Another one-shot involving Faith and Max. This takes after the last chapter...so this is a continuation from the previous.
What's Cool About Me
Faith and Max made their way back to the training hall some talking at the Peach Tree and Faith seems to take a liking to the little white tiger cub and they both sat down on the steps of the training hall and wanted to get to know a little more about him...minus the parts about his rough early childhood. She turns to Max and said, "You're probably the coolest tiger I've ever met before."
Max turned to Faith after hearing what she said about him and he said, "Yeah, I know...but sometimes I don't really feel that way."
"Oh, why?" asked Faith.
"Remember when I told you about those bullies that pick on me at the village? Sometimes they would say so many mean things to me and it would hurt my feelings a lot." Max replied.
"What do they call you?" asked Faith, in a concerned tone.
"Shrimp, doofus, lame, puny, dork, geek, doodyhead, doodyhead with black and white stripes and one that I really don't like to be called...striped freak." Max replied.
The latter part of those names that Max was called seemed to completely shock Faith the most and she couldn't imagine being put into his position and how so many of these kids would intentionally pick on someone like Max and she said, "Why would they call you these things?"
"I don't know. I didn't do anything to them." Max answered.
"But still...they had no right to call you things that aren't true." Faith stated.
Max sighed heavily and he said to her, "But...most times I ask myself that what if they're right? What if I am all of those things?"
Faith didn't want to hear this coming out of Max and she said, "No one thinks that way!"
"Then why do they call me all of those things they say?" asked Max.
Faith blinked her eyes and she could tell that it did have an effect on Max and that he's never told anyone about it except for her and she then said to him, "Some kids are just mean. And they think that by calling you names that that makes them cool. And the reason why is because they used to be picked on too so they take it out on someone else to hide their hurt feelings and want to feel like they're cool and being accepted. But I think it's for the wrong and stupid reasons and that won't get them anywhere in the future. Let me tell you what real cool is...it's to believe in yourself, not care what other people think of you and most importantly...to stay true to who you are no matter what. That's what real cool is."
That little speech completely brightened up Max a lot and he said, "Wow...I never thought about that before."
"You're already cool to me...after showing you some moves today. I'm actually surprised that you took an interest in kung-fu." Faith added.
"My dad told me that I need to do something cool to boost my confidence and self-esteem...whatever those are." Max added, with a chuckle.
Faith smiled back and she said, "There have been people who have been picked on before, but they turn out pretty good and they feel good about it; like Master Po, Master Shifu, the Furious Five, Takami, Ryo, Skyler, Kovu...pretty much everyone I can picture. And Arizona too. And you know what happened to all of them?"
"What?" asked Max.
"They turned out to be good kung-fu masters."
Max widened his eyes after that response and was completely blown away from it and he said, "So...if they can do it...I can too, right?"
"You can do anything." Faith said.
Max blinked his eyes and lets out a wide smile and he said, "I think you're cool too."
Faith giggles a little bit and responded, "And so are you. You have to tell youself that 'I'm cool, no matter what they say' every day."
"Okay."
Max clears his throat and said, "I'm cool no matter what they say!"
Faith cheered for Max and she said, "That's right, Maxie!"
Soon enough, in comes Takami, Ryo, Po, Tigress and Arizona coming in the courtyard and when Max saw Arizona come by, he quickly ran up to the grey wolf and gave him a hug...which was surprising, but Arizona accepted it anyway.
"I missed you." Max said.
Arizona patted his head and he said, "I've only been gone for like 2 hours."
They let go for a second and he asked them, "You wanna see something?"
"Sure, kid." Ryo replied.
Max took a deep breath and showed off a few kung-fu moves and when it came to the flips, kicks, twists, turns and spins along with some of the basic stances he's got, he acheieved every single move perfectly well much to the surprise of Po, Takami, Ryo, the amazement of Arizona and the shock and envy of Master Tigress.
"How was that?" asked Max.
Arizona was the first one to cheer for Max and he said, "All right, Maximus! Did you do that all by yourself?"
"I had some help." Max replied.
Po became completely speechless and Takami chuckled softly and said, "You've got a lot of stuff, kid."
"I'll say. I've never seen anything like it before." Ryo said, with a smile.
Tigress came over to Max and she said, "That's impossible! I thought I told you you're unteachable! What time-wasting idiot taught you the simple moves that I tried to teach you!?"
Faith clears her throat for a second and said, "Don't you mean...'Miss' time wasting idiot?"
Ryo and Takami let out a collective 'ooooh' and Arizona puts his fingers on his lips suggesting that she couldn't have said anything and Po said to her, "You got smoked by a cheetah."
"I taught Max a few things while you guys were gone and after a couple of lessions, I think he's impressive for someone his age and I think if he keeps this up, he'll be a master by the time he's like...20, crushing all the other kung-fu masters skills into dust." Faith responded.
Ryo and Takami were completely impressed with what Max has brought in and a little shocked that Faith took her time to teach an eight year old tiger cub a little bit of kung-fu and Takami got down to his level and said, "You made a believer out of me, man."
"Same as me." Ryo stated.
"If I was him...I would completely be a master right now." Takami added.
Arizona came towards Max and he said, "Come on, Maxie. Let's head to the training hall so you can show me those moves."
"Thanks, Faith. You're the best teacher ever." Max said, with a smile on his face.
Faith giggles for a sec and replied, "You're very welcome, Max."
That made Tigress growl in jealousy for a bit because she could've taught him the same way Faith did and Ryo said, "Someone's jealous."
"I don't get jealous." Tigress lied.
Ryo rolled his eyes at that and said, "I wasn't born yesterday. I know you're jealous that Max is better than you."
Max heard this and said, "I don't care what they think of me. Faith said that you, Takami, Po and Tigress were dorks and lame and felt good about it."
The reactions were both of shock and embarassment after Max said that and they turned to Faith...apparently in a mixture of offensiveness and humiliation and Ryo asked, "You told Max we were a little lame?"
"And dorks too?" asked Takami.
Faith fidgeted her fingers and said, "Only trying to build up Max's self-esteem here."
"Well, did you think about ours?" Po asked.
"For once, Po's actually right. Did you really think you should tell that to an eight year old?" asked Tigress.
Faith kept her cool steadily and said, "There was no offense to anyone or even intended to offend you guys any further. It was just an example of how you guys went through if you were in Max's position."
Takami, Ryo and Po quickly got the message as they looked back on what they went through individually and understood it right away, proving a good point at the end of it.
"She's right." Takami stated.
"Yeah, we've been outcasts before and we know what it's like...so I guess it's no big deal." Ryo agreed.
Just then, Arizona comes out of the training hall and he said, "Hey, Tigress...did you really kick Max so high that it bruised his face on one of those swinging clubs?"
Po seemed very shocked at this and asked, "You did what?!"
Tigress became absolutely dumbfounded after Arizona heard about that and she asked, "Who told you?"
"Max just told me." Arizona replied.
Tigress twitched her eye for a second and she started to get really angry about Max telling on Arizona what she did to him during her sessions with him and she roared, "MAAAAAAAAAAAAXXXXXXXXX!"
"I wouldn't be Max right now." Ryo whispered through Takami's ear.
I sorta thought this up to wrap up this chapter with hilarious results. Hazards, weigh in if you please and make sure Tigress doesn't chase down Max! Also, stick around for more!