p style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium;"It was the afternoon of a late spring day and the movers had just finished bringing the last of the furniture from the old house. His mom had said the move was because of the annually flooding basement, but Randy had never thought it was that big of a deal. He had then asked why she didn't tell him until the day of the move; she had wanted to surprise him. Of course Randy was totally psyched to be neighbors with Howard, but a heads up would have been nice./p
p style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium;"Randy blew a lock of hair from his eyes that had escaped his ponytail and gently set the paint roller down. Taking the rubber band out to fix the loose strand, he reflected on why his purple hair had become long and unruly enough to require it to be pulled back./p
p style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium;"It was the ninja-ing. There was always some ninja duty that got in the way of haircuts, the most recent being the ginormous holes littering the streets of Norrisville. Every citizen of the city had contributed to the destruction under the orders of Evil Julian. Almost all roads in and out of the city were closed while the holes were being filled, so no haircut./p
p style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium;"Randy resumed the repainting of his new room, at the moment it was a horrendous shade of purple. It used to be a little girl's room and Randy was unable to unpack his things until the walls were back to light blue like in his old room./p
p style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium;""Hey Howard, do you think we should paint the ceiling?"/p
p style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium;"Howard peered around the mound of boxes piled in the middle of the floor. "I dunno, why don't you ask the Ninja Know-it-All?"/p
p style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium;"Randy sighed. His friend was not happy about being roped into doing 'manual labor', as he called it. It was just a bit of painting… At this point the only reason he was still helping was because of the snacks./p
p style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium;""You know why I can't! The Nomicon hasn't talked to me since Mount Chuck."/p
p style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium;"It hadn't. Randy thought that maybe after ending an eight-hundred year battle it might show a little appreciation, but nope. Not a word./p
p style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium;"Howard grumbled and disappeared again. Wet, sticky noises confirmed that he was continuing to paint./p
p style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium;"It scared Randy. The only reasons he could think of that would explain its silence was a) it was unhappy with him, or b) his time as ninja was done. Then again, it hadn't given him the Ultimate Lesson./p
p style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium;""Howard, do you think the NinjaNomicon is mad at me?" he asked tentatively./p
p style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium;""What could it be mad about?" Howard walked over to Randy, his roller dripping onto the plastic covered carpet. The taller boy smiled at a blue streak on his friend's cheek. "You kicked evil Julian's butt, the Sorcerer's butt and a lot of other butts."/p
p style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium;"Randy raised an eyebrow./p
p style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium;""The swine field annoying Julian led us through, you lost your temper and kicked quite a few of those," Howard elaborated./p
p style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium;""I'm pretty sure that was you."/p
p style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium;""Really? Hm, but let's see, there's also your sword," he added. Randy glanced at the hilt poking out from the flaps of a box./p
p style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium;"True, the Ninja sword had been broken during the battle, but this wasn't the first time Randy broke it. At the beginning of the year Howard had dared him to cut through a bulldozer. It shattered into thousands of tiny pieces because 'the only thing it can't cut through is stupid'. That situation was a mess, yet, the Nomicon hadn't closed its pages from him./p
p style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium;"Whatever the Sorcerer's sword was made of, it had been much more powerful than S. Ward Smith's. Surely Smith would make him a new one, he saw the battle himself! Erm, maybe not./p
p style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium;""But I was using it for my ninja duties! Trying to defend myself from the Sorcerer wasn't stupid, was it?" Randy ignored Howard's snicker at the word 'duty'./p
p style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium;""Well, releasing and then teaming up with the Sorcerer in the first place was pretty stupid," said Howard, his dainty fingers plucking an Oreo from its packaging on a stool./p
p style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium;""Nomicon told me to!"/p
p style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium;"Evidently he was the only ninja stupid enough to let the Sorcerer out, steal his balls- the power balls- and lock the balls up again. The battle was anticlimactic compared to the scenarios he had thought up. Randy imagined the Sorcerer stanking the whole school and releasing himself. The great battle would last days, destroying the city and be remembered for centuries. Instead, it lasted for ten minutes, maybe fifteen people witnessed it and the only damage was a hole in the school wall./p
p style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium;"And…/p
p style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium;"The Ninja's reputation./p
p style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium;""emNinja, why didn't you tell us there was an evil sorcerer under the school?!"/em/p
p style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium;"Word spreads fast and instead of being grateful, everyone would be worrying about something that would never harm them again. Randy assured himself that they would get over it./p
p style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium;""What's the point anymore," said Randy, dejected. Leaning the back of his head against the wall, he let his feet slide out from under him until he reached the floor./p
p style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium;"Howard frowned. "Whad'ya mean 'what's the point'? There's more to life than all this ninja stuff, we live next to each other now!"/p
p style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium;"He was just as excited about the move as Randy. If they wanted to sneak out and see each other, Randy's second level room has a fire escape ladder. Randy had already used it once. The first night they moved in, he climbed down from his window to Howard's one in the basement. Howard's room was much more comfortable than a sleeping bag on the floor./p
p style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium;""I know, but I really liked being the Ninja." Sure Randy was glad the Sorcerer gone, but so was the adventure of skipping out on class and the bruce moves and weapons./p
p style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium;""You're still the Ninja! McFist and Viceroy are still out there, right? Hey," he pressed his hands to Randy's cheeks, making him look up from the floor, "don't go all sad on me. Norrisville still needs you, evil sorcerer or not."/p
p style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium;""Thanks buddy, but McFist has no reason to go after me now. The Sorcerer can't reward him."/p
p style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium;"Howard snorted. "No reason? After the amount of his robots you've destroyed, how much you've hassled him- even when he's not up to something- and you totally broke into his house once. He hates you for very personal reasons."/p
p style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium;""He didn't learn about that though," Randy chuckled despite himself./p
p style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium;"They sat quietly for a moment, presumably remembering their hectic freshman year./p
p style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium;""I'm sorry for dragging you into the fight and for… it might have been our last day together…" Randy let his forehead rest on his knees that were pulled close to his chest. He heard Howard shuffle closer./p
p style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium;""When you were eaten by the bull thing in the Land of Shadows, you were saying something. That we were always going to be best…" Howard trailed off./p
p style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium;""Friends." Randy looked up at the ginger boy, their noses just inches apart. "Best Friends."/p
p style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium;""Of course."/p
p style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium;"Randy thought his friend sounded disappointed. "What did you think I was going to say?"/p
p style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium;""Not sure Cunningham," he answered pulling back. "By the way, you know that paint was wet right?"/p
p style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium;""Honking cheese!" Randy stood up abruptly. In his forgetfulness, he had leaned against the freshly painted wall. The back of the shirt came away from the wall with the difficulty of unsticking duct tape from itself. Howard found it highly amusing./p
p style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium;""Boys! Ready for some grilled cheese?" Randy's mom called from the kitchen./p
p style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium;""Yea mom! Ready Howard?"/p
p style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium;""You know it."/p
p style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium;"The two boys dropped the rollers and set off down the stairs./p
p style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium;""Still want to run off and get an apartment together?" Randy asked jokingly./p
p style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium;"Howard considered it. "Nah, this is way better."/p
p style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium;"Randy blew a lock of hair from his eyes that had escaped his ponytail and gently set the paint roller down. Taking the rubber band out to fix the loose strand, he reflected on why his purple hair had become long and unruly enough to require it to be pulled back./p
p style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium;"It was the ninja-ing. There was always some ninja duty that got in the way of haircuts, the most recent being the ginormous holes littering the streets of Norrisville. Every citizen of the city had contributed to the destruction under the orders of Evil Julian. Almost all roads in and out of the city were closed while the holes were being filled, so no haircut./p
p style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium;"Randy resumed the repainting of his new room, at the moment it was a horrendous shade of purple. It used to be a little girl's room and Randy was unable to unpack his things until the walls were back to light blue like in his old room./p
p style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium;""Hey Howard, do you think we should paint the ceiling?"/p
p style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium;"Howard peered around the mound of boxes piled in the middle of the floor. "I dunno, why don't you ask the Ninja Know-it-All?"/p
p style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium;"Randy sighed. His friend was not happy about being roped into doing 'manual labor', as he called it. It was just a bit of painting… At this point the only reason he was still helping was because of the snacks./p
p style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium;""You know why I can't! The Nomicon hasn't talked to me since Mount Chuck."/p
p style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium;"It hadn't. Randy thought that maybe after ending an eight-hundred year battle it might show a little appreciation, but nope. Not a word./p
p style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium;"Howard grumbled and disappeared again. Wet, sticky noises confirmed that he was continuing to paint./p
p style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium;"It scared Randy. The only reasons he could think of that would explain its silence was a) it was unhappy with him, or b) his time as ninja was done. Then again, it hadn't given him the Ultimate Lesson./p
p style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium;""Howard, do you think the NinjaNomicon is mad at me?" he asked tentatively./p
p style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium;""What could it be mad about?" Howard walked over to Randy, his roller dripping onto the plastic covered carpet. The taller boy smiled at a blue streak on his friend's cheek. "You kicked evil Julian's butt, the Sorcerer's butt and a lot of other butts."/p
p style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium;"Randy raised an eyebrow./p
p style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium;""The swine field annoying Julian led us through, you lost your temper and kicked quite a few of those," Howard elaborated./p
p style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium;""I'm pretty sure that was you."/p
p style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium;""Really? Hm, but let's see, there's also your sword," he added. Randy glanced at the hilt poking out from the flaps of a box./p
p style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium;"True, the Ninja sword had been broken during the battle, but this wasn't the first time Randy broke it. At the beginning of the year Howard had dared him to cut through a bulldozer. It shattered into thousands of tiny pieces because 'the only thing it can't cut through is stupid'. That situation was a mess, yet, the Nomicon hadn't closed its pages from him./p
p style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium;"Whatever the Sorcerer's sword was made of, it had been much more powerful than S. Ward Smith's. Surely Smith would make him a new one, he saw the battle himself! Erm, maybe not./p
p style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium;""But I was using it for my ninja duties! Trying to defend myself from the Sorcerer wasn't stupid, was it?" Randy ignored Howard's snicker at the word 'duty'./p
p style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium;""Well, releasing and then teaming up with the Sorcerer in the first place was pretty stupid," said Howard, his dainty fingers plucking an Oreo from its packaging on a stool./p
p style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium;""Nomicon told me to!"/p
p style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium;"Evidently he was the only ninja stupid enough to let the Sorcerer out, steal his balls- the power balls- and lock the balls up again. The battle was anticlimactic compared to the scenarios he had thought up. Randy imagined the Sorcerer stanking the whole school and releasing himself. The great battle would last days, destroying the city and be remembered for centuries. Instead, it lasted for ten minutes, maybe fifteen people witnessed it and the only damage was a hole in the school wall./p
p style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium;"And…/p
p style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium;"The Ninja's reputation./p
p style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium;""emNinja, why didn't you tell us there was an evil sorcerer under the school?!"/em/p
p style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium;"Word spreads fast and instead of being grateful, everyone would be worrying about something that would never harm them again. Randy assured himself that they would get over it./p
p style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium;""What's the point anymore," said Randy, dejected. Leaning the back of his head against the wall, he let his feet slide out from under him until he reached the floor./p
p style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium;"Howard frowned. "Whad'ya mean 'what's the point'? There's more to life than all this ninja stuff, we live next to each other now!"/p
p style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium;"He was just as excited about the move as Randy. If they wanted to sneak out and see each other, Randy's second level room has a fire escape ladder. Randy had already used it once. The first night they moved in, he climbed down from his window to Howard's one in the basement. Howard's room was much more comfortable than a sleeping bag on the floor./p
p style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium;""I know, but I really liked being the Ninja." Sure Randy was glad the Sorcerer gone, but so was the adventure of skipping out on class and the bruce moves and weapons./p
p style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium;""You're still the Ninja! McFist and Viceroy are still out there, right? Hey," he pressed his hands to Randy's cheeks, making him look up from the floor, "don't go all sad on me. Norrisville still needs you, evil sorcerer or not."/p
p style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium;""Thanks buddy, but McFist has no reason to go after me now. The Sorcerer can't reward him."/p
p style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium;"Howard snorted. "No reason? After the amount of his robots you've destroyed, how much you've hassled him- even when he's not up to something- and you totally broke into his house once. He hates you for very personal reasons."/p
p style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium;""He didn't learn about that though," Randy chuckled despite himself./p
p style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium;"They sat quietly for a moment, presumably remembering their hectic freshman year./p
p style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium;""I'm sorry for dragging you into the fight and for… it might have been our last day together…" Randy let his forehead rest on his knees that were pulled close to his chest. He heard Howard shuffle closer./p
p style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium;""When you were eaten by the bull thing in the Land of Shadows, you were saying something. That we were always going to be best…" Howard trailed off./p
p style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium;""Friends." Randy looked up at the ginger boy, their noses just inches apart. "Best Friends."/p
p style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium;""Of course."/p
p style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium;"Randy thought his friend sounded disappointed. "What did you think I was going to say?"/p
p style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium;""Not sure Cunningham," he answered pulling back. "By the way, you know that paint was wet right?"/p
p style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium;""Honking cheese!" Randy stood up abruptly. In his forgetfulness, he had leaned against the freshly painted wall. The back of the shirt came away from the wall with the difficulty of unsticking duct tape from itself. Howard found it highly amusing./p
p style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium;""Boys! Ready for some grilled cheese?" Randy's mom called from the kitchen./p
p style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium;""Yea mom! Ready Howard?"/p
p style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium;""You know it."/p
p style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium;"The two boys dropped the rollers and set off down the stairs./p
p style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium;""Still want to run off and get an apartment together?" Randy asked jokingly./p
p style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium;"Howard considered it. "Nah, this is way better."/p