2011

by Slipgate

Another high school reunion. Consider this another possibility for the 9/7/10 Writer's Challenge, or, if multiple entries aren't allowed, just a fun story on its own.

Title: 2011

Story Summary: Another high school reunion. Consider this another possibility for the 9/7/10 Writer's Challenge, or, if multiple entries aren't allowed, just a fun story on its own.

Disclaimer: Disney owns every character except one in this story, and I don't care about him. This story is not for profit.

~*~*KP*~*~

2011

by Slipgate

2011

Kim and Ron looked up at the sign for the Middleton Motor Lodge as they rounded the curve of road leading up to it. There was an additional marquee spelled out that read "WELCOMES MHS CLASS OF 2006" under the standard sign for the place.

Ron was driving the car, having switched off with Kim halfway through their half-hour journey when they stopped to get some gas. Kim was checking out the features on her new Kimmunicator model.

"This is pretty spankin', Wade." she said as she stopped futzing with it to give her neck a rest from looking down and because of the fact that Ron was parking the car.

"I thought you'd like it, Kim." Wade said with a smile. He sniffed theatrically. "I can't believe you were thinkin' of getting an IPhone or a Droid." he accused. "I had all those features in my first model of your Kimmunicator 9 years ago!"

Ron piped in. "Wade my man, if the soda company employee buys a fruit juice, it's not because he doesn't like the soda."

Kim flicked her eyes up toward him and Wade's eyes shifted to the direction of his voice.

"Okay, so the analogy worked better in my head."

"What my guy is trying to say, Wade, is that we know you've got the genius… we were just thinking about a regular phone for a change."

Wade shrugged helplessly. "Well, it's your finances, of course." he said. "I upgraded these not because I was trying to 'keep you,' just because I had speed and functionality improvements over the old models for you that could be handy in a mission."

Ron twitched for some reason at this. Kim looked at him, filed it for 'immediate resolution,' and looked down to the screen of the unit. "Well anyway, thanks for the new toys, Wade," she said, "but I think we'd better get going here. You rock in 7.1, Wade."

"I'll remember to shoot for 8."

"You do that."

When the screen blipped off, Kim started with her favorite habit for getting Ron to spill about what was bothering him with minimum hassle. He suddenly felt a hand turn his face toward hers and before he could register her hand, her tongue stole away rational thought.

Kim silently enjoyed his lips for a moment, brushing her fingers on his cheek during their kiss. Right when she was about to disengage, Ron got enough brain function to remove his hands from the steering wheel, wrap them around her shoulders lightly, and pull forward slightly. The move stole Kim's brain function for a moment. Absently Kim liked that Ron generally went for things when he wanted them, even as she knew the habit had been instilled by almost losing the things he wanted more than anything more than once in his life.

When Ron disengaged from her, they were both smiling so beatifically at each other that it took her a minute to gain the presence of mind to ask him her intended question for after she'd "calmed him down." He was certainly calm now, so she proceeded. "Ron," Kim said, "spill. Something bothers you about coming here. It's not the reunion, is it?"

"It's not the reunion, no," he began, knowing there was no point in staving off the conversation, especially given his concerns. "Kim, this is where your dad's MIST reunion was supposed to be. It got targeted because of a connection to a villian – specifically, Drakken. What if some villain decides to come here in connection with the fact that we'll be here? I don't want to put anyone here at risk if they're having a good time."

"Is this why you were hesitant to send the RSVP?" Kim asked in wonderment.

Ron nodded. "I didn't object to starting the drive up here because I figured any villains who got wind of this would attack anyway expecting us to be there, and then it might be better if we are on hand to help out. But my misgivings are sort of coming back – should we walk away before we're spotted by some villain lying in wait for us to come in? If we never show up, will their stakeout be a bust so they go home? I just suddenly thought 'Okay, no turning back now if you go in.'"

"Ron, you could've told me this was what was bothering you. Honestly I thought your hesitance about the RSVP was how many people in this school treated you terribly." Ron quirked an eyebrow. "Hey, I did walk a mile in your shoes," she said with a smile.

"That was back in sophomore year," Ron said airily, "in senior year I was dating the most popular girl in school and was the star of the football team." Kim looked at Ron evenly. "… So okay, not everyone treated me like the best thing since sliced bread, but overall it was an improvement!" he declared.

"Anyway," Kim said, "tangent aside… well, if we're a danger Ron, we've been a danger to our families. We were a danger to these same people when we went to school with them. We've been a danger to our neighbors. I'm not disagreeing with you – it's just that… well, if we're a danger, we're a danger. Who is to say that somebody we went to school with isn't a cop and some drug lord's brother comes looking for revenge? Or maybe one of the majorly popular football players gets waylaid by a jealous mistress. Or…"

Ron stopped her with a hand on her shoulder. "Kim, I think I'm rubbing off on you!" he said, wide-eyed.

"My point is, if we're a danger, we're always a danger to 'someone.' As long as we keep ourselves on guard like always, we should have a right to our high school reunion. And at this point, as you pointed out, better us there than not there in case something goes down when they think we'll be there."

"It'll be nice to see people again besides just Monique, Felix, and Zita," Ron reflected as he finally unlocked and opened his car door.

"Yeah, no doubt," Kim agreed, climbing out of the passenger seat.

Kim did a quick check of her gown. She's hefted it slightly to sit down without creasing it, and she smoothed it down now and took a swig of a water bottle stored in the car cupholder. She pointed her fingers at her eyes, then her ears, and from old familiarity Ron knew to inspect her eyebrows, earrings, and overall appearance to make sure it was impeccable after the car trip. As he did this quick look, he grabbed the water bottle from her, took a swig himself, and then leaned forward slightly and stole a kiss.

"This reminds me of when we went to the Bermuda Triangle," he said. "Same gown?"

Kim blushed. "How could you tell?" she said.

"You mean besides seeing you in it and recognizing it?" he quipped.

She stared at him. "Hey, I can't make them all romantic zingers. But no, seriously, it was either this dress or one just like it. If it is the same dress you know that only says good things about how much you've kept yourself in shape, Kim. Only weird part is seeing you sans black wig. Though I liked the red hair with it better anyway."

Kim smiled and checked her purse. She retrieved her lipstick tube and began to straighten herself out from the intense kiss they'd had before. Ron watched her with a smile and then suddenly asked, "Wait, do I have lipstick on me?" Kim leaned forward and inspected his lips. Considering the purpose of the inspection, he didn't try to steal a kiss this time.

"Hmm, a little bit, I suppose. I hadn't noticed it from further away. Hopefully nobody else sees your lips this close and personal, huh? But yeah, let me give you something to clean that up with." She fished a napkin from her purse, which Ron took, upended the bottle on, and then ran across his lips until Kim declared him good to go.

Kim extended her hand, which Ron took. He'd already made sure that his pants were uncreased at the knees as Kim had been applying her lipstick. "So tell me the truth, Ron," she began as they started walking toward the front entrance of the Lodge, "considering I wore this dress back then… and you picked up on it so quickly…"

She trailed off. Ron looked at her, and said, "Well, it was an attractive dress, and you were attractive. I hadn't let my mind think seriously in that direction just yet, but I knew you were attractive certainly. I just hope you don't end up needing to hop on tables and swing on chandeliers this time, not to mention the mid-air flipping."

"So… no definite recollections of…" Kim began, but Ron cut her off.

"Think about it, Kim. You saw me in my dad's old prom tux that night. Your jaw fell open so hard that people could've built houses in there. But you looked at it differently a week and a half later, didn't you?"

"I suppose." Kim allowed. "Makes me wonder why I didn't wear this for a date earlier than now, though. We certainly had enough dates that summer."

"I still call it the Summer of Love. So many kisses… so much brainfreeze…"

Kim and Ron suddenly looked around and realized they'd circled the Lodge in their absentminded walking. Both slammed their hands to their foreheads and then had a silent agreement to be silent until they walked inside the building with no distractions.

~*~*KP*~*~

Inside, they found a sea of familiar faces. There was no Bonnie that Ron could see, which privately relieved him. Time may have made it so that Kim and Bonnie wouldn't feud, but he didn't want to test that yet. However, there was a vague disquiet as he wondered where Bonnie Rockwaller might be and if life was treating her all right. He scanned the people milling about the room in animated conversations. Kim likewise was swiveling her head around, getting an initial assessment of who was here.

Surprisingly, the first definitely familiar face was Brick Flagg. Kim asked Ron, "Wasn't Brick a year ahead of us?"

Brick saw them. "Kim, Ron!" he called. In the surprise from his boisterous call, two things happened. Kim and Ron's hands disengaged in momentary surprise, but at the same time the room, which had not really noticed them yet, all turned and noticed them. Ron saw eyes flick down to their un-joined hands and then back up, and then he saw some puzzled looks. Or maybe they were curious? Kim saw Monique and her best girlfriend gave the universal gesture for "I'll talk to you in a few minutes." She was speaking to someone tall, dark, and handsome.

Brick strode forward happily and clapped a hand on Ron's shoulder. To Ron's credit, this no longer buckled his knees. It only made him do a grin-wince. Brick's eyes looked lined and he looked tired, but there was a smile on his face that bespoke of something else. He shook Kim's hand, his paw engulfing hers even more than Ron's did. "Hey, Brick," Kim said.

"Hey you two. It's great to see you both. Man oh man, it's been so long. You know, I kinda feel like a tool for how much I was struggling in school back then. Kim, you remember when I was all impressed at how you cheerleaders could spell things? Totally embarrassing now."

Ron smiled. "So college really has been good to you?"

"Hard as hell," Brick said, running a hand through his hair, "but the struggle is slowly proving worth it."

"What did you major in, Brick?" Kim asked politely.

"Hah, major… major. Well Kim, actually… I was in bad shape when I got out. How much education did I really have? I took some standardized tests that pretty clearly placed me in remedial English, Writing, and Math courses. Even there I struggled… I was working so hard to understand, and asking other people all the time for help. I really wanted to succeed… I was really only throwing the pigskin around with a few friends on the weekends.

"After I did my gauntlet of fire in remedial courses and managed to squeak into regular gen ed classes, I decided I wanted something to do in addition to football. Right now, I'm thinking of doing education… maybe being a teacher and a football coach. I've got a ways of college ahead of me, though, especially since I can only take a few classes at a time while I flip burgers at the Cow N' Chow to afford taking the classes. Education, man… even if I only want to teach one subject, they want me to get a basic familiarity in so many other subjects as part of the general track. I'm just glad I thought of this sooner. I heard about some guy who finished his bachelor's and wanted to be a teacher by taking a Master's in Education, but only then learned he should've already been thinking about it during his undergrad if he didn't want to take many more years of undergrad classes for the certification requirements. He couldn't do it because he just couldn't hold off on getting an income that many more years to make it happen."

To say Ron and Kim had been rapt at attention would be an understatement.

"One of these days, man…" Brick sighed, "I'll be a teacher and a coach. I hope. Isn't that funny – the guy who came up to the head cheerleader all impressed she could spell when he was a junior in high school?"

Ron said, "I think you can do it, Brick. You're really different than you used to be, and you shouldn't let anybody tell you that you can't do things or that you're just not cut out for them. That's just letting yourself sink into mediocrity. I thank God most days that Kim and I did accidentally have that Home Ec class, because I'm not sure I would've realized a niche I could fill otherwise. Just think… one day, Coach Flagg. Hey, maybe you'll be at Middleton High!"

Brick laughed heartily. "Thanks for the pep talk, Mad Dog," Brick said fondly. "Knowing my luck I'd end up an assistant coach under Barkin and crab-walking my life away."

Brick and Ron shared a manly hug, and Kim gave him a somewhat more self-conscious standoffish one.

By unspoken agreement, they ambled over to Monique. Just as they got there they realized she was now talking to someone else… some ones, they should say. Kim recognized Pete Peterson from having had to wait behind him in line at graduation – both times (admittedly, they weren't close in high school, but they were aware of each other). And both of them of course knew the other people that Monique had spotted and waylaid.

"Ron-man!" Felix declared with a grin.

"'Sup Steel Wheels!" Ron called back.

"Hey, Kim," Zita said with a smile. Kim returned the greeting. Although everyone was busy and didn't see each other as often, Monique, Felix, Zita, Kim, and Ron were all still definitely in touch. It was good to see familiar friends again, but both Kim and Ron privately hoped they'd have a chance to reconnect with people who they hadn't seen just last weekend. Brick was a good start. Pete Peterson would be good too. But both of them hoped for some other, less-seen familiar faces to show.

Felix and Zita were both at MIST, for engineering and computer science, respectively. Kim reflected on how their passions helped shape their eventual majors. Then she thought about Ron. For all of his naco love, she wondered if he might've pursued computer science given his interest in gaming. She remembered a long ago conversation… 'The Z-Boy," Kim suddenly blurted out. Ron looked at her quizically. Felix sighed, "Great system man. Was the fastest video game system ever… back then." Something about the words "fastest video game system ever" brought a smile of recognition to Ron's face and a flush of embarrassment to Kim's.

Kim wanted to ask Monique about the guy she'd been talking to earlier, but she'd learned that with Monique, if she wasn't still talking to the guy, that meant it was done unless Monique was dishing about it herself. She did take interest in the real newcomer of the group.

"Pete, what do you do?"

"You first, Possible."

"Actually doing an MBA at the moment. I have aspirations for my education but I think a solid 'manage to get by in the world' skill will come out of that."

"Okay. My turn? I want to be a documentary filmmaker. I think I'm good at what I do but I can stand to learn more. I did a degree in Film Studies to learn the history and all that, and right now I'm paying for film school as my personal project and helping pay back my loans by doing miscellaneous cameraman and photojournalist work. You know that article in the Middleton Gazette a week ago about the new exhibit at the Space Center? Ask your dad about it – photos were by me, and we chatted a bit as he showed me around to take pictures."

"Sounds solid." Ron said in admiration.

"Well, with it being freelance work, I have to work my butt off to make enough, and can't let my studies slip either or it's all for nothing. Little bit of my own gauntlet I guess."

Pete turned the questioning around.

"So, I see you guys are still hanging together – seems like that's the way things should be, but it's weird, like things haven't changed since high school."

"Hey." a voice suddenly sounded from behind Kim and Ron before they could think to respond.

Behind them, they saw Tara.

"Hey, Tara," both said. They were both about to say 'jinx' but stopped when they thought of Pete's comment about things not changing since high school.

Tara had been monitoring a while. She, like the other patrons milling around, had noticed Kim and Ron earlier when Brick got everyone's attention, but they hadn't been holding hands and their hands seemed bare of adornment. She'd been quietly watching them to try to get an answer to her question without posing it.

Part of her wondered if they were just friends now – not because she was interested, but because assumptions about anything were bad habits after five long years. She questioned the wisdom of what she was about to ask, but Tara had just enough of her inhibitions removed from a Long Island iced tea she'd just had that she decided to go for it. She wasn't drunk… she was just gutsy enough to figure that somebody would ask the question sooner or later tonight. And she really meant it only as a teasing question especially since she was sure they were still hooked up. She felt sure she wouldn't end up saying something bad.

"So, Kim," Tara began, and then she got a huge grin and batted her eyes while cocking her head and lowering her voice to a coo, "are you Missus Stoppable yet?"

"Who told you?" Ron blurted, alarmed.

Tara dropped her Long Island (what was left of it) as her jaw dropped.

"You're married?" she blurted, and this time it was loud enough that, like with Brick, she captured everyone's attention. This time there were a few matter-of-fact nods as if people had just confirmed to themselves that the Earth revolved around the Sun.

"Um… yes… but why is this a surprise?"

"Nobody was sure since you haven't been physical all night," Monique offered helpfully, "and I know my BFF here picked up on how they checked your hands for rings and weren't sure what to make of it when they didn't see any."

"Well, I hadn't realized what they were checking for," Kim admitted, "but… um, okay."

Tara regained her voice. "You got married?" There were definitely people paying attention. However, Kim and Ron mutually decided they were talking to Tara, not to a room.

"Yeah, we're married." Ron said.

"Then… the rings? Are you short on cash?" and as she said this last, Tara looked at Kim's gown doubtfully. She looked to Ron and said, "were you not willing to splurge or something?"

"Hey, hey, hey! Of course I'd get Kim a ring, come on now. I got her those earrings at our halfaversary, didn't I?"

"So, you got married… when? After your bachelor's degrees?"

Kim smiled and admitted, "Uh, no. Earlier."

"Did you get married out of high school or something?"

Ron shook his head. "No, later. Here's the thing, Tara… we didn't want to do it the moment we left to live elsewhere – we didn't want to adapt to married life and living apart from our parents at the same time. That was way too soon in a relationship even for us, anyway. But we saw no reason to wait for the arbitrary Bachelor's degrees when we could live and work together at school as a married couple just like we could at jobs. It gave us time for responsibility to settle in before we tried to adapt to another part of growing up at the same time as we were first dealing with living away from home, but without waiting too long once we were used to living away from home."

"Wow…" Tara said… and she sat heavily in a nearby chair.

Kim grew concerned. "Tara? What's the sitch?"

"I guess I didn't expect to hear you guys were married. I'm not nearly that set yet in life, but I figured it was okay at the 5-year reunion mark. But I feel so behind… I'm doing fine with my education, but I'm lonely and I need to figure out what kind of a life situation I want to settle into. It's not just about a guy, but with no guy a ton of other questions can't get figured out either."

Monique grimaced. "Well, you're not the only one who didn't meet your man when you were four years old, Tara. Represent."

Ron piped up. "Forget where we are in life, Tara. Everyone goes at their own pace. So you haven't found the guy yet – maybe you will here tonight? Maybe you will in two weeks, or maybe you will next year? It's not a race… it's just a challenge. Square away the things you can while you can – like Brick with his education – and take the next steps when the opportunity comes."

"So when did you get married?" Tara asked.

"The summer between sophomore and junior years at college." Ron answered. "Wish you could've been there, but we'd lost touch. But hey, we're reconnecting here, right? We'll be in touch from now on?"

"Count on it," Tara said, and awkwardly fist-bumped Ron when he presented his.

"So where are you rings?" said Pete.

"Oh yeah," said Tara, "I almost forgot my question there."

"The rings are getting engraved with our favorite quotes from our wedding vows on the inside of the bands," Ron said. "It's pretty delicate work so we're letting them take their time with it. We were kinda hoping they'd be ready today but hoped it wouldn't be such a big deal to not be wearing them."

"Let's hope they don't take an electron microsocope to read!" a kind of quiet but smooth voice sounded.

Kim and Tara whirled at the familiar voice. Ron's eyebrow ticked but then he reminded himself of the Summer of Love, and turned himself to face the newcomer.

"Didn't mean to eavesdrop," said Josh, "just happened to be approaching to say hello when I caught the last bit."

Kim took Ron's hand. Kim had told him the whole story during the Summer of Love, and Ron knew she and Josh really had drifted apart. He remembered that there was a brief relationship between Tara and Josh but wasn't sure what had become of it.

"Hey, Josh." Kim said.

"Hey, Kim, Tara, Monique, Pete, Ron, Felix, Zita… wow, quite a crowd here."

Tara looked at him. Everyone looked between the two of them and how Tara seemed to want to say something. "Hey, T." Josh said softly.

"Josh? You moved near the end of junior year with your family. How are you at this reunion?"

"Brick and I both volunteered to help get this shindig off the ground. I missed this place too much and knew that most of the people I knew and talked to were related to this graduating class. If you ask Brick he'll tell you the same. When you were sending RSVPs some of those were getting processed by we two."

"So are you in Middleton now?"

"Yeah, recently moved back here after finishing a double major in art and art history at Upperton U."

"And… and… are you seeing anyone?"

"No…" Josh said. "But um… I was wanting to talk to you. Could I maybe buy you a drink?"

Tara looked down at the shattered glass and spilled Long Island iced tea on the floor, and then snapped her head up with a more resolute face. "I'd like that," she replied. "I'll catch up with you all in a bit, guys," Tara addressed the group. "I think you might've been right about something earlier tonight, Ron… at least I hope."

Ron smiled at her. As Tara began walking away, Josh quickly addressed the group. "Don't get me wrong, guys, I want to catch up with you all. But I've been regretting that move for years and I'm hoping I can put something back together here… can I catch up with you all later tonight?"

"Good luck, Josh." Kim said by way of encouragement and farewell.

He smiled, ducked his head abashedly, and hurried off before Tara thought she was walking to the bar alone.

~*~*KP*~*~

Kim and Ron meandered around, socializing with many old faces for the rest of the night. Ron couldn't help but be pleased, when they saw the D Hall bullies, that they weren't as fit as he was any more… but he was even happier that they were polite and tried to apologize for some stupid years of stupid things. Ron Stoppable felt happier and stood taller by the time he and Kim were leaving the reunion.

Kim grabbed the driver's seat before he could. He grumbled good naturedly, stole a kiss again, and went around to the other side.

Ron felt really glad he went. As Kim and he talked on the way home, he said he had a good feeling about Josh and Tara. He'd also felt good to be so well-received by the people that had given him such a hard time in the past. Kim was happy that a little smidge more of the "Ron is a loser" self-image seemed to have sloughed off. Granted, years away from high school, and in a fantastic culinary institute, and married no less, had done a lot, but there was a validation that he'd received from going back and not being given a hard time by the people that had previously tormented him so much. She was really glad for him. She also felt, and told him, that the massive efforts Brick was putting in, despite the disadvantaged position he had started college in, inspired her. She hoped that there were great rewards for all his toil in his future. She felt overall positive vibes for having gone as well. They were now about halfway through their half-hour commute, having honestly forgotten Ron's earlier fear of their presence inspiring an attack on the reunion. Suddenly they saw someone bearing down on them in a motorcycle. They barely dodged the guy, and when he came around for another pass, it was clear he had hostile intent. They managed to get out of the way and Kim and Ron quickly shut the ignition off and hoped out of the car, ready for combat.

Ron kicked the would-be biker thug's ass.

Boo-yah.

fin

~*~*KP*~*~

Author's Notes: Thanks to all who give this entry to the contest a try. I'd love to hear your thoughts. I always respond to review if I'm graced with them.

Credits/Shout-outs: The mention of earrings as a halfaversary gift is a shout-out to the works of fanfiction author Pinky Jo Curlytail. The idea of Pete Peterson as a filmmaker is inspired by fanfiction author waveform. The heavy incidence of Brick in this story was inspired by the positive reactions to his presence in my story 'Reunited Friends, Remembered Fame,' especially by MrDrP and screaming phoenix but inclusive of others as well. When Ron says that college has been really good to Brick, it's a reference to their phone conversation in the episode 'Homecoming Upset.' If this story gets the chance to be a contest entry as well, I'd like to thank Ghostwriter for the consideration.