Disclaimer:  I don't own Power Rangers.  Someone else does.  I don't know whom because it keeps changing.  Please don't get offended if I insult your favorite character.  Some pairings are easy to write a story for while others are really tough.  So please realize that some of my stories will be better than others.  Hi to all my fellow AFPR's including my fellow female Psychos :).  And I really appreciate the reviews :).

     Ok, this is the tenth of the requested pairings.  This one was requested by Alexandra Oliver aka Explosive *Lil * Dynamo.  I had a bit of a brain blockage with this one.  So, I hope it's ok. :). 

Happy New Year!

Justin and Dustin

By

Eileen (Psycho Tangerine)

    "Is it seven?"

     "No."

     "Uh, five?"

     "No."

     "Oh, come on, Dude.  Can't you give me just a tiny hint?  This stuff is hard!"

     Justin sighed in exasperation.  At first, he had resisted Ms. Appleby's insistence that he become a peer tutor.  He wasn't impressed when she told him that it would look good on his college scholarship applications.  He didn't care when she said he would be helping another student to achieve success and stay in school.  However, when Ms. Appleby told him that it was either tutoring or four months of detention as a consequence for his hacking into Principal Kaplan's computer and downloading porno from it, he quickly changed his mind.  But, just a week into attempting to tutor this Dustin kid and Justin felt like banging his head on something.

     Justin looked at the other twelve-year- old boy incredulously.  "Nine!  Three times three equals nine!  Haven't you been studying your times table chart at all?"

     Dustin leaned back in his chair.  "Dude, how can I ever get good with my motorbike if I got to waste time doing that?"

     "What's that got to do with anything?  If you don't improve your math skills, you're not going to graduate junior high next year."

     Dustin shrugged his shoulders.  He had never seen a kid as uptight as this one.  "Who needs to graduate?  I've got it all figured out."

     "Oh, really?" Justin's voice dripped with sarcasm.  "What are you going to do?  Live off your inheritance from your rich uncle?"

     "I have a rich uncle?"  Dustin jumped up excitedly, knocking his textbook to the floor.  "Why didn't anyone tell me?  Is he dead yet?  How much am I getting?"  He completely ignored the scathing look from the librarian.

     "Sit down!  I was just being sarcastic.  Geez, you're even dumber than I thought."  Justin picked up the book and opened it.  "Ok, here's the next problem…"

     "Forget it, Dude," interrupted Dustin.  "I told you I had a better way."

     Justin sighed and closed the book.  "Fine, how are you going to support yourself if you can't even pass seventh grade?"

     "By becoming a Power Ranger."

     "What???  That's the stupidest thing I've ever heard.  You can't just 'become' a Power Ranger."

     "How would you know?"

     "I uh, that is I…I…I…" Justin began to sputter as he tried to think of a way to reply.  "Oh, wait, that was a rhetorical question, wasn't it?  Fine, how do you know that you will become a Power Ranger?"    

     "Easy, Dude!  Look, there are 426 students in Angel Grove High.  And, judging from their voices and fighting styles, there have been twelve Rangers so far.  And they've got to be high school students."

     Justin tried not to show too much interest.  "Oh, and I suppose that's because they're the only kind of people crazy enough to want the job?"

     "Well, more because this comic book says that Zordon wanted 'teenagers with attitude'."  He tossed the comic book towards a now shocked Justin.  "But, yeah, that too."

     "Oh, well, you can't really believe what you read in comic books," said Justin desperately.  "They're never accurate."

     Dustin, ignoring Justin opened to the back of his notebook.  "Now, the way I figured it out, the Rangers are all probably upstanding citizens…you know, goody two-shoes.  So I subtracted all the juvenile delinquents, bullies, and anyone with less than a B average.  That leaves 212 students."

     "That still doesn't tell me how you…'

     "Dude, don't break my concentration."

     "How can I break something you've never had?"

     Dustin looked back at his notebook. "Ok, let's see.  Then I realized that all of the Rangers had to be thin enough to wear that spandex.  So I subtracted all the fatsos.  That leaves 98 high school students.  So, then I figured there was a better than a one in nine chance for me to become a Ranger."

     Justin's eyes narrowed.  "But that's calculating with eleven Rangers.  I thought you said there have been twelve."

     "Oh, well, I didn't count the Blue Turbo.  Anyone can tell he's just a kid whenever he speaks.  I figured he was probably just a mascot or something."

     "MASCOT????"  Justin stood up suddenly, knocking his chair over.

     The librarian glared more harshly at them.  Then she tapped the 'Quiet! Or I'll sic the Rangers on you' sign she had specially made.

     Justin quickly calmed himself.    "That is, how do you know the Blue Ranger's even a boy?"

     "He's in blue dude.  No way any girl Ranger would be in blue.  That would be just as stupid as a dude in pink or yellow."

     Justin began to ponder Tommy wearing pink spandex when something suddenly occurred to him.  "Wait a second, I thought you couldn't do math.  But you just used division."

     "No, Dude, I used a calculator.  Another reason not to need all this 'tutoring'."

     Justin began to pack up his books.  "Fine, then, I'll just ask Ms. Appleby for someone else to work with.  That Fists Knuckles kid will need help with his fifth attempt to get out of the eighth grade. Even a pounding from him would be better than the pounding headache I'm getting from you."

     "Whoa, Dude, don't be so melodramatic."  Dustin paused.  "I thought you wanted to know how I'm going to be a Ranger."

     Justin sighed as he sat back down.  His damned constant curiosity had gotten the better of him yet again.  "Fine, let's suppose just for a minute that your faulty logic is correct.  How can you be that one person out of nine when you just said the Rangers get good grades?  You're failing math and science!"  Justin studied Dustin's face to see his reaction to that.

     Dustin just laughed. "Oh, that math stuff.  Dude, I was just playing with your head.  That stuff has nothing to do with how I'm going to become a Ranger."

      "Oh, very funny."  Justin was a bit annoyed, especially since he didn't get the joke.  "So, then how do you plan to become a Ranger?  Call this so-called Zordon on your cell phone?"    

     "Nah, Dude.  His number's unlisted.  Anyway, I figured out something."

     Justin leaned back in his chair and crossed his arms.  "Oh, and what is that?"

     "Well, that blackmail is better…Blue Ranger!"

     "WHAAAAAAAAAAATTT??!!"  Justin's chair fell all the way back.  He landed on the floor with a bang.

     Ten minutes later, after the Red and Green Turbo Rangers had bounced them out of the library, the boys began to walk towards the park. By then, Justin had almost regained his composure.  "Wha…what makes you think I'm the Blue Ranger?  Is it my skills at karate?  Is it my charming nature and natural genius?"

     "No.  Boy you sure think a lot about yourself."  Dustin paused at the corner.  "Actually, I heard it from someone."  He crossed the street.

     "What???"  Justin ran right after him, completely ignoring the screeching tires and the curses coming from the ice cream truck man.  "Ok, who blabbed?  Was it Kat?  Tanya?  Adam?  Tommy?  Zordon?  Alpha Five?  Oh wait, it had to be one of the new ones.  Was it TJ?  Carlos?  Cassie?  Ashley?  Dimitria?  Alpha Six?  Blue Senturion?"

     Dustin stopped walking and turned around.  "No, you did, Doofus Dude.  But thanks for the additional info on the other Rangers."

     "Huh?  I didn't tell you anything."

     "Sure you did."  He leaned close to Justin. "Just a suggestion," he whispered.  "But the next time you plan on jumping around and shouting about defeating Divatox and that volcano dude, Maligore, you really should do it in a far less public place than the park."

     "But…"

     "But nothing.  The way I see it, if you want me to be quiet, then you should take a nice early retirement."

     "What?"

     "Yep, and then you could just happen to name your best buddy as your successor."  Dustin put his arm around the other boy's shoulders with a wide grin.

     "Best buddy?"  Justin was even more confused.  "But I don't think Nicco even wants to be a Power Ranger."

     Dustin dropped his arm.  "No, me!  I'm your bestest buddy because you are going to let me be the next Blue Ranger. "

     "I am?"

     "Sure.  Then I can be a big hero and go rescue everyone and have my picture in the paper and fight all the bad dudes and…" Dustin stopped suddenly and smacked himself on the forehead.  "Oh, Dude!  I totally forgot!!!"  He suddenly turned right and began running.

     "Forgot what?" Justin called as he ran after him.

     "That we're moving to Blue Bay Harbor tomorrow!  I have to get home and pack!  Oh, dude, now I'm going to have to think of another way to become a Ranger!  Maybe join that Ninja Academy they have there."

     Justin stopped running as Dustin turned a corner.  With apparent calmness, he walked up to a nearby oak…then proceeded to bang his head over and over on it.