The Protagonist System

The rest of class passed by pretty darn slowly with me just sitting there and staying quiet. I had thought about entertaining myself, then decided behaving was a much better option. Just the little things I had already done was enough to have everyone give me odd looks.

Tara was the only one that gave me looks that were a mix of anticipation and worry. She knew standing out too much was just as bad as never standing out, and I was very close to crossing that line. I gave her an embarrassed smile to let her know I knew what she was thinking, and she nodded.

I couldn't offer to help with her project more than I already did, so I sat there and didn't move or speak. I tried my best to not slouch, like I was used to doing to hide my growth spurt, and it kind of worked. I was only half-slumped by the time the bell rang to end the period and the school day.

Tara finished up coloring the little hearts around the Eiffel Tower and signed her name to the bottom of the project. I gathered up our books and my backpack and followed her to the teacher's desk to pass it in. Thankfully, everyone was concentrating on handing in their own projects and not focused on me, so I stood off to the side and went mostly unnoticed.

Kim looked like she wanted to say something to me, then visibly changed her mind. She handed in her project and the country of her choice was the United States. That was a little too ambitious for such a small project for a single class, so it only had the capital cities and a few landmarks.

She skipped Disney World as a landmark? For shame. I thought with a smile when I saw her Florida only had Tallahassee marked as the capitol. Both Orlando and Miami were standout tourist desitnations and should have been included. She at least had Hollywood marked in California near Los Angeles.

Tara nodded to me and I handed her the lockbox. She hugged it and I kept carrying her books for her to her locker. She had a smile on her face the whole time and the other cheerleaders didn't hold it against her, mostly because they couldn't pinpoint if it was because of me, the project, or the money.

“I'm sorry there's no practice today.” I whispered to her, because that meant no hanging out together afterwards in a safe area with her friends around. It was way too early for us to be alone together and neither of us were going to push things faster than they needed to be.

“Me, too.” Tara said and nodded at Crystal, whom stepped in front of us and blocked most of the hallway from view.

I smiled warmly at her for that, making her blush a little, and I stepped close and kissed her soundly. She let out a cute little moan and hugged me as we kissed, then she broke it and picked up the lockbox before shutting her locker.

“See you tomorrow.” Tara said and she and the other girls walked away.

“You sure will.” I whispered and waited for a moment, then went to my own locker and dropped my books off and pretended to toss the backpack in and stored it instead. I locked it and walked down the hallway and out of the school towards the parking lot.

“Ron!” Kim exclaimed to get my attention.

I stopped walking and turned to look at her. “Hey, Kim. Ready to head home?”

Kim gave me a fake sad look, probably because she thought the scooter still sounded like my old scooter. “I have to go somewhere else for a while before going home.”

“Do you need me to drop you off?” I asked and started walking again. “It's no trouble.”

“No, I have a transport coming.” Kim said and wouldn't look at me. She also held a bundle of money in her hand.

“Hey, it's no big. I've ridden home alone from school a bunch of times.” I said and she looked genuinely sad this time. “The Ron-man's going home to try a new recipe tonight, so don't worry about me. I'll see you tomorrow.”

Kim nodded and turned to walk in another direction towards the entrance of the parking lot. I walked over to my motorcycle and did the key fob thing, only for real this time, and opened up the seat to take out a matching helmet to the motorcycle. I put it on and then put on a matching leather jacket.

Someone whistled and I turned my head to wave at Jennifer in the popular crowd, which included the other cheerleaders as they stood around the expensive cars that some of the jocks drove. I hopped on the motorcycle and kicked up the stand, then popped it into neutral and rolled it backwards out of the parking spot. I now had everyone's attention after that move, so I smirked inside my helmet and turned the key.

*VRRRRUUUUMMMMM!*

The sound startled everyone, especially Kim, then it settled into the best sound.

*PUUUURRRRRRR!*

“Oh, my god.” A few of the cheerleaders said at the same time and Tara almost had stars in her eyes.

“Later, 'gaters!” I said and kicked it into first gear as I hit the gas. With the high torque, the back wheel spun in place and squealed as if I was doing a brake-burn. I had to pop the clutch to pause the gear and let the tire grip the pavement, then I put it back into gear and shot out of the parking lot like a bullet.

Everyone shouted and pointed and I laughed as I drove away. That had really made me stand out and was way over the line. I would also remember everyone's shocked faces for a long time.

*

Kim rushed out of the transport and missed the shaking heads of the driver and guard. She ran into Wade's home and into his private work area without waiting and was a little breathless. “We definitely have a problem!”

Wade listened as she explained and he had to agree. He had been working on the helmet since the last time Kim called about her worries and he was sure he had repaired it, or at least, not screwed it up more than it already was. All he could do was what he could do.

“This thing was designed to suck out both good and bad energy, and it was only supposed to put back the evil part.” Wade informed her.

“So, when Drakken put it on and activated it, then Ron smashed into him and broke it...” Kim said, leadingly.

“...it should still have Drakken's good energy inside and released his bad energy into Ron.” Wade guessed. “Or the good energy is gone for good. It's hard to tell what it actually does after it was broken.”

“Wade!” Kim gasped.

“What? I did what I could. I'm a super-genius, not a mad scientist.” Wade defended himself.

“Geez, who comes up with this stuff?” Kim asked and then sighed. “The thing is, will it still work?”

“Who knows.” Wade said with a shrug. “I'll crunch the data with some preliminary testing and will let you know how it goes.”

“Testing? On what?” Kim asked.

“You... don't need to know the details. See ya!” Wade said and hit a button by his computer.

Kim was flung out of his room and into the hallway to land on a set of mattresses that hadn't been there when she went in.

“Sorry about that. My boy's a little eccentric.” An older black woman said and held a hand down to Kim's prone form. “It comes standard with the high IQ, apparently.”

Kim nodded and accepted the hand to be hauled to her feet. “Thanks.”

“No problem, dearie.” She said and a tray appeared in her hands. “Cookie?”

Kim took one that looked like oatmeal and chewed on it as she left the house. Until the testing was done and Wade got back to her, she would have to wait and see what else Ron did with Drakken's evil inside of him. She was definitely going to keep a much closer eye on him from now on.

*

Naco Pizza was both a great taste and not a viable sale to Bueno Nacho. Pizza was an Italian dish and they didn't want to ruin their reputation or dilute their brand as a Mexican food only restaurant by adding dishes from other cultures. They did accept my royalty check for using their recipe, though. It was always best to remain in good standing with one of the most popular restaurants in the country.

“Don't worry, Rufus. We'll keep trying and one of our ideas will make us millionaires again.” I promised him.

He squeaked at me and patted his distended belly. He really had stuffed himself on rolled up mini-pizza nacos. I chuckled and carried him up to my room. I laid him on the pillow and he went right to sleep, which was one of the benefits of overfeeding him. It kept him out of the way and he didn't question the change in my attitude.

I left the room and went downstairs to the living room, only to pause when I saw a marking on the calendar by the kitchen. I walked over to it and saw my cousin Ruben's wedding was scheduled for the weekend and my whole family would be there, minus my parents of course.

I took out my cell phone and checked to see if it had a signal. Since it was tech that was years ahead of anything else on the planet, the supped up programming that Dragon herself enjoyed playing with, had made short work of the local cell phone towers and created an account for me, which I set to be billed to Drakken.

It took almost no time to look for Tara's number and I checked with clairvoyance to make sure she was at home. I had to wait for a short while until she walked by the phone and I called her.

Tara looked surprised it would ring with her beside it, then she picked it up. “Hello?”

“Hi, Tara. It's Ron.” I answered. “I'm sorry for calling you out of the blue like this...”

“No, no. It's okay.” Tara said. “Why are you calling me?”

“I just wanted to hear your voice.” I said and she blushed. “Now that I'm talking to you, I forgot to give you my cell phone number, too.”

“Your what?” Tara asked and I paused as my thoughts started running wild.

Wait, wait, wait. They don't have cell phones here? I asked myself and my memories went through a flash forward sequence, only to miss portable phones completely... except for Kim's Kimmunicator that she used exclusively for her missions.

My mind went to the current year, 2003, and I laughed. It was just past the turn of the millennium and before the huge cell phone boom. I could make an absolute killing with the cheap reliable ones I could produce, thanks to my power. I wouldn't need to set up a factory or anything to break into the market, either. Random scientists dropped things like that onto the open market all of the time.

“What's so funny?” Tara asked, a little annoyed.

“I just realized I'm going to be rich again and I have a beautiful girl like you to stop me from being stupid with it this time.” I told her and her annoyance disappeared as she blushed again. “If you're not busy, do you think you can visit me or should I come there to pick you up?”

Tara leaned away from the phone and looked into the living room. She leaned back and smiled. “I think I can sneak away and you can pick me up at the end of the street.”

“Awesome.” I said and she grinned. “I'll be there in two shakes of a lamb's tail.”

Tara let out a little giggle. “Lambs are cute.”

“See you in a few minutes.” I said and hung up. I stepped from there to the garage and grabbed the motorcycle, then stepped to two streets away from Tara's place. I would wait and watch for her, so she wouldn't be waiting for me for too long.

*

Tara thought it was a lot of fun pretending to be a bad girl. She had told her mom in a whisper that she was sneaking out to spend time with a boy. Her mom had giggled like she did, hugged her, and promised to not tell her dad as long as she didn't say out too late. She agreed and then climbed out the first floor window in the laundry room like a thief, which was awesome!

She was halfway down he street when she heard that great purring engine of Ron's new motorcycle. She jogged the rest of the way to the end and there he was, the boy she liked, wearing that stylish leather jacket and the jeans she was dying to try on herself.

Ron pulled up in front of her and parked, set the kickstand, and hopped off. He left the motorcycle idling and opened the seat to retrieve another helmet for her, or so she thought. Instead, he pulled out a slimmer leather jacket in her favorite colors that matched his style.

“IEEE!” Tara squealed and had it on in barely a second. She hugged herself and gave him her best 'you better kiss me now' look.

Ron barked a laugh as he pulled off his helmet and then he kissed her like she wanted. He handed her a second helmet and put his own back on, then she was on the back of the motorcycle and snuggled up to his back. They zoomed down the street like lightning and she laughed and laughed as everyone pointed at them when they flew past.

“You're a real speed demon.” Ron said and his own laughter tinted his words.

“I love it!” Tara said excitedly and hugged him tighter. “I love it.” She added more calmly.

“Me, too.” Ron responded and his hand patted hers around his waist. “Me, too.”

Tara felt all warm and tingly inside and tried to not let her fantasies taint what was happening for real. That was difficult to do, because she had several daydreams about someone coming along and whisking her away from home to have an epic romance and to sweep her off her feet, which Ron was doing quite successfully.

When they came to a stop in the mall parking lot, Tara didn't want to let him go. She had a very important question to ask him first. “Can you tell me what happened to you?”

“I knew someone as smart as you would figure out something happened.” Ron said and took off his helmet. “If you can let me go for a moment, I can turn around and face you.”

Tara reluctantly did so and Ron hopped off, hung the helmet on the handlebars, and slid back onto the seat facing her. To make it more comfortable for her, he pulled her legs up on top of his and she was essentially straddling his lap. She blushed to a deep red and didn't try to move back or told him to not pull her so close, because she loved that he was being so bold. She just wanted to know why.

Ron took off her helmet and saw her red face. He hung the helmet on the other side of the handlebar and looked into her eyes. “Kim and I were investigating what Drakken was up to the other day. He was testing an invention called the Attitudinator and one thing led to another and I ended up breaking it.” He said and then grinned at her. “With my forehead.”

Tara giggled. “Of course you did.”

“Like always, it wasn't my fault. Kim was fighting Shego like usual and a stray blast blew something up and threw me into Drakken. I woke up on the floor and realized I've been putting myself into the worst social situations and always coming out on the worst end.”

Tara nodded and her hand came up and caressed my cheek. “I tried to silently support you...”

Ron put a hand on hers and smiled. “I was too dense to see that and thought all of you hated me for being like I was.”

“Socially ignorant?” Tara asked and then looked embarrassed. “I'm sorry.”

Ron chuckled. “Don't be, That's it exactly. I missed so many social cues and opportunities to turn my life around that I was becoming a lost cause. We only have the rest of this year and the next before we graduate. That's barely enough time to have everyone slowly accept any kind of status change where I'm concerned.”

Tara nodded. “You've done a lot today.”

“Only because it was the best time to surprise everyone. I can't be that confrontational all the time or they'll actively start fighting back with even more social pressure.”

Tara nodded again. “I'll do what I can without making too many waves.”

“Thank you.” Ron said and leaned in to give her a tender kiss. “Do you want to take a walk around the mall and do a little shopping? I can tell you my idea that's going to make us rich.”

Tara smiled and nodded once more, then she looked down at how they were sitting. “I kind of don't want to move right now.”

Ron chuckled and put his arms around her waist. “The mall doesn't close for four more hours and I'm not in any rush to let you go, either.”

Tara beamed a smile at him and wrapped her arms around his neck to kiss him passionately, just like she fantasized about. It would eventually turn out to be the best first date she had ever had with a guy.