“I know. And I’m sorry. This isn’t easy for me. I’ve barely seen these people in years, and it’s like meeting them all again for the first time. Like being the new kid again who has to impress everyone in order to be liked.” Tommy explained, looking at Trent. The white ranger nodded understanding.

“And the girl?” he asked, a slight smile on his lips. Tommy gave the slightest inclination of a nod before realizing the severity of Trent’s words and quickly shaking his head with utmost determination.

“No. I mean, it was like thaty ago. Now it’s just me wanting to be accepted. I was afraid they wouldn’t think I was still me if I had done something so different as to add another ranger suit to my collection.”“Hey, Jason, Tommy!” Zack called, waving and hopping down. He shut off the CD player. “It’s about frickin time, man! We got bored!”

“Thanks,” Tommy said dryly. Tommy stood in the dining room, looking expectantly from one group to the other. “What are we up to, guys?”

“I don’t know,” Trini said, patting Kimberly on the knee and standing up, to the disappointment of the dog. “We should probably get some dinner or something.”

“I’m starving!” Conner complained, coming out of the bathroom.

“You just had a whole bag of chips,” Ethan pointed out.When Goldar and Alpha the third were also found floating and bloated next to the filter, Kim started to feel really bad. The poor things hadn’t asked to be sentenced to a short life on her countertop, so she sat down at the computer and began to study up on goldfish. When Kim was a child, she remembered having a plain glass bowl with one stupid fish that wouldn’t die if you tried to kill it. Each week she would dump the contents of the bowl into the bathroom sink, rinse it out, then use her hand to dump the fish back inside.

Twenty years later, things were a bit different. The water coming through the pipes into the house contained different puritives and the bottled water she’d used on the last tank didn’t contain either the minerals or the salts necessary for fish to survive. Silently vowing never to drink tap water again, she dutifully cleaned out the old tank, added a second filter, balanced the water, and then let it cure for a week. Too embarrassed to go to the pet store for yet a third round of fish, Kim drove twenty minutes to a specialty store. Goldar and Alpha were the last pair of one inch golden fantails in the tank, and the owner assured her they were healthy. Kim spent another hundred dollars on fish books and supplies and took her two helpless experiments home.