Chapter 4: Learning Phonics

On the way back to the hotel, Jewel was playing with some of the games that were on the iPhone. Blu was surprised at how she was able to learn how to use it so quickly. She even beat one of his high scores in one of the games. "Look Blu, I beat your high score." She said, trying to rub it in his face. "I must be really bad then..." Blu shrugged.

On the other hand, Blu was thinking about how Jewel had kissed him when he had jumped off the plane to save her. Does that mean she likes me? Or was it just a sudden reaction in the heat of the moment? He was lost in thought. He continued to think more about this, but the sound of Jewel launching birds from catapults and trying to kill green colored pigs on the iPhone jolted him out of his thoughts.

Soon, they arrived at Linda's room, and Blu carried Jewel and flew over to a table where Linda had put her laptop. "What is this?" Jewel asked. "It's called a laptop. It can do a lot more things compared to the iPhone." Blu slipped his wing tips in between the top and bottom half of the laptop, and pried it open. He typed in the password and a wallpaper of Linda and Blu popped up on the desktop screen.

Linda decided to go out to eat lunch, so she left the two birds in her room. "Try to behave and don't mess anything up, alright?" she said to Blu and Jewel before closing the door and locking it.

Blu opened up Skype, and logged in to his account. "What is Sky... Skypeh?" Jewel struggled to pronounce the name correctly. "It's Skype. It's used for chatting with friends, similar to the iPhone actually. You'll see." Blu clicked on the "Contacts" tab. A list of users appeared. Most of them were other birds. Jewel was amazed at how many other "pets" had learnt how to use these human devices. One of Blu's friends sent him a message, and it popped up on the Skype window. "Who's that?" Jewel asked. "A friend back in Minnesota," Blu replied.

Blu read the message. His friend had asked when he was coming back to Minnesota. Blu explained that he had chosen to move to Rio, although he refused to say why. Jewel was impressed at how Blu could use his feet and press the different keys on the bottom half of the laptop. "Where'd you learn to do that?" Jewel asked Blu. "Linda taught me how to. Why?" "Could you teach me?" Blu cringed. He wasn't the best at teaching things. "Uh... Yeah... sure..." he said uneasily.

Before Jewel could reply, Blu was invited to a group call on Skype. He answered it, and chatted a bit with his friends. He noticed that Jewel was being silent throughout the call. Blu figured that she might get bored, so he introduced her to his friends. Most of his friends thought they were together, and congratulated him for finding himself a mate. Blu desperately tried to explain that him and Jewel were just friends, but they just laughed. Jewel looked at Blu and smiled. She found him cute for being shy about him and herself.

Eventually, Blu let Jewel talk to his friends and watched some shows on the television in the room. Jewel enjoyed talking to Blu's friends, although they liked to tease her about Blu.

After Jewel was done talking, she went and joined Blu in watching television. Blu was watching a show about six ponies and friendship. "Isn't this show meant for... little kids..." Jewel tried to hold her laughter in, but she couldn't control herself and burst into laughter. Blu looked at her and smiled to himself. He liked to see Jewel happy. "Yeah, but this show is actually pretty good. Even grown-up humans like to watch it." Upon hearing this, Jewel laughed even harder. She clutched her stomach and tried to force herself to stop laughing.

When Jewel was done laughing, Blu spoke to her. "So... you uh... wanted to learn how to type, right?" Jewel nodded. "Yeah, what about it?" "Well, uh... Linda made me watch this kiddy show on phonics when I first started learning... so... uh..." Jewel started to laugh again. Blu managed to calm her down before she made her stomach hurt even more.

Fortunately, Linda had brought a case with of all the shows and movies she had, and Blu managed to find the phonics CD. He put it into the DVD Player that was connected to the television and hit play on the remote.

...

After half an hour of controlling Jewel's laughter and getting her to pay attention and not giggle at every childish thing in the video, Blu was tired and he lay down a couch that was next to the sofa in front of the television.

Jewel climbed onto the couch and lay down next to him. Blu immediately got up. "Oh, sorry, I'll go rest somewhere else," he said as he was about to fly over to the sofa. Jewel pulled him back by his wing. "You can rest with me." She smiled at him gently.

Blu cautiously lay down next to Jewel, trying to be careful with her broken wing. Jewel rested her head on his wing again. "Thanks for helping me," She said, smiling at him almost lovingly. Blu's eyes narrowed onto hers, and once again he started to admire her beauty. Jewel slowly moved her head closer to Blu's, pulling in for a kiss. Then, the sound of the door unlocking snapped both of them out of their trances. Both of them turned to face the direction of the door.

Linda came into the room. "Hey guys! How's it going?" she said in her usual, cheerful voice. When she saw the two of them on the couch, looking at each other, she realized that she might have ruined a perfect moment between Blu and Jewel. "Oops, sorry. Bad timing." She said softly as she went into the bedroom.

Jewel turned back to face Blu. Blu backed away nervously. "Uh... I'm gonna take a nap now..." He said as he closed his eyes. Jewel moved closer to him. Blu opened his eyes. "What are you doing?" he asked nervously. "I'm cold," she said as she moved closer again. "Um... ok..." Blu closed his eyes. Although Jewel was enjoying Blu's company, sometimes she hoped that he would be a little bit more confident. Oh well, maybe when I bring him out to the forest he'll be braver. Jewel thought to herself before going to sleep.

A.N. I think I forgot to say this in the earlier chapter, but thank you for the positive feedback in the reviews, it really helps. Anyway, you guys know the drill. If there's anything I can do to improve, feel free to tell me in the reviews. Hope you enjoyed this chapter.