10- The substitute
At the Dino lab Billy´s fingers moved fast over the keyboard and the reflection of his laptop´s screen could be seen on his glasses. Meanwhile Haley was at the main
computer playing the power rangers history video.
"The time line was fixed, everything went back to normal, so that´s not the problem" Haley commented turning to Billy
"I´m listing all the monsters that had made power rangers demorph in battle, so we can analyze their powers" Billy told her
"Good idea!" Haley sighed and walked over to his side.
At Reefside High in Randal´s office the principal was sitting with her arms folded facing Ms Hart.
"Dr. Oliver won´t be able to teach for a while because of personal reasons" Kim explained to Randal
"I wonder why Dr Oliver did not come to tell me this himself" Randal spoke coldly to her
"Because he is not in town" Kim answered at once and then she regretted to say that because now she had Randal asking her a lot of question about that.
"He had to fly to Angel Grove, to see his mother, she is very ill" Kim answered, Randal´s eyes were fixed on her and she was starting to feel uncomfortable.
"And how long is he staying in Angel Grove?" Randal asked lifting her eyebrows
"I couldn´t say, it depends on his mother´s health" Kim answered biting her lower lip, she used to do that when was nervous, she just hoped that Randal did not
notice it.
"Okay Ms Hart have a good day and please keep me informed" Randal said and followed her with her eyes until Kim walked out.
Walking along the corridor Kim came across with Conner, Ethan and Kira
"How did it go?" Ethan asked her
"I hoped she had believed me" Kim sighed "That woman gives me the creeps" She said rolling her eyes.
A tall blonde tidy man approached to them, "Ms Hart?" He asked Kim
"Yes?" she answered cocking her head to him
"I´m Dr Anton Mercer the new science teacher, it´s nice to meet you" He took her hand and kissed it.
Kira lifted her eyebrows and smiled turning to Conner and Ethan, who looked at her scowling.
"It´s nice to meet you too" Kim said
"If I were you I´d rush to the classroom you don´t want to be late to my class" Mercer warned the three teenagers
who cocked their head to him and turned serious.
"Excuse me Ms Hart" He said and walked away.
"How did the school find a substitute that fast?" Conner asked
Ethan, Kira and Conner got late to Dr Mercer´s class who happened to be very harsh with timetables so once he walked into the classroom he locked the door and no
one else were allowed to get in. When Dr Mercer saw them through the glass he walked over to the door and opened it.
"I warned you not to be late, first rule in my class, never be late or don´t be" Dr Mercer said and shut the door leaving them outside.
"Who he thinks he is?" Conner complaint
"The teacher?" Ethan answered him in a "duh" type of tone. Kira watched through the glass and saw Trent inside, she tried to catch his attention but he didn´t gaze
at the door. At least he wrote down good notes.
At Tommy´s house in the kitchen
Haley and Billy were taking a break drinking and eating some snacks while chatting with Tommy.
"We can recreate scatterbrain´s power in the lab, but it does exist the risk that Tommy gets amnesic" Billy said
"Forget it!" Tommy rejected the idea at once. "There is nothing wrong with my powers I told you it is psychological"He added
"A psychological matter, yeah sure. Then why didn´t you demorph when Kimberly told you she was staying?" Haley asked Tommy
"I guess it´s because she is still drawing a line between us" Tommy said
"Oh, Dr O. is broken-hearted, you are gonna make me cry" Haley teased him
"She is not drawing a line, I think she just does not want to rush things up, that´s all" Billy said
"Yes, that was she said" Tommy answered
"Then believe on her" Billy suggested
"I remember Pudgy Pig blew a cyclone from his mouth which sent us through a colorful vortex and we were dropped in the park demorphed" Billy said rubbing his
chin.
"Stop with your crazy ideas, I have better plans for tonight, I´m planning to take Kim out for dinner, what do you suggest?" Tommy asked
"You´re not going out looking like that, are you?" Billy asked
"Yeah right! sometimes I forget about it" Tommy sighed "But we can have the date in here"
"Here?" Haley sighed looking all around, the house was a mess
Tommy shrugged
"Don´t worry we´ll help you to get it ready for tonight" Haley stated. "We?" Billy asked cocking his head to her.
At Reefside´s park . . .
"Thank you for lending me your notes" Kira told Trent as she put into her backpack the sheet of paper that Trent had handed her in.
"I´ll try to be earlier tomorrow. What do you think about the new teacher?" She asked him
"Um what?" Trent pretended to be distracted and ignored the question
"The new science teacher, he seems to be old fashioned way, a dinosaur" Kira sighed
"Kira, Are you thinking about going to the Christmas ball?" Trent asked
Although she´d been willing for him to ask her, the question took Kira by surprise and turned speechless
"it´s okay if you don´t want to go, Conner always says you hate that kind of social activities" Trent filled in the awkward silence.
"What I think is that Conner should care about his own businesses" Kira stated "And yes, I´m thinking about going"
"So would you like to be my date?" Trent asked
"I´d love to!" She answered and he smiled at her. "See you later at the Cyberspace, I promised Dr O. I´d help him with something" Kira said and walked away.
Kim got home and as she got off her car she checked his cell phone and found a text message from Tommy that said:
Dear Beautiful,
You´re cordially invited to have dinner at Oliver´s tonight.
With love
White Falcon
A big smile was drawn in her face.
At Tommy´s, Haley, Kira and Billy helped Tommy to clean up the mess and set everything up for a romantic dinner.
They noticed Kira was more excited than normal, she couldn´t stop smiling and was singing as she wiped.
"Is there any good news you haven´t told us?" Tommy asked Kira
"No, why?" Kira asked
"Well, you look happier than any other day" Tommy answered
"I´m not happier than usual" she said trying not to smile, "It´s just that Christmas is coming and . . . I really like Christmas" She explained blushing.
"Oh, the Christmas ball that´s it" Haley muttered and shook her head smiling; she had seen Trent rehearsing in front of a mirror how to ask Kira to the ball.
"What about the new Science teacher?" Haley asked to help her out of the subject
"He is a nightmare, we got just two minutes later and he shut the classroom´s door in our faces. He locked up the door and didn´t allow any student to enter, Can
you believe it?" Kira asked while lighting some aromatic candles in the center of the round table.
"Who is him?" Tommy asked
"His name is Dr. Anton Mercer" Kira answered. Haley and Tommy got frozen.
"What?" Both asked in unison
"What´s wrong?" Kira asked frowning
"Anton and I used to be colleges, we were working with the dinosaurs DNA at the island" Tommy explained, he was still in shock
"I thought he couldn´t escape from the island" Tommy sighed
"Why didn´t he try to contact me all these years?" He asked
"Maybe he thought as well as you, that you didn´t make it" Haley said
"Don´t even mention any word about me, because he would probably want to see me" Tommy told Kira.
"Yes, sure" Kira said
At Kim´s Aisha helped Kim to find the right outfit
"I told you, living in different houses would make the whole thing more romantic" Aisha sighed excited
"Yeah, have you heard from the others?" Kim asked while trying and outfit
"I talked to Rocky, they all are coming for Christmas" Aisha answered
"Awesome! I miss when we were in high school and celebrate Christmas all together " Kim sighed, she walked in front of the mirror
"No, too pinky!" Aisha sighed sitting at Kim´s bed with the little Kevin on her lap
Kim took it off and tried on another dress.
"Mmm . . . too short, you don´t want to give the wrong message" Aisha commented
"I love it!" Aisha sighed after Kim tried one more "What do you think Kevin?" Aisha asked her baby
"Yes, you´re right it needs a touch of pink, try this blouse" Aisha suggested and handed her in a pink blouse.
"Adorable!" Aisha sighed
That night at Tommy´s
The doorbell rang at nine o´clock. Tommy rushed to open the door letting Kim walk in.
"Good night beautiful, you look great" He said
"Oh, thank you handsome" she answered
"Wow, everything looks so . . . different" Kim sighed looking around.
"I´m glad you like it, I must admit I had a little bit of help" Tommy said and Kim gave him a look "Okay, I had a lot of help" He confessed
"Mmm what´s that smell? You´ve cooked too?" Kim sighed widening her eyes.
"Yes, and talking about that . . . " Tommy said and rushed to the kitchen.
kim made herself at home and took a seat at the table. Five minutes later Tommy came in carrying a bowl with salad in one hand and a tray with a smoky roasted
chicken in the other one. Then he poured some wine into Kim´s cup and into his own.
"I propose a toast" He said lifting his cup
"To us" Kim said lifting her cup
"To us" Tommy said clinking his cup with kim´s
They put the cups down and served the food in their plates.
"This is exquisite!" Kim sighed tasting the chicken "Give Haley my congratulations" Kim told him
"How did you know?" Tommy asked
"I´ve tasted your roasted chicken" Kim answered laughing.
"Ouch!" Tommy sighed
"No, seriously, I really appreciate everything you did, with o without help, I´m having a really good time tonight" Kim said and stared at him smiling.
"You know that you could melt the evilest monster on earth with that sweet smile of yours?" Tommy sighed "I guess that was your secret weapon against Zed´s
monsters" He added and she laughed.
She stood up and started lifting the empty plates. "Wait, what are you doing? let me that to me, you are my guest of honor" He said grabbing the plates himself and
took them to the kitchen.
"Wow, desert too?" Kim sighed when Tommy came out from the kitchen with two cups filled with chocolate and strawberry ice cream.
AT the cyberspace . . .
"King Sphinx could demorph a ranger by blowing his wings" Billy explained Haley
"I don´t know, Dino gems work very different from the power coins, they are linked to their owner DNA" Haley said.
"Hey you two do me a favor and have fun!" Conner told them approaching to the bar.
"We´re having fun, right Haley?" Billy said looking to Haley
"Yea right" She answered
A cheerleader walked over to Conner and asked him to be her date for Christmas ball.
"Yes it´s okay" He told the girl in a nonchalant way, then she walked away
"I´d have liked to have that luck with girls in high school" Billy sighed impressed by Conner´s popularity.
"Yeah me too" Ethan sighed approaching to them. "I´m the only one without a date" He said
"Well maybe you´re not. Have you asked someone?" Conner asked Trent who walked over to the bar with the empty try.
"Yes I did" Trent answered
"You´re a liar,who did you ask?" Conner asked
In that moment Devin showed up videotaping them all with his tablet.
"Where´s Dr. O?, that is the question every student in Reefside High keep asking, Can you answer it?" Cassidy asked them.
"Why do you think we can?" Ethan asked her
"I don´t know, Can you?" She asked again
"Devin where´s you camera?" Haley asked him
"Randal confiscated it" Devin answered
"Shut up! let´s continue" Cassidy yelled at him
"Get out of here Kira is ready to sing!" Trent sighed pointing to the stage. Cassidy rolled her eyes and walked away.
The lights went down and everyone became quiet. Kira started singing.
Meanwhile at Tommy´s house, the romantic music was on. Tommy and Kim were dancing. He had his hands in Kim´s hips and she surrounded his neck with her
arms.
"Beautiful, when were you planning to tell me that you had decided to stay?" Tommy asked
"I was going to tell you today, but you couldn´t wait, as always" She answered.
"As you had returned your Dino Gem I assumed you were saying goodbye" Tommy said
"Talking about that, um . . ." She said
"What? Have you reconsidered it?" He asked a little bit excited
"No, is not that, Haley told me you´ve kept the pink dino gem all these years and I wondered why you didn´t look for me instead of just waiting for a random
meeting?" Kim asked him
"I did, I . . . , the thing is . . ." Tommy stammered and suddenly stopped dancing.
"Handsome what´s wrong?" Kim asked
They got startled by the door bell ringing, they weren´t expecting anyone else.
Tommy turned down the volume and looked through the spy hole.
"It´s Randal" He whispered to Kim
"What?" Kim mouthed widening her eyes "What is she doing here?" She whispered and Tommy shrugged.
Kimberly opened the door while Tommy remained hidden.
"Goodnight Ms Hart" Randal said walking in
"Goodnight Ms Randal, Is everything alright?" Kim asked
"I don´t know, I just was passing by and saw you car parking outside and I wondered what were you doing at ´s this late" Randal stated
"Is there any rule against coming to a friend´s house to check that everything´s alright?" Kim retorted smirking
"Well, not actually, but this is not friends time" Randal answered pointing out at her watch.
"Tommy is in Angel Grove remember? so you don´t have to worry about it. I´m not breaking any rule" Kim said
Randal surveyed the whole place, there were candles everywhere. As she walked towards the door, she stopped and turned to Kim
"Are you waiting for someone Ms Hart?" Randal asked narrowing her eyes
"That´s not of your business Ms Randal" Kim answered smirking.
"As long as he is not a member of Reefside High it won´t be" She answered and finally left. Kim shut the door and leaned against it sighing.
Tommy went upstairs from the basement.
"What did she want?" Tommy asked
"I don´t think she´d believed the story about your mother´s illness" Kim said with a worried look
The following morning at Science Classroom Conner was falling asleep in his seat while Kira was trying to say something.
"Hey, pay attention this is important!" Kira elbowed Conner.
"Was it necessary that you wake us all so early this morning?" Conner asked yawning
"Would you prefer to be left out of science class again?" Kira asked him
"Please just say what you have to say" He said resting his head on his palm. Ethan and Trent leaned forward to listen.
"Dr. Mercer must not know that we´re close to Dr. O" Kira whispered.
"Why?" Ethan asked
"They used to be colleges and Dr. Mercer may be interested in contact him, which would be very inconvenient right now" She whispered
Cassidy walked into the classroom followed by Dr. Mercer who locked up the door leaving Devin outside. Cassidy turned round to see him and she shrugged nodding.
"Silence please!" Dr. Mercer asked and the class became quite.
"You´re going to forget everything you´ve learnt ´till now and I´m going to teach you real science" He stated
"We´ll start with the principles of Genetic" He said, all the students exchanged looks. Dr Mercer grabbed a chalk and drew a line on the board. He started trembling
and left the chalk fell down, which crashed against the floor.
Dr Mercer lowered his head and hid his face into his hands.
"Dr Mercer are you feeling alright?" Cassidy asked standing up.
Kira looked back to her friends and mouthed imitating Cassidy´s bootlicker attitude
Dr Mercer rushed out of the classroom.
In a deserted aisle of Reefside High Kim paced while talking through her cell phone
"Yes mom I know I told you I´d call you, but the last month was crazy and . . . no, no I don´t think Sam and I are going to Paris, listen mom, mom, I´m not living
with Sam anymore" Kim explained
Dr. Mercer rushed across the aisle passing her by with his hands covering his face; he walked into Randal´s office and slammed the door.
"Mom I´ll call you later I promise, but I´m at work and I have to hang up" Kim said and hung up.
She walked over towards Randal´s office.
Inside Randal´s office Dr. Mercer´s face had turned into a dinosaur lookalike
He heard the knock on the door
"Dr. Mercer are you okay?" kim´s voice asked from the other side
He approached to the door. "Dr Mercer" Kim kept calling.
He leaned forward resting his forehead on the wooden door and breathed deeply.
"Dr Mercer it´s me, Ms Hart" Kim said
Kim knocked the door once again
"Please open the door!" Kim asked
After five seconds Dr Mercer opened the door and faced Kim.
"Hi, Is everything okay?" Kim asked
"Yes, I suddenly remembered I had to leave some papers to Randal and wanted to do it as soon as possible you know how she is" He explained, he was sweating
"Yes she has a temper" Kim answered shaking her head
"Well I´m glad you´re okay, I´ll see you around" Kim said smiling
"Yes and Ms Hart, thank you for worrying" He said smiling at her as she walked away.
Her cell phone rang "Mom!" She moaned lifting the device to her ear.
Meanwhile at Mesogog´s island Rita and her henchmen were locked up into a cell, all of them had their hands tied up with magic handcuffs that blocked their powers.
Finster was the only one who hadn´t been caught so he came from time to time to keep his queen informed about Mesogog´s plans. He was whispering the latest
news to Rita through the bars of the cell.
"What? The old dinosaur wants to be a teacher? That is his great plan to defeat Rangers?" Rita sighed and laughed
"Come closer Finster and listen to me carefully, this is what I want you to do" She said and whispered into Finster´s pointing ear.
At the Dino lab Billy and Haley were scanning Tommy´s body with all kind of devices
"I know you, something worries you" Tommy told Haley
"Yes, Devin said Randal had confiscated his camera. We all have lost the memories from the period of time that was twisted but not the camera, you know what I
mean?" she said narrowing her eyes.
Classes were over for the day and Kim left Reefside High carrying her guitar
"Ms Hart!" Dr Mercer called out to her, she stopped and turned round to him.
"It would be a pleasure to drive you home" He told her opening the passenger seat´s door of his BMW.
To be continued . . .
Well I hope you have enjoyed this chapter and thank you for reviewing.
Next chapter teaser:
"Why does Randal keep Trent´s file apart?" Kira queried grabbing the file
"Who knows?" Conner answered
"What?" Kira sighed when she opened the file
"Put that back in the drawer she is coming" Conner said Kira got shocked when she read the file in which was written the full name of Trent Fernandez Mercer.
When Conner asked her twice to hurry up she put the file back inside the drawer and sat down in silence.