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Will Stronghold is a good kid. Ron recognizes that from the first moment he meets him. A good kid without any superpowers.
Oh, he doesn’t say anything, but Ron can recognize the signs. He’s been doing this a long time and he’s learned how to read these kids. He knows without being told which of the kids are powerful and which aren’t. He can see at a glance which kids are powerful and know it (aka most of the “Hero” class) and which kids are powerful and honestly don’t care (Will’s friend Layla fits into that camp). He can tell when kids with weak powers are overcompensating and when they’re content with whatever power they’ve got. The most obvious ones though are the ones like Will, the kids with a powerful parent who have no powers of their own. They’re more common than the Sky High staff want to admit. They say it only happens in less than 1% of cases. Ron knows it’s actually more like 5-10%. It’s just those kids… They have a habit of disappearing before it can really be discovered. The moment he meets him, Ron vows that Will Stronghold WILL NOT be one of the ones who disappears.
Those kids, the ones with no powers? They shine brighter than Will’s glow-in-the-dark friend. Which is ironic since they try so hard to blend in the shades. As if making themselves smaller will take away the shame that they carry everyday. They try to make up for being normal by making themselves even less. As if somehow being normal is a crime.
Ron gets it. Really, really gets it. He’s lived through it too after all. He well remembers the weight that comes from being normal in a world of superpowers. Of knowing that no matter what you do, or how hard you try, you’ll never be quite good enough. Never be quite what they wanted you to be.
No kid should ever have to bear that burden. Ron did and it almost killed him. It was a miracle that he made it to graduation. If it hadn’t been for the forcefield around the school’s floating island, he would likely have thrown himself off it.
That’s why Ron is so dedicated to his job as Sky High’s bus driver, and why he makes sure to take the time to introduce himself to the kids who are struggling the most with the burdens their parents are placing on their far too young shoulders. When the day comes that the weight of their parents' expectations and disappointments grows too heavy, Ron will be there to help carry the load. Even if all he does is offer a sympathetic ear, at least the kids will know they're not alone.
Given Will’s lack of power, it’s only a matter of time before he’s the one who’ll be drowning under the weight of others’ expectations. Truthfully, Ron suspects that he already is. He’s got that look about him. The look of one who knows that they will never be what their parents want them to be.
Not that the Commander and Jetstream are bad parents. Ron’s sure that they aren’t. But well, you can be a good parent and still not be what your kid needs. And what Will needs is for someone to love him for what he is right now, and not the potential of what he might become in the future.
So that’s why Ron gives Will his card. Not, as Will believes, because he’s a Commander fanboy. But because he intimately knows the burden that comes from not measuring up to expectations. Ron had to bear that burden alone. Will shouldn’t have to. And he won’t. Not if Ron Wilson, Bus Driver, has anything to say about it.