Jake drummed his fingers on the table at Ernie's. He had a milkshake next to his notebook and pencil, and another milkshake sitting across from him on the table. He was waiting for Gia so they could get to work on their assignment. They only had a few days to write it which meant they needed to get started.

In his pocket, Troy had the paper Emma had written up for him in regards to Gia. The information was very basic and even a little boring. His presentation would be far from entertaining if this was the paper he had to turn in and Jake wasn't known to give boring presentations.

He was determined to do a little digging on Gia. He had the perfect excuse. He knew he couldn't dig too far, he didn't want to cross any lines, but there had to be more to Gia than just being the hottest and smartest girl in school. Amazing needed depth.

A yellow bag was dropped on the chair across from him as Gia sat down.

"You start."

Straight to business. Jake nodded his head, "Ask away."

"I don't know. Tell me about soccer or… whatever," Gia rolled her eyes and put her pencil to her notebook to begin writing.

Jake shrugged his shoulders, "There's no real story there. My parents signed me up when I was a kid and I loved it. I have ever since."

"Great," Gia took down his answer, "How did you and Noah meet?"

"Kindergarten," Jake answered. "I was the new kid, saw Noah, thought he looked pretty cool and we started hanging out. No big."

"You're a little boring," Gia pointed out and sighed, "Alright, look; just tell me something I can write up for this assignment. The first time you broke a bone, or your first family vacation, or…"

"Gia, I'm just a normal guy. There's nothing exciting about me."

Gia raised an eyebrow. Jake leaned back in his seat and chuckled.

"Alright, there's nothing exciting that people need to know. On the surface, I'm just like everyone else. I do okay in school, I've got a favourite sport, and I like hanging out with my friends. You can dig all you want. I'm an open book. What you see is what you get."

"Seriously? So there's no depth to you, at all? There's literally nothing I can write about for this assignment?"

"You could write the Ranger thing," Jake tapped his fingers on her notebook. Gia looked up at him and rolled her eyes. He shrugged, "What? I don't have a secret agenda or anything. I'm a stand-up guy. You should know that."

"I know you're just like everyone else," Gia shook her head and closed her book. She pushed the milkshake Jake had bought for her closer to him, "I know what you're thinking. I saw you in class when Mme Lacroix was picking out names. You were just like every other guy. Drooling and hopeful…"

"So?"

"Get over it! How many times do I have to turn you all down? How long before you get it? No means no!"

"I get that. I really do," Jake saw Gia was packing up her bag and she looked ready to leave. He reached out and grabbed her arm gently, "Alright, look, I think it's obvious by now that I've got a huge crush on you. Like, a monster crush. Even when I try, I can't get you out of my head. So yeah, in that sense, I'm the same as all the other guys. I want you. But I also care about you. A lot."

"Leave me alone. I'll do this assignment on my own. I'll just write about… nothing. One fail won't screw me up, right?"

Gia pulled her arm free from Jake and started to walk off. Just as she was about to leave, the ground shook. She looked out the glass doors and saw people running and screaming and they were all headed in one direction. With a loud groan she turned to Jake and nodded her head. He jumped up, ready for action while the rest of the customers and Ernie hid under tables or used the emergency exits to run for safety.

When Jake caught up, Gia ran ahead. If all the people were running one way then danger was the opposite. She and Jake pushed their way through the crowd until they saw a group of Loogies terrorizing the plaza.

"Over there," she pointed to an alley and pulled Jake along where it was safe to morph without being seen. She was just a little faster than he and ran into battle first. Jake followed her as soon as he could, but was swarmed by the Loogies before he could get to her side.

"Any sign of a big bad?"

"Less talk, more fight! The others should be here soon."

Jake groaned. Gia was a tough shell to crack, but he would get through to her. He knew he had to. Her guard was up, and given what had happened at the party, Jake knew it was up for a reason. He also knew it didn't always have to be. He wouldn't hurt her. He would never do to her as Mick and Alex had.

"I'm scared of hospital," he called out. "My grandmother, my aunt, and two of my cousins died in a hospital within a month when I was a kid."

"Why are you telling me this now?" Gia called back. Jake kicked a Loogie in the chest then shrugged.

"They were in an accident, so for a while I was scared of the car, but I got over that. You know how things are different when you're a kid, and what makes sense when you get older is kind of… strange and scary? Well, I was really close to my grandmother, my aunt, and my cousins and when they died it really hurt. To make matters worse, my parents took me to visit and then days later I was told they had bled out, or some surgery went wrong, or whatever, and they died. So I thought the hospital had something to do with it and I just… can't get over it. To this day, I'm still scared of that place"

Jake took down the last of his Loogies and smiled to himself as he looked around. It seemed it had just been a minor attack, as no monster had shown himself and Gosei or the other Rangers weren't calling him or Gia to another part of town.

"You can write that for your report," Jake turned to where Gia had been fighting the Loogies but saw she wasn't there. He groaned loudly, let his shoulders fall, and powered down. "Or you can run first chance you get."

He turned away. He would have to leave quickly before the emergency team got to the sight to clean up the mess and make sure there was no one left behind. He didn't want to get caught and have to explain his presence as well as how he managed to sit through an entire attack and only earn himself a couple of cuts and bruises.

He stopped before he got too far. He heard something. It was a faint cry. He decided he would check it out, and held his morpher in his hand just in case he would need it again. He hadn't been a Ranger for long, but he knew the monsters were very sneaky. At any time, they could be up to anything.

He approached a car that had been overturned from the attack and heard the faint cry once more. He checked around the car but there was nothing.

"Hello?" he called out and then something hit his foot. He looked down and saw a morpher. It wasn't his. His was still in his hand. He picked it up and then had the idea to check inside the car, "Gia?"

"Help."

He saw her lying on the ceiling of the overturned car. She had powered down and there were small pieces of glass stuck in her shoulder and upper arm as well as a gash on her forehead. Jake turned to the car's windshield and noticed it was shattered.

"Ouch," he looked back to Gia, "That's got to…"

He trailed off when he saw Gia's head fall. His adrenaline spiked and he had to work quickly to get her out, only he had no idea how. He heard sirens in the distance.

"I'll get help," he told her as he jumped back up to his feet, "Don't move… uh… well… I'll be back."

He raced out on the street until he saw the ambulance coming closer. He waved his arms and called for the driver to stop. When the truck did stop, the paramedics rushed out.

"Kid, are you okay?"

"It's my friend," Jake pointed down the street where he could still see the car Gia was trapped inside. He knew the Loogies could get pretty rough even for the Rangers, so coming up with a believable story wouldn't be too tough, "We were driving through when those freaky monsters came out of nowhere. She crashed the car and they just… they."

"Are you okay?" the paramedic asked again while his partner started to run to the Jake had pointed to.

"I'm fine. You have to help her," Jake pushed the paramedic towards the car and that was his signal to go. The fire truck also came by and when the firemen came from their truck, Jake pointed them in Gia's direction. He bit his lip nervously as he watched them pull Gia from the car. Her Ranger suit had taken most of the damage, but being thrown through a windshield and then having the car flip over was surely going to leave something behind. The paramedics got her into the ambulance and then one waved Jake over.

"You can get checked out too. C'mon, kid."

Without a second thought, Jake climbed into the truck. He sat down beside Gia who was awake again.

"I thought you were scared of hospitals," she whispered.

Jake shrugged his shoulders, "An ambulance isn't a hospital. Is there anyone you want me to call? Your parents or…"

Gia shook her head and then winced as the paramedic touched the gash on her forehead.

Jake reached out and put his hand on her arm, "You don't have to tell me anything, if you don't want to. Emma wrote up a report for me and I'll probably get a better grade on it than anything I could do so…"

"I don't trust guys," Gia sighed and turned to Jake. "Mick and Alex weren't the first to do something… like that."

"Then who was?"

Gia looked away, "I don't want to talk about it. It was stupid. It's just… that's why, okay. I didn't protect myself and something happened. Can we just… be friends?"

Jake nodded his head, "Yeah, sure."