Andros wandered through the Megaship not caring where he was going. After his happiness at having his friend back, he was starting to feel a little depressed and more than a little jealous. Zhane spent a lot of his time on Earth. Andros didn't mind. What bothered him was that when Zhane was on the Megaship, he spent most of his time with Ashley, and Ashley spent most of her time with Zhane. Whenever he saw them together, Andros wanted to run over and yank them apart.
From listening to the others talk, he had figured out that he liked Ashley. If Ashley liked him back, then they could go out. That meant that they would be boyfriend and girlfriend. That was what Andros wanted. But it was more complicated than that. For one thing, he couldn't figure out if Ashley liked him. For another, even if she did, he wasn't sure at all if he could have the courage to ask her to go out with him.
"Hey, Carlos, have you seen Ashley?" he asked as he passed the black ranger in the halls.
"Oh, yeah, I just saw her. She's in the engine room."
Andros nodded and kept walking. He went over what he would say in his mind and tried out a couple out loud. He thought it all sounded stupid, but if he didn't ask Ashley out, he at least wanted to see her. When he got to the open door of the engine room, he stopped cold.
Ashley was there, but Zhane was with her. He was standing behind her and one arm was wrapped around her shoulder. The other went around her waist and the front of her stomach.
"Andros tries to teach me sometimes," Ashley was saying. "But I don't think I learn fast enough."
"Andros teaches you telekinisis?" Zhane sounded surprised.
"On some nights," Ashley said. "But we haven't done it for awhile."
"I could help you," Zhane said. "If you want."
Ashley nodded. "I'd like that."
Andros stormed away. He didn't want to hear what else Ashley wanted Zhane to help her with. He had never been angrier with Zhane. He spent the rest of the day sulking in the workbay.
Around dinnertime, Zhane came by. "Are you eating with us?"
"No." Andros didn't look up.
"Why not?"
"I don't want to."
"Is something wrong?"
"No," Andros snapped. "Leave me alone."
Zhane looked wounded. "What did I do?"
"If you don't know, then you're not much of a friend."
Zhane rolled his eyes at the stupidity of that last remark. "Is this about something I did?"
"Yes."
"Will you tell me what I did?"
"No."
Zhane sighed. This was going to take awhile. "Fine, then I'll stay here and guess."
Twenty minutes and several obscure guesses later, Andros' temper finally snapped. Halfway through Zhane's "Did I reprogram Deca to like me?" Andros snapped, "You spend too much time with Ashley."
"Ashley and I are just friends," Zhane protested. He was trying hard to keep from laughing. It was blatantly obvious to everyone on the Megaship except Ashley herself that Andros was interested in her. Back on KO-35, lots of girls had liked Andros, but he had never shown any interest. This was something new.
"You two looked happy earlier."
"Look, man, I know that you like her," Zhane said. "I'm not trying to come between you two."
