The Long Winter #32

Fortunate Daughter part four

“I thought we were going to learn how to kick someone’s ass…”

Penny nodded at Sandra. The two sat on the floor in an exercise room lined with mirrors and ballet balls. The floor was covered in gymnastics mats, Sandra leaning back on her arms with her legs out straight in front of her, Penny with her legs folded beneath her as though she were in Japan attending a tea ceremony. There was another Japanese girl some space behind her sitting similarly, and nearly a dozen others lounging cross-legged or sprawled out across the room before Agent Marcotte.

“I was sure we were going to do some sort of exercising,” Penny said. They had both worn athletic clothing, Sandra in tiny running shorts and Penny in looser track pants. Penny did her best to avoid looking at her friend’s lovely legs, but she was displaying them so brazenly, and when she moved in certain ways her very nice buttcheeks were visible—

“All he’s done is talk about avoiding fights and respecting others as we should respect ourselves. When’s he going to teach us to whoop someone?”

“I needed it last weekend. I don’t think any amount of respect, self- or otherwise, would have stopped that from happening.”

“I am glad we’re becoming friends, you are so exciting to spend time with,” Sandra said, leaning over to bump her shoulder against Penny’s. “Even if you are emotionally and mentally afflicted with lesbianism.”

“What do you have against us, anyhow?”

“Shush, he’s still talking.”

“He hasn’t stopped.”

They stopped their whispering when the agent’s eyes fell upon them. He smirked at them and then swept his arms out at the rest of the class, beckoning them to their feet.

“Now I think you’re all a bit more prepared for what this class is going to entail,” he said. “It’d be easy enough to teach you a handful of techniques for breaking someone’s hold on you, but the truth is that you could get that from any $25 weekend course at a hotel. It would be worse than useless and a complete waste of all our time. The reality is that almost all cases of assault against females, both garden-variety physical and sexual, occur by males they know, be it coworkers or family members or neighbors. In these cases, a male who is determined to do harm to your person is going to do things that are simply impossible to simulate in a practice class like this. There is little we can do to teach you to deal with a man coming up behind you and striking you and pulling you to your doom. That is why we will spend at least half the class practicing self-respect and respect for your surroundings. A little of that will go a long way, and you’ll be able to practice it in real life as well. The physical aspects of the class, with which Agent Diana Willard will assist me, will serve as a base from which you can build further self-defense skills, be they boxing, karate, krav maga, whatever. You’ll need months of work after this to become proficient at any of those, and years more to master, lengths of time we simply do not have. So we’ll work on respect. But for the rest of our time this evening, Diana will show us a few simple things to keep you from being too bored…”

***

Sandra smirked at Penny as they paired off. Sandra was first to approach as the aggressor. She reached for Penny’s neck and Penny followed the moves the two agents taught them, pushing meekly against Sandra’s arms and failing.

“Come on, Penny. I’m not holding you that hard, you should be able to do this.”

“It’s hard, you know. I like you so I don’t want to hurt you.”

“You're not really supposed to hurt me, just free yourself.”

Penny nodded and performed the technique again, succeeding in wrenching Sandra’s hands away from her neck. She clapped and jumped in success just as Sandra reeled away with a cry, holding one of her wrists ahead of her.

“Oh no! Sandra, are you okay?” Penny rushed forward, putting her hands on Sandra’s back and trying to turn her around. “I’m so sorry—“

“Haha, you’re a sucker!” Sandra said, whirling around and poking her friend in her belly.

“That was mean! I really felt bad!”

“Because you’re too nice. Jesus, Penny, how the hell did you even make it out of high school alive?”

“Well, it wasn’t easy.”

“Yeah, I can tell.”

Penny stuck her tongue out at Sandra and the taller girl laughed. They switched positions and Sandra laughed at the half-Asian girl's hands lying tenderly on her collarbones.

“Come on, Penny. You can do better than this.”

“What? What’s wrong with this?”

“This is.” Sandra reached up and slapped Penny’s arms away.

“Ouch.”

“Wimp. Come on. Choke me like you mean it.”

Penny frowned at her.

“I want to practice, too. I did a good job choking you.”

“Whatever. I liked it.”

Sandra laughed. “Pervert.”

Penny smiled back and reached up for Sandra’s neck once again. She closed her hands around the taller girl’s throat and braced herself against the coming technique. Sandra burst her arms through Penny’s hold only after a surprising amount of effort. The two girls laughed together.

“Wow, you had a better hold than I thought you’d have!”

“I wasn’t going to let you down.”

And with that, the class ended. Agent Marcotte gave their classmates their leave and then approached Penny and Sandra.

“Miss Young. Might I have a moment with Miss Stark?”

“How do you know we’re not going by Ms.?” Sandra said.

“I'm willing to play the odds at this institute of higher learning. Now excuse us.” Agent Marcotte put himself between Sandra and Penny and swept her towards the front of the room, leaving the brunette standing there to guard their jackets and bags. He stopped near the wall beside Agent Willard and looked down at her. “I heard about the incident that occurred at the sorority party over the weekend.”

“Oh no, not you too…”

“Relax, I have people to scour the internet for blackmail-able materials for me, and besides, you’re not my type.” He took a deep breath and nodded at Agent Willard. “The Senator is looking for ways to diffuse this situation. His son is attending the Institute against his wishes and this could be a scandal his opponents can exploit.”

“So? He did it to himself.”

“Actually, from what we’ve been able to learn another young man did it to you all.”

“I don’t think you should group any of them with me like they’re victims, too,” Penny frowned at him.

“We’re not here to investigate you,” Agent Marcotte said. “We don’t really get involved much in frat parties unless it’s absolutely necessary, and this isn’t that. But since you have special diplomatic status this is something that could become a much bigger deal than you think.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

“Think less about “college girl gets unwanted liquor bath after revenge porn incident” and more about “international incident,”” Agent Willard said.

“You are politically connected,” Agent Marcotte continued. “And while you’re certainly within your rights to deny it, you do have some sort of relationship with The Best Defense and you seem to not realize that you are a major security risk.”

“I’m half American, you know. I like this country. Especially this part up here.”

“Not just for the USA, I just said I don’t care if you go to some college party and they douse you with gasoline and light you on fire. This is more about you and Port Matthew. Think about it. Talk it over with your friends, with that professor of yours with whom you’re on a first name basis. You’re here with a special diplomatic status, you’re not just a student.”

Penny shoved her hands through her hair.

“Go gossip with your friend,” Agent Willard said. “And then see what your law-school roommate thinks. And talk to your professor again.”

“None of this is anything we say lightly to you,” Agent Marcotte added. “Remember, I was ready to lock you away forever. Now I’m your teacher. And I’m going to teach you this important lesson.”

With that he released Penny and she bowed her head slightly before returning to Sandra, who helped her back into her jacket.

“What was that about?” Sandra asked as they left. “I only heard parts of it. They’re pretty miffed about you having Best Defense ties, aren’t they?”

“That’s why they arrested me in the first place.”

“Holy shit, they arrested you?”

Penny’s eyes popped open and she stared back at Sandra.

“You weren’t supposed to say that, were you? Oh wow, now I know another of your deep, dark secrets!”

“I told Leah back when I thought I could trust her,” Penny muttered as they exited The Ad.

Sandra nodded and they fell quiet as they walked back to the dorm. Penny stared ahead, wondering what her one-time friend was doing that night. It was past dinner, but that did not mean the bespectacled girl was not still down there with a book or staring at her notes. No, more likely she was back in her room already. Much more comfortable to study in bed. And so much more likely to avoid any unwanted company that way as well.

“You know, I haven’t seen her since Sunday morning,” Sandra said.

Penny raised an eyebrow at her.

“Seriously. That’s not even an exaggeration. She came staggering in at something like 3 or 4 AM, slammed the door behind her and woke me up. I came out to see what was wrong and she just ignored me and locked herself away in her room.”

“And that’s the last you saw of her?”

“Yes. I know she’s in there sometimes, I can hear pages turning, or footsteps, but I never actually see her.”

Penny looked up at the second floor of the dormitory as they walked up to it. She had not seen Leah, either. She simply thought the girl was avoiding her. And why wouldn’t she after setting that whole thing up?

“It’s weird. I mean, she never struck me as like, a normal girl or anything, really none of us are any sort of normal since we’re at this Institute for the Nutcases, but this is unusual. I’d probably be pretty pissed off at her if I was in your shoes, but it seems to me like that party fucked her up as much as it fucked you up.”

“It was the worst, for sure.”

“Worse than when that monster attacked your high school?”

Penny stopped before they reached the door to the dormitory. She remembered holding Ayumi in her arms, the cheer girl unconscious, on the floor of the gym as Morning Light reached down for them. But the Halloween incident was different. Instead of fear for her life she had been publicly humiliated. It was rather more similar to walking the halls of their borrowed learning facility the previous spring as those accursed videos spread amongst her classmates. She stared at the common room of the dorm, just visible through the glass doors. There were people in there. Her classmates. How many of them had seen the videos?

“Come on. Let’s go inside.”

“Let’s go around the building—“

“No one cares, Penny. If they’ve seen it they’ve seen it and in a week everyone will have forgotten about it.”

Penny sighed and drew herself up straight. She knew she had to face it. She had been telling herself all week, and she had done well thus far. What was one more situation to face before bedtime?

“Okay.”

She led Sandra inside. The taller girl followed her across the room to the stairs. A pair of girls snickered at them as they passed. Penny kept her eyes on the stairs. They curved up behind the fireplace to the hallway with their quarters. Penny began climbing, Sandra beside her. The girls’ giggles grew into laughter. She was succeeding, she was walking up those steps, her head high, what little dignity she could muster keeping her back straight. Their giggles at her expense were not important. Like Sandra said, they’d be on to some new bit of gossip next week. She could endure it (again) for a little while longer. At least it had not yet become an international incident.

Follow The Long Winter into #33 Fortunate Daughter part five here.