Temper, Temper.
A James and Cindy story
Kim possible is copyright the Disney corporation
Cindy was sniffling. Bonnie handed her another tissue paper and then finally sighed.
'Enough with the waterworks. Babies cry. You're 14."
"but…But…"
"You screwed up?" Bonnie asked, "Why yes, yes you did, Cindy." She sighed, "Of course James is fine—you may have knocked him cold, but you didn't give him a concussion or skull fracture."
At that, the waterworks threatened to go off again.
Bonnie frowned, "Stop. Now." She said, leaning back in her seat, the throne of the Dark Lady of Middleton High as a few students described it. "Now, tell me what you think happened, and I'll tell you what really happened."
"Well… Veronica, they were really going after James." Cindy glared, "And they were talking about his parents… Veronica had a loop of all the time his dad lost his pants, and they were laughing about it!"
"Well, we all did…." Bonnie mused, "Go ahead." She continued.
"Well…" Cindy said, and suddenly she was starting to glow. Bonnie didn't say anything. Cindy was the reason one of the chairs was plasma proof, after all. Well, Cindy and her mom. "Then they had an old TV-Trash special about all of Mrs. Possible-Stoppable's other boyfriends in high school and she started to wonder if he was really Mr. Possible-Stoppable's and then she started laughing and asking if James had ever had a paternity test and he just taking it. He wasn't doing anythi-"
"Stop." Bonnie said, "Seriously stop, before you melt the chair." Cindy looked down and forced her fire down. "Now first of all," The older woman continued, "James wasn't 'just taking it', he was letting it roll off of his back." Bonnie paused, "You however, now have half the school buzzing wondering what you knew that would get you so upset…maybe you found out something and are trying to keep the dark secret that Kim slept around on R-"
"That's a Damn Lie!"
"Cindy!" Bonnie snapped, and the teen dropped from where she'd been surging up, hands flaming. She looked around, and folded her hands, fighting the fire back down.
"Better." Bonnie said. "Then you walked up and decided to pound Veronica, our very own head cheerleader." She paused, "I have to give you credit, no flame."
"I wouldn't' need it."
"Not a real good thing to say to your administrator, but yeah, you're right. You know what, about 9 different martial arts?"
"I've only mastered six." Cindy admitted, "James knows more."
"I doubt Veronica has ever thrown a punch in her life." Bonnie said, "Not a real good fact if this came up in front of the school board… but it didn't, did it…So what happened then?"
"I was…" The waterworks threatened to start up again, and Cindy sniffled, "I was getting ready to ah, punch her, and someone grabbed me by the arm, and I turned around and…"
"Knocked James Possible-Stoppable cold. It was an impressive punch, I'm told."
"I Didn't know!"
"Yeah, that's going to go real far with either your mom or his mom, since correct me if I'm wrong, but situational awareness is pretty important in a martial artist."
"Yes." Cindy said in a miserable voice.
"Fine. Well, good news, James isn't hurt, he was awake even before his mom took him to the hospital, and his Grandma gave him a clean bill of health." She paused, "You might want to consider working on your "I'm sorry""
"I'm sorry."
"Very good. I'd go for more groveling, but you know him. But it also means that you've put me through some trouble, such as dealing with this, so I think you're going to get a weeks suspension."
"Yes Ma'am."
"Not at home. Here. Your mom works and your dad has that lab where he does his own work and he'd either dragoon you into helping him or let you do whatever. This isn't a vacation, it's a punishment. You'll be doing whatever we need in the office, no computers, mind you, just hard work. When you're not doing that, we'll see what the Janitor needs. There's always some job too disgusting to risk the janitorial remotes on it."
"Yes Ma'am."
"Good. Cindy."
"Yes Ms. Rockwaller?"
"You get off easy. This time. Mainly because you accidentally hit James, and didn't deliberately hit Veronica. This is me cutting you a huge, huge break. You don't get a second break. Do you understand?"
"Yes Ma'am."
"I hope you do. I have paperwork to do. Go on out and they'll find something for you to do until the end of school, and I'll have all of your homework collected." She frowned at the repentant teen. "You've made a lot of work for me. Be glad I have a gentle and kindly soul locked in the closet at home. It whines enough when I slide something under the door for it to eat, without thinking I'm being nasty. Now get."
Cindy Got.
Then all Bonnie had to do was wait.
3:30, time enough for Cindy to get home and get interrogated by both families and…
"Wow, Simultaneous." She said, and brought up both images. The very, VERY angry faces of Kim and Shego faced her.
Kim beat Shego by a hair. "WHAT THE HELL IS THIS ABOUT CINDY GETTING SUSPENDED!"
"IT WAS AN ACCIDENT!" Shego bellowed.
"Inside voices please." Bonnie said calmly. "Kim, of course Cindy is getting suspended. She tried to throw a punch at another student, and I can't give her a pass because it didn't land…especially since it landed on another one. You really need to talk to James about trying to grab someone that keyed up without thinking about what might happen."
"Yeah." Kim said, her eyes displeased at that.
"And as for you, Shego, of course it wasn't an accident, it was just Cindy showing that she has your temper…"
"There was provocation." Kim muttered.
"Bull. 'Ron slept around on Kim,' was the best Veronica could come up with?" Bonnie laughed at that, "you're the only two parents to get zinged for a PDA at a PTA meeting." Bonnie fluffed her hair, "I could come up with better than that on my worst day, and I don't recall you ever sending me to the hospital, although I might agree, with the wisdom of age that has now been added to my native intelligence, that there were a few times I richly deserved a beating." Bonnie looked at them both, and suddenly her voice was serious, "but you never administered said beating Kim and you know now just how worried some people were about you and you Kung Fu skills."
"Um, yeah, Mr. Barkin told me." Kim said, uncomfortably.
"And unlike Cindy, you can't punch your hands through armor plate if you get angry enough and you can't make your own weapons, etc, etc, etc." Bonnie frowned at Shego. "If that punch had landed on Veronica, we'd all be having a major problem right now… especially if Veronica didn't go down with the first punch and was stupid enough to fight back. That girl does not have a survival instinct."
"Well…I probably should talk to her about her temper." Shego said, "You're right, she gets that from me… honestly, when I was her age, I just wasn't that good at interpersonal stuff." She shrugged, "Being the green skinned freak… when I got into the business I just flambéd anyone who looked at me crosseyed."
"Not really an option here." Bonnie said, "Look, I like Cindy. She's smart, knows her stuff, and God Almighty she doesn't seem to know the meaning of the phrase 'less than your best.', but she does have this temper problem and especially when it gets physical, I have to consider the fact that both your kids are great… but when we talk fighting, they're sharks among the minnows, and the minnows are every other student, except well, Hana…because she's a bigger shark than they are."
"She's very well behaved."
"I didn't say she wasn't a well-behaved shark, just that she's a shark." Bonnie grinned, "As that Biker gang found out."
"Ron thought that was excessive."
"I didn't, hard to be tough man in prison when you wake up with your bikes in the trees and you're dressed in sexy nurse outfits." Bonnie got back to the subject, "So she has a five day suspension which is the most I can give without involving the school board, and I really expect you to back me on this Shego. No, "oh, too bad about the suspension, here, go off and have fun at the mall." If the other students decide that we're showing favoritism, it could have very serious effects."
"I…I understand" Shego said.
"Good."
"Fine, great." Kim said, "Don't expect me to not let her see James."
"I wouldn't possibly be that stupid." Bonnie said, "Now about Veronica and her group."
"Suspension?" Shego said,
"Expulsion?" Kim asked.
"Would you just like me to sacrifice them to the volcano god?" Bonnie said sourly. "She didn't get physical…and if Cindy hadn't pulled her little stunt, I would be in a much better position to come down on her."
"So what?"
"Well, they were all scared about what might happen, especially given the impact on their eligibility for cheerleading." Bonnie said, "So I allowed them to have an after school activity instead of any punishment."
"WHAT?" Shego screeched. Kim didn't. Bonnie had…that look in her eye.
"What are they doing?"
"Well, Ms. Hatchett is retiring." Bonnie said, "Actually, that team of vampire hunters from the Vatican found her coffin and home soil, so she's on the lam back to Transylvania, and that means I can finally, FINALLY give the library a filing system that doesn't cause Lovecraftian horrors to appear whenever you open the file catalog. That of course means that someone will have to go in and enter all the books into the computer catalog, after of course finding the proper Dewey Decimal and Library of Congress addresses for them."
"Oh…" Kim said.
"OH…" Shego said.
"I figure they'll be working on it for the next month, and since they already promised…"
"Are you certain you're not a retired villain?" Shego asked, "That's something a villain would do."
"Nope, I'm better. I'm Bonnie." She smiled, and then got serious, "but seriously, Talk to Cindy about this. If she and James get into the business, they're going to meet people who can play the sort of mind games Veronica never could even dream of, and she'd better get that Temper…well enough under control so it doesn't control her."
"I'll talk to her." Shego promised.
"Good." Bonnie said and after the call ended, turned back to her desk. It was getting dark outside, and she'd better call Brick. The District loved paperwork and she wanted to make certain that the report on the "incident of high spirits" at Middleton had enough weasel words in it that the Oracle of Delphi couldn't tell anything more than Bonnie wanted them to know.
"Hmph." Bonnie said, "'retired villain?' I'm a High school principle…I'd eat a villain for breakfast."
End.