Chanukah Night 6
Title: Chanukah, Night 6
Fandom: Power Rangers SPD
Rating: K/G/general audience
Summary: In the Holiday Series. Sixth of eight fics for Chanukah.
Disclaimer: not mine, alas
Author’s note: I don’t actually know at what age cadets start out at the Academy. I know Sam was roughly 10 years old when he started, but he was also an orphan without a home or direction and everybody else seemed older. I figure 12/13 is likely a reasonable age to start the training. If anybody has SPD canon evidence to the contrary, please let me know! I won’t change the fic, but it would be good info to have for future projects.
Sunday December 17, 2017
Age thirteen
Bridge wandered the hallways aimlessly. He was supposed to be going down to breakfast, but it was Sunday and there wasn’t a lot to do, so breakfast could wait a bit. He was still trying to map out the hallways in his head. The SPD Academy was huge. He’d been here three months and still got turned around sometimes. He’d just rounded a corner when he bumped, quite literally, into somebody bigger than himself. He crashed to the floor and the other person dropped a large box and stammered an apology.
“Oh geez, I’m sorry! Are you okay? I didn’t mean to run into you!” the figure asked. Bridge rolled to the side and stood up. He was a head shorter than the other boy. He brushed off his jeans and smiled.
“I’m fine. Are you?” he asked. The other boy nodded and Bridge looked around at the mess they had made. There were wires and circuitry everywhere. He bent down to help pick up.
“You don’t have to! I got it,” the other boy insisted. Bridge ignored it and continued to pick up. The last item, which had skidded all the way across the hall and was wedged in the corner, looked like some optical sensors.
“Optics?” he asked. The other boy nodded enthusiastically and launched into a speech about what he was trying to build… something about robotic animals. Bridge listened intently. Robotics had always fascinated him. When the other boy stopped talking long enough to take a breath, Bridge held out his hand.
“I’m Bridge Carson. First year cadet,” he introduced himself. The other boy’s face fell and he stammered a bit.
“I’m Boom. Not a cadet or anything. I just help out down in the labs. Kind of a guinea pig, I guess.” Bridge smiled.
“Sounds like fun!” he said. The other boy was silent, as if waiting for Bridge to say something else. Bridge wasn’t sure if there was some social norm he was missing. He did that a lot, actually, but a quick memory check revealed nothing. He didn’t know what he was supposed to do so he just stood there. The other boy shifted from foot to foot and finally looked up.
“Aren’t you going to make fun of my name?” he asked hesitantly. Bridge furrowed his brow.
“Why would I do that?” he asked. Boom looked surprised.
“Because… my name is Boom?” Bridge wasn’t sure it was supposed to be a question, but he flashed a big smile anyway.
“And my name is Bridge. Nice to meet you.” He held out his hand and they shook again. “Want to have breakfast with me? If I ask really nicely, the cafeteria ladies make my toast extra buttery!” Boom gave him a funny look, but hefted his full box in his hands and led the way down to the cafeteria. They stopped to drop off the box in the labs and Bridge had a sneaky suspicion he’d met that cat before, but they didn’t stop long enough for him to ask, and his mother said it was rude to ask about memory people anyway.
Bridge and Boom shared lunch together as well, and worked on a broken computer, and even went down to the library. Bridge discovered Boom hadn’t made it into the Academy and had instead been working in the labs for two years now. He was fifteen, so older than Bridge, but he didn’t seem to mind the age difference. They had a lot in common and Boom was the first person Bridge really seemed to connect with at the Academy. In his life altogether, if he was really honest with himself. Bridge had to beg off dinner, though. He’d promised his mom he’d go home for each night of Chanukah that first year. Boom had asked a lot of questions about that, but waved a jaunty goodbye when Bridge took off anyway.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Bridge returned three hours later, stuffed to the limits with latkes and content at having watched six candles plus the shamash burn down to nothing. He was always relaxed after that. He headed straight for his bunk, hoping his bunkmate wasn’t there. He was such a wet blanket and Bridge didn’t feel like being treated to recitations of passages from the handbook.
“Bridge! Hey, Bridge, wait up!” a voice called. He turned to see Boom trotting down the hall, a rectangular cardboard box in his hands. Bridge grinned.
“Hey, Boom,” he said. “What’s that?” He motioned to the box in Boom’s hands.
“Oh, it’s for you, actually. It’s a present. I made it myself.” Boom held the box out and Bridge took it eagerly. He led the way to his bunk and let Boom in, motioning for him to sit on the bed to the right. Boom bounced excitedly as Bridge sat next to him and studied the box.
“You didn’t have to get me a present!” he said.
“I wanted to! It’s your holiday and everybody should get a present. Besides, you were nice to me.” Bridge looked up suddenly. Boom looked a little sad.
“Aren’t the other people nice to you?” he asked. Boom shook his head.
“No, not really. Most of the cadets just ignore me. Some of them can be pretty mean though. Nobody here really wants to be my friend since I didn’t make the cut. I’m just a loser.”
“Hey, me too! Nobody wants to be my friend, either, and they all say I’m too weird! Now you and I can be friends and it doesn’t matter if nobody else wants to like us, because we’ll like each other.” Bridge supposed that came out sounding a little happier than he intended, but oh well. It made Boom smile and he finally had a friend.
“Go on, open it!” Boom exclaimed, pointing to the box. Bridge had almost forgotten he was holding it. He pulled back the flaps and pulled out a two slice toaster. It was an amalgamation of parts and had an extra long cord, but it was definitely a recognizable toaster.
“Look, look! I gave it an extension cord so you could keep it on your desk and still reach the outlet by the door. And I know it’s black and copperish, but those were the only spare casings we had down in the lab and I had to cut the black one to fit. There’s only four settings, but look here on the back. I put an automatic butter sprayer on it!” Bridge flipped the toaster around and stared in awe.
“You made this?” he asked. Boom nodded. “Just for me?”
“Well, you got all excited about that toast this morning, so I figured you must like it a lot.” Boom started to seem nervous about his gift, so Bridge smiled in reassurance.
“Thank you so much! I love it. Nobody besides my mom has ever made something so nice for me before.” He jumped up to get it all set up. It looked great right next to his computer. He beamed at Boom, who beamed right back.
“Happy Chan… Han… holiday. Happy holiday, Bridge,” he attempted, and Bridge burst out laughing. Happy holiday indeed.
Fandom: Power Rangers SPD
Rating: K/G/general audience
Summary: In the Holiday Series. Sixth of eight fics for Chanukah.
Disclaimer: not mine, alas
Author’s note: I don’t actually know at what age cadets start out at the Academy. I know Sam was roughly 10 years old when he started, but he was also an orphan without a home or direction and everybody else seemed older. I figure 12/13 is likely a reasonable age to start the training. If anybody has SPD canon evidence to the contrary, please let me know! I won’t change the fic, but it would be good info to have for future projects.
Sunday December 17, 2017
Age thirteen
Bridge wandered the hallways aimlessly. He was supposed to be going down to breakfast, but it was Sunday and there wasn’t a lot to do, so breakfast could wait a bit. He was still trying to map out the hallways in his head. The SPD Academy was huge. He’d been here three months and still got turned around sometimes. He’d just rounded a corner when he bumped, quite literally, into somebody bigger than himself. He crashed to the floor and the other person dropped a large box and stammered an apology.
“Oh geez, I’m sorry! Are you okay? I didn’t mean to run into you!” the figure asked. Bridge rolled to the side and stood up. He was a head shorter than the other boy. He brushed off his jeans and smiled.
“I’m fine. Are you?” he asked. The other boy nodded and Bridge looked around at the mess they had made. There were wires and circuitry everywhere. He bent down to help pick up.
“You don’t have to! I got it,” the other boy insisted. Bridge ignored it and continued to pick up. The last item, which had skidded all the way across the hall and was wedged in the corner, looked like some optical sensors.
“Optics?” he asked. The other boy nodded enthusiastically and launched into a speech about what he was trying to build… something about robotic animals. Bridge listened intently. Robotics had always fascinated him. When the other boy stopped talking long enough to take a breath, Bridge held out his hand.
“I’m Bridge Carson. First year cadet,” he introduced himself. The other boy’s face fell and he stammered a bit.
“I’m Boom. Not a cadet or anything. I just help out down in the labs. Kind of a guinea pig, I guess.” Bridge smiled.
“Sounds like fun!” he said. The other boy was silent, as if waiting for Bridge to say something else. Bridge wasn’t sure if there was some social norm he was missing. He did that a lot, actually, but a quick memory check revealed nothing. He didn’t know what he was supposed to do so he just stood there. The other boy shifted from foot to foot and finally looked up.
“Aren’t you going to make fun of my name?” he asked hesitantly. Bridge furrowed his brow.
“Why would I do that?” he asked. Boom looked surprised.
“Because… my name is Boom?” Bridge wasn’t sure it was supposed to be a question, but he flashed a big smile anyway.
“And my name is Bridge. Nice to meet you.” He held out his hand and they shook again. “Want to have breakfast with me? If I ask really nicely, the cafeteria ladies make my toast extra buttery!” Boom gave him a funny look, but hefted his full box in his hands and led the way down to the cafeteria. They stopped to drop off the box in the labs and Bridge had a sneaky suspicion he’d met that cat before, but they didn’t stop long enough for him to ask, and his mother said it was rude to ask about memory people anyway.
Bridge and Boom shared lunch together as well, and worked on a broken computer, and even went down to the library. Bridge discovered Boom hadn’t made it into the Academy and had instead been working in the labs for two years now. He was fifteen, so older than Bridge, but he didn’t seem to mind the age difference. They had a lot in common and Boom was the first person Bridge really seemed to connect with at the Academy. In his life altogether, if he was really honest with himself. Bridge had to beg off dinner, though. He’d promised his mom he’d go home for each night of Chanukah that first year. Boom had asked a lot of questions about that, but waved a jaunty goodbye when Bridge took off anyway.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Bridge returned three hours later, stuffed to the limits with latkes and content at having watched six candles plus the shamash burn down to nothing. He was always relaxed after that. He headed straight for his bunk, hoping his bunkmate wasn’t there. He was such a wet blanket and Bridge didn’t feel like being treated to recitations of passages from the handbook.
“Bridge! Hey, Bridge, wait up!” a voice called. He turned to see Boom trotting down the hall, a rectangular cardboard box in his hands. Bridge grinned.
“Hey, Boom,” he said. “What’s that?” He motioned to the box in Boom’s hands.
“Oh, it’s for you, actually. It’s a present. I made it myself.” Boom held the box out and Bridge took it eagerly. He led the way to his bunk and let Boom in, motioning for him to sit on the bed to the right. Boom bounced excitedly as Bridge sat next to him and studied the box.
“You didn’t have to get me a present!” he said.
“I wanted to! It’s your holiday and everybody should get a present. Besides, you were nice to me.” Bridge looked up suddenly. Boom looked a little sad.
“Aren’t the other people nice to you?” he asked. Boom shook his head.
“No, not really. Most of the cadets just ignore me. Some of them can be pretty mean though. Nobody here really wants to be my friend since I didn’t make the cut. I’m just a loser.”
“Hey, me too! Nobody wants to be my friend, either, and they all say I’m too weird! Now you and I can be friends and it doesn’t matter if nobody else wants to like us, because we’ll like each other.” Bridge supposed that came out sounding a little happier than he intended, but oh well. It made Boom smile and he finally had a friend.
“Go on, open it!” Boom exclaimed, pointing to the box. Bridge had almost forgotten he was holding it. He pulled back the flaps and pulled out a two slice toaster. It was an amalgamation of parts and had an extra long cord, but it was definitely a recognizable toaster.
“Look, look! I gave it an extension cord so you could keep it on your desk and still reach the outlet by the door. And I know it’s black and copperish, but those were the only spare casings we had down in the lab and I had to cut the black one to fit. There’s only four settings, but look here on the back. I put an automatic butter sprayer on it!” Bridge flipped the toaster around and stared in awe.
“You made this?” he asked. Boom nodded. “Just for me?”
“Well, you got all excited about that toast this morning, so I figured you must like it a lot.” Boom started to seem nervous about his gift, so Bridge smiled in reassurance.
“Thank you so much! I love it. Nobody besides my mom has ever made something so nice for me before.” He jumped up to get it all set up. It looked great right next to his computer. He beamed at Boom, who beamed right back.
“Happy Chan… Han… holiday. Happy holiday, Bridge,” he attempted, and Bridge burst out laughing. Happy holiday indeed.