A/N: It's been so long! But the final chapter is here! Thanks again for all your lovely reviews. Enjoy!
Chapter 12
"A Night To Remember"
On the way to the dance...
"I'm bored." Dustin murmurs from the back seat. He sighs deeply out of boredom and leans forward to turn on the radio. "Are we there yet?" Tori looks at him from the mirror and rolls her eyes.
"I can't live without
can't breathe without you
i dream about you
honestly tell me that's it's over
cause if the world is spinning and i'm still living
it won't be right if we're not in it together
tell me that its over
and i'll be the first to go
don't wanna be the last to know..."
Dustin continues to sing along to the music when suddenly Tori switches the radio off. "Dude," he scoffs, "what was that for?"
"There will be no Lindsay Lohan playing in my van." She tells him seriously. Shane chuckles as Dustin pouts sadly in response.
"You know, the song is pretty catchy."
"It's not the song." Shane turns around from the front seat. "It's your singing that's irritating."
"Hey!" Dustin groans offensively. "My voice isn't that bad."
"You were totally off pitch."
"What do you know about singing?"
"I sing remember?"
"So?"
The trio were dressed in their formal wear for the dance. Shane and Dustin both wore tucks with a red or yellow tie. Tori, on the other hand, wore a long black skirt with a blue top and matching high heels. Her hair was done in curls and she looked stunning. It wasn't very often when the guys get to see Tori all dressed up. In fact, it was rare and quite amusing to see her in high heels and complaining about how much they hurt.
"So are we there yet?" Dustin asks again a few seconds later.
Tori grunted irritably. "No, Dustin. Not yet."
"Well hurry up." He was beginning to lose his patience. "I don't want to keep Marah waiting."
"Don't rush me. I was in a car accident a few days ago, remember?"
"Yeah, thanks to Elsa."
They were driving along the soft, narrow, paved road when suddenly Tori's eyes caught someone on the middle of the road, forcing her to push on the brakes and creating the annoying sound of tires screeching. "Whoa!" Shane and Dustin panted breathlessly as soon as she made a complete stop. "Note to self, never get in a car with Tori."
"You just had to mentioned her name, didn't yah?" Tori's eyes narrowed straight ahead. "Look." Their eyes widens at the sight of Elsa, looking evil as ever.
"Hi, Rangers." She grins maliciously. "Remember me?"
"Dude, we don't have time for this."
Tori pulls on the brake and started backing up her van. "Not a problem."
"What do you think you're doing?" Shane asks with his eyebrows raised.
"What I should have done the first place." Tori stops and smirks at her male companions. "Run that bitch over."
Shane and Dustin exchange worried looks. "Uh...Tori, I don't think that's a good idea."
"Oh yeah it is." She turns back around and shifts the vehicle into drive. Tori glares evilly at Elsa's direction and presses down hard onto the accelerator. "Hold on, guys!" Shane and Dustin held on tightly as her speed limit reached over 80 miles per hour. Elsa gets ready to retaliate when suddenly she disappeared out in the opening. Tori gasps as she pressed on the brake and came to a complete stop. "Whoa!"
"Damn it." She muttered, turning around from her seat. "Where did she go?" The trio took out their seatbelts and immediately got out of the vehicle. It was almost dark as they found themselves halfway to Reefside High and in the middle of the forest.
"Good, she's gone." Dustin says thankfully. "We can just leave."
"I don't think so, buddy." They turned around, only to be greeted by Elsa's dreadful voice once again. She folded her arms and grins. "You amateurs aren't going anywhere tonight." Tori makes a balled fist to her side. "And you!" Elsa snaps at the blonde. "Shouldn't you be finished by now?"
She scoffs. "Oh please. No one can take me down that easily."
"Dude, that is so true." Dustin adds. "I remember the time when Tori"
"Dustin!" Shane and Tori snapped at their goofball friend in unison.
"Alright. Alright. Shall we then?"
They both nodded. "Ready?" Tori says as she steps up front to lead the team.
"Ready!"
"Ninja Storm! Ranger"
"Wait a minute." Dustin scratches the top of his head. "We don't even have our ranger powers."
"No duh!" Elsa laughed hysterically. "Pathetic fools! You actually think you can defeat me without your ranger powers!" They looked down in disbelief.
"This can't be happening! We're gonna be late for the dance!"
"Dude," Shane turns to Dustin ridiculously, "how can you possibly be thinking about that right now when God knows this could be our last night alive?"
He scoffs. "Exactly!"
Tori rolls her eyes. "That's it!" She was now in her ninja suit and ready to take Elsa down. "I'm through with you ruining my day!" The blonde gets into her fighting stance as the guys did the same.
Elsa slowly takes her sword out. Desperation for revenge was in her grasp. "Suit it yourselves."
Meanwhile, the dance turned out to be a great success as the gym room begin to fill up. The gym was well decorated with confetti hearts scattered on tables and balloons lighting up the room with bright colors of red, pink, white, and purple. Students and staff members of Reefside High began dancing the night away to a fast tempo music as Tommy and Hayley stood aside from the crowd.
"What time is it, Hayley?"
"A quarter till nine."
"Great." He muttered under his breath. "It's been nearly an hour. Where could they possibly be?"
"Hey, guys." Hunter, Marah, and Kapri approached them after spending some time on the dance floor.
"Anything, Dr. O?" The dirty blonde asks worriedly.
The veteran deeply sighs. "I'm afraid not, Hunter."
"Question. Are they always this late for class?" Hayley wonders out of curiosity.
"Well, no." Marah answered. "You see, as long as they have Tori with them, they're never late."
Tommy nods his head. "So I take that she is the reliable and responsible one in the group."
"Yup!"
He sighs. "That figures."
"You think maybe they're stuck doing late night practices or something?" Hayley suggested.
Kapri shrugged her shoulders in response. "Not that we know of."
"Hmm..."
"Look, I think we should just chill out about this. I'll go and see if I can contact them."
"Good idea, Hunter."
The music stopped as everyone in the room applauded for the band. Kira, in her beautiful yellow dress and black boots, walks back to the table with Trent. Once they took a seat, Kira turned around and found Ethan alone getting punch at the food table. She smiled, taking it as an opportunity to talk to him. "Hey, I'm gonna go and get us a drink okay?"
"Well, stay here and I'll get it."
"No, it's fine. I'll do it." She insisted. "So what do you want?"
He gives in to her offer. "Pink lemonade would be fine."
"Alright." Kira smiles wide. "I'll be right back." She walks through the dancing crowd and makes it safely to the other side of the gym floor. The music continued to play loudly upon her approach as people greeted her along the way. "Hey!" She yelled, competing with the volume. Ethan turned around and faces her. "You alright!"
He frowned. "What does it look like?"
Kira pursed her lips. "What happened!"
Ethan grunted. "You were right about Joanna and I don't wanna hear I told you so!" He sighs. "I just caught her exchanging cash with one of the football jocks and, apparently, her taking me to the dance was the bet."
Kira looks down sympathetically. "I'm so sorry, Ethan."
He shrugged his shoulders. "Don't sweat it. I should be the one saying sorry. I was the one who didn't believe you the first place."
"It's okay, Ethan. At least now you know the truth."
"Yeah...I mean I should have known. Who would want to go out with a geek like me anyway..."
"Hey, Ethan!" The fabulous Joanna Bryant links arms with him from behind. "I was looking all over for you. Want to dance?" Kira rolls her eyes.
"Does it come with a payment?"
She cringes her forehead. "What are you talking about?"
"What? I'm just not good enough for you? So how much am I worth huh?"
Joanna Bryant chuckles. "I don't know what you're talking about. Come on, let's dance."
"Wait up, Joanna."
She grunted irritably. "What do you want, Ms. Ford? Shouldn't you be with your date and not tagging on mine?"
"I was just gonna say your dress looks very pretty." She observes.
Ethan looks at her weirdly. "Thank you." Joanna giggles. "But I already know that."
"However, I think it would look better with some red." Kira grins as she tips her cup over her head. Punch came dripping all over her blonde hair and onto her white dress. Joanna began screaming furiously as students around them laugh their heads off.
"Oh my God, Kira!" She yells out as Ethan's mouth fell open in surprise. "How could you!"
The musician grins. "I think it's about time someone shuts you off, don't you think?"
"ARGH!" The former Homecoming Queen yells out angrily. "You are so gonna pay for this! Ethan!"
"What?"
Do something!" She ordered.
"Me?" He smirks. "I don't think so. I'm with Kira on this one."
Joanna's eyes widen. "ARGH!" She screamed even louder out of frustration. Her friends and many others just laughed at her. "I don't believe this!" Joanna cries as she ran towards the restroom in humiliation.
"Glad that scared her off."
"Ha. Good job." Ethan gives Kira a high-five.
"Now that she's off your back, why don't you hang out with us?"
"Isn't that kind of awkward?" He thought. "I'm dateless. There's no reason for me to be here."
"Hey, Ethan!" The lovely Cassidy throws her arms around him out of nowhere. "Want to dance?"
He looks at Kira and grins. "Alright, sure."
"Yay! Come on!" She excitedly drags him to the dance floor. Meanwhile, upon Kira's arrival to the table, she finds that Trent was no longer at his seat. She turned around in bewilderment with the drinks still in hand. 'Where did he go?' She thought.
"Dr. O..." Trent made his way to the small crowd as he exchange awkward looks with Hunter, Marah and, Kapri. "Uh...what's going on here?" He asks. They stood quiet, and looking rather tired of sitting around.
"We're chaperoning, remember?" Hunter reminded him.
"Yeah, but I just saw you guys dancing moments ago." Trent looks around and notice a few people missing. "Where are the others?"
Hayley sighs. "Not here yet."
"You kidding?" He scoffs. "It's been 90 minutes?"
"90 minutes of what?" Principle Randall suddenly makes her way to their table. Everyone remained silent. "Well, Dr. O...we are short of chaperones. Mind telling me where your friends are?"
"Oh...umm...well, they're in the restroom right now." He stammers nervously.
"All three of them?"
The veteran exchange looks with the others. Marah then spoke for the group. "They are really good friends, Mrs..."
"It's Principle Randall." She corrects her.
"Right." The brunette continues on. "As I was saying...they're um...very...inseparable." Hunter and Kapri chuckled. Principle Randall shot a glance at them and stood quiet.
"Sorry."
"Very well." She tells them. "If they do come back, I would like to see them in a few minutes."
They nodded their heads. "Not a problem."
She stares at them carefully while lowering her reading glasses and seconds later, leaving the table. Tommy, Hayley, Trent, Hunter, Kapri, and Marah sighed in relief. "That was close."
"Maybe this was a bad idea..."
"Don't worry! They'll show." Hunter reassures them. "I know they will..."
Kapri looks at him and smirks. "Uh huh."
"What?"
"Nothing."
"Then what's with the uh huh?" He says mockingly.
She grins. "I just never seen you so worried before."
"So you're saying I never care?"
"No, just saying that..." Kapri trails off. "Nevermind."
"Hey..." Kira finally joins the crowd as everyone else greeted her. She then turns her haze over to Trent. "I was looking all over for you."
"I'm sorry. I got caught up with these guys just hanging around."
"That's our job." Marah retorts.
He looks at her and weakly smiles. "Oh, that's right."
"Hey." Kapri grabs everyone's attention. "Where did Hunter go?"
The former Wind Rangers continue to struggle as Elsa and Tyranodrones outnumber them. As Shane and Dustin work together to defeat the Tyranodrones, Tori single handedly tries to bring Elsa down but years of training at the Wind Ninja Academy wasn't good enough as she falls from attempting to use her power of water against her. "You fool!" Elsa snarls as she abruptly picks her up by the hair, forcing Tori to rise to her feet. "You think a splash of water is gonna bring me down!" She laughs. Tori narrows her eyes as she grunted in pain and struggles to break free. Elsa then raises her sword in midair in preparation to strike. "Face it, honey. You're finished!" Shane and Dustin look over as they become swarm with more Tyranodrones appearing from a dark green portal.
"NO!" They yelled out, as their eyes grew larger. "TORI!"
"Ha! Say goodbye, Blondie!"
"I don't think so!" A spark of lightning knocks the sword from off her hand.
Elsa turns around, taken by surprise. "Hunter!" Tori exclaims surprisingly. He looks at her and smiles. 'Thank goodness.' He thought in relief. 'Just in time.' The dirty blonde then faces Elsa.
"Let her go!" He demanded sharply as he gets into a fighting stance.
She snarls at him. "In your dreams, boy!" Her laughter was filled with pure evil. "You can never defeat me without your ranger powers!"
"But we will!"
Elsa abruptly turns her head, only to be greeted by the Dino Rangers. "Give it up, Elsa!"
"Never!"
"Hiya!" Tori, using the distraction as a good opportunity, suddenly leg sweep her to the ground and flips back on her feet. The two went at it again, but this time, Tori had the upper handusing her all to bring Elsa to her defeat. The rest watches on in amazement with the use of her powers as the evil Elsa began struggling. Tori blocked another one of her shots as she kicked her right on the stomach. Elsa stumbles backwards while arching down in pain. "You got lucky time!" She says weakly. "We'll meet again." Elsa makes her warning as she retreated and disappeared in the dark green portal, along with the Tyranodrones.
Tori crosses her arms and smirks. "And just for the record, no one pulls on my hair!"
Hunter, Dustin, and Shane smiled in relief as they ran to her. "Power down!" All five Dino Rangers were back in their civilian form as they caught up with the former rangers.
"You guys alright?" Kira asks.
Tori cracked a small smile. "Yeah, we're fine."
"YES!" Dustin shouts out in triumph. "Now we can go to the dance!"
Kira smiles as she slowly shifts her gaze over to Conner, surprised that he showed up afterall. "You coming?" She softly spoke.
"I don't think so."
They all made their safe return to Reefside High as a few began dancing to a fast tempo beat. Everyone was enjoying themselves and having the time of their lives. Dustin and Marah spent the last half hour on the dance floor as Shane, Trent, and Tommy discussed something interesting next to the refreshment area. Tori stood aside with Kira as the two women got along for once and drown themselves into a conversation that only girls would understand. Meanwhile, Hunter and Kapri stood on the other side of the building, watching the night go by. The pinkhead stares at him from the corner of her eyes before letting out a groan.
"You know you want to ask her to dance."
Hunter gives his female companion a funny look. "What are you talking about?"
"You mean whom am I talking about?" She smirks playfully. "You are such a wuss."
"What? I am not a wuss."
"Then ask her to dance."
"I do not dance!" He argues back.
"You just danced awhile ago!"
"Well..." Hunter trails off. "I'm tired!"
Kapri folds her arms and looks straight ahead at an unexpected guest who just walked in. "Uh huh. You better ask her to dance before he does."
Hunter's head jolted up.
"Hey, ladies." Conner, in his nifty suit, made an unexpected appearance as he takes Kira and Tori by surprise.
"Conner!" The musician smiles wide. "What are you doing here? I thought you weren't going to come."
"Yeah...but I couldn't go without dancing with the most prettiest girl here." He looks at Tori and smiles, making Kira lower her head in sadness as a slow song came on.
I don't talk
I won't breath
I won't move till you finally see
That you belong to me
"Can I have this dance, Kira?" Conner asks with a smile as he extended his hand.
Kira, overwhelmed with his request, looks at Tori, who gave her a little wink. 'Go for it.' She mouths to her.
Kira looks up at Conner and accepted his hand. "I would love to."
You might think I don't look
But deep inside the corner of your mind
I'm attached to you
I'm weak it's true
'Cause I'm afraid to know the answer
Do you want me too?
'Cause my heart keeps falling faster
"I listened to your tape." Kira whispers in his ear as they slow danced to the music.
"And?" Conner gently tightens his hold around her petite waist.
"Your voice wasn't that bad."
He scoffs. "Hey, I only had like a month of voice lessons."
She chuckles. "Yeah, but you did it for me." She searches his eyes carefully. "Why?"
He shrugged. "You love music so much...and I thought singing would get you to understand how I feel about you, and maybe get it through your head better."
Kira smiles in awed. "That's so sweet."
I've waited all my life to cross this line
To the only thing that's true
So I will not hide,
it's time to try
Anything to be with you
All my life I've waited, this is true
"Hey, you're hot." Tori lost her train of thought as she turns around in disgust to face a high school student. "Want to dance?" He asks.
"I'm a chaperone, kid. Get lost."
"Well, you don't look like it. How old are you?"
"Old enough to kick your butt if you stop hitting on me."
"Fiesty." He smirks. "I like that."
She rolls her eyes. "So are you new here? I'm only a junior"
Tori ignored him when suddenly Hunter took his place. "Kid, let me take it from here."
He gives him a dirty look. "Who are you?"
"The boyfriend."
His response made Tori's lips open in shocking amusement.
"Oh..." The guy looked terrified at the way Hunter was beaming coldly at him. "I was just about to leave."
"Yeah. I thought so." Hunter smirks as he faces Tori.
She glares at him. "That was kind of mean, don't you think?"
"Hey, I don't get a thank you?"
"You are so not my boyfriend."
"Well, at least it scared him off."
Tori kept quiet.
You don't know
what you do
Everytime you want into the room
I'm afraid to move
I'm weak it's true
I'm just scared to know the ending
Do you see me too?
Do you even know you met me?
"Do you want to dance?" Hunter finally asks.
Tori turns to him and smiles. "Under one condition."
"What's that?" He thought worriedly.
"If I catch your hand going below my waist, I'll hurt you." She warns him seriously as Hunter nodded his head. "Real bad."
"Not even a goodnight kiss?" He smirks teasingly.
She gives him a suspicious eye. "Are you interested in me or something?"
"No, I just wanna see if you'd do it."
Tori shrugs. "Well that's just too bad. Because I was going to."
His smile suddenly turned into a frown. "What?"
A/N: That's it, folks! You can guess what happens next! I'm done. Final comments will be much appreciated. Thanks for reading!
