Hannah

Of course everything changed.

It couldn't not change.

It started when I got into the car with Mr. Nealson to get to school. He's been driving me around for as long as I can remember. That's what you get when you live next door to the high school principal and your parents aren't around to take you to school like normal kids. He was the closest thing to family that I had. He was just staring at me when I got in the car. I tried to ignore it as I buckled my seatbelt.

"I take it you saw the news yesterday?" I couldn't ignore it forever. Especially when he didn't even put the car in drive.

"Oh yeah, the five o'clock, then 10:30 and eleven. On every station. Even the national new, Brian Williams was just raving about your bravery."

"Oh. Cool." He started driving. Finally. Normally car rides aren't bad, I can handle myself around adults and whatever, but now I felt the need to pull out my phone and make it look like I wasn't feeling really uncomfortable.

"Out of all of the people in my school I'm not surprised that you're a Power Ranger."

"Really?" I put my phone down, suddenly interested.

"Yeah, you care about everyone around you and I can see you standing up against scary aliens way bigger than you and just spitting at them." We laughed and then came to a comfortable almost normal silence for the two of us. "Can you tell me who the others are?"

"Mr. Nealson!" I was angered. "These kids need the utmost privacy. Their lives could be ruined, their families killed. Why do you think I was the one to reveal myself? I don't have a family to care about me. It's nearly inconsequential."

My parents aren't ever home to drive me to school, or make me meals, or talk about my day. I honestly had no idea where they are or what they're doing. Sure, they showed up every few months to say hello and the bank account was always well stocked but I didn't even feel a connection to them. My siblings did take care of me for some time when I was younger, but they're both in there twenties and move on and out. I can't blame them. I would have done the same.

"You know you're parents would be here if they could." He tried.

"Where are they then? Why not come home, now especially when they hear that Hannah Grace is a worldwide name."

"It's complicated, you know that. They're here as much as possible."

"Yeah, yeah." I muttered.

"We couldn't account for all of the kids at the school yesterday. Like you were marked in the library at the time of the attack." Mr. Nealson never liked to dwell on what exactly it was my parents did. He thought it was best, but I just thought it was ignorance and I didn't like not knowing.

"And you're saying that you can't prove who the rest of them are and won't question it. You'll let it go."

"No Hannah, I'm afraid I can't do that."

"Why not?"

"I want to look out for you. All of you. Now that we have a Ranger team in Mt. Lebanon I have a feeling that the twelve of you will increase in class cuts. If you tell me who your team is then we can excuse you. Help you and pay attention to injuries and things like that."

"Eleven." I muttered.

"What?"

"Shit." I muttered again. "Look, I haven't talked to her parents yet so this is not public knowledge. The girl that died yesterday in the attack, Rebecca Rosen, was a Ranger and she died. Now we don't have that new Ranger color yet. So for now it's eleven. That's not public knowledge and until I officially announce it I expect that to stay hidden." I trusted Mr. Nealson, but like anyone he could try to get a taste of fame by revealing a name.

"I'm sorry Hannah, I didn't realize. How are you feeling?"

"Not good. But I'm doing the best I can right now. Today is going to be interesting for sure."

"Can I, your Principal Nealson do anything for you?"

"No thanks sir, everyone pointing at me and whispering is going to be bad enough, I don't want to be holding your hand the whole way through today as well. It's better if I face it on my own."

As soon as I got to school all eyes were on me. I could have sworn most kids didn't watch the news. The only way it could have traveled so fast was word of mouth. Or the Internet. Yeah now that I think about it that was most likely it. I already had a few million friend-requests on Facebook, most of them people and from places that I've never heard of.

I wore one of the few actual silver shirts that I owned, a sort of itchy but light sweater from Express with a green cami underneath for some color. I debated not wearing my color, trying to be as normal as possible but then I realized how I was wearing gray or silver pretty much every day for the past two months. That is normal now.

And you should give the people what they want right? Now they want the Silver Ranger. I got way more second glances from students and teachers alike. I was the girl who saved their world and I guess I deserved their attention. Yay?

I tried to think of better things. Like last night with Aug. My first actual date with August was actually really nice. As I promised all eyes were on us and not just because they were thinking 'what the hell is a guy as hot as he is doing with her?' No people were staring not because I wasn't popular but because most people heard of the Silver Ranger from when she saved the school from the fiery aliens the first time and now everyone knew it was me. There were some people who thanked me, which was nice and surprising. Those were mostly adults. The kids we saw from school sort of were more quiet, gawking at us for either being August Russell and Hannah Grace on a date or that chick who's the super hero and August Russell scored her early.

I learned that we weren't an overly PDA sort of couple, which was nice and not gross like some couples could be. We talked about non-Ranger things, books, music, college plans, thoughts. I did my best to shy away from family matters and he never pushed it there. There were some people who ignored us, oblivious and not aware, most likely not having seen the news yet. I relished in their non-staring while we could.

I didn't dare go to the hang out spot before school. People would be watching me more closely than ever and I couldn't throw my teammates under the bus on day one, so I went to the library instead. Find some quiet solstice in a good book.

Down there I saw my old English teacher from tenth grade, Mr. Bello.

"Morning Mr. Bello." I said to him, trying to act normal.

"Hello Hannah." He said coolly and went back to his work.

That was odd.

He was the nerdy teacher. He'd been following the Rangers since he was a kid and they first appeared in California. He showed us his collection of pictures and action figures of them. He was very proud.

"You're not going to ask anything? Say something?" I was shocked. "Honestly I expected it from you, I was almost willing to answer your questions."

"It's not my place to ask. But if you ever want to talk about it, just know that I'm here to listen. I know a thing or two about Power Rangers."

"Thank you Mr. Bello." He didn't exactly smile at me because he's Bello and he doesn't smile much, but it wasn't his awkward death stare like when you failed one of his quizzes so I accepted it.

Thinking of him reminded me of Rebecca. She was in that class with me last year. We had a lot of fun on projects together. Now we'll never get to do another one. No. I wouldn't let myself cry there. I already did that last night after August dropped me off, like a normal couple in his car. Then I felt guilty for thinking of August when I should have been trying not to cry about Rebecca.

"Hannah." I was pulled out of my thought by someone I wouldn't have expected.

"Hey Will. What's up?

"You're a Power Ranger."

"Yeah, I guess that is the 'what's up' around the school isn't it. How did you hear? The news? Social networking? I'm considering taking a poll on it."

"No, I saw you morph."

"You what? I don't think that many people are going to answer that option on the poll."

"Yesterday. When you, August and JT ran out of the library. I followed you and saw you become the Power Rangers." When he said August and JT's names I looked around to make sure no one heard him.

"Their names aren't exactly publicly Ranger like mine is. If you wouldn't ever mention it again that would be great."

"I wasn't going to tell anyone if that's what you mean. I just wanted to know if there was anything I could do."

"Actually there is conveniently. Just promise that you'll act all surprised during study hall."

"Sure. What is it?"

"One of ours died in the fight yesterday. To keep the balance we need a new Ranger and the computer picked you to be that Ranger."

He was surprised. "Me?"

"Well it's not like it was you out of all of the people in the world. It was out of the people we chose to serve if we fell.'

"So I'm a Power Ranger now?"

"You can think it over. Join or not it's up to you. But if you say yes then we take you to the Power Rangers headquarters and we begin training you and you become a Ranger."

"A Power Ranger. Me?" he said in awe. "Sorry I'm just still trying to get my mind around this."

"It's a lot to take in. You're handling it much better than some of the others."

The bell rang for homeroom and kids started to scurry out of the library.

"Remember, act all surprised when August tells you. I promised him he could."

"Good for you guys, by the way. No offense but I didn't see it coming. At all."

"Don't worry, I honestly think that I'm the only one that did."

He looked sort of confused but nodded and we went our separate ways out of the library. I walked up the two flights of stairs to my homeroom. It was dead silent as soon as I crossed the doorway.

No one said anything until our teacher forced us to say the pledge, when finally Jonny Heagie, the kid I picked to be an alternate Ranger asked "Are you really the Power Ranger?"

"Yep."

"Even at the spirit assembly?"

"Yep."

"And you lead all the other Rangers?"

"Yep."

"Are they human?"

"Can't say."

"Are you human?"

"Yep."

"Do the others go here too?"

"Still can't say."

"Can you morph for us?"

"Nope." I pulled out a book, trying to act as disinterested as possible while they asked me what Zords are like and how many other old Rangers I've met. Finally our homeroom teacher told them, "Let her be guys." I gave him a relieved smile and they left me alone for now.

That was pretty much how it went for the rest of the day. Kids would ask the same questions and I wouldn't answer much. Teachers would tell everyone to shut up and get back to work, but still look at me just to see if I really was the girl that was saving their world. Some asked August if he was a Ranger too when he walked me to math after APUSH. We just ignored those ones.

He and I had the same lunch period, but I never sat with him before because I elected to take choir instead of regular lunch in the cafeteria to eat. I didn't think I could bare those kids asking me questions too so I told him to meet me outside of my math room after class so we could eat together.

"You know Will sits at my table." August casually brought up when we got in line for our food.

"Oh does he now?"

"Should we tell him?"

"I mean it's not like JT knows that he's the new Ranger yet. We can just tell him during study hall."

"Or we can just tell him if we see him here in the cafeteria."

"Hey guys!" Laura said coming over to us. "Hannah, what are you doing here?"

"Skipping choir. I didn't feel like going there today."

"I'm telling you." JT came up too. "He is a bad influence on her. She's skipping classes and smoking weed. Bad apple." August gave me a 'told you he'd be here' look and then glared at JT for saying he was a bad influence.

"Shut up gay-J" August taunted making a terrible pun off of his name and they both chuckled. Men.

"So what's up with you guys?" Laura asked.

"We're going to tell Will that he's one of us." August reveled.

"Really? He's who the computer picked? Good for him." JT said.

Once we all got our lunches and talked more about telling Will we sat at Aug's normal table, all four of us.

"Do you guys normally sit together?" I asked.

"Not really." Laura said. "But why not? I like you guys a hell of a lot more than my boyfriend's friends that I usually sit with. And he's not even at school here anymore!" Her boyfriend was a year older than her and in college. I wasn't one of his biggest fans.

"Klaus does though, he'll get here eventually." August said.

"Good. I want to give him something." I had found a solution to our problem last night and I wanted to make up for being a bitch to him.

"Hey Will." August said over my shoulder and the man in question came around the table to sit next to him. I gave him a wink before August told him about being a Ranger again. I promised him that because Will was his choice and his best friend he could tell him that he was a Ranger.

Klaus came to the table part way through, his eyes red and swollen. Honestly I'm proud of the kid for just coming to school. I don't think I could be able to if it was August who died yesterday. He sat next to me on the end so it was easier for me to talk to him.

"Hey Klaus," I started softly, getting his attention. The others didn't notice, they were too consumed with answering Will's questions. "I'm sorry for how cold I was to you yesterday. I knew you were hurting but I was still in leader mode where feelings aren't real things or things that I care about. Anyways, I made this." I pulled out an orange Star of David on a gold chain, looking exactly how Rebecca wore hers. "It's not the real thing, but I used the same material that the morphers are made of, so it can change to anything orange, just like her old one. It's not a lot, but it was the least I could do for you." I placed the necklace in his hands. He was once again getting emotional.

"Thank you Hannah. I don't think you know how much this means to me."

"I do. And I want you to know—"

Someone coughed then said, "Hannah." Mr. Nealson's voice called to the whole table and me went silent. I couldn't really tell what his emotion was. He looked sort of angry, but also almost happy. Did he figure out the rest of the Rangers? "I need to talk to you."

I guess there's only one way to find out.