The Protagonist System

Thanks to Tara running interference with the rest of the cheerleaders, it was surprisingly easy to transition from a social outcast to a tolerated annoyance. The best part about that? Tara had been whispering in my ear constantly about how sorry she was that she couldn't do anything about that before. It really would have been social suicide for her if she had tried to stand up for me before I did it for myself.

Plus, I had done it in such a way that no one could complain about it. I hadn't asked them to stop, or was angry at them for it, or bothered to get revenge on them for it. My statement about that was how things were and we all accepted it, had apparently been the best way to acknowledge the problem without throwing it in their faces.

I was to never, ever, call them bitches again, though. It had made me chuckle when she told me that qualification and I whispered back that I said it specifically to get everyone's attention. It had worked and I promised that it would never pass my lips again. That made her happy and her smile lit up the room.

Also, no one noticed the jocks were walking a little funny with their slight waddling. How did that come about? Well, I had a whole class period before lunch to work on my scooter and I had walked it into the mechanics shop, since it would let me use real tools and cover up me using different powers on it to fix it.

That's when the jocks from the football team had found me and dragged me off behind the school. With no one else around, I easily defended myself and turned the tables on them, then I gave them every nerd's revenge by giving each of them an Atomic Wedgie. That's where you pull so hard on their underwear that it can fit up and over their head.

Yes, I cheated and used transfiguration to make them fit, temporarily anyway. The sounds of the cloth and elastic snapping back to their regular shape onto their backsides, was music to my ears and felt immensely satisfying.

Needless to say, none of them were going to say anything about the Ron-man getting one over on them, and they left me alone after that. They were the ones that bought the first 50 nacos at lunch, too.

Anyways, I went back into the mechanics class and pulled out the scooter's little one stroke motor and started having some fun with it. Since I had the power 'Tinker: Yes', it was pretty darn simple to heavily modify the thing into a very nice engine, had almost perfect fuel efficiency, and a battery backup with an almost endless charge that the motorcycle's own movement would recharge.

With Armsmaster's miniaturization specialization, the engine was compressed to the same size as the tiny engine and it took a lot more finicky steps to get it to fit and also hook up the drive train. It had 190 horsepower, way more than necessary, so I had to throttle it back to make it safe to ride on the streets. The top speed was nearly 150mph, so the torque was more than enough and I reinforced everything.

The bike now had an actual alarm and an expanded storage space under the seat, so I didn't have to leave the helmets hanging on the handlebars all the time. I was kind of proud of it, too. It was only an improvisation and it came out even better than I ever thought it would.

The bell rang and brought me out of my thoughts as lunch came to an end. I sold two more nacos to a grateful looking kid wearing glasses and he had been hovering near the line for the whole lunch period and only just managed to reach me. I handed him two more and then held a fist out to him. He smiled and gave me a fist bump and ran off before anyone said anything and I turned to hand four dollars of my own money to Tara.

“That was really nice of you.” Tara whispered and added the money to the huge pile she had in the small lockbox I had given to her.

“It's little things like that, and your smile, that just makes a day complete.” I commented and she blushed.

“Okay, dork. How much did you make?” Bonnie asked me as the cheerleaders surrounded the little booth.

I didn't comment about how she was violating her own rule to only talk to me through Tara. “I have no clue and fully trusted Tara to handle all the money.”

“Tara?” Bonnie asked and looked at the slightly blushing girl.

“Um... I didn't count every bill, but... it's at least a thousand dollars.” Tara said, softly.

All of the girls gasped, even Bonnie.

“You're joking!” Monique asked, surprised.

Tara shook her head and hugged the closed lockbox. “I can count it during history class. Miss Templeton won't mind, since it's for the cheer squad.”

“Right, we need to protect you.” Bonnie commanded and Tara blushed. “Crystal, Hope, left flank. Jessica, Monique, right flank. Marcella, you're at the back and I'm in the front.”

None of them noticed me storing the booth and Tara and I were ushered out of the cafeteria and through the crowded hallways to the lockers, grabbed our books, and we were expertly escorted all the way to history class.

Even though I stuck right beside Tara the whole time, I was a little surprised they hadn't tried to ditch me along the way. We were deposited into two seats near the back of the classroom in the corner and the other cheerleaders stood with their arms crossed and glared at anyone trying to approach as the rest of the classroom filled with students.

“That's a surprisingly effective guarding technique.” I whispered to Tara, whom nodded. “You can start counting out the money now.”

Tara put the lockbox down and opened it, then started pulling out different bills.

“When you reach a hundred, I'll bundle it up for you and you can keep going.” I offered.

Tara smiled and kept counting. Every couple of minutes, she handed me a stack and I bundled it and also secretly counted them to make sure she didn't make a mistake, either with not enough or adding too much. It was perfect every time and the stack of bundles grew.

A couple of the cheerleaders glanced back at us and their eyes widened at the stacks of bundles with 100 marked on them. Bonnie also glanced back when we were almost done and she bit her lip at how many stacks there were. She faced the rest of the class and the teacher really didn't mind the slight ruckus the cheerleaders had caused.

“Twelve hundred and forty-four dollars.” Tara said in disbelief. It came out a little loudly and nearly the entire class went quiet and turned to look over at us.

“Excuse me?” Bonnie asked and all the cheerleaders turned to face us, even Kim a few seats away. “How much did you say the fundraiser earned?”

“Twelve hundred and forty-four dollars.” Tara said more confidently. She still couldn't quite believe we had made that much with the nacos only costing 2 dollars each. “Bueno Nacho must be making a fortune every day.”

“They are.” I said and everyone's eyes went to me. “I was paid 99 million dollars for the recipe, remember?”

“You also let being rich go to your head and then you lost it all to Drakken.” Kim told everyone, revealing a secret no one really needed to know.

“Yeah, thanks for the reminder of how stupid I was to enjoy myself for the first time in my life.” I said with a sigh.

Tara put a hand on mine and smiled shyly. “You really did act foolish, though.”

“Oh, I know. It was such a relief to not worry about money for a while that I really did let it go to my head.” I said and turned my hand over to hold hers, making her blush again. “But, I did learn a valuable lesson that day.”

“That you should have saved it and invested it?” Bonnie asked.

“Hell, no!” I said and laughed. “It's that money really can't buy you happiness; but, you sure can have a lot of fun figuring that out!”

Half of the class laughed and the other half looked conflicted.

“I think that's enough of a disruption to the class for today.” Miss Templeton said.

“Sorry about that, miss.” I said and stood. “I'll take over teaching the class and you can have a rest if you want.”

All of the class laughed this time, as did the teacher.

“Despite such a generous offer, I have to decline.” Miss Templeton said and motioned to the empty seats around me. “If you'll all sit down, I'll continue.”

“We'll divide the money up after class.” Bonnie ordered and nodded at the other cheerleaders. They spread out and sat as one, as if they practised the coordination, and I was somehow sure that they had.

Kim gave me a searching look before she faced the front of the class and the teacher started teaching again.

“You really could teach the class, couldn't you?” Tara asked in a hushed whisper.

I smiled warmly at her. “I could graduate high school and then college tomorrow if they allowed someone without full course credits to do so.”

Tara's eyes widened, then she looked thoughtful, and then her eyes widened again. “You're bored! That's why you act lazy all the time and barely do any work! You know you don't have to until it matters!”

“And there's the proof you have a wonderful brain inside that beautiful head of yours.” I complimented her and her face went completely red. “Don't faint, please. I can't legally give you mouth to mouth resuscitation until I pass my paramedic certification.”

Tara stared at me and started breathing heavily as her eyes flicked between my eyes and my lips constantly. Apparently, I had just put the thought into her head that I had a set of perfectly positioned lips that she could take full advantage of, and she really wanted to.

I glanced around and more than a few of the cheerleaders were looking right at us. A notice-me-not wasn't going to work with that much attention, so I didn't bother trying to cast it. I smiled warmly at Tara again and then I leaned in and pressed my lips to hers.

“Mmm.” Tara softly moaned and her arms went around my neck. She hugged me tightly as she kissed me like she had secretly wanted to for the last few months. A feeling of relief went through her, because she didn't feel disappointed that a real kiss with me didn't match her imagined kiss. It was much better!

*

Kim felt shock and her mouth dropped open when she saw her childhood friend making out with a fellow cheerleader in the middle of class. In class! Who does that? They should have waited for the bell before they did something like that!

The bell rang and the kiss broke, as if that had been the time limit. Tara's face was still bright red and she looked really happy as she piled the money back into the lockbox and Ron packed up their books and notepads.

“Read the rest of chapter seven for next week and I want a 1,000 word report on what happened in class today.” Miss Templeton said and several people put up their hands. “Before any of you ask, do not include anything about the cheerleaders or their fundraiser.”

They all put their hands down and she held in her laugh at their disappointed faces. She sat down at her desk and started to prepare for the next class as she shut out the sounds of the students leaving the room.

Kim stood up to confront Ron about what he was doing, only to meet a wall of her fellow cheerleaders guarding him and Tara.

“We're meeting in the library to split up the money eight ways.” Crystal told her and cut her off.

Kim sighed and followed them. A few minutes later, they were at a table in the back of the library and Tara had put eight stacks down in a row.

“Can I make a suggestion?” Ron asked Tara in a whisper and she turned to look at Bonnie.

“I suppose listening won't hurt. Much.” Bonnie said magnanimously.

“I was thinking that you can keep the $155.50 each, that's $1244.00 split 8 ways, or you can take a single stack of 100 dollars each for yourselves and put the rest towards the fashion show on the weekend.” Ron said and all the girls looked interested. “You know $444.00 would go a long ways towards buying clothing supplies and getting the designs you like, rather than settle for off the rack stuff.”

“Oooo, that's a great idea!” Hope said. “If he's a new designer, he's got to be desperate to get his fashions out there. If we tell him what we like and offer him that much money, he'll be falling all over us to make us happy!”

“I like it.” Bonnie said with finality. “Girls? What do you say?”

“We're in!” The rest said, Tara included.

Kim let out a sigh. “Yeah, I'm in, too.”

“Good.” Bonnie said and handed a stack of bills to each of the girls, leaving Kim for last. She held onto the stack and made Kim pull on it before she let it go. She smirked at her and turned back to Tara. “You've been great keeping the money safe from certain hands, so you can continue being treasurer.”

“Thank you!” Tara almost gushed from Bonnie trusting her so much. She had thought handing it all over would have been what the controlling girl wanted and now she had some actual responsibility. It felt great!

“We need to get to math class.” Kim said and the girls stuffed their stack of money into various places on their person, some in pockets, some inside their clothes, Bonnie put hers in a small stylish purse, and Crystal put hers inside her bra. She glanced down at her own clothes and tried to not think about keeping that much money safe with how much she moved around.

“I can hold it for you.” Ron offered and held a hand out.

All of the cheerleaders looked right at her and had a certain expectation in their gazes. Kim was not immune to peer pressure, so after Bonnie had declared that it wasn't safe to leave money in Ron's hands, she didn't want them to be disappointed in her.

“I... uh... think I should let the treasurer hold it for me until after school.” Kim said and handed the bundle to Tara.

The approval in the eyes of the other cheerleaders made Kim relax, because she had trusted Tara as well, then she saw the disappointment in Ron's eyes and the understanding look from Tara. The sound of the lockbox closing sounded exceptionally loud in the silent library and Kim left before she changed her mind.

Ron himself had said that social standing was everything in school and she couldn't lose hers over something so simple. Little did Kim realize it was her standing with him that she was losing, which in his eyes was what really mattered.

*

Math class was a breeze, since I could do all the calculations in my head. I kept whispering the answers to Tara, whom had braved social protocol by sitting next to me again. She had been brilliant to offer the job of being my interpreter to the cheerleaders, so she kept her social standing and kept me from being sucked into that whole scene, which made everyone happy.

Geography was the last class of the day and we were working on our class projects, which were detailed maps of our chosen countries. Tara had chosen France, because it had the city of Paris in it and was the romantic capitol of the world.

I chose Japan, just because it was interesting and small enough to not need all the space on a piece of bristle board or poster board. I did ask if we were going for accuracy or if we were to have fun with it. Miss Smith said to do both if I could and my mark would reflect how successful I was.

There was no way I was going to ignore a challenge like that!

I started pulling different color pencils, crayons, water paints, and drafting tools from my backpack. Tara started giggling as I piled things on my desk and I realized I was running out of room to work.

“Right, sorry. That's a bit too much.” I said and divided the pile in half and set it on her desk. “Make sure you draw a tiny Eiffel Tower on the dot that's Paris and add little hearts around the top.”

Tara beamed a smile at me and went to work trying to copy the shape of the country out of the book. I sketched out the basic outline for Japan's main island from the book, then I briefly closed my eyes and used my clairvoyance power to check the accuracy. I had to make the thing as accurate as possible, which I did, and then I added in all the little archipelagos and mini-islands scattered all around the main one.

Once I had the land mass done, I wrote in each landmark and drew a little cartoonish drawing of them. I added numbers to them and made a list on the side with a short description, so people would know what was what. Mount Fuji was a mainstay for any map, so it was a little bigger than everything else. I also drew the fault line where they had an earthquake and the land shifted three feet.

For a bit of flavor, I added some of the various temples and drew little foxes and other youkai. I even added some rumors of haunted spirits to the list and where to get the best blessings and tours.

Because I was working so fast, I was done well before the end of class and used actual Kanji and a paintbrush to write Japan at the top, then did it again in English underneath as a translation. I signed my name at the bottom and then did a quick and very light wash of blue paint for the water. I lightly blew on it to dry it, while also casting a silent dry spell on it, just in case, and it was finished.

“Goodness gracious, Stoppable. How did you do that?” The teacher asked.

“Hmm?” I turned and looked at the shocked face of the teacher. Apparently, she had been behind me the whole time. “You told me to have fun with it, and I did!” I said and picked it up and handed it to her. “There you go! Read it and weep!”

Miss Smith took it and walked back to her desk. She put it down and frowned slightly, then she checked the book. She shook her head and went to the small stack of atlases at the side of the room and went back to her desk. A red marker appeared in her hand and she poised it above my picture, as if determined to mark something wrong, and it stayed hovering and didn't move.

“Can you help me?” Tara asked in a soft whisper.

“Of course.” I said and looked at her outline. “You're pretty close.” I erased part of the bottom and fixed the shape. “There you go. Now just add in the major cities and landmarks, then color it in.”

“Thank you.” Tara said with a slight blush.

“You're so cute.” I whispered and leaned in and gave her a quick kiss.

Tara fully blushed from that and ducked her head to hide her huge smile.

“Stoppable!” Miss Smith almost shouted.

“Present!” I responded and put my hand up, which made nearly everyone in the class laugh.

The woman gave me a bit of a glare. “You'll get the full 100 points for the project if you tell me how you accurately scaled the right cartography to your drawing.”

“That was easy.” I said and stood up, then walked to the chalkboard. “I used a grid diagram superimposed over the island of Japan.” I drew a tiny island of Japan, drew a grid over it, then drew a two foot wide grid and copied it. “Once you have the details marked off in little boxes, it's simple to copy the real shape to any scale of boxes you make.”

Everyone in the class stared at me with surprise on their faces.

“That... you...” Miss Smith looked at the little box and then the bog box, seeing they were identical, only different sizes. “What's Japan's biggest export?”

“Electronic parts. They make them cheaper, faster, and can churn out thousands of microchips a day for the cost of one plastic bottle, which they dump in the ocean because they don't have any recycling technologies yet.”

Miss Smith stared at me just like the students were.

“I'm just going to go sit down and wait for the bell to ring.” I said and returned to my seat.