Kim was half amazed that her feet kept landing on the ground on as she walked through Middleton High's hallways. She felt as if she was floating, as if she could take off and soar through the air any time she wanted to.
It was a nice feeling.
It was also the kind of feeling that could make one blissfully forgot one's surroundings, so Kim almost walked into the ladder standing near her locker. She looked up at the janitor doing something to the ceiling.
“Changing a light bulb?”
The janitor looked surpised for a moment, probably because he wasn't used to students suddenly talking to him. “Uhm… yeah.”
“Great,” said Kim happily.
Kim squeezed into the area between the ladder and the row of lockers so that she could open her own. She put some books in, took some books out and paused. Looking at the locker door, she suddenly noticed the huge blank spot above Drakken's mugshot. Maybe she could put something there, she considered. Maybe Shego could be persuaded to pose for her.
She suddenly blushed as memories from late last night and early this morning flooded into her mind.
Not pose like that, she told herself. Obviously not like that, but pose anyway.
Kim hurriedly closed her locker again and skipped away. With any luck she'd be seeing Shego soon enough again and she really had no need for that kind of thought during the middle of school. The long, lazy Sunday afternoon that had been yesterday had been bad enough already and the cold showers hadn't really helped either.
Her random walk -random, that is, in the sense that she didn't consciously think about it- quickly brought her to Shego's locker. And Shego. The girl turned towards her and smiled, filling Kim with warm, fluffy feelings. Warmer and fluffier than they already were, that is.
“Hey,” said Kim.
“Hey there Princess,” said Shego.
Kim put a hand on Shego's arm. “I, uhm, really had fun Saturday.”
“Me too,” said Shego.
“I was actually planning to call you yesterday, but…”
“But…?” Shego prompted.
But I was afraid I might become instantly incoherent at the sound of your voice.
“I wanted to savour meeting you again?” Kim said.
Shego smiled. “If you say so, Princess.”
“Uhm…” Kim bit her lower lip, looked away, then shyly glanced up at Shego. “Are we… dating?”
“Do you want us to be dating?”
Kim bit down a bit harder and nodded.
“Then we're dating.”
Kim smiled and didn't really care if it happened to be an incredibly lame and goofy smile. “So, could I…”
“Hey, look, as much as I'd love to stay and chat, I gotta go to class,” said Shego. “See you after cheer practice?”
“Oh,” said Kim. “Uhm, yeah, sure. See you then.”
“OK then.”
Shego leaned forward to give Kim a quick little peck on the lips.
“See you there, Princess.”
Kim watched Shego hurry down the corridor. If she hadn't been a rational person who knew that the heart was nothing but a pump for blood, she might almost have been convinced that it had just somersaulted and gone ‘whee!’.
Señor Senior Senior dogded the cleaning crew and wandered to the huge viewscreen that had caught his son's rapt attention.
“What do you want to do with this stuff?”
Senior looked at a member of the cleaning crew who did not intend to be dogded. He was holding a large box filled with items belonging to the previous tenant.
“Store them somewhere safe,” said Senior. “Perhaps I can still make some use of them.”
“Right.”
Señor Senior Senior watched the man stride away before walking over to his son, who still hadn't removed his eyes from the screen.
“Ah, it is good to see you studying our adversary so closely.”
“Why yes, father,” said Junior. “It's very interesting.”
Señor Senior Senior took a closer look at the screen and frowned as he saw the short purple tops and the short purple skirts. He sighed.
“Junior, we do not need to know Miss Possible's latest cheerleading routines.”
“But father, look at those moves.”
Senior grabbed the camera control stick and yanked it. “Junior, please try to grow up one of these days. I did not have those cameras installed at the local High School just so you could leer at teenagers.”
“But what if cheerleading is what gives her all that fighting ability?” Junior suggested. “Shouldn't we study it?”
Señor Senior Senior sighed again and wondered, not for the first time, where he had gone wrong. “Junior, it is simply not possible for…”
“Say, who's this?”
Senior glared at Junior for a moment for interrupting him, but when he noticed that Junior's full attention was back on the screen, he risked a glance at it as well. His eyebrows raised in surprise for a moment when he saw a girl sitting in the bleachers, smiling to herself.
“Most unusual,” said Senior. “I may not be up to date on the latest fashion trends, but I do not believe green skin is hip right now, is it?”
“It certainly is not father,” said Junior. “That girl could use a good tanning.”
“So then why does she have green skin?” said Senior. He shook his head. “Ah well, it doesn't really matter anyway.”
“Uhm, father, perhaps it does.”
Senior watched Kim Possible sit next to the green girl. They started talking. He couldn't hear a word of their conversation, of course, but he didn't really need to. He was a man of the world after all, or had been at least, and he had gained some life experience over the years.
“Well, well, well,” Señor Senior Senior said mostly to himself. “Perhaps it does matter after all.”
Kim blocked the flaming punch aimed at her face with her forearm. Shego had apparently expected that, because the following leg sweep did connect, almost sending Kim to the ground if she hadn't been able to use her free hand to recover.
“Nice move,” said Shego.
“Hey, I'm a cheerleader,” said Kim. “This stuff comes natural to me.”
“Really? Maybe I should try out for the squad then.”
“I'd let you in.”
“Aw, thanks, Princess.”
And suddenly Shego was right in her face again, green fire swirling around in front of her eyes, almost blinding her. Kim dogded and blocked what she could, but Shego had managed to take her by surprise and, inevitably, Kim landed on her back.
Shego loomed over her, grinning. “Looks like I win this round, Princess.”
“I was distracted,” said Kim.
“By what?”
“You.”
“Tsk, tsk,” said Shego. “You need to work harder then.”
“Guess so.”
“Still… I did win. Don't I get a prize?”
Kim felt herself relaxing. “What did you have mind?”
Shego pulled Kim to her feet. “How ‘bout a taco. I could do with one.”
“A… a taco?” Kim said.
“Sure,” said Shego. “Unless you got a better idea.”
“Well, I, uhm, you know…”
“No, I don't,” said Shego. “Why don't you tell me?”
Kim looked at that grinning face and yelled at herself that she should tell the girl.
“All right. A taco it is,” she said.
“OK then,” said Shego. “Let's get going.”
Señor Senior Senior looked at the image of the now empty gym in silence. He was thinking. Thinking about flirts he hadn't heard, fire he had never seen before. He didn't know the green girl's name, but he felt that it was very important that he'd find out as soon as possible.