Disclaimer: Disney owns, I don't. I can't get no satisfaction by getting paid for this drivel. I don't even get paid for using a phrase from the Rolling Stones. (Now I got that danged song in my head!)

Xxxxxx

Goth

Chapter 4

Toast

Xxxxxx

Perfect timing!

Kim walked into the kitchen on Tuesday morning to find Mrs. Dr. Anne Possible at the stove, just like every morning. Mr. Dr. James Possible had his head buried in the morning newspaper at the table as usual and the Tweebs were nowhere to be seen since they were outside shoveling the snow that fell overnight and ordinarily didn't show up for breakfast for at least another fifteen minutes, just like she'd planned. Aren't life little consistencies wonderful?

"Good morning, daddy," Kim loudly chirped and gave him a quick peck on the cheek.

Without lowering the paper, James gave his normal, "Good morning, Kimmie-Cub," salutation.

Walking over to her mother, Kim said, "Morning, mom."

Anne laid the spatula down, gave her daughter a brief hug and replied, "Morning, Kimmie. Did you sleep well?" The brain surgeon returned her attention back to the two eggs frying in the pan.

"Actually," Kim quietly hushed with a quick glance over to her father to make sure he wasn't listening, "I had a teensy bit of trouble falling asleep last night. A question came up at school concerning a guy and a girl that has me perplexed."

Kim knew her answer had to be vague enough to pique her mother's interest but wasn't a total lie. The question did concern a boy and a girl, she just didn't want to mention that she was the girl and Ron was the boy. Kim didn't want her mother to get any wrong ideas and she definitely didn't want her father to put his two cents worth in on the conversation if he overheard.

Anne looked over to her husband then gave Kim a knowing little smile as she whispered, "Does this have any thing to do with a budding personal relationship between the guy and the gal?"

"Yes," Kim quietly returned in surprise that her mother had caught on so quickly. "How did you guess?"

"When a perplexing problem concerning a boy and a girl comes up in high school," Dr. Anne Possible smugly expounded, "then it almost always has to do with a personal relationship and dating."

"Yeah, I guess it does," Kim nervously chuckled as she sheepishly rubbed the back of her neck at her mother's grasp of high school problems. "Anyway, they're very good friends but they're thinking about dating... each other, I mean."

"And these good friends are worried that if they do start to date," Anne said with her knowing smile growing just a little bit, "that it might ruin their friendship if the dating didn't pan out?" She plated the sunny-side up eggs next to some previously cooked bacon, then patted her daughter's shoulder. "One moment Kimmie."

Mrs. Dr. Possible took the plate and a pot of freshly brewed coffee over to her husband, placed the plate in front of him and topped off his coffee cup. "Thanks, Hon," James Possible said, not looking up from his paper. It was obvious that he was so engrossed with whatever was in the newspaper that he wasn't listening in on the private conversation between the two Possible women.

Anne walked back over to her daughter, cracked a few more eggs into the pan then leaned in and whispered, "It's generally considered that the best marriages start out as a strong friendship first so there shouldn't be a problem with them dating.

"You might also be worried that dating could lead to disaster if their courtship fell through. That might happen, but it's more likely that they would go back to being just friends. In general, teenagers are more resilient in their relationships so they would just chalk it up as a learning experience. But to prove my point, your father and I were best friends long before we considered dating each other. We had a bit of a falling out after we started dating but we worked out our differences and eventually got married. Plus we both had friends that had dated other people but went back to being friends when they found someone else romantically interesting. Does that answer your question?"

"Yes it does," Kim almost sighed in relief before she anxiously stiffened again. The relief came from knowing that if she did try to take her and Ron's relationship to a new level, that it more than likely wouldn't spoil their friendship. Kim tensed up because she remembered that she might not get a chance to pursue a relationship with Ron because Bonnie was trying to date the blond boy herself.

Kim was brought out of her musings when her mother gently pushed her toward the refrigerator and said, "Go get some orange juice, Kimmie. Your breakfast will be ready in a minute."

With a sigh of relief from her mother's wisdom, Kim went about getting her morning glass of vitamin C and a slice of toast from the toaster and started to plan out how she would approach her brown-eyed friend to make him something more than just-a-friend. Maybe her friend Monique might have some insights into that puzzle.

Xxxxxx

Bonnie Rockwaller, dressed in her combat boots, a pair of black, flare-legged slacks and a long-sleeved, tapered man's dress shirt, also jet black, sat at the kitchen table with a slice of toast with only butter on it, a small bowl of cinnamon and apple oatmeal (with a sliced banana on top) and a glass of orange juice. That was what she normally ate for breakfast. She just loved a solid breakfast for the energy she would need throughout the morning.

Bonnie smiled a sly little smile at the knowledge she'd gained about Ron Stoppable last night. One quarter of their two hour long study session had been spent actually studying, which was okay in and of itself. But the other three quarters of the time had been amiably spent in idle chit chat getting to know each other better. Bonnie found out that time truly flies when you're just sitting around, shooting the breeze with Ron Stoppable.

She'd found out that the blond boy was extremely cute in a goofy sort of way and that he had acquired quite a few phobias in his short but extremely eventful life. Those fears, like with small bugs, squirrels, monkeys and of all things, garden gnomes, mostly stemmed from his when he was five or six old and his summer spent at Camp Wannaweep. But Ron had gotten over his monkey phobia when he traveled to the space station with Fredrick, the monkey astronaut. (And Ron still kept in contact with the monkey through the internet. What was it with Ron and non-conventional pets? A smart monkey astronaut and a talking rodent? Was he a magnet for such bizarre things? ) She discovered that Ron still had some major qualms about small insects and any rodents other than those of the naked mole rat variety but he was trying to work through those fears, mainly by avoidance or running away.

She'd also discovered, through her covert groping and personal contact sitting next to Ron, that he was shaping up quite nicely in the physique department. His muscles were starting to firm up nicely and, from the few brief encounters when her hand had "accidentally" wandered onto his lap, Bonnie knew he was packing something down there that she wouldn't mind getting to know a lot better in the days, weeks, months or years to come. (Damn her raging teenage hormones! Bonnie really wanted to get laid, and soon!)

Bonnie and Ron had also discussed some solutions for her ongoing battle with her older sisters, Connie and Lonnie, and he'd come up with a brilliant idea with how Bonnie should handle the sitch. He suggested that she should completely ignore her sisters and not react at all to their barbs and innuendos. The suggestion was so far out there that Bonnie had vowed to try it.

Of course, that was when Bonnie had realized something. They say that some people think outside the box. Well, Ron's general thought process wasn't just outside the box, his thinking was outside the warehouse that the box was stored in.

Bonnie heard Connie and Lonnie chatting and laughing before they entered the kitchen so she was able to steel her resolve, stare straight ahead at nothing on the wall like she was lost in thought and casually nibble at her toast.

"Bonnie," Connie nastily started as soon as she stepped into the room, "you know the Goth look is soooo fifteen years ago that it isn't really an option anymore." Bonnie ignored the barb, absently stared at the far wall and took another small bite of her toast. "That is unless you're trying to imitate Johnny Cash which would be, like, stupid because Country Music is just lame and the guy is, like, dead anyway."*

"And you don't even have the look right to begin with," Lonnie snidely added.

Bonnie just chewed her food and continued to blankly look at nothing, which immediately got on the older girl's nerves.

"Are you listening?" Lonnie almost shouted in the teal-eyed girl's ear. She waved a hand in front of Bonnie's face and got no reaction at all. "You can't ignore us!" the brown-haired beauty screamed and poked Bonnie in the shoulder.

The Goth girl slowly turned her head and looked up at her two sisters, like she had just noticed them, and smiled a huge, obviously fake, insincere smile. "Hi Connie, hi Lonnie," Bonnie cheerfully chirped. "I hope you have a nice day." Looking directly at them, she took a way too slow bite of her toast then turned away and started staring at the wall again as she nonchalantly took a sip of her juice.

"I said... the Goth look is so out of date that it can't even be considered RETRO!" Connie yelled, practically bursting a blood vessel from the frustration raging through her body. There was still no reaction, not even a twitch of an eyebrow, from Bonnie as she finished her piece of toast.

Totally put out from the snub and with a growling "What... ever!" the two older sisters stomped out the back door to head off to their apartment near Middleton College.

Bonnie let a small smug smile grace her lips from the initial victory as she picked up her bowl of oatmeal and hungrily dug in.

Xxxxxx

Ron sat at the kitchen table and morosely took a bite of his toast. His gloomy disposition was due to the study session last night with Bonnie. While the evening had been pleasant over all and he'd learned and retained a lot more about the geometry lesson than he had before by just doing the homework, the after-study part of the evening had brought up more questions than one of Mr. B's pop quizzes.

Ron wasn't totally clueless when it came to girls. The morning sunrise always brought clarity to events of the previous day, so in hindsight he was now fairly sure Bonnie had the hots for him. In retrospect, that was really fairly obvious from her overboard osculatory reward in the gym yesterday and the way Bonnie had hung all over him last night while they were studying. Ron had also noticed that she had 'accidentally' copped a feel or ten, so he was fairly certain that Bonnie wanted to be a little more than just friends. She had been too friendly, too touchy-feely yesterday; unlike her Queen Bonnie persona who'd normally demand an imaginary two foot perimeter between her and the average, middle-of-the-pyramid subjects. (The standard had been at least five feet for losers at the bottom of the Food Chain like himself.)

Ah, but there's the rub. (Pun unintended with a quick shout-out to Willy Shakespeare. Why Ron remembered that particular line from the Bard of Avon, he couldn't quite fathom.)

Sure, Bonnie probably liked him/liked him right now but Ron had the hots for a certain redheaded, green-eyed, world-saving girl. Ron had felt something more for Kim than mere friendship long before the moodulator incident last semester. Heck, she'd brought the warm-fuzzys to deep in his heart the first day he met her way back in Pre-K. (It was that or the Ghost of Future Heartbearn he should be suffering from, from all the BN he'd eaten over the years.) Kim was the one person, (i.e. human since he wasn't counting Rufus in on the tally) who'd stuck by him throughout his entire life with unbidden devotion and he returned the sentiment with equal gusto. They were kindred spirits.

Ron's two main concerns though, among the many, many concerns he had about the sitch, was whether Kim would return his feelings and if they did go further than what they had now, would it ruin their current friendship if their dating fell through. Those were the two main reasons why he had never broach the subject with Kim.

Ron pushed the remaining half piece of toast into his mouth and finished off the bit of omelet on his plate before washing it down with the rest of the milk in his glass. With breakfast finished, he put the dishes in the dishwasher, grabbed his backpack and headed off to school.

Ron almost didn't stop at Kim's house, thinking that if he did she would notice the mild funk he was in and pry into the sitch, they were that much in tune with each other. If that happened, then he'd have to talk to her about everything: the moves Bonnie made on him twice yesterday and the conflicting thoughts running through his brain of he and Kim becoming a couple.

Of course if he didn't walk to school with Kim she would corner him at their lockers and the discussion would happen there in the hallway, in front of everyone!

Knowing that this particular conversation should be held in private, and it would be a major conversation considering feeling would be involved, he screwed on his best game face and entered the Possible home.

"Hola Possible clan," Ron almost yelled with as much of his usual enthusiasm as he could muster as he walked into the kitchen. It must not have been enough because both Kim and her mother immediately saw through his facade and turned to him with concerned faces.

Anne was the first to put voice to her concern. "Good morning Ron. Is everything okay?"

"Yeah, everything's just peachy, Mrs. Dr. P," Ron nervously answered with less bluster than normal as he anxiously rubbed the back of his neck. "I mean I got the usual problems with school and such but they'll eventually work themselves out. They usually do."

"Are you sure, Ron?" Kim queried as she got up and gave him a brief hug. She knew that this would be the perfect opportunity to take that first step and provide a hint that she wanted to further their relationship, and a hug was just the ticket.

Ron knew something was off. He and Kim had hugged a few times before, like when he'd returned from Camp Wannaweep and Japan or when he and the family had returned from their vacation to France, but those hugs happened after they hadn't seen each other for a whole week or more. Kim usually wasn't one to show such outward emotions without just cause so this hug was definitely something completely different. He didn't understand just what made it different, but he was sure it was.

"I'm fine, KP," Ron reassured his friend while briefly returning the hug and then swiftly broke the embrace while swiftly stepping away from her. "I just gotta think through a few things and everything will be okay." Denial is a river that's running right through the middle of the Possible kitchen.

"If you say so," Kim said as she picked up her dirty dishes and took them over to the dishwasher. She didn't want to push the issue, but... "If I can be of any help you know you only need to ask. You know we can talk about anything."

"While you're thinking," Dr. Anne Possible said as she held up two eggs in one hand for the blond boy to see, "would you like a little breakfast? It's the most important meal of the day. Medical research say a good breakfast helps kick start the brain to function more efficiently."

"As bondiggity as your cooking is, Dr. P," Ron said with an honest but slightly sullen smile, "KP and I need to get going. We don't want to be late today."

The newspaper swiftly lowered to the kitchen table as Mr. Dr. Possible asked with a hint of both amusement and sarcasm, "Ronald, foregoing breakfast and wanting to get to school on time?" He turned to his wife with an evil smirk. "Anne, get the calendar out. This is a red letter day!"

"That's a good one, Dr. P," Ron nervously chuckled and pointed at the rocket scientist. "You got me good with that one."

He and Kim started to leave the kitchen but James just wouldn't let it lay. "So tell us Ronald. Why are you so set on getting to school ahead of schedule for a change?"

"Beeecaaaauuse..." Ron drew the word out to quickly think up an excuse as he nervously rubbed his nose with a finger and looked away while answering, "...KP and I got this thing... where we're gonna meet these people... to do some stuff and... and we... Gotta Go!" He quickly dashed from the room and out the front door, dragging Kim behind him, barely giving the redhead time enough to grab her school bag and jacket along the way.

"That was odd," James said as he curiously cocked his head to one side, "even for Ronald."

"Oh, let it go, James," Anne said with an all-knowing smile after having put two and two together. Kim's earlier conversation and Ron's nervousness more than likely added up to those to starting to date. It was something she'd hoped for for many years. Ron and her daughter were such fast friends and complimented each other so well that Anne thought it was inevitable. "I have a feeling that Ron is just having a fit of nerves over a girl at school and he only wants some time alone with her before classes start."

"Ronald? Dating?" James laughed at the idea as he snapped the paper open to finish off the article he'd been reading. "Well, I suppose it was bound to happen sooner or later. After all, he's seventeen now."

"And so is Kimmie," Dr. Anne Possible quietly reminded herself. Her smile amping up a bit as she started to hum the traditional wedding march while cleaning up the stove top.

Xxxxxx

Two inches of snow had fallen overnight but that didn't deter our two intrepid teens. After all, it was common for Middleton to get a lot of snow during January; it being the month with the heaviest precipitation in Colorado. That also meant that the school bus drivers were used to driving in the white, fluffy stuff and that school wouldn't be canceled unless the Tri-City area had been hit by a blizzard or if a thick sheet of ice had formed on the roadways over night and couldn't be cleared by the highly efficient Middleton street maintenance crews.

As a matter of fact, both Kim and Ron had both been woken earlier than their alarm clocks when the road crews had passed by to plow the streets and people around the neighborhood started up their snow blowers or got out the shovels. That also meant that Ron had to shovel the sidewalk before making breakfast since his parents weren't home. At the Possible residence, the Tweebs had finally fixed their 'snow melting machine' shortly after last years mutant snowman debacle so they had cleared the walkways and then went around the neighborhood to see if they could make a few bucks clearing other people's walkways. (Rocket and miniature jet parts aren't cheep, you know.)

Anyway, the two teens were making their way to school and Kim was becoming curiouser and curiouser about Ron's nervousness that morning, so she asked. "Ron, not to make a big thing out of it but... why are we walking to school a few minutes early? I know we don't have people to meet or anything to do before classes start."

"Wellll, it's just..." Ron hemmed and hawed, unsure what to tell his friend. He knew he couldn't lie to Kim, she would see right through it.

Kim suddenly remembered the conversation she'd had with Bonnie at Bueno Nacho yesterday and the fact that Bonnie had unequivocally stated that she was going to make a move on Ron; the kissing in the gym being the opening salvo. "Does it have anything to do with Bonnie?"

'Rock and a hard place, rock and a hard place!' Ron's mind screamed. He definitely felt cornered. Ron obviously had to tell Kim something but the way Bonnie had come on to him twice yesterday had been more than a bit unnerving and he really didn't want to relive those memories. But then again, there were no secrets between him and his lifelong friend. (Well, there was Yamanouchi but that was more a withholding of info, not a lie.) But then again, again, he didn't want to lie. So...

Ron went with his strong suit: the ever reliable distraction.

Between the week he'd spent at Yamanouchi and the many martial arts classes he had attended with Kim when they were kids, coupled with his natural clumsiness, Ron knew how to take a fall. Faking one was easy. His foot slipped out from beneath him as he stepped off the cleared sidewalk next to a large snowbank (his target to fall into) and landed on his back with a resounding woof like the breath had been knocked from his lungs.

"Ron! Are you okay!" Kim screeched in horror as the blond laid unmoving the ground. She immediately bent over him and checked his head, neck and back for damage. Rufus popped up out of his pocket abode, rubbing his sore head and angrily chattering at the clumsy blond boy, shaking his fist.

"Sorry Rufus... I'm okay, KP," Ron chuckled as he extended a hand to let Kim help him up. "You know me and ice don't get along very well unless we're at Bueno Nacho and it's in my soda cup."

"You and your clumsiness," Kim lightly chuckled as she brushed the snow off his back, relieved that no harm had come from the fall. She linked arms with Ron and snuggled in closer as she said, "Come on. Let' me help you inside where there isn't any snow or ice for you to slip on."

Ron wondered about the way Kim was now hanging all over him. He had a sudden sense of déjà vu all over again. (Hey, another quote, this one from Yogi Bera. Ron definitely thought he was getting smarter.) Anyway, Bonnie had been hanging onto him last night in the exact same way so he blustered, "I can make it on my own, there's only one more block to school."

"There are other reasons why I'm holding on to you, Ron," Kim cooed in his ear, her cheeks tinged a little pink from her coming confession. "I've been thinking about, well, us, and well, I think we should start, um, dating. What do you think about that?"

"Welllll," Ron hesitated while mulling over the idea as they reached the doors to Middleton High. (Luckily they were early and the halls were virtually empty of any students so they could talk freely.) Hooking up with Kim was exactly what he had always wanted but Ron still wasn't sure if he wanted it to happen if he could eventually lose her as a friend. "I don't know, KP. I mean I like you-like you and all that but, wouldn't it put a strain on our friendship? I mean what if I did something stupid like forget your birthday or something?"

"Ron," Kim condescended with a light laugh, "you've remembered my birthday every year since Pre-K when you you first found out about it and gave me one single Bueno Nacho Bueno Buck as a present, which was your entire allowance for a whole month. I doubt you'd forget about it if we started dating."

"Okay, but..." Ron sheepishly admitted while rubbing the back of his neck as they walked to their lockers. The distraction had worked for a minute or two but their conversation was coming back around to the topic that he had wanted to avoid. Well, nobody was around to hear them and they say the truth will set you free, so, "...you asked if my quick exit from your house had anything to do with Bonnie... and it did. I think she wants to become my girlfriend, and maybe a whole lot more."

"What gives you that impression?" Kim innocently asked even though she though she already knew the answer, as she casually opened her locker.

"Well, it's just... I mean it's kinda..." Ron stammered, not wanting to tell about last night's events but the words just suddenly started to flow out of his mouth despite his brain trying to stop said words. He rambled in one, fast, almost run-on sentence, "... I think Bonnie's been hitting on me there was the kissing yesterday in the gym and then she came over to my house last night to study but she copped a feel or ten and was hanging all over me all night and..."

"Ron, take a breath," Kim harshly interrupted before she smiled at his anxiety over Bonnie's advances. "I know all about Bonnie's attempts to get closer to you. She told me yesterday that she wanted to be your girlfriend."

"She did?" Ron asked in total confusion as he and the redhead moved on to his locker after Kim retrieved her books for the morning classes and closed the door. Why Bonnie would tell Kim about her plans just didn't make any sense at all and now Kim was coming on to him too? Girls are just so confusing. 'But then again,' Ron thought. 'They say men are from Mars and women are from Venus... but I used to think I came from that crazy dog planet, Pluto... which isn't even considered a planet any more. Hey! I just remembered another school fact! A-BooYah!

"Yes, she did," Kim affirmed, then gave Ron a few seconds to dial his locker combination before she continued. (If she didn't pause and give him a few seconds to open his locker Ron would've become distracted and misdialed the combination. If that happened they would be standing there until the late bell rang.) "But I think you have another option in the girlfriend department."

"I do?" Ron queried and thought about it for a moment, totally forgetting the fact that Kim had just asked what he thought about them dating, as he retrieved his needed textbooks. He let out a laugh. "You must be joking, KP. You know all about me and my dating track record with the Femeninas. It's practically nonexistent."

"You went out with Zita a couple of times," Kim pointed out as Ron closed his locker door and they headed to their first class.

"I accidentally sat next to Zita in the movie theater on our first date," Ron jokingly ticked off with his fingers, "and on our next so-called date, we got trapped in Everlot. After we won the game and got out she didn't want to be any where near an Everlot Newb, so I don't think I can truly say I dated Zita."

"I guess you're right, Ron," Kim lightly laughed in concession as they entered the classroom for geometry and took their seats. The hallway was now suddenly brimming with students and she didn't want anyone to hear her coming on to her best friend out there. She wanted to do it in private. But other students were also entering the room. With a concealed sigh, Kim put aside her desires to confess her blossoming feelings to Ron.

"But I guess if Bon Bon wants a piece of The Ron," Ron suavely stated as he slicked back his hair which immediately fell back into disarray, "then maybe I should ask her out. It may just help her forget about the Food Chain and being popular. That'd be a good thing, right?"

Kim didn't get a chance to answer. A few students, Bonnie among them, scampered in to the room just as the bell rang and Mr. Barkin closed the door. He turned and strode to the front of the class. "Alright people, Listen UP! It's time for a pop-quiz!"

Most of the students groaned at the announcement. Ron actually smiled and turned to Bonnie who was sitting behind him and gave her a thumbs-up.

Xxxxxx

*The opinions stated about Country Music and Johnny Cash are strictly those of one Miss Constance Rockwaller. The author loves Country Music, and all music in general, and thinks Mr. Cash was one of the finest artists of all time.