Three Flames – Chapter 1: New Beginnings
Warnings/Author's Note: First off, this is slightly AU. Basically none of the original rangers left the show, and the show continued to progress to Ninjazords. Sorry to fans of the second batch of rangers (Rocky, Aisha, and Adam) but I don't write or read fanfiction that features characters that share names with my kids, and my youngest's name is Adam. Second, this story features an attempted sexual assault as a major plot point. If this is a trigger for you, please do not read this. I genuinely don't want to cause anyone real trauma. Third, this story also features a non-traditional relationship, and kinks being explored eventually between consenting adults. With that, on with the story!
Chapter 1: New Beginnings
Serena Tennyson hated change. Well, maybe not all change, but definitely the recent change of address that had her moving from Allensboro, Illinois. Not that Angel Grove was necessarily a bad place; it seemed almost too perfect in her opinion. It was just that she hadn't wanted to move in the middle of her senior year, hadn't wanted to lose touch with the handful of friends she had managed to make over twelve painful years of public school only to become the new girl, the isolated loaner. She walked out of the high school's office with a class schedule similar to the one at her previous school, and a lock with a slip of paper telling her where to find her new locker.
Luckily, it was early, and most of Angel Grove's teenagers had yet to filter into the halls. The locker was fairly easy to find, but within minutes of opening it her locker neighbors had arrived. On her left, a handsome guy with short, light brown hair and glasses. He walked up talking to another very attractive young man, with dark brown hair long enough to brush his wide shoulders and a small stud in his left ear. As her luck would have it, he turned out to be her right-side neighbor. She didn't know whether to thank God for putting her in close proximity of such eye candy, or pray for help in resisting the temptation the pair of them represented. She suspected it would end up being a little bit of both. She also had a hunch that they would wind up in her sketchbook at least once or twice.
They had been so involved in their conversation that it took them a minute to register the auburn-haired new girl emptying her backpack into the locker. Once they did, they both introduced themselves, Billy on the left and Tommy on the right, and even offered to show her to her first class, since all three of them were in Honors English first period. After looking at her schedule, Billy pointed out that they had Chorus together at third period, Tommy was in her fourth period Mythology class, and she would have last period PE with both of them, as well as their friends Jason, Trini, Zach, and Kim, who she learned had recently broken up with Tommy. Serena was fairly certain that this Kim was probably blind or preferred girls.
At lunch, Serena found a table off to the side to eat her lunch by herself. Her solitude was short-lived, as both of her neighbors and four other teens (she assumed it was the friends they had mentioned to her earlier) came over and sat with her. She found herself closing her sketchbook back up and putting it back into her purse just to make room at the table. The unknown teens introduced themselves. Zach was a hip hop dancer, and seemed to be the self-appointed comic relief of the group. Jason was tall, with short, dark hair, and very serious looking. He wasn't as attractive as Billy or Tommy, but wasn't difficult to look at either. Trini was a slim, pretty Asian girl who had been in her Speech class earlier that day. Kim was physically the antithesis of Serena, slim and graceful where Serena was curvy bordering on chunky and tended towards klutzy. Fortunately, Kim also seemed extremely friendly and was eager to lead the conversation to learn as much as possible about her.
They ate and talked for most of the period, with Zach eventually peeling himself away to go talk to a senior girl he was trying to convince to date him. Shortly after he left, Jason and Tommy went outside to spar while they still had a few minutes before the bell rang. This left Serena sitting next to Billy with the other girls on the other side.
"So," Kim asked, "how does Angel Grove High compare to your old school?" She seemed determined to make Serena her new best friend with the line of questioning. It was partly her bubbly personality, and partly a desire to play matchmaker. She had seen the looks that both Billy and Tommy had 'covertly' given Serena, and wanted to find out which one was more likely to get her to agree to go out.
Serena took another drink of her soda. "Well, so far, it seems that even the jerks are well-mannered here." That got a laugh out of Kim and Trini, and a puzzled look from Billy. She continued, "Bulk and Skull tried to chat me up in Art, but stopped when I told them to leave me alone. Which, by the way, is much better than back in Allensboro. The self-appointed ladies man there didn't seem to understand the word no." Her face got solemn, and she seemed far away for a moment. A wry smile danced onto her lips. "That's a topic for another day, and not mixed company. No offense, Billy."
The genius smiled, a look that Serena noticed seemed to light up his whole face. "No offense taken, Serena." Something in his voice, or maybe it was just look that crossed his face when she had made the comment, told her that he understood. Or, maybe, he was just happy that she remembered his name. She didn't know him well enough yet to make the determination, so decided to remain skeptical.
Kimberly sensed the mood shift at the table, and changed the topic. "Can we see what you were working on in your sketchbook?" The change drew a smile from Serena, and she dug the book from her purse.
"I was finishing a drawing I had started before I moved. It's a place about an hour or so drive from where I used to live," she opened the wire-bound book to show a fairy-tale like meadow, with towering hills bordering one side and a small waterfall in a dancing stream on the other side. "I used to go there for inspiration when I needed to get away from everything. I've been working from memory, since the park it's located in was under about two and a half feet of snow and ice when we moved. I'm not going to miss the cold, that's for sure." The bell rang, signaling the end of the lunch period. "I guess I'll see all of y'all in PE," she said, stuffing the book back into her purse. She was glad she had the partly-finished landscape in that one, because the sketch she had been working on was of her two locker-neighbors. That would've been too embarrassing to get caught working on during the first day at school, and she endeavored to keep those drawings to her at-home sketchbook.
By the time last period rolled around, Serena was ready to rethink her position on the whole 'hating change' part of her outlook. It was starting to look like she might, at least partially, fit in here. She was already beginning to make friends, and had a double-dose of eye candy every time she went to her locker. There was only one obstacle left to the day, and it was coming up. Gym was never one of her favorite classes, and the thought of changing in a locker room full of ultra-slim California girls wasn't pleasant, no matter how friendly they seemed normally. Serena was not one of the smaller girls at her old school, and even the tiniest cheerleader from Allensboro would seem large compared to most of her new classmates.
It was with trepidation that she walked into the gym, gingerly following the crowd as it surged towards the locker rooms and split apart. She had hoped to find a spot out of the way to change, but was waved over by Kim and Trini. They had saved her a locker, which was nice, but meant that she wouldn't be hiding in the restroom stall to change. Surprisingly, nobody commented on the fact that her bra was plain white and easily one of the largest in the room, nobody joked about her curves, or insinuated that being a solid size 12 was anything to be ashamed of. She changed quickly, and followed the other girls out to the main class. Maybe it wouldn't be quite so bad after all.
The rest of the week continued along the same vein, with her new friends helping her to get used to the new school. They invited her repeatedly to join them after school at the youth center, but so far she'd told them that her parents wanted her home right after classes. Kim made sure to offer every day, though, and on Friday she invited Serena to join them in the park to hang out on Saturday.
She had responded with an unsure 'we'll see', but that changed when she got home. She mentioned it to her parents at supper, and was told in no uncertain terms that she would be going to the park with her new friends, even if it meant that her parents had to temporarily lock her out of the house. She had been spending every spare minute locked up in her room with her radio and sketchbook. She would also be expected to join them at the youth center at least twice a week to study.
Her parents weren't particularly trying to be cruel. They just remembered that in Allensboro she'd been more of a loner, a willing outcast from her peers. It had made her an easier victim for bullying and harassment, and they didn't want to see history repeat itself. She was making friends, so they were going to see to it that she damn well spent time with them.
And so, Saturday morning found Serena stowing sketchbook and Walkman into the bottom of her purse and begrudgingly making the walk to the park. When she got there, it wasn't difficult to find her new friends. They were at one of the basketball courts, Trini and Kim perched on the picnic table on the edge while the guys played two-on-two.
Both girls waved as they saw Serena trudging up. She smiled back at them, and made her way over to them. It was still a new experience to her to have people genuinely glad to see her outside of her family and tiny circle of friends back home.
'No,' she thought to herself, 'Allensboro isn't home anymore. I have to start thinking of here as home.' The thought firmly in mind, she took a seat at the table.
That afternoon, while the guys continued their game, Serena filled Trini and Kim in the short version of the events that led to her family relocating over two thousand miles. "I was being stalked and harassed by one of my classmates. His name is Camden Phelps. My dad got his company to arrange a transfer to anywhere, but it didn't come fast enough."
"Back in September, he followed me to my locker at lunch. I had been working on a woodcut print for art class, and was putting up my carving tools. He grabbed me from behind, wrapped one arm around my neck and the other around my waist. I still had one of the carving gouges in my hand, one of the larger ones that I was using on the background of the print. I panicked. I stabbed at the arm he had put around my neck, took a good three-inch chunk out of it."
"Next thing I knew, Camden was on the ground, one of his buddies had tackled him. Another one had a hold on my hand, pinning it to the locker next to mine." She gave a mirthless chuckle, "Turns out, he had been bragging to them that he was going to 'screw the bitch no matter what,' and they followed him to make sure he didn't do something stupid. They had another of their teammates go for the principal. I kinda zoned out while we were sitting in the office, with three football players, and the janitor between us, and the school secretary wrapping a bandage around Camden's arm."
"The principal had called both moms, and my mom brought my uncle, who's a lawyer. Mrs. Phelps was raising hell, insisting that the cops be called and that I should be arrested for hurting her little boy; and if they didn't expel me, she would be having the school board demanding the principal's resignation by the end of the month."
"My mom let Uncle Larry do the talking. He pointed out that the school could not expel me for acting in self defense, that there were three other football players out there ready to testify to that fact. He also mentioned that if the school had acted on the complaints of sexual harassment that had been lodged since the fall of the previous year the attack wouldn't have happened, and hinted at the possibility of a lawsuit against the school and the Phelps family. He flat-out told Mrs. Phelps that if she tried to have me arrested, she would end up having to bail her 'precious baby boy' out for attempted rape."
"The principal eventually got everybody to agree to Camden being suspended for the rest of the semester, and no charges being filed, and nothing on anybody's permanent record, as long as I transferred out of the district by January first. Otherwise, I would be expelled for using a weapon on school property. Dad had his company push his transfer forward, and here we are."
Unknown to the teens sitting around the table, there was an eavesdropper. From her palace on the moon, Rita Repulsa was listening intently and plotting her next attempt to take down the Power Rangers. This new friend of theirs was already proving to be a distraction, and the tale of her attack provided a perfect opportunity to fracture the team irreparably.
According to Squatt and Baboo, both of whom had been eagerly taking turns at the telescope watching the rangers for signs of weakness, both the blue and white rangers were entertaining thoughts of their newest friend. Rita grimaced at the memory of that particular report, since the idiotic twosome had even counted how many times in the last week the rangers had 'taken matters in hand' over the girl. She could barely stomach the physical side of her own relationship, she didn't need to know how many times the power punks jerked off. Still, knowing that she was that much of a distraction, and knowing that she had already responded violently to an assault, gave her the beginnings of a vile, truly evil plan. She just had to find the perfect spell, and convince her idiot husband that sometimes patience paid off.