A/N: Thanks to Camfan4ever, garnetred, DustinandMarahForLife, BlueAngel07, Jorgitosbabe, Veronica, KirCo4ever, and malissa who last reviewed! Thank you. Thank you! Keep them coming, and more will come your way.


Chapter 7

"Something I Never Had"

Things begin to tone down a bit in Reefside as the teenagers resume back in a normal, quiet life. It has been exactly a week since Kira's confrontation with Elsa and Mesogog, and none of the Dino Rangers were able to run into another of their evil plans since then. Nonetheless, there were only a few more days left till Reefside High School's Sweetheart Valentine's Day Dance, and it turned out to be the subject everyone is talking about.

"Hey, Kira! Wait up." The agitated singer spun around at the call of her name as Ethan slides down the stair steps on the metal rails, cutting in front of his fellow classmates. "Opps, sorry. Excuse me." He made it down safely just in time before the first bell rang. In the meantime, the two stood in front of Dr. Oliver's room. "What's wrong with you?" He asks all of a sudden once she plastered him an irritated look.

"It's Monday morning, Ethan." She groans. "And I'm not exactly a morning person."

A mischievous smirk spread across his face as students begin walking in between them to get through. "You're still ticked about what happened aren't you?"

"I don't know what you're talking about." Kira rolled her eyes while tucking a few loose strands of hair behind her ears.

Ethan just shrugged his shoulders. "Okay, forget it. But anyway, guess what!" Excitement and anxiety filled his voice as she looks at him with mere curiosity.

"What?"

"I have a date." She raised a brow. "You know, for the Valentine's day dance. Isn't that great!"

Kira forced a rather weak smile. "Who did you ask?"

"Joanna Bryant." He grins.

Kira's mouth fell open. "The most popular girl in school said yes to you." She questioned shockingly.

Ethan glares at her. "Hey!" He retorts, offended by the tone of her voice. "She happened to find me highly attractive."

Kira was amused. "I didn't know she was into computer nerds."

He rolls his eyes at her crude comment when suddenly the final bell rang. They walked inside the classroom, followed by other classmates, and situated themselves at their assigned seats.

"Morning, Class." Dr. Oliver greeted his students. "Alright, settle down while I take roll."

Kira placed her yellow backpack on the table and began digging through her binder and notebook. Just then, the annoying Cassidy Cornell, who occupied the empty seat next to her, approaches. "Kira, is it true? Ethan James is taking Joanna Bryant to the Valentine's Day dance?"

She gently moves the tape recorder away from her face. "Why do you care?"

"Hello? I'm a school reporter. That's what I do." Cassidy scoffs with a feisty attitude. "Computer geek taking former Homecoming Queen to the dance is like big news."

Kira groans irritably. "Whatever. I can care less about the stupid dance."

"Cassidy." The blonde looks over her shoulder, only to be called out again by Dr. Oliver. "Get back to your seat." She pouts and walked back to her table without another word. "Okay, before we start class has anyone seen Conner?"

"Yep! Right here." Conner entered the room a few moments later after the last bell. All eyes turn to him as he hurried along to his seat.

"Conner, that's the fourth time you've been late this week." Dr. Oliver informs him without sounding too upset. "What's going on?"

"Erm...Car trouble and traffic, Dr O." He comes up with another excuse. "It won't happen again." Kira looks at him.

"Very well. But if it happens again, I'll have no choice but to give you detention for the remainder of the week."

Conner nods. "Yes, sir."

"Alright." He turns to the class. "Now I want you all to turn to your books to page 116 and be ready to take some notes on my boring lecture." The class grunted. "Yeah, exciting isn't it?" Their teacher stated sarcastically. "If I hear anymore whining, I'll keep you all after the bell." Cold silence filled the room as a grin appeared on Dr. Oliver's face. "Good. I shall begin."

Kira watches on as Conner takes out his books. "So...why were you really late?" She paused in mid-sentence and sensed something unusual about him. He looks at her weirdly.

"What?" He shrugged. "I had to do something real quick."

"Uh huh." She wasn't convinced by his answer for a moment there. "So did you hear about Ethan taking Joanna Bryant to the dance?"

The unexpected news grabbed his immediate attention as Conner shot Kira a surprised glance. He turns to Ethan. "What?"

"Hey!" Dr. Oliver snaps at them after another interruption. The two sheepishly lowered their heads and went back to work.


"You asked Joanna Bryant to the dance? The Joanna Bryant?" Conner pulls Ethan to the side once class ended. Kira rolls her eyes as she tagged along with the guys.

"Yeah." He smirks. The trio began walking to their lockers down the hallway. "Why? Jealous?"

"Jealous?" Conner scoffs. "No, I'm shocked that she would even consider going out with a geek."

Ethan stops and glares at him. "Don't worry, Ethan." Kira reassures him. "Conner is just being a jerk because he got turned down by the Britney Spears look alike during sophomore year when he asked her to the Homecoming dance."

"Did not!"

"Did too. I even have the school paper from that year to prove it entitled School Jock Gets Rejected!"

Ethan chuckles while nudging his shoulder playfully. "Oh yeah. Now I remember. Cassidy was the one that wrote the article."

"Whatever, dude." Conner crosses his arms. "It don't matter. It was her lost anyway." Ethan and Kira shared amusing looks due to his egocentric personality. "She's nothing compared to the girl I'm going to ask." He looks down at Kira.

"Who? Krystle?"

He nodded in dismay. "I was thinking about it."

"But..."

"But I want to ask someone else, and you'll never guess who". He smirks.

They let go of the subject after attempting a few unsuccessful guesses. "Janey?"

"Nope."

"Kazel?"

"Guess again."

"Cassidy?" Conner stopped and looked at Ethan seriously.

"No way, dude."

Laughing, Kira begins opening up her locker. "Ethan dated her once, so it couldn't be that bad." He glared at her. Once she popped it open, a bouquet of red roses were placed on top of her books as she takes them out in bewilderment. "Wow. That's weird."

"Who they from?" Ethan asks out of curiosity.

"I don't know." Kira places the roses under her nose to smell the scent of them, which were utterly fresh and pleasant for her taste. "But they're beautiful." She sticks her hand in and found a note. Her male friends looked over her shoulder to read. "From your secret admirer." She read.

Conner puts on a face. "What? That's it?"

"Dude, it has to be Trent." Ethan suggested. "Did he ask you to the dance yet?" Conner shot him a glance as he slowly shifts his gaze over to Kira, expectantly waiting for her answer by now.

"Uh no."


A week as gone by, and things were the same as usual in Blue Bay Harbor. Shane, Dustin, Hunter, Cam, and Tori spent their day off at the beach. Despite the cool weather, however, it was a nice sunny day out and none of them wanted to miss the opportunity to enjoy it. While the guys continue their beach volleyball game, Tori was out in the water surfing and grabbing everyone's attention in shore.

"So, Dustin. Are you going to ask Marah to be your Valentine this year?" Hunter curiously asks as he tosses the volleyball over the net towards Shane and Cam's side. Their match slowly came to an end as they discuss their plans for the remainder of the week. All eyes turn to Dustin as they wait for an answer.

"I don't know." He muttered softly. "I guess I'm still trying to come up with the right approach." Dustin wanted to get off the subject, but knowing the guys, he wasn't going to get off the hook that easily, especially when they've noticed how close he and Marah were getting for the past couple of weeks.

"I don't get why you guys take Valentine's Day so seriously." Cam thought. "What happened to the simple things? Like exchanging little cards and receiving candy. Now it's about wowing your dates."

Shane smirks as he places an arm around him. "Cam, my man. We need to get you woman."

"Oh yeah!" Hunter adds quite enthusiastically. "Let's go chick hunting."

Cam didn't like the idea as he brushes his arm off him. "No way."

"Unless you know," Shane trails off with a playful smirk, "you prefer men."

He shot him an evil glance. "Sorry to disappoint you, Shane but no."

Dustin and Hunter shared a good laugh at Cam's unexpected come back response when suddenly Tori comes heading their way. "Hey, guys." She flashes them her killer smile. "What's so funny?" Hunter's laughter immediately subsided as he stops and looks at Tori, who's all drenched up from the water, making her sexually appealing in his eyes. He blanked out for a moment as he shook his head and comes back to reality.

"Oh, nothing." Dustin answered. "We're just talking about Valentine's Day."

"So, you thought about asking Marah yet?" She asks while drying her long blonde hair with a towel.

"Uh no." He grunted out of annoyance. "Dude, why is everyone asking? I mean what about you, Tor?"

"What about me?" She chuckled.

"Do you have any plans for Valentine's Day?"

"No." Tori replies sharply. "Valentine's Day is the least of my worries. Besides, I'm not even looking forward to it so why should I even care? Sure the day is supposed to be romantic but to be honest, I'm not into that touchy lovey dovey crap anymore, if there is even such a thing as love." Once Tori finished her side of the argument, the guys exchanged looks, knowing she was referring to her and Blake but none of them dared to say a word.

"Finally. Someone who agrees with me." Cam breaks the silence as he and Tori share a quick high-five.

"Valentine's Day could just be a fun thing. You don't have to have a significant other to celebrate it." Hunter argues back. "It could be with a friend."

Tori nods. "Sure. I understand that. You just don't see it like I do. Valentine's Day is something you probably look forward to, but not me."

"What I don't understand is why Valentine's Day have to be something serious to you."

"I never said that."

"But that's what you meant." The issue suddenly became a debate between Tori and Hunter as the others continued to listen intently. "You have to stop putting yourself down, Tori. The only reason why you dislike Valentine's Day so much is because at this point in your life you feel unwanted, and alone."

She averts from his gaze. "I really don't need this from you right now."

"Just hear me out first."

"No, Hunter." Tori snaps. "You and I obviously don't see eye to eye and in this case we don't. Why are you making a big deal about it? Valentine's Day is more of a personal thing for me, and I respect that fact that you take it less seriously than I do. I valued Valentine's Day as more of a special occasion shared between two intimate people who obviously love each other, and I never even experienced that with anyone. Never. Not even with Blake. And you're right I do feel alone. I mean, why do you care anyway?" She questioned abruptly.

He groans. "I care because I'm surprised that you're not with anyone, and trust me...one of these days I know you'll find someone who will love you the same way in return. I just don't want you to think that you'll never have that because you will." Tori bit her lip as Hunter continues on. "Look, you're one of the most modest, beautiful, most utterly amazing girls I know and any guy would be luck to have you. And you're wrong about before." Hunter trails off in mid-sentence as he stares deeply into her eyes. "When I said any guy would be lucky to have you, I meant myself too."

Tori's lips slightly parted as the guys remain quiet and drawn to their argument. "What do you expect me to say in return, Hunter?" She questions abruptly. "Huh? Oh wow, the brooding and dark fella who never seems to like the idea of me the first place suddenly admits that he'd be lucky to have me if he'd ever had a chance. I mean, what the hell are you trying to point out here, Hunter? You feel sorry for me, is that it?"

"Tori, that's not what I meant."

"You know what?" She pauses, refusing to hear anymore from the dirty blonde who has already upsetted her at that point. "You haven't been in a relationship for quite some time now, so don't be trying to preach me about love alright?" Tori stated quite harshly as she walks past Hunter, nearly pushing him out of the way. The guys all stared at him in dismay.

"Dude..." Dustin murmurs. "That was...cold."


Meanwhile, Kira and Conner arrived moments after in Cyberspace to meet up with Ethan once class ended. While he busied himself with the laptops, Kira continues scribbling furiously on a napkin. "Dude," Conner nudges her shoulder, "what are you doing?"

She looks at him and sighs deeply. "Working on a song."

"Take a break." He suggested as he stuff his soccer ball and tee in a red duffel back. "Don't stress over it."

"I'm not stressing over it." Kira argues. "I just want to get it done."

"Hey, guys." Trent comes over to the table with their orders. Kira looks up at him as he places her apple juice down. He smiles in return.

"Can we talk?" Conner looks at Kira as Trent nods his head slightly to her request.

"Yeah. Sure."

The diva turns to her egocentric friend. "Alone."

Grunting out of laziness, Conner rolled his eyes. "Fine." He rose up from his chair and begins walking over to the computers to join Ethan. He then stops to look over his shoulder.

"What's up?" Trent asks as he took the seat that was once occupied by Conner next to his female companion.

Kira bit her lip and smiled nervously. "I received the flowers. No one has ever done that for me before." She blushed. "Thank you, they're beautiful."

He wrinkles his forehead. "Say what?" He questioned blankly.

"The flowers." She elaborated. "Didn't you put them in my locker?"

"Uh no..."

Kira arches her brow, surprised to find out that it wasn't him who left behind the flowers and note for her. "Then who did?"


A/N: Don't forget to review! Oh, and if you read any of my other stories, please go to the poll and vote for your favorite! The link to the poll is located on my profile. Thanks!