Chapter 11: Aftermath of Decisive Action
Ron slouched out of the locker room and into the gym. The practice had been every bit as rough as he thought it would be. Because of this his usual 10 minutes to shower and change had taken him closer to 20. He was tired. He was surprised to see Kim waiting for him. She had been so mad earlier that he was expecting to walk home alone.
"Ready?" The redhead asked him.
"Absolutely, homeward bound."
The two walked for several minutes in uncomfortable silence. Looking out of the corner of his eye, Ron could tell that Kim had been ready to talk several times, but had hesitated. She finally took the plunge.
"Aren't you going to complain about how hard I just drilled you?"
"How can I," Ron answered, "you worked everybody, yourself included, just as hard."
"Are you sore?"
"Not as sore as I will be tomorrow."
Kim looked at him for a moment. "You really have changed," she mused, "at the beginning of this year you would have been complaining. You would have at least brought up the fact that Bonnie had started the argument." Ron didn't trust himself to answer.
"You know I really didn't want to threaten you…" Kim seemed at a loss of words.
"Kim," Ron interjected, "You did what you had to do. The mascot and one of your squad members had just cranked it up more than was acceptable. You took the appropriate action."
"You still don't consider yourself part of the squad?" Kim looked upset.
"You've always said that I was a member, but you're the only one. Look, why don't we discuss the prospective mascots? I noticed that three were still willing to talk to you after witnessing your torture session."
Kim let out a wicked giggle. "Right, there's Ruth, Julie, and Lisa. So, as the expert mascot, what are your first impressions?"
Ron forced himself to be honest. "We need to put the suit on them and run them through the paces of course, but here's what I think. I think that Ruth and Julie are probably the best fit. They're both alternate cheerleaders, so they're up on the routines."
"Good point," said Kim, "continue."
"Next is Julie. She's on the gymnastics team so she can probably do acrobatics that I can only dream of. Her problem is that she's awfully small. It'll be interesting to see how much wearing the suit and mask will cut her agility."
"I think that you're a better acrobat than you give yourself credit for, but you've got a good point about her size. Not to mention you've always been able to act as a base to our towers. I don't know if she's that strong."
"Awkward alert!" Ron called. "But let's get back to the issue. Any of the three will give you one big advantage over me."
"What's that?" Kim's voice had a wary edge.
Ron took a deep breath. "The fact that they are all either very, or somewhat popular. Their presence on the squad will be more in line with the food chain than mine ever was."
Kim rolled her eyes. "Will you come off your fix with the food chain? It isn't important."
"Kim, I know that you don't flaunt your position but the fact is that the food chain does exist. You telling me that it doesn't matter would be like me telling Felix that legs are overrated. Or either one of us telling a bald guy that hair isn't that big of a deal. The rest of the squad will give you a lot less grief for having any of those three around than you've been catching for keeping me around."
"Ron, how many times do I have to tell you that the food chain doesn't matter to me? I want what's best for the squad and you're it." Kim's temper was rising.
"KP, you can either ignore the food chain or make it work for you. While the food chain doesn't help someone do flips or the splits it does affect the squad dynamic. I've been a pretty good mascot but you've been working harder than you should in order to keep the squad from tearing into me. Any of the three prospective mascots will mean less hassle, for you, from Bonnie and her bunch."
Kim rolled her eyes. "Why do you have to keep bringing up the food chain. It has NO EFFECT."
Ron stared at her for a long moment. "You don't even realize what effect it has on you, do you?"
"It has NO effect on me!" Green eyes were getting narrow and dangerous.
"Then can you explain why you took NO action, for years, when a food chain elite kept cutting away at a bottom feeder, but the day that bottom feeder snapped back at the elite, in front of the entire school, there was hell to pay?" Ron clamped his jaw down again. Would he ever learn to keep his mouth shut?
Kim had stopped cold. It looked like anger and sorrow were having a fight to see who could challenge shock as her chosen expression. Ron was really hoping for sorrow. If sorrow was to lose he really hoped shock would be able to fend off the challenge. He was in no condition to deal with and angry Kim right now.
"Sorry, KP." He said, hoping for damage control. "Look, I'm still an immature jerk a lot of the time. All we're doing is making each other angry. It's Friday night, I'm beat and you've probably got a date. I won't be able to sleep if I'm any more wound up and I'm sure that Josh won't appreciate a peeved girlfriend so why don't we just call it an evening? If you want to hang, just call on Sunday."
"I don't have a…" Kim stammered, then caught herself. "You're probably right." She moved to walk toward her house then stopped. "You ARE still on if a mission comes up, aren't you?"
"You know I've always got your back."
"Thanks, Ron."