“Why are you friends with someone like him, anyway?”

Conner sighed. Ethan did have reasons for being angry; he was so over-protective of his laptop Conner felt surprised he’d left Derrick alive. And then Derrick had been a bit of a jerk . . . but that was just Derrick. He didn’t like geeks. “He’s nice once you get to know him.”

“Really? So it’s not just that he’s nice to all the other dumb jocks like him, and a complete jerk to everyone else?”

That would be one way of looking at it. “Well, I’m not sure that many other people know him . . . and hey! What do you mean, dumb jocks?”

“Considering how long it took you to feel offended, I think I’m probably justified . . . hey! What happened to driving me home?”

“Dude, you keep insulting me. And you live, like, two blocks from my house. You can walk.”

Ethan gave an over-dramatic groan. “Fine! I take it back.”

“I’d have to turn around now!”

“It’ll take you less time to turn around than it would for me to walk back!”

There were definite disadvantages to having your own car. At least taxi-drivers got paid. “No. dude, look, we’re almost here.”

“Conner, you—” Ethan stopped, the expression on his face changing rapidly. “What’s he doing here?”

Conner jerked his car to a stop, not bothering to pull into the driveway. Trent smirked from where he was perched on the garden wall, looking delighted to see them both.

Conner did so not want to do this. “What do you want?” he snapped, slamming the car door behind him.

Trent shrugged. “Just seeing where you live. It’s not much, is it?”

Conner gaped at the spitefulness in his voice. Ethan shook his head, coming to stand beside Conner. “Dude, can you get any lower? What do you want?”

“Just to visit Conner.”

“How do you even know where I live?”

“I’d have though even someone as stupid as you would have heard of a phone book.”

Ethan went for him, not using much skill but a whole lot of anger. Conner grabbed his arm, hauling him back, glad of the distraction he could use to pretend he hadn’t heard what Trent had said. “Dude, chill!”

“He—”

“He’s trying to get us to attack him. Ignore it.” Even if all he wanted to do was leap at Trent and do anything to wipe that smirk off his face. Because he wasn’t stupid, wasn’t wasn’t wasn’t, and maybe if he repeated it enough times it wouldn’t matter what Trent had said.

Ethan shook his head, glaring at Trent. “If you want a fight, fine. Otherwise, get lost.” Ethan looked like he preferred the fight option.

Trent just shrugged, standing up. “See you again soon, Conner.” He didn’t seem to worry about turning his back on them to walk off. From the way Ethan was glaring, Conner would have sprinted out of there.

“Dude.” Ethan shook his head. “That’s just . . . creepy.”

“Yeah.” Conner stared after Trent, watching as he reached the corner and disappeared from sight. “He’s just . . .”

“Evil.” Ethan was staring after Trent as well. “You wanna come crash at my place tonight? Because I would seriously worry about him coming back and stabbing you in your sleep or something.”

Conner doubted Trent would do that. He was having too much fun insulting Conner to want it to end quickly. But Conner still didn’t trust him not to come back . . . “Yeah. Okay.”

--

Conner froze when he saw Trent, wanting to either turn and run or hit him. A small part of his mind pointed out that this was school, and that unless Trent wanted to get expelled he wasn’t going to do anything. Hopefully.

“You came to school with Ethan today,” Trent commented as soon as he got close. “I’m kind of sad. I mean, I didn’t think you’d move on that quickly.”

Ignore it. “What do you want?”

Trent raised an eyebrow. “Why, are you offering something?”

“No! I just want you to leave me—and the others—alone.”

“Well, if you really want, you could always give me your Dino Gem.” Trent gave him a smile, amused, like a cat toying with a mouse. “I don’t think I’d find you very interesting if you no longer had that.”

“I would never give up my Dino Gem.”

“Afraid of boring me?”

“Shut up!” Conner took a deep breath, trying to calm down. “Whatever sick little game you’re playing, I’m not interested. I’m a Power Ranger. That means something.”

“Good for you! I’m sure Dr. Oliver would feel so proud if he knew.”

Conner bit his lip. He didn’t need this. Trent was determined to make him mad; he should just walk away. “I’m leaving.”

“I thought you wanted me to leave?”

Reminding himself he was doing the right thing, Conner walked away.

--

Conner hesitated, unsure whether to grab Derrick and end this now. He wasn’t even sure grabbing Derrick would work. Ethan might think it was an invitation to attack.

“That is it,” snarled Derrick. “You’re in need of a serious lesson.”

Ethan did not look intimidated, which was probably the goal Derrick had been aiming for. Instead, Ethan took off his backpack. “Fine. Bring it.”

Should he stop it now? Conner looked between them, and hoped that Ethan at least would have the sense to back off. “Dude, are you sure you want to do this?”

Ethan barely even looked at him. Derrick reached out to push him back. “Stay out of this, McKnight. This is between me, and the geek.”

The bell rang overhead. Conner looked up instinctively, trying to resist falling to his knees and thanking god for intervening. “You know what? For the first time in my life, I actually want to go to class. So come on, guys.”

The other boys he’d been standing with left easily, some looking disappointed there wasn’t going to be a fight. Derrick kept glaring at Ethan, so Conner reached out to pull him away. Derrick shrugged his arm off, but Conner assumed he was following.

Until he looked back and saw Derrick muttering in Ethan’s ear. Great.

“What was that?” he demanded as soon as Derrick caught up. “You couldn’t just leave it?”

The rest of the guys backed away. Most of them were on the soccer team too, and all were friendly with both Conner and Derrick. None of them wanted to get involved, which was just fine with Conner.

Derrick scowled. “What is with you? The geek is asking for it. I was just telling him when I’ll be pounding on him.”

“You what?”

“I challenged him to a fight. Don’t look so freaked. He’ll never show.”

Ethan would show. If Conner had to bet his soul on anything, it would be that. Ethan probably thought that Derrick was just another soccer player, with no fighting skill.

Conner knew better. Originally, Derrick hadn’t even been his friend—he’d been Eric’s. They’d met at martial arts. Conner had only gotten to know Derrick through Eric, but they’d become friends and Derrick had eventually started playing soccer. But he’d never dropped the martial arts, even winning competitions. Conner wouldn’t feel confident fighting Derrick. And Conner could beat Ethan.

Which meant Ethan was probably going to get his butt kicked. “Derrick, don’t, alright? I mean, what are you proving?”

Derrick looked at him like he’d just suggested building a ladder to the moon. “What?”

“Don’t go fight him.”

“Are you on drugs? Look, I know he’s your friend, but he’s a geek.”

“So?”

Derrick was still giving him that look. “He’s a geek. Look, Conner, if you’re so worried, tell your little friend not to show. Sure, everyone will think he’s a wimp,” Derrick smirked at the thought, “But I promise not to rearrange his face if he chickens out.”

Great. So now Conner just had to figure out how much it would take to stop Ethan from showing up.

--

“You’re going to tell Dr. O about Zeltrax, right?” Kira repeated for about the hundredth time.

Conner tried not to roll his eyes.  “Yeah, okay, but what about you, Ethan?”

“What about me?”

“The fight!”

Kira nodded. “The whole school knows about it.”

Arguing voices came up behind them, and then Cassidy slipped between Conner and Ethan, closely followed by Devin. “Oh, Ethan, hello!” said Cassidy. “Good luck for today, and if you happen to fall over, fall towards the camera. That’d be really good for me!”

Conner tried not to think about Ethan falling over, reminding himself that Ethan had been in plenty of fights, everything was going to be fine… Of course, he didn’t really want Derrick to get beaten up either. Not to mention what would happen to Derrick’s reputation if he got defeated by a geek.

He watched in relief as Cassidy and Devin walked off. Ethan rolled his eyes. “I’ll be fine.”

Kira shook her head. “Look, unlike some people, we’re your friends, and we’re not going to let you do something stupid. So, Derrick is a bully who can kick your butt. Who cares? You’re not going to use your Dino power on him, right?”

“No, I’m not going to use my Dino power.”

Conner hesitated, trying to work out if that was a good thing or not. “Dude, no offence, but without it . . .”

Ethan looked annoyed, turning to walk off. “There’s other ways to deal with a bully.”

Kira watched him go, biting her lip. “Is Derrick really good?”

“Yeah. And he’s strong. He does tons of weights.” Kind of pointless for a soccer player—who needed massive pecs?—but Derrick was that kind of guy. “Like I said, he’s been doing martial arts for years.”

“Ethan’s good.” Kira sounded as if she were trying to reassure herself. “I mean . . . okay, we can both beat him, but we’re not exactly a random sample, you know? I bet he does fine.”

“I don’t want Derrick to lose either!”

“I’m not so bothered.”

Well, she wouldn’t be. “Let’s talk about something else.”

“Ethan said Trent knows where you live.”

Ethan had probably said more than that. “Let’s talk about something else.”

“You know, it’s not really Trent. It’s the Dino Gem. I bet Trent hates what he’s doing, if ‘s even aware of it. You know he’d never . . .”

Conner searched frantically for a distraction. Any distraction. He finally remembered some of the leaflets he still had stuck in his bag. “Hey!” He yanked one out. “Are you interested in this?”

Kira took the leaflet between thumb and forefinger, as if worried it might be infected by something. Conner scowled. It might be a little crumpled, but it had only been in his bag . . .

Kira read it with a frown. “Wait. Let me get this straight. You are handing out leaflets for a protest to save a few hedges?” She looked up at him with raised eyebrows. “Have you been near any space rocks recently?”

He snatched the leaflet back, feeling defensive. “It’s not the hedges! It’s the park. I used to play soccer there.”

“Oh, of course. Soccer. It all becomes clear. And, by the way, my point about Trent still stands. Even if you have lost a few marbles.”

“Shut up. I don’t want to talk about Trent.”

“Do you think that when . . . if he turns good again, you could forgive him? Because he liked you. He really did.”

Conner didn’t have to think about that too long. Even thinking of Trent brought back everything . . . the betrayal, the insults, the humiliation, the anger . . . “No. Never.”