Disclaimer: Go back to ch 1! In this chapter we meet Amide and Christa, they belong to me!
Author's Note: Okay, I know I said that I wouldn't be able to get more up this weekend, but, what the heck! Enjoy!Ch 1 has a more elaborate guide to the story, I suggest you read it if you haven't. Story: Two lines down!
"So, Cassie has a little band called "StarFly" and an album, but she doesn't tour too much. Oh! And guess what her debut song and C.D was called; "Reach For the Stars"." Karone jabbered away with details on what had happened since the end of the Astro ranger saga. Zhane, on the other hand, stayed pretty quiet, occasionally pointing out new buildings and parks. "I think Andrea already told you about Ashley's fashion company called Kevan. Do you know that she came up with that from "Kerovan"? Sort of a silent tribute to us. Um, Zhane and I have jobs at the city government, and Carlos is just doing a bunch of soccer stuff; soccer camp, soccer coaching, gym teacher, and the occasional one on five game with some kids in the park. And T.J turned out to be a surprisingly good cook. Better than Zhane of course, but, anyone's better than Zhane at cooking."
"Karone!" Zhane exclaimed. "First off, what do you mean anyone can cook better than me? And, second, Andros is barely paying attention to you. Karone, I know that you're excited about having Andros back, but take it easy. You're loading about 2 and ½ year's information into him. He needs time to settle back into the life of a retiree. Cause', well, he's probably been wandering the stars, living off ration bars mostly."
"Don't remind me." Andros interrupted, glaring at Zhane.
"Well, just like when I woke up from hypersleep, it took me a while to adjust to the new life I had, all of it. But, look how great I turned out! And Andros has even less to get used to. Just the changes he missed while he was gone." Zhane finished with a slight grin on his face that was a mere shadow of his usual one.
"Wow Zhane." Andros teased. "When did you get so smart?"
"When he started hanging out with me!" Karone declared, gripping his hand with hers. They smiled at each other, and Andros was painfully reminded of what Ashley and he had once had.
Gulping slightly, he turned around, slowly taking in the sights of the city he had longed for. A city he had longed for, because of its inhabitants. Turning back to where Zhane and Karone were smiling at each other, he said, "Well, what else has been happening since I left."
With impish grins, they winked at each other. "C'mon. We're going to prepare you up a little."
"Okay, we've got Cassie singing from 5:30 to 7:00, right Amide? Uh huh. Okay. Got it. And Ashley said she'd join her at… 6:30? And the last performance. She'll be a backing vocal the entire way though? Wait… got it. Thanks. Oh? I'll tell her. Uh, yeah. Bye." T.J sighed. Arranging the party was a lot harder than Carlos had let on. Sighing, he set his mind back to calculating how much food they would need. Setting aside a fairly large portion for leftovers, Cassie and Ashley had some of the best recipes, he then wrote up lists of ingredients and party food.
"Bad dog." Andrea swatted away Carlos's hand as he reached for a bag of candy. "We're not candy. And we're not, I repeat, not bobbing for apples, or handing out party bags. Now, where's T.J? He needs to tell us how mu"
Dooo, do. Do, do do do do, do do. Dooooooo. Dooo, do. Do, do do do do doooo, do, do. Andrea's cell phone cut her off with a twisted round of "We Wish You A Merry Christmas." She snatched it out of her purse and answered with a strangled "hello?" then, "Oh, hi. Okay. Yeah, one sec." She handed the phone off to Carlos. "It's T.J.," she whispered. "He has the supplies for the party."
"Teej? Okay. Yeah. That much! You sure you didn't over calculate? Oh really? Fine. But, we're all chipping in for this food. Otherwise, I'll have to ask the kids in the park to pay for playing with me. What? Hey! I'm not a cold-hearted soccer maniac! You take that back T.J! You take tha" Carlos cut off mid- sentence, staring at the phone, wide- eyed. "He, he hung up on me."
"I don't blame him." Andrea teased. "Now, what did he say to buy?" With an exaggerated sigh, Carlos rattled off a list of ingredients and snack foods, as the couple walked through the store, grabbing food off the shelves.
Andros stared at the large building; so this was what Ashley had been doing in the past few years. The gleaming white marble gilded building clearly read, in steel letters, Kevan Corporations. Following Karone and Zhane in, the sparkling clean lobby once again amazed him. The receptionist greeted Karone and Zhane courteously and smiled sweetly at Andros. "Hey Christa." Karone said with a cheery mirror image of her actions. "We just wanted to take my brother on a tour of Ashley's headquarters. He… uh, just got back from a, um…" she trailed off, at a loss for words.
"Business trip." Zhane filled in suavely, showing no hesitation.
"All right." Christa said, sounding just slightly skeptical. "But, I'll need him to sign in, and take a visitor pass."
"Ah. Well, see, this is Andros, my brother."
"Androh?" she asked, sounding fully confused. "Oh!" she exclaimed suddenly, her face lighting up. "Andros! The same one I keep hearing about?" Without bothering for an answer, she waved them away, toward a locked door titled, 'Hammond Headquarters (office)' and underneath, "Where the fashions start, or when I just want to spew in silence over my friends' incompetence." Deliberately trailing his sister and best friend, Andros followed them through the solid oak door.
"So, Cass, how's life with Jetson going?" Ashley asked, teasingly as she sank down into a chair in the lobby of the animal shelter.
"Oh, fine." She said. "Just yesterday he pooped in my garden, but I'll survive." she added chastely.
"I think the better question is, will your plants survive, knowing what you feed Jetson."
"Well," Cassie smirked. "He's is a greedy golden retriever, but…"
"We love him just the same." The two friends intoned together, bursting out in laughter as they did so.
"Ohhhhh…" Ashley moaned suddenly. "I feel that workout from earlier coming back to haunt me."
"You're getting old, Ashley." Cassie said with fake amusement in her voice.
"I had hoped I would be getting old with Andros." Ashley murmured almost inaudibly, but Cassie heard quite clearly.
"Oh Ashley." Cassie sighed. "You never truly got over him, did you?" It was more of a statement than a question, but Ashley replied all the same.
"How could I?" Ashley asked, tonelessly. "He was my one true love. And then he left, breaking my heart in the meantime."
"Look," Cassie, laid a hand on her best friend's hunched over form. "I know that he was a complete jerk, and broke up with you so suddenly, but he had a good excuse. I mean, the Alliance called him on a mission and he obviously thought that letting you go would be"
"How can you say that!" Ashley burst out, turning to look at her. "I would have waited forever for him. I did, and still am. Now…" she sighed. "I just have to wait for him to come back. If he ever does, and I don't mean when I'm on my deathbed and he comes to attend my funeral with his wife or something." She added the last part quite spitefully and nearly spat the word "wife" out.
Cassie groaned almost empathetically before sighing and turning to discuss her stunt at the club tonight and their "big" duet.
