"Who wants breakfast?" asked a cheery Mia, as her fellow rangers looked in horror at the green omelette, yellow sausage and brown fruit salad they each had on their respective plate.
None of them noticed the Nighlok monster peaking in through the kitchen window, silently chuckling at the love potion he had managed to slip into the rangers' breakfast. Just one bite, and the love potion would cause the ranger to fall in love with the next person he or she saw. The Nighlok hoped this love potion would render the rangers useless against his master's army. With one more evil laugh, he disappeared into a crack in the walkway and back into his own dimension to await the chaos that would ensue.
"I'll try the first bite, Mia," said Jayden finally. "Anything for you and the team."
Jayden cut himself a bite of the breakfast. Yet unable to look at the discolored edibles, he stared out the window at the training courtyard as he put the food in his mouth. He swallowed the food and remained motionless after.
"He's not even gagging," whispered Emily to Kevin. "Maybe it actually tasted good?"
"That's impossible," Mike interjected quietly. "Jayden's body is probably in the process of dying."
"Wha-wait! Jayden, where are you going?" cried Mia, as Jayden stood up and walked to the courtyard. "You didn't finish your breakfast."
His fellow rangers watched as Jayden walked into the courtyard and proceeded to throw is arms around one of the stuffed samurai figurines on a pole, like a scarecrow, that they used for sparring and martial arts practice.
"Like I said, he's dying," repeated Mike quietly to Emily and Kevin. "He's probably hanging onto the samurai scarecrow to support his body's final moments."
"Stop being melodramatic," Kevin chided to Mike as Emily laughed.
"I heard that, Mike!" teased Mia. "So guess what, you get to try the breakfast next!"
"Mia, no NO!" hollered Mike, looking straight at Mia as she stuffed a big bite of food into his mouth. Mike swallowed and slowly began to look at Mia with a goofy gaze.
"Well, what do you think?" asked Mia.
"That you are the most talented, beautiful cook in the whole world!" crowed Mike, jumping up suddenly to hug Mia and knocking over his breakfast plate in the process.
"Mike, what are you doing?" asked Emily confused, not just because he liked Mia's normally awful cuisine, but because she thought he had a secret crush on her.
"Yeah bro, what are you doing?" asked Kevin, clearly more concerned about the state of Mike's taste buds than his heart.
"I'm going to the kitchen to eat 100 omelettes because I love Mia and her cooking so much!" yelled Mike enthusiastically. "I love you, Mia!"
"See, I can cook!" taunted Mia, so happy someone finally liked her food that she missed the hurt look on the face of best friend, Emily.
"Let me just get this over with," muttered Kevin, staring towards the living room as he shoved a bite of food in his mouth.
"Well?" asked Mia, as Kevin paused for a long while after swallowing.
"I think, I think… I think I need something from the other room," replied Kevin as he hurried away.
"At least he didn't say he hated it, and neither did Jayden come to think of it," said Mia, looking at the red ranger in the courtyard still hugging the samurai scarecrow as she put a bite of food in her mouth.
"Mia, when Mike said he loved you, you don't think he meant, 'love, loves' you, right?" asked Emily with great concern.
"All, I know is that I love Jayden… and I'm going to go tell him right now!" exclaimed Mia, as she rushed off towards the courtyard.
"Really, I mean, that's great," responded Emily, who had long known of her best friend's crush on Jayden. "But right now, after you've waited for so long? Don't you want to, at this point, put some more thought first into how you're going to tell him?"
"Jayden, I LOOOVVEEEEE YOU!" Emily could hear Mia wail as she rushed towards the courtyard.
So much for carefully thought-out romantic gestures, Emily chuckled to herself as she made her way to toward the living room. She wanted to ask Kevin about his reaction to Mike's declaration of love for Mia. Mike couldn't have been serious about having feelings for her best friend…. could he?
"Kevin, do you… do you have your right mind? What are you doing?" gasped Emily as she noticed Kevin pawing rapidly at one of the columns in the living room, like a kitty clawing at a scratching post. Sitting next to Kevin was a large, stuffed, gray-and-white tabby cat sitting next to him.
"I'm playing scratch the post with my best friend in the WHOLE WORLD!" crowed Kevin, before bending over to pick up the stuffed cat and give the toy a huge hug.
"MR. WHISKERS?!" asked Emily in disbelief. "Mia's stuffed cat that she always sleeps with?"
"Mr. Whiskers and I have a whole day of fun planned. We're going to take a cat nap, clean our fur, and then go catch fish in the pond with our bare teeth!" shouted Kevin happily.
Emily shook her head at Kevin as he proceeded to roll over on his back, thrash around and then lick the back of his hand like it was his paw. Unable to watch this odd site, she looked over to the courtyard where Mia was talking rapidly at Jayden, while he was still hugging the samurai scarecrow tightly. Emily shook her head, as Mia's overly animated attempts to express her feelings to Jayden did not appear to be garnering much of a response from the red ranger.
Startled by the sound of plate crashing on the floor in the kitchen, Emily turned to see Mike piling himself a third portion of Mia's breakfast, with two dirty, empty plates already on the floor. Suddenly, the thought of Mike declaring his love for Mia wasn't the only concern in Emily's mind.
"Mike suddenly loves Mia's cooking? Mia after all this time suddenly declares his love for Jayden, who keeps hugging our practice samurai scarecrow? And Kevin thinks he's a cat?!" said Emily, thinking out loud to herself. "All this odd behavior can't just be a coincidence. Something strange might be going on here…"
Will Emily figure out the Nighlok put a love position in the rangers' breakfast? And even if she can save the day, will the damage to her relationship with Mike and Mia's relationship with Jayden already be done? And will Kevin really catch fish with his bare teeth? And where are Master Ji and Antonio? Stay tuned to find out how it all plays out.
