Satellite-Sequel to God Save My King (Steve Jones FanFic)

Kimmy-Real Noelle

If anything good was to come out of my new internship, it was the excitement on Noelle's face when I asked her to go shopping with me for new work clothes. In fact, she was so eager to take me out, that she didn't even argue when I insisted that we stick to shopping in a cheap store like Sears. Old Noelle wouldn't be caught dead in such a store, but New Noelle hooked arms with me and practically dragged me all the way to the women's section.

I hadn't told Noelle just how awful my new job was, nor did I tell her the true reason behind our shopping trip-the fact that my new boss thought that I didn't look good enough. After all of the trouble she and Lydon had gone through to make me feel welcome here in California, I knew I'd just sound like a spoiled brat complaining over such trivial things. So I held them in, and continued to tell myself that things would get better.

"Oh, Kimmy, this is totally your color!" Noelle picked up a floral sundress with a thin, brown belt around the waist of it. "And the belt! This would give you such a nice hour glass shape."

'Totally'? I held a smile despite the cringing that I was doing on the inside. "Noelle, we've hardly even looked around yet."

Noelle frowned a bit, pouting her lips as she longingly gazed down at the dress. "Well, I'll hold onto it then. This will be the 'maybe' pile."

The 'maybe' pile expanded with every rack that we passed. Noelle just couldn't seem to contain herself. Practically every article of clothing in the store was in her arms by the time we finally arrived at the fitting rooms.

"How many?" The clerk asked robotically as we approached. However, when she saw the stack of clothes in Noelle's hands, her eyes widened and she shook her head furiously. "We only allow five items in the fitting room at a time."

Noelle pouted again before turning to face me. She held the pile in front of me and nodded at the clothes at the very top. "Here. I'll hold onto these and wait outside while you try them on."

Hesitantly, fearing I'd upset the mountain of clothes and they would all come tumbling down, I grabbed a handful and headed for a door that the clerk had opened for me. I closed and locked the door behind me, hanging up the clothes on a nearby hook before I started to undress myself.

As soon as I was down to my knickers, I hurried to step into the first dress that Noelle had offered up. As soon as the garment was on me, I realized that she had been right about both the color and the fit. Doomed to a life of limited sex appeal with my rail-thin body, for the first time ever, I actually appeared to have somewhat of a figure.

Unable to contain my excitement, I burst through the fitting room door, arms wide open to show off my new bosom. "Noelle! You were right! Look! I have boobs!"

"What? Where?" She teased.

The clerk gave us a strange look, probably thinking we were crazy, but simply shook her head and went back to hanging clothes onto the rack in size order.

"Oh wow! Kimmy, you look..." She trailed off, her smile fading as she gazed down at my chest.

"Huh? What?" From the look on her face, I feared that perhaps I'd accidentally ripped a hole in the dress. I studied the dress with a frantic gaze, unsure of where to look or what I was even looking for.

"Is that...is that his?" Noelle whispered, leaning in closer for a better look.

As her face drew nearer, I realized what it was that I was supposed to be looking at. John's padlock necklace, peeking out from the scooped neck of the dress, gleaming triumphantly under the harsh glow of the store lights. I was so used to it by now that I had completely forgotten that it was even there, so I didn't even think that the sight of it may surprise anyone else.

"Y-yes," I answered honestly. Noelle reached out as if to touch it, and almost instinctively, one of my hands reached up and protectively wrapped itself around the padlock.

Once the padlock was out of view, Noelle clamped her eyes shut and slowly shook her head, as though trying to free herself from some sort of a trance. When her eyes opened once more, her smile had gone completely and her face was as white as a sheet. It was as if she had seen a ghost.

"Noelle?" I called to her softly, but she was already backing away.

"I-I need to go sit down."

"Noelle," tears pricked at my eyes as she distanced herself from me. What had gotten into her all of a sudden?

"You keep trying on clothes here. Pick out something you like and find me by the check out line, okay?"

"Noelle!"

But she had already turned on her heel and begun to storm off towards the front of the store. She left me in a state of complete disarray. I hadn't a clue what had gotten into her or even how to fix it. She and John-at least from what I had always seen-had never really been close while John was alive. And now, all of a sudden, she crumples up into a mess at the sight of his old necklace? It just didn't make any sense to me. Then again, nothing Noelle was doing lately made any sense to me.

If it had been the Old Noelle that I was dealing with, I doubted she would have been acting so strangely. She would've ignored the necklace. She probably wouldn't have even taken me on this shopping trip. But this was New Noelle, and the new Noelle was starting to challenge my experiences.

More than anything, the new Noelle was starting to make me second guess myself. Was there really an Old Noelle and a New Noelle? Or maybe there was just one Noelle. The real Noelle. And maybe I had just been too thick to ever even notice.