A/N: The last of the promised 5 chapters. If you guys see any mistakes, let me know so I can fix them, please! Hopefully, I can start updating once a week again. Enjoy!
Disclaimer: I don't own anything recognizable; that all belongs to someone else. No money is being made off of this.
The three watch as the two left them, the taller of the two taking most of the weight off of his friend's ankle.
It couldn't have been a more perfect situation if they'd concocted it to actually happen. But that was the problem- it wasn't really happening; it was just a good friend helping another good friend home. Nothing more, nothing less.
"Guys, this isn't working," Kimberly tells her friends as Rocky joins them, coming from the dance floor with a wide grin on his face. But the grin soon fades as he glances curiously around the group, confused.
"Hey, Kim, weren't you dancing with Tommy a little while ago?" the red-clad young man asks while using a napkin to dab at his face.
"He took Adam home," Aisha explains shortly, shaking her head.
Rocky's face lights up, his grin returning. "Well, that's good." He pauses, glancing at the serious and annoyed faces of his friends and his grin fades again. "...Isn't it?" He asks finally, uncertain.
"It would be great, if they would just-" Kimberly waves her hands around in annoyance, looking for the right word and coming up with a blank.
"Cooperate?" Billy offers dryly, actually scowling.
"That's it exactly," Aisha agrees with a dark scowl, crossing her arms over her chest. "They're just not doing what we thought they would do. And it's really starting to get on my nerves," she adds the last with a small growl, clenching her hands into fists, looking as though she wants to punch something.
Or someone.
"The only way we can really get them to do what we want is to tell them what we want," Rocky points out with a heavy sigh, reaching past his friends to grab a small cup of punch.
"Which just isn't an option," Kimberly states firmly, glaring at Rocky for even suggesting such a thing. "While it may help in some cases, it could make the entire thing fall apart faster than one of the Power Ranger's Zord fights." The last is said with a meaningful look.
"Maybe we should actually ask someone for advice or something," Rocky comments, sipping at his punch and watching the dancers, more lost in thought than actually seeing his fellow teenagers having a good time.
"But who would we ask?" Aisha asks, mostly rhetorically. She didn't think that there was anyone who could give them advice that wouldn't then go to either of their targets and tattle like some four year old.
"Well, I don't know. We could ask Mrs. Park," Rocky suggests, shooting Aisha a stern look.
"Oh, no. No way. You know how Adam's dad feels about the whole thing, and if we tell Mrs. Park, she's sure to tell his dad." There were bad memories there, none that either wanted to think about. While the three - Adam, Aisha and Rocky - respected each other's parents, Adam's were probably the strictest of the five adults. And Mr. Park wanted more than anything for Adam to follow in his footsteps; to become a corporate man once he was finished with high school, get married, have a family. He hadn't believed it when his son, with the support of his two best friends, had come out to him and his wife.
Over all, it hadn't ended well.
"You'll have to tell that story some time," Kimberly breaks through the heavy silence that has fallen between the two, obviously worried about the dark looks that were showing clearly on Aisha and Rocky's faces. They had obviously remembered something they didn't want to talk about, but it was Kimberly's experience that talking about it made it easier.
Well, most of the time, anyway.
"Maybe. That's something that Adam would have to agree to, though," Aisha tells the Pink Ranger softly, shaking her head with another sigh. "But we're getting off track- what are we going to do about the boys?"
The other three glance at each other, all three looking completely at a loss as to what to do. Finally, Kimberly restates what she'd said earlier, hoping it'll help at least get the ball rolling.
"The whole thing just isn't working the way we want it to. And telling them is definitely out of the question. But we have to do something before it completely falls apart," she tells the group, adding the last with a firm nod.
"Maybe we could some how get them to spend more time alone together," Billy suggests, speaking for the first time since his earlier completion of Kimberly's sentence.
"It's a thought, though I'm not sure how we're going to make that happen; Adam usually tries to stick with Aisha or me, and Tommy spends his time with Kimberly or on the mats," Rocky points out, though he's still thinking about it when he finishes. The other two look thoughtful, as well.
"Well, maybe we can get them nearly alone, but with one of us with them," Kimberly finally suggested, speaking slowly as she thinks aloud. "If there's one of us with them, they won't think anything of it. But that way, we could steer where they're going better than just shoving them together." Her eyes light up as she processes that this is what they should have been doing all along. "Why didn't we think of this before?!"
"Because we've been too busy focusing on the hypothesis that it may actually work, rather than putting the thesis into practice," Billy points out, once again shedding light on something that Kimberly had nearly missed. His statement causes the two girls to glance guiltily at each other, even as they realize that while he's correct, they're moving past that now.
The two girls reach past their blue-clad friend, snagging glasses of punch of their own. Aisha and Kimberly raise the glasses, grinning now.
"So, to the plan?" Aisha asked of the toast proposal, glancing at the two boys in their small group of matchmakers.
"To the plan," Rocky agreed, grinning and raising his glass.
"To the plan," Billy adds, looking reluctant but willing.
"To the plan," the girls say together, giggling as the four 'chink' the plastic glasses together.
"Let's hope this one works better than the last," Aisha adds, earning a laugh from all three of her friends.