Accidents Will Happen

XX

Bonnie threw open the lunch room doors in an entrance that should have been even more attention-grabbing than when she and Junior first arrived, but no attentions were grabbed. The reunion attendees were too busy chatting, trading stories of the old days, and generally having a good time to notice Bonnie's foul mood. She stalked amongst the tables until she reached her own, sitting down in a huff.

This was not the way the reunion was supposed to have gone. Bonnie was successful, independent, wealthy, living a fabulous life with a gorgeous husband. The world was her oyster. And yet here she was, compelled to compete against Kim Possible even though she hadn't seen her in years until tonight. And just like in high school, Kim Possible always had to come out on top. If there was a spotlight, it would be trained on that red head of hers at all times.

She looked around the table and noticed that her husband was not there. Brick and Justine were chatting with Ron, who gave Bonnie a nervous nod as he looked around for his wife's impending entrance. Tara was off mingling with some guests at other tables. Monique and Josh Mankey were missing, and she could not see them anywhere in the lunch room.

After scanning the room for a moment, she found her husband over in the children's area, playing some kind of a game with some of the kids. Tara's children were there, and Bonnie recognized another child as Brick and Justine's son, Madison, and the remaining child was Kim and Ron's spawn. She expected herself to growl in protest when she saw Junior playing some ridiculous hand game with Annie, counting and slapping his palms together – why was her husband pattycaking with the fruit of Kim's loins? However, a different emotion welled up inside her. Bonnie wasn't sure what it was, but it wasn't anywhere near negative enough. She felt thrown off balance, unsettled.

"Bonnie!" shouted Junior from across the room. "Come over here! Annie has taught me a wonderful game that you play with just your hands. I did not know such games existed – you do not have to buy any kind of electronic device at all!"

Bonnie groaned as half the lunch room looked at her husband and laughed. She considered ignoring him for a moment, but decided the best way to avoid further embarrassment was just to come over and join him with the children.

"Did you finish your fight with mommy?" Annie asked her when she sat down beside her husband.

"Yeah. I thought she was behind me, but I guess she's chatting with Barkin or something."

Annie felt relieved; no immediate butt-kicking would be necessary.

"Who won?" she asked.

Bonnie did not answer.

"I see," Annie said after observing Bonnie's expression. The non-response told Annie all she needed to know. "You must be really competitive like mommy is. I guess I'm kind of competitive too. I have a girl in my class that I'm fighting with all the time, just like you and mommy do, except we're on a debating team and not a cheerleading team. Belinda thinks she's so much better than me, but all she does is make the other person look bad instead of saying why they're wrong. Mom told me it was a called an 'ad bombing him' attack. I don't know what ads or bombs have to do with it though. Maybe mommy was saying Belinda is just like a spammer."

As Annie carried on her enthusiastic one-sided conversation, Bonnie realized that she did not know how to speak to children. She was glad her husband was beside her, since he seemed to be hitting it off with the kids much more easily. Maybe it was something about how Junior was so easy to amuse and childlike in his own way. Bonnie loved her husband, but he could definitely be childlike sometimes. Some people just never completely grew up, Bonnie thought. She was glad that she didn't have that problem herself.

Annie carried on talking a little more until Bonnie decided to distract her with something that she could actually participate in doing. Anything was better than sitting and staring awkwardly at the kid.

"Um, I heard you were playing pattycake – can I try it?"

XX

The classroom was empty. Unfortunately, so were the closets.

Monique had been hoping to find one or two of the outfits that she had made long ago in her high school design classes, but nothing looked familiar. It wasn't surprising; there was no reason to assume the school would hold onto outfits that were decades old, although a part of Monique had been hoping that maybe her old outfits were outstanding enough to be kept for future generations to imitate as a perfect design model. Her disappointment soon turned to excitement, however, when she rooted through a box of old clothing designs for a few moments and found a familiar folder of papers.

"Here! This is it!"

Josh leaned over and looked more closely at the pictures.

"See, this one got me an A+!" Monique shouted excitedly. "Oh man, I was totally hoping to find something like this."

Monique felt herself caught off guard by a blast of nostalgia. Snapshots of her teen life trailed through her mind as she looked over the designs. Arguing with Kim at the mall about Club Banana lineup choices. Cutting fabric, sewing buttons. Forcing Ron to serve as a clothing model and laughing with Kim when they made him try on dresses.

She couldn't even remember exactly what class she had made the designs in – maybe it had been a home economics class in which the teacher had recognized Monique's eye for fashion and aesthetics. Looking at the sketches and notes with the eye of a a professional fashion designer, Monique thought her old clothing designs were a little embarrassing, but she was still happy to see them. More importantly, she doubted Josh knew much about clothing design, which meant that he'd be impressed no matter what she pulled out of the folder.

"Those look awesome!" exclaimed Josh.

Monique nudged him playfully in the ribs with an elbow.

"Alright alright, no need to suck up there, Joshy boy." She took the folder of designs and tucked it under her arm as she got back up from the floor, where she had been fishing through everything she had pulled out of the closet. "I think I'm gonna keep these for personal use. It's not stealing if it was my stuff to begin with, right?"

"Definitely not."

Josh grabbed Monique's hand and pulled her out of the classroom.

"Uh, where are we going now?" she asked as they raced down the hall.

"Well, if we're up here searching for memories, I wanted to see if any of my old artwork is still around," Josh said as they entered the art room.

A few half-finished paintings were propped up on easels, left from whoever had been using the class during the previous week, but Josh made a beeline for the cabinets under the art room sink counters. Monique waited as he sifted through stacked paintings, sheafs of paper, art supplies, broken clay sculptures, and various other assorted knick knacks.

As time passed, however, Monique felt a little bad to see that Josh was not having the kind of luck she did. She saw discarded artwork and sculptures from a number of students shoved into the cabinets – whether they were past or present students, she did not know – but apparently none of the works belonged to Josh. She personally thought the artwork did not compare to the stuff she remembered Josh drawing in high school, but then maybe she was judging the artwork she saw now a little harshly. Josh reached the last cabinet in the row and finally gave up after finding nothing from his time in school.

"Sorry," she said as he got up.

Josh shrugged nonchalantly, although Monique could see he was disappointed.

"That's alright. I wasn't really expecting to find anything, but I guess it would have been nice. To tell you the truth, I haven't done a lot of painting in a long time."

"No kidding? What do you do, anyway? I don't think you ever told me."

"I work for a travel magazine. They send me to various places and I write reviews for things, talk about the food, the local atmosphere, hot night spots."

"Writing? I didn't know you were interested in that."

"I'm only a passable writer, but I knew the right people and wanted to see the world and just got really lucky when I got the job opportunity. I think sometimes you have to compromise between your passions and whatever's gonna pay the rent. I mean, it's a fun job, I could do a lot worse."

Monique had to agree. What Josh did sounded like the coolest job in the world – second to owning a fashion boutique, of course. She had been able to do something with her passions that also paid well, but she knew she was luckier than most.

"Well, that sounds like a good deal. You should really take up painting again if you've gotten out of the habit, though. Even if it's just for a hobby. I saw some of your stuff in school, you were really good. And you were complaining about being perennially single earlier - that kinda artsy stuff is the way to a lady's heart, you know."

"Oh yeah?"

"Sure. Right behind playing an acoustic guitar and writing songs with her name in the title, of course." Josh laughed at her comment as she winked at him. "I mean, hey, the sensitive artist thing worked on Kim, didn't it?"

Josh laughed. "I don't think we went on more than a few dates from what I remember, but yeah, I guess so. Kim's taken though, and that was a long time past. This is the present."

"Well, Kim's not the only woman around."

"Is that right," said Josh.

He noticed a twinkle in Monique's eyes, and his question hung in the air between them in the midst of a heavy silence. Josh knew that he could be a bit of a flirt without thinking about it, and it looked like their conversation had just dropped them off in a place he had not expected. Not that it was a bad place to be, Josh thought to himself. He liked to make the best of things as they came to him.

His back hit the edge of the art room counter as Monique inched a little closer and gave him a look that could melt butter. Which, coincidentally, was about how his legs were beginning to feel as he leaned back and felt her draw closer to him.

Josh had never known Monique that well in high school, even though she had definitely caught his eye from time to time. But while the girl in his memory was pretty, the woman in front of him now was drop dead gorgeous. Time had definitely been Monique's friend.

"Are you trying to seduce me, Miss Jenkins?"

Judging by the way her hands felt snaking around his back, the answer was yes.

XX

Kim looked out over the empty football field and felt like she had been run over by an eighteen-wheeler. She had not come to the reunion expecting to be utterly depressed.

"So that's my life story ever since I stopped teaching," Barkin said. "I thought it would be interesting to go to this reunion and look back on things, but I miss the old days, and I suppose there's something depressing about seeing you young punks doing better than me.

"I mean, look," he quickly added when he realized how the comment sounded, "I'm happy to see my former students doing well, seeing as it means I taught you lazy punks enough to make it through life, but I guess I can't help but measure that success against my own."

Saving the world was easy business for Kim, but dealing with her old teacher's lack of direction in life was a whole other bag of worms. Kim had never experienced any problems with purpose and direction; she had felt like she was on a path ever since she could remember thinking about such things in the first place. If anything, the pace of her life hadn't slowed until Annie's birth forced it to slow down.

"If your students are doing well, that is a kind of success for you too, isn't it?" Kim said. "You basically said so yourself."

"True. It's just hard to see it that way sometimes."

"I can understand that. I think you're a very competitive person, like I am."

Kim thought about why she had come to the reunion, and how things had gone with Bonnie so far. "I think it's natural for people like us to end up measuring ourselves against others. That's one of the drawbacks of being competitive, though. You can't treat life like it's a big game. You don't win or lose anything, it's just about whether or not you're happy."

Steve Barkin thought about the last couple decades of his life and wondered if his old student was right or not. Kim Possible had always been one of his brightest students, but she was also an optimist. Someone with a better view of human nature than he had. His time in the military, his time playing and coaching football, and his experiences in the job market all made him wonder if life was a competition because people treated it that way. Even if someone didn't want to see it that way, they'd still be forced to play the game. People measured up, or failed to measure up, because others would measure them whether they liked it or not.

"You know," Kim said, "you always seemed like a very driven person when you were our teacher in high school. I know you definitely influenced Ron to apply himself more, even if sometimes it was just through the sheer terror of having to deal with you without his homework done."

"You don't say."

"Yep. It seems to me like you've let your life stall, like you've let a few setbacks bog you down. Which isn't really the Mr. Barkin I remember. You have to keep pushing yourself to go forward, even if it means going one step at a time and keeping your head down instead of letting the big picture overwhelm you. You have to find things that make it worth getting up every morning and getting through the day.

"And partly it just seems like you're lonely – which, if you don't mind me saying, might be a side of effect of your tough personality." Kim watched Barkin, worried that she might be insulting him, but he didn't seem to be bothered by the comment. "Don't get me wrong, I'm sure it has its benefits, but you need to let yourself be a little more open and friendly. People usually don't bite, you know. If you're nice to them, they're nice to you."

Kim's sympathy increased when she remembered something Ron had told her in the past about Barkin. Something Barkin had told Ron himself shortly before their high school graduation. Apparently, Barkin had been a star player on the football team as well as one of the most popular kids in school. He had even saved the world – at least, that was what he had claimed to Ron. Mr. Barkin's life must have gone downhill since then, Kim thought. She felt her curiosity rise at the thought of her old teacher saving the world, and considered asking him under what circumstances that had happened, before stopping herself in the fear that bringing up his teen years might depress him even further.

"What do you like doing?" she asked him. "Maybe you need to apply yourself to something, make some goals for yourself in life."

"Let's see - I like to collect pictures of cats. Cats with human clothing on, posed like they're playing instruments, poking through flowers and out of water pails, that kind of thing."

As Kim processed this information, the chilly football field was quiet save for the chirping of crickets.

"Okay... uh, let's put that one on hold. What else?"

Barkin squinted his eyes, deep in thought.

"I don't have many hobbies. My hobbies were always my jobs. I enjoyed playing football, and then coaching after I got my bum knee in the war," - Barkin twisted his leg into an awkward position to demonstrate the bum knee, at which Kim held back a reflexive gag - "and I enjoy selling quality merchandise to people."

"That's why you worked at Smarty Mart."

"Correct, Possible."

Kim thought about Barkin's passion for retail. It would give him something to do everyday, but working in retail probably gave him more opportunities to interact with other people as well. She had realized that, as uptight as Barkin appeared, working in retail and as a teacher suggested that maybe he liked other people more than he let on.

"You know," she said, "There's a branch of the Brainy Bazaar superstore in Go City. Have you heard of it?"

"Oh yes," growled Barkin. "I've heard of them."

"Well, uh, that's good. I know you said you tried to get retail jobs after Smarty Mart shut down, but you just have to keep pushing yourself forward. I mentioned the store in Go City because Ron used to work there for a while when we got out of college. His reputation over there is pretty good, as far as I know – if you wanted to, we could try to put in a good word for you if you apply for a position there. Ron and I would be happy to serve as references for you."

"You mean it?"

"Yep!"

"Yes, that's right," said Barkin, "you guys live in Go City, don't you! Maybe if I got a job there I could stop by your house sometimes. We could talk about the old times. The two of you were always my favorite students, you know."

"Really? Ron always thought you had a personal grudge against him."

"Yes, but that's one way in which I express my favoritism."

"Oh."

Barkin's face brightened at the thought of moving to a new city and trying to get a fresh start on life. Kim was happy to see that she was beginning to get through to him, but she began to wonder if she had made a horrible mistake.

The two of them had been sitting in the bleachers for a long time as Barkin talked about his woes, and Kim didn't want to keep Ron and her daughter waiting for much longer, but she felt a certain dread at returning to the lunch room with her old teacher. She did not know how her husband would react to the idea of Mr. Barkin moving to Go City and living near them, but she had to admit that Ron freaking out seemed like a distinct possibility.

XX

"And that's when she fell down the escalator, right in front of Josh! And then she ran away like a crazy person. For no reason at all!"

Annie and Madison laughed at Bonnie's story. Annie in particular found the image of her mother falling down an escalator in front of a boy she was trying to impress to be one of the funniest things she had ever heard. She wondered why her mother had never told her that story before.

"Did you ever embarrass yourself in front of a boy you liked, Bonnie?"

"Me? Of course not."

Annie had the feeling that she had just been told a lie, but she also had the feeling that there was no point in arguing about it. Bonnie was funny, but she did not seem like she would be as easy to argue with as her mother and father. She was about to ask Bonnie for more funny stories about her mother when Madison tapped her on the shoulder and pointed to the stage and podium set up to the side of the lunch room.

"Isn't that your dad?" he asked.

Annie looked over at the stage, and sure enough, her dad – along with the large man who was married to Bonnie – were coming up on the stage. The adults had been doing some karaoke for a little while now, and it looked like her father was going to have a try. A song began to play over the loudspeakers as the lights dimmed in the lunch room. People sitting at the lunch tables clapped and whistled.

"I know this song!" Annie said. "Isn't this a song that your husband made?" she asked Bonnie.

"Yeah. It's one of his biggest hits. You Make My Heart Go Woo Woo."

"My dad really likes this song. Sometimes we dance to it together, but he's a really dorky dancer. I thought you'd like to know, since you know so many embarrassing stories about my parents already."

Bonnie smiled at Annie's comment. Kim's daughter was right; the image of Ron dancing to one of Junior's songs was almost enough to make up for Kim's unfair victory in the gym earlier. Bonnie watched as her husband gyrated wildly on stage, Ron following suit and providing backup vocals.

Junior's vocals had improved exponentially over the years, after having taken numerous singing lessons – although, to be honest, an exponential improvement over the way he sang years ago ended up translating into Junior being a slightly-above-average singer today. Slightly above average was good enough, however. When it came to the music industry, being ruthless tended to get a person into places that they could never dream of going otherwise. Especially in Pittsburgh.

"What are you doing?"

Bonnie jumped at the sound of the shrill voice. She looked across the lunch room as a flurry of wild red hair burst through the hall doors and strode towards her. The karaoke music kept playing, but Junior and Ron had stopped dancing on the stage. Bonnie shrank back a little as Kim Possible approached her.

"Why are you talking to my daughter?"

"What, am I not allowed to do that?" asked Bonnie. "Chill out, K."

Kim looked from foe to daughter and tried to calm herself down. She had been taken over by a surge of anger when she saw Bonnie Rockwaller laughing and talking with Annie. Bonnie may not be a supervillain, Kim thought, but she was still a criminal. She wondered why Ron was not around until she saw him up on the stage with Junior. All of sudden her entire family was getting chummy with the enemy.

"Look, I just don't think you need to be hanging around my daughter, Bonnie. I don't need you teaching her how to lie, cheat, and steal."

"It's not that big a deal, mommy," said Annie. "She was just telling me about some high school stories! Like when you fell down the escalator in front of Josh!"

Kim narrowed her eyes at her old nemesis, and Bonnie felt an indignant sense of anger welling up inside her. Okay, so she had been poking fun at Kim, but she had been making an effort to be nice to Annie, and this was the reaction she got for it?

"Jeez Kim, you think I came to this reunion to corrupt your kid or something? Everything always has to revolve around you, doesn't it? It's not my fault your daughter likes me more than you."

Kim barely restrained herself from slapping Bonnie. She knew she had been letting things get to her, and she didn't want end up in a fight at her reunion with someone she hadn't seen in years, right in front of her daughter. But something about Bonnie's comment had needled her more deeply than she had expected – it was the last straw.

"Ron!"

"Yes honey?" Ron stepped down from the stage.

"I'd like to leave now."

"But Kim, the reunion isn't over yet! What about the tour of Middleton?"

"We see Middleton all the time, Ron. I want to leave."

Kim gave him a look that made it clear her request wasn't really a request so much as it was an order. Annie looked up at her father questioningly, and Ron gave his daughter a shrug.

"Bye Annie," said Madison.

Annie looked a little embarrassed at the farewell, since numerous people in the lunch room were staring at them, but she supposed she didn't want to leave without saying goodbye to Brick and Justine's son. He was a little dorky, but he was alright.

"Bye Madison."

Kim's family followed her as she stormed out of the room, although saying goodbye to a number of people at various lunch tables took a lot of the wind out of her storm. After getting Tara's number and promising she would keep in better touch with her, Kim and her family left the lunch room, but not before she gave Bonnie one last glare as the doors closed behind her.

XX

Monique finished buttoning up her blouse and decided to check to see if the coast was clear while Josh tried to tease his hair back to a less frazzled state in the art room mirror. Monique edged the art room door open a crack and peered out; no one was in sight.

"You ready to go back to the reunion?"

"Sure," said Josh.

No sooner had Monique walked out the door than she smacked straight into an imposing chest, almost falling backwards. Mr. Barkin was standing right in front of her. He looked sternly at his two former students.

"I hope you two weren't engaging in any monkey business in the art room."

"Of course not," said Josh. "How could you think such a thing?"

A cloud hung over Mr. Barkin's features as he looked Josh up and down, but finally he decided that he had no incriminating evidence against Mankey.

"What are you doing up here, anyway?" asked Monique.

"Just thinking over some things, taking a walk. Checking to make sure everything is in order," said Barkin. "Carry on!" He continued walking down the hallway as Monique and Josh raced in the other direction, giggling to each other in a decidedly non-adult way.

"Is it just me, or can that guy be a little scary sometimes even when we've been out of school for years?"

"It's not just you," said Josh. "Does he even work here anymore? I seriously can't tell."

"Don't ask me."

Monique walked down the hallway, still cooling down from their encounter in the art room. She began to wonder whether she had just make a mistake. Seeing her classmates and reliving old memories had been a lot of fun, and she was surprised to find how much she enjoyed meeting Josh again, seeing as she hadn't paid that much attention to him in high school. Despite that, maybe she was giving him the wrong impression. Monique had meant it when she talked about not sticking with boyfriends for very long. It really didn't bother her that much – she enjoyed the single life. Josh had said something similar, but it was hard to tell if people always meant it when they said such things.

"Uh, hey Josh."

"Yeah?"

"In there, it was great and all, and you seem like a really good guy, but -"

Josh put a hand on her arm as they approached the lunch room. "Hey, don't worry about it. We were enjoying ourselves, but I'm not expecting anything else."

"Alright. That's good." Before she opened the doors, Monique glanced at Josh with a grin. "You know, maybe we'll see each other again at the 20 year reunion."

"So, you mean, next year?"

"Yeah."

"You bet," he laughed.

The sound of karaoke singing washed over them as they passed into the lunch room. An unfamiliar former student was up on the stage, belting out a show tune. Monique looked around; she noticed many of her classmates' faces where they still sat talking at their tables, but her own table was missing five occupants, other than her and Josh.

Monique would not be devastated if Bonnie left, and Junior was not exactly a scintillating conversationalist even if he was a choice piece of eye-candy. However, Kim, Ron, and Annie were also missing. Seeing as they had been Monique's ride to the reunion, she couldn't help but feel a little annoyed. As much fun as Josh had been, she didn't think the two of them had been missing for that long.

XX

Nineteen years after graduation, and Bonnie hadn't changed a bit.

Kim knew she shouldn't have been surprised. People like Bonnie didn't really change. Especially not when their bad habits were only encouraged once they got out of school. Bonnie had graduated only to fall into the lap of luxury through her relationship with Junior and his father. It was only natural that she'd act just as entitled, just as childish, just as holier-than-thou as she had in high school.

But that wasn't really what had bothered Kim so much. Bonnie got on her nerves and brought down what otherwise would have been a surprisingly enjoyable reunion, that was true, but Kim found herself most upset by her own behavior. She was an adult now – soon to be a middle aged adult – and she had a husband and child, and yet she found herself going back to her old ways only minutes after seeing her old high school nemesis. It always had to be a contest with Bonnie.

"I don't know why you got so upset about Bonnie's story, mommy," said Annie as she leaned into the front seat between her and Ron. She had enjoyed talking to Bonnie, but she had been a little disappointed her mother hadn't gotten in a fight with her old classmate. That would have been cool. "You were telling us about that time Ron saved you while you were on a date with Josh, and that was embarrassing."

"It's just different, honey. Put on your seatbelt. Are we about ready to leave?"

"Yes," said Ron. "The key didn't work the first few times I tried to switch on the ignition. I'm telling you Kim, this car is on its last-"

"No hovercar, Ron!"

Her husband sighed as he backed slowly out of their parking space.

Kim tried to cheer herself up with the fact that they would soon be at her parent's house, where they would stay overnight and catch up a little over the rest of the weekend. She felt her daughter squeezing her shoulders from the back seat and smiled; Annie always had a knack for sympathetic gestures when she knew her mother was in a bad mood.

The next thing Kim felt was a jarring bump when their car backed into something behind them.

"Ron!"

"Oh man. Guess I should have checked the rear view mirror."

A high-pitched screech tore through the parking lot, coming from the car behind their own. It took Kim a moment before she realized the sound came from human being and not squealing tires. She and her family got out to find Bonnie and Junior exiting their own hovercar.

"Kim? Unbelievable!"

"What are you doing out here?" Kim said. "You were just inside!"

"Um, we decided to leave, thanks to your poisoning the atmosphere, K!"

Kim pointed to the front of their hovercar. "You didn't have your lights on! How are we supposed to see you behind us at night, huh?"

"Oh, whatever! Do you know how much this thing costs compared to your trash heap? I hope you're as well off as you claimed you were, Possible, because let me tell you-"

"Come on guys," said Junior, "can we not all agree to let bygones be bygones?"

"Junior, let me handle this."

"But sweetie-pie, I just-"

Ron looked over his own car as Bonnie began to turn her anger towards her husband. He was about to remark to his wife that at least no serious damage had been done when he heard an odd thunking sound come from beneath their vehicle. As he watched, one of the wheels rolled off into the parking lot and the car's front corner dropped down, hitting the asphalt. Everyone involved in the fender bender stopped talking and watched as the wheel rolled away, eventually bumping into a curb and falling on its side with a somewhat comical splat.

Ron leaned down and glanced underneath the car. He wasn't sure what it was supposed to look like, but he knew that big piece of metal probably shouldn't be lying on the ground.

"Uh, we might need to get a ride from you guys," he said.

"Certainly, Ron Stoppable!"

Kim and Bonnie looked murderously at their husbands, while Annie observed the whole situation with a smirk. She sure was glad her parents had decided to attend their class reunion.

XX

The ride to Kim's parents' house started out very quietly and very awkwardly.

Before long, however, Ron and Junior were striking up a conversation in the back seat while Kim and Bonnie stared stonily ahead in the front. Annie sat between her father and Junior, feeling a little bit crushed by all the room Junior took up, but it was better than being stuck in the frozen atmosphere of the front. Junior had begun to mention a few details of old schemes he and his wife had carried out, with Bonnie interrupting him a few times to tell him to shut up, but the conversation was now turning to less sensitive subjects.

"I am still flattered that you are aware of my work, Ron Stoppable," said Junior, referring to their karaoke duet of Junior's song at the reunion.

"What can I say? Your song makes my heart go woo woo."

"Ahaha! That is very amusing - you are too kind!"

Ron looked around the plush interior of the hovercar's backseat, admiring the workmanship. Not that he knew anything about car workmanship, but still, it sure looked slick. He bounced up and down a little on the seat, wondering if it made the car appear to bounce in the air to anyone watching it pass by.

"This sure is a nice hovercar."

"Indeed it is. You should consider purchasing one – it is like floating on air, except it is not you but the car which is floating. Very ingenious!" Junior pulled a card from his shirt pocket and handed it to Ron. "This is the dealership where we bought the car. They have some very nice deals."

"Come on Kim," said Ron, "can we buy one?"

He nudged Annie to try to get her to join in his plea, but she knew better than to take sides.

"You're never going to let me hear the end of this, are you?" said Kim.

Ron shook his head with a grin as he watched his wife's exasperated expression in the rear view mirror. "Probably not. I can't help it - I want what I want!"

Kim's glanced back at Junior. "It's not some kind of illegal criminal supervillain dealership, is it?"

"It is not."

Kim sighed and leaned her head back in her seat, realizing there was no way to win against her husband's childlike persistence when it came to certain things. She thought a hovercar was a waste of money, but she supposed money was something they had more than enough of. And maybe the accident was a sign that she had insisted they keep their old car a little longer than they should have.

"Alright, I'll think about it."

Ron and Junior reached over Annie's head to give each other a high five, and Annie could not help but throw up her own hand as well. The hovercar slowed down a little as it entered a familiar Middleton neighborhood, and finally pulled to a stop in the driveway of the Possible house. Kim, Ron, and Annie got out of the car, and Kim was about to grudgingly thank Bonnie for the ride when her parents came out of the front door.

"Hello," said James Possible as he walked up to the hovercar. "That's a nice ride you've got there."

Junior leaned out of his window. "Thank you!"

"Why don't the two of you come in and join Kim and Ron for a bite to eat?"

Bonnie was about to turn down the offer, the last thing she wanted being to spend time around even more members of the Possible family, when her husband cut her off just before she opened her mouth.

"We would love that, sir!"

XX

Notes - one chapter to go. This chapter's pretty lengthy, but I felt like it should all be together and there wasn't any point where it needed to cut in half.