Second Chances: Stargirl - Rough Draft

Chapter 4

Nearly 12 years later.

Barbara Whitmore was surprised when she heard her now 15 year old daughter Courtney come downstairs for breakfast.

Well not so much that she came down for breakfast, but at the time she came down for breakfast.

"I'm surprised you're not still asleep. After all, today is your last chance to on a weekday." Barbara said to her daughter, who shrugged.

"I know, but it's the last day of summer vacation and I was hoping we could celebrate it with you maybe finally giving me my first driving lesson?" Courtney asked her hopefully, since she'd turned 15 about 3 months ago and yet she had not been driving once, which she found a bit hypocritical.

"When Pat gets back from his trip, he'll take you driving, just like he taught your father how to drive." Barbara said, since Pat had been gone a majority of the summer, chasing down leads on the ISA and the reason why Pat would be the one to teach Courtney to drive was because he was her stepfather, and just thinking about that caused her to once more think about how much things had changed over the past 12 years. She'd married him about a year after he and his son Mike had moved to Blue Valley and while Courtney hadn't been thrilled about the marriage at first, it had mainly been because she didn't want Pat to try to replace her father, but he eventually proved to her that he was not trying to replace Sylvester and she'd warmed up to him. Especially since he'd promised to teach her how to use her father's staff to the best of his abilities, since just like her father before her, Courtney had been chosen by the Cosmic staff when she was ten. On her birthday in fact. Considering it was the one way she had to truly feel connected to her father, Courtney refused to let her mom take it away from her.

Plus, the staff had a mind of its own and Barb and Pat couldn't really stop it if they tried. Plus, Pat had promised that he'd find someone to carry the torch of the JSA and he guessed there was no one better than the daughter of JSA's original leader to carry that torch. A fact that both Rex and Jay had agreed with.

Speaking of Rex, like he'd said, after the attack, he moved his wife Wendi and his son Rick to Blue Valley to live under the radar of the ISA. Plus, as he and Barb had predicted, Courtney and Rick had become fast friends and they'd both grown up hearing stories about the JSA and wanted to carry on its legacy. Something that while Barb had been against, she'd been outvoted and had only requested that Pat and Rex do everything they could to keep the kids safe, since to her surprise, Wendi had sided with Pat and Rex, though that might've been because unlike Barb, her husband was still alive, though Rex had not escaped unscathed. While he'd survived the fight, the injuries he'd sustained didn't heal completely, since sadly, he didn't have Jay's speed healing. The doctors had said it was a miracle that Rex could still move at all, given the extent of his injuries. And it was because of that Rex had been forced to retire and hand off his suit, hourglass and mantle to Rick and pass the remaining duties onto Pat, his doctors had warned him that if he were to try pulling off any of the same stuff he used to, he'd likely end up paralyzed or dead. Which was why Wendi had forced the adrenaline jockey to finally slow down and actually spend time with his family, which Rex had come to appreciate, even if he hated feeling useless to the JSA, since while he'd taught Rick how to use the hourglass properly, he had to rely on Pat to teach him to fight.

Courtney and Rick had both claimed the burdens of their fathers and had started training to become members of a new generation of the JSA when they were around 10, since that was when the staff picked Courtney, though Barb couldn't help but wish that it had waited until she was an adult like with her father. But there were things Barb had accepted she couldn't control, so she did her best to try and give her daughter as normal a childhood as she could, despite the magic glowing staff she'd inherited from her father and that wasn't the only thing Sylvester had left her. Sylvester has also named Courtney the sole heir to the Pemberton fortune and she had unrestricted access to all funds, effective once she turned 18. Until then, Barbara was able to decide how much her daughter had access to, since while she trusted Courtney, she didn't think that any teenage girl should have unrestricted access to that much money. However, she did give Courtney enough money to pay to remodel the attic into a new bedroom for herself for her 15th birthday and she was planning on giving her access to the money to buy whatever car she wanted after she turned 16 and got her license.

"Thanks again for letting Yolanda stay the night again." Courtney said, drawing her mother out of her thoughts.

"Honestly Courtney, I'm thinking we might as well just have her move in with us considering she spends more time here than she does at her own house." Barbara said, though she was completely serious.

"You know Yolanda's family still can't seem to put the incident behind them." Courtney said and Barbara nodded as said girl, Yolanda Montez, entered the kitchen.

"Is that a genuine offer, because I'd happily take it. I feel a lot more welcome here than I do at my parents. I mean seriously, I made one mistake and acted like a teenager for a change instead of the perfect daughter they wanted and now they can hardly stand to look at me." Yolanda said as she thought back to how her life had taken such an unpleasant turn. Once upon a time, she'd had a perfectly happy life. Loving family, popularity and great boyfriend. Until said boyfriend convinced her to send him topless pics of herself, which he then showed to their entire school, leading to her fall from grace and her family basically disowning her. The only friends Yolanda had managed to hold onto were Courtney, Rick and their other friend Beth Chapel and that was only because they'd been friends since they were little.

Barbara smiled at the young Latina.

"I actually talked to Pat last night and he agreed that since I've honestly lost track of how many times you've stayed here over the summer, we might as well invite you to move in, since it sounds like things still aren't great at home for you." Barbara said.

"I'm pretty sure the only reason my parents let me come over here is because it means that they don't have to look at me. So yes, I will absolutely take you up on that offer to stay here for a while." Yolanda said.

"Plus, that also means that you won't have to worry about your claws popping out as much." Courtney said as Yolanda proceeded to allow razor sharp, almost catlike claws to pop out of her fingers and her eyes also shifted to green cat eyes. They'd discovered she had the ability to do this towards the beginning of summer break and it had led to Yolanda joining the JSA as the new Wildcat.

"That would be nice. Especially since I have to resist the urge to let the cat out every time I hear my mother talk about you, since she still hasn't evolved." Yolanda said.

"I'm sorry what?" Barbara asked.

"Yeah, you know how I came out to you guys as gay back when I was 12?" Courtney asked, since she'd been out and proud for a while now.

"Yes and I'm not liking where this conversation is going." Barbara said.

"Well, you know my family's views on that sort of thing. Extremely Catholic, so my mom isn't thrilled that I spend time around Courtney, since she's afraid she'll make me even more of a sinner than I already am." Yolanda said, rolling her eyes as she retracted her claws.

"Okay, it's official, I am going to city hall today to officially petition for custody of you Yolanda so that I can legally move you here." Barbara said.

"I appreciate it Ms. Whitmore." Yolanda said gratefully.

"Yolanda, please, call me Barb. Now you two eat up and get ready to go meet up with Rick and Beth for your last day of summer vacation." Barbara said and both girls nodded as they dug into their breakfast.