Here's the next chapter!
Kim ran into class, not wanting to be late. She looked around, waved at Tanya and Kat, and walked over to Trini, who was waving her over.
"Hey, Trini."
"Hey,--" Trini was about to say something, but was cut off by the teacher.
"As much as I'm sure you love your seats, I'm moving you all. New lab partners for everybody!" Since nobody moved, the teacher waved her hands. "Come on, come on, get up. You guys know I do this every six weeks. This should not be a surprise to anybody."
Everyone slowly got up from their seats.
"That's not fair," Kim whispered to Trini. "We weren't even here for the full six weeks."
Trini smiled and shrugged her shoulders.
"Okay, we're doing alphabetical order this time around."
A chorus of groans echoed around the room.
"I hate alphabetical order," someone said.
The teacher smiled. "Because you're always in the front?" she pointed to the first seat. "Come on, Mr. Abrams."
Groaning, he headed to his seat. The teacher pointed to a desk as she called out the last names of her students.
"Hart. Hillard."
Kim looked and saw that she and Kat were going to be partners.
"Great, things have been weird with Kat lately," she said to Trini in a low voice.
Trini smiled apologetically. "Maybe this will give you guys a chance to talk or something."
Kim shrugged her shoulders as she headed to the desk that she was going to be sharing with Kat. She smiled as she sat down, but couldn't ignore the tension in the air when Kat took a seat next to her.
"Well, this should be fun, right?" said Kim, trying to engage her in conversation.
"I guess," replied Kat, not looking at her. She moved her chair further from Kim, who looked at her in shock.
"I'm sorry, but do you have a problem, Kat?" Kim finally said what she's been thinking since she came back.
Kat turned to her and smiled. "No need to apologize, Kim, but I really need a good grade in this class, so excuse me if I don't do small talk."
Kim stared at her in disbelief as she turned back to face front.
"What the hell?" she thought.
Kim and Kat got through the class period without a word to each other and neither looked at each other as they both waited for their friends.
"Hey guys," Tanya said with a smile.
Kim and Kat both gave her an awkward smile.
"I'll see you later, Tanya," Kim said, walking out of the classroom.
"Bye," Trini said quickly, raising her eyebrows at Tanya before following Kim out the door.
She ran after Kim, who already made it down the hallway.
"Uh, what was that about?" Trini asked, pulling Kim's arm.
"Nothing...I just...it was nothing," said Kim.
"Are you sure?"
"Yeah, I'm sure." Kim smiled and linked her arm through Trini's. "Come on, we're gonna be late for Math."
Kim sat in class, tapping her pencil on her notebook, counting down the minutes until the bell rang. She was still thinking about her earlier exchange with Kat and wondered why she was acting like that.
Kim thought back to when she first came back to Angel Grove and got the courage to go to the Youth Center. Even then, Kim remembered, it still felt a little weird. She wondered if it was just her, but knew that Trini thought something was up with Kat, too.
"But," she thought, "Trini never met Kat before. So, she doesn't know how Kat really is."
Kim looked sideways at Trini. She was listening intently to the teacher and taking notes.
"Maybe I don't know how Kat really is."
She thought back to when they first met Kat. She did some evil things, but she was under an evil spell from Rita, so they couldn't blame her for what she did. "I mean," she thought, "Tommy was under a spell from Rita when we first met him and now look at him." And Kim knew that she didn't trust anybody else with the pink ranger power and still felt like she made the right decision in passing on the power to her. She looked around and briefly wondered if she was thinking that Kat was acting weird because Kim missed being a ranger.
"But that doesn't explain why she wouldn't hang out with us or anything," she thought. "Why wouldn't she ever go to the mall with us?"
"Ms. Hart?"
Kim looked up in surprise. "Ss-s-sorry?"
"I asked, what is the quadratic equation?"
She looked down at her page of scribbles and panicked slightly. Trini slid a sheet of a paper towards her and Kim read off the answer.
"That's correct."
Kim exhaled in relief. She looked at Trini and smiled her thanks. Trini, in turn, gave her a worried look.
"You okay?" she mouthed.
Kim nodded. "I'll be fine," she wrote on her sheet of paper.
A couple of hours later, Kim and Trini gathered their things in the lunch room and sat down at an empty table, leaving enough room for the rest of their friends to come and join them. Two by two, Adam and Rocky, Tommy and Jason, and Kat and Tanya all showed up and sat down at the table.
"Where's Billy?" asked Tanya.
"Oh, he's working on something in the lab," answered Jason. "He might be a while."
"So, Kim," said Adam, "We are working on that English project, later on, right?"
Kim nodded. "Yeah, I'm not doing anything later. We could work on it at the Youth Center. Have a couple of smoothies, do a little bit of homework..."
Adam laughed. "Yeah, I guess. But that sounds good. It'll be me, you, and Beowulf."
Kim rolled her eyes and took a bite of her sandwich.
"Kat, what are you and Rocky doing your project on?" asked Trini.
Kat looked up from her lunch and shrugged. She looked at Rocky, who was in the middle of eating his burger. "I'm not sure, yet." She looked at Kim. "We, well I, wanted to do Beowulf, but it was already taken. By Kim, who usually gets to do whatever she wants to do anyway." She turned to Tanya. "I mean, if she wanted to change her mind, Ms. Appleby probably would've let her."
Upon hearing this, Kim sighed and leaned into Tommy, who was deep in conversation with Jason about martial arts. Adam looked between Kim and Kat worriedly, but didn't say anything. Tanya sighed and continued eating her lunch as if Kat hadn't said anything.
"Well," started Trini, "I'm sure there are other literary works that you guys could do your project on. What about Romeo & Juliet?"
"Been done way too many times."
"What about The Odyssey?" suggested Kim.
"Please. The only thing that's been more times than Romeo & Juliet is that."
"What about Paradise Lost?" said Trini. "Or Pride & Prejudice? Or one of Shakespeare's other plays?"
"We're doing Paradise Lost," Tanya interrupted, "Me and Jason."
"And I find Pride & Prejudice to be a little boring and who the hell wants to do a Shakespeare play?"
"I do," said Trini. "Tommy and I are doing Twelfth Night."
"There is barely anything good left," complained Kat. "Ms. Appleby said she wants our project topic in by the end of today. And I wanted Beowulf."
Rocky shrugged. "I'm with Trini, let's get on with one of Shakespeare's other plays. Or even The Odyssey, like Kim said. I don't think anyone's chosen that yet. Who cares if it's been done so many times already? Ms. Appleby's the one who's grading it. She's the one who's had to read through these boring projects hundreds of times."
"That's not the point, Rocky," replied Kat. "We should be doing a project on something we enjoy. And I enjoy a nice, epic poem, called Beowulf."
"Well, too bad, Kat," said Kim, her patience growing thin, "Adam and I already picked it."
"You know, Ms. Appleby could have been a bit more clear on the project," said Adam. "I mean, English literature is a big genre, but who's to say that we're going to write exactly the same thing about the same piece of literature as you guys?"
"But," said Kim. "Since English lit is so big, maybe Kat could find a piece of literature that she do the project on, instead of shooting everyone's ideas down. Ideas that were meant to help her. Since she really needs to get good grades."
Kat looked at Kim, grabbed her lunch, and stood up to leave, without a word to anyone. Tanya glanced at Kat, clearly torn between staying and leaving to go with her friend. Kat turned around at the doorway to the lunchroom and looked at the table again.
Tanya packed up her lunch. "Sorry guys...she's just...." She shrugged, not finding the words to describe Kat, and walked toward her friend.
"Okay, so what was all that about?" Tommy said, catching the end of the conversation between Kat and Kim.
Kim rolled her eyes. "It was nothing, it's just...Kat and I haven't really...I wouldn't say that we've haven't gotten along since I've come back, since we've never really talked to each other since I came back...but that's what it seems like."
"She'll come around," Tommy said, throwing his arm around her shoulders.
"I guess," Kim said, shrugging. She looked at Trini, who raised her eyebrows and shrugged as well.
Tanya and Kat were sitting at the bar at the Youth Center, sipping on their smoothies. The two of them weren't really saying too much, just talking mostly to Ernie and watching TV. Tommy was teaching a class nearby and Kat would glance over every so often, trying to make eye contact with him.
"So did you guys decide on your project, yet?" Tanya asked, carefully bringing up the subject of their lunchtime conversation.
Kat rolled her eyes. "Yeah, Rocky picked The Odyssey. He didn't even tell me he had gone to Ms. Appleby and told her. When I went to her classroom after school, she told me what a wonderful choice we made and how she can't wait to see our presentation on it." She rolled her eyes again as she took a sip of her smoothie. "I bet Kim put him up to it."
Tanya frowned at the accusation, but didn't say anything.
"Hey, could you guys do me a favor?" Tanya looked up and saw Tommy and one of his students.
"Of course, Tommy, anything," said Kat with a smile. "What do you need?"
Tommy smiled. "I know Kim's coming over soon with Adam. Could you let her know that I had to walk Nick home? I'll be back in about an hour and a half. I'm gonna stop by home and shower first."
Immediately, Kat's smile vanished.
"Sure Tommy," answered Tanya. "We'll let her know."
Tommy smiled again. "Thanks guys. I'll see you later or something." He walked out with his student.
Twenty minutes later, Kim and Adam walked into the Youth Center and looked around for an empty table. Kim spotted Kat and Tanya sitting at the bar.
"Can we not sit near Kat?" Kim asked.
Adam looked around and saw the two of them. "Yeah, there's a table down there," he said, pointing.
"Okay, thanks." Kim looked around. "Tommy's supposed to be here, somewhere."
"I'm sure he'll show up."
The two of them headed over to the table and spread their school stuff across the table.
"Okay, so...where should we start?" asked Kim, looking at her notes.
"Hey guys," Tanya said, approaching the two of them, with Kat right behind her.
"Hey," Kim and Adam said.
"Have you seen Tommy?" Kim asked, looking at Tanya.
"He-" started Tanya.
"He hasn't been here all day," interrupted Kat.
Tanya looked at her, questioningly. "No, he-"
"Sorry for bothering you guys," continued Kat. "We'll let you get back to your project.". She pulled Tanya back to the bar.
Kim and Adam watched as Kat and Tanya headed back to the bar.
"Okay..." said Adam. "Do you mind if I asked you about that?" He pointed between her and Kat.
Kim sighed. "You mean me and Kat? No."
"So what's going on?"
"I don't even know. I don't know how it started or what. All I know is that we started sniping at each other one moment and the next, she's all...like that," Kim finished, referring to their exhange just moments ago.
"That is pretty odd," said Adam. "You have no idea what happened?"
"No. Well...it just seems like since I got back, she's been acting weird. Like...I don't want to say that she wasn't happy to see me home, but...that's kind of how it feels."
Adam nodded. "Why do you think so?"
Kim shrugged. "She never wants to hang out. She always makes up excuses. She never talks to me. And when she does, she never looks at me in my eye. And in science class today, she pretty much told me to stay the hell away from her."
Adam furrowed his brow. "Wait, what happened?"
Kim proceeded to tell him what happened in class that morning. "And then you saw us during lunch today."
Adam nodded. "She has been acting a little weird lately."
Kim looked down at her notes and shrugged. "I guess we should get started, then."
x
"What the hell was that about?" Tanya asked as she sat down at the bar.
"What?" asked Kat, shrugging her shoulders.
"You know what I'm talking about. Why'd you act like that? Why didn't you tell her where Tommy was?"
Kat shrugged her shoulders. "It's not like it really matters. She's studying with Adam, anyway."
Tanya glared at her. She thought back to when she was at the mall with Kim and Trini, about something that Kim had said. "Kat...I'm gonna ask you a question, and please answer me truthfully."
Kat nodded. "Okay, what's this about?"
"Kim and Tommy supposedly 'broke up' because they each received letters."
"Yeah...and what's your point?"
Tanya took a deep breath. "Did you write them?"
There goes that chapter! Hope you enjoyed it!