a/n: yes I know I barely post any stories, but believe me I have plenty of ideas! I'm just too lazy and find it hard to stick with something when I'm stumped. I've published two Kilton stories that I may even delete because I can still think of better ways of using it, and I haven't updated the episode about Eddie because I'm still confused with the subplot. Anyway, thank you to all who have favorited, followed or just read any of my stories and I'm sorry if I have disappointed anyone. But I have been working on this oneshot among two others for a bit, so I hope for those who read will enjoy it.
Disclaimer: I don't own Kickin' It or Finding Nemo.
Paying for Praying?
"Are we there yet, Rudy?" Jerry asked yet again from his spot in the backseat of our sensei's van. That boy.
"For the umpteenth time, we'll be there in two minutes!" Rudy responded aggravated.
We were practicing at the dojo on a Saturday afternoon when we all agreed that our appetites were getting the better of us, prompted by Jerry's stomach growling VERY loudly after sparring with Jack. Milton suggested this new Mexican restaurant that just opened a week ago, so we settled on trying it out instead of the usual Phil's. You know, the place with greasy food, a goat chef and roaches hiding in the restrooms that we nevertheless go to at least twice a day?
This restaurant was called Ximena's and, from what Milton knew about it, it had two stories and an open balcony with tables, chairs and umbrellas so guests could have a view of the beach. Sounds nice enough.
After we changed back into regular clothes Rudy piled us into his van to drive the six minutes there, Jerry joking he would, which thank goodness he didn't because getting into a vehicle with him behind the wheel would be the most dangerous thing I'd ever do.
Milton sat in the passenger's seat, while I landed next to the left window after Jack and Jerry crawled in and sat next to the right window and the middle, respectively; Eddie happily claimed the trunk for himself.
Jerry's sense of direction is pretty much nonexistent. He's called and asked me if I could walk to his house, get him, then walk with him to the dojo multiple times before. Milton could probably memorize a New York address and somehow guide us there without any help after only being there once by plane.
"Hey, do you think they have tacos?" Eddie questioned no one in particular.
"Of course they do, Eddie. It's Mexican!" I answered.
"Let's hope they do. What kind of Mexican restaurant wouldn't serve tacos?" Jack added after turning his head toward me from staring out the window.
Our African-American friend brushed him off. "Anyway, Kim, we can split them if you want. I know you like beef, too!"
"Sure, if we can!"
Rudy abruptly turned a corner and arrived in the parking lot, pulling into a space right outside the entrance.
We emerged from Rudy's vehicle and headed to the restaurant, which did in fact have a balcony, not that I didn't believe Milton. The dandelion yellow exterior was covered with beautifully articulate medium green painted vines, which spelled out the name Ximena's a few feet under the red brick roof. It's prettier in person.
Jack was the first one at the door, so he held it open for the rest of us.
I shivered as I walked inside. The interior felt like a meat locker.
"I'm pretty sure we have the wrong place and that we've been locked in a freezer." Jerry whispered loud enough for at least me to hear in Jack's ear while hugging himself tightly and rubbing his arms.
Before he could respond, a young hostess showed up.
"Hello, welcome to Ximena's!" she said with a genuine smile. Her name tag read Penny. "Is it just you six?"
"Yes, just us." Rudy replied.
"What it do, girl?" Jerry started but was dragged away by Jack when the hostess turned around to lead us to a seat.
We all followed her to the back, where we were seated at the last booth on the left.
Milton and Rudy sat on the inside seats across from each other, with Eddie and Jerry in the middle and me and Jack on the outside.
Penny placed menus in front of each of us before saying "Your server will be Flora, who'll be right with you. Enjoy your meal!"
We exchanged goodbyes.
"I liked her. She was nice." Milton said. I agreed internally as I undid my side ponytail and put my scrunchie on my wrist.
"Well, maybe Flora will be nice, too." Jack hoped.
We looked over the drink menu silently for a minute or two until our waitress walked up, a pad and pen ready.
"Buenos dias! I'm Flora and I'll be taking care of you today. Know what you want to drink?"
After Rudy and I ordered pink lemonade, Eddie and Jack root beer, Milton water and Jerry sweet tea, Flora left us to choose our food. We chatted while trying to think of what to get.
"Eddie, it says right here you can get four hard tacos with the choice of beef or chicken, comes with black beans and rice." I exclaimed, pointing to the name on the second page of the menu. "We can each have two beef, if that sounds good to you." Eddie, sitting to my right, turned back a page in his menu. "Okay, sounds good!"
Just then, we all were interrupted by something being placed on our table.
"Swag!" shouted our Latino friend as he dug into the basket of large homemade tortilla chips.
I took one immediately and dipped it in salsa prior to stuffing it in my mouth. They were so good!
Everyone else averted their attention to their menus once again, reaching for a chip here and there, including Eddie and me.
"I think I'll have this chimichanga thing." stated Jack after a moment. "It sounds really good."
"I was thinking that, too." said Rudy. "But one time my cousin ate one really fast on a dare and then threw the whole thing up on our dinner table."
We all paused, even Milton with his arm outstretched toward the chip basket.
"Thank you. For making me not want CHIMICHANGAS EVER AGAIN." Jack retorted (comically in my opinion) while looking over the menu another time. Rudy just shrugged.
Soon, Flora came back with our drinks. "Have we decided on anything?" she asked kindly.
"We'll go first." I exclaimed, referring to Eddie and myself. "We would like to split the hard shell beef tacos with black beans and rice."
She jotted it down on her pad and moved on to Milton. "I'll have the taco salad, please."
"Make that two, kind lady." Jerry said in the most polite way ever. She tried not to chuckle.
Rudy took his turn. "I'll have the four hard shell chicken tacos. And I'm not sharing, Jack." he added sternly.
Jack just rolled his eyes. "I'll have the steak quesadilla with extra sour cream, please."
We handed our menus over to her and she left to put in our orders.
It was silent for a second before Eddie said "You know, I kinda like this place." We all agreed that it was a nice, clean place with kind people.
"Yeah, let's hope the food is good, to-" I was startled by something hitting me right on the nose. Everyone cracked up. I looked down at the table to see a white straw wrapper in front of me, then up at Jerry, who was laughing so hard no sound was coming out, a clear plastic straw in his right fist. I could have beaten him up, but I only narrowed my eyes until their giggles died down.
"You should have seen your face, Kim!" He struggled to get his words out. Then he turned serious and picked up the wrapper. Before I could ask what he was going to do with it, he put it up to his forehead. "Look!" he exclaimed excitedly. "I'm an Aglet fish!"
We all burst out laughing again, Milton taking the time to say "It's called an Angler fish!"
Last Friday, we watched Finding Nemo in the dojo, which has the ugly sea creature in the scene when the two fish were in the dark part of the ocean trying to retrieve the goggles. It has an antenna-looking thing on its head with a light at the end, which was what Jerry was trying to depict.
We passed some time quoting and singing songs from the movie, Milton stating one fact per every animal shown.
After he got done sharing his seahorse fact, that's when we saw it: Flora carrying a tray with our food! She set it down on a table she brought along with it, then passed out the dishes before asking if we needed anything else (which no one did.) We were ecstatic. "Thank you!" we chorused after her as she left.
Everyone was about to begin eating, but I thought of an idea. "Guys, don't eat yet!" I exclaimed. I then extended my left arm across the table to Jack and my right to Eddie, my palms open. They quickly got the hint and all held hands. "Who wants to start?"
"I'll do it." volunteered Milton. We bowed our heads and closed our eyes. "Dear God thank you for letting us be together today to have a good time at a new place, thank you for this food setting in front of us right now and that-"
"Hey."
A sharp voice made us jump and open our eyes. A young male waiter was standing in front of our table, an empty tray in hand. "What're you people doing?"
Why was his tone so nasty? "We're trying to pray, sir. Now if you'll excuse us." I almost bowed my head and shut my eyes once again but this guy wasn't having it.
"Missy, are you aware that some just don't want to see that? You could be offending someone."
Rudy then stated "Well, no one's forcing anyone to look. It'll only take us a minute."
"Well, since I'm the one working here, I suppose you do what I say and eat without doing that or else you'll have to leave." Yep, he was so not having it. His face showed pure hatred for us.
But we weren't backing down. "With all do respect, sir, please leave us to our business and go on your merry way." Eddie said as calmly as he could muster. That's when the waiter blew his top.
"I said you must leave!" he shouted, and did something that made my blood boil: he gripped Jack's shirt sleeve and yanked him sideways. With no hesitation, I shot up from my seat and kicked his shin, which I must have done so pretty forcefully because he howled in pain, dropped his tray and grabbed the spot.
Since there were two families in booths on the other side next to the windows, they shot horrified glances in our direction, not knowing what to do.
Jack made eye contact with Jerry for a moment, then got up and began walking back around where we came from. Jerry followed, while Rudy gestured for me to go ahead. I commenced in walking briskly in front of Eddie and Milton. I turned back to see our sensei glare at the guy on the ground before speeding up, us all walking in a single-file line through the front of the restaurant and out the two sets of brass-handled double-doors.
We made a beeline for the car, stopping when we arrived to stand by the doors of where our respective seats were earlier. Rudy unlocked it with his keys, then we all piled in and buckled up.
"Falafel Phil's it is, then." he said softly before driving off. Which were the only words spoken until we got there.
Standing in line to get food ten minutes later, we were still mostly silent toward each other except for small talk like "hey that looks pretty good" and "do you have two dimes?" and "I think your shoe's untied."
After we all sat down at our usual booth, Jack spoke suddenly. "Well, that was weird."
Everyone else mumbled stuff I couldn't make out until I shut them up with my fist pounding the table. I even scared myself. "I don't understand!" I shrieked. "What is wrong with people? What was so terrible about what we were going to do?"
"She's right," interjected Milton. "Why should others judge us for what we think?"
"Yeah!" joined in Jerry. "That's not fair! We can't believe in what we believe because it might be offensive? What if I'm offended when people eat with forks? They'd be telling me to deal with it!"
"Guys!" Rudy shouted. "I know this is a problem in the world today."
Eddie said "You bet it is! I feel like everywhere I turn people are telling others what to do."
"I know," Rudy agreed. "But listen to me, guys. This is the world now. And I'm not saying that we have to stop what we do, but what I'm telling you is that we have to be careful. Expect others to get mad. Expect arguments. But stand up, don't back down." We thought about what he said for a moment, though I was still fuming. Why? Why should we worry about offending others? Why is the world like this? Why do I feel so unfree?
Then Jack said something. "You know what, you're right. We shouldn't let anyone get to us. We're the Wasabi Warriors!" The others looked to relax at the sound of that. I also calmed down; we Warriors can take on any challenge if we work together. I started thinking about my confrontation with the snappy waiter back at the Mexican restaurant. I grinned to myself as I thought about my ability to fight back when needed.
"What is it, Kim?" the one I basically defended from said waiter asked.
"Oh, nothing. Just the fact that I went all 'Boom goes the dynamite' on that man!"
They laughed and told me how awesome my kick was, and we ended our lunch time on a high-note, in the greasy, goat-haired roach-occupied restaurant we call Phil's.
At least the falafel balls were good this time.