Chapter 13: Pre-Teen Bonding - Part 2

Sam gripped her whip tight with her hands, grateful to Tucker as he continued to hold her waist to help her prevent Danielle from getting closer to Danny and Jake in her animalistic rage. Her eyes glowed an intense green as she repeatedly lunged to try to get free, and a cat like growl came from her mouth, passing her extended fangs.

Jake could feel his heart thumping against his chest furiously, his short life starting to flash before him, while Danny tried to reason with her.

"Easy, Ellie!" Danny said, facing down his little sister.

"Yeah, seriously, kid! At this rate, you're gonna rip my arms out of their sockets," Sam grumbled.

"The only arms getting ripped out, are his!" Danielle declared as she remained focus on Jake.

"I'll fix it! You just gotta give me a chance!" Jake pleaded.

"He's right, Ellie," Tucker said, still holding Sam's waist. "We can't get the artifact if we're too busy trying to keep you from mauling him to death!"

"Just calm down, and we'll figure out how to fix this together," Danny said. Danielle looked back at Jake, growling under her breath as her green eyes met his, both going a few shades paler before hers turned back to their normal blue. As her teeth returned to normal, Danielle stood back up, crossing her arms over her chest. Sam sighed in relief as she and Tucker finally relaxed, allowing her whip to unwrap from Danielle, keeping it out just in case she would need it again.

"Fine. But this isn't over, Jacob," she threatened. Jake gulped but nodded his head.

"Well, now that that's settled, we need to find a way to get this artifact back," Tucker said, pulling his PDA out. Channeling his power into it, a hologram projected from it, pulling up what looked like a database.

"Maybe we can sneak into her house and take it when we get a chance?" Jake suggested.

"Do you know where she lives?" Sam asked. At the silent response she received, she rolled her eyes. "Of course, you don't."

"Well, maybe we can track it down somehow?" he added on when seeing that Danielle was getting more annoyed. "I mean, if it's a Ranger Artifact, there's got to be some way for us to track it, right?"

"We said it MAY be one," Tucker corrected. Pulling up the data he had, he stated, "After our first morph, I began to study our rings more closely to try to understand them better. The way you describe the necklace sounds similar to our rings, but it could be a coincidence. I studied some of the other artifacts from the Ghost that we've found as well before sending them back to the Ghost Zone."

"Well, what did you figure out?"

"Unfortunately, not much. Remember how I tried us all switching rings to try and morph?"

"Yeah, it didn't work at all. We couldn't feel any power coming from each other's rings. Only thing we could feel was that weird pulling sensation."

"And let the record show that Jake's inability to understand how and what attraction is, is exactly why we're currently in this mess," Sam commented. Jake could feel his cheeks flush at this, but made no retort given that what she said was true.

"Agreed. Now, as I was saying, based on what you've said, that's the opposite of how our rings work. Unless that girl who was wearing it has the spirit of a dragon in her, whatever morph or transformation she had must have been different," Tucker said, drawing the conversation back to the to him.

"No, it's definitely the necklace," Danielle said, shaking her head. "I don't know what it is, but there's something not right about it."

"Well, if that's the case, we need to get a hold of it soon as possible," Danny said, turning to Jake. "What else can you tell us about this Lilith girl? Maybe we can use something to help us find her."

"Not much. Her full name is Lilith Nefton, she's 12 years old, she's 4 foot 6 inches. She like's skating and flowers, her favorite ones being lilies. She's got a perfect GPA, is super nice, and she smells like lavender," he said, listing off all the things that came to his mind, a goofy smile on his face. The others looked at him in disbelief, as well as disgust, though it seemed to go unnoticed by him.

"Ok…that's nice and everything, Jake, but I think we're gonna need something a little more…useful," Tucker said. "You know her parent's names?"

"Um, no. No, I do not."

"Ok. Well, do you know where they work?"

"Nope. Don't know that either."

"Do you at least have her phone number?" Sam asked, realizing that this was never going to get them anywhere.

"…No…" he said matter-of-factly, hands on his hips and nodding his head.

Danny face-palmed before asking, "How is it that you know how tall she is to the exact inch, but you don't even have her phone number or address?"

"…Is that really important right now?" Jake asked, attempting to avoid more criticism. Turning to Tucker, he asked, "Tuck, isn't there some other way you can find her?"

"I mean, I can run a data search of everyone with her name with a 25-mile radius of here," he suggested, punching in the information. The search sped by before an answer popped up, surprising him. "It says...Data inconclusive?"

"What does that mean?"

"I'm not sure. All I know is, I'm not finding any data through the searches I put in for her. Without something more concrete, we're just as likely to find her this way as we are if we started searching door to door."

"Screw it," Danielle said, finally fed up with this and turning toward the door. The others were startled by her outburst as she started marching toward the door, eyes glowing while saying, "I'm gonna go back to the skate park, find her scent, track her down and rip the damn thing from around her neck myself."

"Ellie, no!" Jake called out, rushing past Danny to grab her shoulder. Danielle stopped, looking over her shoulder angrily at his hand holding said shoulder before looking at him directly. Jake blinked back at the intensity of her gaze, her eyes looking different to him with the blue having a tint of what looked like pink on the edges of her irises. Gulping, Jake spoke again. "Please…don't do that."

"And why shouldn't I?" She replied, smacking his hand off her as she turned her body to face him. "Your stupid crush is what got us into this mess, so I don't think you're in a position to be asking anyone for favors."

"Yeah, I know. That's why you gotta let me figure this out. I'm sure I can think of a way to do this without having to ruin my chance with Lily-"

"And that's your problem! You're so damn worried about her, you're not doing your job! And I'm tired of covering for your ass, Jake!"

"Ellie, I get it, ok. You don't like her, and you hate that I have a crush on her, but please don't ruin my chance with Lily," Jake begged, bringing his hands together and shaking them. "I know I've majorly screwed up, and I swear, I will make it up to you. Even if it takes the rest of eternity, I will, ok?"

Danielle stared into his eyes, his eyes pleading in desperation for her to understand. A sudden pulse jumped in her chest, as well as his, the two staring at each other. Danielle's anger seemed to lessen by the second as more pulses continued to come, while Jake felt…strange? Stranger than usual, that was for sure, but he couldn't put his finger on what it was.

Opening his mouth to speak, he stopped as the pink that he had seen before, was now a glowing white. Jake's gaze seemed to lock on to this, his own eyes feeling as if he were being drawn into hers and the peripheral of his sight was fading away. Unbeknownst to him, his eyes had begun to change to a similar white as hers, though this quickly faded as Danielle turned away from him. As she clenched her fists, Danielle felt the pulsing sensation fading out until it was finally gone. Taking a deep breath, and now feeling calmer, Danielle looked at him silently.

"Fine. Do whatever you want," was her short reply as she crossed her arms and turned her gaze to the floor.

"Thank you. I swear, I will fix this," he said gratefully before turning to the others, missing the blush that came to her face.

"Probably for the best anyway," Tucker said. "With everything going on, it would probably be pretty hard for you to find her scent, Ellie. What we need to do is think of a way to draw her out."

A beep sounded off, drawing all their attention to Jake once more as he dug his phone from his pocket. His screen flashed with the notification that he had received a new message on his Facescroll app. Reading the name, Jake's jaw dropped as he spoke.

"It's from Lily!"

"You didn't think it was helpful to mention that you have her as a friend on Facescroll?" Sam asked him incredulously.

"I forgot, alright? Besides, I didn't hear any of you geniuses suggest it either," he said defensely.

Unlocking his phone, he clicked on the notification that took him to the private messenger inbox between the two to see he had received a new video message from her. The four other Rangers rushed to looked over his shoulder as he pressed the play button on the screen.

"Hey Jake!" Lily's video began as it showed her standing in what looked to be a clothing store. In her hand appeared to be the necklace, and Jake blushed again as the four looked at him in annoyance. "Thanks again for the necklace! I think I found the perfect dress to wear it with to the dance tonight. Are you and Dani going?"

"So that's the necklace, huh?" Tucker asked, activating his visor to scan the object. As his search began, he offhandedly said, "Seems kinda small to have been around a dragon's neck."

"Trust me, it was way bigger when we were strangling that dumb dragon with it," Danielle informed him.

"What's this dance she's talking about?" Sam asked the two.

"The annual Moonlight Dance. Everyone's all excited because they're having it at that fancy banquet hall in town instead of the gym. They've been advertising it for weeks now, but it sounded pretty lame, so we didn't wanna waste our day off with it."

"Well, change of plans," Danny said before instructing Jake, "Reply and tell her you guys are gonna be there."

"I'm sorry, what was that?" The young girl nearly shouted, stunned by what she just heard, while Jake fist pumped enthusiastically. "I must have sticks stuck in my ears because I'm pretty sure you just said-"

"That you two are going to that dance."

"Are you insane!?" she said, this time actually shouting, her voice shaking the room with a small roar as it came the end of her sentence.

"We're limited on options here, Ellie, and it's probably the best chance we're gonna get," Sam said, an apologetic smile on her face. Danielle turned, narrowing her gaze at Jake, who felt another wave of panic crawl up his spine as he grinned back at her sheepishly.

"I swear to you, you're gonna be working until your bones turn to ash to repay for me this. You got that?" She said in a low voice. Jake's pupils shrank, but he still nodded in understanding.

"Great. Now that that's all settled, we need to get this plan in gear. Sam, you're on dance prep duty, so why don't you take those two to the mall and get them set up?" Danny said, receiving a nod from herthe goth. "Tucker and I will stay here and think up a plan."

"You got it," Sam said, throwing him a thumbs up as she unsummoned her whip and began ushering the two kids out the door. Once he was sure that they were all gone, he turned back to Tucker and said, "Alright, Tuck. We're gonna need a schematic of the building if you can find one, and as much information as you can find on that necklace."

"You got it, Danny. Let's head into the lab. I'll plug into the PC and see what I can pull up," he replied, leading the way down the stairs. As they reached the basement, he asked, "So…you think we should tell them about the whole ID thing?"

"We have to, but now's probably not the best time," Danny admitted. "As serious as it is, I think it's gonna have to wait til after we get this necklace artifact and until Ellie has time to cool off. I'm sure she wouldn't take it too well right now."

"Yeah, you're not wrong. I'll see if I can start pulling the info I can find and put something together."

This was without a doubt one of the worst and most annoying days of Danielle's short life, and she blamed every second of it on Jake.

After an exhausting 3 hours of shopping for their clothes as well as accessories and needed extras, Danielle had been dragged back home where they were met by Tucker and Danny who had combed over a blueprint of the building. The team meeting was relatively short, which she was thankful, as her part mainly was condensed to "watch Jake's back and be ready to jump into action if the time came" which she could do, though she wasn't overly thrilled about how much time she'd have to spend in Lilith's company.

After that, Sam declared "Alright, I've got my work cut out for me so let's get to started. You, upstairs, shower, NOW," to Danielle, leaving no room for questioning. Danielle said nothing, and in fact had said very little the more time that went by. And now, less than 2 hours from the start of the dance, she sat, still wrapped in her towel, quietly with her hands in her lap as Sam applied another small bit of foundation to her face.

"So, you gonna talk to me, or just sit there like one of those creepy realistic dolls people buy on the internet?" Sam asked. Putting her make up utensils down, she looked into Danielle's eyes, and said, "Come on. Spill."

"I don't have anything to spill," Danielle stated, receiving an eye roll.

"Sure, you don't. Is that why you've looked like a kicked puppy for the last few hours?" At the disapproving look she got, she said, "You can't lie to me, kid. I've known you since you were 4, and superheroes or not, you're basically an annoying little sister to me, meaning, I need to look out for you. SO…spill."

Danielle bit her lip, looking away from her. It was true that Danielle looked up to Sam a lot like an older sister, and she had especially been doing it more so lately with their Ranger duties. If nothing else, that proved she he could trust her, right?

"You promise you won't say anything?" She asked in uncertainty.

"I promise," the goth agreed.

"I'm serious, Sam. You have to swear to not say a word to anyone. Especially Danny or Jazz. Or I'm gonna come to your house and mark all of it as my territory."

Sam rolled her, but stated, "Yes, Ellie. I promise I will not breath a word of this to anyone, including your brother and sister. Now, will you please stop threatening to pee all over my house and tell me what's wrong?"

Danielle stared at her for a moment, trying to keep up a brave face, but it soon fell as a few tears came to her eyes and she began to sniffle a bit. As she looked down, she felt her body shake a bit before she finally found the strength to talk.

"I…I don't wanna go to the dance," she said, bringing her hand up to wipe the tears away from her eyes.

"Oh, Ellie," Sam said, putting everything down and crawling over to the younger girl and hugging her. "I didn't realize this plan bothered you so much. We can come up with a different one if you want. I'm sure Danny and Tucker will-"

"No, I can't!" Danielle protested, leaning back up to look at her. "We have to get that necklace back, and plus, this is…Jake's chance to impress Lilith. I don't wanna be responsible for messing that up."

"Trust me, if anyone's responsible for his chances to get screwed up, its him. I know you're just trying to be a good friend, but if this is too much for you because of your crush on him, we can think of something else."

"What's going on?" Jazz asked, walking into Danielle's room to see her sitting at her vanity with Sam. The redhead looked exhausted, but quickly noticing that her baby sister looked like she was crying, Jazz gingerly asked, "Uh oh. What happened this time?"

"Ellie doesn't want to go to the dance anymore because the girl that Jake likes is gonna be there too," Sam said, ignoring the shocked look Danielle's face.

"Sam! You promised!" Danielle protested, now even more embarrassed.

"Oh, Ellie," Jazz said, kneeling on the opposite side of her and pulling her into a hug as well. "It's understandable. Crushes can make your first dance something special. Or they can make them harder to deal with."

"I don't like having a crush. Especially on Jake," Danielle said, shaking her head and wiping her eyes. "Why did I have to have a crush on such an idiot, selfish jerk like him? He's so annoying and frustrating."

"Well, you two have been through a lot together, and sometimes, these things happen."

"But why does she have to interfere with our lives? He was my friend first…"

"Hey now, no getting all possessive," Jazz said with a light bit of sternness. "Jake is allowed to have other friends, just like you are. I know you don't like it because you like him, but that wouldn't be fair to him, would it?"

"No," Danielle admitted sadly. "But I don't wanna have a crush on him. It makes me feel weird and like it's wrong."

"You can't control who you have a crush for," Sam said. "Sometimes, life just throws you a curve ball like that."

"Like how Sam has a crush on Danny," the oldest girl joked, receiving a small smile from Danielle, and a glare from Sam.

"Hey, so, let's try staying on topic here, Jazz, ok?" Sam replied before turning back to Danielle. "Listen, I'll be straight with you. I get it, you don't like her, and I would never tell you that you need to ignore your feelings for someone elses, but you're gonna have to make a choice. You're either gonna have to suck it up and learn to deal with her being around…"

"Or?" Danielle asked, afraid of what her other option would be.

"Or…you bite the bullet, and you tell him how you feel."

"But…what if he doesn't like me back?"

"That's the risk that you have to be willing to take," Jazz said softly before leaning in and kissing her little sister's head. "Think about what you feel is best, and when the time comes and you're ready, you can make your decision. And try having some fun tonight, ok? This is your first dance after all, and you never know. It might be an amazing night."

"Yeah, just do what my grandma is always telling me to do with my cousin. Make more friends, and fewer enemies," Sam said, smiling a small smile at her. Danielle nodded her head, wiping away the remaining tears as Sam grabbed the more make up. "Atta girl. Now, let's get the rest this make up all done so you can finish getting ready."

"Well while you guys do that, I think I'm gonna go lay down for a bit."

"Are you ok?" Danielle asked in worry.

"You bet. It's just another headache is all, and you know I've been getting them every now and then. Probably just over working myself," the red head reassured before standing to leave for her own room. With a pause, she also added, "And, regardless of what you do decide, can you at least refrain from starting anymore fights at school? The principal is already getting on your case for all the outburst, and I'm pretty sure Amber threatened to skin Jake alive the next time she got called this semester."

"Not a bad idea…" Danielle mumbled under her breath while Sam snorted at the idea.

"I'd say how much trouble can a twelve-year-old get in a formal dress and flats get into, but I've seen what you can do, and Jennifer still hasn't forgiven you."

"Well, don't leave me hanging, what happened?" Sam asked with a grin.

"Has Danny ever told you about what happened at our cousin's wedding four years ago, and why Danielle is now banned from our uncle's vineyard out in Napa Valley?"

"No, I don't believe he has," she replied with a smirk as Danielle could feel her cheeks getting hot. "In fact, when we asked him about it, he said that legally he couldn't because depending on what happened, there could have been an open case about it."

"Yeah, let's just say, if anything even remotely close to that happens, you won't be needing those receipts," the redhead finished with a laugh, taking her leave, while Sam raised an eyebrow to Danielle, who simply looked away, refusing to meet her gaze.

To be continued…