Disclaimer: I don't own any of the rangers. I wish I did, because then I could turn them into life size dress-up dolls and I'd put Sky in a dress. For fun. But that's another story. Enjoy this story instead.
An hour later, Z and Bridge were drenched in sweat in the Academy's personal gym. Z decided to run on the MountainMaster 3000, while Bridge stuck to old fashioned weight-lifting. Bridge was growing bored, and decided to engage a conversation.
"Z, what do you think of that mechanic girl?"
"Oh, get over her, Bridge." Z replied with a bite in her voice.
"No, I mean, I've never met her before, and I've never seen Sky with her, so why does Sky hate her?"
"We all have our reasons for hating people, Bridge." Z had a feeling that this conversation was not going to be dropped anytime soon.
"But it seems stupid to hate somebody. It's a waste of energy and health to hold grudges. Look at Sky. Ever since Jack became the Red Ranger, he's had a chronic case of indigestion and insomnia. That and he's developed a massively short temper. Now with the mechanic on his list of people he despises…it's just not good. He's so wound up in hating people that he only has the energy to be a Ranger and read a lot."
"Maybe he's got a good reason for hating her. You heard Commander Cruger say that she's an ex-con. Maybe she stole something from him. Maybe she killed his pet cat or something."
"But why would he continue to exude the hatred now? He has better things to do than to beat on an SPD employee."
"I just think that we shouldn't discuss this until we know his reason for hating her."
"But do you think he'll tell us? I highly doubt it, Z."
Z frowned. Bridge was right; Sky was about as informative as a carrot in the dirt when it came to his personal life. Sky hated divulging into his life any deeper than SPD-related things, his father included. She figured that Bridge would do one of two things at this point: decide that continuing with his quest for secrets was too difficult and he would give up, or he would turn into Sherlock Holmes like he did last week and he wouldn't rest until Sky cracked and started screaming out his endless reasons for hating everyone and everything. She sighed and got off the treadmill.
"Bridge, if you're serious about this…" Z struggled for the rationale to support Bridge's search, but she settled on insanity instead. "Bridge, I won't protect you if Sky finds out."
"That's fine." Bridge dropped his weights. "I'm going to try and talk to her tonight, okay?"
"Fine by me. Just don't get caught." Bridge and Z departed for their individual destinations.
As Z made her way to her room to check the local news on her laptop, Bridge made his way down to the cafeteria. He was heavily interested in the enigma that was Miss Corona Tantalus, and the only thing that would get his mind off of her was breakfast. He hoped that they were still serving toast.
He walked in to spot the mechanic sitting at a table in the far back. He quickly looked away, trying to think about food.
The mechanic had toast sitting in front of her. She was spreading thin layers of both blue raspberry and strawberry jams on the poor piece of toast, even going as far as bending down to inspect the thickness of the layers. When she was pleased, she smiled and began to eat her mini masterpiece.
"And Z thinks I'm nuts about the butteriness of my toast…" Bridge muttered to himself as he entered the breakfast line. He quickly grabbed a few slices of toast and a few containers of butter, along with a knife, an apple, and a small glass of orange juice.
Bridge decided against his better judgment and walked over to talk to Mechanic Tantalus.
"Is this seat taken?" Bridge asked politely.
Corona looked up and was surprised to see a B Squad member talking to her. "Of course not, Officer Carson."
"Just call me Bridge." Bridge said as he sat down.
"Okay then, Bridge. It's nice to talk to somebody I work for once in a while besides Dr. Manx and Commander Cruger."
"You work for me?" Bridge asked, puzzled.
"I work for B Squad. I used to work for A Squad, but they dismissed me. Said I was too slow with my work. I'm not a damn assembly line, therefore I was useless to them, so they ended up firing me."
"That's a shame. You seem like a nice person." Corona stopped suddenly, and looked at Bridge. A small smile began to form, but it quickly faded as she looked back down.
"Glad to see that somebody in B Squad does." Corona's voice sounded as if it was going to crack while she spoke. She quickly regained her composure and began to once more gorge on her toast.
"Hey, I'm sorry about Sky. He's really cranky in the morning. Imagine rooming with him."
"Oh, I know what it's like. Real fun, isn't it?" Corona sarcastically said as she took a sip from her blue mug. It smelled like a chai tea of sorts.
"You used to room with him?" Bridge was suddenly pulled in. There was no way in hell he wasn't going to leave without more information.
"Yeah, against my will. So I left and found a better roommate, one who could say hi to me without cringing."
"Unfortunately, I sometimes wish I could do the same. It does get boring to talk to Sky and end up talking to a wall instead."
"Smack him next time. That'll get his attention."
"Hey, I don't want to be cleaning every toilet on the fourth floor because he won't talk to me."
"No, the Commander'll only have you cleaning the third floor toilets for slugging a cadet of equal rank."
"But isn't the third floor…?"
"The gyms? Yeah."
"My point exactly."
Silence fell over them for a moment as Corona and Bridge quickly wolfed down their meals. After he was done, then Bridge began to snicker.
"What's so funny?" Corona asked.
"Nothing. I gotta get going. Have a nice day." Bridge picked up his plates and put them on the cleaning tray. Corona sighed and finished her tea. She looked over at the computer by her side.
Honesty is the best policy, Miss Corona. Was the message at the top of the screen.
"Yeah, but Schuyler's pretty hard up, ACTER. Officer Carson doesn't need to get involved." She replied. "I've already said too much to him already."