The hula class was starting.
Mahina stood outside, watching the lesson begin.
Deciding to follow the hula class had been one of sorta kinda deep thought. On one hand, it let Mahina watch the other kids her age.
She had no supplies like a normal hula student would have, so that meant she needed to improvise. She took some tall leaves off of bushes, tying them together (using other leaves) until a skirt was fashioned. She was able to use an old t-shirt she'd found in the garbage. Her hula halo was actually the hardest bit, though Mahina liked to think she got away easy on that one. She made a daisy chain, but without the flowers.
This long tale ends with Mahina standing beside a window to the hula class, watching the lesson taking place.
Mahina stood in the first position of the dance. She followed the beat with a tap of her foot.
The moves were easily to replicate. Some hand movements, which Mahina enjoyed doing. The feet movements were a bit tough to follow at first but Mahina caught.
Mahina followed the movements of the other girls, being careful not to lag behind. She didn't have the advantage of a teacher watching for corrections. Everything she did wrong she had to self-correct.
While dancing Mahina sang along her breath. She had no idea what the words really meant, nothing at all. She enjoyed it all the same- all the fun she was having.
She enjoyed dancing.
Mahina barely acknowledged Lilo's presence on stage. She giggled to herself.
The dance was coming to a close. Mahina made sure to keep extra close eye on the last moves, not tripping on her feet or something on the ground.
The music cut off. Mahina struck the final pose.
"He Inoa No Kalani Kalakaua. Kulele." Mahina recited.
As soon as she did, there as screaming coming from the dance hall. Mahina winced. She stood up on her tiptoes, pushing open the window. It creaked- the old wood not agreeing with the 'quiet' plan. Mahina grabbed the wooden barriers of the window to halt it.
Thankful the screaming hula dancers covered the sound of the creaking window.
"Stop. Stop." The instructor assured. His students froze, stopping their high pitched screams. Well, all except Lilo, who had neither fallen nor screamed. "Lilo, why are you all wet?"
"It's sandwich day." Lilo stated plainly. Everyone gave her blank stares back. Lilo sighed deeply. "Every Thursday, I take Pudge the Fish a peanut butter sandwich." She clarified.
Mahina winced.
"Pudge is a fish?" The instructor asked.
"And today we were out of peanut butter!" Lilo went on. She was more distressed from the sandwich than being late for class. Which, given her reasoning, made sense. "So I asked my sister what to give him and she said a tuna sandwich. I can't give Pudge tuna!" Lilo leaned in towards the instructor. "Do you know what tuna is?"
The instructor winced, already knowing he wouldn't like whatever it was that Lilo said it what would follow. Mahina knew what she would say, she barely liked it. "Fish?"
"It's fish!" Lilo yelled. "If I gave Pudge tuna, I'd be an abomination! I'm late because I had to go to the store and get peanut butter 'cause all we have is-is stinkin' tuna!" She ranted.
Mahina had to give Lilo credit. That explanation did make sense.
"Lilo, Lilo." The instructor spoke up to calm the girl done. Lilo took a deep breath. She also fixed her hula hat. "Why is this so important?"
"Pudge controls the weather." Lilo answered.
Everyone exchanged confused looks.
Mahina shrugged, accepting the explanation. While Mahina understood that it wasn't what actually happened, she kept an open mind about what might be true in this world.
"You're crazy." Myrtle told Lilo.
Mahina wished she had a camera- as she was missing the opportunity to capture the real life fight between Lilo and Myrtle. Meaning, Lilo punching Myrtle in the face or trying to bite her or scratch her.
The other girls were less excited about this. They screamed loudly, running away from their seemingly insane hula classmate. The other adults in the room watched in the same way all adults would've: Not my problem but holy shit is that weird.
Mahina was snickering now, leaning on the window to enjoy.
"Please! Please!" The instructor tried to keep the peace. His efforts made Mahina snicker more. "Everybody calm down!"
He lifted Lilo off of Myrtle. The instructor made sure to stand between the other girls and Lilo. Mahina stood up on her feet, watching it all go down. The instructor calmed down the girls, whispering to them. Even when Mahina strained to hear, it was all murmurs to her.
"Lilo..." The instructor began.
"I'm sorry! I'm sorry! I won't do it again!" Lilo pleaded.
"Maybe we should call your sister." The instructor sighed.
"No! I'll be good! I want to dance." Lilo begged. "I practiced. I just want to dance. I practiced."
Myrtle looked down at her arm. Mahina couldn't hear her, but she heard all the girls groan is disgust.
==M&J==
The girls all shouted as they ran from hula class. They had all changed into their normal clothes- Mahina too, mostly because her grass skirt was sorta kinda definitely in need of repair. She was wearing her favorite dress- one that looked a lot like Lilo's only dark blue. She'd nicked it from a store about two weeks after she arrived in Hawaii.
Mahina peeked from around the building, watching the girls all run away. Except Lilo. She sat on the steps, alone. That warned Mahina that she was about to run up to Lilo's side and offer comfort. How did she know this? Because Mahina had a bleeding heart for the outcast.
"Hey Lilo." Mahina greeted, trying to wave hello.
Lilo tilted her head. "I haven't seen you here before..."
"I haven't been around before." Mahina supplied. She sat down beside Lilo, looking out on the trees. "I'm Mahina."
Lilo raised an eyebrow. "Hey...how'd you know my name?"
"I heard the teacher telling you." Mahina answered. "After you punched the other girl." Lilo sighed, looking down at her feet. "It was awesome."
Lilo smiled.
Mahina moved to sit beside Lilo, when the teacher walked out. She ducked to hide around the building.
She had never really liked adults.
Even if she was one...kinda.
==M&J==
Mahina was walking downtown.
Well not downtown-downtown, Kaua'i was too small too have a proper downtown. It was more like...a few roads with a lot of extra shops. Mahina knew the island had a resort, which had a lot more stores and things by it, however the local shops were more...quaint.
Sometimes she'd swing by the resort- if she knew she could make it back to her box-house before sunset- to take what stuff she could. It was never much, but Mahina was getting better at this whole 'thieving' stuff. She'd get the 'much' as her skill improved.
Yeah. Mahina decided. She was gonna be a thief when she grew up. She'd been a lawyer, a cop, an FBI agent, thief was the next logical step.
Anyway. That's a big tangent. Back to what Mahina was actually doing downtown.
She'd stopped stealing the fruit from Mrs Hasagawa. The guilt had been getting to her. When Mahina eventually became a professional thief, things like 'guilt' wouldn't hold her down anymore. But anyway, without stealing the fruit, she needed food.
Lucky for her, someone had thrown out a computer. Mahina had some experience with computer analysis, so a couple of days connected to the local power grid had the computer running like normal. Mahina had been able to make a bogus credit card. The funds generated would be completely fake- just lines of code that led to nowhere. Not that the card readers were know. Think of it like monopoly money that actually worked in the real world because nobody knew what fake money was.
It was so much work.
Mahina knew, that when she achieved her dream of being the next big thief (or some kind of ninja thief, that'd be so cool) she'd do less work than that. Three days it took to make a fake credit card. Three. Ugh. Exhausting.
She was walking in a grocery store. Mahina was actually proud of herself for doing it so naturally. She used a basket to pack all the food she wanted- and some plastic spoons. Mahina even grabbed some vegetables- even if they were gross.
That was just her child brain talking. Mahina was fully aware vegetables were important.
That didn't mean vegetables weren't gross.
(Well except Veggietales. Those guys were great)
Mahina heaved her basket to check-out. She dropped the basket on the counter. After, she put down the credit card she'd made. It looked a lot like the real deal- a stolen hotel key, lots of paint, and some good old elbow grease had it looking perfect.
The cashier stared in confusion.
Mahina stood up on her tiptoes, peeking over the counter. "I would like to buy food please." She stated.
The chaser gawked now.
Mahina pushed the basket- which was heavy.
As though deciding she must be hallucinating, the cashier began ringing up the food.
Mahina beamed.
Two minutes later, she was walking away with the bags of food. They were heavy, but lighter than the basket. It would take Mahina awhile to get home but meh. Needs must.
She didn't make it far away from the grocery store when she walked by Cobra Bubbles.
Talk about being starstruck.
Mahina stared.
Bubbles raised an eyebrow above his sunglasses.
Mahina stared back. She reminded herself to keep it cool. If you hadn't done anything wrong, there was no reason to be suspicious.
(Which was a lie. Mahina has done a lot wrong. But if she believed it, Bubbles would too...she hoped.)
"That looks heavy." He remarked.
Mahina shrugged. She had an idea in the works to fix that. She would need tiny wheels- which were hard to find in the trash. Also a plan. Honestly just finding a wagon would be easier...but Mahina apparently liked making her life difficult.
"I can handle it." Mahina decides to say, when she realized she'd been quiet a while.
"How old are you?" Bubbles asked.
Mahina paused to remember. "Six."
The eyebrow stayed.
"I'm big." Mahina told Bubbles.
"What's your name, little girl?" Bubbles asked.
She narrowed her eyes. "I'm not supposed to talk to strangers. And this stuff is heavy."
Bubbles pulled out his ID badge.
Mahina glanced at it. "Cobra is a weird name."
Bubbles tucked the badge away. "Where are your parents?"
"Mommy's at work, and Daddy's taking a nap." Mahina supplied.
Bubbles continued to stare beneath the sunglasses.
Mahina swore to one day to be that badass.
"And they sent you for groceries?"
"No. Daddy's chores are for Daddy but he was sleeping so long I knew he wouldn't get it done in time." The lie came together so fast in Mahina's mind, she gave herself a self-five.
Bubbles lowered his eyebrow. "Who are you?"
"Mahina." She answered. At his questioning eyebrow, Mahina shrugged. "I don't know my other name." She admitted. Because she well and truly had no idea what Mahina's last name was. "I'm going home."
Bubbles let out a sigh. "Look, Mahi-"
Mahina ran off.
"Hey!"
She ran around some alleyways, ducking behind things to keep out of Bubbles' sight.
Somehow, she managed to do exactly that.
==M&J==
Later that night, Mahina was finishing up a can of corn. She had cooked it. She only looked six, she wasn't actually six. She was twenty-six. She could cook her food.
With it done, Mahina tossed the can away in a nearby garbage bin.
Mahina let out a sigh as she climbed back in her box. She had set it up to prepare for the upcoming rain, using a thrown out tent to lead the water away from her 'home'.
She peeked out from the box, looking up at the sky. The stars were still shining bright. Mahina could make out the dark spots as clouds.
In the distance, thunder.
Mahina silently wished Stitch the best of luck.
A green flash lit up the sky.
Mahina tucked myself under her blanket, looking up at the green star that was falling. A gentle smile came to her face.
==M&J==
AN: Well here we go! Originally I was gonna update once a week, but with everything else going on I decided monthly was better. Hope you guys like what we have so far!
Thanks to Scribleyellow, alexa-chan me, PoisonCupcake101, and Wingdings13 for favoriting
Thanks to Scribleyellow, alexa-chan me, PoisonCupcake101, Wingdings13 and TerrorTwinsFan for following
