Rainbow of Friendship

August 25, 2006

Tommy's POV

Tomorrow. Finally, after two months of planning and endless phone calls, emails, and voice messages, the party is finally here. Man, I can't wait to see everyone again. Or to meet those teams that I haven't met yet. Chuckling, I realize that there's not too many of those. My musings are brought to an abrupt halt at the sound of my doorbell. Rising, I throw my soda can into the recycle bin and open the door. Zack, Angela, and Jason smile back at me before I'm bombarded with hugs and back slaps and handshakes from my brothers.

"Hey, what are you guys doing here today? Hi, Angela," I say as I kiss her cheek.

"Hi, Tommy. The boys here decided that they needed to come a day early to spend a little extra time with you. I came because Zack came, and to see if there was anything I could do to help get set up for tomorrow."

"Well, I can't think of anything at the moment, but tomorrow we'll have plenty to do, so I'll appreciate the help. I'm planning on leaving here at six to get to Angel Grove by eight. I hope that's OK with you guys."

"Sure, bro. Zack and I are used to late nights and early mornings. Comes with the jobs, you know." Jason laughed.

"Late nights? It's only eleven in the morning!" I exclaim.

"Yeah, man. That means that we still have another thirteen or fourteen hours of partying left to do before we have to hit the sack!" At this point Zack was doing a couple Hip-Hop Kido moves from back in high school. I had to laugh at the sight. That's when I spied Billy coming up the front steps. I run out and give him a hug and usher him into my living room, taking his suitcase from him.

"Well, I see that I'm not your first guest. Hi guys," Billy states.

"Yo, Billy man! What's up, Bro?" Zack and Jason run to hug their "little brother", then hang back so Angela can greet Billy, too.

"Hey, can anyone join this party or is it original Rangers only?" Turning around, I see Rocky, Adam, and Aisha grinning at me from the doorway.

"Hi guys. Come on in!" I shout, resigned to seeing all my old friends today rather than tomorrow. Another round of hugs and handshakes and introductions (for Angela's benefit) takes place before me. Where is everyone going to sleep?

"Room for three more?" comes a familiar voice from the doorway. There stood Kimberly, Katherine, and Tanya, struggling with nine suitcases and six carry-ons between them. The guys and I laugh, each of us taking a suitcase and hugging the girls, and we all troop into my living room, which is now a mass of suitcases, briefcases, carry-ons, and people.

"So, since I don't have any food in my kitchen, why don't we all head out to lunch?" I suggest. "I know a great Thai place." We all pick up our wallets – or purses – and head outside. Kimberly, Kat, Aisha, Tanya, and Angela all climb into Kim's Expedition, while Zack, Jason, Billy, Rocky, Adam, and I climbed into my Jeep.

- - - - - - - - - - - -

"Yo, Tommy. What's the plan for this week?" Zack asked, around a mouthful of Pad Thai.

"Well, tomorrow we have the initial get-together at the Juice Bar. Kimberly and I are working on a couple of get-to-know-your-color-mates games, and I still have to figure out the menu for it, as well. I decided that just taking Ernie's business from him for a day was enough, so it's up to me to provide the food – and now you, since you were so adamant about coming a day early."

"If one or two of the girls want to join me in a shopping expedition this afternoon, we'll get a bunch of stuff for you. I still have to go grocery shopping today anyhow, to stock up the kitchen at the Command Center." Kimberly offered.

"I'll go."

"Thanks, Kat."

"OK, well Kim, just let me know when you're planning on going, and I'll give you some money for it."

"Absolutely not, Tommy. I have an account set up for supplies for the Command Center, and whatever we need to get for the party tomorrow is not going to put it over the top. I guarantee it."

"Well, then at least let me buy your lunch," I argued as the waitress brought up the ticket.

"Nope. I've got this one, Tom," Billy was already reaching for his wallet. Frustrated, I raised my hands in defeat.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

3rd Person POV

"Kim, I think we need to talk," Kat ventured, once they had dropped the other women back at Tommy's house and were headed towards the supermarket.

"What did you want to talk about, Kat?"

"I want to clear the air about Tommy, in case you had heard something that maybe you didn't want to."

"Kat, relax. I know what the rumors were about you and Tommy after I left, and I have to admit, when I got a letter signed from Tommy that he had found someone new, I wondered if it was you." Kim took a deep breath. "But later Aisha told me that you had just broken up with your boyfriend from Australia shortly after Tommy received what he thought was my letter, and that you two spent more time together as friends because of what you had both gone through. I don't blame you for that, and I don't hold it against you."

Katherine looked relieved. "Really, Kim?"

"Absolutely." She pulled into a parking space near the front of the store and jumped out. "Now let's stop with the guilt trip and go on a shopping trip!"

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

3rd Person POV

Four hours and twenty carts of food later, the girls were back at the car, fitting the last two loads of bag-laden carts into the various seats and storage spaces like a jigsaw puzzle. "Geez, Kim, I'm glad that you own an expedition, otherwise we'd be making three trips to the grocery store!" laughed Katherine as she surveyed the stuffed vehicle. "What's the total damage on all this, anyhow?"

They had started out each grabbing a cart and, splitting their list in half, going their separate ways and filling their carts, meeting back at the checkout lane, paying for the groceries, loading it into the car, and starting again. They had done this ten times before finally reaching the end of their list.

Kim took out the receipts and did a quick figure in her head. "A little over eight thousand dollars," she replied.

"Man, you must love Tommy to spend that amount of money on food for him."

Tommy apparently had the same idea. "Holy shit, Kim!" he cried when he saw the bags piled on top of one another. "How much did you spend?"

"Tommy, you're planning a week-long get-together for 72 people. Did you think you could get by with a couple of beers and soda?" Kim retorted. "This is a perfectly acceptable amount of food for this many people for this length of time. Now," turning to the other men, "the bags on the middle seat stay here, and Kat and I will run the rest of these up to the Command Center to put them away."

"I'll come with you. I need to do my monthly computer check anyhow," Billy added.

"Great. We'll be back in about an hour. Aisha, can you start pulling apart the roast chickens that are in there? Thanks."

- - - - - - - - - - - - - -

"Kim, come see this!" Billy called through the intercom.

"What's up, Bill?" she asked as she and Kat came up to the Command Center from the kitchen.

"Well, I added a tracker the last time I was here that will track a power source from anywhere in the galaxy. See this little cluster of colors here?" They nodded. "That's the group of us in Angel Grove. Now look over here." He pointed at another spot on his chart. "That's a Yellow Ranger. Not on the Earth," he added significantly.

"So Maya is traveling here before the rest of the Lost Galaxy team. Big deal," Kat said.

"That's not Maya. Maya's over here," he pointed again, this time at a smaller cluster of colors at the edge of the galaxy. "See, the Galaxy team is on their ship, and making their way here. So who's on the moon? And see this light? There's another power source that I can't identify with whoever this Yellow is."

Kimberly sighed. "I don't know, Billy. Maybe it's a fluke. Maybe your system needs tweaking." She looked at his face and laughed. "OK, maybe not. Look, let's just forget it for now, OK? We can work on it some more tomorrow when we move everyone into the rooms downstairs."

"Yeah, I'm sure there's an explanation for it. You'll find it. But not right now. My stomach is growling, and Kimberly is making dinner, so we have to get back to Tommy's!" Kat shouted.

Billy laughed. "OK, let's go. Are you guys done in the kitchen?"

"Yep, all done. Let's go!"

- - - - - - - - - - - - - -

"Kim, that meal was great! I mean, where did you learn to cook like that?" Jason asked, once everyone had eaten their fill.

"Are you saying you didn't think I could cook in high school?" she smiled at his skeptical look. "Hey, you used to like my baked chicken!" She hit him. "And Tommy used to like my double chocolate raspberry brownies," she added.

"Oh, yeah. I forgot about those. Are we gonna have them this week sometime?" Tommy turned hopeful eyes to her.

"I'm making them tonight for tomorrow's party," she laughed.

"Alright!"

"Hey, sis, you never answered my question," Jason pouted.

"I worked my way through college working for a caterer. After my first year, she let me handle the cooking, and it did really well. I continued working for her into Grad School. When I wasn't on location, that is."

Tommy looked at her. "What did you study in Grad School?"

"I have my PhD in Paleobotany," she replied.

"You're kidding, right?" Tommy asked.

"No, why?" she looked confused.

"I have my PhD in Paleontology." He laughed. "Is that ironic, or what?"

"Yeah, it is," she smiled.

"How did you get into Paleobotany?"

"I was in college, just intending to get a degree in Physical Education so that I could go to a gym to coach gymnastics or something, but found that I really liked my science classes. Especially Microbiology. So I majored in it. Then I stayed for my Master's and got that, in Botany. About that time, I met a Paleontologist by the name of Anton Mercer."

She didn't notice Tommy's pale faceas she continued her narrative, "Dr. Mercer got me interested in his field. So much, in fact, that once I graduated with my Master's, I decided to try for my PhD in Paleobotany. Dr. Mercer mentioned to me his plan to take a group of Paleontology students from various colleges to an island that he owned to do some research for their Doctorates, and that he had a spot for one Paleobotany student. I accepted, and followed his team to his island. I was working on the opposite side of the island of the Paleontologists, so I never met any of them, but I understand that they were all bright, talented young men."

She took a deep breath before continuing. "Anyhow, I was collecting field samples of the plant life when I heard a rumble and felt an explosion. I had just enough time to run to the lagoon and swim out before I turned around and saw the entire island explode. I never saw Dr. Mercer again, or heard what happened to any of his students. I hope they're OK," she said quietly.

Tommy, tears streaming down his face, said, "One of them survived. The rest didn't escape unscathed. Anton became Mesogog, the Big Bad for the Dino Thunder team. One of his assistants, Terrance Smith, was found by Mesogog and rebuilt as a cyborg, Zeltrax."

Kimberly looked up, realization dawning in her eyes. "Oh, Tommy," she said, as she got up, walked around the table, climbed into his lap, and wrapped her arms tight around him.

He crushed her tight against him, his face buried in her neck. They stayed that way for several minutes before Kimberly reluctantly pulled away and began gathering dishes up. Angela went to stop her. "No, Kim. You made dinner. The rest of us girls can do dishes."

"I should help anyway…we have a lot of stuff to do tonight, and not very many hours left to do them in." Kimberly protested.

"How about if we split the work up between the eleven of us?" Adam suggested. "We can have four people doing dishes: one for washing, one for rinsing, one for drying, and one for putting away. Kimberly and Aisha can do the baking, Katherine and Rocko can do the cooking – and don't argue, Rocky, you're a good cook – and the rest of us can cut up vegetables and make dips and stuff. That way we'll get done faster and be able to pack everything up in Tommy and Kim's cars tonight, then still have time to kick back with beers and popcorn to watch a movie or two."

They worked steadily for the next two hours, and when the last counter had been cleared and the last container packed in the cars, they went to raid Tommy's movie collection. They decided the only fair way to go about this was to let the guys pick one movie and the girls to pick the other one.

Jason and Zack pulled out some beers, while Billy and Adam made some popcorn, then they all settled to watch the guys' choice: "Independence Day". When it was over, they made some more popcorn, got a few more beers, and pulled out the girls' choice: "Titanic". None of them made it to the end of the movie.