1Disclaimer: Believe me, if I owned power rangers, things would have gone a LOT differently.
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When Tommy finally came back home a few hours later after fighting Mesagog's latest terror upon society, he almost kicked himself for not getting Kim's number. She had called. And then his stupid communicator had gone off. What if she didn't call back? She had promised, but what if she forgot, or decided that it was a mistake? What if he never got to talk to her again? Then he remembered what she had done to get his number. He dialed the operator and asked to be redirected to Information. When he finally got through to her number, the phone rang and rang. An answering machine picked up on the fifth ring. "Kim?" he said, hoping that she was really there and would pick up. Unfortunately, though, he had no such luck. "Kim, this is Tommy. I was just...well, I wanted to make sure I got to talk to you again. Please call back when you get this. Even if it's the middle of the night, I don't care. Just please call back." Hanging up the phone, he closed his eyes and thought of the last time he had seen her, getting on a plane to go to Florida. He had kissed her goodbye and watched her go off to live her dream. He had no idea that was the last time they'd ever be together. Hoping that this wasn't another one of those 'last times,' he went to bed, turning off the alarm as he did so. No way was he waking up early tomorrow.
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Two hours after she hung up with Tommy, Kimberly was on a red-eye flight to Reefside. On the phone, it was just too easy to skirt the issue. She had to tell him the truth, and she had to tell him face to face. It was the only way she could be sure of telling him the whole story, of making him understand. In the morning, she'd call her assistant from the hotel and tell her that she was out of town for a week or two. Someone else could take over her classes for a little while. She was going to check into her room and get some much-needed beauty rest before going off to do the second-hardest thing she'd ever done in her whole life.
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His dream of sleeping late didn't quite work out the way he'd planned. He was awakened by a loud voice calling his name from downstairs. They were in the lab. Grabbing the clock off his night table and looking at the digital numbers, he vowed to eventually destroy all teenage power rangers that woke up at eight o'clock on a Saturday morning to hang out in their teacher's lab. Groaning, he got up and hauled himself into the bathroom, where he took a nice, hot shower. The kids could wait. When he stepped out, much more awake then he had been upon entering, he pulled on a random pair of jeans and a black t-shirt. Looking in the mirror, he combed and gelled his hair, brushed his teeth, and put in one of his old earrings. The kids could gawk for all he cared this morning. It was the weekend, and he didn't have to be a teacher today.
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When she finally woke up at about ten o'clock, Kimberly made the call she had planned on last night. Her assistant was out, but she left a message on the machine, confident that she'd get it. Pulling herself up out of bed, she dragged herself into the shower and turned on the water as hot as she could bear it. After she had washed and used up all the hot water, she stepped out, brushed her teeth, and dug through her suitcase to find the cutest outfit she could. She was going to see her ex today, and she wanted to look her best when she did. Finding the perfect pink skirt and white tank top, she did her hair and put on her makeup. Satisfied with her appearance at last, she slipped the room key into her purse and left, hoping that she'd find someone in town who knew Tommy. She didn't know his address, and school was closed today.
After a couple of hours of driving around, asking at several fast food joints if they'd heard of Tommy Oliver, she finally pulled into a place called Haley's Cyberspace for a late lunch. The boy who took her order looked like a teenager, had a white shirt on, and the strangest bracelet Kimberly had ever seen. It had a white jewel in it, and Kimberly was sure that she'd never seen anything like it in the mall. Then again, maybe it was a local thing or his girlfriend made it for him. Thinking that he may have a class with Tommy, she decided to try her luck once more. "Do you know a Tommy Oliver?" she asked, knowing that even if he did, he probably wouldn't be able to tell her where to find him.
"Dr. O? Yeah, he's my science teacher." The boy studied her for a moment, wariness evident on his face. "Why?"
"He's an old friend of mine, and I'm trying to find him. You wouldn't know where he might be would you?" The boy shook his head no, but she had a feeling he knew more than he was letting on. Knowing that she wasn't going to get any more from him, though, she accepted his answer and started eating.
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Only a certain amount of time with a group of teenagers was healthy, Tommy thought. He was definitely nearing the point where he was sick of them. Finally, he had gotten them out of his house and convinced them to go hang out at Haley's. Kira hadn't taken much convincing, because Trent had to work today, so he'd be there. The other two had to be practically pried off of the controllers of his Sega. In the end, he had to threaten them with cleaning the zords to get them to move. When they all piled into his jeep and he had safely locked his house, he allowed himself to breathe a sigh of relief. At least he could escape Haley's if it got too bad.