Late May 1997

A skinny girl with coal black shoulder length hair walked into the gym with her eyes locked on the balance beam. This girl was pretty, popular on the gymnastics team and everyone liked her. However, this girl wasn't what she appeared to be. She always had to be number one at everything and if anyone was even a little better than she was, they were in trouble. Sarah Beth Huffman couldn't stand to be the second best and she would do whatever she had to do remain number one.

"Travis, is anyone looking?" Sarah Beth asked as she pulled out two cans of cooking spray out of her backpack. "I've been planning this for weeks and this can't fail!"

A chunky boy with dark brown hair looked out door window. "Everything is clear!" he promised giving her a thumb up. "Go for it!"

Sarah Beth walked to the balance beam opening both can. "Say good bye to your chance of competing in the Pan Global Games, Kimberly Hart!" Sarah Beth cackled as she slowly began to spray the cooking spray all over the balance beam. "By the time Coach Schmidt see's this he'll be sure to kick you off the team." She walked around the balance beam until it was completely slippery. With an evil smirk on her face she put the cans back in her back pack.

"Sarah Beth, the coast is clear," Travis assured her as he was keeping watch. Sarah Beth quickly followed Travis out of the gym. "Just, so you know, I was wondering how much longer I'd have to pretend to be Kimberly's boyfriend. The only things I liked about her was that you can tell her anything and it won't go any farther and she is pretty-"

Sarah Beth looked at her boyfriend with disgust. "-but no one is prettier than you," he promised. The only reasons why Travis liked Kimberly was because she helped him improve his gymnastics skills after Coach Schmidt had them practice together. After she had known her for six months, he asked her out. But, they were only for selfish reasons. He wanted to speed up the process in Sarah Beth's plan, so he could get her off the team. He also wanted to be able to dump her on the day Sarah Beth put her plan into action. But, he was cheating on her the whole time. He secretly dated Sarah Beth after curfew hours and they'd sneak out and go to movies and to restaurants. They didn't have to worry about getting back into the facility because Sarah Beth's mother was the nurse. She stole her mom's spare key to facility, so she could unlock the door when they came back. "I'm glad she'll be out of here by tonight."

They walked into the girls' locker room and stepped inside. When they walked in the heard Kimberly singing in the shower in the last shower. Sarah Beth smirked when she saw Kimberly was shower at the back of the room. This would be like taking candy from a baby. Travis cut the lock off Kimberly's locker and Sarah Beth put a can along with the poncho she wore while she sprayed the balance beam to prevent it from getting on her warm up suit. He handed Sarah Beth a new combination lock and it was put on Kimberly's locker.

A tall girl with dirty blonde hair was sitting at a desk studying and she heard a knock at the door. The girl walked over to the door and opened it. "Sarah Beth, I was getting worried," the girl said as Sarah Beth and Travis walked in. "What took you so long?"

"We were behind schedule," Sarah Beth explained while glaring at Travis. He left the cooking spray in his dorm and we had to go back and get it.

"Why couldn't you store it in your dorm room?" Travis questioned watching Sarah Beth get out newspaper and the other can of cooking spray. She laid the can under Kimberly's bed and covered it with newspaper.

"Travis, you how dumb are you?!" grimaced Sarah Beth while she finished hiding the evidence. "You don't have a roommate and I do. Mandy helped me plan this weeks ago. And you were also hiding the special succors that I bought at Wal-Mart for the last month in your room."

"I thought you were Kimberly's friend-"

"- the only reason I was her friend was because she helped me with my homework!" Mandy hissed when Travis mentioned her roommates name. "And she also let me borrow some of her spare leotards, when Coach Schmidt told me that mine were worn out and I needed to get new ones."

Sarah Beth waved her hands in the air. "You two can argue later!" she declared. "Let's go tell Coach Schmidt and get little Miss Prefect kicked off the team. You all know what you are supposed to do and say. Right?!" Both shook their heads yes and followed her out the door.

Coach Schmidt hear a knock on his door. "Come in!" he answered, and Sarah Beth, Mandy, and Travis walked in.

"Coach Schmidt, you have to check the balance beam before practice tomorrow morning!" Sarah Beth pleaded as her coach looked at her with concern. "Mandy and Travis are worried too. Kimberly Hart sprayed cooking spray on the balance beam! I saw her put on a poncho and two cans of cooking spray. I asked her what she was doing with it and she told me it was none of my business."

"WHAT?!" gasped Coach Schmidt looking up at them dropping his pen. "When did all this happen?! Can you prove it was her?"

"Coach, Sarah Beth is telling the truth!" Mandy lied with tears streaming down her face as she took a seat. "I saw Kimberly with two cans of cooking spray. She said she was going to hide one of the cans in our dorm room. I promised her that I wouldn't tell. But, I had to tell. I am scared that someone would get seriously hurt if I didn't."

"I hate to admit this," Travis began as he put on his fake worried face. "She told me about the plan when we were on a date last night. She said she was buying a new combination lock and replacing it with her old one. She is hiding one of the cans in her gym locker!"

Coach Schmidt got up from his desk. "I'm going to go check the balance beam and then I'll will be dealing with Ms. Hart!"

"Coach Schmidt, please don't tell anyone we told," Sarah Beth requested as she wiped the tears from her eyes. "Just do whatever you think is right."

Meanwhile, Kimberly turned off the warm shower and stepped out on the fluffy bath mat. She slipped on her pink bath robe and fluffy pink slippers. Then she walked over to her locker and began to turn the dial. After turning to the third number and didn't hear a click. "I guess I made a mistake," she guessed while she began to turn the dial again. Her heart began to pound as she slowly rotated the dial to 22 clockwise, then counter clockwise to 38, and finally clockwise to 45. The lock didn't open. How was this possible? No one knew her combination other than Coach Schmidt. But, it was a rule that all athletes bought their own combination lock and gave Coach Schmidt combination.

Suddenly, the door slammed open and Coach Schmidt came marching in the locker room hot steaming mad. "MS. HART! I'VE JUST BEEN INFORMED THAT YOU SPRAYED COOKING SPRAY ON THE BLANANCE BEAM!" Coach Schmidt exploded as he unleashed his anger.

"I don't know what you are talking about!" Kimberly gasped as she began to tremble. "This is all a miss understanding."

The janitor walked in and cut the lock off Kimberly's locker. Coach Schmidt opened her locker and his eyes landed on the poncho and the can of spray. "HOW DO YOU EXPLIAN THIS!?" shouted the coach. "WHAT WAS YOUR PLAN? DID YOU THINK THIS WAS A PRANK? WERE YOU TRYING TO SABTOGE MY TEAM!?"

"I don't know how this got here. Please believe me," Kimberly pleaded as her heart sank. Who hated her this much that they'd try to hurt her? "I promise you that I'd never-"

Coach Schmidt grabbed Kimberly by the arm and pulled her out of the locker room. "-We're going to go check your dorm room," he interrupted. "I bet you are hiding something in there too." They walked down the hall, and everyone stopped walking to their destination place. Their eyes were locked on Coach Schmidt escorting Kimberly to her dorm room.

When they reached her dorm room, Coach Schmidt pulled out a set of keys. While Coach Schmidt was going through his keys, Kimberly noticed that each key had the dorm room numbers on them. He stopped when he got to 205 and he unlocked the door. Once they entered the room, Coach Schmidt asked Kimberly to take a seat on her bed. He started to open each dresser drawer and look through them. Then he looked through her book bag, her closet, and then he walked into the dorm room's bath room." Ms. Hart, please show me where your bath supply is," he requested while glaring at her.

Kimberly walked to right side of the room and opened it. Coach Schmidt walked over to her bathroom closet and saw it only had her bath supplies, dental hygiene items, bath towels, a make-up kit, stay frees, a hair drier, and hair supplies. His eyes narrowed when he saw a laundry basket sitting on the floor. "Sir, I promise you that I don't have anything," Kimberly assured him. She had never felt so invaded in her life. He went through her underwear drawer and her sock drawer, he went through her bathroom closet and now he dumped the laundry basket on the floor. She kneeled and started put her dirty clothes back in the laundry basket.

"Ms. Hart, I want to check underneath your bed," Coach Schmidt demanded through clenched teeth. Kimberly got up and went to her bed and lifted the covers up. Underneath the bed was tons of newspaper. He kneeled and pulled out all the newspaper. Then he saw it. A can of cooking spray was underneath her bed. "I KNEW IT! YOU DID HAVE A CAN IN HERE!"

"Coach Schmidt, I didn't," Kimberly while she was trying to fight back tears. "Please believe me-"

"I DON'T WANT TO HEAR YOUR LIES!" Coach Schmidt yelled pointing towards Kimberly's closet. "I work hard to train people to compete in the Pan Global Games and I can't have a trouble maker on my team. I thought you'd be perfect for my team when I met you back in Angel Grove. You had the talent and you put a lot of time into your gymnastics. But, after seeing what you truly are, I guess I was wrong. You're a liar and you are only out for yourself. I can't believe I didn't see it sooner. I want you to pack your things and leave. You are off the team!"

"NO!" Kimberly cried as tears streamed down her face. "This was a scam. I bet someone planned this-"

"I don't want to hear your excuses! Just pack your things and leave! I never want to see your face again."

She packed up her things and walked out of the dorm. As she walked down the hall, she bumped into Travis. "Kimberly, I've just heard about what you did," Travis started while trying to keep a straight face. "I can't believe you'd do such a thing. I'm breaking up with you because I can't let a person like you ruin my reputation."

Before Kimberly could say anything, he quickly walked away. For the last several hours, she had no idea where she was going. All she knew was that she wanted to leave Florida. As she reached the door, she opened one of her rolling suit case bags, where she kept her college letters. She was so thankful Coach Schmidt didn't go through any of them. If he had, he'd probably shred those letters. She had an acceptance letter from MIT, University of Florida, and Angel Grove University. She didn't even both to look at the letter from Florida. She looked at the Angel Grove University letter and the letter from MIT. None of her friends were in Angel Grove, she had no family there, and she didn't want to be involved with the ranger business again. Finally, she made her though decision about where she'd go to college at. MIT would be a fresh new start.

August 1997

Everything at MIT had been nice and smooth. Kimberly requested to have her own room because she didn't trust having a roommate because Mandy betrayed her. She was even wary of making friends because of being , things quickly changed on her first day of class. She over slept and only had half an hour to get ready for class. In the hall passed someone who looked familiar. He was tall and handsome. This boy looked a lot like Tommy, but his hair was cut short and it was spiked. Maybe her eyes were just playing tricks on her? There was no way this boy was Tommy.

She walked into her history class and saw blonde middle-aged man sitting at his desk. "My name is Mr. Howard," greeted the man as he shook Kimberly's plan. "What is your name?"

"Kimberly Hart."

"Okay, Ms. Hart please go take a seat next to the boy with the dark spiky hair," instructed Mr. Howard. "That will be your seat for the semester."

She took a seat next to the boy and looked at her watch. She was on time with two minutes to spare. Mr. Howard began to take roll. He read the names in alphabetical order. After he called her name, he called Tommy Oliver. Her eyes weren't playing tricks on her after all. It was Tommy. Her heart sank, and her guilt began to kick in. How could she dumb and dumped him for Travis? If she hadn't have broken up with Tommy, she'd never be in this mess to begin with. He would have been there for her when she was kicked off the team. She knew she hurt him terribly when she wrote that stupid letter. But, how could she make amends? When she went to Angel Grove, he was already with Kat. It was so hard for her to even talk to him because of the letter. During the whole period the teacher gave a long lecture about his class. Even though it was boring, she didn't have to worry about having a chance to for Tommy to talk to her.

Tommy walked into his skin and scuba diving class and headed to the locker room. He had been thinking about Kimberly for the last hour and a half. They were at the same college and they had a class together. He really wanted to talk to her. But, he didn't know how to start a conversation with her. She was probably still dating that boy she mentioned in the letter. But, he wasn't with Kat anymore. They thought that they were better off as friends. Hopefully during the semester he'd get a chance to talk to her. He walked into the boys' locker room and changed into a pair of flesh tone swimming trunks. Tommy put his clothes in the locker and headed out to the pool. He saw Kimberly was also in that class. She was dressed in a light pink one-piece swimsuit and she still looked so beautiful.

The dark haired tall man about 30 stood in front of the pool with a clip board in his hands. "My name is Coach Jackson," introduced the coach. "In this class we will be learning all kinds of diving. Later, we will be doing beginner scuba diving. When we start scuba diving I want everyone to get with a partner. You and your partner will help you spot critters, stick by you, and they will be your partner in safety Everyone must purchase their own fins, mask, snorkel, wetsuit, diving boots and six to eight pound weight belt for the course."

Tommy's heart leap as soon as he heard that news. That would be the perfect way to strike up a conservation with her. He moved into his dorm over the weekend and he was lonely. He hadn't had time to make a friend because he didn't have a roommate and he was walking around campus to learn where each of his classes were. At the end of class, he caught her before she headed to the locker room. "Kimberly, I was wondering if you'd be my diving partner," he said nervously while butterflies were flying around in his stomach.