Disclaimer: The people you recognize, and Terra Venture,
belong to Saban. What little else there is came from me. This fic is a
standalone, for the moment, at least. Comments are both welcome and
appreciated.
by : Jeremy Ray Logsdon
And there she was. Sitting about ten rows toward the front of the ShuttleBus. Leo's attention was drawn to her instantly, and it wasn't really a surprise. Her hair was more short than long, but styled so that it lacked just a few inches from touching her shoulders. It was brown. Or rather, it had once been brown. Somehow, he didn't understand much about hair dye, himself, she had managed to dye her hair blue, while keeping the brown color intact. It was as though the brown lingered somewhere behind the blue color, a bit subdued but not covered up. Her hair was so shiny… It almost seemed to glow, like the ink from a highlighter or the silver light of a full moon.
She wore an actual wreath of flowers in her hair. The young Red Ranger wasn't sitting close enough to tell if they were real flowers or not, but she managed to pull off the look. The green stems, whether real or fake, were woven into a simple halo of greenery, and every inch or so, a bright, colored flower rested gently on her hair. Yellow and pink were the only colors of flower, and given the prevalence of yellow and pink flowers in the Park Dome, he suspected they were real.
She was still sitting down, so he couldn't tell what she was wearing. In fact, he realized that there were only a few things he could tell about her. Her hair, obviously, and her skin. She had very Caucasian looking skin, mostly peach but with just enough of a hint of brown to tell she was someone who had spent a fair amount of time in the Park Dome, soaking up some artificial sunlight.
The ShuttleBus stopped, the driver announced the location, (although Leo couldn't have repeated it to save his life), and the blue-haired girl and her friend stood up, along with most of the other people on the bus, to get off.
Leo turned toward the window, quickly catching sight of her blue hair in the crowd of normal-hair-color people. He could now tell more about her, 'though her back was turned. For starters, she was positively tiny. Five foot two at the tallest and incredibly slender. She had a very nice figure, though. A slight curve to her hips…
Her clothes were rather unique. She was wearing a summer dress, but it didn't look like it had come off of any rack. Instead, it looked a bunch of patches sewn together, like patchwork. And she was barefoot. (That sidewalk has to be hot…)
She and her friend, an attractive Hispanic girl, were still talking, but then, their conversation must have ended, as the blue-haired girl gave a wave and began to walk away. She turned enough that Leo could see more of her. Small but full breasts, flat stomach, and such a pretty face. Even her neck was beautiful, and Leo could understand why she wore her hair short.
He hoped desperately that she would turn to look at him as she walked by, but as she continued walking and the bus began to pull away, her eyes stayed forward, and she never saw him at the window, one hopeful palm pressed against the glass.
"Terra Venture to Leo, come in Leo," Damon, sitting next to him, said sarcastically.
"Huh?"
"You kinda phased out on me there, man," Damon continued. "You okay?"
"Yeah," Leo said, nodding slowly as he turned toward the front again. "Just… a girl."
"Oh?" Damon asked, interested. "What's her name?"
"I don't know."
"Uh huh. Is she nice to talk to?"
"Never spoke to her."
"Is she at least pretty?" Damon asked.
"Blue hair," Leo mumbled, turning around in vain effort to catch one last look at her.
"Leo, you're a freak," Damon told him.
"There are millions of people on Terra Venture, Leo," Kendrix said. "You'll probably never see this mystery girl of yours again."
"I wouldn't know what to do if I even saw her," he sighed unhappily, propping his chin on his fist.
"Hey, if she had blue hair, how do you even know she was human?" Kai asked, emphasizing his point with a jab from his wooden cooking spoon. "She could've been an alien."
"And what is wrong with aliens, Kai?" Maya asked, folding her arms across her chest and giving him a friendly scowl. "Aren't Miranoans alien by your standards?"
"Not the point," Kai rebutted. "You're a human. This girl might not be."
"Are there any aliens on Terra Venture?" Damon asked.
"Not many, but a few," Kendrix answered. "She could be from Eltare, I suppose. Some of them have blue hair."
"It wasn't blue-blue," Leo said. "It was like… brown with blue added. It was dyed. Trust me, this girl was an Earthling. Besides, she was wearing Earth clothes."
"From the way you described her, she sounds like a hippie," Kai announced.
"You ever dated a hippie, Leo?" Kendrix asked with a grin.
"What's a hippie?" Maya asked.
"I usually date very normal girls," Leo admitted. "Never a girl with blue hair, or flowers in her hair… Or barefoot in public. But… c'mon, you guys. You know how sometimes you'll know somebody, and you just KNOW you'd be perfect together? Just this biological oomph that you know would make you great together."
"I think Leo is in heat," Maya said quickly, her face perfectly straight.
"I've had that happen, Leo, but it's usually with someone I've known for a long time," Damon said. "You think you got your little biological-oomph-heat thing just from seeing this girl? You never even talked to her! You don't even know her name."
"I thought it was that Blue-Haired Girl," Kai commented smartly.
"If you get married, she would be Blue-Haired Corbett," Kendrix kidded.
"If she's a hippie, she'll hyphenate," Damon continued, grinning from ear to ear. "Leo and Blue-Haired Girl-Corbett. I like it!"
As the others continued heckling Leo, Maya said over the din, "Leo, I've seen you around girls other than Kendrix and me. Even if you knew her name, you'd be afraid to talk to her."
Leo perked up as silence fell over the group. He stared at the Yellow Ranger in disbelief for a few moments before Kai, Damon, and Kendrix began to laugh. "Excuse me?" Leo asked. "I am NOT afraid of girls."
"You're petrified of girls," Maya told him. "I saw you try to ask Lieutenant Mace out. She kept asking you what you wanted, and you kept stammering, and finally, you just asked her what time it was and ran off before she could tell you."
"You saw that?" Leo asked in a small voice as Damon and Kendrix chortled to each other.
"Don't feel bad," she said. "I thought it was adorable."
"Nothing makes a guy feel adorable like sexual inadequacy," Damon said, only to issue a loud 'ow' when Leo punched him hard in the arm.
"You know what," Leo said, paying no heed to Damon who was rubbing his bicep in an attempt to gain sympathy. "I am going to find Blue-Haired Girl. I'm going to find her, I'm going to learn her name, and I'm going to ask her out!"
"I don't think you realize just how big Terra Venture is," Kendrix said again. "Leo, give it up. You will never find the blue-haired girl."
"You really think this will work?" Damon asked as he and Leo boarded the ShuttleBus and took a seat near the middle.
"I'm hoping," Leo said. "My only real chance is if she rides the bus everyday. This is when I saw her, so maybe… She'll be here again."
"No blue-haired girl in sight, dude," Damon said, looking to the back of the bus. "She- Leo."
"Oh my God," Leo sighed, looking in shock. The blue-haired girl and the same Hispanic friend entered the bus and sat near the very front. "That's her."
"Go," Damon whispered, nudging Leo.
"Oh God," he murmured again. "Maya was right. I am petrified of girls."
Damon sighed and slumped his shoulders. "Are you telling me you drug me out here and you aren't even going to talk to her?"
"I- I- Yes." At Damon's temporarily infuriated look, Leo quickly amended, "I'll get off the bus when she does, and I'll talk to her when her friend leaves her alone, okay?"
The two didn't say much as they rode to the next stop. It didn't take long, and during the entire ride, Leo was trying to think of something he could say that wouldn't make him seem desperate or a stalker. And the fact was that he was actually both. (Hi, my name is Leo. What's yours? That's a lovely name. Would you like to go get something to eat or see a movie? What's that? You want me to father your children? I'd love to!)
"And we're here," Damon whispered to him. "Go man, go!"
Before Leo could chicken out, Damon shoved him into the aisle with the other passengers streaming for the door. Blue-Haired Girl, he realized, was among them. He began to breathe deeply, trying to calm his unsteady nerves. He took the time for one quick glance back, only to see Damon urge him to keep on going. And then, the next thing he knew, he was standing on the curve, smelling a bit of ozone as the bus glided away.
His eyes darted through the quickly dispersing crowd, but Blue-Haired Girl was a bit easier to find than if she had been Brown-Haired Girl. He tried to make himself look inconspicuous as he waited for her to separate from her friend. Then, as the two girls parted ways, he began to walk toward the blue-haired girl.
(What in God's name am I going to say to this girl?) Leo sped up a bit 'til he was even with her and a few feet from her side. The two walked in silence, he completely aware of her presence and she probably oblivious to his. He turned his head partially toward her, smiled his best smile, and managed to speak, "Hey."
She turned toward him at the sound of his voice, gave him a smile that practically made his knees melt and dump him on the sidewalk, and said, "Hello."
(Oh wow, she has a sexy voice!) Still smiling, he gave a brief nod, and looked forward. He continued walking, his heart thumping madly in his chest and his cheeks burning red with a mixture of excitement and nervousness. "My name is Leo," he said next, turning toward her.
She wasn't there, though. He spun in a quick circle, looking for the tell-tale hue of her blue hair, but she had somehow managed to disappear on him. Groaning, he slapped his palm to his forehead.
"So you actually manage to speak to her?" Kendrix asked, a genuine note of interest in her voice.
"Yeah," Leo groused.
"And then she disappeared?" Damon continued.
"Right," Leo said in the same tone. Groaning, he dropped his head to the counter and let it lay there. "I did at least get to see her close up. Blue-Haired Girl is the most beautiful girl I've ever seen."
"I'll chalk that up to hormones and not a disparaging comment to Maya or me," Kendrix remarked.
"You do that," Leo said.
"What was she wearing today?" Kai asked, once again poised over the stove cooking dinner.
Leo raised his head from the counter at that question. "Bell-bottom jeans, with the hem at the bottom all ripped and… y'know, thready, Birkenstock sandals, and this pink blouse that showed off her mid-riff," Leo answered. "No flowers in her hair today, but she was wearing a floppy hat made out of denim with a great big sunflower on it. You know, like Blossom used to wear on that old t.v. show?"
"You are stalking this girl!" Kendrix protested.
"I'm just very observant," Leo said in a pouty voice.
"So are stalkers."
Leo gave a quick glare in Kendrix's direction before he said, "Well, I've learned at least one thing. I know part of Blue-Haired Girl's schedule. I'll have another chance."
"You try one more time, you're liable to get arrested for stalking," Damon said.
The next day found Leo once again following Blue-Haired Girl down the sidewalks of Terra Venture's Small Town Dome. Trees provided shade for the sidewalks, and none of the buildings were so large as to be imposing. It was, as the name implied, much like a small town.
"Hi," Leo called in a friendly tone as he hurried to her side.
"Hi," she replied automatically before she even realized who had spoken. Upon seeing Leo, she gave a bit of a smile, although he suspected she would have given that smile to anyone. It wasn't a matter of recognition.
"You-" But before he could continue, his Transmorpher squawked once. "You have a good day," he finished, flustered.
"You too," she answered, cocking her head at him oddly. She smiled a bit broader, although he was pretty sure she was smiling at the odd stranger and not for any reasons he was actually hoping.
Hopping off the sidewalk, he disappeared into a cove of trees and grudgingly answered the call to battle.
"One more time," he sighed later that night at supper. "I am going to try ONE more time. If it doesn't work this time… we are obviously not meant to be together."
"Stalker!" Kendrix cried, pointing an accusing finger at him.
"Just for that," he said, "you can't be the Godmother of our children."
Leo sighed and sat down beneath a tree. Blue-Haired Girl was nowhere to be seen. He hadn't seen her on the bus, and she didn't seem to be in the Small Town Dome. She had slipped through his fingers. Apparently, fate was not on his side.
"You sure do look unhappy," a voice above him said.
"I am," he answered. It took him a moment to make the connection. It was her! He whipped his head up and found her standing above him, wearing a denim dress and once again wearing those oh-so-pretty flowers in her hair. "Join me?" he asked hopefully, gesturing to a spot on the grass next to him.
"I have to get to work, Red Shirt," she said. "Cheer up, though." She reached up to her hair and removed one of the small, yellow flowers. "Be happy?"
"For you," he answered with a smile, taking the flower. "Have a good day."
"You too," she said before hurrying off.
"You aren't going to eat it, are you?" Kendrix asked. "'Cause that really will make you a stalker."
"No, I'm not going to eat it," Leo said with a grin in his voice as he twirled the flower between his fingers.
"So, what's her name?" Maya asked.
"I dunno," Leo said. "I forgot to ask. She called me Red Shirt, though." He grinned and said, "I liked it."
"She's been watching you, too!" Kendrix suddenly realized, jumping up from her stool.
"What are you talking about?" Leo asked. "She hasn't been watching me. I'm just wearing a red shirt today."
"You wear a red shirt everyday," Maya reminded him.
"I really don't think she's been watching me," Leo said. "But tomorrow… I'm gonna ask her out."
"I am not riding that bus with you anymore," Damon announced defiantly. "You're stalking Blue-Haired Girl, and I'm an accessory to you stalking Blue-Haired Girl."
"She wasn't on the bus today?" Kendrix asked as she walked up to Leo, once again sitting dejectedly in the shade.
"There were so many people, I lost her in the crowd," he said. Kendrix smiled sympathetically and sat down next to him. "You and Damon are right. I am stalking this girl. There are over fifty-thousand people here in Small Town Dome alone. And I don't even know if she lives here. I just don't stand a chance. But I just couldn't help it. I get this awesome, fluttery feeling in my stomach when I just think about her, and I don't even know her name! I've never felt like this before. Ever."
"Oh, Leo," Kendrix sighed, putting her head on his shoulder. "I am so sorry."
"Don't be," he said. "It wasn't meant to be, I guess."
"Think Leo found Blue-Haired Girl?" Maya asked.
"For his sake, I sure hope so," Damon said. A knock sounded at the door, and Maya got off of her hammock to answer it.
"If he doesn't find her, we should find another girl for him," Maya said. At her command, the door slid open.
"I have a package for Kendrix Morgan."
"Blue-Haired Girl!" Maya cried happily. Damon jumped off of his stool and hurried to the door, skidding to a stop behind Maya.
"What?" the mail carrier asked. It was, indeed, Blue-Haired Girl. She was dressed in the attire that Leo had been describing to his friends for several days straight, and she was once again barefoot and wearing flowers in her hair. The only thing that actually identified her as a T.V. Postal Carrier was the magnetic badge pinned to her summery dress.
"Do you work in ST-Dome?" Damon asked.
"Yes," she said, nodding with a perplexed expression on her face. "This package was supposed to be sent to a Kendrix Morgan in the Science Complex Dome, but it was accidentally sent to Kandace Morgan in the ST-Dome. But I live around here, so… Just thought I'd drop it off on my way home so Ms. Morgan could get her package right away."
Maya turned around and flashed Damon a wide smile. "Are you single?" Maya asked.
"Are you an Earthling?" Damon asked, not giving her time to answer the first question.
"Uhm… Yes to both," she said, pushing the package into Maya's arms. "Have a good evening." She turned to leave, the door sliding shut behind her.
"She said she lived around here, didn't she?" Maya asked, her eyes and mouth smiling.
"She lives in this building?!" Leo cried happily.
"Yes!" Maya cried back, hopping up and down in her excitement.
"Where?!"
"I don't know!"
"Well, what's her name?!"
"I don't know that either!"
Leo's expression seemed to just fall off of his face. "We still don't know this girls' name?!"
"Oh," Maya realized. "Sorry Leo."
"She was a Postal Worker," Damon said. "Go to the Post Office in ST-Dome tomorrow afternoon, and look for her."
"That could work," Leo agreed. He strummed his fingers on the countertop anxiously, a smile creeping across his face. "That could really work. Man, now I can't WAIT until tomorrow."
"Hi, how may I help you?" the tall blonde at the Post Office asked.
"Uhm… Hi. I'm looking for a girl with blue hair," he said. "Does she work here?"
"She sure does," the blonde answered. "You a friend of hers?"
"Well… Not exactly. Can I please see her?"
"Is she expecting you?"
"No," he sighed. "She doesn't know me. I just want to talk to her."
"I'll leave a message for her that you stopped by."
"Hey, think we can speed things up here?" the person in line behind Leo asked impatiently.
"I'm done," Leo said dejectedly. "Thank you." The blonde gave a brief nod as the next person in line moved to the counter. With his head hung low, he slowly left the Post Office and strode out into the artificial sunlight.
"Hey, wait up!" a voice called after he had made it about ten steps.
He turned around, a completely goofy grin consuming his face as he realized who it was. "Hey," he said eagerly. He looked her over from head to toe, as pleased with her outfit today as he had been with those of previous days. Gauzy white dress, a hand-made wreaths of flowers around her neck, and leather sandals on her feet.
"I just heard that you were looking for me," she said. "Just now, when you were talking to Nicole."
"Yeah," he said. "Uhm- I was wondering if we could talk"
"I'm still on the clock, I'm afraid. But will you wait for me? I get off in like an hour."
"I'll be right here," he told her.
"Well, you are still here, Red Shirt," Blue-Haired Girl said as she stepped out to him.
"I told you I'd wait," he smiled. "I live in SC-Dome, same as you. Mind if I walk you home?"
"How do you know where I live?" she asked.
"You dropped off a package yesterday for a friend of mine," he answered. "Kendrix Morgan?"
"Right," she remembered. "So… You wanted to talk to me?"
Leo took a deep breath, feeling the blood rush to his cheeks and his heart pound in his chest. "Well," he said, almost stuttering in his nervousness, "on Sunday, I saw you on the bus… Wait… Would you like to go out with me sometime?"
"I'd love to, Red Shirt," she said with a giggle in her voice and a bounce in her step. "What's your name, though? I can't keep calling you Red Shirt."
"You've been calling me Red Shirt?" he asked, grinning.
"That's the only color you seem to wear," she said. "Are you color-blind?"
"Something like that," he answered. "My name is Leo."
"That's a nice name," she commented.
"Have you noticed me around?" Leo asked, pressing his luck.
"I'm very observant, Leo," she said. "You spoke to me on Monday and Tuesday, and I gave you a flower on Wednesday. On Thursday, I saw you sitting right over there beneath those trees, and I would have come to talk to you, but you were with a blonde. I thought she might be your girlfriend, so I gave you your space. I have to admit, I'm glad you're single. You're cute."
"That was Kendrix," he told her. "She's just a good friend." Then, he grinned cockily and asked, "You think I'm cute?"
"So, when we going out?" she asked.
"You doing anything tonight?"
"I am now," she smiled. "We'll go to my apartment so I can get changed and then go catch a movie. Sound like fun?"
"Can you wear flowers in your hair?" he asked hopefully. "I really liked that."
"I will if you'll wear a tank top," she told him playfully.
"By the way," he said. "I never caught your name."
"Are you sure you want to know my name?" she asked, looking up at him with a pixie-ish smile. He realized that he was almost a foot taller and probably one hundred and twenty pounds heavier than her, but somehow, her tiny stature just added to her charms. "Won't that remove some of my allure?"
"I don't think that's possible, Blue-Haired Girl," he answered.
She smiled again, such a warm smile that it made the fluttery feeling in his stomach spread throughout his entire feeling. It was a sensation just shy of euphoria, it made him feel so good. "My name is Leah," she said. At his bemused expression, she put her hands up and said, "Honest, I swear it is."
"Do you believe in fate, Leah?" Leo asked.
She looked up at him again, and as he glanced down, he saw that the computer-simulated setting sun made the blue hue of her hair even more vibrant. "I sure do," she said, taking his left hand and placing her right hand in it. "I depend on it."