"Big Time"
Story Written by Freedom Fighter
Okay, now time to begin this thing in earnest! Hope I hooked you from the start, because now we really get cooking!
Boot up your 'Kim Possible' soundtrack CD and let's get rollin'!
Disclaimer: The characters and places of the TV show 'Kim Possible' do not belong to me. They are property of Disney and the show's creative staff.
Theme Song - Call Me, Beep Me (If You Wanna Reach Me)
Part One - Something Against Buffaloes? (06.29.06)
Middleton High School
Last Day of Classes for Seniors, 48 Hours Until Graduation...
Ron did his best to comfort Kim, who was still crying as she pulled several pieces of paper from her locker. To Ron's surprise, they were rejection letters from the universities she had applied to.
"Cornell... Penn... Northwestern... Southern California," Kim read off the names of the schools, tossing each letter into the air as she did, all the while Rufus, who had jumped out of Ron's pocket, scrambled about to catch them before they hit the floor. "And now Columbia! Every single one!"
"What about this one?" Ron asked, noticing a sixth letter she skipped over in the process of throwing them out. "The... University of Colorado?"
Kim quickly snatched it away. "Uh... that was my last resort fallback school. Nothing to write home about..."
"Isn't that school bad? For cheerleaders? I mean, after all that's happened there..."
"It's nothing, Ron!" Kim reiterated as she ripped the letter to shreds with her two hands.
Rufus uttered a cry of complaint as he deemed it impossible to catch all of those little pieces.
"You couldn't even get into Colorado? How can that be?"
"Like I said, it's nothing!"
Kim then slammed her locker door and started walking off to class.
"KP, talk to me!" pleaded Ron. "You and I are together, you know, so, uh... shouldn't we be more open to talking about this kinda stuff?"
"What's there to talk about?" Kim yelled at Ron. "I applied, I got rejected, and now I don't have a life after high school! You think people will be asking for my help once word gets out I can't be anything more than a high school graduate?"
"All hope is not lost! There's still one school you can apply to!"
"What? You mean Middleton State? Ron..."
"Hey hey, don't knock it before you've tried it! They've got everything! Club sports, good eats, and close proximity to home! And the best part... we won't have to be separated! We can still go on missions together!"
"You're serious, aren't you?" Kim asked, unimpressed.
"Think about it! We've been together since preschool! We've gone on missions together since junior high! We... we had our first dance together being steady just two weeks ago! You were gonna give up everything we worked for all this time... just like that?"
Kim was taken aback by that question, and she fumbled for a reply.
"What? No, Ron, of course not! And I wasn't talking about the whole 'getting separated' part."
"But that's what concerns me the most, Kim! We've worked so hard to come this far..."
"We?"
"Okay, mostly you... but still. Is this where it ends for us? On the cusp of adulthood, we have to cast each other aside like rag dolls?"
Kim sighed. "Ron... you know that we'll always be together in spirit, even if we're several thousand miles apart physically." Kim then caught herself, wondering what she was blabbering about when she didn't even have a college to go to. "What I meant was..."
"Our lives we'll never be the same! Our relationship was doomed to failure before it even got started... just like every romance I've ever been in!"
"Awww!" Rufus chirped, pulling a handkerchief out for Ron to blow his nose into.
"Ron..."
"You keep trying to push me away, Kim, and yet I've never abandoned you! But I can't believe you wouldn't do the same for me! You're happy that you won't be able to see or hear me for months on end!"
"Where are you getting all of this from? Wasn't I feeling pity for myself for not being accepted to any of my schools just a minute ago?"
"Oh, I see, education comes first! Well, fine! If that's the way you want it, then I'll go study for that history final I know I'm gonna fail anyway!"
Ron then ran off in tears, Rufus hanging on for dear life as he was surprised by the sudden departure. Kim reached out with her arm as if to pull him back, but was greeted with a surprise when someone else pulled her.
That someone else being Bonnie Rockwaller, the co-captain of the varsity cheerleading squad.
"Looks like the honeymoon's over," smirked Bonnie.
"Can it!" Kim shot back as she tried to walk off. But Bonnie trotted up and strutted along next to her.
"This is golden! You've turned off the lowest guy on the totem pole in terms of hotness in the entire school! There's nobody left for you to ogle over!"
"Is there a point to all of this?"
Bonnie responded by shoving a piece of paper into Kim's face. Snatching it from her, Kim read the first few lines aloud.
"Congratulations, Miss Bonnie Rockwaller! We humbly offer you a full four-year athletic cheerleading scholarship to attend Florida State University."
Bonnie squealed with delight as she reached into her backpack and produced an FSU visor hat, which she immediately lodged onto the top of her head. She then pulled out an Indian headdress... and plopped that on top of Kim's head. Kim frowned at this.
"Okay, so the colors aren't exactly fa-bu, but the fact that I got a full scholarship to several schools including FSU and you... didn't... well..."
"I'm not out of options yet," Kim huffed as she removed the headdress from her head and threw it back at Bonnie, who promptly caught it.
"You've got nothing, Kim," Bonnie said with a smile, calling Kim's bluff. "Face it... all of that world-saving you've been doing has done absolutely nothing for your social or academic life. Spending all that time with Stoppable has completely ruined your future, and you know it!"
Kim stewed and growled as Bonnie continued to rag her out.
"You have so spit upon the legacy of not only our school, but of our two-time state champion varsity team as well! And you know what? I actually feel genuinely sorry for you! Oh, wait, no I don't! Ha!"
Suddenly, the bell for third period began to ring. Bonnie quickly stuffed her FSU gear back into her pack and began to run off.
"See you in class, girl-with-no-future!"
Kim mumbled something under her breath as she stomped to class.
Meanwhile in the library, Ron couldn't concentrate on his studies. He was too worried about what he had said to Kim just minutes ago.
"Man... I made all that buzz about her pushing me away when I think I did the exact same thing to her! What was I thinking?"
Rufus tried to comfort his buddy by giving him a few pats on the shoulder. It didn't seem to be working, though.
"She was going on about not making it into any colleges while I was already blabbing about how we were going to be separated! Darn it... and the funny thing is, I think I've had this conversation with KP before. Though I can't quite place it..."
He glanced over at Rufus for answers, but the naked mole-rat responded with a 'I don't know' shoulder gesture. Ron plopped his head down onto the table in disbelief.
"It's like that show where I'm that goofball with the heart of gold and Kim's that super-smart and gorgeous girl that gives up her chance at an Ivy League school just to stay with him. What was her name again? Rhymes with 'manga,' right?"
He turned to Rufus once again, but this time his best friend answered by pointing at his history book. Shouting chirps and such that amounted to telling him to get back to studying.
"You're right, Rufus! I won't even have to worry about that if I fail this test and don't graduate! I need to get past this first, then I'll worry myself silly."
"Uh huh," Rufus nodded, though he wasn't so sure of that 'worrying himself silly' part.
"But first..."
Ron pulled out of his backpack... a calculator.
"Man, I really need Kim to convince Wade to make me my own Kimmunicator... thingy."
Elsewhere in Middleton, a bus was pulling up to the local station. Filled with businessmen and a few tourists, they all began to disembark from it. Among them were two burly guys in suits carrying large, black guitar cases. Upon exiting the bus, they were greeted by a scruffy looking man in his 40s, dressed in a green short sleeve shirt and blue jeans.
"Uh..." the duo stammered, dumbfounded that the person they were meeting was dressed so casually.
"You have it?" the man asked.
"You're 'Blooms in the Sunshine?'" the first suit queried.
"He don't look like no 'Blooms in the Sunshine,'" commented the second.
"That's the point of codenames, you dunderheads! The codenames protect our actual identities so no one can go look us up on the Internet!"
"There's such a thing as an Internet?"
The second shook his head in disbelief at the first's question. "You still livin' in the '80s or what?"
"Will you two just give me those things!" 'Blooms' yelled, snatching the guitar cases from them. "I don't even know why I'm doing this... this is so below my capabilities."
"But isn't the idea to draw out that guy that's been following you for the past few weeks?" the second suit wondered out loud.
"Announce it to the whole world, why don'tcha? How am I supposed to pull this off if he knows I'm trying to off him? Now... get out of here before you endanger my mission any further!"
The two men nodded, then ran off in opposite directions. Left holding the two guitar cases, 'Blooms' strutted off, heading towards his 'mission start point.'
Back at Middleton High, the school bell was ringing once again. This time, it was to signify the end of third period. Classroom doors opened all over the hallway as students moved onto their next class, or in some situations, to the cafeteria for lunch.
In Room 120, Kim hopped out of her seat with her last notebook in hand and headed for the door, one of the last to leave. But before she could, Mr. Barkin stepped in front of her.
"Miss Possible, may I have a word with you?"
"Uh... sure," Kim agreed hesitantly. After spending the entire class thinking about how she didn't get a chance to talk to Ron after what happened in the hall, she wanted to make things right. But she couldn't exactly walk out on Mr. Barkin... could she?
"Have a seat," he said, pointing to a desk in the front row.
Kim began to panic, wondering if he had noticed she hadn't been paying attention in class. "Uh... Mr. B, if this is about me daydreaming, I'm really, really sorry."
"Duly noted, Miss Possible... but that's not what I want to talk about. Please... have a seat."
Mr. Barkin emphatically repeated the last sentence again, and this time Kim obeyed him. Kim sat silently as her teacher began to pace to and fro in front of her.
"So I've heard the news about you not getting into any of your choices for secondary education, and frankly, I'm concerned."
Kim breathed a sigh of relief. "Is that all?"
"Is that all?" Mr. Barkin fired right back, nearly making Kim jump right out of her Club Banana jeans. "Do you realize how important it is for a ripe and fertile mind like yours to further your education by attending a secondary institution of learning?"
"I know that, but... every place I applied to rejected me. I don't know why... maybe I set my standards too high?"
"Nonsense! You may be a little rough around the edges, what with occasionally arriving late for classes, or even skipping them entirely once in a while. Nevertheless, your grades are exceptional given your extraordinary circumstances, and any school would be foolish not to take you in."
"So why was I rejected by everyone?" Kim thought out loud, suddenly drawing a hint of suspicion of the whole situation.
"Not everyone, Miss Possible."
Mr. Barkin pulled a handful of paper scraps from his pocket and placed them on top of Kim's desk. Right at the top of the pile was the insignia for the University of Colorado, buffalo and all.
"You have something against buffaloes?"
"No!" Kim quickly objected. "And when..."
"You were daydreaming in class, remember? The way you looked, the whole school could've been under attack by blood-sucking mutants and you wouldn't have noticed!"
Kim gasped, then turned away, crossing her arms over her chest in a pouty anger.
"According to what's left of this piece of paper, you were accepted to the University of Colorado on a full four-year scholarship. And it's dated a month ago!"
"I went up there for a campus visit one weekend while on the way back from helping the Thundering Hoofs' star quarterback get his groove back. He said he was cursed with bad luck after a black cat crossed his path. Anyway, I didn't like the school all that much."
"And yet you still submitted an application for admittance?"
"Well..." Kim hesitated.
Barkin raised an eyebrow with ire. "Did something happen between now and then that made you regret applying there?"
Kim glanced right at Mr. Barkin, then started turning her head left, right, and all over the place, trying to dodge the question.
"Miss Possible!"
"I... I can't really talk about it!"
"This is your future we're talking about! I'm not going to force you to go to a school you don't want to attend, but this looks as if it's your only choice! If you had any misgivings about Colorado, now's the time to air them out!"
Kim was in a bind. She knew the reason why she didn't want to go to Colorado, but it wasn't exactly something she felt confident blurting out, even to someone like Mr. Barkin. But she knew he was going to press her until she told him, whether she liked it or not.
BEEP-BEEP-BOO-BEEP.
The familiar ring tone of the Kimmunicator filled the air.
"Sorry, Mr. Barkin, but you know how it is with the world and saving it. Constantly. Everyday. Several times a day, sometimes."
Kim slithered out of her seat and made her way over to the door.
"You know, this hobby of yours really seems to be taking control of your life."
Kim stopped and turned about, as if to beckon Mr. Barkin to fully explain what he was getting at.
"Regardless of what college you end up going to, Colorado or not... you won't find professors and the like there more open to your world-saving 'business.' You're going to have to make a decision, Miss Possible."
"A decision?"
"Leave saving the world to the professionals and see what it's like to live in the real world. Or, commit to your hobby full-time, and seriously handicap your future whenever you get tired of saving people. It's a heavy-hearted decision. Make sure you make the right one."
Kim nodded, slowly stepped out of the room backwards, then turning about and bolting forwards in the hallway.
To be continued in Part 2 - Coming in two weeks!