Shocked

Disclaimer: Hear ye Hear ye, now therefore let all those present bear witness to this statement. I the author of this story own absolutely nothing herein excepting the plot.

Chapter Eleven: The dance(s)

Ron's POV

Ron and Tara stopped dancing and politely applauded as the band finished up its song, Ron spared a glance over to the snack table where Rufus was busy stuffing himself with cheese, the vet had finally given the little guy a clean bill of health and the first thing his little pal had wanted to do was gorge on cheese at the snack table.

Turning his attention back to his 'date' Ron started desperately thinking of how to get through this entire night without somehow having to dance with Bonnie and/or Kim. Not that he wouldn't enjoy dancing with either, he'd certainly enjoy it, perhaps even too much. That was of courses assuming they didn't drive him crazy first.

After her little stunt in the cafeteria, Kim had seemed to get a hold of herself and that had just made matters even worse. Before that it had somehow seemed, despite appearances, that Kim and Bonnie were more or less back to their old ways, with Ron simply stuck in the middle. Now though it was clear to all that Bonnie and Kim had it bad for him.

And really, how was a teenage male, or any warm blooded man for that matter, supposed to pick between the two, it just wasn't fair. And that was before he even got to missions, they had never managed to track down the syntho-goo Drakken had stolen, and just last night Shego had tried to kidnap the head of Nakasumi toys, though they had foiled that.

In short, Ron wanted a vacation from his life, trying to balance Kim, Bonnie, and missions was too much for one amateur ninja to handle. Vacation though was not an option for Ron, so in the meantime he decided he'd try to get through tonight.

Turning to Tara, Ron went for the gold, "So Tara, any chance I can get a few more dances out of you tonight?"

Tara though saw right through it, "You're just trying to not have to dance with Kim or Bonnie tonight aren't you?"

"Yes," Ron decided on the direct approach, "is it going to work?"

Tara must have delighted in his suffering because she started laughing, "No, but they do only get one dance each. I won't be that mean to you."

Ron bit back a sigh, this was the part he'd been dreading all night long as long as he was dancing with Tara it was simple, no attachments, no feelings. But as soon as he started dancing with Bonnie or Kim things got complicated, neither was going to pass up the opportunity to try and win out over the other, and Ron didn't relish being the target one bit.

"Come on," Tara said as she started dragging him over to where Kim and Bonnie had claimed a table, "since you can't decide who to dance with first, I'll just make them rock, paper, scissors for who gets to dance first."

Ron gulped as they finally got to the table, he'd avoided looking at Kim or Bonnie all night, but now that he had to he feared greatly for his higher brain functions. Kim had brought out the little black dress and Ron thought he needed to ask Bonnie if she knew Yori in addition to Sensei, because her Asian style dress with a high slit looked like something Yori might have given her.

Tara must have been taking delight at his misery, she was entirely too cheerful as she sat down, "Alright ladies, I promised you both a dance with Ron and it's time to deliver on that. And since I'd rather you two not rip each others hair out, Rock, Paper, Scissors, best 3 out of 5."

Ron felt something on his shoulder and looked over to see that Rufus had climbed up onto his shoulder to see what was happening.

"A little help here," Ron implored the naked mole rat.

"Uh uh," Rufus squeaked as he shook his head with great conviction.

"Traitor," Ron mumbled as he watched Kim and Bonnie continue to play rounds with far too much enthusiasm for such a simple game.

5 minutes later the two were tied with two wins apiece and had tied the last eight rounds running. Tara apparently lacked the patience to see the game to its conclusion because she reached over into her purse and pulled out a quarter.

"Ok you two," she said, "call it in the air and whoever calls it gets the first dance."

Bonnie and Kim fixed their gazes onto the quarter and as Tara flipped it into the air Bonnie called "Tails!" as Kim called "Heads!"

The coin landed in Tara's hand and she flipped it over onto her other hand before pulling her hand away to reveal the coin had come up to heads. Ron saw the victorious smirk on Kim's face and the scowl on Bonnie's, he was at a loss as to why it really mattered, both were going to get a dance.

Still though, he had promised Tara that both Kim and Bonnie would get a dance, so putting aside as best he could, his own internal conflicts about Bonnie and Kim, Ron proffered his hand for Kim and led her to the dance floor.

Bonnie's POV

Bonnie did her best not to fume as Kim practically draped herself over Ron as he led her to the dance floor, it was only one dance she told herself, and she would get the next one. Regardless, Bonnie sat back down at the table with a rather foul taste in her mouth and turned her attention to Tara who was sitting down looking entirely too calm.

"Oh don't be so prissy about it Bonnie," Tara said without ever looking at her, "you'll get a dance too, and it's not like this is some slow dance." Bonnie noticed that Tara was at least right about that, the music wasn't a particularly good song for dancing to.

"Hmmph," Bonnie snorted, "just look at her, she's almost molesting him out there. Tell me that can't make for a healthy relationship."

Tara looked over at her in disbelief, and Bonnie also noticed Ron's naked mole rat looking up at her with much the same look on his little face.

"Bonnie," Tara scoffed, "Kim is not trying to have her way with him out there and I know you won't either. I know you two are being less ridiculous than before, but still you and Kim need to keep a lid on it."

Rufus just nodded his agreement, his mouth being too stuffed with something for him to squeak out his opinion.

"I just know she's still trying to shove me off of missions," Bonnie said sulking, "but it was her fault we got tangled on Shego's jet, and she still didn't manage to kidnap that Nakasumi guy."

"I'll bet you," Tara said in a far too even voice, "That when you're out there dancing with Ron that Kim will say exactly what you're saying here. Both of you have had your fair share of not so brilliant moments over the last few months."

"Well hers was the whole time, I fixed mine well before she stopped dating Monkey." Even Bonnie thought she was sounding a bit petulant with that.

"Yeah," Tara said, "I have plans over break so if you could keep your arch-enemies from taking over the world, that would be great. Just, you know, don't let your little contest over Ron get in the way of missions."

Bonnie gave Tara a look half between a glare and disbelief, "Are you on my side in this or not Tara?"

"No," Tara said, "But I'm not on Kim's side either, I'd rather not pick sides but if I have to I come down on Ron's side. And before you go saying that Kim has her friends behind her, I know that Monique would say the same thing to Kim that I'm telling you right now."

"Yeah, yeah," Bonnie heard Rufus squeak, she saw the little guy had made his way over to stand by Tara so they made a unified front of sorts.

Bonnie sighed, "Look, I know acting a bit off, but I'm not going to let Kim get Ron, she'll drop him just like she did last time as soon as she sees a new pretty face, and I want to make sure Ron doesn't get hurt like that. And I guess the idea of going out with him isn't that bad."

"It's about time you own up to it," Tara giggled, "now get up because Ron and Kim are done and it's your turn to dance."

Bonnie shot up from her seat and hurriedly smoothed her dress as Kim sat down and Ron proffered his hand for her to take.

Kim's POV

"Just look at her," Kim growled, "She's practically molesting him out there. There is no way she can be good for him."

"Kim," Tara said patiently, "Bonnie's not any closer to him than you were out there, so don't worry."

"But…" Kim stalled, "She's almost trying to make out with him out there, and she even got a slow dance, just look, she's about to plant one on him in front of everyone."

Kim stopped ranting as her venting at Bonnie from afar brought up a certain topic she had yet to discuss with Tara.

"Hey, um Tara," Kim said much more slowly, "I never did apologize for… well you know… I never did apologize for kissing you that one day."

Kim saw she had Tara's full attention and the blonde's cheeks were tinged a light pink.

"It's fine," Tara said softly, "you weren't exactly yourself yet and it didn't really do much to me."

Kim shook her head as she said, "It was still way over the line though and if you're angry at me I understand entirely."

This time it was Tara who shook her head as she giggled and said, "I'm not angry at you, I mean it wasn't like it was a bad kiss or anything. And seeing all the guys bowled over like that, I think it might well have been worth it."

Kim laughed briefly before calming herself and saying, "I wish I could have actually been myself enough to remember that. But are you sure you're not angry, I mean you just sat there, you didn't even kiss back."

Tara almost bristled with indignation, "Well that's because I was shocked still, you aren't a bad kisser and if I had been a bit less out of it I would have kissed back."

They both sat there briefly before Tara said, "That came out all wrong didn't it?"

"Was there a right way?" Kim pondered.

"I don't think there really was." Tara said softly looking down at the table

"I'm sorry I'm taking all my problems out on you," Kim said after a little bit, "it's just that I'm so worried Ron is going to ask Bonnie to prom and then I don't know who would ask me."

Tara chuckled, an odd sound to Kim before she said, "I don't think anyone is going to ask me, when Josh asked me to this dance I didn't just tell him no rather bluntly, I slapped him as hard as I could and now I think that reputation is scarring away any guys who would want to ask me."

Kim sighed before saying, "Not to mention the whole school saw me plant that one on you in the cafeteria, who knows what they think about that. So I guess with me probably losing out to Bonnie and every guy in the school too scared to ask you, we're gonna have a nice lonely prom."

"We've got to do something about that," Tara said with conviction returning to her voice, "I refuse to have the high point of my dating life this year be you kissing me while you were still freaking out over Josh breaking up with you."

"You're right," Kim hitting the table with her palm, "we're two attractive women, if Ron wants to take Bonnie to the prom that's his loss and it's too bad for all the guys here if they don't want to ask you. Tell you what Tara, if no one asks either of us to prom, we'll just go together and have a girl's night out."

"That's perfect," Tara said enthusiastically, "we'll get the perfect dresses and drop every jaw there."

"And," Kim said with a scheme already forming in her mind, "We'll have to make it a goal to get as many girls to hit their dates upside the head as possible because they're ogling us."

"Then it's a deal?" Tara said as she stuck out her hand.

"Deal," Kim said taking it, "Rufus you be our witness to this."

The naked mole rat just nodded as Ron and Bonnie walked back to the table having been lost awhile ago to the two's schemes.

Ron's POV

Ron marveled at how well he had survived the dance as he rode his scooter to school the first morning back from spring break. The dances with Kim and Bonnie had been remarkably incident free, and Tara had been a great sport about just going as friends.

Not that he was any closer, but with Rufus riding on his shoulder Ron felt like he could actually decide who to ask to prom, and maybe even that they could stop Drakken and Shego and whatever scheme the villains had cooked up this time.

Ron pulled into the school parking lot ready to take on the world, just as he was about to cruise his scooter into an empty parking spot someone on a motorcycle roared into the spot in a screeching stop.

"Hey!" Ron managed to cough out, that had been his spot.

The mystery rider took off his helmet, he looked to be about Ron's age with brown hair, but Ron didn't know him. The man looked and saw that Ron had been about to park there.

"Oh I'm sorry," he said as he started moving his bike, "I think there's enough room for both of us here."

"Thanks man," Ron said as he moved his scooter into the newly made space, "I don't think I know you though."

"I'm not surprised," the man said sticking out his hand for Ron to shake it, "I'm new here, my name's Eric, nice to meet you."

AN: Up a bit later than I normally try to get these up, but I'm more or less on the internet and I can do this. You should all know where this story is headed now, Ch 12 is done so if the internet keeps working that should be up Friday. What my being back at school means to you, I haven't figured that out yet, hopefully I can finish Shocked before homework really gets going, but after this who knows. All that said, hope you enjoyed this chapter and are looking forward to Ch 12.