Disclaimer: I don't own Power Rangers. Someone else does. I don't know who 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 :).
This is story number 46.
By
Eileen (Psycho Tangerine)
"Hello, may I help you?"
Chad looked up from the jacket he was examining. A young woman with wavy brunette hair was smiling at him. The tag on her chest said 'Ashley Hammond- Owner and Manager.' "Oh, uh…"
Ashley continued to smile. "Would you like to buy one of my jackets?" she asked enthusiastically. "I have so many jackets here. I designed them all myself."
"You designed them?" asked Chad who was already getting dizzy from all the bizarre patterns in the shop. "How…uh…nice."
"Yep," Ashley's eyes blazed as her grin increased. "They all said my designs sucked. Just because that stupid Delisha Ennivel monster caused everyone in Angel Grove who bought my jackets to act like assholes. But I knew they were all jealous."
"Jealous?" Chad was becoming a bit uncomfortable with this maniacal woman.
Ashley nodded, "of everything, my hair, my perkiness, my ability to do three backflips in a row, my alien lover."
"Oh dear," thought Chad, "she's loony…probably one of those nuts who believe in alien abductions." He rehung the jacket he had been looking at and slowly backed towards the door. "You know, it's getting too hot for me to be buying a jacket now anyway."
"Too hot? It's the middle of January."
"Well, I uh…just don't want to take your time away from your other customers."
"Other customers?" exclaimed Ashley excitedly. "Where?" She looked around the store. Aside from Chad and her, it was completely empty. Suddenly, she burst into tears. "There's no one! There's never anyone! No!" She ran and grabbed Chad as he tried to sneak out the door. "Please don't go!"
Chad reacted instinctively to being grabbed. "Hiyah!" A second later, his foot connected with a rack of pink and green paisley jackets, causing it to spin into other nearby racks and dump jackets all over the floor. "Whoops," he mumbled.
"My jackets!" cried the still hysterical Ashley. "My beautiful jackets!"
Chad looked longingly at the door. But he just wasn't the type to leave a mess behind. No, he would be a gentleman and stay and help. Besides, he had just spotted his lifelong nemesis, the bane of his life; the pain in his ass…Chad held his breath until Kelsey finally walked past the store. Nope, no way he was going back out there until the coast was clear.
"Sorry," Chad picked up the rack. "You just scared me before." He began to pick up the jackets and hang them back up.
"That's ok," replied Ashley, who had immediately returned to her happy grin when she realized Chad was staying. "And when you're done, I could help you buy a nice new jacket."
Chad sighed. "Yeah, I guess so."
Ten minutes later, Ashley was picking out jackets and handing them to Chad. However, no matter what he tried on, he frowned at his reflection. "No, no, no, these just aren't any good. They're just not…not…"
"Good looking? Attractive? Stylish?" Ashley's voice wavered as she threatened to break out into tears again. "Not you too."
"No, not ugly enough," remarked Chad. "I mean I still haven't felt nauseated by any of these yet."
Ashley's face blanked at this. She didn't know whether to laugh or cry this time. "What the hell are you talking about? You actually WANT an ugly jacket? Whatever for?"
Chad's face reddened in embarrassment. "Well, it's just that she won't stop chasing me."
"She?"
Chad dived behind the counter as Kelsey passed the store yet again. "Shhhhhh! Don't let her in!" He hissed at Ashley as she began to head for the door. "Come here and I'll buy two jackets!"
"Really?" cried Ashley as she looked back at him. Two jackets! This would be her first sale ever since she opened the store two months ago. She would finally be able to put a down payment on that lovely house. Maybe Andros wanted to live all his life on a rickety space ship, but not her. She needed to be closer to her family, closer to her friends, closer to the mall. "Ok!" She dived behind the counter as well. "Why are we hiding?"
"Hush!" Chad peeked nervously around the gray counter and sighed when he realized that Kelsey had again moved on. "Thank God," he mumbled as he got up.
"Ok, who was that, and why were you hiding from her?" asked Ashley.
"Kelsey Winslow," replied Chad. "We were uh co-workers once. But she was always hanging around me, always getting in the way of my karate and my meditations. She was always skating around me and yapping my ears off." He moaned at the memory. "She kept at me for so long that I finally broke down and…and…"
"Cried? Got dragged away in a straight jacket?"
"Asked her out on a date!" wailed Chad. "That's why I need an extremely ugly jacket. I want to be so hideous looking that she'll run screaming from me." He looked conspiratorially at Ashley. "I already bought the fake pus-leaking boils."
"Oh, that's lovely."
"Oh, this has just got to work," moaned Chad. "I just can't stand it anymore. I mean Kelsey is just so annoyingly happy and perky all the time, kind of like…" he paled when he realized that Ashley was grinning at him maniacally again, "…that."
"Kelsey Winslow?" asked Ashley who finally realized what Chad had said before. "Did you just say that was Kelsey Winslow, the Yellow Lightspeed Ranger?"
Chad nodded lamely.
"Oh my God! Oh my God! Oh my God! I thought I recognized that karate kick! You're Chad Lee, the Blue Lightspeed Rescue Ranger!"
Chad gulped loudly.
"I can't believe it. I've always wanted to meet you guys. I mean we fought space aliens. But you guys got to fight demons! That is so awesome! And I really so very much want to meet every Ranger there is! You just have to introduce me to your teammates! We could all get together and get all of our powers to work together! We'd have the biggest Zord ever and we could teach it to do cheerleading and other tricks and we could go on tour and be on all the shows and we could really become rich and famous…"
"Aaaaaaaaaaaaaah!!!!" screamed Chad as he bolted out of the door. "Kelsey! Help! There's a psychotic nutcase after me!"
"Wait!" called Ashley as she chased after him. "You still haven't bought any jackets! You slimy cheapskate! You promised!!!"