It's Hard (A Power Rangers Samurai Fanfic)

Little Kids (Part 4)

Emily was going down the swirly slide more times than she could count. Kevin was in one of the plastic tunnels, reading, and Mia was hanging upside down on the monkey bars. Jayden and Antonio were sitting on the bench, doing nothing but being bored. There was a slight chill in the air due to the wind, but neither of them bothered to wear their jackets. Suddenly a movement caught Jayden's eye. He turned his head and saw a cross country team running their track, and it went through the woods. "C'mon," Jayden said, tapping Antonio. "It's better than sitting here." They started to walk away, and when Ji asked where they were going, they said they were just going to walk the track. Only, they did more than that.
Once they were far enough away, Jayden and Antonio climbed trees, flipped off of them, and wrestled each other. At one point, they almost fell into the river- they stopped wrestling each other after that. "I dare you to flip off that one." Antonio challenged, pointing to a tree. Only this tree was different. The lowest branch on it was fifteen feet up. The trunk was thick, but there was a big pile of leaves around it. Jayden was hesitant for a moment, but his teenage impulses took over. "You're on." He said with a grin. Jayden climbed up to the branch and stood on it. He was slightly terrified, but then Antonio called up to him, "Scared amigo?" Jayden quickly replaced his solemn look with a smile. "Front or back?" He called back. Antonio laughed and shrugged. Jayden leaned forward and was about to jump when a huge gust of wind blew through. The teen lost his balance, and he fell.
"Jayden!" Antonio yelled. As soon as his friend landed, Antonio ran through the leaves and to Jayden. "Jayden! Are you okay?" Jayden grimaced as he tried to stand up. "What is it?" Antonio asked. "My ankle." Jayden replied, breathing heavily. The gold ranger helped his friend out of the pile of leaves and onto the cross country track. "Let me see." He said. Jayden complied and sat down. Antonio rolled up the leg of his friend's jeans. "It doesn't look too bad." He decided. "It's probably a minor sprain." "We can not let Ji know about this." Jayden said. Antonio nodded in agreement, they'd be in so much trouble. "Can you walk?" Antonio asked. Jayden stood up and tried to take a step. His left foot instinctively came off the ground and towards him. "Kind of." Jayden answered. "I'll be limping." Antonio nodded and helped his friend back to the playground area. They walked straight past and to the car. Antonio helped Jayden in and then went to go find Ji. "Hey Ji, can we leave now?" He asked. "Sure," Ji said with no argument. "It's almost time for dinner anyway." Antonio nodded and quickly went back to the car while Ji gathered up the rest of the kids. It was a short drive back to the hotel, and Ji ordered Chinese when they got back. Jayden and Antonio fell asleep before the food arrived, and Ji was going to wake them, but Melanie advised against it. "Leave them," She said. "They look like they need it."

The next day was considerably warm, so Ji was a little confused when Jayden and Antonio were wearing their sweaters. They were outside at the temple, and Ji was waiting for Melanie to return from her meeting with the Head. "Take them off." Ji demanded. "You'll get heat stroke if it gets any hotter." Jayden and Antonio were adamant about wearing them though, which made Ji very suspicious. He finally forced the sweaters off, and was shocked at what he found. "What happened to your arms?" He asked in surprise. On Jayden and Antonio's arms were blistering red rashes. "Um, yesterday in the woods we walked into a bush. That bush happened to be poison ivy." Antonio lied quickly. "Come, we need to get your arms treated." Ji ordered. "It's not just our arms." Jayden mumbled. "What?" Ji questioned. Antonio and Jayden shared a look, then each took off their shirts. Ji was shocked to see the same rash, spread across their chests. "How did that happen?" He asked. "Honestly," Jayden said, "We don't know." Ji was about to say something when Emily and Kevin ran up to him. "Ji!" Emily said. "We're hungry!" Ji was going to tell them to wait, but Antonio and Jayden put their shirts back on and got in the car, ignoring everyone. Melanie returned and saw the kids in the car, and got in as well. Ji just decided not to argue and return to the hotel, he could corner the teens there.

"Shirts off, now." Ji demanded. Antonio and Jayden complied, each laying down on the bed. Ji placed cold compresses on the chests of the teens. Multiple times both Jayden and Antonio tried to move the cloth to itch the rash, but Ji yelled at them. "It'll spread." He told them, but the teens still itched it when Ji wasn't looking. "How about we go to the mall?" Melanie suggested. "If they're going to be stuck like this for a week, they're gonna need more than three outfits." Ji was hesitant, but nodded. "But I'm hungry!" Mike chimed in. He was sitting on the floor in front of the other bed, watching tv. Melanie bent down next to Mike. "We'll eat at the food court before we do any shopping, okay?" Mike smiled. "Okay!" He exclaimed. The eight year old wrapped his arms around Melanie's neck and let her pick him up. Melanie looked over at the two teens. "Let me help with that." She said. She put Mike down on the bed, and he pouted and crossed his arms. Melanie grabbed some aloe from her medicine bag and applied it to Jayden and Antonio's chests and arms. She then took an ace bandage and wrapped it around the areas, so their clothes wouldn't bother them. "How does that feel?" She asked after the boys had put their shirts back on. "A lot better." Jayden said. "Yeah," Antonio added. "Thanks." Mike went up behind Melanie and tugged on her dress. She looked down at him. "Can we go now?" He asked. Melanie chuckled. "Sure. Go get Mia, Emily, and Kevin." She told him. Mike ran into the connected room where Mia was watching Kevin and Emily. The four kids ran through the door to Ji, all excited to get to the mall. They headed out the door, Ji in front of the group of kids, Melanie in back. They were really getting the hang of this.

A/N: I know it's early but my brain decided to be an insomniac, and here we are. Unless it's normal time of day for you... I hate timezones. Anyway, I'll see you guys in the next update! Hope you enjoyed! And please comment your thoughts as I really like to hear them. Bye guys!