The Protagonist System

I pulled into the parking lot of the school and kicked the modded scooter into neutral and killed the engine. We coasted the rest of the way and I managed to park in a proper spot and not near the bicycles like I used to. Kim was right about it looking like a proper motorcycle and I needed to keep up the facade.

As soon as Kim hopped off and took off the helmet, a voice cut across the parking lot.

“Hey! You finally ditched the dork?” A dark skinned girl with shaggy brown hair asked. “Good for you, Kim!”

The other girls around her added their own words of agreement. They were all members of the cheerleader squad and hung out together all the time.

Kim sighed. “Good morning to you too, Bonnie.”

I waited for a moment to see if Kim would say anything else and she didn't. Instead, she passed me the helmet and I held in my sigh as I hung the helmet on the handlebars.

“Morning.” Bonnie said back and looked at me. “Who's the hunk on the slick crotch rocket?”

“H-h-hunk?” Kim asked, shocked.

“We can see his muscles under the stylish shirt from here, especially his arms.” A girl named Monique said. She was also dark skinned and had long black hair, whom liked Kim more than she did Bonnie.

“Yeah, don't hold out on us. We need all the gossip.” Another girl added. Her name was Hope and she was a pretty girl with straight blonde hair.

Kim stared at the group of girls and didn't know what to say. The rest of the girls, Tara, Crystal, Jessica, and Marcella stayed quiet, too.

“She ain't talkin'.” Monique said and ran a hand through her own dark hair. “Maybe she wants to keep him all to herself for some late night fun?”

Kim made sputtering sounds for a few seconds before she spoke. “N-night f-fun?” She asked with a stutter and glanced at me and back at them. “I'd never do things like that with him!”

I felt the proverbial lance through the heart after hearing that. I mean, we've been best friends since we were toddlers, so she probably never even considered it; but, to say she would never do anything? That was as hard to hear. I visibly slouched, which everyone around us saw, and a couple of the cheerleaders started whispering about the epic burn.

Kim saw it as well and looked embarrassed. “Ron, I'm sorry! I didn't mean...”

“RON?!?” All of the cheerleaders gasped.

“No, Kim. You did mean it, and that's why it hurt.” I said as I reached up and took off the helmet. I ignored the second gasp from the girls at seeing my new hairstyle and I stepped off of the scooter. I hung the helmet on the other handlebar and stood up straight, showing off that I was actually about 6 inches taller than Kim's 5 foot 3 inches.

“How are you so tall?” Kim asked, clearly surprised at the difference, and she had to look up at my face.

“I just decided I'm not going to slouch anymore.” I said and took out a fake key fob and hit the button as I used a ventriloquist power to make a beep noise come from the scooter.

With that trick, no one should try to mess with it. I would have to keep an eye on it, considering everyone now knew it belonged to me and I wasn't supposed to have nice things.

I turned and faced the cheerleaders with a smile on my face. “Good morning, Social Bitches.”

They all gasped again and Bonnie looked furious.

“How dare you call us that!” Bonnie spat at me.

I looked around at the growing crowd and back at them. “But, that's what you are.” I said and she hissed at me, as did two of the others. The rest looked on the verge of tears. “I'm not saying it to be mean, it's just the truth.”

“You are so dead, Stoppable.” Bonnie almost growled.

I chuckled and she just looked angrier. “Look, we all know it's the truth, and so do you. Individually, you girls are the nicest girls in the school. Most of you are happy, pleasant to talk to, and your smiles can light up the room.”

Everyone around us gave me odd looks, even the cheerleaders.

“On the other hand, whenever you're together as a group, your personalities shift. You're waspish, mean, vile, and verbally attack anyone you think is beneath you, because that's what's expected of you.”

None of them responded, because they knew I was speaking the truth. It also sparked a few interactions I had with a particular blonde girl and I had to mention it.

“If you need any proof of that, one of you has had a secret crush on me for the last few months and she can't say anything about it, because you would cast her out of your social circle and ostracize her for admitting she likes someone like me. That's a fate worse than death to a social butterfly, and everyone knows that.”

It wasn't a surprise when Tara blushed and tried to hide it from the others. Each of the girls looked at everyone else in the cheerleading squad to see who it was that I was talking about and a subtle notice-me-not took care of that and none of them knew it was her.

“So, no. I'm not angry at you for conforming to social dynamics or bowing to peer pressure. That's just how things are and we all have to live with it.” I said and walked towards them.

Bonnie took a step back and had to look up at my face as she gave me a searching look. She didn't say anything and seemed to be waiting for me to.

“I brought a pile of homemade nacos for lunch.” I said and showed her the backpack. “I'll drop a pile off at your table if you allow it.”

Bonnie frowned slightly and then nodded. She waved at the rest of the girls and they parted for me to let me pass.

“Thank you.” I said and glanced at Tara as I passed her. She blushed again and smiled shyly at me. I winked at her and kept going to the front doors of the school and went inside.

“Kim!” Bonnie almost shrieked. “What the hell is wrong with Stoppable?”

“I don't know.” Kim answered. “But, I'm going to find out.”

I was sure she was going to call Wade and ask about the Attitudinator. It was the only thing that happened to me recently and Kim should latch onto it as the reason, especially after my comments about seeing things clearly since yesterday.

I stopped at my locker and picked up my school books. Chemistry was first with a double lab afterwards, so that would keep me busy until lunch. I stored the backpack instead of leaving it in my locker, just in case someone tried to stop me from fulfilling my offer to Bonnie and the other cheerleaders at lunch.

Since this was high school, I knew the jocks were going to try and rough me up before then. Would they ambush me or try to drag me off somewhere first? I hope it was the latter, then I could make them pay without hurting them. If it was public... well... the new Ron Stoppable didn't care about what happened to bullies.

*

Mr. Berkin was the gym coach and the substitute teacher for many of the other subjects taught at the school. Today he had to cover the chemistry class and the double lab period right after. He was not looking forward to it, because it had Ron Stoppable in it.

The young man always managed to trip over nothing and knocked something over, or caused an explosion, or mixed things he wasn't supposed to touch and created toxic fumes. Every. Single. Time.

Mr. Berkin held in his sigh as he entered the room and he started setting out the proper ingredients that needed to be shown to the class for the upcoming lab.

“Morning, Mr. Berkin.” Ron said when he entered the classroom. “I'll be sitting at the far back and trying to hide, so don't bother calling on me today for answers.”

Mr. Berkin's coach sense went off and he turned around to look, only to pause when he saw a normally dressed Ron walking across the classroom. The clothes fit him and weren't baggy, or the cuffs too long, which were prone to catch onto something as he passed.

Instead of asking about what happened to him to suddenly change his slacker wear for normal clothes, Mr. Berkin chose to wait and would talk to Kim Possible about her friend instead. He went back to work and ignored the other students entering the classroom until the bell rang. He turned around then and was surprised to see several girls in the class were giving Ron pointed looks.

Mr. Berkin started the class and went over the information the teens needed for the lesson and for the lab. He silently thanked himself for going over the lesson plan the night before, because the thing was complicated and had several steps and safety procedures that the kids hadn't performed yet.

When the bell rang to start the second period, the class split up into two person teams like always, with the only difference being Kim had teamed up with her friend Monique and left Ron to fend for himself. The blond haired boy didn't look disappointed by that and turned around to see if there was anyone else left alone. There wasn't, so he shrugged and went to one of the lab stations by himself.

I need to keep a closer eye on him today. Mr. Berkin thought and went around to each table to issue the right equipment and chemicals needed to perform the experiment. He also ensured they each had the proper eyewear of safety goggles and not just glasses or sunglasses.

When he reached Ron's station, he was surprised to see he somehow had everything already and set it all up. He had also started the experiment and was documenting everything wit his off-hand without looking at it. A few of the girls noticed this and were giving Ron more pointed looks, which he ignored. At the pace he was going, he'd finish up well before the double period was over.

Mr. Berkin returned to the front of the class to tell them to begin, did so, and spent the rest of the class going around and dealing with any problems that came up, and there always was with Ron Stoppable in the class... except today where he was too focused on the lab and hadn't messed up even once.

Nearly half of the students in the class were giving the young man pointed looks by that point and the bell ringing to end second period startled a bunch of them.

“You have one more period to finish the experiment and write out your observations!” Mr. Berkin stated like a drill sergeant. “No copying your partner's work!”

The only student that didn't have to worry about that was Ron and he signed his name to his sheet and secured his station, then walked over to Mr. Berkin and handed it to him.

“I said no cheating, Stoppable.” Mr. Berkin said without taking the paper.

“I heard you.” Ron said and held the sheet up for him. “Read 'em and weep!”

Mr. Berkin glared at him and he didn't flinch like usual, so he took the paper and skimmed it. He was surprised it was both concise and descriptive, showing he knew the work and saw the different stages of the experiment personally and recorded everything, even how the temperature had changed by nearly ten degrees and that wasn't part of the testing apparatus.

“Huh.” Mr. Berkin said. “Good work, Stoppable.”

“Thanks, coach!” Ron said and slapped him on the shoulder. “I'm heading out early to get out of your hair.”

Mr. Berkin nodded and watched him go back to his lab station and he cleaned it up properly and didn't skip any of the steps. He even disposed of the used chemicals in the right container and had worn rubber gloves the entire time to stop any potential cross contamination.

“Later 'gater!” Ron said and left the completely silent room.

“There's no way that was Stoppable.” Bonnie complained in a whisper with her partner, Monique.

“Why? He might have great hair now and great clothes; but, he's still acting dorky.” Monique whispered back.

“Yes, he is.” Bonnie responded. “He's acting dorky. The keyword being acting.”

Monique blinked her eyes at her friend and needed a moment to understand. “Oh, that's sneaky.” She said with respect in her voice.

“Yeah, and Ron's not supposed to be that smart...” Bonnie started to say.

“Yes, he is.” A female voice interrupted. “You just never see it.”

Bonnie smirked and turned around to blast her. “Of course you'd say that about your childhood friend, Ki...” She stopped when she saw it wasn't Kim that had spoken, it had been their friend Tara.

Tara blushed and didn't back down under Bonnie's ire. “He's in the same AP courses we are and he still passes, even when both he and Kim miss whole days and sometimes a week with their rescuing thing.”

“He must study a lot in his spare time.” Jessica said.

“I've never seen him study.” Kim responded and all of the girls around them gave her surprised looks. It was then she started to realize the truth as well. How has be been keeping up with me? I always thought he was lazy because he never studied and always slacked off.

She continued to work on the experiment and finished up her observations with ten minutes to spare before lunch, as did everyone else in the class. It was enough time for them all to clean up and none of them did as good of a job as Ron had.

After stewing on the problem of Ron's intelligence for all that time, Kim knew then that Ron had to be naturally smart to not fail any of his subjects when he missed just as much time as she did. Unlike him, she studied her ass off between missions to keep up her grades while also working, as per the agreement with her parents.

The lunch bell rang and the class emptied of students. None of them noticed Mr. Berkin complaining about stupid kids half-assing their work and going around to finish up the cleaning himself.

Kim went to her locker and ditched her chem book and notes, then she went to Ron's locker. He wasn't there, so she went to the cafeteria where she knew he would be. He had promised Bonnie and her friends nacos as an apology for earlier and he should be there.

What she didn't expect to see when she entered the cafeteria, was a small booth set up beside the popular table and a banner behind it with Unofficial Cheerleader Squad Fundraiser on it and Freshly Hot Nacos were only 2 dollars with a limit of 5 per customer.

Bonnie looked immensely pleased to have turned Ron's generosity against him, too. Kim walked over to the table and thought about confronting her, then she noticed something odd. Tara was right beside Ron in the little booth and no one was commenting on it. Kim sat down with the rest of the cheerleader squad and with a whisper asked Crystal what was up with that.

Crystal gladly told her it was to keep Ron honest and to stop him from trying to steal any of the cheerleader squad's money, which all of them were looking forward to splitting, because he had already sold 50 of them and lunch had only just started.

That part didn't bother Kim, though. It was that Tara kept whispering something in his ear and Ron had a huge smile on his face as he exchanged nacos for money, which he handed right to a blushing Tara.

“Why isn't anyone complaining about Ron being here at the popular table?” Kim asked and tried to not wince at her own words. She hadn't meant it like it sounded, because it came out as a criticism and not just her wondering why.

“Tara was put in charge of his interactions with us.” Jessica said. “Since she likes him for some reason, pity probably, she's the most qualified to put up with his antics and it keeps him at a proper social distance.”

“At least he's dressed well enough to not embarrass us.” Mircella whispered. “I wonder where he bought those jeans? They're slim leg and have both front and back pockets!”

“I haven't seen anything like them before, either.” Bonnie said and squinted her eyes. “Just a second and I'll find out.”

Kim watched as Bonne went to Tara and whispered in her ear, then Tara did the same thing to Ron. He didn't even glance at Bonnie and answered just loud enough for them to hear, which seemed to be the right response.

Bonnie looked very pleased as she came back and sat down. “It's exclusive property of an unknown designer and Tara's gonna hook us up on the weekend for a private fashion show.”

“We can all go?” Monique asked and Bonnie nodded.

The other girls tittered happily and chatted about how awesome that was going to be.

“Oh, and the first pair of jeans and top are free, so we can assess his wares properly.” Bonnie said, smugly.

That really set them off and it was all they could talk about for the rest of lunch.

Kim sat there and wasn't sure what to say to that. How did Ron know a private designer? It didn't make sense, and neither did his change in attitude. She caught her breath and realized what happened. With a quick excuse to leave and a promise to be told when the fashion show would be, she left the cafeteria and pulled out her Kimmunicator.

“Hey, Kim. What's up?” The slightly overweight black kid on the screen asked.

“Wade, we have a problem.” Kim said and waited for him to take a sip of his fast food drink before she said what it was. “A broken Attitudinator problem.”

Wade choked and sprayed soda all over the display. “Tell me everything that's happened!”