Into the Woods Chapter 5: Puzzles, a power rangers fanfic

Chapter 5

Puzzles

Note: Because of some poor planning this chapter contains a flashback to Tori's recruitment and then a jump forward to Monday where Shane tries to recruit Dustin.

Just thought I'd give you guys a heads up.

My bad, sorry.

-:-:-:-:-:-

Tori Hanson was not an easy sell.

Not in anything, no sir, her mama had raised her right. There could be no wool pulled over this teenager's eyes because she, unlike many of her peers, was gifted with common sense. The commercial world was targeting people at younger and younger ages, attempting to deceive the uneducated, naive, and easy to prey upon by inventing useless paraphernalia and ideas to sell.

There was no such thing as a free lunch.

Which was why when a gentleman in his early twenties with blond hair, blue eyes, and a boyish face sporting equally boyish charm approached Tori, she couldn't help but be suspicious. He was too old to be interested in flirting and he seemed like the kind of guy who would have to beat off any college females within a hundred yard radius with a stick if anything, so romance wasn't an option here. That left either talking about her favorite sport (because she had been nailing it out there) or…

Well, her mom had raised her right, so her immediate reaction was that he was trying to prey off her talent by making promises he couldn't keep. Maybe he would say he was recruiting for a team, and she was just so good, and all she had to do was sign a contract and pay X amount of dollars and…

Huh, he hadn't even opened his mouth and Tori already wanted to walk away.

However, as well educated as she was she couldn't just leave him here all on his lonesome, she should at least demonstrate the appearance of manners. After that though, anything was game.

She ran her hand across her eyes one more time, wiping away any of the remaining salt while she waited for him to finish his approach, hands shifting to her hips to communicate that no funny business would be tolerated here.

Not from this person, no sir.

The meeting began differently than she had anticipated it would. Instead of being suave or charming or immediately salesman-like the blond seemed…nice, legitimately nice, and if anything, he was a little nervous.

Which was worrying.

Maybe he was a rookie con-man/sales recruiter, just getting his sea legs and wanted to start off his career with an easy hit.

Tori frowned, fighting the urge to glare as he closed up the distance between them. If that was the case, he had picked the wrong girl with which to begin.

"Hi," the blond started once he was close enough, smile pleasant and voice just as kind as she had thought it shouldn't be, though the hint of nerves she had detected were still there, barely audible, but definitely present. He stuck out his hand and she stared at it coldly, then back to him, raising an eyebrow.

Get to the point confidence man, I have stuff to do.

The lovely smile (it was lovely, she couldn't deny that) faltered a little, and he gave an awkward laugh, retreating his hand and running it through his already tousled hair, looking off to the side in obvious anxiousness.

Either he was younger then she had thought he was, or he was a really bad recruiter.

Or maybe he was both.

"I'm Ian," he offered, and Tori took enough pity on him to return his poor attempts with a tight smile, but still refused to talk.

"So…" he started again, when he realized she wasn't going to respond. "You're a really good surfer."

Understatement of the year. She was a slammin' surfer, easily one of the best on this beach.

She had trophies to prove it.

But instead of offering any of that up as a topic of conversation she simply nodded, accepting the fact without being overly boastful.

It didn't matter how good you were, nobody liked a bragger.

"And…you're probably wondering why I'm here," the blond admitted in an almost playful way, starting to overcome his nerves.

Hoping to speed things up just a little, Tori decided to step into the conversation, murmuring, "Yes."

Her words ignited a small hope within her foe, and he slowly began to gather up his confidence, anxiety completely fading away. "I'm a recruiter," he explained, not at all shocking Tori with the fact, but he did surprise her with his blatant honesty on the subject. It could be a ploy, it could be just how he ran things, but Tori was beginning to think that maybe this guy wasn't so bad after all.

But only just maybe; she still needed to gather more information before she could make a definite decision on that.

"It's for a school," he continued, and Tori's mind had a weird flashback to a TV show she had seen in passing during a visit to her Aunt's house, what was it, 'Blue Bay High'? No… 'Blue Water High', that was what it was called. Some show about teenagers who got selected for a twelve month surfing program. She didn't think those kinds of things really existed (it was a TV show after all, what were the odds that kind of thing was real?) but if this guy was as genuine as she thought he was, and had seen her own the waves like she knew she did, maybe, just maybe…

Excitement built up in her gut and she struggled to keep it off of her face. This was how con-men did their stuff right? They made bank on teenagers, taking advantage of their hopes and dreams.

Focus Tori, it's game time.

She should listen to what he had to say before jumping to any conclusions.

Doing her best attempt at casual, Tori delicately cleared her throat, lessening the harsh look in her eyes to mildly scolding (couldn't let him think he had her hooked yet) before she nonchalantly asked, "What kind of school?"

Please say surf school, please say surf school, please say surf school-

If it was a surf school she was totally there. Where had the show taken place? Australia?

Yeah, she could definitely do Australia.

He (Ian) gave a quiet laugh as though she said something funny, and a little of the tension he had from earlier came back as he looked off to the side, smiling just brushing against the edge of fake.

That was not a happy sign.

"You see," he started as his eyes flickered between her and the ocean (to calm him, it was a trick Tori herself had used many times). "That's the part were this gets tricky."

Either surf schools weren't as popular as she thought they were (or he thought they weren't that popular, which would explain all the hesitation to put a deal out there that sounded too good to be true) or this recruitment was for a completely different kind of school. Tori's glare returned, full fledged to get him to spit it out already and Ian backed up in surprise, hands coming up in a defensive position to ward off the unanticipated hostility.

"Umm…" he started, right hand slowly sinking into the open blue messenger bag he carried, water stained and straps frayed from continual usage. The hand reappeared just as slowly, bringing in tow…a water bottle.

What, so he was thirsty, there was no need to get all nervous about drinking in front of a girl.

Unless he tried to offer that thing to her, then she would go all kinds of crazy on him because this chick did not accept drinks from strangers. That was practically common sense 101.

After the appearance of the water bottle Ian did a quick look over of their surroundings, so fast that Tori almost missed it, and he subtly slid a few steps to his right, blocking out all other prying eyes with his back and cutting Tori off from view by keeping her between the van, the sea, and himself.

Not good, but people could still hear her if she screamed right? She had a whistle in the van-

Wait, all those years of Tae Kwon Do had to be for something. She could put them to good use if any funny business was about to happen.

Except…it didn't.

At least, not what she had thought as funny business happened.

Eyes locked on hers, Ian slowly unscrewed the cap of the water bottle and turned it over, dumping the clear liquid onto the ground.

Or, it should have dumped onto the ground, but for some odd reason Tori's eyes weren't working because the water just seemed to hover in the air there; a small, ever morphing, transparent ball of liquid crystal, bobbing and reflecting the sun in waves of glitter.

Quickly she threw a hand up to her head to check her temperature; maybe she had a fever, or heatstroke-

That was it; she just hadn't been drinking enough water.

As much as her mind screamed at her to get into her van, hydrate herself, and leave this…whatever this was behind her, Tori couldn't turn away from the demonstration. Just as she managed to close her mouth, the ball/blob changed, spinning into a twisted tornado, altering its shape into…a woman, it looked like, a dancer, twirling and gliding and continuously weaving and unweaving itself, adapting and-

It slowly came to a stop; the dancer bending down until the water was a ball again, hovering just over Ian's hands like a patient pet, waiting for instruction.

Still amazed, Tori stared up at him, managing to pull her eyes away from the hovering accumulation long enough to shoot him a questioning glance.

Smiling in a way that couldn't quite capture innocence, Ian stared back at her, timidly blowing his bangs out of his face. "You see it's tricky, because it's a secret school for ninjas."

…a secret school…for ninjas.

Even with the demonstration Tori still wanted to laugh in his face and call him crazy.

Luckily, Ian didn't give her the chance, and he finally took control of the conversation. "I'm a teacher at the Wind Ninja Academy," he began, low and serious, water hovering over the tips of his fingers. "I'm in charge of recruiting ten candidates for water ninja training. A natural affinity for water manifests itself differently from person to person, for you it's your surfing, and I would like to invite you to come train with us."

She opened her mouth to object because ninjas, really, that was the best he had, but he didn't give her any room to argue.

"What I'm doing now," he said, water reacting to him instantly and leaping off of his fingers, shifting up towards Tori's face until it danced around her, morphing into waves and people and animals. "I can train you to do. Free of charge."

He pulled the water back again, this time funneling it back into the empty bottle and capping it off, much to Tori's disappointment.

Snapping his fingers in front of her eyes, he grabbed back her focus onto him. "This is our tradition. We work outside of society, we train, and then we pass on what we know."

Before she could really think about it a question tumbled out of her, snappy and mildly petulant. "Is that all you train for?"

Good humor gone, it was Ian's turn to glare at her, putting the bottle away as his disposition became entirely serious. "Someday they will need us," he said, jerking his head towards the people around them, unaware of the amazing things that have just gone down right out of there sight. "And because of that, we train."

Lecture over, he pulled a pamphlet out of his bag, handing it to her. "This is our school's cover," he said. "Don't tell anyone about what we really do."

He didn't bother asking her if she was going to come or join or whatever he was offering because they both knew that she was definitely going to. There wasn't any question about that.

Exchange concluded, Ian adjusted his bag and began to walk away, picking up the happy jaunt he had when he originally showed up.

He turned before he was completely out of hearing range, cupping his hands around his mouth to shout, "And bring your running shoes!"

Running shoes, at a secret academy for ninjas.

Her summer was going to be awesome; because she wasn't a big enough fool to miss out on free ninja training.

No sir, not this girl.

-:-:-:-:-:-

This was going to be easy.

This was going to be easy, because in Shane's mind he kept telling himself it was going to be easy, so therefore he should stop feeling weird about being recruited as a junior recruiter and start feeling…awesome, about being himself.

Because Shane could do this, Shane was the man. All Shane had to do was walk across the store when the red head lady wasn't looking, slip past her and confront the curly-haired teen who was hunched over an abused bike. He would be charismatic and charming and incredibly unintimidating, and maybe he would sneak a joke in about the teachers and then the brown-haired guy would realize that it wasn't a hoax or con (Shane had done his research, the Academy was legit) and they would share a laugh about it.

Right, it was just that easy.

Now all he had to do was make himself walk across the room.

Pep talk, go. Pep talk, go. Pep talk, go.

Shane took a deep breath to steady himself and casually made his way across the room, ducking into the shop when the cashier wasn't looking. The mechanic (Dustin, Victor had said his name was) didn't notice him at first, he was too busy…changing oil, or something, so Shane took up a spot on the counter not too far from him, waiting for the other teen to catch on to his presence. It didn't take long, though he was a little surprised that Dustin's initial reaction to him seemed to be "oh my god" fear on top of the shock Shane had known would inevitably be there.

Shane held up his hands cautiously, trying to calm Dustin somewhat as he put on his best comforting smile.

This was going to be a little harder than he originally thought.

-:-:-:-:-:-

Dustin hadn't noticed the footsteps when they had first come in.

Well, he had, but only in like, the back of his mind. He had heard them, but the only person who ever came back into the shop to bother him during work hours was Kelly and she always started talking as soon as she hit the door. She didn't like the silence or something. Wanted him to experience some happy socializing.

It was one of the nicer things people did for him.

So when footsteps came his way and talking didn't immediately happen (and the footsteps sounded wrong anyway, slower and a little louder, definitely not Kelly's) Dustin just assumed he had heard way wrong or his ears were spazzing and pushed the thought away, retuning his focus to the bike in front of him.

But then he heard this…like, coughy/throat clearing thing off to his side, further down the counter, and even though he knew nobody could possibly be there, he looked anyway, and…

Low and behold, there stood a guy in a red sweatshirt (skater, was the first thing that came to Dustin's mind) standing there like he owned the place and had every right in the world to be there.

Dustin really hoped the other teen didn't want to talk to him, or maybe he was lost, oh, or maybe he was foreign and couldn't even speak English and had just wandered in because he loved bikes so much and-

"Hi," the tan guy said in perfectly good English, shattering Dustin's foreign theory into a bazillion pieces. The mechanic said nothing, darting his eyes back to the bike and picking up the wrench he had been looking for earlier, before he had realized his personal sanctity had been intruded.

Maybe if he just ignored the other guy he would go away.

That would make Dustin really happy.

But after a few minutes of awkward silence the red clad teenager tried again, a little louder in case Dustin hadn't heard him (even though they both knew he had and was just being a coward about it).

"Hi."

Against better judgment Dustin risked a quick glance at skater man, trying to keep his face neutral even though his insides were gurgling with fear and unhappiness. Knots were forming, slow and steady and he felt like he was about to lose his lunch.

What did that guy want from him?

A few more minutes of silence, Dustin kept to his work and the other guy kept to breathing his air and not leaving. Eventually he broke the silence, making Dustin feel even worse about himself because he had absolutely no idea how it applied to the conversation.

"Are you a sociopath?" the tall guy asked suddenly, and Dustin couldn't stop himself from sending a confused look.

Seeing that he finally had Dustin's attention, the guy asked again, eyebrows raised. "Seriously dude."

Seriously dude, what?

What did he want from him?

And what was a…

Dustin shouldn't ask, because asking was talking and he was pretty sure if he kept not talking he would be allowed to get out of this completely unscathed, but his curiosity got the better of him and he asked anyway, hesitantly meeting the other teen's eyes. "…What's a sociopath?"

It was his lucky day, because apparently that was a thing that normal people didn't know either, so the guy happily gave him the answer, clarifying in an easy going way that did not make Dustin super incredibly jealous. "Antisocial guy; doesn't care about other peoples feelings."

Dustin opened his mouth to object, (he cared about other people, they just didn't care about him) but then he realized that would be a lot more talking than he wanted to do so he snapped his mouth shut and shook his head quickly.

The other guy was finally picking up on how he communicated and accepted his answer for the no that it was and moved on, asking a question of his own. "Then why don't you talk?"

"Because I'm smart," the brunette replied. Instantly he realized that he had said that out loud and flinched, hesitantly looking at the other guy to see he was confused. Dustin attempted to explain. "I mean…I'm not smart, so I don't talk, because I learned…" he trailed off, glaring at the floor.

Were they done yet?

"What?" the other teen asked, thoroughly kicking Dustin while he was down or rubbing salt in the wound or whatever phrase you use when somebody was being a gigantic jerkface to a poor, innocent, unassuming souls.

Dustin lowered his head, turning his attention back to the bike because bike's were only jerkfaces when you didn't treat them right, and Dustin always treated them right.

"Talking's bad," he mumbled, rubbing away some gunk to exhibit his good will.

The bike responded by not being evil.

It was nice.

The not-foreign invader continued the conversation that shouldn't be happening but was happening anyway with unfair ease, trying to enlighten Dustin with some life changing advice. "You know you're going to have to do it someday, right?"

What kind of guidance was that? Of course Dustin knew he had to talk, he was freaking talking right now.

Clearly, sweatshirt man was not the most observant of people.

But Dustin tried to be nice, so he mildly supported the other guy's words by shaking his head (no talking done here) while simultaneously following his rules so both of them could be happy.

Despite his hard work, the red guy still sounded a little put off whenever he spoke again, sighing tiredly. "Whatever."

"Whatever."

That was not good. Whatever...whatever was a dismissal. Wait, maybe that was good. Maybe he would leave now

Except he didn't, he was still standing there, running a hand through his hair and looking off to the side when Dustin risked a quick look at him, so it really was a bad "whatever". Dustin hated mid-conversation "whatever's", he never knew how to respond to them. It was his turn to talk, he knew that, but he didn't know what to…

Why was the guy here? Did he want to talk shop (and if he did why couldn't he just start doing that so Dustin could actually know what they were talking about)? He didn't look like he did, he hadn't even looked at the bike Dustin was working on (except for when he like, scoped out the room earlier) and it was a really cool one.

So he wasn't here for the bikes, and he wasn't one of Dustin's old friends…

Why was he here?

Inspiration struck suddenly, and Dustin remembered his run-in, run-away with Teagan, (maybe he was one of her goons?) and he managed to strike enough courage to voice his genius discovery. "Did Teagan send you?"

He even managed to maintain steady eye contact because he was so sure he was right, but he might as well not have bothered because red guy just gave him a look of surprise and confusion Dustin was oh-so familiar with, and a sinking feeling hit him as the skater took his turn to kind-of ask a question.

"…No?"

Dustin deflated instantly, turning away to hide the embarrassed flush that rose to his cheeks, because when he was wrong, he had to be wrong. This guy was probably looking for a spare part for his friend's birthday and had nothing to do with nice looking, not-nice ladies who tried to trick you into friendship and rehabilitation. Dustin expected the conversation to end here, for the red guy to give up and leave and come back whenever someone not spazzy was working (he could have asked Kelly, she couldn't have been that busy) but tan man just stayed there…or, Dustin doesn't hear him leave.

Maybe he did leave, maybe this was just some illusion and Dustin was really going crazy and talking to people who aren't there.

Was he really that lonely?

"Victor sent me."

The voice snapped Dustin out of worrying about his sanity and he turned his head sharply, looking at the guy who could possibly-not-be-there's eyes, again. Dustin was doing really good today. But he stopped worrying whenever the words really hit him and he remembered who Victor the-angry-beast was (aside from being an angry beast), and the brunette figured that he was right with this having to do with Teagan.

This was just one of angry beast's goons, instead of her's.

"That's worse," Dustin muttered, thinking about Teagan's permanently frowning shadow, and he wondered how angry Kelly would be if he cut out of work early.

He also wondered if he could outrun the man in red.

Probably not, if he was as athletic as he looked.

"You know Victor?" the skater asked, interested and leaning forward to show off his interested-ness, and Dustin was forced to take a small step back, eyeing the exit quickly.

"I know of him," the mechanic answered quietly, trying to judge the distance between him and the backdoor, but the sweater man didn't move any closer, so he stayed still, irresolute and doubtful. The red clad teen continued not to attack him or be intimidating (which was weird because most people did that without even trying to) and looked at him with this…satisfaction on his face, nodding slowly.

"Then you know why I'm here."

Dustin gave a jerked nod in response, preparing himself for recruitment speech part 2 (this time it meant it) while also trying to hide (and failing to hide) how antsy he was.

The other shook his head in disbelief at Dustin's actions, throwing one of his hands in the air. "Dude, you know it's just a self defense class, not the social Olympics. I'm pretty sure they do most of the talking."

And…there were words were coming out, but none of them were making sense, and Dustin stared at sweatshirt man for a full minute before his confusion overwhelmed him and a question slipped out, completely unintentional.

"What?"

It was the other guy's turn to look confused, and he furrows his eyebrows, concerned. "I don't know what Teagan's been telling you, but the whole thing's pretty straight forward. You'll probably be too tired to be able to talk by the end of it anyway."

Um…what?

The words blurted out before they were supposed to (they're supposed to never) and the other guy had Dustin's complete and undivided attention (which was pretty impressive, considering how short his attention span was). "What are you talking about?"

It was the other's turn to look confused (again).

"The self defense classes at the Wind Academy," he began, looking at Dustin as though he were a few crayons short of a box but trying desperately to hide it (well, at least the thought was nice). "They started recruiting for the summer and Teagan wanted you in her class." The "are you crazy" look turned into another examination which did not do anything good for Dustin's nerves, and he fidgeted in place helplessly, wishing he was invisible. "What did you think she wanted?"

"Nothing," the mechanic responded quickly, not at all super-defensive or embarrassed and not turning his face away to hide the defensive super embarrassedness that he did not have.

Yeah, who was he kidding.

The other guy caught sight of his blush anyway (because Dustin couldn't hide things for nothing) but tried to make light of it. "What, did you think she was going to ask you out? You afraid of girls or something?"

"No," Dustin replied immediately, even though it was kind of true, he knew that was the kind of thing you kept to yourself always because you weren't supposed to actively give out ammunition for other people to use against you. Not that Dustin had ever been that successful, he wasn't always sure what you were supposed to hide vs. what was okay to share.

That was why not talking was usually the easiest option.

The red guy seemed to have found the heart of the issue, which was good because that meant at least one of them knew what was going on here.

"You didn't even let her talk about the classes did you?" he asked, chuckling at some joke he didn't feel inclined to share. "Dude, you have problems."

Dustin flushed and glared at him, the comment striking a sore point, giving the brunette temporary bravery. "Shut up!"

He knew he had problems, he didn't need to be reminded of it, this entire conversation had been a glaring reminder of that.

For once he had the drop on the other guy. The skater took a few steps back, holding his hands up in a peaceful gesture. "Chill man, I didn't mean anything by it."

That was supposed to be the end of it, the red man was supposed to give up right there and leave and Dustin was supposed to get on with his life in quiet solitude just like he always had and just like he always would, but fate had always been of a differing opinion.

In Dustin's opinion, fate was incredibly stupid.

"Don't mind him bro, this guy's just a spazz."

Dustin froze at the far-too familiar voice, as though if he held still long enough Trevor would think he was just another piece of furniture and leave him alone. Maybe if he didn't breathe he would blend into the background like a chameleon or something. The skater, unaware of the doom and gloom that could possibly be waiting for them turned his head to take stock of the two new intruders, Trevor and Kyle, two of the posse with which Dustin used to hang out.

Looked like they chose today to play 'kick the puppy'.

Dustin didn't know what was worse, the fact that they had managed to slip past Kelly or the fact that he was about to get verbally schooled in front of a stranger who had tolerated him through a conversation that did not leave Dustin feeling completely awful about himself.

A little, but not completely.

Kyle, never one to be outdone, stepped in quickly, nudging Trevor's arm in a conspiring fashion while he threw a wink red man's way. "Trust us; you're better off leaving him alone."

Dustin, unable to think of anything that could really dispute that argument decided to say nothing, choosing to keep his hands occupied by fiddling with a random tool until they had finished and left. Or until Kelly came back and rained holly hell upon them.

Either way.

He expected some kind of agreement to be made on the sweater guy's part; he had spent the last five minutes leading what Dustin considered a very confusing conversation, so it was safe to say he had not seen one of the brunette's finer moments. Dustin had an idea of how it would go. He would say something, they would say something and then they would all laugh and Dustin would go back to trying to be a statue.

It was the only way it could go down.

Except…well, Dustin wasn't always one to properly guess how things turned out, so instead of laughter or chuckling or any variation of merriment the skater guy's voice got all serious and stuff (which was beyond weird) and maybe even a little threatening when he responded.

"I think I can judge that for myself," he murmured, and Dustin snapped his head up in surprise, shocked to see that sweater man was actually staring the two jerkoffs down. And then, to add the cherry on top, he sarcastically added, "Bro."

Clearly, Dustin was not the only one startled by this turn of events. Trevor and Kyle stared at red man for like, ten whole seconds before they realized he actually meant it (and then Dustin realized he actually meant it and was not playing a joke on him) and they shrugged and slinked away, back to whatever hole they came from.

It was, without a doubt, one of the coolest things Dustin had ever seen in his life.

He was still staring after then when the skater started speaking again.

"They bother you often?" he asked, catching the mixed look of surprise and confusion on Dustin's face. The mechanic didn't know what to tell him, he knew Red deserved an answer (he had stuck up for Dustin) but he hated the answer and…

And Dustin remembered what they were originally talking about and latched onto that, answering at least one of his savior's questions. "When do those classes start?"

He wasn't…this wasn't something he did, ever; it was completely against the rules but…

Maybe it was just a ploy, maybe Teagan and the angry beast and this guy just really needed a body to fill up their training camp thing, but maybe…

Maybe Dustin would get to see this guy again. He didn't seem so bad. He wasn't like Teagan, he didn't really press Dustin to talk, or make him feel bad when he did, he just…accepted, whatever the brunette said. Also, he didn't mind holding up a majority of the conversation by himself, so that was a plus.

The dark-skinned teen looked at him hard for a moment, frowning, like he was staring into Dustin soul, and then he shrugged and reached into his pocket, pulling out a pamphlet.

"Cool, they start Monday, May 18th, nine am sharp." Dustin took the pamphlet from him and stared at it, tracing the words with his fingers. "So, can I take that as a yes?"

Dustin hesitantly nodded, griping the paper tightly, reading every word with excellent care. When he had taken karate he had liked it, but he hadn't needed it as badly as he needed solace from the world. Taking these classes now…

If he got another chance to see this guy, maybe it would be worth it.

Besides, the pamphlet said it was free and everything and they couldn't make him come back if he hated it after one day.

When Dustin looked up again the friendly invader was smiling at him, and he even reached forward and clasped the side of Dustin's shoulder. "Great man, see you then."

He walked away before Dustin could say anything else, high fiving some random guy on his way out the door.

-:-:-:-:-:-

When Kelly eventually came back to peek in on Dustin she found him slightly mesmerized, staring at a paper pamphlet with great intensity. She snapped him out of it when she asked what the paper was about, receiving a hesitant 'nothing' before he shoved the pamphlet into his backpack. He hurried about the shop, picking back up where he had left off, but he couldn't hide the small smile that graced his lips.

That sight alone made Kelly grateful that she allowed that Shane kid to slip past her notice. She would keep a handle on the situation of course, if the skater did anything that even mildly looked like it endangered Dustin's physical or emotional well being she would ban that kid from the store completely, not before, of course, delivering a stern warning.

She had the best sports shop for miles, and she was willing to use that fact to her advantage when it came to her favorite mechanic's happiness.

Yes, life was good when you were the one on top.

-:-:-:-:-:-

Endnotes:

So...'spazzy' is the word of the day.

Hey! This story still exists! Stuff is happening, and other stuff as well!

As though you couldn't tell.

My best regards to ValkyrieNyght and Rogue Ranger for reviewing last chapter. Snaps all around for you. It's always nice to have a pep talk, considering the fact I wrote at least a fifth of this while I was sick.

Yes…I have it calculated down to the fifth.

As for the PR 100 themes challenge, it's something I came over while traipsing about Tsukino Akume's material. She uses it for a few of her stories and through sheer force of will I eventually found the livejournal link that explains it.

It is here (of course, minus the spaces):

prfic100. livejournal profile

I tried googling it to, but it just can't be done. You got to know where to look.

Until next time.