Title: Reunited Friends, Remembered Fame
Story Summary: My submission to the 9/7/10 Writer's Challenge. High school reunion's the sitch…
Disclaimer: Disney owns Kim Possible (married or otherwise) and related characters. I do not profit on this story and never will.
~*~*KP*~*~
Reunited Friends, Remembered Fame
by Slipgate
Chapter 1
"Ladies and gentlemen, at the end of the first quarter of this game, your Middleton Mad Dogs are in the lead against the Lowerton Lemurs, 14-3, with two touchdowns by star quarterback Theo Jenkins. The visiting Lemurs have only managed a single field goal so far thanks to Mr. Harry Hangin' Chad. What will the rest of the game hold for us?"
Matt Robinson blew warm air into his hands and rubbed them together as he looked out over the stadium from his seat. Sure enough, Coach Flagg was right on the money about this being a promising new set of Mad Dogs, at least so far. Matt hoped the Mad Dogs would win. It's not that he really had that much worry about team preferences, but he'd heard that Coach Flagg was still considered "new" and "untested" at his job, and he thought the big gentle guy deserved some success to help him relax about his job security. He wasn't into the football thing, but Coach Flagg was a pretty cool history teacher. He envied some of the students who did have Flagg as a coach for having an intimacy and familiarity with him beyond the class that Matt just couldn't share in.
As Matt squinted up at the scoreboard, he sighed again. Some of those same classmates were down there right now, with Coach talking to them most likely right now. As cool as Mr. Flagg was, Matt couldn't help but slightly wish he'd made it to Middleton High School a year sooner than he had. Last year had been the old Coach Barkin's final year before he announced his retirement. Matt would've liked to have picked Coach Barkin's brain about the many people who had passed through his tutelage in his thirty years at Middleton High School. Any of those many people would've been cool to learn about, but there were two people in particular that Matt Robinson would love to know more about from the mouth of experience.
As Matt huddled his coat closer, he shivered a little. It was a brisk, chilly October night. The year was 2026.
~*~*KP*~*~
The PA suddenly came live again, causing Matt to look up toward the towering speaker structures.
"Ladies and Gentlemen, as we pause before our second quarter, it has come to our attention that we failed to make certain announcements before we started this game. Some may know here that today was the day the Middleton High Class of 2016 celebrated their 10-year reunion. As a final wrap to the day, the class is here in attendance of their old alma mater's game in the Northeast bleacher section. Class of 2016, raise your arms and let the Mad Dogs of today know – 'Once a Mad Dog, always a Mad Dog!'" The mentioned section of the bleachers came alive while many heads swiveled to see them.
The announcer allowed the sound to die down a bit, and then said, "And, in a happy coincidence of scheduling, they're not the only veteran Mad Dogs in the bleachers tonight. Today was also the 20-year reunion of the Middleton High Class of 2006. Class of 2006, let these youngsters know who the real Mad Dogs are!" A portion of the bleachers that wasn't that far from Matt, but was tucked back near the upper wall, came alive with a cacophony of sound.
Matt had at first tuned things out after the announcement of the 2016 reunion. However, his best friend Roger grabbed his shoulder and got his attention. "Dude," Roger said, "did they say the Middleton High Class of 2006 was here?"
Matt turned to Roger. "I… guess," he said, remembering that vaguely since he had stopped paying attention.
"Why does that ring a bell?" Roger asked. "Somehow, that sounds like it should ring a bell for me… maybe something you've said before? Does that ring a bell for you?"
Matt had been very distracted, so he shrugged helplessly. "Dude?" he offered uncertainly with a shrug.
However, suddenly the year permeated his consciousness. "Dude… wait wait wait wait wait! Did you say 2006?" Matt asked, shaking Roger in sudden urgency.
"Yeah, they said the Middleton High class of 2006 was up there," Roger said, pointing at the section as he spoke. "What's up, dude?"
"Roger, that's them!"
~*~*KP*~*~
Roger Wilson was a decent guy. But he was out to sea at the wild, excited look in his best friend Matt's eyes. "Them?"
"Yeah, you know… Kim!"
"Oh. OH! Do you think she's really up there?" Roger asked. His best friend was a huge Kim Stoppable and Ron Stoppable fan, in the sense that he admired them and had considered it important to research lots of biographical information about them. Those talks where Roger smiled at Matt's total hero worship came back to him full force.
"I don't know!" Matt replied helplessly. "I mean, I know they live in Upperton now. But you figure they would've gotten the mail for their high school reunion. I heard they stayed pretty close to their roots… they probably would've known the reunion was coming up. They might be up there but I just can't see well enough up that high in the bleachers."
Roger was surprised. "Come on, man, wasn't she a cheerleader? The way I hear it, people used to be able to see her red hair and green eyes from across the gym. You've seen so many pictures of her that I'm sure you'd spot her in the crowd."
Matt deflated immediately. "You know I'm terrible at spotting people in crowds," he mumbled. "In June I couldn't even see my older brother in the crowd for his graduation no matter how many people kept pointing out and saying 'fourth row, third from the left' to me. I just couldn't see him, and I pretty much never caught sight of him during the graduation ceremony. That was my brother, man. You think I'm going to spot the Stoppables from way over here in the freshman bleachers?"
Roger was about to retort that there were no official freshman bleachers, but he and Matt had already had that circular conversation (with Matt saying that these were unofficially where freshmen sat) and he decided not to get distracted.
Matt asked, "Maybe you could look, Roger? I'm never going to see them myself from here."
"Well, dude, have you ever thought about, you know, trying to go see them up there instead of from far away?" Roger replied.
Matt shook his head. "Just because someone's address is on public record doesn't mean it's not creepy as hell to go walking up to their door and knock on it, Roger." Roger nodded. "I'm pretty sure it counts the same for a stranger to walk up to somebody in a football game they were enjoying." Roger pursed his lips as he thought about that one.
"Besides," Matt said, sighing, "who would I walk up to? What am I gonna do, walk up and down the rows until I actually see them?"
"You know, I thought you'd be eager." Roger said after a silence. "As much as you're into all this stuff… digging up old newspaper articles on microfiche and finding things on Google caches and managing to save them off… and with how much you admire them… look, you're not trying to be crazy obsessive psycho stalker fan here.
"You're just trying to say hello in a situation where they might be here. If it ends up looking a little weird… think about it. Why do people go to such lengths to see people they're fans of at conventions and stuff? It's because they care enough that they're willing to look a little weird because it's outweighed by the opportunity to really get to talk to that person they care about. I think you can go say 'Hi' without it being disrespectful or weird. Come on."
At last Matt nodded. "Okay, but can you see them up there. Because you know that I wasn't kidding about my ability to see in crowds. I'll look but can you be looking also?"
~*~*KP*~*~
They scanned the Class of 2006 section of the bleachers. The second quarter of the game had recently started but they hadn't been paying attention.
Roger notices something as he scans the Middleton Class of 2006. "Hey, you might be in luck buddy!"
"What's up?"
"It doesn't look like there were that many redheads in the class of 2006. Either that, or at least not that many redheads that kept their hair red after high school."
Matt looks and after raking his eyes across the section of bleachers sees what Roger means. "I see… two redheads, I think?"
"You weren't kidding," Roger said. "There are actually three redheads I spotted. But the third one doesn't have her hair fully red – looks like she may have colored it some after high school. But you know Kim's kept her hair color the same, right?"
Matt nodded. "I've seen a file photo from a recent mission and it was still normal."
Roger replied, "Good enough for me. Anyway, of the other two, one has short-cropped hair. That wouldn't be Kim either, right?"
Matt shook his head and replied, "Nope."
Roger eyed the last candidate. "Well, then we have door number 3 here." Matt was able to see this one, since she was at the edge of a bleacher row and he'd spotted her red hair before. "That could be her," Roger said, nodding his head toward the likely candidate.
Matt looked and said, "I think you're right. The hair seems the right shade and length."
Roger scrutinized her for a moment. "Matt, Ron was… had blond hair, right?"
"Yeah."
"Well, the guy sitting next to her there has blond hair. That might be him, assuming they managed to find spaces together. Which you know you have to figure unless they came in separately."
Matt looked next to the redhead and saw the short blond hair of head. "No, no, they would've come together to this. And I think that might be Ron."
"Well," Roger said, turning around and massaging a headache from craning his neck and staring upwards, "are you going to go up there and say hi? You certainly admire them enough."
Matt turned around too and nervously fidgeted with his hands. Finally, he stopped his fidgeting and said, "You're right, man. I should go over there. I just hope this isn't weird."
~*~*KP*~*~
To Be Concluded in Chapter 2
Author's Notes: Thanks to all who give this entry to the contest a try. I will be posting Chapter 2, the conclusion of this tale, tomorrow. In the meantime, I'd love to hear your thoughts. I always respond to reviews if I'm graced with them.