Always a Frog, Never a Prince
Rocky would protest that he gave Adam ample warning of what was coming. The black ranger though did not agree. "Adam! Heads up," a millisecond later a football crashed into the back of the black rangers head causing him to lurch forward slightly.
Turning, Adam grabbed the back of his head where the point of the ball had impacted, he could see the red ranger approaching laughing his head off. "Damn it Rocky, you do that every time and every time it brings me an inch closer to kicking your ass."
The red ranger leant down and picked the ball up off of the floor before collapsing onto the ground in a lying position next to the black ranger, "Oh come on Adam," he managed to get out between laughs, "You've got to admit, that you fall for it every time."
"Only because I hold out some faint hope that one of these days you'll mature into a responsible person," Adam grumbled.
Rocky looked shocked, "Never!" he shouted, "I intend to stay this way for ever," he looked nosily over to the files on Adams lap, "What's that?"
Sighing Adam turned his head to look at Rocky who gave his best smile, "Notes from English."
"Boring," the red ranger echoed.
"Is there something you want?" Adam said, his best friend shrugged and shook his head, "So you were bored and decided to annoy me," a nod for confirmation. "I'm tempted to let Trini and the others know that you're better and have been forcing me to lie to them in fear of getting a beating."
"Hey," Rocky pointed an accusing finger at Adam, "I am not afraid of Trini, if she comes near me I'll give her the back of me 'and and say 'Oi, woman. Get in the kitchen now and make me breakfast.'"
Adam laughed, "And you wonder why no woman will go out with you," Rocky just made a face.
There was a brief silence as Adam went back to looking over his notes while Rocky span the football on his index finger, in an attempt to see how long he could go without the ball slipping off. Eventually though it did and Rocky was back to being bored again, sighing he looked around, desperately searching for something to do, he could find nothing though and just stared intently at the black ranger who was scribbling something in his file.
Adam glanced to his right to see Rocky staring at him, a blank expression on his face, trying to ignore him he went back to his work but pretty soon glanced to his right again to see Rocky still staring at him. "What?"
"Nothing," Rocky replied, "I'm just waiting till you finish."
"I might be a while," Adam said, focusing back to his file.
"I can wait," seeing that the staring act wasn't working Rocky opted instead to whistling a tune, pretty soon though his whistling became whispering as he sung a song. His whispering then became singing Rollin by Limp Biscuit in extremely off cue fashion until Adam finally threw his pen down on the file and turned to glare at him. All he got instead was another Rocky Desantos award winning smile.
"Rocky, I have to get this work done," Adam said, trying to reason with his best friend, "So if you go away now, then maybe I'll won't tell the others that…"
Before he could finish though he got interrupted, "Hey! When did Kimberly and Tommy start talking again?"
Adam turned dumb, staring at his best friend who extracted an apple from his pocket and took a bite out of it, "What?"
"Huh?" Rocky glanced at Adam, he could tell his friend was trying to figure out whether he was lying or not. "Ah see," he pointed a finger once again, "don't know everything now do you Mr Smarty Pants."
"When? Where? What about?"
Rocky though scrunched up his eyebrows and looked confused, it was as if he was deep in thought, trying to remember, "I'm not that sure," that statement though didn't hold up by the smirk on his face, "Maybe five bucks will refresh my memory."
"Rocky!"
"Okay, okay," Rocky held up his hands, "I passed by your dorm just now, I could hear Kimberly talking to someone who naturally I thought was you but just as I passed by I heard Tommy's voice."
"What were they talking about?"
The red ranger shrugged, Adam glared at him, "I'm telling the truth this time, I couldn't really make out what they were saying, but whatever it was…" he paused to take another bite out of his apple, "sounded pretty heated."
"Damn it," gathering up his files while Rocky looked on confused Adam stuffed them back into his bag and got to his feet.
"Where're you going?" the red ranger asked getting up.
"To see what's going on," Adam replied while jogging off, Rocky stood there for a second chewing on the piece of apple in his mouth before ducking behind the tree when seeing a familiar yellow ranger walking down the path towards the library.
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Kimberly stared back at Tommy, her heart was beating a mile a minute and her face registered shock, confusion and…well more shock. The white ranger was still on the other side of the door, his eyes were averted to the ground, he couldn't even look her in the eye any more. Instinctively stepping aside Kimberly held the door open as Tommy made his way inside. Closing it behind her she glanced at Tommy for a moment, his eyes were wondering around the room, taking in the photos and anything else he found of interest.
"Kim I…"
"What're you doing here?" the words were like a reaction, she didn't mean to say them in that harsh, abrupt tone, but that was just the way they came out. And it seemed to make Tommy even more nervous as his eyes traveled back south to the ground.
"I wanted to talk to you, see if you were okay," his voice was soft, and his body language was reminiscent of a child who was about to get a scolding.
"I'm fine," for some reason Kimberly couldn't seem to let her voice be gentle, it seemed determined to come out pissed. And her day had been going so well.
Tommy nodded, "Good, good," he said quietly. His eyes came back up from the floor and stared her straight in the eyes, "You look great."
Kimberly's jaw clenched and her body stiffened. She used to love hearing those words coming out of his mouth; they had seemed so natural from him. But now they just made her angry, "Thanks," she managed to force out between gritted teeth, breezing past him, the back of her pink robe billowing behind her Kimberly began to set her clothes her was going to wear tonight out on the bed. Tommy watched her do this, he smiled slightly seeing her favorite pink shirt getting laid out along with her jeans. She then proceeded to go over and check her hair in the mirror once more, she could see him staring at her. He wasn't moving when all she wanted from him right now was to leave, "Listen Tommy," she began her voice a little softer but still pretty cold, "I don't really have time to talk right now," she went to walk past him once again, "So if you wouldn't mind…" she was halted though when he gently gripped her arm stopping her forward momentum.
She looked up into his deep brown eyes that she'd always thought could see into her soul and swallowed involuntarily, "Stop it," he whispered gently, she didn't reply and just stared back, "I know your hurting Kim…"
Her eyes narrowed, "Don't flatter yourself," he tried to wriggle her arm free but he tightened his grip slightly preventing her going anywhere.
"Kim, please, I can't go on like this. Scream at me, shout at me, hit me even but don't pretend that you don't care," he was practically pleading with her.
But Kimberly couldn't have cared less, "Who's pretending?" this time she wrenched her arm free and approached the bed where she started to gather up her clothes that needed to be cleaned and stuffed them into a plastic carrier bag ready for the launderette.
The white ranger watched her do this, he couldn't take what she was doing, it was as if the Kimberly he knew and had loved was gone and he was now talking to a stranger. But he knew what she was doing, "Okay, so you don't care, I mean why should you. You leave for Florida, break my heart without a second thought, then Kat comes along, takes your powers, your friends, and me," he paused for a response but didn't get one. "So you're telling me that you're not in the least bit angry?" Once again there was no response from Kimberly though, "I know you're pain Kimberly, I feel it too," he became quiet, "I'm hurting too," Kimberly froze and turned to face Tommy, her arms folded across her chest.
"What the hell would you know about my pain?" she hissed.
"I know that it's eating you alive," Tommy replied with conviction, "And it's killing me knowing that I'm the one who did this too you."
Kimberly raised her eyebrows seemingly unimpressed, "Oh, I'm sorry Tommy," she remarked sarcastically, "I don't mean to make you feel bad."
"Kimberly you know that's not what I…"
"No, no, you're right Tommy. I'm a terrible person, and turnabout is fair play, I mean…I broke your heart, so you…ripped out mine," the pink ranger burned a whole through his head with her eyes that were alight with fury. "Poor little Tommy, surrounded by friends, family and a soon to be wife, it must be so hard for you living amongst all of these loved ones," her voice became bitter and sarcastic, "I just hope you can manage without killing yourself."
Tommy'd had enough of this, he'd tried to be nice, he'd tried to be civil, he'd even tried to be a friend and she'd thrown it back in his face. "You know what Kim, it's not only me to blame here, I'm not the one who left for Florida without giving you a second thought. I loved you more than anything in the world, and you know it."
"What'd you expect Tommy? This was my life, I couldn't not go, and yes I did expect you to be upset with me but when I came back here I didn't expect you to throw the fact that you were getting married in my face. I mean what was it Tommy, you got lonely without having someone to wake up next to in the morning so you pick up the first blonde bimbo who's impressed by a martial arts expert and ask her to marry you?"
"Don't bring Kat into this," Tommy stalled, "and what about you. Shacking up with Adam to try and make me jealous."
"Oh don't flatter yourself," Kimberly snapped, "Adam's being a friend, and unlike you he's a lot more trusting and a hell of a lot more of a good person."
Tommy stalled for a second, his mind processing what she'd just said. "Is there something going on between the two of you?"
"What?"
"You heard me," Kimberly shook her head and turned away from him, this argument was taking a lot out of her and she didn't have the time to answer stupid questions by some paranoid ex boyfriend, "Answer me Kimberly."
"No, of course not," Kimberly whirled around to face him, "Adam, is a gentleman, not some perv who'd let me stay at his place just to try and get me into bed."
"So if there's nothing going on why are you making him dinner tonight," the pink ranger stared at him strangely, "Yeah, I had a conversation with your good friend Adam earlier on, you two sounded awfully chummy on the telephone."
"Oh," Kimberly cried in frustration, her hands balling up into fists, "You can be such an asshole sometimes, there is nothing going on between Adam and me. Yes, I'm having dinner with him, as a thank you for letting me stay here. Despite what you think Tommy, not every guy has a personnel agenda," she calmed down, "Now, leave me alone."
Tommy stayed silent, his breathing heavier due to all the yelling that had taken place. This had not gone as he had planned, "Kim I…"
"Please leave me alone," she whispered, now she was the one who couldn't bear to look at him.
"I'm not leaving until we sort this out," Tommy stated firmly.
"GET OUT," the pink ranger screamed, grabbing an ornament from the bed she flung it at the door in an attempt to scare him out so she could cry, release some of the pain. However just as she released the small, china object the door opened and Adam stepped through straight into the path of the airborne weapon.
The sound of shattering china filled the room as the ornament impacted against the black rangers skull shattering and lacerating his skin with the small shards. Stumbling to his left he crashed to the floor. "Adam," Kimberly rushed over to the black ranger with Tommy in hot pursuit.
"Oh," Adam groaned holding the right side of his forehead that was currently spewing blood, "What the hell was that?"
"Adam I am so sorry, I didn't mean to, I didn't know that…I…I'm so sorry Adam," all at once the emotions inside of Kimberly got all too much and she burst into tears. Standing she fled to the bathroom and closed the door behind her.
"Here," Tommy extended a hand to help the black ranger up but instead got it batted away.
"Leave!" it wasn't a request, it wasn't a suggestion, it was an order. Tommy stepped outside out the room as Adam dragged himself up, his face a mask of crimson he angrily turned to face Tommy, "I told you what would happen if you came here. For once, stop trying to be the leader and listen to what others have to say because what you think Tommy, isn't always right."
The door was slung closed and Adam made his way into the main room where he collapsed onto his reclining chair. Sighing he couldn't hear anything from the bathroom, the blood stinging his eyes he wiped the excess away with the back of his hand before muttering to himself, "And today started off so well."
To Be Continued
By Boulder
Personnel Note
A thousand apologies for uploading the same chapter twice. It was probably because I was half asleep at the time. See what you people put me through (Just kidding). As always reviews and suggestions are always greatly appreciated. And a special thanks goes to Achlys for pointing my mistake out. Otherwise I might've left it up there forever. Thanks Achlys, I owe you one.
Rocky would protest that he gave Adam ample warning of what was coming. The black ranger though did not agree. "Adam! Heads up," a millisecond later a football crashed into the back of the black rangers head causing him to lurch forward slightly.
Turning, Adam grabbed the back of his head where the point of the ball had impacted, he could see the red ranger approaching laughing his head off. "Damn it Rocky, you do that every time and every time it brings me an inch closer to kicking your ass."
The red ranger leant down and picked the ball up off of the floor before collapsing onto the ground in a lying position next to the black ranger, "Oh come on Adam," he managed to get out between laughs, "You've got to admit, that you fall for it every time."
"Only because I hold out some faint hope that one of these days you'll mature into a responsible person," Adam grumbled.
Rocky looked shocked, "Never!" he shouted, "I intend to stay this way for ever," he looked nosily over to the files on Adams lap, "What's that?"
Sighing Adam turned his head to look at Rocky who gave his best smile, "Notes from English."
"Boring," the red ranger echoed.
"Is there something you want?" Adam said, his best friend shrugged and shook his head, "So you were bored and decided to annoy me," a nod for confirmation. "I'm tempted to let Trini and the others know that you're better and have been forcing me to lie to them in fear of getting a beating."
"Hey," Rocky pointed an accusing finger at Adam, "I am not afraid of Trini, if she comes near me I'll give her the back of me 'and and say 'Oi, woman. Get in the kitchen now and make me breakfast.'"
Adam laughed, "And you wonder why no woman will go out with you," Rocky just made a face.
There was a brief silence as Adam went back to looking over his notes while Rocky span the football on his index finger, in an attempt to see how long he could go without the ball slipping off. Eventually though it did and Rocky was back to being bored again, sighing he looked around, desperately searching for something to do, he could find nothing though and just stared intently at the black ranger who was scribbling something in his file.
Adam glanced to his right to see Rocky staring at him, a blank expression on his face, trying to ignore him he went back to his work but pretty soon glanced to his right again to see Rocky still staring at him. "What?"
"Nothing," Rocky replied, "I'm just waiting till you finish."
"I might be a while," Adam said, focusing back to his file.
"I can wait," seeing that the staring act wasn't working Rocky opted instead to whistling a tune, pretty soon though his whistling became whispering as he sung a song. His whispering then became singing Rollin by Limp Biscuit in extremely off cue fashion until Adam finally threw his pen down on the file and turned to glare at him. All he got instead was another Rocky Desantos award winning smile.
"Rocky, I have to get this work done," Adam said, trying to reason with his best friend, "So if you go away now, then maybe I'll won't tell the others that…"
Before he could finish though he got interrupted, "Hey! When did Kimberly and Tommy start talking again?"
Adam turned dumb, staring at his best friend who extracted an apple from his pocket and took a bite out of it, "What?"
"Huh?" Rocky glanced at Adam, he could tell his friend was trying to figure out whether he was lying or not. "Ah see," he pointed a finger once again, "don't know everything now do you Mr Smarty Pants."
"When? Where? What about?"
Rocky though scrunched up his eyebrows and looked confused, it was as if he was deep in thought, trying to remember, "I'm not that sure," that statement though didn't hold up by the smirk on his face, "Maybe five bucks will refresh my memory."
"Rocky!"
"Okay, okay," Rocky held up his hands, "I passed by your dorm just now, I could hear Kimberly talking to someone who naturally I thought was you but just as I passed by I heard Tommy's voice."
"What were they talking about?"
The red ranger shrugged, Adam glared at him, "I'm telling the truth this time, I couldn't really make out what they were saying, but whatever it was…" he paused to take another bite out of his apple, "sounded pretty heated."
"Damn it," gathering up his files while Rocky looked on confused Adam stuffed them back into his bag and got to his feet.
"Where're you going?" the red ranger asked getting up.
"To see what's going on," Adam replied while jogging off, Rocky stood there for a second chewing on the piece of apple in his mouth before ducking behind the tree when seeing a familiar yellow ranger walking down the path towards the library.
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Kimberly stared back at Tommy, her heart was beating a mile a minute and her face registered shock, confusion and…well more shock. The white ranger was still on the other side of the door, his eyes were averted to the ground, he couldn't even look her in the eye any more. Instinctively stepping aside Kimberly held the door open as Tommy made his way inside. Closing it behind her she glanced at Tommy for a moment, his eyes were wondering around the room, taking in the photos and anything else he found of interest.
"Kim I…"
"What're you doing here?" the words were like a reaction, she didn't mean to say them in that harsh, abrupt tone, but that was just the way they came out. And it seemed to make Tommy even more nervous as his eyes traveled back south to the ground.
"I wanted to talk to you, see if you were okay," his voice was soft, and his body language was reminiscent of a child who was about to get a scolding.
"I'm fine," for some reason Kimberly couldn't seem to let her voice be gentle, it seemed determined to come out pissed. And her day had been going so well.
Tommy nodded, "Good, good," he said quietly. His eyes came back up from the floor and stared her straight in the eyes, "You look great."
Kimberly's jaw clenched and her body stiffened. She used to love hearing those words coming out of his mouth; they had seemed so natural from him. But now they just made her angry, "Thanks," she managed to force out between gritted teeth, breezing past him, the back of her pink robe billowing behind her Kimberly began to set her clothes her was going to wear tonight out on the bed. Tommy watched her do this, he smiled slightly seeing her favorite pink shirt getting laid out along with her jeans. She then proceeded to go over and check her hair in the mirror once more, she could see him staring at her. He wasn't moving when all she wanted from him right now was to leave, "Listen Tommy," she began her voice a little softer but still pretty cold, "I don't really have time to talk right now," she went to walk past him once again, "So if you wouldn't mind…" she was halted though when he gently gripped her arm stopping her forward momentum.
She looked up into his deep brown eyes that she'd always thought could see into her soul and swallowed involuntarily, "Stop it," he whispered gently, she didn't reply and just stared back, "I know your hurting Kim…"
Her eyes narrowed, "Don't flatter yourself," he tried to wriggle her arm free but he tightened his grip slightly preventing her going anywhere.
"Kim, please, I can't go on like this. Scream at me, shout at me, hit me even but don't pretend that you don't care," he was practically pleading with her.
But Kimberly couldn't have cared less, "Who's pretending?" this time she wrenched her arm free and approached the bed where she started to gather up her clothes that needed to be cleaned and stuffed them into a plastic carrier bag ready for the launderette.
The white ranger watched her do this, he couldn't take what she was doing, it was as if the Kimberly he knew and had loved was gone and he was now talking to a stranger. But he knew what she was doing, "Okay, so you don't care, I mean why should you. You leave for Florida, break my heart without a second thought, then Kat comes along, takes your powers, your friends, and me," he paused for a response but didn't get one. "So you're telling me that you're not in the least bit angry?" Once again there was no response from Kimberly though, "I know you're pain Kimberly, I feel it too," he became quiet, "I'm hurting too," Kimberly froze and turned to face Tommy, her arms folded across her chest.
"What the hell would you know about my pain?" she hissed.
"I know that it's eating you alive," Tommy replied with conviction, "And it's killing me knowing that I'm the one who did this too you."
Kimberly raised her eyebrows seemingly unimpressed, "Oh, I'm sorry Tommy," she remarked sarcastically, "I don't mean to make you feel bad."
"Kimberly you know that's not what I…"
"No, no, you're right Tommy. I'm a terrible person, and turnabout is fair play, I mean…I broke your heart, so you…ripped out mine," the pink ranger burned a whole through his head with her eyes that were alight with fury. "Poor little Tommy, surrounded by friends, family and a soon to be wife, it must be so hard for you living amongst all of these loved ones," her voice became bitter and sarcastic, "I just hope you can manage without killing yourself."
Tommy'd had enough of this, he'd tried to be nice, he'd tried to be civil, he'd even tried to be a friend and she'd thrown it back in his face. "You know what Kim, it's not only me to blame here, I'm not the one who left for Florida without giving you a second thought. I loved you more than anything in the world, and you know it."
"What'd you expect Tommy? This was my life, I couldn't not go, and yes I did expect you to be upset with me but when I came back here I didn't expect you to throw the fact that you were getting married in my face. I mean what was it Tommy, you got lonely without having someone to wake up next to in the morning so you pick up the first blonde bimbo who's impressed by a martial arts expert and ask her to marry you?"
"Don't bring Kat into this," Tommy stalled, "and what about you. Shacking up with Adam to try and make me jealous."
"Oh don't flatter yourself," Kimberly snapped, "Adam's being a friend, and unlike you he's a lot more trusting and a hell of a lot more of a good person."
Tommy stalled for a second, his mind processing what she'd just said. "Is there something going on between the two of you?"
"What?"
"You heard me," Kimberly shook her head and turned away from him, this argument was taking a lot out of her and she didn't have the time to answer stupid questions by some paranoid ex boyfriend, "Answer me Kimberly."
"No, of course not," Kimberly whirled around to face him, "Adam, is a gentleman, not some perv who'd let me stay at his place just to try and get me into bed."
"So if there's nothing going on why are you making him dinner tonight," the pink ranger stared at him strangely, "Yeah, I had a conversation with your good friend Adam earlier on, you two sounded awfully chummy on the telephone."
"Oh," Kimberly cried in frustration, her hands balling up into fists, "You can be such an asshole sometimes, there is nothing going on between Adam and me. Yes, I'm having dinner with him, as a thank you for letting me stay here. Despite what you think Tommy, not every guy has a personnel agenda," she calmed down, "Now, leave me alone."
Tommy stayed silent, his breathing heavier due to all the yelling that had taken place. This had not gone as he had planned, "Kim I…"
"Please leave me alone," she whispered, now she was the one who couldn't bear to look at him.
"I'm not leaving until we sort this out," Tommy stated firmly.
"GET OUT," the pink ranger screamed, grabbing an ornament from the bed she flung it at the door in an attempt to scare him out so she could cry, release some of the pain. However just as she released the small, china object the door opened and Adam stepped through straight into the path of the airborne weapon.
The sound of shattering china filled the room as the ornament impacted against the black rangers skull shattering and lacerating his skin with the small shards. Stumbling to his left he crashed to the floor. "Adam," Kimberly rushed over to the black ranger with Tommy in hot pursuit.
"Oh," Adam groaned holding the right side of his forehead that was currently spewing blood, "What the hell was that?"
"Adam I am so sorry, I didn't mean to, I didn't know that…I…I'm so sorry Adam," all at once the emotions inside of Kimberly got all too much and she burst into tears. Standing she fled to the bathroom and closed the door behind her.
"Here," Tommy extended a hand to help the black ranger up but instead got it batted away.
"Leave!" it wasn't a request, it wasn't a suggestion, it was an order. Tommy stepped outside out the room as Adam dragged himself up, his face a mask of crimson he angrily turned to face Tommy, "I told you what would happen if you came here. For once, stop trying to be the leader and listen to what others have to say because what you think Tommy, isn't always right."
The door was slung closed and Adam made his way into the main room where he collapsed onto his reclining chair. Sighing he couldn't hear anything from the bathroom, the blood stinging his eyes he wiped the excess away with the back of his hand before muttering to himself, "And today started off so well."
To Be Continued
By Boulder
Personnel Note
A thousand apologies for uploading the same chapter twice. It was probably because I was half asleep at the time. See what you people put me through (Just kidding). As always reviews and suggestions are always greatly appreciated. And a special thanks goes to Achlys for pointing my mistake out. Otherwise I might've left it up there forever. Thanks Achlys, I owe you one.