A/N: Hello readers. I hope you are all doing well. This is my first attempt at humor, so I hope I did okay. I was inspired by the episode in which Mike tricks Antonio by putting cat food in his trail mix. Hope you enjoy the story!
Oh, and if you're wondering who Eve is, she is introduced in the first chapter of What We Don't Know, another one of my stories (currently on hiatus). She is mainly in the story just to help move the plot the way I want it to while (hopefully) keeping the other characters in character.
Italics = flashback.
It was quiet in the Shiba house.
Too quiet.
The breeze could be heard rustling through the leaves outside, as well as the steady thwack! thwack! of Jayden's sword hitting the training dummies. Mia and Mike were getting food from the store and Antonio was off fishing. Emily, Eve, and Kevin were reading in the meeting room. Ji was pleased. Yesterday had been the exact opposite of this peaceful moment.
"Get back here Mike!"
"Ahhhhhhhhh!"
"I swear if I catch you…"
"Would someone HELP ME?"
"WHAT is going on here?" Ji demanded, stepping into the fray. The house was in shambles. Mike was trying to dodge Antonio, who was chasing him with a furious look on his face. Rice and oatmeal covered the floor. Mia was on the ground with something clumped in her hair. Kevin was standing next to her, holding a broken bowl that was dripping the same mixture. Chairs were overturned and a tackle box's contents were spilled out across the floor. Jayden and Emily stood at the edge of the scene. Jayden looked slightly amused, Emily shocked. Eve was in the middle of the room tangled in- fishing wire?
At the sight of Ji the chaos halted. Eve, Kevin, and Mia glared at Antonio and Mike with a mixture of annoyance and anger. Then everyone turned to look at Ji with varying degrees of guilt and frustration written on their faces.
"What is going on here?" Ji repeated, his tone icy.
The rangers looked at each other, trying to find a way to explain what had caused the chaos.
"A prank gone wrong?" Antonio suggested weakly.
Ji closed his eyes and sighed. Antonio and Mike had been waging a six week prank war that included everything from cat food to shaving cream to hidden alarm clocks. Frankly, Ji was tired of it, especially since his house was trashed- again.
"Mia, go clean your hair. Mike and Antonio, come outside with me." The boys slunk out the door. "The rest of you- clean up this mess," Ji ordered, heading outside to lecture the pranksters.
"Now boys," Ji began, staring at Mike and Antonio, "I understand having fun once in a while, but this has gone too far. I want you to stop the pranks and refocus on your training."
"Yes, Ji." The boys nodded.
"I'm serious. I don't want any more pranks from you. Now go get in your training clothes. I have some new fighting skills I want to teach you." Ji ordered.
Inside, Kevin, Emily, Jayden and Eve were cleaning up the massive mess. Eve was still a bit put out at having been entangled in the fishing wire, and Kevin was sick of cleaning up after the pranks.
Mike and Antonio walked in. "Care to help?" Kevin asked.
"Ji wants us to train," Mike replied. He surveyed the room. "Wow, this is a mess. It looks like a hurricane blew through."
"Yeah, Hurricanes Mike and Antonio," Jayden muttered.
"Did you guys get in trouble?" Emily asked, concerned.
"Nah, Mentor just told us to lay off the pranks," Antonio replied, heading to his room.
Kevin shook his head. Mentor let them off easy, he thought, grabbing a broom to sweep the floor. Emily followed him with a dustpan. They passed Eve, who was staring thoughtfully at the sink in the kitchen.
"I'm a little tired of this," Kevin complained uncharacteristically. "We're not involved in these pranks, but we have to clean up while the guys escape with only a warning from Mentor."
"It is getting annoying," Emily agreed.
"Guys…" Eve turned to them slowly. "Mentor said that they couldn't play any more pranks…"
"Yeah?" Emily and Kevin looked at her expectantly.
"He never said anything about us pulling one," she finished with a gleam in her eyes.
"What do you mean?" Kevin asked.
Emily caught on. "You mean a little payback? In the name of fun?"
Eve nodded.
Kevin considered this. "What do you have in mind?"
"I'm not sure," Eve admitted frowning. The three returned to cleaning, determined to come up with a good prank.
Jayden paused from his training and wiped the sweat off his face. He had been working for three hours and was starting to get very thirsty.
"Ji, I'm going to get a glass of water," he said.
"Alright. You have earned a break" Ji nodded his permission.
Jayden headed inside to the kitchen. On his way in he noticed Emily, Kevin, and Eve reading in the meeting room. "Hey guys."
"Hey Jayden" Kevin said looking up briefly from his book. Emily glanced up, smiled, and refocused her attention on what she was reading. Eve nodded.
Jayden continued on to the kitchen and got a drink of water. Mia and Mike had returned from the store and were putting the food away. "Hi Jayden" Mia greeted. She opened the fridge and frowned. "That's weird- I made a whole gallon of lemonade last night and now its gone."
"Maybe somebody drank it." Mike said sarcastically.
"I didn't drink any." Jayden said. "Maybe the others did."
He walked back to the meeting room. "Did any of you guys drink Mia's lemonade?" He asked.
The trio shook their heads quickly, not making eye contact with him. They looked disinterested but Jayden could detect a hint of amusement on their faces.
Come to think of it, they looked like cats who swallowed the canary. That was odd.
"I wonder where a whole gallon of lemonade could have gone." Jayden said carefully, watching their reactions. Eve, keeping her eyes trained on her book, lifted on shoulder in a shrug, her face a mask of boredom. Kevin coughed slightly and shifted in his chair. Emily struggled to bite back a smile as she turned a page in her book.
At that moment Antonio walked in followed by Ji. "Hi guys! Mentor said we could have a cook out with all the fish I caught!"
"Antonio, you go get what you need from the kitchen." Ji said. "I will go start the grill."
"NO!" Kevin exploded. He looked at Eve and Emily with a slightly panicked expression. "Um, I mean..."
"Mentor, you've been working too hard lately," Eve cut in smoothly. "I'm sure Antonio is capable of starting the grill all by himself."
"But I was going to clean the fish!" Antonio complained as Mike and Mia entered the room.
"We can do that for you." Eve replied gesturing to Emily and Kevin.
"You? Clean fish? Do you even know how to clean fish?" Mike asked in disbelief.
"Eve, what is going on?" Ji asked, narrowing his eyes.
"Nothing Mentor! What, I can't do something nice for my good friend Antonio?" Eve replied, her eyes wide with mock innocence. "What is this dojo coming to?" She flipped her hair over her shoulder dramatically and marched out the door.
Kevin and Emily got up and followed her quickly. On the way out Jayden's eyes met Emily's. He raised his eyebrows in question. She shook her head slightly, her eyes dancing with mirth, then followed Kevin outside.
"What was that?" Mia asked him, confused.
"Eve is definitely up to something." He muttered. "She was putting on a performance. She does that when she is up to something."
Eve couldn't help it- as soon as she got outside she started laughing.
"Dramatic much?" Kevin asked, unable to keep from grinning.
"That was a bit much." Eve admitted freely.
"Do you know how to clean fish?" Emily asked.
Eve nodded. "I also know how to" Kevin added.
"We probably should get started then. We don't want to make them any more suspicious." Emily suggested.
They began cleaning the fish Antonio had left out on the picnic table. Antonio walked out a few minutes later. "Thanks for helping me guys." He said, heading over to the grill.
As he lifted the top back, two things happened simultaneously. A string tied to the handle grew taught, and snapped, causing five water balloons filled with grape juice to fall from the pavilion's ceiling, hit Antonio, and explode. Two super-soaker water guns were hidden inside the grill, rigged to go off when the grill top was pushed back. They drenched Antonio in ice cold lemonade.
"Gaah!" Antonio sputtered, pure shock written on his face. Eve and Emily burst into laughter and even Kevin couldn't help chuckling.
At that moment Mike walked out of the dojo followed by Ji. Jayden had been standing at the edge of the yard, watching the scene.
"What is going on here?" Ji demanded.
"Antonio- he- and-" Emily choked out between laughs.
"They pulled a prank on Antonio." Jayden came forward.
"Nice one! Thanks guys!" Mike grinned, going to high-five Emily. She held up her hand.
"Sorry Mike." She said, reaching down and pulling a string that was tied to the bench. "The joke's on you." The string was attached to a bucket that was balancing on a tree branch above Mike. Tomato sauce poured out, drenching him.
"Guys, have you seen the tomato sauce?" Mia asked, coming outside. "I wanted to make spaghetti and- oh."
She took in the sight of Mike and Antonio covered in the missing food. Kevin and Jayden were trying not to laugh and were failing miserably. Emily was laughing so hard she was gasping for breath while Eve was bent over, clutching the table for support as she laughed.
Ji did not look amused. "I told you no more pranks!"
"You told Mike and Antonio no more pranks." Eve pointed out after she had caught her breath. "You never said anything to us."
"Besides, we were just getting a little harmless payback." Emily added. "We had to clean up after every one of their pranks while they got off free."
Ji shook his head. "Well, as of now, none of you will pull any more pranks." He declared. "Now clean this up." He headed inside, still shaking his head.
Jayden walked over to Emily. "That was a good one. When did you guys set it up?"
We did it early this morning before training." Emily responded, reaching down to pick up the broken water balloons.
Jayden shook his head. "You'd think I would have noticed that."
"Guess the joke was on you, too." She grinned.
Oh my goodness! It took me two months to type this! I am so excited to finally get this up! Please review- I accepted any feedback gratefully and happily. Hope you enjoyed this little one-shot!