Things appeared to be going well for Zoey's project. Nate was able to quickly build a couple dozen bikes and the morning after Zoey's talk with the mayor, the bikes were stationed around the city for people to use, free of charge. There was enough Morph-X in the bikes to power them for a day of continuous use, so no one needed to worry about the bike running out of energy halfway through their trip. Zoey, Sarah, Ravi and Devon even used their free time to advertise the bikes to people walking by, people grumbling about a late bus, or people who were stuck in traffic as a result of all the congestion.
Not one bite. No one wanted to try the bikes out. People who were walking preferred to walk. People waiting for the bus weren't drawn by the convenience of the bikes. People who were stuck in traffic didn't want to commit to the thought of using the bikes the following day.
The Rangers tried to push the bikes for a couple of days, but no luck. By the end of the second day, Zoey was left feeling very discouraged, as her idea seemed to be failing. Now not only would her first project be a huge flop, but the mayor would have no choice but to cut through the forest to build a road.
She sighed as she walked her bike, the prototype, up the driveway to her house and dumped it by the front porch. She didn't bother to lock it up – no one had shown any interest in the bikes at all, and she doubted anyone would want to steal one, especially since they were all over the city, free of charge.
She walked into her home and saw her mother in the kitchen. Muriel heard her daughter coming home and welcomed her with a bright smile.
"Do I have a news story to cover tomorrow?" Muriel asked. "City's congestion troubles solved by young, brilliant, beautiful…"
"No one cares about the bikes, mom," Zoey muttered. She sat at the table and let her head drop. "My project is a huge disaster. No one wants to use the Morph-X bikes."
"Want me to try to include them in a piece?" Muriel offered her daughter. Zoey shrugged her shoulders.
"I don't know what good it will do. I think between the four of us, we've talked to everyone in the city."
"Well… the bikes are a little… well, bikes," Muriel stated, trying to be gentle while still getting her point across. "If I want people to tune into the news, I need to tease something… intriguing."
"Not getting stuck in traffic?"
"That's not a story, Zo," Muriel said. "No one cares about not being stuck in traffic, until they are stuck in traffic, and by then, it's too late to grab a bike. You need to get people's attention before they get in their cars, or they walk all the way to the bus. You need to get people to wake up excited to take a bike to work."
"How do I do that?" Zoey asked. Her mother set dinner down on the table.
"Well, and not that your bikes are boring, but when I need to pitch a boring story, either to my bosses or to the viewers, I do whatever I can to make it flashy. Take that prostitute that was arrested the other day. A prostitute doing drugs and drinking isn't a story. But if I sell the story as the parent of a Power Ranger, suddenly the story is more interesting. People want to tune into that, because it's not something they see every day."
Zoey looked to her mother quizzically, mostly due to the story. She felt a bit hurt that her mother would challenge the Rangers like that, and worried that, without knowing, her mother might attack her in a similar way if she wasn't careful. However, she couldn't fault her mother for being unaware, and her story did give Zoey an idea.
"The bikes need to be flashier?" she said. "Not just every day bikes that have been around for decades now but…"
"Something new. Something that people aren't used to seeing every day," Muriel nodded. Zoey jumped up from the table and grabbed her plate.
"Is it okay if I eat this in my room? I think I know what I can do for the bikes."
Muriel nodded and smiled, happy to see her daughter so inspired.