And here's another one...still need a series name. I thought about Justin Vs PR like suggested except he's not really "Versus" them per say...Anyways please review, I'd like at least eight reviews before I update again if that's alright.
Six days ago she'd watched him burst out of the science lab and down the hallway of the school like a Cheetah hotly pursued by her mentor. Six days ago she'd watched and listened to a conversation they'd had riddled with subtext and not been able to figure out any of it. Six days ago she'd seen her mentor go to Hayley's, red eyed and unwilling to talk, simply staring at his coffee in silence. Six days ago she'd followed her mentor home and asked what exactly was wrong; six days ago he'd refused to tell her.
Three days ago she'd decided she needed to know what was going on before she could sleep peacefully again.
Today she was standing outside a small house rapping her knuckles on the door, her science textbook and binder securely in her yellow backpack that was swung over her shoulder. She was nervously waiting for an answer.
She chewed a piece of bubblegum and blew a bubble silently praying someone was home because she doubted she'd get the nerve up to do this again if no one answered.
It popped on her face and she had barely gotten in back in her mouth when the door was pulled open by an older woman with dyed chestnut brown hair and green eyes who looked her up and down a few times.
"You looking for Justin?" she asked sighing as she brushed a strand of hair out of her eyes.
She nodded, "Uh, yeah," she responded as her heart rate sped up slightly and she attempted to remember the details of the story she'd made up, "Uh, he's supposed to be helping me with my science homework."
The woman nodded and held out her hand, "I'm Leslie and you are?" she trailed off expectantly.
"Kira," she responded shaking the woman's hand as she stepped into the house, "are you his mother?"
"Stepmother," she corrected as she let go of Kira's hand and gestured for her to take off her sneakers, "it's nice to see he's making friends, I told him going to High School here would help him out."
"Hmmm?" Kira asked as she stepped out of her shoes, dropping a few centimetres in height when she did.
Leslie nodded and gestured for Kira to follow her into the living room, "Yes, he's a very smart young man, already has a University degree you know." She stated proudly then sighed, "Horribly anti-social though, I thought maybe him going back to High School at the proper age would help him out, but he appears to hate me for it." She looked down sadly and Kira suddenly felt very uncomfortable with where the conversation was headed. "But you seem like a nice young lady like the friend's he had in Angel Grove when he was younger."
That caught her attention.
"Angel Grove?"
Leslie nodded, "Justin should be home in twenty minutes providing he keeps his word this time, would you like anything to eat?"
Kira shook her head, "No thanks, uh…perhaps I should wait in his room?" she suggested pushing her gum to the side of her mouth and desperately hoping for a chance to look around.
Leslie considered this possibility for a minute, "Well," she began slowly, "I suppose so, it's up the stairs, first door on the left."
Kira smiled and grabbed her bag before heading towards the stairs, "Thanks."
Thankful for the bit of information that Leslie had given her, she headed up the stairs to his room. She felt strange as she tried to think of how to actually get Justin talking when he got home.
The carpeted stairs made her steps sound light as she jogged up the rest of the way and then turned to the left. She went to the first door on the left; there was a small black door hanger on the doorknob that read "Bates Motel, Please Make Up Room".
She raised her eyebrows at this and turned the knob letting herself into Justin's room.
He gave the appearance of a "rebel" and she expected his room to be no different, probably messy, covered in posters, clothes and CDs thrown every-which-way, but it wasn't. In fact, his room was almost obsessively clean.
Bed was made, the few posters that were up were backed and one was from a martial arts movie she'd seen a few years ago. A signature in permanent marker was written across it. She could make out a D and an L in the signature, but that was it. A framed university degree hung over the bed.
The desk was small in the corner. On it sat a silver/grey laptop lid down and a small robot plushie sat beside it as well as a black coffee cup full of pens, pencils, and multicoloured highlighters.
The bookshelves were neatly organized too and Kira was beginning to wonder if she was in the right room…
"Weird," she remarked as she wandered over to the bookshelf and began scanning the titles.
She hadn't heard of most of the books that were there and a chunk looked like an area strictly for textbooks. She recognized a few of her own in that area.
She looked over at his laptop and bit her bottom lip as she struggled with her conscience. She'd managed to get into his room, but what was she looking for? Could his computer hold the answer? What if he came back? How did he have a university degree already? Was this breaking and entering? The last thing she needed was to be arrested…
Deciding she'd come this far she went over to the desk and sat down in the red slightly padded chair and lifted the lid of the laptop up. The screen flickered and revealed a green screensaver. She wiggled the mouse a bit and the screensaver shut off revealing an old online interview with the Space Rangers.
She started to read it when she heard the door downstairs open and close and footsteps bolting up the stairs. She winced as she realised Justin must be home now.
"Honey there's a-" Leslie began.
Kira didn't hear the rest of the sentence as the door flew open and she quickly shut the lid of the laptop.
There was a stunned silence as the two looked at each other.
She was startled by his appearance.
The "jerk" that had hurt her teacher's feeling had a thin cut across his cheek and a bruise forming on his arm that she could see since part of his shirt had been torn away and a gold bracelet (watch perhaps?) was revealed that she hadn't noticed him wearing before.
His eyes were wide but his face held a neutral (though slightly stunned) expression, she just looked back and swallowed nervously.
"Hi?" she offered lamely.
He snapped out of the weird trance he was in immediately and headed towards his closet.
"Where were you fifteen minutes ago?" he muttered bitterly as he pulled his ripped shirt over his head and threw it on the bed. She looked away quickly but he appeared unaffected by her presence, "When those stupid lizard things were attacking me where were you? Isn't it your job or something to stop that kind of stuff?"
She looked back stared at him in confusion. No, how could he know? Maybe he didn't and he was just bluffing, but how would he connect her to it?
It made her head hurt and she wasn't sure what to say.
Sliding a dark green shirt over his head and wincing lightly as he did, he rolled his eyes at her silence, "Why are you here?"
She nearly choked on her gum as she attempted to think of something other than the reason than she was there. "I n-need science help." She replied as she remembered her plan from before, she hadn't expected him to not be home when she'd made it up, "yeah."
He narrowed his eyes, "Yeah right," he snorted seeing through her story "get out."
Startled by his harsh command she found herself unable to move, "I want to know what's going on with you and Dr. O." she blurted out then frowned, "Why do you hate him so much?"
"You wouldn't understand."
"Try me." She shot back.
He scowled at her as he kneeled down and pulled a first aid kit out from underneath his bed, "Go fight your monsters and leave me alone." He popped the lid off the plastic container and pulled out what looked like a wet nap and patted in on his face. He winced as he did.
Kira looked down at the ground and let out a sad sigh, "Please?" she attempted the added a bit more awkwardly, "Need help?"
He glared at her, "No."
She watched as he patched himself up. Now that she thought about it, he looked kind of familiar, just a small tug at her memory, something that was barely there.
She scanned his room for clues again but she couldn't see anything that jogged her memory until she saw light coming through the fabric of Justin's pants. He appeared startled by it and pulled it out and threw it onto the bed. It was his key chain, one key glowing bright blue.
The colour triggered something and a small squeaky voice spoke inside her head.
"Guys! I'm the new blue ranger!"
"Oh. My. God." She gasped as it hit her like a ton of bricks, "You're that kid from the video!"
Bit of a cliffy eh?