MMPR 2- “Adjustments”
“You are aware that ‘How Do I Live?’ is THE biggest song in the country right now, right?” I asked.
“Well aware. You won’t let me forget.” Mom said.
“You are aware I wrote that song and it’s not just a hit for me but a cover version is a hit too, right?”
“Again, I am well aware.”
“OK, then WHY CAN’T I GO BACK TO LA?! I need to do promotion. I need to be touring. I need a new TV show!” I cried.
“Michelle, we’ve talked about this. I let you film a video for the single and you promised in return you’d limit other show business activity until you had more of a chance to settle in to life here.”
“Yeah, a video I had to film in under 2 hours that is boring as hell.”
“It’s doing well for you.”
“Yeah, because the song is a hit.”
“Still. When you settle into your life a bit more then I’ll consider letting you give interviews every now and again.”
“And what about my third album?”
“I told you, not for at least a year.”
“Ugh! You’re so impossible! All I’ve ever wanted was to be crazy famous and now that I am you’re trying to ruin my career.”
“I’m not. I’m just trying to get my little girl back.”
“I’m not a little girl!” I cried.
“Honey, you’re 13.”
“Not this again.”
“What is wrong with you? I thought when you broke up with Jon and we left LA that you’d be happy to be a normal kid.”
“OK, 1) Jon made me happy and you need to lay off that whole thing and 2) I’m a teenager not a kid….oh…and I’ll never be ‘normal’.”
“I thought you liked Angel Grove. You’ve made friends. You love Kim and what about that Billy that you have a crush on?”
“I do have great friends here. I just miss my career.”
“It hasn’t been that long. Give it time. That’s why I want you to stay out of the spotlight for a while. You need time to really adjust to life here.”
“Hard to do when I’m the top selling artist in the world.”
“Just try.”
“Fine.” I said as I turned to walk out.
“Where are you going?”
“To be ‘normal’ and hang out at the
Why did my mother have to be so impossible? I had a huge hit! This was the time to capitalize. Although I guess I did kinda have bigger things to worry about…like this whole saving the world from Rita thing. Ugh…me…a hero. Who would have thought? Crazy world we live in.
Anyway, I got to the
“Hey guys.” I said.
“Hey
“Eh, I guess. My mom is being completely unfair. I have a hit single and I can’t promote it at all.”
“Yeah, I love that song!” Kim said.
“If it’s a hit do you really need to promote it?” Jason asked.
“Hmm, good point.” I said, “So what are you guys up to?”
“Jason was just about to wow us with his awesome climbing skills.” Kim laughed.
I smiled, “This I gotta see. Wow me.”
“You asked for it.” Jason smiled as he grabbed the rope and started to climb.
“OK Jase, let’s see you do it.” Kim said as Jason approached the rope.
“Time to go up and up.” Zack said as Jason took the rope.
“Come on Jason, you can do it!” Kim cheered as Jason started to climb
“Come on Jase!” I echoed as Trini walked over from her tai kwan do or whatever class.
“Jason, Jason…be careful! If you slip you could really hurt yourself.” Trini said.
“Yo, man, back off. You’re gonna make him nervous.” Zack said.
“Yeah, chill.” I agreed.
“Nervous? Man I never get nervous when I’m climbing.” Jason said as he lost his grip for a second but he recovered and kept going.
“You should be! You guys, I’m gonna be over there. At least it’s down to Earth.” Trini said.
“You should give it a try.” Zack said.
“Are you kidding? Uh-uh. You’d never catch me climbing anything that high. See ya.” She said as she walked away.
“Looks like somebody’s got a case of height freight.” Kim said.
“Severely.” I agreed.
“Hey Billy! My main brain. What’s up?” Zack asked as Billy walked in.
“Hey. Well, actually I have some exciting news to disseminate. You see I’ve make a significant breakthrough concerning the cross…” Billy started.
“Billy! Head’s up!” Jason cried as he fell down the rope, landing on Billy’s shoulders. The two swung from the rope before both being thrown to the mats.
“You guys should try out for the circus.” Zack said as we laughed.
“Nah, the circus don’t take geek clowns.” Bulk said as he and Skull walked in.
“Ah geek clowns that’s great. That is so funny.” Skull said.
“Why don’t you guys just crawl back to the ooze you came from?” Kim said.
“Oh, that’s funny…especially coming from a friend of the monkey man here.” Bulk said.
“Oh yeah? At least I can make it all the way to the top.” Jason said.
“Hey, hey, hey…you saying the Bulk can’t do it?” Skull asked, “Yeah, that’s what you’re saying alright.”
“Step aside. Let me show you how it’s done.” Bulk said.
“Are you sure you know how to work this thing?” Kim asked.
“What do you think I am? Stupid?”
“Well you know what they say…if the rope fits, climb it!” Zack laughed.
I looked at him, “Who says that? Whatever, this should be rich. Go ahead Bulky.”
Bulk did try to climb but instead he fell on the floor, bringing parts of the ceiling down with him.
“Oh yeah Bulk, you really showed us this time, didn’t you?” Kim asked.
“Bravo.” I mock clapped.
Once the drama was over we were headed out of the
“See, I finally completed an aero-beam transmission module that will allow wave function over extended interval. Well, aren’t you guys excited?” Billy asked.
“Well, I will be as soon as I figure out what you just said.” Zack said.
“He’s created a communication device using microwaves.” Trini translated.
“Affirmative. See, we now have
communication with Alpha and Zordon at the
“This is morphinominal.” Kim said.
“They respond to tactile pressure followed by auditory stimulus.” Billy said.
“So what you’re saying is we just touch and talk like this?” Trini demonstrated as we suddenly teleported.
We landed in a pile in the middle of the
“Hey! Hey guys!” Kim cried as she tried to get up from the bottom of the pile. We all stood up.
“It appears my communicators malfunctioned.” Billy said.
“Ya think genius?” I snapped as I brushed myself off.
“Oh, welcome home boys, home girls. What brings you to the hood?” Alpha said.
“Too much TV?” Zack asked.
“I commend your latest invention Billy. Not only have you
created a communicator but you’ve also tapped into the
We were standing around the waiting to see if Alpha could fix the teleport thingie when this loud siren went off.
“It’s Rita. She’s sent a device to open a time portal and the putty patrol is gathering outside of town. Find out what they are up to while I analyze the time device.” Zordon said.
“We’re outta here.” Jason said as we were teleported to the area the putties were at. We teleported in to the side and so we snuck around and tried to figure out what they were doing.
“I don’t get it, what are they doing out here?” Kim asked.
“I don’t know, but we better stay here and keep an eye on them.” Jason said.
“Agreed. Let’s just chill here.” I said.
“Uh, I don’t believe that’s a viable option at the moment.” Billy said.
“What are you talking about? This is perfect camouflage.” Zack said.
“It was about 10 seconds ago.” Trini said.
We turned around. The Putties had spotted us!
“Guys we gotta Morph!” Kim cried.
“No. Zordon said we gotta try to take care of things on our own before we use our powers. Come on.” Jason said.
“Um…hello, I’m used to having bodyguards fight my battles. I don’t know how to fight!” I cried as I ran after my friends.
“Then you better learn fast.”
“Oh for fuck’s sake!” I cried as I jumped out of the way of a punch aimed at me.
“You have to fight.”
I nodded and punched and kicked and back flipped. I was far from skilled but it was all I could do. It wasn’t very effect though. Billy and Trini took off to try to spread the group of putties out but the rest just backed Kim, Zack, Jason, and I into a corner.
“You’re a genius Mr. No Power!” I cried as we struggled to get away. Thankfully Trini and Billy ran up and saved us. We finally managed to get rid of the putties but then a monster came to Earth. We had to go fight him. This monster was somehow connected to the time device. We Morphed and teleported to the amusement part, which is where the monster was.
The monster was creepy. He could detach his head and disappear and stuff. He also teleported us into…this…well…alternate dimension? It was this weird place that was dark and full of these skeleton creatures. It finally became clear what the monster’s goal was. He was trying to tap us in this other dimension. The worst part was that every time we beat him up he just pulled himself together again. Billy had the idea to destroy the head as that seemed to be the source of his power. That worked…for about 10 seconds then Rita sent down another giant monster. We were freed from the alternate dimension, but now there was a giant monster in Angel Grove! Zordon sent Jason his Zord and he single handedly cut the giant monster down to size.
After everything had calmed down we all headed back to the
“I heard it on the radio, 5 super heroes saved the park from this zombie guy and they call themselves the Power Rangers” Ernie was telling someone as he walked by our table.
“Speaking of which our communicators are fully functional again thanks to Zordon and Alpha.” Billy said.
“So we can teleport and communicate to the
“Affirmative.” Billy said.
“This is so 90s!”
“Oh, Trini, I really want to express my gratitude for helping me out today.”
“Yeah, the way you climbed those rocks was morphinominal.”
“I guess what they say is true. You really don’t know what you can do until you’re forced to do it. I hope I can be that confident the next time.” Trini said as Zack ran up behind her wearing a skeleton mask. She jumped and climbed the top of the rope in record time.
“Well, it looks like you’ve definitely overcome your fear of heights.” Zack said with a laugh.
“Zack!” Kim laughed.
“That was mean! Funny…but mean.” I said.
“Hey, it worked.” Zack said.
I laughed, “I’m heading home. Kim, you wanna walk with me?”
“Yeah, I need to get home anyway. See you guys later.” Kim said.
“Yeah, see ya.” I echoed.
“
Kim and I grabbed our backpacks and headed out. We started walking towards home. We lived pretty close to each other.
“So seriously, are you ok?” Kim asked.
“Yeah, really. I’m still kind of upset about my career but fighting those monsters and putties today really made me stop and think. Zordon picked us to stop Rita…the fate of the world is on us…literally. Maybe there are more important things than number 1 songs…even if this is my biggest pop hit ever.” I said.
“Yeah, this is pretty serious business isn’t it?”
“Totally…and honestly Kim, I was scared today.”
“So was I.”
“Yeah…but you held your own better than I did. I don’t know how to fight hardly at all. I know a couple of basic moves from when I was like 5. Unless I morph I’m completely useless out there.”
“So what are you saying?”
“That maybe I need to stop whining about my career and focus on learning to fight. Rita isn’t letting up anytime soon. If I’m going to be the Purple Ranger then I need to learn to defend myself.”
“Good plan. I’m sure Jason would teach you.”
“I’ll need him to teach me. I’ll need all the help I can get. I’ll need to train with the best of the best and I’ll need to give it my all.”
Kim looked at me, “Who are you and what did you do with Michelle Morris? I’ve never heard you talk like this.”
“I know, weird isn’t it? I don’t know…that putty fight just really got to me. I didn’t like not being able to protect myself.”
“Then you need to do whatever it takes to learn how to.”
I nodded, “That’s exactly what I intend to do.”
“Well, there’s your house. Tell your mom hi for me. I really gotta go though.”
“OK, see ya tomorrow Kim.”
Kim nodded, “See ya.”
I went inside and directly up to my room. I wanted to be alone. Kim was right. I wasn’t me. My life was changing in ways I never dreamed at a rate faster than I could keep up and I wasn’t sure who I was anymore. What mattered now isn’t what mattered just a couple of weeks ago. My life wasn’t just changing….I was changing.