Chapter 10—No Longer Being Masochistic…
All throughout the night, Nick tossed and turned, getting very few hours of sleep. Not only was that stupid horse on his mind, but Xander as well. First of all, he'd never been scared of horses before, and second of all, he had no reason to fear Xander.
But school…he thought to himself as he groggily turned on the shower. The steam rose up, stimulating his eyes somewhat, enough for him to carry on with his daily routine without falling asleep.
When he arrived at the Briarwood High he didn't see anyone…at all.
Oh no…I hope I'm not late!
He hurriedly parked his bike, hanging his helmet on the handle bar, and jumped off, running to the main building. Before he got there he ran past a woman carrying a stack of papers.
"Young man!" she shouted in a shrill voice, "Where exactly is that you think you're going?"
Nick turned around and huffed out an answer, "Uh, well, I'm supposed to be starting today and I think I'm late!"
The woman cracked a smile, "You're not late. You're early."
Nick's face dropped.
"What?"
"Yes, school doesn't start for another 45 minutes."
Nick groaned and rubbed his still damp hair. What was he going to do for 45 minutes…he hoped his mystic morpher had games…
Nick thanked the woman and turned on his heel, back towards his bike.
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"C'mon Maddi, we're gonna be late!" Vida growled as her sister double checked her backpack for her books.
"I'm coming V!" she shouted impatiently, "Just because you don't take a backpack to school."
"What for? They give you lockers to hold your books in," Vida said incredulously as she backed out of the driveway and skidded down the road.
Vida cautiously clicked her seatbelt in and looked out the window.
"What's up sis?" Vida wondered, reading Madison's blank yet worried expression.
"It's Nick…"
"What about him?"
"Well…he just doesn't consider us his friends…and that bothers me."
"I'm sure he considers us friends, Maddi. You worry too much," Vida replied.
Madison put on a look of doubt, "No, I don't think so. He sent me friend request last night and I read his profile. In his about me he said he just wanted to meet actual, real, friends."
"Maybe he just means more friends," Vida said skeptically, seeing through the fluffed up drama Maddi was spewing.
"Well why aren't we good enough?"
"Madison!" Vida half yelled in shock, "Don't be selfish. I cannot believe you just said that. Of course we're good enough, it's just he needs more than just us as friends. We're around each other all the time: Fighting evil, working at Toby's, and now at school. He's going to need someone else. And probably a girlfriend."
Vida's last addition made Madison give her a wry look, but she quickly turned away.
"What was that, sis?" Vida asked.
"What was what?" Maddi feigned.
"That face. You know something don't you?" Vida accuesed.
Madison blanched and shook her head furiously.
"Nick has a girlfriend?"
"Not quite my choice of words…"
Vida was confused for a few seconds, then, like a brick wall, it hit her.
"Oh my GOD!"
Vida slammed on the breaks, causing the guy behind her to go nuts.
"Shut up!" Vida yelled to them, giving them her slender middle finger.
"Nick! Has a boyfriend?"
Madison looked away. She didn't tell Vida…Vida just kind of…guessed?
"I don't know…"
"Oh you know, Madison, you know! Who is it? Does Xander know?"
"Funny you should mention Xander."
Vida gasped in disbelief. Xander had finally gone out on a limb since dating that super jerk last year…that was something she did not even want to get into.
"So Nick and—" she was unable to finish her sentence when another blare of the person behind hers' horn snapped the seeming silence.
"Alright, alright, don't shit yourself!" Vida slammed on the gas, pushing them forward towards the school more.
"Yes…Nick and Xander…but you can't tell either of them I told you, they'll both kill me."
"This is just too weird…"
"Yeah, tell me about it. Hopefully Jeremy doesn't find out about this soon…or he'll make Nick's life hell like he did Xander's last year."
"Yeah…let's not talk about him anymore," Vida said as they pulled into the parking lot.
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His skateboard grinded to a stop as Xander flipped it into his hands, a preoccupied look on his face.
"Hey Xander," a chorus of girls rang.
He barely paid them a notice by waving to them before making his way to the groups normal meeting spot. Vida and Madison were already there.
"Xander," Madison said cheerfully.
"Hey Maddi, V," he greeted.
"What's wrong, you look worried," the blue ranger asked sincerely.
"I've just…got a lot to think about today, that's all."
"Hey everybody!" Chip entered.
The team looked around to see Chip parading up to them, looking much more normal than he did last week. Today he only had on jeans and a yellow Tee…
"What's up with everyone wearing their color lately?" Xander asked, eyeing his own green shirt.
"I don't know…even I've taken a sudden liking to this atrocious color," Vida commented.
Madison shrugged, "I've never had a problem with blue."
"Hey guys, where's Nick?" Chip asked off-handedly.
Of the entire ranger team, Chip was the only one that didn't know about Nick and Xander…causing him to be looked upon oddly…or more so than usual.
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Nick looked around campus but still couldn't find Vida, Madison, Chip, and Xander. People kept looking at him funny, or he thought so, and it didn't make matters much better when a total stranger came up to him.
"Hey, you new around here?"
Nick turned to see a blond boy, no taller than 6 feet with dull blue eyes standing before him. He looked to be more on the preppy/jock stereotype than any other group, based on his expensive clothing and hemp necklace.
"Oh, yeah, name's Nick," he said expertly. He'd done this a million times before…
"Jeremy, nice to meet you," the male said with a smile.
Nick smiled and the boy returned it, later offering to help him around school. This was going to be Nick's first school friend outside of his teammates.
But was it he right friend to be around…?
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The next few chapters I'm going to try and make up a past for Xander, so I apologize in advance if the show says something different than I do. In no way do I know if 'Jeremy' exists or will exist on Mystic Force, I just made up an OC, and there will be about two others, not with gigantic parts, but they'll be around school. Anyway, thank you for your reviews and I look forward to more.
------------------ Patrick