Disclaimer: Read Chapter One.

A/N: If you've read my forum under update, you'll see that I can't update my stories (myself). I allowed myself to use the computer, just not the Internet. I'll be nice to you guys and ask my sister (yet again to go under my username) to post the story up for me so it won't seem like such a LONG wait. In the mean time, I'll work on others to post later on.

Thy Collection of 40
'Love is all in how you look at Romance'

Dare

The large black banner above the High School entrance was noticeable for all to see. The D. A. R. E. Program was the logo for the student council's annual drug-free week. Red was the color all throughout the hallways. Posters of McGruff the crime dog were eyesores to the students that had to see it year after year.

"Do you dare to be drug free Adam?" Rocky DeSantos asked his best friend Adam Park jokingly in his best rusty voice imitating the famous dog as he pointed his finger to his best friend's face making him laugh.

"The only drug I need in my life to keep me high is Tanya" Adam stated pushing the young man's hand away smiling. He knew the comment was going to get him a response of some sort of joke one way or the other, but he didn't care.

"The only drug I need is Tanya" Rocky repeated mocking Adam's tone as he placed his hands on his hips and swayed his body from side to side trying to make it look as girly as possible. He got punched on the arm as a response; which he had to admit, it hurt pretty badly. Lifting his book bag from the floor, he noticed Adam start to walk in the direction of their next class. "Are you gonna go to the D. A. R. E. party?" he asked as they turned the corner of the hallway full of teens.

"Yup" Adam said with ease, "I just have to go to music class first," he said raising his eyebrows as a gesture of hello to his girlfriend as they passed her locker.

Tanya looked over at them and smiled before blowing a kiss his way in which Rocky 'caught' with his hand and pressed his palm against his chest. The kiss made Kat turn around to see who she was kissing, but Rocky's gesture made her laugh hysterically especially after seeing the two just pass by them bickering over the imaginary kiss back and forth. Shaking her head, she turned back around and faced Tanya whom was now speaking to her.

"There goes two of the craziest guys in school," she said with a dreamy look in her eyes as she followed the boys' direction seeing their backs.

"Yeah" Kat agreed, "but one of them is only crazy for you." Smiling at her best friend's now blush, she shook her head at this. "You've got it bad for him Tanya."

Tanya at this sheepishly looked down before noticing a very familiar face heading their way. "And I'm sure you've got it bad for a certain guy here too" she told Kat whom hadn't seen who was approaching.

Now it was the blonde's turn to look down sheepishly while saying, "yeah, I guess, but Tommy's really wrapped up with stuff right now, besides…" she couldn't continue her sentence as she felt a hand on her shoulder making her turn around before widening her eyes. "Tommy, hi!" she said in a near yell from the startled feeling she held being quickly overpowered by embarrassment.

"Hey" he simply said with a wide smile and a twinkle in his eye. "Ready to go to class?" he asked her feeling a small warmness cross his face as he instantly recollected what he had just heard.

Biting down on her lip looking anywhere but at his eyes, Katherine quickly shook her head yes as she inaudibly accepted to go. She saw him nod and turn to the direction of hers and his next class as she followed. As she stepped a couple feet behind, she looked back clutching her binder and folders tightly up against her breasts as she looked back and gave her smiling friend a bad look and wording 'watch' threateningly.

At this, Tanya innocently waved at her friend laughing inside herself as she turned and slammed her locker shut.

- - -

A small groan was heard as a series of unified chanting voices spoke yet again for what seemed like the umpteenth time, 'drug…abuse…resistance…education'.

A police officer was in every senior class the last period of the day having educated the underclassmen in the previous classes. The one in Tommy and Kat's class was what they thought the worst teacher in history. He wasn't meant to give a class, Officer Rodriguez was meant to defend the civilians of Angel Grove, not teach them about saying 'no' to drugs.

Kat remained with her head rested on her hand to the side as again she chanted along with her classmates, "drug…abuse…resistance…education." It was torture. No human being could be able to withstand such mental pain of having to go through this. We got it tough guy, she told herself, drug abuse resistance education…we got it! 'Again' she heard him say, "drug…abuse…resistance…education." How many times is he going to make us repeat this? She asked herself as she looked up at the white foamed ceiling that was above them, God, she began, if you end this torture right now, I promise never to do drugs as long as I live. "Drug…abuse…resistance…education."

Tommy wasn't having the time of his life over in his seat either, though his sun burned a bit brighter than hers did at the moment. As he chanted, "drug…abuse…resistance…education" along with the others, he couldn't help but smile internally at what he played over in his mind. Had Katherine said his name when it came to being crazy about someone? He had absolutely no idea. For weeks now he's been trying to find the perfect way to ask her out, but in every occasion it seemed as if something would interrupt his attempts; having it be either a situation coming up, or just plain nerves he couldn't control. "Drug…abuse…resistance…education" he said again wanting to look back at where the pink ranger sat but pulled himself deeper in his chair to constraint himself.

- - -

Four Zeo rangers sat around the Youth Center's table as Ernie came up to them with a tray at hand. "Here you go…for my best customers," he said as he walked up next to Tanya. "Cheeseburger and fries for Rocky, Tanya, and Kat" he said as he placed the oval-shaped plates in front of the respected teens. "And for Tommy, a ham and Swiss sandwich." As he prepared to turn around, he added, "Emily will be out shortly with your smoothies guys."

A series of thank yous and okays went around the table as they each got their plate and information.

"I feel bad eating without Adam and Jason" Tanya told the group as she took a bite out of her hamburger as they all began to prepare their meals as best they could. The group just laughed at her comment and gesture before they began eating their food.

There was silence over the coarse of the meal. Either halfway done or others, close to finishing, Adam arrived and joined the table before ordering and beginning to eat as well.

Halfway through his meal, the others were done and chatting about school and how grueling the officers' teaching methods were. Once hearing the subject, Tanya quickly jumped in after Katherine's discussion of the boring last period.

"Kat, you should've been there. We could've been passing notes back and forth or just completely doing whatever we wanted. Officer Smith did nothing but give us handouts and flirt with Ms. Penny all period long. He didn't even seem like he cared much about the noise or anything." As the others nodded, she simply ended her sentence with a mere, "I wish anyone was there. I hardly talk to the girl sitting next to me. I spent the whole period doing homework" she stated making the others laugh and sympathize for her.

- - -

The Angel Grove Ballroom was in full swing at just a quarter of a mile away from the High School. Again, streamers of red, white, and black illuminated the halls. At least it wasn't much of a let down for the kids at the dance; the music was good, and so was the food. The lights coming off the DJ's set was helping immensely also, so everything wasn't as bad as the teens talked about. The officers could throw a pretty good party when they had to. Having it wasn't a must either; it was the officers' choice to make a dance for them. Calling it, 'The D. A. R. E. Party' was a bit lame, but it was a nice gesture on their part nonetheless.

Tanya walked into the ballroom clutching hands with Adam, holding on to his lime green long-sleeved shirt tightly as she looked around at the decorations. "This isn't so bad," she said to herself smoothing down her light yellow dress in the process. Even though she was speaking to herself, she received a comment after hers from Adam whom was pulling a chair for her.

"Yeah…it turned out pretty cool," he simply said as he pushed in the chair a bit to comfort his girlfriend.

Katherine had arrived a few minutes after the group had settled in their seats and was watching each of the couples' actions around her. Looking to her right, she saw Rocky flirting with his date, Allison. She grinned at the couple as she witness him trying to caress her lower back but getting his hand slapped off by her. Looking to the left of them, straight ahead of her, she saw Adam holding on to Tanya's hand and smoothing it from wrist to finger and back again as he smiled at her and laughed along as she was. Smiling, she turned to her right again to find Jason and Emily huddled up together on the dance floor as they both swayed to the beat of the slow song witnessing Emily whispering gently into Jason's ear. Kat at this sighed a breath of frustration as she slumped back into her chair before sitting up again at the sight of Tommy coming in through the door. She smiled and waved his way before motioning with her hand to sit with the group. Her hand gestures stopped suddenly. Not because he saw her, but, because she saw he had a date, Hannah Ilene Vaughn. Kat's face somehow dimmed for a moment as she saw the two walking through the entrance, though her smile returned his way as she noticed them both heading different directions into the ballroom.

"Hey Kat" Tommy said as he approached the table. He got greeting from all around the table, including a still dancing Jason whom was awarded a nod as a sign of hello from Tommy's part in which he reciprocated. Sitting down next to Kat was the easy part for Tommy as he chose a place to sit, it was the only single empty seat at the table not making it look noticeable that he wanted to sit next to Kat. The hard part for him was asking her to dance, or making any move whatsoever on his part. "So, what are you up to?" he asked raising his voice so she could hear him over the music that was playing.

"Not much" she said before instantly realizing she didn't want to end a conversation with him like that. She quickly thought up a subject and blurted the first thing that came to her mind. "So, how was your martial arts class today?" she asked having to thank herself she didn't make a fool of herself once more.

"Pretty good. You're not here with anyone?" Tommy then jumped in there; he wanted to get this over with. He figured, if he was going to get anywhere with her tonight, he'd rather stop beating around the bush and ask. The more time he had with her the better, but if she turned him down was a con on his list of pros and cons.

"No" she said sheepishly somewhat embarrassed of going to a dance alone. "And you? You don't have a date?" she asked yelling a bit yet refusing to make eye contact with him for some odd reason. She tried to look at his eyes as she spoke to him, but couldn't. It was as if a negative magnetic force due to her nerves was preventing her from having a decent conversation with him.

"No…to tell you the truth, I was hoping you didn't either" he told her getting closer to her ear as he spoke. He smelled her hair as he talked into her ear and nearly buckled under the pressure once more.

"Oh really?" she asked a bit flirtatiously now, "And why is that?" she stated knowing his little mind game and wanting to play along knowing that it might end up going somewhere. Though the second thing behind her mind was complete chaos if he would say something like 'I didn't want to be here alone.'

"Well" he began to say as he mentally jumped for joy as she asked the exact right question he was looking for in his little trick comment, "because I was driving over here telling myself that I should've asked you to a dance a long time ago."

She was going to answer an honest, 'so why didn't you?' but instead she saved the safe route for another time and went down the riskier one. "Well, we're at a dance right now" she said motioning with her eyes the ballroom surroundings.

"We are" Tommy answered nodding his head before continuing on, "Katherine, would you be my date for this dance?" he asked her taking her hand into his saying it as sweetly as he could while looking into her eyes, having to yell though was killing the romance of it all.

"I'd love to be your date for this dance" she told him as she raised her voice back at him before smiling in his direction.

- - -

The magic of the night was in each of their eyes. Tommy held Kat closely as they stood outside of the ballroom looking up at the stars. He looked around at the grass ahead of them and saw the sprinklers go on. He pulled her in a bit closer toward his chest as he thought of the breeze blowing cold drops their direction. She smiled at him as she felt his strong grip get tighter. Holding on to both his hands on her lower abdomen, she too looked up at the stars as she placed her head onto his shoulder.

"This is really nice." Closing her eyes, she took in a deep breath of fresh air and imagined the velvet sky above her behind her eyelids. "It's a really beautiful night" she stated opening her eyes now and staring up at the moon this time.

"Yeah" Tommy told her making his eyes wander around for a bit trying to find the right words to tell her at that moment. He didn't want anything cheesy or too predictable; he looked to his right to almost simultaneously have her look to her left, "having you here like this is making it that much perfect." Looking deeply into her eyes, he grinned at her; seriousness crossing his face with a faint pinch of love in his tone.

All she could do is look into his eyes as well smiling in his direction. Neither saying a word, she turned around and faced him before both sharing a tightly fitted hug.

As the long embrace ended, they again looked into each other's eyes before she looked down first, smiling internally. He smiled also, as he pulled his hands from her back and placed them snugly on her waist. With a small chuckle, he said, "are you thirsty?"

She chuckled lightly as well as she answered, "a little bit. I could go for some punch."

"Okay" he began before beginning to turn around, "I'll be right back okay?"

"Alright" she replied feeling light blushes on her cheeks starting to blemish across more of her face. She saw him go into the ballroom, before she heard a small whisper heading her way.

"Hey" was the whisper from her right. She cautiously turned to see nothing but bushes and a sidewalk heading to the side of the building toward the parking lot. "Hey" she heard again a bit louder this time. "Is there anyone out there?" she asked feeling fear rise yet controlled it with a stern look.

No answer; there was definitely something wrong here and she had to find out what it was. She again looked at her surroundings; nothing. She squinted her eyes as she thought of telling the others. She nodded her head as if agreeing with herself and took a step forward to enter the ballroom.

"Ah!" she heard a loud yell from beside the building. She was confused for a bit having the scream sound a bit on the manly side. Either way, she ran as fast as she could to the side of the building to see non other than Officer Rodriguez, his back against the brick wall.

"Officer Rodriguez" she said a bit startled calming her voice down, "why aren't you inside?" She stepped closer to him and crossed her arms under her chest as she cocked her head to the side questionably. "Is everything okay?"

"I'm fine Katherine." He smiled at her feeling her smile reciprocate toward him. "I just tripped to the side on a hole" he said easily.

"Oh." A chuckle came up her throat. "You scared me there for a bit."

"I'm sorry Katherine. The last thing I'd do to you is scare you." His voice was a bit seductive in a way, but she blew it off to the side nodding.

Looking down she tried to find the hole he had stepped in. No hole; she wrinkled her eyebrows at this as she scanned the rest of the soft lighted floor quickly before looking up and seeing somewhat of an evil grin across from her. "Officer Rodriguez…" she halted her statement for a second before continuing, "are you sure you're alright?" She took a step backward as she spoke, getting her stance ready to jolt to the side and run into the ballroom.

"I'm fine" he told her again smiling. She looked at his teeth. A gleam of light shown through from the crown placed in his upper left tooth making it sparkle somewhat as he closed it. He looked down and took a step toward her looking at her from bottom to top. "Question is darling…will you be okay?"

At this, Kat's eyes widened suddenly showing an enormous fear toward this man. She stopped exhaling and found herself not breathing much except for internally. She didn't say anything at this. This didn't deserve a response, she stepped another step back before turning her body to the doors. He quickly pulled her his way before getting pushed fiercely toward the wall.

"Tommy!" she yelled knowing he'd be back any second now. "Tommy!" she yelled again as she began her sprint to the doors.

"Where do you think you're going huh?" he asked her casually yet feeling his breath jump in the process. Again he grabbed her by the arm, but this time pulled her in as tight as he could with his left hand as he placed his right hand over her mouth pushing his fingers forcefully against her cheek.

Tommy came out, just barely being noticeable from the distance they were from, but Officer Rodriguez saw him. At this, he pulled her back even further against his chest if it were possible and flung her quickly to his left as he hid on the side of the building. A loud cry came from behind his hand making him press her against him as he squeezed the side of her stomach as hard as he possibly could. "Shut the fuck up you little bitch" he told her with a near whisper in a desperate attempt to shut her up as he began hurting her side making her cry sound more vulnerable yet not as loud as before.

Tommy stepped outside and took a couple more steps forward from where he was standing with Kat. "Kat" he called out to her looking around. "Kat, are you out here?" he questioned again before looking down questionably, picking up the empty red cup off the floor. He widened his eyes at the empty cup he held.

A near grudging sound came out of her as she felt tears fill her eyes before running down her face. She felt the barrel of a gun to her temple before looking up and seeing it actually pointed at her head making her eyes close with such tightness that she found new tears as she opened her eyes once more.

"Listen here…you're gonna be quiet okay?" he told her whispering, "or I'm gonna blow your fucking brains out."

At this, she began whimpering feeling the gun being pressed against her head more and more. Sobbing under his hand, she again closed her eyes at not hearing Tommy's voice anymore making her tears come out even more now.

Feeling her right hand wiggle free, she quickly lifted it high before bringing it in and elbowing him on the stomach making him bend forward and let out an "oomph!" of pain as he slowly released her feeling his pain getting stronger and stronger.

She quickly felt the aches on her jaw and left cheek grow rapidly as she tossed herself forward to get away from him. She turned and picked up her right leg and kicked him causing his body to jerk back and hit the wall badly. She then proceeded in striking the left side of his head with the hard part of her stiff palm. She quickly raised her left leg kicking him in the face as he went down to the ground completely. She stepped back a bit still in fighting stance before she saw him gripping the side of his head and face. Blood ran down part of his face as it fell to the ground in sudden flocks.

She looked down feeling a bit weird, before looking in his direction and making out a blurry figure. She began to hear laughter coming from his bloody mouth before she witnessed him look up at her showing that twinkle in his tooth. She closed her eyes and opened them again to find that she could hardly keep her balance. This made the laughter come so much more louder now that it was beginning to scare her.

Though she thought that was the worry at the moment, it only took her one second to look up at the sky and see the moon somewhat turning quickly round and round, quicker and quicker with each passing millisecond. The laughter was now getting to her. She was completely incapable of remaining on her own two feet at this time since she struggled so much to just look up at the spinning moon. Suddenly a sun appeared from out of nowhere to her as she widened her eyes not being able to explain to herself what she was looking at. Like the moon, the sun began to rotate as well, only toward the opposite direction. They were making her dizzy causing her to close her eyes, look down, try to shake it off, before looking up again at the half morning sky. The spinning did not stop for several seconds making it seem like an eternity to Kat. She squinted her eyes before seeing them stop suddenly. She questioned this before again widening her eyes at a now slowly rotating sun and moon showing themselves to her somehow. She couldn't tell by the side of the turns at this point, but she could swear they were…faces?

As they both made their complete turns, she saw the sun and moon look at one another before turning to her and laughing. She cocked her head at this as she questioned in her mind what was going on, before her thoughts were suddenly stopped as she noticed the sun and moon falling. Were they falling? No…she then realized what was going on, they wanted to eat her. She quickly turned around and began to run as fast her legs could take her away from these cartoon-looking things. Her feet began to hurt so much as she ran toward the school's entrance. She stopped, took off her heels and threw them to the side before running toward the door to find that it was locked.

"Ah!" she screamed as they began to approach her faster now seeing how vulnerable she was at this point. She ran to the side of the school looking to her left seeing Officer Rodriguez running her way. Again she yelled before turning a corner and heading right up the stairs to the side entrance. Again, locked. She didn't know what to do at this point, so she decided to jump off the small balcony heading to the outside tables. She jumped quickly landing on a table feet first before stumbling with her own fall and diving head first to the ground. She lifted up her head and turned as she looked up at the sky and saw nothing but a dark navy blue color above her. She sighed a sign a relief before looking around and seeing the sun and the moon each to one of her sides.

Again, she yelled as hard as she could as she felt them getting closer, and closer. She shrieked a cry of plea as she saw Officer Rodriguez getting closer. He knelt down over her straddling her pressing her body down with his own weight. He grabbed her wiggling hands. "No!" she cried over and over as she felt her hand being pushed down forcibly to the cold grass by Officer Rodriguez.

- - -

"Kat…Kat…Kat!" she heard her name being called making her wake up shaking furiously from side to side trying to get away from the nightmare.

"No!" she cried again as she opened her eyes to find her hands unable to be moved much. She stopped once she saw the white walled surroundings and the bright light hitting her eyes making her close them in pain.

"Kat…you're awake" an excited voice told her as she recognized the voice being Tommy's. "Can you hear me?"

"Yeah" she said groggily still adjusting her eyes to the light. For some reason she tried to raise her hands up, but couldn't. It wasn't until her vision started clearing up when she noticed being chained to the hospital bed. Her wrists were buckled tightly with only two inches of chains letting her move. "What…" she asked out loud seeing herself chained down like that. It was then that she felt her ankles pulled down keeping her from lifting her legs. "What…what's going on?" she asked a bit more stable now as she tried to comprehend fully by herself.

"Kat, I'm so glad you're okay" Tommy told her as he walked up to the bed and began to soothe her hair back from her face.

"Yeah…but…why am I strapped like this?" she asked him trying again unsuccessfully to pry herself from the chains with her own weak strength.

"Um…let the nurse come in and check you. I'll explain everything to you later" he told her as he pressed the call button.

- - -

As the nurse left the room, Katherine tried to sit up with no prevail. Only then did she realize that she had practically no strength to do anything at all.

"Whoa" she heard him say before seeing him grab her from the back and helped her sit up, "be careful."

"Yeah" she said still confused wanting to ask, 'be careful from what?' Instead, she sat up and placed her hands over her legs before she began to rub her sore wrists. "Tommy…what happened? Why am I at the hospital?"

"Kat…umm" he began before getting up and beginning to pace around the room annoyingly. This frustrated her like hell, but she somehow remained patient as she waited for him to find the right words for her. "Kat" he said before taking in a deep breath and turning to look straight at her, "someone put something in a number of cups two nights ago at the D. A. R. E. Party."

"What do you mean? Like beer, or strong liquor?" she asked him wanting him to get specific.

"No Kat" he said, sympathy in his voice, "not alcohol…it was LSD" he told her with a pain in his face as if he was seeing the events happen that very second.

"Acid?" she asked him knowing the answer was yes.

He nodded his head slowly not being able to pick up his sight from the floor. "Some of the cups were tainted from the inside with powder" he explained to her slowly picking up his head to look at her.

She nodded. "Is everyone okay?"

"Yeah" he began. "Jason, Rocky, and Emily got it in their systems too, but it wasn't as bad since they had figured out what had happened by then."

"What do you mean, 'wasn't as bad'?" she asked wanting to know more preferably about her condition since he made it sound a bit more serious.

He took a seat on the bed casually as she moved her legs heavily to the side feeling his hand on top of hers. "After I gave you the punch, I went to the restroom and when I went back outside, you had finished the whole punch by that time…you were…umm…"

She raised her eyebrows at him in a gesture of wanting him to continue.

"…You were on the ground twitching uncontrollably. You were having hallucinations of some sort…"

She looked down at both their hands embarrassingly feeling a tear rolling down her eye. Feeling it streak her chin, she felt a manly hand wipe it away.

He forced his look of remorse away from his face, but it kept coming back. "I'm really sorry I wasn't there to stop you from drinking that Kat…"

"Tommy, it wasn't your fault…" she failed at the attempt to break his sentence.

"If I hadn't of gone to restroom, none of this would've happened to you…" he continued to say feeling his throat begin to choke up.

As he was speaking, she felt a coldness run down her back as she remembered her hallucination. At this Katherine quickly lifted her hand up to his lips to silence him. "Shh" she quieted him down just wanting to do anything at this point to change the subject. "Thank you" she told him, "for being here with me."

His sad eyes widened a bit before dimming down and forcing a grin on his face, he simply answered, "you're welcome."