Always a Ranger - Interlude
Second
Best
By Jeannine Trevizo
Kimberly
Ann Hart.
Damn
it. I thought the ghost of that bitch was gone for good.
I
heard the kids tell Tommy about Kimberly’s call and couldn’t help my desire to
scream. Luckily, I didn’t. It would’ve brought the rangers right back in here,
and I’d have to explain myself.
After
everything I’ve done for him; helping him with his doctorial studies, covering
for the thesis board when Mercer’s island blew up, building the morphers and alerting him to the dino
crystals being here in Reefside… all of it, and he
still goes back to her.
Okay,
so I knew it was an uphill battle. When we met in Grad school, he’d been very
upfront about his prior relationships. He’d broken things off with some girl
named Katherine during their time apart in college. He’d explained that they’d never
been able to really make it work, and it was better for both of them.
But
it wasn’t until I’d decided to buy him a coffee at the campus Starbucks that I
found out I had a snowball’s chance in hell of getting anywhere with the
handsome science major.
He
was still carrying a torch for his high school sweetheart.
So
it was there, over a mocha latte that I found out about Kimberly Hart. And I’m
not talking about just ‘oh, we dated for three years, and we really cared for
each other but she dumped me’. No, I found out what a kind and loving person
she was. Generous and cheerful to a fault, always welcoming
others into her community and volunteering for charitable causes.
I
heard about her being offered this once in a lifetime opportunity, and how he’d
pushed, along with their friends, to convince her to take it. And that the
result of that had caused him to lose her. So I thought to myself, great, she
broke his heart, he’s fair game. Most likely he just needs to get over it, have
a woman show him he’s worthy of being loved. I was all ready to sign up for
that.
Then
we got to the serious part. Where Tommy looked at me and announced that he’d
only been in love with one woman his entire life, and
that was Kim.
Of
course, I made the required speech about high school sweethearts and finding
love again if he looked, hoping to make sure that he wasn’t missing my hair
toss and my stunning smile as I suggested he start dating again. What happened
next dashed all my plans of long nights of dancing, great sex and naked
studying.
‘I’ll
always love Kim’. Yes, that’s what he said, exactly like that. As if there
wasn’t any way that this could change. It was a constant, like the square root
of 4. An invariable in a world of variables.
Which meant that I wasn’t even on his radar.
In
hopes of trying to figure this out, being the worldly woman that I was, I asked
him how he could be so sure of that, if he had only dated a few women, and
obviously this Kim he loved so much had just tossed him to the curb in her
pursuit of glory.
The
downright evil glare he gave me shut my mouth and made me sit back a bit. Even
if she’d done everything but scooped his heart out with a rusty spoon, he
wasn’t about to hear me or anyone I guess speak ill of her.
‘You
don’t know Kim,’ was what he said, ‘I know there was a good reason for what
happened, and I don’t blame her for it’.
So
there I was, wanting this yummy man who was obviously still hung up on his ex,
and wasn’t willing to hear anything negative about her to change his worldview.
I knew that I might still have a chance if I just waited him out. All I had to
do was stay close, be his friend and make him notice me as a woman too. Then,
when the time was right, he’d turn to me, realize what he’d missed and then I’d
have him.
That
was my life for two years. During which, I helped him out with assignments and
generally made sure he didn’t fail his classes. In return, he called me his
friend and suggested he could set me up with a couple of his male acquaintances
who were single and that were like brothers to him.
I
have to admit, after meeting Jason and Adam one afternoon when they were both
in town on business or something, I was almost tempted
to sway from my pursuit.
During
their visit was when I overheard something that changed my view of Tommy
forever. I was just on my way back from the ladies room to the secluded dining
room area of the restaurant we’d ended up in, when I overheard them taking
about powers and zords. Stopping in my tracks, I
stayed by the doorframe and listened as they reminisced about their pasts… as
power rangers.
Now,
I’m not one for being shocked easily, but this totally came from left field. I
wouldn’t have ever guessed that Tommy had been a ranger, or his friends. Not
that they didn’t have the build for it, but just because, I mean, I now knew a
power ranger! How wild was that.
I
didn’t want them to know I’d eavesdropped on them, so I made a conscious effort
to come back into the room with enough noise that they covered the conversation
up quickly. They were good, I had to give them that.
Being rangers, they had to have learned this kind of subterfuge early on in the
game.
So
I let them continue to jabber on until the evening ended. Finally, after they
left, I made a trip up to Tommy’s room at the dorm. Not thinking anything of
one of my visits, he let me in and continued to hunt for his chemistry book. As
he scrounged under a pile of discarded clothes, I hit him with my discovery.
To
say he was frozen in place would be a gross understatement. Then he started
stammering. It was all very cute. But I wasn’t taking any of it. So I pushed
the point, outlining everything I had figured out using the information I’d
heard. How he had to have been a ranger before going to college,
that he’d lived in Angel Grove right during the time that the original
ranger teams appeared, and that some of his behaviors seemed to indicate past
leadership duties.
In
the end, there wasn’t anything left for him to do except confirm what I knew
and suspected and tell me who he’d been. That was how I found out, however
reluctantly, that he’d been the greatest ranger ever. Not his words, mind you,
but the general consensus among cyber conspiracy groups and ranger supporters
everywhere. The word was that the White Ranger had been the best leader, and
there was a theory that he had been with the team in other uniforms for several
years. His build and fighting skills seemed to indicate that.
That
in mind, I offered to keep what I had learned to myself, and stay his friend.
With that settled, I thought I had achieved a milestone in my conquest. I knew
his secret. Who could get close to a former ranger except someone who knew his
secrets?
Except, I wasn’t the only one.
As
I dug a little deeper into the original rangers, using Jason and Adam as
guides, I found a group of friends in Angel Grove at the same time as the
rangers were there. Using the color scheme of their clothes along with their
obvious closeness, I made some hypotheses. If Tommy had been the White Ranger,
Jason the Red Ranger and Adam the Black, the girls that were pictured in
Tommy’s old yearbook had to have been among the team.
And
sure enough, sitting right beside Tommy Oliver in her *pink* sundress sat
Kimberly Hart.
I
nearly collapsed with despair. Not only had his ‘one true love’ been so close
to him, but she’d known his secret because she had been a ranger too. For a
week, I moped around, trying to figure out what to do. I was there, she wasn’t.
I knew his secret now, so he could talk to me. I had every intention of using
these things to my advantage.
That
was my goal at least, until everything came crashing down. About three quarters
of the way into our final semester towards our master degrees when he got the
phone call about one of his friends, Trini. There had
been an accident, and she’d died. I found out that it had been Jason that had
called, asking Tommy to come to the funeral.
There
hadn’t been a moment’s hesitation. After covering his absence in his classes,
he’d up and headed off to
When
he got back, he was different. I thought it was just because it was hard for
him to deal with the death of his friend. Then, after a couple of beers one
evening a few days later, I found out the truth – he’d seen Kim at the service.
Supposedly they’d talked. But it seemed like he was now more preoccupied with
his former girlfriend than before. When I asked bout her reasoning for dumping
him, and the other guy, he dismissively told me that it was in the past and
that he didn’t feel the need to agonize about it anymore.
Subsequently,
things went back to the way they’d been before. I continued to help him through
his classes, and we ended up getting our degrees. I figured that now that we’d
finished this chapter of our lives, maybe we could try something else a bit
more… intimate.
But
before I could suggest us maybe trying to be more than friends, he stopped me
cold and informed me that he’d been offered a chance to work with Dr. Anton
Mercer in a paleontology research program, that he
could use towards a PhD. I was surprised, to say the least. He hadn’t mentioned
it to me.
He
promised to keep in touch, and then set off to Mercer’s island.
In
the time he was there, I didn’t heard much from him. I
guess mail service from a private island wasn’t very good. Then maybe six
months ago, I think it was about then, he calls me up to say that he needs my
help. Seems that things with Mercer didn’t go as well as he planned, and that
there were some complications.
I
was thrilled that he’d called me for help, thinking that maybe he really did
feel like he needed me. All that shattered when I found out that he wasn’t in
town yet – he was in
I
did my best to shove it down, all the frustration of his coming to me for help
with his PhD studies while he’d gone to her first for comfort. He explained
that he had made some discoveries with Mercer that had gotten stolen or
destroyed, he wasn’t sure which; the island had exploded; yet he still wanted
to finish his degree. His new passion – to teach.
So
I agreed. I helped him with his thesis, and got him through the whole process.
I thought, maybe working together again, he’d change his mind; see me as this
amazing woman who had the hots for him.
Instead,
I found out that he and Kim had reconciled. While they weren’t together, they
were in love with each other. I knew it was over.
After
he told me that, I just about walked away. It was only then that he shared the
final discovery he’d made. Mercer had been picking his brain for info on
dinosaur/robotics technology. With Tommy’s background as a ranger, he’d been
exposed to so much that it was natural to make a comment here or a suggestion
there that had helped Mercer’s work. Unfortunately Mesogog
seemed to have somehow gotten his hands on all the work Tommy had assumed was gone, and he had decided he had to fix the issue. He felt
responsible and needed to keep anything like this from happening again.
He’d
done some research and using some of Mercer’s left over equipment found some
prehistoric crystals that he thought he could use to counter Mercer’s work. He
needed my help to find them, as well as any other powers that could help him
keep Mesogog at bay.
I
picked up and opened the cybercafe in Reefside while I used my knowledge to help him in his pursuits.
So
here I am, small business owner, resident genius, creator of the new Dino
Thunder ranger morphers, weapons and rides and friend
to the newly returned to action and very in love Tommy Oliver.
And
somewhere on the other side of the country is the woman who will always make me
second best.
-End-
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