Disclaimer: I reap on gains from using the characters and situation from the hit TV series Kim Possible, which is owned by the Walt Disney Company. I do this strictly for pleasure, not for profit.

Xxxxxx

Fighting

Chapter 1

Zero Tolerance

Xxxxxx

It was a typical day at Middleton High School. The cheer squad had just started to practice their usual routines at the end of the school day when the incident started.

It begun when Bonnie Rockwaller threw out a snappy barb at Kim Possible and her boyfriend, Ron Stoppable. That drew a veiled retort from the redhead which brought about an outright slanderous lie thrown back by the teal-eyed brunette which brought an equally harsh response from the fiery redhead.

Then thing got ugly.

The verbal repartee continued for a short time until, in frustration, Bonnie flagrantly attacked the redheaded head cheerleader throwing wild fists and ill-placed kicks at the girl who knew 16 styles of kung fu. Kim defended herself against the onslaught for over a minute, expertly deflecting the punches and kicks, until one finally got through.

It wasn't the most professional of punches that barely grazed its mark but it did some damage, scratching Kim on the cheek. (Bonnie's fingernails had been filed and polished to a razor sharp perfection over the years.)

Anyway, that was the final straw that broke the camel's back.

Two seconds later, Bonnie was sprawled out on the floor, out cold and Ron was desperately trying to calm down the redheaded tornado that was still wailing away in his arms, taking a few blows himself in the process.

"Possible, Rockwaller, Stoppable! My Office! NOW!"

The demand came from Mr. Steven Barkin, Vice Principle and the chief disciplinarian for the school who was standing in the doorway to the gym and had witnessed the end of the fight. Before following the three teens to his office, (Bonnie having recovered quickly and was once again on her feet,) he told the rest of the cheer squad to write down what had happened and to submit their incident reports to him before they left for the evening.

Mr. Barkin immediately sat down behind his desk when they arrived at his office and he motioned for the three teens to take a seat in the chairs in front of his desk. Since there were only two chairs, Kim and Bonnie sat down while Ron stood behind his girlfriend like a proper gentleman.

"I'm sorry, Mr, B., but I..." Ron started to apologize before he was cut off by a simple hand raised by the large administrator.

"I don't want a word out of any of you until I ask for it."

The sentence came out extremely soft for the normally overt ex-Marine, but the terseness of the order behind it came through loud and clear.

The four sat there in silence for all of ten minutes before there was a light knock on the door. Barkin barked out, "Enter," and waited while Tara timidly entered the office.

"Here are all of our written statements," the platinum blonde squeaked as she handed over a small stack of papers.

Mr. Barkin swiftly paged through the six pieces of paper before he turned to Tara and gruffly said, "The rest of the squad is dismissed for the time being but no one, will discuss the incident in the gymnasium with anyone else unless expressly questioned by a school administrator. Tell the other girls on the squad. Do I make myself clear?"

"Yes sir," Tara quickly answered as she glanced over her shoulder out the still partially open door. "The other girls are standing out in the hallway and heard, you so we all got the message."

"Good. Dismissed," Mr Barkin absently said as he waved the blonde girl out of the office while starting to read the first page in earnest. Tara weakly waved to the three teens with a grim look on her face before she snuck out the door and quietly closed it behind her.

It didn't take but a minute for Mr. Barkin to finish reading the six pages of testimony, as brief as most of them were. He paused in contemplation for a few seconds before he tapped the six pieces of paper on his desk to tidy them up and stowed them in an empty manila folder. He sat up straight at his desk and announced, "All right people, listen up. All three of you are suspended. Possible and Stoppable, you're suspension is for three days for fighting. Rockwaller, you're suspension is for five. This incident will go on all of your permanent records."

"But I didn't do any of the fighting," Ron adamantly protested in a falsetto voice that always came out whenever he was extremely excited or anxious.

"That's true, Stoppable," Mr. Barkin replied as he stared at the blonde boy. "But you didn't try to break up the fight when it first started, either."

"None of the other cheerleaders tried to stop it," Kim calmly pointed out having finally settled down from the brawl.

"That's also true," Barkin ceded as he turned to the redhead. "But the other members of the cheer squad do not know how to fight. Stoppable does, so he should've been able to step in and stop the melee."

"But why is my suspension longer than those two losers?" Bonnie whined in protest.

"For the simple reason that you started it," Barkin growled as he rose from his chair, leaned on the desk and towered over the well-tanned brunette. "You started both the verbal exchange and the fisticuffs. Now get out of my office and I don't want to see any of you until after your suspensions are over." He quickly sat back down and started writing out something, more than likely the official incident report concerning the fight.

Ron was about to protest again but Kim quickly slapped her hand over his mouth and dragged him out of the room, leading him to their nearby lockers. Bonnie simply stomped out of the office and the building in an all-out snit.

Kim finally removed her hand from Ron's mouth when they got to her locker. Ron immediately blurted out, "Why'd did ya do that, KP?"

"Because Mr. Barkin would've extended your suspension if you said anything else, Ron. You've got to learn that there are many different ways to handle a confrontation besides the direct head-to-head method."

Ron was about to counter her theory before he thought about it for a second. He realized Kim was probably right. She had been thinking about majoring in International Diplomacy in college so she should know just how to handle different situations. He sheepishly rubbed the back of his neck and apologized, "I guess you're right KP. I was still a little hot under the collar with Bon Bon so I wasn't thinking properly. Your cooler head prevailed."

"Thank you sweetie," Kim acknowledged his compliment and, after checking the empty hallways for any sign of Barkin or another teacher, gave him a quick peck on the cheek. "Now, lets head on home. I want to get started on our appeal before mom and dad get home. They're not going to like me getting suspended." Kim quickly grabbed a few textbooks from her locker.

"Appeal?" Ron questioned as he followed suit and grabbed the books he thought he'd need during his three day suspension from his locker. "I didn't know we could appeal our suspensions?"

"Ron," Kim laughingly chided her boyfriend. "Didn't you read the student handbook when they handed them out at the beginning of the school year?"

"Nah," Ron waved off the question as he shut his locker and took Kim's hand as they walked out of the school. "I don't need any instruction manual for knowing how to be a student. All it sez for us to do is go to our classes and not get on the bad side of Mr. B."

"There's more to the student handbook than that," Kim laughed at Ron's naivete. "There's one whole section on suspension procedures and how to appeal it. Come on. I'll tell you all about it while we grab a bite to eat at my house."

Xxxxxx

Kim stretched out on her bed, her back propped up against the headboard, as she jotted down a few things in a spiral bound notebook. She would occasionally take a bite of the wonderful chicken salad sandwich that Ron had made when they got to her house. There hadn't been much to snack on when they arrived but Kim had found some leftover broiled chicken in the refrigerator and Ron quickly threw together the most delicious chicken salad she'd ever tasted. (She found out that Ron's secret ingredient was a little horseradish sauce mixed in with the mayo to give it a little extra zing.)

Ron sat at Kim's computer desk pecking away at the keyboard, using a search engine to look for examples that his girlfriend had suggested.

Of course he'd already long ago finished his sandwich... and his soda... and the whole family sized bag of nacho chips he had brought along for the both of them.

Rufus watched from his perch at the edge of the desk, his beady black eyes shifting between the two teens, unsure what all of the fuss was about. Sure, Bonnie had caused a ruckus at cheer practice and it was a bigger brouhaha than normal between the brunette and his Kim, but he didn't think it was such a big deal. If something like that had happened in a colony of naked mole rats in the wild, the aggressor would simply have been thrown out of the nest bringing harmony once again to the clan. Ergo, Bonnie should be sent away, not his Kim and Ron.

"Okay, KP," Ron said as he turned from the computer to the redhead as the results of his research printed up on her printer. "I got a half dozen examples, just like you wanted. Now, what are we gonna do with them again?"

"All this is fodder for our appeal," Kim said as she started reading what he had dug up. "Tomorrow, we're going to go to Mr. Barkin's office and see if we can get out suspensions expunged from our school records."

"We're sponging our expulsions?" Ron quipped with a sly but goofy smile. "Won't that hurt?"

"You goofball," Kim giggled at her boyfriends antics. It was something she truly loved about him. No matter what the sitch, Ron could always crack a joke and make her laugh. "We weren't expelled, just suspended from classes for three days and this information might just get us back into school sooner... and maybe even help you out with your grades in History Class."