Thanks to everyone who's reading and to the reviewers of Chapter three: mattb3671, Yankee Bard, Matri, CastaS, continental-line, cpneb, DuffKilliganFan, dartblade, MrDrP, Kradeiz, Gray Cardinal, Dr. J0nes, spectre666, SassMasterGeneral, Zaratan, BluetoothThePirate, and bmwrider.
Special thanks to my most valuable beta man, MrDrP.
Disclaimer: Disney owns these characters, except for two that I created. I hesitate to own up to them, since they're kind of annoying, but facts are facts.
Chapter 4
Tara woke up early on Thursday morning, feeling moopy. The sky was actually mostly blue for a change, but she was blue in the "low in spirits; dejected" sense. The events of the previous day combined with dreams of a senior year social life co-starring the same preening pretty boys and conceited jocks that filled her past had led to a restless night.
She realized now that there were other boys out there, boys with things other than just looks and sports prowess to offer; boys like Kevin—but he apparently wasn't interested in her. Never before—not even with Ron—had she been so up front about her attraction to a boy without result. The whole situation disheartened her.
Unable to get back to sleep, she got up, fed the family cat, made herself breakfast, then sat around the house in her PJs for a couple of hours, carelessly leafing through some teen and gossip magazines. She had the house to herself; Mom had gone into the office and Dad's tree service was busy with fallen limbs from last night's storm. She was skimming an item about Quinn's tantrums on the set of the upcoming sequel The Two Finger Guy when her cell phone announced an incoming call. She checked the display; it was Jessica. She pressed the YES softkey to answer the call.
"Hey Jess, what up?"
" Tara, let's go for a run this morning. The weather's actually cooperating."
"I don't know …"
"C'mon T, it's bikini season, gotta stay in shape. Besides, you know Kim's workouts are gonna be heinous this fall. Can't let ourselves slip."
"Oh, why not? Maybe a little exercise is what I need today."
"Be there in fifteen. Bye."
A quarter of an hour later, Tara answered the front doorbell while gathering her hair into a ponytail. Jess stood there, having clad her willowy form—at least, enough of it to come up to community decency standards—in body-hugging black short shorts with white and gold stripes down the sides and a black sports bra.
Tara looked her friend up and down. "Wait, don't tell me—you're thinking the trail that goes by the batting cages today?"
"That, and I was expecting to be competing with your new pink outfit. What's with the frumpty-dumpty look?" Tara had chosen decrepit, loose-fitting gray sweat pants and an equally shapeless, grungy teal top this morning. "Last I heard, you're single, and there are cute guys out there."
A pained look briefly darkened the shorter girl's face. "Not in the mood. Let's just do this, 'kay?" She took off at an easy pace down the walkway and turned left at the road.
Jess followed. "You warmed up and stretched already?" she asked once she caught up.
"I'll be fine."
The two blondes jogged along in silence for a few minutes until Jess spoke. "So, do anything exciting yesterday?"
"Watched a DVD," Tara said flatly before she kicked the tempo up a couple of notches.
Jess kept pace. "What's bothering you this morning, T?"
"Nothing." Tara turned left again and headed up one of the area's popular off-road trails. This put the conversation on hold, since there wasn't enough room for the girls to run side by side.
"Tara dumped Morgan! And you knew this last week? Why didn't you tell me!" Kevin wailed, tearing at his brown hair.
"Sorry, Kev, I didn't see how it mattered," Steve said as he took the cover off a pitching machine. "How was I supposed to know she was your new chess buddy?"
"Aughh! If I'd known she didn't have a boyfriend … when she … and I just … aughh!"
Farley's Frozen Rope Sports Center was Middleton's premier indoor and outdoor recreational complex. There were over a dozen batting cages, including the latest virtual reality models featuring simulated Major League pitchers. There were facilities for fielding practice—which had helped at least one Mad Dog make the jump from benchwarmer to All-League shortstop—there were golf practice tees and a putting green, a small video arcade and a snack bar. The fitness-minded folk of the Tri-City area kept the place hopping most afternoons and weekends, especially when there was a kids' team party booked, but things were slow that morning, so assistant manager and heir to the throne Steve Farley was able to listen to his best friend describe his most surreal Wednesday ever as he went about his duties.
"Hey, as I recall, I was the one who told you Friday you should go for it with Tara," the taller boy said. "You are the one who said, and I quote, 'I have no shot.' I figured talking about her would just reopen old wounds."
"Okay, okay, you're right," Kevin conceded. "It's not your fault. Now, do you really think there's any chance at all she'd go out with me?"
Steve poked around in the innards of the troublesome machine and tightened a loose screw. "Okay, tell me again, what did she say at her door, exactly?"
"It was like, 'Maybe I should keep you close by, in case I need to hear it again.'"
"Uh huh," Steve said. "Hand me the socket wrench."
Kevin handed him the implement. "So?"
"And how did she say 'goodnight,' again? I need tone of voice here."
"She was like, 'Goodnight, Kevin.'"
Steve stroked his chin as he stared off into the distance contemplatively. "Hmmmm."
"Well?" Kevin implored.
"Yeah, I have to say she totally wanted you to ask her out."
"Oh, I don't know why I'm even talking to you about this, Mr. 'No, I never even noticed half the babes at school throwing themselves at me all spring.' The whole idea is ridiculous."
"Hi, Steve!"
Cassie Otis and Traci Sandisfield, two MHS varsity softball players, called and waved to the baseball captain from a couple of cages to the two boys' left.
"Hi, girls. Here to take some cuts?"
"Yeah." They giggled.
"Hey Steve, maybe you could keep an eye on me and let me know what you think of my form?" Traci, a buxom brunette, called over her shoulder as she took her stance with an exaggerated waggle of her shorts-encased—and rather cute—butt.
Steve looked at Kevin and rolled his eyes. "Ten bucks an hour for private lessons, Trace," he deadpanned.
The girls giggled some more.
"And there we have it." Kevin said glumly. "As if more was needed, proof positive that Kevin Guberman is absolutely invisible to girls. And I'm supposed to believe Tara Monroe like-likes me?"
"Those two don't know you, Kev. Tara does. Also, Tara has a brain in her head."
"I second that motion."
It was rare for Kevin to hear a voice coming at him from below his ear level. It usually meant the speaker was seated. And so this one was.
"Oh, hey Felix."
"Hi guys," the wheelchair-assisted Felix Renton said.
He rolled toward the Frozen Rope's accessible cage, which was to the right of the one Steve was working in. A moment later Felix's friend Ron Stoppable, with Rufus perched on his shoulder, left the snack bar bearing a tray laden with drinks and a couple of orders of nachos and headed their way.
"Hi, Ron," chorused Traci and Cassie as he passed their cages.
"Hi!" chirped the little mole rat with a jaunty wave of his paw.
"Morning, ladies," Ron said suavely. (In his opinion.)
They squealed.
"Don't you think Ron has gotten so adorable since prom? Kim Possible is sooo lucky," Traci whispered to her teammate.
"Well, if you ask me, that Felix Renton over there is very cute," Cassie said. "He has such soulful eyes."
"But what about his … you know? Do you think it …" Traci wondered.
"Well, Karen Shelburne managed to 'accidentally' fall into his lap once last year, and she says it does."
They squealed some more.
Ron and Rufus joined the trio of boys; Ron handed Felix one of the drinks. "Here ya go, Wheelman."
"Thanks, Rondo."
"So Felix," Steve said, "you were saying you agree Tara's smart …?"
"Well, I know she liked the Ronman here before most, that's got to count in her favor."
Kevin and Steve nodded.
"Ho yeah," said Rufus approvingly.
Felix looked at the other three boys, took a sip of his drink, and chuckled softly.
"What's so funny, Felix?" Kevin asked.
"I was just thinking, it's so unusual since prom to see both the Ronman and Steve, with neither guy in mid-PDA with a cheerleader. It just seems wrong somehow."
Ron and Steve blushed and grinned, more or less goofily, and then laughed. Kevin laughed too, somewhat bitterly. Rufus guffawed raucously.
"I do believe I can remedy that situation right now," chimed a feminine voice oozing with droll musicality.
The four boys turned to see, just a few scant yards from them, five feet seven and a quarter inches of blonde-haired, blue-eyed, freckle-faced, Mona Lisa smiling, lithe of figure, not quite glistening but certainly glowing All-American girlhood—to wit, one Jessica Margit Sundstrum.
She was quite a sight: long, sleek legs below nicely filled shorts and a narrow waist and toned tummy above. And even if she didn't fill out a sports bra quite as lavishly as some of her squadmates did, there was no doubt that, as Monique had said, she had it goin' on there, too. All four boys stared at the transcendently lovely cheerleader in open admiration, while the two softball players exchanged whispered, catty remarks about her hair, freckles, figure, personal hygiene, morals, and attire—or more precisely, dearth of same.
Slowly, sinuously, Jessica approached the quartet of slack-jawed lads. Sapphire eyes riveted on the kelly greens of her beau, she glided between Felix and Kevin to where Steve stood next to Ron. The naked mole rat dove back into Ron's pocket, he had a good idea something mushy was coming and had no desire to witness it. The tow-headed, unsung member of Team Possible stepped aside, and then, just as it appeared Jess was about to make her BF the luckiest man on the face of the earth right then and there, she turned gracefully and draped her lissome arms over Ron Stoppable's shoulders.
"C'mon, ya big stud," she purred seductively, gazing into his milk chocolate brown orbs, "plant one right here." She puckered up her full, sensual lips.
Ron's face turned a deeper red than his familiar jersey and he let out a strangled "eep," and melted into a puddle of goo. Well, just about.
Then with a laugh, Jess tousled his cornsilk locks and bussed him lightly on the cheek, and three boys, a girl, and a rodent laughed long and hard with youthful abandon with—not at—Ron Stoppable. Even the lovelorn chess captain forgot his heartaches for a while.
Once the fun abated, Felix grabbed a batting helmet from a nearby rack, wheeled himself into the cage, fed a token into the pitching machine and prepared to take his twenty swings. The other four teens sat down on a couple of nearby benches. Ron offered the nachos around.
"So Jess," Steve asked his girlfriend, "weren't you gonna ask Tara to run with you today?"
"Oh, she's here, I left her over at the picnic area, stretching. That girl is in such the mood today, I don't know what's got her so tweaked. I twist her arm to come out on this little jaunt and then she just about drops me like an anchor on the way here. She needs a new BF, like yesterday."
Steve's eyes grew wide. Jess may not have known what had tweaked Tara, but he could guess. He turned to his best friend. "Kevin," he said, "now's your chance. Tara's out there. Go ask her out."
"Why bother?" the boy said glumly.
"'Cause you like her, and she likes you," Steve insisted.
"Huh?" Jess asked. "When did this happen?"
Steve turned to her. "Yeah, didn't you hear? Tara is Kev's new chess buddy from the other night. Yesterday they got together to play in person and then watched a movie, and our boy here made quite the impression. Apparently she was inches away from kissing him, but Captain Clueless missed all the signals."
"He's clueless? Look who's talking!" Jess said with a laugh. "How many signals from girls went right over your head last year, Romeo?"
"A lot," Kevin said.
Steve grinned ruefully. "Yeah, well, actually I was more coward than clueless. I could tell some girls were interested," he inclined his head toward the two softballers, "but there was one hot blonde cheerleader I had a crush on, and I couldn't believe she'd go out with me. But Kevin's got way more guts than I ever had."
"What are you talking about?" the chess captain asked.
"I'm talking about that time freshman year when those two football players were about to pound on me. You jumped right in and had my back until Mr. B came along to break it up."
"So? What makes me so brave? You're the one who started the fight in the first place."
"Wait, hold the phone," Jess said to her BF. "You picked a fight with two football players when you were a freshman? A little five-foot-nothing shrimp?"
"We were in the locker room after gym one day," Steve explained. "This one jerk was telling his buddy about his date with my sister Lisa, talking about stuff she supposedly did with him. I told him to shut up and he didn't like that. Kevin here came from all the way across the room to back me up. Bravest thing I'd ever seen."
Kevin blushed. "Well, we're buds, and besides, Lisa was always nice to me."
Ron clamped a slightly cheesy hand on Kevin's shoulder. "Good man," he said.
"Atta boy," the little mole rat agreed.
Jess's eyes grew moist, and she crossed over to sit by Kevin and threw an arm over his shoulders. "You guys are so chivalrous," the blonde said. "Protecting a lady's good name, très gallant, Kevin. Tara'd be lucky to have you for a BF."
Felix, who'd finished his swings, tossed his batting helmet back onto the rack and rejoined the group. "She's right, man," he said.
"But how could a girl as great as Tara like a runt like me?" Kevin wondered.
"Hey," Ron said. "Give yourself—and Tara—more credit, Kevin. She would have gone out with me once if I'd asked her, why not you?"
"Uh huh," Rufus agreed.
Kevin began to look optimistic. "You really think she'd say yes?"
"I'm sure of it," Jess insisted. " Tara only gets grumpy like this when a guy she likes won't ask her out. Go on, Kevin, make the girl's day."
Slowly, Kevin rose to his feet. He squared his shoulders and, with a look of determination, strode purposefully away from the group toward the picnic area around the corner of the building.
As the four watched him go, Felix turned to Ron and whispered, "Wasn't he a lot shorter, like, ten minutes ago?"
Steve turned to his blonde girlfriend. "Okay, I didn't know Tara all that well before you and I hooked up, but I don't think I can remember ever seeing her grumpy."
"Neither can I," the long-limbed beauty said, getting to her feet. "But I figured a little white lie might help Kevin get off the dime."
She then grabbed a helmet from the rack and started to put it on her head. "Now, who does a girl have to kiss to get a token for these pitching machines? I feel like taking a few swings."
Rufus immediately popped out of Ron's pocket, a token clutched in his tiny paws.
Tara finished her stretches and sat on a picnic bench staring up at the puffy clouds. The hard trail run had made her feel a little better. Now she was able to stand back somewhat and consider the irony of it all. Bonnie—and all of us in her crowd, really— think the 'Food Chain' rules everything, that people we rate low on it look up to us, but they probably don't. To people like Kevin, and that smart girl Justine who wins all those science awards, cheerleaders and jocks are probably a huge joke.
She sighed and watched the clouds some more. Jess's few minutes of visiting her hottie were starting to drag on. Tara was beginning to think she'd have to find the girl and physically carry her away so they could resume their run before they stiffened up. Then she heard someone approaching from behind. "'Bout time, Sundstrum," she said. She stood up and turned around.
"Oh! Kevin!" she said, sounding surprised. Great! And me dressed in these ratty old sweats, she thought. Why didn't I listen to Jess? "What are you doing here?"
"I was just here hanging with Steve," he said.
"Steve Farley? Jess's BF? I didn't know you knew Steve," the blonde said.
"Oh sure. He and I go way back. We've been buds since before he became the big baseball star, when he was just a little shrimp like me. Even shorter, in fact."
'Steve has this friend,' she remembered Jess saying on the way to the mall last weekend. It couldn't be … could it? "I didn't know him until he started seeing my friend Jess. You must know her too … of course you do, she's there with him right now and you were just there …" Stop babbling, Tara!
"Yeah, Jess and the others suggested I come find you," he said.
"I was out on a run with her, that's why I'm such a mess. Of course, Jess was on the same run and she's dressed like a fitness model …" I said stop babbling!
"I think you're beautiful," he said honestly.
That stopped her. Tara sat back down and patted the spot beside her on the bench. Kevin joined her.
An awkward silence fell over the two.
"I had a really good time yesterday," she said, for lack of any better idea.
"Yeah, so did I," he said.
"When should we get together again?" she asked. "I've got chores to do at home today, but I'm free tomorrow."
"That would be fun, Tara, but, um, I really came out here to ask you something else …," he said hesitantly.
"What is it, Kevin?" she asked hopefully.
"Um, I was wondering if you wanted to go out sometime. On a date, I mean. With me …"
Tara smiled shyly, while turning backflips inside. "I'd love to," she said softly. "What did you have in mind?"
"There's this summer film series at Middleton College Saturday nights," he said. "My mom gets mailings from them 'cause she's an alum. We could go to that. I think this week it's Citizen Kane."
"Sounds like fun," she said, looking into his gray-blue eyes.
"Yeah," he said, looking back into hers as if expecting something.
They sat there.
"What?" Tara finally said.
"I don't know, I was sorta hoping you might throw your arms around me like yesterday," Kevin said, looking away, embarrassed.
Tara blushed pink. "Um, yeah," she said, looking at the ground. "That really wasn't like me. I've never actually kissed a guy on the lips until after a real date. Most of them have to wait 'til at least the second …"
"That's cool," Kevin said.
"… But I have a feeling you'll be a first-date one."
Kevin started to turn back toward her, but stopped when he felt two soft, warm lips brush against his right cheek. He'd never felt anything so marvelous in his life.
When she pulled away he put his hand up to his cheek as if to hold the sensation in place, and stared at her large azure eyes and beaming smile.
"Just a little preview of coming attractions," she said with a giggle.
A pair of hands began to applaud delightedly. The two teens looked in the direction of the sound and saw Jess about thirty feet away. "Oh, you guys are just too cute for words," she gushed.
Tara rolled her eyes. "I'd better go. We have to finish our run. Call me?"
Kevin nodded, not able to master higher functions like speech yet. She stood up and walked over to her squadmate, swinging her arms to get the blood flowing, and turned to wave to Kevin when she got there.
"All right, Sundstrum, let's take the long way home. C'mon, pick up those feet." She trotted off down the trail.
Jess gave a mock groan, then shot a wide grin and a double thumbs-up Kevin's way before following.
The cheerleaders were a few hundred yards up the trail when they heard a euphoric "Yesss!" echo across the surrounding hills.
to be continued …