"So, Kim, I heard you bought a dress for the prom." Kim rolled her eyes as Rufus popped his head out of his bag and glared at the newcomer.
"Yeah, Bonnie, so what?" Bonnie flipped her hair back and sniffed.
"Just don't think you can get Josh back. After the way you've been acting lately, I'm surprised they're even going to let you IN to the dance." She flounced away before Kim could respond. She slammed her locker shut, fuming.
"Blah blah blah." She mimicked sarcastically.
"Blah blah blah." Rufus repeated. Kim glanced down and smiled at him.
"You said it, Rufus! I mean, REALLY! She is SO full of it. Like I would WANT Jo-umph!" She stepped back and blushed, having run right into Josh. When she had seen Josh asking Bonnie to prom, the lack of anguish had made he realize that her feelings for him had disappeared long before this apparent betrayal, so it hadn't hurt as much as it could have. Not as much as, say, losing Ron... she shook the thought out of her head. Still, even though she didn't LIKE him like that anymore, his defection had bruised her ego.
"Hey Kim."
"Josh." He looked around, uncomfortable. Josh wasn't a bad guy, really...he just hadn't known what to do when Kim withdrew from the world.
"Listen, about the prom..."
"Hey, I really need to..." they both started speaking at once, and Kim felt herself blush. She mentally berated herself, for even if she didn't have FEELINGS for Josh, it was hard not to feel self-conscious in his presence.
"You go first!" she said quickly. He shrugged.
"Ok. Um...I just wanted to make sure there were no hard feelings? I mean, you were kinda not here, and..." she waved aside his apology.
"No big. Really. I wasn't up to it and you couldn't have been expected to wait and see if I would still want to go."
"But I heard..." this time he was the one to blush, and Kim barely restrained a giggle. Josh Mankey...nervous!?
"That I got a dress and was still going?" Kim smiled. "Yeah, but I'm kinda going alone...I mean, I always used to go with...I mean...you know..." Josh smiled in relief.
"I get it, like a memorial. That's real...poetic, ya know?" She nodded and they separated as the bell rang. She headed towards her last class of the day, English, dreading the return of the papers they had handed in two days before.
"OK people, listen up!" Mr. Barkin shouted out commands to the students as if he were still in the army. "I have your essays and I have to say I was greatly disappointed in most of them!" The class groaned. Mr. Barkin was subbing for the regular teacher who had left to have a baby, and his techniques left a LOT to be desired. He began passing the papers back, barking out names, and occasionally commenting on aspects of the various papers that he found to be the most unsatisfactory.
"Possible." Kim peeked up at him, knowing her paper had been horrible... it hadn't even been finished! "Nice touch, see my comments." Confused, Kim took her paper from him and stared rather dumbly at the big red A scrawled across the top. The bell rang and the class stampeded to the exit. Kim followed slowly, reading through her paper, and trying to figure out when and where it had been written...not to mention by whom?
"Hey Kim..." Kim glanced up. She had reached her locker and opened it without realizing it.
"Hey Wade. Do you know anything about this?" she held up the paper.
"Johnathan Swift...yeah, he was the satirist who wrote about the Irish eating their young as a way to..." Kim cut him off, frustrated.
"No! I mean, yes, that's what the essay was about, but that wasn't my question. I could have SWORN I only wrote a page and a half...I didn't even finish the main idea of my paper before falling alseep. It shouldn't have gotten me any more than a D, and that would have been pushing it. Yet here I have a five page essay with an A and Mr. Barkin's complements! What do you make of that?" Wade studied Kim's face for a moment.
"You know, I thought maybe you were handling this on your own, or keeping silent as some kind of protest, but now I think not."
"What...?"
"Kim, you never got my message the other night, did you?!" Wade accused. Kim frowned, trying to remember.
"What message?"
"I called to tell you about some strange reports going on in Middleton. When you never called back I figured you didn't want to talk about it."
"What reports? What are you talking about? You know I said I wasn't..."
"Yeah, I know...no more missions. But...
"No buts! I always said I wouldn't so the save the world thing without Ron! I don't even know if I COULD...I mean, remember when GJ tried to tell me my success was due to a 'Ron Factor?!' I mean, that's a little far fetched, but still..."
"Kim! I'm not trying to convince you otherwise...it's just that, well, this is truly creepy. It's like something out of a movie."
"Ok, Wade, you lost me."
"Take a look at this security footage." He pressed a button to bring up a film of the inside of the local Smarty Mart. At first nothing was happening, but then, after a few frames, the shelves began to shake and rattle, as if being affected by an earthquake. The time on the security footage read 10:37 PM
"O-Kay..." Kim drawled out, not sure what to make of it.
"Yeah, and it gets weirder." Wade switched the screen to an image of Bueno Nacho where the same thing was happening, yet this time the hour read 11:28 AM.
"So...someone's clock is wrong?" Kim asked.
"No. These were two DIFFERENT quakes! And the weirdest part is, no other buildings were affected. The tremors didn't extend beyond the grounds owned by each company" Kim thought for a minute.
"So what are you suggesting? That Middleton's got some kind of weird...I don't even know WHAT?!"
"I don't know. I've been running tectonic scans and geological experiments, but so far I haven't come up with anything." Kim frowned, then shrugged.
"There's not much we can do about it now, then, is there?" Wade looked like he wanted to continue, but he refrained. Kim glanced down in thought and saw that she was still holding her paper. She lifted it and flipped through it, wondering vaguely how it had gotten written. AS she came to the last page where Mr. Barkin had written his comments. As she read them, the frowned, confused.
"Wade? Do you know how my paper got written?" he shook his head. "Do you think it could have anything to do with the quakes?" Again he shrugged.
"I don't know. But all this...SOMETHING's going on." Kim glanced down at her paper. She remembered her dream with the faceless helper and shivered. She thought some more and then looked at Wade.
"Wade, I...I think..." she held the paper up for him to see.
"Possible, your paper is overflowing with grammatical and historical errors. But the theory you put forth reminds me of young Stoppable's writing style. In memory of your friend I have given you a higher score than is deserved. Don't let it happen again." Wade read off the paper. He met Kim's eyes, which were wide in her pale face.
"Wade, do you believe in ghosts?"
"Got you!"
"No way! I TOTALLY got you first!"
"Did not!"
"Did too!" the twins' squabbling could be heard from the kitchen as Kim and Rufus sat at the table having a video conference with Wade. Kim sighed.
"Hold on a sec, Wade, I gotta go kill the tweebs." She dashed into the living room, where Tim and Jim sat on the floor playing some kind of video game. Was that...Superman? Beating up Batman? Kim shook her head to clear it. She just couldn't relate to the ideas video game producers come up with.
"Take that!"
"Oh no you don't! Laser vision!!" Kim stepped in from of the TV.
"Hey!" the twins cried out in unison.
"Hey nothing!" Kim retorted. "You two are making WAY too much noise in here. Can't you go play in your own room?" The two boys exchanged looks, then grinned.
"Hicka-Bicka-Boo?"
"Hoo-Shaw!" They ran up the stairs and Kim turned off the television.
"That's better," she sighed as quiet descended into the house. She made her way back to the kitchen, where Rufus and Wade had begun an online game to pass the time.
"Ah-hah!" Rufus cheered as he beat Wade at the virtual contest.
"Don't you two start." Kim complained, sliding into her chair and taking the Kimmunicator from Rufus. The picture quickly switched to Wade's face.
"Sorry, Kim. So...what now?" Kim sighed and looked out the window. The town seemed so peaceful; she just couldn't reconcile the idea of a ghost...ESPECIALLY Ron's ghost...haunting Middleton.
"Why ask me? You're the genius...I don't really see how a ghost and earthquakes are related...actually, I really don't think it was a ghost." After her initial shock, Kim had tried to be more realistic.
"Well how else would you explain your paper?"" Kim shrugged.
"Well I don't know! I..." Wade cut her off.
"Well, did you notice anything unusual at all before, during, or after it happened?"
"Well since I don't know WHEN it happened I can't...wait. I was typing it and fell asleep. I only had time to print it when I woke up, so it must have been while I was asleep. I had the WIERDEST dream, by the way."
"Really? What was it about?" Kim gave Wade a funny look, confused.
"Wade, what does it matter? It was just a..."
"But it could have been more!" he interrupted. "A lot of paranormal activity is related to the brain and psyche. Maybe there's a clue in your dream!" Kim raised an eyebrow, not sure she was buying his theory, but decided it couldn't hurt.
"Well, it started out..." she told him of Ron's falling, of the monkeys and Bonnie, and how they changed into formal clothes, the leprechauns, and finally the mysterious visitor.
"Hmmm. Well a lot of that can be explained from recent events. Ron's death, obviously. The monkeys, well that could be left over psychic images from Monkey Fist back before the whole phoenix thing...or it could refer to your friend Josh, you know, how Ron always called him a monkey. And he IS going to prom with Bonnie, which would explain her and the formal clothes. I don't know what was with the leprechauns, but when they tried to eat their kids that was obviously from your essay project. I guess the only mystery there is the ninja. You don't know who he was?" Kim shook her head, amused at Wade's insistence on picking apart every little detail.
"Wade, it was just a dream. Like you said, everything can be explained."
"But..."
"No, we just need to find another avenue to search." Kim purposefully pushed aside the memory of how she felt she was being watched after she left her house the morning after her strange dream. She didn't believe in ghosts and she didn't believe dreams had any hidden meanings.
"Ok, but I still think there's a link...somewhere." An alarm started beeping off screen and Wade turned away for a moment. "Kim! We may have a chance to find out what's going on! Weird things are happening down at the school right now!" Kim remembered that the decorations for prom were being put up that night.
"I'm on it!" She jumped out of her chair and ran out the door, only to return seconds later to retrieve an annoyed Rufus from the table.
"Sorry, Rufus. I'm still not used to taking you everywhere!" she apologized.
"S'ok" he mumbled as he grabbed onto her hair to keep from falling off her shoulder as she once again ran out the door. They reached the school in record time and Kim pulled out the Kimmunicator.
"Ok, Wade, where's the trouble?"
"All over the place!"
"Huh?" Kim opened the door, then quickly fell back and shut it again. "Whoa. Talk about crazy!" She peered through the small window on the door to try to get a better look. Inside, the lockers were opening and shutting, seemingly on their own. Papers were flying every which way, and the lights flickered on and off. Kim tried a different entrance, near the gym, and had to stifle a laugh at the scene inside.
"Get me down!" Bonnie, who had insisted on being head of the decorating committee, was hanging on for dear life to one of the rafters. She noticed Kim peeking in the door and yelled even louder. "Kim! This is all YOUR fault!" Kim ignored her and checked out the rest of the room. Most of the decorations were intact...the theme this year was a tropical paradise. Fake palm trees glittering with white Christmas lights were piled in one corner, while wall hangings of sunsets and ocean views littered the ground. The only destruction she could see was where a large paper maché monkey had been torn off of one of the palm trees and ripped to shreds. All that was left was half its head, rolling back and forth in place.
"O-Kay." Kim looked down at Rufus, who shrugged. Some of the other students were setting up a ladder for Bonnie, and Kim decided now would be the best time to make her exit. She hurried into the main part of the school, noticing that the chaos had subsided. She heard the familiar jingle and switched on her Kimmunicator.
"Kim, what's happening there?" Kim shrugged.
"I can't really say. It's all over, now. But..." she hesitated.
"What?"
"Well, Bonnie got stuck on the ceiling and a fake monkey was destroyed." Wade gave her a knowing look as she avoided meeting his eyes.
"What? That's weird...I'm telling you, Kim, there's no question... there HAS to be a connection to Ron. Maybe it IS Ron's ghost. Why else would everything happen at places he liked or to things he hated? The monkey, Bonnie, Bueno Nacho...."
"Wade, I don't think..." she was cut off as the ground beneath her began to tremble and heave. "Hold that thought!" Kim tried to steady herself, but ended up falling as the ground continued to shake. As the concussions receded Kim looked about the hall.
Middleton High looked like a war zone. Everywhere in the hall debris were scattered about... chunks of the ceiling had caved in, bits of dry wall and numerous papers had fallen from the walls, and locker doors hung crookedly on their hinges. Kim pushed herself from the floor where she had fallen during the earthquake. She glanced around, making a cursory check that there was no one nearby who was hurt, then picked up the Kimmunicator.
"Talk to me, Wade." Wade, for his part, was typing furiously away at his keyboard, glancing between three different monitors as he worked.
"Uh...." He grabbed up a printout and scanned it quickly. Kim looked up at the sound of feet, only to relax as a few of the decorating committee ran past on their way out of the building.
"Well?"
"Hold on!" Wade made a few adjustments and then looked up. "um, Kim... I'm afraid I have some bad news."
To be continued...