Chapter 7

Magic Foot

I don't own The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee

Takes place during "Boxing Bopp a Roo"


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This, Cam was almost certain, would be classified as a bad idea. And the unfair truth of it all was that it had been his idea in the first place. Talk about shooting yourself in the foot.

He was waiting, with slight trepidation, for Dustin to arrive at the Skate park. As the tech requested it was night; the lampposts casting light over the wood and concrete. The park with the exception of himself was empty and that was how he had wanted it. This had been a point he had argued with himself for a while over. Technically this was an experiment, and he had felt a distinct need to control his environment to ensure his performance would not be affected in any way. He had by no means, "stage fright". But if he was going to pick up a board for the first time and should the results were rather undesirable he would rather do it alone. Then again, if he broke his neck and died he would like to have some witnesses.

Ultimately he discerned that Dustin would be enough of an audience and left it at that.

How did he end up in this situation? Oh yes, he'd "Shot off his mouth".

His intent was for his words to be comforting. Perhaps even motivating for Dustin so that he would be the one attempting this. However Dustin, being far slyer than he looked, took advantage of his moment of distraction and now his pride wouldn't let him back out of his agreement. Actually that wasn't totally true; Cam had tried to back out multiple times. It was just… Dustin, with his lax boundaries on physical interaction and his seemingly innocent pleading had more or less "wooed" him over to the idea, and now here he was.

It was stupid, to be honest. And while the situation looked to be only for the yellow ranger's gain, Cam knew deep down that it was to his advantage as well.

To be truthful it made him feel a little dirty.

He could go on and on about how friendship was about give and take and that this experiment was simply another way of strengthening their bond, but if Cam was going to be honest, to himself at the very least, he had done it for the … hugging.

That was one way of putting it.

Dustin, in all Cam's observations, was a very tactile creature. He was constantly seeking out physical connections with the people he trusted. He didn't even think about it, he simply did it. For Cam that was the worst part. To Dustin it all amounted to simple friendship. Cam had a theory that he might not get enough affection in his home environment, leading him to seek it from others, his constant presence at Ninja Ops only further supported this hypothesis. The mechanic never read any deeper meanings into it.

But that wasn't how Cam felt about it.

His father was a freaking guinea pig; it was a little difficult to receive any kind of physical reassurance. Even when he had been human that had been difficult to achieve. They simply weren't touchy feely people. So when Dustin was simply...Dustin, and hanging on Cam and hugging him and high fiving him and whatever the action of the day was, and yes, he did keep track, Cam couldn't help but think how nice it felt to hold somebody or to have someone hug him. He hadn't known how starved he had been for that kind of personal interaction until Dustin had gone and given it to him for free. The part that really made Cam hate himself the most was that he was unable to determine whether he appreciated these actions because they were from Dustin, or if he simply craved the interactions, in which case he was just using the yellow ranger and he was a dirtbag who should have never opened his mouth to speak to the team outside of ranger-related business.

For all his intelligence, he couldn't figure out the answer. Though a small part of him knew that he would take whatever Dustin offered.

He tried to ignore that part.

To save himself the headache, and to ascertain he didn't come to completely hate himself, Cam decided to take the easy way out of it and simply not think about it. Sure, it would always be there looming over his shoulder, stuck on him like his shadow, weighing him down bit by bit until he eventually lost it, but for now he would be able to function. At this point, that was all he really wanted.

Right.

So, where was he?

Skate Park, scoping out the set up.

From what he had gathered from past Total Trek's Kelly simply used the park as it already was, not bothering to bring in any new ramps or change the layout. For seasoned skaters this would be a great advantage, so now Cam was in the position where he had to catch up on years of familiarity from the veterans. The tricky thing with street skating was that you not only had to focus on the trick you were about to do, but you had to think ahead to where you would land, where you would go next, and what trick came after that before the entire process started all over again. Cam didn't doubt his capabilities, but he would have an incredible handicap compared to say, Shane.

Speaking of which…

Finally, after their second round with the Kangaroo (Bopp a Roo, what's-his-face) the red ranger and Hunter had managed to put their differences aside to learn how to work together, and they finally had a fully functioning team. It took them long enough. The weird thing though was that after the fight debrief at Ninja Ops was that now Shane and Dustin were having issues. The red ranger just could not stay likeable.

No, that wasn't fair to Shane. Cam had gotten the feeling that Dustin's anger had been kindled before that as despite his constant babble he had never once mentioned Shane. Cam had begun to seriously worry about Dustin's mental condition, which may be another reason he had agreed to try skateboarding, even after he managed to coax the yellow ranger into talking about Shane.

It was unnatural to see them at odds; Cam hoped, for all their sakes, that it would end soon.

A glimpse of movement out of the corner of his eye shook him out of his reverie and he turned to observe Dustin's approach, laden with a skateboard and a well-stuffed duffle bag, full of what Cam would assume were pads and other safety gear. The tech had done his share of preparation as well, bringing along his laptop to supply and record the necessary data, and a well equipped first aid kit. He could've been the best skater in the world who never missed a trick and he still would have brought this thing along, simply because being associated with Power Rangers tended to make unexpected things occur.

Also, if Dustin managed to wound himself, he may only be observing but he would find a way, Cam would be ready. Because the Power Rangers themselves seemed to attract injuries like flies to honey. Compound that with Dustin's natural tendencies and you found yourself a person who managed to hurt themselves while simply dusting. No joke, this had happened.

Cam had learned not to be surprised by now.

"Cam, dude!" Dustin shouted, waving at him excitedly, closing the distance in between them. Though he was still in conflict with Shane, Dustin still managed to be as cheerful and enthusiastic as ever. It was that kind of focus Cam could only wish to have, though he was unsure how exactly the curly-haired teen did it. Either whatever issues he had with Shane really weren't that bad, or he was really good at ignoring his problems. If it was the later, Cam was very worried.

He would have to keep an eye on that.

"You got your smarts ready?" Dustin asked, dropping the bag on the ground with no particular care. Cam hoped there was nothing fragile in there, the treatment of the bag would indicate such, but with the yellow ranger that wasn't always the case.

Cam blinked and took a closer inspection of the bag, dust ingrained in the strap. "I am adequately prepared, if that's what you mean."

Dustin smiled and crouched down next to the bag, unzipping it.

"It took me a while to dig this stuff up, but it's still in good condition," he pulled out a towel and flicked it to the side, emitting a cloud of dust. "A little dusty though," he admitted. Cam pulled another towel out of the bag and mimicked his friend's actions, producing the same results.

Dustin grinned sheepishly, "Okay, a lot of dusty."

Cam shrugged and tossed the towel to the side overlooking Dustin's blatant disregard to grammar.

"They'll function fine," he consoled while digging through the bag for the necessary gear. Dustin joined him immediately, tossing a pair of kneepads beside Cam.

"Yeah, a little dust never hurt anything," Dustin admitted, unperturbed. He stopped suddenly, and Cam knew before he asked that he had a question, "Except computers right?"

Cam chose to nod in response and Dustin took it as a signal to resume searching.

Unlike most people Dustin genuinely asked questions for the purpose of receiving and dutifully storing away the answers, which you would think was the given purpose of questions, but with the yellow ranger it was somehow more…sincere. It wasn't small talk, there wasn't a hidden meaning, he simply asked a question (even if the question was on a whim) and appreciated the answer. Whatever it was. He had a tendency to stop whatever else he might be occupied with because he was focusing on the response, which made it very easy to recognize when he was about to ask something. Cam had yet to figure out how to be able to identify what he would ask about, but had long given up on it.

There were some things that just weren't meant to be known.

They were in the middle of dusting off the mostly-new gear when Dustin broke the silence, nervously at first, but gradually picking up speed.

"Hey, I uh…I told Tori, well, I half-told Tori and then I couldn't remember if I was supposed to tell Tori so I stopped, but then I remembered you never mentioned not telling anyone and I figured I was halfway there so I finished telling her about it and…"

Cam nodded, reassuring Dustin that it was okay.

"She didn't insist on coming?" he asked. Because if he thought this was a bad idea, Tori was probably somewhere in the vicinity of "why-don't-we-just-give-earth-over-to-Lothor?" bad idea…land.

He was spending a lot of time with Dustin. It wasn't an excuse, it was merely a reason.

"Oh, she did dude," Dustin informed him, pausing mid-wipe of the helmet. "I just told her she would have to wait with everyone else."

He smiled at Cam before resuming his work, and the tech couldn't help but know how proud Dustin was of that fact. Cam went ahead and felt a little proud with him. Then he realized the implications of Dustin's statement, how he assumed (without having witnessed it) that he would be able to pull this off. And that made him think.

He would rue the day if he had to pick his biggest supporter, because the answer he would be expected to give would be his father, but the answer that would be the most truthful would be Dustin.

Cam took a moment to let that settle in before responding. "Your faith is abundant."

Despite the leap in conversation Dustin simply nodded, not noticing (or not caring about) the gap.

"It's you," he stated as though it explained everything. Thankfully, he continued, "If you say you've got what it takes, then there's nothing to worry about."

If only it were that easy.

"Okay, we are officially dust free!" Dustin exclaimed, hopping up, helmet and board in hand, "Let's get this thing started!"

Because Cam was ever so eager to test his theory.

Well, he made his bed, he'll lay in it.

Even if he didn't want to.

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As it turned out, it hadn't been as bad as Cam had originally thought it was going to be. Sure, there were a few falls (as was expected), but for the most part he actually… "rocked". Dustin's words, not his, though he agreed they were applicable. His balance was fine, so he could ride easily, and after a few tries he had managed an ollie (wherein you make the board hop) which was essentially a "gateway" trick. He had lost his board the first few tries, pushing the tail down and hopping off, but eventually he got the hang of it. After that he moved to a Frontside 180, an ollie where you rotated the board 180 degrees.

Fixing the zords? Writing programs? Managing multiple experiments? That was nothing.

Accomplishing two of the most basic skateboarding moves? Bring on the parade of feeling stupidly proud.

It figured.

It was time to move on. The halfpipe was what most people envisioned when they think about skateboarding. If Cam played his cards right, this was where he would be getting most of his points. It was also where he would be getting most of his pain if he messed anything up.

He tried to be optimistic; he could probably manage at least a few of these. He started easy, a Rock Fakie and a Rock and Roll, basic moves that didn't require actually going into the air. He'd done each of them a few times to ensure that he had them, and was ready to move on when his luck finally ran out.

To add insult to injury he hadn't even been attempting a trick at the time, he had simply been picking up speed going back and forth when he landed just a bit off and his board decided it wanted to go off the ramp and took him with it. For a moment he thought he could just ride it out, but his board, the conniving charlatan that it was, had other plans. It promptly hit a rut, catapulting him forward and causing him to land awkwardly on his foot before bowling into Dustin, who was attempting to cushion his fall. He rolled off of Dustin and did a quick check to see if he sustained any injuries (thankfully he hadn't) before tentatively pressed on his right ankle to see that yes, it hurt, and no, there would be no more skateboarding tonight.

He couldn't figure out if that made him happy or disappointed.

His foot made his decision for him, and it chose to be in pain.

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It had happened so fast that Dustin hadn't actually seen where everything went wrong, but one moment Cam was rocking it and the next moment he was flying off the ramp at roadrunner speed and Dustin didn't even think before he moved to catch him. He threw himself a little backwards so the collision wouldn't be as bad as it could be.

Cam was already off of him by the time Dustin recovered but he didn't get up, and Dustin got the sinking feeling that he had really hurt himself and the guilt just poured on while he frantically ran to get the first aid kit. He was back at Cam's side in record time, and he quickly opened the bag while casting nervous looks at his friend's ankle that seemed to have elected it was time to change colors and get swollen.

This would be a lot cooler if it wasn't Cam.

And then Dustin realized he had no idea what Cam needed, "…uh, what do you-"

"There's a cold compress in there," Cam ground out through closed teeth, Dustin located it and gave it to him. "I'll tape it on before we get going."

"Going?" He echoed, a little confused, gently pressing the pad down against the swollen ankle. Cam might not know this, but with that foot he wasn't going anywhere, unless Dustin helped him.

Okay so they could go places.

Cam raised an eyebrow at him, already having figured this out. "I would prefer to tape this up at Ninja Ops."

Shouldn't Dustin take him to a hospital or something?

"Oh, right," he mumbled distractedly, digging around until he found the tape. "What's wrong with it?"

What if he broke it? Sensei would be so mad. Tori would be so mad. Dustin wasn't sure if Blake and Hunter would be mad, but Blake might be just for the sake of not getting on Tori's bad side. He didn't want to think about how Shane would feel.

Dustin felt a little mad. At himself.

Cam took his prize just as he located it, and together they taped the compress in place.

"It's just sprained I think," Cam explained, "I'll run some tests on it to be sure."

When they got back.

A new voice broke into their conversation, "You got off easy, all things considered."

Dustin could recognize that sound from anywhere.

"Shane?" he asked before he could stop himself.

What was he doing here? Dustin had made sure he wasn't going to be at the park, purposefully picking a time that was way after when Shane normally left. In fact the yellow ranger had scoped out the park before he even met up with Cam, just to make sure.

Shane, catching his questioning look explained himself, "Tori told me."

"So you decided to keep an eye on us?" Cam countered, completely unaffected by Shane's sudden appearance.

Was he hiding in the trees, waiting for them to fail?

Cam… he meant waiting for Cam to fail. Dustin wasn't doing anything.

Shane ignored the question and responded with one of his own. "Did you ever stop to think that this was a stupid idea?"

Dustin couldn't hide his flinch at that and started to defend him…them, Cam, "He was doing fine…"

Shane cut him off, frowning irritably at Cam, "What, were you going to master skateboarding in two days?"

Not master it, just like, be medium at it. Because some people don't feel like playing on some other people's team so those other people have to go find… other-other people who weren't disgusted by the idea of working with the other people.

He was overreacting, a lot, because Shane was teaming up with Hunter and that was good for the team, but-

He didn't have to be such a jerk about it.

Cam jumped in this time, defending their experiment, "That's not what we intended-"

"You could've broken your neck," Shane butt in, focusing on the tech.

What was his problem? Was he mad at Dustin for suggesting this to Cam? Was he mad at Cam for going along with it? Was he just mad at everybody because that was just how he was going to be from now on? Well Dustin had had enough.

"Dude, would you just lay off!" He shouted, standing so that he could glare at Shane right in the eye.

There was a tense silence were they just stared at each other. Shane was the one who broke it off, jerking his head to the side to look at Cam.

"Come on, we need to get you back to Ninja Ops," he spat out coldly, hefting one of the bags onto his shoulder before moving to help Cam. Dustin copied him, packing up the first aid kit and taking Cam's other side, and soon they were walking/hobbling to Cam's car.

Shane stopped them just short of it, turning to face Cam. "Can you drive?"

Cam shook his head.

"Don't have to, just sit in the driver's seat and look pretty." Dustin blinked at him confusedly, Cam continued, "Auto pilot will do the rest."

The question was out before he could stop, and he cursed himself for breaking his self imposed silence, "You put auto pilot in your car?"

Because that was kind of awesome. Just think of the possibilities. Then again, this was Cam so it probably followed every traffic rule ever and drove like, five miles under the speed limit.

Cam smiled at him as they got in the car, "How do you think the mobile command center gets around?"

Dustin scratched his head, drawing a blank, "…Ninja Power?"

"Not quite," Cam responded.

Dustin refused to let Shane's silence affect him in any way.

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The ride back to Ninja Ops was spent in complete silence. Cam knew that this was merely the calm before the storm. This…tiff, whatever this problem was, was going to be settled tonight and he was going to make sure of it. At this point he didn't trust either one of them to be able to work it out on their own, and if they kept going on like this it was going to start affecting their ranger duties.

It would be best to stop it before it got that far.

He had hoped to use taping his ankle up as a team building exercise, with him relaying instructions while Dustin and Shane carried them out, but unlike when the red and crimson ranger were at odds with each other these two actually managed to work together quite efficiently. In fact, they were so efficient they didn't even feel the need for any kind of small talk whatsoever.

It was a little disturbing.

When they had finished there was another (to add to the great list they had accumulated so far) awkward silence where Shane simply glowered at the wall and Dustin nervously stared at his feet and fidgeted in place, unsure of what to do. Like many other times, Cam knew what to do, and it was happening now. He had even brought them into the sanctity of his room to ensure some level of privacy. With a ninja master hanging around that was difficult to find, but his room was the best option.

"This," he began, breaking the silence and earning two shocked looks, "ends now. Whatever issues you two have need to be worked out and you're not leaving until everything's resolved."

Dustin blinked at him, startled, but Shane looked like he was about to protest so Cam continued, "It's going to start affecting the team."

At that the red ranger snapped his mouth shut.

When all else failed, guilt them into it. Cam had learned that from Tori.

Before they could fall back into silence the tech decided to get the ball rolling.

"You," he started, pointing to Shane, "did or said something to Dustin," the tan teen nodded, guilt seeping into his features. "You," he continued, pointing at Dustin, "know that he wasn't really angry with you," Dustin nodded, but refused to look at either one of them.

Mentally Cam sighed; this was one of those things that was really about something else, a deeper wound.

He persevered through this revelation.

"Now you," back to Shane, "have attempted to apologize, multiple times, I'm assuming."

Shane nodded but didn't look at him, instead focusing on Dustin who still had his eyes glued to the floor.

What was wrong?

"So far, you," back to Dustin, "have avoided him and ignored any attempts he's made to talk to you," he finished, leaning back on his bed.

There it was, all the facts on the table, everybody on the same page. Everyone, except himself and Shane.

It was Dustin who now held all the cards.

"So the real question is, why are you upset?"

His question hung in the air, causing Dustin to shift his weight uncomfortably before he finally took his eyes off of the floor.

"Dustin?" Shane asked, pleading (not obviously but that's what it was) for him to answer and for the first time Cam realized how hard these two days of silence must have weighed on the red ranger.

"I uh…didn't do anything," Dustin mumbled, taking sudden fascination with his shoes. "I thought about why it…bugged me and I know it wasn't…" he paused for a second waving vaguely in the air before looking back up at Shane, "I didn't do anything wrong."

Shane took a step forward. "I know, I was just mad about-"

Dustin continued as though he hadn't heard him.

"Like, if I had done something wrong I get that, yell at me, I'll fix it, but I hadn't done anything and…" he paused again, rubbing his arms, "I guess that bothered me."

He guessed that bothered him. It "bothering" him was an understatement; anyone with eyes could see that but for now they would take what was given and fix that. Cam wondered how many other kinds of things "bothered" Dustin. And why had they happened?

"…yell at me, I'll fix it".

He had the distinct feeling that particular statement would be haunting him for a while. They didn't yell at ninja training. He was pretty sure they didn't yell at the track.

"I'm sorry," Shane said, pulling Cam from his thoughts. Like himself, Shane had picked up on the fact that Dustin was holding back, but had chosen to not comment on it.

"Me too, I-" Shane cut off the rest of Dustin's statement by pulling him into a hug, an action that Dustin immediately reciprocated, and Cam couldn't help but feel (despite the circumstances) a small flare of jealousy/longing/envy by the sight. But that quickly faded into a distinct uncomfortable feeling, causing him to avert his eyes to the side. He was in the middle of thinking of the most polite (while still being abundantly clear) way of asking them to leave when Dustin called for his attention.

"Dude, group hug!"

No, he couldn't stand, and it was kind of late anyway, and the hugging thing was kind of bothering him and before he managed to voice any of these protests Dustin had carefully navigated himself between Cam and the wall, resting his head on his shoulder and throwing an arm across his waist and Shane was only a few seconds behind him, smiling in contained amusement before taking Cam's other side and throwing an arm over his shoulder, leaning slightly into him.

It was ironic that their attempts to be nice were only serving to bring him further self loathing.

His effort to shake them off only encouraged them to latch on tighter, and eventually he gave up and decided to enjoy the comfort.

Even if it made him a dirtbag.


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Endnotes:

"why-don't-we-just-give-earth-over-to-Lothor?" -bad-idea Land

"The other" count (Chapter): 0

"The other" count (Cumulative): 9

Until next time.