Our Place in the Food Chain Chapter 25: Part XXV, a kim possible fanfic

Our Place in the Food Chain: Part XXV

"Are you sure you're okay?" Monique asked for what was likely the fifth time that morning.

"Yes, Mon. I'm perfectly fine. He's been gone a week now and I'm not about to run home crying every time I think about him. I just had to get into a new routine without Ron around." She pulled off her helmet after putting the kickstand of Ron's motorcycle down. The engine shut off without a sputter. The bike may have been old and needed a paint job and some re-chroming but the engine was in perfect shape. The mechanic that looked after it for him like to refer to it as 'just getting broken in good' which was mechanic-eze for 'it's going to croak for good inside a year.' Considering the use the two of the put it to, it could catch fire at the very moment like his old blue scooter had last spring and it wouldn't owe them a thing.

Monique was off the bike so fast she almost knocked Kim down. The latter growled slightly when her friend dropped to her knees and kissed the sidewalk.

"Oh, very funny. My driving isn't that bad." She put her hands on her hips and tapped her finger as the other girl got up, still visibly shaking.

Monique just shook her head. "Bad? Girl, you're an expert…if that was actually a dragster bike. Let me tell you, it's a real good thing there isn't a cop in this town who would stop you to give you a ticket. If that ever happened your 'rents would have to spend your college fund just paying for insurance."

"So, I like to go fast. The bike's made to." She rolled her eyes thinking about the fact her parents always insisted she take the mini-van when she needed a vehicle besides Ron's bike. Its definition of fast was barely reaching the speed limit on the interstate.

"Kim, that thing is older than you and if I'm any judge of it, those tires look like they came from the factory with it. "What if we'd blown one?" Actually, she was no expert, but Ron kept saying the thing needed new tires and she was willing to take him at his word.

"It's no big, Monique. I ride Ron's bike all the time, never had one problem with it."

"I can see the headline now. Girl who defied the super-freaks of the world, killed in traffic accident. Takes her GBF with her."

"They're not going to put that and you know it. Besides, at the rate things are going, I'm going to be retired by the time I get ready for college. So it's going to be something mundane like an accident or dying in a nursing home three quarters of a century after everyone's forgotten about Kim Possible."

Monique slowed down and looked at her friend. "They are not going to forget about you. How many girls did you see dressed like you on Halloween."

"So not the drama. They just do that because it's a heck of a lot simpler to put on a black turtleneck and some cargos and pretend they're me."

She shook her head at Kim again. "No, they do it because they look up to you. I counted five last year and I lost track at ten this year and it's been what, five years since you started all this."

"Well, it's only been about two and a half since the really big stuff started coming my way. Before that it was only minor things that didn't get any attention. Kind of like what it's all boiled down to now."

"You say that like it's a bad thing. You already mentioned college. How are you going to find the time to do all this saving the world stuff and pull off that kind of work load. It's going to make high school seem like kindergarten."

"Monique, I'm bored. I'm in all the most advanced classes possible, I'm still running the cheer squad, I'm on two dance committees, chairing one of them, I'm in the environment club and they've got me helping clean up Middleton Park again, but I don't feel a challenge any more. If it's still the same when I start school next fall It's just going to get worse."

"You're just missing Ron." One look at Kim and Monique knew she had hit paydirt.

"No. Well, yes, it's breaking my heart I miss him so much but that's not it. I was bored before he left. Oh, not with the things we do together, but, well, yeah the main thing we do together seems to be slipping away and I don't know why. Just yesterday I find out that Dementor stole the plans for a multi-dimensional power siphon but before I can even get Wade to line up a ride, GJ has him in custody."

"It wasn't…"

"It was. Will Freakin' I-don't-like-working-with-amateurs Du. They didn't even call me and this time they can't say it's because they couldn't reach me while I'm at school, no, it was a Sunday and they didn't even bother to call me. I'm beginning think the whole Diablo fiasco was my swan-song."

"It will get better. Besides, I don't think the real baddies are up to much since they keep parading your old friend in front of the cameras on the Court Room Channel."

"I don't even watch that any more. They're dragging their feet so bad on him this time I don't think he'll ever come to trial again. It's almost like they're dangling him out there waiting for Shego to surface and break him out."

"Well, you always say she's the really dangerous one. Maybe they know it too."

"Shego's only dangerous when she's given something to do. Drakken may come off as the world's biggest idiot sometimes, but he really is the spark that kept that team going. Shego doesn't have a self-motivated bone in her body. I bet she's sitting on a beach somewhere reading fashion magazines, eating sweets and filing her nails."

"Shego, on a beach with that pale green skin. I wonder what she looks like with a tan."

Kim had to stifle a laugh. "I bet she gets darker green. I used to wonder if she was green all over or if it was just some kind of villain thing to be a freaky color until I met her brothers. One of the, Mego, has purple hair and violet skin."

"Ew. I don't know what's worse, mint green or violet. At least as far as skin is concerned." Monique curled up her nose.

"Then when I fought her a the Bermuda Triangle club she was wearing a different outfit. Still green and black, but it was a really sexy bias cut skirt and a crop top."

"Whoa, Sheila Go goes all KimStyle on us." Monique laughed.

"What did you call her?" Kim leaned against her locker. They still had a good twenty minutes before they had to be in their first class of the day.

"Oh, nothing. I just figure her name can't be Shego, but I thought since she's from Go City and used to be part of Team Go that maybe her villain/hero name is a shortened form of her real name. Sheila makes sense."

"Huh. I never thought of it like that until Wade figured out her real name a few months ago doing a web search. You're right, her name is shortened, but it's short for Sherry Godfrey."

A smug grin spread across her face. "Well, then I was on the right track. Maybe I'm cut out for this hero thing, just more of a brains thing like Wade. Hey, here's a thought. Why don't I dig up some of my old 'KimStyle' duds and we head off looking for her over the weekend. I could even bring Felix along so I wouldn't mind dropping my pants."

"Hmm. You could do what Ron used to do, as far as being a distraction, though I don't think you want me around when you drop your pants for him and BTW…TMI."

"I'm just funnin' ya. I would majorly freak the moment I laid eyes on anyone like Drakken. He'd probably just pop up and say boo and I'd be headin' for the hills. As far as the BTW, I haven't exactly dropped trou for Felix yet, though the boy does have a lot going for him with manual dexterity."

"Mon! TMI factor just went up by about three."

"Uh huh, Miss 'Going-with-Mr.-Big-Hands.' So, you let him get to second base yet?"

"That depends on what your definition is."

"Well, what is yours first? And…BTW, that sounds to me like some roamin' hands are involved."

"Upstairs, skin-on-skin, which he hasn't done yet, though I have let him…hold me."

"Uh huh. That's the one I know. So, when?"

"Not yet."

"Girl, what are you waiting for? At this rate you're going to be back in diapers before you get your freak on with that boy and when that happens, he's going to explode."

"Mon, he's not going to explode. We've…figured out something we do on special occasions."

"Not that?"

Kim looked at her sidewise. "No, not that." She leaned over and whispered in her ear.

"Whoa! Doesn't that chafe?"

"Nope, or at least he wasn't complaining."

"I wasn't talking about him."

"Can we please change the subject. Keep this up and I'm going to be cashing in my college fund for a plane ticket to Japan."

"Speaking of Japan, have you pried anything out of Miss Bon-Bon yet." Monique asked.

"Not a peep. She knows something, but she's not talking. She should have been pulling her hair out and complaining to anyone who would listen. Instead she's clammed up like she knows some real big secret."

"Like perhaps she knows something about whatever goes on there that a student can show up and drag Ron halfway around the western hemisphere at the drop of the hat? That doesn't sound like any run-of-the-mill provincial Japanese school."

"I don't know, but I was right about her."

"Kim, if she had been after Ron all she would have had to do was lay a big smooch on him and say let's go out and he would have been good to go…uh, that was then, now it's different."

"I sure hope so. Ron likes attention but since we've been together he's seemed happy enough that the other girls are actually speaking to him, but he hasn't even flirted with anyone outside of Hope and Tara, and that's just how those three carry on now."

"Yeah, but have any of them put any real moves on him?"

"I think you'd be the one to know about something like that Monique. If somebody made a pass at Ron and I wasn't there to see it, you'd know before I could, and that's even if Ron ran as fast as he could to tell me."

"Kim, the grapevine is good, but it isn't that good. So far all I've heard is some tittering about how huggy Tara is with him."

She growled slightly. The petite blonde cheerleader had never gone past casually dating Jason Morgan and had already demonstrated a propensity for cozying up to the same types of guys she liked, including Josh Mankey and, at least a couple school years ago, Ron. "I am so going to have a little sit-down with her, real soon, most def."

"Nah, Tara's harmless. Besides, all you'd have to do is look at her like you were going to kick her biscuit and she'd be halfway to Denver before you said boo. Anyway, I don't think you have to worry too much about Ron. Even that time he accidentally saw me naked the only thing he looked at were my eyes. He just stood there like a statue, never even taking the opportunity to look me up and down. Now, if I hadn't grabbed a towel when I did, that might have changed, but that boy only has eyes for you."

"Oh, I sure hope so. It's only…he can get so big-heady sometimes and if little-miss-You're-the-warrior-hero keeps it up with him, I wonder what his resolve is going to be like."

"Kim, don't let it get to you too much. In two weeks Bonnie's going to be there and I can guarantee you that if there's anything going on you should know about, she's going to tell you just to try to rip the two of you apart but even with that, Ron's a good guy. He's the best, most loyal, sweetest guy on the planet and he loves you and worships the ground you walk on. Trust him."

Trust. Ron valued trust and at the same time wanted people to trust him. Of course he wasn't perfect, but that was because sometimes he was misguided. Like the time Monique had kissed him (she had that out with Monique right after Ron's plane left for Japan.) He thought he was doing right by honoring that promise. Trustworthiness wasn't an issue for him.

Though she would really like a chance to go toe-to-toe with that Yori girl.

"'Kay, Kim, I've got to get to class. You sure you don't want to hang with Felix and me tonight?"

"No, Mon. You wouldn't want me around any more than I want anyone else around when I'm supposed to be alone with Ron. You two have a good time doing whatever the two of you do…with your 'manual dexterity.'"

"Girl, you are wrong. Be good."

"Always."

She opened her locker and fired up the computer. The screen warmed up just as it finished descending from its cubby.

"Hi Kim."

"Hey, Wade. Tell me that somebody, somewhere needs me. I'd even take some babysitting."

"Nothing that wouldn't interfere with your class schedule, though you might find this interesting."

"What?" She gave him a look that said she didn't have time for guessing games.

"Señor Senior Senior just bought a mansion near Mexico City."

"That doesn't sound too bad."

"No, except it's just stone's throw from a major Global Justice facility there."

"Wade, he could build a place right on top of them and it wouldn't do him any good. Just keep me posted." She pursed her lips. "Have you tried out the new tracking chip yet?"

"Yep, you're standing right in front of your locker, plain as day."

"That's not what I meant."

"Kim, Ron and I talked about this. Yamanuchi is supposed to be secret and even though I have a rough idea where it is, I'm still going to honor that unless there's some kind of emergency. Besides, all that would tell you is that he's there at the school."

"You can also pull up his vitals."

"So? If he's there to take some training, then all I'm going to see are elevated blood pressures, high concentrations of lactic acid, that sort of thing. Wouldn't tell us anything useful."

"I know. I just wish I knew how he was doing and all."

"We all miss him, but he's going to come back a better guy, so it'll be worth it."

"Yeah. Look, I've got to go to class. Catch you at lunch time."

"Sure. You know where you can find me."

"Bye Wade…and you still rock."

She shut the door and headed for class. It really would have been nice to go out with Felix and Monique, but the two of them were just beginning to explore the physical side of their relationship and just like she said, it wouldn't be fair for them to have her tagging along all the time.

There was a tap on her shoulder right outside of her first class.

There was no mistaking the blonde hair and gleaming teeth.

"Hey, Cary. What's up?"

"Not a lot. Been busy working. Mom caught some of the employees stealing so I've been pulling a double shift. Glad it's been quiet at the mall lately so I've had time to do my homework between customers."

"Ouch. She got anyone lined up to replace them?"

"Yeah, but I'll be training them the next few nights. Say, a bunch of us were going to go hang at the mall Friday night, and maybe go to Bundy's" Bundy's was one of the dance clubs Ron liked to take her to. In fact, they had gone there the Saturday night before he left, though they didn't stay long. She wanted every minute she could manage alone with him before he left and was glad he borrowed his mother's car instead of taking the bike.

"Uh, I don't know, Cary. I really felt out of place when I was out with Felix, Monique, Tara and Jason last week. Besides, it'd feel kind of funny with Ron gone."

"Oh, it's nothing like that. There aren't any couples, so it's just a bunch of friends hanging out. Hey, with Ron away maybe that'd be a good thing for you. Take your mind off of him for a bit."

"Cary, I don't particularly want my mind off of him, but it's sweet of you to ask. I'll think about it, Okay. Like you said, it's Friday, a lot could happen between now and then. Who knows, I might even get the call and I won't even be on this side of the globe."

He just smiled at her. "I understand. The invitation is open if you want to. Better get inside, we've got like thirty seconds."

She got in her seat, smiling to herself. It always seemed like outside of Ron and Monique, and now Felix the only people she ever hung out with were the other cheerleaders. It would be good to widen her circle of friends and Cary seemed like a good enough place to start.

Tentatively she started plans to make herself available Friday night. She had danced with Ron as a friend many times, maybe it would be fun to go dancing with other friends for a change.