Hello, Everyone! Welcome to my newest story! This beauty has been a long time coming, something I'm rather disappointed about as I love it very much! I hope you all enjoy and that you will review!

Chapter One

The Singing Artist

Tommy Oliver was just leaving school to meet his friends at the Youth Center when he heard someone singing. It was a girl's voice, and he didn't recognize the song, so he decided to go investigate.

He approached the music room, where the sounds were coming from, quietly so as not to disturb the singer. She wasn't singing very loudly, so it was only then that he could clearly hear the words.

The song was sad, and seemed to speak of a person in great pain. He peered around the door to see a girl sitting by the window with a sketch pad on her lap, drawing while she sang.

Finally, the song ended and Tommy stepped forward into the doorway. "That was very nice." The girl started and dropped her pad and pencil box, scattering colored pencils across the floor. Apologizing quickly, Tommy moved forward to help gather the stray pencils.

He got distracted when he saw the drawings in the pad. "These are really good," he told her, picking up the pad and flipping through the drawings. At first, they were mostly pictures of flowers and buildings, then people began appearing and he saw several pages of just certain parts of people like ears, noses, eyes and hands. He had just flipped past a page filled with nothing but different kinds of mouths, when he froze. Staring up at him from the paper was the green Power Ranger. The Dragon Flute was raised to his lips, and the silhouette of the Dragon Zord could be seen lightly sketched in the background.

The pad suddenly disappeared from his hands, and he blinked up at the girl who'd snatched it away. "Sorry," he said quickly, standing up and adjusting his backpack on his shoulder. "Those are really good. Have you drawn any of the other Rangers?"

The girl shook her head. Tommy took a moment to study her. She had slightly wavy, jet black hair that hung down around her elbows like a curtain. Her skin was slightly olive toned, and she wore a black hoodie and jeans with worn-looking Converse high-tops. He couldn't see her face very well, because her hair was hanging around it, and she was deliberately hiding behind it.

He held out his hand to help her up, but she didn't take it. Instead, she stood easily and flipped the pad closed, hugging it to her chest. "My name's Tommy," he said gently. "What's yours?"

"Alexa." The reply was so quiet, he could barely hear her.

"Alexa," he repeated, smiling. "What a nice name. I'm sorry I made you drop your things. Listen, I'm meeting my friends at the Youth Center to hang out. Would you like to join us?"

"I don't know," she replied, only slightly louder than before.

"Please? To make up for scaring you."

Finally, she nodded slowly. Tommy smiled. "Great. Come on!" He couldn't wait for her to meet his friends.

The Youth Center was buzzing with kids engaged in various activities. Tommy spotted Billy sitting at a table doing homework, and headed in his direction. Alexa was following in his wake, clearly not comfortable with all the people.

Billy looked up as Tommy approached. "Hey, Tommy. Who's your friend?"

Tommy shifted to the side so Alexa was a bit more visible. "This is Alexa. Alexa, this is my friend Billy."

"Hi," she said quietly.

"Nice to meet you," Billy replied. "Tommy, the guys were looking for you. They were hoping we could all get in some sparing."

"Right," he turned to Alexa. "You mind hanging out here for a bit? We like to get in a bit of sparring before we do our homework."

Alexa shook her head. "I'll be alright." She sat down at Billy's table and pulled out her sketch pad. Tommy nodded and headed down to join the other guys on the mats for some sparing.

Billy watched Alexa surrepticiously while he worked. He could tell there was something up with her, but she was doing a pretty good job of hiding it. She just sat, glancing up at the action on the mats every few moments, and drawing in her sketch pad.

When Tommy finally came back, she quickly put the pad away. "I need to go," she said, standing quickly. "I shouldn't've stayed so long. My parents will be wondering where I am."

This time, Billy was certain something was wrong. The way she'd said 'my parents' sent up little red flags in his head.

"At least let us introduce ourselves," Jason said, approaching from the floor. "I'm Jason."

"Alexa," she said quietly. She was fidgeting, so Jason quickly moved to introduce the others.

"This is Zach," the dark-skinned, black-clad teenager waved, "Trini," the asian girl in yellow lifted her hand in greeting, "and Kimberly." The brown-haired girl in pink had just come from the balance beam and was now standing next to Tommy.

"Hey! It's nice to meet you," she said, smiling at Alexa.

"It's very nice to meet you all, but I really need to go." She turned to leave, but Tommy hurried after her.

"But you just got here. Can I at least walk you home?"

She shook her head quickly. "Thank you, but I have to go." She turned quickly and left before anyone could say anything else.

"That was weird," Zack commented before shrugging and turning to the bar to get something to drink.

"That was strange," Jason agreed, "but something seemed off."

"I agree," Billy confirmed. "She was acting a bit odd since she arrived."

"And what was with her leaving like that?" Trini asked.

"Something's not right," Tommy agreed.

"Let's invite her to sit with us at lunch tomorrow," Kim suggested.

"Great idea," Jason said. "Come on, we've all got work to do."