A/N: This took longer than I thought it would and I am sooooo sorry! I'd been reduced to writing this in the morning on weekends! I promise the next chapter will come faster than this one. So for now, enjoy!

CHAPTER 1

Aisha's House

Angel Grove, California

September 17, 1996

6:14 P.M

"Hey 'Sha?"

"Yeah Kim?"

"This heating pad's getting cold again." Kimberly moaned while slowly moving the pad off her shoulder.

"I got it." Aisha answered while hobbling over.

The rangers just came home from an intense battle with Rita and Lord Zedd in the Amazon Rain Forest. They had no idea why they were there but they drove them out anyway.

"Damn, that putty got you good in the shoulder." Aisha said while examining Kimberly.

"Ugh! I know, it looks horrible. How am I supposed to explain this to my mom?" Kimberly groaned and started poking at the swelling purple bruise.

"I don't know, but the first thing you can do is stop touching it." Aisha declared. "I'm gonna stick this in the microwave. When I come back, your hands better be anywhere but on your bruises."

"Whatever Mom." Kimberly teased before turning back to the T.V. I wonder what Zedd and Rita were looking for. Must have gone through a hell of a lot of trouble get try to get to the rain forest undetected. She thought to herself.

Aisha came back a few minutes later and carefully settled herself on the couch after giving Kimberly the pouch. "I'm glad everybody only got minor injuries today."

Kimberly nodded her head. "Agreed. This was one of our better days."

"You can say that again." Aisha exclaimed while stretching her sore, petite body.

Kimberly turned to her best friend. "So...how's it going in Lover Land with you-know-who?" She asked, wiggling her eyebrows.

Aisha tried to hide a smirk. "Shut up!"

"Why? Everybody knows that he likes you and you like him." Kimberly laughed. "Even Billy knows, and he's always focused on Trini."

"I've known Rocky forever, he's my best friend."

Kimberly playfully gasped while placing her hand on her chest. "Your best friend? I thought I was your best friend."

"You're my girl best friend, stupid." Aisha chucked a pillow at her face. "What I meant was, he knows everything about me and I know everything about him. I also know that he's had a lot of flings with girls and he doesn't want to be in a relationship."

"Oh stop it 'Sha. I see the way he looks at you, the way he protects you all the time. He's head over heels in love with you. If you would stop messing with your braids all the time," she joked, "you might notice it too."

"Screw you." Aisha finished the discussion and turned back to the T.V.

Kimberly smirked and shook her head. This girl was a stubborn as five donkeys and had too much pride to admit to anything. Aisha and Rocky butted heads all the time, never agreeing on anything and fighting over the stupidest things. She was sassy and loud. Rocky was a little more conservative, but not shy at all. They both thought they were right and would fight anyone would said that they weren't. So they were mostly fighting each other. That's what made them perfect for each other.

As they say, opposites attract.

Infirmary Wing

Command Center

outskirts of Angel Grove

Angel Grove, California

September 17, 1996

6:48 P.M

Billy unhooked the several devices connected to every visible part of Tommy's skin. "Alright, blood pressure is good. Heartbeat is getting better. Your reaction time is improving. How's the leg?"

Tommy sighed while rubbing his arms. "At least the pain is numbing. I'm still walking around with a limp though. Didn't get to avoid my dad when I got home so I had to tell him it was from football practice."

Billy nodded. "I'm suffering from all this rigorous fighting. It feels like I've been striked by a car."

"I know the feeling." Rocky said around a mouthful of an apple. "Must've been pretty valuable what they were looking for."

"Alpha, do you have a hypothesis on why Rita and Zedd's whereabouts were at the Amazon?" Billy asked the robot.

"NEGATIVE BILLY. I'VE SCANNED THE COMPLETE AREA AT LEAST FOUR TIMES AND THERE SEEMS TO BE NO READING OF ANY ALIEN MATERIAL. JUST WILDLIFE AND LOCAL TRIBES AROUND THE AREA." Alpha-5 responded.

"Figures." Rocky sighed. "Maybe they just wanted to whip our asses for the fun of it. I'm sure Goldar enjoyed beating Tommy around."

Tommy rolled his eyes before standing to his full 6 foot height. "The important thing is, that whatever they were looking for isn't there and they left. So we can just finally sit and relax."

Rocky groaned. "Just remembered I have a test tomorrow. Demasiado cansado para esta mierda (Too tired for this shit)." His lean muscles rippled as he tried to stretch his sleepiness away. "See ya guys later."

The flash of red light disappeared as Tommy turned to Billy. "Since when did he ever study for anything?"

Billy shrugged. "I am quite surprised he hasn't made anything lower than a B-."

Tommy smirked. "How's Adam doing over there?"

"He's just resting now. I gave him some of the remedial serum that Alpha prepared and he said it should act promptly." Billy turned over to the sleeping black ranger. "Thank God it's just a mild concussion. I know he's fatigued from working out the other day."

Tommy slowly nodded his head. He knew that Adam was tired but he still let him fight and it almost cost him.

It seemed that Billy could sense Tommy's battle with his mind as he placed a reassuring grip on Tommy's shoulder. "You know Adam's a little mulish at times. Even if you ordered him not to engage, he wouldn't listen."

"I guess you're right." Tommy sighed while picking himself up. "I'm gonna head on home Billy. See ya later."

Billy waved as the beam of white light vanished.

Room 3.143

Angel Grove High School

Angel Grove, California

September 18, 1996

8:01 A.M.

"Can anyone tell me what the answer to the equation is?" Mr. Grayson asked his class. He turned to the dozing teen in the black t-shirt. "Adam?"

Adam bolted up to attention. "Yeah?"

Mr. Grayson pointed to the board. "The equation? Answer it?"

"Uhh," Adam's eyes scrolled to the nonsense on the board. "Two?"

Mr. Grayson nodded in approval. "Very good. And so class.." He began to drone on again.

Adam saw Rocky looking at him with bulging eyes. "How did you answer that?" Rocky mouthed.

Adam simply shrugged; he had no idea what was going on today. After the concussion he got the other day, he couldn't focus, especially when he had Calculus at 7 in the morning. He was usually wide awake in all of his classes. He hoped his father didn't find out about this little snooze.

The bell for 2nd period rang and the students rushed out to the hallway to meet friends. Adam and Rocky walked out together with a couple of their other friends.

"Nice one Adam." Kat said to him.

T.J rolled his eyes. "He knows he wasn't paying attention. He just got lucky."

"Like how you got in this class? A sophomore in Honors Calculus, that's surprising." Rocky laughed.

Kat snorted. "It's surprising how you got in the class Rocky. You know you're not the brightest."

"I just like math. It's easy for me." Rocky shrugged. He then started digging in his bag for something while attempting to walk.

"Math is mental abuse to humans. Get it?!" T.J snorted at his own joke while turning in a different direction. "I'll see ya guys later." Him and Kat walked off together.

Adam and Rocky look at each other before laughing. "He's so lame sometimes."

Adam smiles. "I know man."

"So how's the head?"

"It's getting better. There'll be times where I start seeing spots everywhere but then it goes away as quickly as it came. Billy said I need to take things slow for a while." Adam answered. "What about you? How's the back?"

"I have a huge purple bruise on my mid-back. The other day, Ma almost walked in on me while I was shirtless."

"Yeah we gotta be more careful. My dad was asking me why I was so wobbly coming down the stairs this morning."

"What'd you say?"

"I told him I have weak knees in the morning. I don't think he believed me though."

Rocky laughed while leaning on the doorframe of their next class, "Who would? That was the dumbest crap I've ever heard."

"Well what did you expect me to say? It was six in the morning for crying out loud. I had nothing to say." Adam retorted.

Rocky rolled his eyes and then something behind Adam caught his attention. "Speaking of having nothing to say…" He nodded in front of himself and then walked into the classroom.

Adam knew what that look was. It was the look that Rocky gave him whenever she was around.

Tanya Sloan. She was beautiful, athletic, and sweet; all of the three things that Adam loved about her. But there was so much more to Tanya that no other girl could compare to her. She didn't flaunt her beauty around, she was very humble.

Tanya had curly, shoulder-length hair, long toned legs from years of playing softball and volleyball, and a heart of gold. Her big Bambi eyes turned Adam into a blubbering mess. The way that she was so down-to-earth made her even more appealing.

He first discovered his crush when he was helping her with her softball skills during the summer before freshman year.

*Flashback*

"C'mon Tanya, you gotta throw the ball like you mean it. Throw the ball like you want to hit the batter in the face." Adam said while squatting down, ready to catch the ball.

Tanya looked at him with uncertainty. "I don't know if I can do that."

"Yes you can. C'mon, throw it as hard as you can."

"I can't." Tanya shook her head.

"Tanya, you're not gonna make the team if you keep acting like a little baby!" Adam shouted.

Tanya raised an eyebrow at his comment. He was never one to shout, especially insults. "I'm not a baby!"

"Well, by the way you're acting, someone might assume different."

"Watch your mouth Park." Tanya threatened.

Adam hid a smirk, knowing that his 'pep' talk was getting through to her. "C'mon you little baby, hit me with your be-."

"Adam?"

"Huh wha?"

"Adam? Can you hear me?"

Adam blinked his eyes a couple of seconds before his vision focused on what was in front of him.

Her big brown eyes got him hooked after he came in to consciousness. That day he realized, Tanya Sloan was the girl of his dreams.

*End Flashback*

Adam felt his heartbeat race when the smell of her perfume invaded his nostrils. 'Ok you can do this. You talk to her every day.' He told himself while taking a couple of deep breaths.

"Hey Adam." Her soothing alto voice rang in his ears.

Adam turned to face her. "Hey Tanya, how's it going?"

"Going good. How are you feeling? I heard from Tommy that you fell down the stairs and hit your head. Are you doing alright?"

'What the hell Tommy?' Adam made a note to talk to Tommy later. He just couldn't believe that everyone else believed that story. "Oh uh yeah I'm doing better. Better watch were I'm stepping next time."

Tanya giggled. "Yeah, guess so. I'm just glad you're ok and not in the ER like last time you hit your head." She frowned a little after that sentence but quickly covered it up.

Adam caught it and put his hand on her shoulder. "I'll make sure I won't hurt myself again Tanya, unless you hurt me for doing something stupid, which I probably will."

"You rarely do anything stupid Adam, unlike some people." She looked inside the classroom, glaring at Rocky.

Adam snorted before softly pushing her in the classroom. "Yeah but Rocky's always stupid."

Hall C

Angel Grove High School

Angel Grove, California

September 18, 1996

12:13 P.M.

"Stupid tall boyfriend rearranging my shit. Keep telling him to don't touch my fucking stuff." Kimberly muttered to herself while straining to reach her AP Chemistry textbook. Although it was very considerate of Tommy to buy shelves for the long locker that they were sharing, it didn't make any sense to her that he always placed one of her books on the shelf that she couldn't reach.

"Hey beautiful." Tommy's voice rang down the empty hallway towards her. When he got close enough to her locker, she swung out her arm and punched him in the gut.

Kimberly smiled. "Now that I've gotten that out of my system, get my book."

Tommy smirked before reaching out and getting it.

Kimberly was about to take it form him but then Tommy held it over his head. "Tommy!"

"You know what I want." Tommy pointed to his lips with his free hand.

"Don't make me hit you again." Kim narrowed her eyes.

"No matter how many times you hit me, I won't give it to you. What's with all this abusiveness anyway? Are you PMSing?"

Kimberly raised her eyebrows. "No! Just give me my damn book!"

Tommy only pointed to his lips as an answer.

Kimberly rolled her eyes before standing on her tip toes and giving him a quick kiss.

"See that wasn't so hard, was it?" Tommy handed her back to textbook and wrapped his arm around her shoulder. "You're so cute when you're mad."

Kimberly buried her head into his chest. "You're a pain in my ass."

"A very nice ass, if I may add." Tommy said while kissing her forehead. They started walking together in the direction of the cafeteria, holding hands. "In all seriousness, how are you doing?"

"I've been better, at least I can walk normally this time. My left shoulder is killing me though."

"I think Zedd and Rita are really trying to kill us."

"You just figured that out Tommy?" Kimberly joked while softly nudging him in the ribs.

Tommy rolled his eyes and pulled her closer to him. "We need to work on better defense skills. They're seeming to know all our weak spots since we keep fighting them all the time."

"Yeah. They know about Billy's bad knee and 'Sha's back problem. Who knows what they could be figuring out now?"

They enter the cafeteria and go to their usual table. Rocky and Aisha are already sitting down, eating off each other's plates.

"Stop eating all my food Rocky!" Aisha smacked him in the arm.

Rocky smirked around a mouth full of fries. "You're eating my food so what's the big deal?"

Aisha's nostrils flared. "If you stopped eating my food, I wouldn't eat yours."

"But that wouldn't be fun, would it?" Rocky said while grabbing two french fries.

Kimberly and Tommy glanced knowingly at one another. It was gonna happen one way or another.

Adam walked up to the table with his lunch and stood next to Tommy. "Will they just kiss already?" He muttered so only Tommy could hear.

Tommy snorted loudly, causing Rocky and Aisha to stop bickering and look at him.

Aisha narrowed her eyes. "What's so funny Tommy?"

"Nothing." Tommy replied quickly while shaking his head for emphasis.

"Anyway," Adam started while everyone else sat down. "Where's Billy?"

"He's at the Command Center. He wanted to check over the area again to see if they missed something or whatever." Tommy answered.

"But there's nothing there." Adam said.

Tommy shrugged. "He said that to me too, and then Zordon called him in earlier. He said he may have found something. Billy's only gonna be there for lunch."

The group was silent for a moment. Until Tanya walked by and greeted them for a couple of minutes before going to sit with her boyfriend, Shawn.

"Hate that guy." Adam sneered, his usual happy countenance gone. Everyone else nodded in agreement.

Shawn Robertson was handsome. Very handsome. Until he opened his big fat mouth. Shawn was the typical cocky athlete with no humbleness or humility in his body whatsoever. He could never make a nice comment about anyone. How he attracted girls was still a mystery. How he attracted Tanya was an even bigger mystery.

When Tanya walked up to the table, Shawn got up and gave her a long kiss. While they sat down, he looked over at Adam and smirked at his seething rage.

"This is a competition to him. Whoever gets Tanya gets bragging points in his book." Aisha scoffed.

"Well he's bragging alright." Adam said, pushing his tray away. He had just lost his appetite.

Rocky turned to Adam. "So you're not gonna eat that?"

Adam rolled his eyes and got up and left the cafeteria.

Kimberly reached over and smacked Rocky on the forehead. "Dumb idiot."

"Oww!" Rocky rubbed his now turning pink forehead.

"You're so inconsiderate sometimes Rocky." Aisha said.

Rocky looked at Kimberly and then Aisha. "What did I say?"

Command Center

outskirts of Angel Grove

Angel Grove, California

September 18, 1996

12:15 P.M.

"Are you sure it's in that proximity Alpha?" Billy asked while punching in keys on the control panel.

"AFFIRMATIVE BILLY. I THINK THAT THIS IS WHAT RITA AND ZEDD WERE LOOKING FOR THE OTHER DAY."

"I WILL CALL THE REST OF THE RANGERS IN TOMORROW AFTERNOON TO GO SEARCH FOR THIS." Zordon said. "WE NEED TO GET TO THIS FAST BEFORE ZEDD AND RITA REALIZE THAT THEY HAVE BEEN LOOKING IN THE WRONG PLACE."

"What exactly is it Zordon?" Billy inquired.

"I WILL TELL YOU ALL MORE ABOUT IT TOMORROW. ALL YOU NEED TO KNOW NOW IS WHERE IT IS EXACTLY AND THIS CANNOT GO INTO THE WRONG HANDS." Zordon answered before going into hibernation.

Billy sighed. Of course Zordon would leave him with questions unanswered.

A/N: And that's all for now folks! Let me know what you guys think about the first chapter!