Chapter Four: Trini
It's been a week since the green ranger attacked our ship. It's been all that's on my mind, much to Mom's disappointment. She thinks I'm even more distracted than usual. Typical. Now I'm sitting on a crowded school bus, heading to some stupid botanical centre bullshit. It's part of our science class… totally lame. Jason, Zack and Billy are in a different class to us, so they're going tomorrow.
"Trini?" Kimberly asks, dragging me out of my own mind.
"Yeah?" I reply, turning to face her.
"What do you think's gonna happen?"
"With what?"
"What do you think? The green problem." she says, staring blankly ahead, heavy bags under her eyes. I shrug, running my hands through my hair.
"I've got no idea, Kim. I wish I did. We just need to find out who they are, and take them out." I say firmly.
"Take them out?" Kim asks.
"Yep. Stone dead. They're clearly dangerous. This Lord Zedd guy's no joke, wherever he is, and taking out his little green ranger will be the first step in putting him down like Rita." I reply.
"Well, you slapped her into space…" Kimberly replies, smirking at me.
"Yeah, yeah. Same difference." I say, laughing a little.
"Looks like we're here." Kimberly says, grabbing her bag from between her feet and putting it on her lap.
"Yay." I reply, as sarcastically as is humanly possible.
"Okay everybody, let's get off the bus and then I'll split you into pairs to explore the centre." Mrs Appleby says, her voice is so high-pitched I swear. Nails on a frickin' chalkboard.
"I'm your partner, right?" Kimberly asks, as we step off the bus.
"Nah. I was gonna partner up with someone else today." I reply, smirking at her.
"Like hell." Kimberly replies, sauntering off the bus ahead of me. We filter out and line up along the bus, Mrs Appleby stands with a clipboard in her hands, trying to look super important. She clears her throat.
"Okay everyone, I'm going to split you into pairs, and then in your pairs you have to find one thing you find interesting in the centre and report back in tomorrow's class. A fifteen minute presentation for each pair. Everyone groans, presentations are the worst and we all know it.
"Amanda, you go with Aaron. Rebecca, with Grace. Ashley, you go with Taylor. Kimberly, you're with Eric." she starts, Kimberly moans.
"Save me…" she begs, as she walks over to Eric, he's a little bit of a nerd and looks a little too excited to be partnered up with Kimberly.
"Trini, you're with Tommi." she says, I raise an eyebrow. "Who?" I ask.
"Tomoko." she says, I look down the line and see a tall, dark-haired asian girl staring at me. I smile. 'Oh." I reply.
"Hey." I say, standing next to Tommi. She doesn't say anything, she's either shy or a mute. I can relate to either.
"Okay, let's get going." Mrs Appleby says, breezing straight to the coffee shop that sits at the front of the centre. Me and Tommi start walking, silently, in to one of the sub-sections of the building. It's wall to wall flowers, and it is quite pretty. But I'd rather be at home, or at school, or just about anywhere.
"So… Tommi, I'm sorry I didn't recognise your name before. I feel bad about it." I say, trying to break the ice. She looks at me for a second.
"It's okay. I'm used to people forgetting about me…" Tommi replies, trailing off.
"Hey, I know what it feels like. People used to think my name was DeeDee. Some still do." I say, she smiles. It's a pretty smile.
"See, I'm glad I got you to crack a smile at least. But seriously, I know how it feels to be left out or like you don't fit in. Don't worry, we're cool." I say, leaning close to look at a fly trap in front of us.
"That's awesome." Tommi says, taking a picture of it on her phone.
"Yeah, it could do some serious damage to your hand." I say, half-tempted to put my finger on it and see if it snaps.
"I think it's more interested in flies than human hands." Tommi replies, smiling again.
"Well, should we find out?" I ask.
"I don't think so." Tommi replies, "but feel free to be the guinea pig."
"Ha, whatever." I say, nudging her slightly. The rest of the trip goes by pretty smoothly. We picked the flytrap as out "most interesting thing," and Tommi agreed to make the presentation if I read it out in class. A fair trade I guess. We traipse back to the bus after a few hours, Tommi grabs the seat next to me before Kimberly got the chance.
"Not happy." Kimberly whispers, sitting next to Eric behind us. I turn and smile.
"Sorry 'bout it." I wink.
"Thank you for being so nice to me today, Trini. I think you're the first person at Angel Grove to make an effort since I started here." Tommi says, it makes me blush.
"Don't sweat it." I reply. "You should know, I'm miss congeniality."
"Of course, I already got that." Tommi says, laughing. We stay quiet again for a while, the bus ride back to school is a couple of hours. Eventually, Tommi falls asleep and rests her head on my shoulders. Of course, Kimberly leans over and takes a picture of us to send to the others. Feeling her resting on me is giving me butterflies. I'm trying to ignore the feeling, just for the sake of keeping my life as simple as can be when you're a power ranger, but it's not working. When we get back to school I have to jog her awake.
"Hey, Tommi. We're back." I say.
"Oh god, Trini, I'm sorry. I didn't mean to fall asleep on you." Tommi replies shyly.
"I don't mind at all." I say, smiling at her. She returns the favour and we sort of stare at each other for a second. We walk off the bus, ready to filter off to our separate cars.
"I'll meet you by the car." Kimberly says quietly as she passes us.
"Thanks again for today, Trini." Tommi says.
"No prob." I say, "I'll see you around I suppose."
"Yeah…" Tommi says. I start walking off when she speaks up again.
"Trini, I wondered, could I have your number? You know, for the project and stuff." she says, not very convincing. It's definitely for more than just the project.
"Of course." I say, taking her phone and typing my number in. "I'll text you later, Tommi. See you around."
"Bye Trini." she says, turning and walking towards a car with an older, asian woman in it. By the time I get to Kimberly's car, she's leaning against it smiling like the cheshire cat.
"You like her." she says, as we get in.
"No I don't."
"Yes, you do." she says, giggling.
"Okay, she is cute." I reply, Kimberly lets out a roar of approval and hugs me.
"Yeas. girl, I'm happy for you." she says.
"We're not getting married, Kim. She did ask for my number though."
"Holy shit." Kimberly replies, starting up the car.
"Yeah, we'll see I guess." I reply, leaning my head against the window.
"Trini's getting married…" Kimberly sings, in a mock high-pitched voice.
"I will kill you." I say, Kim just laughs. Maybe Tommi and I will be more than just friends, or whatever we are right now. Maybe.