Our Place in the Food Chain: Part V
"Ug, I thought that class would go on forever." Kim said as they filed out of the seventh and final period of the day.
Ron was close behind, his books tucked under one arm. "Hey Kim, where're ya going?" he said as she turned left unexpectedly.
"Oh, right, forgot we've got lockers in Senior Hall now. My bad."
"No problema, señorita Pah-see-blay." He said, strutting out in front of her.
"What's into you." She laughed, her books clutched to her breast as they walked.
"Did you notice anything unusual about today, anything at all?"
"Well, you didn't fall asleep during assembly, and you didn't fall asleep in that snore-fest."
"Nah, that's not it. I'm gonna sleep like a baby tonight. Who haven't we seen except for lunch today? Why are we on our way to our lockers to put these books away instead of hauling the whole pile home for six straight hours of homework?"
"Ron, it's the first day and I did get a couple assignments."
"S'ha, and I bet you've already done them."
"S'ha. How else am I going to reward my spankin boyfriend for a successful first day of school?"
He wagged his eyebrows. "I like how you think, Kimberly. But you're still missing the point. We're both done with our homework before we leave because…" He opened his arms and his eyes wide, expecting Kim to get it finally."
She stopped dead in her tracks, her eyes going wide. "Oh my lord…we didn't have Barkin for…anything."
"Isn't it cool? If he'd been in there, he would have just hit the ground running and started teaching, not to mention handing me three or four extra assignments before I could get away. As it is, all these new teachers could do was pass out syllabuses."
"Syllabi." Kim corrected.
"Those too. This is so badical! After the meeting we can head straight home and I can give you a fresh dose of Ron-shi…"
Kim grabbed his arm and pulled him to a stop. "Meeting? What meeting? Cheer practice doesn't start until Wednesday."
"Uh, the steering committee for Spirit Week. The sign up sheet said the first meeting was today?"
"Um, Ron, I was sort of planning to steer clear of the steering committee this year."
He turned and looked at her like tentacles had suddenly sprung from her head, circling her slowly, looking her up and down. "Well, she looks like KP." He leaned in close. "Yeah, lavender, she smells like KP." Finally he gently poked her right above her belly button. "Feels like her too, but that may take extra study." He started poking her again, to have his finger lightly batted away.
"Ron, I was just taking your advice and slowing down a bit. You know, so we could have some more time together. School's going to gobble up enough as it is."
"Well, that's why I signed up this year. I'm going to do some of those activities with you. Don't have the foggiest notion what we're going to be doing, but at least we can do it together."
Kim just stood her ground, dumbfounded. "Ron, I'm telling you, I didn't sign up for…you signed me up, didn't you?"
"S'ha!"
"Ron, what have I told you about that? After the talent show…"
"Kim I just figured I was saving you some time, you're always on the dance committee. You don't want Bonnie taking over, do you?"
"I so don't care about Bonnie any more. She spiked herself good there last spring, I don't need to compete with her like that any more."
"Oh, I'll believe that when I see it."
They finally arrived at their lockers. Just as Barkin had said, they were side-by side, though they were much bigger than the underclassmen's lockers they had been using the last three years. They were longer, wider and deeper than the over-under design they were used to. A quick check of their assignment slips confirmed what they had expected. The special locks Wade designed for them had been transferred to the new lockers. In moments they had each one open.
"Wow, that would almost be comfortable if the D-hall bullies tried to stuff me in one of these." He said, nosing around in the voluminous empty space. He immediately dumped his books, as well as most of the contents of his backpack inside, shutting the door quickly, ready to leave it all behind for the next fifteen hours. As he closed the door, he noticed Kim staring in shock.
The big CRT monitor wasn't there. For the last three years her locker had been almost completely filled with Wade's computer setup. Now she actually had more open space than if she had a normal, empty locker all that time but that's not what was most shocking.
The printer and the keyboard were there. Both looked brand new, the latter being the 'split' design meant to make typing more comfortable. The printer was a slim-design laser type, built all of stainless steel.
Only there was no monitor and if there was a CPU, she certainly didn't see it. She almost had her Kimmunicator out when a flat-panel monitor dropped down from the top, Wade's face appearing on it. A tiny red multi-media pickup was mounted to the top of the screen, making it look like a large version of the hand-held.
"What'dya think?" He asked, slurping his ever-present soda.
"Spankin, Wade. For the first time since Middle School I've actually got a locker!"
"Not only that, but now it's got a dedicated T1 line as well as charging docks for your Kimmunicators…or whatever Ron decides to call his."
"Going with Kimmunicator. Gotta dance with them that brung ya."
"Cool. I put a charging dock in your locker too, Ron. Didn't know if you two had shared the combos."
"Ron's known mine for a while." Kim glared at her boyfriend, recalling all the times he'd burned up all the paper and/or toner in her printer running off cheat codes for some game or another. "One of these days he's going to spill about exactly how he knows."
Ron took that moment to inspect the stains in the ceiling tile directly above them.
"I heard about the cell-phone ban. Bummer." Their tech guru said, slurping the bottom of his drink. "I'm not exactly looking forward to going through Barkin every time something comes up."
"I know. I'm going to put in a call to Dr. Director later about it, see if I can get some kind of exception. Barkin said he pled our on our behalf and the board turned him down. Guess we're just going to have to play it by ear."
Ron's eyes lit up at Kim's last phrase, slipping up behind her and nuzzling her right ear (considering the left one was almost always buried in her hair.)
"Ewwwwwwww, Ron, I just ate." Wade made a face like the cooties were going to crawl right through the dedicated line to his system.
"We'll catch you later, Wade. At least I can switch back on now the last bell's rung."
"I'll call you, beep you, you know."
"You rock Wade." Kim shut the door and gave the lock a quick spin. "Alright, Mister I-can-do-anything-you-can-do. Let's get this meeting over with, I've got a nice interesting afternoon planned."
"Booyah." He said softly, falling in step right behind her. From back there he didn't see her rolling her eyes.
Both of them were now on the floor, their limbs entwined, their breathing heavy. Sweat glistened on bare skin as their 'interesting afternoon' wore on.
"This is so not what I had in mind." Ron said, grabbing Kim's arms as she straddled him.
"Come on, Ron, get your head in the game. Your position is all wrong. It's not going to work.
He tried thrusting his body up into hers, only to be forced back down. "Told ya." She said, grinning down at him.
About that moment the door opened, admitting Kim's mother, still wearing her white lab coat from work.
"Hi Mom." Kim said, still straddling Ron.
"Hi Mrs. Dr. P." Ron said.
"I'm making meatloaf tonight, you want to stay for dinner, Ron?"
"Sure thing Dr. P."
Kim finally let him up. "Okay, any other time if Mom or Dad had walked in on us and we were in that position…"
"Uh yeah." Ron replied, brushing his white gi off.
Kim checked her belt and started circling Ron again. They had a mat out of the floor of the garage for the first day of his 'official' training. In reality all she had done was tell him to attack her, and so he tried.
"Ah, wah, zoop!" Ron screamed, holding his arms at crazy angles, trying to will his mystical monkey power into existence. In three tries Kim had managed to pin him to the ground each time. Ron knew she was holding back on him, but he hoped he could at least get one fall in."
He charged her once more, a lopsided grin forming on his face. This time, instead of attacking with his hands he simply dropped to the floor, grabbing his knees and rolling right into her legs like a ball. The move was so unorthodox (and silly) it took her completely by surprise. Next thing she knew she was on her back, her arms pinned to the mat, Ron in exactly the same position she had been in minutes earlier.
"Hah, as the winner of this round, I claim my prize."
"It better not be what I think it is, Ronald." Kim's father said as the garage door rose."
"Ah, ha, aha." Ron said, tugging at his collar.
"Like I said, it's Kim's turn to pick up Bueno Nacho."
"Nice try there Ronald. Now would you mind getting off my daughter so I can pull the car in?"
"Sure thing Dr. P." He grabbed Kim by the wrist and pulled her up and they both rolled the mat back up.
Kim's mother stuck her head back in the door. "Why don't you kids go ahead and get cleaned up, supper won't be too long.
James sat down at the table, picking up his paper.
"I thought you were going to have a heart attack when you saw Ron pinning her." Anne said, checking the oven.
"If they hadn't been wearing the kung fu outfits, I'd probably be setting up a crew change at the space station by now." He said, flipping through the pages.
"I think he was just going to steal a kiss. It's a shame you walked in when you did."
"Kimmie-cub gets plenty of time to kiss Ronald. We sure…"
"You'd better not say anything about kissing when you were that age, Doctor Kissy face."
"Well, maybe that's what's bugging me. I remember what I was like when I was seventeen."
"Yet you turned out okay. Honey, relax. Kim's just trying to teach Ron to be a better fighter, she's also making him eat better."
James just sighed. He didn't say what was really bugging him. Much as he liked, even loved Ronald the two of them didn't act like high-school sweethearts…
…they acted like they had been married for years.
Ron was lying across Kim's bed when she got out of the shower, his hair still damp. He was already back in his familiar cloths, flipping through some of her magazines. "Hey, KP, I thought you called and had them cancel Villain's Digest."
She went behind her screen and finished toweling off her hair, letting it hang damp down her back as she slipped into a royal blue tank and some denim shorts, plopping down beside him on the bed.
"Nah, didn't bother. You never know when something will pop up in there that's handy." She put a hand on his back, rubbing it in circles. "Now, what was the prize you were going to claim?"
He leaned over toward her and they kissed. Only their lips touched but it lingered for many minutes, their tongues on a mission to explore the other's mouth.
"Mmmm. Remind me to torture you later to find out exactly where you learned to kiss." She said, hooking a finger through his middle belt loop.
"Well, there's one thing you can do that would make me tell you." With that he started nibbling on her ear until she pulled away giggling.
"You had your chance last summer, buster." She said, jerking his belt side to side.
He whispered in her ear. "It's quit raining, maybe I'll go home, get the bike and we can ride up Logging Camp Road and we can whisper secrets to each other and…oops, maybe lose parts of our clothes."
"Yeah, your pants falling down." She gave him one more quick kiss. "Love you, Ronnie."
"Love you, KP. It's gonna hit the fan tomorrow, isn't it."
"Oh yeah." She agreed, rolling onto her back and staring at the ceiling.
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