Disclaimer: Saban and Disney own the Power Rangers. Any additional characters that are used in this fanfic are fictional. All incidents are fictional. Any coincidences with real life are purely coincidental.
Author's note: my best friend brought this fanfic's idea to my attention. The question was, "What were the Rangers like as children and how did they meet?" I told him that I didn't know, but that it was an interesting idea for a fanfic. I put my imagination to work and though that this would be an interesting fanfic if... Well... Read for yourself. I wrote this fic a long time ago and I changed a few names in it.
Kid Games
By Tommy's Mistress
Chapter One: Nick
"Mom! What do you want me to do with these?" Jason said as he was carrying a big bin full of pictures.
"Put it in the dining room," Connie Scott said. "I am going to go through those."
"Right." Jason waddled into the dining room with the bin. He slammed it down on the floor due to the fact that it was so heavy. Upon doing that however, the bin opened and a bunch of pictures fell all over the floor.
"Jason Lee, did you drop the bin?"
"I was heavy, Mom. I am picking it up though." Jason was looking through the pictures as he picked them up. Connie came into the room with a whole bunch of photo albums.
"Jason-bear, look what happened? They're everywhere!"
"Mom, I am sorry and don't call me Jason-bear. If Zack and Tommy found out that you called me that, they would be calling me that for the trip back to college." Jason was continuing to look through the pictures. Connie wanted to organize the pictures that she had and when she was done with an album about Jason, she was going to let Jason take it with him when he went back to go to school.
"How many albums are you making, Mom?" Jason said as he grabbed a whole bunch of pictures and threw them back in. Just as he did that, the doorbell rang. Jason got up and opened the door. It was Zack. "Hey, bro. What's up?"
"I was just coming by with the CD I borrowed," Zack said. "Whoa! What is all that mess in your dining room?"
"My mom is making photo albums and I am 'helping' her."
"You mean she is making you, huh?"
"I heard that, Zachary," Connie said in a stern tone.
"Afternoon, Connie," Zack said with the nervous smile. She looked at him with an angry look, but then smiled. "Jase, are you ready to go back to college?"
"Yeah, but Mom is going to be making an album before I go back. She saw some old pictures and is now in an album making frenzy."
"Jason, you were so cute when you were little, honey," Connie said and Zack started to laugh.
"Shut up, Zack!"
"Oh, look! Here is one of you when you were about six years old with the group of kids on our old block." Connie motioned the two ex-Rangers to come over and look. "See, there were the five of you when you were little and another friend from next to us on that block."
"Hey that was me when I was little," Zack said as he looked at the picture. On the photo, there were six children posing at the camera. One of the children was an African-American boy hugging the tallest boy in the picture who was apparently Jason. There were two girls. One had short brown hair and was the smallest of the six. The other girl was Asian with shoulder length black hair. The other two were boys; one had a blond hair and big glasses. The other boy was the smallest of the four boys and had very short dark brown hair. "This was when you lived and all of us lived on that street. Jason, why did all of us move anyway?"
"It was because of the neighbors next door," Connie said. "They were nasty people, Zack. Don't you remember? We all moved because of them."
"Why?" Zack and Jason said.
"Well..."
"Jason Lee Scott, look at you!" Connie yelled. Connie had come out to find that her six-year-old son and a six-year-old Zack in a mud puddle in front of their house and that his clothes were covered in dark brown liquid mud. "Zack, your mom is going to have a tizzy fit. Get in here, the both of you!"
Jason and Zack took off their shoes and socks at the door. She directed them to their bathrooms and told them to wash off the mud and to get into clean clothes that she would bring them. After she brought new clothes to them, she called Cindy Taylor, Zack's mom.
"Cindy, it's Connie," Connie said. "Your son is in our bathroom cleaning off mud."
"What happened?" Cindy asked. "Was he playing in that big mud puddle in front of your house?"
"Yes, and he dragged my son also into the mud along with him."
"Oh lord! I'll be right over." The Taylors lived right across the street from the Scotts. Cindy went right over and Connie met her at the door. "Where is my naughty son?"
"Here." Connie directed them to the bathroom that Zack was in. She knocked on the door. Zack opened the door slowly. He knew he was in trouble. He was in one of Jason's red shirts and blue shorts and his hair was still wet from the shower.
"Zachary, what were you doing?" Cindy asked him sternly as she put her hands on her hips. Zack cowered behind the door. "Zack!"
"I...was playing in the mud," Zack said quietly. "We were looking for this lizard that we found and it went into the puddle. So, we jumped in after it." Cindy looked at Connie and started to laugh.
"Zack, don't do that again. You will ruin your clothes that way, honey." Connie handed Cindy Zack's muddy clothes in a plastic bag. "Now, go play with Jason and don't play in the mud!" Zack ran to Jason's room where he found Jason sitting on his bed sulking. The two decided that they would play in Jason's room to stay out of trouble. Just then, they heard a big truck driving up.
"What's that, Zack?" Jason asked.
"Dunno," Zack said. The two looked out of Jason's window. It was a big moving truck and it was stopping right next door to Jason's house. "Wow! Someone is moving into that house. Wonder if there are kids like us moving in?"
"Let's go see!" The two boys ran out of the house and to the house next door that the new neighbors were moving into. In the car behind the moving, there was a family with two little boys and one older girl. One boy looked to be about seven or eight and the other boy looked like about the same age as Jason and Zack. The girl looked to be about ten or eleven.
"Cool, there are two boys!" Jason said.
"And a girl," Zack said, "but she looks older than they are. Maybe Kim will play with her instead of us."
"Yeah! All Kim wants to play is dolls and house."
The family parked along the sidewalk and got out. The man was tall with black greasy hair, but had a small beer belly. The woman had big bushy blonde hair with all sorts of jewelry hanging of her fingers, arms and ears. The girl was in dirty orange T-shirt and some blue jeans. She had very pretty short curly red hair and blue eyes. The older boy had blond hair and in what looked like to be a brand-new green T-shirt and new jean pants. The youngest boy had dark brown hair and was wearing the same kind of clothes as the older boy, but they looked very worn out.
"Looks like the small boy is getting the other boys clothes when he is done with them, Jason," Zack whispered into his ear.
"I know," Jason said. "Kind of like you and me. You are borrowing my clothes." Zack pushed Jason with a smile on his face. At that moment, the youngest boy looked at Jason and Zack. He was looking at them with a melancholy look on his face. The boy's eyes were a carmel brown and they looked as if his happiness was gone from them.
"Well, Jason, Zack, why don't you meet the two boys while I talk to the parents," Connie said as she pushed them toward the new neighbors. Jason and Zack began to walk up to the two boys. The older one was picking up and throwing rocks back into the rock bed of their new house and the younger one was watching him.
"Hi, I'm Jason," Jason said to the two boys, "and this is Zack."
"Hi!" Zack said.
"Hello, my name is James and this little shrimp is Nick." the older boy said. Sure enough, Nick was small. He was shorter than Zack by about three inches. Jason was an inch taller than Zack, which made Jason four inches taller than Nick. "We just moved from San Jose."
"James! Nick! Get into the house!" the mother said.
"See you both later," James said, grabbed Nick by the hand and went inside. Nick looked back Jason and Zack. Nick looked at them not saying a word, but had an expression of sadness still on his face.
