they could just talk for the rest of class and she retreated to her desk. Olivia was intently focused on the garden that she had managed to create on her paper in the few minutes the woman had been talking in an effort to keep herself from glancing at the girl sitting next to her. Eventually, though, she couldn’t help herself and ended up flitting her eyes over the other girl. Only to find her staring straight back at her.

“You’re friends with Mo, right?” She asked. Olivia fumbled for a second.

“Um, yes?” It came out sounding more like a question, and Olivia winced at her inability to not be awkward.

“Cool.” Kimberly drifted off, tapping at her desk. They were both silent for a moment before Olivia decided to save them both from the awkwardness.

“I’m Olivia, by the way.” She said, mentally cheering herself on for not stumbling over her words.

“Kim.” The other girl didn’t seem very talkative, but Olivia was willing to give her the benefit of the doubt and try to not act like she was the girl who was bringing her best friend's mood down.

“Where’d you move from?” She asked.

“Angel Grove. It’s in California.” She clarified, as if Olivia wouldn’t have known where Angel Grove was. Everyone knew where Angel Grove was. Well, maybe they hadn’t since a few months ago, but it was all that people talked about for months after that alien attack. Olivia briefly wondered why Mo had never brought up the fact that her sister lived there, and filed it away to ask the girl later. Olivia’s jaw dropped.

“No way.” She said. The girl got this confused look in her eyes.

“Um, yes way?” She chuckled nervously.

“Sorry, it’s just, I mean, were you there? When the aliens attacked?” She asked, blushing again at how nosy she sounded. Kimberly gained a look of understanding in her eyes and then lowered them to her desk.

“Oh, no. I live on the other side of the mountain, so nothing really came near us.” She said, somehow even more subdued than she had been earlier. Olivia retreated, thinking about how the attack must have been super traumatic for the people living there.

“Sorry. I, just, Mo didn’t mention that you lived there.” She said. Kim nodded hesitantly. They stewed in another awkward silence until Olivia decided to make her last-ditch effort at conversation.

“Are you excited to read Invisible Man? It’s the first book in our curriculum, I think. I mean, I’ve already read it and I think it’s fascinating.” Olivia said. She was really only knowledgeable about two things: reading and writing. She channeled each of these interests by constantly writing new songs for their band and reading everything she could get her hands on. For whatever reason, her great knowledge about literature seemed to offset some people. She was glad to find out that, like her sister, Kim was not one of them.

“I haven't, but my friend has. She walked me through basically the whole story, but she said that I should read it anyways.” Kim smiled wryly. She didn’t seem like she was really looking at Olivia anymore, her eyes unfocused. Olivia smiled back at her anyways.

“You’re friend sounds cool. Have you read anything interesting lately.” She asked. Kim seemed to come back to her own body and process the question.

“Yeah, actually, I read the Anthropology by John Green on the flight here. I think he had some hot takes but also, like, it was so interesting to see inside his brain.” Olivia’s eyes lit up at the other girl's words.

“I read that the other day, I totally know what you mean.” She started, recalling all the thoughts that she had had while reading the book. Kim was watching her intently now, seeming genuinely interested in what she had to say. She smiled internally.

Maybe Mo had some sort of long-term resentment for her sister or something, but Olivia was already starting to see their similarities. And their differences. And she was determined to make sure that Mo had a good year, and there was only one way to do that.

Figure out what was up with her best friend and Kimberly Hart.

Chapter Text

Somehow, Mo manages to get through her first four periods. She practically flies out of her AP Spanish classroom, trying to avoid eye contact with anyone she passes in the halls. Her last four classes have been interspersed with a constant stream of people asking about her twin or otherwise commenting on how alike they looked. Mo had to hold herself back from rolling her eyes every time.

She knows that people are looking at her as she enters the lunch line, but she keeps her head down and pulls the straps of her bag tighter against herself. A minute later, Wen joins her in the line, giving her what she knows is meant to be a reassuring smile. She nods back at him, and they don’t talk for the rest of their wait. Mo couldn’t be more grateful.

Charlie and Olivia are already sitting at their table when they arrive, lunch in hand. Wen slides on the bench next to Charlie, and Mo takes the seat opposite to him. She sits a bit closer to Olivia than strictly necessary – the bench is pretty long and there's no one else on it – but Olivia doesn't seem to mind. Mo leans further into her, reveling in the comfort the other girl provides.

“Hey Mo, why didn’t you tell us that your twin was hot?” Charlie asked, mouth full of the ham and turkey sandwich he had been eating. Mo grimaced at the sight. Wasn’t he supposed to be, like, America’s new heartthrob or something? Then the boy's words settled in and her expression turned from disgust to anger.

It wasn’t that Mo didn’t like Charlie, it was just that they didn’t really see eye to eye a whole lot. Mo had definitely not been impressed with Charlie’s nice guy routine back in sophomore year, and though he had gotten over that phase mostly, they had never been able to circle back around to being friends again. Charlie just always seemed to piss Mo off in one way or another. He just consistently did things that he knew she didn’t like, and he never seemed to apologize for anything ever. But Charlie was part of the band, so she dealt with it.

“Shut the hell up, Charlie.” She grumbled, picking at a questionably soggy fry on her tray. Charlie mumbled something under his breath that Mo couldn’t hear, but from the way that Wen shoved his shoulder and shook his head, she could understand that it probably was better that way.

She kept her head down for the next ten minutes, letting her friends chat idly and trying to focus on anything other than the whispers she could hear around her. Really, if people were actually whispering it would be fine, but either they have no concept of how loud they were actually being, or they just didn’t care. Mo was betting on the latter.

“I heard that they’re, like, sworn enemies. That’s why Kimberly’s sitting by herself.” She heard from behind her. Mo rolled her eyes. Of course the rumours were already spreading. Even so, she couldn’t stop herself from looking around the cafeteria to find her sister. Kim was usually a social chameleon, fitting in everywhere she went, and it didn’t sound like her to be alone, especially with all the attention that was on her right now. Kim used to bask in attention like that, soaking up every second and trying to hold the spotlight as long as possible.

And yet, when her eyes swept the room for her mirror copy, she found her sitting at the edge of a table, alone.

Kim didn’t look sad, exactly. Maybe a bit downcast, wishful, longing, but not sad. But Mo still felt a pang of sympathy in her chest. Kim had told her about the friends that she had been forced to leave in Angel Grove. She hadn’t gone into much detail, only saying that they had met in detention and bonded over being outcasts. She had mentioned Jason Scott, a name Mo had recognized instantly and had not been surprised about. However, she had been surprised when Kim brought up Billy Cranston.

When they were younger, her and Billy had been at the top of their classes each year. They had a mutual respect for one another, but they hadn't been friends. At the time, Mo hadn’t been willing to admit that it was because everyone else thought Billy was weird and she didn’t want to be associated with him. She had assumed that with time, others would grow up and realize that not being friends with someone because other people thought that they were weird was stupid, but she hadn’t thought that the person to come to that realization would be her Queen Bee sister.

Kim had mentioned a couple other names that Mo didn’t recognize, but she seemed especially passionate about the girl, Trini. From the little bits that Kim had told her, Mo had gathered that Trini had moved to Angel Grove in sophomore year, and that Kim was absolutely enraptured by her. Mo suspected that the way Kim spoke about Trini was the same way that she spoke about Olivia. And Mo couldn’t imagine having to leave Olivia to move to the other side of the country. So she could understand why Kim didn’t seem to be having the best time. After staring at her sister for a couple seconds, her sympathy seemed to give in and her mouth started talking before her brain could catch up.

“Kim!” She shouted across the cafeteria. Suddenly, all eyes that weren’t already on her shifted in her direction. Mo blushed darkly, but didn’t drop her gaze from her sisters. Kim was staring directly at her, a question in her eyes. Mo had made it abundantly clear that morning that she wanted nothing to do with her sister at school, and yet here she was, calling her attention in the overcrowded room. Mo cursed at herself internally, but didn’t back down. She waved her hand at her sister in the universal gesture of ‘come here’ and watched as her sister considered for a moment before picking up her tray and swinging her backpack over her shoulder. Whispers broke out across the cafeteria and the wait for Kim to walk from one end to the other seemed eternal. Finally, after a long few moments, Kim sat down on the bench next to her, smiling warmly.

“Hey.” She said. She turned to Mo’s friends. “Hi, you guys must be Lemonade Mouth. I’ve heard a lot about you. I’m Kim.” She said, like they all didn’t already know.

“Hey beautiful, I’m Charlie.” Charlie winked, and Mo tried not to cringe.

“I’m Wen.” Wen elbowed Charlie again, and Mo reminded herself to thank the boy later. He had been adamant about keeping Charlie in check whenever he said something out of line, which Mo was eternally grateful for.

“I’m Olivia, we have-”

“English Lit together, right?” Kim interrupted the blonde, smiling at her with her full attention. Olivia blushed and glanced down at the table, and Mo felt a swell of jealousy bubbling up her throat. Right, this was why she didn’t want to have her sister around. But she wasn’t just going to call Kim over just to be an asshole to her, so she tried to quell the rage pulling at her chest and forced a smile.

“Hey, does anyone know where Stella is? It’s not like her to be late to lunch.”

“I saw her earlier, I think she said something about speaking with Principle Brenigan.” Wen said quickly before digging into his hotdog. Mo thought that that was odd, but decided that it wasn’t worth thinking about whatever Stella was getting up to, knowing the the girl would tell them all about it later. In the mean-time, she was more preoccupied with making sure this whole interaction didn’t go up in flames.