"Hey, Frank," Melody's voice called out, causing him to nearly fall off the ladder he was climbing. Why had he been the one who got the short straw and had to climb up on the ladder to help decorate?
"Melody," He exclaimed, gripping the rung in front of him a little tighter than necessary, "What are you doing here?"
"I'm looking for you," Melody pointed out, "Hence why I called out your name."
"You sure that you're looking for me and not J.T.," Frank asked, slowly padding his way down the ladder, "I swear, half the girls are looking for him."
Melody snickered, picturing J.T. getting chased by a herd of schoolgirls, "He loves the attention."
"You would think that," Frank agreed, "With how he acts up all the time, but that doesn't explain why he's hiding in the Encampment to keep them from finding him."
"I wonder if it has anything to do with Maria Valdez's bloody nose or Bridget's black eye," a new voice exclaimed as Sara arrived. As it was a Saturday, and not a school day she wore her usual basketball shorts and a dusty rose-colored t-shirt.
"What are you talking about?" Melody asked.
"Bridget and Maria," Sara said, rolling her eyes, "They got into a catfight over who should ask J.T. to the dance."
"But they're best friends, and roommates," Melody pointed out.
"I know," Sara exclaimed, "I don't get why everyone is bending over backward and getting into fights over who they are taking to this stupid dance."
The other rangers looked at her, "You know," Frank said, "According to Ms. Johnson, you have got to be the most opposite of all stereotypical pink rangers."
Sara shrugged, "I don't like being told how to act."
"Yet, J.T. is the one who always gets detention," Melody pointed out.
"Well," Frank said, "If he would stop acting up in class, stop trying to go to class out of uniform, and stops sneaking out of the dorm after curfew then he wouldn't get into so much trouble."
...The Encampment…
J.T. sighed as he entered his tent in the Encampment, why, just why? Why in the world did half of the girls at school decide that he was the one to take to the school dance? Come on Maria and Bridget actually had gotten into a fistfight over who got to ask him. He liked getting attention but this was a little insane, "They must all be under some love spell," he groaned, "Maybe Cupid was practicing his target shooting." Just then he sat up, "Or maybe Mordred and Morgana brew a love potion," he exclaimed before looking around him, "Oh yeah, I'm alone, the others can't hear me, but it kind of explains why all of the girls are acting crazy, even Stacy, and she usually can't stand me and the others, and I'm sitting in my tent talking to myself when I have every girl in the school madly in love with me," J.T. pointed out, before laughing, he was talking to himself, he really needed to snap out of it, girls fight over boys all the times in those chick flicks Melody made them all watch.
...The Enchanted Forest…
Mordred looked through the crystal ball, yes, for once everything was going according to plans. Spying on the school of a whole had proved useful. He had quickly learned that there was going to be a Girl ask Boy Dance and that several of the girls wanted to ask J.T. After that it had been simple enough to cast a spell on them making them all crazy for the black ranger. Now he'll be so busy keeping the girls off him that he wouldn't be able to help the other rangers when he attacked the dance.
...Knight Academy…
"Hey Frank," another voice called out, causing Frank to groan, glancing at Sara and Melody who shrugged.
"What is it, Aileen?" Frank asked, turning to the blonde that had entered the gym.
"Do you know where I can find J.T.?"
"You aren't going to invite J.T. to the dance," a new voice screeched, "I am!"
"No you're not," Aileen snapped whirling around sharply.
The three power rangers watched as Aileen and the other girl started to fight with each other.
"So," Frank said, peeling his eyes away from the fight, there had to be a teacher around here somewhere, there was always a teacher nearby, "Melody, why were you looking for me?"
"Well, you see," Melody's face suddenly went as red as Frank's t-shirt, "I was wondering… If you don't have other plans, that is."
"Oh for crying out loud," Sara snapped, "Frank, will you go to the dance with Melody, please, so that I can get some peace of mind."
Frank and Melody looked at their redheaded friend, shaking their heads in unison, before Frank said, "Sure I would love to."
…Later that night…
Melody carefully set the curling iron down on her desk, unplugging it, before glancing at her roommate, her hair was done up in the two tight braids that she always wore them in as she was sprawled across her bed in sweatpants, "Aren't you going to get ready for the dance?" Melody asked as she grabbed her lipstick.
Sara snorted, "I don't want anything to do with anything that makes the others go uncivil." she insisted.
"So you're going to hide in here?" Melody asked.
"Don't be silly," Sara said, swinging her legs over the edge of her bed, "I'm not hiding, everyone knows where I am, J.T.'s the one that's hiding."
Melody shook her head, "I wish we knew what exactly was going on, I've never seen Stacy risk breaking a nail over a freshman boy."
…
Mason looked around the room, before frowning, "Something's wrong," he announced, right as the music was turned on, full blast.
Mark, who was standing next to him frowned, before leaning forward, "What!" he shouted over the music.
"Something's wrong!" Mason repeated, nodding towards the dance floor.
Mark took a look, there was a large press of students as if the whole school had shown up, but no one was dancing. There also wasn't the clusters of brightly dressed girls like he remembered seeing at his old school for homecoming. They stood inches away from each other, and if one got too close to another a full-on fight would break out.
"Nothing like this ever happened at my old school!" Mark shouted.
Mason groaned, "This isn't something that happens here either," he paused for a moment, this was getting out of hand, sure there had been a few fights during the day, but… his thought was interrupted as Jace Bateman and Grant Kirby suddenly started swinging fists at each other, this was getting way out of hand. He needed to go to the Encampment to see if anyone knew what was going on, but first, he needed to ditch Mark, again.
"I don't see Sara," Mason said, "I better go check on her."
"I thought you weren't going to the dance with Sara?" Mark asked.
"Look, when something is bothering Sara she withdraws from everyone, she prefers to be around people, but when something upsets her, she prefers to be alone," Mason shouted over his shoulder, darting down the hall surprising himself, why would he tell Mark that about Sara.
"Really?" Mark called out only to blink as Mason was already gone.
...The Encampment...
"This situation is getting out of control," Ms. Johnson said from her place at the table, "We need to figure out what is going on."
"Well," J.T. spoke up, "I kind of that it might have been a love spell, but wouldn't we have known if a monster had gotten in?"
"Not if Mordred just cast a randomized love spell," Ms. Johnson insisted, "Although a blanket spell like he probably used doesn't last long."
"If we don't do something soon, someone's going to get seriously hurt," Frank pointed out, "If someone like Grant decides to have a go on someone like Greyson, it won't look pretty."
Everyone nodded, picturing the school's quarterback compared to the president of their school's computer club, he wouldn't have stood a chance.
Ms. Johnson frowned, "I was saving this for an emergency..." she began.
"Look as much as I like a good fight," Sara interrupted, "I think Student Safety is an emergency, although I never heard of love spells causing people to fight each other."
"It's more common than you think," Ms. Johnson insisted, "The Shot that was heard around the world is believed to have been caused by a love spell. At least that's one theory."
"So how do we stop it?" Frank asked, "I don't want this to turn into World War Three."
Ms. Johnson stood up from the round table and disappeared into a purple tent that was set up in the row of tents, before reappearing with a small clay jar, "Mystic Mother gave this to me once," she explained, "It's an unechantment powder, add it to water and spray it on anyone under a spell and it should break it."
"But most of the school is under the spell," Melody pointed out, "how are we going to get everyone sprayed."
"The school's sprinkler system." Mason suggested, "If we add the water to the system and turned on the sprinklers in the gym, we should get everyone at once."
...The Gym...
"How it going?" Sara asked as Mason twisted a valve.
"I've turned off the water to this section of the school," he explained, "now all have to do is remove a pipe, add the powder, and then turn the water back on."
"Then everyone in the gym gets a shower," J.T. said with a laugh.
"How long will it take?" Sara asked, "Things are getting bad in the gym."
"You're telling me," Melody's voice filtered through their helmets, "I think I might have walked onto a battlefield, not a dance floor."
Mason didn't answer as he was removing a pipe, poured the powder into it, then replaced it, before turning the valve once more, "All we have to do is turn on the sprinkler system."
"On it," Frank said, racing across the floor, grabbed the little hammer that hung by a string and used it to break the glass that said in case of fire break glass, before reaching into the little box and pulling the trigger down. Suddenly there was a wailing sound as the fire alarms activated and the sprinkler system kicked in.
As soon as everyone started to get wet, the whole school seemed to freeze, everyone picked themselves up off the floor and those who had been fighting seconds earlier were now hugging.
"We did it," Melody announced.
...
Sara couldn't believe her bad luck, why had she demorphed in the closet with Mason, she should have maintained her morph and left the gym, as it was she had half the school to get past towards any of the exits, and it was too crowded to open a passageway. Ug, she was going to have to hope that everyone was busy worrying about ruined hair and makeup to notice her in her sweats.
She almost made it halfway to the exit when she heard her name being called out.
She froze, stiffening as she turned around slowly, Mark was standing behind her, wearing a white dress shirt and gray slacks, obviously, by the school emblem on the shirt pocket, he was wearing his school uniform. Mark smirked when he noticed Sara's arched eyebrow, "I didn't have any regular dress shirt," he confessed.
"Well," she said, gesturing down at her outfit, "I didn't have any fancy dresses," she admitted.
Mark shrugged, "So, do you... um," the loud music suddenly died down as the DJ announced that they were going to slow things down for a moment, "do you want to dance?"
"Me?" Sara asked, pointing to herself, "Are you blind?"
"No," Mark said, "I just like girls that don't make a huge fuss over their hair and makeup, besides, Mason talks about you a lot, the two of you seem close."
"He's like the brother I always wanted," Sara confessed, taking his offered hand, "He understands me, I must warn you, I'm not a good dancer."
...
Next time on LMPR: A big test is coming up at Knight's Academy but when the power rangers are plagued with nightmares that prevent them from getting enough sleep can they find the cause and stop it before they become too tired to pass their tests.