Ars Amatoria Romance Theme Challenge
Time Frame: After "Once a Ranger Part One"
Routine
Rose's POV
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"Well Ms. Ortiz, we're so glad so have you back." The dean of the University of London smiled at me. "I had thought that maybe you weren't coming back at all. So tell me, what was it like being a Power Ranger?" Dr. Lecherman asked eagerly, the sixty-something-year-old man looking like a young schoolboy.
I faked a smile, not wanting him to know how much I was hurting. I can't remember what I told him exactly, but it must have been enough to satisfy him. "Alright then Ms. Ortix, here is your list of classes you will be taking back over." I couldn't help but wonder what the teachers, the ones who had substituted for me all this time, would think of me coming back and taking away their jobs.
I snapped back to attention just in time to hear him say "Monday. Will that be enough time?" Today was Thursday.
"Four days is plenty of time, I still have all of my lesson plans that I made up at the beginning of the year. I'll only have to alter them slightly." The dean nodded approvingly.
"Very well then Ms. Ortiz. Welcome back, though I don't think it will be for every long." He smiled cryptically as I left the room, wondering what on Earth he was talking about.
I walked out onto the campus, my presence there not causing a stir. I smiled wryly and kept walking in the direction of my old apartment, one of many on campus designed specifically for the professors.
My feet remembered their old path and I let them lead me. They led me past a dark man listening to his ipod, a bubbly blonde beside him trying to make him talk, past a young asian guy who was showing off some karate moves to a crowd of admirers, and past a curly-headed blode boy sitting on a bench, engrossed in his book "The Duke's Decepion."
I felt a pang as I realized I'd probably never see them again. After all, new there was an ocean between us. I lowered my head and sped up.
My apartment was exactly as I'd left it. Not knowing that I wouldn't be back for a while, I had left all of my papers lying around. Well at least I emptied the fridge before I left. I thought wryly as I laid my suitcase down on my bed. After living at the Hartford Estate for so long, this place seemed cramped, tine and strange. This place was no longer home to me.
--PROO--
A week later, everything was just as bad. I found the students didn't interest me as they had before. The classes I taught were boring and I hadn't heard from my friends at all.
Every time I heard their names, every time I caught a glimpse of the coloured spandex, I was reminded that we weren't good enough: that I wasn't good enough. Every time I closed my eyes I saw his face and heard his laugh. Sometimes when I pictured him he was sad, looking at me with his eyes full of disappointment.
I was in a rut – doing the same things every day as if I were a robot. I tried not to think of the others, of what they were doing, of what we could have been doing together. I never turned my television on, all of the news was about the Power Rangers and their doings.
I was like a zombie, unable to feel: my body and mind functioning on autopilot. Slowly I slipped away, my body a shell of its former self. I was going through the motions, following a routine, and I had no idea why.
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A/N: So this one is a little darker…