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Description
Story 2 of the Kim Possible: The University Years series.

Disclaimer: All Kim Possible characters are the copyright of Walt Disney Corporation. I’m just
borrowing them to write up a story with no intention of making any money. This is for fun. All other characters in my stories that Disney doesn’t own are mind.

A/N: First off, I want to thank everyone who had left me feedback on “Looking Back, Looking Forward”. They’re appreciated.

Second, since “Looking Back, Looking Forward”, my mind have been spurning with ideas for stories regarding Kim, Ron, and Company at Upperton U. It prompted me to list them together in a series I titled Kim Possible: The University Years. If you see this series title about the story title, you’ll know the story is part of the series. I’ve put together a character bible for the series, containing not only some of the familiar characters from the TV series but new characters as well. We all know that not everyone from Kim and Ron’s high school class would be attending UU, anymore than HS classmates in reality, so I made up new characters that would be Kim and Ron’s new rivals or friends at UU. One new character has already been mentioned in “Looking Back, Looking Forward”, and this story will introduce a couple more.

Story rating: Rated K+ (aka PG)
Written: May 2005

Summery: Kim meets Upperton U’s latest athletic heroine.

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Kim Possible: The University Years

The New Kid on the Block
By JuPMod (aka JPMod)

Ron groaned. His eyes were reading Shakespeare, and he still couldn’t understand it anymore than he had in high school. His English professor had assigned the task of writing up a paper on any Shakespeare play regarding the play’s emotional content, story, etc. and its relationship to the real world. That paper was due just before the mid-term exams a few days from now in this month of October.

“Ron, it shouldn’t be that hard,” a female voice chided with amusement in her voice.

Rubbing his eyes, Ron closed the book. “Easy for you to say, KP. Shakespeare wasn’t one of my strong suits in high school, and it still is. Even ‘Romeo & Juliet’ is hard for me, despite seeing various movies about it.”

Sitting in one of the couches of the boys’ dorm lounge, which was on the first floor of the building next to one of the entrances, Kim Possible frowned over at her boyfriend Ron Stoppable, who was also sitting in the same couch. “Ron… You know we can work together on this. There are no rules saying students can’t study together. We’ve been down this road before.”

“Just checking to see whether my brain still can’t figure it out,” he joked with a smirk.

Kim slowly smirked herself and just move over until she was snuggling against his chest before turning up her Shakespeare book for Ron to follow her. He placed his hand comfortably on her shoulder as he turned to what she was reading.

“’Hamlet’?” the blonde man asked.

“Yep,” his redhead girlfriend replied. “Just follow what I point out and then write up your paper.”

A small chuckle was heard from the couch across from the couple. “Man, no matter how many times I’ve seen it, that play baffles me.”

Ron smiled at this. “George, I don’t think even you would understand ‘Hamlet’, anymore than me.”

George Castle, Ron’s dorm roommate, 19 years old, and a Sophomore-year student at Upperton U, just smiled wider. “Maybe I can copy off you when I become a Junior-student next year. In the meantime,” he held up his book on history of architecture, “I’m enjoying myself reading what I love to study.”

“Good for you,” Kim drolly said, eyeing the man with brown hair in a shoulder-blade length ponytail. “Now leave us alone.” Ron, George, and two others lightly laughed at her words.

Monique, Kim’s long time friend from Middleton high school, pointed to George from a side lounge chair. “You heard her, Castle. Back off.” With her other hand, the 20 year-old Junior-year student flipped her wavy shoulder-blade length black hair back. A nursing book was in her lap.

“Yep, when Kim Possible gives you a command, you better obey,” a male voice amused next to George. Felix Renton didn’t required to sit in a lounge chair; given his cyberrobotic wheelchair was quite comfortable. In his lap, the young man has a book on mechanical engineering.

The five students went back to their reading with Kim and Ron only speaking as they discuss ‘Hamlet’.

A few minutes later, the building’s entrance banged open as a group of students, maybe least ten or so of mostly boys with a few girls, rushed in. They crossed over to the wall-mounted TV set on the opposite side of the lounge from the studying students and turned it on. Soon the group was enthralled with what was being shown.

Ron, Felix, and George eyed each other, while Kim and Monique eyed the group of students. True, the TV set in the lounge was mostly on all day, but sometimes, with so many students out of the dorms, the set would catch a rare break. Yet this group of students seems excited, like something amazing was happening. All five then looked up at the TV to notice that they had putted on the university’s girls gymnastics competition that was currently being hosted by Upperton.

Ron, Kim, Monique, and Felix frowned while George just looked on with curiosity. They couldn’t understand why this group putted on the live-broadcast of the Upperton U’s girls gymnastics team’s competition with Denver University. Upperton’s team hasn’t won a team or solo competition event in years. No one would bother to watch, given they knew Upperton U would mostly lose. Yet, here was a group of students that looked that they knew Upperton U would win this year.

Still curious, George spoke up to the TV watchers. “You guys looked like Upperton U will be winning this year.”

A few of the group turned toward George with surprised expressions. “Where have you’ve been two weeks ago during the competition against Washington State?” a boy spoke. “We’ve cleaned their clocks!” The five studying students were shocked to hear this.

Monique, still with a shocked expression, asked, “Are you saying that Upperton University’s girls gymnastics team finally won a competition after a five year drought?”

“Yep!” the boy replied with a grin as he and the others turned back to the TV set. The boy pointed to the screen. “It’s all because of her.”

On the TV screen, they watched as a petite girl with brown/blonde hair in a tight bun walked over to the gymnastics mat, ready to do the floor exercise event. The screen showed her name as Debra Oxford Tsuda, and she amazingly performed acrobatic cartwheels, jumps, flips, etc. without a flaw. She landed perfectly on her feet upon completion of the floor exercise, a smile on her lips. A minute or two later, the judges’ scores gave her mostly 10s with two just above 9.5.

Kim whistled appreciatively. “She’s good.”

Ron smirked and hugged her. “Not as a good as my KP.”

She smirked as well. “Thanks for the complement, Ron.” Her expression turned to normal. “Yet, she looked like she can outperform me.”

Felix turned his head toward Kim. “Now that you’ve mentioned it, I’m curious, Kim. Why hadn’t you join the Middeton High School’s gymnastics team? During those two times I’ve went on your missions, I’ve seen your acrobatics. You’ve could have made a great gymnastics athlete.”

“Not me,” Kim responded, shaking her head. “I simply hadn’t wanted to be involved with any sports. Cheerleading for me was and still is more fun than sports.” Her sly expression returned. “The Tweebs are more interested in sports than me.”

Ron chuckled at this, recalling the time when Kim temporarily was coach for her twin brothers’ soccer team. She was a disaster much to the Tweebs’ horror.

One hour later, the competition was over and everyone in the lounge cheered as Upperton U won another gymnastics competition. Most of the solo competitions was won by Debra Oxford Tsuda as everyone knew she would, given the way she aced every gymnastic event.

As the group of students turned off the TV and began leaving the building, the boy that had spoken earlier approached the studying students. “Just to let you guys know. There’s going to be a small celebration at the main student center’s food court for the gymnastics team, say an hour from now. They were visiting Washington State last time, yet this is our first home competition victory. My girlfriend, being one of the gymnastics athletes other than Debra, told me this.” With that said, he left the lounge.

Kim immediately spoke up. “I want to go.”

“Same here,” Monique agreed.

Ron frowned. “Kim, we have studying to do.”

“I want to see her,” Kim countered. “Besides, we can study for one more hour, go to the celebration for an hour, and come back to study some more. We can use a break.”

Felix nodded his head. “I certainly could use a break an hour from now.”

After Ron smiled at Kim and agreed, the five returned to their studying.

An hour later, when it was around 8 PM, Ron, Kim, and their friends entered the main student center and went over toward the food court. The food court has two floors; one on the center’s first floor while the other was one floor down in the basement. A large open square provided those on the first floor’s court’s dining area a view down into the food court’s basement floor dining area. The celebration could be seen in the basement dining area, allowing people on the first floor to able to view down from around the railings of the square. Ron trailed Kim to the railings of the square as the others followed.

“I don’t see her,” Monique mentioned as she and the others scanned the crowd below.

“Wait,” Felix pointed toward a figure approaching the crowd from the side. “Here she comes.” Surely enough the crowd cheered as Debra and the other members of the girls’ gymnastics team. It was reasonable to presume the team must have entered the student center from the side entrance that was closest to the sidewalks leading from the athletic buildings.

Kim eyed Debra closely. Miss Tsuda didn’t look anymore than 17 or 18 years old. Her hair, still in that tight bun, was mostly brown with blonde patches. She wore a sweatshirt, which have Upperton U’s symbol on the front, and some loose fitting blue jeans. She was a pretty girl as she grinned toward the applauding crowd.

After a few minutes of hearing the speech from the team’s coach, foreseeing a victory in the national competition in the spring, the crowd cheered again and then everyone went about talking and eating.

Ron gazed over at Kim and noticed her slight frown. “What’s wrong, KP?”

“She didn’t was given a chance to speak.”

George gave a lopsided grin. “She wasn’t the team captain, Kim. The coach represented the entire team, so he was given the honor to speak for them all.” He started heading toward one of the court’s food vendors. “I’m going to get something to eat.”

“Same here,” Ron followed his roommate, heading toward the Bueno Nacho vendor. “I better also get something for Rufus,” referring to his naked mole-rat friend left back in the dorm room.

Miss Possible followed the two boys, shaking her head at the man she loved with an amused expression. “You got one bottomless stomach, Ron. I wonder at times if there’s a black hole in there.” Monique and Felix chuckled and followed Kim. It was the simple truth that Ron was one of those people whose bodies could burn off calories without working out. Kim envied Ron this, given she has to workout to keep her figure, thus he could able to down greasy high-calories food while she kept with simple salads and low-calories foods.

After the five ordered their food, they gathered at a table near the railings to continue viewing the celebration down below. It wasn’t until 15 minutes later that something happened.

Debra was chatting with one of her teammates, when a boy approached her and began speaking with her. It was clear the boy was an athletic jock; given the sport jacket he wore indicating him as a member of the Upperton U’s baseball team. After just a minute or two, it was also clear that Debra was kindly trying to brush him off. Yet the boy was bold enough to do some sneaky maneuver to get her. He spoke up loud for everyone to hear.

“Everyone! Debra Tsuda here as agreed to go on a date with me!” Some of the boys’ friends were cheering, while everyone else was staring at him and the petite girl, wondering what was going on. Most of the food court was silent.

Debra gave a mock grin at the boy and placed her small hands on his shoulders. “Oh, yeah. I’ll go on a date with you,” she said as she backed him up against a table with some food items on it. “Like when Hell freezes over.” With lighting speed, she turned the boy around and pressed her right hand into his back to forced his head down into a bowl of potato salad. Everyone was stunned to see this.

As the jock raised his face, covered with potato salad, Miss Tsuda pointed at him. “Look, everyone, we have jock potato salad!” Everyone burst out laughing, causing the boy’s face to flush in embarrassment.

Smirking down at the mortified boy with crossed arms, the young gymnastic athlete spoke up again. “I like to thank everyone here for a wonderful time. I’m going to turn in early for the night. Good night all.” Everyone cheered as she walked away, with her coach and few other members of the team escorting her out.

“Boo-yah!” Ron raised a fist when he joined the crowd cheering Debra.

“You go, girl!” Monique screamed. “That’s how you deal with them!”

The other three just smiled fully and clapped.

Minutes later after the crowd stopped applauding, the five friends walked out of the student center, heading back to the boys’ dorm to continue studying where they left off.

The next morning, around 6:30 AM, Kim left her dorm building and headed toward the main athletic complex building. The building not only contained the gymnasium, but also the swimming pool, two exercise rooms containing weights and exercise equipment, basketball court, and a dojo.

After entering the building, she headed toward the dojo to do her usual martial arts workout. She entered the locker room and changed. Instead of a gi, she opted for tight workout pants and shirt. Sometimes Ron would workout with her, but not this morning for he had decided to sleep-in. In the past two years, their workouts had helped him strengthen his skills he had learned from Yamanouchi, the ninja school he had briefly attended in Japan. He still wasn’t in the same league as Kim, but he certainly was not the same pushover he was in high school anymore.

Approaching the dojo’s workout area, Kim could hear that someone else was here working out also. It was odd, given she knew hardly anyone would be here at this time of the morning. The university’s martial arts team don’t workout until later in the morning.

Standing in the doorway of the dojo, she saw the other person was performing the typical martial arts routines of parrying, blocking, jumping, etc., without a partner. Upon closer inspection, Kim noticed the person was a girl, and she too wore tight workout pants and shirt.

Yet when her face was clearly visible in the morning light shining through the windows, Kim was surprised to see it was Debra Oxford Tsuda. No longer was her hair in the tight bun she wore last night, for instead it was in a ponytail held up in a hair scrunchie at the back of her head. If it were totally loose, it would be long enough to almost reach the waist. The redhead was surprised to see the gymnastic star doing martial arts. Yet after a moment, she realized that if Debra could perform flawless gymnastic stunts, martial arts shouldn’t be that much different with some exceptions.

After Debra landed on her feet after doing a back flip with her back to Kim, she stood still and closed her eyes to relax. She then gave a grin before speaking out. “There’s plenty of room for you to workout.”

Kim blinked. There was no one else in the room other than she and Debra. It was obvious the athlete was talking to her. “How did you know I was here?” The doorway was partly blocked by a partition

Debra turned and pointed down. “Your shadow.”

Looking down, Kim found she was right. Her shadow, created by the corridor lights, was easily visible on the floor, for the dojo was still mostly dark with the exception of the growing sunshine through the tall windows on one wall.

Her lips turned into a small smirk, realizing that she was caught. She stepped into the room to allow Debra to see her. “I have to be more careful next time. If you were any of my arch enemies, I would be having a hard time now after being caught.”

It was now Debra’s turn to blink and looked surprised. Kim had enough experience to know that look, given her worldwide reputation.

“You’re Kim Possible,” Debra said.

“I see my reputation, once again, precedes me,” Kim said with a sigh and small grin as she approached Debra. Kim could see that the other girl was least two inches shorter than she.

Debra grinned. “It seems to be the case. Many people throughout the world have you to thank for your good deeds.”

“No big,” Kim dismissed with a wave. “I did what was right.” Then she smirked. “What about you? Your reputation precedes you.” At Debra’s questioning raised eyebrow, Kim clarified. “You’re Upperton U’s newest athletic hero. I watched you on TV last night. You’re an excellent acrobatic. Upperton’s girls gymnastic team haven’t won a competition against another school for five years until you came along. You’re quite famous now.”

The young girl rolled her eyes and smiled. “I didn’t join the gymnastic team to be famous.” She looked Kim in the eye with her blue eyes. “I join given it was a fun way to use my athletic skills. Besides, I have an athletic scholarship with Upperton, so I have to keep my end of the bargain if I want to stay in school.”

Kim nodded, for she certainly understood Debra’s reasons. Fame and fortune was not all it was crack up to be.

“So,” Kim feeling the need to change the subject, “this is your first year at Upperton?”

The younger girl nodded. “I’m a froshie, as they said all freshmen students are called. I graduated from Middleton High School.”

Kim’s eyes went wide at this. “You’re from Middleton? I certainly don’t recall seeing you at high school. I’m a junior-year student here.”

Debra sighed and gave a small smile, like she told this story many times before. “My family moved to Middleton near the end of my junior-year in high school. If you’re a junior-year student now, you wouldn’t have seen me at Middleton High, given you were here at Upperton.”

“That makes sense,” Kim said. “Did you join Middleton’s gymnastic team?”

“Yes,” Debra replied and smiled broadly. “I led the team to win the state’s gymnastic championship.”

“I thought you did,” Kim returned, smiling widely. “Just given how busy I was with studies here, I didn’t even heard or read anything last year regarding you.”

Debra shrugged. “No big. I don’t expect everyone to know me. As I said, I certainly didn’t do it to be famous anymore than you did as a member of Team Possible.”

Feeling bit uncomfortable, Debra indicated the workout mat, which she was standing on. “Are you going to workout?”

Kim nodded and moved around Debra to stand on the mat in front of her. “Yes. As you know, I’ve watched you working out, and you’re pretty good. You know martial arts?”

“Yes, I was taught by the best. My parents.” Debra gave a proud grin.

“Well, I sometimes workout with Ron, but he decided to sleep-in today.”

“Ron?”

Kim smiled with warm eyes. “Ron Stoppable.”

“Oh,” Debra realizing the name. “Ron Stoppable.” She gave a warm expression. “Your partner in Team Possible. Your best friend and love of your life.”

Kim rolled her eyes and frowned. “Does everyone in the world know about our love life?”

Debra softly laughed. “I certainly do not know what you and Ron do behind closed doors. That’s between you two. All I know is what the media mentioned two years ago about you two. Once you and Ron became ‘A couple’,” she quote with her fingers, “everyone went crazy. Stories were everywhere. The public just loves romantic stories, and the story of two teens, friends nearly forever, saving the world together, and finally found love together, was quite romantic.”

Kim gave an expression between a scowl and a smile. “Yeah, and Ron and I had became their latest craze at the time. We hardly sometimes have any privacy, especially during the summer before our first year at Upperton U.” Dismissing the memories of those times, Kim went into a fighting stance toward Debra with a challenging grin. “As I said, I sometimes workout with Ron, but he isn’t here. I could workout alone, but after seeing you, I could use a partner. Are you up to the challenge, Debra?”

Seeing the playful challenge, Debra first blinked before her face matched that of Kim’s. She bowed to Kim, as the Japanese would do toward an opponent, before crouching into a fighting stance. “I accept your challenge, Kim Possible.”

After a moment or so of eyeing each other, Kim started out with a punch, which Debra easily block. The two then went out at each other with various methods of kicks, throws, punches, etc. Kim at first held back her strongest moves, but when she found Debra was easily up to matching her, she decided to go full force. The two worked out powerfully without doing bodily harm.

Nearly an hour later, with several short breaks in between, the two young women were panting and sweating as they stopped and eyed each other. The sunshine through the windows now lighted up the entire room.

“I take back what I said about you earlier,” Kim said. “You’re not good. You’re great!”

“As you are, Kim,” Debra responded with a small grin. “Other than my parents, I haven’t had a good workout like this from anyone over nearly two years.”

Kim returned the grin as she walked off the mat toward the small water fountain on the side. Debra followed her. “I’m glad that I can help you there.” She drank some water before allowing Debra to do the same. She then took a towel from a nearby rack and tossed Debra one. “I say that’s enough of a workout for me for today.”

“Same here,” Debra agreed. “I wouldn’t mind working out with you in the future.”

“Same here,” Kim replied. “Ron is maybe good, but he’s not in our league.” She then gave a lopsided grin at the young girl. “Where did you learn this?”

Debra gave a bit of an annoyed grin. “I told you. My parents.”

“They have to be extremely good to have taught you such a level in martial arts.”

“Yes, they are,” Debra agreed with pride in her voice.

Then Kim’s mind, as she eyed Debra, began thinking. “Tsuda. Tsuda. It sounds familiar. Wait a minute! Tsuda!”

“Wait a minute!” Kim nearly shouted. “Tsuda! That’s Japanese, isn’t it?”

Debra grinned and then bowed and rose up again. /“You understand Japanese, Kim-san?”/

Realizing Debra had spoken in Japanese, Kim shook her head. “Sorry, Debra. I didn’t understand a word you said with exception of my name. Ron definitely would know, given he can understand and speak Japanese.” Kim’s green eyes stayed steady on Debra’s face.

Seeing Kim’s facial expression, Debra gave a knowing grin. “You’re wondering how I, being Caucasian, came upon having a Japanese family name, right?” She shrugged. “I’ve told this story so many times in the past two years that I think it would be best to just write it up and hand out copies whenever people ask me this question.”

“That might help,” Kim chuckled at Debra’s joke.

“Short story is this,” Debra began. “I was born American, but my godparents were Japanese. When I was two, my birth parents, visiting my godparents in Japan, died in an accident. After being granted custody, my godparents raised me. I spent most of my life in Japan, until we moved to Middleton.”

“Any brothers or sisters?” Kim asked.

Debra shook her head. “No, I was an only child.”

Kim was amazed. She knew that many Americans adopted children from the Far East, especially from Southeast Asia. This was the first time she heard of an American being raised in the Far East.

Debra again smiled that knowing grin. “I see I again amazed someone. I always get that astonished look whenever I told how I was raised.”

“I say,” Kim shook her mind back to reality. She eyed the clock on the wall. “Debra, would you like to have breakfast together at the student center? I have a morning class, but there’s time for a quick bite before hand.”

The younger woman blinked before smiling. “I would love to, Kim. I as well have an morning class.”

Smiling, Kim took Debra’s arm and led her out of the room to the locker room. “Come on. We better shower.”

“Hai! I don’t think everyone would appreciate us in the student center being all smelly.”

Chuckling, Kim said, “I don’t think so either.”

For Debra and Kim, they felt this was a start of a good friendship.

The End

After-story A/N: I’m not going to reveal everything regarding Debra’s personality and background in one story. That’ll take away the fun as I reveal more details in future stories and leave readers guessing. Besides, the series would be also about the other characters. Heck, I even have some ideas for the Tweebs to make an appearance or two.

:) (Smile) — Description
Story 2 of the Kim Possible: The University Years series.

Disclaimer: All Kim Possible characters are the copyright of Walt Disney Corporation. I’m just
borrowing them to write up a story with no intention of making any money. This is for fun. All other characters in my stories that Disney doesn’t own are mind.

A/N: First off, I want to thank everyone who had left me feedback on “Looking Back, Looking Forward”. They’re appreciated.

Second, since “Looking Back, Looking Forward”, my mind have been spurning with ideas for stories regarding Kim, Ron, and Company at Upperton U. It prompted me to list them together in a series I titled Kim Possible: The University Years. If you see this series title about the story title, you’ll know the story is part of the series. I’ve put together a character bible for the series, containing not only some of the familiar characters from the TV series but new characters as well. We all know that not everyone from Kim and Ron’s high school class would be attending UU, anymore than HS classmates in reality, so I made up new characters that would be Kim and Ron’s new rivals or friends at UU. One new character has already been mentioned in “Looking Back, Looking Forward”, and this story will introduce a couple more.

Story rating: Rated K+ (aka PG)
Written: May 2005

Summery: Kim meets Upperton U’s latest athletic heroine.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Kim Possible: The University Years

The New Kid on the Block
By JuPMod (aka JPMod)

Ron groaned. His eyes were reading Shakespeare, and he still couldn’t understand it anymore than he had in high school. His English professor had assigned the task of writing up a paper on any Shakespeare play regarding the play’s emotional content, story, etc. and its relationship to the real world. That paper was due just before the mid-term exams a few days from now in this month of October.

“Ron, it shouldn’t be that hard,” a female voice chided with amusement in her voice.

Rubbing his eyes, Ron closed the book. “Easy for you to say, KP. Shakespeare wasn’t one of my strong suits in high school, and it still is. Even ‘Romeo & Juliet’ is hard for me, despite seeing various movies about it.”

Sitting in one of the couches of the boys’ dorm lounge, which was on the first floor of the building next to one of the entrances, Kim Possible frowned over at her boyfriend Ron Stoppable, who was also sitting in the same couch. “Ron… You know we can work together on this. There are no rules saying students can’t study together. We’ve been down this road before.”

“Just checking to see whether my brain still can’t figure it out,” he joked with a smirk.

Kim slowly smirked herself and just move over until she was snuggling against his chest before turning up her Shakespeare book for Ron to follow her. He placed his hand comfortably on her shoulder as he turned to what she was reading.

“’Hamlet’?” the blonde man asked.

“Yep,” his redhead girlfriend replied. “Just follow what I point out and then write up your paper.”

A small chuckle was heard from the couch across from the couple. “Man, no matter how many times I’ve seen it, that play baffles me.”

Ron smiled at this. “George, I don’t think even you would understand ‘Hamlet’, anymore than me.”

George Castle, Ron’s dorm roommate, 19 years old, and a Sophomore-year student at Upperton U, just smiled wider. “Maybe I can copy off you when I become a Junior-student next year. In the meantime,” he held up his book on history of architecture, “I’m enjoying myself reading what I love to study.”

“Good for you,” Kim drolly said, eyeing the man with brown hair in a shoulder-blade length ponytail. “Now leave us alone.” Ron, George, and two others lightly laughed at her words.

Monique, Kim’s long time friend from Middleton high school, pointed to George from a side lounge chair. “You heard her, Castle. Back off.” With her other hand, the 20 year-old Junior-year student flipped her wavy shoulder-blade length black hair back. A nursing book was in her lap.

“Yep, when Kim Possible gives you a command, you better obey,” a male voice amused next to George. Felix Renton didn’t required to sit in a lounge chair; given his cyberrobotic wheelchair was quite comfortable. In his lap, the young man has a book on mechanical engineering.

The five students went back to their reading with Kim and Ron only speaking as they discuss ‘Hamlet’.

A few minutes later, the building’s entrance banged open as a group of students, maybe least ten or so of mostly boys with a few girls, rushed in. They crossed over to the wall-mounted TV set on the opposite side of the lounge from the studying students and turned it on. Soon the group was enthralled with what was being shown.

Ron, Felix, and George eyed each other, while Kim and Monique eyed the group of students. True, the TV set in the lounge was mostly on all day, but sometimes, with so many students out of the dorms, the set would catch a rare break. Yet this group of students seems excited, like something amazing was happening. All five then looked up at the TV to notice that they had putted on the university’s girls gymnastics competition that was currently being hosted by Upperton.

Ron, Kim, Monique, and Felix frowned while George just looked on with curiosity. They couldn’t understand why this group putted on the live-broadcast of the Upperton U’s girls gymnastics team’s competition with Denver University. Upperton’s team hasn’t won a team or solo competition event in years. No one would bother to watch, given they knew Upperton U would mostly lose. Yet, here was a group of students that looked that they knew Upperton U would win this year.

Still curious, George spoke up to the TV watchers. “You guys looked like Upperton U will be winning this year.”

A few of the group turned toward George with surprised expressions. “Where have you’ve been two weeks ago during the competition against Washington State?” a boy spoke. “We’ve cleaned their clocks!” The five studying students were shocked to hear this.

Monique, still with a shocked expression, asked, “Are you saying that Upperton University’s girls gymnastics team finally won a competition after a five year drought?”

“Yep!” the boy replied with a grin as he and the others turned back to the TV set. The boy pointed to the screen. “It’s all because of her.”

On the TV screen, they watched as a petite girl with brown/blonde hair in a tight bun walked over to the gymnastics mat, ready to do the floor exercise event. The screen showed her name as Debra Oxford Tsuda, and she amazingly performed acrobatic cartwheels, jumps, flips, etc. without a flaw. She landed perfectly on her feet upon completion of the floor exercise, a smile on her lips. A minute or two later, the judges’ scores gave her mostly 10s with two just above 9.5.

Kim whistled appreciatively. “She’s good.”

Ron smirked and hugged her. “Not as a good as my KP.”

She smirked as well. “Thanks for the complement, Ron.” Her expression turned to normal. “Yet, she looked like she can outperform me.”

Felix turned his head toward Kim. “Now that you’ve mentioned it, I’m curious, Kim. Why hadn’t you join the Middeton High School’s gymnastics team? During those two times I’ve went on your missions, I’ve seen your acrobatics. You’ve could have made a great gymnastics athlete.”

“Not me,” Kim responded, shaking her head. “I simply hadn’t wanted to be involved with any sports. Cheerleading for me was and still is more fun than sports.” Her sly expression returned. “The Tweebs are more interested in sports than me.”

Ron chuckled at this, recalling the time when Kim temporarily was coach for her twin brothers’ soccer team. She was a disaster much to the Tweebs’ horror.

One hour later, the competition was over and everyone in the lounge cheered as Upperton U won another gymnastics competition. Most of the solo competitions was won by Debra Oxford Tsuda as everyone knew she would, given the way she aced every gymnastic event.

As the group of students turned off the TV and began leaving the building, the boy that had spoken earlier approached the studying students. “Just to let you guys know. There’s going to be a small celebration at the main student center’s food court for the gymnastics team, say an hour from now. They were visiting Washington State last time, yet this is our first home competition victory. My girlfriend, being one of the gymnastics athletes other than Debra, told me this.” With that said, he left the lounge.

Kim immediately spoke up. “I want to go.”

“Same here,” Monique agreed.

Ron frowned. “Kim, we have studying to do.”

“I want to see her,” Kim countered. “Besides, we can study for one more hour, go to the celebration for an hour, and come back to study some more. We can use a break.”

Felix nodded his head. “I certainly could use a break an hour from now.”

After Ron smiled at Kim and agreed, the five returned to their studying.

An hour later, when it was around 8 PM, Ron, Kim, and their friends entered the main student center and went over toward the food court. The food court has two floors; one on the center’s first floor while the other was one floor down in the basement. A large open square provided those on the first floor’s court’s dining area a view down into the food court’s basement floor dining area. The celebration could be seen in the basement dining area, allowing people on the first floor to able to view down from around the railings of the square. Ron trailed Kim to the railings of the square as the others followed.

“I don’t see her,” Monique mentioned as she and the others scanned the crowd below.

“Wait,” Felix pointed toward a figure approaching the crowd from the side. “Here she comes.” Surely enough the crowd cheered as Debra and the other members of the girls’ gymnastics team. It was reasonable to presume the team must have entered the student center from the side entrance that was closest to the sidewalks leading from the athletic buildings.

Kim eyed Debra closely. Miss Tsuda didn’t look anymore than 17 or 18 years old. Her hair, still in that tight bun, was mostly brown with blonde patches. She wore a sweatshirt, which have Upperton U’s symbol on the front, and some loose fitting blue jeans. She was a pretty girl as she grinned toward the applauding crowd.

After a few minutes of hearing the speech from the team’s coach, foreseeing a victory in the national competition in the spring, the crowd cheered again and then everyone went about talking and eating.

Ron gazed over at Kim and noticed her slight frown. “What’s wrong, KP?”

“She didn’t was given a chance to speak.”

George gave a lopsided grin. “She wasn’t the team captain, Kim. The coach represented the entire team, so he was given the honor to speak for them all.” He started heading toward one of the court’s food vendors. “I’m going to get something to eat.”

“Same here,” Ron followed his roommate, heading toward the Bueno Nacho vendor. “I better also get something for Rufus,” referring to his naked mole-rat friend left back in the dorm room.

Miss Possible followed the two boys, shaking her head at the man she loved with an amused expression. “You got one bottomless stomach, Ron. I wonder at times if there’s a black hole in there.” Monique and Felix chuckled and followed Kim. It was the simple truth that Ron was one of those people whose bodies could burn off calories without working out. Kim envied Ron this, given she has to workout to keep her figure, thus he could able to down greasy high-calories food while she kept with simple salads and low-calories foods.

After the five ordered their food, they gathered at a table near the railings to continue viewing the celebration down below. It wasn’t until 15 minutes later that something happened.

Debra was chatting with one of her teammates, when a boy approached her and began speaking with her. It was clear the boy was an athletic jock; given the sport jacket he wore indicating him as a member of the Upperton U’s baseball team. After just a minute or two, it was also clear that Debra was kindly trying to brush him off. Yet the boy was bold enough to do some sneaky maneuver to get her. He spoke up loud for everyone to hear.

“Everyone! Debra Tsuda here as agreed to go on a date with me!” Some of the boys’ friends were cheering, while everyone else was staring at him and the petite girl, wondering what was going on. Most of the food court was silent.

Debra gave a mock grin at the boy and placed her small hands on his shoulders. “Oh, yeah. I’ll go on a date with you,” she said as she backed him up against a table with some food items on it. “Like when Hell freezes over.” With lighting speed, she turned the boy around and pressed her right hand into his back to forced his head down into a bowl of potato salad. Everyone was stunned to see this.

As the jock raised his face, covered with potato salad, Miss Tsuda pointed at him. “Look, everyone, we have jock potato salad!” Everyone burst out laughing, causing the boy’s face to flush in embarrassment.

Smirking down at the mortified boy with crossed arms, the young gymnastic athlete spoke up again. “I like to thank everyone here for a wonderful time. I’m going to turn in early for the night. Good night all.” Everyone cheered as she walked away, with her coach and few other members of the team escorting her out.

“Boo-yah!” Ron raised a fist when he joined the crowd cheering Debra.

“You go, girl!” Monique screamed. “That’s how you deal with them!”

The other three just smiled fully and clapped.

Minutes later after the crowd stopped applauding, the five friends walked out of the student center, heading back to the boys’ dorm to continue studying where they left off.

The next morning, around 6:30 AM, Kim left her dorm building and headed toward the main athletic complex building. The building not only contained the gymnasium, but also the swimming pool, two exercise rooms containing weights and exercise equipment, basketball court, and a dojo.

After entering the building, she headed toward the dojo to do her usual martial arts workout. She entered the locker room and changed. Instead of a gi, she opted for tight workout pants and shirt. Sometimes Ron would workout with her, but not this morning for he had decided to sleep-in. In the past two years, their workouts had helped him strengthen his skills he had learned from Yamanouchi, the ninja school he had briefly attended in Japan. He still wasn’t in the same league as Kim, but he certainly was not the same pushover he was in high school anymore.

Approaching the dojo’s workout area, Kim could hear that someone else was here working out also. It was odd, given she knew hardly anyone would be here at this time of the morning. The university’s martial arts team don’t workout until later in the morning.

Standing in the doorway of the dojo, she saw the other person was performing the typical martial arts routines of parrying, blocking, jumping, etc., without a partner. Upon closer inspection, Kim noticed the person was a girl, and she too wore tight workout pants and shirt.

Yet when her face was clearly visible in the morning light shining through the windows, Kim was surprised to see it was Debra Oxford Tsuda. No longer was her hair in the tight bun she wore last night, for instead it was in a ponytail held up in a hair scrunchie at the back of her head. If it were totally loose, it would be long enough to almost reach the waist. The redhead was surprised to see the gymnastic star doing martial arts. Yet after a moment, she realized that if Debra could perform flawless gymnastic stunts, martial arts shouldn’t be that much different with some exceptions.

After Debra landed on her feet after doing a back flip with her back to Kim, she stood still and closed her eyes to relax. She then gave a grin before speaking out. “There’s plenty of room for you to workout.”

Kim blinked. There was no one else in the room other than she and Debra. It was obvious the athlete was talking to her. “How did you know I was here?” The doorway was partly blocked by a partition

Debra turned and pointed down. “Your shadow.”

Looking down, Kim found she was right. Her shadow, created by the corridor lights, was easily visible on the floor, for the dojo was still mostly dark with the exception of the growing sunshine through the tall windows on one wall.

Her lips turned into a small smirk, realizing that she was caught. She stepped into the room to allow Debra to see her. “I have to be more careful next time. If you were any of my arch enemies, I would be having a hard time now after being caught.”

It was now Debra’s turn to blink and looked surprised. Kim had enough experience to know that look, given her worldwide reputation.

“You’re Kim Possible,” Debra said.

“I see my reputation, once again, precedes me,” Kim said with a sigh and small grin as she approached Debra. Kim could see that the other girl was least two inches shorter than she.

Debra grinned. “It seems to be the case. Many people throughout the world have you to thank for your good deeds.”

“No big,” Kim dismissed with a wave. “I did what was right.” Then she smirked. “What about you? Your reputation precedes you.” At Debra’s questioning raised eyebrow, Kim clarified. “You’re Upperton U’s newest athletic hero. I watched you on TV last night. You’re an excellent acrobatic. Upperton’s girls gymnastic team haven’t won a competition against another school for five years until you came along. You’re quite famous now.”

The young girl rolled her eyes and smiled. “I didn’t join the gymnastic team to be famous.” She looked Kim in the eye with her blue eyes. “I join given it was a fun way to use my athletic skills. Besides, I have an athletic scholarship with Upperton, so I have to keep my end of the bargain if I want to stay in school.”

Kim nodded, for she certainly understood Debra’s reasons. Fame and fortune was not all it was crack up to be.

“So,” Kim feeling the need to change the subject, “this is your first year at Upperton?”

The younger girl nodded. “I’m a froshie, as they said all freshmen students are called. I graduated from Middleton High School.”

Kim’s eyes went wide at this. “You’re from Middleton? I certainly don’t recall seeing you at high school. I’m a junior-year student here.”

Debra sighed and gave a small smile, like she told this story many times before. “My family moved to Middleton near the end of my junior-year in high school. If you’re a junior-year student now, you wouldn’t have seen me at Middleton High, given you were here at Upperton.”

“That makes sense,” Kim said. “Did you join Middleton’s gymnastic team?”

“Yes,” Debra replied and smiled broadly. “I led the team to win the state’s gymnastic championship.”

“I thought you did,” Kim returned, smiling widely. “Just given how busy I was with studies here, I didn’t even heard or read anything last year regarding you.”

Debra shrugged. “No big. I don’t expect everyone to know me. As I said, I certainly didn’t do it to be famous anymore than you did as a member of Team Possible.”

Feeling bit uncomfortable, Debra indicated the workout mat, which she was standing on. “Are you going to workout?”

Kim nodded and moved around Debra to stand on the mat in front of her. “Yes. As you know, I’ve watched you working out, and you’re pretty good. You know martial arts?”

“Yes, I was taught by the best. My parents.” Debra gave a proud grin.

“Well, I sometimes workout with Ron, but he decided to sleep-in today.”

“Ron?”

Kim smiled with warm eyes. “Ron Stoppable.”

“Oh,” Debra realizing the name. “Ron Stoppable.” She gave a warm expression. “Your partner in Team Possible. Your best friend and love of your life.”

Kim rolled her eyes and frowned. “Does everyone in the world know about our love life?”

Debra softly laughed. “I certainly do not know what you and Ron do behind closed doors. That’s between you two. All I know is what the media mentioned two years ago about you two. Once you and Ron became ‘A couple’,” she quote with her fingers, “everyone went crazy. Stories were everywhere. The public just loves romantic stories, and the story of two teens, friends nearly forever, saving the world together, and finally found love together, was quite romantic.”

Kim gave an expression between a scowl and a smile. “Yeah, and Ron and I had became their latest craze at the time. We hardly sometimes have any privacy, especially during the summer before our first year at Upperton U.” Dismissing the memories of those times, Kim went into a fighting stance toward Debra with a challenging grin. “As I said, I sometimes workout with Ron, but he isn’t here. I could workout alone, but after seeing you, I could use a partner. Are you up to the challenge, Debra?”

Seeing the playful challenge, Debra first blinked before her face matched that of Kim’s. She bowed to Kim, as the Japanese would do toward an opponent, before crouching into a fighting stance. “I accept your challenge, Kim Possible.”

After a moment or so of eyeing each other, Kim started out with a punch, which Debra easily block. The two then went out at each other with various methods of kicks, throws, punches, etc. Kim at first held back her strongest moves, but when she found Debra was easily up to matching her, she decided to go full force. The two worked out powerfully without doing bodily harm.

Nearly an hour later, with several short breaks in between, the two young women were panting and sweating as they stopped and eyed each other. The sunshine through the windows now lighted up the entire room.

“I take back what I said about you earlier,” Kim said. “You’re not good. You’re great!”

“As you are, Kim,” Debra responded with a small grin. “Other than my parents, I haven’t had a good workout like this from anyone over nearly two years.”

Kim returned the grin as she walked off the mat toward the small water fountain on the side. Debra followed her. “I’m glad that I can help you there.” She drank some water before allowing Debra to do the same. She then took a towel from a nearby rack and tossed Debra one. “I say that’s enough of a workout for me for today.”

“Same here,” Debra agreed. “I wouldn’t mind working out with you in the future.”

“Same here,” Kim replied. “Ron is maybe good, but he’s not in our league.” She then gave a lopsided grin at the young girl. “Where did you learn this?”

Debra gave a bit of an annoyed grin. “I told you. My parents.”

“They have to be extremely good to have taught you such a level in martial arts.”

“Yes, they are,” Debra agreed with pride in her voice.

Then Kim’s mind, as she eyed Debra, began thinking. “Tsuda. Tsuda. It sounds familiar. Wait a minute! Tsuda!”

“Wait a minute!” Kim nearly shouted. “Tsuda! That’s Japanese, isn’t it?”

Debra grinned and then bowed and rose up again. /“You understand Japanese, Kim-san?”/

Realizing Debra had spoken in Japanese, Kim shook her head. “Sorry, Debra. I didn’t understand a word you said with exception of my name. Ron definitely would know, given he can understand and speak Japanese.” Kim’s green eyes stayed steady on Debra’s face.

Seeing Kim’s facial expression, Debra gave a knowing grin. “You’re wondering how I, being Caucasian, came upon having a Japanese family name, right?” She shrugged. “I’ve told this story so many times in the past two years that I think it would be best to just write it up and hand out copies whenever people ask me this question.”

“That might help,” Kim chuckled at Debra’s joke.

“Short story is this,” Debra began. “I was born American, but my godparents were Japanese. When I was two, my birth parents, visiting my godparents in Japan, died in an accident. After being granted custody, my godparents raised me. I spent most of my life in Japan, until we moved to Middleton.”

“Any brothers or sisters?” Kim asked.

Debra shook her head. “No, I was an only child.”

Kim was amazed. She knew that many Americans adopted children from the Far East, especially from Southeast Asia. This was the first time she heard of an American being raised in the Far East.

Debra again smiled that knowing grin. “I see I again amazed someone. I always get that astonished look whenever I told how I was raised.”

“I say,” Kim shook her mind back to reality. She eyed the clock on the wall. “Debra, would you like to have breakfast together at the student center? I have a morning class, but there’s time for a quick bite before hand.”

The younger woman blinked before smiling. “I would love to, Kim. I as well have an morning class.”

Smiling, Kim took Debra’s arm and led her out of the room to the locker room. “Come on. We better shower.”

“Hai! I don’t think everyone would appreciate us in the student center being all smelly.”

Chuckling, Kim said, “I don’t think so either.”

For Debra and Kim, they felt this was a start of a good friendship.

The End

After-story A/N: I’m not going to reveal everything regarding Debra’s personality and background in one story. That’ll take away the fun as I reveal more details in future stories and leave readers guessing. Besides, the series would be also about the other characters. Heck, I even have some ideas for the Tweebs to make an appearance or two.