Love For The Bad Girls

prologue | third time unlucky

Kendall knew things were bad this time. She might have gotten away with a slap on the wrist the first time, and a hefty bribe leading to community service the second, but she had a feeling leniency had now run out. The female police officer sitting opposite her certainly didn't look too happy. She glared at Kendall through her blue rimmed glasses.

"Don't you think the handcuffs are a little much?" Kendall made a show of rubbing her wrists - or at least trying to rub her wrists. The handcuffs restricted the movement. "I'm hardly a dangerous criminal."

The glare intensified, but there was no response, even though it was clear the officer would dearly love to give Kendall a piece of her mind. Kendall liked the challenge, and she sighed loudly, attempting to aggravate her further. "My parents are talking to the officer next door, so it's not like I'm going to run off. Can't you just remove these?" She jiggled then about hopefully. It wasn't an unreasonable request; they were uncomfortable, and even if Kendall thought she could flee the police station, she knew her parents would soon track her down. A member of the public might even spot her and realise who she was the daughter of.

"You might hit me." The officer's voice was prim, and Kendall realised with delight that her anger was mixed with fear.

"It's not like I randomly go around hitting people." Kendall affected a hurt tone. "I'm not a psycho."

"You just got picked up for being involved in an illegal underground fight." The officer reminded her.

She rolled her eyes. "Yeah, but it was an organised fight. I didn't, like, jump into the ring and start punching people wildly. If I did that, then I'd recommend tasering, not just handcuffs. Do you have a taser?"

The police officer raised an eyebrow at her, but declined to comment. Kendall rolled her eyes. "Okay. Play it that way." She craned her neck round to look at the closed office door, picturing her parents bamboozling the officer behind it with their fame. Unfortunately, the policeman who accepted the bribe last time had since retired, but her parents were pretty persuasive. They didn't want headlines about their delinquent teenage daughter. "What do you think I'll get this time? A fine? More community service?"

"If it was up to me, you would have been sent to juvie a year ago." The officer snapped at her. Kendall was surprised by her bitterness, but she could understand where it came from. It must be annoying to see someone walk off scot-free because of who their parents were. Sometimes Kendall herself got annoyed about the influence her parents had. Just because they could pretend to be other people they won BAFTAs and got nominated for Oscars and were revered by everyone across the world, not just their English counterparts. Their acting was deemed to be awe-inspiring and oh-so-important, but Kendall thought her own ability to knock a fully-grown man out cold was far more impressive.

All the same, she kept her tone light as she replied, "A year ago I just got into a street fight. It hardly seems fair to send me to juvie for that."

The glare returned in full force. "Yes, and by the next time we picked you up you'd beat up three older girls, hospitalising one. It's ludicrous that you managed to avoid a battery and assault charge."

"Those girls never filed charges against me." Kendall pointed out. "Because they knew they'd instigated the fight." It was hardly Kendall's fault that one of them couldn't handle losing inside the ring, and had gotten her mates together to try to attack her. That one was purely self-defence, even if she did get a little carried away and could have stopped a long time before she actually did.

"You still nearly beat one of them to death."

"And yet she lived!" Kendall burst out into a grin. "A miracle! Praise the Lord, and all his creations!"