Disclaimer: I do not own the Power Rangers or any of the weapons associated with the Power Rangers, so if you recognize it, it is not mine. I do own the characters, Ally Jameson, Fanny Abbott, Richard Myles, Dennis Alderway, Amanda Williams, Charlie Hughes, Ashley Meggs, Amy Tillery, Meagan Sipper-Stone and Todd Billingsway as well as any other characters from "Saving the World, Again" that may be brought into this story.
XRachX: I'll try and it will be a few more chapters before Alpha appears again. As for the flowers, well you'll just have to wait and see.
TrueRomantic: Thanks for the review and here's the new chapter!
Now, on with the Story!
The First Day at Reefside High (Tommy's POV)At the high school, my students slowly walked through the halls, each heading for their homeroom and what they thought was their sure doom at the beginning of the school year. I was lucky enough to get a bunch of sophomores for my homeroom class this year. Many of the students I would be teaching later on during the day, but the first thing I had to do was take roll, as dictated by none other than Principal Randall.
One of the students looked familiar and I couldn't remember who she was, until a boy walked in with a camera a few seconds later. Then I remembered the day she had barged in on my proposal, this was surely going to be interesting, and I wasn't sure if I could keep my cool if she asked prying questions. The little girl had been lucky that Kim and Jason were there to forcibly pull me away by the time she asked the question. I have never been a big fan of people video taping my life, as there are quite few things I do not want the greater part of the public to know about, at all.
"Good morning, class," Tommy said, as the students stopped their chattering and looked over at him. The girls' out of pure awe at how handsome this man was and the boys out of the fear that he could beat them to a bloody pulp. It was well known that he taught karate, as well as science, which some people thought was geeky, but they wouldn't dare say that to him. Under those clothes, they knew was a body of all muscle and none of them were brave enough to go up against him, except maybe McKnight and it wasn't exactly bravery with him either, more like the lack of using his common sense. "Now, I know that all of you have had a busy summer and want to talk to your friends, but there are the usual housekeeping things that we have to do. I'll go ahead and tell you that your new principal is Principal Randall and she plans to have an assembly in about twenty minutes, don't ask me why because I don't know. She tells us very little about her plans for all of us, including you but never mind that. Now, for the roll. Ford, Kira."
"Here," Kira said, putting her hand up to make it easier for the teacher to locate her. She seemed nice, but none of the other signals were anywhere close to her. Was it possible that they weren't even friends? He then called a few more names before he got to the next person that he would soon be considering to become a ranger.
"James, Ethan," Tommy said.
"Here," Ethan said and he was easy to spot, as he sat by himself. He seemed to get along with the rest of the class but wasn't a jock or an artist, so he didn't mix quite as well. Tommy had his doubts about all of them, but they did seem to be some of the strongest people in their individual groups.
The thing was their groups did not hang out together, at all, from what it seemed. It was going to be rough to convince them to be around each other if they could not even willingly talk to each other in class. Being a ranger meant you were around the other rangers a lot and he knew that all too well. Jason and he hadn't gotten along at first, but then they were forced to get along and now they were best friends, go figure on that one.
"McKnight, Conner," Tommy said, scanning the room. The other two had been in different groups, so what would make him any different.
"Here," Conner said, throwing his hand in the air for a half second. He then went back into the discussion he was having with his friends about the upcoming soccer season, which made Tommy wonder if his scanner was working correctly. He did not seem capable of becoming the red ranger, but Billy had assured him that this scanner would work and he trusted Billy or at least he thought he did, until now. Conner definitely did not seem to be the brightest apple in the bunch, by any means.
"We have a little while before Principal Randall is going to call us, so is there anything you want to know, about this class?" Tommy asked, leaning back in his chair and looking out at the class. He was sure they had quite a few questions for him, so the least he could was answer them truthfully, before class truly started.
"Dr. Oliver, are you married yet?" Cassidy asked and she watched his face turn to one of pure hatred, before he quickly wiped away the emotion. She was going to have to learn not to mess with him, as he was likely to lose his temper if he wasn't careful. If the absolute worst happened, he could always go across the hall and talk to Dennis for a few minutes, until he regained his composure. Then he would go back in the room and calmly answer her questions, until she ticked him off again and that time he would probably have to leave and just go grab Kim away from her kindergarteners.
"No, Cassidy, but I will be getting married right before Christmas," Tommy said, staring the girl down. If she was bold enough to ask another question, then he was going to embarrass her, if he could. She seemed to be impossible to embarrass, but he would try anything to get her to shut up, although he knew it was wrong to embarrass a student. Cassidy, however, did not seem like a normal student, at all and that made him much more willing to do what he was thinking about.
"Oh, to the woman who has been living in your house?" Cassidy asked and before Tommy could answer her, Kira piped up in his defense. Tommy was surprised that she was coming to his defense already, but the girl seemed to not like Cassidy as much as he disliked her. Well, at least he would have that in common with her, but the other's he hadn't found any common links to, yet.
"Cassidy, leave the man alone. It's none of our business," Kira said and it became obvious to Tommy that Kira was definitely more strong willed than he had first imagined, but the small detector he had brought with him signaled her as the new yellow ranger. So, she didn't exactly act like most of the past yellow rangers, but she did seem to have their quiet confidence and a few other things, that would help her, as she was going to be the only female ranger in this group, unless another dino gem showed up.
"Yes it is," Cassidy said, clipping the words very sharply. She was still expecting Dr. Oliver to answer, although he seemed to be paying very little attention to her right now. He seemed to be intrigued by what Kira was saying to her more than anything else that was going on. "We have the right to know what is going on in our teacher's lives."
"But only if they want to let us know what is happening, Cassidy," Kira said and before it could escalate any further, Principal Randall called them to the auditorium, for the beginning of the year assembly. They had not had an assembly like this last year and they could only hope that it wouldn't bore them to death, as most of these assemblies did.
"Hello, students and faculty. I am proud to be here at Reefside High School, but I am sure that you will notice some changes around here," Principal Randall said, as she looked around at the teachers, from what she knew there were several new teachers and she thought it necessary to introduce all of them to the students. It was the absolute least she could do for these students, as she would be no help for them. The teachers were showing their great dislike of this assembly, but none of them had acted out, as of yet. "I would like for all faculty to come to the stage and introduce yourself, so these children will know who all of you are."
"Damn, Oliver, you got these girls drooling over you," Dennis said, as he was walked behind Tommy on the way to the stage. He had noticed that several of the teenage girls were staring at his friend and he thought it might be something that would lighten the mood. Principal Strigner had never made them do anything like this, but she wasn't him and that was more than obvious to everyone in the auditorium.
"Dennis, girls are the reason I almost lost Kim, before. They have to learn or I will teach them," Tommy said, being the next to last teacher to file on stage, working from right to left they announced their name and subject that they taught, with the students merely watching, until it was Tommy's turn.
"Dr. Thomas Oliver, sophomore homeroom, and upper level science teacher," Tommy said, being brought out of his daydream by Dennis's elbow. Several of the students looked shocked and Tommy wondered why, until he realized that Principal Randall was calling him to come over to where she stood. He wanted to turn around and run, but was unable to get his feet to cooperate with him, as he began to head towards the principal. He knew he could not openly disrespect her in front of the students, but in front of the faculty was a different story.
"We are very lucky to have Dr. Oliver back with us, after the horrible accident that happened to him this summer," Principal Randall began and Tommy immediately snatched his gaze down at the woman. Where was she heading with this? Surely, all of the students knew about him surviving the explosion already, so why was she reiterating the event now? He didn't really want to remember it, but having her mention it again only made it more fresh in his mind. By the way, how did she know about it? From what he knew she had only moved to Reefside a week before school started and by then the rumor mill would have calmed down about the explosion. "Please do not treat him any different because of this, as I expect that it might have rattled him a little bit."
"Thank you, Principal Randall," Tommy said, with the clear disdain coming through in his voice. If she was trying to make him mad again, she was doing a very good job, but he was not going to explode in front of the students. He then turned and headed off the stage and the other teachers followed, although Principal Randall had not dismissed them. He had become the silent leader of their revolt and Principal Randall did not like that at all.
"Well, now to the new rules that will be used this year," Principal Randall said, surprised that the teachers were going to openly show their disapproval of her. It didn't really matter to her, as long as she was able to do her other job, which was keep Tommy in her sights, but he didn't seem like he wanted to have any contact with her. She went on to talk about the dress code and everything else, which took her the greater part of an hour. During this time, most of the students tuned out and went into la-la land until they were dismissed, to go back to their normal schedule.
The First Day at Reefside Elementary"Honey, I'm sure that you're teacher will be nice," Mrs. Sipper said, walking her niece through the front doors of the elementary school. Her sister had died a little over a year ago and she had been helping out with Meagan ever since. Meagan's father was now a complete and total train wreck and she did not need to be around that anymore than she had to. Meagan had, had a bubbly personality before the car accident and now she was scared of everything, including school, which up until last year she had been happily talking about going to.
"But Aunt Alison, they are all so much bigger than me," Meagan said, crying and clinging to her aunt's legs with all of her might. She was a little bit small for her age, which could cause some problems, but this was just kindergarten after all, how bad could the kids be? She was sure the teacher would pay attention to those types of actions, but she might have to warn her, just in case.
"Sweetie, that doesn't matter. You are a special girl, I'm sure that they won't say anything to you," Mrs. Sipper said, squatting down next to her and a petite, brunette made her way over to her newest student.
Kim could tell that she was a little bit worried about school, but she hoped that she would be able to calm her nerves as easily as possible. Several of her other student's had come in crying, but most had stopped and were happily playing now, thank goodness. She wasn't sure if she was prepared to have a room full of criers this early in the morning, although that had happened to her last year and Tommy had not been at home to sooth away the worries.
"Now, who do we have here?" Kim asked, squatting down and looking Meagan in the eyes. She gave her the warmest smile that she had, as she introduced herself. She had learned early on that it was essential to be friendly with the young ones, if they were ever going to trust her at all. "I'm Ms. Hart, what's your name?"
"I'm Meagan," Meagan said, looking down at her shoes and scrubbing one of the toes against the tile floor. She was not usually this shy, but everyone around her was new and she didn't like it at all. "Are you my teacher?"
"Yes and I think that is a very pretty dress you are wearing," Kim said, not surprised by her attire at all, as several of the parents saw it fit to dress their little ones up on the first day.
She had never understood it, but the parents could do whatever they wanted to with their children. When she had her own, however, they would come on their first day of school in jeans and a T-shirt. There was just no need for the beautifying. They were children and they were bound to mess things up, sometime during that first day.
"Thank you, Aunt Alison bought it for me," Meagan said, smiling up at the woman who had walked in with her. Kim couldn't help but wonder what had happened to the little girls' parents, but she didn't think it was right to pry now, not after just meeting her. Meagan seemed happy enough, a little bit shy, but happy, so unless any problems came up there was no need to know anything else.
"Nice to meet you Mrs.," Kim said, as she extended a hand to the woman. She thought that Meagan might have mentioned her last name, but she didn't want to take a wild guess right now. She sometimes forgot to listen for parent's names, when the child began talking to her. The children were her business, not the adults.
"Sipper," Mrs. Sipper said, noticing the ring she had on her finger and quickly moved her other hand over her mouth.
This was whom Mr. Oliver had gotten engaged to? Wow, did the man know how to pick out a looker, although she knew that it was much deeper than that. The woman was teaching these little babies and from what she knew about her, she was also teaching gymnastics, at Tommy's dojo. He had done a good job picking out a woman to marry and everyone that had met her knew that they both had been very lucky, especially if they knew the whole story of their love affair.
"Did I do something to shock you?" Kim asked, as Mrs. Sipper did not let go of her hand, but examined her engagement ring carefully.
"No, I just…I was the one who sold that ring to Mr. Oliver," Mrs. Sipper said with a smile and Kim realized why she was so shocked. Surely, she had heard about the engagement, but most of the times you didn't get to see the person who received the ring, not like this at least.
"Oh, well I like it a lot," Kim said, noticing two of her students were fighting with each other. She had figured that this would happen, but was hoping that it would be a little bit later on during the day. Oh well, she needed to go break it up or one of them would get hurt and she did not need to make parents angry on the first day of school. "I'd like to talk to you some more, but some of these munchkins are getting out of hand."
"That's fine," Mrs. Sipper said, squatting back down to give Meagan a hug good-bye and saw that Kim was now separating two boys and placing them at different tables. It was going to be a long day, for this kindergarten teacher and Mrs. Sipper felt slightly sorry for her, although she had to be used to it by now.
The Dojo on a Monday"Ashley, what's wrong with you?" Tommy asked, pulling her off to the side, as this was the second week that Charlie had been able to fatigue her in less than five minutes. Rocky had said that it had never been like this, of course he had always paired her with some of the other guys. Charlie had never seemed to be on his 'A' game when he sparred with Ashley, but now it seemed to be going the other way around. The two of them had better talk to each other soon or he was going to start giving some more friendly advice to the two of them. He had already talked to Charlie and his next step was to talk to Ashley, but he knew that the girl might not listen to him, as he was not as good of a friend with her. "Is something going on that you want to tell me about?"
"Tommy, I don't know how to explain it," Ashley said, looking over to see Charlie was watching her, with great interest, his hands sitting on his hips.
After a few moments, he ran his fingers through his hair and turned towards some of the others that were still sparring. He did his six foot build, some good and she always felt short around him as she stood at about five foor four. Why did he have to be so damn cute? All of the others she could spar against just fine, but she couldn't bear to spar against him like this, when she felt that Tommy was really watching her. She couldn't bring herself to hurting him or even attempting to if anyone was watching that would judge her skills.
Rocky had been one thing, as she could spar with him easily, some days. Tommy, on the other hand, always got her good. She never even doubted what would happen when she went up against him. No one did anymore.
"Well, it might be easier if you just tell him everything," Tommy said, as Ashley looked at him wide-eyed. How did he know about that? She had never so much as muttered a word about liking Charlie to Tommy, so she just hoped that it wasn't really that obvious, although it seemed that it was. "It's just a suggestion, Ashley, because I really want the two of you sparring together, but you're not giving him a good enough work out. If this keeps up, I'm going to have to pull someone else to spar against him and I know you don't want that to happen."
"I'll try, Tommy," Ashley said and then returned to where Charlie stood, completely confused. Ashley looked like she wasn't feeling too well, but he would know if she were sick, so what was going on with her?
"You feeling alright?" Charlie asked, as Ashley walked back over to where he was standing. She looked up at him, but couldn't seem to find the words to answer him. All her mind did was scream at her to tell him the truth, but she withheld that emotion for the time being. She couldn't tell him here, not with all of the other guys around. If Charlie didn't feel the same, they were likely to jump him and she didn't want that to happen to him.
"I'll be fine," Ashley said, as Charlie gave her a skeptical look and instead of going back to sparring he put his arm around her and pulled her over to one of the benches on the side of the mats. Tommy could get over it, if it made him mad. He wanted to get to the bottom of this, tonight if he could.
"What are you not telling me?" Charlie asked, as he sat down next to one of his best friends. She couldn't lie to him and he knew just as well as she did.
"Nothing, Charlie. It's just been a long day," Ashley said, mustering up the most realistic smile she could, but noticed that he wasn't buying it. Why did he have to know her so well?
"Too long for you to come with me after practice to get an ice cream cone?" Charlie asked, knowing that he could possibly get her to open up with her favorite ice cream being offered. If not, it would be enjoyable, especially if they got to go to the park, which they usually did when she felt like this.
"Charlie, you know that I'm watching my weight," Ashley said, with the most believable voice she could muster, before bursting into a fit of laughter. They both knew that she had never been one to watch what she ate and found it hilarious when other girls used that line. "Why not?"
"Now, do you think you can stand sparring against me for another thirty minutes?" Charlie asked, standing up and offering her a hand. When she took it, he felt a tiny shock, but didn't say anything about it, as he led her back out onto the mats. She didn't seem to notice it, so he was not going to bring it up to her. There was no need in making her any more uncomfortable than she already was.
"Umph," Charlie said, as he landed on the mat for the first time all night. Tommy watched on with a satisfied grin, as his student looked up at him for some sort of help.
Ashley had been laying it on him since they had talked and now he was the one that had fallen to the floor. It seemed to him that most of the other guys got jealous when he got his ass kicked by Ashley, although he couldn't understand why. It was never pleasant for her to throw him around, although he had gotten her back more than once.
"They doing better?" Rocky asked, walking over, as he had finished working with his class a few minutes before. Tommy had talked to him about Ashley and Charlie, and he had to admit that they reminded him of Jason and Trini, too. Although he had never noticed it until Tommy brought it up to him a few days ago.
"Yeah, but they're still not the way they used to be," Tommy said, as Rocky caught a hint of harshness in his voice.
"They're kids, Tommy. They'll work it out," Rocky said, as Tommy gave him a look that plainly told him that he did not think so.
"They had to push me to ask Kim out, I think I may have to do the same thing with him," Tommy said, as Rocky laughed. He had heard about all of it, but for the role to change this much, was odd, especially for Tommy. He couldn't understand why Tommy was so anxious to get the two of them together.
"How's the search going?" Rocky asked, as nonchalantly as possible. He really wanted to change the subject off Ashley and Charlie, as the other students were likely to hear their conversation and they didn't need them to become involved in this.
"Can you come up to my house tonight? We actually have to discuss that," Tommy said, knowing there was no use in lying to Rocky. They all had been checking in with him about it, almost every day, but he hadn't had anything important to tell them, until today.
"As long as I can bring Ally," Rocky said, rather stubbornly. He knew that he wasn't going to be able to see her much this week and he had promised to come over to her place that night, now Tommy had news that he had to know and Ally might as well find out about it too at the rate that things were going. She knew the bare essentials of the new mission they were undertaking, but it was bound to leak out that there was much more to it that meets the eye. "Kim and she haven't got to talk in awhile and I think she misses it."
"Fine with me, but have her prepared, alright?" Tommy said, knowing that Ally knew only a limited amount and that she might as well learn it all if she was going to come. If Rocky didn't tell her, then she would be asking more questions than ever before and he didn't need that tonight.
"She will be," Rocky said, going into the locker room to shower and change before he went and picked Ally up. He still wasn't comfortable going straight from the gym to see her, as he knew that he did not smell good at all. He guessed that with time, he would become more comfortable with that, but he hadn't, yet.
"Class, I think that's enough for tonight," Tommy said, bringing the sparring to a halt. Many of his students were dripping with sweat, but they looked satisfied with their work and were surprised that Tommy was letting them off early, he had never done that before. Of course, he had been acting a little bit different since he had gotten back from that crazy island he had gone to. It just seemed that weird things had happened to him that he was not telling them about, but they knew better than to ask. "I'll see you on Saturday."
Tommy then went to pick up his clothes and he had to wait for everyone to leave the gym before he, himself could leave. He didn't notice the man that was watching him as he left, but he could feel someone watching him and looked behind him, before climbing into his jeep. He shrugged it off as his senses being heightened because of the recent attack he had been through, they had done this before, so it was normal for him.
"Damn you, Oliver," Richard said, as he transported himself to the Hart/Oliver residence. He knew that they had succeeded in making a power grid and his master was not happy. It seemed that all he had to do was find rangers, which was easier said than done. Now, if he could only cause some distress in Kim and Tommy's relationship that would certainly help a lot and it would possibly slow up them finding the rangers that they desperately needed.
AN: That's all for this chapter and I hope that you have enjoyed it. I know that I am not following the DinoThunder series at all, but it'll all work out as the story goes on. Feel free to review!