Middleton High (Kim Possible - OC insert)

[EmperorOfHeavyMetal]

A few days had passed since the incident where Bonnie kissed me out of the blue. Fortunately, she confessed I was innocent and that she just acted impetuously. Having said that, Tara was still upset. Not at me, but at Bonnie. Bonnie and Tara were friends and Tara felt like this was a huge betrayal. She couldn't forgive that, and it seemed unlikely an apology from Bonnie would convince Tara to change her mind. I had always known Bonnie was not a good influence on Tara or any other of the girls, but Tara never seemed to realise that. Tara could be a little naive and have too much trust in people at times. But that was part of her charm. She was a little too pure for this world at times.

I won't deny that Bonnie's lips were pretty soft and tasty. That's just a physical sensation from my lips. I'm only human, and a male one at that. And I've never hidden the fact that Bonnie is quite good looking despite her crappy personality. So, in a way, I did feel somewhat turned on to have been kissed by a hot girl like her. On the other hand, I felt bad and guilty about it because I had a girlfriend. One I finally had sex with recently and thus took an extra step in my relationship with her. Anyway, Bonnie clearly had issues. So what if Brick Flagg broke up with her?! Why would she even kiss another guy like that without his consent? Also, I clearly underestimated Brick's intelligence. Ron gave him a call to convince him to get back together with Bonnie, but Brick clearly said no and that it was time for him to move on. I'll be damned, but clearly university was making Brick smarter and wiser.

So, anyway, Ron had one of his quirky ideas once again: finding a new boyfriend for Bonnie. He set up a line for students to talk to Bonnie one by one in order to convince her to date them. This was certainly going to be a shitshow. We all knew Bonnie had very high standards, but we also hoped no guy would end up with her since dating Bonnie seemed like a really miserable experience unless you were as equally shallow as her. But, then again, Brick of all people dumped her. So if he was able to see past Bonnie's bullshit, other guys had no excuse not to.

The first guy stepped in. A lanky nerd with acne on his face.

"Hi, my name is Ed." He grinned.

"Eew, rejected!" Bonnie grimaced.

The next guy stepped in. A tall fat guy with a big smile on his face.

"I am Conrad. Nice to meet you! HOHOHOH!" He let out a hearty laugh.

"What are you, Santa Claus?! Shoo!" Bonnie shook her hand dismissively.

"This is going exactly as expected." I whispered to Ron.

"Well, it can't hurt to try." Ron shrugged.

The line kept advancing fast since Bonnie was pretty quick at shutting down potential suitors. Clearly none of them seemed to fit her super high standards. What were Bonnie's standards? Basically a guy who was hot, charismatic, popular, athletic and possibly of a wealthy family background as well. Intelligence and substance beyond that? Nope. Remember, she dated Brick Flagg.

Anyway, I had to admit, most of the guys were pretty brave in lining up to convince Bonnie to date them. Especially the nerdier ones. I guessed they figured they had nothing to lose. Plus, with such a long line, it was easier to digest rejection from a hot popular girl if you had seen her reject 15 other guys right before you and she kept on rejecting guys after rejecting you. Strength in numbers and all.

But then, a guy who seemed to finally match Bonnie's ridiculous standards finally showed up. A tall athletic guy who had a lot of confidence and seemed to be rather good looking.

"Hey there." He winked.

"Oh, hi!" Bonnie smiled. "What's your name?"

"Danny." He smirked. "I'm trying out for the basketball team."

"Nice! Tell me more about yourself, Danny!" She smirked while her eyes scanned his body.

Danny then, all of a sudden, took out his jacket and shirt and stood in the middle of school shirtless and flexing his muscles, much to everyone's surprise.

"What are you doing?! Put your clothes back on!" Bonnie frowned.

"Come on, check these guns and pecs, babe!" He kept on flexing his biceps. "I'm a physical specimen!"

The guys behind him in line were laughing at his arrogance and exhibitionistic display. Ron and I also couldn't contain our laughs. This guy was a total hack!

"What the heck is going on here?!" Mr. Barkin walked by and looked at the borderline naked student flexing his muscles in front of Bonnie and frowned.

"HEY, YOU! LISTEN UP!" He yelled.

"You're talking to me?" Danny pointed at himself.

"Yes, you! What's your name, son?" Mr. Barkin demanded.

"Danny O'Higgins, sir." He smiled cockily.

"And what's the meaning of this strip tease show in school, Mr. O'Higgins?" Mr. Barkin folded his arms, waiting for Danny's explanation.

"Just showing off to this cutie here." Danny winked at Bonnie, who was now getting grossed out.

"You know what? Go away! You're the vainest guy I've ever seen!" She cried.

"What? Don't you want to feel these guns every night?" He kissed his biceps.

"You have no class whatsoever!" Bonnie groaned in frustration.

"That's it! You can't go around shirtless in school outside of the locker rooms!" Mr. Barkin yelled. "Put it back on, now!"

"But…" Danny said sheepishly.

"NOW!" Mr. Barkin barked.

And Danny did as he was told and left angry. How dared a hot cheerleader reject a muscular basketball player like him after he showed her his upper body and arms? That must have been his thought process. What a clown!

---

After lunch today, I had a free period, so I had almost an extra hour to kill. It was good to take a longer break.

"Yo, Rafael." I turned my head and it was Junior.

"Hey, man." I nodded. "What's up?"

"Wanna hang out with Vinnie and I?" He smiled.

"Eh, might as well." I shrugged.

And he told me to follow him and I agreed. We walked for a bit until we reached a somewhat hidden spot right outside the school building. There was Vinni waiting for us. He had something in his hands.

"You got the stuff, Vinnie?" Junior asked.

"Hell yeah. He wants it too?" He pointed at me.

"I want what?" I raised my eyebrow.

"Weed!" Junior grinned.

"Weed?" I said dryly. "That's why you asked me to hang out with you guys?"

"Why not? Who doesn't like weed?" Junior raised his eyebrows.

"I've never tried it." I shrugged.

"There's a first time for everything." Vinnie smirked and handed me a joint.

I was a bit hesitant. I had always heard potheads raving about weed and how supposedly awesome it was and how everyone had to try it at least once in their lifetime in order to lead a happy and fulfilled life. I've always found that attitude a little annoying. Plus, potheads exaggerated the harmless effects of weed. Of course marijuana was not 100% harmless. It wasn't as bad as actual hard drugs or even tobacco for your health, but to claim it didn't have any health consequences whatsoever was ridiculous. Also, I couldn't help but notice how people who smoked it on a daily basis were slow. Clearly it affected your brain in the long run.

I decided to cave in and take a shot at it. After all, the risk of getting addicted to it was rather low. I had already tried tobacco before and didn't get addicted to it, so I figured smoking a joint wasn't going to hurt me. So I picked it up and smoked it… and all I felt was throat irritation and it made me cough.

"That's not how you do it, dude." Junior chuckled.

"I literally did the same thing I did when I smoked a cigarette and I barely coughed that time!" I protested.

Vinnie and Junior laughed at me and explained how to do it. So I did it right on my 2nd and 3rd drags and you know what? I felt nothing at all. I waited and waited and nothing.

"That's it?" I looked dryly at them.

"What do you mean?" Vinnie looked at me with his eyes getting redder. As were Junior's.

"I feel nothing!" I frowned.

"A lot of people don't feel anything the first time they try it, Rafael." Vinnie smirked.

"You know what? This is lame." I gave him back my joint. "Goodbye." And I left.

"Some people just don't get it." Junior shook his head.

"Yeah. Hey, more for us!" Vinnie laughed.

And both kept smoking.

---

In the next class, Kim and Ron noticed I looked a little disappointed.

"Rafael, is the class that boring for you?" Ron teased.

"It's not that." I groaned.

"Ouch, grouchy!" Kim said dryly.

"Yeah, what's with you, dude?" Ron raised his eyebrow.

"Kim, Ron. Have you two ever smoked weed?" I looked around before asking them. Didn't want the teacher to hear me, naturally.

Both Kim and Ron blinked twice at me, clearly surprised by my random question.

"No…" Kim replied slowly.

Ron just shook his head.

"Why are you even asking us that, Rafael?" Kim raised her eyebrow.

"You're not missing out on anything. Most overrated thing ever." I said with a steely voice.

Kim and Ron just looked at each other perplexed and somewhat surprised at the same time. I guess they never expected me to be the type to know what smoking pot felt like.

"Okay…" Kim nodded slowly. "Thanks for the heads up."

Ron just shrugged as he looked at Kim.

---

At the end of the day, Bonnie couldn't find a guy who fit her insanely high standards. So she ended up going home sad and frustrated. Kim and Ron felt kinda sorry for her. Even if they didn't like her much, they still couldn't help but feel some compassion for her situation.

Tara, however, still refused to talk to Bonnie after she kissed me. I, too, avoided her at all costs. That girl was pretty toxic, as we all knew. Did I feel sorry for her? Not so much, to be honest. She tried to screw up my relationship with Tara by kissing me without consent, after all. Can you blame me?!

 

[EmperorOfHeavyMetal]

Graduation day was approaching. Lots of excitement and anxiety among everyone in senior year. Especially those who were going to attend University. The system worked differently here in the USA compared to Portugal. In Portugal you took uni admission exams at the end of the school year and hoped you'd get a good enough grade to add to the overall average of your HS grades to get into the bachelor's degree you were aiming for. You could pick up to 6 options. You'd order them in terms of preference. Naturally most people wanted to get in their first option/pick. But sometimes their average just turned out not to be high enough. They'd have a 16,2/20 average and the student with the lowest average that made it to the degree had a 16.4/20 average. That sucked. Some people only managed to get into their bottom pick/option.
In the USA, students even needed a recommendation letter, and write something like a personal statement to get admitted into their dream uni and degree, as if they were applying for a job. There's no national level final exam like back in Portugal and other countries. Also, it seemed like different universities could have different requirements for application. Some required privately administered standardised tests for applicants, for example. The whole thing seemed more complex and unpredictable. I was glad I was moving back to Portugal at the end of HS. My mother and I knew USA had a lot of good universities that were in the top 100 rankings, but they were fucking expensive, and we could never afford that. Plus, the pressure to get good grades in university when your parents are paying a ton of cash must be insane.
Another difference was that American students actually moved to their universities for the years they'd be there, and shared a room with another student. American universities were pretty big and not just places to go in and get a higher education. The whole thing about kids moving out of their parents home after they turned 18 was not a thing in Portugal or most of Europe except maybe for Scandinavian countries due to their societies being more independent and their countries being filthy rich. In Portugal, living with your parents at the age of 25 was not viewed as strange. Some even lived with their parents until they were 30. It was a combination of culture and socioeconomic factors.
These 3 years living in the USA; Middleton, Colorado in particular have been interesting. However, I was aware that I was living in a not so typical situation, since two of my closest friends were a superhero duo who went around the globe regularly fighting off against mad scientists and other villains. Having said that, how did I feel about American culture and society after 3 years in this country? I still didn't fully understand it. It was so different from all European cultures and societies I had dealt with. I couldn't say I became a fan of American sports and some other typical American thing I liked the most was living in a big house in nice suburbs like in those movies and tv shows I watched as a kid and having access to so many different tv channels. There were like an unending number of them. Plus, I could watch WWE shows live on TV instead of with a 3 week delay back in Portugal. Avoiding spoilers was nearly impossible.
As for the people, well Americans were friendly and a little too optimistic at times for my taste. Made them seem a little naive and full of themselves in my eyes. I wouldn't say they weren't genuine in their attitudes. They certainly were friendly and extroverted on average, but I couldn't help but wonder what the catch was at first.
And of course, I made good friends here in Middleton High who I most certainly will miss and remember for the rest of my life. My teenagehood had been rather lousy until I moved here.
Another thing I noticed is that Americans seemed to not care much if you were a foreigner in their country. As in, they noticed due to your accent but that was it. They seemed to think of you as a permanent immigrant or someone who'd eventually become an American citizen after some years, which seemed a little odd to me. I didn't feel like an American at all nor did I want to become one. And my mother felt the same way herself as well. As much welcome as we felt here, this was not our country and we knew we were here temporarily. We were not the most patriotic people in the world, but we were Portuguese and we'd die as such. And this wasn't exactly something unique about us. Portuguese people simply didn't stop feeling Portuguese after they moved abroad. Historically, our people immigrated a lot, and even decades later, their descendants often spoke Portuguese as their first language and still felt a strong connection to their homeland, especially in countries like France, Luxembourg and Switzerland; where the highest number of Portuguese immigrants and people of Portuguese ancestry lived.
Graduation day was getting closer and everyone was talking about the universities they were going to get in afterwards. Kim being the daughter of a rocket scientist and a neurosurgeon and also a top student meant she had plenty of options and a really good university would take her in. I knew she didn't want to have the same job as her parents. It seemed like she wanted to study biology. Ron was aiming for communications. Monique wanted to become a nurse. Tara was going to study marketing. Hope was going to Law school, but she needed to get an undergrad first or something. Weird system. Her boyfriend, Kyle, was going to engineering school. I didn't know what engineering degree he was going to get, though. Bonnie was going to study finance. The others, I didn't really know.
I was still together with Tara, but we both knew it was coming to an end, and we were bracing ourselves for our eventual breakup. None of us were happy about it, obviously, but such was life in such a big world.
"I'm gonna miss you so much, Rafa." Tara looked at me with sad eyes.
"Same here, Tara." I sighed.
"I hope, at least, you'll always remember me." She smiled weakly.
"Oh, that I will." I smiled softly.
"So will I." She nodded.
"It's gonna take me a while to move on, I admit." I let out another sigh.
"Ditto." Tara let out a sigh as well.
"I'm sure you'll meet another guy you like in college eventually." I said, with a ton of sadness and jealousy.
"Don't say that!" Tara cried as her eyes widened. "I will not move on from you that soon!"
"That's a relief. But it's not like we'll remain single forever after we grow apart." I said sheepishly.
"True… but our hearts will take time to heal." She smiled weakly.
We kissed. The clock was ticking and our time together was coming to an end. Never did I expect our relationship to end this way. I expected one of us to break up with the other after some months or something. Not a forced breakup due to me going back home.

---

And Graduation day finally came. We all wore a black gown and a hat. Also, a band was invited to play music during the ceremony. The music sounded just like Macho Man's Randy Savage theme song from his WWF days.
I walked up to the stage and Mr. Barkin handed me my diploma.
"Congratulations, Rafael Oliveira." He said with a serious look and then I stepped off the stage to walk up to Kim, Ron, Tara and Monique. All of them had gotten their diplomas already.
"Can't believe it's over." Ron sighed.
"Time sure flies." Monique chuckled.
"High school wasn't so bad, to be honest." Tara smiled.
"Yeah. It's like we were all freshmen just yesterday and today we're graduating." Kim smiled.
"It is strange, indeed." I said sheepishly.
"I'm not ready for you to go back to Portugal, man!" Ron groaned in frustration.
"Yeah, dude." Monique looked a bit sad too.
"You've been a great friend all these years, Rafael." Kim placed her hand on my shoulder. "And Mrs. Oliveira was also a pretty good teacher. I'm going to miss you both."
"Well, Mrs. Oliveira was a little too strict with grades at times." Monique smirked nervously.
"Yeah, that's just how mum is." I shrugged as I flashed a goofy nervous grin.
"She's actually pretty cool and not as scary as Barkin is." Ron chuckled.
"Oh, you have no idea." I laughed and the others smiled at my implication.
"So, how much longer will you stay here, babe?" Tara asked me as she grabbed my wrist.
"We're leaving back home in 2 weeks." I sighed.
"2 weeks…" Kim said with a hint of sadness in her voice. "We're going to dearly miss you, Rafael."
"I'll miss you guys too." I said. "Something I didn't expect to say back when I got into Middleton High. But it turns out I made some good friends and got a lovely girlfriend as well." I smiled, looking at Tara.
"Bros forever, dude!" Ron gave me a fist bump, and so did Rufus afterwards.

---

Throughout the next 2 weeks, I hung out with my friends as much as I possibly could. Then the day came. Mum and I were done putting our bags in the car trunk. Mum gave back the house keys to the landlord. A nice older man.
"I'm going to miss you and your son, Mrs. Oliveira." He smiled. "You were great tenants and always paid rent on time."
"And you were a great landlord too, Mr. Plissken." Mum smiled. "Your house is pretty lovely."
"Thank you!" He smiled appreciatively.
Mum and I got in the car and we drove to the airport. Again, there were no direct flights from Middleton to Portugal. So we had to fly to Atlanta and then to Lisbon. As we got to the airport, we saw a surprising sight. All of my friends were waiting for me to say goodbye! Kim, Ron, Tara, Monique, Hope and even Kyle.
"Everyone…" I blinked twice as I left the car.
"Surprise!" Kim smiled.
"We had to give you a big goodbye, dude." Ron smiled.
I talked to everyone one by one briefly. Then, at the end, the whole group gave me a book with all of their names signed and with farewell messages wishing me luck and hoping they'd meet me again someday. Finally, I ended up saying goodbye to Tara. One last kiss and one last hug. She was having trouble letting me go. But my mother had to tell me that we needed to get going and head to our gate. So, I turned around one last time and waved a final goodbye to everyone before walking away forever. My mum also waved goodbye to everyone, since they were her students for 3 years. This truly was the end of an era.
As we boarded into the airplane and took off, it then truly dawned on me the fact that this was the very last time I had stepped foot into the city of Middleton, Colorado. And most likely the very last time I had seen my friends in person. I kept their online contacts, obviously, but a very long distance would be separating us forever from then on. Perhaps I would see Kim and Ron again someday if one of their enemies decided to drop by Portugal to take over the world from there, who knows. But the rest? Nope.

---

Everyone was leaving the airport now, feeling down, especially Tara who had tears in her eyes.
"Be strong, Tara." Hope comforted her best friend by placing a hand on her shoulder.
"I'm gonna miss my male best friend." Ron looked down. Kim kissed him in order to comfort him.
"All these 3 years just ended like that…" Monique sighed.
"Yeah, it's like we were meeting Rafael just the other day and now he's gone forever." Kim said with a sad tone.
"Life is so unfair." Ron took a deep sigh as did Rufus.
"Time really destroys everything, doesn't it?" Kyle rubbed the back of his head.
"I miss him already!" Tara wiped a tear off her eyes. "It's going to take me a long time to get over Rafa…"
"There, there." Hope hugged Tara tightly.
"You think we'll never truly see him again, KP?" Ron looked at Kim eagerly.
"I don't know, Ron. Only time will tell." Kim shrugged unsure.
"And will we even see each other after summer again? We're all going to college here, remember?" Monique reminded the group.
"Monique is right." Kim nodded. "Ron and I will be moving to California."
"I'm moving to Rhode Island." Hope said.
"I'm going to Texas." Monique pointed at herself proudly.
"I'll be attending college in New Jersey." Kyle said.
"And I'm going to North Carolina." Tara wiped one last tear off her eyes.
"So, does this mean this is the end for our friend group?" Ron rubbed the back of his head sheepishly.
There was a long awkward silence. No one could predict the future. There was a mix of emotions after graduating high school. Everyone was looking forward to college next school year, but they also were a bit sad they were going separate ways, except for Kim and Ron who'd be attending the same college together in California. So, it was a rather bittersweet ending. They were only 18 years old, but they knew that most people eventually lost touch with their HS friends after some years. Especially in such a large country as the USA. Obviously they would also be making new friends in college and afterwards, but the connection to their childhood and teenage friends would always be there, no matter the different paths all of them would take.

THE END​