Shocked

Disclaimer: If I owned Kim Possible, I wouldn't be living in university housing.

Chapter Thirteen: Strange bedfellows

Ron's POV

"I just don't get it," Ron said, "Trying to kidnap Nakasumi, doing something with Kim's dad. Kids toys and rocket science, I just don't know what Drakken and Shego are up to."

"Don't forget that we still haven't found out what they plan on doing with that syntho-goo they stole." Bonnie added, "Does he actually have a plan or are they just going on a crime spree?"

"He's got some sort of plan," Kim mused, "Shego would have put a stop to it by now if it was just running around. But I still don't get what their plan is."

"And that's just the half of it," Ron groaned, "Bueno Nacho is going to stop selling the Naco period. Can this get any worse?"

Ron noticed Bonnie grimace at his last statement and hurried to save himself, "But that's just that, other things are going great. The Ronster is keeping some very nice company these days."

Kim smiled and said, "Well the Ronster is going to have to be one short of his company for the rest of the day, Eric and I are hanging out at the park today."

Kim then waltzed out of Bueno Nacho leaving a grimacing Bonnie and bummed out Ron behind.

"We should tell her," Bonnie said, "it's not like it'll matter since she's all gaga over Eric, but she still deserves to know."

Ron just sighed, they hadn't told Kim that Ron had asked Bonnie to prom, they couldn't think of a way that could actually get across their thoughts that Eric was miles of bad road and that Kim should actually go with Tara without the whole thing sounding convoluted and overly intellectual.

"I know," Ron said at last, "but I just can't see how we do it without making Kim really angry and tanking any chance Tara has with her."

"Are you still sure you want to go to prom with me?" Bonnie asked with her eyes downcast, "If you just dropped this whole thing you could steal Kim right out from under Eric's nose, and I can handle myself alone at prom."

Ron sighed again, this time though in exasperation before saying, "Bonnie I am sure I want to go to prom with you, I wouldn't have asked if I wasn't. This won't be easy to pull off but Rabbi Katz told me that nothing worth doing ever is. Kim's going to end up going to prom with Tara, get over her whole fear of people shunning her for that, and we'll have a great time there."

Bonnie smiled shyly before leaning over and pecking Ron on the cheek. "Thanks," she said, "I needed a bit of an ego boost there, I should be heading off though. I was going to try and catch Tara, maybe convince her to actually try and make her going with Kim a real date, then Eric can't do anything."

Ron just sat there smiling stupidly as Rufus poked his head out of Ron's pocket to see what was going on. Seeing that Bonnie was about to leave the naked mole rat waved to Bonnie who smiled back.

Ron finally pulled himself back together and decided to head to the park and see if he could get any notes for him and Bonnie to try and nudge Kim and Eric apart. A bit of a low scheme Ron thought, but it was Bonnie's idea, and he was willing to do it for his best friend if it meant keeping her from pulling a second Monkey.

Hoping on his scooter Ron made his way to the Middleton park and started looking for Kim and Eric. They weren't exactly hard to find, he just had to ask after a sickly sweet teenage couple. So 5 minutes later Ron was found sitting in a tree as Kim and Eric frolicked, yes frolicked, across one of the park's many fields.

"Man this is sick," Ron whispered to Rufus, "I'd almost take Monkey over this."

Rufus just responded by gagging and mocking sticking his finger down his throat.

Looking around Ron was unsurprised to spot Tara sitting on a bench, almost everywhere that he and Bonnie had trailed the hopefully unhappy couple they had spotted Tara. Both of them just took this as further proof that Kim and Tara were meant for each other.

Pulling out his cell phone he dialed Bonnie, "Let me guess," she said, "Tara is at the park."

"Yep," Ron replied, "I think I'll go join her, maybe make the perfect couple less perfect."

"Have fun with that," Bonnie laughed, "and it's nice to see I'm rubbing off on you."

"Well I certainly think I've rubbed off enough on you." Ron said hoping down from the tree, "You don't bite heads off anymore, I haven't heard anything about the food chain, and I saw you sneak a bite of my Naco last weekend."

Ron could practically see Bonnie pout as she said, "You can't prove anything, now go help us break up Kim and Eric. I'll be at the mall if you need anything."

Bonnie hung up with that and Ron put the phone back in his pocket as he walked over to where Tara was sitting on the bench.

"Hey," Ron said as he sat down, "thought you could use some company."

"Hey Ron," Tara blinked as though surprised at his presence, "I thought you'd be hanging out with Bonnie."

"I was," Ron shrugged his shoulders, "but that doesn't mean I can't spend some time with my friends."

Tara smiled wanly before muttering, "I wish someone would get that across to Kim, this is worse than when she was with Josh. Now she won't even admit I exist."

Ron wanted to jump for joy, even though he was unhappy that this was happening to Tara, she had just told him that he and Bonnie were entirely right in their theory of why Kim was attaching to Eric so fast.

"Don't worry," Ron patted Tara on the shoulder, "I'm sure that before you know it Kim is going to realize that there are better people out there for her. And then who knows what will happen."

Tara smiled a real smile up at him and Ron silently promised himself that he'd do whatever it took to make sure that Kim and Tara went to prom together. He then silently chuckled at how 'Bonnie' that thought seemed.

Ron was pulled from his thoughts as he saw Tara getting up, turning to him she said, "Thanks for the talk Ron, but I really should be heading home. And don't feel so bad about Kim going with Eric, our going together was only if someone didn't ask either of us."

With that she walked off leaving Ron frowning at her retreating form, turning to look at Kim and Eric still frolicking about he resisted the urge to knock some sense into Kim because he was her best friend. Okay, maybe the urge was because she was his best friend, but either way he was not going to sit this out and watch as Kim pulled another Monkey.

Ron got up and walked back to his scooter, he'd head over to the mall and see if he could find Bonnie. Regardless of where their relationship might be heading he'd take this chance to spend time with one of his friends before delving back into what would count as a soap opera if it didn't have a good plot.

Arriving at the mall what seemed to Ron to be far too much time later, he started walking around hoping to spot some sign of Bonnie. He cruised what he'd found to be Bonnie's normal route through the mall, hoping that since he was a man on a mission and not a woman shopping that he could catch up to her even if she was pretty far into her shopping.

Even so it was another 15 minutes before he finally spotted her, holding remarkably few bags for being almost three quarters done with her shopping. Bonnie was standing next to some display advertising something, Ron couldn't see what it was but he could guess that Bonnie didn't like it one bit from the look on her face.

Sneaking up behind her Ron tapped Bonnie on the shoulder causing her to jump before turning and glaring at him. "What do you think you're doing Ron, you almost gave me a heart attack. And aren't you supposed to be watching Kim and Eric to see if we can use anything to break them up?"

"Yeah," Ron said bashfully, "Tara left to go home and Kim and pretty boy weren't exactly doing anything that required higher brain functions, so I decided to skip out and come spread some Ronshine to a friend."

Bonnie smiled at him and turned to point at the display while she said, "Well I'm going to need a healthy dose of Ronshine, the circus is coming to town."

"Why's that?" Ron asked puzzled as to why Bonnie was so miffed about this fact, it wasn't like she had to go or anything afraid of clowns as she was.

Bonnie just sighed at him, "They have parades, and those parades have clowns in them, lots and lots of clowns…" Bonnie finished off shuddering and then gasped in shock as carnival music started echoing down the corridor.

"Not here, not here, not here…" She started muttering as she shook her head back and forth.

"Bonnie, are you alright?" Ron made no effort to hide his concern as he wrapped an arm around Bonnie's shoulders.

Just then a man in a bright red coat with a baton rounded the corner and behind him were clowns, lots and lots of clowns, even Ron was a bit put off by the sheer number of clowns.

Bonnie took it slightly less well, she let out a high pitched shriek and jumped into Ron's arms wrapping her arms around his neck. Ron stuck out his other arm under her legs to keep them both from falling and as Bonnie tucked her head into his neck Ron felt his face go at least as red as the hockey jersey he was wearing.

It had just occurred to him that he was holding Bonnie bridal style, and the brunette molded into him perfectly not to mention that she was feather light in his arms. She stayed that way for a good 5 minutes till the last of the parade music faded, they had apparently been standing at the very start of the route and this was the cause for their lack of warning.

Finally Bonnie opened her eyes and stared up at Ron, he was shocked to see not the snarky Bonnie who went on missions, or the competitive Bonnie who had recently vied against Kim to be his prom date, this Bonnie seemed almost timid and child like, Ron was left to wonder just how deep her fear of clowns truly went.

"Are the clowns gone?" Bonnie asked in a small and shaky voice.

Ron just nodded not trusting his voice to get across what he needed to convey to Bonnie given his own confusion. Ron then gently lowered Bonnie to the ground, she stood there for almost a minute more with her arms around his neck and her face buried in his chest.

At last she unhooked her hands and pulled back to look Ron in the face, he was more than a bit relieved to see the Bonnie he knew. "You okay?" He asked still not making any effort to hide his concern.

"Yeah," Bonnie replied, her voice still a bit shaky, "That wasn't my best moment though, what do you say we head on out of here?"

"Sounds like a good idea," Ron said as he picked up the bags Bonnie had dropped when she jumped into his arms, "I've even got a bit to tell you about Kim and Tara that I think you'll want to hear."

Bonnie's POV

Embarrassed? Understatement of the century.

Mortified? Surely you jest.

Appalled? Not even close.

Want to crawl under a rock and hide from the world forever? Bonnie thought that might maybe possibly come close to the range of what she had been feeling for the last week. The only small miracle that had occurred was that no one she or Ron knew had seen her little episode during and after the parade.

And even as glad as she was to hear Tara confirm what she thought about Kim and her best friend, it didn't even come close to aiding her recovery from the trauma of so many clowns and the embarrassment of so completely abandoning her tough exterior.

Dragging herself out of bed Bonnie went through her morning rituals before emerging ready for school. Checking the paper on her way out she could only thank God that it was Friday.

Being Friday it was Bonnie's turn to pick up Tara for their carpool and as usual they sped past Ron and Rufus on Ron's hopelessly archaic scooter. However much Bonnie offered to include Ron in the carpool despite his being car less, the blonde would just scoff at the notion he give up his scooter.

Pulling into school Bonnie walked into the building with Tara, normally she would have stopped to wait for Ron but Tara had asked her to tag along with the reason that she and Monique wanted to ask her something.

"Hey girl," Monique waved at Bonnie as the three finally found each other amongst the hall traffic.

"Okay," Bonnie said shortly, "now just what was so important that I had to be here to hear?"

"First off," Monique cut her off, "do you have a dress for prom yet?"

"No" Bonnie wasn't quite sure where this was going, "I have to go shopping when my sisters aren't around or else they'll never tire of telling me how ugly my dress is."

"Well," Monique started up again, "tomorrow me, Tara, and Kim are getting our dresses and you're coming with."

"And what makes you think Kim is going to let that happen?" Bonnie was sure Kim hadn't heard about this or she'd be raging against it on principle alone.

"Well we outnumber her for one," Tara spoke up, "And we invited you so she can't accuse you of sneaking your way in. Just find a way to get Ron there, we'll make him carry all our dresses."

Bonnie could only laugh, "And what makes you think that Ron is going to want to spend several hours of his weekend shopping for dresses with us?"

"He doesn't have to know what he's going to the mall for," Tara was remarkably straight faced, "just get him there and then let it slip what he's going to spend his day doing."

Bonnie stared at her friend for several moments reminding herself over and over that Tara could have quite a devious mind when she needed to. Finally Bonnie managed to pull herself together enough to speak, "Well then Ron and I will be there, even if one of us is going to be there under duress."

Tara and Monique laughed as the three split up to head their separate ways for the day, Bonnie for her part couldn't wait to see Kim's reaction when she showed up with Ron tomorrow, though she was going to have to finally tell Kim that Ron had asked her to prom.

The next morning was all Bonnie could hope for, Ron tagged along when she called and told him they were going to hang out at the mall, and the look on his face was simply beautiful when the first place she dragged him to was a dress shop.

At that point though the day started going down hill, Ron apparently wasn't the only guy who had been dragged along. Though judging by the look on Eric's face he hadn't been dragged along at all.

Bonnie wanted to smack her face with her hand, this ruined what she had in mind for the day. She had hoped that with Monique's assistance she could get Kim and Tara to see each other in all manner of flattering dresses and that with encouragement from friends the two might confess feelings for each other. But with pretty boy as Ron called him standing outside that idea was fairly well shot.

Sighing in annoyance, Bonnie left Ron stewing next to Eric and walked into the shop. As much as she always enjoyed looking at the latest fashions and knowing that she'd be the one to trend set at the high school today the shop failed to lift her spirits as she knew her hopes for getting Kim and Tara together for at least today were dashed.

It wasn't hard to spot the trio of girls, one only had to spot a pile of discarded dresses and from there it wasn't far to where Kim, Monique, and Tara were comparing notes. At least Bonnie decided, the look on Kim's face when she walked up to the group was worth having Eric here, she certainly would have traded it to have the boy gone, but Bonnie would take what she could get.

With the larger plan for the day shot, Bonnie settled for grabbing Kim's hand and dragging her into a changing room, this action sparked no reaction from Monique or Tara since they knew what Bonnie was doing, well half of why she had dragged Kim in there.

"Kim," Bonnie started, "I know I should have told you this earlier but Ron kept making me put it off. He uh… well Ron asked me to prom." This moment should have been so much sweeter for Bonnie, but all she really wanted to do was shake Kim till the redhead ran out of the changing room and begged Tara to go to prom with her.

"I know," Kim said flippantly, "I've seen you two all awkward together, and how much you hang out, and how much less nervous Ron seemed, he's my best friend so it didn't take much to add two and two together. Plus," Kim blushed, "I'm kind of hoping Eric will ask me to prom today."

Bonnie ground her teeth rather than take the more overt course of hitting her head against the wall. She simply couldn't believe that Kim would let her fears control her like this, all through high school Bonnie had never seen any evidence of Kim even having fear. And God knew that on missions Bonnie had to control hers often enough. Even Felix and Monique had agreed with her and Ron's thoughts on the matter when they had brought the two into the circle, but here was Kim so terrified of what might happen if word got out that the famous Kim Possible liked another girl that she was running around like a chicken with its head cut off.

Dropping that track of thought Bonnie decided to ignore the last part of what Kim had said and instead dropped any modicum of civility she maintained around her rival and shoved Kim up against the wall of the changing room before growling out very ominously, "Listen up Possible, if I hear that Tara shed one tear because of you, or has one hair out of place because of you, just one I will hunt you down wherever you go and I won't stop at anything to put you in a world of pain, she's my best friend and don't think I won't go to any lengths to stick up for her."

Kim looked appropriately scared with the seriousness of Bonnie's threats so the brunette turned on her heel and marched out of the changing room to join Monique and Tara in finding the perfect prom dresses. Of course Bonnie's later joy at finding a dress that would actually match the horrid blue tux Ron wanted to wear was quashed at hearing that Eric had asked Kim to prom and that Kim had wasted no time in gleefully accepting.

AN: Wow 15,000 hits this thing left my wildest expectations behind long ago. So lucky 13 delivered on its traditional luck, I was never quite satisfied with this but there's nothing I can put my finger on to justify not posting it. Ch 14 is at least going better and from there it's more and more in my head and should get easier and easier. Also, if I've counted all this right then there should be 17 or 18 chapters to this thing, just thought I should let you all know. So I hope everyone enjoyed this chapter and is looking forward to the next one!