Chapter Text
Location: Reefside, late February. POV: Abigail/1st person
“Everything okay, Abigail?” I looked up from my lunch.
“Yea. Just...practices start today, that's all.” The soccer team list had been posted this morning; while I was guaranteed a spot by being the assistant captain, everyone but Ashley had to try out again. Francine, Karan, and Jennifer had all retained their spots and positions from the last two years, for which I was grateful.
“Nervous?” Thankfully, I was spared from replying by the bell that meant we had to leave for class ringing. I'd been nervous before, multiple times, but this was my first time really...I wasn't going to say leading due to leading my Ranger team, but being the assistant leader of an official school team. “How's things at home now that Principal Mercer's on maternity leave?”
“Good,” Karan said. “Weird having a baby at the house, though I know they're glad for the help; I don't think either of them were around babies before Andy was born.” I knew what she meant; both she and Trent had ended up in the Mercer's care after they'd been past the toddler stage and likely into the tween or teen stage. Karan had been around Andy enough to know enough to help.
“Probably not.” Even then, Dr. and Principal Mercer, Principal Mercer especially, hadn't been around Andy a ton. Out of all of Dad's friends in Reefside, Dr. Mercer came over the most and even then, he didn't come over often.
I could tell something was bugging Karan, but I'd not had much of a chance to talk to her about it privately. I had an idea of what it was and what she was going through; I'd gone through something similar when Andy was born. Karan didn't have the security of the adoption that Trent and I had; even with the arrangement we had with NASADA and the political arm that her birth parents were in, that couldn't stop them from deciding that being an overseas politician wasn't for them and moving back or her older brother from moving back to Reefside and deciding to get guardianship of her. Thankfully, she wouldn't be 17 for too much longer; like me, she turned 18 this year. Her birth parents wouldn't be able to force her back if they moved back after that, not that I thought they would. While President Obama had been sworn in last month, it would take time for the new ambassadors to be appointed. They would need the former ambassador's staff's help and that's if the old ambassador wasn't being appointed elsewhere and electing to take some staff members with them.
Thankfully-and unlike my life with Dad and Katherine-Karan wasn't be woken up at night when her baby brother was waking up needing fed and his diaper changed. Like the Hartford mansion, the Mercer mansion not only had a lot of rooms, but the walls were also a bit thicker then normal walls. I knew Dad was hoping to go over Saturday with a gift; while they'd had a baby shower, some of the gifts that we'd planned to give hadn't come in yet. Karan and Trent had their own sets of the Ranger plushies-those had been bought when the wider community found out who their parents were, though thankfully they'd not given them every single Ranger plushie sold-those would have taken up their own rooms due to the sheer number of Ranger plushies in existence. Trent had said it was a good thing he was renting a 3-bedroom apartment; a good chunk of the plushies were in one of the bedrooms there, from what he and Kira had said. I knew Karan was putting which ones she wanted either in her bed or somewhere in her room; I didn't know where the rest had been put. Given the size of the bedrooms and closets there, I suspected that Karan had done the same thing I'd done with Mom's dolls and simply shoved the excess plushies into her bedroom closet.
None of us were really surprised when some of the new students made it onto the JV and Varsity girls' soccer teams; they'd played living in L.A. and had faced off against us the previous year. We'd not played against all of L.A.'s high schools; not all of them were in our division and if they were, they'd presumably been knocked out before the playoffs.
“This isn't going to be easy come playoffs,” Brittney said in the locker rooms as we changed.
“I know what you mean,” I replied. “Feel the same way when we face off against Angel Grove; that's where I'm from. Outside of the players that went to the private schools or moved in from out of town, I know the players.”
“Ooph.”
“They give you any grief about it?”
“So far, no,” I replied. “Doesn't mean that some of them don't feel betrayed by my moving up to Reefside, but most of them understand. A good chunk of the Angel Grove ladies' soccer teams hang out at the Youth Center, so they all know my birth dad.”
“And what about your birth mom?”
“Their parents likely knew my mom, but she died when I was a baby.” That had gotten a round of 'I'm sorry' from them; outside of Jeanne and Beth, who'd also joined the team, none of the newer students knew my history beyond what they'd heard from their classmates. We all knew how information could get distorted; the game 'Telephone' was a good example of that.
“Likely?”
“Even in Angel Grove, there's several high schools. Aside from Angel Grove High, there's at least two private high schools within the city limits that I know of-a Catholic one and a prep school not unlike Reefside Prep. That's not counting the public high schools in the townships or nearby communities; Stone Canyon's one of them. Think it used to be another city-or likelier, a small town-before it got absorbed by Angel Grove.”
“Kinda like Reefside, then, or L.A.”
“Yep.”
“Looking forward to going down for the game, though; last time I was there, it was on a field trip to go on one of those Power Ranger tours. We went on the Memorials one.” I'd made a face. “You don't like them?”
“After having lived in Reefside for 2 years? Hell. No.” I shook my head as we headed to the soccer field. “You've never had to worry about the villain of the moment attacking your school and Ivan Ooze did my freshman year. If one of those tours popped up here...this is a damn school, not a tourist attraction.”
“Abigail. Language, even if I do agree with those sentiments.” I wasn't about to argue with Coach; we were still on school grounds, involved in a school activity.
“Believe me,” Ashley said after practice was over and we were changing back into our day clothes, “not a lot of people from Angel Grove, especially those our age, like the tours either.”
“Veterans don't like them either,” I added. “Mostly because most of the tours save the one that you went on don't treat everything with the gravitas it deserves. Like I said earlier, I really don't want to see one set up here in Reefside unless they did it in a way reminiscent of going to places like Gettysburg or WWII battle sites.”
“Or any other war battlefield or memorial,” Ashley added. “It might not seem like it, but the Power Rangers...they're not unlike soldiers of some form or other, but fighting against villains with superpowers. Kind of like the X-Men or the Avengers, but with better secret identities.” She reiterated that if any new player had any questions about the Power Rangers, they were to come to her or Coach Daveed before approaching me about it.
“Why?”
“Coach's rule,” she said. “While Abigail knows most of the answers to any questions you might have, there's a lot she can't answer because of the treaty. Neither of us right now want to place her in a position where she might have to lie to you and as the treaty stands now, she would be required to lie to protect the Power Rangers. Coach will let everyone know who to turn to next year if Abigail is captain.”
“And if I'm co-captain next year,” I said, “you'll be able to ask whoever my co-captain ends up being. Like Ashley said, there's a lot I can't answer because the treaty's tying up what I can answer. I do promise that if I can't answer a question that you have, I will tell you and point you to who you can ask. When we're down in Angel Grove next, I can introduce you to TJ Johnson, Carlos Valerte, and Cassie Chan. Same for when we play Briarwood's team. TJ, Carlos, and Cassie are some of the publicly known Power Rangers, as are Mystic Force, the Power Rangers team out of Briarwood. While they can't tell you who the Power Rangers are in cities like Reefside, they should be able to answer questions I might not be able to answer. I know they're working on figuring out what I can tell you and I can't. I can also pass on questions if I'm not sure; I've been doing that since my freshman year. TJ or another public Ranger usually is the one to answer; it just depends on who's either closest or best able to answer. By this time next year, though, the treaty as it stands now might be a moot point and I'll know what I can and can't answer better; the Power Rangers are trying to rework it so those of us who might know other Power Rangers' identities don't have to keep that knowledge secret if said Rangers are willing or able to go public; some teams might not.”
“Is Coach really considering having co-captains next year?” Brittney asked.
“Yea; he told me when he asked if I wanted to be assistant captain. I think it was his way of reassuring me. At the time, I wasn't entirely sure if I wanted to even be assistant captain.” I shrugged. “It's part of why you'll see Karan, Francine, and Jennifer helping Ashley out as well. They're basically my backups; if either Ashley or I can't make a game, they'll step up and either act as my assistant captain or as Ashley's.”
“You miss many games?”
“Nope. First year, just one because I needed to take a mental health day. Coach lets us as long as we don't abuse the system. Last year, it was two, but only because Karan, Francine, and I along with 3 more of our friends were in a 2-day STEM TEAMS competition and the only one we could enter was during soccer season. This year, I doubt I'll need to-knock wood-but...”
“You guys have that system in place just in case.”
“Yep. Rather be prepared for any eventuality than not. I've heard enough when I've gone to Briarwood to train that it's better to be prepared for any eventuality than not and be caught with egg on my face.” Brittney, like most of the L.A. transfers, knew that I occasionally went to Briarwood to train in weapons knowledge that my instructors at my dojo couldn't teach me.
“Looking forward to the Vietnamese club meeting?” It was the one day a week I was excused from soccer practice, given the club also met in the afternoons. All of us who belonged to foreign language clubs had that option available to us, though not everyone took Coach up on the offer.
“I am. You?”
“I am.” Brittney grinned. “Can't wait to learn about what Mrs. Trang's going to teach us next.”
“Tết Nguyên Đán, I think,” I said. “Or the celebration of the arrival of spring.” I shrugged. “I think she got permission to take us to the local temple. I was going to go anyway, mostly because I can't do some of the other things associated with it right now.” Brittney look puzzled. “Mom's remains are in Angel Grove. If this fell closer to the weekend, I'd go down to learn about the practices involved with the festival, but I can't right now. I've got something at the local temple that I can do something similar there, but it's not the same.”
“And Angel Grove's a decent distance.” Brittney nodded. “Don't blame you.” David was going to be going to Mom's grave to do what he could, but I felt bad I couldn't join him.
“Explains your lunches, though,” Beth added as we walked to our vehicles; I had the gym bag with my weapons in Jennifer's vehicle for safety as she was my ride to the dojo.
“Yea...started doing those after my maternal grandparents taught me. I think some of the food, Mrs. Trang's making for the club meeting this week.”
“What about the decorations for the house?”
“Some of it; Dad and Katherine don't mind. Dad especially remembers Mom and my maternal grandparents decorating like that for festivals and such. We have to be careful, though; I've got 2 cats and they're as curious as my brother Andy is. He's been enjoying what I can do at home, though.”
“Do you know your Zodiac sign?”
“Metal Goat. If I were using the Chinese zodiac, it'd be the same, though it's sometimes also called the sheep. Goat isn't one of the animals replaced in the Vietnamese zodiac; that's the cat for the rabbit and the ox is a water buffalo instead.”
“They're different?”
“Yep; this year's the year of the Ox or Water Buffalo; if someone was born before February 7th, they'd be the year of the Rat. Chinese and Vietnamese zodiacs, you have to see when the New Year starts. It's not just looking at the birth year listed on the placemats that some Chinese restaurants have; you have to know when the New Year starts for that particular year, as it's a lunisolar calendar.” That, thankfully, had been explained earlier in the year; my classmates in the club, Steve and Jennifer included, had a lot of fun figuring out their correct Chinese and Vietnamese zodiac symbols. They'd been surprised to find that the Vietnamese zodiac as well as the Chinese also assigned their zodiac hours to months as well as 2-hour blocks of time. I'd been born in the hour of the monkey, though I wasn't able to find what animal ruled my birth month. Mrs. Trang hadn't been able to figure it out either for any of us; she thought she'd have to consult a book or a monk. I wasn't too worried about it, though I knew my more astrology-mad classmates-all girls-were.
“Not like the Western zodiac at all, then.”
“Nope. Gemini in that.”
“Thought you had an astrological chart made up?”
“Vietnamese one when I was born,” I explained. “Still not sure if I'll ever bring it in even though I've got it. Don't know how to translate it for starters-or fully understand what I'm reading. Will by the time I'm ready to have kids, though.” They soon split off, knowing Jennifer, Karan, Francine, and I all had martial arts lessons to get off to. They weren't taking any, having not really been interested before the move to Reefside, and weren't really now either.
“Never met any group of girls more curious,” Jennifer griped as we headed downtown for something to eat ahead of our lessons. Karan's lessons had switched to Monday/Wednesday while mine hadn't changed after my belt and rank test. Enough of my class had ranked up that it was just easier to keep us together rather than trying to shuffle us into different classes depending on our availability. We'd kept the same teachers as well. It definitely made things easier on everyone, including parents. I'd not driven my motorcycle in today because of the start of soccer practice.
“They're from L.A.,” I reminded her. “All they probably got was Iron Man and a few of his buddies every now and then. I don't blame them for being curious. Have to thank Ashley later; they'd've asked me once everyone else started chattering away.”
“You or the rest of us,” Francine admitted. “That limits questions to us as well, as while we'll be recognized as knowing some stuff, it'll not be as much as what you know.”
“Good on you for admitting that you'll be honest in that you can't answer some stuff, though,” Karan added. She'd not been the only one to wince when Ashley said the stuff about me having to lie.
“Figured better than what Ash said. Even a 'I can't answer that right now' will go further than my usual lies. I've already had to lie about Dad several times this year and not just to Logan last semester. I hate doing it, but not with the secrecy. Even after the treaty's finalized, I'm not going to out him until he's ready for it and that won't probably be until we're several years out from graduation.”
“You know most of our soccer teammates who were there at the tryouts two years ago pretty much know you're lying, right?”
“Figured as much; glad they're keeping their mouths shut.”
“They like you and they like Dr. O.”
“It's just the parents that are going to be the problem.” We all recognized that and had several defenses in place, one of which being that if Dad had been hired by the prep school, it would've been in danger as well and Reefside High wouldn't have been as defended.
“Especially where we're concerned. Dino Thunder can be explained away, we can't. Even 'by prophecy' is going to be a weak defense.”
“Was planning on claiming your guys' morphers aren't all that different from Dino Thunders. Outside of Patton's, they won't work for anyone else at the moment. Heck...Patton's won't either now. Not after the only other person to have been able to use his exact morpher was killed by Ivan.”
“Is that normal for morphers?” I didn't blame Jennifer for being curious; she'd never needed to do the in-depth study of morphers and morpher technology like I had.
“Depends on the morpher,” I replied. “When it comes to most of Earth's morphers...some can be passed on and some can't. The early morphers like Mom's? Easy. The Ninjetti? That's debatable. You'd have to ask Dad or someone; while Katherine had used Aunt Kimberly's, it was always Aunt Kimberly's.” We all knew that Katherine's proper first morpher that had actually been hers was the Zeo morpher. “Others? It depends. Zeo and Turbo? Yes and same for both the Astro and Lightspeed morphers. The Lost Galaxy team? Given that two passed morphers on-Leo was the second wielder of his and Kendrix had to pass hers on to Karone at some point-they can as long as they're worthy. Wild Force? No clue. Time Force? Has to be a close enough DNA relation to use it. Nina Storm? Don't think so. Overdrive's? I think theirs is DNA connected like Time Force's is. We'll have to see for future morphers.”
“Seems evenly split, then.” Ranger talk quickly quieted as we tumbled out of Jennifer's car-or rather her dad's; like Jason and David, Uncle Jack had an SUV. While Jennifer had a motorcycle like I did, it was hard to keep the gym bags with what we needed for martial arts lessons in our lockers. Unless we wanted to keep them in Dad's classrooms, we couldn't do so if we had weapons. While we didn't use weapons every class-maybe one in every several and even then, it was up to our teachers-all had our own versions of them. We just couldn't have them on school grounds, or at least, not be caught having them on school grounds. Most of the time, we got away with it if we were storing our bags in our vehicles or in Dad's classrooms on those days, but at the same time, our previous security officer had been a bit of an ass about it. Not everyone was able to go home after school to get what they'd need for their martial arts classes and because of that, had gotten special permission to have them in their gym bags and in their lockers during school hours. Wes and the other Silver Guardians were a bit more lenient on the matter as long as they weren't using the weapons in a threatening manner.
“See the notice about the fencing club starting up?” Mike, a classmate of ours who'd also stopped in CyberSpace ahead of a martial arts class for a meal, asked. While there'd been some practices on and off last semester, it had only really recently started picking up now that they had a regular coach. The earlier meetings had been a mix of seeing who was interested and who could afford to coach the team at what the high school was offering as pay, or so the scuttlebutt I'd heard was correct.
“Did, but I'm not joining,” I replied. “Less because I don't have the time-though that does play a role in it-and more because I'm not interested.”
“Thought you know how to sword fight?”
“Do, but in the traditional sense,” I replied. “My teachers have taught me how to win an out-and-out fight with a sword, not whatever modern fencing is. If I have some free time one afternoon, I'll stop in, but...no.” I shook my head. “Not really interested. If they've got a leftie that they need help with, I'd have to help outside of soccer practice and games.”
“Makes sense; fencing now's not like what you've been trained in. A lot closer to martial arts competitions instead of using it as a defensive tool.”
“If it were something like what Caid does, that'd be one thing, but no.” Caid was the local Society for Creative Anachronism group. Our closest Renaissance Faires were still some drive away, being in either the L.A. area or north of us to some degree. The Caid events were all very much inland and anywhere from close to an hour to 2 hours either east or northeast of L.A. and there were none local to where we lived; I'd checked not long after my lessons with Leonbow and Daggeron had started, at least not the big events. The smaller stuff was still a bit of a drive and given how busy I was, I'd have to give up something.
“Your teachers belong?”
“I don't know; I've never asked. They might, they might not.” Probably not, if I had to be honest about it. I knew Chip had considered joining at one point, but I didn't know if he'd actually done so or not; I'd never asked and nobody had ever said.
“Are you going to join?”
“Probably not,” I said. “Just...too busy and not enough time right now. Once I get done with college? I'll revisit the idea.”
“You are pretty busy.”
“Especially right now.” While I didn't mind taking time off from CyberSpace right now, I felt bad for Hayley right now. Ethan was her closest local employee and neither he nor Trent would be able to work full-time until mid-April.
“You're second-guessing your decision, aren't you?” Francine asked as we headed into the changing rooms of our dojo.
“Of not working at CyberSpace right now? Yea. Still have to give up something. Don't get me wrong, I don't have to worry about the city being attacked right now, but still...”
“You like keeping busy.” While that wasn't the only reason, it was a big one.
“Yep. Didn't really learn good time management skills growing up either.” I could hear Jennifer cursing a bit from the other side of the lockers. It was a good thing none of the younger students were in the changing rooms.
“One of these days, me and Uncle Ernie are going to need to have a talk.”
“What makes you think your parents already haven't, especially your mom?” I asked, garnering a look from her. “You'd be gilding the lily at this point.”
“Still...”
“Jennifer, don't, please.” By this point, we'd made our way into the main part of the dojo, splitting off for our classes. Francine, a kyu ahead of me, was getting ready for her next kyu test at some point, as we all were. She shook her head, agreeing to talk with her parents first.
“Just glad the dance was last Saturday, not this coming Saturday,” Francine said after lessons. Our soccer tryouts had been on Friday because of that; none of us were stupid enough to have held soccer tryouts on the same day as a formal dance.
“No kidding,” we all agreed as we waited for Karan to be finished with her lessons. While Reefside was a lot safer now that Overdrive was active, what had happened the previous year still weighed on all of our minds. Even when it came to civilian targets, Karan would easily appear to be such between the Mercers and her birth parents. Very few people outside of our small circle would expect her to have superpowers. While some of our high school classmates suspected she was a Power Ranger, I highly doubted her classmates at the dojo did, nor her teachers. If they did...well, Dr. Mercer still owned the building. Precious few dojo owners in Reefside were stupid enough to kick out the ward of the man who owned their building and doubly so when she wasn't causing an issue. If she was causing an issue, that was another problem entirely.
“Got anything planned for this weekend besides homework and visiting the Mercer's?”
“It's Monday. No clue.”
“And you just had a date with Ethan.”
“It's just going to depend on what everyone else has planned,” I said. “If Dad says yes, sleepover?” Patton shook his head no; there was no way his parents were going to allow him to come over, especially when Francine said the next bit. Only way they were fine with a co-ed sleepover is when everyone slept in the main house like we'd done for my last birthday. Even with two guest homes, I knew his parents wouldn't be okay with that. I wasn't entirely sure about Johnny and Steve's parents, though. Given that we'd all been fine during the survival course with only Uncle David and Daggeron for supervision, I wasn't entirely sure about Mrs. Plame's hang-up. From what Francine had suggested, New Orleans was predominantly Catholic, which could have something to do with it.
“As long as we can use one of the guest homes,” Francine said, grinning.
“Only place that'll have space for all of us,” I replied, shrugging. “And that's if we do it at our place.”
“True.”
“Doubt I'll be able to host it,” Karan said as she joined us. Johnny was going to be driving her home while Wes was going to be driving me home. “Not with a new baby in the house.”
“Eh...we have all week to figure it out and get permission.”
“Especially if we have it on Saturday night,” Jennifer said. “That way, we don't hopefully have homework to do.”
“And even if we do, the guest homes will provide some privacy.”
“JJ's not crawling yet, is he?”
“Not for another few months, no,” I confirmed as we walked out to where the vehicles were parked. “Just...Andy's becoming more and more curious by the day and has an ever-increasing vocabulary. While the sign language helps...”
“He's into everything. Went through that with 3 siblings. Just be glad that Andy and JJ aren't twins.”
“Godson and his brother are, though,” I pointed out as Wes, Eric, Wyatt, and Percy checked over our vehicles. “And they're already crawling. While they're not over every day, I see them multiple times during the week.”
“How's Clematia been doing?” Jennifer asked.
“Better, though she misses Nerio. He had to get back to Aquitar and be her shield there, though. We've been dealing with some of her teammates, though; not everyone's happy that she's stepped away from those duties. We still don't know if it's going to be temporary or not. If she'd not been kidnapped, I'd've said it would have been, but now? Debatable.”
We all knew why Clematia stepping away from her Ranger duties on Aquitar was originally intended to be temporary: her training in magic. Like on many planets, Earth included, the greatest danger for an Aquitian learning magic was during the initial stages. She would not be able to discharge her duties as a Ranger fully while learning, especially with her connection to the Grid being what it was. Even then, it was less the magic itself and more a combination of the person learning and what lessons they needed to learn to properly use magic. One never knew if they'd be more like Clare or like most of Mystic Force when they were learning magic. With Clare, it took her longer to get spells right while with Chip and the others, they picked up spells a lot quicker. None of us were really sure if it was the Grid and their morphers helping or not.
With the kidnapping that had happened the previous December, not even I knew if she'd ever return to Aquitar as a Power Ranger or if at all. Healing from such a thing took a long time, no matter the reasons behind why anyone would want to kidnap someone. I hadn't even looked at the records of her kidnappers, one of which had been killed in action. Given the rumors about them that I'd heard for that particular kidnapper, I really didn't want to, but I'd been assured that they'd been the worst of the two and had already had a death sentence applied to whenever they'd been caught-the planet that particular kidnapper had been from didn't use the same pronouns that Earth did, or at least, they didn't translate the same, and the one applicable to them translated into Earth's English as they/them or, closer still, the phonetic spelling of the German 'Sie' as Ze/Xe.
I also wouldn't call it 'luck' that folks who could teach her how magic worked with the Grid were here on Earth, where her family lived. From what Nerio said, he'd been going through and interviewing folks on Aquitar as well as on Eltar and Inquiris to figure out if they could teach her that, even after Uncle Corcus and Cestria had moved to Earth. With the kidnapping, she needed to recover from that and said recovery was going to best happen on Earth, where her parents were. I still wasn't sure it wasn't an accident that there was someone here on Earth who could teach her. Even if Uncle Corcus, Cestria, and Clematia had been able to join Uncle Billy on Earth before I was born or when I was little in general, I still suspected that Mystic Mother would have been involved in that part of her training at minimum.
“We'll see,” Dad said when I asked about the possibility of a sleepover the coming Saturday. “Not a 'no', but it's going to depend on everyone's parents.”
“Even though using the guest homes is a good idea,” Katherine added, “their parents might not want their kids sleeping out there if it's a co-ed sleepover.”
“Patton's already said as much,” I said. “I had just thought of using them because of how young JJ is. Didn't want to accidentally wake Andy and JJ up because we were having fun. We've already spent time together for two weeks with only Uncle David and Daggeron as chaperons. The risk of participants, particularly the high school students, sneaking off and doing whatever, is the primary reasons why the groups are split by biological sex.” That, I knew from when David had gone. His entire group had been guys and Lisa's group were all females. The only times when co-ed groups like ours were generally allowed were either if the group members were either related or above the age of consent. We'd skated by because not only had we promised to not engage in such behavior, but Uncle David and Daggeron had both promised to make sure we wouldn't. The fact that we'd not engaged in such behavior had been a point in our favor.
I knew Dad and Katherine were thinking of past sleepovers, especially when Andy had been little as the reasoning behind why I'd suggested using the guest homes. I'd used them last fall, when Kira, Francine, and Karan had come over for a sleepover not long after JJ's birth, and didn't mind using them for future sleepovers when JJ wasn't sleeping through the night and even after he was. Dad and Katherine didn't mind, or at least, didn't mind most of the time, but appreciated when I asked ahead of time, because there might be folks coming up that I might not be aware about. I doubted that said company would be Uncle Billy's parents; now that he had guest homes of his own, they'd stay there when they came up instead of needing to stay at our house like he'd done the previous summer.
“I'll talk to everyone else's parents,” Dad promised. “It'll depend on what they say along with how much homework you guys have to do this weekend.”
“Unless we get swamped, I don't expect that we won't have much to do come this weekend,” I said. “And we all agreed that some of it, we could do together if needed depending on what it is.”
“Using each other as sounding boards.” I could tell Dad approved; it wouldn't be the first time we'd done that over the last couple of years and I doubted it would be the last either. It also helped having 2 classes where I had little to no actual work to do at home. While they weren't study halls, it did help as that cut the amount of homework I had on a regular basis down from 7 classes worth to 5. While that helped, there were still some days where I was absolutely swamped in homework. While it was easy enough to get Dad's out of the way due to his practice of listing when quizzes, tests, and essays would be due, I still had teachers assigning homework due the next day, and not all of it was 'read this chapter and answer the questions at the end if applicable' variety either; some of them were papers. Now that I was in soccer season, it was hard, especially if said homework got assigned on a Monday or Wednesday, when I had both soccer practices and martial arts lessons. Writing those papers usually took up a good chunk of my time, as did what I needed to do for the soccer team.
“Yep.”
“Homework done?”
“For the most part,” I said. “Still have to review what we went over in Vietnamese today and I'll be good. Just glad none of my teachers assigned anything big that had to be turned in tomorrow.” I knew it was going to get worse in April and May, when I was going to be taking the ACT, SAT, and my AP tests on top of everything else going on. I wasn't going to take all of the AP tests associated with the AP classes I was taking; my AP Math test was the one I was planning on skipping as none of the SoCal colleges required math as a general studies requirement.
“Abigail.” I looked up at Dad. “You need any sort of break, you let me or Katherine know, alright?”
“I will,” I promised. “Learned from last year. I don't want to be that exhausted again if I can help it.”
“Andrew-Coach Daveed-has already promised to have easy practices on the test dates if not canceling them for the varsity players.”
“Did that the last couple of years,” I said. “Though it was more just covering stuff and didn't last as long as practices usually did. Us younger players had the option to play against the JV team, as did the seniors or whoever wasn't taking that specific test that day.” Some of the juniors who'd taken the tests had joined us, but more to relax than anything else. It hadn't been a formal practice, but more just a way to get some practice in.
I also knew that Dad and Katherine had a slightly different view of too much stress from extra-curricular activities than I did. As the previous year had proved, I had a slightly different attitude towards being too busy than they did. I never liked being bored; it tended to be more stressful for me than being busy did. I also knew that they'd step in if they felt I was too busy or being overworked, as would Coach.
I wasn't surprised when, later that week, Dad and Katherine said 'yes' to the sleepover. We'd be picking Karan up when we visited the Mercer's while everyone else-Patton included-would be joining us back at the house before dinner time. I was glad we were going over; it would give me an opportunity to privately talk with Karan; trying to talk at school wasn't an option and with the fact that we were going to different dojos, that was out as well.
When we got to Dr. and Principal Mercer's house, I wasn't surprised that Karan was outside, curled up in one of the chairs, looking at the pond.
“She's been like that all morning. Not sure what's going on,” Dr. Mercer said when I asked.
“I have an idea,” I replied, shrugging. “Been in her shoes; unlike me, she really doesn't have someone like Rocky to talk to about it either.”
“I don't get it.”
“New sibling,” I replied, “plus the fact that she's still months away from being able to ask you and Principal Mercer to legally adopt her without her bio parents saying 'no'. She's feeling insecure about her place here, especially now that there's a new baby in the house. With all the attention on little Antony and Trent living in an apartment, she's probably feeling a bit neglected as well.” Dr. Mercer blinked. “She considers you and Principal Mercer her parents in every way that counts.”
Location: The Mercer Mansion, Saturday. POV: Tommy/3rd person
Tommy blinked as Abigail made her way to the backyard where Karan was. He and Kat had known that Abigail had been dealing with a lot after Ivan's death and Andy's birth, but hadn't fully connected the dots in regards to the more mundane things; Kat's comment made him realize that it wasn't just him.
“Didn't realize she was somewhat feeling neglected after Andy's birth. She never said anything to us.”
“Probably because we were being proactive about it,” he replied as they moved into the living room, Elsa and baby Antony still asleep. “Sounds like Karan might need something similar.”
“I am at a loss for ideas,” Anton replied. “With how I handled Trent at her age...”
“What did the two of you do before you and Elsa married or even after? Maybe some more of that?” Tommy knew that Anton, Elsa, and Karan had spent time together doing things that weren't school-related, but didn't know what all of them were.
“I know it's still a bit early with Antony, but Karan's familiar enough with baby care to help,” Kat added. “Mostly when she's come over to visit and Abigail's shown her how to help with Andy and JJ.” Who was currently fast asleep in Tommy's lap; he'd fallen asleep on the drive over and Tommy hadn't wanted to wake him up. Kat was currently holding JJ, who was also fast asleep. “We kept an eye on them when she was teaching Karan how to do things like change diapers and such.”
“Plus...even Abigail was reading to Andy and now JJ early on. I'd say they enjoyed it, but I don't know how much of that was them just hearing someone talk to them and how much of it was something else.” There was little known about that as far as Tommy knew, but he did know that it helped infants with their development. From what Corcus had said, it was the same even on Aquitar, where they had the ability to actually check without needing to rely on the machines that they did on Earth to check such things.
“Let them develop their own bond,” Kat added. “Like Abigail, Karan's a teenager. If she were younger, that'd be one thing, but she's old enough to decide for herself how she wants to help and that's if she wants to. While Tommy and I are appreciative of Abigail's willingness to help out, we leave it up to her as to what form that takes unless we absolutely need her to do something with Andy and/or JJ because both of us are busy.” And even then, Abigail usually volunteered before they could finish asking unless she had her own plans or was in the middle of something herself.
“And the bonds between them are obvious,” Anton observed, Tommy subconsciously smiled as he remembered many fun times Abigail'd had with her younger brothers. He and Kat not forcing Abigail to spend time with Andy and JJ, but allowing her to decide when and where she'd do so had done wonders in that regard. “Karan has helped, but you're right. I've not been spending as much time with her as I should have and Elsa...she and Karan are still working out their relationship. I think Elsa being Karan's principal isn't helping.”
“As is the fact that she came into Karan's life after Karan had already started at Reefside High. Abigail hadn't had me as a teacher yet when I assumed guardianship of her. I don't know how much that would have changed things.”
“And Trent...” Anton looked out the window. “So much of his life with me in general was with Mesogog sharing my body. He and Elsa have also been building their relationship from the ground up.” Tommy knew what his friend meant; Trent would have first met Elsa when she was under Mesogog's control. That sort of relationship problem early on wouldn't have made things easy for the two, though they also had being under evil's control to bond over. Elsa and Karan didn't have that in common and Tommy knew that Elsa had to balance being Karan's foster mom and her principal both.
“I'm grateful Karan's got Abigail as a friend, especially right now,” Elsa said after she came down with baby Antony. Andy's comment of 'baby' along with the ASL sign for cute as it related to infants and other young beings had gotten several amused smiles. Though Andy knew how to say cute, there were times where he preferred using the sign instead.
“Believe me, we're proud of Abigail for being a good friend,” Tommy replied. “And Karan's been a good friend to Abigail as well. Being a new kid in school isn't always easy and Karan welcoming Abigail and Patton into her friends group...believe me, we're grateful for it as well.” None of them had been really surprised when Anton had gone out to check on Karan; while Tommy couldn't make out what his friend was saying, the hug Karan was giving him spoke volumes, as did Abigail hovering nearby. He wasn't about to ask Abigail exactly what had been discussed; neither he nor Kat wanted to put Abigail in that position. If something was going on where Abigail would need to break that confidence, he knew she'd probably turn to Rocky first. While Rocky had taught Abigail a lot when it came to situations where breaking someone's confidence was acceptable, he also knew that the other person involved might not see it that way, especially in an emotionally charged situation.
“Good friends aren't always easy to find, especially as an adult,” Elsa acknowledged. “And doubly so when you've hurt folks or otherwise pushed them away due to circumstances beyond your control.” Tommy knew that she'd pushed away a lot of her friends after Mesogog had enslaved her. Not all of them had evidently been willing to accept that she'd been bespelled and the friends she did have that had known her prior to becoming one of Mesogog's minions weren't as close with her as they had been.
“Especially when they don't have the experiences to understand what happened.” None of them needed to say anything more with that; they were all familiar with each others' experiences and that had only served to strengthen their own friendships.
“Are you sure you guys don't want to stay for dinner?” Anton asked as they prepared to head home; while they'd had lunch there, they did need to head back due to the company coming.
“I'm sure, Anton, though I appreciate the invite. I remember what it's like to have a newborn. Sleepovers get noisy.” Thankfully, Karan and Abigail were already in the car; Tommy knew Karan likely didn't need to hear that, though the fact that they'd be hanging out in the guest homes at his house once Andy and JJ went to bed would likely remind her of the fact that she had a newborn pseudo-sibling.
“The house is big enough.”
“Still...” Tommy shook his head. Even with how well-built the Mercer mansion was, the fact was that Abigail, Karan, and their friends could get awfully loud during sleepovers and Anton didn't have the guest homes at his house that Tommy had at his. The closest he had were some staff quarters for the grounds staff who didn't live in Reefside proper. The same went for the remainder of his staff; whichever of Anton's maids and other house servants that didn't live in town had quarters in the mansion. “Karan might just need some time with her friends, to be able to sort out what she's feeling out loud without making you and Elsa feel bad about it.”
“Speaking from experience?”
“Somewhat.” He looked at the van. “I'll explain it later, once I get Abigail's permission, mostly because some of it's very specific to her.”
“I've overheard enough to know that if she can help Karan be able to approach me with how she's feeling-approach us, I will be ever grateful.”
Tommy wasn't all that surprised to see the remainder of Abigail and Karan's friends group at their house by the time they got back. What he was surprised about was Trent being there.
“I thought you were busy this weekend!” Karan said as she practically tackled Trent.
“Had a bit of free time after I got done at CyberSpace today; I wasn't about to not be there for you.” Tommy smiled; Anton and Elsa weren't the only ones proud of Trent for being there for Karan. In the not-quite 3 years that they'd known each other, Trent had gone from being a fellow Ranger and friend to Karan to being a big brother to her. Tommy knew that Trent would have recognized that Karan was feeling out of sorts in regards to their newest sibling and had come straight over. Given Ethan was also at CyberSpace, Tommy suspected that Ethan and Hayley-who was as perceptive as Ernie was-had likely shooed Trent out the door when they knew Abigail and them would be getting to Tommy's house and that was if Anton hadn't called him.
“What do you guys want for dinner?” Tommy asked as the teens-and young adult in Trent's case-tumbled into the house.
“Pizza?”
“Only if we do takeout,” Abigail said. “While we've got some of the ingredients for everything, I don't think we've got enough to make pizza for this huge of a group. Next sleepover.” Tommy did a headcount and then went into the pantry. Abigail was right; not enough of the flour and a few other items that they'd need. They'd brought in some of the food that wasn't frozen earlier in the week; even with that, not enough.
“We've got stuff for burgers,” Tommy said, “or grilled chicken. Abigail's right, though; not enough for pizza. We've got enough for pasta as a side if we do grilled chicken and enough fries for tonight if we do burgers.” Burgers seemed to be the general consensus, though Steve had offered ahead of coming to bring some type of venison for stew. After talking it over with the rest of the group at lunch earlier in the week, they'd elected against it. Venison...Tommy didn't know of many ways to cook it and even Steve had admitted he'd not wanted to eat it for a while after the survival course. At least not the deer version of venison; he'd learned a bit too much from Steve once when he asked. Some of the other stuff could wait until they had a day to spend on making it right.
He knew that Abigail and the others weren't really surprised when he gave them the keys to the cabins after dinner. He'd asked if they wanted to sleep in the house or in the cabins; the cabins had won out in part because of how young Andy and JJ were.
“Officially, or rather, as far as your guys' parents know, the girls will be in one cabin and you boys in another. That being said, if all of you decide to hang out in one cabin or another until it's time for bed or sleep in the same cabin, I won't tell your parents. The 7 of you have been responsible before during co-ed sleepovers as well as the survival course last summer.” He didn't have to tell them that this was a privilege, not a right. Like Billy's family as well as the parents of the rest of his friends among his first set of Ranger teammates, he was trusting them to be responsible enough to know when to go into separate cabins.
“We'll be fine, Dad,” Abigail replied, with the rest of the group promising the same thing. “Thanks for letting us do this, especially using the guest homes.” He knew what she meant; he and Kat could have very well insisted that they sleep in the house. The only real downside-and a major reason why he was allowing them to use the guest homes-was that, with all 7 of them, split by gender lines, there wasn't a ton of space for everyone to sleep in both Abigail's bedroom and her art studio. Even if they slept in the den, it would still be a cramped space, as the sleepover over Abigail's 17th birthday the previous summer had proved and this was without Trent there.
He also highly doubted that they'd be sleeping in the same guest house, though he knew that they might. It would all depend on how 'comfy' they wanted to get. All four of the girls could sleep in the loft, though he knew that it could get a bit cramped if they had their bags up there with them. That would leave the two bedrooms for Trent, Johnny, Steve, and Patton, with two to a bed. With the guest homes split along current gender lines, that left the boys to decide who was sleeping in the loft while the girls would have a similar choice. He also knew that they might simply decide to sleep in the loft together and would leave it up to them.
“They're in the guest homes right now, Anton,” Tommy said when his friend called.
“Karan said when I called to check in on her; they were in the middle of a card game. That Blank White Cards game that Karan seems to love.”
“That doesn't surprise me,” Tommy said. “Most of Abigail's games are video games and unless everyone's got a handheld that can connect, they're not designed for more than 2 people. Board games? While they took the ones that can hold up to 8 people out, they may have either already played it or are going to play it later.” He shook his head. “Any reason you called?”
“Suggestions on what to do with Karan.” That threw Tommy for a loop.
“What are her interests?” Tommy asked. Anton rattled off the ones he knew of. “Spend some time with those, even if you're watching her do whatever it is she enjoys doing.” He knew that while Karan surfed, Anton was never really interested in learning and neither was Elsa. “Or even do things together that both of you have enjoyed doing together in the past.” He could hear Anton eventually sigh.
“That's been hard to do sometimes,” his friend admitted. “There's some stuff that neither Karan nor I tell her parents about, but they somehow find out about and aren't happy that I let her do that.”
“Their friends probably see her doing it, or their kids do,” Tommy replied. “It wouldn't surprise me if at least one of their friends are that type of busybody. Know the type, unfortunately.”
“As do I, unfortunately, and most of them female. Not all of them, mind, but a good chunk. They're the ones Elsa usually deals with.” Tommy could almost see Anton shake his head. “The guys tend to want to be a lot more familiar with me than they have the right to. They talk to me like they do their drinking buddies when they're talking to me about Karan.”
He knew Anton could come across as aloof sometimes and had definitely been raised in his wealth, unlike Billy, who'd earned his. That being said, Tommy had sometimes seen similar behavior from Billy, but it was always with business associates that he didn't have a good enough relationship with to be that familiar and open with. Tommy could understand the behavior that both Anton and Billy used in those situations; he'd been in some uncomfortable situations while at something Abigail was involved in, mostly her soccer games. He'd gotten to know some of the dads of her teammates over the past several years and had seen that line between him being their children's teacher and being a fellow parent of an athlete be seriously blurred and some of the parents had a hard time telling the difference come parent-teacher conference time. He had no doubts that it was similar for Anton, who would be interacting with folks from different social classes due to a mix of his wife as the principal for the local high school and due to his-technically-ward going to that same school. Even when Tommy had been working for Anton, it had taken the older man a bit of time to warm up to him.
“Is there anything she's wanted to try or go do that she's not had an opportunity to do or experience just yet? Do that, even if that means you guys take a weekend and go somewhere. Heck...I know there's been times Kat, Abigail, Andy, and I have explored whatever city the away soccer games have been in. All Andrew asks is that we're there for the home games the next day if the away game's on Saturday. He doesn't need to tell us that we have to be at school on Monday if the away game's on Sunday.”
“And homework?”
“Done Friday and Saturday if the away game's on Sunday and Friday and Sunday if the away game's on Saturday. Just depends on what the homework is; there's been times Abigail's found something on the local history of wherever we're at and doing a paper on that. Always makes it interesting for whoever her history teacher is.” Tommy had to smile; it hadn't just been her history teachers that Abigail had done that to; her papers on the fossils found at La Brea had been very well-written and he'd needed to double-check the books she'd used as reference points as well as calling and talking to the folks there to verify what she'd written, as some of it hadn't been in the books he owned. After he'd graded them, she'd let him see the original papers and he'd been doubly glad she'd not submitted them. It had only been the paper limits that had seen her trim some of the information as well as finding ways to reword some of it.
“I can imagine she's glad for only 5 classes worth of homework,” Anton said. “Karan's got 6.” Tommy winced; he'd forgotten that Abigail was the only one out of her group to be taking art. While she did bring some art assignments home to work on, most of her work was done in class, under her teachers' supervision. Her shop class, like the previous semester, was entirely made up of in-class work.
“She is,” he replied. “She likes the challenges her classes have given her.”
“I can imagine, with how intelligent she is. From what Elsa has been saying, Abigail, Karan, and their friends are easily among the top students of their year. Oddly enough, Patton's the one everyone thinks is the smartest of the group.” Tommy chuckled; he knew why.
“Abigail's art skills are good enough to outshine her natural intelligence, or at least, even some of my coworkers forget that she's smart enough to take the more challenging classes on top of her art talents,” Tommy pointed out. “Granted, I'd say most babies are intelligent, but life and other circumstances make it hard for them to always show that. Having Billy in her life allowed that intelligence to thrive. Ernie having the art classes at the Youth Center allowed her to develop her art skills. Both Ernie and Trini are smart in their own right; I have no doubt that if Trini, Jason, and Zack hadn't gone to the Youth Summit and Billy not graduated early, our principal Mr. Caplan would have had a hard time choosing the valedictorian and salutatorian. There were rumors of wanting to use darts to choose, as our grades were that close.”
“If some of the scuttlebutt I've overheard,” Elsa said as she joined in; Anton had the call on speaker on his end, “I might be doing the same thing next year. Her counselor said that Abigail could be taking actual college classes right now.”
“That got offered to her last year, her and Patton both. Patton's considering it for next year, but I don't think Abigail is. Not with the course offerings at Reefside High. If she was at Angel Grove High School, I know she'd be considering it.”
“Understandable. I'm glad she's being challenged. How is it going at Reefside High, especially with your birth father in charge right now?”
“Good. He and I have come to an understanding. Certainly easier than it was at the beginning of the school year.”
“That's good to hear. I am sorry for putting you in that position, Tommy. If I'd known...”
“I know, Elsa. There's no way you could have, though. Not with him and me not really talking prior to that. He barely talks to Sam and David as it is, him and my birth mom, so there was no warning from that quarter either and they would have in a heartbeat if they'd known.”
“If he starts becoming a problem...”
“I'll let you know,” he promised. Or Karan would, but that was if she saw or heard anything. Right now, the bigger target was Abigail; Karan was a bit too obvious as the ward of Reefside High's principal and her husband. While teachers and other school staff weren't supposed to bully or otherwise deliberately cause problems for any student, students who were the children of staff members were generally off limits a lot more then most students were. Not all teachers or staff members saw it that way, Eugene Sanderson being a prime example. Thankfully, he'd been the only one with issues having students of his coworkers in his classroom and Tommy knew that if they could have put Abigail especially in any other science classroom period, they would have. Between her test scores and the fact that she'd been registered so late, there'd been no other classroom they could have stuck her in. Not without causing some serious issues with other students, some of whom were also children of Tommy's coworkers. He knew that there were requests to keep certain students in separate classes across the board and while Leroy and his friends were the latest in Abigail's year to be added to that list, they'd not been the first. While there weren't that many, he knew it took careful consideration to make sure everyone was in the right classes.
He wasn't surprised to eventually see the lights in the guest home Abigail was sleeping go out nor the lights in the other temporarily turn on and then back off a few minutes later. As he'd seen 4 people go to the second guest home, he knew it had been the boys who'd left by the profiles. He had no doubt that they'd appreciated the rather obvious 'out' that he'd given them nor the trust he'd shown in all 7 of them. They were 17 and Rangers themselves; they deserved that trust unless or until they proved they couldn't have it. He knew that was the same with all teenagers, but not all of them were as mature as Abigail and her friends were.
“They asleep?” Kat asked when he went upstairs.
“Well...they're in the separate guest homes,” he said. “Asleep? That depends. Even though the lights in the front room is out doesn't mean that they're not in the bedrooms, lights on and talking.” He wasn't surprised that they'd gone to bed at a reasonable hour for a weekend night. "With school in session and sports season starting or about to start for most of the group, I don't blame them for going to bed right now.” He also knew that Abigail at least tended to stay up a bit later than she would have normally during the school year if she was at a sleepover. That had always been normal, he knew, even among his friends. Sleepovers were always a good excuse to stay up later than they normally would have and not even Abigail was immune from that allure.
He was happy to see Karan at least looking better the next day when he went out to check on them. They'd elected to eat breakfast in one of the guest houses and he'd made sure ahead of time to have breakfast items in both guest houses even though they'd be brought back in on Monday. He had no doubt that she needed that break from the Mercer house right now and both Abigail and Jennifer were good sources of understanding and comfort from among her peers. He knew Clematia would have come over as well if she'd known, but he also knew that she was dealing with a lot more than Karan was right now. She'd been invited, but hadn't felt up to coming over, not when she'd had some memories and emotions she needed to work through that particular weekend as well as some training that was keeping her rather busy.
“Just needed a day away and someone to talk to who understood,” Karan said when he asked, everyone else giving them a bit of privacy.
“Good. Have you talked with Anton yet?”
“Not since last night, but he did apologize for accidentally making me feel neglected. Both of them did.” She shrugged. “Abigail's said you've apologized for similar things, especially after JJ was born. She said that being the eldest kid, at least here, isn't always easy. She explained why, too.” Because she had one younger brother completely mobile and JJ working on it, though he was right around the 4-month mark. If JJ kept to the same milestones Andy had, he'd be starting to roll over, first from his tummy to his side and later from his tummy to his back. Back to tummy took a bit longer, but he also knew every baby was different.
That wasn't the only reason why both he and Kat had apologized to Abigail; Andy wasn't only mobile, but able to communicate. There were times when Abigail was in sore need of time with one or both of her parents, just the 2 or 3 of them and Andy was insistent on being part of it when Abigail needed a break from her younger brother, even when they had someone over who could act as a babysitter. He had no doubt Clematia occasionally felt the same way and he suspected Karan would as well as little Antony grew older. In some ways, Trent was lucky that he'd moved out; while Karan could use the constant support of Trent being there, he also needed to have his own independence and to not need like he had to help take care of his younger siblings, Karan included. That didn't mean that he didn't, but, like Abigail, it was because he wanted to, not because he was completely expected to.