The brunette girl had spent the better part of the weekend devising a plan to return the jacket she had borrowed. Her best hope was to catch Ron at his locker before school. Fewer people around and no Kim Possible if she was lucky. Checking around the corner, she saw that he was just now getting to his locker, and no one else was around.

Taking a deep breath to steady her nerves, she quickly walked over to hand him his jacket and thank him again. While he was putting the jacket into his locker, she silently slipped away, taking advantage of the door blocking his sight of her. She'd made it around the corner when the voice of her rival gripped her with fear.

"Was that Bonnie?" Kim asked in disbelief.

"Yeah. I walked her home the other night. She had some car trouble, and I was out that way. It was kinda cold, so I loaned her my jacket. Guess I forgot to get it back."

"You're a real gentleman, Mr. Stoppable. Let's go or we'll be late for class."

The young girl stood there for a moment, shocked. For the life of her, she couldn't understand why he would lie to protect her.

Bonnie spent the next few days thinking about why he was being as nice as he was. She had always insulted and belittled him. It was such a foreign concept to her that someone would do something nice without wanting something in return. He hadn't even changed how he treated her in front of others. Always with the goofy attitude, and he never even hinted about what really happened that night. It was driving her crazy. She was losing focus in classes and was messing up routines during practice. She could talk to Ron, but her pride prevented her from being seen in public with him.

She'd sat in her car a few times, watching him walk to his community service job; but she could never get up the nerve. She thought he hadn't noticed, but she found a note in her locker asking her to meet him at work if she wanted to talk. Though it was unsigned, she recognized the sloppy handwriting and cheese oil stains.

She'd driven over right after practice. Parking by the gate, Bonnie looked around from just past the entrance. Taking in the beauty of the woods set against a clear, blue sky and warm sun, she failed to notice the animal that had come up beside her. The brunette jumped, startled by the wet nose sniffing at her hand. Holding a hand to her racing heart, she smiled sweetly at the large black beast. "You wouldn't happen to know where Ron is, would you?"

Cocking its head curiously at her, it trotted down the path. "What did you expect, asking a dog," she muttered to herself. She was surprised when the animal stopped to look back at her. When she caught up, it continued on at a pace she could follow. Expecting to be taken to the lodge they were approaching, she was lead past it to the dojo instead. Standing at an open doorway, she was mesmerized by a young man in a black uniform with the shirt hanging open and a red sash as a blindfold. It took her a few minutes to realize that the man gracefully performing the flips and strikes of a staff form was the person she had needed to talk with.

This was a sight of the blonde Bonnie or many rarely saw. Normally, he wore baggy clothes and long sleeves. Now she could see the strength in the arms that had held her as she slept. Sweat was trickling down his developing chest to abs just beginning to show definition. She blushed with embarrassment as she shook herself out of the daze. He's still Ron Stoppable she tried to tell herself.

Ron completed the form and returned to a ready stance, breathing heavily with the exertion. "How's it going, Bon-Bon?" he called before removing his blindfold.

Bonnie stared at him with amazement. "How did you know I was here?" Remembering herself, she frowned. "And don't call me Bon-Bon."

"Ancient Chinese technique," he said gravely before grinning a little. "And I could smell your perfume." The blonde boy fixed his uniform, tying the sash around his waist as he walked over to join the young girl.

As Ron got near her, Bonnie was startled by a large, dark form flying by her shoulder. She saw the young man before her catch it and spin for a throw. Not sure how it had happened, but the attacker seemed to flip the blonde while in midair so both crashed to the ground in a writhing heap. They rolled around for a while before separating and attacking one another. Now she could see the form was the black animal from before. Even though Ron was holding his own against the wild animal, her blue-green eyes showed the fear she felt.

The animal charged in with snapping fangs and swiping paws, but the young man blocked and dodged while backing the beast back with strikes of his own. Something was nagging her, but it took a few minutes for her to place it. The growling was coming from Ron. The loser was just playing with the dog and ignoring her. Not sure what else to do, she sat against a wall to watch the action. She wasn't about to let a little distraction keep her from her goal.

Ron was now striking with a series of squatting sidekicks. The animal tried to pounce over one of the kicks, but the young man rolled backwards and snapped out with a sweeping heel kick. The creature rolled over as the kick connected with its left paw. Quickly rolling to its feet again, the beast took advantage of Ron's fatigue and jumped to sprawl across his chest. Both too tired to keep going just lie there panting.

"Are you boys done playing now?" Bonnie said, letting her disapproval drip from her voice.

"Aw, c'mon. I just got attacked by a vicious wolf," Ron joked.

"He's not a dog?" she asked, concerned.

"Naw. Shadow likes people, though. Hangs around here in case new people come by," the blonde explained, sitting up when the wolf got off him.

Shadow limped over to Bonnie, whimpering at her as he favored his right paw. Like many women, she opened her arms to the wolf to comfort and minister the injured animal. She looked up at Ron when he said something about the wrong foot and looked back at Shadow to see he was now favoring his left paw. She arched a brow and couldn't help but laugh at the mirth within the wolf's eyes right before he started licking her chin.

"Now, that's the Bonnie people want to see," Ron said, sitting near her against the wall.

"What is?" she asked, scratching behind Shadow's ears.

"A Bonnie that smiles with laughter instead of vindictiveness. Everything's about how you can look better than everyone else, but you'd look great by being yourself."

"People want someone that will do what needs to be done. Nice people get trampled," she replied, absently petting the wolf's head resting on her lap.

"Is that why you're talking to a buffoon and an animal about what happened instead of your friends?"

"I could if I wanted to," she said, indignantly.

"Except that most of them are social snobs just using you like you've been using them. And the ones that actually care about you would treat you like a porcelain doll ready to crack."

"Something like that."

"Well, the healing won't start until you get it all out there. It wasn't any of my business before, but what made you take a walk alone down a dark road."

She sighed. "Didn't have much choice. I was out with a college guy. He wanted me to put out. When I wouldn't, he kicked me out of the car and drove off. Maybe I should have. Then I wouldn't have gotten attacked."

"Don't think that," Ron said, disapprovingly. "What he did was wrong. He just wanted one thing and that was all you were worth to him. You don't deserve to be treated like that, and you shouldn't cheapen yourself for anyone like that."

"I don't get you. What do you get out of being nice to me?" she accused.

Shrugging, "I don't know. A friend, I guess. It's kind of like Kim and all the favors people owe her. You never know when you can use a friend."

"I still don't get it," she said defeated.

Ron chuckled. "Try to be nicer to others and more honest. You'll figure it out."

"You don't honestly think I'm going to start acting like Kim."

"You just need to be you. The real you. It's more about trusting others to accept you for you. If they can't handle it, that's their problem."

"I don't see how that's worked for you."

"I may not be popular, but I'm important to my friends. Kim, Monique, Felix. I can count on them when I need them. It gets me through the rough times to know they're there for me."

They sat in silence for a while, listening to the sounds of the forest. "What was that you were doing when I got here?" Bonnie asked, breaking the quiet.

"Staff form from Tai Shing Pek Kwar."

"And that is?"

"Monkey kung fu. I need to learn to fight better so I'm not a burden on Kim."

"Where did you learn it?"

"It's, uh, something I picked up a while back. Mr. Wolf, the guy that runs this place, has been helping me with my training."

"You looked, like, really good. What level are you?"

"Not sure. I know all the forms and techniques in the style. Supposedly, I'm a master at it."

"Good, then you can teach me."

"I, wha, huh? You want me to teach you?" he asked, confused.

"Yeah. I can't always depend on you to save the day. You'd say you've benefited from it, right? So, I could as well," she pleaded.

"I don't know that I'm the right person to teach you. Besides, monkey kung fu doesn't fit you. You should learn something that takes advantage of your abilities."

Bonnie glared at him. "Do you want to help me or not?"

"Why don't you ask Mr. Wolf. He's been showing me other stuff he knows."

"Fine. Where is he?"

"Probably walking up here." Calling out, "What do you say, Mr. Wolf?"

"Your friend would benefit more from you teaching her the basics of defense," the deep voice said, as the tall man stepped into the doorway. "You only lack two things, Mr. Stoppable. You need confidence in yourself and more experience. The former you can get from teaching your lady friend."

"Anything else?" she asked smugly.

"No, no. Just wondering what kind of monster I've created," he replied, hanging his head.

A/R&N

This one turned out longer than the others. Just a lot to set up for the heart to heart. I think the next chapter or so will focus on Ron and Kim. I hope to have it within the next week.

I appreciate all the reviews. Glad you guys think I'm doing a good job. I wrote chapters 2 through 4 during the three day wait period, but there'll probably be longer waits from now on. I know what scenes I want. Just gotta let the characters get me there. I won't tell you who's getting paired with him, but I can tell you Jonathon won't be getting anyone. Your wishes for pairings aren't falling on deaf ears, just hard of hearing. Jonathon is my alter ego, and I have too much integrity to make him any more integral to the story than I need him to be. Most likely, he's going to get less time since he's served his purpose of setting up the story. I've toned him down from the god-like entity I am in my own mind. As for my screen name being the same as the character, I didn't even think about it. Obviously the screen name is based on the character; it's just a different entity in my mind.