"Buy it now!" The slogan on the tv influenced. Who wants to buy a 'special' coat hanger anyway. I ran my fingers through my greasy black hair and focused on the math problem in front of me. I made a quick glance at the clock, it was only 4:20, I had time. I looked up and glazed my eyes over watching the latest episode of Ninjetti ninjas. Before I knew it, a smash was heard downstairs.

"Crap!" I said under my breath as I turned the tv off and ran to the kitchen, my dad met me there.

"Where have you been! Shouldn't you be making dinner? Gosh, just because you are 14 doesn't give you the right to disobey orders!" he boomed, slapping me across the face. My cheek stung, but I didn't dare raise my hand. Lucky that I didn't a soft, muffled, melody played behind me. He swung around.

"What was that?" he asked sternly. I yanked my shirt down further.

"Nothing,sir." I said, my eyes averting his gaze. He ran up, grabbed my shirt, and threw me to the ground. This time, the pain was severe, I cringed. The melody played again. My father punched me again, the nose twice! Everything went black, for a second at least. The pain brought me back into consciousness. I knew my nose wasn't broken, I had been in that situation before. I didn't open my eyes till I knew my dad was gone. Then I quietly rushed upstairs to the bathroom. I tore off my bloody shirt and cringed at the image in the mirror. A usually strong 14 year old boy, arms scrawny and bruised. Chest heaving with every breath. I quickly put on another shirt and wiped as much blood off my face as I could, then I took the morpher and teleported to the command center.

"Ay ay ay! Adam we were worried!" Alpha five said, rushing to my side.

"Adam, are you ok?" Zordon asked, like a real father would. I shook my head yes, sending my vision spiraling. Alpha helped me over to a table and did a quick medscan on me. "do you want me to tell the others, get you out of there?" he asked. I shook my head no. I knew it wasn't my dad's fault, I was the one who told him things I shouldn't have.

"Why did you call me here?" I asked, trying to hide the exhaustion in my voice.

"oh, yes...there are putties at the park." he said. "are you up to it." I jumped up from the table and pulled the morpher to my mouth.

"It's morphin time!" I teleported in black ranger attire to the park, just in time to kick a putty off of tommy. One was ok, but when you have three on your back.

"Thanks, where have you been?" He asked, a worried tone in his voice, I blushed.

"Er, just didn't hear my morpher." I said, thanking that they couldn't see me through my helmet. We kicked and punched and flipped the putties till they were all gone.

"Hey, who wants shakes?" Kat asked, everybody cheered. We teleported, un-morphed of course, to right outside the angel grove rec center. We picked a table and I kept my head down, but that didn't keep away curious eyes.

"Oh my gosh, Adam! What happened to your face?" Tanya asked. Everybody looked at my bruised nose. I tried to laugh it up.

"Gosh, what a subtle way to point out ugly!" I laughed. Tommy looked serious.

"Seriously man, did you get in a fight or something?" He asked, I started to blush but I decided to go with my planned excuse.

"Ok, so I didn't answer because I was cleaning myself off. The Ninjetti ninja show was coming on and I didn't want to miss the beginning, and I kinda fell on the steps and killed my nose." I answered, looking bashful. Rocky laughed.

"For a power ranger, you're pretty clumsy." the others laughed with him, but I knew that Tommy didn't believe them. We ate and joked and I started to reluctantly head home.

"Hey, Adam!" I heard a familiar voice call behind me. I turned and saw Tommy running up to me. "Wanna walk? I'm not real comfortable walking home alone." he said, although I knew that he felt fine, it was for my benefit. We were silent for a moment, being next to Tommy was enough to make me happy, for a little while at least. "ok, so whats going on, you are a karate kid, and you are always falling and tripping, there is no way that you're actually telling the truth." Tommy said, breaking the silence. I wanted to tell him the truth, but it wouldn't make sense unless he knew everything, which would be too weird. I couldn't keep lying, but I guess I had to.

"There were clothes and stuff on the stairs, and I slipped, really, no problemo." I said, accenting my Spanish accent on the 'problemo'. He shrugged and we walked further down. I looked down the street,noticing the darkness.

"Crap, I really gotta run! Bye!" I said, dashing forward. I left Tommy to figure out what just happened.

"Hey, wait up!" He called, racing closer. I knew I could run faster than him and I ran straight into the house, my father waited for me, slapping me and throwing me to the stairs, my back buckled as it hit the staircase. I knew to stay quiet.

"Where the F*** have you been! Racing off to see your 'friends' instead of making me dinner?! Unacceptable!" he said, throwing another slap to the cheek. He slapped me a few more times, uttering terrible words. When he finally stopped and walked to the living room again I didn't dare move. I wasn't sure if he would come back, I never knew. Once I knew he was safely gone I crawled up the stairs and scooched to my bedroom, my back sending convulsions of pain through my body. I crawled into bed and put out my morpher. Zordon spoke first.

"Adam, is everything ok? Are you all right?" he asked. I still had the wind knocked out of me. But I kept my ground.

"Not really, but I don't think i'll be able to go in tomorrow,I'm in pretty bad shape. Tell the others that I'm...sick with...a cold?" I said, pressing an ice pack under my back.

"If thats-"

"No! Adam you're hurt! We need to get you out of there!" Alpha 5 said surely.

"No, Alpha, this is Adams decision. Not ours." Zordon countered. I adjusted the ice pack, my eyes drooping. "Get some sleep, we'll keep the secret." I closed my eyes and drifted into a painless sleep