The Wounded Hart
Summary – Kimberly's goal was to get to the Olympics and she would do anything to get there; even if it meant jeopardizing her life.
Kimberly Hart smiled a flashes of photography went off in her face.
She's won another gymnastics competition. One of the hardest yet. All of the other girls were so good. And while Kimberly didn't really get nervous, she felt the butterflies moving through her stomach as she waited for her events to start. An all-day gymnastics competition and she only participated in three events; floor, balance beam, and the parallel bars. The ones that tore up her hands, injured her ankles, and worked her body in ways no one could understand was difficult.
Even more so than monster fights. But when she was practicing her gymnastics she felt like she was flying, like nothing could touch her. She was strong and nothing was going to keep her from going as far as she could go. With another win under her belt, she was one step closer to her goal of making it to the Olympics. In the back of her mind, she wondered if she could even get so far, when there were so many other things to worry about.
She was getting up there in age, already a little older than those that were getting their start in the highest tier of gymnastics. Then there was school and the rest of her life. With the hours she put into gymnastics before becoming a ranger, how would she keep it all together? Classes, homework, ranger duties, the long long hours of practice, being a friend, being a daughter, being a part of the Angel Grove community…?
She couldn't keep up.
So something had to do.
She dropped all of her extracurriculars, went to ranger battle as often as she could though the others worked to pick up her slack, did her homework whenever she could, caught up on sleep in study hall and other classes and…stopped eating.
She needed to be lean, lighter, able to fly higher and eating was just slowing her down. The sooner she made it, the sooner she could start up again. And it wasn't like she completely gave it up, she had a protein bar every morning and every night. And a few snacks here and there. But it was working. She was making her way…
Kimberly shifted the flowers that rested in her arm then frowned. They felt like they weighed a million pounds in her arms, slowly dragging her down. She felt her legs start to give out beneath her, her knees wobbling and quaking more than it had the day Zordon and Alpha took her and her friends out to the Command Center for the first time.
A low sound slipped from Kimberly's lips as she brought a hand up to her forehead. Seconds before she moved it to catch herself as she slowly, very slowly, sank to the floor. She blacked out before hitting the ground.
A/N: I've done this plot, Kim having an eating disorder, in my Avalon series but it comes more in depth here. This story, like I'm Home, focuses more on Kim and Tommy, but there will also be a good balance of showing Kim's relationships with all of her friends, too. I hope you guys like it.
~Av