Where Did the Time Go? : Part XII
"Bonnie, what are you doing?" Kim asked as she put her luggage in the rear hatch. "We're going to drive right past your house on the way to the school."
"Sorry, Kim, but I spent the night at Danika Foster's house last night and I had to pick up my things and I just happened to see your Dad loading the car as I was going past."
She shot the deeply tanned girl a narrow eyed stare. The explanation itself didn't completely compute. Kim had been to the younger cheerleader's house herself and for Bonnie to be just 'passing by' her house she would have had to take two extra turns that she shouldn't have had to.
Red flags about the skinny-legged sophomore started going up in her mind as well. Up till this point she assumed most of the newer cheerleaders were firmly in her camp, especially after two aborted coups by Bonnie. That made her worry about Marie and April as well. Phoebe Katz she knew she could count on but the other two were now quite suspect. At least with Phoebe in her camp, the 'senior voting block' didn't have to worry about a potential tie-breaker. Unless Tara and Bonnie were able to patch things up between them. Kim hoped that wasn't likely, since the platinum blonde's eyes had finally been opened to her long-time friend.
Small worries started creeping into her mind. Tara was down with a flu bug and wouldn't be coming on the trip. Hope was, as usual, grounded and Phoebe was with her father on a trip to Israel. That meant Kim's only person guaranteed to have her back this weekend was Ron. Her first thought was that he was certainly enough but she was still worried about what Bonnie had up her skin-tight sleeves.
"Not calling shotgun, Kim?" Bonnie asked, reaching for the front door herself.
"No, Bonnie, I think I'll sit with Ron." She said coolly.
"Amp down, KP." Ron said softly to her as the climbed into the second row seats of the van. "We'll be there in ten minute and we'll have the whole bus to get away from her and once we're up there, we won't have to see her unless we run into her at the lodge."
"Why do I get the feeling it won't be that easy?" Kim said, sitting back in her seat and crossing her arms. She sat up slightly and pulled a thick cable of braided hair from behind her and let it fall over her shoulder. She had been trying wearing her hair differently over the last week and was still getting used to the tight braid.
Bonnie turned around to look at them, favoring the couple with a slight smile that oddly didn't have a trace of it's normal snarkiness. She turned back to the front. "Doctor Possible, did I tell you that Ron and Kim are absolutely the cutest couple in the whole school?"
"They're something else, alright." He agreed, looking at the two of them in the rearview mirror. He did a double take when he noticed Kim's extremely sour expression. "What's wrong, Kimmie-cub?"
"Nothing Dad." She met his eyes in the mirror, forcing a smile. "I'm just feeling a little grumpy suddenly."
"You seemed so happy there in the house."
"Just a mood swing, Dad. You know how it is…" She trailed off, shooting him a look that said do you want to take a trip down TMI street?
"Oh." He said, turning his attention back to his driving, catching the way she was drifting.
Ron shot her a look, knowing what she was talking about had actually come and gone during the earlier half of the week and knew this was normally a time of better moods for her. They never talked about such things but he knew and knew quite precisely when such things were going on. It was a defense mechanism he assumed all men had.
"It's such a shame you and your wife aren't coming along for this trip. That was so much fun two years ago." Bonnie said with a syrupy sweetness that made Kim cringe.
"Sorry, Bonnie, but Mrs. Dr. Possible is in the middle of a heavy rotation at the hospital and I've got to fly to Washington first thing in the morning for an important meeting." He glanced back. "Besides, I think those two would rather have as much time away from parental supervision as humans possible. Like you said, they're a really cute couple."
Bonnie looked back at them again, giggling pleasantly, a sound Kim likened to the girl's expensively manicured nails being dragged down the front of an old-fashion style blackboard. There was something unwholesome and utterly evil behind that sweet, tittering laugh. Kim once told Ron that her rival was only 'high school evil' but now she wasn't so sure. Somehow she found it easier when everything was out in the open, when the insults and digs were obvious. Her fake smile disappeared completely from her face, leaving her in full 'tweaked' mode.
The twenty minute ride to the school seemed to drag like it was a full hour to Kim. When they finally got there, Ron pulled her aside as her father unloaded the back of the van.
"Kim, I hate to say this, but you need to cool your jets about Bonnie."
"Ron, she is up to something. I feel it in my bones."
He shook his head and quietly spoke. "Did you ever stop to consider that, even if she didn't mean anything she said, she might have just been acting nice for your father's benefit? Ever think she might be forcing herself to act like an adult?"
"Bonnie and adult?" Kim whispered back at him, a little louder than she intended. "I'd as soon believe that witch was an adult as I'd believe she's the big Ice-queen everyone seems to think she is now."
Ron turned slightly away from her and whispered back to her. "Bonnie's eighteen now and I have my reasons to believe she is trying to be a little more mature. Maybe that needs to rub off on some other people." He walked around back of the van and started gathering his gear. This time around he wasn't wasting any energy carrying his little-used skis. He was just bringing his snow-board.
Kim just glared after him, a dark cloud forming over her head, threatening to shoot real lightning bolts at the very next person who attempted to speak to her. Did he actually just tell her she needed to be more like Bonnie?
She walked right up to him and grabbed him by the shoulder, turning him around. "Okay, Ron. I want to know exactly what happened between you two in Japan." She said in a voice that seemed to be a shout and barely audible at the same time.
He blinked twice at the raw fury in her eyes. "No." He said finally.
"No? What do you mean no? You don't get to tell me no like that."
His own eyes flashed a little bit of anger. "I don't? Since when?"
"Since you promised me there wouldn't be any secrets like this." She growled back at him.
"No, KP. I promised there wouldn't be any secrets that would affect us. I've kept that promise, just like when I told you about Yori kissing me. This isn't like that."
"If it's about you and Bonnie then it is like that."
Ron shook his head resolutely. "No, it isn't and if you really trusted me, you'd understand that." With that he picked up his gear and headed off toward the bus.
"Trouble in paradise, K?" Bonnie asked as she picked up her own gear.
Kim clenched and unclenched her fists, her teeth grinding together. "I think you should just leave me alone right now Bonnie." She finally got out in a half-growl, half hiss.
"Do you need a Midol? I've got some in my purse."
Kim shot her a look that she was certain would have reduced the girl to cinders if it had a tenth of the power she felt was behind it. Somehow she reigned that in. "Bonnie, what went on between the two of you over there at Yamanuchi?"
Bonnie shrugged slightly. "Absolutely nothing. It's just, Ron was the only person there I really knew so we talked some and I realized he's really kind of a nice guy, but that's all."
"Why don't I believe you?" Kim asked, her eyes bare slits.
"Because you seem to think everything in the world revolves around you, Kim. You think everything I do is somehow aimed at getting your goat. You think that because I might want to act civil around your boyfriend because I see him as a potential friend that it's just me trying to hurt you. Because under all that play-acting that you're some grown up hero, you're still a spoiled little girl who is always supposed to be the center of attention." She tilted her head over to where Ron was loading his things into the bus under the baleful glare of Steve Barkin. "Maybe he's starting to see that too." With that she turned and headed for the bus herself.
Kim felt a single tear run down her cheek. She glanced around. Her father was talking with another parent, so he hadn't overheard any of the exchange.
Then she started getting it. Bonnie was single now. She thought Ron was a great guy now. That was her angle. She was looking for an opening, any opening where she could drive a wedge between the two of them. Hah! Like that was ever going to happen. Who was it who held him in her arms Friday and Saturday night? Who had been sitting in his lap just forty minutes ago, kissing him with all the promise that one day their embrace would be so much more? Ron was the other half of her whole and she was his. What chance did Bonnie have of interfering with that?
"What was all that about?" Danika asked Bonnie as they climbed up onto the bus.
"Just Kim being her usual Princess self. Now she's on about what might have happened between me and Ron while we were in Japan."
Danika took a seat near the back of the bus, Bonnie taking one right behind her. The younger girl turned around in her seat and looked at her friend. "So what really did go on? Did you two fool around or something? I know I would want to, especially if he was the only guy around I knew."
"No. We just talked a lot, though his being the only guy I really knew did have a lot to do with it."
"Then why don't you come clean with Kim. Maybe the two of you need to clear the air about it."
Bonnie glared at the blonde. "I thought you were all 'go for Ron' and everything? Take the Queen bee down a peg and all?"
"I am." She said with a slight smile. "But if you keep throwing her into a rage like that." She pointed out the window at Kim, who was stowing her gear, her face still in full 'tweaked' mode. "All she's going to do is throw up a wall around her and Ron. She sees you coming from a mile away."
"It just doesn't seem right to me. If I go on about how much he loves her and how great a guy he really is, how's that going to help me?"
Danika shrugged. "I don't know. You're the one who's supposed to know about all this stuff. I'm just a sophomore and all."
Bonnie eyed her warily. She believed that about as much as she believed Ron was about to rush into the bus and propose to her on one knee.
Slowly it was starting to occur to her that Kim might not be the only rival the younger cheerleader wanted to take down a peg.
Kim sat down beside Ron halfway back in the bus. She could tell he was still a little steamed at her but he still held her hand as they got under way. The lodge was only thirty miles away but the winding road to there took a good solid hour plus, especially since the roads weren't in the best condition at the higher elevations.
It seemed odd that the only two 'adults' (more than half the seniors were eighteen by now, not including Kim and Ron, whose birthdays wouldn't be until late summer) were on the bus, and one of those was the driver, a thin guy with long, curly black hair and a laid-back attitude that made Ron seem absolutely hyper. He had just moved there from someplace called Springfield or Springland or something. There was little doubt he wasn't going to do much to reign in any of them. He had his headphones blaring the moment the doors closed.
That left Barkin in charge of the ride, though there was little doubt about his ability to keep order. He could cow most of them with a glare alone.
She was starting to have a glimmer of hope that Barkin would be their sole chaperone. That meant much better opportunities to sneak off with Ron, considering the only good make-out opportunity they'd had in the last two weeks was their early morning smooch-fest that last Saturday.
"All right, Listen up people. The lodge had a little problem with some of their rooms. Seems they went too many years without replacing the roof and that blizzard was the straw that broke the proverbial camel's back, so we've had to find some alternative lodging nearby."
Kim closed her eyes. There was one place that was only five or six miles from the ski lodge that was equipped to handle a group this size. She felt her boyfriend's hand tighten on hers.
"The rest of out chaperones will be meeting us there. I'm sure some of you who went to cheer-camp last year will remember…"
"…Camp Gottagrin."
Kim heard Ron gulp. She knew for a fact Gottagrin wasn't the real name for the place.
Once again, they were returning to Camp Wannaweep.
Kim Possible and all related characters © Disney