Our Place in the Food Chain: Part X

Ron was on top of the world. The ladies not only didn't turn their nose up at him as he walked by, some of them actually looked at him and said "Hi!" while others even looked him up and down. He wondered what they saw now they hadn't before. Last year when he'd worn the leather jacket around campus the only looks he got were rolling eyes. Maybe it was just something about why he wore it. He was posing then. Now he wore it for it's protective qualities when he rode the bike. Maybe they could sense when he was pretending and when it was real.

Rock Banner, the new quarterback even high-fived him as he approached the gym. That made it definite. He had arrived. Rock may not have been as 'pretty' as Brick, but he was the top dog on the football team and by definition, king of the food chain, at least as long as the season went well. Since the first game had yet to be played, his claim to the throne was unchallengeable. His acknowledgement of Ron was tantamount to handing out invitations to join the school elite.

Part of his mind started nagging him, though. It should take more than a leather jacket and a touch of confidence to vault him to such stature. Maybe it was just the fact he was in love, real love and it showed as much on the outside as he could feel it inside. Yes, that had to be it.

Hope was just outside the building, chatting with her boyfriend (and root cause of most of her groundings!) Along with Bonnie, Tara and Kim, she was the only other returning squad member. Marcella, Jessica, Crystal and Liz had all graduated, leaving the largest gap in the squad he could ever remember. The fact they had all been together so long was a big part of their success.

Her face lit up as he approached. She waved enthusiastically at him. "Hi Ron!" She said brightly.

"Lookin' good there, Hope!" He said, making a pistol out of his hand as he walked by. He didn't even bother to look at her boyfriend, who he was certain was boring holes in his back with his eyes. If anything, the thought of any guy in this school thinking he could be a threat for his girl's affections made him swagger just a tad more.

Today was going to be either interesting or boring. It was likely going to be spent listening to Kim give a speech to the new potential cheerleaders, who would more than likely be composed of Freshmen, along with a few older hangers on who showed up every time a spot opened up on the squad. Heck, maybe it was their year! After all, the squad had stayed mostly the same for two years running.

Yes, even if it wasn't required, he was going to at least suit up in his blue, yellow and red squad uniform. That didn't necessarily mean he would don the Mad Dog head, though he really would like to show the newbies his killer mascot moves. He was especially stoked that the school had finally spent some claude and had a real, honest to goodness head made up for him, replacing his home-made one (which, being made from a Movie Magic Makeup kit from Smarty Mart was really showing its age after two years.) It even had a battery powered foam generator!

He stopped for just a moment in the entry hall connected to the school by a covered walkway. It would have been quicker to have taken the back entrance where D-hall connected directly with the Gym, but it was too nice a day outside to spend all of it cooped up inside (he'd learned better last year not to request having class outside) so he chose the scenic route.

Which was also the route that would take him past the largest number of classmates.

There was a picture there that now made him smile. The look on his face just about said it all. The whole squad had just arrived at Camp Gottagrin for Cheer Camp and he had just learned that it was in fact his dreaded Camp Wannaweep. Turned out he once again got his chance to play the hero. There was also the fact Kim almost lost it with Bon-bon. That was the first time he had seen up close how vicious the two of them were with each other. Bonnie he could see pulling some of those stunts, but Kim? This went way beyond a pom-pom in the kisser or a slightly overdone hip bump. Those two were out to get each other.

He had a lot better handle on his feelings where Bonnie was concerned any more. He spent many hours just talking with Kim and he learned a lot about her rival based on the time the two girls spent glued together. Sure, she was a raging hottie, but she was also, well, not nice. Sure, part of that could be explained by the treatment she received from her (much older) sisters, but hey, that's no reason to be one hundred percent bitch one hundred percent of the time. Then too, for some reason she just didn't smell good to him. She didn't reek, actually, she smelled nice and pleasant, it's just there was something a little off to him.

She didn't smell of lavender and soap…and Kim. He got wistful and a tad excited just thinking about her, burying his face in her long red hair and breathing deeply, nibbling lightly on her neck. Cooler weather was coming and she would be able to wear tops that could hide a hickey. She was probably going to put a major beat down on him when he did it, but it should be worth it.

The gym was still mostly empty, only Kim, Tara and Bonnie were there. Signups wouldn't start for another half-hour, supposedly leaving enough time for the girls to get ready. With the three of them already there that left only Hope to finish up with her boyfriend and suit up.

He was about to call out to them when he saw Kim punch Bonnie with a mean right jab. The blow seemed to come out of nowhere, she didn't even wind up leaving the other girl no clue what was about to happen.

He crossed the gym floor in three bounds, reaching the three girls even before Bonnie's butt could hit the floor. Kim was standing over her in a quivering rage.

"I don't give a flying crap what you say about me Bonnie, but if you ever say anything like that about my Ron again you're going to wish you spent less time taking ballet and more time running track!" Kim almost spat at her.

Bonnie just grinned, wiping a tiny trickle of blood from her busted lip. "Oh, I don't think you're the one to be threatening right now, Miss Perfect. By the time I'm done with you you'll no longer be captain of the squad, you won't even be on the squad. I might even get my mother to swear a warrant out on you for assault.

"I'll show you assault!" Kim raged, shaking her clenched fist.

"No! Kim, no!" Ron said, grabbing her arm. "It's not worth it."

Kim spun around on him, locking him with her green-eyed fury. "Don't ever tell me what you are worth, dammit! Don't ever tell me you're a loser! Don't ever tell me what I can and cannot do!" With that she stormed out of the gym, wracked in sobs.

Fury had melted to despair as Kim hit the outer doors of the gym, headed out into the hot afternoon sun. The enormity of what she had done was just starting to sink in. Her temper had finally gotten the best of her and she had done the unthinkable.

This was something she had talked about with Ron on many occasions. In his old, immature way he suggested that Kim use her 'mad skills' to 'kick Bonnie biscuit' just like she 'kicked Shego biscuit.' Her reply had been to the effect that Shego was a hard-core criminal, hard-core evil at its worst. Shego was dangerous and that called for equally dangerous skills to handle her. Bonnie, on the other hand wasn't hard-core evil, she was just, as she so delicately put it, 'high-school evil,' not even worth unleashing her talents.

Then too it would be a red mark on her permanent record.

Dammit, there was a lot more at stake here than her school records. Once Bonnie got to a faculty member, most likely Barkin it would all be over. Just as she threatened, she was very well likely to be kicked off the squad. Sure, over the years there had been quite a few cat-fights among the girls, but this was different. It wasn't a fight. Bonnie never had a chance. She didn't see it coming, there was no way for her to. At any other time Kim would have been proud of a hit like that. Even Shego would have a hard time blocking that. That was part of the problem. With her level of skill, Kim was dangerous. Not just painfully dangerous, she could kill, especially going up against an untrained opponent. If Bonnie hadn't rolled slightly with it…

…she rolled! Bonnie knew the punch was coming and she rolled with it! Kim sat down hard on the ground in the middle of the quad and just let the tears come. Bonnie finally won. She finally managed to push her over the edge and that put her on top. Five years of rivalry, starting in Middle School had finally come to this. Five years of hard work, two of them spent as the captain, turning a solid but unspectacular squad into a tournament winning dynasty were not shot down the drain, all because she couldn't keep her temper in front of that…frigid piece of human waste in there.

Life as she knew it was over for a long, long time. Fighting carried with it an automatic three day suspension. No questions asked, no reprieve. That was only the beginning of the punishments they could levee on her. Along with the suspension came a week-long exclusion from all extra-curricular activities. That meant cheer squad, dance committee, Environment club…everything. She would miss try-outs, leaving Ron as her only voice for picking the new squad. That also meant missing the election for team Captain. Up until five minutes ago she had assumed she would be a lock. The rest of the team looked up to her since she was the driving force behind their success. Even the new girls (maybe even guys this time) would know about that.

That was even if she would be allowed to stay on the squad. Up until this point they had proven they didn't need too much adult supervision. That would change in an instant and it was very likely that whoever was placed in charge of them would see her as a potential threat to the squad and unilaterally kick her off the team.

None of that even came close to the worst of it all.

Ron.

First of all, the punishments would not be restricted to just the school. Nothing like this had ever happened before. She had no idea how long she would be grounded this time. She really never got in that much trouble. There had been the lies she told on Halloween when she was fifteen and then there was the week both of them were grounded after the prom for staying out all night. This time it would be different. It wouldn't be a 'soft grounding' like the last time. She quite literally would only be allowed out of the house to go to school, and it was very likely even then her Father would drive her, just to take away the short period of time she would have with Ron going to and from classes.

What was worse than that was how Ron would feel about all this. It was with her insistence he finally let the Bonnie matter drop. She was the one who said it was never going to happen. Now all of that had been turned into a lie. He once asked her if he could be trusted and she said yes, she could trust him with her life (just not with her share of dinner at Bueno Nacho.) Now she was the one who could not be trusted.

Cheerleading was gone. Missions were gone and, very likely, now Ron would be gone. It didn't matter she was defending his honor, it was hers that she threw away.

"Hey, what's the matter?"

She didn't even have to look up, she recognized the voice. "Not now, Cary, just leave me alone."

He wasn't going to be driven off that easily. He sat down in front of her, a respectful four or five feet away. "Hey, if you need somebody to talk to, I'm all ears."

"Listen, I'm sorry, I don't want to talk to anyone right now, Okay. You don't know me and you don't know about my problems, so please leave me alone."

"Look, Kim. From what I see you're a pretty together woman. If something's bad enough that you've got to come running out of the gym and sit down on the wet grass and cry about it, it's pretty bad. In my book, that's something you need to talk to people about. We're not put on this Earth to go it alone, that's why there's other people."

"Cary, that's sweet and all, but this is most def something I don't want to talk about."

"Is it boyfriend issues? Cause if that guy you're with is being a jerk, I could…"

"Shut up. Just shut up. No, it's not boyfriend…well, it could be, but it's not what you're thinking so just let it rest, will ya?"

He slowly got to his feet. "Hey, whatever's clever. See you in English tomorrow."

"Sure." She drew her knees up to her chest. He sure was a sweet guy. There was no way she was going to push Ron aside for a useless romantic fling with him, but she could certainly use a friend, especially with all the self-inflicted doom that was about to come down on her.

"Who was that?" Ron asked as he walked up to her, sitting right up beside her.

"Just a guy in my English and Physics class. You probably don't know him."

"Didn't get a good enough look at him. You okay?" He put his hand on her back, gently rubbing circles.

"I am at the moment." She sobbed. "Won't be for too long once Bonnie gets to Barkin or whoever's actually in charge."

"That's not going to happen." He said, giving her waist a squeeze. "Tara and I gave Bon-bon a good talking too and we ended up making a deal."

"A deal? You?"

"Yeah, me. Rondo's got some mad diplomacy skills. Well, that and I had a lot of help from Tara."

"Go on."

"Okay, right now the only people who know about the fight are you, me, Tara and Bonnie. Well, Bonnie was going to run off to Barkin and blab about the fight and the whole thing."

"It wasn't a fight. I just put the smack-down on Bonnie."

"No, listen to the rest of what I've got to say. Tara stuck up for you. She said if Bonnie goes to Barkin she would too and tell him that it was a fight, not just you sucker-punching her."

"So, it'd be Bonnie's word against Tara's"

"KP, we're talkin' Barkin here. He's going to give both of them the benefit of the doubt and that means Bonnie ends up taking the same heat as you. After all, they always say they don't care who threw the first punch, fight and you're suspended."

"Go on."

"Okay, so she's thinking it over, weighing her options, trying to decide if it was worth chancing that to take you down, or taking you down with her so I proposed a compromise. We all know it was you who took the swing so some consequences are fair."

"There is a gist to all this, I hope." She said, gripping his knee.

"Yeah. You're sitting out try-outs. She wanted me off the panel too, but that wasn't going to happen, so it's up to Hope, Tara, Bonnie and me to pick four new girls and an alternate…or a guy, there's already one guy in the bleachers like he's waiting to sign up."

"She didn't want the captaincy?"

"Uh, yeah, but I wouldn't let her just take that. It's going to be harder for you to hold onto it since you won't be picking the team, but I told her we were still going to have a proper election and she would have to take her chances then. In the end she agreed."

"So this is over? Just like that?"

"Yup."

"And you're not angry with me?"

"Actually, to quote your father, this grind my beans, but there's a whole world of difference between angry and so pissed I'm walkin'."

"You knew what I was thinking?"

"KP, I've been with you almost constantly over thirteen years. If I don't know what you're thinking by now I'm just a big loser." He said the last with a silly grin. "You know, I used to think I was going to be the one worried I wouldn't live up to your expectations. Outside of you doing something unthinkable like running off with some pretty boy, there's no way you're losing me. When this sort of thing happens, I'm supposed to be there for you, not making it worse by having a little personal pity fiesta and walking away."

Kim leaned over and kissed his cheek, squeezing his leg even harder. "What did I ever do to deserve you?"

"You were born." He whispered back.

"I love you, Ron."

"I know." He said, getting up and offering his hand.

She asked as he was pulling her up, "So, what are you all going to tell the newbies is the reason the acting team Captain is sitting out the tryouts?"

"Oh, we're just going to tell them the truth."

"The truth?" She almost shrieked.

"Yep. We're going to tell them you hurt your wrist punching out a bad guy and you went to have it checked, then tomorrow during the selection you'll go home and recuperate. Just remember to wear an ace bandage tomorrow."

She noticed for the first time he had two backpacks on his shoulder. "Shouldn't I go back and change?"

"Nope. Won't be the first time you've worn your uniform home, besides, I'm taking you to the 'medical center' for treatment, so they're not expecting you back."

She took his hand, carefully switching sides so she was using her 'good' hand and they walked to his bike. "Something tells me the guy at the check-in counter of this 'medical center' is named Ned."

"You know me all too well, KP."

Kim Possible and all related characters © Disney