Emma looked to the skirt on Gia's bed, and then the dress. She turned to her best friend, "So, what does one wear on a date with Gia Moran?"
"How would I know?" Gia shrugged her shoulders. "Wear whatever you want."
Emma rolled her eyes and grabbed the skirt, "Are you sure about this? You know I don't mind not going to parties."
"It might be fun," Gia answered, "Seeing the looks of disappointment on all their faces. It might finally get them all to stop staring."
"Why don't you just say yes to someone's request? You know boys want what they can't have. You're just setting yourself up."
"I used to say yes," Gia sighed, "You remember that? You remember what would happen? I'm not going through all that again."
"And I don't want you too," Emma nodded her head, "Alright, we'll crush their little spirits, but I have a feeling this is only going to be temporary."
"That's fine," Gia said.
Emma walked to the bathroom to get changed and when she came back she looked to Gia for her opinion. Gia smiled.
"You look very pretty Miss. Goodall."
"You know, usually when someone asks me out, they bring flowers or something when they pick me up. At my house. With their car. And they pay for dinner."
Gia looked around her room then picked up a sheet of paper from her desk, "I can turn this into a flower by the time we get next door."
"This date sucks," Emma laughed as she ripped the paper from Gia's hand, "Let's just go get this over with. You can buy me a shake at Ernie's tomorrow."
-Megaforce-
"Dude, it's Friday night!" Jake groaned as he leaned back in the booth. He had finished his shake and an ice-cream cone and was determined to go out and have a bit of fun, but Noah refused to leave his laptop. "C'mon, we should be out having fun. We work all week at school. Put the laptop away."
"I've got a few more things to work on," Noah shook his head, "I've got to get them done before I forget."
"Write it down on a sticky note or something. I'm bored. Look, I promise we won't go to the field to practice my shots on net."
"I still have bruises from last time," Noah groaned and rubbed his chest, "You know the goal is not to hit the goalie, but to get the ball past him, right?"
"Ever think of joining the soccer team?" Jake teased and then shut Noah's laptop, almost brushing the blue Ranger's fingers, "Please, dude. Let's just go hang out somewhere tonight and then tomorrow I'll even help you with that computer-y stuff."
"Alright, fine," Noah sighed and as he opened his bag to put away his laptop he had a thought, "Maybe we should invite Troy too."
"Sure, but we've got to figure out where we're going."
"Mick's throwing a party," Noah suggested and Jake looked to him strangely. He shrugged his shoulder, "What? He's a pretty cool guy, and a party would be the perfect place to spread the word about the HSH."
"The what?"
"Harwood Social Hub?" Noah groaned, "You and I really need to work on your acronyms. I can talk to a few people about the Hub, you can party with your soccer friends and if Troy wants to come along, maybe he can make a few friends too."
"Alright, I guess that sounds good…"
Noah sighed, "Doesn't Mick live right next door to Gia?"
Jake nodded his head, "What are we waiting for? Let's go!"
-Megaforce-
Troy was in the park practicing his martial arts. For the most part, he trained alone. He had loved his time at the Shiba's Dojo and it didn't feel right going anywhere else. He also didn't feel like he was being challenged when anyone else taught him. Lauren and Jayden knew what they were doing and always had a way of pushing him to improve. No other martial arts academy could compete with that.
He landed firmly on both feet after flipping around and stopped to catch his breath. He saw his bottle of water waiting for him on the park bench and went to grab it. As he did, he noticed his cell phone was buzzing. He took a sip of water and then checked his messages. It was Noah, inviting him to a party. Troy wasn't one to go to parties, but he couldn't spend every day by himself. He replied to the message saying he would meet up with them around the corner from the party's location and they could arrive together.
-Megaforce-
"Has it been five minutes yet?" Gia asked as she sat at the breakfast bar in Mick's kitchen and watched as the houseful of people danced to the music. Some were high, some were drunk, and some of the guests were just plain weird without the perks.
"Four and a half," Emma shook her head and then her eye caught those of the school's hockey team captain and she started to blush. She had no idea he had been invited to the party. Mick, the host, was on the school's soccer team. The hockey team and the soccer team never mixed.
The hockey captain, Drew, gave her a smile, put down his drink and started to make his way over. Given he wasn't stumbling and knocking into people, Emma could assume he hadn't been drinking or smoking.
Gia nudged her, "We're supposed to be on a date."
Emma stuck out her lower lip, "Gia, he's the first guy to look my way all night. And he is really cute."
"You do know what's going to happen the moment you leave my side, right?"
"Five minutes," Emma begged but it was already too late. Drew was standing right next to her. Gia rolled her eyes, grabbed her drink from the counter, and left them alone. She was counting down the seconds.
-Megaforce-
Troy noticed Jake and Noah waiting for him around the corner from the party and smiled. He wasn't sure about tonight, but it did feel good to be invited out with them.
"What's up?"
"Awesome, you're here. Let's go," Jake walked ahead, moving as quickly as he could without making it obvious he was in a rush. Noah groaned and shook his head.
"Jake's deluded. You get used to it."
Troy gave a little smile, "What's he deluded about?"
"Gia."
Troy chuckled and nodded his head, "Everyone knows that. I'm the new guy, and even I know that."
"In spite of the fact that Gia hasn't shown up at any after school events ever," Noah said loud enough for Jake to hear him up ahead, "Jake's positive she'll be at this party. And though he'll get lost in the sea of other guys trying to hit on her – if she's even there – he thinks he's got a shot."
"Never give up on your dreams!" Jake called back, "C'mon, you two are slowing me down."
"Why does he think Gia's going to be at this party?" Troy asked Noah.
"She lives right next door."
"So?"
"Exactly," Noah nodded. He adjusted the strap on his shoulder, placing it a little higher up before turning to Troy, "So, did you go to lots of parties at your old school?"
"Nope. Never interested."
"Me neither," Noah shook his head, "I'm only going now because it'll give me the chance to talk about the HSH. By the way, I still need your profile."
"I'm working on it, I promise," Troy said, "I'm just making sure I'm not giving too much about myself away."
"The Hub is going to be completely secure, I promise."
"Guys! Guys!" Jake arrived at the party's door and was waving them over, "The party's hot! C'mon!"
"Let's go in before he wets himself," Noah rolled his eyes and Troy chuckled. Jake did not look amused.
"Why are we friends again?"
"Because you need me," Noah gave his best friend a pat on the back.
-Megaforce-
Emma wasn't usually the one being hit on by the guys. She spent a lot of her free time with Gia and was often overlooked for her best friend. It did hurt from time to time but she always kept Gia's words in her head. If a guy was stupid enough to overlook her even once for another girl, then he wasn't worth her time. Emma didn't want to have to keep any of her boyfriends away from her best friend just so she wouldn't have to worry about his gaze straying over all night. If she was going to date or get into a relationship with anyone, he had to have eyes for her.
Of course, there were the few times guys did try to get close to her, but most of the time they were doing so to get to Gia. It had hurt Emma several times, but she had learned to smell the rat. It did limit her date nights, and Gia knew Emma's relationship troubles were mostly due to her, so whenever Emma did get a real chance to start something, Gia was always kind enough to step out of the way.
And it seemed she and Drew had a real connection. Not once did he look around the room at the other girls or did he ask her anything about Gia. Emma really felt she had something with the hockey player and was just waiting for him to ask her out on a real date.
She had no idea how much time had passed, but knew it had been more than the five minutes she had promised Gia. Fortunately, it seemed her best friend was really being generous and if this night did work out the way Emma hoped it would, she would be the one buying Gia the smoothie.
Until she felt a tap on the shoulder. She looked over and saw Noah and Troy standing over her and Drew. She groaned loudly. It seemed they were both unaware of how important and rare this night was for her.
"Just two minutes," Noah begged her as he pulled out his laptop, "We need to talk to Drew."
"'Bout what?" Drew asked.
"The Harwood Social Hub," Noah explained as he showed off his profile page to Drew as a model, "It's a social networking website that I came up with for the school. Everyone's going to have their own page to…"
"Sounds like a Facebook rip-off to me," Drew shook his head.
"It'll be better," Noah said.
"It's actually pretty cool," Troy nodded. Because he didn't know anyone at the party but his Megaforce team, and he wasn't great at socializing, he had agreed to help Noah pitch his idea for the website. It was better than spending another Friday night alone.
"I'm not interested," Drew said and he gestured to Emma, "Now, if you don't mind, we were having a good time."
"It actually is a pretty cool idea," Emma said to Drew with a smile, "I've got my profile already, and I think, once Noah's done, it's going to be better than Facebook."
"Look, the geeks can do their thing and that's cool," Drew said, "but I'm not signing up for some lamo club or whatever it's called."
"Harwood Social Hub," Noah corrected. Emma held up a hand to silence him.
"C'mon, Drew, it can't hurt. At least tell him you'll consider it."
"Whatever," Drew shook his head and got up from the couch. He called over to his friends and went to join them as they pulled out a small bottle of alcohol and secretly poured it into people's drinks. Emma had seen this activity had started a while ago and had stopped herself from drinking completely.
Noah and Troy scratched the backs of their necks nervously when they saw they had chased away Emma's date. She turned to them both and glared, "Thanks, guys."
"Sorry," Noah shrugged his shoulders, "I just thought that if I could get the hockey captain to… sorry," Noah said when he saw his explanation was doing nothing for Emma. She just sighed.
"I guess he did turn out to be a bit of a jerk anyways. Still, it would have been nice to find that out for myself after a few dates."
"Someone better will come along," Troy told her with a promising smile. Emma returned the look and nodded her head.
"I can only hope."
"Emma, you're here?" Jake asked her as he came over, looking somewhat shocked. It was a well-known fact around the school that Gia Moran never went to parties, no matter how many times she was invited, but very few people had noticed that Emma Goodall also never attended any parties. Wherever Gia went, Emma went and vice-versa. "That means…"
"Jake, seriously," Emma shook her head and grabbed his arm before he could start his search for the yellow Ranger, "Back off. You're not doing yourself any favours. Gia's not interested in dating at all and you're definitely not going to be the guy to change her mind."
"Says who?" Jake asked. Emma sighed loudly.
"Look, you're a great guy…"
"Now you're getting the speech from the best friend," Noah whispered in Jake's ear, "Give up."
"Gia doesn't date," Emma said. "It's nothing personal, she's just… Gia? Gia!"
Emma pushed her way past Jake and through the crowd when she saw her best friend stumbling down the stairs, clutching the hand rail tightly to keep herself from falling. Emma grabbed the yellow Ranger and helped her the rest of the way before setting her down on a nearby chair, "Gia, what were you doing upstairs?"
"I don't know," Gia shook her head and looked up. Emma knew there was something wrong. Gia looked like she had been, and possibly still was crying, and she seemed very different. Out-of-it, almost, "Can we… can we go…"
"Home," Emma nodded her head and helped Gia up. "You can stay at my place."
As Emma helped Gia to the door, she glanced over her shoulder at Troy, Jake, and Noah, who watched on with concern. When they were gone, Mick and Alex, both on the soccer team, came down the stairs. Halfway down they stopped, turned to the party they had started and pumped their fists in the air. Those who saw them cheered.
Jake knew what this meant and his blood began to boil. As Mick and Alex came down the stairs, Jake pushed his way through the crowd and met up with them. Without thinking, he threw a punch, hitting Alex on the side of his face.
"You're an asshole!" he shouted to the boy on the ground and was too distracted to see Mick was ready to defend his friend. Fortunately, Troy and Noah were right behind Jake. While Troy blocked Mick's punch, Noah pulled Jake away.
"Maybe it's time to go," Noah whispered and continued to tug on Jake's arm until they were at the door. Troy was right behind them and he kept close eye on Mick, Alex, and anyone else who thought it was Jake who was out of line.