Turbo: A Power Rangers Movie by Heather Ray (beach read book .TXT) 📕

help but find this mysterious young man intriguing… and attractive.

"This place is amazing," Tommy marveled, taking off his helmet and gazing down the cliff. "Look how far it is to the bottom!"

"I come up here to get excited before I compete," Heather revealed. "It's like there's no one else in the world when you're up here. No pressures."

Tommy nodded his agreement, a faraway look in his eyes.

"No one expecting anything from you," Heather continued, gazing intently at Tommy. He turned to her, and looked deeply into her warm golden brown eyes. He smiled.

"Listen Tommy," Heather said quietly, "I hope you don't mind, but Kat and Billy told me a little bit about Kimberly --"

Tommy's smile fell, and he turned away, staring down the high cliff again. Heather swallowed her concern, and continued.

"I'm sorry; it sounded like you guys has something really special."

"We did," he said in a bitter tone, "but I guess nothing lasts forever, right?"

Heather touched his shoulder and smiled up at him. "Want to talk about it?"

"No," said Tommy with an uncomfortable laugh. "Thanks anyway."

"Okay," she breathed, once again losing herself in his soulful eyes. Tommy met her gaze, drinking in golden brown kissed with traces of gray… and for a moment, a familiar feeling came over him. Their faces inched closer together, her warm breath tickling his lips.

Suddenly, Tommy blinked in shock. What am I doing? She's not

Kimberly!

He quickly turned away from Heather, and pulled on his helmet to hide the flush of embarrassment.

"Hey, uh, we'd better go," he decided, walking towards the snowmobile that brought them to the cliff. "Ready?"

Heather stared at him, shocked at his instantaneous change of heart. "Yeah," she grumbled, unable to hide her disappointment.

Chapter Nine

After a few hours of singing, dancing, and far too much sugar, Kimberly excused herself at a nine-thirty. At five minutes to ten, she plopped onto her bed, utterly exhausted.

"He should be calling any minute now..."

But he didn't call. Kim spent over an hour waiting by the telephone, flipping through television stations or fashion magazines, and constantly glancing at the clock, or the telephone. She sighed deeply, and picked up the romance novel she was reading; but she couldn't concentrate. By eleven o'clock, Kimberly had resorted to staring intently at the phone, as if it would ring at any moment. By eleven fifteen she picked up the telephone, checking to see if there was a dial tone and that the ringer was turned on. Once she was certain the phone was in service, she returned to her vigil.

That's how Renee found her when she stepped into the room just shy of midnight.

"What on Earth are you doing?" she asked. Kim grimaced, and looked up at her roommate.

"Waiting for Tommy to call," she said simply.

Renee tried her best to mask her surprise, but she doubted she could hide it from Kim. "Well, maybe you should call him. Just to check up on him."

Kim nodded, picking up the phone. "He probably didn't think I'd be home… or something."

She dialed the familiar number of the Oliver house, and let it ring. After the third ring, a young boy answered the phone.

^Hello, Oliver residence.^

"Hiya, Jesse. It's Kimberly."

^Oh, hey Kim!^

The boy perked up. ^How are you?^

"Fine. Listen, is your brother there?"

^No, he went away for the weekend.^

Kimberly couldn't keep the surprise from her voice. "Really? Where did he go?"

^He went skiing with Kat.^

Silence.

^Kim? You there?^

"Uh…" her mind was in a daze. "W…what did you say?"

^He went skiing with Kat for the weekend. He should be back Sunday. Want me to tell him you called?^

"No!" Kim said quickly, "Nevermind. I...I'll try again Sunday. Take care, Jesse."

^G'bye, Kim.^

Kim's hand inched from her face, slowly hanging up the receiver. Then, she stared at it in a daze.

"What happened?" asked Renee.

"That was Tommy's little brother Jesse," Kim mumbled, "Tommy's not home."

"Oh?" said Renee, "Well, that's not such a big deal, Kim. It's still early in California. He'll probably be back in an hour or so."

"No, he won't."

Renee blinked. Suddenly, Kim's tone rolled from detached to desperate. Tears began to build, a psychological dam bursting before Renee's very eyes. "He...he went skiing for the weekend. He went skiing with Kat on my birthday! On Valentine's Day!"

"Who's Kat?"

"My replacement

!" Kim whimpered. She then gathered her knees to her chest, tightly hugging her legs as she struggled to regain some composure. Renee was thunderstruck until she shook off her surprise, and sat beside her friend.

"I'm sure it's a misunderstanding," she soothed, squeezing Kim's quivering shoulder, "Jesse could've gotten the facts wrong. I bet a whole group of them went. Why don't you call one of your other friends and find out?"

"No!" Kim gasped, "I…I don't want to look like I'm checking up on Tommy. I don't have the right to keep tabs on him or anything. Jesse said he'll be back Sunday. I'll call him then, and we'll straighten this whole mess out."

"Right," said Renee, "and don't worry about it, Kim. I'm sure it looks worse than it really is."

Kimberly's lip quivered, but she couldn't form words to answer.

Part Three: The Seed

Chapter Ten

Sunday, February 16, 1997

The past two days had been a nightmare for Tommy. His first love dumped him without warning. Then, his best friends tried to distract him by dragging him on vacation, but he just had to meet an attractive, spirited young woman, who reminded him far too much of Kimberly for comfort. Still, he had been interested in at least becoming friends with Heather Thompson, but the Machine Empire continued to get in the way, forcing Tommy and his friends to cut the ski vacation short. He had to leave Heather without a decent explanation, and he could tell she was annoyed. Katherine decided to set up a romantic dinner for the two of them that evening at the Juice Bar, and things had been going quite nicely. At least, until the Machine Empire struck again, forcing Tommy to leave yet again.

When he came back, Heather was gone.

Wow…two rejections in four days

. That's gotta be some kind of record,

he reflected numbly, wiping the smudges off a glass of sparkling apple cider. Slow, romantic music played in the background, making him feel even more alone. For the second time in half a week, Tommy was left behind by a woman he cared about. How can a person deal with that?

"I'm sorry things didn't work out, Tommy," Katherine murmured from her seat across from him at the elegant dinner table, "I wanted everything to be perfect."

"Just forget it Kat," Tommy sighed. "What you did was incredible! I'm just really lucky to have a friend like you."

"I just thought it would help take your mind off things if you had someone in your life."

Tommy remained silent. Was that really true? Was that even fair

to the "someone"

in question?

"It's just going to take some time is all."

Kat nodded, as a new song played softly on the radio. She closed her eyes, a dreamy grin crossing her face. "Oh, I love this song," she commented.

Tommy looked up at Katherine's blissful expression. For a moment, it was almost as if he were seeing her for the first time.

She had always been pretty, but this evening, her hair gently curled and pulled back from her face, and a simple but elegant rose pink dress that emphasized her long legs and feminine curves, she was simply stunning.

Kat was also a true friend. She really cared for him; she proved it by all the effort she put into helping him heal.

"Hey," he said, the first genuine smile crossing his face in days, "what would you say if I asked you to dance?"

Kat opened her eyes, and looked at Tommy in surprise. She saw him smile, and she couldn't help but smile back. "I'd say...promise not to step on my feet, and you've got a deal."

"You got it," he said, standing up and taking her hand. He led her away from the table, and they slowly swayed to the music, foreheads touching.

Chapter Eleven

The past two days had been a nightmare for