Piper's POV:

Ok I admit it. I was pissed at Zoe. That girl might be my best friend, but she needs to learn some boundaries. Her brother along with a bunch of other teens just got told they might be dying sooner rather than later. Not to mention the boy was near tears when he came out of the locker room and wouldn't talk to anyone of us. Which is why I am currently glaring at her as we shovel shit. Dead serious by the way, the elephant enclosure needed to be cleaned and Abby said that was our next part of training.

"Don't look at me like that," she warned me without even turning around as she threw some more into the wheel barrel. "I said what needed to be said."

"And in doing so you sent your twin brother, your 'other half' as you refer to him, into a full-blown anxiety attack and didn't even apologize for it." I replied with a glare at her back.

"He almost killed Sadie," She growled and shook her head as she turned around. "What kind of leader or teammate for that matter almost gets one of their own killed? Not a good one, I can tell you that."

I rolled my eyes and opened my mouth to respond but Sadie spoke up to my surprise. "Zoe I'm always going to help someone in trouble, I really don't give a fuck what happens to me. He's fine." She muttered and went back to her own pile.

"Well, you should care."

"Well, that sucks for you then. We're both alive, get over it." She huffed and went back to doing her own thing.

Zoe muttered something foul under her breath, rolling her eyes to the heavens as she went.

"Zoe Kimberly Russell. Get your fucking ass back on the elevator and at least apologize. I don't give two fucks if Noah did something wrong, he's your brother and a part of this team. We've all already fucked up plenty of times, so get over yourself and get your ass on the elevator." I snarled at last. Zoe might be my best friend, but she needed a good kick in the gut every once in a while.

She glared at me and chucked her shovel into the earth. "Fine, if that means you'll stop," she snarled and then paused. "Doubt anything good will happen. Somedays you just need space and quite honestly I need it now." She muttered and stalked off, clipping shoulders with Abby as she went.

"Is she always like that?" She inquired, as she walked into the pen, medical bag in hand.

I hesitated. "She has her good days and bad days, unfortunately though, she never has a filter or a deflated ego."

"It's fine to be like that. She'll mature out of it eventually." She murmured and walked off towards the stables with a silent command for me to follow.

Inside, the herd waited in their stalls a couple of heads turning to watch us. So far, the reserve had a small group of elephants; a bull, three cows, two newborn calves, and a juvenile female who wasn't quite ready to be a mom. Noro was of course the leader; he'd won over the females and was now a proud father to their calves. Hearing us come in he lifted up his trunk over the fence and gripped my hair gently. I clucked my tongue softly. "Glad to see were still on good terms," I chuckled gently nudging his trunk off and stroking it for him.

Abby smiled in approval. "I see you two have bonded well," she said gently rubbing his trunk, before getting out her bag. "You'll need that bond; your life may one day depend on it." She murmured quietly.

I glanced up at Noro, what was she on about? He stared back at me with intelligent brown eyes before searching my pocket, where I had hidden something for him. A small slice of apple that I didn't finish at lunch. "Easy..." I whispered as he quickly took it from me, we didn't need to be caught by Abby, as she had them all on a strict diet.

"Piper." She warned me a look that said i should stop. "Don't give him more treats, Noro needs a good diet." The way she said it made me feel like I was being scolded by one of my nannies.

"Aw, come on. A little apple slice is going to hurt something that's more than 12,000 pounds?" I asked incredulously, as the rest of the herd came over, interested in the treat Noro had.

"Nope that's why," she chuckled. "Jealous things when they want to be. Now come on, time to health check these two." She said gesturing to the calves, who had been stuck onto their mothers since we arrived, a bit paranoid of me since I was so new to the group.

Abby opened up the heavy metal gate and I followed a bit awkwardly; it wasn't like I'd given a elephant a checkup before. I hung off to the side watching as she took the babies weight and height, comparing it to their birthweights. Awkwardly I fiddled with my thumbs just kind of waiting for an order of some sort. Truthfully, I was worried I'd fuck something up. Once she'd recorded the final detail, she turned to me with an amused sort of look. "Come on, you'll be working with these guys daily, it's time you get comfortable." She said gently taking my hand and leading me over to the baby.

Handing me her stethoscope I put it around my neck and undid the ear thingy. The baby let out a frightened trumpet when I approached and hid into his, no her, mothers' side, flapping her ears wildly. "It's ok sweetie, I'm not gonna hurt you. Or your mommy." I added watching her peer at me with wide dark eyes from where she was still tucked into her mother. I looked to Abby for reassurance who nodded, signaling for me to use the stethoscope. Gently I pressed it to her belly-side area and was greeted with a loud thumping noise. The baby squealed at it, causing her mother and aunts to stroke her with their trunks gently. It was so oddly human like... shaking off the distraction I looked back to Abby uncertainly. "Well, I heard her heart...not really sure if it was good or not," I mumbled taking off the stethoscope and handing it back to her.

She gave me a reassuring smile. "Relax Piper, I didn't expect you too, quite honestly I just wanted to see how you'd react," she chuckled. Her smile was a cute one, but if i had to guess she only did it around people she trusted. "Barely anyone's that confident, especially when the animal is more than 200 pounds. I'll take that back now," she said taking back the stethoscope and repeating the procedure and continuing with her checkups.

I hung off again until footsteps greeted me, and I saw Noah and Sadie walk in. Noah looked a bit tired and there was definitely a red tint to his eyes, but he seemed a lot better than before which was a plus.

"Hey y'all how's it going?" I asked as one of the baby elephants let out a squeaky sounding sneeze that made his ears flap.

"Ok that was adorable," muttered Sadie, smiling at the little baby. I nodded in agreement as the little boy ran an excited circle around me almost like a hyper dog.

"Christ I'm not going to want to leave if they keep doing that-" I muttered watching them run around and feeling sad I'd have to leave soon.

Abby looked at me with an amused expression. "Relax Piper, I'm pretty sure this won't be your last time here."

Noah and Sadie both exchanged looks as Zoe walked into the building with Leo a few steps behind.  "Finished the chores you wanted us to do. Now can we actually train?" She asked, aiming the question directly at Abby. Noah glanced at her briefly but said nothing choosing to mostly ignore her.

Abby gave her a glare. "This is training, you all need to-"

"Bond with our beast's, we know, that's why we've been sitting with them for an hour, despite the fact that Azowar or whatever his name is, almost took us all out and will likely be back." Zoe interrupted her coldly, fixing Abby with a piercing gaze.

Abby stood her ground. "Zoe. You need to bond with Amira, if you lose your bond then she could reject your morph. And the same goes for the rest of you," she added giving us all a pointed look.

I jerked my head up at that. What was that supposed to mean?

"Reject our morph..?" Leo asked seemingly thoroughly confused, and quite honestly, I think we all felt that way.

Abby sighed and pinched the bridge of her nose. "Your beast's power your morpher's via their spirit energy. However, they choose to give you their power meaning they can just as easily take it away. We were all chosen because they deemed us worthy. Now do you understand why that's so important?"

We took a moment to process before slow nods resounded from the group. Sadie looked hesitant then spoke softly. "I don't mean to challenge what you know or anything," she mumbled practically whispering. "But none of us know how to fight and if another attack comes, we probably won't be able to fight them off." She trailed off, rubbing the back of her arm.

Abby hesitated. "I suppose you all don't have much experience.... fine I will give you each some induvial combat training tomorrow. Same time?"

We nodded and I checked my Apple Watch, 5:08.

"Looks like we better head out." Zoe stated, breaking the soft silence. Abby nodded to us all and we headed outside. Zoe and Noah climbed into their mom's minivan, while Leo headed out to his car in the driveway and Sadie followed after him for a ride.

My driver pulled up and greeted me with a smile as I climbed into the car. "Good day Ms. Jones?" He asked politely as we drove through the town and then outside of it too where my dad's house was.

"Yeah, it went fine. How's yours's going?" I asked, as listened as he told me about his family. It was very cute family, him, his wife, and their toddler boys who were two and four. I grinned. "Thanks for the ride, Theo, and tell the kids I said hi!" I stated, climbing out of the car.

"Will do Ms. Jones! Have a good one!" He stated, giving me a wave, as he pulled out of the driveway.

I stifled a tired yawn and walked up the cement steps that led into our house. It was sort of a modernized version of a log cabin, except think a lot bigger and with a bunch more windows. As I made my way in, I tried not to think about the amount of homework I'd no doubt spend hours doing. Not because it was hard, but because it was boring as fuck. Not surprisingly the house was mostly empty. Maids cleaned early in the day, and my father's assistant was likely out with him, wherever he was. I sifted through the fridge for something to eat, and as my lasagna warmed up, I got a text from my dad. My husky Nova came up to greet me, and I gave her fluffy white fur a quick stroke.

Hey Pumpkin. Sorry to do this too you but I needed to go onto set again. There's setting me up with talk shows and all that crap. But I should be home in a couple of days. And sorry that it's so long but I promise Beth and me will do what we can to make this fast.

I sighed and looked down at the crappy text message. Sure, it wasn't surprising that my dad had to go do talk shows and that stuff, he was a movie star after all; but it also sucked because he'd just disappear for days on end without even an in-person goodbye. I'd seen him once today, early in the morning and that was cut short when I had to leave for school, and he had to leave for work. His assistant Beth had no doubt convinced him I'd be fine with the staff for a few days and urged him to leave. Just like she'd done when I was a kid, giving me a ridiculous number of toys and nannies to keep me entertained. Nowadays, I had long outgrown the need for a nanny, so I mostly just hung out in my massive house on my own, sometimes talking to the maids if they were around.

I messaged him back, saying that it was okay and to not cut his trip short because of me. He was a movie star and had a job to do. Quietly I shoved a steaming mouthful of lasagna into my mouth as the group chat buzzed with new messages.

Sadie was added to the group.

Sadie: Um what is this exactly?

Leo: Just our groupchat, y'know lunch table friend group that type of thing??

Noah: Yeah what he said.

Sadie: Oh. I see.

Zoe: Why so formal

Noah: Why not?

Zoe: Idk. Anyways, I hope you guys are ready for work tomorrow. Abby is expecting quite and a lot and so am i.

Piper: Right so no pressure or anything.

Zoe: Shush, this is for your own good if me and her are harder on you guys

I rolled my eyes slightly at that, pain in the ass she was. Although, I certainly wasn't about to tell her that, even though I had done so before. I put my phone down and fed Nova a peice of cheese, before turning off my phone and stripping my clothes of for a shower. As I dried down my dripping hair, my thoughts wandered back to what Zoe said about me and Trevor. And if I'm honest, she was right...the dude was an asshole. But I think I just took the easy way out because I didn't want all that attention on me. Sure, attention was nice, but with a dad in the movie business and being known as the rich kid of the school, I already got plenty.

I sighed and got into bed, feeling Nova hop on to lay with me, tail wagging as fur went all over. I swear she was a bottomless pit of hair. The next morning, I woke up. Blearily I turned on my phone and saw the time 4:52 AM. Grunting in annoyance I flopped onto my back and watched the ceiling for what felt like hours, but in reality, was only a couple of minutes. Deciding enough was enough I clicked on facetime and called Zoe. To my surprise she answered, her green-blue eyes squinting at the phone. "Hey Pipes..." she mumbled laying her head back onto the pillow, and almost closing her eyes again.

Briefly I felt bad. "Sorry, couldn't sleep. Wanna do something?"

"At 5 AM? Why?"

"Because I've been staring at my ceiling for a long time, and I can't go back to sleep. Plus whom else is pyschotic enough to go with me this early?"

She stared at my phone through narrowed eyes, barely awake enough to process an answer. "Fine...but I need an energy drink or something, I'm nowhere near awake." She stated a giant yawn eclipsing the sentence as she pulled her covers off, revealing a sports bra and shorts on her thin frame.

I grinned. "Cool! Celsius work?"

She yawned. "Mhm, now come pick me up before I change my mind."

I grinned and shot a quick text to Theo, letting him know I would need a ride to grab Zoe. He messaged me back, apparently toddlers woke up early. I grabbed a pair of black leggings and threw on an old t-shirt and a baggy sweatshirt. As promised, I grabbed Zoe her favorite Celsius, Kiwi Guava. Personally, I took a travel mug of black coffee, energy drinks and teas had never appealed to me, before I grabbed my wallet off of the counter, stuffing that into my school bag. I threw a scoop of food into Nova's dish, before walking outside to wait in the dim light and cool air. The black Telluride pulled up with Theo sitting in the front seat also nursing a cup of coffee. "Morning Ms. Jones, a bit of an early riser?" He questioned as I slipped in dropping my bag into the seat.

I shrugged my shoulders. "Woke up and couldn't go back to bed..." I stated looking out the window as we pulled out. "By the way were going to pick up Zoe if that's ok?"

He nodded. "Not a problem, that's the feisty one, right?" He asked, glancing at me through the rear-view mirror.

I nodded quickly. "Yeah, feisty one way to put it, just go to the end of her driveway," I murmured texting her that we were on our way and to go out to the driveway. She texted back a thumbs up emoji and was waiting for us when we arrived. Her hair was in a low ponytail and had on grey sweats and her red sweatshirt. Zoe yawned softly and stretched out in the middle seat next to me.

"So tired..." she mumbled nuzzling her face into me, well more accurately my boobs, and closing her eyes, already dozing back off.

I pushed her away gently. "Nuh, uh, we've got some work to do," I said firmly as she pouted at me. I waved the Celsius in front of her face, and that did it. She snatched the thing and drank quickly.

"So," she asked, wiping her mouth with her sweatshirt sleeve. "Where are we going?"

"Community center, they open up at 4:00 AM for all the crazy old dudes who like to work out there."

She nodded and sipped on the energy drink before cuddling back into me, immediately pushing her face into my boobs and wriggling as close to me as physically possible. "Alright better than school and you're getting breakfast for us, right?" She asked, voice muffled as she looked up at me, much like a tired out toddler.

I rolled my eyes. "Good grief woman, your being rather demanding for someone who's cuddling into me like a puppy." Pausing for a moment I leaned back down, "what's going on with our big tough red ranger?"

I probably should've known better to taunt Zoe like that and I heard her growl slightly before she gently biting into my arm in retalition. She really was like a toddler. "Ow you motherfucker!" I hissed, slapping her on the back a little harder than necessary. "I was joking!"

She huffed. "So what? Boobs are comfy and besides I woke up at 4:52 in in the morning for you, the least I deserve are cuddles and breakfast. And we both know your rich and I'm a broke!" She whined up to me; Zoe was many things, but a morning person wasn't one of them. "Not to mention red rangers command the team, not yellow," she snickered under her breath.

I sighed and wrapped my arm around her shoulders. "Fine you little brat I'll get you breakfast," I relented, making her smile against my chest. "And some cuddles." The community center was a good twenty minutes from Zoe's house, and I could feel my eyes getting a little heavy despite the amount of caffeine I'd just consumed. Having Zoe in my lap like a heated blanket wasn't helping either and I allowed my head to lean on hers. Our little moment of sleepiness was interrupted by our arrival to the community center, where all of the old men were already working out.

She grinned as the car pulled up. "C'mon let's go!" She insisted grabbing my hand and pulling me out of the car.

"Holy shit woman- you were barely awake a few minutes ago." I gave a sheepish wave to the clerk, who thankfully knew me as Zoe dragged me by. Throwing our backpacks into a corner we found an empty spot in the padded gymnasium. the entire place had been built for soft play, and different sizes of mats littered the ground. I'd seen guys come here and do agility training with it. I looked over at Zoe, who was watching me with intensity, she knew what I wanted.

No warning being given she flew forward at me, throwing a punch at my shoulder, which connected considering I was caught off guard. I threw another punch at her aiming for her neck area, but she ducked off to one side causing me to miss and go lurching forward. "Come on Pipes gotta be faster than that!" She warned me, on the tips of her toes and waiting for my next attack. Frustration overcame me and I grabbed onto her shoulders, intending to push her into the ground. She hooked into me and held up with my strength, neither of us being able to overpower the other. That was until her foot slipped and after that happened, we both toppled over. To her credit however, she was faster getting sat up and pushing me gently into the mats. She panted weakly. "So, what brough this on?" She asked, wiping down her sweaty forehead as we got to our feet.

I grunted and got back into position. "Like you said, high expectations. Besides I just want to see the look on your face once I beat your ass."

She rolled her eyes. "Alright sweetheart, put me on the ground then."

I smirked and went after her, no way in hell was I going to stop.