Florida's Stories

CHAPTER 1 - Beginning

**Date- October 16th 2021**
(florida pov)
It's been a month and a half since I talked to Montana or Jersey or Pizza. I honestly believe I should just give up on stuff ever going my way. Or even being normal. Life is weird. Other than that, stuff's been pretty good (but also weird) recently.
I have noticed that I'm beginning to get more cautious around Ariz without my consent. We used to hang around all the time and jump on the trampoline with brownies and flush Colo's pickles to make him mad. Since I last saw Montana and Pizza, I've lost interest in making the Picke Squad mad and instead focused on basketball. I think Zordon's the only one who knows I enjoy basketball.
Earlier this week, I had somehow attracted a hurricane and a tsunami trying to eat me. I get those all the time, and they sometimes make me feel sick, but they'd never literally chased me. I mean, they were AFTER me, they wanted to kill me. They followed me all over the place, and I tried to juke them and everything. Normally they would go in one direction, not follow me.
And since I have a REALLY bad memory, I forget what it was that was going on with Ariz, but what I do remember was that something bad was going on, and I was really trying to get everyone to help Ariz, assuring myself that I completely can handle all of my problems. But on the other hand, when they actually went to help Ariz, I knew I didn't got it like I said I did, and ended up utterly failing. Like always...
The next part, I don't remember how it happened, but I somehow ended up on Venus. I don't exactly remember why I went or how I got there. I think I stole Zordon's jetpack after my flag switched, and then I flew there to chuck chunks of fire at the Sun. Don't ask me why, because my answer is stupid. I enjoyed having a fight with someone I can't lose to. Then Zordon found me and the sun just looked like it was about to explode.
And then I don't know what happened after that, but it was definitely a weird day for me, as I'd only changed flags once before and I'd never been able to pick up fire and physically throw it. I threw chunks of ice at the sun that day, too.
That's what I was thinking about as I rode my bike back to the house from the park. I enjoy going there to play basketball and explore in the forest. I feel as if that's the only place I can be free from attention. I mean, I want attention and all, but as the second-youngest, I figure there's almost no way I'm getting any, so why bother?
In the forest, I like to let out my energy and craziness, and since I'm alone, no one can tell me what to do. At home, it's always "don't bother Ariz," or "go away, Flori!". Here, I don't have to listen to anyone because no one's there! I've been going to the forest since Ariz was a month old. That was when I learned to walk.
I know that's pretty weird to see a little kid out and about at the park without a grown-up, but I don't really think anyone in my family other than Zordon really cares anyway, and Zordon's always busy with Ariz and probably thinks I'm in my room. I don't think anyone knows I even go to the forest in the first place. And I hope they never find out. Especially because I got hurt there yesterday. Yesterday, I was swinging on this green thing hanging from a tree, and I saw this pair of scissors just flying around, and all of a sudden, it cut the vine and I fell. I hurt the back of my head really bad, and I felt dizzy for a moment, before blacking out and waking up a half hour later with a giant bruise on the back of my head...I've been covering it with a hat, and luckily, no one at home has noticed it yet, so I think I'm good. But something tells me it wasn't a normal scissor...I think it was from some alternate world.

**Date- October 17th 2021**
It's come to my attention that it's starting to get a bit cold in the forest. Today, I forgot to look at whatever the heck the weather decided to do to me today, and as soon as I got there, it started raining this really cold rain, and the temperature dropped to like 40 degrees Fahrenheit (or 4.4 degrees Celsius), which rarely happens to me.
I was obviously really cold, so I grabbed a bunch of leaves and hid under a pile. That is, until I heard footsteps.
The leaves crunched, that's how I could tell someone walked by. It sounded like a kid probably about my age, and the footsteps sounded pretty familiar to me.
I was careful to stay completely still and silent, even though I didn't exactly know who it was. After I could tell the person was gone, I decided to go to the indoor basketball court instead of staying in the forest, because it was raining and I didn't wanna get hurt.
As I pushed open the doors to the gym, I felt weird, because there were usually a bunch of teenagers here playing basketball, but this time, it was empty and the lights were off. I didn't know if I was allowed in or not, so I figured my only option was to head back home.
I decided to walk this time, and I had to make sure to hold my hat with me because the winds were strong that day. When I reached the door, I could hear yelling from outside. I pushed the door open and it got louder.
I could tell it was coming from upstairs, so I walked up there and leaned my ear to Ariz's room door. It got louder, and I immediately knew something was going on with him.
"Where were you?!" a Zordon-like voice yelled.
"I was just in the backyard!!!" Ariz cried.
"You're lying! I know you are! I looked in the backyard! I was worried sick! What if you
were to get a concussion or break your leg? No one would know!" Zordon yelled back. "I'm sorry..." Ariz mumbled.
I could hear someone walking to the door, so I pretended nothing had happened and just leaned my back against the door and grabbed my tablet from the pile of random stuff near me. "Oh, hey Flori," Zordon said upon walking out of Ariz's room. He walked away, and Ariz
came out.
He looked kind of hurt, but not in a physical way. His glowing, red wings sagged down
against his back, his halo was dull, and his skin was kind of pale. "What happened?" I asked, staring at him.
"Zordon is mad at me cuz I went away from home," he replied. "Why'd you go away?" I asked.
He shrugged. "I checked your room and you weren't there. Figured you must've gone somewhere else."
My mouth dropped open. Surely he couldn't know about me and the forest, could he?
"Don't do that again," I warned him. "I really don't wanna get in trouble for this, and if you tell on me, I will be very mad."
He was silent. "Can we eat brownies?"
I lit up. "Sure!"
So, we walked to the kids only room and I stole some brownies from the kitchen. As we
ate them, we kinda just sat there in silence. We didn't jump on the trampoline or go in the vent, we didn't play around or flush pickles. Or fight with fake swords. Which was weird.