Disclaimer: Nope, not mine. If they were, I'd have all the seasons through Zeo out on DVD, easily available to buy.

Author's note: Well, I can't say this is the fic I expected to write right now, especially when I have a huge fic graveyard already that needs to be resurrected/finished and chapters on most of those stories written, just waiting to be edited and posted. However, when Panache started this challenge, I couldn't resist joining in. Interestingly, I wound up using Katherine as my base, kind of a surprise to me since usually I'd take one of the male rangers. Katherine's grown on me more and more, though, and I'm excited about exploring her character further.

Kisses and Videotape

Late afternoon, and everyone's ready to go home already and leave homework for another day. They have to press on, though, because she's managed to arrange with her father to borrow his special video camera from work for the day, but he needs it back tomorrow. Other students drift in and out of the house they've borrowed for the project, the one with a nice porch that can stand in for the balcony the scene they're taping requires. A couple of kids are in costume from previous scenes, a wanna-be filmmaker is trying to get the tripod set to capture the shot just right. Finally, he's satisfied and the action commences.

She's wearing her prom gown from last year; a bright pink satin she's accepted is just a little too bright for her complexion. This year's dress would probably be better, it's far more sophisticated, lighter, more suited to the scene they're shooting, but she stubbornly refuses to allow the chance of anyone from school seeing her in it before prom night. The other lead actor is standing across from her wearing a somewhat fancy, but artfully smudged shirt and black pants. She's not sure who made the costuming decisions, but as much effort as they've put into this assignment, it probably won't matter that she feels the costumes are all wrong, they'll still get an A.

The make-up she's wearing feels uncomfortably heavy on her face, and it's so warm out, she's beginning to perspire. She just wants to snap at the others to let her out of here, it's not like it's been a good day for her personally. The heat buzzes around her, making her more tired and irritable.

She wishes fervently it was Tommy standing across from her, ready to sweep her off her feet, but when she talked to him after school, he was making noises about writing to Kimberly again, just to finish things right. He never says as much, but she feels rejected nonetheless. So shooting a scene about finding true love is grating on her just a bit much.

"All right, Katherine, can you step in just a little? Good, yes, that looks more like Juliet. Hey, Romeo! Move in next to her." She's pulled out of her musings. Miss Applebee assigned everyone in the class a group for the final project. Then each group drew randomly for a scene in the Shakespeare play they read recently, and then each person drew randomly for either a male or female part in the scene. So here she is, unwilling Juliet, wondering how this is going to end.

She begins the lines where they left off, near the end of the scene, forcing herself to try to feel them. Maybe if she gets it right on the first try, she can go already. "Sweet, so would I: Yet I should kill thee with much cherishing. Good night, good night! Parting is such sweet sorrow that I shall say good night till it be morrow."

"Sleep dwell upon thine eyes peace in thy breast! – Would I were sleep and peace so sweet to rest! Hence will I to my ghostly father's cell, his help to crave and my dear hap to tell." He answers her, and she knows it's too late to change course now, not with everyone watching and the video camera recording her every movement.

So she does what she's been told to do at this point. She leans in softly and lets him embrace her. For just a minute, she feels better, like she can pretend it's Tommy that's holding her, that she's loved as thoroughly as the heroine she's portraying. Before she thinks, she reaches up, aching to connect to someone, and in an instant, her lips meet his. He stiffens, starting to push her away, and that's when she realizes he's all wrong; his scent isn't the sweet musky scent of Tommy, his face is not the one she's been envisioning. Her face burns with shame as he quickly succeeds in extricating himself.

"That was AWESOME!" Director kid, she thinks his name is Kevin, is enthusiastic. He's been campaigning for a 'real' kiss the whole time, maintains it's not in keeping with tradition and art to not have Romeo and Juliet kiss on the balcony. "We should have all the footage we need. I'll edit it, and Katherine, you said I could borrow your computer to burn it to DVD, right?"

She nods, not sure she can trust her voice. Another Shakespeare character comes to mind now, and she thinks the damn spot of this particular transgression might prove as difficult as Lady Macbeth's to remove. It's too late now, though. The kiss is done, and duly recorded. Now everyone in their English class is going to see it when they present the final project to the class. The kiss will look like more than just a silly staged kiss, because from her side, in her imagination, it was real. She can't believe she's done this.

There's no erasing the horrified expression on Adam Park's face from her mind when she kissed him. There's also no explaining the why of the whole thing. What can she really say? "I was lonely, I thought you were Tommy, being held felt wonderful, I needed someone?" Even though it's the truth, no one, least of all Tanya Sloane is going to believe her.

"Adam…" she winces.

"Geez, Kat, what was that?" He's angry, and it takes quite a bit to get Adam Park angry enough to develop that kind of tone in his voice.

She lowers her head in shame, her face bright red. "I…I didn't mean to." She finally finds the courage to face him full on. "It didn't mean…" She can't burst into tears with all these people milling around. She can't. She fingers the star necklace she always wears, trying to find the words to explain. "It wasn't you. Please believe me. Please."

His eyes go to her nervous fingers, and comprehension dawns as he notices whose Zeo symbol resides around her neck and makes the connection finally. "Yeah, okay." He rubs the back of his neck nervously. "Just…you know." His unspoken body language is a warning to her to back off, leave him alone, not go to near him for a long time.

When the day arrives to present the project, the videos roll along, one by one, everyone in the class enjoying and snickering at times at their classmates' acting efforts, costumes, and unlikely pairings. Katherine waits for what seems like an interminable length, but finally she sees the bright splash of pink on the screen and closes her eyes, breathing as deeply as she can muster. She knows Adam told Tanya, but that he told her more or less that it was just a quick thing to make the project look more real; a stage kiss. When Tanya sees the video, though, Katherine knows Tanya will know.

She doesn't know how Tanya will know, but Tanya will. Tanya knows Katherine too well. It won't take Tanya long to notice that Katherine's response to the embrace is spontaneous, and far too effusive.

She opens her eyes just in time to witness the final moments. Her cheeks burn. Of all the people to be picked as Romeo…and in her group, no less. She's not looking at her erstwhile Romeo, instead she's charting the reaction across the room. And by the way Tanya Sloane is grinding her teeth, she's seen the real feeling behind Katherine's gentle swoon and upward reach to kiss Adam. And she is not happy.

Tanya knew about the assignment, knew what parts her best friend and boyfriend were playing, and she definitely didn't expect this sort of betrayal. Katherine can't explain why she acquiesced to the kid acting as director, can't explain why she lost it, can't explain anything except that now her heart is doubly broken. The disgust with herself swirls in her mind.

After the bell rings, Katherine hastens across, to see if she can catch her friend on the way out and offer…something. Tanya brushes by her before any kind of damage control can be thought of, much less acted on.

All the rest of the day, she has virtually no opportunity to speak to Tanya. They're in the same gym class, and Katherine manages to maneuver herself onto the same team as Tanya, but any hope for a moment is immediately quashed when Tanya passes the ball much harder than necessary into Katherine's gut. She falls backward, winded, and she realizes that the time to talk to Tanya is not when there are easily throwable objects in reach.

Finally, at the end of school, she corners Tanya by Tanya's locker. "Tanya, I…" she begins. Tanya cuts her off.

"Tell me it didn't mean anything." It's a demand, not a question. "Adam already told me he doesn't like you. Like that." Tanya's eyes glisten slightly, her jaw set determinedly so it won't tremble.

And she gets it. Gets it in a way that she didn't before when she was coming up with countless explanations and ways to pour out her soul. Tanya doesn't want details. She wants reassurance. Stunned to muteness, Katherine shakes her head in answer.

"Okay." They're not really okay, it will take weeks before there's an easy closeness between them again, before Tanya really accepts that Adam isn't going to suddenly turn to Kat and that Kat isn't going to betray her further and feels terrible about the whole thing. It will be a long time before Tanya really forgives her. But Tanya's sending a message, that if they never speak of it or discuss it, it's as if it never happened, and Katherine is grateful to grasp at the hand that's been offered to her.

When the disc with the video returns to Katherine, she hurries home, into her father's study, and drops the disc into the specially designed shredder that's made to destroy discs with data on them. As the plastic turns into sparkling shards, she breathes a sigh of relief. After that, there's only one thing left to do. She carefully erases the computer files holding what's left of the project, ensures that the video doesn't remain on the camera, and smiles.

When Miss Applebee asks Katherine if she can have a copy, for her records, to use as an example, Katherine is able to only lie a little and tell the teacher that owing to an unfortunate "accident" with the computer, such a thing is impossible. She nods along when Miss Applebee exclaims about what a shame it is, and ducks out as fast as she can.

When she reaches the Youth Center, Rocky, Adam, Tanya, and Tommy are all sitting at the table waiting for her. Tanya gives her a smile, the first one in awhile. She smiles back, her face wiped clean of any emotion. After a little bit, it gets easier. Adam actually meets her eyes with a little less wariness, Rocky stops looking like a bomb's going to go off any second, and Tommy, who's largely clueless to the interplay between the others, manages to get her alone when everyone heads off their separate ways and asks her if she wants to "Uh, hang out…you know…sometime this weekend." Really, this is a good day. As she answers Tommy with a smile and says that would be nice, she finally consigns the misbegotten kiss to the corner of her mind where it won't come up again. After all, it seems like she'll get what she really wanted that day. What fool would ever speak of it again?

Man, I'm rustier than I thought. I almost forgot to cite my quote. The lines Katherine and Adam speak are from Shakespeare's "Romeo and Juliet", Act II, Scene II.