Chapter 58: Makeup Prom
Ron finished his tie and gave himself a once over in the mirror. He hadn't even attempted to obtain a tuxedo for the makeup prom. One week wasn't enough to rent one, and his father's old powder blue one didn't fit him very well. As such, he was wearing the same slacks and jacket he had worn to temple that morning, but with a clean shirt and a different tie. All in all, he couldn't complain about his appearance, given the time constraints. He couldn't hold in an amused chuckle, thinking that he was sure to look like a slob compared to Monique.
He did a couple of energetic steps. His intensive healing meditations over the last two weeks had paid off well. His ribs only hurt when he did his pre-workout stretching, the wounds to his right leg no longer caused him to limp and the cut under his eye had healed completely. Sure, the scars hadn't had a chance to fade, but like he had told the doctor, he wasn't really that much of a beauty to start with.
He checked his watch. Felix should show up any moment and Oscar was scheduled to show up with their transportation shortly after that. Then Yori and the three boys would head off to Monique's house, where they would pick up Cindy and Monique. Finally the boys would be free to dazzle the girls with the evening's plans. Ron smiled, he was sure the girls would have a good time.
His smile faded a little as he thought of KP being left out. She hadn't been able to find a date and Ron felt sorry for her. Friday night he had hinted to her that she could come along with the three couples but she had flat out turned him down. She had said that she appreciated the offer, but tonight was about the couples. She did remind him that he had promised to save her a dance.
"Just about ready, buddy?" He asked Rufus.
"Ready!" Rufus agreed. The little guy was wearing a shirt, jacket and tie of his own. Ron held out his hand so Rufus could run up his arm and onto his shoulder, then they headed downstairs to wait for Felix.
He met Yori at the top of the stairs, and she looked stunning. Ron smiled; Felix was going to be blown away!
"Do you approve, Ron-san?" She asked, returning his smile.
"You're the very definition of beauty, Yori," Ron replied, "Felix is a lucky guy."
"As is Monique-san," Yori returned the compliment.
"Monique is a lucky guy?" Ron asked, with an exaggerated questioning look.
"Ron-san!" Yori admonished him, covering her mouth to giggle. "You and your odd sense of humor!"
The two teens walked down to the living room to await their friends.
"Pictures!" Mrs. Stoppable shouted, as soon as they reached the foot of the stairs. Ron's mother quickly placed the two teens to her liking and started snapping shots.
"Mom, you do realize that Felix is Yori's date for the night?" Ron pointed out to his mother.
"Hush, you," his mother admonished him. "I'll be getting pictures of Felix with Yori once he shows up, and Monique's mother will be getting pictures of all of the couples, as well as the entire group. It's a mother thing; we'll trade pictures later. But for right now, my son is all dressed up with a pretty girl who's also all dressed up. I'm not missing this opportunity."
"Ronald," Mr. Stoppable addressed his son, once his wife had satisfied her shutterbug impulses. "Your mother can entertain Yori for a few minutes. I'd like to speak to you in my office, if I could."
Ron frowned as he followed his father. Whenever Gene Stoppable used his son's proper name, it meant that a serious talk was about to take place. Given than he was sixteen, was heading to a dance, and had obtained a limited celebrity status from the rumors surrounding Drakken's scheme, he figured he knew what this was going to be about.
"Sit down, Ronald," Gene told his son, as he closed the door behind them. Once his son was seated, Gene seated himself and looked at Ron.
"I'm sure that you're expecting a lecture about behaving yourself," Gene began. "The standard don't drink, don't do drugs, keep your hands off your date and be back by midnight speech." Gene smiled when Ron's eyes widened. "I see that I was correct, but you're not going to get that speech from me." Ron's eyes got even wider.
Gene Stoppable chuckled before continuing. "Such a speech is silly when given to a young man who has spent the last couple of years performing good deeds that very few adults have the courage to perform; while in the company of a lovely young lady." He shook his head. "No, son, I already trust you." The elder Stoppable leaned back. "I have two things to say, Ronald, then I'll let you loose to enjoy the evening you've earned."
"The first thing I have to say is how very proud I am of you," there were tears in Gene's eyes as he continued. "And I know that I don't say it near enough. I was proud of you before, when you chose to support Kimberly on her missions. I was so proud of the way you swallowed your fears and forced yourself to do…terrifying things. I was even more proud this year, when you made a concentrated effort to improve yourself and succeeded."
Mr. Stoppable picked up four books from his desk and moved his chair so that he could sit next to his son. Ron noticed that the books were high school yearbooks, from the four years his father had been a high school student.
"The second thing I need to say has to do with risk," he said, opening his freshman yearbook. He spoke for several minutes, making Ron's mind churn.
Kim loitered in the lobby, watching the couples file in while waiting for her six friends to show up. Her father had given her a ride to the gym and she flinched inside when she recalled hearing the cameras at work while she walked inside. She just knew that the various 'look at the celebrities' programs and magazines were going to be getting some mileage out of her showing up, alone. She could picture the headlines already 'Teen Heroine Saves the World but Can't Find a Date.' The coverage from the Diablo Incident had resulted in a deluge of cheesy, emailed pick-up lines on her website, and she knew that the coverage from her showing up, alone, would only generate more.
She stifled a sigh. She didn't want to wish ill on anybody, but she really hoped that somewhere, soon, an actress would elope, a teenage pop singer would change religion, or a model would get pregnant, and take the focus off of her. Wade was good about keeping the press at bay, but there was only so much he could do when she was the center of the major news event of the decade. She was lucky that Wade and Mr. Barkin had passed the word, and there would be no media inside the gym during the prom.
Her musings were cut short by a commotion outside. She looked outside and couldn't keep the smile from her face. A large, ornate, horse-drawn carriage had just pulled up to the gymnasium. The driver, who Kim recognized as one of the sophomores on the wrestling team, set the brake, hopped down from the bench and placed a step outside the carriage door. Ron and Oscar emerged from the carriage and helped the girls and Felix step down to the curb. With that, the three boys each offered an arm to his date and escorted the smiling girls inside while the carriage rolled off and the photographers had a field day. Kim smiled; Ron's coverage would finally be flattering.
"Okay, spill!" Kim demanded of Monique. "I want all the details!"
"These three are something else," her friend declared. "We had the carriage ride out to dinner at The Watchtower. I didn't know that they were setting up a balcony dining room, with a private kitchen, but these goofballs had reservations. Not only that, but over the last week they had managed to figure out what the three of us liked for formal dining. We no more that get seated than Ron is putting the final touches on our meal while these two," a gesture at Oscar and Felix, "entertain us with a piano and guitar duet."
"Then they insisted on serving us themselves," Cindy took up the tale. "Poor us! We have to put up with classic transportation, excellent food, wonderful entertainment and unbeatable service."
Yori chimed in, "I fear that my first experience with an American style date may have left me with overly high expectations." The only flaw was the excessive laughter caused by Ron-san's comments."
"Couldn't get him off of the falsetto voice with the French accent?" Kim prompted.
"Oh, we finally got him to quit that," Monique answered. "But as soon as he stopped that, he started acting like that puppet chef with the weird Scandinavian accent. About the time he referred to a spatula as 'der flippen thingamajiggen' we got him to be himself again."
"But I can't complain," Cindy said. "These three went all out, and we've all had a great time." Monique and Yori nodded their agreement.
"I knew that Felix could play guitar," Kim mused. "But I didn't know that you played the piano, Oscar."
"I'm not really at a concert level," Oscar replied, with a modest shrug of his shoulders. "But I'm willing to put in the practice time if I have a good enough reason." That last remark had Cindy positively beaming at him.
You'd better get in line," Kim told them, hoping to avert a major, public love-fest. She pointed to the queue starting at the arch. "It's just about time for your entrance."
"You gonna be okay, KP?" Ron asked. Their long friendship meant that he could spot her forced cheerfulness.
"Sure thing," Kim answered, pulling her camera out of her handbag and getting a smile firmly on her face. "I'm gonna get pictures of all of you coming in."
Kim got her pictures of the three couples and pictures of all of the cheerleaders (even Bonnie) with their dates. She found a table and hung out with Rufus during the opening dance. She had to admit that Ron and Monique made a very handsome couple on the floor. Yori had found it awkward, at first, to dance with Felix. Her solution was to simply sit down across his lap and let him spin them around the floor. Cindy and Oscar, after dating since the holidays, were clearly comfortable with each other. Kim looked at Monique and Ron, again, and sighed.
The music switched to a more upbeat song and the couples split apart and started to dance with a great deal of energy. Kim smiled looking at Ron, who was dancing with grace and abandon, much to Monique's amused delight. Felix impressed her with his control of his wheelchair while Yori was, of course, the very definition of gracefulness. Oscar and Cindy both had an athletic agility that made them look just fine. Kim was tempted to head out onto the floor but she decided that the first few dances were for the couples, so she held off for just a bit. After a few more songs, Monique and Ron came to the table that Kim had claimed.
"Hot on the floor," Monique reported, fanning herself and taking a seat, "and this partner of yours can really kick it. Want to take a crack at him?"
"I think I can handle that," Kim smiled. "You good to go, Ron?" She asked.
"The Ronster's just getting started, KP," he answered. "Rufus, you know what we talked about earlier. I've arranged to have a plate of snacks, all for you, under the table. No getting up on the table, okay?"
"Got it!" The little guy assured his human.
"And remember the bottle when you get a chance." Ron had a mysterious smile. Rufus chuckled and scampered off towards the snack table, while Ron and Kim strode out to the dance floor.
"What was that about a bottle?" Kim asked Ron, once they started dancing.
"I stashed an empty vodka bottle behind the bleachers," Ron explained. "When Barkin isn't looking, Rufus is going to drag it next to snack table and leave it there. When Barkin sees it, he'll think that somebody spiked the punch."
"Ron, you're evil!" Kim laughed, while executing a graceful twirl.
"Just doing my part to make the evening memorable," Ron grinned, then started cutting some moves in earnest.
The next ninety minutes were fun. Rufus was satisfied with his secret snacks under the table (the sophomore servers filled his plate for him whenever he asked them). Barkin found the bottle and his reaction was even more extreme than Ron had anticipated. The big man dumped out the punch bowl, washed it, refilled it and bagged the bottle as evidence. All this time he was bellowing dire threats to whoever had done this dastardly deed, on his watch. The students, of course, all convulsed with laughter. Ron informed his friends that he and Wade had cleaned all the fingerprints off of the bottle, then put a replica of The Pope's fingerprint on it.
Kim had a fairly full dance card, between Oscar, Ron, Felix, and the other cheerleaders' dates. Every time she hit the floor with Ron, several students took pictures of them. She knew that some of those pictures would be sold to various magazines but she didn't care. She was enjoying herself with her friends and they weren't doing anything embarrassing. If a student, rather than a pushy photographer, made some money that was fine by her. Monique, however, laid claim to all slow dances with Ron and Kim forced herself to admit that she was jeallin' about it. After another such slow dance, she saw Monique pull Ron in close to whisper in his ear. He nodded and Monique left him and approached Kim.
"Girl," she said, "I think that you should have a word, in private, with your boyfriend."
"Very funny, Mon," Kim rolled her eyes.
"I'm serious, Kim," Monique insisted, pointing her thumb over her shoulder, at Ron.
"Monique, you know we're not…" Kim started.
"Girlfriend, that boy's only got eyes for you, and you've only got eyes for him. Now he's all healed up and I've had my date. Why don't the two of you step out back, have a talk and find out where you stand with each other?" Monique's tone brooked no argument. "I'll tell Yori where the two of you are so she won't go ballistic."
"You mean you agreed to go on this date with him just to get the two of us together?" Kim asked her best female friend.
"No," Monique's face was just a little sad. "Your boy is a fine dancer and I really wanted to see if the two of us could put something together, you know? The only thing is, I can't compete with twelve years of being best friends and now that you've had a chance to think things over, I don't think any guy can compete with that, either. He's waiting for you, Kim, go patch things up."
Kim hesitated for a moment then stepped forward and gave her friend a big hug. "Thanks, Mon," she said.
"Two things girl," Monique informed her. "Number one, I still get the last dance. Number two; I get all the juicy details from any of your dates. Deal?"
"Deal!" Kim agreed. Then she went to Ron. The two of them shared a look and headed for the gym's back door, behind the stage. Kim noted the nervous yet hopeful expression on Ron's face and was pretty sure she had a matching one on hers.
A/N: It's really been fun writing this story, and I really appreciate all of you who have taken the time to read it. I hope the next few chapters are enjoyable and entertaining.
Thanks to all of you who have read, reviewed, and emailed me.
Thanks to Joe Stoppinghem for Beta Reading.
daccu65