AN: I do not own Power Rangers Samurai.

Also thank you so much everyone who has reviewed, you guys are the best.

Chapter 3: Shopping Plaza Craziness

"Oh! Hey this is our stop!" I exclaimed, as I tugged on the line that gives the signal to the bus driver.

The guys looked at me confused, but Mia knew exactly what was going on, in fact she was already half-way out the door. I knew I didn't have time to explain, so I mumbled something about shoes and then made my way to the door.

The guys, still unsure of what was going on, quickly followed behind us.

Mike, Jayden, and Kevin were all grumbling about getting off where we weren't supposed to, since we were all supposed to go to lunch at the new pizza place downtown and this definitely wasn't downtown.

"Hey guys weren't we…" Kevin started, but was interrupted by his stomach, making us all stop and stare before he could finish with his question, "Where are we getting lunch exactly?"

Mia and I were hungry too, but lunch was one of the last things on our minds we still had to get shoes and make-up and even figure out what we were going to do with our hair. All we could talk about since we got the okay from Jayden to go to Prom was our old friends and what we thought they would be wearing and what they would say about our dresses. Because yes, we wanted to look like princesses, but we wanted to be princesses that our old friends still recognized. We wanted everything to be like it was before we ere rangers.

"We have to get some things first," Mia explained, as we took off again towards our favorite shoe store.

Jayden rolled his eyes, "For?"

Even if he had agreed to let us go, he was still a guy. A guy that would have no idea why we girls had to look perfect for this once in a lifetime event.

I answered, "For me and Mia when we have our night out."

The boys groaned and Mike asked the one question I was hoping he wouldn't, "What is this night out about anyway?"

I took a deep breath and watched as Mia opened her mouth and then shut it again. Looking at her, I could see she was struggling with what to say. She hated lying.

So that left me to do the dirty work, which was a struggle, because I knew looking into Mike's eyes that if I said anything it would be the truth.

I knew I couldn't tell him about prom, and I knew that I couldn't lie to him. I told him everything, well apart from the fact that I was falling in love with him, but that doesn't count. So, how could I keep Mia and I going to prom a secret from him? That's why I had spent most of my time trying to avoid this one question. I asked him about video games, why the grass had to be mowed twice a week at the dojo instead of just once, I asked whatever I could to keep him away from anything that even resembled the word prom. Still, I couldn't avoid it forever.

"They're going to be in the beauty pageant here next Thursday," Jayden jumped in, saving the day. I almost wanted to hug him for saving Mia and I, but at the same time I wanted to kill him. There was no way Mike was going to buy that. And if he did he would want to see it with his own two eyes. There was no way I was going to live that down..

"A beauty pageant? Really?" I didn't like the tone of Mike's voice when he said that.

"I could be in a beauty pageant," the words came out of my mouth before I realized what I was even saying.

"Emily? Are you sure about that?" Mike laughed, but I didn't see what was so funny. I know I wasn't the best at a lot of things, but I looked half-way decent and I could get away with being in a beauty pageant if I had to.

"You better be careful Mike, you might get on Emily's bad side, and we don't need you to be recovering from an injury while we're all out fighting monsters," Mia tried to stop the conversation with a little humor, but it was a little too late.

After a few minutes of silence, I didn't meet his eyes, but I confronted him, "Why couldn't I be in a pageant? Am I not pretty enough? Huh? Am I not talented enough? What?"

"Em… It's not like that. It's just… You're not the right type of girl for a beauty pageant," this time I made contact with his eyes, letting him know that he was a big fat jerk for saying that, he winced and continued, "I just mean that you're not snobby and obsessed with puking your guts out to fit inside a size that doesn't exist. Besides you don't need a beauty pageant to prove that you're beautiful and talented and amazing. And if this is all because of the guy you like, then I say you forget about him for not being able to see what's right in front of him. You're gorgeous inside and out."

I blushed and nodded thinking over all the words he'd just said, and treasuring them like they were the most incredible words that had ever been spoken. Even if they weren't, they were certainly enough to get my heart racing. Finally, I turned around so that we could continue walking towards the shoe store, only to see a special news report going on about the disappearances of girls who were getting ready for Prom.

It figures. Of course, Dayu probably decided this was a good time to make a prom dress, since she couldn't have her wedding dress. The worst part was. I recognized some of the missing people. There were a few I didn't, but there were actually people from my High School.

It almost made me want to call quits on the whole prom thing because I really would be putting my friends life's at stake. And then… There was another part of me that wanted to go, so I could get Dayu's attention and then kick her butt for good.

"That whole Prom thing doesn't sound so good, we'll probably have to investigate," Kevin suggested, and I bit my lip.

When we finally arrived at the Shoe store I completely switched over to shopping mode, and Mia and were gone for the next two hours while the boys decided to take a walk. So we took our time getting shoes, accessories, and a few last minute make-up products that we would need for a few ideas we had come up with the day before when we were flipping through a magazine our friends always used to buy.

It was just before we met up with the guys that we looked up and saw the poster for the modeling competition.

The old saying, 'Everything that can go wrong, will go wrong,' totally applied.

"Oh, no…" Mia face palmed.

The fact that there really was going to be a beauty competition down here was going to make things even harder.

Mia and I looked to each other nervously and we started to panic even more when we saw the guys coming towards us. We knew that they were starved, we knew that Mike and Kevin were not going to let us get away us getting all this stuff and then not being in the competition, and we knew that we had run out of options.

When they reached us we both smiled, and then Mia grabbed my hand and dragged me all the way to the other end of the shopping plaza where there was this sushi vendor that kept yelling and reminding me that I had eaten anything at all today. Kevin, Mike and Jayden stared at us for a moment or two waiting for us to come back and explain why we had avoided them. I was wondering the same thing. All I'd done was follow Mia's lead.

"We can hire someone!" Mia exclaimed with this crazy look on her face.

Blinking a couple time I waited for her to explain, "To be us in the modeling competition. We can hold auditions and then pick the ones who will work best."

The guy yelling about his sushi got louder, and so did my stomach, so I knew that I would really have to focus on what was going on.

"We only have forty bucks left Mia, who is going to pretend to win a competition for someone else when they're only getting paid twenty dollars each?" I asked seeing the flaws in her plan. And the fact that my stomach wanted to keep that forty dollars for lunch wasn't helping.

That's when she pointed to this weird looking guy with spiky hair looking at picture of the pink ranger in a magazine… Or I think it was… It wasn't really looking, it was more like… He was infatuated with the picture or something like that.

Nodding my head, I agreed with her plan, knowing that it was a mistake, but hoping that somehow things would just work out against all the odds.

Besides, the thought of getting some food after this was all over with, was worth it, "Fine but what happens when they get on stage and the guys figure out that it's not us?"

"That's easy we talk to the people in charge and make sure we go last. By the time the guys figure it out, and Jayden explains everything, Prom will be over," Mia smiled.

Taking a deep breath I followed Mia, away from the sushi, and over to the guy with spiky hair.

"How would you like to have the chance of meeting the pink ranger?" Mia offered.

He was startled that we were actually talking to him and hid the magazine with the Pink ranger, but he still squeaked in excitement, "Really?!," before changing his voice back to normal, "Really?"

"Sure, but you have to do me and my friend a little favor… um?"

"Spike," He said holding out his hand, and knocking over his smoothie in the process, not that he noticed…

I smiled. Spike was the perfect name for him.

Smiling, Mia ignored the smoothie mishap and shook his hand, "Spike, I'm Mia. Do you think that you and one of your friends could maybe pretend to be me and my friend Emily here?" she gestured to me and I heard my stomach growl again before she finished her sentence, "in a fashion show?"

"Well… I don't know…" Spike scratched his head. My mind was screaming at me to leave and just forget the whole thing,. Drag Mia away before it was too late, but for some reason I stayed put. It was probably the fact that this was, after all, my only option.

Mike would be mad when he found out, but at this point he would be furious with me any way he found out because I had lied to him...

Mia took out the last forty bucks we had, "You'll meet her just before you go on and we'll give your friend this."

I knew that there was no way I was getting sushi now, with the fact that Spike had grabbed the last of our money and ran away screaming, "Uncle Bulk! Uncle Bulk! Pink and Uncle and Bulk and Ranger! Uncle BULK!," after we told him where to meet us.

Needless to say, we looked to each other for the umpteenth time today trying to figure out if we'd done the right thing. Neither one of us saying a word.

Our stomaches on the other hand grumbled and begged for food.

"Why did you run away?" Kevin's voice came from behind us. Mia and I both turned white before we turned around, knowing just how close they were to catching us in the act.

I linked arms with Mike and Jayden, and Mia linked arms with Kevin and Jayden as we dragged them away.

"I really wanted to find this sushi vendor, Jayden why don't you buy us all some food from him?" I smiled.

Jayden looked a little suspicious, but he unlinked arms with me and got the food and we all ate as much as we could. Later, he mentioned that there was something familiar about the sushi vendor. He just couldn't quite put his finger on what it was though.

I just assumed that he'd eaten there before…