Those Little Things
1.) He was the middle child. There was no such thing as "middle child syndrome" as far as he was concerned. Maybe it was because he was the only boy, but he knew his mother, father, and stepmother loved him as much as they loved his sisters.
He loved his sisters, too. Kara and Natalie never tried to exclude him from their girly games, and they could usually work out a compromise so there were boy games as well.
2.) He was absent on what should have been his first day of kindergarten. He was in the hospital with his mother, trying not to cry.
She'd died of breast cancer at the age of thirty–two. She left behind three small children and a clueless but loving husband.
He remembered Kara doing her best to help around the house. Then his dad met Bella, and he remembered thinking how lucky they all were. She jumped right into her role of mother, no questions asked.
He never felt like a stepson to Bella. She loved him and his sisters like they were hers.
3.) When Kara was fourteen and he was twelve, he worried about her. She fell into the wrong crowd as she started high school.
He kept a lot of things his sister did from his father and Bella. He just wanted Kara to be OK, and at the time he thought keeping her secrets was the best way to achieve this.
But they did find out about all the parties and sneaking out. They were able to put a stop to it, but it still haunted him that she could have gotten hurt, and no one would have known where she was.
4.) After Kara's wild child days, it was more important to him than ever to set an example for Natalie.
He was a good big brother, and he never once blew her off. He would drop anything for her, just so she knew she could always come to him.
She did, often, and he was proud of himself.
5.) Every year on his mother's birthday, he went to see her. He went alone; his father and sisters had other ways to grieve.
He knew, deep down, that it was silly to talk to a stone with his mother's name on it. But it made him feel like she was still involved in his life.
He also knew it hurt Bella, even if she never said so. But Marissa Rhodes was his mother, and he went anyway.
6.) He went to Pai Zhuq because he wanted to do something. He was unsure of what he really wanted to do with his life. He didn't know where he wanted to go to college, let alone what he wanted to major in.
Then he heard two guys discussing the prestigious martial arts academy. His interest was peaked.
He was pleased when they accepted him, and couldn't wait to get started.
7.) When he was given his Solar Morpher for the first time, in the back of his mind there were doubts that he could really make a difference.
He was just a cub. That had been made abundantly clear by Jarrod.
Then he got a handle on things, and it was easier and easier to suit up.
8.) He was attracted to Lily before they were rangers. He had seen her around a few times, and she seemed bouncy and fun. Even from a distance he could tell she had a good heart.
It was only once they were part of the same team that he began to notice how beautiful she was, inside and out.
9.) Theo was his teammate. He tried to learn to work with him but the blue ranger was determined to butt heads with him.
Once he tried to look at things from Theo's point of view, he could understand why he seemed to hate him so much.
But once in a while, he would have loved to give Theo something to whine about.
10.) Lily showed up at his door two weeks after the disastrous date with Theo.
She never left.
He didn't want her to.