Flashback- Chapter 2

Disclaimer: I don't own anyone except for Chloe and anyone else not seen or mentioned in the show.

Rated: PG-13

Summary: Dustin is supposed to be the goofy one, the one that just doesn't have problems. But guess what? He does.

Author's Note: Thanks to those who pointed out that Dustin's last name is Brooks. I'll change that from now on. Um…I'm too lazy to go back and change that in the first chapter so you'll just have to deal with that. =D Hunter and Blake's last name is Bradley, am I right? What are the others?

            I guess it really started when the process of making friends got screwed up. Which evidently leads back to me. Chloe had been gone for a few years at boarding school and rarely came home over the summer. Or anytime for that matter. Things got really bad between her and our father, who isn't around anymore. I don't think anyone really knew what was going on with them. Hell, I still don't know and I guess I never will.

*~*

            I was working in Storm Chargers after school one day, helping a customer with bikes. Apparently, he wanted a new one or something. I was listening to the requirements of the bike so I didn't really hear the bells jangle. Heading off into the back room to get Kelly who did some of the storage stuff until Blake and Hunter got to the store, I felt two pairs of hands on my back.

            "Dustin, being studious? No way!" I heard Tori's voice.

            "Funny, guys," I turned around, "Have you seen Hunter or Blake?"

            "Yeah Blake was held up at school for some reason," Shane shrugged.

            Tori nodded in agreement, "But we didn't see Hunter around. We thought he'd be here." I nodded, slightly confused, but shrugging it off at the same time.

            "So what's with the sister thing?" Shane asked after a few moments of rare and awkward silence.

            "What sister thing?" I asked.

            "Well, dude, after years of no contact your sister pops up out of nowhere. What's going on, man?"

            "Nothing's going on," I started to get defensive, "What the hell are you smoking man? She just decided that maybe starting at Blue Bay High again wouldn't be such a bad idea."

            "It just sounds like a lot of trouble to me," Tori shrugged indifferently. I was started to get angry and frustrated. What were my friends getting at? Why were they incessantly nagging at the fact that, for once, something happened in my life and it happened right?

            "What kind of trouble?" my sister's unmistakable mischievous voice rang through the store. We all looked up to see Chloe, wearing a smirk, and Hunter right behind her.

            "Wouldn't you just love to find out?" Tori muttered under her breath. I shot her a warning glance. Tori was never one to be so…rude. What was wrong with her?

            "So what's up?" I asked, slapping Hunter a high-five and hugging Chloe.

            "Nothing," Hunter shrugged, "I was down at the track when I found her getting herself lost or something like that," he rolled his eyes, smiling all the same.

            "Hey, I wasn't lost. I was just aimlessly wandering!" Chloe yelled, turning red and playfully punching Hunter's shoulder.

            "A few years out of touch does a lot to your memory doesn't it, Chlo?" I teased. She slapped me. We joked around for awhile before it was time to close up the shop and head home for dinner. Blake, who came in minutes after Hunter and Chloe, insisted on driving Tori home. If those two got any more in love, I'd force them to go out. It was kind of dumb, how neither of them saw how much the other liked them, if that makes any sense at all. Sometimes it made me sick. Shane headed in the opposite direction, which left me, Hunter, and Chloe to forge our own way home. Blake and Hunter actually lived on the street next to mine.

            "So where did you go to school before this?" Hunter asked my sister.

            "Well, it's kind of a long story. I'm not sure you'd want to hear about it," Chloe shrugged, looking up at Hunter.

            "It's a pretty long walk home since Blake rudely took our ride."

            "Yeah," I chimed in, "It won't hurt to tell him Chloe." She took that as a sign of my approval, that Hunter could be trusted. And this time I knew he really could be trusted.

            "Okay," Chloe took in a deep breath, "A few years ago I got into some trouble around here even though I had nothing to do with anything that was going on. They accused me of being a part of some drug ring and the leader didn't deny it. Okay, so I admit, it was partially my fault I was hanging around with them."

            I coughed.

            She scowled at me, "Oh alright, it had everything to do with it. I wasn't part of the secret drug ring, but I had friends who were. In fact, my best friend at the time, Heather, was one of their number one clients. She couldn't get enough of that crap and she needed it. There were times when she'd go through withdrawal without it. It made me really sick to see her like that and I wanted to be able to do something to help her. I told her that it would be a good idea to get some help. Even she knew it was going to eat her up from the inside and kill her. But Heather was stubborn like that; she refused to admit that she needed help. One day she had a fever and couldn't leave the house. Well, that very same day she was supposed to meet the ring leader and get a new stash of that stuff. Like I said, she was sick so she couldn't go. Normally, she would've just sneaked out no matter how horrible she was feeling. But she was already in hot water with the parental unit and she didn't feel like being confined in her room for the rest of her life. So who does she ask?"

            "You?" Hunter guessed.

            "Yeah. Me. And me, I didn't want to do it. Not only was I scared of the ring leader, I wanted Heather to stop taking that shit. But she pleaded with me, begged me, and said something along the lines of, 'A real best friend would do it.' That's what really got me. So I took the money and I met the leader on the park bench like Heather always did and explained the situation to him. He didn't really give a shit about Heather, as long as I had the money to pay him for it. Of course, being me, luck had to run out. The police came screeching to a stop in front of us and arrested us and the rest of the drug ring. They sent me to a boarding school for girls and I was to go there for a year. They never caught Heather. But after a year at the boarding school, I liked it a lot better than I did at public school.

            At boarding school, everyone wore the same thing, everyone was treated the same way. And even though there were the really 'good' girls, there were a lot of girls there like me. Plus, it was an all-girls school which means that I didn't have to deal with boys. Another great plus."

            "You don't like boys very much, do you?"

            "I don't have a problem with boys, hell I love my brother to death. I just never had great experiences with them romantically. They don't go for girls like me."

            "You don't know that anymore," I pointed out, "You've been gone since freshmen year of high school. You're a junior now and I'm a senior. Boys change in three years."

            "You obviously didn't. You're still my goofy big brother, but I like you this way."

            I rolled my eyes.

            "Well anyway," she stuck her tongue out at me before turning back to Hunter, "I came back to start my junior and senior years of high school here because I figure that I spent enough time away from my family already. I really love my family even if my police record doesn't really prove that."

            "You have a police record?" Hunter asked, surprised.

            "Yeah. It's not very big. I was sent to juvy once and I've been caught drinking illegally at an unsupervised party a few times, and the whole boarding school thing. It's not as bad as a lot of my friends up at boarding school. I'm crime free now though. I think I was just a stage in my life when I felt like I needed to prove something to the world. I used to dye my hair at least once a week."

            "And now?"

            "Twice a year maybe. Dustin thinks I should try a chestnut brown for awhile," she flipped her shoulder-length red-streaked hair (at least it was red-streaked then), "What do you think?"

            "Why chestnut brown, Dustin?" Hunter turned to me.

            I shrugged, "It's her natural hair color. I just wanted to see how it looked on her. I keep forgetting."

            "Oh shut up, you do not forget. But anyway, I was thinking about streaking it again instead of dying it all the way. I'm growing rather fond of streaks now. What do you say about purple?"

            "Uh…" Hunter and I said at the same time.

            "No? Okay fine, I'll have to go with green then."

            Hunter turned onto his street, "I'll see you two tomorrow."
            "HOW ABOUT ORANGE?! OKAY, YOU SLEEP ON IT!!!" she yelled after him. All I could do was laugh hysterically beside her.

            She finally turned to me, "So is the master bastard home around this time?" she asked me with a bitterness in her voice that registered only when we talked about the "master bastard".

            "No, he's gone. Didn't you know? He's permanently gone."

            "Really?" There was glee in her voice, "Finally! I thought mom would never come to her senses."

           "She didn't," I stated wryly, "I did. I called hotline number you sent me one night and they took him away. Never to be seen again. He has a restraining order to stay away from me, you, and mom at least 500 feet."

            "Good. They should have put a country between us."

            "I don't know where he is or if he's still in Blue Bay. But I'm glad I called the hotline for mom's sake. Me and you, we knew how to take care of ourselves, especially you since you were never home anyway when it got real bad. I stayed away from the house as much as possible, but mom couldn't. And I wanted to just tell her to pack her things and leave. But…I couldn't…there were…responsibilities," I finished, not exactly revealing what 'responsibilities' I had. Somehow, Chloe seemed to understand.

            "Well as long as he's out of our lives forever."

            "He can't be."

            "And why the hell not?" she asked me, hands on her hips.

            "Because he's our father. He'll never be out of our lives."

*~*

            I'd never seen anyone so glad to hear that he'd been taken away from us. Not even I had been that happy. I'd been kind of sad, even. Of course I knew what he'd done to our family, to me. But still he was my father and he used to be my hero before things got bad. And to know that he wasn't all he was cut out to be, my heart kind of just broke. I was sad for my mother, who cried both out of happiness and sadness when he was taken away. I was sad for my sister because of her vengeance and unknown history with him. I was sad for me.

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Mynameis--: Thanks! I knew it was B something, but I didn't remember what it was so I just made one up. I'm not gonna change it for the first chapter, but as I noted in the top, I'll change it from now on.

Jess: lol! I'm probably not going to emphasize much on the rangers part of his life, even though it's there.

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