Chapter 4: The Party
Despite how well the blossoming relationship was developing, a fear that Trini hadn't quite realized had made itself abhorrently clear. This fear, however, was not related to her secret identity as the Yellow Ranger, but rather Skull's bold attitude and big mouth.
Trini and her friends were in the Youth Center after hours putting together decorations for Zack's surprise birthday party. Kimberly had finished filling a large box full of a colorful assortment of balloons, Billy was attempting to repair Ernie's slush machine, Jason hung streamers, and Trini completed hand-painting a "Happy Birthday Zack" banner.
Much to everyone's surprise, Bulk, dragging Skull in with him, barged in uninvited into the room.
"Well, well." The larger punk began, "If it isn't the nerds of Angel Grove High." He insulted. Billy timidly approached the imposing teen pointing out that the Youth Center was in fact closed. Meanwhile, Skull turned his attention to Trini's abandoned banner and thought to tease her a bit. He grabbed hold of the paper banner roughly.
"Hey, Bulky, look at what we got here!" He called. Trini, appalled reached to take back her finished project, only to have it pulled out of her grasp as Skull made a loud pop with his tongue. "A birthday party, aw!" he mocked. Trini folded her arms. She had hoped Skull wouldn't pull this bully act any more, especially towards her.
"Well, we would've invited you, but ANIMALS aren't allowed!" Kimberly replied crossly. Skull gave the small brunette a smirk as Bulk took the banner out of his friend's hands. The bully brought the banner to his face and promptly blew his nose into it. Trini's mouth dropped in exasperation, while Skull just let out his signature pitchy hyena laugh.
"Party's over, kids!" Bulk announced, feeling quite proud of himself. Trini went to grab the banner back, but was unsuccessful.
"Hey! I worked a long time on that!" She protested. She felt Skull take her wrists carefully and led her gently aside.
"Hey, hey, come on, BABE." Skull consoled rather contemptuously, "What do you say I help you paint another one? You know, after we're done having a little uh…FUN?" he offered suggestively. Trini froze, she couldn't bring herself to fight against his tender hold of her hands or even push him away. She let out a giggle when she anticipated Skull to fall over the unnoticed obstacle behind him. Fortunately, karma acted swiftly on her behalf as Skull tripped, falling backward into a large tarp and multiple buckets of paint just as she predicted. Trini took a few quick steps backward, unable to stiffen another giggle. Served him right for making such a lewd suggestion in front of all her friends.
Kimberly laughed out loud at Skull's clumsy misstep, prompting Bulk to mock her laugh before popping and ripping apart one of her balloons in her face. Jason, leaning against a nearby beam, arms crossed, spoke up.
"Someone ought to let the air out of you." He quipped. The agitated tie-dye wearing bully came charging at him, only for Jason to quickly move to the side. Bulk clanged his head into the pole and dizzily fell backward directly into Kimberly's box of balloons in a series of loud pops.
"Oh! My balloons!" Kimberly she cried in distress. Skull kicked a few buckets aside and got on his feet building himself up to take a swing at Jason himself. He bolted goofily towards the uncaring boy in red, who easily took a step to the side. The punk's head collided into the pole with an echoing clang. Dazed, Skull let out a laugh, before turning towards meeker prey, a laughing Billy Cranston standing just in front of the malfunctioning slush machine. The lanky and rather dizzy punk ran at him. Not having learned his lesson the first time, however, Billy stepped aside and pulled open the slush machine door, allowing Skull to plunge himself headfirst into the machine and an accumulated mound of light blue, foamy slush.
"I hate party crashers." Kimberly commented jokingly to Trini. The raven-haired teen laughed as Skull flung a large amount of slush off of his face onto the floor. She was ready to tell him off, but could see in his eyes that he was sorry things got out of hand. Trini just shook her head at him.
"Hey!" Ernie shouted as he emerged from the back room, "Bulk, Skull, you two aren't part of the party committee. I'm gonna have to ask you to leave." He ordered noticing the destroyed balloons and the slush dripping off of Skull and onto the floor. He eyed the boys sternly. Bulk stumbled onto his feet and turned to leave.
"Whatever. See ya later, losers." Bulk called out, grabbing hold of Skull's brown shirt and dragging him away by his shoulder.
"Yeah! Losers!" he added, speaking more directly at Billy and Jason. Before the two rounded the corner out into the main hallway, his eyes met Trini's hurt face expression. He knew he was in trouble. Were they done? His heart sank as his mind began to convince himself that surely Trini would never speak to him again.
~~~
The next day at school, Skull did his very best to avoid Trini. He knew they had to talk and he genuinely wanted to apologize, but wracked with the fear that she would scold him and solidify that they could never hang out socially as a couple, he couldn't bring himself to face her. He peeked around corners, spying on her talking with her friends. It seemed like she was dealing with her own problems in regards to Zack's birthday. Perhaps it was best not to try to talk to her while she was under the stress of keeping her friend's birthday party under wraps.
"Hey, Skull!" Bulk said, grabbing Skull's shirt front and forcing him to look him in the face while he spoke to him, "You, me, and Sharkie are still going to the arcade after school today, right?" he asked. Though this question sounded more of an order than an offer.
"Oh, right, yeah, yeah, of course!" Skull answered. Bulk smiled and patted him on the shoulder.
"Good! 'Cause I'm beatin' your high score on 'Splat a Rat'." he declared assuredly. Sharkie laughed and gave him a shove.
"Yeah, right, Bulkmier, you say that every time we go to the arcade!" she laughed. Bulk made a mocking face at her. She grinned sticking out her tongue at him. Just then the first bell rang for their final class.
"Come on! Let's get this day over with!" Bulk said stomping ahead of his two friends toward the classroom. Skull and Sharkie walked side by side at a slower pace.
"Hey, Sharkie, you're a girl…" Skull began. She gave a snarky chuckle.
"That's quite the ground-breaking observation. Good job!" she teased, looking at him. He glanced back at her being met by his own reflection in her dark, round sunglasses under her wildly spiked blonde bangs.
"No, I mean…what if I guy makes you look stupid in front of your friends?" Skull asked, "Should he call and apologize? Give her a gift-"
"First of all, I'd sock him square in the jaw." She said, punching her fingerless gloved fist into her hand, "Secondly, I would make him apologize for getting his blood on my fist." She added threateningly. A cold sweat began to form on Skull's forehead. He gulped nervously. The grunge teen grinned, "In all seriousness, though, Skull, if you mucked something up, just apologize to the girl. If you're too chicken spit to say sorry to her face, at least give her a phone call and offer to make it up to her." Sharkie instructed.
"Make it up to her how?" Skull asked. The blonde shrugged.
"I don't know, offer to buy her food or somethin'. I know if I guy bought me food, I'd forgive him. Free food." She smirked sucker-punching him hard in the arm. He gave a pained gasp, rubbing his aching arm. "Just say you're sorry, stupid!" she summed up, running ahead to get into the classroom before the tardy bell rang.
~~~
After school, the goon squad spent their quarters, and the quarters of other teens and small children, on the numerous games. All awhile, Skull couldn't seem to stop worrying about Trini and how their phone conversation would go, that is if she would even talk to him after the way he acted and the fool he had made of himself.
After several hours of playing the gang agreed it was time to call it quits and head their own separate ways towards their homes.
"You guys want to do something tomorrow?" Bulk asked. "We can go CRASH Zack's party at the Youth Center." He suggested. Normally Skull would be ecstatic to crash a dweeb party, but he was already on such thin ice with Trini.
"Ah, I can't Bulky, I uh…promised my mom I'd help dad clean out his workshop." He lied. Bulk shrugged.
"Nah, I already made plans." She said curling her lip
"Alright, then. See you guys, Monday, then." Bulk said with a wave. The other two waved back.
"See ya, Bulky!" Skull called.
"Later, Bulk! And Skull!" Sharkie shouted walking down the street, "Remember what I told ya!" Reminding him to just call and apologize already. Skull nodded and headed straight home. He knew he had Trini's home phone number in the Student phone directory book somewhere in one of the kitchen drawers.
~~~
"Come on, Skullovitch, you can do this." Skull told himself anxiously as he stared at the phone buttons. The device hummed a loud dial tone waiting for him to finally punch in the digits of the telephone number. He looked at the number listed in the directory under "Trini Kwan Home Phone" and took a deep breath. He let out a long exhale and entered the numbers carefully.
"Boop….boop…boop," the phone rang in his ear. "Hello, thank you for calling the Kwan household. We are terribly sorry to have missed your call, but if you leave your name, telephone number, and a short message we will return your call as soon as we can. Thank you." The answering machine relayed. The voice was what Skull assumed to be Trini's father on the recording. The machine beeped indicating it was recording Skull's message.
"Uh, hiya, Trini, it's Skull…I wanted to uh, apologize for what happened the other day, so uh, if you'll give me a call back at (436) 794-2553…that'd be great…'kay…bye." He finished, placing the phone back on the receiver with a sigh. He rubbed his eyes. He didn't realize his heart had been beating so hard until after he hung up. He figured he'd have to try again later. He slumped into a seat at the kitchen table and rested his forehead against the cool wood surface.
"Eugene? Want me to make you a quesadilla or something?" he mom asked as she came into the kitchen.
He shrugged and let out a muffled groan sounding like, 'I don't know.'
"I'm sorry we don't have much to choose from. I didn't get a chance to stop by the grocery store today." She explained, "I got caught up with the ladies today for lunch. Get this, Linda's husband finally caved and bought her her own Indian Black Hawk bike! No more having to ride that rickety Big Chief sidecar!" she chortled. Skull groaned.
A few years back his dad bought his mom a motorcycle. At first she raised a fit, 'I never wanted a motorcycle. They're so dangerous. Motorcycles are your thing. Those friends of yours, their motor-wives are crazy!' she had raved. She quickly changed her tune after he showed her how to ride it. Now she was a BIG enthusiast and insisted on telling Skull all about her time with the "ladies". Sure Skull liked motorcycles fine and knew his way around them thanks to his dad, but gossip and tales from the "ladies" was now a constant topic his mom insisted she discuss with him in great length.
"That's great, ma." He humored. She continued to prattle on about this and that involving her motorcycle gals, not taking notice that with each passing second her son was languishing, desperate to talk to his maybe girlfriend.
~~~
Skull called again, and again, but finally gave up until tomorrow morning. He knew he'd have a hard time getting a hold of her. Trini was probably getting ready for Zack's party. He gave her house phone another try, to which he only heard the familiar recording of Mr. Kwan on the answering machine. Skull decided against leaving a message. He hung up the phone and sat for a moment. Suddenly an idea struck him.
"Ernie's!" Skull shouted aloud, entering the Youth Center Extension for Ernie's Juice Bar
"Boop…Ernie's Juice Bar at the Angel Grove Youth Center, how can I help you?" Ernie's voice answered.
"Hey, Ernie, it's Skull." Skull clarified.
"What's goin' on, Skull?" Ernie asked, sounding less than thrilled, but trying his best to be polite.
"Is Trini there? It's really important that I talk to her about somethin'." Skull confessed. There was a pause as Ernie looked around. He furrowed his brow, puzzled. It was the day of Zack's surprise party, yet the kids weren't anywhere in sight.
"You know, they're not here right now, but I'll have her call you back when I see her." Ernie assured.
"Okay, thanks, Ernie. Bye." He said as he hung up the phone. "Not at the Youth Center?" Skull asked himself aloud. He looked up at the black cat clock on the wall, it's eyes and tail clicking back and forth. Its face read 11 o'clock. The gang should at least be there beginning to set up for the party, right? Or maybe…maybe Trini told Ernie to lie for her and she was really there, but didn't want to talk to him.
With a disappointed sigh, Skull walked out of the kitchen and upstairs to his bedroom. He closed the door behind him and sat down at his electric keyboard. He flipped on the power and began to mess around with a series of chords until he settled on playing Satie's Gymnopédie No.1. It was a simple enough piece he'd memorized around his freshman year. Despite its simplicity, it's tone and melody expressed his feelings perfectly.
It seemed silly to think Trini really never wanted to speak to him ever again, but he couldn't blame her if it were true. To someone on the outside of the situation, they may see it as such an insignificant mistake, but to Eugene Skullovitch, his obsession over the incident made his error seem grander than it really was.
Regardless, he played the melancholy tune and allowed himself to get lost in the music and attempt to slip away from his guilty thoughts and the memory of his blunder on infinite repeat in his mind.
Little did he know, Trini wanted to speak to him about the incident, too, but she had her hands full. Not only did she and her friends need to scramble to decorate the Youth Center for the party, but the Rangers were also preoccupied with fighting off a giant Black Knight monster with their power sword. Once again, Skull would have to take a backseat to her secret life defending the city.