SuperRon
Disclaimer: Some day I will own Kim Possible and everything else, but till that day I own none of it and today is not that day.
Public Service Announcement: Falling down stairs sucks!
Chapter Two: Things Change
Middleton High School
It had been a week since Ron had found out about who he really was, and all his attempts to find out about KalEl had proven to be utterly futile. His parents had recommended again that he get a hold of Clark Kent and see if he could put Ron in touch with Superman, but Superman had never told anyone his secret identity and Ron saw no reason to tell anyone he didn't have to.
Still though he was at the end what he could do on his own. Sure he could ask Wade, but Wade would want to know why, and with an IQ of 210 Ron was sure that Wade would figure out in short order about Ron's little secret. Not to mention that then Kim would know and he didn't want her feeling redundant on missions when he could simply move so fast that even Shego couldn't hope to keep up with him.
And if what he'd managed to dig up was true being super fast wasn't all, Ron was plenty smart enough to know that as things stood he was by and large invincible to anything any of the villains he and Kim faced could throw at him. A not so small part of him really wanted to see the look on Monkey Fist's face when he realized his Monkey Kung Fu was not only sick and wrong, but also completely useless.
"Hey Ron!" He turned and caught a glimpse of a blonde head he knew to be Tara.
"Hey!" he managed to get out before she disappeared around a corner. Try as he might, Ron couldn't help but swagger a little bit. It was certainly a boost to his ego to think that a cute blonde like Tara might like him. And that she was single once more was only icing on that rather tasty cake.
Walking down halls he typically would have never set foot in, not because the people there were less than savory, that dubious honor was reserved for D-Hall, he just never had any classes in this wing. Well other than that Home-Ec class, but after he'd been made school chef he'd stopped going there, and when the health department had shut that down Barkin had just given up on the class.
Finally getting to the newspaper offices, Ron turned the knob trying to see if he could just walk in. The door was unlocked, so Ron simply let himself into the room. Quietly walking around the room Ron looked for anyone he could ask for help, but it seemed that the offices were all empty. Though offices wasn't the right term he decided, more like cubicles with some makeshift doors.
"Hello?" Ron finally decided to give up being polite and interrupt anyone who was working. No one answered, "Hello?" he tried again hoping that whoever was in the room simply hadn't heard him. Again though no one answered, "great," Ron muttered. Just when he had finally decided to ask for help with his predicament there was no one there to help him, a small part of him wondered just who he had killed in a past life to deserve this kind of irony.
Ron started poking around the various cubicles, maybe just maybe someone he knew worked on the paper. He'd like to think that he'd know what classes and activities his friends did but he'd hate to think that he could have done this with no questions rather than the interrogation he'd endure from someone he didn't know. Sadly though as he went through the 6th of the 8 cubicles in the room he had yet to encounter any names that were familiar to him.
"What the hell are you doing here?" Ron whipped around to see none other than Bonnie Rockwaller glaring at him, hands on her hips, and a cup of starbucks in her hand.
"Bonnie?" Ron said, "What am I doing here, what are you doing here?"
"I work here," Bonnie started walking towards him, "which you don't. Which by the way brings us back to my question of what are you doing here?"
She walked over to what would have been the last cubicle Ron had meant to look into, it was slightly bigger than the rest and had a small sign taped to the door that read "editor." Bonnie set her coffee down on her small desk and then walked back out to stand in front of and glare at Ron.
"You still haven't answered my question." She tossed her hair over her shoulder in a rather imperious manner.
"I needed to talk to someone on the newspaper staff," Ron stammered out, "but still you work on the newspaper?" As she added a scowl to her glare he went on, "It's just that I can't exactly see you as the reporter type, it's not a really 'popular' thing."
"I'd think you of all people wouldn't think about doing something just because it's popular," Bonnie sighed "well come into my office I guess, at least such as it is."
"Huh?" Ron was surprised by Bonnie's abrupt change of the subject to say the least.
Spinning around Bonnie planted her hands on her hips and fixed her gaze on him again, "Well you said you needed to talk to someone on the newspaper staff, and I'm on the newspaper staff so talk to me."
"I need to get in touch with someone," Ron followed her into the office, "and I think you, well the paper, but I guess that means you, well I think you can help me with that."
"Okay," Bonnie said flatly, "now I know that even you're not stupid enough to realize that if you need to call someone you have a cell phone. But if you really need to get a hold of someone why don't you just ask Kim, I'm sure little Ms. Perfect could get anyone to come up to her on bended knee."
Ron decided to rather pointedly ignore the barb Bonnie made at Kim and just answer her question. "Well there's nothing wrong with my wanting to do something on my own is there?" Then not being able to resist he added, "And besides, I'd think you'd jump at Kim not being around."
Bonnie laughed, somewhat bitterly, "Why do you think I joined the newspaper in the first place? Kim is only a part of the newspaper when you two make the headlines, other than that it's my Kim free part of the day."
"Wait," Ron said, "why are you being so nice to me? I mean shouldn't even talking to me drag you like 5 notches down the food chain?"
Bonnie sat down behind the desk and motioned for him to take a seat on a stack of boxes that he supposed doubled as her chair whenever she had visitors to her humble abode. "Look," she said in a remarkably kind voice, "things change, the simple fact that you're a senior means that even if you're on the bottom of our food chain you're still above most everyone in the school."
"Thanks I guess," Ron wasn't quite sure what to make of her rather backhanded compliment, "but I've never really cared about the food chain, I mean once we get to college it doesn't matter."
"You know with that attitude you'd make a pretty good reporter." Bonnie paused and looked absorbed in thought before speaking again, "Actually you'd make a pretty good reporter period, why didn't you ever join the paper?"
"Me?" Ron asked incredulously, "I'm not reporter material, I mean I'm not nosey, or opinionated, or all in your face to get a story, or…" he noticed Bonnie had a far too neutral look on her face for his tastes, "but all those things are good on you, you make them work."
Rather than rip into him Bonnie just smiled, not her normal half smirk half smile, but a full smile. Adding to Ron's confusion the only thing she said was "Why thank you."
Ron gaped at her, muscles still tensed to adopt a defensive posture when the inevitable reaming out came. But it never came, Ron slowly relaxed his arms and haltingly said, "Um, you're welcome?"
Bonnie's smile took on a bit of a smirk but when she laughed it still sounded like genuine amusement rather than joy at someone else's misery. "You'd make a great reporter," she said, "you just named off three of the most important things in journalism having never taken a day of classes about it in your life. I'll help you get in contact with whoever it is you need to talk to if you do two things for me. One I want a newspaper article about your and Kim's next mission, and two I want to go along when you meet them. Now tell me, who is it you need me to get in touch with?"
"Clark Kent." Ron said simply.
"Clark Kent?" Bonnie asked as though she hadn't quite believed what she'd heard, "As in the Clark Kent of the Daily Planet who covers Superman?"
"Yeah," Ron said, "are there any other Clark Kents I should know about?"
"No," Bonnie scribbled some stuff down on a notepad that Ron couldn't read, "it's just now I really wanna come along to that meeting, anything that has you wanting to meet a reporter like that must be good."
"Bonnie," Ron made sure to keep his tone firm, "I know we're not good, well we're not even friends period. But could you please keep this under some serious wraps, like don't tell anyone about it. Even Kim doesn't know about any of this if you're wondering how serious I am."
"Alright then," Bonnie's teasing attitude had been replaced by seriousness, "I'll call you when I set something up, it shouldn't take more than a week."
Possible Residence
"Kim!" Her mom called up the stairs, "Dinner!"
"Coming!" Kim put down the college offer she was reading over and throwing on her slippers made her way down the ladder from her room and then down the stairs and into the kitchen, her brothers were already at the table, her mother was tossing a salad, and her father was bent over pulling a pot roast out of the stove.
"Kimmie dear," he said standing up, "would you mind getting the milk out of the refrigerator?"
"Sure thing," Kim walked over to the fridge and pulled out the gallon sized jug of milk and then walked over to put it down on the table between the twins.
"So," her mom said as she put down the salad bowl and then took her own seat, "how was school today you three, Jim, Tim are you two enjoying high school?"
"Kim was right," Jim said around a mouthful of beef.
"Mr. Barkin is pure evil," Tim picked right up in their weird twin speak.
"It's only the second week of school," Jim took over again seamlessly.
"And we've already got a five page paper due." Tim finished morosely.
"You think this is bad Tweebs?" Kim pointed at them with her fork, "You haven't discovered the joys of 'extra homework,' or college."
"Still haven't figured out which of those offers to accept?" Her dad asked in sympathy.
"No," Kim rested her chin on the table, "Every government agency, department, organization, and all the private industries under the sun, and I think five over it, have offered me a full ride, internships over the summer, and a job waiting for me when I graduate."
"Well that's what happens when you're a world famous hero," her mom spoke in that comforting voice only she seemed to be able to pull off, "have you at least managed to narrow the field down?"
Kim pulled her head up enough to prop her arms on her elbows and rest her head in her hands, "Yeah I've got it down to five, the CIA, GJ, the NSA, Nakasumi Toys, and Luthorcorp."
Her dad set down his glass of milk and turned to Kim, "Any of those seem particularly nice to you?"
"Well," Kim put down her fork, "I don't know if it seems particularly nice, but the Luthorcorp offer certainly stands out."
"Oh?" Her mother motioned for her to continue when Kim didn't do so immediately.
"All the other ones seem kinda the same," Kim picked her fork back up and started playing with her food, "They're all like I said, full ride, work during the summer, and a job when I get out. I only picked the first four because they seemed like the ones where I could have the most fun or do the most good. Luthorcorp wants me to skip college entirely, come work right for them as a direct assistant to Lex Luthor himself, he even put together the offer personally. They'd have me tutored by the best teachers available in whatever courses I wanted till I had what amounted to a degree and then I'd just go from there."
"You should do it!" Tim interjected himself into the conversation.
"Yeah," Jim followed suit, "Luthorcorp has one of the best R&D departments anywhere, imagine the stuff you could play with."
"Jim, Tim," Her mom warned, "Kim is not going to decide where she wants to work just so she can play with toys." Then towards Kim in a much softer voice, "But Kim that does sound like a very interesting offer, why haven't you given it more thought?"
"It's just that Luthorcorp has been involved in some pretty shady stuff," Kim lowered her eyes, "I'd hate to think that I spent this much time fighting guys like Jack Hench only to end up across a negotiating table from him. But then I'm Kim Possible, I can do anything; so I'd like to think that if anyone could clean up Luthorcorp it's me."
"Well Kimmie," her dad cleaned the last bits of food off his plate, "whatever you decide to do we'll be behind you a hundred percent. So just do what you think is right, we can't ask any more of you than that."
Later that night Kim lay on her bed looking up at the ceiling and trying to decide just what she wanted to do with her life. Ron had gotten offers from several cooking schools and one from Bueno Nacho to pay for him to get an MBA and join them. That meant that for once in her life there was no guarantee she and her best friend would be just a walk away.
Rolling over Kim growled in frustration before crawling under her covers, she wouldn't figure this out tonight. That she didn't have to decide for several weeks yet made her slightly less concerned about that. Maybe tomorrow she'd talk to Ron and see what he thought about her working for each of her choices, just because they might not be joined at the hip come next fall didn't mean she wouldn't value his opinions just as much.
AN: So I wrote about 20 pages this week, sadly none of those were these. College it seems is not going down quietly. Still I present to you the second chapter of my story and the last real setup chapter. Things should start to move after this, even if I feel so slow only updating once a week but real life does demand it. I feel obligated to point out now that despite all appearances right now this will end up Ron/Bon. And if any of you have thought of cool names for simian artifacts but aren't going to use them, do please donate them to the "I need a cool simian artifact name but I can't think of one" foundation.