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Amidst a large array of cars, Vida pulled her jeep into the parking lot.
"Think Nick will actually show?" Madison asked, shifting as she got out of the passenger seat.
"Someone's got a crush," Chip sing-songed as he bounded out of the back seat.
Xander left the back seat at a more sedate rate.
"I do not..."
"I hear a motorcycle," Vida said. "Wait, three."
"I never would've pegged Nick as the person who would bring his parents to a party," Xander said.
"They're Rangers too," Chip said; he was grinning from ear to ear.
True to Vida's ears, three motorcycles came around the corner and pulled up next to Vida's jeep. The drivers removed their helmets and proved to in fact be Nick, Leanbow, and Udonna.
"Calm down, Chip, you'll be meeting your comic book super heroes soon enough," Vida said, clapping him on the shoulder.
"You'd better hope they don't break things down by color," Nick teased. "Otherwise, you'll be hanging out with the girls all day. Ow!" He rubbed the back of his head where Vida had hit it.
"Let's go!" Chip said, looking at the map. He looked like a little kid trying to convince his parents to let him open his Christmas presents all ready.
Nick clapped Chip on the shoulder, guiding him down the path. They were soon on the other side of the cluster of rocks that hid the beach from the parking lot. There were around fifty or sixty people (some of whom didn't look entirely human) on the beach, all clad in Ranger colors.
"Rookie alert," a man wearing red trunks with black trim shouted.
Several heads turned, a young man a few years older than them locked eyes with Chip and pumped the air. "Yes! Finally!"
"It's only been a couple years, Dustin," a woman in a blue tankini who was sitting on a surfboard said. "And two teams."
"Finally what?" Nick asked as they reached the edge of the beach and the small group which contained the man with yellow trunks.
"Finally another yellow ranger who's a guy," the young man in yellow who had been addressed as "Dustin" said, bouncing up to them. "Until now I was the only one."
"Doesn't that mean more girls for you, mate?" Xander asked.
Vida and Madison both shoved him. "Xander!"
"They're all taken, dude," Dustin said. "Way more guys than girls on the teams. I'm just glad to not be the only guy for when we do volleyball teams by color. It's like, yellows vs pink *every year*, and they draft poor Trent because he's white to the pink team and..."
"Breathe, Dustin," the woman in the blue tankini said, coming up to them.
"Right, sorry, Dustin Brooks," Dustin said, holding out his hand. "That's Tori Hanson, she's on my team."
"Chip Thorne," Chip said. "If you've been a Ranger for a couple years now, how come the comics haven't caught up and gotten a male yellow ranger yet?"
"Apparently they don't talk to us anymore," Dustin said. "The whole thing was started by the Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers, and... I don't know." He pointed at the man at the grill in red and black trunks. "Jason's the one to talk to. I've... kind of given up on it. You like comics? Do you read Batman?"
"Do I?" Chip's eyes lit up. "I've been wanting to talk over this whole Zatanna editing Batman's memories thing from Identity Crisis for over a year now..."
"Finally!" Dustin said. "I mean, there's the sixties Batman who trusts everyone and suddenly he won't let the rest of Young Justice know Tim Drake's identity... It's hot, let's get drinks... I mean, they had to do *something* the whole thing where he couldn't tell them his real name and Tim had to practically twist Bats' arm to show them his face, but back in the '80s Dick Grayson was *dating* another Teen Titan and going clubbing with all of them..."
"What just happened?" Maddy asked as the two wandered off.
"Apparently all male yellow Rangers are huge geeks?" said a boy wearing red trunks. "I'm Shane Clarke and you guys are..."
* * *
"Chip?" Dustin asked as he picked up his phone. "Are you OK? We just spazzed out for new comics day yesterday, dude."
"July 21," Chip said.
"I thought the beach party was in August?" Dustin asked.
"Dustin, forget the beach party, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows is coming out July 21!"
"Dude!" Dustin said. "So we've got a Barnes and Noble..."
"I'm telling you, The Briarwood Book House has the best party. You can crash on my couch, it'll be fun!"
"Best party?"
"Two years ago they had butter beer and costumers in character and there were trivia contests and quidditch on zip lines, and a whole street fair."
"Ok, sold," Dustin said. "Everyone else here is just going to get it from Amazon."
"At least they read them," Chip said. "Everyone else here just asked me why I want to read about that stuff, when... well, you know. Oh, I forgot to tell you the best part."
"Shoot."
"There's a Denny's about two blocks away, we can get shakes and caffeine and food and read all night."
"Sweet!" Dustin said. "I may have to sleep all day the next day, after, so definitely taking you up on the couch, but you know. It'll be awesome."
* * *
July 21, 2007. 10 AM
Vida and Marah walked into the Denny's, Vida craning her neck. "There they are."
Marah giggled. "At least Dustin's upright."
Dustin was indeed upright, sipping on what appeared to be juice, however, his eyes kept fluttering closed. As this happened his head kept bobbing down causing him to jolt awake, and then the cycle repeated.
Chip, in contrast, had fallen asleep with his head in a plate of fries, book pointed towards his face like he hadn't noticed that he was falling asleep.
"Those your friends?" asked the waitress, pointing at Dustin and Chip.
"Yeah," Vida said.
The waitress raised an eyebrow at them. "Are they crazy or what?"
"Or what." Vida glared at the waitress.
Marah flounced into the booth, shaking it as she plopped next to Dustin.
Dustin smiled at her sleepily, wrapping an arm around her shoulders. "Did you two have a good girls' night?"
"We survived," Vida said, surveying the booth and Chip with a degree of uncertainty.
Marah rolled her eyes. "You're just mad because Tori beat you at poker."
Dustin looked around the restaurant. "Tori is..."
"Blake called," Marah replied in a sing-song voice.
"Glad you could both come down so I wouldn't have to drive back today," Dustin said yawning.
"You have our books?" Marah asked.
Dustin rolled his eyes, and handed her the bag with her copy in it. Marah opened it up and began to read.
"Wait, you're one of *them*?" Vida asked, looking nonplussed.
"Tori too, she just didn't want to do the staying up 'til all hours again thing," Dustin said.
Vida sat down, poking Chip in the ribs.
Chip sat up stock straight. "What's going on? Is it..." he stopped midsentence, taking in his surroundings. "Jeez, Vida, I almost started blabbing there. I thought..." He trailed off as the waitress, who was smiling despite the fact that she looked very put upon, came up with menus. "Yay! Breakfast!"
Dustin reached out and pulled a french fry off of Chip's cheek. "Try not to wear it, dude. I mean it's embarrassing enough that you fell asleep."
Chip chucked a limp fry at Dustin. "You fell off the quidditch line."
"You think Jason Todd is better than Tim Drake," Dustin fired back.
Marah and Vida exchanged glances.
"I think it was a mistake encouraging them like this," Marah said.
"Definitely," Vida said.
Chip snorted.
"Why?" Dustin said. "Together we're twice as awesome!"
End