Chapter 55: Starting a New Week
Monday morning Kim sat, eating her breakfast while waiting for Ron and Yori to show up, when her Kimmunicator chirped.
"What's the sitch?" She answered, using her trademark reply.
"No missions, Kim, just thought I'd pass on to you what I uncovered from Drakken's systems," Wade told her.
"I thought the NSA staked out BN HQ and won't let anybody near the place," Kim countered.
"They did, but Rufus managed to connect my extractor to one of Drakken's network hubs while you and Ron were fighting on the Roof," Wade explained. "The information is highly encrypted, but I'm deciphering it piece by piece. Last night I decoded some interesting information on the synthodrones."
That got Kim's attention. "Anything GJ would be interested in? They're trying to come up with a cheap, reliable detection method."
"Yes, I know," Wade told her. "But the information I uncovered has to do with their programming and it's, ah, personal." The boy genius rubbed the back of his neck in a surprisingly Ron-like maneuver.
"Personal…" Kim murmured. "Personal to whom?"
"Well…to you," Wade looked decidedly uncomfortable. "I know that you developed…feelings for Eric, er, synthodrone 901. This sort of tells how Drakken programmed his personality."
Kim took a deep breath. "Alright, Wade, there's no pretty way of doing this so just let me have it. It's probably going to hurt but I'm better off knowing."
"Right," Wade collected himself. "Well, Dessie's, synthodrone 902's personality was based on Shego. Apparently Shego told Drakken that an aggressive, attractive girl would have Ron eating out of her hand. Neither Shego or Drakken knew about Ron's previous experience."
"Experience? What experience?" Kim demanded.
"Ulp, er, another thing you don't know about," Wade offered, meekly.
"WADE!" Kim yelled, then caught herself. "Fine, fine, that's between Ron and me. Just tell me about 901, please and thank you."
"Well, Drakken hired a psychoanalyst who spent months studying you and…" Wade began.
"WADE!" Kim snarled, rising to her feet. "Just get it over with!"
"It was Ron," Wade blurted out. "Drakken based 901's personality on Ron's."
Kim sat back in her chair, speechless. This allowed Wade to continue.
"The psychoanalyst spent months studying you; all of your television appearances, your school records, and all of your activities, both in and out of school," Wade informed her. "She came to the conclusion that you were a Type A perfectionist. Your only compatible match would be someone willing to sideline his ambitions to support you. That's when Drakken mentioned Ron and the psychoanalyst studied him and said that he was almost perfectly compatible with you. She concluded that's why the two of you have stayed such close friends for so long."
"Did…did the psychoanalyst study Ron for his perfect match?" Kim asked in a weak, quavering voice.
"No," Wade answered. "Drakken didn't consider him much of a threat. Apparently, Shego talked him into coming up with a way to distract Ron, and the two of them thought that an attractive girl would be good enough." He paused, "Kim, are you all right?"
Kim Possible was crying and laughing at the same time. Tears poured down her chuckling face. "Oh, I'll be fine," Kim assured Wade. "I just realized how well I was played. Did the files tell you what changes they made to Ron's personality?"
"I haven't been able to decipher the specifics, but they supposedly emphasized his positive aspects and reduced his negative aspects."
Kim nodded. "Thanks, Wade. I'm going to need to think this over."
"Are you sure this is thank-you material?" Wade wondered out loud.
"Yes, it is." Kim was adamant. "It hurts, but I needed to be told. Keep me posted."
"As always, Wade out." The screen went dark.
Kim thought about what she had just learned while she struggled to make herself presentable. Ron drove a beat up scooter while Eric had a nice bike. Ron is cute while Eric was gorgeous. Ron is wiry and quick while Eric was buff and had a classically hot build. Ron is a jokester while Eric had a wonderful sense of humor. Drakken had the perfect model for a guy to play me, Ron. He took Ron and improved him. I just wasn't smart enough to fall, completely, for the real thing.
Kim took a deep breath and looked at the clock. Ron and Yori would arrive any minute. Ron has another secret, she mused. When I get a chance, I'll tell him that I want to know what he thinks he can't tell me. I hope we can grow beyond the need to keep secrets from each other. She finished her breakfast and was ready and waiting when Ron and Yori arrived. Kim immediately noticed that her best friend looked tired, as if he hadn't slept much last night.
"Ron-san performed his healing meditations this morning," Yori explained, once they were clear of the Possibles' home.
"That frees up my afternoon for homework and my meeting with my counselor," Ron expanded. He produced a piece of paper from his pocket. "If you want to take me up on my offer to cater the dance, here's a list of what I'll need."
"Thanks, Ron," Kim took the list. "The committee meets again tonight." She frowned. "Bonnie's the new head, since I was busy on Friday. I'll see how she takes the suggestion." Kim's smile returned. "For all of her bad points, she does like your cooking."
"The Ron-man aims to please," Ron grandly declared. Kim and Yori both rolled their eyes and laughed at him.
The walk to school seemed to be invigorating for Ron. Soon the three teens were chatting about life at Middleton High and Ron was demonstrating some of the bondigity dance moves he intended to showcase that weekend. When they reached school, Ron excused himself from the two girls.
"I know you have to keep an eye on me," he said. "But can I just step a little ways away and talk to Oscar and Felix? We have some secret prom planning to do."
Kim and Yori reluctantly agreed. Ron, Oscar, and Felix were in view, just out of earshot. The three were talking fast, clearly comparing notes and ideas. Their smiles grew wider as they spoke, with a few quick glances back at the two girls. After about five minutes, the three boys exchanged high fives and split up. Ron rejoined his guardians.
"Just what was all that about?" Kim demanded.
"It's on a need to know basis," Ron replied. "I'm afraid that the two of you don't have the necessary security clearance."
"Ron-san," Yori's voice was uncharacteristically sharp. "Need I remind you that you must stay close to either myself or Possible-san at all times? This…secret planning…must not endanger you."
"Not to worry," Ron said expansively. "The Ron-man's put in some work with his two best male buddies and we've taken care of everything."
That remark made the two girls share a concerned look. Fortunately for Ron, they had just enough time to visit their lockers and head to homeroom, so Kim and Yori didn't have the time to grill him.
The rest of the morning passed uneventfully. At lunchtime, Kim headed to the lunchroom to find Ron, Yori, Oscar, Cindy, Monique and Felix sitting around their table. Cindy and Monique were grilling Ron and Oscar about their makeup prom plans as Kim arrived.
"I do not understand your concern," Yori was speaking to Monique, although the Japanese girl was smiling. "Why are you concerned that Ron-san, Williamsen-san, and Renton-san have worked together to plan the evening?"
Both Monique and Cindy rolled their eyes but Cindy answered. "Yori, you might have noticed that all three of these boys have an odd sense of humor." Yori nodded with a smile. "Well, Ron has an unpredictable creative streak, Felix is a genius and Oscar has a work ethic that makes a honeybee look lazy. You put these three together and it's something of a disaster waiting to happen."
Kim and Monique laughed while the three boys put on exaggerated expressions of innocent offense.
"So you have three clueless, teenaged males," Cindy joked.
"Hey!" All three boys protested simultaneously.
"Sorry, 'clueless' and 'teenaged male' are redundant terms." Cindy continued, "anyway, Ron comes up with bizarre ideas, Felix figures out how to implement them and then Oscar makes them work. The result is that these three can get into a whole lot of trouble without proper female supervision." Cindy favored the three boys with a hard glare. "That's why I've been hoping that Ron and Felix will just get girlfriends so I can get a little help keeping an eye on them."
Yori and Kim shared a guilty glance while Cindy took a sip of tea before concluding. "Anyway, the three of them have been planning the makeup prom events without either Monique or me knowing what they're up to. We don't know what we're going to be in for."
Monique noticed that both Yori's and Kim's smiles looked a little forced. Yori, however, rallied and asked Cindy, "Cindy-san, is it customary for American girls to treat American boys as if they are incompetent?"
"No Yori," Monique cut in. "When it comes to dating, American boys are incompetent!" Cindy and Monique shared a high five. They had placed the boys in their proper place. The teens finished their lunch and headed out for afternoon classes, which proved to be uneventful. With the last class finished, Kim met Ron and Yori for a short chat before she had to head for the committee meeting and they had to go meet Ron's counselor. Kim squared her shoulders and prepared to face a committee headed by Bonnie.
Kim found the meeting to be a pleasant surprise. Thinking back, Kim realized that whenever Bonnie was more determined to accomplish something than to promote herself, she generally accomplished whatever she set out to do. This was no exception. Bonnie quickly called the meeting to order.
"Okay everyone, we all know the big problem," she started. "We spent almost all of our budget on our prom and then that blue guy tried to take over the world. We still have most of the decorations, but we have no refreshments and almost no budget left. Not only that, but we will only have Friday afternoon and Saturday morning to decorate the gym." Bonnie noted Kim's confused look. "Some contractor is putting in new security and lock down systems in the gym and he won't be done until Thursday night." She explained.
Kim nodded, recalling the latter parts of her meeting with Mr. Barkin on Friday.
"So," Bonnie continued. "On Friday, we agreed to have no banquet before the dance, since we managed to have our banquet last time. The music company has offered to set up and run the sound system again at no charge. That leaves the refreshments and decorating. What have we come up with?"
"I've got some ideas on decorating," one of the other girls chimed in. There's a spare bay in the bus garage we can use to build the arch ahead of time. We can leave it there and carry it to the gym on Friday night."
"Good idea," Bonnie approved. "Anything else about decorating?"
"I talked to the contractor yesterday," one of the boys spoke up. "You know, I was asking if we could decorate one part of the gym while he was working in another. Anyway, he said that he was going to need access to the entire gym but he offered us the use of his safety net."
The rest of the committee looked at him with uncomprehending stares.
"The net is spread out, about ten feet up, above the entire gym floor. On Friday, we can hang all of our decorations from the net and just winch it up towards the ceiling. Not needing to crawl up on ladders should save us a ton of time. It's a dark net so with the lights off, we won't be able to see the net, just the decorations."
Now the rest of the committee understood. "Excellent," Bonnie approved. "How long will it take to winch up the net?"
"Just a few minutes," the boy answered. "The contractor has an electric control system for it. He had his foreman show me how to run it." The boy chuckled, "the foreman's a funny guy. He couldn't remember my name, just kept calling me 'little dude' but he was able to teach me how to run the controls."
"Okay, we have a plan for the decorating the gym." Bonnie commented. "How about the refreshments?"
"It doesn't look good," another of the girls spoke up and handed over a sheet of paper. "Here's the prices I've gotten. Even simple meat and cheese trays are out of our budget."
Bonnie looked at the numbers. "It looks like we either go without or go potluck." The tall brunette scowled. "There has to be a way to have refreshments! I so don't want to do a potluck thing and I so don't want to go without." She slumped down in her chair.
"I may have an answer," Kim spoke up and handed Bonnie Ron's list. "Ron is willing to do the cooking and the school will let him use the kitchen. Here's the list of what he needs and the costs."
Bonnie looked over the figures. "This meets the budget!" She then looked at Kim. "With Stoppable doing the prep work, we don't have to worry about the food. When can you pick it up and get him going?"
"I can pick it up tonight and he can take care of it tomorrow." Kim replied with a pained smile.
"What's so funny?" Bonnie demanded.
"Ron made the budget based on Smarty-Mart prices," Kim informed her. "If I so much as go inside that place, he'll be letting me hear about it for another month."
Bonnie smirked at her. "Anything else?"
"Yes, actually," Kim replied. "I don't think that it's fair for Ron to do all of the cooking by himself and he's forbidden me from coming anywhere near the kitchen." The rest of the committee smiled at that one. "Can we get some volunteers to help him?"
Bonnie looked at her for several long seconds before saying. "That sounds fair, let's arrange for some volunteers. K, could I see you for a little bit after the meeting?"
Kim nodded warily.
With that, the committee arranged for volunteers to help Ron after school the next day and adjourned until Friday. Bonnie and Kim walked to the office, where they got the prom money needed for Kim to buy Ron's supplies. Then the two girls walked out to the school's front steps. Several of the committee members had stayed in the library to talk.
"The contractor and his foreman were a strange pair," said the boy who had met with them.
"Strange, how?" Asked one of the girls.
"Well, take the contractor. That guy was a class act. He had really good manners and a distinguished, British accent. But he walked funny, kind of like his feet weren't quite right and his canine teeth were awfully big. Then there was his foreman, the one who called me 'little dude.' I'm not that small, but compared to him I am. He really seemed to know his way around the equipment but I swear that every fourth word out of his mouth was 'seriously.' I mean, it was like an English gentleman and an American redneck were working together."
"Were they the only two working in the gym?" The girl asked.
"No," the boy replied. "I couldn't get a good look at the guys working up above the safety net, but their shadows looked really small. But it was the contractor and his foreman that really cracked me up. They acted like they couldn't stand each other! I mean, the way the foreman said 'seriously' all the time made everyone around him say it, as well. Every time the contractor said it he just glared at the foreman. I'm telling you, those two are oil and water."
The girl chuckled. "If they hate each other that much, I wonder why they're working together."
Again, thanks to all of you for putting up with me and reading this story.
Special thanks for all of you who have reviewed, or taken the time to send me emails with comments, suggestions, and corrections. I really appreciate them.
Finally, as always, thanks to Joe Stoppinghem for beta reading.