Disclaimer: Don't own Power Rangers...yadda, yadda...never going to...yadda, yadda... Marie, Britney, Chelsea, and Jessica are all mine though. :)
A/N: This is dedicated to Charmedfan90 for a belated birthday gift and for all his help on this chapter. Go read his new story A Sister's Love, it's a goodie:)
Charmedfan90: Here's the next chapter. Thanks sooo much for your help on this, you are so the reason that I got this finished. And as promised, I am dedicating this to you for your birthday and for all of your help. :)
Sajabi88: Yay! I'm so glad that you like it. Hehe and it wasn't as soon as I origionally thought for getting this up...oh well, you knew what was happening anyway. lol :D
Alexandra Khayman: I'm so glad you like it. It is going a little slow, but I had a little background to lay out. It should pick up from here...I hope. Anyway's thanks so much for your review and I hope you enjoy!
bRaInWaVe: Yay!! Thanks, I'm so glad you're liking it:)
Phantom Rogue: Yay! I'm so glad that you found some extra time to read, thanks so much for your review!
Never Lose Faith
Chapter 2: Meetings part 2
A small girl just barely eight years old, came skipping through the front door. She dropped her backpack in the living room and walked into the kitchen where her mother was making a pitcher of tea. She was the only one home right now, the girl's father was at work and her brother, Jeff, was over at a friend's house.
"Hi Ashley, how was you day at school today?" the girl's mother asked while stirring sugar into the tea.
The girl climbed up onto one of the stools in front of the counter. "It was okay, we got a new girl in my class today."
The mother looked up at her daughter and smiled, "Really? What's her name?"
"Cassandra Chan, but she says to call her Cassie...her family just moved to Angel Grove from another part of California, I don't remember where, but she said it was a little town that wasn't even on some California maps." The girl replied as she hopped off the stool and got some glasses out of the cabinet.
"Well, I bet it's pretty scary for her to have to come to a big school in a big town. Hey, how about you invite her over tomorrow after school?" Mrs. Hammond put ice in the pitcher and placed the lid on top, then poured them both a glass and sat down on one of the stools beside Ashley. Her daughter didn't have many girlfriends. Ever since her first day in Kindergarten, she had stuck with TJ and Carlos. Not that that was a bad thing but Mrs. Hammond thought it'd be nice for her to have some girlfriends.
Ashley looked up at her mom with a big grin, "Really...can she spend the night?"
Ashley's mom chuckled at her daughter's excitement, a little surprised, "Well, I don't see why not, since tomorrow's not a school night. As long as it's okay with Cassie's parents."
"Yay!" Ashley cried clapping her hands together. "Thanks mommy," she squealed engulfing her mother in a hug.
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(Friday, Angel Grove Elementary School, lunchtime)
Cassie stood in the long line waiting to get her tray and sighed. This was the first time she'd been in the school's cafeteria and it was a whole lot bigger than the one at her old school. Her parents had brought her up to register her in school the day before and the principal escorted her to her new classroom after all the paperwork was filled out, which happened to be after lunch. Thankfully, she had eaten before they had gone up to the school, so she wasn't really hungry.
She finally got through the lunch line and walked out with her tray looking around and wondering where to sit. From a table over by the corner of the cafeteria, a girl was looking straight at her with a welcoming grin, motioning for her to come over. It was the same girl that she had been assigned to sit beside in class and had spoken to a little the day before. She was sitting with two boys, one African American and one Hispanic looking, who were giggling about something and were seemingly oblivious to anything around them.
She ambled shyly over to the table and sat down next to the girl. "Hey," Ashley greeted with a smile. "Hi...Ashley?" Cassie replied hesitantly. She had met a lot of people the day before and was having a hard time remembering who was who.
"That's me, it must be hard to remember who everyone is, since you just met everyone yesterday." Ashley said looking across the table at the two boys. They had stopped their giggling and were looking at the newcomer. "Hey, you're the new girl...Cassie right?" the dark-skinned boy said.
Cassie nodded then gave them an apologetic look, "I'm sorry but I don't remember your names."
Comprehension dawning on him, the dark-skinned boy replied, "Oh, well I'm TJ and 'I'm glad to welcome you to our school.'" He said the last in a mock adult voice, which made the others laugh.
"And I'm Carlos," the other boy said after they stopped laughing. "It's nice to meet you Cassie."
Cassie gave the three of them a big smile. "Wow, you guys are so nice. Thanks for letting me sit with you, I was so scared that I wouldn't fit in here...or make any friends..." she trailed off looking down at her tray.
"Well, we really like you and if you'll let us, we'll be your friends," TJ told her. Cassie looked around the table at the other two, who confirmed their friends' statement with smiles and nods.
Her face lit up and she giggled a little, "Thank you. I want you all to be my friends!" She said with so much enthusiasm that it sent them all into another fit of giggles.
A few minutes later, after they caught their breath, Ashley turned to Cassie and said, "So, since we're friends now," she started, but paused when Cassie broke into giggles again, "my mom gave me permission to invite you over to spend the night tonight, if you want to, and if it's ok with your mom and dad. I'd love for you to come over. We'll have so much fun!" she said excitedly.
"Really?" said the raven-haired girl with almost as much excitement, "I'll have to ask my parents if it's ok."
"Ok, well here's my phone number," she said writing on a napkin, "if your parents say yes, just have them call my mom and she'll give them directions to our house." She finished and handed the napkin to Cassie.
The four of them spent the rest of lunch talking and chatting as if it had always been that way. Cassie no longer felt like she was just the new girl, in fact, she had a new sense of belonging. Or at least she did until about an hour later when she was cornered in the bathroom by four girls. They looked pretty well to do and carried themselves in a manner that said plainly that they were superior to her, and everyone else for that matter. One girl with blond hair stood a little in front of the others, and approached Cassie just as she finished washing her hands. 'She must be their leader,' Cassie thought to herself.
"Hi Cassie," the blond-haired girl said with a forced smile.
"Uh...hi," Cassie replied. She honestly didn't know why these girls were talking to her, she wasn't anything like them and she sure as heck didn't act like she was better than anyone else.
"Oh, she must have forgotten our names," a girl with red curly hair standing to the left of the blond haired "leader" stated in a high-pitched voice.
'Or I never knew them because I didn't want to...,' Cassie thought.
The blond held her hand out and said, "Well, I'm Marie, and these are Britney, Chelsea, and Jessica." She pointed at each of her friends as she said their names.
"Look, I noticed that you were sitting with Ashley Hammond at lunch today," she continued after a brief pause from the introductions. "You don't want to be hanging around with her and those two boys."
Cassie frowned at the girl in front of her, "Oh yeah? And why's that?" she asked.
An evil-looking smile came across Marie's face. "Because, she never talks to anyone except that TJ and Carlos. She acts like no one else exists!" she said, making her hair fly with each word.
"No, I think it's the other way around," Cassie said, getting angrier the longer she talked to Marie. "I think that it's you that acts like she doesn't exist!"
Marie opened her mouth to respond, but stopped when she heard someone coming into the bathroom. Flinging her hair as she turned around, she called out, "Hello...Ashley."
"Marie...," Ashley replied, saying the name distastefully with a glare on her face. "Trying to bully Cassie out of being friends with me, like you did everyone else?" she asked, stepping further into the bathroom.
"We're just letting her know what kind of people to look out for," the curly red-haired girl that had been introduced as Britney said.
"Oh, I think I can see for myself who to look out for, and if they weren't so stuck up, maybe they'd notice that I'm trying to avoid them," came Cassie's voice from behind them.
The four girls whirled around and Marie walked up to Cassie until she was right in her face. "You're gonna regret that," she said in a nasty tone. Then she turned her back on her and started to leave the bathroom.
"Oh really, and why is that? Am I supposed to be scared of some girl who is jealous of true friendship?" Cassie retorted.
Marie turned to face her again. "I have true friends," she said motioning to the three girls standing behind her, all three nodding their heads in agreement.
Cassie scoffed at them. "Well, if those are what you call true friends, then I would much rather be friends with someone genuinely caring and true like Ashley, TJ, and Carlos."
Glaring her worst glare, Marie turned on her heel and left the bathroom without saying another word; Britney, Chelsea, and Jessica faithfully following behind.
Cassie glanced at Ashley as the door closed and saw a few tears streaming down her face. She smiled sadly and said, "No one's ever said anything like that about me before...well, except TJ and Carlos. You really think that we're genuinely caring and true?" she asked.
"Of course!" Cassie exclaimed. "You guys let me sit with you and made me feel included. That's what true friends do: accept you no matter what...and you did, you talked to me from the moment I got here, even though you didn't know anything about me."
Cassie crossed the bathroom to where Ashley was standing and hugged her. Ashley slowly hugged Cassie back. After a few seconds, Ashley pulled back wiping at her tears. "Thanks."
"Hey," Cassie said with a grin, "that's what friends are for." She held out her arm to link through Ashley's and they skipped out of the bathroom arm-in-arm.
A/N: I hope you liked it. Let me know what you think! ;)