Sparkling Fire and Smokey Sighs (READ DISCLAIMER)

10: In a Word

That morning, Kim woke up with a single thought echoing through her mind.

UNDO! UNDO! UNDO!

She jumped out of bed, still dressed in the same clothes she had on the day before, ran barefoot outside, across the courtyard, and threw open a door in the boy's dormitory.

It was empty. Ron's backpack was gone.

She ran back over, nearly kicked her door in, grabbed her Kimmunicator that had fallen out of her pocket, ran back outside amid Shego's yells, and checked the Kimmunicator. Not even a cellular signal. She silently cursed the Lowardians for destroying all the geosynchronous satellites.

That was when Kim glanced up and realized that the skies decided it was to be a rare, sunny day… and it was already past noon.

She ran again. She didn't even try to open the front gates and instead, bounced between the walls in a corner until she could grab the roof, flip over, and down the other side. She barely felt the rocks under her feet or saw the shrubs she jumped over. It wasn't until 20 minutes later that she arrived at the cusp of a hill and saw the road, the blue car with a dark yellow strip around it, and Ron crawling into it.

"RON!" She bellowed.

He jerked back, then gave her a little wave before crawling back in and closing the door. The taxi pulled away.

Kim ran down the hill and up another one, but by the time she reached the peak, it was too late.

Ron was gone.

Kim fell to her knees. The Kimmunicator pinged that it had a signal, but Kim didn't feel like calling anymore; Ron had left without even saying good-bye.

Something crunched behind her, but Kim didn't look up.

"Hey," Shego said.

"Go away," Kim said.

Instead of listening to this excellent and altogether reasonable order, however, Shego knelt beside her. She was dressed in the same white tank top and loose fitting pants as Kim's. The white looked odd on her green skin.

"This talk thing is beginning to be habit forming," Kim said listlessly.

"It's an addiction," Shego said. "Er…" She coughed into her fist. "So why are getting cold feet about the boy toy now?"

"Is this how it's going to be?" Kim said. "Are you my new councilor now?"

Kim waited. She watched the little blue and yellow cab get further and further away until it followed a bend and finally popped out of sight.

"You're not going to leave until I answer, are you?" Kim said.

"Probably not," Shego said.

Kim didn't take her eyes off the spot where the cab had disappeared. "Why can't you just leave me alone?"

"Because if you're not on the top of your game," Shego said, "I might lose my chance to get some payback."

Kim tried to laugh but it came out more like a trembling puff.

"You know," Shego said, "if you actually took the time to look around, you might have done something different." Before she could explain further, Shego got up and walked back towards the school. "You know," she said, pausing, "one of the students saw my idiot brothers in Beijing yesterday. You probably shouldn't stay out here for long or you might be seen."

Kim didn't move to watch her go. She still stared at that bit of road disappearing into the hillside. Finally, however, she got ready to leave, and noticed something new. Sitting on the ground were a pair of black shoes. On top of the shoes laid a letter with her name written in Ron's hand.