For this chapter, Tito and Ray make their debuts. I personally don't care much for how they were written, but I guess it's okay. Also, just like with the previous ones, I'm sorry for the lame chapter title. I'm just not very good at thinking up titles.

Oh, a bit irrelevant, since the conversation has passed, but I just thought of another episode where Twister seemed Lars-like. In a way, maybe even slightly worse…okay, maybe I'm just pushing it. lol Anyway, the episode that came to mind was the first one, "New Squid on the Block". Twister bullied Sam badly for that ep. Maybe even more so than Lars' bullying, imo. He just wouldn't lay off of Sam. He purposely tripped him when playing street hockey, and I got the impression that he really didn't like him much. Even after they all found out that he was a good goalie, Twister was still a bit rude whenever it came to him.

Oh yeah, something else, if you guys want to watch the Rocket Power movies, both will be shown during the Nonstop Nicktoons Weekend (or whatever it's called) on November 28. "The Race Across New Zealand" will be shown at 2:00 EST and "Reggie's Big Beach Break" will be shown at 5:00. Both movies are 1 ½ hours long. Between the two, I still like the first one best. I guess it's because the kids were altogether for that one. For the second one, everyone seemed to be out doing their own thing.

Now, as always, I do not own anything dealing with Rocket Power. Klasky-Csupo has that honor.

Chapter 07: Old Bros & Burgers…

Reggie and Twister ran as far as they could, the lead changing between them during the sprint, but they were growing a bit tired, Reggie managing to regain the lead. When they stopped, they were halfway to the Pier. Twister had stopped running first. Reggie realized that he'd fallen considerably behind and that she was pretty much running by herself, though being a bit winded herself. She made her way back to him.

"Whoo hoo!" the girl cheered in victory while pumping her arms up and down in the air. "Rocket Girl rules!" She then did a very well known, yet cheesy, victory dance. "Go Reggie, go Reggie, it's your birthday, it's your birthday!"

"I…was…crazy…to…challenge…you," the hunched over boy managed to get out while trying to catch his breath. "You…enter triathlons every year and you play street hockey."

"Don't forget about beach volleyball," she added. "I do have to keep in shape and running is perfect for learning how to conserve oxygen. Come on, let's just walk the rest of the way."

He stood upright, his breath finally caught. He then gave her a thumbs up. "I'm all for that, Rocket Girl."

With that settled, the two briskly walked the short distance up to the Pier's entrance, and kept going along until they came to the Shore Shack. It was a bit crowded. "The Shoobie Dinner Rush" is what Otto would call it. There were a lot of tourists around, and Reggie felt sory for both her dad and Tito. They were working extra hard due to the extra onset of customers. How the two of them were able to manage was beyond her.

"Poor Raymundo and Tito. It's Shoobie City over there."

"Those two are going to be busy for a while," Reggie pointed out in concern. "I hope they don't stress themselves out with all of the extra work."
x x x x
"Okay, one Hula Burger and an order of large Shack Fries for here, coming up," said a tall man with short, wavy blonde hair, taking the order down on a notepad.

The man was wearing a pair of shorts, a white T-shirt, a pair of sandals, and a fisherman's cap, which covered up his bald spot. Just like Twister, he rarely ever took it off. This was Raymundo Rocket, owner of the Shore Shack. Ray also ran a surf shop (Rocket Boards) where they sold and repaired boards.

He was roughly in his mid to late 40s and a widower. *His wife had passed away when Otto was still five, and Reggie had just recently turned seven. Ray still thought back to that painful time when his wife had passed on, remembering the heartbroken looks on Reggie and Otto's faces when he had to deliver the news to them, explaining how their mother wasn't coming home with them when she was admitted to the hospital for Endometrial Cancer. She had reached Stage III. The doctors performed an operation on her to remove the cancerous cells and to do a hysterectomy, much to her dismay, but Ray had told her that her life was more important, and that they already had "two wonderful kids". Given her weak condition, they kept her in the hospital for observation and she was also going through Chemotherapy treatments, despite the doctors feeling she was getting better and stronger.

Before she died, she spoke to both Reggie and Otto individually, giving them words of encouragement and wisdom. To Ray, it was like she knew her end was coming, even if the doctors were saying that she would definitely make a full recovery. She was growing weaker, yes, but it was because of the treatment, not necessarily her health. Her relapse was totally unexpected, and her entire time in the hospital, whenever Ray and the kids would visit, she would always have a warm smile on her face, even though some of those times, she was feeling terrible pain. She would tell Ray things like she didn't want to be remembered sulking and feeling sorry for herself.

It wasn't often that he spoke of the children's mother with Otto and Reggie, but he did make it clear that if they ever wanted to talk about it, to go right on ahead. Reggie sometimes would start talking about their mother, wanting to hear stories about what she was like, how she and Ray met, etc., but Otto would go out of his way to avoid it. Whenever they would get on the subject, he would go to another room suddenly, or either go outside to practice some skateboard tricks.

Reggie always figured that maybe talking about their mother was just too upsetting for him and instead of letting those feelings out, he bottled them up. Ray felt the same as Reg, but decided that it would be best if he didn't force Otto to discuss his mother, and that he would come around eventually, even if it had been nearly 10 years.

"Hey, Tito! One Hula Burger and a large order of Shack Fries!" He turned back to the customer. "Would you like anything else?"

"Hmm, I think I'll have a chocolate shake too," the man requested.

"Sure thing."

Ray went to the milkshake machine to prepare the man's shake and handed it to him. A few moments later, a somewhat chubby, Hawaiian man wearing an apron with brown wavy hair tied back into a single ponytail walked up to the counter, holding a plate.

"Who ordered the Hula Burger combo?" he asked Ray.

"The man with the chocolate shake over there," Ray pointed.

He nodded and handed the man his order. Ray then tallied up the price. The customer thanked them and took a seat.

"Whoo!" Ray wiped his brow. "This has definitely been a busy day, eh Tito?"

"You said it, bruddah!"

The wise Tito Makani Jr. was one of Ray's best, and oldest, friends. They had been through thick and thin together. Best bros, they were. At times, Ray would compare his friendship with Tito, to Otto's friendship with Twister. They were inseparable and were always there to help each other out, like true bros. Tito helped Ray run the Shore Shack and always seemed to have words of wisdom, which he'd learned through the proverbs of "the ancient Hawaiians".

"I'd love to close up early today, and just surf the rest of the afternoon away."

"I'm with you bro," Ray said, while handing Tito another customer's order, "but you know we can't. There's just way too much work today."

"Yeah, yeah," Tito grumbled as he tossed a hamburger patty onto the grill. He then gave his friend an exasperated look. "You just had to come up with the new breakfast menu."

"Well, it got us more business, didn't it?"

The Hawaiian looked out at the customers eating. The place was completely packed. The only free seats were the ones at the counter. "A bit too much business if you ask me. I miss slow business."

"It's slowed down a little, compared to earlier." Ray gave his buddy a smug smile, and slyly told him, "You know, with the profits, you can finally get that raise you deserve."

Tito's eyes lit up as he flipped the burger. "A raise? Hmm, you know bruddah, I don't feel we have enough business. It's like the Ancient Hawaiians say, 'The early bird catches the worm'…"

"Wait, that's not an ancient Hawaiian saying!"

"Maybe not," Tito plated the burger and dumped some fries on the side of the burger, "but if we open earlier, we'll be able to get more business, which means more moola for Tito! The Shore Shack will be like the early bird, and we'll be able to catch more worms – the customers – and get rewarded handsomely."

"I knew that would get you," Ray laughed, "but there is another reason why I don't mind having all of this extra business."

"Why's that?"

"The kids."

Tito started to wipe off the countertop, glad that it had slowed down a bit. "What about the lil' cuzzes?"

"Well, with the extra money I'm earning, it can go towards Reggie and Otto's college educations."

"Ahh, you definitely can't go wrong there, bruddah!"

Ray noticed a few customers leaving, and went to bus the tables and wipe them down. Once done, he returned to where Tito was. "I'm not too worried over Reg. She's pretty smart when it comes to her schoolwork and I'm sure she'll be a shoe-in for a scholarship, even if it's a partial one to any university she sets her sights on, especially with her strong interest in Journalism and writing in general…"

"But?" Tito sensed there was more on his old friend's mind.

"But…it's Otto I'm worried about. He doesn't make the best grades in the world. All he's into are extreme sports. I mean, Reggie is too, but she still gets her priorities straight and puts school first. She works hard to keep her grades high and to work towards a scholarship. She even received a good SAT score and has already put in college applications, despite having a year of high school left.

"Twister doesn't really make good grades either, but according to what Raoul has told me, his grades are improving, not counting math and science. He even told me that Twister was starting to apply himself more in school and even mentioned that Twister wanted to get a math tutor. Twister's goal is to bring his two Ds up before the school year ends."

"Wow, I didn't know that the lil' cuz had gotten so serious about his schoolwork, but I guess it's just like the time he studied hard for his spelling test and even managed to get a perfect score."

"Let's see…Sam, forget it. He's always been a good student. Knowing him, he'll probably end up being Valedictorian of his graduating class. It seems that they're all improving or working towards their futures, except for Otto. His last report card was horrible. I'd never seen so many Ds in all my life! The only course where he has a high grade is Health/PE."

"Oh, he's improving alright, when it comes to his skating and surfing skills. He has that competition in a couple of days, doesn't he?"

"Yeah. I'm going to close up the shack to go root him on."

"Look on the bright side, Raymundo, at least Otto's grades aren't low enough for him to get kicked out of any clubs or off any sports teams."

"Yeah, I guess you're right," he replied slowly, "but I still don't want him to just….get by, like his old man. Man, I wish he was more like his mother, like Reggie is. They both look like her, but when it comes to school, Otto definitely took after me."

"I remember those days. bruddah," laughed Tito, his round belly shaking. "You'd skip out on school just to surf! Any news of a monster swell and boom, Raymundo was nowhere to be found! You used to ditch school for practically everything or anything you found interesting."

"Don't remind me," he groaned.

"Speaking of the lil' cuzzes, they haven't been around as much, lately."

"Yeah, I've noticed that too. I have no idea what's going on with Otto. I've seen the other three, but Otto's been terribly scarce lately, and today none of them came by."

"Maybe they're studying for big tests. School is almost out for the summer."

"Yeah, I guess so." Ray didn't want to fully admit it, but he was pretty disappointed that Otto and the others didn't come by the shack as much. He really missed them hanging around like they did when they were younger. 'I guess they're just growing up…'

"Well, what d'ya know," Tito said with a smile while pointing. "Look over there."

Ray looked to where Tito had pointed. He saw Reggie and Twister walking by. "Hey, it's the kids!"

"Looks like they're headed towards the amusement park, and they seem to be two short."

"I wonder where Otto and Sam are. Doesn't it seem a little…strange? Twister never really hangs with Reggie unless Otto or Sam are around. I mean, normally Otto hangs out with Twist and Reg with Sam, but I've never really seen just Twister and Reggie hanging together so casually. Then again, I'm sure they have since they are friends, but it's still weird." He rubbed his chin. 'I wonder if Otto and Twister had a fight. Maybe that's why I haven't seen the two together as much lately.'

Tito gave Ray a knowing smile. "If you think about it for a moment, bruddah, maybe it wouldn't seem so strange that only those two are hanging out together. You've seen the way he acts around lil' Reg whenever they're here."

The blond thought for a moment and scratched his head. He then shrugged to his friend. "I have no idea what you're talking about. Was that supposed to be some ancient Hawaiian saying?"

"No, bruddah, it wasn't," Tito sighed.

"Hey, I should call them over."

Ray waved his arms, about to shout out to them, when Tito stopped him by grasping his arms, and dragging them back down.

"No!"

"Bro, why not?"

"Well, um…because, that's why."

Ray folded his arms, and narrowed his eyes at Tito. "Wow, what a persuasive argument," he retorted, a hint of sarcasm in his voice.

"What I'm saying, cuz, is that you should let them do their own thing. They're teenagers. They'll come around in their own time, or whenever Twister gets hungry for my chili bacon cheeseburgers."

"Yeah, I guess you're right."

"Of course I am! When am I not right?" he replied smugly.

"Whenever you're wrong?"

Tito laughed heartily. "Well, it seems some customers have left and some others are heading in. We're going to have a busy night a plenty, bruddah!"

Ray nodded and tended to the next customer who still hadn't decided on whether or not she wanted chili fries or chili cheese fries.

'I'm surprised brotha Ray hasn't noticed the way he's been acting around Reggie whenever around here. He always stares at her, he seems to lose his train of thought – more than usual – when talking to her, and he doesn't seem to rush off to hang around Otto as much, but seems to always rush after Reggie. That lil' cuz is crazy about that wahini. Knowing the naïve and oblivious Twister, he probably doesn't even realize it."

"TITO!"

"Oh, um, yeah bruddah?"

"I need an order of chili fries and a chili cheeseburger pronto!"

"Oh yeah, sorry about that," Tito hastily apologized as he headed back to his grill…
x x x

Author's Note

Note 1: Who knows what happened to their mother, but seems most people just go with the death theory. I guess it's due to the fact that it's the simplest theory to go by. I wish they would actually mention something about her in the show. All of the flashbacks Ray has usually doesn't include the kids' mother. Hopefully, though, we won't have to wait much longer. There have been quite a few unaired Rocket Power episodes, which includes a Christmas ep. There's also the third movie coming up. I heard that it's supposed to come out sometime next month, and I'm also not sure if it's going to be a theatrical release or shown on television like the previous two. Hopefully, it'll be on Nickelodeon. I don't have any younger relatives that are big fans of the show like I am. lol Even my younger cousin who's about 9 now who got me into the show doesn't watch it as much anymore.

The group, apparently, goes to Hawaii and Ray is supposed to apparently fall for someone while there. We're also supposed to learn more about Reggie and Otto's mother. I'm really looking forward to that, now if only Nickelodeon would hurry up and air those eps and show that movie! Oh, and if you're wondering, the name of the movie is Island of the Menehune. I'm sure a lot of you fans already knew about it, though.

Oh, and in my opinion, based on the flashbacks that Ray and Tito have, I wouldn't be surprised if the pair were older. Seems they keep going back and forth between the late 60s and the 70s for their flashbacks. For when this fic takes place, they'd probably already be in their early 50s or something. I would put them in their mid to late 40s present day.