Monique saw two of the cheerleaders, Hope and Liz, gossiping and knew she needed in on this. It had to be about Bonnie's new boy toy. She was at least an associate to most of the popular girls, mainly so she could get the dirty on most news almost the instant it happened.
"Hey girls, WAWTA?" (What are we talking about?) At least half of the cheerleaders could understand Monique speak due to how much they texted each other
Hope and Liz giggled "I think you know." Liz, the pale redhead, said.
"The new stud in town" Hope, the olive skinned girl said
"Who knew that boy was hiding muscles like that under those baggy clothes, have you seen his chest?" Monique said
"Forget his chest, look at those arms! The things he could do to me. mmmmmm" Hope said, which made Liz giggle again, obviously she was having a similar thought pattern
"Too bad he always has those arms wrapped around one girl now, forget the things he could do to me. I'm thinking about the things I would do to him girl." Monique stated, dreamy eyed. "How did Bonnie get lucky enough to find a man like that?"
"I heard he spent the last few years buffing up for Bonnie. Exercising every day and doing missions so he could be cool enough to get her attention. Then he told her about how he felt. He's not just strong, he's sensitive" Liz was practically gushing at this point
"Yea, because dudes love talking about their feelings." Monique rolled her eyes
"You know Ron is different, probably better than both of us. You're Kim's best girl friend and they're super tight."
"The tightest, he doesn't kiss and tell though." Monique uttered with a sad face that at least in some capacity was not feigned. That gossip is supernova hot right now but hard to come by.
"That's too bad." the cheerleaders said in unison, liz biting her lip.
"Girls I'm sorry, I have to talk to a teacher before lunch I'll ttyl" Monique said
After their goodbye hugs Monique walked around the corner, where she was promptly snatched into an empty classroom. When she got a look at her captor she couldn't help but groan.
"What's up?" Kim said with narrow eyes
"You know what's up, I haven't heard anything new yet. Besides maybe possibly that Ron works out a lot. Like daily a lot."
"I know that, Bonnie said something about liking it when Ron glistened at cheer practice." Kim said, her frown growing deeper as she watched Monique's smirk grow. "I am not jelling, I do not jell, stop looking at me like that. I have Josh."
"Uh huh, I'm guessing Josh doesn't look like that though." Monique's smirk reached critical mass
"I DO NOT, JELL! I just don't trust queen bitch around Ron," Kim looked down and spoke softly "she's changed him."
"For the better, I caught a glimpse of those abs in phys ed. Woo girl."
"What if she hurts him? Bonnie might just be using him to get to me. You know she hates me." Kim said while pouting.
Monique cast a doubtful eye. "I doubt its a game to mess with you. She laughed in Brick's face while he was publicly humiliated. Not everything is about you girl."
"Monique I'm serious. He said we haven't been friends in a while, and that we've never really been partners." Kim said
Monique stood awkwardly quiet looking at the ground for a few seconds. This wasn't going to be pleasant.
"What?" Kim tried to get Monique to talk again
"Kim, I thought he was your sidekick and I'm one of your best friends. You two also haven't been tight in a while." Monique finally spoke up
"But you just said…."
Monique cut her off "I know what I said back there, I didn't think you cared honestly. I just figured if Bonnie hasn't been blaring about how Ron is all hers and how you all aren't tight anymore then Ron must still care about not putting you out there like that."
"Why wouldn't I care? Ron is…." Kim corrected herself with a depressed face "Ron was my best friend."
"Girl you know I've got your back one hundred percent and wouldn't trash you," Monique reached out and grabbed Kim's hand to comfort her for the next part "but you and Ron haven't been tight since you and Josh got together. I figured he did something to aggravate you. You two haven't hung out in like a year."
Kim let her hand slide slowly out of Monique's. "I let my best friend slip away, how can I fix it?"
"I don't know girl." Monique pulled Kim into a hug that she eventually returned "but whatever you decide I'm here for you."
The rest of the day was kind of a blur for Kim. She just wanted to crash when she got home. She had no idea how to fix things with Ron. She messed up badly on so many levels. Even before Josh she hadn't done a good enough job of letting everyone know they were partners. Even the team name was just named after her. "No wonder he thinks I think of him as just a sidekick."
Kim came through the front door and her mom tried to give her a hug until she saw the extremely depressed look on her face.
"No big?" Ann said
"Yes big. Yes very big" Kim started tearing up
"Let's go to your room Kimmie cub. You probably want to talk in private." As she was walking up the stairs she gave her twin boys a stern look. They both understood not to disturb Kim and their mother right now. It wasn't the time.
After the door was shut she began to question her daughter "What's wrong dear?"
"I lost my best friend almost a year ago and didn't realize it. Now he's dating my worst enemy."
"Shego? How did he pull that off?" Ann joked,
It elicited a slight chuckle from Kim "I guess that was a little dramatic. I meant Bonnie."
"Now, what makes you say you lost him Kimmie cub? You've been best friends since you were kids"
Kim explained the entire situation to the best of her knowledge. How she drifted away from Ron as she got closer to Josh, how she cut the mission time so she could spend more time with him, how Bonnie was a being of pure evil that would hurt Ron, all of it.
"You're really convinced Bonnie is just using him?" Ann said
"Yes! What other reason would she have to date him? She insulted him all the time." Kim thought it was obvious
"Kimmie cub, you're not giving Ronald enough credit."
"How?"
"To you, and maybe to all of us this is normal. To most civilians it's not. You just see your goofy best friend. Bonnie sees a boy that regularly goes out and saves at least a country. Bonnie sees someone brave. Bonnie sees a boy who was loyal enough that when his friend needed backup to take on dangerous criminals at twelve, he happily went along with it. If anything Bonnie thinks she isn't good enough for him." Ann could have gone on longer but felt her point was made. Her daughter didn't think about how special what they did was.
"I get it mom, Ron is nothing to sneeze at. You didn't see how she use to treat him though, she hated him more than me." Kim said, the more she thought about it the more confusing it was
"Kimmie cub, how has Bonnie been treating you the past few weeks?"
Kim started thinking back to the last heinous act Bonnie performed, it should be easy since she does it daily. Except it wasn't. Bonnie still acted like Bonnie, kinda, but she didn't really pay attention to her.
"She...hasn't cared about me at all. Why?" Kim looked at her mother with doe eyes, wondering where this train was going
Ann laughed, teenagers always thought things were more complex than they really were "And how did you react when Bonnie came around you and Ron?"
"I snapped back of course! I had to defend my best friend and I. Bonnie is always scheming and plotting. Besides that she was just plain ruthless to Ron. I kept her away as much as I could." Her mother began laughing harder "Mom have you lost it?"
"Kimmie, I think Bonnie just liked Ron and wanted to get his attention." Ann said, wiping away tears as her laughter calmed down
"That doesn't even make sense, why would you insult and demean someone you like? She could have just asked him out like a normal non evil human being"
"She didn't have a choice Kim."
"What?"
"You just said yourself whenever she got close you attacked like a bear protecting her cub." Ann said
"That can't...No" Kim wanted to deny it but everything made perfect sense with that explanation. Bonnie wouldn't just start dating Ron overnight
"I'm going to go put dinner on Kim." Ann still chuckled to herself as she left the room, her daughter's shock the new source of her laughter. Kim stopped her before her exit. She had one more question
"Mom, how can I fix this?"
Ann had a response easily prepared "Part of growing up is time management. A Possible can do anything, that does not mean you should do everything. In short, make him a priority in your life. I think the world will keep turning if you drop a few of the places you volunteer at Kim."
"Mom, you don't understand how much they need me! I can't do that."
"Kim, I'm one of the world's top brain surgeons, yet I still make my family breakfast, dinner, and spend as much time as I can with all of you. You have to decide what is important to you and make time for it." Ann saw her daughter was at an actual loss for words this time, so after a quick hug she walked away
Kim flung herself onto her bed and stared at her ceiling, wide eyed "What is the most important to me?" she said out loud. After some time in thought she realized it wasn't even a contest. She knew what was most important to her.
Ron
Ron sat on his couch thinking after school. Bonnie wouldn't be back for at least another hour. After cheer practice she said something about shopping with Tara. On some level he did realize how it could be attractive to drop everything to spend every waking moment with your partner like Kim, whenever Bonnie wasn't in his arms he felt like a little piece of him was missing. At the same time he wouldn't give up saving the world for Bonnie, he would not give up his sensei, and he wouldn't ditch Wade or Rufus for her. He was actually extremely happy for Bonnie when she realized she had an actual close friend that cared about her.
The only negative part of that is it made him think about Kim. He didn't know where their friendship stood and she hadn't talked to him since their interaction earlier in the week. He caught her glaring a few times but after what they talked about it didn't seem that weird. He also couldn't get a handle on what they talked about himself. Bonnie made it pretty obvious for him he was holding back, understanding why he was doing so and how much he was doing it was a whole other thing. He decided to ask sensei for help. Maybe he could unlock his potential through some mystical monkey ritual or something.
The only problem was how was, how can he ask sensei for help? He's an old dude that sits under a waterfall in a mountain most of the time. It's not like he had a ninja master cell phone. Flying there just to ask a couple of questions that he may not have the answer to also seemed ridiculous. The only thing he could think of was contacting him in a dream. He had no idea how that worked though, and once he was asleep he couldn't control himself. He can't exactly sleep and focus at the same time. Unless…
"That's it! I can meditate!" He wasn't sure if it would work like he was planning but it was his best shot at this point. Sensei did say he was far from a pond now, maybe he could do it.
Sensei had let him know in no uncertain terms that his sitting position really didn't matter as much as most people thought it did, so he decided to make himself comfortable on the couch. Rufus crawled up and told Ron he wanted to join in. Ron put rufus' back on his stomach so his little buddy could sit comfortably then they began meditating.
He began to slow down his breathing then concentrated, first on his breath, then he thought of sensei, and only him. He thought a few minutes passed and decided to open his eyes, just for a second. He was in a black void with Rufus.
"Woah, far out little buddy. We did it!" Ron and Rufus high fived. He hadn't found sensei yet but he had entered deep meditation. It was a start.
Ron looked around, him and rufus had blue auras. It was calming but also made him feel powerful. He had no idea what sensei's would look like. Then he almost felt as if something was calling for him, by instinct he just knew it wasn't malicious. He closed his eyes again. Willing himself and Rufus towards the source. Suddenly he just felt at peace, he heard the waterfall and the birds chirping then opened his eyes. Sensei was gazing at him from above again, with an actual smile. It was a little creepy honestly.
"Stoppable-san, Rufus-ran, it is good to see you once again. I am honored by your presence." Sensei then did a slight bow. Rufus squeaked back in his molerat voice in what sensei assumed was a hello.
"Man I really didn't think this would work." Ron said, sensei was still smiling at him which made him uncomfortable "Uh, sensei sir why are you doing that with your face?"
Sensei chuckled into his fist then replied "Forgive me for being happy Stoppable-san, it won't happen again."
"No sensei, I mean I've never seen you smile. I don't understand what is making you smile right now." he said, trying to make a save
"Stoppable- san this is a great achievement. Not many can reach this stage of meditation and control. Did you come to show me your progress?" Sensei managed to tone down his smile to a smirk. He did not wish to creep out his student
Ron scratched the back of his head "Uh….yea that's not why I'm here. I kind of just guessed it would work."
Sensei held in his excitement. "He really is the chosen one." "Why have you come?"
"Well, I guess this has the same thing to do with last time. You probably don't want to get bogged down with all the details but I have a feeling I'm holding myself back and I was wondering if you could help me tap into the power I'm repressing."
"I can not help you Stoppable-san"
"I understand sensei." Ron hunched over a little depressed, Rufus came over and patted his leg
"No, you misunderstand. I can not help you, for you must help yourself."
Ron's face contorted into a confused mess "I'm not even sure where to begin on deciphering what that means."
"I can not help you, since the answer can only be found within yourself." Sensei said,
Ron looked almost as confused as before and began to think for a bit, until he was startled. He watched Rufus poof out of his meditation existence and fear crossed his face
"Do not worry Stoppable-san, it just means our time for now is at an end. I will see you again soon." He went back to his calm meditative face
Ron wanted to ask more about how to find the answer within himself, but he was poofed away as well.
I know I know, not enough fluff in this chapter. I promise we will be getting back to the fluff real soon. A lot of things needed to be resolved and I wanted to show how RonBon are seen from the outside. The next update won't take nearly as long. I had a terrible month but I'm back now.