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Best Friends
Chapter V: The First Test
Later that evening, Sky was alone in his room studying for the test they were to have tomorrow on the first 100 regulations in the S.P.D. handbook. The rest of his team found some way to avoid him ever since the incident during simulation training earlier in the day. Sky tried to not let it get to him, but that effort was in vain. Sky heard a knock on the door.
"There you are Sky. Are you ok?" Kim asked.
Sky was kind of surprised that the first person to come to him was Kim. He figured it would be Lily since Sky thought they were an unofficial couple, but apparently they aren't even a couple.
"Why are you talking to me? Aren't you afraid of me because I'm some sort of mutant now?" Sky replied.
Sky didn't really want Kim to answer that she was afraid of him, but he wouldn't be surprised if she did. Sky was in the everybody-hates-me-because-I'm-a-mutant frame of mind.
"I can't speak for the others, but I'm not afraid of you Sky. I actually think it's pretty cool for you to have powers like that. I'm talking to you because you are my teammate, and my friend. That's what friends do; they comfort one another when one of them is feeling down. Besides, you've been alone all afternoon and evening, so I figured you could use some company," Kim answered.
Sky motioned for Kim to come into his room. Kim sat on Sky's bed as Sky was at his desk reading the S.P.D. handbook.
"I'm sorry that the test tomorrow is fill in the blank because of me and my big mouth," Kim said.
Sky laughed at Kim's apology. It was the first that he had shown any other emotion besides sadness since earlier that afternoon.
"There's no need for you to apologize Kim. It's no big deal, so don't sweat it. Besides, I happen to be very good at memorization," Sky responded.
Kim was glad that Sky wasn't mad at her for causing the test tomorrow to be fill in the blank instead of multiple choice. The rest of her teammates had already displayed their anger towards Kim as they were trying to memorize the first 100 S.P.D. regulations.
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So it came to pass that Kim studied with Sky in his room up until curfew time at which point Kim gathered her stuff and headed to her own room. The two enjoyed the company of the other as both of them seemed to be at odds with the rest of their team. The next morning, it was a six o'clock wake up call, and training in the training area as it had been the previous day.
D-Squad went to class afterwards to take the test on the first one hundred S.P.D. regulations. They had two hours of time allotted to finish the test. Kat had a pretty good idea of how well each of them would do on the test by observing them while they took the test.
Sky was mowing right through the test without being hung up on a single regulation. Lily was moving steadily through the test, but was hung up on a regulation occasionally. Kim was gradually making her way through the test. She would tap her pencil on her desk whenever she would get caught up on a regulation. Kat heard the sound of a tapping pencil every now and then. Dru went through the test like a speed demon. Kat wasn't sure if that was because he really knew the first one hundred regulations from memory or if Dru was just trying to finish before Sky. Kat wouldn't be surprised if it was the latter because she had noticed a rivalry between Dru and Sky ever since yesterday. Boom would go through the test doing the ones he knew. He would skip ahead leaving the ones he didn't know blank with the hopes of being able to come back to them later. Kat would see Boom write an answer down. Flip a page. Write an answer down. Skip a whole bunch of regulations and flip another page. It continued in that fashion. After one hour had passed, the first person finished.
"I'm done Kat. Would you like me to bring my test up to you, or do you want me to keep it at my desk?" Dru asked.
Sky hated how Dru would suck up to Kat and Cruger. Dru was always trying to make himself look better than everyone else on his team. Sky noticed how Dru was excessively polite and excessively nice to authority figures. Dru was almost a sycophant in that sense.
"You can bring it up, and I'll grade it while the others are finishing," Kat answered.
Dru brought his test up and then went back to sit at his desk. He watched as Kat graded his test. Dru couldn't help but notice that Kat was making marks on his test. He hoped that didn't necessarily mean that he got that regulation wrong.
Sky finished after one hour and fifteen minutes of class. Lily finished after an hour and a half. Kim took an hour and forty-five minutes. Boom took the full two hours. Kat had managed to correct each person's test before the next person finished. Now, she just had to grade Boom's test. Not too much later, Kat finished.
"Before you leave, here are your graded tests. The five of you covered every single letter grade A-F. I suggest that you spend more time learning the material for tomorrow's test which will be on the next one hundred S.P.D. regulations. This time, the test will be multiple choice. You will have to read those regulations on your own time as class is now over," Kat said.
D-Squad came up and picked up their tests. Boom got the F with a 50 out of 100. Dru received the D with a 64 out of 100. Kim got the C with a 75 out of 100. Lily received the B with an 88 out of 100. Sky got the A with a perfect score.
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Cruger was in the S.P.D. lab with Kat discussing how well the D-Squad cadets did on their first test. She handed Cruger a data pad with their test scores on it.
"Boom got an F? That is simply unacceptable. He hasn't been doing so great these first couple of days. I still think we should flunk him out of the Academy," Cruger said.
Kat was shocked that Cruger would suggest such a thing, but she wasn't surprised. After all, it wasn't the first time Cruger had wanted to flunk Boom out of the Academy.
"I think we should give him another day. The test today wasn't the usual multiple choice. It was fill in the blank. Maybe Boom will do better on a multiple choice test. Give him another chance Doggie," Kat pleaded.
Cruger growled in response. He hated being wrong. He knew Kat had a point, but he just didn't want to openly admit that. It was probably due to Cruger's stubborn nature. He was the commander after all, so he shouldn't be wrong ever.
"Fine, but these other test scores aren't acceptable either. The only cadet that has an acceptable score is Sky. If these five want to eventually become power rangers, then they're going to have to learn how to memorize a few simple regulations," Cruger remarked.
Kat mentally laughed at Cruger's comment. Simple? A good portion of the regulations in the S.P.D. handbook were far from simple. Some were complex because they had lengthy descriptions. Others were complex because they had several parts to them like regulation number one hundred. That had four parts to it, A-D.
"I think you should lower your standards Doggie. Keep in mind that it was their first test. Don't forget it was fill in the blank. You can't expect them all to ace their first test with a perfect score. To do so would be unreasonable. That's how people learn Doggie, by making mistakes," Kat said.
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In the common room, Dru, Lily, and Boom were all ganging up on Kim and blaming her for their doing poorly on the test.
"This is your entire fault Kim! If you hadn't made the remark that it might as well have been a fill in the blank test, we wouldn't have had a fill in the blank test!" Dru shouted.
Kim didn't take Dru's comment to heart. She didn't take anything Dru said to heart. Instead she just took it with a grain of salt.
"I can't believe I got an 88 on my test! I am a straight A student! I always have been! Yet now thanks to you Kim, I get a B," Lily said.
Kim wouldn't mind having received a B+ on the test. It was certainly better than the C that she got. She thought Lily was overreacting. A B+ is practically an A-.
"I can't believe I failed the test! I'm probably going to be flunked out of the Academy tomorrow! Thanks a lot Kim!" Boom yelled.
Kim expected this sort of reaction from Dru. Well, Lily's reaction didn't surprise her either. After all, from what she had learned about Lily, Lily is your typical overachiever. However, she didn't expect to get this kind of reaction from Boom. She couldn't really blame him though. She'd be pretty freaked if she flunked the test. Like Boom, she'd probably be afraid that would result in expulsion.
"Knock it off you guys! Quit picking on Kim! You have nobody to blame for getting the grade that you got except for yourself. When something doesn't go your way, you can't just find a scapegoat and blame that person. You have to accept responsibility for your own actions, or in this case, for your own grades. Nobody is in charge of how well you do here other than yourselves," Sky said.
Kim was glad that Sky had come to her rescue. She was more than capable of speaking her own mind and fending for herself, but that still didn't change the fact that it was nice to know that Sky had her back.
"I don't believe this! You got the A Sky? I am sick of you showing me up. I am not about to be showed up by some freak like you!" Dru hollered.
It was Kim's turn to return the favor and defend Sky from Dru.
"Why don't you just go back to your own planet of Tartar or whatever Dru? I've had it with you bossing us around and yelling at us! What just because you're older than us you think you have a God given right to treat us as inferior? Sky's right. If you don't like the grade that you got, which by the way I can't believe you were the one to get a D Dru, then you have nobody to blame but yourself. If you are sick of Sky showing you up, then I suggest you just get used to it, because Sky will always be better than you!" Kim retorted.
TBC
A/N: I think what I should do right off the bat is apologize for taking so long to get up this chapter. I could go and blame many different things for why it took me so long to update. I could say it is because I've been busy with schoolwork. I could say that it's because I now have five other stories started besides this one. Actually, I just did. Just so you know, as much as I'm making Dru out to be the jerk, as the title of my story implies, and like my summary said, Dru will eventually become best friends with Sky. I just think the whole not-being-best-friends-from-the-beginning thing is more interesting. With school started, I'll probably only be able to update Fridays-Sundays (which are the weekends for me this quarter since I have no Friday classes). Thanks to Wisewing, StarTraveler, and SPD Yellow for reviewing my last chapter. Thanks to everyone who has taken the time to read my creation. If you're going to review, remember no flames.