Chapter 3: Grounded

"Nick was really shy, wasn't he?" Jason asked Connie as he looked at the picture again.

"Yes, he was, Jason," she said, "and there was a good reason for it."

"All I could remember is that we were always playing either outside or in Jason's backyard and never in his house," Zack said as he looked at the picture too. "We had a great time. He was always full of ideas and was very happy, but he was always unhappy when he had to go home."

A week later, Jason woke up to some yelling. He went to the window and opened it up to hear what was going on. All that Jason could see was the light that was on in Amber's room.

"You are not to let him go out and play with those children!" Frank said. "Those children are low lives."

"He is to do his chores and to just do that and nothing else," Nancy yelled.

"He is only six years old," Amber yelled.

"I don't care!" Frank yelled. There was a loud thud after he yelled. "He cannot go out. We will give you more to do in order to keep you two busy." The light went out in her room and the door of her room slammed.

Jason was puzzled by what had happened and crawled out the window of their one story house. He went up to Amber's bedroom window and looked in. Amber was crying in her bed.

"Amber!" Jason said quietly. "Amber!" Amber looked up and went to the window where Jason was.

"Little Jason, what are you doing here?" Amber said. When Jason looked at her face, it was all red and starting to bruise. She had tears running down her face. "You should be in bed."

"I heard a lot of yelling," Jason said. "What is going on?"

"Nothing, Jason. It's none of your concern. I just got into trouble for letting Nick play with you guys. He isn't going to be playing with you guys anymore. He isn't allowed to."

"Why?"

"Because my parents say so. Well, they're not really my parents. They adopted us a year ago."

"Why don't they want you to play though? Everyone should be allowed to play."

"Not us, Jason. Go back to your house and go to bed before my parents or your parents see you." Jason walked back to his house as he watched Amber close her window and her blinds. He climbed in, closed his window and went to bed.

The next day, Jason seemed sad as he played with Zack and the other future Rangers. They were playing freeze tag. Billy noticed Jason looking down.

"Jason, please present the explanation as to what purpose you are despondent?" Billy asked.

"Huh?" Jason said.

"He means 'why are you sad,'" Trini said. "Yeah, Jason. Why are you sad?"

"Nick can't play with us anymore," Jason said. "He got into trouble by his parents."

"For doing what...ouch!" Zack said as he was running from Trini and was tagged in the shoulder hard.

"Sorry, Zack," Trini said when she realized how hard she hit him.

"I don't know," Jason said. "Amber was crying last night after her parents came in and yelled at her. I talked to her after they left and she was crying. She said that we can't ask him to play."

"I anticipate that we conceivably proceed to confabulate in conversation to him," Billy said.

"What?" Kimberly said.

"Talk," Trini answered.

"Right," Jason said and the five Rangers went up to the door of Nick's house and rang the doorbell.

It was about a minute before Nick answered the door. He hid is face behind the door only poking an eye around the corner. He was wearing a huge purple sweatshirt.

"Nick, come out and play," the five Rangers said.

"I...can't," Nick said. Tears streamed down his cheek.

"Why?" Jason asked.

"I... was... late home... last night,...remember?" Nick said slowly. Apparently, it was hurting him to say these words. "They came...home...early. I...I'm...not...allowed out...a..an..any...anymore."

"Who is it, Nick?" Amber said and came up to the door. The bruise that was on her face from the night before was much bigger. It covered the left side of her face under her eye. "Jason, I told you that he can't come out."

"Why?" Jason yelled back. "You never told me!"

"It is because we need to do chores and they found Nick slacking off and playing with you guys."

"He isn't allowed to play because of that?" Kimberly yelled. "That's a stupid reason!"

"I'm sorry, but he can't come out to play at all. Sorry." She pulled Nick away from the door and closed it.

The five children went to the front porch of Zack's house and sat. All of the Rangers were now feeling very down.

"I can't believe that they wouldn't let him come out to play," Trini said kicking a pebble in front of her. "He is very nice and he hasn't done anything wrong."

"Man, I want to play with him," Zack said. "He loves making up songs and we love to dance to music together. Why?"

"Verily I cannot decipher that quandary, guys," Billy said. "We are obligated to just descry a means to disport ourselves sans our juvenile associate."

"Right, Billy," Jason said giving Billy a confused look.

"Oh man!" Zack said. "They were being abused!"

"Geez, mom!" Jason said. "Why didn't we come to you quicker?"

"Jason, because you were all young, honey," Connie said. "You five didn't know any better. You all wouldn't have understood what was happening and we didn't want you to until you were all grown up."

"How did they get caught, Mom?"

"You told me about it about three days later. From there, your father and I suspected a few things."

Jason had just finished his lunch. He brought his dishes to his mother who was washing the breakfast dishes as well. She noticed that Jason was a little down in the dumps.

"Jason, what's wrong? You have acted like this for days," Connie said concernedly.

"Nick can't come out to play," Jason said sadly. "He got into trouble because he wasn't done with his chores and they got home early."

"Well, he should have been working when he was playing with you and the others. I tell you that too."

"But mom, he is always given chores. He can never come out to play. They don't want Amber or Nick to go outside. Only to take out the trash."

"Honey, Nick got into trouble because he was not doing what he was supposed to be doing." Jason gave his mother a look of defeat. Connie took pity on him and hugged her son. "Jason, he will be able to play outside when his parents let him. He is being punished." Connie escorted him to the front door and on to the front porch. "Go outside and play with Zack and the others." Just then, Amber came out of their house with a bag of trash and that was when Connie saw Amber's huge bruise on her face. Connie was shocked. "Amber, what happened to your face, dear?" Amber looked at Connie, but then turned and went back into the house.

"Amber and Nick act like that all the time now since their parents yelled at her Tuesday night," Jason said. "That was when Nick got into trouble and couldn't go out."

Connie knew that there was something very wrong going on in the house next door. "Jason," Connie said with a very serious look on her face, "where you up when they were yelling at Amber?"

"Yeah. They were yelling really loud. They woke me up and I couldn't go to sleep."

"What did they say to her? What happened?"

"They said that Nick was not allowed to see us anymore because we were...were... lowlifes. Mom, what's a lowlife?" Connie was shocked at what Jason had stumbled upon. She realized then that the real problem in front of her.

"Jason, let's go to Zack's house," Connie said as she grabbed Jason by the arm. They made their way across the street and rang the doorbell. Cindy answered the door. "Cindy I need to talk to you, now. Jason, go play with Zack and the others."

"Right, Mom," Jason said and ran into Zack's backyard where the other Rangers were playing.

"Come on in, Connie," Cindy said. "I was just talking with Jean here." Jean was Kimberly's mother.

"I was just going home, Connie," Jean said.

"I need to talk to both of you," Connie said pushing both of them into Cindy's kitchen.