Chapter 6

"Shego? Why didn't you come home last night? I was worried! I knew being near that cheerleader could be dangerous for you!" Drakken ranted as Shego finally entered the apartment. He ran up to her and appeared to be checking for injury.

"I'm fine. Now get away from me."

"Sorry. You really should tell me when you're not going to be in. You could've been caught!"

"Ha! As if! I was just at a sleepover, you know, doing my job."

"Yeah...about that. I've decided to move onto another plan! This time I will surely rule the world!" Cue evil laugh.

"What do you mean? We can't stop now!" Shego complained, I'll never get a chance like this with Kim again!

"It's not working, we have to move on. The next plan will succeed and you can finally have Iceland. Won't that be good?" Drakken told her as he made some 'coco moo' for himself.

"I could still get something! It hasn't been long and -" Damn, this is my chance to get out of hurting Kim and I'm not taking it! -sigh- "-okay fine but I'll need a few weeks to get out of it without people trying to follow me."

Drakken whined and persisted with saying that they needed to move onto the next plan as soon as possible, apparently they were wasting time and resources, but when faced with two glowing green fists he quickly backed down and agreed to give Shego her needed few more weeks to sort everything out. He didn't want people to find out after all and he couldn't just have random teens walking into his 'secret' lairs.

"Thanks Dr D" Shego said in a sarcastic sweet tone as she walked to her bedroom with a hot cup of coffee. Now to get that stupid drawing finished.

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Monday came around soon enough and everyone was back to work and school. What was different from every other Monday at Middleton High was the buzz going around. Ron, Monique, Kim and Shen didn't know what it was all about until a certain bitchy cheerleader sauntered up to the group.

"Hey Kim," Bonnie called in her usual smarmy way, "decided who you're going to the dance with?"

What dance? "I haven't decided yet, Bonnie" Kim replied, not allowing Bonnie the pleasure of knowing something she didn't.

"Well it's not like you have a lot of choice is it?" Bonnie laughed and continued, "I could always take one of them off of your hands."

Shen, who had been watching the exchange with interest, like the other times Bonnie and Kim had met, it's better than TV!, noticed the hungry look he was being given by the clear turquoise eyes. Raising an eyebrow he quickly saw an opportunity and smirked at Bonnie suggestively. Kim wasn't impressed and frowned deeply at Shen. "I can handle it myself thanks, Bonnie."

"Hmm, well I'll be happy to help," Bonnie replied continuing to use her unctuous manner. She swayed as she strolled away. Reaching another corridor, she turned around and winked at Shen. Wanting to look interested he winked back, just before Kim huffed and pulled him away to one of the many posters with details for the dance. Well that was a fun little experiment, Shen thought.

"Funny how she suddenly goes from ridiculing you to trying to seduce you," Kim commented, more to herself though, "She always has to find a way to get at me, doesn't she? Doesn't she have anything better to do?"

"Ah, you know her Kim, she just has to suck the happiness and life out of everything so she can have it all to herself," Ron pointed out as mimed this with Monique, who was pretending to be Bonnie.

Kim laughed at there antics and read the colourful poster. Shen was leaning against the wall it was attached to watching Kim's face. "It's in a few weeks," Kim told the others as she scanned for relevant information, "Last day of school before Christmas actually...aww man, it's one of those dances where boys have to ask girls. What is the point of that anyway?"

"It's a torture device like all dances; they want to make it that little bit worse. It's the women's way to get back at men for bras and high heels," Shen said as if completely serious. He had to smile a little though as the others cracked up and Ron whole heartedly agreed with the 'torture device' comment.

Ron was complaining about the dance when he spotted Kim glancing over at and ex-crush of hers, or maybe not so 'ex-', he thought, hehe devious plan! Shen noticed Ron's sudden grinning and raised an elegant eyebrow; Ron merely scratched the back of his head and made it look like his usual quirkiness. Shen dismissed it as such. A few minutes later and he found his opportunity; they happened to be walking towards the target and Kim stopped to talk to them.

"Hey Josh, doing the school dance banners again this year?" She asked as Josh was standing on a step ladder pinning a banner to the wall. 'Winter Dance' was written on it in big red letters and the rest of the banner was covered in little designs.

"Yeah. I've been given the task yet again," He replied, but he didn't sound annoyed or sad about having to do the job.

The bell went and they said their goodbyes, although Shen's wasn't exactly friendly, Kim noticed. Ron had slipped away unnoticed and spoke a few words to Josh.

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It was now lunch time and the school was still buzzing because of the upcoming dance. Girls were giggling and making subtle hints to the guys they wanted to ask them to the dance...the hints did turn into "WOULD YOU JUST TAKE ME TO THE DANCE?!" quite a few times because it seems the subtle hints don't register in the male brains. Anyway, Monique and Kim had been trying to not get into all that, but Monique just couldn't hold out for much longer and decided to distract herself with a certain object for the second time in a few days.

When Shen was distracted, filing his nails, ...riiiight..., she quickly but subtly grabbed his bag, under the table, and dragged it to where her and Kim were sitting together. "I swear it's an obsession," Kim whispered to Monique.

"I'm just curious!" Monique defended as she whipped out the prize and flipped through it to find the target page. Again the two girls were in awe. The actual drawing had been made more precise and detailed, with more variations in the shading. Colour had also been added, but it was incredibly subtle to the human eye; a wash of peach over Kim's face and orange for her hair. This colour purposefully didn't match up to the lines though, which contrasted with the neatness and intricacy of the drawing. There was also a light pink wash filling the space between the pencil and the border, which bothered Kim quite a bit; it was alternating green and black and not just any green. It was Shego's green.

They hadn't been looking at it for long so Kim quickly got out her Kimmunicator and called Wade. She mimed asking him if she could use the device to take photos and, figuring it was something he shouldn't answer verbally, he nodded and wrote instructions to activate the photography feature. Shortly, Kim had a highly detailed picture of Shen's drawing and his sketchbook and bag were placed safely in their original positions.

Still thinking about the green and black border, Kim looked over at Shen filing his nails. She had thought it strange when he first did it, him being a guy and filing nails not being a usual male pass time, but now seriously considering a link between him and Shego, it was even more strange. Well actually, it's even less strange because if Shen has some of Shego's qualities then he'd pick up on her most obvious girly habits...I guess...and she does have a serious thing about filing her nails.

Shen was thinking about Kim while the object of his affection was doubting him, she obviously likes me, but I can't move too fast or I'll scare her off. I have to work with limited time though, he looked up from his nails and saw Kim watching him, not looking too happy, maybe I'll ask her to the dance. He put the file away in his back pocket and smiled at Kim, who hesitantly smiled backed, earning a confused look from Shen.

"Okay! I can't do it any longer! Sorry Kim, but the dance, we need to talk about this!" Monique practically exploded at Kim, talking about all the gossip of the other girls, what they could wear and who they could go with. Shen and Ron were left looking bewildered as they conversed at lightning speed.

"Do you know what they're saying?" Ron asked in a hushed tone.

"I have no clue...I didn't know they could talk so fast," Shen replied, eyes fixed on the spectacle. So fixed was he that he hadn't seen Bonnie walk up beside his seat and leisurely put her hands on her hips.

"As if you could ever look good Kim. I wouldn't waste my time talking about it."

"No, you wouldn't waste your time talking about it, because you could never look good beyond the superficial," Kim knew Bonnie didn't like her words turned against her...or the use of big words.

"Hmph. Whatever, at least I'll have a decent partner. I doubt you'd even get anyone worth it and Ron certainly isn't smart enough to figure out he's meant to ask the girl. You lose there Kim, not that you could win with that loser." Evidently Bonnie had dumped her smarmy manner and decided to be vindictive instead.

"Hey! The Ron-man is not a loser." Everyone just looked at Ron like he was a total idiot (no complaints there) but Shen, taking pity on the poor buffoon, decided to step in a bit.

"Hey Bonnie, I think your lipstick has smudged."

"Oh my god!" She quickly ran off to check and reapply. Shen looked over to Ron to see him sulking slightly, he was about to be nice, am I ill?Ah, I just don't like him being pathetic, but a certain attractive human of the male kind came up to the table.

"Oh hey Josh. Hope you guys don't mind but I invited Josh here to eat with us," Ron said to the others, "What took you so long? Lunch is nearly over."

"I had to finish off some more banners," Josh explained as he sat down to dig into his food., "How are you Kim? Good day?"

Josh wasn't usually the talkative kind, but Kim was more than happy to chat away to him. Shen was less than pleased to see this sudden competition. Before it had only been Ron and he had just been amusing, but this new guy was attractive and had the whole 'quiet, deep thinking artist' thing going for him. He could pose a problem.

This theory was given even more proof as the day went by. Kim seemed to be distancing herself from Shen all of a sudden and it was making him feel suspicious. She was also hanging around with this 'Josh' a lot more and smiling too much in Shen's opinion. He decided Monique would be able to give him a few answers.

"Hey Mo," he called to her in the science lesson. They were currently collecting equipment for an experiment so he could get her alone, "What's Kim and that guy's history?"

Although Josh wasn't actually pointed out Monique was smart enough to figure it out, "Well Kim used to have crush on him a while back, but nothing really became of it. Why is someone feeling jealous?"

"Hey! You've seen it too! She's going all giggly with him and totally ignoring me suddenly. If I go near her she gets a scared look on her face. I just wanna know what's going on."

"-sigh- I dunno. I'll talk to her about it."

Shen was forced to be content with that throughout the rest of science and his next lesson; art.

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After the final bell had gone, Shen was walking to his locker. However, such a simple task couldn't possible turn out to be so simple in this world, as the fates, cruel as they are, introduced Bonnie. She strolled down the corridor and stopped directly in his path, smirking with her arms crossed and leaning back. Apparently she was feeling confident...well nothing new there then.

"Hey Shen," she purred, ooo I likey, Shen thought, "Could you spare a minute?"

"I guess" he replied, what can I say? Playing the hard-to-get card is way more fun.

She took a step forward and brushed a delicate finger up his toned arm, scratching lightly with her well manicured nails. "I was wondering," Whoa! I bet that took effort! Shen thought sarcastically, "if you would be so kind as to take me out some when?"

"Sure, I will certainly think about it." he replied, noting not only that she said 'some when' and not soon, but that someone was watching and he could win a lot of money on betting who that was.

"Excellent. See you around babe." Bonnie strutted away ostentatiously as Shen decided to go to the rest room before home. He didn't really need to go to his locker anyway, he was only wasting time because going back to Drakken was hardly a promising thought.

- - -

Kim watched him walk away as she peaked around the corner and went to her locker. She got out her cheerleader kit and made her way to the gym. Like most cheer leading sessions, this one wasn't enjoyable, in the sense of Bonnie being her usual bitchy, annoying and underhanded self.

Unfortunately for Kim, she had new ammo now. The comments ranged from 'Lost another guy to me? Oh that's terrible Kim! Then again I can't blame them' to 'That Shen is such a weirdo. How can you hang around with him? Oh wait! I guess you're already used to Ron.' It seemed Bonnie was using the 'I'm better than you' card and the 'you have no decent friends' card, great. Just what I need right now.

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"So any missions?" she asked Wade after cheer practice.

"Yep. Quite a few actually. Seems like a lot villains have decided to take a bit of the action considering Drakken's been out of the game."

"Spanking. Hook me up with the info Wade," she received the information needed for a few missions to fill her evening and left on the transport Wade sorted out for her. She exchanged pleasantries, but all the while her mind was plagued with one thing she couldn't get rid of, Shen likes Bonnie?!