AN: I might borrow a few things from the Owl House Episode Reaching Out for this chapter, so spoilers to anyone who has yet to see the show. I'm also using bits from the Dino Thunder final episodes too. So credit for the dialogue and scene bits belongs to their respective owners.
Normal POV
Tracy is happy to talk and fight as the Pink Ranger again. The only problem is that she's scared to sing again. Even though she's noticed her singing voice changed slightly, she went from singing alto to being able to hit a few Mezzo Soprano notes while she was doing warm-ups last week. She wakes up in her room and quickly grabs her phone when a reminder alarm goes off. The screen reads, 'Countdown to Prom, 17 days' Tears build up in her eyes as she taps the ignore button before setting the phone back on the end table. She groans, picks up her glasses and rolls out of bed. She walks over to the closet and takes out an outfit she knows is not her usual style but doesn't care. A donut t-shirt, a pink shirt, and a pair of beige high heel ankle boots. After getting dressed, curling her hair and putting on makeup, the young woman heads downstairs to head off to Cyber Cafe.
I'm glad my parents left early for work, so I don't have to deal with them, Tracy thinks as she gets into her car.
Tracy sees surprise and looks of shock on her friends' faces as she gets out of her car and walks over to them.
"Tracy, did you raid Cassidy's closet?" Ethan asks.
"Did you go out and buy a curling iron, too?" Conner adds.
"No, I didn't raid Cassidy's closet, Ethan." Tracy snaps,
"Angel, calm down. You are not supposed to strain your voice, remember." Mike says.
"I know, Mikey. For your information, Conner, I've always had a curling iron." Tracy says.
"Conner, Ethen, just drop it, alright; I think she looks cute. There's nothing wrong with someone wanting to mix up their look everyone once in a while," Mike says, placing his arm over Tracy's shoulder before kissing her on the cheek.
"Ethan, you're going to the movies instead of Prom," Conner says.
"This movie happens to be the sequel to the greatest sci-fi film of all time," Ethan says.
"Dude, going to Prom is tradition," Conner says.
"Yeah, Conner, is a great tradition for all the smart kids," Tracy says sarcastically.
"I second Tracy's sarcasm. All we do all semester is wait in agony to see if we ever get a date," Ethan says.
"Either that, or they'll spend the entire dance standing in the corner with all the other smart kids," Tracy adds.
"I never thought about it like that. I guess that is brutal," Conner says.
"So, Tracy, have you picked out a dress yet?" Conner asks.
"No, did you pick out a date from that prom date book?" Tracy replies.
"Dude, you have a book?" Mike asks.
"Yeah, I have them divided into three categories," Conner says.
"I know I will regret asking, but what are they?" Tracy says.
"Cute ones, ones with a good personality and ones whose dad can buy the limo," Conner says.
"And that's why I'm going to the movies," Ethan says.
Tracy's phone goes off again. This reminder says, 'Give someone Aunt Mary's design for your prom dress.' Tracy takes it out of her purse, silences the alert again, but nearly drops her phone when Cassidy and Devin walk up. "Hey, what's the alert for?" Cassidy asks.
"Nothing," Tracy says, catching her phone and quickly putting it back in her purse,
"I love your outfit. It's so cute," Cassidy says.
"Yeah, but why did you suddenly change up your look?" Devin asks.
"I felt like trying something new today, that's all," Tracy says, brushing her hair behind her ear.
"I have a jacket in my car and a cute pair of clip-on earrings that would take it up a notch. I'll be right back," Cassidy says.
Cassidy sprints over to her and sets the items in front of her. Tracy starts to have a flashback of her Aunt taking her to the mall to buy some earrings when she sees the 18k Gold Plated Enamel Clipon Earrings sitting on the table next to the jacket.
Flashback Starts
A four-year-old Tracy and her Aunt Mary walk into the jewelry store at the local mall.
"Aunt Mary, when will Daddy let me put holes in my ears?" Tracy asks.
"Your father will let you pierce your ears when you are a teenager," Mary says.
Tracy takes her Aunt's hand and pulls her toward one of the display cases.
"Aunt Mary, I can't wait that long to be pretty like you," Tracy says.
"Thank you, sweetie, but time will fly fast, trust me. Until then, I see a pair of clip-on that are just as pretty as the one's I'm wearing," Mary chuckles.
Flashback Ends
"Thanks for the jacket Cassidy, but I'm not wearing the earrings," Tracy says, pushing them toward Cassidy.
"Why not? They'll go perfectly with your outfit," Cassidy says.
"I'm not supposed to shout. I don't want to wear them, okay," Tracy says, wiping the tears from her eyes as she puts on the jacket.
"Okay, just keep them. I have two other pairs," Cassidy says.
"Fine," Tracy sighs, putting the earrings in the jacket pocket.
"Devin, I'll be right back. I forgot to grab the notes from the Prom committee. We need to go over the theme list again." Cassidy says.
"Okay, Conner, can I talk to you in private for a second?" Devin says.
"Sure," Conner says.
Conner gets up, then he and Devin go to the lounge area.
"So, what's up?" Conner asks.
"You know Prom is coming up, and..." Devin says.
"Do you need help finding a date? I can check my book," Conner says.
"No, Dude, you don't have to do that," Devin says quickly, placing a hand on his shoulder, "I already have a specific someone I want to ask. I was hoping you could help me go the right way about it,"
"Sure, dude," Conner replies, "Here's what I would do,"
When Cassidy returned with the folder, Mike asked Cassidy if they could get a sneak peek and find out what themes for Prom the committee picked for the students to vote on.
"The top four are Enchanted Forest, Violet Twilight, Garden, and Cabin in the Countryside," Cassidy says.
'Do you happen to have a preview of what the venue will look like, by chance?" Mike asks.
"I'll show you. Just don't tell anyone else," Cassidy says, laying the photos on the table.
\m17
"Wow, all these look amazing. Which one do you like, Angel?" Mike asks.
Tracy shoves the photos back into the folder and quickly leaves the room. As Tracy picked up her purse, her phone fell out. Mike picks it up and calls out, "Wait, you dropped your phone,"
"Hey, guys, what's up with Tracy?" Conner asks as he rejoins the group.
"It's almost like talking about Prom makes her sad," Trent says.
"Yeah, it's odd since most girls would be excited about the dance," Ethan adds.
"Dude, aren't you going to see what that's for?" Conner asks as the alert goes off on Tracy's phone.
"Conner, I'm not going to invade Tracy's privacy," Mike says, turning down the volume on Tracy's phone so they couldn't hear the sound.
Outside the café, Tracy gets into her car and heads to Blue Bay Harbor. While at a stop light, Tracy looks over to see a little girl walking with her mom. The mother's face suddenly changes to her Aunt Mary's, and she starts to have another flashback of when she and her Aunt would hike through some of the mountain trails near her house.
Tracy is snapped back to reality when the driver in the car behind her honks their horn. Tracy wipes a star tear from her eye and drives through the intersection. After entering the city, Tracy parks her car next to a sky-blue beetle van. She gets out and starts walking down the forest path. At the end of the trail is a beautiful waterfall. There is a puff of smoke, and Tracy is startled when three people wearing masks and the main part of the outfit has either red, blue or yellow details on them appear in front of her. Tracy gets ready to defend herself. The one with the yellow details motions with his hand and then disappears in a puff of smoke. The smoke forms a trail along the ground. Tracy is blinded when some dust enters her eyes as the boy emerges from the ground. She stumbles back, then a sudden strong gust of wind hits her square in the chest, knocking her back toward the water.
?'s POV
I jump into the water to rescue the girl and swim to the edge. I notice a bracelet with a pink gem on it on her wrist.
"You're one of the dino rangers, aren't you?" I ask, helping her over to a tree.
"Yes, but how did you know?" the girl asks as she dries some water out of her hair.
"I'm Cam, I've emailed Hayley a few times, and she's told me about a new ranger joining the team a few months ago," I say.
"That's cool. I'm Tracy, and I'm sorry if I trespassed." Tracy says.
"It's fine. I have a feeling that you've been thinking about a loved one you've lost a lot today," Dad says as he walks up to us.
"I may have had a few flashbacks about my aunt," Tracy says as a few tears build up in her eyes, "The rest of my family told me that this pain is supposed to be easier to deal with after a while, but today it feels like it was driving a truck with a sack of bricks tied to the grill and hit me at 30 mph," Tracy continues as the tears start to roll down her cheeks.
Normal POV
Tracy, Sensei and Cam walked to her car so she could get her gym clothes out of her car. When she notices they are there, Cam suggests seeing if Marah or Kpari would let her borrow one of their uniforms. Tracy wasn't sure what color their uniforms were, but she needed a change of clothes while her outfit dried off in the sun.
"Cam, I may be the pink ranger that doesn't mean I have to wear pink all the time. I like blue more," Tracy says, wearing one of Kapri's uniforms.
"That makes sense, considering that a dark blue makes your eyes look even prettier," Mike says.
Tracy spins around, a huge smile comes to her face, and says, "Mike, how did you get here?"
"Wes brought me here," Mike says.
"How did you know I'd come here?" Tracy says.
"I remember you said that your Aunt Mary loved being out in nature, and Blue Bay Harbor has several much prettier hiking trails than Reefside," Mike says, taking Tracy's phone out of his jacket pocket, "I think you are missing this. It fell out of your purse when you left the Cyber Café."
"Thanks. I was freaking out when I couldn't find it a few minutes ago. I thought I lost it," Tracy says.
"How come the sound is down?" Tracy asks as she feels the phone vibrate when he hands it to her.
"A reminder was going off, and Conner wanted me to look at your phone to turn it off, but I wasn't going to invade your privacy, so I just muted your phone," Mike says.
"I appreciate that, but we should head back since Conner and the others are wounding why I was acting weird at the Cyber Café earlier," Tracy says.
"You won't have to," Wes says as he walks up carrying a briefcase with Circuit on his shoulder.
The group walks over to a big tree stump. Wes takes out two small antenna pieces and sets them on either side of the stump. He presses a button on the remote, and Tracy sees an image of the other Dino Rangers, Dana and Jen, at the lab appears.
"Everyone, first of all, I'm sorry for how I acted at the Cyber Café. I've learned that grief can make me act odd," Tracy says.
"It's okay, Tracy. Grief doesn't have an expiration date," Dana says.
"So, what is that notification about?" Conner asks.
"This shouldn't be that big of a deal since it was something my Aunt and I did a long time ago,
Tracy says.
"Tracy, I can scan your phone so everyone can see what's on the screen if that's all right with you," Circuit says.
Tracy nods, then Circuit scans her phone. The image of her phone's screen appears in front of everyone; Tracy lets out a shaky sigh as she hits the accept button. The group sees sketches of designs for Prom dresses appear on the screen. One has the date May 18, 1996.
"Was your Aunt a fashion designer?" Ethan asks.
"Yes," Tracy says.
"Why were you planning a prom dress when you were five?" Conner asks.
"Once I found out what it was, I asked my Aunt Mary if we could design one every year till I was old enough to go to the dance," Tracy says as she scrolls through the images, "Every year until she got her diagnosis she'd fly out to visit, and we'd talk about designs. This summer, a month before I found out I had to move, Mom, Dad and I visited her. Even though the treatments took a lot of her energy, she'd always get this sudden burst whenever we'd talk about it." Tracy says.
"Tracy," Mike shouts as he catches her in his arm, as her legs suddenly give out.
"Tracy, are you okay?" Trent asks.
"Yes, I'm fine, Just had a bad case of the jelly legs, that's all," Tracy says as Mike helps her sit down on a log near them,
"During that visit, Aunt Mary also said she was positive that she'd get better enough to fly out to see me and take me to a shop in Reefisde so we could make the dress together," Tracy says through a hiccup as she holds back a sea of tears.
"So. this is why you got upset when discussing Prom at the Café?" Kira says.
"Yes, my grief is no excuse for my actions. I was looking for a distraction. I was dumb. I'm sorry," Tracy says, looking down at her lap as tears flow down her cheeks.
"You have copies of all the designs, don't you?" Mike says, kneeling before her and drying his girlfriends' tears with his hand.
"Yes, there inside a folder in the top drawer of my desk," Tracy says.
"I know there is none who can replace your Aunt, but my Aunt Sarah is a great fashion designer too. I'm sure she'd be happy to carry out your and your Aunt's dream," Mike says.
Tracy sniffles and cracks a small smile before kissing him on the cheek, "Thank you, Mike. I know that Aunt Mary would love that idea."
A few seconds later, sunlight breaks through the trees and lands on the two. Tracy had a hunch that her Aunt was watching over them and was saying "Thank You" to Mike as well.