Rolling home...
"Actually…" Kim said, "That might not be such a bad idea." She paused, "The first night the exhibition is open is tonight…and so, well, we could all go, and make a double date of it."
"A museum?" Bonnie asked.
"It'll expand your mind." Kim replied. "And Ron's."
"That's not what I'm trying to expand…" Bonnie muttered under her breath.
"Sounds good." Ron said. "It's what… Four now, and we can eat and be there at six, when it opens…"
"You can." Bonnie said, "I think we girls would like to change…we've been wearing these clothes all day!" The boys sighed.
"Still, we have enough time…" Kim said, and suddenly grinned, "And don't you have a change of clothes over at Ron's, Bonnie?" Bonnie blinked, and rallied gamely. "Yes, because a few times I've had to go directly from watching Ron at a Martial arts contest to school."
"Un-huh." Kim said, as she spun her wheelchair around and started heading to the door. The others fell in beside her, and Ron grinned slightly at the way Josh made no move to help her. Old Josh owed him for that bit of information.
"Ron, Stop!" Kim shouted. Ron paused, looking confused.
"KP…what?" He looked down at her. The twelve year old was glaring up at him, her face red with anger. She'd just come back from the hospital a few weeks ago, and the effort of moving up the slope had her face sweating, as she breathed hard. Ron had seen her parents do this so…
"I have to take it from mom and dad, or they go all random on me…they think I'll fall apart."
"Take what?"
"Being treated like I'm helpless. I'm not." Kim said, showing him the half gloves she wore. "If I can't run, or jump, I have to do something to keep from turning all mushy, and why not exercise pushing the wheelchair around. It's exercise, and I can do it." Ron backed off, looking at the determination in Kim's eyes.
"KP…"
"Ron…" Kim said, with the same warning tone she'd used on him when he'd first tried to apologize. "It happened. I have to deal with it. It wasn't your fault…" She shrugged, "I just wish someone could have gotten the number on that truck." Ron nodded at that. It was so weird. He remembered seeing the car, so did other people…but not enough to identify it…it was… vague, like he knew what happened, but how it happened was impossible to get his mind around. The twelve year old shrugged.
"OK, KP… are you coming to my practice tonight?"
"Couldn't keep me away… I never knew you had it in you."
"Well, let's just say I got motivated…" Ron said lightly. Somehow, he was convinced that if he'd been just a little faster and better…this wouldn't have happened.
So he would get better…and faster. Just in case.
Kim still wore the same style of gloves, and honestly, she could push that old unpowered wheelchair faster than some people could run…and do it longer. Her parents were no longer worried about it, especially since Kim had used that as an excuse to decline her brothers offer to soup up her wheelchair…with some old JATO units from the space center…
As they walked out of the school, some of the kids were looking at a portable TV.
"What's the problem guys?" Ron asked.
"Some crazy dude name Drakken just held up the US Mint…"
"Wow…" Kim said, "Can't they ever stop him?" Drakken was turning up in the news more and more lately.
"Well, this time he kinda stopped himself…." Monique said, turning around next to her BF Brick Flagg. She giggled and pointed at the screen, where the mad scientist was being hauled up into a hover craft by an attractive woman.
"Curse you, density of gold!" he shouted, glaring down at a dump truck which had been loaded with all the gold in the mint…and promptly had every tire popped like a balloon, the suspension destroyed, and as the live feed continued, the very metal of the bed warped.
"Wow…he figured out how to get into the mint…and didn't think about how heavy gold was?" Kim asked in disbelief.
"well…" Ron commented, "Give the guy a break—he's a mad scientist, and he did get the graviotomic ray, he needed to put the gold in it to start with." He continued, watching the replay with the rapid fire commentary. "In fact, why didn't he just use the ray itself to haul the gold…"
"Okay, enough of that…" Bonnie said, pushing Ron away. "Let's get ready before Mr. Martial Artist decides to try his hand at villainy." Laughing the teens headed out into the afternoon sun.
Once close to home, Ron and Bonnie split off towards Ron's house, and Kim and Josh headed for her house.
"Hey Mom…" Kim said, as she came in the door, negotiating the wheelchair ramp with ease.
"Kimmie, Josh…how was school."
"Pretty good. We're heading out later tonight for the Middleton Museum…" Kim's mom smiled, but felt the need to remind her daughter.
"And you'll be back by…"
"Eleven, mom." Kim said. "I'm gonna change now…" Her mother nodded.
"Josh, can I get you something?"
"could I have a coke, please?" Josh asked, then looked around. "I don't hear anything…are the twins…"
"They're currently helping clean their school."
"Oh?"
"They designed a volcano for the science fair." Josh blinked, that sounded pretty normal for the twins…
"And they used some high energy power capacitors from the space center to make the lava real."
"Ah." Josh said, filling in the likely details himself.
In her room, Kim quickly changed. She was so used to the rails and the mechanics of changing when you couldn't move your legs that she barely even noticed. She'd had to give up her room for the tweebs, since it really didn't work for someone in a wheelchair. Her mom had suggested a lift, but Kim, even at 12, hadn't liked the idea of something that might decide to shut down if you lost power.
"What should I wear?" Kim asked herself. The belly bearing thing probably wouldn't fit in well at the museum…so the light brown shirt with the laceups would work nicely, and if she wanted to…accidentally give Josh a little thrill she could loosen the lace ups and bend forward slightly when he looked down at her. There were advantages to being in a sitting position all the time…
Dressed, she looked around her room. There were the trophies for last years cheeroff, her along with the other cheerleaders. Kim grinned, her plan and Bonnie's ruthless drilling. There were the pictures of her, her parents, a few of her standing, before the accident, and two of the paintings Josh had done of her.
Two of his best, he'd liked to say, but then there was the one that he hadn't given her to put up, which made sense. Dad and mom might wonder at how he'd come to be able to paint a Kim with a rather small towel draped demurely around her torso, smiling for the artist, and she wasn't' certain that assurances that nothing else had happened (nothing had) would calm parental fears…
"So Josh." Dr. Possible said, "How is the art project coming along?" Josh grinned.
"We've got all the best artists of the school, and Kim managed to convince the alumni to contribute their own work." He looked over to the closed door. "She's really outdone herself."
"That's my Kimmie." Her mother said, then looked at Josh, a slight tone of concern entering her voice. "But science club, year book, school magazine, and the cheerleading squad… Josh, is Kimmie over working?" Josh shook his head.
"I don't think so, Dr. Possi-"
"Andrea, Josh." The older woman said with a tolerant smile. Josh nodded, even though it wasn't easy. His family had some…old fashioned ideas about how youth spoke to adults.
"Andrea…she really enjoys it."
"I know." Andrea said. It was hard to not remember that Kim had, only four years ago, been heading for a high school cheerleading career. That energy hadn't vanished…it'd just been transmuted into something else. The months of physical therapy, the weeks of the hospital stay…
"Kimmie… it's time to go to bed." Her mother said. Kim looked over, with some difficulty. The twelve year old was still suspended in the nest of braces and wires, holding her still so that there was no danger of her fractured pelvis and spine suffering any more damage. Given the limits on the amounts of painkillers she could be administered, Kim didn't challenge her restraint, more than once. Still, occasionally she glared at her legs, covered by the blankets…and sometimes, when she thought her mother wasn't looking, her glare took on the look of almost desperate command, as if she was trying to will them to move, however slightly.
But if so, she failed.
"I'd just like to finish this chapter." Kim said.
"What book?" Her mother said and looked at it. The blinked.
"Basic principles of Chemistry." The title read, and the back page blurb pointed out that this was an ideal introductory manual for undergraduate and beginning college students." She looked over at her daughter.
"Kimmie…how much of this do you understand?"
"Not all of it, mom." Kim said. "But some of it." She grinned, "The nurses loaned me some of their own books."
"Oh?" Andrea said, sitting down besides her daughter. Sometimes people entertained fantasies that they could fix their injuries, which could be a prelude to some fairly serious psychological problems. "Are you going to fix…?"
"No mom…if you can't, I don't' think I can." Kim said, not seeing the pang of guilt on her mothers face, "But… I can't do cheerleading, and I'm going to be spending a lot of time getting better…so I figured, if I could, you know, get an early start on this stuff…"
"Oh." Her mother said, "Kimberly… I think you need to understand that you just can't pick up a book like this." She indicated the five hundred page hardback, "And start from scratch—it assumes you know far too much going into it." Her daughters face became rebellious, but Andrea held up her hand.
"But if you want, I can talk with some of my friends, and we can set up a more…structured reading schedule for you, so you can make certain you have a base to build on…do you want to do that?" She asked.
"And you'll help?"
"We all will, Kimmie."
"You rock, mom…" Kim said.
Andrea smiled at the memory. Kim was now, easily, functioning at the level of a college freshmen, and in fact after this year they'd have to discuss letting her take some courses at Middleton U, since her teachers at high school had mentioned that she'd outpaced their facilities. Some had suggested they should send her directly to college, but she and James had refused. High School wasn't just for learning, but socializing, and Kim deserved to be among friends her own age—and not separated from Ron, who was proud of his talent for always falling in the "B" range at school. She wrenched her mind back to the present, to listen to Josh.
"Anyway." He said. "Kim seems to do better the more she's doing…" He laughed, "The only times she isn't in a good mood is when she can't find something to do." Andrea started to say something, but then Kim had opened the door and came wheeling her way back into the room.
"So." Kim asked, "My ears are burning…are you talking about me?"
"Of course Kimmie." Her mother said, "But if they're really burning, then maybe your father should reset the water sprinklers again…."
"Mom!"
TBC.