Chapter 36

Where Do I Belong?

"You guys, you're not going to believe this."

Looking up from his lunch, Billy leaned back in his seat and watched as Kimberly skipped over to the lunch table he, Avalon, Rocky, and Adam had occupied while waiting for the rest of their friends to finish their classes and join them.

Kimberly slapped a flier down onto the table and sat down, quickly pulling off her backpack before sliding her tray down as well. She leaned forward and continuously jabbed her index finger against the sheet of paper.

"What is it girl?" Rocky joked. "Are you trying to tell us that Timmy fell down the well again?" He and Avalon laughed as Billy and Adam smiled. Kimberly rolled her eyes and playfully pushed him on the shoulder before picking up the sheet of paper and looked it over.

"No, check this out," she said. "I was coming out of my home Ec. Class and saw this flier on the wall. They're taking students on a trip to a school that works in the same program as Angel Grove. What they're doing is taking the students and allowing them to see what life is like in another country and later they're going to do the same here. We'll be able to see the school and the shops and the museums and stay there for about a week."

"That sounds cool," Billy said. "Not only would you be able to immerse yourself in the culture of the other nation state, but then you'd also be able to have the other customs come here and make a sort of rapport that could create a sort of alliance that would benefit us as life goes on." He took a bite of his sandwich then bobbed his head. "Not including the fact that it would be a great experience overall."

"Yeah, but get this," Kimberly said. She glanced over at Avalon, who made a face, her eyes shifting back and forth for a moment as if wondering why she was being looked at. Then again, from what Billy had seen, she didn't like having a lot of attention on her and was probably fighting off the fight vs. flight reaction she had gotten used to. "The place they're doing the exchange for…is Australia. The whole grade gets to go."

Avalon's face twitched for a moment before she sat up straight, her eyes widening. "No way!" She reached out and grabbed the sheet of paper from the pink ranger and looked it over. Adam and Billy leaned over to read it over her shoulders.

Yep, the trip was being held in Australia. For a week, not including the days where they would be flying, they would be immersing themselves in the culture as well as being able to have a vacation in general. They would be staying in some of the better hotels, probably due the money that the class treasurers had held over from the dances and fund raisers that had done earlier. There would be plenty of opportunities to go shopping and out in the ocean as well as to being able to see Ayers rock and other aboriginal places. It seemed like it would be a really great trip.

The orange ranger's eyes lit up. "You mean I get to go home?" She asked.

"Well, it's only for a week," Rocky reminded her gently.

"I don't care if I'm able to go home for a day," Avalon replied. "I can't believe that I'm going to be able to go home." She pushed back her seat, leaving her lunch on the table. "I have to go find Mr. Kaplan to ask him a few things. I'll see you later, yeah?" She picked up her backpack and ran out of the cafeteria, leaving her food on the table.

"Someone looks excited," Kimberly giggled watching her friend push some people out of her way before disappearing around the corner.

"I don't think I've even seen Rocko as excited, "Adam said. "Not even when a buffet is spread out in front of him." He laughed and the red ranger, who had been chewing on a corn dog, threw the stick at his friend. The table erupted into laughter and crossed his arms, leaning against the table. "If she likes living in Australia so much, why did she move out here to Angel Grove?"

"I was wondering the same thing," Rocky mumbled, a large bulge of food in the side of his mouth as he chomped away. Kimberly and Billy exchange glances. Not only was it hard to discern what was and wasn't off limits in conversation, but they didn't know what the ramifications of it getting out would be. Especially considering how many people could hear their conversation and spread it around.

"It's something you'll have to ask her about," Billy finally said. "It's not our place to tell." Kimberly nodded and Rocky and Adam shrugged before continuing into their food. The blue ranger looked up to give Kimberly a look then frowned when he saw that she had stiffened and resembled a deer in headlights as she looked behind him.

His frown increasing, Billy turned around and watched as Tommy and Aisha walked their way. Tommy seemed to have the same sort of expression that Kimberly had and even hesitated a moment, looking like he wanted to turn around and walk away, but continued towards the table. Aisha greeted her friends as they sat down and Tommy just made a low grunting sound, a cross between a greeting and a sound of acknowledgement, lowering his eyes and starting into his tray of food.

"So what's going on?" Aisha asked, her ever present smile on her face. Billy was surprised with how much she reminded him of Zack. Even down to her dancing, even if she wasn't as big of a dancer as Zack was—thankfully she wasn't constantly busting out moves down the hallway—her energy and happiness definitely rivaled that of the black ranger. He suddenly felt sad, wondering what his former friends were up to and made a mental note to remind himself to give them a call or email them to see what was going on.

"Check this out." Rocky took the flier Avalon left behind and held it out to the white and yellow rangers. They looked it over and nodded their agreement, Aisha's smile widening. "The whole grade is going. It's going to be awesome! I've always wanted to travel abroad. I just didn't think that the first place I'd be able to go would be to Australia."

"Me neither," Aisha agreed. "I have to make sure that I have my passport ready to go."

"I think that—"

"It should be cool to—"

Kimberly and Tommy paused as they stared to speak at the same time. They waited for the other to continue and when a few seconds of silence passed, they started again and one again spoke in unison. Then stopped and turned away, deciding not to say anything. Billy, Rocky, Adam, and Aisha exchanged confused glances. This was definitely not the Tommy and Kimberly they knew. Especially considering they were sitting on opposite sides of the table when they were usually nested in each other's arms and smiling as if they didn't have a care in the world.

Now they could barely look at each other.

Things must've been worse than Billy thought for Kimberly only last a few more minutes before she leapt to her feet, mumbling something about having to go to her flower club meeting. That had a slight possibility of being rue as it was clubs period after lunch was over, but she definitely didn't need to get going at that point. No, something was wrong.

Billy leapt to his feet and made a quick excuse before following Kimberly out of the cafeteria. He headed out into the hallway and spotted her walking away, quickly, her head down and arms crossed. "Kim!" He hurried after her and grabbed onto her arm, pulling her to a stop. Kimberly tried and failed to give him a smile and turned her gaze away. "Kim, what's wrong?"

"It's nothing, Billy," she tried to reassure him. But he wasn't buying it.

"I know you better than that, Kimberly; I know something's bothering you." Billy turned her face towards his and looked hard at her. He could see tears already starting to collect in her eyes and quickly wiped them away. "Did Tommy do something?" He studied her for a long moment, mind quickly moving through the many things that could've upset her. "He didn't say that shoe shopping was stupid, did he?"

The pink ranger finally managed a small smile, shoving him away from her. Everyone knew that badmouthing any shopping in general—though shoes seemed to be the pink ranger's weakness—was a mistake you didn't make twice. Billy was highly aware what was bothering his friend wasn't as simple as that. Her body language disputed it as well as he had never seen her cry over it before. It had to be something that was deeply hurting her that would cause her to break down as badly as she was.

Kimberly was stronger than many gave her credit for and Billy really admired that about her. But now she was breaking down quicker than he had ever seen.

"What is it, Kim?" He pressed gently.

"My Mom…" Kimberly reached up and wiped away a few more tears. "My mother,"—Billy couldn't miss the bitterness in her tone—"won't let me see Tommy anymore." Billy's eyes widened in shock and confusion. "I know," She agreed, seeing the quick shift of his facial features. "It's…it's just really….I don't know…" she took a deep breath, bowing her head.

"What…what made her say that?"

A light tinge of pink filled her cheeks, much more than the blush that she put on did. "Well…we were just hanging out…and studying…and we were kind of, getting involved and Mom came into the room and she freaked out and said I couldn't see her anymore. I tried telling her that our relationship is different and that we're in love with each other but she wouldn't listen and now I'm not allowed to see him." Her shoulders slumped and her head bowed even further towards the floor.

"Aww, Kim, I'm sorry," Billy apologized to her. "I know exactly how you feel." He wrapped his arms around her and held her tightly as she started to cry softly. He still felt a little angry when he remembered how Mr. and Mrs. Kwan were completely against his going out with Trini when they wanted her to have an arranged marriage with a Vietnamese man. Trini had been the one that said 'screw it' to her parents and continued to date Billy anyway.

And yet, it still hurt whenever he thought about her and how she decided to leave anyway. It hurt more than any of the fights with the putties and monsters because it was emotionally and mentally draining at him day after day. The physical pain from fights healed over time, but the emotional pain he felt from her leaving when he had finally opened up to her about his feelings for her. He didn't know if he would ever get over that. Things were getting better now that he didn't focus on it.

Focus on it, you avoid the topic as much as you can, Billy thought to himself. You lock yourself in your lab to hide away from the world around you because you keep thinking about her wherever you go. He pushed the thought out of his head and continued to focus his attention on Kimberly as she started to settle down.

"It really sucks." Kimberly took a step back, wiping at her eyes. "I don't understand how Trini was able to handle it so well."

Billy gave her a sad smile. "You know Trini; she always cares about other people before her. She cared about making her parents happy and you know how she's always talked about going to Vietnam since she was a little kid, to see what it was like." He shrugged, scratching the back of his neck. "No one thought it would be this soon for her to go."

"Yeah," Kimberly agreed. She brushed her hair out of her face. "It's just so hard, having to see him every day, knowing that I can't…"

"Kim. Your mother said you can't go out with him anymore…she didn't say anything about actually seeing him. And you're a power ranger. Your bond through that is more important than anything else and not even your mother can break through that."

Kimberly gazed at him in surprise. The blue ranger had always been the one that followed the rules and listened whenever a person of authority told him to do something. He did all of his homework on time if not way ahead of time, he hesitated whenever there was a moment that he would be breaking the rules, and believed that it was best for everyone to live up to the standards that were placed on them early on. It had quickly been put on the back burner as he was constantly placed with different scenarios that had him break the rules or what he originally thought was right.

Kimberly lifted her head and looked at the blue ranger for a long moment before smiling and nodding. "You're right, Billy. I don't know…why I didn't think of that!" She reached out and grabbed onto his arm. "I have to talk to Tommy. If he will, it was hard for me to break the news to him in the first place; I hope he listens to me."

"He loves you, Kim, everyone can see that," Billy reminded her. "Nothing can break you two, apart. Not Rita, not Zedd, not even this."

"Thanks, Billy." Kimberly reached up and gave him a kiss on the cheek, causing him to blush. "I'll see you later." She flashed him her famous Kimberly smile and squeezed his arm once more before flouncing off down the hallway with renewed energy. Billy chuckled as went off.

Nothing could ever keep her down for too long.

He wished he was able to do that as well.

Turning to follow her, he spotted Avalon striding his war, a deep rooted scowl on her face a very sharp contrast from the excited smile she had been sporting a few minutes before. "Hey Ava," he said to her.

"Rack off, Billy," she snapped, passing him.

Billy was immediately stung. It wasn't until that moment that he noticed she rarely ever called him by his name, usually only referring to him as 'Smurf'. It was jarring to hear his normal name come out of her mouth with such malice. Especially considering he hadn't done anything that he could think of that would've angered her so much.

"Wait, what's wrong?" He followed her to her locker and watched as she pulled open the door and hid her face inside, grabbing her things. "You were just so happy a few minutes ago."

"Why don't you just go comfort Kim or something, you seem to be really good at that." Avalon continued to keep her face directed away from Billy's as she filled up her backpack and zipped it shut, pulling her backpack over her shoulder. Billy continued to watch the side of her face, trying to figure out what to say. He opened his mouth and let out a quiet breath. "Seriously, leave it alone. I mean, it's not your fault that I can't go back home, right?"

Billy's eyebrows furrowed together. "What?"

"Ask Mr. Kaplan, I don't even know what's going on." Avalon stepped back from her locker and closed the door before bringing a hand up to wipe away the tear that fell down her cheek. "It's bloody stupid if you ask me, but hey, my life was going too well, it was bound to happen."

"Ava—"

"Don't, Billy." Avalon finally turned to face him completely and he could see just how much it was affecting her. Her dark brown eyes which were usually so filled with life as well as a 'don't mess with me' attitude, was filled with intense sadness. "I don't want to talk about it." She turned on her heel and walked away from the blue ranger.

He was about to go after her, then stopped when he heard the bell ring. Torn, he let out a groan before turning around and racing to get to the science club. As the president of the club he couldn't afford to be late or miss the meeting entirely. He entered the classroom and checked to be sure everyone was there before he got started.

"Excuse me? Is this the science club?"

Billy turned and watched as Violet quietly inched her way into the classroom, looking around before resting her gaze on Billy and giving a small smile. Billy smiled a friendly one back at her. "Yes, it is." He said. "Violet, right?" She nodded. "Well, Violet, welcome to the club. We include anyone that's ready and willing to learn and that wants to have fun."

"Then I've come to the right place, I think" she said. She gave him another, shy smile and lowered her head, walking to the desk.

Billy let out a breath, pushing his thoughts of what happened aside and lead the science club for the next half hour. They would be starting on the annual science fair that took entrants from all of the local high schools soon and they needed to get started on a project proposal to bring to the faculty advisor that would be watching them. The club went by pretty quickly, with Violet being the one that came up with the perfect idea for their project. Billy wrote it down, even taking in stock the materials they were going to need to accumulate to be sure it would work out. He passed it over to the teacher before leaving when the class period ended.

The rest of the day went by in a blur. Tommy and Kim were actually looking better than they had earlier that day, back to smiling and laughing with each other and yet Avalon wasn't in class. He was sure she had skipped the rest of the day and went off somewhere; he just hoped she wasn't getting in trouble wherever she was.

Returning home after school he found she had locked herself in her room and wouldn't answer when he knocked, trying to get her attention. He finally backed off, knowing it would be better that he didn't get his head ripped off and decided that it was better to get his homework done as a distraction as he tried to figure out what to do.

He was deep in his history homework when he heard the phone ring. It was picked up and a moment later he found his mother walking over to him, holding out the phone to him. Billy glanced up at her as she gave him a knowing smile and he slowly reached out and took the phone. Lacey ran her fingers through her son's hair before she left the living room.

"Hello?" Billy said into the phone. "This is Billy speaking."

"Billy? Hey, it's Trini!" Billy blinked in surprise then found himself smiling. The former yellow ranger's voice came through the phone so easily it was as if she was sitting next to him. "It's great to hear your voice."

"It's great to…hear your voice too," he replied and found he meant it. "I wasn't sure when I should call you or if I could or…" he trailed off, briefly closing his eyes. "I mean, I didn't know if you parents would be happy with that or if they would be opposed to us getting in contact."

Trini laughed. "Surprisingly my parents have been pretty laid back since we got here," Trini replied. "I think they're very happy that I'm getting to see all of the things Vietnam has to offer." She yawned loudly. "Oh, I'm sorry," she apologized quickly.

"It's alright, Trini," Billy said quickly. "I mean, it is pretty late there." He looked at his watch and did a quick mental calculation. "Actually, it's like, four in the morning. What are you doing awake?"

"I thought it would be the best time to call and see how you were doing." Her voice lowered to a whisper. "Besides, my parents are asleep and when they're asleep, they're completely knocked out. They won't bother me. So…tell me what's going on! How is everyone? I mean, I talk to Kim all the time, but you know her, I can barely get a word in edge wise."

"I'm sure she won't ever run out of things to say, Trini, you should know that by now." Billy ran a hand over his face. "Uh, there's not much going here. You know, just school and fighting monsters day in and day out. I could probably do it in my sleep by now."

"Yes, but then when you get the chance to dream up the next invention that would win you the Nobel Prize."

"That'll come when I take my nap." Billy smiled as he heard Trini's melodious laughter over the phone. "Trini…y-you know I miss you," he said to her. "It's…really weird not having you around."

"You mean not having me around to translate for you?" Trini shot back. She let out a little chuckle, causing Billy's smile to widen. "That was fun. Everything was fun." She then let out a quiet smile. "You know I miss you, too, Billy. There's so much that I miss about not having you around. Of course the others too, but you know what I mean. And everything here is great it's just not…home."

Billy swallowed thickly, afraid to ask his next question. "Have you…met anyone there?"

Now Trini paused for a long moment. "I've been introduced to the guy my parents want me to get married to, yes," she replied. "He's nice and everything…but he's not…he's not you. There are some things we have in common; he wasn't really pleased with the idea of being arranged as well. It's his first time being out here too, so I think my parents and his may have planned this together."

"Oh, well, that's…" For the second time that day, he wasn't sure what to say. He cleared his throat, raising his blue-green eyes to the ceiling as if looking for the answer to be printed there for him. "That's…uh…"

"I know."

And he knew she did understand. That what had brought them to be close in the first place, she always understood what he wasn't exactly articulating and it made things much easier for him. Besides, it was nice to have someone that understood his interest in science and math and everything that came with it.

Trini let out another yawn, this time a longer one. "I'm sorry, I'm just really tired. I'll find a better time to call you again. One where I'm not so tired so that we can talk more. I mean, if you're not too bogged down by Rita and Zedd, right?" She let out a quiet laugh and Billy could only muster up a slight chuckle. "Hey, please don't spend too much time thinking about me, Billy. I want you to continue living your life and we'll see how things are when I come back." There was a slight pause. "If I come back," she added quietly. "You never know. But living in the past doesn't help anything."

"I'm sorry, but I'm sure that the past has helped us more ways than you think." Billy smirked.

Trini laughed again, "And I'm sure you can find a million statistics to support your theory but I'm being serious. You need to keep moving forward and we'll keep in touch."

"Yeah…OK…" Billy said.

"I'll talk to you later."

"Mhm."

"Bye, Billy."

"Bye, Trini."

Billy hung up the phone and placed it on the couch amongst his scattered books, papers, and notebooks. He stared at it for a long moment before turning back to the homework sheet that was resting on his lap and slowly started to smile as he picked up his pencil and continued on his homework.

"I don't understand," Bailey said as she crossed her legs, leaning in towards her sister. She rested her chin in her hands. "What reason could Mr. Kaplan have for you not to be able to go back to Oz with the others?" She held up a finger. "Not including how unfair it is that you lot could go and I can't."

Avalon gave a waning smile at the purple ranger's words and shifted to the side, giving her sister some space to lay down on her bed with her. She brought a hand up and ran it over her cheek as another tear escaped her eyes. "Goober," she murmured to Bailey.

"Booger," Bailey shot back. She reached out and wiped away the tears on her sister's face. "You're scaring me, Av," she admitted. "I've never seen you this upset before. Not even when you dislocated your arm surfing. Which was actually pretty creepy. Normal people would be screaming and crying and you were just making jokes and laughing about everything."

"Eh." Avalon shrugged. "I didn't even cry when I got shot, but this hurts worse." She let out a heavy sigh. "It's not even that I can't go home that's the problem it's…not being able to get answers." Bailey titled her head to the side in confusion. Briefly closing her eyes, Avalon ran a hand through her hair. "Remember that letter that I got? Where I said it was from no one?"

"It was only a couple days ago, Av, so yeah."

"Don't be a smart ass."

"I'm already smart, but I'll try not to be an ass."

The sisters laughed for a moment. Then the orange ranger's face turned serious once more. "The letter was from Dad," she explained. Bailey's eyes widened. "Yeah, I know. After all of these years he sent us a letter...he wants to see us, Bay. And…as pissed as I am about him shoving us on a plane out here, I still want to know some things. What his side of the story is, what his relationship with mum is…" her eyes lowered and her voice caught in her throat. "If he still loves us."

Frowning, the purple ranger mulled over what her sister has to say. "I'm sure he does."

"Really?" The orange ranger's eyebrow cocked upwards. "Then why has mum been the only one that's gotten into contact with us? If what she says was true, that she was trying her hardest to custody of us because of…well, of I don't know what. But it still sucks."

"Have you talked to the others about this?"

"It's none of their business."

Bailey leaned forward so that she was in her sister's face. "Av, you need to stop pushing everyone away when things don't go your way. It's no one's fault what happened to us happened. And it's no one's fault that Mr. Kaplan's not letting you go."

"He's not letting me go because he doesn't think my grades are high enough," Avalon reminded her. "Which is ridiculous because I've been doing better. But it's not my fault that having to learn the history of another country is difficult, not when I already spent most of my life learning the history of a the one I was actually born and grew up in." Her eyes became misty again and she let out a loud sigh. "It just sucks."

"I know," Bailey agreed. "But don't think there's nothing you can do to change his mind."

"I tried."

Bailey blinked once. "Did you do it nicely?" She squealed and leaned out of the way as Avalon moved to punch her on the arm. She then reached over and started to tickle her mercilessly. "Av! Stop it!" The two girls continued to laugh as the orange ranger continued her torture on her. "I swear; I'm going to pee if you don't stop." Bailey's face turned red and her laughter turned silent as she continued to twist and turn away from her sister.

Avalon's ringing cell phone was the only thing that caused her to stop tickling her sister. Bailey turned and started to kick her sister in the back as the orange ranger was distracted. Reaching out a hand, Avalon smacked Bailey's feet away and grabbed onto her cell phone. She glanced at the Caller ID before answering.

"Hey Skull, what's up?" She asked into the phone.

"We just found out," Skull said. He took a deep breath and Avalon waited patiently for him to continue. "Bulkie and I…we got into the police academy. Not just the junior police academy, but the actual police academy. Lt. Stone heard about the way we helped some of the students when there were monsters at the school and…they thought it proved our loyalty and bravery and…we got in. We start training soon."

Avalon took a moment to take in what he had just said. Then her eyes widened before she reached out and started to slap Bailey on the thigh. "No way. Really? You and Bulk both got in the academy? Ace! That's bonzer. I'm so happy for you two."

"We can't thank you enough for what you did to help us out," Skull then said. "For sticking up for us and believing in us more than others have. I don't know what we can do to thank you."

"For starters you can stop throwing me over your shoulder and running away," Avalon said, causing Bulk to laugh. "Just do you best, Skull. I know you two are going to be really helpful for this city." She tucked her hair behind her shoulders. "I'll talk to you later. Hoo roo." She hung up the phone and tossed it aside to see Bailey looking at her strangely. "What?"

"You know if there was anything I could do to help…"

Avalon smiled. "I know." Her nose wrinkled, slightly turning her face away. "Since when did you become the big sister and want to protect me?"

"Since I saw how upset my big sister was," Bailey replied.

Avalon smiled and reached out, mussing her sister's hair. Bailey pushed her hand away and leaned in, giving her a comforting hug.

Rocky sighed as he walked into his house, gently closing the door behind him. He heard the sound of pots and pans clanging together in the sink and knew his mother was doing the dishes, which meant that he was late. And if there was one thing his mother couldn't tolerate, it was lateness.

Especially when he promised to take his brothers and sisters to the park that day.

The red ranger inched towards the stairs, hoping he could make a clean getaway, but knew he was caught as soon as the water turned off. There was a brief moment of silence and then his mother came to the foot of the stairs, drying her hands on a dishtowel and looking up at him with disappointment in her eyes.

"Rocky…"

That's all she needed to say before he broke. "I know I'm late, Mom," he said to her. "I just…I had so much to do and I lost track of time." It was true. Not only had he needed to finish his homework in his advanced math class—surprisingly he tested out of the normal class due to his work at Stone Canyon—but he also needed to go to a meeting with Mr. Kaplan to make sure he would have his passport and things ready to go to Australia and that wasn't including the martial arts class he then went on to teach afterwards.

It was hard enough juggling things when he had a day of a monster attack, but even worse when he didn't have a monster attack to deal with and just needed to schedule everything else.

"You know your brothers and sisters were waiting for you to take them to the park," Mrs. DeSantos reminded him. "They were really looking for to it. And, now that you're going to be going on that trip, you need to spend as much time with them as possible."

Rocky's right eyebrow lowered. "How did you know about the trip?"

"They sent home a packet of information," Mrs. DeSantos explained. "About how you need to keep your grades up to be eligible." She regarded her son. "Are your grades OK?"

"Everything's fine, Mom, I promise," Rocky said. He went down the stairs and gave her a kiss on the cheek. "I know I let them all down. I'll take them to the park and spend the whole day with them before I leave. I just have so much to do now that I have to pack on top of it. I'm sorry. Lo siento, Mamá."

Mrs. DeSantos continued to watch her son for a moment then smiled. "Esta bien. But please don't make a promise you can't keep again."

"I won't." Rocky moved back up the stairs. "I need to do some homework."

"I'll bring you up some food later, get to work."

Of course she'll make it seem like it was her idea, Rocky thought, smiling to himself. He went into his room and closed the door behind him. Dropping his backpack onto his bed he flopped down next to it, stretching his arms out so that he resembled a 'T'. He had so much stuff to do.

Too much stuff.

Everything was starting to pile on top of him and now that this trip was coming up, as excited as he was, he was starting to feel the pressure. Going to a new city, new school, having new responsibilities, being further ahead in the school work than he originally thought…it was tearing into him.

Rocky squeezed his hands into fists, pressing his fingers into his palms as hard as he could. It hurt at first. It hurt a lot but then the pain went away and relief washed over his body. The pain turned to relief…no, release and he felt better once it came. Opening his hands, Rocky looked into his palms and saw that he had cut open the skin a little bit.

And yet, he still felt good.

A/N: So you all know, I changed my profile name to AvalonBay, so I could incorporate both of my characters' names into it.

So I finally did a chapter with Billy again, this time finally being able to talk to Trini again and get into his thoughts of how he's feeling with her being gone. Then I (also finally) had another sister moment with Avalon and Bailey, which was much needed.

And then started Rocky's storyline of which I'd like to thank XoXMountainGirlxoX for. Seriously talking to you through my problems when it comes to some chapters and storylines is very helpful and I can't thank you enough.

Also, you will see more of Bulk and Skull after a couple of chapters. I have some storylines for them coming in soon; I just wanted to get some things done first. I wasn't entirely sure how I wanted to do a scene were Lt. Stone told Bulk and Skull they got into the police academy, so I decided to change it to them telling Av. But like I said, you will see more of them and their work in the academy soon.

Thanks to Son of Whitebeard, I love power rangers7135, sweetredranger, heartpunker123, brankel1, TerraHart, Ashley, and Rose Speckor for reviewing.

I'd also like to thank TaitanoRules555 for reviewing earlier chapters and KelseyHalliwell for adding the story to favorites and alerts and Mlb92 for adding it to your alerts list.

~Avalon