Thanks to everyone who is R&R-ing. Its great to hear from you. If you have any comments that could make the story better, dont be afraid to say!!!! Thanks again and on with chapter 4...
The other rangers weren't around when Hunter entered the shop. Kelly was busy serving a customer and just waved him into the stock room. He knew what to do; a delivery had just come in so he needed to make sure it was all ok. He worked quietly for an hour before he heard the arrival of the others.
"Have you seen Hunter today?" he heard Shane ask Kelly.
"Yeah, he's in the back. Stock duty!" she replied with a laugh.
He bent his head over the stock books and pretended to look busy, hoping they wouldn't notice his face. They couldn't fail to notice it though, he though. It was swollen slightly and turning a lovely shade of purple. Shane poked his head around the door.
"Hey stranger. Kelly say's you've been working in there for an hour and are due a break so come and get a smoothie while it's cold."
There was no escape. Hunter sighed, put down the pen and followed Shane to the main shop.
"Wow!" Dustin exclaimed as he caught sight of Hunters face. "What happened to you?"
"I had a slight accident," he said. "I fell when I was carrying some of my stuff to my room. One of the boxes caught me on the head."
Blake looked at him quizzically. Hunter refused to meet his eyes, looking at the floor instead.
"Well, have a smoothie. It'll make you feel better."
"Thanks." he said.
"You coming to the race track later?" Dustin asked. "We're gonna have a practice run for the competition this weekend."
"I can't." he said. "I have to be home by six."
"Ooh six! So late!" Dustin said with a laugh. "Well, work finishes at five and Kelly says you can knock off early so you'll get a couple of races in at least. Come on, don't back out on us man!"
Hunter grinned, "Of course I'm not backing out. I'll be there."
When Hunter got home, his parents weren't back. He took of his muddy clothes and put them in the wash. With any luck, Phil wouldn't notice. He could still race! All he had to say was that he was working; then hope Kelly would let him go early. Even if she didn't, he still had an hour to race. He felt much better. He knew if Phil ever found out there would be trouble, but racing was his life. No way was he going to give that up! That night he slept with a small light on beside his bed.
The next problem came when he had to go to Ninja Ops. What could he tell Phil? Something he would believe, but wouldn't be interested in it too much to find out more. Nervously, he made his way to the sitting room where Phil was watching soccer.
"Uh, sir?"
"What do you want?"
"I go to this club. It's sort of a nature thing. We go into the woods and we've got a meeting today. I wondered if I could go? Please?"
Phil dragged his eyes away from the telly. "Nature club?"
"Yes sir."
"Whatever floats your boat. Be back by six."
"Yes sir." Hunter was jubilant. He had the afternoon to race; training sessions were morning only at the moment because of the heat.
The days passed. While Hunter was happy at being able to trick Phil into letting him go out when he needed to, home life was not happy. He still couldn't find the words to tell the others what was happening, but they did notice that Hunter seemed to be getting clumsier. He was always covered in bruises, from 'falling down'.
"The stairs in my house are murder." he joked.
Yet he never showed any signs of clumsiness around his friends. He never fell over and his balance on his bike during races was as good as always.
All he could think was thank god for Ninja healing powers. If it wasn't for them, he'd be in a much worse state.
The other problem came when he got the call that there was an alien to fight. How was he supposed to tell Phil that he had to go off and be a power ranger? It was all right if he was at work or at 'nature club', but when he was at home? And what if it took longer than he was allowed to be out? He would just have to be late home and face the consequences – more often than not Phil's fists. Luckily the heat of the summer had prevented most of the monsters being sent down from space, so the few occasions he had to leave home at short notice he just used the excuse that Kelly had called saying she needed extra help last minute, and Phil had bought it. But Hunter couldn't help thinking that it couldn't last…...
