Disclaimer: I don't own anything.
It was early in the afternoon and it was a busy day at Storm Chargers for Dustin, Hunter, and Blake were working as fast as they could to help the customers. It was the "End of the Season: Summer Sale's Event," and the store was packed with people. With shoppers pushing and shoving to get what they want, the three rangers had to work double time.
"Hey, guys!"
The three barely heard the greeting above the noise of the crowd. They glanced up to see Shane standing there waving at them.
"Hey!"
"Hi, Shane."
"Hey there."
They greeted before going back to work. Seeing the workload his friends had to cover, he offered his help to them, which they graciously took, and set himself to work.
Shane had been surprised to see the store packed upon his entrance and knew the guys would need some help, especially when Kelly was out sick. She had insisted to show up to at least help with the chaos, but her employees wouldn't allow it, saying how she has been working too hard and needed to rest. This left Kelly comfortably at home, and the guys struggling to keep up with the crowd. Now that Shane was helping them, a bit of the workload was taken off, but it wasn't enough.
Another hour went by since Shane offered his help when a flash of blue came up to the counter and greeted them.
"Hey, guys! This place sure is packed," Tori commented. "Need help?" She offered her help, never missing a heartbeat. Tori laughed when she saw them nodding their heads furiously.
With a grin and a shake of her head, she turned to face the crowd and began to yell over them. "Excuse me! If you would, purchases line up over here," she pointed to where Blake was stationed behind the register and then pointed towards Hunter's direction. "Returns and exchanges line up over there. If you have any questions regarding equipment..."
The guys breathed a sigh of relief as they watched the blonde taking control of the crowd. Everything was disorganized before she showed up, so thank their lucky stars she did!
"Oh, man!" Dustin cried out after helping a customer. "Tori's my hero!"
The guys nodded their heads in agreement, but Blake was the only who vocally responded. "I feel ya," Blake said after ringing up a customer. He let his eyes follow the blonde as she walked around the store repeating herself so the customers knew where to go and assisting them in any way that she can. Blake grinned at her helpfulness, how no matter how rude the customers would get, she spoke to them with a friendly smile.
He was soon pulled out of his trance when someone nudged him really hard on his shoulder.
"Ow!" He turned to see Hunter glaring at him.
"What?"
"Quit daydreaming and get back to work," he told him before returning to the customer before him.
Rubbing his sore spot, Blake turned to the customer before him and laughed nervously when he saw the irritation on their face.
He chuckled nervously. "Sorry about that." Blake punched in a series of buttons before saying, "That'll be $10.39."
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It was nearing 5 o' clock when the crowd finally settled down. Shane and Hunter were at the registers while Tori and Dustin were restocking the shelves leaving Blake to answer any questions the customers may have.
Once the clock hit 5, Dustin rushed over to the door and flipped the sign from "Open" to "Close." Soon the remaining customers left, and the rangers collapsed from exhaustion in the sitting room.
"Man, that was some crowd." Hunter sighed, stretching his arms over his head.
Dustin agreed. "Dude, I don't feel like doing anything for the rest of the day!"
At this, Tori sat up in her seat and looked at the guys. "Does that mean we're not going to hang out later?" The team had planned on hanging out that day. Just some good old fashioned ranger bonding, but their plans had been placed on hold when the store seemed to be the most popular place to be at for the day. What with Lothor being quiet for some time now, the rangers had decided to hang out together and have fun. Now it seems that they're going to have to reschedule.
"I don't know, Tor," came Blake's voice. "I'm pretty beat."
Tori frowned at this and saw that the guys looked exhausted. She was exhausted herself, but she was looking forward to just spending the rest of the day with her team. At that thought, she just realized something.
"Hey, Cam's suppose to be here." Tori commented. Even though there seemed to be a silent agreement that they weren't going to do anything for the rest of the day, the green ranger had agreed prior to that day that he was going to meet up with them. He wasn't aware of the sudden plan change.
Right on cue, the bell on the door rang, signaling the rangers of a newcomer. They all looked up to see Cam heading towards them. However, they all noticed that something was bothering him. He wasn't his usual calm, collected self.
"Hey, Cam," Shane greeted. "What's up?"
"Yeah, seriously, dude," said Dustin, lifting his head up to get a good view of him. "You looked pretty bugged out."
At this, Cam finally looked up at them, Dustin's comment having broken him out of his thoughts.
"Oh, hey, guys." Cam then thought over what Dustin had said and shook his head. "Oh, it's fine. It's nothing you need to worry about." Whatever was on his mind, he didn't want them to worry about it at the moment. He could tell them about it later. It wasn't like the sudden appearance of an unknown person collapsed right outside the waterfall was unusual. No, it was nothing.
Nothing to worry about.
Tori wasn't convinced at Cam's comment and voiced her thoughts. "Are you sure?" Tori asked, worry etched in her face.
Cam gave her a smile as reassurance. "It's fine." He paused and took a look at the rest of his teammates. They were all in a laidback position, finding comfort in the couches, a telltale sign that they had a hard day of work. "So are we not going to head out?" Cam asked, although, he already knew what the answer is going to be just by looking at them.
Hunter waved him off. "How 'bout tomorrow? I'm just too tired to do anything right now." As if to prove his point, he slumped even more into his seat.
There was a chorus of agreements from the other guys whereas Tori only looked up at Cam with an apologetic look.
"I'm sorry, Cam," Tori said. She felt guilty that he came all the way from Ninja Ops just to find out that they weren't going to do anything else for the remainder of the day. "If you want, we can still hang out. You and me." She didn't want his walk to the store to be a waste of time, and he realized this himself.
With a smile, Cam nodded. "Sure." He then turned to the rest of the gang, taking note that they were now watching with raised eyebrows, before saying, "So we'll meet outside Ninja Ops?"
There were mumbled "yeahs" as they watched Tori and Cam leave the store. An awkward silence fell over them once the door closed behind them, and it was Dustin who broke it.
"Dude... did that just happen?"
Shane reached over and slapped him upside the head. Dustin cried out in pain as Shane said, "Bro, shut up." He gave him a pointed look before nodding his head over towards Blake, who was staring after the two as he watched them walk out of sight. Surprise was written all over his face at what took place, and it wasn't until Hunter gave him a small nudge that he was broken out of his reverie.
"Bro, you alright?" Hunter asked. He knew his brother wouldn't be, but it was only right for him to ask. Although he knew what Tori's true intentions were, Hunter had a feeling that Blake's jealousy would be eating at him.
With a shake of his head, Blake crossed his arms. "Yeah, sure. I'm fine," he said in a tone in which they knew was the exact opposite of what he said. Hunter, Shane, and Dustin only looked at each other before chuckling, knowing full well how the navy ranger felt.
"You know," Dustin whispered, leaning over towards Hunter and Shane. "It's almost as if Blake took that love potion from before."
Hunter and Shane laughed whereas Blake only grumbled having heard what Dustin said. He remembered the incident when both Cam and himself had taken a love potion by accident and had fought for the affections of the resident blue ranger. The only difference this time is, other than the fact that a love potion isn't involved, that Blake doesn't have the guts to intervene between the two like he did when he was under the influence of the potion. Otherwise, Cam wouldn't be with Tori at the moment. It would've been Tori and -
"Hey, so we better lock up and head on out."
Broken out of his thoughts, Blake looked over to see Hunter getting up. He followed suit along with Shane and Dustin, both stretching as they got up from their seats.
"Yeah, man," Shane called out. "Then I'm going to head home, eat, shower, then hit the sack!"
"I hear ya!" Dustin agreed.
They all looked around, making sure that everything is in place and in tip-top shape. After locking the register and turning out the lights, the guys all filed out of the store with Dustin in tow to lock the doors. Once the doors were locked, they walked some distance away from the store before saying their goodbyes to each other and going their separate ways, looking forward to a goodnight's rest.
Now this is the real chapter one in case you have read my first chapter one before this! I was obviously loopy when I had switched my first two chapters. So. Now that I'm done talking.. Review!
