Author's Notes: According to the episode list I found on the internet, Crush was the first of three Kim Possible episode to air on June 7, 2002 but the thirteenth show to be produced. Tick Tick Tick, where Ron and Kim first encountered Drakken was the second episode to be produced but aired a week after Crush. Confusing, right? For this story, Crush is the initial and only episode that has occurred.
The premise: What happened to Ron after getting locked in the janitor's closet at the end of that first episode? The dialogue in the first half of this chapter comes directly from the episode. All interpretations of the thoughts and emotions are my own. I am trying a new writing style here. Normally I write the dialog before adding the narrative and descriptive. This story will be mostly narrative with very little dialog.
Disclaimer: All rights to the characters, locations and situations from the television series Kim Possible are own by The Walt Disney Company. I gain nothing monetarily from the following story.
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Fight or flight. Those are the usual two options when faced with something so terrifying, so horrible that your mind can't cope. It's that totally mind numbing feeling called panic and the bout Kim Possible was experiencing was full-blown.
Acting like an trapped animal being stalked by a viscous predator, Kim hastily glanced around the hallway of Middleton High School. With nowhere to else run or hide, she dashed through the open doorway of the janitor's closet. Then she suddenly realized Ron Stoppable, her lifelong friend and one of only other two people who knew her situation, was still standing in the hall and might do something, well, Ron-ish. She raced out, grabbed Ron by the arm and swiftly dragged him into the closet too, closing the door behind them.
Ron quickly gathered his wits and, as he peered through the door's window blinds, said, "Okay. I think you crossed the line here."
Still in 'panic mode' Kim panted, "I can't do it." She looked down and saw Wade Load, her website keeper and the other person who knew what was going on, was still connected to her on the Kimmunicator.
"Target is on the move," Wade said anxiously while he changed the screen from the web camera that was normally on him to a graphic that depicted one red dot moving toward two stationary dots. "Closing in three… two… one. He's on top of you!"
"Maybe I just give up," Kim, defeated, slouched and put the Kimmunicator back in her pants pocket.
"I repeat," Ron said through a bullhorn aimed directly at the back of Kim's head. "You can handle this!"
Kim groaned in frustration, bit her lower lip and tried to gain the courage to step up and do the thing she fear most in the world. Something must have clicked in her mind because the next thing she knew she was coming to a screeching halt outside the janitor's closet facing her most vexing problem.
"Hey," the boy of Kim's dreams casually utters as he spotted her standing there, arms and legs awkwardly spread out wide from the sudden stop. Josh Mankey was at his open locker near the janitor's closet just where Wade had said he was. Right on top of her.
"Hey, um… oh… um," Kim stuttered abashedly. "I'm sorry about the banner. You know… The one I tore down."
"It was kinda weak anyway," Josh ceded.
"Oh great," Kim enthused then backpedaled realizing that wasn't the correct reaction to have. "I mean, too bad. New one's better?" she coyly asked hoping to rectify, or at least gloss over, her faux pas.
"Much," Josh chuckled. He slyly added to lighten the mood, "Don't tear it down."
"Definitely not," Kim nervously chuckled, missing Josh's attempt to brighten the conversation. She suddenly remembered that she was on a mission right now, a mission to ask him to the dance. So, she pressed on. "Uh… I guess I'll see it at the dance, huh. Maybe… I'll… see… you there?"
"At, the dance?" Josh asked, liking this person in front of him who was almost incoherently stumbling over her own words. This wasn't the confident Kim Possible everyone knew. This was a shy, vulnerable girl tying to ask a guy she like to a dance. He liked this new view of Kim. But he wasn't above giving her a bit of a hard time about her asking him to the Spring Fling Dance.
"Sure!" Kim blurted out. It was now or never for her. Still a little tentative about asking a guy out for the first time, she hedged, "Maybe you'll be there? Maybe, with me?"
"Are you, what?" Josh begged in amusement, loving ever moment of her humiliating, blushing confession that she wanted to go out with him, "asking me to the dance?"
"I know, I know," Kim flustered. "I sound so random, but… Yes! Yes I am."
"Cool." Josh let the fish off the hook, but she was still in his net.
"Very," Kim said with much relief. Relief from finally getting the asking part out of the way and much more so from his acceptance.
"I'll pick you up around seven," Josh said coolly, shut his locker door and turned to walk away with Kim by his side.
He had know for days that Kim was trying to ask him to the dance. The gossip in the hallways of Middleton High had been rampant and Kim's cool had been severely shaken when she had torn down the previous banner in the gym. He knew Kim liked him and he would confess it would be so cool to be the first real boyfriend to the great Kim Possible. It would surely enhance his rep with everyone in school. Of course Josh wasn't dumb and knew that high school romances never really lead to anything permanent. He would move off to some prominent art college after graduation and she would probably attend a prestigious university in some foreign country, if not one on the east coast. He knew they would eventually go their separate ways but they could date during their last three plus years of high school together. That alone might even open up some special avenues he could pursue in the art world. She was starting to make a name for herself and being the former boyfriend of THE Kim Possible had its possibilities. And if they continued their relationship after high school, welllllll, that would only be gravy.
"I need a ride too," Ron blared through the bullhorn from inside the closet.
Kim scowled and kicked the door shut with a vengeance. She had broken through her mental block to ask Josh out and she wasn't going to be deterred now that she had what she wanted; A date with the hotness that was Josh. The newly formed couple walked away, gazing into each others starry eyes.
Ron, still using the bullhorn and not deterred by the sudden change in his best friend, spoke without thinking about the sitch he was in. "You can swing by around seven-fifteen. Actually, you know, my mom's gonna be hemming my pants so… make it like seven-thirty."
Later that evening at the dance, Kim was ecstatic to be dancing arm in arm with Josh. She was so enthralled that when the Kimmunicator paged her she promptly turned it off and continued to enjoy Josh in her arms. Bonnie Rockwaller could only scowl and pout in frustration from the dance floor side tables. The teal-eyed girl had been bested by Kim once again.
"Hello!" Ron's voice couldn't be heard in the gymnasium over the loud dance music. It wasn't much better in the hallway outside the janitor's closet where he was still trapped, even with the bullhorn. Minutes after Kim had slammed the door in his face, Ron tested the knob and found the door was locked. Only a key could unlock the door from both the outside and the inside.
Mr. Barkin, being a former military man and now in charge of the security of the school, had determined it best to protect the school from any would-be vandals by making sure all the school doors had locks that could only be opened by a key. He didn't want anyone to be able to enter the school through, say, the ventilation system and cause any damage to his precious school. Damn any and all safety regulations. HIS school would not be susceptible to any unwanted intrusions. It was well enough that all of the teachers had a master key that could open all the doors in the school. If there were an actual emergency during school hours then the teachers could help the students out of any locked rooms.
"Somebody let me out!" Ron began to panic. The batteries to the bullhorn were running low on juice and he knew he didn't have much more time to gain anyone's attention. "Come on! I'm a Bon-Diggity dance-a!" Surely, with the dance going on, someone would hear his pleas and want to let him out; If only to see his mad moves.
But alas, no one heard his plaintive pleas. The batteries gave out long before the dance was over and by then Ron was too exhausted from pounding on door during the dance to do anything after it was over. The few kid who did walk by the normally closed janitor's closet after the party didn't hear the soft sobs coming from within.
The building's power, all but the essentials needed for any emergencies, was shut down minutes after the last student had left the building. This was another one of Barkin's rules. No one would ever steal any electricity from the school building. Electricity was expensive and Barkin was also in charge of the school's budget so no one would ever tap into the school's power grid and drain the system of any needed funds.
And so, all went quiet.
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Early Monday morning, two days and a half later, the janitor entered the building that was his life's work. His job was to keep the school's hallways clean. That was his job and he loved it. The kids weren't all that bad to tell the truth. They usually picked up after themselves and that made his job all the easier. All he had to do was empty the trash cans and occasionally mop and polish the floors. That reminded him. Some of the students would be coming in early, in an hour or so, to clean up the gymnasium. They would find him to get a few trash bags to clean up the decorations from Friday's dance.
But he would think about that later. He came in early, before the sun had even peeked above the eastern horizon, to polish the hallway floors in B-hall. He went down to the basement to turn on the power for the school and also turn on the water supply. That Barkin sure was a stickler for his school budget. The Vice-Principal had him turn off the water supply lines during the weekend so any dripping faucets wouldn't waste precious natural resources. "Water is money," Barkin had reminded him on more than one occasion. Now if only Barkin would release a few measly dollars from his precious budget the janitor could fix the leaky faucets so they wouldn't drip and he wouldn't have to turn off the water lines. That would make his job a whole lot easier.
The janitor laughed at the Catch Twenty-two of that particular situation as he climbed the steps back up to the main hallway and made his way to his beloved closet that held the tools of his trade. The janitor didn't turn on any hallway lights just yet. Mr. Barkin would surely call him into the office, wave the electricity bill in his face and demand to know why it was so high. As the janitor approached the closet he heard a peculiar, slurping noise coming from behind the closed door so, as fast as he could, and fearing some catastrophe had occurred with the water mains being shut down for the weekend and then turned back on, unlocked and threw open the door.
Hunched over the large double sink off to one side of the room was a red shirt over light brown cargo pants. The occupant of said clothes was obviously sucking on the drippy faucet; The faucet the janitor had ever intention of fixing whenever Barkin saw fit to release a couple of dollars from the school budget to buy the supplies he needed to fix it.
The janitor flicked on the light switch which caused the occupant of the sink to turn around and stare blankly at him with wide, wild eyes. Unruly blond hair sat atop a face that was pale white with a deathly, bluish tint to it. Whether from fright or lack of sun, the janitor didn't know and he would never find out.
"Freedom," was the only gasped word spoken by the blond boy who swiftly, with a speed the janitor had never seen in his entire life, dashed past him and fled, hoarsely laughing manically, down the hallway and out the front doors. "BooYah-hahahahahahahaha!" was the last thing heard from the blond kid as the front doors swung closed behind him.
Puzzled, the janitor could only scratch his head at the scene that had unfolded before him. Why would a student, if that blond kid was a student since he didn't recognize him, be locked in the closet. Did he try to break in to the school over the weekend and get trapped by Barkin's paranoia about break-ins? If the kid was a student, had he been in there all weekend with no food, water or lights? Should he even tell Barkin about the kid?
The janitor took one step into the room to see if anything was missing or stolen. If something was, then he would report the incident to Barkin. The janitor didn't want to be accused of stealing supplies from the school. He would surely lose his job if that happened.
On his second step into the room, something crunched beneath his foot. The janitor swiftly stepped back to examine the small mess on the floor under his shoe. It looked like two or three… bones? Tiny bones.
The Janitor scratched his head again in thought. Maybe the kid had brought along some food, like a piece of fried chicken or something, to appease his appetite during the break-in. The janitor checked his supplies and found nothing out of sorts.
Satisfied that nothing was missing, the janitor shrugged off the incident, cleaned up the few scraps of bone and got out the floor cleaning supplies needed to do the job. The job he so loved and wanted to keep.