THE REASON - Part Forty-Six: Shaken Teaching
Summary: Tommy takes a risk and goes back to school to resume his teaching, but things go wrong and the other rangers have no real answers to the problems erupting with the black dino thunder ranger.
Disclaimer: Power Rangers isn't mine. The only thing I own in this is the creativity to use these characters and create a story all its own.
A/N: This wasn't basically needed–well, maybe it was. But read it anyways, just as you were wanting me to post for the longest time. Sorry, but here you go. You know the deal, and reply back. May the Powers Always Protect You!
"Getting back to a lifestyle already hidden in shadow isn't any easier when there are far too many questions for people to ask me." -Eclyptyk Neo
Next day. Early morning.
Dr. Oliver sat in the foreign classroom, rocking in his chair trying to get a feel for the old room. It had been too long since he'd been in the classroom, and it was a relief to finally be back in it. Yet, he still felt weird about being in there. He looked at the lesson plan book to see that the class was discussing DNA.
"So, Anton. That's what you've been up to since my lame excuse for not coming in to teach." He told himself.
He called up Anton the day before requesting a day to come back and teach. But if things went wrong, Anton would have to resume the position as teacher until the "illness" was square away. But that was no real guarantee when they were still looking for answers. He figured by now though, his teaching career at Reefside could very well be gone with a month of absence under his sleeve.
But there was a little more than two weeks left of school, before the school could take a break and the teens were off for summer vacation. Yet, the vacation system at Reefside was a little weird, but understandable. The school would be out for about two months before classes for the new year began and a fall break came in within a month since school started. Then Thanksgiving was three days off and finally Christmas break. And that was the basis of the first half of the school year, but Dr. Oliver never really understood the system. He only knew that within the next few months, the teens would be calling themselves seniors. Well, it wasn't like they were now since the seniors of the school were now off. Graduation was a few days ago. So, now they ran the school. And when Dr. Oliver thought about that word–'senior–it brought back some interesting memories of his past.
A small knock came to the door as the familiar face of the red dino thunder ranger popped his head through. "Hey, Dr. O." Conner greeted with a small smile. "Busy?"
Dr. Oliver shook his head advising the teen to come in. "No. It's okay, Conner. Come on in."
The red ranger pushed to door open as three more familiar faces stepped into the room behind him. Kira. Trent. Ethan. They made their way to the desk, slightly shaken but relieved to have their old teacher back in the classroom.
"Adam informed us of the situation." Ethan was the first to say something.
"Yeah." Trent nodded, but held a saddened, worried look. "But are you sure about this, Dr. Oliver? I mean, I could just call up my dad and...."
"Yeah, Dr. O." Kira agreed with the white dino ranger. "I mean, with all that's happened, are you sure you're up to teaching?"
Dr. Oliver held up a hand. "I know you're worried, guys. But gotta try it out."
"But you haven't given it a week since the power transfer happened." Conner said. "I mean, that really drained you hard."
"I'm fine. Okay?" Dr. Oliver said sternly. "Hayley made some modifications to my morpher." he pulled up his sleeve. The cuff was now mounted to his wrist with no guarantee of removing it unless his hand got cut off.
As the teens looked at the gem, they watched it glow with a strange green hint that Adam warned them about. Beyond the pink color that now resided in each of their gems. They each exchanged a look before looking at their teacher for reassurance.
"Relax guys." Dr. Oliver said calmly. "I'll be fine. But keep an eye out, just in case."
"Will do, Dr. O." Conner nodded firmly. "But...."
BRING!
The bell rang to start the next school day. The four teens found their place at their seats, watching their teacher with much anticipation.
Dr. Oliver rubbed his temples, slightly dazed and excused himself to the bathroom. The teens exchanged another look before he left the room, each of them sensing that something was wrong.
-----
Teacher's restroom.
Dr. Oliver leaned over the sink, running the faucet with cold water. His head hung low as he caught his breath. He looked down at him morpher, groaning quietly. The sudden evil surge sparked up inside him as his knees weakened. "No, c'mon, Tommy." he breathed, splashing cold water on his face. "You can do this. You're better than this."
He dropped his head, letting the veins of water drip off his head and back into the sink. He closed his eyes for a moment, and saw the memories of the day he went to go see Anton Mercer. The day things went wrong. He felt the changes in him the moment he felt the power of the pink dino gem, but they only got worse when he went over there.
He saw as a power transfer began between two people. Himself and Kim. He knew it. He laid on a chair, but his ranger suit was begin to transform. Take shape as something else. His green dragon ranger suit, but settled upon his dino ranger suit. But the shield that was once the pink dino ranger's was now his own. It merged with his own powers giving him even more power than he could ever imagine. The gold armbands were plastered to his biceps. And when he removed his helmet, he saw the strange green hint in his eyes of his evil days.
Dr. Oliver opened his eyes, crying out in fright. He looked at the mirror, finding himself back in the bathroom. He watched the color of his eyes change to a fiery green color and he felt the evil surge inside him. He blinked again, and the green color disappeared.
He forced out a breath, turned off the water and retreated back to class.
-----
The classroom door slowly swung open and Dr. Oliver strode in to find his students tossing paper balls across the room. The four dino ranger teens rose to their feet, their eyes never leaving their mentor as he made it to the center of the room.
"Is it just me, or does he look a little pale?" Ethan whispered looking over at Conner.
"Something's wrong." Conner nodded. "He's not gonna make it."
The teens exchanged another look as the teacher clapped his hands together.
"Guys. Settle down! I leave for just one second and you're turning this place into a pigsty." the teacher proclaimed.
The students looked up surprised to see their teacher back in the classroom. And with that, began to bellow out remarks or questions regarding his absence. He made it as simple as possible that he was the road to recovery regarding an injury that left him in a rather stiffened state. It was believable enough, but the students wanted to learn more.
Dr. Oliver ended that with a request to take out a piece of paper for a pop quiz. The students groaned, but knew he wasn't kidding when he announced it in a more stern voice.
The hour passed slow.
With quizzes collected and a couple minutes to discuss DNA, Dr. Oliver began to draw a DNA strand on the board.
"DNA—deoxyribonucleic acid, which is found in all cells of the body..." Dr. Oliver paused for a moment, catching his breath.
His vision began to blur as he turned to the four dino thunder rangers. They each got to their feet slowly. Then he turned away as his knees weakened and he hit the ground, carrying a white streak of chalk across the blackboard.
"Dr. Oliver!" the four teens raced over to his aide.
Cassidy pulled Devin to his feet directing him to record the action, but Ethan pushed her away hoping not to cause too much a scene. But it was a little too late for that when the teacher laid there in pain. The rest of the students rushed over as the dino rangers quickly came up with a plan. They watched the man pin his arm to his chest as it began to glow with its strange green hint. Ethan raced over to cover it as he pulled the man to his feet. Trent went for the other arm and raced out of the room, leaving Kira and Conner with the duty to come up with an excuse for Dr. Oliver's accident.
-----
Trent and Ethan raced down the hallway hoping it wasn't too obvious to have a teacher hanging over their shoulders, semi-unconscious. Luckily for them, more of the classroom doors were closed. It was figuring out what to do about getting him out of the school without making it so obvious.
"Where are we supposed to go?" Trent asked in a panic.
"How am I supposed to know? Adam didn't necessarily tell us what to do if something bad was going to happen." Ethan proclaimed.
The teacher's weight was pushing them to work a little faster, but it was hard to say what they were hoping to achieve. They cleared around a corner, but Ethan pushed Trent back losing hold of their teacher in the process as he came crashing down beside the confused white ranger.
"What was that for?" Trent grumbled taking hold of one of Dr. Oliver's arms.
"Principal Randall." Ethan said behind clenched teeth. "Get Dr. O out of here."
"How?" he wrapped the teacher's arm around his shoulder getting to his feet.
"Hello. Chameleon powers. Invisibility. Use them."
"Mr. James." Principal Randall called out in a displeased matter as she walked over to him.
Ethan smiled weakly as she came by. "Principal Randall, isn't it a lovely day?"
She glared at the black teen dressed in blue. "Mr. James, what are you doing out of class? And without a hall pass?"
"I-I-I...well, you see..." Ethan tried to stammer out an excuse. "Ya know, Dr. Mercer forgot to get me a pass. I was going to go get some mail from his box—well, Dr. Oliver's box, but ya know how Dr. Oliver ain't here or anything at---"
Randall gave him a once-over look, not happy with his answer. "I believe the teachers' mailboxes are the other way."
"I got lost?" Ethan shrugged.
"Get back to class, Mr. James!" the principal bellowed. "I need to have a word with Dr. Mercer."
"No. No. No." Ethan shook his head. "You don't really want to go and do that."
"Ethan! Ethan!" a voice called out in the distance.
The two turned toward the voice, seeing Adam—Dr. Park—coming their way out of breath. He came to a halt when he felt Randall's stern glare on him.
"Hey, Principal Randall." he greeted with a smile.
"Dr. Park." she spat.
"Um... my apologizes, Principal Randall. Dr. Mercer called in sick today and asked if I come by and teach the class. I just happened to drop him off back at his place, and lost track of time. But I'm here to fill in for the rest of the day."
Randall looked over at the teen. "You were left without a teacher?!"
"No. Didn't you hear me, Principal Randall?" Adam began to avoid confrontation with the teen. "I came by, dropped off Dr. Mercer and came back to fill in for the rest of the day. He gave the class some reading to do on DNA while he made the call for me to come in."
Principal Randall looked at the two for some time. Her eyes settled on the doctor of medicine. "Well, then, Dr. Park, why not take Mr. James back to class and give him his education?"
She stormed out of there without asking anymore questions.
Ethan let out a sigh of relief, thanking Adam for popping up at that moment.
"No problem, Ethan. Where's Trent?" Adam asked looking around the corner.
Trent emerged from the lockers with a dazed teacher at his side. Adam gave Tommy a stern look, making it clear he was right about not getting back to teaching. Tommy shook his head, heading the other way, but Adam stopped him.
"Where are you going?" Adam asked.
"Back to class. I still got to finish teaching." he said.
Adam shook his head. "No way. Not after what just happened."
"It was a minor setback. That's all." he said.
"Well, I don't know, Dr. Oliver. In case you didn't realize it, your dino gem began to glow in its green hint." Ethan said.
Tommy shook his head. "I'll be fine."
"Fine." Adam surrendered. "But I'm watching you, Tommy. If you can't continue the rest of the day without collapsing again, I'm sending you home." Adam directed. "I am not taking another risk like that. The last thing we need is a crowd of students asking why you have something glowing on your wrist. Or having your dino powers go into invisible mode."
"Being a true doctor. Thanks, Adam." Tommy gave a mock grin of annoyance. "You could make a leader yet."
"Just looking out for you."
The teens followed behind the two older rangers having their own little conversation. When the group returned to the classroom, there was more excuses to launch toward the students. But not enough could be said when the bell rang dismissing the students to their next class.
Adam reassured the teens that he'd keep an eye on their teacher and give them the heads up throughout the day. And they were beginning to see how stubborn their teacher was around things he felt he had to do, like teaching.
The rest of the day ran slow.
But Dr. Oliver managed to get through the day fine, especially with Adam keeping a frog eye on him. Yet, he knew that he would have to put his teaching on hold until they were sure he was back to normal.
To be continued.....
A/N: Okay, for the most part, this whole following a school year and all with how these episodes are showing is throwing me off. I believe the next part I hit regarding school will claim the teens as seniors. But that's not the point. And if you have questions, just keep reading on. More to come in the next chapter. Later dayz.