Disclaimer: Someone other than me owns the Power Rangers SPD crew.

Author's Note: Sorry it's taken so long to update, and that this chapter is so short. This story is harder to develop than I thought it would be. I'm trying to finish it, honest. ) Meanwhile, thanks for all the great reviews!

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It was always so much easier in the stories.

The girl's gaze would catch the guy's at just the right moment from across the room, or the guy would know exactly the perfect thing to say when they ended up next to each other in line, or the girl would smile shyly and the guy would smile back, or, when push came to shove, the girl would accidentally fall into the guy's lap and the guy wouldn't mind at all. However the beginning happened, whatever came next was always as natural as day and night.

For Sydney, the first three scenarios never happened, and the fourth just wasn't an option. A world class fencer who was a Ranger on top of that simply did not trip that easily, and it would be mortifyingly obvious what she was trying to do. As much as she wanted something to happen, Sydney Drew refused to make a fool of herself, especially for an infatuation that might never come to fruition. More and more, however, she was realizing how few options she had.

It was the final hour before lights out, and the Rangers were lounging together in the cadet commons room until curfew dictated that they had to retire to their own quarters. Bridge, Z, and Jack were sprawled in a circle on the floor, betting popcorn pieces and their morphers in a high-stakes game of poker. A smattering of Bridge's and Jack's comic books lay scattered around them, temporarily forgotten in the excitement. Sydney had feigned disinterest in the card game and opted to curl up on one of the couches with a magazine. Sky sat on the couch opposite her, completely engrossed in some chapter of the SPD manual.

Sydney wished she could say the same for her magazine.

"You are the worst bluffer," Z was saying to Bridge with a laugh, smacking down triumphantly what was presumably the winning hand.

"I probably am," Bridge agreed, looking curiously smug. "Lucky for me, I don't need to bluff," and laid down the true winning hand of the game. While Jack and Z gaped at his diamond-studded straight flush, he reached out to gather his earnings—a handful of popcorn, two comics, and either Jack or Z's morpher.

"Should've known better than to play poker against a psychic," said Jack, looking a little chagrined as he leaned back in his beanbag chair.

"I always was looking for a challenge," said Z breezily, crunching into a popcorn kernel from what was left of her stash as she glanced at Bridge. "I'll beat you next time."

The Green Ranger merely smiled as an acceptance of her challenge, and popped a kernel of his own in his mouth. Z smiled back, an expression that reached all the way up to her eyes.

Sky suddenly shifted his position on the couch, drawing Sydney's eyes away from the magazine page she wasn't really reading. He pulled one long leg up beneath the other so that he was sitting cross-legged on the seat. Never once did his gaze stray away from the book in his hand.

Sydney sighed. A hot chocolate sounded very comforting at that moment, and she was itching to find something else to focus her attention on anyway. She set her magazine aside and hopped up, sidling her way through the narrow channel between the two ends of the couches, and over to the food replicator.

The device gave her a strawberry smoothie instead. The frothy pinkness brought back memories of her surprise birthday party the day before, memories of why she was so discontent tonight. She returned to the couch with her mistaken drink, too distracted to fight the replicator for what she'd originally wanted. She re-curled up on the couch and started to reach for her magazine.

Sky's eyes weren't moving. They were fixed on one point and kind of faraway, definitely not the look of someone avidly reading. Sydney wondered if he could possibly be thinking of what she was thinking of.

She decided to go annoy him. The sooner he did or said something to irritate her, the sooner her feelings would become more manageable, and she'd stop feeling so restless. Setting her smoothie down on the table, she untucked herself and stood, having every intention of plopping down next to Sky as disruptively as she could.

What happened next had to be karmic, or the unfunniest trick fate could ever play. A small voice in the back of her mind told her it was a jinx she'd brought about herself.

She took one step forward, and then her foot inexplicably caught on something. She toppled over, everything happening too fast for her brain to immediately register what had gone wrong. All she knew she was that she was suddenly horizontal, with someone's arm under her arms, the other arm around her waist, and most of her torso in Sky's lap. His knee was pressing against her stomach, the pressure of which would have been a lot more painful if he hadn't caught her the way he did. She lay still for a moment, too stunned to react. Her mind was preoccupied with how mortified she felt and with nasty curses at whatever had caused this to happen.

Eventually she gathered enough of her wits together to right herself again, with a little help from Sky.

"Feeling klutzy again, Sydney?" the Blue Ranger asked. His tone was mild, almost disinterested, and it was probably her own embarrassment rather than his apathetic words that made her suddenly irritable.

"Shove it," she grumbled in return, tugging on her uniform top to smooth out the wrinkles it had gathered in her tumble.

"Are you okay, Syd?" asked Jack, sounding concerned but also baffled. So it wasn't just her who found her fall unusual.

"I'm fine," she answered, forcing a cheery smile. "Klutzy moment." In her mind she was daring the Blue Ranger to add another snide comment after her self-admitted clumsiness, even as she tried to guess the color of her face from the amount of heat she felt in it.

He didn't. He merely bent down to retrieve the fallen handbook from the floor and resumed his feigned reading.

Sydney felt both huffy and relieved inside, and returned to her couch—carefully—picking up her drink again. Thankfully no one said anything more, and they all seemed to forget about the incident much easier than she could. That was perfect, because all she wanted to do then was go to her room, but she didn't want to seem like she was running away.

Just to be safe, she lingered a little longer, downing the rest of her smoothie, her eyes focused on Jack, Z, and Bridge's poker game the whole time. When the glass was empty, she bounded over the back of her couch, and headed towards her bedroom door.

"I'm going to bed," she announced to the room at large. "I need my beauty sleep."

She saw Z roll her eyes, and a chorus of "Night, Syds" followed her into her room. Sky's voice was noticeably absent from it.