CHAPTER FOUR

Adam had been into the Youth Center more than a few times since high school. Besides the dojo, the Youth Center was the only place in town big enough to have exhibition matches and competitions. His kids showed off their skills here a few times a year. The place had been repainted to try to bring it out of the 90s, but the overall vibe was the same. It was just a neat place for young and old to hang out and have a good time. And despite it changing hands several years ago, the juice bar portion was still referred to as "Ernie's" even though Ernie was long retired.

Tommy pulled into the parking lot at the Angel Grove Youth Center, "Here we are. Is that Stone guy still in charge?"

"No. His son runs the place now, his name is Wes." Adam hopped out of the truck into the oppressive heat. "That smoothie is gonna taste pretty good."

"Hey Adam!" Behind the juice bar counter, a young man with blonde spiky hair and green eyes waved to him. This was Wes Stone, dressed in the obligatory Hawaiian shirt with AGYC stitched on the back. "Wow, and Tommy Oliver!"

Tommy glanced at Adam. "Your picture is in the trophy case yet from the skydiving jump," Adam explained, and Tommy nodded. "Hi Wes, how you doing?"

"Really good," Wes enthused. "Rocky back from Vietnam yet?"

Adam checked his watch. "Actually, their flight shoulda just landed," he said, pulling out his phone. He looked at Tommy. "I'll text him quick, see if he wants to come hang out."

"Sounds good," Tommy replied. "Hey, Wes, do they still make the strawberry key lime smoothie?"

Wes shot him a thumbs up. "Yup. No way Dad was giving that recipe up, it's still one of the most popular flavors."

"We'll take two of those," Tommy said.

"You got it," Wes said, and disappeared into the back.

Adam's phone buzzed. "Rocky says he and Amber are just in baggage claim, so it'll take them about twenty minutes to get here, traffic depending."

"Awesome. That gives you twenty minutes to tell me about your mystery girl," Tommy said.

Adam grimaced. "You aren't gonna let that go, huh."

"Oh come on, man, I think it's awesome!" Tommy told him. "What else do you know about her?"

"Besides that she's beautiful and has a 13 year old?" Adam clarified, and Tommy nodded. "Well, she works two jobs to pay for Jenna's lessons. She tries to make it to every one of Jenna's meets. She drives a blue car…." Adam shrugged. "I don't know…what else do I need to know?"

Wes set their smoothies down in front of them, and the two men nodded thanks. "How about, is there a Mr. Rachel?"

Adam frowned. "I don't know. I've never asked."

"Adam, that's information you need!" Tommy shook his head in disbelief and took a draw of his smoothie.

"Speaking of information I need, I still want to know why she called in the middle of a lesson," Adam thought out loud. He looked at Tommy. "Doesn't that seem a little weird?"

"Maybe it was a pocket dial mistake," Tommy shrugged. "Maybe she was gonna tell you she was running late, and you needed to keep Jenna there."

"No, she showed up right on time," Adam replied. He shrugged helplessly. "I don't know. It's just so weird."

"What's weird?" a new, but familiar voice, popped into the conversation.

Adam glanced up. "Hey, Billy!" he said, replacing his frown with half a smile. He really was happy to see Billy, but the whole thing with Rachel had him a little rattled. Billy Cranston had traded his contacts for square-framed glasses, but still wore his trademark blue. Today, it was a blue polo with black dress pants.

Billy pulled up a stool. "I was going to go straight to the Science Center," Billy explained, "but it's so warm outside I thought I'd grab something cold before I left. I didn't know you guys were here. What a great coincidence." He grinned at his friends. "So….what's weird?"

"Adam's mystery phone call," Tommy said.

"Oh," Billy replied. "I admit the scenario was a little odd."

"More than a little," Adam replied. "Hey, Wes? Can we get another one of these?" He grinned. "Stick it on Tommy's tab."

Tommy laughed. "I just love the part where you had Billy trace the call instead of just calling her back!"

"Shut up," Adam replied. "I panicked."

"Yeah you did," Billy teased. "Successful dojo owner, mad kung fu skills-"

"Can't talk to a girl," Tommy finished, and Adam became very interested in his drink. "Like either of you two have great success stories," he replied pointedly, to try to change the subject away from him. It was a low blow, but he was done talking about him.

"I wouldn't say that," Tommy replied with a grin.

"What're you talking about?" Billy asked. Then he smiled. "It's Hayley, isn't it? The girl that owns the CyberCafe?"

Tommy grinned some more, and Billy slapped a hand on the bar. "I knew it, I knew she'd never stay 'just your research assistant'."

"That's cool, man, congrats," Adam said. "How long you been dating her?"

Tommy thought about it. "Couple years," he replied, and Adam whistled. "There's just somethin' about her, guys."

"Never mind that she already knows your biggest secret," Billy added, and Tommy nodded. "I bet that helps a lot."

"It does," Tommy admitted. "Not that I've had to put the suit on in a while, but it's handy to know that if I have to disappear at some point for a while, I can actually tell her why." He grimaced. "Hoping that doesn't happen. Not that I don't love the gig, but there should really be such thing as ranger retirement." He raised an eyebrow. "Right, Adam?"

"Yeah," Adam replied. "At some point you're too old to wear a spandex power suit."

"Kira has pictures, by the way. I'm saving them for when you turn 40," Tommy informed him.

"She would," Adam muttered under his breath. He did like Tommy's former student, but Kira had a wild streak.

"Well look at this old school reunion!"

Adam, Tommy and Billy looked up to see Rocky DeSantos, in a red tanktop, blue jean shorts and sunglasses, come into the juice bar. He had a backpack slung over one shoulder, and next to him was a young Asian woman with long dark hair pulled back in a braid, wearing skinny jeans and a blue tanktop. "It's 'retro'," Adam corrected with a smile. "How was your flight?"

"I'm so wore out right now it isn't even funny," Rocky replied. "But since I heard you all were here we had to come by before we went home."

"Amber, I think you've met Billy," Adam said, "but I don't remember if Tommy was in town the last time you were with all of us."

"I'd remember a handsome face like that," Amber replied easily. "Nice to meet you Tommy. The guys talk about you all the time."

"Oh really?" Tommy replied, with a glance at Rocky, Billy and Adam.

"Yeah, their man crush is kinda cute," Amber said with a grin.

"Are those smoothies? I'm starved," Rocky cut in.

Adam grinned. "You're telling me you didn't get enough of rice and airport food?"

"That," Rocky said, "is a vicious stereotype," he told Adam.

Adam raised an eyebrow. "Dude, I'm Asian. It's fine."

"So am I," Amber added, "and yes, you have no idea."

Rocky grinned, and the guys laughed. "Wes!" Rocky yelled, and the young proprietor glanced over his shoulder. "Lemme get a banana crème smoothie to go!" He looked at Amber. "Want one?"

"No," Amber replied. "What I want is a pepperoni pizza and then to see the inside of my eyelids."

"Rocky, are you gonna be OK to take classes next week, or do you want me to sub yet?" Adam asked.

"Mixing business with pleasure," Billy stage whispered to Tommy, and Adam waved him off.

"I'll be good," Rocky replied. "I'll sleep the rest of the day and I'll be good to get back into the action." Wes slid two smoothies at Rocky, and Rocky flipped him a ten dollar bill. "I thought you didn't want one," Billy said to Amber.

She smiled and tossed her braid behind her shoulder. "Those are both his," she said, jerking a thumb at Rocky. "Guy's a human garbage disposal."

"Yeah he is," Adam replied. "Enjoy your vacation while you've got a little left," he told his partner. "Cuz come Wednesday you'll have to get back into the habit again and work off all that vacation food."

Rocky grinned, grabbing his cups. "Whatever you say, Boss Man," he replied. He nodded to Billy and Tommy. "Good to see you both again. Amber and I have a ton of pics from Vietnam, so we'll totally have you guys over sometime to look at them."

"After I go through and delete all the ones with Rocky sticking his tongue out at the camera," Amber groaned, and the guys laughed. "Nice to meet you Tommy, good to see you again, Billy, and Adam, it's a pleasure like always."

"Same here," Adam told her. "See you later."

"I like her," Tommy said, as Rocky and Amber left the room. "I think she's good for him."

"She's pretty adventurous, she'll be able to keep up with him," Adam replied. "I wouldn't be surprised if he proposes soon." He grimaced. "And we're back to relationship talk again. New subject please."

"You're such girls," Billy said with a perfectly straight face, and Tommy punched him in the shoulder.

Adam's peripheral vision caught a familiar face and he glanced sideways. Jenna Connors was coming in the juice bar wearing a pair of jeans and a longsleeved sweater. He frowned.

Tommy caught the look on his face. "Adam?" he questioned, but Adam only held up a hand. Tommy turned to see what his friend was looking at. "One of your students?" he guessed, and Adam nodded distractedly. Something's off.

Then it hit him. It's pushing 95 degrees…Jenna was in a pair of jeans and a sweater. He knew they kept the Juice Bar air conditioning on high but…

"Hang on a sec, guys," Adam said, getting up from his place and wandering over to the counter.

Jenna had come in alone, he noticed. He wondered if it was weird that as a grown adult, if he approached her? Then he shrugged it off. Something still didn't feel right and he was gonna figure out what it was. "Hi Jenna," he said.

She jumped and whipped around. Her face broke into a smile, but Adam caught the split second look before that.

Fear.

"Hi, Mr. Park," Jenna said quickly, a little too perkily. "I didn't know you hung out here."

"Since before you were born," Adam replied. "We used to hang out here a lot when I was in high school. In fact, Sensei DeSantos and I taught youth karate classes here after school, and this is where we had all our school dances and stuff."

"Yeah? Cool," Jenna said. "Hi Wes. Can I get a coconut smoothie?"

"Sure thing kiddo, comin' up," Wes replied. He left and Adam heard the roar of the smoothie machine waking up. He turned to Jenna. "So…warm enough out there for ya today?"

"What, out there?" Jenna blustered. "Nah, it's practically Arctic."

"Whatever you say," Adam said. He glanced around. "So, is everything okay?" he asked her. "Saturday morning, you're getting smoothies by yourself?"

"Yeah well, most of my friends aren't morning people," Jenna replied. "They aren't outta bed til at least noon or whatever, and I was craving coconut." She became very interested in her feet. "So…what are you doing here?"

"Catching up with some old friends." Adam replied. He pointed to Billy and Tommy.

"Oh, cool." Wes came back with her smoothie, and Jenna reached for it. Her sweater rode up and Adam caught a glance of something under her gray longsleeved shirt. Her eyes widened and she yanked her sleeve down quickly. Adam caught the look of panic in her eyes.

"Jenna-" he started, but Jenna threw a five on the counter and grabbed her drink. "Keep the change Wes, thanks," she said, and practically ran from the building, throwing a "See you Sensei Park!" over her shoulder.

Adam took two steps to try to follow her, but then he stopped. "Hey," Tommy said, coming up behind him. Billy joined them a second later. "What was that all about?"

"That was Jenna Connors," Adam said, still staring at the door. "Rachel's daughter."

"She's cute," Tommy said. "Her mom must really be good looking." Billy elbowed his friend in the side. Adam shifted on his feet. Billy looked at him. "Adam?"

"Guys," Adam said, turning to his friends. "Something's not right."