Chapter Fifty

Foul Play in the Sky

"Ooh, funnel cake!" Conner said eagerly as they wandered through the fair.

"No!" Jason, Trini, Tommy, Kimberly and Billy exclaimed.

"Is it that bad here?" Ethan asked, a little confused at their emphatic demeanor.

"No, it's just… Zack started randomly dancing in the line the last time we came here," Jason said. "Before we knew it, someone had given him a hat and people were throwing change in it."

"Yeah, that's how I paid you back for that ticket bracelet," Zack said cheerfully.

"Yeah, in nickels!"

Zack ignored this. "Who's up for making some extra cash?"

"I could sing," Kira said thoughtfully.

"Zack, you are twenty-five. You have a job. You do not need to dance for change." Kimberly paused. "God, that sounds tacky." She started to say something else, then caught sight of a nearby game, the sort where one had to knock down stacks of milk bottles for prizes. Above it hung several large pink teddy bears. "Oh, my god! I have to have one of those!"

"Those milk bottle games suck," Conner said with a resentful sniff. "They're rigged."

"Tell me about it," Trent complained.

Kimberly bit her lip. She personally wasn't great at the whole softball-throwing thing, but…

"Tommy! You're winning me a bear!"

"I—what?"

"You're winning me a bear! Come on! I'll pay, you throw!" She seized his arm. He allowed himself to be dragged over to the game, muttering something that sounded like "Oh, no, this isn't awkward at all."

"Aw, young love," Adam quipped.

"Well, as long as they're off trying to win bears…" Zack said nonchalantly, easing over towards his previous stage in front of the funnel cake kiosk, but Jason grabbed his arm and glared at him. Sighing, Zack stayed put.

"So where to first?" Jason asked loudly, keeping a firm grip on Zack's arm as Zack looked nostalgically at the funnel cake kiosk.

"Ferris wheel," Rocky said promptly.

"Yeah, you gotta hit the Ferris wheel first," Conner said, with the air of one explaining that the sun rose in the east.

"Eh… heh," Trini said, looking distinctly nervous.

"Come on, Trini," Billy said, though he didn't seem all that confident himself. "What are the odds of it getting stuck again?"

"It's a different Ferris wheel," Zack added, pointing up at the giant wheel towering over the midway. "The other one had those two-person seats. This one has gondolas."

"Yeah, but… go back to the part where you got stuck on one here before?" Trent said.

"First time we came here together, the six of us, I was starting to think that there might be something going on between Tommy and Kim—you know, like he might have actually gotten up the guts to ask her out," Jason explained. "So I decided to pull her onto the Ferris wheel with me to get her to talk, tell me what was up. And Trini, who'd of course already figured out that Tommy and Kim were thinking of it as a date, was so busy hissing instructions on how to make it go smoothly to Billy that she barely noticed we were in the line for the Ferris wheel."

"I used to be afraid of heights," Trini told them. "Now, well… I'm over it, mostly, but I don't exactly love heights."

Zack frowned thoughtfully. "Think I should apologize to Tommy for ditching him to go ride with that hot chick? What was her name… brunette, green eyes, long legs…"

"I don't think you should mention that to Tommy," Billy said dryly.

"Yeah, he ended up riding with that little girl," Trini added. "Did anyone else see him slip her some money when they finally fixed the wheel and we all got off the ride? Or was that part of my hysterical disembarking?"

"I remember that," Jason said. "Maybe it was hush money."

"Yeah, you know, like he threw up and didn't want her to tell anyone or something," Zack suggested.

"How can you throw up on a Ferris wheel?" Conner asked. Zack shrugged. Rocky, Conner and Zack simultaneously all tilted their heads to the side, looking upward, expressions pensive, wondering if such a thing as throwing up on a Ferris wheel were possible. (Later, Trini and Billy would spend hours discussing the psychological and sociological indicators in that action.)

"Well, as soon as Tommy and Kimberly get back, let's go on the Ferris wheel," Jason said decisively. "We can't spend the rest of our lives thinking every Ferris wheel on the planet is going to go boom on us."

"Why not?" Trini muttered.

"Why is it called 'Happy Sparks, the Lucky Ferris Wheel?'" Trent asked suspiciously.

"Dude's got a good point," Rocky said nervously.

"I wouldn't worry about it," Jason said. "I'm sure it's perfectly safe."

"And if not, we're pretty good at surviving near-fatal stuff," Zack added cheerfully.

"Who's riding with who?" Jason asked quickly, shooting Zack a glare. "I don't think we'll all fit in the same gondola."

"It says four to a gondola," Kira said, pointing at a nearby sign. "There's twelve of us, right?"

"There will be once Tommy finishes acquiring a bear for Kimberly," Billy confirmed.

"I'm with you, Kira," Trent said.

"I'll come with you guys," Ethan said.

"I'll round out the boat," Conner offered.

"Billy's coming with me," Trini said firmly. "He was the only thing that kept me from climbing down the wheel last time."

"Was that you on Rescue 911?" Rocky asked curiously.

"No. I never got out of the seat. Besides, I wouldn't have fallen and ended up hanging by my knees. Jase, you coming with me and Billy?"

"Of course. Adam, why don't you ride with us? I know Zack; he likes to rock the gondolas. Last thing I need is to spend the rest of the day telling the cops that Zack just 'fell' and Trini's scream of 'die, Zack, die' was unrelated."

"Fine. Guess you and Zack are with Tommy and Kim, Rocko."

"And her bear," Conner said, pointing. They turned to see an enormous pink bear coming down the midway; all they could see of Kimberly were her feet and her arms, thrown around the bear's middle. The bear had to be at least three feet tall and was wider than Kimberly.

"Isn't he gorgeous?" Kimberly gushed, her voice slightly muffled by the bear. "His name is Jake!"

"You named him already?" Trini asked in amusement.

"You named him Jake?" Conner asked incredulously.

"Doesn't he look like a Jake?" Kimberly said proudly.

"No, he looks like a giant pink bear," Conner said, looking a little confused.

"Shouldn't he be a girl bear? He's pink, after all," Ethan said.

"Come on, Ethan! He's definitely a guy bear," Kimberly said with an air of "duh." Her head emerged from behind Jake and she snuggled against the side of his head, squeezing Jake so hard his eyes protruded slightly. "Oh! He's so cute! You're the best, Tommy!"

"Welcome," Tommy mumbled sheepishly.

"How much was that thing?" Jason asked him.

"She paid for it," Tommy replied, a little defensively.

"Yeah, it was much more fun when you paid for it," Kimberly said absently. "They didn't even take credit cards; I might need to find an ATM here soon. But at least I got my Jake!" She squeezed the bear again.

"Anyone else kinda reminded of Elmyra from Tiny Toon Adventures?" Zack asked. This prompted another odd moment between Zack, Conner and Rocky, as the three of them suddenly burst into song. "We're tiny, we're toon-y—"

Trent and Ethan joined in. "We're all a little loony!"

"GUYS!" Jason practically yelled.

They all looked cowed for approximately three seconds, at which point Ethan suddenly challenged, "Bet you can't name all the Immature Radioactive Samurai Slugs!"

"Oh, you are on!" Conner exclaimed. Then he frowned. "Let's see… I know one of them was Picasso…"

"Picasso, Rockwell and Warhol!" Zack announced proudly.

"Dude, you forgot Grandma Moses," Rocky pointed out.

"Who the hell is Grandma Moses?" Conner demanded.

"She was considered one of the great American folk artists," Trent said, shaking his head. "She lived to be a hundred and one. Didn't start painting until her seventies. She was supposed to be really cool, too. Legend has it that when she went into the nursing home and they wouldn't let her paint, she stole a doctor's stethoscope and tried to hold it for ransom, all 'I'll give it back if you send me home.' Her stuff's good, but not my thing."

"Ah. I always just thought it was another cool thing about Tiny Toons," Zack said with a shrug. "You know, that show had style. They didn't just rip off Ninja Turtles, they ripped it off with a superhero slug named Grandma Moses."

"They were way cool," Conner agreed.

"Who are you people?" Jason asked in exasperation, only to find a large amount of pink hair obscuring his vision.

"Do you need a hug? Jake will give you a hug," came Kimberly's voice from somewhere behind the bright pink fur. "He likes to give hugs."

"No, thanks," Jason said with a long-suffering sigh.

"Aw, you hurt his feelings," Kimberly crooned. "Didn't he, Jake?" The bear rustled as she reached up to grab hold of Jake's head and make it nod. "You apologize right now, Jason!"

"Kim, I am not apologizing to a stuffed animal," Jason told her firmly.

The bear was thrust even farther towards him; suddenly it looked kinda menacing, an image reinforced by Kim growling, "Apologize!"

"Sorry, Jake," Jason said resignedly.

"I can't hear you!"

"I apologize for not wanting a hug, Jake," Jason ground out. "Now, if we're all done acting like the insane people to which freak accidents on Ferris wheels happen, let's get in line."

"For what?" Tommy asked.

"The Ferris wheel."

"What? Oh, no!" Tommy exclaimed emphatically. "I'm not going anywhere near that thing!"

"If Trini's got the guts, you can suck it up, too," Jason said sternly. "It's about time we all faced our fear of the Ferris wheel."

"Why? What's wrong with never going near it again?" Tommy demanded.

"Come on, Tommy. At least you weren't stuck on it with an extremely agile person intent on leaping from the cart," Billy cajoled.

"No, I was on it with a little girl I probably traumatized for life," Tommy retorted.

"Is that why you paid her off when you got off the ride?" Zack asked curiously.

"No. That was because I ate all her cotton candy," Tommy said sheepishly.

"Come on, Dr. O, be brave," Conner teased. "It's just a Ferris wheel."

"I'm not riding with you," Tommy said vehemently.

"Gee, thanks," Conner said sarcastically.

"Sorry. It's just that if anyone in this group has a high chance of getting stuck on a Ferris wheel, it's you," Tommy explained.

"Ah." Conner frowned. "Um… why?"

"Something to do with karma and the gods of chaos recognizing one of their own," Trini told him, patting him consolingly on the shoulder. "I still blame the first time we got stuck on Tommy and Zack."

"Hey!" Tommy complained, but without any real enthusiasm. Trini was just saying what they were all thinking. Zack didn't even bother to protest.

"Anyway, you and Kim are with Rocky and Zack," Jason told him.

"What? Why? Zack's second and Rocky's third on my 'chaos will strike here' list!"

"You weren't here when we did the seating chart," Rocky told him apologetically.

"Besides, it's not like sitting with them will make a difference," Ethan pointed out. "They'll still be on the Ferris wheel."

"Okay," said Trini, "we're getting in line before I change my mind."

Some more reluctant than others, the twelve of them moved off into the line for the nearby Ferris wheel. Tommy was muttering under his breath about conspiracies and Zack ditching him for a hot girl the last time when he noticed that Zack was no longer behind them.

"Zack? ZACK!" Tommy yelled. They were at the end of the line, so Zack had either gotten to the front of the group or hadn't come with them.

"ZACK!" a few of the others shouted.

"I'm coming!" Zack called back, and within a few moments he appeared behind Tommy, with not one but three girls accompanying him.

"You're doing it again, aren't you?" Tommy said with a glare.

"Yep," Zack said. "Don't worry. Jake can be the fourth in your group." He nodded to the giant pink bear, which was obscuring the view of the rest of their friends.

"Ugh," Tommy groaned as the line moved slowly forwards, up the ramp towards the loading platform. He had a sneaking suspicion that the first time around on the wheel was going to turn out to be the better of the two, despite the fact that they'd gotten stuck and Trini had been pretty incoherent for the next hour and Kimberly had been a bit jumpy around Jason afterwards, given his third degree while she was sitting in the cart next to him. At least Tommy had been sitting with that little girl the first time; he'd poured his heart out to her about just about everything that had been bugging him, so he'd felt much better about life after finally getting back down on the ground.

"Hi," send one of the girls, giving him an appraising look as the line slowly inched forward. Tommy didn't like the looks of the three of them. Not that the girls weren't pretty, because they were all fairly decent… it was just that they had an edge to them, something about them that set off Tommy's instincts and warned him that they were also well-known by the gods of chaos. It was the same instinct that had made him try to get out of supervising Conner, Kira and Ethan's detention, and look where that had led.

"This is Tommy," Zack told them. "Tommy, this is Sandra, Rachel and Dee."

"Hi," Tommy said, forcing a smile. He was about to draw upon his stock footage of small talk, but suddenly Kimberly tried to get his attention, which involved Jake nearly knocking Tommy over the railing running along the Ferris wheel ramp. After quite a scuffle, which Tommy privately but unfairly blamed on Zack's new chaos girls, Tommy managed to regain his balance with the help of Zack and shoved Jake's head out of the way so that he could see Kimberly, the better to ask what she wanted. "You bashed?" he said dryly.

"Sorry," she said sheepishly. "I was hoping you could hold Jake for a while."

"Kim…"

"Please? He's kinda heavy."

"Kim, he's… well, he's a giant pink bear."

"And you're secure enough in your masculinity to hold a giant pink bear in public, right?" Kimberly asked hopefully.

"I'm wearing black," Tommy pointed out, gesturing to his pants. "Black's horrible about picking up lint. I don't know how Zack does it."

"You just don't worry about the lint," Zack explained. Tommy glared at him.

"Jake doesn't shed that much," Kimberly said reproachfully, giving Tommy her best puppy-dog eyes.

Tommy sighed heavily. "Hand 'em over."

"You're the best, Tommy!" Kimberly gushed, shoving the bear on him.

Tommy winced. "He's going in the car after the Ferris wheel."

"That is so sweet," whispered Sandra to Dee and Rachel, nodding at Tommy.

"Tommy's a big sap," Zack said, not bothering to whisper. "Might seem sweet now, but pretty soon it gets a little creepy."

"Shut up, Zack," Tommy growled.

They giggled. "You are so funny," Dee gushed to Zack.

"He's funny now. Give it ten years, and then he's just annoying," Tommy said dryly.

"Sweet guys don't really exist," Rachel proclaimed. "They're like the Easter Bunny. Mythology, you know?"

"Yes, Rachel, you're very jaded," Sandra said patronizingly.

"Hey! Am not! I'm telling you, they don't exist!"

"Rae, he's holding his girlfriend's giant pink bear," Sandra pointed out.

"Which makes him easy to manipulate, not sweet," Rachel insisted before Tommy could correct Sandra about the girlfriend thing. He decided not to bother; these three seemed like Zack's kind of girls, not his, so he might as well let them think he was taken. Then Rachel's comment hit home with him.

"Hmm," Tommy said with a faint ironic smile. "You've actually got a point there."

"I'm not manipulating him!" Kimberly called in indignation from the other side of Jake. "My arms are just tired!"

"There's nothing wrong with manipulation, as long as it's not malicious," Rachel assured her.

There was a pause from Kimberly's end of the giant pink bear dividing the ramp. Then— "I like you," Kimberly announced. "I'm Kim."

"Rachel," Rachel replied, despite the fact that she couldn't see Kimberly through the bear.

"I'm Trini!" Trini added eagerly. Nervous now—because he knew what girls who knew how to manipulate were capable of—he moved closer to Kimberly, who at least was the devil he knew as opposed to the one he didn't.

"How many friends are you here with?" Dee asked Zack.

"Ten or eleven," he replied with a shrug.

"Really? Any of them single?"

"Oh, yeah, a few of them. Let's see… there's Rocky, and…"

Thankfully, Tommy was spared the coming conversation by Rocky as they edged off the ramp and onto the platform. "That sign over there says you have to leave large packages here, dude," Rocky told him.

"Thank god," Tommy muttered. "Excuse me," he added to Zack and the girls, and hurried over the attendant to drop off Kimberly's bear. The guy smirked at him; whether because he knew what it was like to be suckered into carrying crap by a girl, or simply because it didn't get much less manly than a giant pink bear, Tommy couldn't tell, but the guy didn't say anything as Tommy dropped it off and went back to the platform. When he returned, Trini and Kimberly were chatting to Sandra, Rachel and Dee now that the bear wasn't blocking their view.

When the attendants started unloading the previous passengers, Trini offered to let Zack and his new posse go first, possibly because she wanted to delay the inevitable. However, Trini stepped gingerly onto the next one with Jason, Billy and Adam, and Tommy, Rocky and Kimberly moved to the front of the line.

"Only three?" the attendant asked. Tommy nodded, and the guy motioned to a girl with blond hair standing off to the side. "There's room with them. That okay?" he called to her.

The girl nodded and stepped over into their group as another attendant opened the door of the next gondola. Rocky smiled at her as charmingly as possible, despite the fact that she looked at least four or five years younger than them. She grinned back.

Kimberly got in first and slid over on the left half of the gondola. Rocky jumped in after her, then sat down on the right, next to Kimberly. Great. Now Tommy could sit next to Rocky on the right (and maybe set Kimberly to thinking that he was trying to avoid her), or he could sit next to Kimberly (and be uncomfortable as hell for the entire ride).

Before he could make his move, the random girl who'd been thrown into their group decided for him by climbing in and sitting next to Rocky. Kimberly it was. Tommy couldn't decide if he liked that idea or not.

The gondola lurched to the side, and Conner, Ethan, Kira and Trent boarded the following gondola. Then, with an unsettling jolt, the gondola began to move in a smooth circle around the giant wheel. Jason waved from above them. A sudden silence, reminiscent of his time in the trunk with Kimberly, fell over the group.

"Amazing view," Tommy commented, merely to reassure himself that he wasn't going to be sent back to Awkward Land, where there wasn't much noise to distract from the embarrassment and freak accidents were much more likely.

"Yeah," Kimberly said.

"It is pretty awesome," Rocky admitted. "You can see all the way to Angel Grove."

"Hey, look," said the girl who'd followed them onto the gondola, pointing towards a cluster of skyscrapers. "Check out some of the trees between here and Angel Grove. You can see where some of them are burned or damaged at the top from Power Ranger battles."

"Hello to the pang of guilt," Kimberly whispered to Tommy. He laughed, feeling a bit of the tension ease.

However, the girl sitting across from him gave Tommy a long, searching look, making him even more uncomfortable. "Don't I know you from somewhere?" she said, sounding genuinely confused.

Tommy regarded her thoughtfully. She did look vaguely familiar. He took a closer look at her, trying to place her face. "Are you from Angel Grove?"

"I lived there a couple years, yeah. We just moved back to Stone Canyon."

"Did you ever take martial arts classes at the Youth Center in Angel Grove?" he asked, figuring she might be an old karate student or something.

"Me? No. I belong on the couch in front of the TV, if you know what I mean."

"Tommy here lives in Reefside now," Rocky said. "Ever been there?"

"Nope." She took a bite of her blue cotton candy, and something about the action triggered Tommy's memory.

"No way," he breathed. "What are the odds?" He paused. "Wait, what are my odds? Pretty good. Fate just loves to laugh hysterically at me."

"Odds of what?" she asked uncertainly.

"Anna?" he demanded.

She frowned. "Yes?"

"The little girl I got stuck on the Ferris wheel with about ten years ago?"

Her eyes widened. "You're kidding! You're Tommy? The weird high school boy who kept grumbling about his evil friends and their conspiracy?"

"What conspiracy?" Rocky asked, confused. "I didn't have a conspiracy. I don't think."

"Yeah, I am," Tommy said, feeling a twinge of embarrassment at that memory. "I'm amazed you remember."

"Are you kidding? I could never forget that day. Ever since then, every time this carnival comes to town, I come to it every day and ride the Ferris wheel over and over and chat to whatever random people I happen to sit with. It really stuck with me, the way you talked to me like I was Dr. Phil." She turned to Kimberly. "Hey! Are you Kim?"

"Um, yeah…" Kimberly said, confused.

"The Kim? The girl he was madly in love with and wouldn't stop ranting about?"

Tommy stared at Anna in horror. He had never thought that getting out his frustration by talking to a random eight-year-old on a Ferris wheel would come back to haunt him… but apparently it just had. Rocky cringed, shooting Tommy a sympathetic look at Anna's unwittingly painful statement.

Even as his face flushed, he turned to Kimberly, hoping to explain himself before this evil hole got any deeper… and he received a shock to see the amused look on her face.

"I suppose so," Kimberly said, arching an eyebrow at the girl and fighting the urge not to laugh at Tommy's expression. "You were riding with Tommy the day the Ferris wheel got stuck?" Kimberly remembered just about every second of her first sort-of date with Tommy… including the odd exchange of money when he'd gotten off the Ferris wheel between him and the girl he'd been riding with. She'd asked about it, but he'd just shaken his head and muttered something about owing the girl one.

Anna nodded. "Yup. Wow. So you and he are still together?"

Tommy made a strangled noise and Kimberly's amusement finally gave out to embarrassment. "Er… no," Kimberly said. "We're… um… well, we're friends now."

"Aw, that's so sad," Anna gushed, leaning over to pat Tommy consolingly on the knee. "I guess your friends' evil plans worked, eh?"

Tommy closed his eyes, wishing Anna would fall out of the gondola. "Well… no. Actually, I'm pretty sure that now they're conspiring to get us back together."

"They must feel pretty guilty for breaking you two up," Anna said, nodding wisely. "Cotton candy?"

Tommy's eyes snapped open, remembering how much better the cotton candy had made him feel on the Ferris wheel back then. "Thank you," he said, reaching out and ripping a chunk off the stick, leaving her only a few bites left.

"Just like old times," she said, staring down at the stick sadly. "You are paying me back, right?"

"Isn't that the arrangement?" Tommy said with a mouth full of candy, feeling much better.

She chuckled and turned to Rocky, looking him up and down. "So, are you one of the evil friends?"

Rocky held up his hands in a gesture of surrender. "Hey, lady, I have no idea what's going on. I just ran into them like twenty minutes ago."

"Likely story," Anna said with glare. Tommy struggled not to laugh as Rocky scooted away from her a bit, a little nervous now.

"You know," Kimberly said slowly, "I'd sort of like to hear exactly what happened the first time you two met."

Tommy paused for a moment. He wasn't sure it was appropriate material to be told to Kimberly… but on the other hand, he kind of owed her an uncomfortable moment after that whole fry thing. Besides, he was finding it hard to care when he had cotton candy. Ever since the day with Anna on the Ferris wheel, cotton candy had always been a calming influence on him. Before he could decide whether or not to tell her, Anna made up his mind for him.

"Sure thing," Anna said with a shrug. "I remember it like it was yesterday. One of the defining moments of my childhood. Really takes me back. There I was, wandering around the carnival after finally ditching my grandma. And I thought I'd go on the Ferris wheel. And there was this group of people in the line in front of me—"

"Jason, Trini, Kim, Zack, Billy, and I," Tommy interrupted.

"I remember Jason begging me to ride the Ferris wheel with him," Kimberly said. "He was all bouncy and cheerful all of a sudden. I should have known something was up; he just wanted to go all big-brother on me and find out what was up with Tommy."

"And Trini was whispering something to Billy," Tommy added. "About us, probably. So I figured I'd ride with Zack, and at the last second he sees some hot girl standing behind us and runs off. So I got on with Anna."

"That was the old Ferris wheel," Anna said. "The Magic Circle of Love Ferris Wheel. This is the new one."

"Whose bright idea was it to name it 'Happy Sparks, the Lucky Ferris Wheel'?" Rocky asked.

Anna shrugged. "No idea. Anyway, there I was, with a big stick of cotton candy and some random high school boy sitting next to me…"

Flashback

Tommy sat in the cart, getting more annoyed by the second. Stupid Jason. Just had to drag Kimberly off. In a bizarrely uncharacteristic way… Well, as far as he knew… Damn it, he'd had the greatest make-out scene planned, too!

"You know, it figures. It just figures! All I really wanted was just a little alone time with Kimberly but nooo, my 'friends' have to try to cheer me up about losing my pow—losing my power, as in electricity, you know, my lights and stuff! Anyway, they should have figured it out! Somehow I doubt I've been hiding my feelings for Kim all that well!" Tommy turned to the girl sitting next to him. "Look at this from my perspective. You finally find out the girl you've been attracted to feels the same way, you get to act on it, and your friends interrupt a very important moment, wouldn't you be upset as well? It's almost like they planned it!"

The eight-year-old stared at him for a long moment before popping a tuft of her blue cotton candy into her mouth. "You're weird."

Tommy sighed heavily, turning back to face outward. He might need someone to talk to, but a little girl with cotton candy all over her face probably wasn't the right person. Still, he needed to rant. Desperately. And it didn't look like she was going to stop him, so at least he'd have a captive audience, which was much better than talking to yourself when it came to ranting.

"I mean, come on. There I was. Finally making a move. Which they all encouraged me to do, by the way. Zack always brought it up during sparring matches just so I'd land flat on my back."

"Doesn't that hurt?" Anna interrupted curiously.

"Eh, yeah. Anyway, where was I? Oh, yeah." Tommy turned back towards her; she politely feigned interest. "Trini, evil little Trini, always trying to suggest little ways I can get closer to Kim. And Jason, always asking me about it. Billy… well, all he ever does is blush, but the others, they've been trying so hard to push us together, and we finally get together—I mean, major sparks there!—and what do they do? Bust right on in."

"How rude," she said, in the exact tone of Stephanie on Full House.

"It's just not fair! I bet they're planning this. They've got to be. Surely they're not stupid enough to do it on purpose."

"Do what on purpose?"

"Keep me and Kim from mak—um, making crafts! I mean, from being together! Yeah."

Anna just looked at him. "You were talking about kissing, weren't you."

"No, I wasn't!" Tommy insisted, blushing bright red.

"Yes you were."

"Was not!"

"Were too!"

"Was not!"

"Were too!"

"I'm not going to sit here and argue with a first grader!"

"I'm a third grader, you jerk!"

"Well, excuse me, shrimp."

"I am rubber and you are glue. Whatever you say bounces off of me and sticks to you!"

"Oh, real mature."

"What? Can't think of anything to say?"

"I can too!"

"Can not!"

"Can too! I just choose not to say it!"

"Yeah, right! You can't think of anything! Nyeh!"

Tommy couldn't believe it. He was arguing with an eight-year-old girl. And losing. Sighing, he faced forward and tried to ignore her.

Just as they started to descend on their eighth rotation, the wheel shuddered to a halt. Tommy, figuring that this meant they were starting to unload the carts, passenger by passenger, thanked whatever god was listening.

"I think we've gotten off on the wrong foot here," Tommy said firmly. "Why don't we start over?"

"Okay," she said, shrugging. "I'm Anna. What's your name?"

"Tommy."

"Would you like some cotton candy?" Anna asked politely.

Tommy reached out and grabbed a large chunk off the cotton candy stick; there were only a few bits left clinging forlornly to the stick. Anna stared at it in horror. "Thanks, Anna," he said gratefully.

Anna glared at him. He was a bigger person, so he probably needed more cotton candy, but he definitely needed some sharing lessons. "So… how are you?" she asked through gritted teeth.

"Fine, you?"

"Fine. But I thought you'd say you were sad because you can't get your girlfriend alone to kiss her," Anna said scathingly.

"I was not!"

"Were too," Anna said in the calm tone that brooked no argument.

"I'm not starting that again," Tommy said, sulkily ripping into his newly acquired cotton candy.

Anna sighed. He was starting to remind her of Bobby Nitzberg, the fat kid in her class that nobody liked. He was really sad all the time, and sometimes he could be mean, but if you were nice to him, he was really nice to you. Anna liked helping out poor Bobby, because it made him feel better, and the teacher always praised her for it. Plus sometimes Bobby gave her his milk money.

Anna decided to try this tactic on Tommy. Maybe she could cheer him up. If not, maybe he'd at least give her enough cash for more cotton candy. Or maybe a funnel cake.

"It's all right to admit it, you know. I won't tell anyone that you're sad because you can't kiss your girlfriend."

"She's not my girlfriend, yet," Tommy exclaimed, exasperated. "And what would you know about grown-up kissing?"

"A lot. I do have an older sister, you know. Just because I'm eight doesn't mean I'm stupid."

Tommy nodded slightly, a bit embarrassed about that. Teaching kids at the Youth Center had taught him not to underestimate them. Besides, kids were good at giving blunt advice, which was exactly what he needed right now. Plus her cotton candy was really good.

"What does your sister do when she wants to be alone with her boyfriend?" Tommy asked carefully.

"She locks her bedroom door."

Tommy made a mental note of that, then paused. "What if that doesn't work?"

"Well, sometimes stuffs me in one of those overhead kitchen cabinets."

"Now we're talking," Tommy muttered to himself. "My friends are kind of big though. I don't think I could fit them in very well."

"That's good point. I was really cramped and as it was she had to remove one of the shelves," Anna said, nodding wisely. "I tried to get out, but she blocked the door somehow."

Tommy frowned. "That was kind of cruel of her. How long were you in there?"

"Well, Mom found me after a while and yelled at my sister. A lot. She didn't see her boyfriend for a whole month. Except that one time when he had to come in through the window."

"Window," Tommy repeated thoughtfully. "Hmm. What else does your sister do to get some alone time?"

"She bribes me with candy a lot, especially when I threaten to tell Mom. Or she sticks me back in the cabinet. But she doesn't do that very much anymore, after that time she got yelled at. Oh, and sometimes, she sits out in the driveway in her boyfriend's car for a really long time with the defroster off so that no one can see in the windows, cuz, you know, they get all foggy."

Tommy paused. "I think I'd like to change the subject now."

"Okay." Anna thought for a moment. "So how are you going to get revenge?"

"Huh? On who?"

"Your friends, silly. You know, for making it so you can't be alone with her? My sister always gets revenge on me when I don't leave the room all by myself." She paused. "What's your girlfriend's name, anyway?"

"Kim," he replied cautiously. "Why?"

"Just making sure it wasn't my sister," Anna said. "The boys she dates are really stupid."

Tommy frowned, wondering if that was a veiled insult. "Yeah?"

"Yeah. You don't seem stupid, though," she added hastily.

"What's your sister's name?" Tommy asked.

"Emily."

"Does she go to Angel Grove High?"

"No, we live in Stone Canyon."

"Oh. Well, I don't know anyone from Stone Canyon. I've only been living in Angel Grove for a little while."

"You know," Anna said slowly, "I was wondering…"

"Yes?" Tommy prompted carefully.

"If you can't be alone with your girlfriend, why don't you just kiss her in front of your friends?"

Tommy stared at her for a moment, then took a large bite of cotton candy to stall for time. "It's not that simple," he said at length. "My buddy Jason's really protective of her. Doesn't like guys getting too close to her." Pause. "He's kind of like a big brother. Do you have one of those?"

"No. Just my sister. Although one time, one of my sister's boyfriends got beaten up by his big brother on our front porch. Something about stealing something from him."

"Ah." Tommy swallowed the last of Anna's cotton candy. "That's not quite the same thing." He sighed. "It's just… not the way it's done. We aren't technically a couple yet. You kind of have to work up to public displays of affection."

"Ah. So you're shy."

"No!"

"Are too."

Tommy sighed again. "I am not shy. I'd just… be really embarrassed if I kissed her in front of my friends, I guess."

"I know how that goes," she said, nodding wisely.

"You do?"

"Yeah. Everyone in my class teased me that time I kissed Mikey Torrance under the jungle gym. I only did it because Stacey Parker dared me too, but everyone said I was in love with him. It was real annoying."

Tommy blinked. Oddly enough, there didn't appear to be much of a difference between third grade and high school.

"That's exactly what would happen with me and Kim."

"Oh. Well, if it helps, all I had to do was punch Jeffrey Nixon and then people didn't talk about it as much."

Tommy grinned. He was starting to like her more and more. A sudden thought occurred to him. "Hey, shouldn't we be moving?"

"I think so," Anna said, frowning. She looked down. "Hey, I think I see my grandma!"

Tommy looked down as well, but before he could spot the old lady, he saw that the station where the carts disembarked was halfway in between two of the seats. In other words, they weren't disembarking. The wheel was stuck.

"Uh-oh," Tommy muttered. His frown deepened. "I wonder where Trini is."

"Who's Trini?"

"One of my friends. She's kind of afraid of heights. I don't think she even noticed she was getting on the Ferris wheel, because right as they were sending her up so Jase and Kim could get on I heard her muttering 'Oh god, oh god, what am I doing?' and she was really distracted before we got on…"

"Oh." Anna turned her gaze upwards. "I hope she's not up there," she said, pointing to the top cart.

"GET ME DOWN!" a nearly-inhuman voice suddenly screamed.

"Aw, man," Tommy said with a wince.

The cart above them, where Jason and Kimberly were sitting, rocked slightly as Jason yelled, "Don't worry, Trini! It'll be okay!"

"Billy, keep her in the seat!" Kimberly shouted.

"Don't look down!" Zack called helpfully.

"Trini, this is an inopportune moment for panicking!" Billy cried in nearly hysterical tones.

"This is not going to end well," Tommy said with a sigh.

"Look on the bright side," said Anna. "At least now, you won't have to get revenge on her. She'll have suffered enough."

Tommy smiled at her. "I like the way you think."

End Flashback

"After that, he got all philosophical on me," Anna said. "I remember telling him that he should try sharing a stick of cotton candy with you to make you like him better. When we got off the wheel, he felt bad about eating all my cotton candy and paid me back for it."

Tommy gave her the ghost of a smile. He could still see in his mind's eye the sympathetic eight-year-old face of Anna as she told him, "Well, cotton candy always cheers me up when I'm sad, and if you're this sad, and she's going through the same thing, she's got to be really sad. My daddy says girls get sad more than boys every time I cry to get him to buy me something. And I always share cotton candy with my friends. Besides, it couldn't hurt. Maybe if you give her enough cotton candy, she'll want to be your girlfriend."

"You told me that if I gave her enough cotton candy she might want to be my girlfriend more," Tommy said without thinking.

Anna crossed her arms over her chest. "I was eight. It's not like I had any double entendres in mind."

"Okay, now that phrase sounds a little better," Rocky said.

Kimberly raised her eyebrows at Tommy. "Is that why you bought me all that cotton candy after Jason, Trini, Zack and Billy got kicked out? Because an eight year old told you to?"

Tommy shifted uncomfortably. "Well, maybe, but the stuffed animals were my idea."

Kimberly shook her head. "You're too much."

Anna leaned forward as the gondola began to slow. "Look. I meant what I said back then. You shouldn't let anyone come between you and your girlfriend."

Tommy stared at her. She'd been much more perceptive as a third grader. "Um… that's not really relevant anymore…"

Before Anna could reply, a loud screeching noise issued from somewhere within the mess of metal and wires that was the Ferris wheel. The gondola swayed as they halted halfway up.

"NOOOOOO!" Trini howled from above them.

"You're kinda creepy with the irony thing," Anna said, looking at him with wide eyes.

"Hey, it wasn't me!" Tommy insisted.

"HELP!" Trini bellowed. "HEEEELLLLLLLLPPPPPP!"

"How long were you guys stuck the last time?" Rocky asked worriedly.

"Just a few minutes. Um, but that was the other Ferris wheel," Tommy replied nervously.

The gondola above them rocked violently. "Trini! Sit down!" Jason yelled.

"Screw that! I'm outta here!"

"Trini! Remember what Zordon said!"

"This isn't for personal gain! This is an emergency!"

"Trini, you put that back in your pocket, now!"

"Hey, Dr. O!" called Conner from below. "I can see all the way to the hotel!"

"The hotel is to the east, moron," Ethan snapped.

"What's your problem?" Conner demanded.

"My problem is that I'm stuck on a Ferris wheel and Trent and Kira won't stop doing that so I have no one but you to talk to and I'm stuck on a Ferris wheel and I TOLD YOU THIS WOULD NOT BE A GOOD DAY!"

Tommy rolled his eyes and leaned over the edge to try to peer into the teens' boat, figuring that being Mentor Man would distract him from his own problems. "Kira, Trent, knock it off down there! Trent, your father will kill me!"

"You try rooming with Conner!" Trent shouted defiantly.

Tommy sighed, suddenly much more reluctant to break it up. "And it's not like his father's very good at killing you, anyway!" Kira added.

Tommy struggled with himself for a moment, then decided to just ignore the situation. Rocky grinned at him. "Let it go, man," Rocky said. "The kid needs to reclaim his territory. He's been glaring at me and Adam since we ran into you."

"Shut up, Rocky," Tommy said wearily. Kimberly giggled.

"Jason, let me go!"

"TRINI! SIT DOWN!"

"Trini, your actions are making our predicament exponentially much more precarious!"

"Hey, Jason, try taking her mind off of it!" Conner yelled. "It's working for Kira! OW!"

There was a long pause in the screaming from the gondola above. Then a rather grumpy, "Thanks a lot, Conner," from Adam.

"They your friends?" Anna asked.

"Yep," Tommy said with a sigh. "Unfortunately."

"I'm starting to understand you better," Anna said. She grinned. "By the way, cotton candy's gotten a lot more expensive since 1994."

Tommy pulled out his wallet. "You should've brought more."

"I didn't think I'd run into you!" Anna complained. "I should have leaped out the moment I realized it was you, too. Now I'm stuck on the Ferris wheel. Again. Trini, she's the one with the fear of heights, right?"

"Yes," Tommy said over Kimberly's continuous giggling.

"Jason's the big scary one who always looks at you warningly when you try to touch Kim in public, isn't he?"

Kimberly's giggling rose into cackles as Rocky joined in.

"That was a long time ago," Tommy said through gritted teeth.

"And Zack was the one riding with the random girl, and Billy was the cute one with the glasses right?" Anna continued, ignoring Rocky and Kimberly.

"Yeah, well… yeah," Tommy said, shifting uncomfortably.

"So which one is this?" Anna asked, jerking her thumb at Rocky.

"Rocky. I didn't know him back then. That was a few months before I met him."

"I see. Did you ever decide to get revenge on them for conspiring to keep you two apart?"

Now thoroughly annoyed by Rocky's laughter, Kimberly's mad cackling, the complaints of Billy and Adam in the rocking gondola above and the arguing of Ethan and Conner below, Tommy ground out, "No. I just waited for them to get kicked out of the carnival. At which point, me and Kim made out like nothing else."

Kimberly gaped at him, her laughter slowly dying off.

"I see," Anna said. "So… why exactly aren't you two together anymore?"

Tommy shifted nervously. "We're just… not."

"Oh, well, you see," Rocky began, but thankfully he broke off with a burst of giggles.

"That's it! Tommy, me and Billy are coming down!" Adam yelled.

"Oh, just shut your eyes and cope!" Tommy called back irritably. "I've got my own problems at the moment!"

"What is going on down there?" called an amused Zack. "You're cramping my style."

"Zack, if we live through this, I swear I'm gonna kill—"

"Ha! Like I haven't heard that before. Anyway, what did I do?"

"Just… just be quiet!" Tommy yelled.

"No problem. Oh, but first, hey Rocky!"

"Yeah?"

"Lean your head out the side, man! Dee and Rachel want to see what you look like again!"

"Guess that means Zack's taking Sandra," Kimberly remarked idly.

Rocky stood up, took a moment to get his balance, firmly grabbed hold of the pole in the center of the gondola and leaned out over the edge, waving in the general direction of Zack, who was at the very top, two gondolas ahead. "Hi!"

"He is cute," came Rachel's voice. Tommy rolled his eyes and pulled Rocky back down by the shirttail.

"You too, sweetie!" Rocky yelled as their gondola went into a dizzying spin, throwing Tommy into Kimberly and Anna into Rocky.

"Hey, Conner!" Zack yelled.

"ZACK!" Tommy bellowed. "What part of I'm responsible for him do you not understand!"

"Well, what am I supposed to do with Dee?" Zack called practically.

"Shut up, Zack!" Tommy yelled.

"But there's three of them, Tommy! Hey, do you want one?"

"SHUT UP!"

"Come on, man! She's really hot!"

The gondola stopped spinning so that Tommy was facing the passengers on the other side of the wheel, most of whom were pointing at him and laughing. He sighed.

"I'll take her!" Conner shouted.

"No you won't!" Tommy bellowed.

"Come on, Dr. O! You said you didn't want one!"

Tommy leaned back and closed his eyes. "In a second, I'm going to jump."

"Don't be like that, Tommy!" Zack added, trying to help Conner out. "I don't need two. Although, come to think of it…"

"Zack, there are children present in this carnival!" Adam said pathetically, trying to look anywhere but at Trini and Jason, who unfortunately were taking up a large amount of the boat.

"Hey, you in the green!" Dee was now peering interestedly down at them. "Are you single?"

"Nah, he's dating Tanya Sloan," Zack said. "That's Adam Park."

There was eruption of squealing from Sandra, Rachel and Dee, which started a ten-minute rant between them and Zack, while Adam stubbornly ignored all the questions they threw at him. Finally, Adam looked around desperately. "I need something to throw. Please, lord, send me something to throw."

Billy laughed, but it died quickly when Dee called, "Hey, you in the blue! With the glasses! Want to take a ride on a roller coaster?"

There was a burst of laughter from somewhere, but no one was quite sure where it came from. Billy turned bright red and Jason and Trini paused in their actions.

"He's dating an alien," Zack explained apologetically.

The girls looked at him funny. "You mean, like, an illegal immigrant?" Rachel asked.

"Huh? Oh. Oh! Yeah."

"Wow," Tommy said wretchedly. "This is actually worse than the first time I was stuck on the Ferris wheel."

Anna, who had an extremely large purse—more of a one-shouldered book bag than anything else—sighed and pulled open the flap. "All right, fine. I didn't want to admit this, but…" She reached into the bag and pulled out a large plastic bag of…

"COTTON CANDY!" Tommy roared.

"What was that?" Zack called down curiously. Tommy couldn't even be bothered with rude hand gestures as he dove at the bag. Anna handed it over resignedly.

"Aw, Tommy has a cotton candy friend," Rocky quipped. Both Tommy and Anna ignored him.

"You so owe me for this," she said firmly. Tommy gave her an apologetic look and held the open side of the bag to her. She tore off a chunk of the blue for herself, slightly placated, but not nearly enough. "You still owe me."

Tommy lifted the corner of the bag to see the price emblazoned on it. "I'll pay you interest. Don't worry."

"You'd better. I always stock extra cotton candy for the Ferris wheel now. You know, for other people who like to pour their hearts out to random girls sitting in the gondola." She paused. "You know, every year, seven days straight, I ride the Ferris wheel over and over. I've only gotten stuck twice since that time with you. Yet here you are, eating my cotton candy as we wait for them to get us down. Does stuff like this happen to you a lot?"

Tommy stared at her blankly for a moment.

"Don't ask," he said finally, and hunkered down with his bag of comfort food.

End Notes: Just wanted to say that Brynhild GoUrL, a dear friend of Freyja and I, has been sucked into the fandom and has therefore contributed to… well… a hell of a lot of the last chapter, this chapter, and the coming chapters. We've totally corrupted poor Bryn—she's finally joined the PR fandom. (It was so hysterical when she called me after watching her first episode of Power Rangers and said, "Oh my god Tommy's hot! Why didn't you people get me into this sooner?") So props to Bryn for improving the story.

Thanks to bec7012, who pointed out a mistake with the Anna flashback revolving around the Nitzberg kid's name. It's been fixed.