Where Did the Time Go? : Part XXXVI

"…so I'm like what…ever and he just goes 'forget you' and he just walks off." Bonnie said, looking skyward and waving her hands around as she walked.

"Jerk." Danika replied.

"S'ha. He thought he was like this major hottie and he was like all ripped and stuff but hotness, now way. Then I told him to take me home and he got all weird like he was going to leave me there and everything. He finally figured it out and took me, but he got all high-horse and said I could forget him taking me to the Prom, like I was really going to let that sack of meat take me anywhere again. Like there's going to be a Prom anyway." She played with a strand of hair. "Think I should go blonde, D?"

"Nah. You're too tan to pull off blonde, besides, I need somebody to contrast with me since I'm the only natural blonde on the squad."

Bonnie shot her a funny look, knowing that, if Danika Foster's hair color was completely natural then she was going to sprout wings and fly the rest of the way home. She also wasn't about to tell her that she had known Tara since they were six and she'd always had platinum blonde hair, though her one-time friend had added highlights the last couple years.

"Bon, what do you mean there's not going to be a prom? I'm dating a Senior, so I'm going to be going. Nobody else has said anything about there not being one."

"Didn't you hear? They can't use the gym, so they had to sign up for the ballroom at some nasty hotel but it's going to cost almost a thousand dollars just to hold the space and twelve hundred to rent it. There's no way the Prom Comm is going to come up with that much scratch. Last year they held fund-raisers all spring and they could only come up with three hundred bucks."

"Didn't you hear?" the younger cheerleader responded in a haughty tone. "Kim showed up at the Principal's office today and plunked down a whole eight hundred dollars in cash."

"What?" Bonnie stopped in her tracks, her eyes like saucers, her mouth hanging open in shock. "How in the world did she come up with that much money?"

Danika stopped and looked at her 'mentor.' "Sounds to me like somebody doesn't actually want there to be a Prom. What's the matter, afraid you're not going to have a BF for the big day? Come on, Bon, it's still more than two months away, you'll find somebody, though just about all the marginally acceptable guys are already spoken for. You know, Hope's dating the star forward, Tara's dating that hot guy from Upperton U. I'm going with Chad. In fact, the only girls on the squad who won't be going are Marie and Phoebe and that's only because Marie's Mom won't let her date yet and Feeb's dating a Sophomore."

"Oh, I'll have a proper date. Now how did Possible manage that? I saw what she was planning and it was all lame."

"Didn't you go to the festival last Friday?"

"No. I don't need to see a bunch of pathetic losers in costumes riding on floats put together by the school geeks." Bonnie sneered.

"Then you sure missed out. Ron and Kim put up a booth set up like it was a fancy restaurant and Ron was the chef. By the time I got through the line all they had left was the chicken and it was out of this world. I'm sure it didn't hurt having Kim as the hostess either. The way I hear it, when Kim brought Principal Director the money this morning she was so impressed she fronted the rest of the down payment herself and is going to pay for the room today."

"That's…wonderful." Bonnie said, trying to sound upbeat about it.

"Don't worry about finding a date. I'm sure if you went stag there'd be plenty of guys to hang around with. I even hear some of the girls who came alone ended up going out with some of the guys they ended up dancing with."

Bonnie growled softly, wondering if Danika knew one of those girls ended up leaving the dance did so with Brick, only to dump him after a couple weeks for that geek in the wheelchair.

She kept her composure but inside she was seething with rage. It was all she could do last week to act shocked, disappointed and worried when Principal Director told them about the mix up. Her plan had been working to perfection and even she was shocked how much it was going to cost to rent the room. Considering the school's past performance at fund-raising, even with perky little miss-perfect's participation, there seemed to be no way they could come up with that kind of money.

Worst of it all, it was Kim and her loser boyfriend who had pulled off the coup without the planned events even having a chance to get off the ground. Sure, they were still three hundred dollars short the full amount but that was no longer a seemingly insurmountable figure. An actual frown formed on her face as she walked on, listening to the overly-chipper younger woman prattle on about who was dating who, then launching into a diatribe about her computer-scientist father and psychologist mother and how they seemed to control her life.

Visions of Kim and Ron filled her head, dressed once again in that burned dress and freakishly out-of-date tuxedo, making themselves the center of attention as they danced the night away, kissing and holding each other until they were chased out of there. She couldn't stand the thought of that happening again, nor could she tolerate the fact this year she was the one who didn't already have a steady boyfriend and probable date for what was supposed to be the most important night of their young lives.

Until five minutes ago it had all been perfect, all according to her plan. If she couldn't have a wonderful Senior Prom, then nobody would. Now it was on again and not only that, her nemesis made herself out as the hero again. Try as she might, she couldn't think of any way to stop the dance now. No, the only thing left to her was to take Kim Possible and that pathetic waste of oxygen she was in love with down.

It was definitely time to head to the photo shop and have prints made off her digital camera.

"Are you sure you have to go, KP?" Ron was sitting at her desk, watching as Rufus played Everlot. His avatar, a hulking warrior in gold armor with a mole rat's face was busy taking down a bunch of creatures that looked like they had been lifted directly out of Zombie Mayhem along side a smallish She-Warrior of the Ice Mountain. He kept trying to jump in the game himself, just to see if that actually was Zita but every time he reached for the mouse his little buddy would growl at him. After pretty much pulling their collective hides out of the fire when he and his friend had been literally trapped in the game, Rufus wasn't about to let his humans interfere with his role a the Tunnel Lord.

Kim finished buttoning her black blouse and stepped from behind her changing screen. She was dressed in her 'business mission' clothes; the blouse and a nearly olive colored knee length skirt. It was a far more conservative outfit than she normally wore but she felt it proper to wear what amounted to a uniform in a sitch like this. The more formal version of their mission clothes had been Ron's idea, though he had only had the occasion to dress that way a couple times.

She sighed. Oddly enough for a Monday, they had a fairly light amount of homework, there was no cheer practice and none of the committees or other groups they were involved with had any activities planned that day. It was also fairly nice out, though it had turned seasonably cold again. It was an otherwise perfect day for the teens to spend doing stuff together, which would have likely been a lot of nothing, a chance to unwind and decompress following the busy weekend. Even though the festival was counted as a 'date' they spent the greater part of that evening wrapping up Chez Ronald, helping clean up though the rest of the volunteer crew kept insisting the two of them take off and have a good time. Saturday was spent enjoying the tail-end of the warm snap wandering about town on foot, window shopping for the most part before going out dancing. Kim wore her super-low cut black jeans and a silky blouse of shining purple that ended just above her belly button. She ended up wearing Ron's jacket by the time they got home since a chill winter wind started blowing after dark but she didn't mind. Sunday turned into a family day. Ron went to church with them, then went with Kim to their monthly meeting with Rabbi Katz. They talked to him for almost four hours, though the session was a lot more conversation than couple's advice. Though they valued the Rabbi's guidance, they were running out of things to talk about that didn't broach subjects best left until after an official engagement.

Kim sat down beside her boyfriend and lightly stroked the center of his back with her hand. "This could be the last time for a while, Honey. Don't worry, it shouldn't take long."

"I just thought we were past all this." He looked slightly sad, leaning on his knees.

She frowned as well. "I don't think we'll ever be one hundred percent past this. It's part of who we are now but this is just a follow-up. Doctor Foster just wants to talk. If anything, this should go a lot like the talk we had with Rabbi Katz yesterday."

Ron put a hand on her knee, lightly stroking it with his thumb. "Do you want me to go with you or take you or something?"

Kim took his hand in hers, gently squeezing it. "No, Doctor Foster's office is in the GJ center. I'll take the tube there. You should just wait here for me." She glanced over at the computer where Rufus was frantically dancing on the keyboard, using it to direct his character since that was easier for him than working the mouse or the joystick. "I think Rufus is too into his game right now. You boys have fun, I'll be back before you know it and we can go hang at BN." She reached over and gave him a light kiss before resting her forehead against his.

He put his palm against her cheek. "I swear, KP, all these meeting seem to do is dredge up things it seems we best forget."

"I wish she would ask you to come talk to her, Ronnie. This hurt you every bit as much as it hurt me."

He shook his head. "No. I want this behind us where it can't make us feel bad any more. Go on and see the doctor so we can get this over with. I want my happy, bright KP back."

She leaned over and kissed him again, this time with much greater passion, gently cupping his ear. When she broke the kiss she whispered. "I am the happiest woman on the planet right now. We're just going to talk, that's all. If it weren't for Doctor Director making us official freelancers I wouldn't even consider going, but this amounts to an order so I have to." Her lips met his again, not parting from him for several minutes.

They were interrupted by a series of annoyed chitters and squeaks coming from her desk. Rufus sat on his haunches, his tiny arms crossed as his character reloaded. Both teens walked over to see what was happening.

"What happened, Rufe?" Ron asked, trying to make sense of the stats displayed on the screen.

Rufus sat up and started doing charades since his limited ability to speak couldn't convey the more complex things he was trying to say. Kim watched, having no idea what any of it meant.

"He said there's a new griefer in Everlot."

"Griefer?"

"Yeah, a player who likes to take out the other players so he can get ahead. You know, like Malcolm."

"Oh." She rested her hand on his back, just below his belt, her thumb stuck under his shirt lightly stoking his bare skin.

"Who is it?" He asked, punching up some of the logs.

Rufus just shrugged, then excitedly pointed as one of the characters popped up on the screen.

The player was female, or at least their avatar was. It was dressed completely in form-fitting black armor, not unlike what their one-time online nemesis, the "Wraith Master" had worn. The screen name of the player was Princess Dan, though the rest was marked anonymous.

"Oh, her." He muttered, letting the screen go back to the home page.

"Who's that?" Kim asked, checking to make sure her Kimmunicator had a full charge before putting it in her purse. Once Wade loaded a new operating system, it had performed flawlessly.

"Danika Foster. It figures she'd turn into a griefer."

"Why's that?" Kim put the Kimmunicator in her purse which she slung onto her shoulder as she got ready to leave.

"She's a real know-it-all with computers. Real snooty about it too. She turned up as Princess Dan a couple months ago. Guess she's gotten onto a power trip or something. I sure hope that is Z that Rufus is playing with. She'll show her a thing or two." He pursed his lip in thought. "Hey, is this Doctor Foster you're going to see any relation to Danika?"

"I don't know. I never met Danika's mother, just her father. He's some kind of computer guru for a security company. I'll ask her while I'm down there." She pulled him close for one more kiss. "I'll be back as quick as I can, Baby."

"For those kind of kisses, I'd wait until your father kicks me out of the house." He said, letting his hand drop across her backside momentarily."

"Yeah, I can't wait to get back and get out of these clothes."

"Mmmm." He purred, wagging his eyebrows.

"And into something more my style, perv." She grinned widely at him as she turned to go downstairs.

Ron turned back to the computer, cracking his knuckles loudly over the keyboard. "Okay, Rufus, let's see what Princess Dan thinks of the New Knight of Rhodagan."

Rufus just rolled his eyes and shook his head, squeaking "Oh boy."

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