A/N
Based on a certain moment in the Power Rangers movie trailer. Y'know, that moment...
Yellow Ranger
"So you told your mum about the whole ranger thing."
"Yep. Brothers as well."
"You told her that we'd discovered a crashed alien spaceship with an AI that speaks to us as a giant head."
"And Alpha Five. I didn't forget him."
Kimberly sighed, wondering if what was left of her life was about to enter a black hole darker than Zack's suit. "So," she said, "what happened?"
"Well, my mum asked me to pee in a cup."
Kimberly blinked. "What?"
"Yep." Trini smirked. "Drugs, y'know? Thinks I'm back on them. I mean, if you want me to explain how-"
"No, no, I know what drugs are," Kimberly said, waving her hands. "Just…I mean, seriously?"
"Well, you try telling your parents that your part-time job involves a giant flying dinosaur and a suit of pink armour, and let me know how that goes down."
"Yeah," Kimberly said. She lay back in her seat, looking out across Angel Grove's main street in all its empty, desolate glory. "I'll go do that."
It was a lie, and she didn't try to hide it. No, she wasn't going to tell her parents that yes, she was a superhero now, for all intents and purposes, who did take orders from a giant head and a bi-pedal robot. No, she wasn't going to tell her that an actual space witch wanted to conquer Earth. No, she wasn't going to tell her parents any of that, and she wasn't going to tell Trini that the pterodactyl wasn't a dinosaur, it was actually a flying reptile of a different genus. Right now, it seemed like only a drop in the ocean of insanity that she and her "friends" (if she could call them that) had been dropped into.
Then again, she thought, as she watched Trini take a sip from her bannana smoothie, she did have to face the issue that if she and the other "Power Rangers" as Zordon called them weren't friends, they still had to learn how to work together. Maybe even, shudder, get to know one another. So, she ventured, "what happened next?"
"Hmm?" Trini looked up from her phone, and Kimberly bit back the urge to ask who the heck she was texting, because wasn't she meant to be one of those loner girls that didn't need friends?
"I said, what happened next. With the cup."
"I took a whizz in it, what do you think?"
"Uh-huh…" Kimberly took a sip from her own smoothie.
"Yep. Turns out I'm the 'yellow ranger' in more ways than one."
Kimberly spat the smoothie out. Trini barely seemed to care.
"So, anyway, return it to dear old mum, and she discovers, lo and behold, I'm not doing drugs."
Kimberly wiped up the smoothie with a napkin. "So…you're good, then?"
"Oh no, not really. That I'm a liar, and a bad influence on my brothers, and that she's past caring, and blah blah blah." She took a sip of her smoothie. "Usual parent stuff."
"I guess…" Kimberly trailed off, not sure what to say. No teenager on Earth had a perfect relationship with their parents (far as she could tell at least), but she'd at least never been asked to pee in a plastic cup before. 'Usual parent stuff' didn't involve drug testing in her experience.
"So, yeah," Trini said. "Ten years ago I would have been grounded, but dear mum and dad realized that didn't work nine years ago. So one month ago we turn up in Angel Grove, and two weeks ago, I discover that I'm one of a chosen group of heroes destined to fight a space witch." She smirked. "Oh, and I get a giant kitty cat to ride around at. Which is ten times cooler than your zord."
"How'd you figure that?"
"I dunno. Just is."
"Right," Kimberly said. Wondering how the heck this was meant to work. Whether Zordon, wise and powerful AI that he was, had made a mistake, that maybe it was better to turn over defence of planet Earth to adults, or at least teenagers with far less attitude. That she'd probably be stuck hearing these kind of tirades for the rest of her life. Instead, she said "…yellow ranger? Seriously?"
"Yep. Course if I keep drinking this it'll be more of a white ranger thing."
Kimberly stared. Then laughed. And for a moment, Trini did as well.
Baby steps, she told herself.