Power Rangers GPX, Part 1

Maria's New Friend

Power Rangers GPX episode 11: Maria's New Friend

:-:-:-: We're the best damn chance you've got, Power Rangers G-P-X, let's go! :-:-:-:

Maria liked to rollerblade the Bunkyo neighborhood on the rare day off.

The neighborhood's relatively quiet hustle and bustle was better than the rest of the city (she thought). A good place to calm down after Sean and Daisuke got into another argument. Those two were so pig-headed.

Whatever.

This wasn't the first time she rollerbladed to get used to a new city. She did it a couple of years ago when she'd first moved to Rio with her mom; the Brazilian city was strange for the Spanish-speaking Venezuelan. Her mother suggested that she explore the city to get a good feel for it, so she laced up her roller skates and skated around. By the end of the day, she'd made a couple of new acquaintances just by roller skating.

She felt she could do the same thing here. It made sense, why not do it? It felt good, after all. Not just the wind blowing in her hair, but the relaxing feeling it gave her. She literally sailed across the concrete sidewalks, although the people she skated past didn't look thrilled that she was going so fast. So she moved to the side. But she brushed an older woman. "Gomen nasai!" she said as she helped pick the older woman up. Said older woman wasn't visibly injured, so that was a relief. In fact, she looked pretty spry for her age. But she glared daggers at Maria and let loose a torrent of Japanese chiding her for... Well, Maria wasn't sure, but it obviously wasn't nice. And then she punctuated it with one word:

"Gaijin!"

She cringed and stopped. She didn't see other walkers chiding and shaming the person who shouted it, but it didn't matter. Her pained expression when she turned to look at the older woman was enough. "Bruja malvada," she said to herself. She also said "Bruxa má!" aloud.

"Nani?" the old woman heard her.

"¡Come mierda, bruja malvada!" she snapped. "Vai tomar no cu!"

The older woman must not have understood her words, but her tone, expression and gesture were easily understandable. The woman unleashed a torrent of words at her that she didn't understand. It made it easy for her to ignore the woman. So she pulled her right lower eyelid down with her right middle finger, stuck her tongue out and then skated off in a huff.

She skated until she stopped. It sounds redundant, but it's because she was bending over with both her hands on both thighs, catching her breath and sweat dripping off her chin. She poured some water into her mouth, but it quickly dried up. Tossing it in the recycling bin, she skated across the street—it was a one-way street off the main boulevard—to a mini-mart. The signs in the door cross out roller blades, shirt, shoes and pets. No shirt, no shoes, no service, no pets, no roller blades.

Removing the in-lines, she pulled her shoes out of her backpack, laced them up and went inside. Under the annoyed, watchful eyes of the cashier, she picked up an Ito En Oi Ocha green tea bottle and a chocolate bar, finally taking it to the counter. The price made her stiffen and widen her eyes. The clerk looked up from her magazine, visibly annoyed at Maria. Sheepishly, she pulled her Banco do Brasil card out, slid it in the machine. Once it was finished, she walked away from the counter as another person walked into the store.m

She collided with another person, knocking them over. "¡Ay dios mio! Gomen nasai!" she said with a deep blush and a bow.

The woman she ran into, who must have been around her age, stood up. After rubbing her arm, she nodded to Maria. "It's nothing," she said in perfect English, albeit with an unrecognizable accent.