Christmas Wish II

Summary- Christmas in Angel Grove does more than make someone fell good. It can make someone realize they have a family no matter where they go.

If one went to Angel Grove for the holidays they would find a city that was well prepared for the holiday. As soon as Thanksgiving was over, neighborhoods were decorating houses, schools were setting up secret santas amongst their classes, shopping and business centers created deals that their customers would take advantage of for weeks, and the residents of Angel Grove walked around, spreading cheer and merry words to each other.

Okay, so that was Angel Grove on nearly a daily basis, but the holidays increased their happy demeanor tenfold as soon as the tinsel, lights, and Christmas decorations went up. Nothing was more decorative than the Youth Center. Not only because of the decorations that were put up since early November, but because of the toy drive that was held every year. The students from Angel Grove High School took ornaments that were placed on trees at the front of the school that had gifts assigned to unfortunate kids and they bought them for them, wrapped them, and sent them off.

Of course the group of multi-colored friends who were current and former rangers was very quick to do the same, having picked two or three kids each to wrap a gift for. "I just love this time of year," Kimberly said with a bright smile as she picked up a box of earrings and peered at them. "It always makes me feel so happy inside."

"Looking at earrings makes you happy inside?" Rocky asked with a lift of his eyebrow. He laughed as Kimberly reached out and grabbed a roll of tinsel and threw it at him. It fell harmlessly to the middle of the table. "I mean, it would make sense."

"Quit while you're behind, Rocky," Tommy said to him. "You're not going to win this one."

Rocky shrugged and went back to wrapping the box of shoes that sat in front of him. Adam, Billy, Aisha, Avalon, Bailey, Jason, Zack, and Trini all laughed as they focused on wrapping the presents that were in front of them as well.

"Don't worry Kim, I completely agree with you," Trini spoke up for her best friend. "Being able to give back to the less fortunate is always so rewarding."

"Mm, God forbid that you guys don't do anything nice for each other on a holiday," Avalon remarked. "Or on a regular day of the year at that." She smirked a little as she finished her own wrapping and carefully placed it in front of her. "I mean, you all volunteer for every organization and event there is possible in Angel Grove I'm surprised that you even have time to sleep, yeah?" She nudged her sister, who sat beside her, and she and Bailey laughed as their friends rolled their eyes. They made fun of them all the time because of the way the rangers seemed to be good at just about everything.

"You're making fun of us and you're the one that can wrap up a Christmas gift like a pro?" Zack looked at Avalon's immaculate gift and then down at the one that was in front of him; the ribbon bent and the corners ripped open. With a flourish he pushed it over to the orange ranger. "I'll pay you ten bucks to do mine."

Avalon laughed and ruffled Zack's hair before taking his present and started to cover it in wrapping paper and ribbons, finishing it in a few minutes. She gave it back to him and beamed like a little kid that had just been given a boat load of candy. "There you go, Zack Attack."

"Thanks, Avalanche!" Zack replied.

"And that's her good deed for the year," Bailey teased. "Wrapping gifts and giving out nicknames."

"At least his nickname isn't overly used during this time of year," Jason pointed out with a light scowl, causing the orange ranger to chuckle as she had bestowed the name 'Rudolph' on him years before. "Anyway, what are we doing this year? Are we going to your house, Kim? Or is everyone traveling?"

"What do you mean?" Aisha pointed out.

"Oh right, we never told you," Billy said. He motioned over to Kimberly, who smiled with pride. "Nearly every year we have our own Christmas party at Kim's house. Kind of like our movie nights where we just hang out with each other and exchange gifts." He bobbed his head back and forth for a second. "The only issue is that Kim usually tries to figure out who gave her what gift before we can even get there."

"Right. I seem to remember last year she said she was going to get more popcorn, but then ran to the front closet, where we put everything, and went tearing through all of them before we could figure out what was going on." All eyes turned to the pink ranger who flushed her ranger color and stuck her nose in the air.

"Okay, so Christmas makes me a little bit crazy."

"A little?" Came the unanimous reply.

Rocky, Adam, and Aisha hadn't known her as long as the others, but even they had been able to see how crazy Kim got whenever it was Christmas time. On the way to the Youth Center that day, she sang along to the music at the top of her lungs, bouncing around in excitement whenever her favorite songs played…which was just about every song that came on the radio.

"Okay, okay, so I'm a little Christmas crazy," Kimberly said, holding up her hands defensively.

"And we love you for it, Kim," Trini said honestly. She put her arm around her best friend's shoulders and pulled her into her side, the best friends hugging each other tightly. "It's nothing to be ashamed of."

"Yeah, it's nothing to be ashamed of," Aisha agreed before she and Adam slowly turned their gazes to Rocky, who whistled innocently, twiddling his thumbs. "It's nothing to be ashamed of if you're not plowing down three and four year olds just to get to a gift!"

There was a stunned silence around the table before there were cries of 'what!?' along with shrieking laughter. Tommy managed to stop laughing long enough to clear his throat and ask, "What did you want so much that made you want to knock down little kids?" Then he thought of the image of a red ranger knocking little kids out of the way with as much excitement as anyone else and started to laugh again. Enough so that Kimberly shot him a disapproving glance and swatted him on the arm.

"It wasn't that bad," Rocky tried to defend himself.

"Oh trust me, it was bad," Adam spoke up. "By the time we left there were about thirty kids crying, an elf that had its ears ripped off, and squashed presents everywhere." Aisha shook her head and snapped her fingers as she turned her attention to Adam (between them, Rocky pouted, spinning a piece of ribbon around the table).

"You're forgetting that he managed to break Santa's sleigh as well."

"Okay, someone tell me what happened," Avalon declared, her eyes bright with excitement. "If it has anything to do with anyone making a fool of themselves, I'm all ears."

"Which makes a lot of sense considering you hate having a lot of attention on yourself," Billy remarked, causing Avalon to glare, shifting her gaze to the corner of her eye.

"Don't help, Smurf," she warned her boyfriend. He smiled smugly and pushed his gift in front of her instead, so that she could finish wrapping it for him, which she made quick work of. Sighing when Jason and Tommy looked down at their own gifts and gave them to her as well.

"Anyway, anyway, story time please," Bailey said.

Rocky rolled his eyes, sighing loudly as Aisha and Adam glanced at each other to see who would be the one with the privilege of telling the story the embarrassed red ranger as clearly trying to keep his friends from hearing. Finally Adam held up his hands and started the story with a disclaimer, "Okay, first thing you all need to know is that he was doing a good thing by taking his youngest brother and sister to the mall to see Santa. So it was him, Maria, Diego, Antonio, and Isabella at the mall, waiting in line to see Santa and Maria and Diego were really excited to be able to tell him what they wanted. Antonio and Isabella, however, were always saying they didn't want to see him but Rocky wouldn't let them go to another store to wait."

"Do you know the kind of trouble they manage to get into when they're on their own?" Rocky demanded.

"I think we've got an idea," Jason said with a light laugh. He, Trini, and Billy all smiled as they looked over at Kimberly and Zack, who both grinned without a care in the world. He could hardly remember past Christmases since they were young where they took a trip to the mall and Kimberly and Zack didn't manage to break themselves away from the group and run to nearly every store in their vicinity just to see the displays and what was put up.

"Something tells me it's a good thing I haven't' seen the brunt of Kim's excitement yet," Tommy joked.

"You'd be right, man," Jason agreed.

"Anyway, anyway. They're standing in line to see Santa and when they get closer to the front of the line, Rocky's brother and sister start to get nervous and scared about sitting on Santa's lap and figuring out what they want for Christmas. By that point they've been standing in line so long that Isabella and Diego were trying everything they could to distract Rocky so they could go to the stores they wanted to go to and Diego and Maria were starting to cry, wanting to leave. So what was he supposed to do?"

Rocky broke into his girlfriend's explanation, reaching out a hand and slapped it over Aisha's mouth, and continued the story himself. "If you're all going to embarrass me, I may as well do it myself." He cleared his throat. "So I've got two siblings who were seconds away from running off into the mall and two others who were about to have a global meltdown." He paused for a moment. "Let me just say it really made me appreciate my mother and everything she's done at this point. Next thing I know, I have Diego and Maria tucked under my arm, they're screaming like banshees as I plop them down on Santas lap so we can get that stupid picture, and then I see Isabella and Antonio running off. So I get the stupid picture taken, grab the two youngest, and start running after the other two…accidentally knocking little kids out of the way, made an elf trip into Santa's sleigh, making her break it, and somehow through all of that Santa stood up to help and got hit by Diego or Maria and he fell back into his chair and broke it."

Rocky's face reddened as the rangers laughed hysterically at the story, their laughter filling the entire Youth Center and bringing all eyes over towards them. Even Ernie chuckled to himself at the juice bar. Aisha managed to calm down enough to fan at her eyes, tears sliding down her cheeks, so she could finish the story.

"So Rocky had to make it up to everyone by being the mall Santa for the rest of the holiday season, and since then he hasn't set foot in that mall without wearing a hat to hide his face," she said.

"I swear, nothing makes you more appreciative of the holidays than having to deal with your younger siblings at that time of the year," Rocky said, resting his chin in his hands.

"Yeah, but I'm sure your Mom really appreciates it," Trini reassured him, to which he smiled. She then blinked and turned back to Avalon and Bailey. "Speaking of mothers, are you guys going to go visit yours back in Australia?"

Avalon paused for a moment, not sure if she wanted to tell the truth, which would inevitably bring a bit of a downer to the party as well as to bring unnecessary attention to themselves. But then again, these guys were her friends as they have proven over and over again and she could tell them the truth. No matter what it was. "We were going to," she said honestly. "But we couldn't afford tickets to get back there. But she'll probably be coming out here for New Year's." She shrugged. "Besides, I thought it would be better to spend Christmas here in Angel Grove so I could give back, repent a little form some of the things I've done a few Christmases ago."

"Like what?" Rocky asked.

It was an innocent question; he, Adam, and Aisha didn't know much about her gang past other than what she told them when they joined the team. She didn't like to talk about it, considering how much shame it brought her. Especially considering she managed to break into Kim's house and steal a precious necklace from her before she even knew it was Kimberly's house, singlehandedly managed to get Jason beat up by a rival gang just to get back at her, and had completely ruined their prom all because she had to do one last requirement before she could leave the gang, resulting in her getting shot in the shoulder. She was out, but there were plenty of things that were going to keep her from completely forgetting about it.

"Like…because we were on our own for a while, and we didn't have a lot of money for gifts, I used to break into schools to put Bailey's name on a tree so she could get something good, or I'd break into a store that we were already going to be stealing and selling stuff from, to get her a good gift." She reached out and ruffled her little sister's hair as she nodded. "I didn't care what happened as long as she had something to open on Christmas day. Doesn't mean I don't regret it, though."

She shuffled her feet, the tips of her shoes hitting the bag she brought with her. Why was she so nervous? It was just a bunch of gifts, signs of appreciation she was giving her friends. She had done it before, it wasn't a big deal. But nerves rolled through her stomach as if she was on a large wave, about to ride down the face on her surfboard, not knowing if it would break over her head and send her to the bottom of the ocean or send her tumbling the wrong way and crack her in the face, drowning her before she managed to hit the flat surface.

"Actually, considering we're all wrapping gifts and stuff, I wanted to give you guys your stuff now," Avalon said slowly. She reached under the table and pulled up the bag, motioning for Bailey to help her pull it out. "I know it's not a lot but I think you guys will like them." She started to pull out boxes and passed them around as her friends eagerly took them. Then when she noticed them staring at her, she nodded. "Go ahead and open them mate. It's not against the rules or anything."

With that, she was covered in flying paper, ribbons, bows, and tissue paper that she had stuffed inside. Clasping her hands together, Avalon started to bob her knees up and down. She pressed her fingers together, trying to keep herself from shaking. Did they like it?

"A boomerang?" Tommy's eyebrows rose as he lifted it out of the box. He looked over and found that the rest of their friends had managed to get the same thing. But each boomerang was different; there were different markings and pictures on the curved edges of the wood.

Okay, they didn't really get it. That was alright. It wasn't easy for a lot of people to understand. Especially at face value, if they didn't know about aboriginal customs of Australia. Billy's eyes immediately lit up as he looked over his own boomerang. "Each boomerang has a different symbol." He looked over his and nodded appreciatively.

"Right, for example, Trini's has a warrior on hers," Avalon explained. "Because she truly is a warrior, not one of physical and brute strength, but of her strength of character and the way you present yourself in different situations." Avalon then nodded over to Rocky. "And yours has rock carvings, because of your name obviously, but also because of what rocks represent. It means you're strong, of course, but with their cliffs and crevices, they protect nature and everyone around them, like you do with your friends and family." And Avalon continued to explain the rest of the ranger's boomerangs, Kimberly got a picture of a sunset and sky because of her big heart and how it allowed her to soar through the skies, Tommy got a similar one with a sunrise to depict his way of lifting people up, Jason got the desert showing his strength of character with anything that came his way, Aisha got the sun because of her sunny disposition and how she made everyone smile, Adam got a river due to his quiet and calm nature that ebbed and flowed with everyone around them, Billy got a cave to show that there was more to him than appearances; there was more to him than his smarts, and Zack got a landscape showing he had a dreamlike bird's eye view of everyone and everything around him, enjoying the best out of everything.

"These are awesome!" Zack declared as he looked over them. "Are they real? Can you really use them?"

"Yes, you can really use them," Bailey said. She suddenly blushed, lowering her head. "It's not a lot, but we wanted to give you guys the boomerangs to know that you really have done a lot for us that we don't know how to thank you for. But it's also to let you know that no matter what happens we'll always be there for you guys, to help you out with whatever it is you need."

"Yeah, just like you've helped us," Avalon agreed. "You've all been ace to me and to Bay. Thank you." All of a sudden arms were wrapped around her neck and she looked up, startled, to find Kimberly hugging her, wiping tears from her eyes. "I didn't mean to make you cry, Pinkerbell," she said to her. "I just wanted to—"

"I know what you wanted to do," Kimberly interrupted. "We all do. And you're welcome."

Avalon smiled and hugged her back before she and Bailey were enveloped into a group hug by all of their friends. She could make fun of Angel Grove and her friends all she wanted about how into the holidays they were and how nice they were to each other. But it was a welcome change and something they really wanted.

For the first time in a long time they felt like they had a real family.

A/N: Happy Holidays and Merry Christmas, guys!

~Avalon