Disclaimer: I do not own PRiS characters, they belong to Saban/Disney. I do own the plot and characters you don't recognize!
A/N: Okay, here we go, another fic, another way:)
Okay, what else? This is a Pre-PRiS AU, which means:
1) Andros, Ashley, Carlos and the gang are not Power Rangers
2) Andros and Zhane are studying in Angel Grove High School
3) Zordon has never reached Earth and currently never chose "teenagers with attitude"
4) There were never Power Rangers in Angel Grove
5) Any familiar PR character (for example: Justin) is not a ranger and will not be a ranger!
6) As you can see, this fic is not related in any way to In the Clearing of the Forest!
7) Rating might go up to end of this story…
8) Review! :D
In the Beginning
by DarkHonda aka Tal
Chapter 1
Andros, the best student of his class, the-insufferable-know-it-all-loser to some, was sitting alone with his tray of truly disgusting lunch in a rather far corner of the cafeteria. He didn't care where he was sitting, as his picked a spoonful of mashed potatoes and entered it coldly to his mouth. 'Pretty good,' he thought, looking around dully at the people buzzing around him; all of them didn't really interest him, they were all just pretending to be someone they're not.
A bunch of over enthusiastic geeks was sitting near by, at the right table behind him, to be honest, and one of them was in the middle of a speech about Newton's third law and Andros rolled his eyes. They were all idiots, and those geeks were the truly number one losers as far as he was concerned. All of them, he knew, spent hours and hours learning and studying in order to become know it all, to have good grades, but he wasn't. No, he was busy building a really important instrument in his room. He wasn't like those geeks, each of them had a private semi professional laboratory in his basement, trying to imitate each other; he despised their endless efforts to mess up with potions and physics, building worthless tools that would never work.
Apart from the geeks there were the freaks, he liked them. They were the ones typically dressed in black and clad weird looking cloths they considered as clothes, their haircuts were weird and their hair color ranged from purple to orange. They were weird, they knew it and really didn't give a damn about it and he loved this kind of honesty. Many times he could actually see himself as one of them, with his weird hair and rather strange opinions of the world, but mostly because he just didn't care about everyone else, everyone who considered himself normal.
He hated the jocks and the cheerleaders, they preferred thinking of themselves as rulers of the school, he only snorted his protest. They did rule the school as far as he was concerned, with their endless ignorance and so called 'normal' behavior. To him, they were just uncivilized monkeys and only god knew how much he hated them. How they laughed at him, how they rejected him just because he knew more and looked different, of course no one knew his hair was dual colored naturally, they always assumed he wanted to look different. Idiots.
Bam! Someone slammed his tray on the table right next to him, yet it didn't startle him, he looked aside indifferently, examining the figure next to him, he let himself relax and roll his eyes.
"'Sup?" the blond asked him, it was Zhane, his best friend. His only friend.
He nodded sternly and Zhane smiled, he always wondered how can one guy smile so much, how much hope and optimism his friend contained? He shrugged that thought warily, hope was not something to mess with, especially not Zhane's hope;
Zhane and him had no parents, for the matter of fact, they grew up together even before they've reached the streets. Their parents were friends and also some what weird, somehow they were always different, and now, that Zhane turned eighteen, the two were officially freed from the orphanage. Their parents left them both a quite large inheritance so they managed keeping that house their parents left them as well as a new car and enrolling to a new school- Angel Grove high school. They both swore to keep the fact their parents were dead secret and Zhane, even so different from him, was still his best friend ever.
But it was also Zhane's voice that woke him up from his thoughts, "Check her out!" he whispered kind of loudly to Andros, gesturing towards a girl wearing a cheerleader's yellow uniforms. Zhane eyed her for a couple a minutes and when she noticed, she sent a flattered look at Zhane; Andros looked dismissively at the girl and his Don Juan of best friend before rolling his eyes. He pushed another spoonful of mashed potatoes to his mouth and wished Zhane won't invite her to their table, a cheerleader was, after all, just a selfish air head. His friend elbowed him in the ribs and Andros, annoyed, was forced to look at her again as he was asked; "What do you think of her?" his friend asked over enthusiastically and Andros examined the girl.
She was wearing a cheerleader uniforms, a short blue skirt and a revealing yellow top. Her smile was kind of sly and her hair was a mass of beautifully shaped curls at the moment. She smiled at him and her face lit up, Andros frowned and glared at her. Zhane almost fell off his chair.
"You approve!" he almost shouted and quite literally dragged Andros by the arm to the girl's table. She was sitting with a few other cheerleaders who looked deeply disgusted as he reached the table, but they sent luring glances at Zhane. Andros wasn't surprised at all, Zhane was a heart breaker alright, but at that moment Zhane was busy noticing that girl.
"Hi," she said with a smile, Zhane sent her his six million dollars smile, he was content and Andros felt as if he was stuck in the middle. If only he had the guts to blurt the excuses laying on the tip of his tongue and get away from them…
"Hey, I'm Zhane, and this is Andros," Zhane introduced them and patted on Andros' back, all Andros could do was to roll his eyes silently, 'this is so not interesting,' he thought bitterly.
"I know you," the girl said and looked at him, he almost jumped in surprise, and it took him a while to restrain his blush. Someone noticed him! Wasn't it strange? Even though Andros tried to hide the blush, he felt his cheeks reddening and wished to be away from them, but again, couldn't as she continued talking to him, "I sit behind you in Math," she added and he nodded silently. Her stare made him uncomfortable and he squirmed for a few moments, not knowing what to say. Eventually, he decided that silence would be the most rewarding and Zhane took the chance and pursued her name…
"So, what's your name?" Zhane asked and she ever so slowly moved her eyes from Andros to Zhane, she smiled again.
"I'm Ashley Hammond," she answered with even a brighter smile, and Andros just stood there, in silence, uneasiness surrounding him. He felt as if he was drowning, he didn't care, she didn't interest him, he just wanted to get into class or even better, go home and work… was this too much to ask for?
"So, Andros, what do you think?" Ashley's voice woke him up from his haze, he didn't even pay attention to what they were talking about, what is he going to say?
"I'm…sorry…" he managed to say quietly, "I didn't keep track of your conversation," he answered. Ashley blushed.
"The new Math teacher? Mrs. Smith?" she asked and Andros nodded, he had a rather okay first impression of their new Mathematics teacher already.
"She's alright," he said and Ashley smiled and turned to Zhane for the slightest second.
"He doesn't talk much, does he?" she almost giggled and Zhane flashed another charming smile, but Andros didn't think she saw it because her eyes were staring into his.
"He's the quiet, broody type," he heard Zhane explain, it made her smile even wider.
A/N: So? What do you think?!