A/N: Hello everyone; it's me again. By my count, from the last chapter I got a PM, an author alert, a favorite author, 3 favorite stories, 4 story alerts, and a lucky 13 reviews. Wow! I don't think I've gotten such a response, ever, even back a few years ago. Thank you, again, seems inadequate.
Before I respond to the reviews, I'd like to thank y'all for all of y'all's kind words, thoughts, prayers, etc. It's nice to know I have friends on here. The funeral's today at 2. Both my older brothers have come in from Ohio and Florida, and are having breakfast in our kitchen as I write this. I think we're going to be all right, although of course it did hit us hard. I don't think it's really hit us yet; there have been a few moments when I almost lost it but it never seemed to be the right time. Didn't some female movie star write a bio titled "I'll Cry Tomorrow"? Yeah, kind of like that. In the meantime, I really want to keep writing. I don't see me stopping doing this, although in the internet, anything can happen. Ask my Brainy Saga fans.
Now...
SC, thanks for saying I've improved. I won't ask for specifics; you've been nice enough to cite examples before. Maybe writing will turn out to be my therapy; who knows. I'm even feeling inspired about my old works like I haven't been in years.
Mr. Average, that's kind of what I was going for, although I'm surprised no one caught the Ron-Go throwaway. Bonnie's tantrum? Coming up.
Joe, thank you. Good you're caught up now. We'll see about Ron Night. (still not official as of Season 3)
CB, I like to think they both show friendship in their own way. Kim does seem to be wired just a little more selfishly than Ron, or is it that he's wired more altruistically. Anyway, even if her reasons for doing the right thing weren't entirely pure, she did get him a date first. Josh? Maybe Ron'll have to have a talk with that boy. Maybe not; no spoilers, in accord with Cousin Larry's wishes.
Motorized-sasquatch, I try. I don't really know going in how it's going to look coming out. I know that I can preview and edit it - and in previous chapters I have had that opportunity - but I just don't know. I'll figure this thing out one of these days if I keep at it.
Comet Moon, yes, family does come first. Bonnie's fangs? Read on, kind of.
Sacred White Phoenix, thank you. Yeah, I saw a vacuum in the Ta-Ron department. I tried to imagine Ron, really tried being him in that sitch; it was easier when my micro recorder was working. It means a lot to know that I got it. I have seen a clueless streak in many people in many shows, including our favorite show. And I'm not the first author to depict Ron as being prone to bouts of gallantry and chivalry.
Thanks, Daxo. Ron is a bit fatalistic about that, as you'll see.
Shortbutginger, thank you too.
Kaiokken, thanks and as I said before, thanks for your concern.
King of Darkness, thank you. I'll try to keep you posted. Like now.
o
Kim Possible and all Kim Possible characters and concepts are created by and copyrighted Schooley-McCorkle and Walt Disney Television Animation, a unit of Walt Disney / Buena Vista Entertainment.
o
Chapter Four: Queen Bee Buzz
Lunch turned out to be a productive period on the part of both members of the newly-minted blond couple. Tara took it as an opportunity to get to know Ron better - even if much of what he said passed through the KP filter - and Ron took it as an opportunity to, well, while it would be severe to say that he pumped her for information about the newest hottie, he did ask her about Josh and his activities every time he saw an opening. She didn't mind that much. She knew that Ron was trying to hook Kim up like Kim had done him. And if her id saw an opportunity to eliminate her captain as a threat vis a vis her embryonic status with Ron, well, would she really be blamed so much?
o
As they walked the hall from lunch to the gym (don't ask me why someone scheduled practice right after lunch), they were talking about the upcoming dance, and having a wonderful time too.
"…but I'll do my best to make sure you have a good time, and I AM a bon-diggety dancer."
She was giggling, and not because she was a blonde cheerleader.
Ron continued, "I have shown off my moves on the dance floor before; you might remember."
"Those times you've come with Kim."
"Right, right. Well, this time you'll be able to study the BDD up close and personal."
She rolled her eyes good-naturedly. "How'd I EVER get so lucky?"
Without waiting for Ron to respond, Tara switched subjects.
"Ron, that was really sweet, what you did for me back there."
Would it be redundant to say that Ron was confused?
"What, something I did at lunch?"
"No, before, with Barkin. You took my punishment for me." She was not looking at him with an expression akin to hero-worship, but it didn't miss by much.
"Oh, it was no big. Barkin always gives me extra homework anyway; he would have come up with another excuse if this hadn't happened. Last year I kind of gave him a funny look, and he's had it in for me ever since. I've tried to tell Kim that but she doesn't believe me…"
Tara didn't take note of Ron's ramblings due to a bit of a guilty conscience.
"Ron?"
Ron stopped ranting. "Yes, Tara?"
"I-, I'm sorry that I called you a ditcher."
That brought him up short. "What? When was this?"
"Back at Camp Wan-"
In his haste to head off her saying the camp name, Ron came dangerously close to sudden impact with Tara's mouth before pulling back and settling his hands at his ears. His mouth moved almost as fast.
"The camp which will not be named, you mean? The place of evil?" His voice rose by about an octave in pitch and about 30 decibels in volume, despite some effort to control himself.
Ron's actions and his words combined to impress Tara with the golden-ness of silence. As he finished speaking her mouth closed; afterward she only responded in the form of a nodding head.
By then Ron had calmed down, dropping his hands. "Ah, it's no big, and I'm sorry about that. I really was scared, I mean, who wouldn't be? But I wasn't going to just try to save my own skin while leaving the rest of you to be turned into mutants. So Rufus and I came up with a plan, well, when I stopped running long enough to think."
Rufus was quick to echo Ron's version of events, and here Ron started a bout of long-winded reminiscing.
"Yep, arts and crafts always was my strength, which was why I went to the crafts cabin. Instinct, plus my escape tunnel led directly there. Once we got there, Rufus and I took stock of what we had to work with…"
A minute or two later, their location hadn't changed that much. The speaker had, however; Tara was finally talking again.
"…and so I kissed you."
Ron's face was showing every sign of searching for that particular memory; apparently, he found it. "You did, didn't you?"
Tara nodded, smiling. Ron was smiling too. The both of them froze momentarily, then hesitantly moved together, perhaps for a chance at a real--
RRRIIINNNGGG!!
The warning bell, yet another example of timing. On cue, Rufus hopped out of the pocket to see if Ron was getting to class on time. He saw that whatever his human was doing, it was not that. So he popped back into the pocket and took a circuitous route around his human known only to him, tickling Ron not a little in the process, and bringing him out of a close brush with a violation of the school PDA policy. As Tara watched, the naked mole rat made laps around Ron, emerged from his collar at the back of the neck, ran up the back of his head, over the top, and into the boy's face, in between his face and hers.
"Rufus!" Ron exclaimed.
"(hinc), Hi!" Rufus 'said', waving, before leaping down to the ground, turning a somersault in the process. Then, knowing he had their attention, he tapped his left wrist - where a human usually keeps a watch - and followed it up with an attempt (and a pretty good one) at the first line of the White Rabbit's "I'm Late" song from Alice In Wonderland, complete with pantomime of a pocket watch and cane.
Ron reached out and scooped up his pet, and said, "You're right, buddy." He turned to Tara and said, "We'd better get going if we don't want to be late for cheer practice."
By now Tara too had emerged out of the fog the two blonds had been in, and nodded, affirming, "Right, practice."
Ron re-placed Rufus in his usual nest, and the three of them headed down the hall toward the door to the gym.
o
Meanwhile at said door, the cheer squad captain was going through a bit of drama of her own. The boy she wanted to ask to the dance was on the other side of that door, and she was psyching herself up, again.
Big breath, then take the plunge. Here goes...
As she was about to step through the door, though, it was slammed shut.
SLAM!
Suddenly she was faced with the snarky sharky grin of her self-appointed nemesis (at school at least).
"Hi, Kim."
"Bonnie."
"You don't mind if I watch, do you?"
"Watch what?"
"You. Josh. It's so obvious that you're crushing on him."
"It is not!"
"Oh yeah. Gonna ask him to the dance?"
"Why?"
"I think it's great!"
"Really."
"Totally. I get to see you crash and burn."
"Maybe he'll say 'yes'."
"Maybe, but he has said 'no' to girls much higher on the food chain than you."
"Well--"
How this would have continued would have been interesting, but this time...
"You know, I've been wondering about that, Bonnie. Who is higher on this supposed 'food chain' than the head cheerleader?"
That was Ron's voice; Bonnie recognized it immediately. Apparently he was taking this moment to have KP's back, like he always said he did. Bonnie, taking being spoken to like that - by Ron Stoppable of all people! - as an affront to all that was right and decent in her worldview, whirled around to cut down the 'loser'… and lost her tongue when she saw her best friend forever standing next to him.
With no response from his and Kim's personal thorn, Ron continued. "I mean you'd think that the head cheerleader would be higher up this 'food chain' than the other cheerleaders, at any rate." Then he remembered his date, also one of the other cheerleaders, was right there; and turned to hastily add, "No offense, Tara."
She understood. "None taken, Ron."
By now Kim had taken notice of Ron being with Tara, and her face had acquired an insufferable smirk, insufferable if you're Bonnie Rockwaller, that is. Bonnie noticed said smirk on the face of her appointed-by-herself nemesis, and got her tongue back.
"What are YOU doing here, Stoppable?"
"I thought I'd walk Tara here from lunch; since we were both going to practice, we might as well have gone together."
Kim then shoved her oar in. "Bonnie, I know that you still don't like Ron being part of our routines, but the people have spoken. He is the Middleton Mad Dog. He's in!"
That reminded her of something. Looking over at Ron, she inquired, "Not suiting up today, Mad Dog?"
"Not with this class scheduled right after lunch; why do you think the other cheerleaders didn't wear their civvies?" Tara nodded agreement with Ron at that. "Besides, I'd better just watch the new cheers before I figure what I'm going to do in them; there is a LITTLE bit of planning that goes into being the Mad Dog."
But Bonnie wasn't finished.
"We're getting off the point; What I mean is..." Pointing at her best friend and then at Ron to stress her next point, Bonnie continued her questioning. "What are YOU doing with HIM?"
"Ron already told you, Bonnie. He walked me here from lunch."
"You were with him there, too." Bonnie remembered out loud, her crest starting to fall, as it were.
"Well, since we kind of asked each other to the dance, it seemed like the thing to do. You didn't miss me at the cheerleaders table, did you?"
Bonnie had no answer to this. Her jaw was trying to reach the floor - until, that is, her friend charitably reached over and closed it with an audible click.
Kim then decided to cut Bonnie's semi-public torture short, and now that she was the captain again she could do it. "Are we going to stand here talking all day, or are we going to practice?"
Bonnie flinched, then said, "In a minute, Kim."
o
Grabbing her BFF, Bonnie led her into the gym and under the bleachers where they could talk in relative privacy.
"Tara, what do you think you're doing?"
"Wh- what do you mean? I'm, standing here having a conversation with you, I guess?"
"That's not what I mean, and you know it! He's, he's a loser! He's the bottom of the food chain! Someone this far up can't date him, certainly not a cheerleader!"
"Kim's always going to these things with him - though not as dates - and she's the head cheerleader."
"Don't remind me, and that's different! They just don't care about the food chain; it's like what applies to everyone else doesn't apply to her and her friend, the big stuck-up snobbish--"
Look who's talking went through Tara's mind before she spoke up. "Bonnie, just because we're best friends doesn't mean you get to tell me who to date. I don't tell you who to date."
Only a few people - counted on one hand - were ever privileged to see the look that was currently in Bonnie's eyes, including the person currently with her. It was a look of pleading.
"Tara, we've talked about this. You KNOW how fragile the food chain is, how it must be maintained at all costs. The least little thing could tear it apart! And if that happens, those on top will suffer the most, and that means me!"
"HEY!"
It was Crystal, one of the other cheerleaders, who interrupted this tete-a-tete.
"Are you done yet? I have to follow you two for this routine, and trying to allow for two people who aren't there is really throwing me off!"
Tara answered, "Sorry, Crystal. We'll be right there."
"Sure, that's what you said to Kim, right?"
A frustrated Bonnie turned toward Crystal, pointed at Tara, and said - a little louder - than was necessary, "She said we'll be right there, okay? Now go… do something!"
Crystal retreated back to the gym floor in a huff.
Bonnie turned back to Tara. "See? Already the social structure is starting to crumble!"
"Oh, Bonnie. You're being paranoid. It hasn't even gotten out yet that Ron and I are going to the dance together."
"Tara, I wasn't the only one who saw you at lunch."
Tara blushed slightly.
Bonnie continued. "And it's not paranoia; Crys would NEVER have been in my face like that before!"
"You mean like she was at camp?"
"What?"
Tara grabbed Bonnie by the upper arms like the dark-haired cheerleader had done on the night in question, and repeated the outburst from said night: "FORGET the competition; how are we going to survive the NIGHT?! There's something out there!"
Bonnie remembered, and pulled Tara's hands down while saying, "I remember now. But she was scared then, we all were; this is completely different!"
Tara started to walk toward the floor, passing Bonnie as she said, "We can talk this out later; right now we're needed out there." Then she stopped and called back over her shoulder. "You know, Bonnie, you and I have always been best friends, and nothing will ever change that. I love you; you know that. You're like the sister I never had, only better."
Bonnie flinched, thinking of her own sisters.
"…but I have to tell you - and I've always shot straight with you when it's just been us - if the Food Chain died tomorrow, I wouldn't shed any tears. And the consequences probably won't be nearly as bad as you're making them out to be." She allowed that to settle in before continuing, physically and vocally. "Come on; you're leading this routine."
Chastened, Bonnie followed at first, then picking up speed, rushed past Tara so she'd emerge from under the bleachers in the lead, as befit her suddenly precarious social status. Tara let her; her BFF needed this, and she wasn't going to deny it to her.
o
When they hit the floor, they wasted no time in leading off the next cheer. Tara nodded at Ron after making eye contact with him, and he and Rufus manned the boom box. After the routine Ron noticed Tara making her way over to Jessica and Liz. She whispered something that he couldn't hear in between glancing over at him. Jessica and Liz glanced in his direction as well, and then they all giggled.
"They're, looking at me and, giggling. That's good, right, Rufus?"
"Mm, dunno."
"You're as clueless as I am, aren't you?!"
Rufus nods. "hinc, women." That was the last thing he 'said' before disappearing into Kim's backpack.
"You've got that right, buddy." Ron acknowledged, taking a deep breath as his eyes lidded. "Ah, sweet mystery of life. Who can figure them out. Well, at least they're not pointing at me and laughing."
Then he heard Kim calling for the doghouse pyramid. He again hit the right buttons, then settled in to watch. He had an interest in that routine. He knew there was a place in it for the Middleton Mad Dog to work his magic; it was just a matter of figuring out where. Hmm, Kim's on top of course, then Crystal and Tara and Hope, then Liz and Jessica and Marcella and--
Beep! Beep! BEE-Beep!
The obvious spot for the Mad Dog would be running through the middle of the bottom row, in between Marcella and Jessica. Hmm, that would put him underneath Tara--
Beep! Beep! BEE-Beep!
Gotta remember to maintain self-control, never easy to do around the cheer squad. Early ingrained mastery of self: one of the benefits of being BFF with the head cheerleader, who just happens to know 16 styles of kung fu. That position would put the mascot directly underneath Tara, who's directly underneath Kim; and all the attendant free shot temptations. Wouldn't want either the best friend or the date to think the Mad Dog is a bad dog--
Beep! Beep! BEE-Beep!
And with KP and Mankey right there not twenty feet from each other, would someone just ask someone to the dance already! He was starting to regret not bringing that bullhorn for the purpose of getting people's attention; then he could bring those two crazy kids together, maybe something like, 'Kim Possible, Josh Mankey, do either of you have a problem with going to the dance with the other?'
Beep! Beep! BEE-Beep!
And he had intended to bring that bullhorn too, but now that he had a date, what was the point? Besides, Tara was with him; it might have been a sitch to explain. Hm, one of the disadvantages of actually having a social life. Oh we--
Beep! Beep! BEE-Beep!
"OUCH!! Rufus, what are you--?"
What Rufus was doing was getting tired of waiting. The Kimmunicator was with him in Kim's backpack, and Wade's repeated pages were about to drive the mole rat batty. He'd been shoving it in Ron's face, for all the good it did. The pinch was the last resort before taking it to Kim himself. Still a bit tweaked with his buddy, Ron turned the Kimmunicator on as he stood, and there was the ten-year-old genius with his usual Big Slurp, and almost his usual cheery expression.
"Go, Wade."
"Ron, I need to speak with Kim."
Ron started to walk, slowly. "Headed in her direction even as we speak. Got a lead on Drakken?"
"Yep. Looks like you guys are headed to the Alps."
"His Alpine lair? Yeah, I guess it was about time we hit that one."
"Right. What was taking so long?"
"They're doing the pyramid; gotta take it easy, Wade. Don't want to surprise them, could cause a tumble."
"I mean what was taking so long to answer; I've been calling you for a solid minute at least!"
"I was, concentrating."
"On what, the pyramid?"
"Of course. The Middleton Mad Dog is now the showstopper of the squad. I've got to know my role, and for that, I've got to plan my role, which means studying the formations in action. This IS the Doghouse Pyramid, after all; there has to be a dog in the doghouse."
Wade only thought he wasn't fooled. "Still haven't gotten a date, huh?"
"That's where you're wrong, Wade. I have a date with the lovely Tara."
o
While Wade was occupied with a spit take that would have made Danny Thomas proud (ask your grandparents), Ron was slowly approaching the pyramid. This did not go unnoticed to the new co-captain, who was spotting for this formation. She was quick to intercept him.
"Now what are you doing, Loser?"
"I'm trying to get Kim's attention. A sitch has come up in the Alps, and KP and I have to jet-- Bonnie, watch out; you're getting too close!"
"Don't tell me what to do, Stoppable!" Bonnie had been a bit random all during practice - the main reason she was currently spotting - and she'd taken all that she could stand now. Royally tweaked as only the Queen Bee can be, she wasn't paying as much attention to where she was in relation to the Pyramid as she otherwise might have.
"Bonnie! Kim!" Ron called over in desperation to warn the others.
Kim heard him, for all the good it did. "Ron?"
In addition to everything else, that was just a little bit more than the pyramid could take. Ron saw it and knew what was coming; he also knew he was powerless to do anything but watch and scream, "KP!"
The pyramid teetered, then toppled, with the topmost member tearing through the banner Josh was in the act of hanging.
The others had a good view of what was happening on the floor, and knew who was responsible. "Bonnie!" all but Tara cried.
Being the nice guy he was, Ron tried to shift the blame as he took the most direct route to his BFF without stepping on anyone, "Whoops! Sorry, my bad."
Again minus Tara, the squad cried again, "Ron!"
But by now Ron had reached Kim, and was pulling her out of the top of what had been the pyramid. Kim was tweaked, but she wasn't sure at whom. "Ron?"
Ron thrust the Kimmunicator in her face. "Wade."
Kim managed to get a grip on the device and almost growled, "Wade?"
Wade had limited experience with Kim when she looked and sounded like that, and he preferred to keep it that way. Suitably cowed, he meekly squeaked out, "Kim? Um, bad timing?"
"Ferociously bad. What's the sitch?"
"What? Oh, oh yeah! Hot tip on the Nakasumi heist. Can you, um, cut practice?"
Kim looked back at the cheerleaders stacked like cordwood after a tornado, then over at a decidedly unhappy Josh holding the remains of the banner he'd worked so hard on, and decided she needed to get away from it all and kick some bad guy backside.
"I'd rather be anywhere but here."
o
A/N: And so ends chapter four. What's next? Well, unless Heinrich's Snow Cat can fly over travel water, they didn't take it for the whole trip, right? What happened in between here and there? Sounded like another hole to be filled. I hope to show y'all next time. And if you want to get in touch me, I'm Nftnat, online, on e-mail (AOL), and on AIM. Until then.