Kimberly
The night was quiet and still, something I was appreciating after the evening I just had. From an overflowing toilet to a cat fight breaking out at dinner, I was about ready to yank my hair out. I pretty much skipped out of the office when ten o'clock came. Like promised, Andrea came home with Mexican food. We ate, talking about the horrors of watching teenagers. She went to bed, but I found myself unable to sleep. Even after trying my best to coax myself into it, I found myself wide awake. So, I grabbed my jacket and decided on a walk.
Outside, I saw the sky was a dark purple color. Small twinkles of light were scattered across it, stars shining brightly. I smiled up at them as I slowly walked my way down the small alley between the dorm buildings. On the other side, there was a little patio area that over looked the highway below. There were some tables and chairs set up her along with a BBQ. Some nights, when it's really nice out, we will cook out with all the kids. It doesn't happen much, everyone always so busy with practice. It's usually something at the end of the season when the kids are getting ready to head home.
Sighing, I leaned against the railing the surrounded the patio area. It was mostly to keep the kids inside the campus area and not tumbling down the hill below. It was quite the ways down from here and I could see some late-night travelers driving on the highway. I wondered where they were going. Maybe they had lives where they could just up and go where ever they wanted at any time of night. Must be nice. I couldn't even think of the last time I had been out on the two passed ten o'clock at night. I knew it wasn't this year at least. Probably closer to when I was a participant on the team rather than a coach. When I was young and has a passion for life. Now, it mostly felt like I was going through the motions.
Not that I didn't have a passion for gymnastics. I always have. It's been something important to me since I was a kid. Being picked for the team was something that made one of my biggest dreams come true. The only problem was that I let it become my only dream. I moved here to Florida and gave up everything I had in California. Everything. I put so much time and energy into making this my career that I made no time for the other things I had going for me. It didn't matter now though. I was successful and had a place in this world. Isn't that what everyone wants?
The thought of Cindy came to mind. She had come home around curfew and had stopped by the office to tell me about her night. Tony had taken her out for dinner and a movie then they spent the night talking about the future. He told her he wanted to get married but he wanted to make sure that she was able to achieve her dreams before that could happen. When she spoke about him, this sweet dopey smile crossed her lips and her eyes dazed out. Tony was a great kid. He lived nearby with his parents and had worked with his father as our groundskeeper this past summer when Cindy first arrived. The two hit it off instantly and have been madly in love ever since. They were pretty serious but both of them had good heads on their shoulders. Well, for the most part. Cindy sometimes let her heart do the talking instead of her head. It was nothing I could blame her for though. As Andrea said, young love does some foolish things to people.
"You're gonna regret it if you don't go." A voice said in my head. It was warm and full of emotion. I had it memorized like a continuous looping that would keep playing. Shaking my head, I scoffed.
"Cause that's the only thing I'll regret." I muttered. Turning my head up, I looked at the sky. Being young and in love was something I had done many moons ago. At least, what felt like a lifetime ago. He had been sweet, courageous and not to mention easy on the eyes. Tommy Oliver was everything a girl could want in a guy. I had especially loved his long brown hair. It was the first thing I noticed about him when I saw him that fateful day. It was thick and made me a tad bit jealous with how it curled slightly. My brown hair always just seems to hang as straight as a board no matter what I do to it. And then his chocolate brown eyes. They always sparkled when he smiled, and they seemed to love looking at me whenever I was in the room.
I met Tommy when I was fifteen years old. He was the new kid at school, facing off against Jason in a karate tournament. Jason had been cocky that day, saying he was going to win. Turns out, he tied with Tommy who showed some amazing talent. I guess if you asked ten years ago if I thought it was love at first sight, I would have said absolutely. If you ask me now, I think my answer would be the same. It became even evident how special Tommy was when he jumped to defend my honor the next day when the school idiots were bothering me. He defended my honor and in turn, I asked him to hang out with my friends and I that afternoon.
And he never showed. It wasn't his fault though. It's quite complicated, really. How could I describe my time spent on the Power Rangers? One half of me would say it was a time consuming, dangerous mission that no kid should be asked to do. The other half would say it was the greatest experience of my life and I would do it again in a heartbeat. An evil alien queen known as Rita Repulsa was accidently freed from a capsule meant to imprisoner her for centuries. When she was released, she set her sights on Earth, in hopes of conquering it. When an intergalactic being known as Zordon learned of this, he knew he had to assemble a team of humans to fight her. That's when he zapped Jason, Trini, Billy, Zach and I to what was known as the Command Center. There, we met Zordon, the floating head in a tube that would become our leader as well as Alpha 5, his robotic assistant. With some hesitation (mostly on my part), we agreed to become the Power Rangers. We fought against Rita and whatever monster she had planned for the day. It was becoming routine, fitting it between homework and chores.
Soon, another Ranger appeared. This one was different though. The green ranger was out to destroy us and take down our defenses. He even broken in and tried to take Zordon out. He nearly succeeded with that plan. It didn't take long though until we figured out it was Tommy. She had placed an evil spell on him and was using him to wield the green Power Coin, the receptacle we used to use the power of the morphing grid. Even at 27, I still don't understand half the stuff that made us the Power Rangers. I guess it didn't matter now, though.
We were able to free Tommy from Rita's spell and he joined our team. His powers faded in and out though, making him weak at times. When it was deemed too dangerous for him to keep fighting with his weak powers, Zordon advised him to take some time away. During that time, Tommy and I became close. Really close. We admitted our feelings for one another and soon, we became an item. He joined our team again, Zordon desperate for help with Lord Zedd, a gross looking villain coming into the picture. Tommy's powers didn't last long, even with Zordon giving him some of his own. Once the green powers were gone, Tommy was forced to quit. It didn't last long, however. He returned as the White Ranger, powers developed by Zordon and Alpha to aid u with our fight against Lord Zedd and Rita.
My time on the Power Rangers was great. Granted, we were fighting deadly creatures and risking our lives each time, but I still found myself enjoying the fact I was helping the people of Angel Grove. It also helped that my boyfriend was our leader and my friends were fighting next to us. Jason, Trini and Zach ended up leaving the team Aisha, Adam and Rocky replacing them. Our team was still strong, and we all became quick friends. My life felt complete. I knew I was going to be happy with them by my side.
Sadly, all things must come to an end. Rita went with the brain washing trick again, this time controlling a foreign exchange student named Katherine Hibbard. She placed a spell on her, using her to attack my powers. Slowly, my power coin was killing me. It was like my life force was being drained from me no matter what we did. It was around that time that coach Schmidt came to Angel Grove scouting. He offered me a slot on the team and I knew then that I had no other choice but to give up my Power Coin. If I didn't, I was risking not only my own life but the lives of my friends and Tommy. We couldn't chance them using their powers to charge me anymore, especially during battle. It was sad, but Tommy told me that this was something that I dreamed of and I had no choice but to do it.
So, I did. I found myself on a plane for Florida. It was scary at first. I knew no one down here and my mother was in Paris, living with her new husband, Pierre. Everyone I loved was back home in Angel Grove, but they were all supportive of me. I received letters every single day and Tommy and I talked every night on the phone. That was something his mother was never happy about due to the phone bill, but I think Tommy would have worked three jobs if it meant talking to me. He was so supportive and doting, regardless of the face he was still fighting monsters every day. I would ask him about the fighting, but he never went into detail about it. I always thought he was trying to spare me of what I had given up. It didn't help though. I would hear about it on the national news at night or Aisha would tell me when I spoke to her.
As my first Pan Global games approached, I noticed that something changed. I'm not sure if it was my friends or myself, but the letters seemed to thin out. The phone calls between Tommy and I stopped being every night. Soon, they only seemed to be once or twice a week. I chalked it up to him being busy with school and Ranger duties. Aisha still called me every Sunday night though, something I knew I could count on. By then, Trini, Jason and Zach were heading home from their time at the Peace Conferences. They stopped in Florida to see me on a layover. It was something I really needed. It was nice seeing my friends that I was missing and talking about our time together as a team. They were off to better things; Trini accepted to Berkley for engineering, Zach at UCLA for music theory and Jason was going to be studying karate under the watchful eye of a sensei all the way from Asia. They were excited to be heading back to Angel Grove, something I was extremely jealous of.
The night before they were set to leave, I was lying in bed. I knew I wanted to quit. I wanted to tell Schmidt I had changed my mind and hop a plane with my friends back home. I tried calling Tommy to ask his advice, but he wasn't home. So, I called Aisha. It wasn't Sunday, but she was home, doing homework. Something was off in her voice. I could tell the moment she answered. When I asked her what was wrong, she was hesitant to tell me. Finally, she admitted to me that Kat and Tommy were spending a lot of time together. She also said she wasn't sure, but Rocky had said something about the two of them kissing. I was devastated. I denied it, saying it couldn't be true. But the more I thought about it, the more it made sense. His distance. Him never being home. He had started to move on, not wanting to wait for me to come home. After the denial disappeared, anger filled its place. A hot, deep anger. I got off the phone with Aisha and stewed about it all night. When the others came to see me before leaving, I didn't tell them what was going on. Jason could tell something was up, but they didn't have the time to question me.
Once they were gone, I decided to write a letter to Tommy. In the beginning, I was going to rip him a new one for what he had done to me. What he had done to us. He had just tossed our relationship to the side after being apart for only three months. How could he do that? But then, I decided to give him a taste of his own medicine. I told him that I had found someone else that I belonged with. Of course, this wasn't true, but it didn't matter to me. I wanted him to hurt. I wanted him to feel the pain I was feeling. It stung to know I was ending things but what other choice did I have? He didn't want to be with me anymore, obviously. Might as well let him be free to decide who he really wanted to be with. I was convinced he would get this letter in the mail and teleport here to win me back.
He didn't though. I waited a few days, knowing he would have gotten it by then. There was no sign of him. Not even a phone call. The heartbreak set in and I realized that he had decided who he wanted to be with and it wasn't me. I laid in bed and cried for a couple days, using my absences for the time being to do that. When I ran out of them, I dragged myself to practice. I put all of my effort into nailing my routine, hoping it get him off my mind. It worked. I did the best I had ever done and road the wave of success straight into the qualifying rounds of the Pan Global games. From there, I landed on the Olympic team.
Smiling a sad smile to myself, I wrapped my arms around me. My success was based off one of the dumbest things I had ever done. If anyone were to ask me what I would do with a time machine, it would be to go back and stop myself from writing that letter. I was so young and naïve. I never gave myself time to see the whole picture before acting. I spent all that time being angry that I wouldn't allow myself to realize that I had misjudged everything about Tommy and what Aisha had said.
A scratching noise behind me caught my attention, forcing me to turn around. I didn't see anything on the patio that would have caused the noise, the lights on the back of the buildings giving me some illumination to see. It happened again, this time coming from the alley. Stepping forward, I peered around to see what it could be. "Hello?" I called, thinking it was one of the kids out way past curfew. It happens sometimes, them thinking they can sneak passed the camera. It rarely works. No one answered as I stepped closer. The noise stopped so I stopped. Probably an animal or something.
"Hello, pinkie." A voice whispered in my ear. It was so close, I could feel the breath on my skin. Spinning on my heel, I took a fighting positioning. No one was there though. Shivers ran down my spine. I knew I had heard something. I had felt it. My eyes darted around, trying to see in the low light.
"Whose there?" I called, trying my best to not sound scared. It had been a long time since I had fought anything. I wasn't sure about my abilities now. "Listen, you don't know who you're fucking with." I said, trying to sound tough.
"Oh, yes I do, Kimberly." The voice said in my ear again. I spun around, this time finding a cloaked figure there. I let out a small gasp, holding my hands up to fight. I couldn't see a face under the black fabric and there was no skin showing. The arms raised and from the middle of the robe, a bright light began to form. It quickly grew as I turned to run up the alley. I was half way through it when I felt something slam into my back. It threw me forward, forcing the air from my lungs as I landed on the ground. I saw stars for a moment as I tried to remain conscious.
Rolling on my side, I gasped for air. My lungs welcomed it and the faint feeling ebbed away. I jumped to my feet, not wanting to be vulnerable for another attack. I was surprised to see I was no longer in the alley way. Instead, I was in a cell. It was dark, the only light coming from a floating orb on the other side of steel bars. Running over, I grabbed the bars and jiggled them. They didn't budge no matter how hard I pulled or push. I could see more cells as I looked around, but no one seemed to be in them.
"Let me out of here!" I screamed. The sound of laughter echoed around me, growing louder until I had to cover my ears. Where the hell was I?