Chapter 8: getting to know you…starts singing
Slowly, Kim opened her eyes. She was laying face up on a soft fluffy bed, staring at a ceiling lit by the sunlight streaming in from the window. She squinted, trying to get used to the light. After her vision cleared, she sat up, looking around the room, and remembered she was at Jason's house. The door was closed, and she was in her pajamas. There was a towel laying on the floor by her bed. Suddenly, all the memories of the previous night came rushing back to her. The two dogs, Jason's apartment, spilling the soda, taking a bath, Jason coming in…they all came flooding back.
She got out of bed, her feet sinking into the thick warm carpet. She cast around for her bag, found it under her bed, and pulled it out. She searched around in it, looking for something particularly nice to wear for Jason. Kim knew now that she was definitely crushing on him, and she wanted things to go smoothly. Finally deciding on a long sleeve green shirt and brown cargos, she slipped into her clothes, walked into the bathroom and began her daily ritual of cleaning herself. Apply zit cream, wash face, brush teeth, brush hair. After 5 minutes, she went back into her room and put her toiletries away. She heard the sound of music drifting in from the living room, and she opened the door.
Sunlight streamed in from the windows beside the tv, and the stereo was playing a strange techno song she had never heard before. ("Too Far" from Beyond the Mind's Eye, by Jan Hammer.)
Jason was in the kitchen, wearing an apron and cooking something on the stove. He called, "Kim, its 8 o'clock. You want some breakfast?" He was by the stove, and appeared to be cooking something on it, but Kim couldn't see what it was.
"Sure, I'm starved," she replied, as Doc and Sabin dashed into the room and surrounded her, rubbing against her legs for attention. She obliged, petting them both for a few seconds, then walked into the kitchen.
"What are you making?" she asked, looking at him.
"Belgian waffles and pancakes," he said. "I don't mean to brag, but I can make some mean pancakes." He laughed, then flipped a few pancakes over. "You want to help?"
"Well, I can't really cook…" she said. "I nearly failed Home Ec."
"Its okay, there's really nothing to it," he moved next to her, and handed her the spatula. "I'll walk you through it. First, you take a ladle of batter, and drizzle it into the pan." Kim took up the ladle of batter from a large bowl, and slowly and gently allowed it to dribble onto the pan. "Make sure all the batter stays in relatively the same place," he said warningly. "we want one good-sized pancake, not a dozen smaller ones." Of course, Kim entirely failed to do this, and got batter everywhere.
"Okay, Kim," he said. "Do what the song says. Take it easy. Try to work in rhythm with the music. It may sound silly, but trust me, it works." He pulled out another spatula from the nearby drawer. "Here, I'll take care of the pancakes. Can you take those waffles out of the iron? CAREFULLY?"
Kim nodded and grabbed an oven mitt, and opened the waffle iron, letting the waffles slide out onto a plate. She placed them on the counter next to the iron. "Four waffles ready to eat." She said, happy she had actually done something right in the kitchen for once.
"Good," he said. "Now was that so difficult? Here, why don't you go wait at the table, I'm almost done." He flipped another two pancakes, then pulled off his apron and hung it on the handle of the refrigerator. Kim nodded, and sat down at the table. She put her elbows on the table and rested her head on the cups of her hands, staring at nothing in particular. A few minutes later, Jason came in, carrying a plate of pancakes and a plate of waffles.
"Can you watch these?" He asked. "I need to get some plates and stuff." He walked back into the kitchen, pulled out a pair of plates, forks and knives, and went back to the table.
"Okay, we ready to eat?" he asked. Kim jolted out of her reverie.
"Um, yeah I guess," she replied.
"No we're not," Jason said, giving her a strange look. "We need syrup. You should have caught that, Kim." He got up and went back into the kitchen, returning with a bottle of syrup. "Kim Possible," he said. "The girl who can do anything but cook. Are you feeling all right?"
"yeah," Kim replied. "just tired, that's all." Another song came on the stereo, once again one she had never heard before. ("Take Five" by Eric Singleton.) "You like to listen to music a lot, don't you?" she asked.
"Yeah, its part of my job," he said. "I'm an entrepreneur of music, buying, selling, and collecting for my boss. He doesn't have time to do such things, so he hired me to do it. I work when I want, and I buy and sell at a store downtown. Basically, he handed me a music store and said, 'run it how you want.' Its really nice."
"It sounds nice," Kim said. "is that how you were able to afford all this?"
"Actually, most of this was paid for by my parents. They left me a trust fund, and when they died, it came into my possession. I traveled the world for a while, and then decided to settle here and go to school."
"So you've been around the world before?" she said, taking a bite of a pancake.
"Oh yeah, I've seen most of it," he said, jabbing a bit of waffle on his fork. "It's a really big world out there."
"Tell me about it," she said.
Fifteen minutes and much small talk later, they finished breakfast.
As Jason was putting away dishes in the dishwasher, Kim asked, "So what are we going to do?"
"Oh, I don't know, today is one of those lazy days." He replied. "I was thinking of just lounging around the house, or going to the gym, or something." He thought for a moment, then brightened up. "I got it." He walked over to the couch, and pulled out a large box from underneath it. "This should be good."
Kim was puzzled. "What is it?" Jason opened the box. Inside was a black box and two mats with arrows on them.
"Dance Dance Revolution," he replied, grinning. He pulled out the black box and some cables, and hooked them up to the television. "the greatest workout in existence." He then connected the black box to the two mats through cables in the mats, and turned the tv and Playstation 2 on.
"Well, stand on a pad," he said, indicating the brightly colored blue-and-red mat.
"Um, okay," Kim said. "what do you do?"
"Okay, watch me," Jason said. A menu came up, and he stepped down on an X on the pad. He then continued stepping on various parts of the mat. Across the screen and audibly, a voice said "First Stage."
"You step on the arrows when they reach the highlighted point on the screen," Jason said. "Observe." A song began playing, and arrows scrolled their way up the screen. When they reached the highlighted area at the top of the screen, Jason stepped on the corresponding part of the mat. This is not to say it was easy. Jason's feet were moving in a blur, keeping time with the song. (The song being "There You'll be" from DDR extreme.)
Finally, the song was over. Without even sweating, Jason said, "that's how you do it. You think you can do it?"
Awed by the speed of his movements, Kim shook her head.
"Oh come on," he said. "You've trained with ninjas and martial artists from all over the world, I think you can handle a dancing game with a nerdy teenager." He smiled again.
Sighing, Kim resigned. "Okay, but I have to warn you, dancing has never been my strong suit."
"Fine, we'll try something easier," Jason said, scrolling through the song menu. "How about…this one." Jason stepped on the X again, and "Second stage" flashed across the screen. Another song began playing, but Kim recognized this one. ("Kids In America" by Kim Wilde, on DDR extreme.)