She was losing both of them, and she didn't know what to do.
Kim honestly didn't know what she had done to mess her life up as bad as it was. Oh, everything seemed fine on the surface, she had the perfect boyfriend and her best friend/mission partner had stepped up his game, but it was all going to fall apart before long. She couldn't understand it; she had always tried to do right by those around her. She took on both 'save the world from a madman' missions, as well as 'rescue a cat out of a tree' missions, often at the risk of her own life. She didn't bully other students, even though she could easily do so. She didn't ask for recognition or fame for doing what she did, so what had she done that meant her life was hurtling towards a train wreck at the tender age of seventeen?
Okay, she probably knew what she had done, but it wasn't something she really could do anything about. As much as it would have been a fairy-tale ending to her high school years, she just wasn't attracted to Ron. She felt guilty about it, even though she knew that she shouldn't feel guilty. To top it off, she had fallen for the perfect guy, who turned out to be a construct, designed and built to make her fall for him. She was embarrassed by this, even though she knew she shouldn't be embarrassed.
Eric. It wasn't just that he was incredibly hot...which he was. It was his whole manner, his whole way of dealing with her and with others. He had the perfect blend of manners, friendliness and a touch of teenage rebellion. On their dates, before he revealed that he was a syntho, he was always kind to others...not just her... at least to anyone who wasn't nasty, themselves. He always knew what to say, what to do.
When she had a rough day at school, he knew just how to view the sitch in a humorous light to get her laughing again. If a practice didn't go well, he knew exactly what to get her to do to get her to unwind. When a mission went bad, he knew how to get her to go over what happened so that she would be ready for the sitch next time. Even after the reveal, when he should be acting smug or superior, he didn't. He was still a kindly...and incredibly hot...young man who had the perfect blend of personality traits.
He had fallen for her, he couldn't help himself and she had fallen for him. She couldn't help herself and it was costing her her best friend.
She wasn't blind to what she was throwing away and she wasn't blind to what Ron was going through. The first problem was that just being around her was painful to her longtime friend. She wished it wasn't...but it was. The second problem was that she only had so many hours in a day and since it was hurting Ron to be around her, it only made sense to spend more time with Eric. However, the third problem came up because she knew that it was hurting Ron even more knowing that she was spending her time with Eric. Somehow, even logical solutions made things worse.
Then there were the missions.
The first had been bizarre, even by her standards. Motor Ed broke Shego out of prison, then stole the Kepler Rocket and converted it into a hot rod car. This was about the time that her father gave her his old car and she and Eric had zero luck trying to get it into operation, so her brothers had taken it onto themselves to do so. The whole thing ended with her and Ron, with her brothers, in pursuit of the ground-bound Kepler. She and Ron managed to get onto the Kepler, disable the engines and eject Shego and Ed. It had proven much easier than expected, mainly because Ron had insisted on being properly outfitted, briefed and treated like a partner in the endeavor.
Once Shego found out that Ed only saw her as an accessory for a cross-country cruise, the green-tinged woman took care of punishing the big guy. There was no need to run him down and take him into custody, the green plasma scorching his backside was more retribution than the criminal justice system could have thrown at him. However, the awkwardness came when the mission was finished. Had this been just last year, the two of them would have stopped by Bueno Nacho, even with the tweebs along, to pour down some empty calories and just hang out for a little bit. It actually sounded like fun; Eric had even been encouraging her to spend more time with Ron and her other friends, but she knew that it wouldn't be fun. Still, she had made the effort; she had stated that they had all burned off some serious calories and could use some refueling at Bueno Nacho. While Tim and Jim had enthusiastically accepted, Ron had simply asked to be dropped off at his home, adding a snipe by asking her if she could remember where it was.
The second mission had been against Adrena Lynn. Somehow, the fake stuntwoman had gotten clear of law enforcement and had put together a group of extreme sports enthusiasts in order to get revenge on her and Ron. It had started with a fake call to rescue a group of mountain climbers. She, Ron and Rufus had parachuted onto a high mountain slope and rappelled down to the group...only to find that it was a trap.
Instead of two helpless climbers hanging from ropes, the teens found themselves facing two fake victims, firmly secured in harnesses and swinging hammers at them. Moments later, a half-dozen more brawlers came rappelling down from above them, followed by Lynn herself, and attacked. That set off a bizarre fight on a vertical battlefield. She and Ron sprang from rope to rope, avoiding swings from hammers and kicking the makeshift weapons out of their opponents' hands. For some reason, Ron pulled off his boots and spent most of the time barefoot. She wasn't about to complain, he was very, very effective in this bizarre melee.
Fortunately all of their opponents were securely tied into harnesses, so they didn't have to worry about them falling. Also, being on long ropes, their opponents swung when hit, so the teens could unleash more than usual. Before long, eight incapacitated extreme sports enthusiast thugs were dangling from ropes while Lynn rappelled at break-neck speed past the teens. She and Ron were in quick pursuit.
With her head start, Lynn reached the bottom of the cliff before the teens did and pulled a mountain bike from behind a boulder. By the time Kim hit the ground, the faux stuntwoman was pedaling for all she was worth down a mountain trail. Kim sprinted in pursuit and was impressed, and gratified, to see that Ron managed to pull his boots back on while executing a couple of flips, hardly slowing down at all.
Lynn was faster than they were, but the trail she was on switched back and forth down the slope. This allowed the teens to make up ground by going straight down the incline. They had just about caught her when the slope became more gradual, the trail straightened out, and a half-dozen mountain bikers swept in from the side and tried to run them down.
"Keep them off me!" She shouted to Ron. "I'll get Lynn!"
Then, it was just like old times. In fact, it was better than old times! Last year, Ron would have done his job distracting the pursuing bad guys by flailing helplessly and forcing her to save him at the end. Now, he was in complete control of himself, knocking a man off of his bike...while she did the same...and making use of the liberated transportation.
It turned into a double pursuit; Lynn fled with Kim in pursuit, with the four remaining bikers in pursuit of her. However, Ron was much more than just a distraction to the bikers; he traded punches and kicks with them and seemed to be loving every moment of it. He even performed flips and twists on his 'borrowed' bike whenever the chase took them over bumps or drop-offs. Instead of shrieking in terror, he gave off whoops of joy and on more than one occasion, she swore she heard Rufus letting out a long 'whee' of delight.
Despite being a fake, Lynn was in good shape and she was more familiar with this trail than Kim was. The redhead could only slowly close the blonde's lead. As she closed, Kim occasionally glanced back to see how Ron was doing. On one point, with him and the bikers all in the air, the sidekick grabbed one of their opponents' chain; breaking a link and tearing it from the bike. Okay, they were down to three pursuers. The next time she looked back, there were only two pursuers and all were in the air again. Ron grabbed a front tire, holding it steady for the few seconds Rufus needed to puncture it with his sharp teeth. One pursuer.
Now, Lynn led her on a sharp turn to the left and Kim could see a river in the distance. Both blonde and redhead poured on the effort. Another quick glance behind her showed Ron take to the air again, spinning his bike and hitting the last pursuer with the back tire. The man flew off of his bike. Kim didn't know if he was out of the fight, but it would take long enough for him to recover his transportation and catch up that she didn't have to worry about him for the moment. She was free to concentrate on Lynn.
The blonde had picked up some real stunt skills since Kim had exposed her as a fake. She was approaching a high cliff over the river when, instead of trying to jump the water, she dropped off of her bike and executed a couple of somersaults. This slowed her down so that she could dive into a pool. Moving too fast, Kim wound up jumping the river, then slamming on the brakes. By the time she got back to the pool and dove in, Lynn was climbing into a kayak. Seeing a pattern, Kim looked upstream to where the river fed the pool. Sure enough, a half-dozen kayakers paddled into the pool from further upstream.
Her musing as to whether she should be impressed with Lynn's consistency or disappointed with her lack of imagination was interrupted by a joyous shout of "cannonball!". Ron came flying off of the high ledge overlooking the pool and drove feet-first into the bow of one of the kayaks. The small boat tumbled end-over-end, catapulting the kayaker out of the watercraft. The kayak itself hit the water right next to Kim, while the paddle dropped next to it.
"Same drill!" She shouted at her friend. "You keep them off me, I've got Lynn!"
"Right!" Ron's return shout sounded confident and a bit on the concerning side of enthusiastic.
A high-pitched "cannonball" shout sounded as Rufus now took the plunge. Despite the mole-rat's best efforts, he only managed a 'bloop' when he hit the pool but Kim didn't have attention to spare for her two friends; she was once again in pursuit of Lynn.
This pursuit was just as wild as the previous one had been, with the added danger of potential drowning. Kim hadn't brought a life jacket with her and she was aware that a bad move could potentially leave her in the river. Still, she pushed on, once again slowly closing the gap with Lynn. Risking a quick glance over her shoulder, she saw that Ron had somehow liberated another kayak and was engaged in a running fight with the other kayakers.
Somehow, somewhere, Ron had gotten some intense training with a bo staff; he showed a great deal of skill using the paddle to fight the other kayakers, while still finding the time to paddle enough to keep control of his boat. Rufus was perched on his head, looking for obstructions ahead so the boy could avoid them. Kim turned her attention back on her own course just in time to avoid a large rock. Concentrating on Lynn, she trusted Ron to look after himself. She had just caught up with the blonde when the river suddenly opened out into a sizable lake.
"Hey, what's with all this racket?" A shout sounded from nearby. "This is a fishing area!"
A chorus of agreeing voices sounded, prompting Kim to look around and spot numerous fly fishermen, in waders, casting onto the water. Among them was...
"Mr. Dobbson?" Kim noted. "The fisherman?"
"Ah, if it isn't Kim Possible," the man declared, bringing his fly rod back for another cast. "Thanks for saving me when my boat had the leak out on this very lake."
"Boat?" A chorus of questions sounded, as almost all of the fly fisherman suddenly looked at Mr. Dobbson.
"No big," Kim shouted back. "Sometimes, it's a good thing to chew bubblegum."
"I must say, I never thought I'd see you disturbing the fish," he lamented.
"Sorry," she apologized. "I'm chasing a crook."
"Oh, well, we can help with that," the fisherman declared. "What do you say boys? The quicker Kim Possible lands her catch, the quicker the lake will calm down and we can get back to catching fish."
"Sure thing," a chorus of voices agreed. "Even if you're a boater."
"Former boater," Dobbson insisted. "Carl?"
A fisherman that Lynn was just passing, apparently Carl, flicked his wrist and send his fly out to snag in Lynn's sleeve. The blonde didn't have a chance to complain before the man deftly spun his rod and looped his line around her several times. Lynn snapped the line, but another fisherman repeated the maneuver, getting several more loops around her, inhibiting her ability to paddle, before she snapped this one. Three more men snagged their lures into her clothing and cast additional loops of fishing line around her, drawing them tighter. By this time, Kim caught up with her and capsized her kayak. The water was still fairly shallow, so the redhead had no difficulty hauling the sputtering and semi-trussed blonde onto the shore. Then she could worry about..
"Ron..." she gasped, heading back to the mouth of the river. By this time, there were only two antagonists still in their kayaks, battling her friend. The three came onto the lake, snarling and fighting with the paddles. Kim told the assembled fly fisherman who the good guy was, and they quickly repeated their performance.
The police were quickly summoned to pick up Lynn and her accomplices...although the fishermen insisted on weighing and measuring them before turning them over to law enforcement.
It had been like old times! Better than old times! The bad guys had been taken down, nobody was hurt and a couple of reporters showed up to interview her. Keeping her earlier promise, she made sure that Ron was given some camera time and made sure the reporters knew that they, rather than she, had taken down the bad guys. Ron was actually smiling at her...at least until the reporters started asking about the sitch with Eric. She politely explained that she wouldn't discuss that topic at the time, then politely excused herself, asking Ron if he had anything to add. Ron didn't; he simply thanked the reporters for showing up and expressed his appreciation for the law enforcement officers who were even at that time recovering the stranded bikers, kayakers and mountain climbers higher on the mountain. By the time he finished, the ride showed up to bring them back home.
Ron was still smiling, even after someone had mentioned Eric. That was a good sign. Emboldened, she tried to strike up a conversation, praising him for his performance against the extreme sportsmen. When he smiled wider and thanked her for mentioning his name and giving him some face time, she grew even more emboldened and invited him to wind down at Bueno Nacho. His smile had faded at that and he asked her if she wasn't eager to get back to Eric. That's when she made her mistake.
She pointed out that Eric himself had urged her to spend more time with the friends she had made before he showed up. His faded smile turned into a scowl and the rest of the trip back was made in silence.
Now, the following morning, she didn't understand what she had done wrong. She had hoped that Ron would realize that Eric didn't want to come between the two of them and that would prompt him to become her close friend again. She wasn't an idiot, she realized that it would never be what it had been but she still wanted to patch together some of the friendship that they once had. Still, there was a little bit of hope. First, school was going to start in a couple of weeks; that would force them to be at least in proximity with each other for several hours a day. Secondly, again at Eric's suggestion, she was going to try out for the cheer team again.
Sure, she wouldn't be the captain and it might not be easy getting in with Bonnie as the captain, but she had no doubt that her raw ability would carry the day. Wade had hacked into Barkin's notes and reported that the big man considered Ron a shoe-in to make the football team. If nothing else, she could cheer for her friend on Friday nights.
Finally, Monique had left her a text and reported that she had some news on the Ron front. After telling Eric that she was going to Club Banana for a bit, and giving him a kiss goodbye, she hopped in her Sloth and made her way to the Middleton Mall. Once there, she made her way to the pinnacle of teen fashion, where her friend held sway. Kim frowned for a moment, wondering if she should not consider Monique her best friend, since Ron seemed determined to vacate that spot.
It didn't matter at the moment; Monique spotted her, offered a last piece of advice to one customer, made a suggestion to another, then offered compliments to two more before telling a coworker that she was taking a short break and dragging Kim into the storage space.
"I got something that you're gonna want to hear," she whispered to the redhead, looking around and confirming that they were alone in the storeroom. "Crystal thinks that Ron is cute."
"Okay, this has some possibilities," Kim noted. "Spill!"
"Okay, that tech guy that helps you out on missions must have some sort of drones he sends out with you," Monique told her, pulling out her phone. "He released some coverage of the two of you taking down those bad guys and he got some footage of Ron. Take a look."
While Kim had seen some of this action, it had only been in quick glances. She noted that Ron's agility and strength were quite impressive.
"Anyway, Crystal and Hope came in yesterday and said that they had seen this footage," Monique went on. "They asked about you, then Crystal said that she thought Ron was cute and asked me if he was seeing anyone."
"You told her that he wasn't, right?" Kim asked.
"I told her that he wasn't, as best that I knew," Monique corrected her. "I didn't know just how the Yori situation was with him."
"I don't either," Kim shrugged. "But with Yori in Japan, she's really not going to be able to be much of a girlfriend, even if she wants to be. Crystal, on the other hand..."
Kim thought about the girl in question. Crystal was probably the most practical of the old squad. She hadn't been part of Bonnie's posse, and she hadn't really chipped in with Kim against Bonnie, either. She was friendly enough and, being a cheerleader at Middleton, was pretty. I little hint here, a comment there and the two of them could get together.
"Earth to Kim!"
Kim realized that she had been zoning out, trying to come up with ways that she could get Crystal and Ron together.
"Sorry," she apologized.
"Okay..." Monique gave her a curious look. "Anyway, I was saying, do you really think this is a good idea? I mean, isn't it just a little cliché that a guy's happy as soon as he winds up with a cute girlfriend? I think there's a lot more to it than that."
"There is," Kim agreed. "Ron's problem is that nobody's interested in him that way and it makes him feel like he isn't worth very much. Even if they don't get together, just knowing that Crystal is interested in him will show him that he is good enough for someone special to be interested in, and that will improve his whole attitude." She frowned. "Trust me, he could really use an attitude adjustment right about now."
"And if he finds out the whole thing was a setup?" Monique had a doubtful expression on her face.
"It isn't," Kim insisted. "You just told me that Crystal seems interested in him. I just want to make it easy for her to approach him...or visa versa. That isn't a setup, that's just facilitating things."
"You say so," Monique shrugged. "So, how did the mission go yesterday?. We saw some of the highlights on the feed, but was there anything behind the scenes that I want to know about?"
"Not really," Kim took her turn to shrug. "Ron has really stepped up his game and he really seems to be enjoying himself on the missions. He remembered to thank the park rangers and other folks who had to go round up the bad guys we left behind on the mountain...something I really need to do more. I found out that fly fisherman can actually be handy when catching the bad guys and..."
"And..." Monique prompted.
"Nothing really," Kim told her. "It was just something weird. I knew one of the fly fishermen that helped us and when he mentioned that I helped him with a leaky boat once, the other fisherman looked at him like he had really done something wrong."
"Oh, it's just fly fisherman snobbery," Monique told her.
"Fly fishermen have snobbery?" Now, Kim had heard it all. "And how would you find out about this? Your not exactly Miss Outdoorswoman."
"True, but I talk with the employees from the sporting goods store, three stores down. It turns out that some fly fishermen purists believe that you should cast from shore, only wading into the water. There are some others who think that you can use a boat as long as it's hand powered and still be a fly fisherman. The debate is actually pretty heated."
"Who would have thought that fishermen could get that worked up over technique?" Kim sighed.
"Yeah," Monique shrugged again. "Who would have thought that row vs wade could be so controversial?"
It just wasn't working, and it wasn't anyone's fault.
Ron heaved a sigh and wondered why it was that the only piece of his life that wasn't fitting nicely into place had to be the one that he couldn't take his mind away from. He was really doing well on the missions and he was getting some recognition for that. This was good. He was actually enjoying the missions; this was good. He had finished football camp and picked up the basics of the high school game; this was good. Barkin said that he was a shoe-in to make the team and probably be a starter; this was good. Kim still never came to see him outside of the missions; this was bad.
To be honest, maybe it wasn't all that bad. Maybe she knew that seeing her and Eric together really bothered him and she was trying to avoid doing that. That was good but it reminded him of how bad the whole situation really was. The summer was just about over and despite his efforts to keep busy, he still hadn't gotten over her. He had a sneaky suspicion that he never really would and that posed a problem.
Eric had only been in school for a few weeks last year. He had shown up, been a student for a few weeks, then came the whole prom fiasco. It took Kim several weeks to get the synthodrone released from Global Justice custody...although Ron considered it impoundment in his less-than-charitable moments. The result was that Eric was only at school for a couple of weeks after everyone knew he was a synthodrone. Just those few weeks had been pure torture for Ron, both seeing him and Kim always hanging off of each other and absorbing the full brunt of Bonnie's snark over it.
This year, it was going to be worse. Kim was still with Eric, and Ron was going to potentially move up the food chain. This would prompt Bonnie to beat him back to the bottom and what better way than by using Eric...or to be more precise, Kim and Eric's relationship...as a club? The answer was that it would be too good of a tool for her to pass by.
What was even worse was that he wasn't blind to what Kim was trying to do. In her own way, the redhead was trying to get his friendship back. The offer to hang at Bueno Nacho with her brothers was genuine and it seemed like a good idea, as far as it went. The only problem was that he had already realized that the more time he spent with her, the harder it was every time that she left to be with Eric. Every minute with Kim reinforced how special she was, which meant every parting now rubbed it in that he wasn't good enough to be with her in that way.
He had made his request and was doing the missions on his own terms. They did good work on the missions and since she did better when he was along, he agreed to take them on again. That was fine, but the missions were about as far as he was willing to go with it. In a way, it was like the cheer squad when he was the mascot; the girls didn't really like being around him, but they realized that they had a better chance of winning competitions and entertaining the crowds when he was there. As a result, once the practice or performance was over, they quickly turned their backs and hung with who they wanted to hang with. Ron wasn't about to force anyone to spend time with him who didn't want to, and he wouldn't accept spending more time than he had to with someone he didn't want to spend time with. There was only one answer to all of this.
Eastside High school was only a few blocks farther away from his house than Middleton High was; albeit in another direction. He logged onto his computer and started to do the research that would see him transferred away from Middleton High School.
A/N: As always, big thanks to Joe Stoppinghem for beta reading.