Edited Chapter
(Italics) – Actions
Italics – Thoughts
Jade: Look Riku! They came back to see us! (tears up with emotion) I feel so loved…
Riku: I think they came back to read the story, Jade.
Jade: (sniff) Oh, well then… Let's not delay them anymore!
Riku: Aren't you forgetting something? (taps foot)
Jade: What'd I forget?
Riku: (sighs) Jade the Inujin does not own Inuyasha or characters from it or Kingdom Hearts. (under breath) Now that people realize who I am…
Jade: (cuts in) But the new characters, such as Jade, belong to the muses in my brain!
Riku: (rolls eyes)
Ch2: Foretold Farewells
"Rah!" A fist slammed down on the table, making everyone jump.
"I'm sorry, but we don't think the inner-city is a good influence on you." The social worker tried to remain calm.
16 year old Jade Carden balled her fists so tight her nails broke the skin. They were moving her again. For the thirteenth time in four years, she was being uprooted, and it always happened just as she was feeling like she was home.
"I'll pack your stuff," said her foster mother, Rebecca.
The social worker was horrified at the sight of the blood running down Jade's arms. Adam, her foster father, touched her arm and spoke quietly to her. She released her grip to reveal large gashes in her palms. Stone faced, she stood up to help Rebecca pack her things.
"I'll get your package for you, Jade," Adam said, turning to the social worker. "You really don't know anything about her, do you?"
"I will have you know I've studied her file very closely," the young woman retorted, taken aback at the accusation, "and the head of my department agrees with me on this. Based on her situation, it is in Jade's best interest as far as safety for her to be moved away from this kind of environment."
"Children are more than files, miss. They are people with feelings and needs," Adam stated passionately.
"Jade can't stay in the inner-city," she said in a way of closure.
"These people don't even have a clue! Why can't they just leave me alone?" Jade huffed in frustration as she walked down to where she stayed. "Need any help, Becca?"
"Nah, it's all packed." Rebecca looked up at the six-foot-one teenager and gave her a motherly look. "I'm so sorry Jade. If I could..."
"Don't!" Jade held up a bleeding hand, "Please don't."
"You did it again." Rebecca closed her eyes, without another word.
"I don't want to move again, Becca. I'm tired of being moved around like cattle." Jade flexed her hands to speed up the holes closing.
It was something Jade couldn't even explain to herself. She could heal herself quickly after any injury and had a frighteningly high pain tolerance. She was the fastest person anyone had ever seen on the PE track. Her senses were superb, and she seemed to have a natural sense of how to fight. Rebecca couldn't help but marvel at the teen and her gifts. She had told her husband she felt like Martha Kent. Jade's anger scared her though, not that she would attack out of shear furry; she would injure herself instead. Her nails were so tough, not even animal trimmers could scratch them.
With the holes in her hands sealed, Jade carried her two bags down to the social worker's car. She then hugged her former foster parents and headed out to say good-bye to her best friend, Kevin. When she got to his apartment, three doors under her old residents, she found another boy with him.
"I'm leaving, Kev," she said bluntly.
Kevin knew that this would happen sooner or later. She had gotten close to him and the Warnken's. She'd told him that was how things went for her, so he should have seen it coming.
"So you say you're tough, huh?" Kevin said, looking up at the other boy, "I've never seen anyone whip Jade. Think you can do it?" Jade grinned lopsidedly. He was giving her a farewell fight.
"That's Kev."
"Her? Piece a cake," said the young man slouched in the chair across from Kevin at his table.
"Shouldn't we go outside first?"
"No, I'm gonna whip your ass right here, right now."
"I wasn't taught to fight someone in someone else's home," Jade's smile faded, "and I hate profanity. It only proves you're an idiot because you don't know how to curse correctly." With a twitch in his eye at the comment, the young man stood from his chair.
"Well, you're gonna learn now." He smiled at her efforts at a controlled fight.
"You think you can take me on?" Jade walked up to the jerk and narrowed her eyes, "How old are you? 18? 19?"
"17."
"To bad, you still have ego problems," Jade sighed, ramming him in the stomach with such a blow it sent him to the floor.
"And that was holding back," Kevin nodded at the loser with fake sympathy.
"You really don't like him do you?" Jade looked at Kevin with a grin, "Setting him up with me, that's so cruel that it's funny."
"Sorry Jade, thought he might be more of a match from all that talk he was giving me before you showed up. Guess not," Kevin shrugged. "You disappointed me, Scot."
Scot wasn't about to let it be said that a girl beat him in one slug. Rising from the floor slowly, he attempted to pull a surprise attack on her, but Jade caught his fist without turning and pushed him back. She didn't even look back at him. Walking up to her friend, the two shook hands, hugged, and slapped each other's back for the last time.
"I'll come find you after I get out of all this crap, ok man?" Jade promised.
"If you aren't dead yet," Kevin added with a smirk. "You know I have a thing with ghosts."
"Hey, you know me better than that," Jade concluded and left.
"Who was...? How'd she...? What was that?" Scot babbled from his landing spot after the shock wore off. Kevin returned to his seat and looked at the center of the table.
"That was Jade Cardin. She's the best, damn fighter I've ever seen or heard of. She could whip every gang banger in this town, all at once."
"Where'd she learn to fight like that?" Scot asked. Kevin got comfortable in his chair and began.
"Her parents were both from the inner-city. Her Old Man was a gang banger, but he ran out on his crew to marry her Old Lady. She has two older brothers, and their Old Man taught them all how to survive on the street with their fists and a brain. Her parents would get drunk a lot and beat the crap out of each other. When they divorced, her Old Lady got arrested for drug possession, so the kids went with their Old Man. When she was twelve, the cops found his body in an alley. The gang had caught up with him. The kids went into foster care after that."
"Whoa…" Scot looked out the still open door. "That's… intense."
"Now that you know," Kevin added with a hint of warning, "don't even think about pity. She'd take you out."
"Well 'God', here we go again." Jade took one last look at the old apartment house and the old neighborhood. She opened her wallet and looked at the picture of her sixteenth birthday party. It was the only picture she had of the four of them all together or of the four them period. "I'll never forget you guys, ever."
Author's Notes: Ok, now we've met the main character. Sorry if it was boring. It'll kick up some steam in the next chapter, so please review. I need to hear what you think. Wow, I didn't think I could type this fast. I typed two chapters in two days, so if you did send me a review, please know that this was posted the same day as it predecessor. Now on to ch3. Charge!
Riku: Wow I'm overjoyed with excitement. (yawn)
Jade: (glomps her boyfriend) That's ok Riku. I still love you even if you're sarcastic toward my work.
Riku: Please people, read and review, so she'll stop doing that!
Jade: (kiss on the cheek)
Riku: Yuck! PDA! (lets her hang off his neck)
