Disclaimer: Not really necessary as far as I know, but for tradition's sake: I do not own Kim Possible or any of the characters contained therein.
Ron Stoppable invited himself into the new Possible residence a little while before he had to be at Smarty Mart. He glanced out the window, and watched Kim's father open an envelope. He seemed to be reading, but soon he dropped the letter and the rest of the mail, and began to almost frolic back to the house.
"I wonder why Mr. Dr. P is acting this way," Ron thought to himself. Just then, Dr. Possible came back inside and answered Ron's question.
"Good news everyone! Our insurance company ruled that the destruction of our house was an act of civil disorder and not an act of war, and thus is covered by our homeowners' policy," said the beaming rocket scientist. "So, basically our new house is already paid for."
"It also can't hurt that we stopped the Diablos just short of the CEO's house," added Kim, recalling the phone call that her family had received just about a year before then.
"Too bad you didn't save any deans of any colleges you were interested in. Maybe one of them could have, you know, ACCEPTED ME!!!" In spite of a good (by his standards) senior year, Ron had yet to hear back from any of the dozens of colleges to which he had applied.
"Ron, don't panic. Chances are, if someone accepted..."
"IF?!? SomeONE?!? KP, I thought you believed in me!"
"No, no! I do! It's just, that, well, there are a lot of things about you that only I can see. They aren't the sort of things that sniveling bureaucrats look at. Things that would get you in. Things that should get you in."
"Sorry about the outburst back there."
"No big, it happens."
"Look on the bright side, Kim. At least I haven't gotten any rejection letters."
"I'm not sure how bright of a side that is," said Kim. "It's like they're getting suck into a vortex created by the Pan-Dimensional Vortex Inducer. It's about due to be stolen again."
"Don't be silly, KP; that's my job. Besides, if something had gone wrong with the PDVI, someone would have called Wade by now."
"True. I would have guessed that if they were going to reject you, they would at least have the courtesy to send you a letter."
"So, not only do they not want me, they don't even think enough of me to send a proper notice of them not wanting? Harsh, KP, harsh."
"Hey, don't blame me, I'm just an errand girl, sent by grocery clerks to collect a bill."
"What?"
"Never mind, I've got to be at work in an hour. Monique and I are the only ones whose requests for the day off weren't granted. Good thing business has been light lately."
"Yeah, I have work soon as well, maybe it will get my mind off this whole college thing. It's a good thing they moved housewares fifty aisles away from pets."
"Ronald, we're going to be renovating the pets department for the next few weeks. Until then, we are transferring you to housewares." When Ron heard these words, his heart sank a good cubit and a half. Housewares meant Barkin, and both had grown weary of one another at Middleton High School and thus were inclined to avoid one another at their common place of employment. For Barkin, having a couple more hands to help move slow cookers and coffee grinders was one bright spot in this news, although Ron didn't see it this way.
"Stoppable, while you're over here, I'd like to talk with you about something important."
"Mister B, I graduated. You can't teach me anyone more, so there!" Rufus jumped onto Ron's shoulder and was about to blow a raspberry at Ron's long-time nemesis, but Ron calmed him down.
"Rufus, it's performance evaluation week. I really don't need a 'does not work well with others' on there."
"And lording your graduation over one's co-worker is not the way to get good reviews. I still have the ability to have you join Rockwaller in summer school. If only I could have sent the other two to join her."
"Well, I..."
"As you might say, boo-yah." Ron had to admit that Barkin had the upper hand here through words or actions, and Ron chose actions, building a pyramid of slow cookers.
"Ah, the classic pyramid. I'm sure your father could tell us the percentage that we save in breakage by using this setup instead of a wall."
"One deep or two deep?"
"Two deep, three high."
"I'll do that."
"I want the answer this time tomorrow, or someone may find themselves volunteered for a double shift on Friday." Barkin went off to help a customer unsure about whether they wanted three five-gallon storage bins or five three-gallon storage bins. Meanwhile, Ron was lost in an internal monologue.
"Let's see, I still haven't been accepted to college anywhere, I graduated from high school and I'm still getting homework, there's always a third thing that goes wrong. What could it be?"
"Ron Stoppable. Associate Ron Stoppable, this is Will Du of Global Justice, report to the front of the store immediately."
"Well, Ron, I guess the important thing I was going to talk with you about will have to wait. Remember your assignment. I want a rough draft of the report two days before the due date."
Virtually everyone had finished picking out their summer wardrobes from Club Banana, and it would be several weeks before anyone would be doing much of any back-to-school shopping, so it really wasn't necessary to have more than two or three (today, two) employees in the store at any given time. At this given time, those two employees were Monique and Kim Possible.
"Retail therapy hasn't cured your summertime blues, and that's about all this doctor seems to be good at prescribing," Monique told Kim.
"It's just the whole Ron sitch, considering how many colleges he applied to, and to not even hear from any of them. Even Wade doesn't know what's going on. Besides, for me at least, coming here is a way of getting away from some of my problems for a while. Ron's job, on the other hand..."
"Girl, you need to be where he get away from his problems." Monique cut Kim off, although she sensed that there was a significant possibility that Kim was just going to trail off.
"I guess I've been that pretty much the whole time that we've known each other, but either way...I thought Ron would get accepted somewhere."
"That is ferociously weird. I just hope that combined with spending eight hours a day with Barkin doesn't break Ron." Monique trailed off, then abruptly changed the subject. "Actually, I've really been wondering about what you told me about graduation night."
"You know..." Kim sensed that the conversation with Monique was veering strongly into the realm of awkweirditude, and she wandered towards the stockroom. After all, some things just should not be discussed in public. Fortunately for the two of them, an out came in the form of a customer, although once Monique got a look at this particular patron, she figured that she was not the one that this customer came to see.
"Ma'am, Kim's in the back. I'll get her for you."
"Thanks for bailing me out. There was no way that was going to turn out well for the Ronster." Ron met Will Du with an unprecedented degree of gratitude. However, Global Justice's once (and future?) number one agent was fairly cordial himself.
"You're welcome. Anyway, I would like to talk with you about your college situation. Come with me." Ron began to protest, saying that he needed to clock out; however, Will pulled out a small electronic device of some sort.
"Done."
"How did you..."
"Standard issue. People that agents less competent than myself were picking up would say they needed to clock out, or turn off the stove or something like that, then they would make a run for it...or they'd come back right away, but that still would put us behind schedule. Point is, this device saves time and money. You have been clocked out and we're on our way."
"Where?"
"You'll see."
"Dr. Director? What are you doing here?" asked Kim.
"Come with me. We have some important business to tend to."
"Hang on a second. Monique? Can you fly solo for a little while? I think this is kind of important."
"OK," said Monique with a hint of indignation.
"So, what brings you here?"
"Firstly, I have an explanation for Ron's college situation. And second, I would like to discuss with you your own future plans. Trust me, everything will make more sense after we reach our destination."
"Which is..."
"...not around here. Time is of the essence...after we hit the food court; I haven't had lunch yet."
"They should have met us here. Where are they?" Will Du was growing impatient. He and Ron were parked at what appeared to be a rental car lot near the airport.
"Who's they?"
"Dr. Director and Miss Possible."
"What does Kim have to do with this?"
"Like I said earlier, once all relevant parties are present, we will explain everything. Seeing as Miss Possible was working today, that must mean...uh-oh."
"Uh-oh?"
"Let's just say that being director of Global Justice doesn't allow much time for shopping. Her American Excess Unobtanium card must be getting quite a workout."
"We could be here a while."
"You think? I'll see if I can reel them in." Will attempted to contact his boss, first via his communication device, then by an old-fashioned text message. The latter of these received a response in kind.
"I have recovered Miss Possible and I am bringing her to the rendezvous point."
"Stoppable was collected nearly an hour ago. We've been waiting since then." Dr. Director did not respond to this message. Will briefly wondered if he had been too snippy, but he decided that Betty would understand, so instead of texting an awkward apology, he reclined his seat to a nearly horizontal position and shut his eyes. Ron was about to do likewise when a vehicle very similar to the one he currently occupied pulled up nearby. He glanced over and saw two familiar figures walk towards him. He opened the door to greet the two of them.
"Good afternoon, Ronald," said Dr. Director. "If you wouldn't mind stepping aside, I'd like to get down to business ASAP."
"KP, has she told you anything?"
"No. And seeing as Wade hasn't tried to contact me, I figure it's not going to be mission-related."
"You are correct. Well, at least it's not directly mission-related. Now hurry up. We have a plane to catch."
"Isn't that kind of old fashioned?" asked Ron. "I mean, couldn't you just whoosh us there in one of those tube-thingies?"
"Down for maintenance." The four of them drove over to a hangar and boarded a small business jet.
"Thank goodness for maintenance. And taxpayer dollars," said Ron as he leaned back in one of the rather luxurious seats in the jet's cabin.
"Actually, this is privately financed," Dr. Director explained. "Global Justice holds a good number of lucrative patents."
"That's all well and good," said Kim, "but it still doesn't answer the larger question of 'Where are we going?'" Suddenly the plane went into a sharp turn and dive. Ron glanced out the window and saw what looked like fireworks. He then glanced towards where the air sickness bag was located and fortunately for everyone on board, he found it. After regaining his senses, he shot a somewhat puzzled and irate look towards Agent Du.
"OK, first of all, who would be shooting off fireworks in the middle of the day?"
"That would be us," said Will. "Just a little diversion for the missile heading our way." Will noticed a look of panic beginning to creep across Ron and Rufus's faces, so he quickly added, "Don't worry, it would have hit us by now if it were going to hit us.
"I guess Gemini was having a particularly bad day," muttered Dr. Director, a few feet ahead of the males in the cabin. "On the other hand, he only shot off one missile, and a very primitive one at that. I guess he only had to can Agent Tau, or someone of equal or lesser stature."
In spite of the quick detour, the plane landed at a small airstrip, and the four of them climbed into a van similar to the other ones in which they had ridden today. About ten minutes later, Kim and Ron emerged from the van and found themselves in what appeared to be a run-of-the-mill office park. However, the two of them would soon realize there was something more to this part of northern Virginia than meets the eye, especially after Dr. Director told them,
"Miss Possible, Mr. Stoppable, welcome to the Global Justice Academy."
AN: Hmm, a story about Kim and Ron in college. How original. Not much happens here, but more will happen later, I hope. It's good to get back to writing. Review and I'll probably reply. Don't hold your breath waiting for new chapters.