Where Did the Time Go? : Part XI
Kim pushed the clothes in her closet to each side, exposing a biometric palm scanner set into the back of her closet. Frowning slightly, she put her hand there and was rewarded by the very faint whoosh sound as the hidden vault opened up.
Hanging inside were two suits. One was white, shot through with gleaming blue piping, with a matching pair of boots sitting right beneath it. The other was completely identical, at least in appearance, but very dark gray, nearly black. Other than the color, the only other difference was an attached hood that could be pulled up to cover her hair. It was actually Ron's suggestion that Wade combine his earlier Stealth suit with their advanced Super-suit. That and the fact he felt the white one was a little bit too revealing on him for his tastes (Kim didn't mind.) Ron had one of each as well, though the blue stripes were replaced with goldenrod, almost the same color as his hair.
He turned away from Kim's computer, eyeing her curiously as she laid her dark colored super-suit out on the bed. "Is there a mission I wasn't aware of?" He recalled what happened their Sophomore year on this particular trip.
"No." She said as she removed the hanger and started folding it up. "I am not going to be cold this weekend and just in case, I'm wearing this under my ski clothes."
Ron nodded and turned back to the game he was playing on her computer. After what they now referred to as 'the Very Long Day' he could understand her wish to stay warm. In fact, unless another blizzard roared into Mount Middleton, the suit alone was more than enough to keep her warm, considering it was designed to keep her whole body at optimum temperature at all times. It wasn't designed for arctic use, but at a ski-resort it would do quite nicely. Then again, with her nice red ski outfit (which her father still didn't see any use in replacing) she should be nicely warm the whole time they were there.
Kim packed the suit in her duffle, right alongside the thickest paperback book she had ever cracked open.
The students signed up for the annual ski trip were given a half day so they could get ready for the weekend getaway, but that still meant she had to deal with her first period English class. They had polished off their first book midweek, a task made difficult by the extended length of the obscure work they had been assigned.
Doctor Snyder seemed to take an inordinate amount of glee in his work. Monday morning he launched into an extended lecture about the finer points of the chapters they had been assigned over the weekend. She had to admire his intellect. He brought up bits and pieces she recalled, but his perspective was actually refreshingly brilliant. It made her feel suddenly that the five hundred word essay she was about to turn in at the end of class was somewhat less than she first imagined it to be.
Apparently Snyder agreed with her on that. In fact, he agreed on that with the other eleven students who made up the class as well. Tuesday morning he launched into a lecture about how fine their work was, how it was beyond what he would expect…for an average high school student. He railed on and on how so much more was expected from them. They were in the most advanced English class offered in the Tri-City school system, if not in the whole state of Colorado. They need to do more than simply regurgitate simple, dry facts like they were in training to be somebody's administrative assistant (he actually said secretary at first and was taken to task on the faux pas by Kim and a couple other female students. He apologized, amended his statement, then proceeded to go on about their politically correct defense of a profession they should be striving beyond.)
He waited until the last ten minutes of the class to hand back their papers. He had scribbled notes on the paper that in total were actually longer than the piece she had written. Still, the only thing that mattered to her was the black B minus neatly written up in the corner.
Their assignment for the next day was to re-submit their papers in a form that would bring the grade up to where he felt they were capable of performing. That was in addition to reading the second third of the book in preparation for a test on the subject the next day. The test took on the form of writing yet another five hundred words cold, with no notes.
Somehow Kim managed to pull and A minus on the amended paper and a straight B on the test. That wasn't what she was expecting after such an enormous amount of work. At least she took solace that the actual reading time went exactly as planned, lying on Ron's couch while he had his arms wrapped around her. Maybe if he had been allowed to be in the classroom during the test, gently cradling her she would have done better.
That morning Snyder arrived toting a brown grocery bag. He pulled out the contents and arranged twelve brown lunch-bags on his desk, instructing his students to randomly pick one each. The bag was relatively heavy and Kim had a pretty good idea what was inside.
She was quite right. The book had to be the thickest standard sized paperback she had ever held in her hands. What was worse was the title. It wasn't a 'classic of Western literature.' No, it was something she was quite sure was an absolute piece of garbage. She knew of the book's existence. In fact, Ron had been really stoked about the movie that had been made a few years ago from the first half of the book. That film turned out to be one of the worst science fiction movies she had seen in many, many years. That was saying a lot since she really didn't get into the genre. What was worse was that the author was noted more for founding what she considered to be a rather nutty religion.
Kim glanced over at her neighbor. She had another 'popular' novel of considerable length, one that had been made into a twelve-hour long mini-series before she was even born.
Their assignment was to read their randomly selected works and discuss what redeeming traits the books had and how they were relevant in the modern world. She was so not looking forward to that, especially since even Ron, who liked pulp garbage like the Bricks of Fury series, considered the movie bad as well. The only hope she held out was that the film only shared its title in common with the source material.
The upshot of all that, though, was it was going to seriously cut into her 'Ron Time' during the ski-trip. The two previous years their teachers had lightened their work-load for them. Snyder obviously didn't believe in that.
The Bonnie issue was still troubling her. Something was seriously up with her, but she couldn't put her finger on it. She kept telling herself to simply enjoy the fact she was actually trying to be nicer to not only Ron, but a lot of other people around her but she was having a big trust issue where her old rival was concerned.
It didn't help that every time she thought of the buxom brunette, she pictured her wearing a certain green and black jumpsuit instead of a blue, red and gold uniform.
Things had been a little tense at home. Her Dad most certainly did not approve of Ron being allowed to sleep in her bed, no matter how exhausted the teens were. He had come upstairs to wake her for a late breakfast and found the two of them still sound asleep, only their foreheads touching, the Pandaroo sitting between them as if they were cradling a child in their sleep. At least before any yelling could commence her mother came to the rescue, explaining that there was no way to get Ron home in that weather and he needed a proper night's sleep, something that simply couldn't be had sleeping on the couch and that it was quite obvious the two of them had behaved since she had checked on them several times that night.
Mollified but still grumpy about the whole sitch, James Possible spent the day cleaning out their little-used guest bedroom. If Ron was going to be stuck there for the duration of the snowstorm (which lasted well into Sunday before the sun finally came out) he could get a good night's sleep alone in a bed two floors below his daughter's.
Kim and Ron still spent the greater part of Saturday night cuddled up on the couch, an arraignment her father approved of for some reason.
The van, it turned out, had a bad starter, something that was completely independent of the weather. A quick repair right there in the parking lot and it was home by Monday evening. Still, the vehicle was starting to get old and had more than one hundred fifty thousand miles on it (including two round trips to Florida) and the relatively minor break-down was a bit of a wake-up call. Come spring, they were going shopping for a new one.
Wade still wasn't sure what had happened to her Kimmunicator. The battery checked out fine, taking a full charge and staying that way. He even put the whole unit into his mother's deep freeze for a couple days and it still worked correctly. Shrugging, he made her up a new one, just in case he was missing something, reminding Ron to start carrying his around more often.
"Any word on who the chaperones are this year." Ron asked as she finished packing.
"Nada. All I know is Barkin is coming along as usual. Be just our luck we get Barkin, Director and Snyder. I can just see it now. Every time we try to sneak a kiss, Principal Director will be right there to remind us this is a school function."
Ron shivered visibly. "I swear, I think that woman must have never been kissed, the way she enforces the PDA thingy."
"She's not here right now." Kim put her hands on his shoulders and started rubbing. He craned his head backwards and looked up at her. Leaning over she brushed the tip of his nose with hers, then gave him a quick kiss.
"Yeah, but your Dad sure is. I think he's still thinking of sticking me on the next shuttle to the space-station after Saturday morning."
"So not the drama, Ron. He was just surprised, that's all. I think he was more upset with Mom for letting us do that than he was with us."
"Yeah, but it's a good thing he didn't come up around three." He said with a wide smile.
"Honey, we were just kissing. That doesn't bother him any more." To illustrate her point she sat down on his lap and gave him a much longer, much warmer kiss.
"He'd be bothered if he knew what I was thinking at the moment." He playfully nibbled on her shoulder until she took his chin and raised it up for another kiss.
"I was thinking along those lines too, but thinking and doing are two different things. You were such a good boy that night, even if your hands tended to find interesting places in your sleep."
"Yours too." He said, grinning goofily at her.
"Can I help it I agree with your mother about your behind?" She asked, whispering just in case anybody else was around.
"Kim! My mother talking about my butt is as bad as a cold swimming pool." He protested.
She wiggled her own posterior on his lap and kissed him again. "So not." She said, grinning.
"So, are you kids going skiing, or do you just want to stay home and make out all weekend?" Her father said as he topped the stairs into her room.
Ron tried to hop up, but Kim stayed put, preferring to act like they hadn't been doing anything wrong rather than make a futile attempt to hide the fact they had been lightly smooching.
James smiled at the two. He really was past the point where the kissing bothered him. He was sure it had to do with Ronald, who had demonstrated just how good a boyfriend he really was on many occasions but he still secretly enjoyed making the boy squirm. Upon reflection, he found he didn't have quite so much problem with what he found that morning but the fact remained the kids were still seventeen and even the best behaved teenagers sometimes lost control to their hormone charged emotions.
He looked at his daughter, sitting in the lap of a boy he felt in some ways was like a third son and that thought made him happy. He was still a little sad that Kim was almost completely grown up but he was starting to see her more and more that way and much less the little girl in pigtails he used to drop off at Pre-K. He knew that pretty soon she would be wearing more jewelry than the emerald earrings she almost never took off now and he wasn't just thinking of the class rings that were due any day and that particular thought was far more pleasant than he used to think it would be.
"The boards and Ronald's backpack are all loaded up in the van. You two ready?"
Kim gave Ron a quick kiss on the tip of his nose. "Ready as we'll ever be." She said, not taking her eyes off her boyfriend. Finally she hopped off his lap as he shut down the computer game he had been playing. She picked up her duffel and her small backpack and started for the stairs.
Before she could get there, Ron took the larger bag from her and threw the strap over her shoulder. She smiled at him and took his hand as they followed her father downstairs. This was going to be the best ski trip ever. This time she knew DNAmy was still holed up with her 'Monkey Puddin Pie" in her fortress, most of the rest of her enemies were either incarcerated or otherwise accounted for and the skiing conditions were the best they had been in years (most of the snow from last weekend's blizzard had melted by now, but it was still quite deep higher up.)
Best of all, this year her best friend was also her boyfriend and they were going to spend almost every waking moment together, even if that meant him striving to snow-board a little better and her holding back a little so he could keep up.
She didn't even care that Bonnie would be along, as usual toting her beloved digital camera to record every little faux pas the rest of the students made. Let her do her worst. Maybe she'd even end up tipping her hand to what she was up to. Otherwise the leggy (rhymes with sitch) could ski off a cliff for all she was concerned.
"Oh, by the way," Her father said, turning toward them as they reached the door to the garage. "One of your friends asked if I could give her a lift to the school. I told her I was sure you wouldn't mind."
Kim had a sudden sinking feeling as he went out the door. Her good mood vanished completely as they stepped through.
Leaning against the van in her impossibly tight ski-bunny outfit was Bonnie Rockwaller.
Kim Possible and all related characters © Disney