10
Bailey sniffed quietly as she kicked her feet. She ignored the laughter and excitement around her as another day ended, the weekend looming closer. Couldn't focus on how happy she should have been to be away from them. No, she could only continue to sniff quietly, rubbing at her nose and eyes.
She sniffed loudly and used the heels of her palms to brush back the tears that freshly threatened to fall, twisting toward the window when she noticed the bus driver looking at her through the rearview mirror. Bailey, instead, decided to focus on the trees and houses that whizzed by, wringing her hands in her lap, careful not to smudge the dress that was her primary school uniform.
Her mother would be annoyed, her father would be furious if she wasn't spick and span. Not outwardly, she'd learned that ages ago—he rarely got mad at her—but she always had to look presentable. What did looking presentable matter if people weren't going to like you anyway?
Finally, the bus stopped. Bailey lifted her head, peering out towards the stop. Her heart sank and lifted at the same time when she spotted her sister dutifully waiting for her. Avalon waved at Bailey through the bus and moved to greet her at the door as Bailey slowly dragged herself from her seat.
She brushed down the back of her skirt and slowly climbed off the bus, putting on a brave face the best she could. Avalon saw through it in a second. Her arms open wide for the enthusiastic hug Bailey would typically assault her with was nowhere to be found. Avalon's eyes narrowed, arms dropping to her sides.
"What's wrong, Bay?" She asked, putting her hand on her baby sister's shoulder. Bailey lowered her chin, but Avalon forced it up, noticing the tears that clung to her baby sister's eyelashes. "What happened?"
"Um…" Bailey shuffled her feet. She tugged at the bottom of her dress, pressed the toes of her shoes together, spun her hair around her fingers. "Nothing, really."
"I'm not an bloody idiot, Bay. Don't treat me like one." Avalon's harsh tone immediately turned calm. "Something's upset you, yeah? What happened?"
Bailey sighed heavily, tilting her head back to look her sister in the eye. "I don't have any friends," She practically wailed. Tears wilted at her eyes once more. "No one likes me and they keep…they keep calling me a know-it-all, and that I'm a nerd and that they don't want to be friends with me because I'm not cool." She lowered her chin once more. "And these girls, they keep making me do their homework for them."
"What?"
Bailey nodded.
"They say I can't muck it up or else they'll get back at me and—" Bailey looked up once more when Avalon tightened her grasp on her sister's shoulder. Avalon's eyes flashed, her eyes locking onto the bus as more and more students came off the bus. Bailey looked over her shoulder at the girls then back to Avalon, practically burying her face in her sister's uniform; the button down, tie, and skirt she'd be wearing in a few years. Avalon's hand continued to increase in pressure along Bailey's shoulder. "Av, you're hurting me," Bailey whined, squirming to get from Avalon's grasp.
Instead of responding to her little sister, Avalon commanded for Bailey to 'stay here' as she moved toward the girls on the bus. Bailey watched, eyes wide as Avalon marched to the three of them and said something Bailey couldn't hear. Bailey's face screwed up, watching the girls' face light up, any attention from an older student was always good attention. They spoke for a few moments before they frowned, shaking their heads, tossing their eyes in Bailey's direction.
They shook their heads harder.
Finally, Avalon motioned for the girls to follow her and—exchanging worried looks—they followed her around the corner and out of sight. Things were silent for a few seconds before Bailey and those still at the bus stop jumped, hearing squeals of pain, something falling, and a scuffle before Avalon calmly walked out from around the corner, lifting her backpack up her shoulder.
Bailey stared at her in wide eyed wonder as Avalon approached. "What happened?" She asked, turning when Avalon put her arm around her shoulders and nudged her in the direction of home. Bailey looked over her shoulder to see if she could see the girls and, when seeing nothing, faced forward once more.
"Nothing," Avalon replied calmly. "But they won't bother you again." She dropped her hand from Bailey's shoulder and rubbed the knuckles of her right hand before putting it back.
Bailey simply smiled back and continued smiling for the rest of the night, even when her father reminded her she needed to keep her uniform clean and presentable at all times. It didn't matter what'd happen after that, her big sister would be there to save her.
But in the hospital that night, years later, Avalon could do nothing to save her sister. She couldn't storm into an operating room and demand what was going on. Couldn't threaten the doctors to continue working on her sister to make sure she was getting the best treatment. Couldn't look for the person that had hurt her and beat him up—he was too busy being interrogated.
And what do you do when it's your friend that managed to put her in that situation? One of the best friends you'd ever had? One of the best, happiest people you'd ever met who, unknown to him, you envied because he was able to go through life with the best intentions, the biggest smile, and an excitement for what life had to offer?
She knew it was only a matter of time until she was asked about what she knew of that night. What she knew of the party going on. And she was of two minds of what to say. The truth; that she knew of the drinking, that she'd been tempted to take part of it considering how often she used to drink with the rest of the Vipers, how she'd wanted to shield her sister and her sister's boyfriend from it by basically locking them in a room and forcing them to only watch TV and play video games?
But there was the other side of her that wanted Zack to pay for what he'd done. That wanted him to understand his actions had consequences. How she saw him drinking for most of the night, how she'd told him that it was a bad idea, how she sat by and watched as he continued to get sucked in by the attention Angela and her friends were all giving to him.
Attention that she and the rest of the rangers never really received. Angela, and her friends, were popular. Whatever they said went, whatever fashion choices washed through high school in a tidal wave was because of them. She and the rest of the rangers were popular in their own right—not that Avalon would admit that for herself—with teachers, with some of the lesser known students, with the teammates on their sports teams, but nothing so much as what Angela was able to do.
It didn't surprise her that Zack managed to get swept up in the whole thing when Angela finally turned around. You do strange and weird things, things out of character, for the people you love.
How out of character would it be if Avalon told everyone the truth?
She sucked in a deep breath, staring at her reflection in the bathroom mirror. Her mascara trailed down her cheeks in ugly streaks, skin blotchy from how hard she'd been crying, from how hard she'd clenched her jaw to hold back the anger she wanted to burst forward. Hair was a mess from how often she dragged her hand through it, heart hurt simply because she couldn't hold her sister's hand and let her know she was going to be okay.
And yet, she had to keep going, just in case she was to wake up.
Avalon left the bathroom, continuing to wipe the drying tears from her face, nearly bumping into Tommy, who leaned against the wall next to her. "You don't have to wait for me," she said. Tommy barely looked at her as he shrugged. "You need to get checked out," she added.
At that, Tommy shook his head. He let out an explosive breath, almost a bark of laughter. "I'm fine," he said. "Nothing happened to me." He gripped the front of his t-shirt. "It's not my blood. And besides, why do I need them to look me over when they're going to find out that I was as drunk as the rest of them." His bloodshot eyes proved it was true, though Avalon knew it could've been from how hard he'd been crying as well.
Tommy wasn't as obvious a crier as his friends were. There had been many moments throughout their ranger tenure that they lost friends, thought they lost friends, were purely so exhausted there was nothing left for them to do but let out their stress by crying and screaming. Kimberly and Trini cried. Billy turned away as he wiped tears from his eyes. Zack would simply bow his head and let the tears fall when no one would see him, but would never deny it if anyone was asked. Bailey would bury her face into Avalon's or Tommy's sides, always embarrassed by the emotion she showed. Avalon would wait until she was utterly alone before crying.
Jason and Tommy…Jason and Tommy were the ones who had to be the strongest amongst their friends. They had to be the leader and show they could move on. So, they channeled their frustrations into their training. Day after day they'd meet up at the Youth Center or the Command Center and work out their hardest spar hard enough it looks like they were really fighting each other, toed that thin line between pulling punches and beating each other up.
But now, in the hospital, Tommy was breaking down.
He was broken.
Avalon could see it, when no one else could. If anyone passed the two teenagers, they would see the teen girl who looked simultaneously heartbroken and angry. If they saw the teenage boy, they would've seen a boy who was numb, or didn't seem to know where he was.
And yet, Avalon knew Tommy was moments away from breaking down. The love of his life was hurt more than any of them had ever seen, and his friends had been caught in the crossfire as well. His jaw continuously warbled, going back and forth from a silent whimper to clenching his jaw. He continuously sucked in a sharp breath through his nose, blinking rapidly to keep the tears at bay.
"What happened, Tommy?" She asked. Her eyes searched the side of his face. "What'd you hear?" Tommy merely shook his head. "I know something's wrong, what happened?"
And Tommy parted his lips and started to explain. Parted his lips and explained everything he'd heard while she was in the bathroom. Explained how he'd been waiting for her when doctors and nurses walked by, scrubs splattered with blood. Looking exhausted.
They were talking quietly, but hadn't noticed him hanging out there. He was where he shouldn't have been, the two wandering around after having been looked over themselves, questioned by doctors. They didn't notice him and they spoke quietly about the friends that had been brought in; the hospital jumping to attention once they received so many victims.
Whiplash.
Head injuries.
Broken bones.
Internal bleeding.
Knee trauma.
He didn't know who had what injury, the only identifies of 'he' or 'she' spoken. No names.
And as Tommy explained, Avalon's hands slowly clenched into fists. Her hands shook, nails dug into her palms so hard that they bled, jaw clenched so tightly she immediately got a headache. Multiple injuries, internal bleeding, trauma…
She couldn't tell which was worse, what would be the best-case scenario for her baby sister when, truthfully, there was nothing good about any of it. When she could do nothing to protect her. Then a second thought came to her, how selfish she was being. She had no idea if any of her friends, if the people she loved…
Avalon turned from Tommy.
She couldn't bear to look at him.
Not when she saw the tears that finally, feely flowed down his cheeks.
Their leader was breaking down.
And if he couldn't take it, no one could.
All that was going on while word spread back at the part that someone was hurt. While the rangers' parents raced to the hospital to see what had happened to their children. While Alpha and Zordon watched through the Viewing Globe, unable to contact their friends without potentially giving away their identities if called.
All the while Zack was being interrogated over whether he was a Power Ranger.
A/N: So, you probably want to know why my chapters for stories like this are shorter than the ones I do for my main series and it's simply because, I'm writing it differently. I'm writing to provoke emotion and devastation, and I'm also not trying to overcomplicate things. I want to get to true human emotion and I think it's working well.
~Av