The next day, after Empress Rita had teleported him back to Earth, when he'd had some time to rest, unpack, and begin to wonder just how his fellow Animorphs had been doing without him, Tommy found himself back in school for another allegedly normal day. He'd gotten used to the concept in Century City; the concept of living and breathing within potential enemy territory, of carefully choosing his words and actions not to raise suspicion. Now that he was in actual enemy territory, surrounded by the Power Rangers and anyone who might have been on their side, Tommy knew he was going to be putting those lessons to use sooner than he'd ever expected to.
Kimberly – the Pink Ranger; who couldn't have been more different than Cassie and Rachel if she'd been trying to be – was making her way over to him at the row of lockers they seemed to share.
"Tommy!"
"Hey," he said, glancing over at the Pink Ranger, taking a moment to make sure that none of the other Power Rangers were around to overhear their conversation.
"So, what happened to you the other day? I thought we were going to meet?"
"I forgot how much unpacking I still had left to do," he said, turning to glance briefly over his shoulder at her.
None of her friends were close enough to interfere, and the hallway was mostly clear of people who might have taken her side in a fight. He wasn't going to start one here, of course, not surrounded by potential and actual enemies as he was. He didn't know if the Pink Ranger was going to hold to that, of course.
"Wow, you really just moved here?" the Pink Ranger asked, actually managing to sound concerned about him; Tommy didn't know what to make of that, though it probably did mean that his cover was still intact, which was a good thing.
"Yeah; everything's still pretty much packed up except the furniture," he said, keeping the conversation light so that neither the Pink Ranger nor any of her allies that he might be unaware of in the area wouldn't have any reason to suspect that there was anything going on with him. "I'm kind of still living out of the boxes in my room, right now."
"Oh," the Pink Ranger said, laughing softly. "Let me know when you're done with that, okay? We could hang out at the Youth Center when you're a bit more settled."
"Sure," he said, not wanting to make her suspicious or anything.
With a smile, the Pink Ranger left him alone in the halls, and Tommy turned back to the locker he'd been assigned. He didn't quite know when Empress Rita was going to call on him again, so it was truly best that he kept his cover intact for as long as he could manage.
