Nothing much to say... ON WITH THE STORY!


Chappie 2

"Oh my gosh, Jack!" I exclaim as I run over to his side, with the other guys in tow. I roll him over onto his back. He looks fine, just out cold.

"Do you think he stayed up all night just looking for his necklace?" I ask, looking up at the guys. They shrug. I grab his shoulder to shake him awake…

…only for him to grab my wrist. Again- What the heck?

"Jack?"

No answer.

I lean in close to see anything that signaled he was awake. A flicker of the eyelids, a change in breathing, anything. As I'm looking at his face, I notice that there are faint tear streaks on his cheeks. He was crying? Oh, Jack… I don't tell the other boys that he was crying, since they'd tease them forever about it.

Instead I pull back, putting on an amazed expression. "He's still asleep," I say.

"No way! Really?" Milton asks in awe. I nod.

"Aww," Eddie and Jerry say at the same time. "I want reflexes like that."

I manage to pry Jack's hand from my wrist. Jerry picks Jack up and lays him down on the couch in Rudy's office, Milton and Eddie following. As he does so, something falls from Jack's other hand. I pick it up. It's three pieces of paper, taped together in such a way that allows you to fold and unfold them.

The first is a photo, a picture of a slightly younger looking Jack, his mom, and a man I didn't recognize, but looked kinda like Jack.

That must be his dad I thought. I suddenly realize that Jack never talks about his dad. His mood always changes slightly whenever one of us mentions a dad, and we never saw him on father's day last year. And in the photograph, around Mr. Anderson's neck, was Jack's necklace. The second paper was a letter addressed to Jack from his dad. It reads:

Dear Jack,

Hey, buddy. How've you been doing? I miss you and your mother so much. And I'm bored. All I've had to do all day was stare at the clouds and make pictures out of them. We haven't done much fighting, though, so I guess that's good.

Jack's dad must have been in the army I thought.

Oh, and guess what? I'll be home by Father's Day! You better get our water guns ready, because it's really hot out here and I'll need some cooling off. :) So, I'll bet you noticed that I put my necklace in this envelope. I thought you'd want to see some pictures that my friends and I have taken since we got here. "How do I do that?" you might say. Well, that necklace is not only a necklace…

Love,

Your Awesome Dad

'Jack's dad sounds like a cool guy' I thought. I look at the last piece of paper. It is an old newspaper clipping. I quickly scan the article (because it's a long one). To sum it all up, Jack's dad was brutally mugged and murdered driving home on father's day by a gang— a gang that was dressed up as clowns.

'Oh my god' I think. 'He's coming home from a war only to get murdered by a group of sadistic psychos. There's no way that Jack was telling the truth whenever he told us why he was afraid of clowns. Irony sucks.'

I run into Rudy's office to show the clipping to the guys. When I get in there, I see that Jack keeps thrashing around on the couch. It looked like he was having a nightmare. And his face is flushed. I put a hand on his forehead; it's burning hot. He must have gotten a fever from being in the cold too long. It didn't help that he was lying right under the AC when we found him. Stupid air conditioner.

"You guys, he's having a nightmare, why didn't you wake him up?" I exclaim.

"We tried," Milton says. "But his stupid reflexes are getting in the way. Watch." He goes over to Jack's side and puts a hand on his shoulder. Jack's hand balls up into a fist and shoots out sideways, punching Milton in the stomach. The red-haired boy groans and falls to the floor, clutching his stomach in pain. "See?" he moans out.

I sigh. "I guess we'll figure out something later," I say. "But we might as well do something to help. Jerry, go turn off the AC. Milton, go get a cold wet paper towel. Eddie, get a blanket," I order, wanting to help Jack at least a little bit.

"Yes, sir," Jerry says. I glare at him, and he waves and runs out of the room. They soon come back, having done their requested jobs. I cover Jack with the blanket and put the wet paper towel on his forehead. It didn't do much, but he at least stopped thrashing around.

I hand the three papers to the guys. "Read these. Jack was lying about why he's afraid of clowns." Then, I pull the Jack's necklace out of my pocket. Jerry had given it to me the day before, not trusting himself not to lose it.

'Jack's dad said this wasn't only a necklace. Sooo…' I turned the orb this way and that, and noticed a line going across it all around in the middle. I pull, trying to pry it apart. Nothing. I tried twisting it, and it worked. Half of the orb came off, revealing it to be the cap of a flash drive.

Excited now, I walk over to Rudy's computer and plug the flash drive into the USB port. I click yes on the dialog box that pops up. Two files appear. One called 'Friends' and the other called 'Family'.

I'm suddenly hit by a wave of guilt. This is obviously private if Jack never liked anyone saying anything about it.

But in the end, curiosity gets the best of me and I click 'Friends'. Another two files pop up. One labeled Seaford and the other labeled Georgia. I click Seaford. Well over one hundred files pop up, labeled as either dates or a specific event. I click one that says 'Randomness:)'.

A bunch of pictures and videos appear. I immediately recognize the first photo from when Eddie won a bucket of candy and ate it all in one day. I laugh at the memory of that hilarious day. He was so hyper that he was bouncing all over the dojo for four hours.

I'm suddenly snapped out of my reminiscing by Milton's voice saying "That's so sad." I look up. Milton is staring at Jack sympathetically. Eddie then finishes the article, and Jerry soon after. Both have somber expressions on their faces, and we have a brief moment of silence for Jack's dad.

"So what is the necklace really?" Jerry finally asks, trying to lighten the atmosphere in the room.

"A flash drive," I reply, motioning them over to the computer. I get up out of the chair, and go over to the couch where Jack is. Lifting his head up, I sit down, and then put his head on my lap. His face looks scared, and every now and then he would say something. I lean down, my ear next to his mouth.

"Daddy…" he whispers. My heart broke as I sit back up. A lone tear makes its way down his cheek. My heart shatters into a million pieces. Jack is the toughest, funniest, cheekiest, nicest, smartest, and most down-to-earth guy I've ever met. Seeing him looking so vulnerable right now… it just isn't right.

I start running my hand through his soft hair, smiling when he huddles closer to the touch instead of punching me away.

"Mmm… I won't let them hurt you guys… especially you Kim," he mumbles. I freeze. What did he mean? His calm turns to nightmare again when I stop rubbing his head.

"No… no!… NO! Take me, not Kim! Please! Please…" he trails off as I start rubbing his head again, and I mull over his words.

"Ooooh, Kimmy's in love," Jerry says, waggling his eyebrows.

"Don't call me Kimmy," I growl. His eyes widen and he nods fearfully. I sigh.

If Jack was up all night, then who knows when he would wake up? Then I get to thinking. If Jack's karate instincts are dominant when he's asleep, then that means he has to have some other instincts as well. They're just not as strong. Like when I was rubbing his hair. His natural reaction was to move closer to it, instead of defending himself against it. He didn't, or at least his body didn't, feel like it was in danger. So, if I avoid doing something that would make him feel as if he was in danger, then I could wake him up.

I blink. Wow. I think I'm smarter than I give myself credit for.

I decide to start by moving my hand from his hair to his cheek, stroking it softly. He lets out a small moan. I hesitate, then lean down and kiss his cheek. His eyes flutter open.

"… Kim?" he mumbles sleepily.

"Yeah, it's me," I reply.

"Why am I in Rudy's office?"

"We found you unconscious on the mats. I think you stayed up looking for your necklace."

Silence.

"Jack, why didn't you ever tell us?"

"… tell you what?" he asks.

" About your dad. What your necklace really is. The truth about why you're afraid of clowns."

He froze. "How do you know about that?"

I hold up the papers taped together. His eyes widen.

"You… read them…"

"Yeah, we did, and we know it's a huge invasion of your privacy, but you could have at least just told us. We could have avoided saying anything that would make you upset."

"That's just the thing I don't want," he sighs.

"Huh?"

"Sympathy. Pity. Whatever you want to call it. I hated the way the people at the funeral looked at me like I could break down any minute. Like… I was made of glass."

As soon as Jack says that, Eddie and Jerry start singing that line from 'Skyscraper' by Demi Lovato. They both shut up when Jack and I glare at them.

"I just couldn't deal with it," Jack continues, "and neither could mom. So when we moved here, the only person we agreed to tell was Rudy." He runs a hand through his hair. "God, I miss him so much…"

Right at that moment, I just lean in and hug him. I don't tell him anything. I don't have to.

That hug already says 'I'm there for you.'

He freezes, not responding. For a minute I'm sure that his reflexes were gonna snap out at me. But then he slowly untenses and melts into the hug.

We pull away blushing furiously when we hear Milton snap a picture on his iPhone and Jerry does his little 'WOOOOO' thing.

"Sorry, man," Jerry says, holding out Jack's necklace with the cap replaced. "If I knew, I wouldn't have taken it."

Jack accepts his necklace from Jerry, staring at the blue-green orb intently and rolling it in between his fingers.

"So…" he says, suddenly clenching it in his hand so hard that his knuckles turn white. The slow, calculating tone of his voice screams "DANGER! DANGER!", and I figure out what he just realized. "You did take my necklace… and you lied to me about it." He still had that slow, even tone, but now you could clearly hear the threat of death.

Jerry's eyes widen, and he's smart enough to take a step back. "Wh-what are you doing? I said I was sorry!"

Jack narrows his eyes. "Oh, you'll be sorry. You'll be very, very sorry."

Jerry runs out of the room, with Jack on his heels. I decide to just sit in here instead of finding out what is about to take place, so I use the opportunity to snatch Milton's phone away from him so I can delete the picture. After a moment's hesitation, I send it to my phone and then delete it. I hand Milton's phone back to him.

Seconds later, I guess Jack finally caught Jerry, because there is a scream, six thumps, and then silence. After a minute, Jack walks into the room. He doesn't say anything to Eddie, Milton or I, just flops down on Rudy's couch and falls asleep.

So, the three of us go out to see what Jack did to Jerry, but the tall, Latino boy is nowhere in sight. I sigh, just happening to look up, but then gasping in shock.

Jerry is pinned to the ceiling by Rudy's katana, a bo staff, and four of the trophies that our dojo has won, but luckily none of them pierced Jerry himself. Said boy is as pale as a ghost.

"Jerry, how the heck did he even get you up there?" Milton asks.

"I… don't know… but if Jack ever offers to tell you to tell a story about a pink haired little girl… SAY NO! God, i'm so freaking scared of elementary schools now..."

We nod. Suddenly, the bo staff falls. It is followed by one of the trophies, Rudy's katana, and then all the other trophies. Jerry falls to the ground with a scream.

"… well that solves the problem of getting him down." Eddie finally says, just as Rudy comes into the dojo.

"Whoa… what happened here?" he asks, walking over and picking up his katana. We all just point to his office, where Jack lies asleep. Rudy looks at us confusedly, before walking into his office.

"Oh, Jack. Why didn't you guys wake him up?" Before we can warn him, we hear him yell, and he staggers out of his office, clutching his stomach.

"Man, he packs a punch," Rudy groans, before falling to the floor.


An unnoticed camera in the corner of the zooms in on the four friends as they laugh. At the Blacks Dragons dojo, Sensei Ty leans back in his seat. Laughs are heard coming from the TV screen he is watching.

"So, Jack's main weakness is his necklace, huh?" he says to himself. He slowly turns around in his spinny chair. (I know that sounded stupid, just work with me here!)

"You better watch out, Jack. Your necklace WILL be mine." *cue evil laugh*


Should I add in a chapter about Jack looking for his necklace? I have an idea for it, but... hmm.

SS: My little sister is currently reading iHave a New Best Friend Chapter 1 by swirlylolipop. It's a Wizards of Waverly Place/iCarly crossover. Sounds interesting...So? Continue? Tell me in a review!

(10/8/12 edit: I changed the kiss in this chapter to a hug because it just seemed kind of out there. Also, i got rid of the a/n that i wrote that asked if i should continue this story because I obviously am. To those of you who are reading this chapter after Monday, October 8, 2012, then disregard this author's note. :P)

(12/29/12 edit: Just found out that Jerry is Latino, not Hispanic (even though i really don't know the difference) so i changed that.)