Chapter 34: Whirlwind
So this is a whirlwind, Ron thought. Where did the last two months go?
Shortly after helping rescue the 'ungrateful couple,' Ron had found himself in a whirlwind of missions, sporting issues, and troubling friendship issues.
The missions were troubling. Dr. Drakken was clearly up to something but Team Possible couldn't figure out what it was. First, the mad scientist had captured several scientists from the Middleton Space Center, Kim's own father among them! In the end, Team Possible had rescued the scientists but Drakken had escaped with most of the research files about something called The Hephaestus Project. Unfortunately, the research was restricted and all of the scientists, Dr. Possible included, flat out refused to discus it beyond saying that it centered on 'reactive metal' of some sort.
Drakken was on the move again less than a week later. This time Shego was trying to kidnap the CEO of one of Japan's largest toy manufacturers. Again, Team Possible had thwarted Drakken but he had scared the company's board of directors very badly. All of the five-member board, including the CEO, had gone into hiding and now ran the company through personal assistants.
Then there was the mission to the resort called The Bermuda Triangle, down in the Caribbean. Wade had discovered that Drakken and Shego were heading down there to purchase some information. The teens had infiltrated the resort and had forced the villains to flee but not before Drakken had purchased the information he had wanted. It turned out that he was seeking the whereabouts of a Dr. Hertz Megahenry. Dr. Megahenry had been a lead researcher in the old Soviet Union and had vanished when the wall came down. Rumor had him living underground, selling his services to various technovillains. Just what those services were, Wade had not yet found out. He was currently trying to find out what the doctor had done for the old Soviet Government.
What was most troubling was that Drakken wasn't following his usual method of operation. Usually he either built or stole some device then immediately threatened world conquest. He was trying something different this time, putting several pieces together, and Ron, Kim and Wade just couldn't figure out what it could be. The fact that he was acting so differently brought up the disturbing prospect that he was also doing things that they didn't even detect.
Aside from the missions, there was an issue with Ron's favorite teen hangout, Bueno Nacho. BN's parent corporation had been purchased and Ron wasn't happy with the changes. The food quality had dropped and the place was no longer the friendly, 'come in and hang out' sort of place that it used to be. Ron had limited himself to two BN meals during the week and two more during weekends, so the change wasn't exactly traumatic. But it bothered him that his beloved if somewhat estranged temple to junk food consumption had changed so much. According to Wade, the new owners were remodeling the BN corporate headquarters, located about forty miles away, into something resembling a hardened, military command bunker.
Wrestling wasn't completely done with Ron for the year. Ron had been injured when the Kid's Wrestling Season had started, so he wasn't one of the assistants but he volunteered to help as soon as he was healed up. Oscar was an assistant Kid's Wrestling Coach, and informed Ron that his primary duty was being a dog-pile target for a swarm of hyperactive pre-teens. Yet Ron was determined to help out, so he had spent three Saturdays, with most of his teammates, helping at tournaments by keeping score at matches and trying to keep order. The kids had a great time and the tweebs had both done very well. Ron predicted that he would be on the receiving end of more ambushes whenever he visited the Possibles' home.
Beyond missions and volunteering, Ron's last two months had been the best that he could remember. He stayed with his routine: Tai Sheng Pek Kwar exercises every morning, walk to school with KP, classes, walk home with KP and try to sneak in a sparring session, dinner, homework, bed. It was great! He was busy, he had good friends, he was improving his mission skills, and his good grades kept Barkin off of his neck. He and KP averaged four sparring sessions a week and she claimed that they were helping her as well as him. All in all there was only one current issue with his life that was exciting him and worrying him at the same time.
Kim was flirting with him.
It had started after their 'Mountain Rescue' mission. One of Ron's idiosyncrasies was his heavy sleeping. He could sleep through most noises and lights that would wake up anybody else but put him in a moving vehicle and he immediately woke up if said vehicle dropped from highway to city speeds. Thus, he had woken up as their ride pulled into Middleton in the wee hours of the morning. The two of them were bundled under their bags, Kim sleeping with her head on his shoulder.
That was nothing unusual. Over the past couple of years, the two of them had been forced to sleep in cramped quarters and a decade long previous friendship had meant that they had adjusted to this with a minimum of embarrassment. What was unusual was her reaction when he woke her up. At first, there had been the usual glance around to get her bearings. Then, instead of simply sitting up, she had given him a wide, warm smile and nuzzled his shoulder before reaching for her parka. He had been surprised but had assumed that her face had had an itch, which she had scratched on his sweater.
If this had been an isolated incident, he would have quickly forgotten it. However, he soon realized that she wasn't behaving towards him the way that she used to. First of all, there were the smiles. He was used to her smiling at him. She had an amused smile, a friendly smile, a 'good job' smile, and a condescending smile. The smiles she had for him now, every day, weren't those smiles. They were much more like the smiles she had given Josh while she was both crushing on him and dating him. Those smiles had cranked his heart rate up and left him more than a little nervous.
Then there was the physical contact. Again, their long years of friendship had inured them to the occasional brush up against each other. But this wasn't incidental contact. Now, when they walked to and from school she kept close to him, with her shoulder in almost constant contact with him. He had experimented by slowly edging away from her and she had followed him the entire way. When they caught a movie, or watched TV at her place, she also kept her shoulder in contact with him. The kicker was homework. Starting last week, as they sat across from each other at the Possibles' table, she would extend her legs and hook her foot around his calf. Whenever he looked up, she would flash him that smile then look down, demurely.
While the smiles and the contact were the selling points, her general behavior around him had also changed. She seemed, somehow, more attentive and supportive than she had ever been before. It didn't help that his crush on her, although it had been buried deep, was still very much alive. He was flirting back and this troubled him. He remembered the harsh lesson she had taught him when she had just started crushing on Josh; a lesson he still couldn't bring himself to discuss with her even though he had described it to Yori.
Had things changed? He looked at himself in the mirror. No, he wasn't handsome by any stretch of the imagination but he wasn't unsightly either. He thought about the past wrestling season. No, he wasn't really a big winner but he definitely wasn't a loser. He thought about his classes. No, he wasn't the head of the class but he was closer to the top than the bottom. He thought about his social life. He wasn't Mr. Popular but he wasn't a loner. All in all he came to the conclusion that he was an average, everyday, teenage boy...who helped save the world from mad scientists every other week or so. Maybe that was enough. Ron reached a decision.
The Junior Prom would take place in two weeks. Ron had already rented a tux, intending on going 'stag.' But if KP hadn't found a date by the end of this week, he would ask her to go with him. And it wouldn't be a 'just friends' sort of thing. He would ask her like any other boy asking a girl for a date. With that, he left his room and headed over to KP's house, ready to start another Monday.
Kim had enjoyed her walk to school with Ron, like she always did these days. She had admitted to herself that she would really like to try to be more than friends with him and it looked like he felt the same way. After some initial shyness, he had started to respond to her flirting with some rather impressive counter-flirting of his own. It was too bad that he wouldn't be at cheer practice tonight but since he had stated, last week, that he intended to try out for football next fall, it just didn't make sense for him to try to come back as the Mad Dog. She went through her day, said goodbye to Ron as he headed to the Weight Room and headed to the Locker Room to change for practice.
Bonnie Rockwaller was ready and waiting. She had arranged this carefully; the only other two girls in the Locker Room were firmly in her posse and well rehearsed about what they were going to do. If there was one thing that Bonnie just hated, it was to see Kim Possible happy. She had spent weeks flaunting the fact that she, and most of the other girls on the squad, had steady boyfriends while Kim didn't. Possible had actually gotten a little depressed but then she had started flirting with Stoppable! Stoppable was flirting right back! Earlier this year, Bonnie would have been satisfied with this development but not now. Stoppable had shocked her and turned himself into something! Possible and Stoppable were clearly within days of dating, and if they started dating they would be getting really close, really fast. Bonnie had no intention of letting Kim wind up with that kind of emotional support.
Kim came in and went straight to her locker. On cue, Melissa spoke up. "So Bonnie, has Brick asked you yet?"
"Of course," Bonnie replied. "He did two weeks ago. We picked out his tux to go with my dress. We're going to look so good! How about you?"
"I'm going with Brian."
"The shot-put champion? That's great! How about you, Lisa?"
"I'm going with Chuck," the remaining girl answered.
"Oh, the captain of the Lacrosse team?" Bonnie asked.
"That's him," Lisa answered. "Oh, Kim, how about you?"
"How about me what?" Kim asked.
"Who are you going to the Prom with?" Lisa's expression was all innocence.
"Well…I don't exactly have a date yet." Kim admitted.
That was Bonnie's cue. "Lisa, you know that Kim goes out on those Team Possible missions all the time. That doesn't give her a lot of time to find and keep a quality boyfriend."
"Oh, that must be rough, and there's only a couple of weeks left." Lisa's voice dripped sympathy for Kim.
"It's no big," Kim countered. "I've missed dances before."
"C'mon Kim," Bonnie jumped in. "This isn't just any dance, this is the only Junior Prom you'll ever have. Don't you think that the girl who saves the world deserves a hot date for her Junior Prom?"
Kim stared at Bonnie. There was no mocking in her tone.
"Hasn't Stoppable even asked you?" Melissa asked, as per the plan.
"No, we're not exactly dating, if you know what I mean."
"I know that the two of you are flirting," Lisa cut in. "Isn't that a turn-off for other guys?"
"What's wrong with Ron?" Kim demanded, just as Bonnie had predicted she would.
"There's nothing wrong with Ron," Bonnie replied, her compliment catching Kim off guard. "I mean, when the bad guys show up or some poor, little girl is missing, there's no guy I'd rather have around." Kim's was clearly having trouble believing that Bonnie was saying this. "But we're talking about dating here, Kim. We're talking about the statement that your date makes about you. Now, Ron's a great guy but let's be honest here, he isn't exactly hot, is he?"
"No," Melissa took up the conversation. "And it's really too bad. I mean, if a guy that sweet just had the looks, wow!"
Bonnie sat back and let the other two girls work on Kim, just like that poster on the website told her to do. There was no insulting Stoppable, just hints that he was missing…something. She didn't know who 'hottieingreen' was, but she assumed it was another girl. Since Bonnie had confessed her irritation about a certain red-haired heroine in an 'I hate Kim Possible' chat room, that girl had really let her in on which buttons to push to get to little Miss Kimmie.
After a few minutes, just like hottieingreen suggested, she pulled out her trump card. It was a celebrity-watch type of magazine. "You know Kim," Bonnie said, conversationally. "It's really sweet that you're thinking of dating him and let's be honest, for ninety percent of the girls in this school he'd be a great boyfriend. But not for you." Bonnie opened the magazine and showed pictures of when Kim and Ron had rescued the heiress and her boy-toy. "You're famous," Bonnie explained. "But your friend doesn't want to be seen. You made a great picture rappelling down that cliff and this picture of Ron coming down with her is nice too. But what happened after everyone was down? Didn't Ron just sort of fade off into the background?"
Kim nodded. Lisa took up the tale.
"What you need, Kim, is a guy who will walk right up to those cameras with you. I mean, Ron's a great guy and all, but he just doesn't have it in him to be a spotlight kind of guy."
"Yeah," Melissa chimed in, "and think of poor Ron. All those reporters around you are getting to him and he doesn't like it much. Imagine if the two of you were to start dating. He'd really be in the spotlight then, wouldn't he?"
Bonnie sat back and listened to her posse continue. Kim looks good in the spotlight. Ron hates the spotlight. If they dated, Ron would be faced with more of the spotlight. Kim needed a good-looking guy who would be at home in the spotlight.
Perfect! Bonnie could tell that Kim was beginning to think that dating Stoppable was a bad idea. Hottieingreen was right: don't put Stoppable down, just drive in the point that they weren't compatible as a dating couple. Whoever it was, she really knew Kim.