A/N: Sorry for the very slow update! I'll try my best to update more regularly ! :) And as a punishment (for me) and a reward for you, I give you a very long, yet enjoyable chapter! ^^ Thanks for the reviews by the way, keep it coming! :D

My breath hitched as I suddenly opened my eyes to only see the light of day. Thankfully, no one came all over to my room to visit me when I was fast asleep. Or at least not after I had made someone I barely knew angry as a wolf. Well, it was worse than that actually, but I wouldn't start another chaotic mess in somewhere I just moved into.

The first thing that grasped my attention was the rain. Heavy, heavy rain...I thought. I loved rainy weathers. It reflects my golden temperament.

Even though I had awoken from a deep slumber, exhaustion was still at its dominance. But above all of the tiresome emotions, sombreness was evident in my mind – and that was excellent.

Regaining my memory of yesterdays wasn't hard, I was just reluctant to. It was a disaster, and it was just not...me. I was supposed to get two strands of hair, not feel hair. 'Arrgghhh all this reminiscing is blowing up my sane!'

I was in fact, insane. Maybe a little insane, but for an emotional and unorganised, poor decision-maker like me, it was extreme. Truthfully, I wasn't having any trouble with my sexuality, and I wasn't fondling with hair. I was just simply getting two strands of hair and that was it.

Glancing at the watch, it was already eight in the morning – which meant I had unintentionally skipped breakfast – and no one came to waken me up. 'Was it something I did?' It's not like I didn't enjoy an undisturbed sleep, but a slight rush of rejection triggered my social-conscious side of mind and obviously made me feel...well, rejected.

Aunt Lily must've had a contenting breakfast by now. And here I was, still taking in the unfortunate events that I've brought myself into.

My attention shifted instantly to my bedroom door as someone was rapping it demandingly to enter from its rear. I was about to turn the handle as the knocks came to a pause, that's when I noticed that my little 'experiment' materials were still clearly visible from sight. My head was aimless as it pestered me to hide all evidence if I'd not want to prepare a lengthy explanation.

I quickly grabbed the book and slid it underneath the bed as the rapping on the door grew more impatiently loud. 'Crap'. I thought as I carefully pinched the two waving strands of Wuya's hair and placed it into the drawer of the bedside table. When I was sure the hairs was safely hidden, I hastily straightened up and strolled to the door and turned the knob and yanked the door open.

As expected, well, second expected, it was Chase Young standing coolly by the door frame as soon as I opened the door. His poker face was unreadable, making a side of me more and more curious to uncover what lied beneath his emotionless mask. Happiness? Sadness? Anger? Who knows.

Chase wasn't moving, instead, he was staring at me straight-faced. I tried my best to keep my "casual" face on while silence prevailed once again.

"So umm...can I help you?"

"I'd like to invite you to breakfast since you didn't make an appearance ealier."

I simply smiled. Was he joking? Or was he slightly drunk? Of course I didn't mind! I exclaimed inwardly. Wait, wasn't breakfast at six? Oh wait, Wuya said it was at eight. Ah, who cares!

"Sure, no biggy. I'll just get my watch..." I hastily grabbed my Rolex by the bedside table and closed the door behind me.

The walk to the dining hall wasn't audible. I could hardly ask him anything on our way. When I did have a question raised in my head, he would be looking away or be it closing his eyes. Walking while closing eyes? That's unbelievable, unless he's cheating by merely looking down. No that's believable.

The hallway was full of odd paintings and decorations. Some could be one of those typical Chinese arts that consisted of mountains and forests. Some were just swords and weird-looking weapons, which I could barely make out their shapes. So you must be this rich to literally waste your money.

Chase was calmed, really calmed. Sometimes I doubt that if he'd ever tripped or walked into a wall before. At the thought of that it really made my day. Because I knew that would never happen, not at least when I'm around. Although it looked like he was in a 'meditating' state, it was unclear that he could be in a troubling disposition, something that I was afraid to inquire about.

As we passed several hallways which were more familiar to me overtime, three things caught my eyes – a chocolate wrapper on the floor (not that I cared), three framed portraits on the wall and a passing white tiger, or as I liked to call it, snow tiger. I slowly came closer to the three pictures while burying my hands in my pockets.

Chase must've noticed my sudden halt and came back to stop behind me. I noticed that two of them consisted of bald men and one of them was a picture of a girl.

"They're the well-known Tai Chi Masters fifteen-hundred years ago." Chase dully pointed out. By the tone his voice held, I could predict that he wasn't interested to supply any further information. I simply nodded while taking in the appearance of each portrait. The one on the left was a bald man who wore an orange robe. The middle one was another bald man, well, shaved to be exact. He was wearing a robe similar to the one mentioned before, instead, his was of red with black lining.

Now the one on the right caught most of my interest so I decided to ask Chase on this one. The person in the portrait had mid-length jet black hair and had a blue robe on. "Chase..." I trailed off. No answer. I turned my head to find that he's already started to walk down the hallway, but I wouldn't know when I'll get the chance to buy him a question again. So...

"Who's the pretty chick?" I snapped loud enough for him to hear before I crossed my arms comfortably while leaning further to inspect the portrait, carefully not to fully lean against it. They were all mid-close ups with glossy finishing and golden frames outlining each photograph.

Chase swiftly turned on his heel, making me suddenly divert my gaze to him.

"Excuse me?" He asked with shock as his arms fell to his sides while he paced toward the portrait that I was now facing.

"Yeah, that chick." I pointed with my finger to confirm with him.

Soon after long gazing, I noticed some similarities between Chase and the mentioned portrait. They could be related or something. "I can tell you two are alike...is that your sister or something?"


"Gee, you have to really be careful what you ask him next time. Remember, Chase is fifteen hundred years old. He could look from a grandma to even a parrot." Jack reminded, matter-of-factly. He was right, and the fact the he was escorting me to hunt for some sticks, wasn't cool.

Yes, Chase sent me to get seven sticks off the ground. It wasn't a hard task, but I just chose to make it challenging. Instead of having to find ordinary sticks, which was widely scattered on the forest grounds, I looked for double pointed sticks. It was just like you're supposed to hunt for a magpie, but you chose to hunt for an eagle. Jack seemed like he couldn't care less since he didn't even question why we were still walking aimlessly around the woods.

"So Jack, how's life so far for you?" I enquired casually. The sticks were already starting to hurt my palm. Although I wasn't gripping it tightly, the rough texture of them constantly grazed my palm with every slight jolting movement.

Jack was silent for awhile, probably thinking for the right answer before I cast him a sharp curious glance that made us both stopped on our tracks.

Finally, he opened his mouth to respond, "Life's tough, as always..." he heaved a sigh to emphasise his answer.

"How come? I thought you were the 'Evil Boy Genius'. Surely it's fun being evil and genius at the same time. Usually genius people are just plain dumb." I chuckled at the thought of evil scientists mucking around with extremely dangerous chemicals but then stopped when I realised that Jack was entirely serious.

"Sorry..." I apologised softly. Perhaps I didn't know people's feelings well enough to understand them since my feelings were already pretty effed up.

"No, it's okay...It's just that, those xiaolin knuckleheads just always get in my way whenever I'm at the verge of winning. I never get the chance to actually savour Shen Gong Wu I've won because they just keep coming back!" he shouted angrily.

Was it just me, or was Spicer boy gone 'expresso' much? First of all, I didn't know what the heck he was talking about, and it simply just didn't make sense to me. Second of all, he's actually telling all these things to me? Well, if it was something deep, then I would really be flattered to be told to but if it was just about his siblings bullying him then don't even think I'd be feeling appreciated.

"Umm...Jack, why don't you tell me what's wrong?" I grabbed him carefully by the arm and yanked him to a nearby large rock before I sat down with him joining next to me. I gave him a sympathetic smile before letting him continue.

"Wait, didn't Chase tell you anything about pyjama fighters and Shen Gong Wu?" he asked with slight confusion plastered on his face. I merely shook my head as an answer.

"Well, since you live with Chase I think you should know about this. Besides, you're gonna know about this sooner or later when a Wu reveals itself. Now, I'll start with the Wu. Shen Gong Wu are these magical things that have cool powers and they're like everywhere in the world..." he explained.

Even though these 'facts' were hard to believe since they're 'magical', I did give his explanation some room in my head. Who knows what I could be dealing with in this strange world? I nodded in understanding and gestured for him to continue.

"But getting them isn't easy. There are these kids in pyjamas, well; they're actually xiaolin monks, who just keep getting in your way. You know, they just can't see how annoying it is to get stopped every single time you're on something. Especially when Cheese ball stops you." A pause from him signalled for me to interrupt.

"So wait, you're addicted to cheeseballs that you can't get Sen Gong Ngu because of that?" I cocked a brow for him to confirm his statement.

"No, no! The gang of pyjama buddies actually are people and one of them has a cheese ball for a head." He motioned four fingers in front of me to indicate four members of the group.

There was silence before I broke out into outward laughter. "Are you kidding me? Ahahahaha!" I couldn't stop for about two minutes and Jack even joined in to laugh before my amusement began to die down and break into intervals as I took in some oxygen.

I completely stopped laughing when I saw the orange crack of sunset by its earliest. It was a beautiful and relaxing scenery from where we were but also was a reminder that it was time to head home. Usually this was important to obey if you're living in a crime based neighbourhood. But here, probably something 'magical' will pop out and attack you instead of steely knives and guns. Honestly, I didn't want to head back home.

"Hey," I began, "we should head back to the house. It's getting dark. We can talk about this later."

He simply shrugged and started leading me back to the palace. If Jack wasn't with me right now, I would be completely lost in this totally unfamiliar place. Tree barks wherever you look and leaves roofing you everywhere you go.

After a good ten minutes walk, we eventually reached back to the front entrance of the volcanic home. I was in fact grateful that the gate actually opened when we arrived since there was no door bell to signal our sudden arrival.

Inside, as usual, there was Chase Young standing primly at the bottom of the stairs, as if he knew who or what and when he was about to encounter someone.

"'Sup Chase." I gave him a playful salute on my way in while Jack just waved at him.

"Where have you two been?" For a second there I thought he sounded like a worried father but his stern tone suggested that he was probably delivering concern, however not in a fatherly manner.

"Apparently, I decided to get seven two-pointed sticks instead of just seven sticks, so yeah." I explained monotonously.

Jack already looked as if he was a burnt chicken about to be eaten alive because he was seemingly afraid in his current position. Openly, I always thought Jack was a cool dude and I sometimes pondered why he was afraid of a guy like Chase. "Emily..." Surely Chase's a bit scary by one glance, but I found no legitimate reason to be so scared of him until one would spill all of one's respect to him. "Emily..." Or was it just me who didn't know the real Chase Young yet?

"Emily!" Chase snapped impatiently.

I was too immersed in my own thoughts that I didn't realise that Chase was repetitively calling out my name to gain my attention. I shook my head slightly to clear my mind and submit my attention to him.

"What?"

"We will be having supper at the library tonight. I suggest you be there right now knowing you'd probably wander off elsewhere. Jack will escort you to avoid you getting lost and late, again." He crossed his arms elegantly, sending several chills creeping up my spinal cord. Something I didn't expected as a stimuli respond to his act but I managed to hide it from public.

Effin dammit! Does he have to say that again at the end of every invitation or reminder, again? Pisses me off!

As tempting as it was to let out my anger, my eye merely twitched unnoticeably and a crooked arc crept its way on my face. "Sure Chase. I won't be late, again." I pressed the last word. It felt so good that I'd the chance to shoot back his word at him, although it was actually about me.

Me and Jack decided to leave for the library as soon as Chase was out of sight to who knows where. Jack nearly tripped on a ball of yard on our way and that to some extent, lifted my spirit after my last meeting with Chase. Though, he made me promise to act as if that never happened so I had to agree to him after all the things he'd done for me since I'd been here. I mean, without him, I'd probably be stuck at a dark cornered hallway with no doors or walkthroughs and cry out for my Aunt Lily.

When we entered the library, no one was there yet, well almost. Some jungle cats were sleeping around like carpets which made me in fact almost clumsily stepped onto one. It was a pretty dimly lit library anyway, so I shouldn't be blamed, or worse, eaten if an accident occurred that involved the jungle cats.

"So Jack, what do you wanna do here since we arrived early? I'd prefer something else than books you know, like Playstation 3 or Wii."

"Are you kidding me?" He faintly laughed. "Chase doesn't even have cable television here. What makes you think he plays Wii? We could if we're back at my house but we're not, so yeah." Jack simply shrugged as he said the last few words with silent disappointment which I also kind of felt at hearing his answer. At first I couldn't believe Chase didn't have any sort of 'modern' entertainment in a huge place like this, but I knew Jack wouldn't lie about that. Something about him confirmed that he wasn't a person who'd lie for the sake of it.

"Any ideas then? You are, in fact, the 'Evil Boy Genius'". I dragged the last three words and made two finger signs with my hands to support my sarcasm.

Jack looked around before he decided, "We should play a game, without a game."

"Continue. Even though it doesn't make sense..."

"Do you know the game Guess Who?"

"Yeah, so?" I cocked a brow as I crossed my arms and rested lazily on my right leg.

"We could play that game, except that I give you clues to guess who."

"Great idea Jack, except who are we gonna guess about 'cause I hardly or should I say, don't know anyone you know. And no, I'm not guessing about famous people because I hate them." I huffed.

"Tell you what, I promise you this game is gonna be awesome. If it sucks, you can slap my hand." He convinced.

"How about...if it sucks, you'll have to kiss Wuya on the cheek?" a hidden chuckle exit itself through my lips but I tried to keep it inaudible from him to sound more serious and unnegotiable.

"Ok." He starkly replied. So he thought I was joking. That's fine, 'cause I'm not. But I agreed to play his version of the game anyway, since no food was here yet.

Jack started pacing forward while taking a blue covered notepad and a black pen out of his trench coat pocket before he sat down cross-legged on the floor in between two shelves. There was a big window that gave sufficient amount of light for us to see. I simply followed him and leaned against the wall before he tore out a few sheets of ruled paper from his mini pad.

He then began to scrawl something on the four papers before he spread them in front of me on the floor. "Choose one." He gestured.

I quickly inspected each of the messy drawings. From the left was a picture of a ball with bubbles and labelled 'Cheeseball' at the bottom of it. Next to it was a drawing of a cowboy hat, followed by a girl stick figure and on the very right, a boy stick figure.

"So, what's up with the funny doodles?" A smile slowly emerged on my face, "You know, if this not-so Guess Who turns out boring, you will have to kiss someone on the cheek..." I laughed quietly at the thought.

"Well umm..." he reached for an itch on the rear of his head with his eyes still fixed on the papers, "Now you have to guess their...names." he tore another paper off his notepad and scribbled something quickly before giving it to me. I knew from the tone of his voice, he was making up this game as we go along.

I read the four lines aloud, "Kimiko, Clay, Raimundo, Omi."

"And now you have to match them with the names, and if you get it wrong for three times, you lose."

"And the catch is...?"

"You'll have to do a dare."

I crossed my arms and pressed my lips together.

Jack smirked, knowing that he got me on the edge of his 'game'.

"And since it's a dare, you'll have to umm..." he looked around for a moment, "You'll have to kiss Chase on the cheek..."

My jaw almost dislocated itself at hearing the dare. Was he kidding me? That would be the last thing I'd ever do. Well, second, because the last thing I'd do would be kissing a donkey. No questions asked.

"No way, that's too much! Hell no I'm not kissing that..." I was suddenly cut off by myself. That what? What should I label him with? Prim guy? Elegant dude? That wouldn't fit the sentence now would it?

Jack sighed, "Fine, fine. You'll only have to randomly hug Chase. You can't tell him why."

I was about to literally shout at him but my sane side of mind suggested otherwise.

Smart... I thought, as I started to enter the very world of luck unless the names actually have something to do with the pictures. In their own manners, Kimiko's an Asian name and it should belong to a girl.

"Kimiko matches with this one," I pointed at the stick figure which has two lines drooping down its imperfect round head, "Am I right?"

Jack clapped his hands slowly, as a substitute to a common nod or 'yes'. "You're not bad at this game..."

"Since its Jack's game, even a three year old could play it."

Famous last words...

Clay could be a name of a guy, so it should be the...wait a minute.

"There could be more than one guy Jack, that's not really fair!" I threw the name paper down.

"But also, you should know where the origins of these names are because they all come from different parts of the world." He protested, matter-of-factly.

"Fine. But I'm sure none of these pictures actually have a culture except for that cowboy hat. If I don't get an explanation at the end of this, you're dead." I threatened before disappearing in deep thought again. Clay could be a name of a guy, so it should be the...

"Clay is the stickman man."

A sudden jest broke out from the albino as he clutched his stomach tightly and constantly slapped the carpeted floor.

"Damn it..." I mused. "He is the umm...Cheeseball?"

The amused atmosphere around Jack didn't die down at all. No, I actually made it worse, or should I say better for him.

"That's two wrong, baby!" he said between laughs.

"Don't call me that!" I warned. "I'll try another one..."

Okay, focus Emily...you got the highest mark in class for world Geography recently...you can do it! But what does Geography have to do with this?

"Well...umm Clay is the ummm cowboy hat...?"

"You got one right."

"And umm...Cheeseball is the um...

...

...

...

Stickman?"

Just before Jack could react to my guess, the grand library door flew open.

A/N: So...how was it? I apologise for the cliffhanger :D Yes, you may expect alot of Chase-ness in the next chapter and by now, you should know what Emily has to do ;)

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