Kimberly should not have been having fun. She was supposed to be up in her dorm room, sulking. She was supposed to be miserable. She could have at least been attempting to study.
Was she? No, she was making a fool of herself. As were four other unfortunate souls, while they tipsily chorused, "I'll tell you what I want, what I really, really want!" She'd been hoping for a less vocal portion of the band, but was forced into doing the second lead.
"If you really bug me then I'll say good bye."
She locked eyes with a boy across the room. She'd spied Jason and was going to try and convey a plea for help, but had gotten distracted. The beer in her system was dulling her ability to multitask as she took in her friend's companion.
He smirked at her as she shimmied, her new focus being keeping his attention. "If you wanna be lover, you gotta get with my friends."
He was laughing into his cup. She could see his dark eyes following her. "Slam your body down and wind it all around!"
He responded to something Jason had said, and gestured to her. He shrugged and surveyed the room lazily before his eyes fell on her, again. She felt her lips curl in a smirk as his gaze followed her body.
"If you wannabe my lover!"
She jumped off the impromptu stage, a rather large table that the fraternity had had the fore sight to tarp. She laughed with the other girls, Aisha and her cousin in fits as they quickly began breaking down her sudden enthusiasm as "Ginger Spice." She scoffed and stole a bottle from a heavily laden passerby.
"Hey!"
"You don't have that many friends, Rocky." He attempted to flip her off but stopped short when he caught Aisha's bemused gaze. "You remember Aisha."
He passed the girl a bottle without a word and shoved Kimberly out of the threesome. She blinked in surprise, not entirely sure what had transpired. Figuring it was for the best, considering her own friends crush on the rude boy, she took a healthy pull of her pilfered beer.
"Yo, Brat!" She nearly choked on her drink as she was yanked through the crowd. "Meet my new house mate."
She punched Jason as she coughed. "Jerk. Don't go around manhandling me."
He rolled his eyes and tossed a lazy arm over her shoulders, steering her in front of the long haired boy. Rather, man. She stiffened, and not because she was still uncomfortable with Jason's insistent easy approach to their post break-up friendship.
"I know him."
He smirked and tipped his cup her way in salute. Jason had been distracted by Trini as she played Ping Pong behind them. When he finally remembered what he had originally been doing, he was none the wiser to the tension between the two.
"Tommy, meet Kimberly." Jason squeezed her shoulder to try and get her more enthused. "Quite a performance you were giving him, huh? Play nice."
And with that, he shoved her Tommy's way and waded toward the Ping Pong table. Tommy steadied her as she was knocked by the party goers and huffed. He downed more of his drink and looked her way again.
"Listen, about that grade-."
She glared at him as she shoved his hand off her upper arm. "Yeah, following directions, blah blah blah." She guffawed before taking a drink and continuing, "it was a fair grade, blah, blah, blah. I'm pretty, dammit! Who needs fair grades when I'm just gonna end up with an MRS degree."
He scowled and grabbed a drink from a passerby, like she had. She raised a brow and he simply shrugged, finished his old one before sampling the new. She stuffed her free hand in her back pocket to keep from adjusting his glasses.
"I'm a TA. I have to grade the way the professor says to." He sighed and finally straightened his specks, much to her relief. "And you aren't going to get married right after you graduate. You're too smart for that."
"Does Jason know he's housing with the devil?" He gave her a bored look and she shrugged, exaggerating a a curious pout. "I'm just curious. You're rather evil."
"So I've been told. Not just by you." His tone was biting as he leaned against the wall behind him. "You aren't special, Kimberly."
She rolled her eyes and turned away from him. "You know what? Screw you. You don't know me."
She didn't even get to start shoving her way through the party before he gripped her wrist and pulled her back. "You know what? I do." She raised her eyebrows, signalling him to continue. "You're the girl who was cheer captain, and an honour student. You gave it up to your high school sweetheart and made a pact to be together forever. Then you got to college and realised the world was bigger than Angel Grove High. So, you ditched him and now you're miserable cause the world is even bigger than you thought and it doesn't care."
"He held on too loosely and I grew out of the Quarterback day dream." She attempted to twist out of his grip but it wasn't working. "Hey, look, I'm over the grade. All right? Now, can I go enjoy the party and forget that the big bad world doesn't give a shit about the ex-cheer captain?"
He must have seen something in her falsely sweet tone. She felt his fingers slip from her wrist and she threw herself into the sea of bodies. She quickly found a compliant dance partner in a fraternity guy. She tried not to steal glances at the TA. Tried to pretend she didn't exaggerate her movements when she caught him eyeing her.
"He didn't dance once." The blonde girl, Cat, groused at Tanya. "He just stood there, staring off into space."
"Ah, no." Aisha winked at Kim and turned to set her cousins friend straight. "He was staring down my girl, like the grumpy creep he is. She finally had the guts to tell him off for being biased with his grading tactics."
The Australian girl's mouth popped open in shock. "He's not biased! He's fair."
Kim huffed and stabbed her salad with her fork. "He can be as fair as the day is long, but the woman he grades for isn't. He could say something, anything, and he doesn't. No spine."
"I'm actually told I have a rather a good stature." She bristled at the voice behind her and only relaxed when Cat let out a squeak as a greeting. "Hello, ladies. Kimberly."
She shifted in her seat to look at him and raised an eyebrow. "Oliver." He nodded and gestured lamely toward her salad. "We're having lunch. Won't you join us."
He appeared to deflate at her bland, yet mocking tone. "As much as I enjoy having my physique compared to that of a jelly fish, I don't think so. I have a bit of self confidence left. Think I'll hold onto if for our next meeting."
She laughed, in spite of herself. "I, uh, didn't compare you to a jelly fish."
"You were getting there." She nodded with a shrug. "See? I know you better than you think."
She laughed, again and waved him off. She turned back to her companions and was brightened even more at Cat's wide eyes. Aisha nudged her and wiggled her brow suggestively.
"Oh, Cat." Tanya pat her friends slumped shoulder. "He's not that cute, anyway."
"Yes he is." Aisha rolled her eyes at her cousins angry rebuttal. "Doesn't do any good to lie to her. Maybe he just prefers brunettes."
"Oh, yeah! I heard about a ski instructor." Kimberly took a bite of salad and chewed thoughtfully. "I mean, when Jason and Billy told me about it, I didn't know it was him. Still, she was brunette."
Cat sagged a bit more but perked up at an almost alarming rate. "Billy? As in, Billy Cranston?" She got a calculating glint in her eyes as she leaned in eagerly. "How does he feel about blondes?"
"Well, I know he likes his woman foreign." She took another contemplative bite. "His last girlfriend was from France. I think he likes the challenge of a language barrier."
She snorted and started rattling off some gibberish. "Yup. That'll do it." She paused and eyed the girl. "Wait, what?"
Cat just laughed, a smirk of her own playing on her lips.
Kimberly sat, sullen and prepared for the worst, as Professor Zedd prattled on about the pathetic nature of the exams she'd graded. Even, though, she hadn't. Tommy was cutting her glances at random intervals. He taken to leaning against the desk at the front, nothing better to do, having handed the stack off to the Professor what felt like ages ago.
"So, since I love seeing your dreams shatter in real time." She snapped her fingers and began the ritual. "Anderson."
Kim tried to ignore the way she would sneer, then ogle the male students as they got their exams. She heaved herself up and took on an air of nonchalance as she made her way down. The two had a small stare down before she ripped her exam from the wretched woman's claw like fingers.
"A fluke. You got lucky." Her eyes widened and her heart pounded in her ears, making it nearly impossible to hear anything else. "Doubtful it'll happen, again."
She was numb as she walked back to her seat. As if on auto pilot, she grabbed her things and simply walked out. She was half way down the hall when Tommy's voice finally reached her as it echoed down through the corridor.
"Oh, yeah." She turned, the smile on her face painfully wide. "What's up?"
He pointed over his shoulder, bewilderment written all over his handsome face. "You walked out. You've been to every class, without fail. Now you get the best grade you've ever gotten in there and you walk out?"
She nodded, confused at his concern. "Clearly, its a miracle. A sign!" She tapped the packet, holding it up for him to see. "Devine intervention, even."
"How?" He pinched the bridge of his nose, his usually tame ponytail in disarray from chasing her down.
She hummed and shoved the test in her bag. "I achieved the impossible: received an honest to God acceptable grade in Professor Rita "Repulsa" Zedd's class while in the possession of a vagina. I can't get anything better. I'm going to cut my losses and call it quits while I'm a head."
He laughed, an airy sound. "Aim higher, Hart. I think you can get there."
Her lips flattened into a thin line as she shook her head. "Yeah, I really don't think so. I've basically made history here." She heaved a relieved sighed and gave his arm a friendly cuff. "See you around, Oliver."
He gripped her hand before she could pull away. "Aim higher, Kimberly." With a swift tug, she was falling into him. "Mostly cause, this is my last term as her TA and I really don't think I could make it if I couldn't see you every other Tuesday."
She didn't have time to blink before his lips descended on hers. She felt her eyes close as time slowed. Her heartbeat sounded in her ears, again, and she sighed contentedly.
"Get it, girl."
"You're incorrigible, Aish." Kim fell back on to her heels and whipped around so fast she heard him grunt when her hair hit his face. "Oh, Kim. The TA? Just study, yeah?"
"Shut up, Trini."
A/N: I havent written anything for Power Rangers in a while. I was feeling nostalgic. They are my original OTP,after all. This may not stay a one-shot.
Saban owns all the things.
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