Trysha's POV

As we watched Mulan go inside, I looked at Jeanette and softly said to her, "Boy, women here sure don't get much respect. It seems their only purpose in life is to get married and live the rest of their lives as baby-making machines!"

"You're telling me!" Jeanette whispered with a frown, "I'm grateful that we live in a time and place where we have the same rights as men do!"

My look became concerned as I leaned towards Jeanette's ear and whispered, "But be careful not to say that out loud, or else people here will think we're barbarians – like the Huns!" I carefully looked around before I finished into Jeanette's ear, "And we could get killed!"

Jeanette held my hand and softly assured, "Don't worry, Trysha. If anything happens, I'm with you till the end!"

I smiled at her, and then I turned to look on at the Matchmaker's house. Pretty soon, though, we heard the sounds of screaming and items breaking coming from inside. Everyone gasped, and I gulped before I mumbled with fear, "Uh-oh!"

Grandmother Fa just smiled at Fa Li and said, "I think it's going well, don't you?"

Just then, the doors opened, and the Matchmaker came out with an ink-smeared "mustache" on her face, stains on her dress, and fire on her rear end. "Put it out!" she screamed, "Put it out! PUT IT OUT!"

At last, Mulan came out and splashed a teapot onto the Matchmaker, putting the fire out and making the makeup on the fat woman's face drizzle down. Everyone in the crowd gasped with shock as we saw Mulan slowly give the teapot to the Matchmaker, bow, and then walk down the steps in embarrassment.

The cricket, whom Jeanette and I know was really responsible for the mess, hopped down the stairs and then made his way back to the cage on the back of Mulan's dress. The cricket nervously closed the cage as Mulan approached us in the crowd with the Matchmaker following us.

We all gasped again as the Matchmaker yelled at Mulan with rage, "You are a disgrace!" She threw the teapot on the ground before ranting, "You may look like a bride, but you will NEVER bring your family honor!"

Jeanette glared at her and muttered, "Yeah, whatever, you fat bitch!"

"What did you say?!" the Matchmaker roared at her.

Jeanette rubbed her side with her hand and lied, "I said I have a bad itch!"

The Matchmaker just huffed with anger before walking away.

The other people in the crowd walked away whispering to each other, but Fa Li, Grandmother Fa, Jeanette, and I looked at Mulan with sympathy as she hung her head low. "What happened, Mulan?" I asked her.

Mulan just lifted her head up, worried about what her father was going to say.

Jeanette's POV

A few minutes later, Trysha, Mulan, and I were walking our horses back to the farm as Mulan told us what happened. She said that her lucky cricket escaped his cage, the Matchmaker touched Mulan's cheat notes and created an ink goatee, and ultimately, the cricket (we named him "Cri-kee") screwed everything up by using a teacup for a hot tub and causing Mulan to spill tea and get the Matchmaker humiliated.

As we approached the farm, Fa Zhou looked at us with a smile, but Mulan turned her head away from him in shame, worried about what he would say over her failed matchmaking visit. As we let our horses drink at a trough, Mulan looked at her reflection in the water and sang with lament:

Look at me

I will never pass for a perfect bride

Or a perfect daughter

Can it be

I'm not meant to play this part?

Fa Li was telling Fa Zhou about what happened in town, and Mulan was removing her jewelry as Trysha and I watched with sympathy. Then, Mulan set Cri-kee free from his cage onto a little leaf before walking away. I frowned at Cri-kee for causing Mulan to screw up, but Trysha nudged me and said, "It's okay, Jeanette. Cri-kee's sorry."

I sighed as we all watched Mulan walk through a garden and cross a bridge before reaching the Great Stone Dragon.

Mulan: Now I see

That if I were truly to be myself

I would break my family's heart

Who is that girl I see

Staring straight back at me?

Why is my reflection someone I don't know?

Trysha, Cri-kee, and I decided to follow her for comfort; Trysha and I crossed the bridge while Cri-kee rode in a little leaf raft upon the water's surface. Soon, Trysha and I saw Mulan praying to her ancestors in the temple and wiping the makeup from her face as she sang:

Somehow, I cannot hide

Who I am, though I've tried

When will my reflection show who I am inside?

After wiping away her makeup, Mulan undid her hair and finished singing with sadness, "When will my reflection show who I am inside?"

As she left her temple, Trysha and I went over to Mulan with sympathy. "Hey, it's okay," I tried assuring her, "You did your best, but accidents happen."

Mulan just sighed and walked away from us; she then sat down at a bench near a tree full of blossoms.

I looked at Trysha and said, "I was trying to help."

Trysha nudged me and softly said with, "Here comes her father!"

Knowing that Fa Zhou could get very angry if dishonored, Trysha and I decided to stay where we were as the old man approached his daughter.

Third Person POV

Fa Zhou sat down by Mulan at the bench and looked at the blossoms in the trees. "My, my," he said with a calm tone, "What beautiful blossoms we have this year!"

Jeanette and Trysha, who were watching from a short distance, looked at each other with shock. They were both expecting him to be angry at Mulan, but he had a not-so-stern expression.

Mulan turned her head away from her father, not wanting to talk to him after what happened in town that day. But Fa Zhou looked at a blossom that wasn't quite in bloom yet and said, "But look! This one is late. I'll bet that when it blooms, it will be the most beautiful of all!" He then took Mulan's flower hairpiece and gently placed it into her hair.

Mulan turned around and smiled sweetly at her father, knowing that he would always love her no matter what she did.

Unfortunately, the father and daughter's moment was interrupted by the sound of a large drum beating. Fa Zhou frowned as Mulan asked him, "What is it?"

"Do you know what this means?" Trysha asked Jeanette as they also heard the sound of the drum.

Jeanette just frowned as she looked over and saw some men on horseback riding in to the village; the leader was a skinny-looking man dressed in blue with a goatee and mustache.

Mulan's brothers joined the two girls as Jeanette looked at Trysha and said, "Something is not right in the Imperial City, that's for sure!"

A while later, Jeanette, Trysha, and the whole Fa family were joining all the citizens in the town square to hear an announcement from the visitors led by Chi-Fu, the Emperor's majordomo.

Fa Zhou went over to join the other citizens, and Mulan followed him, but Fa Li stopped her. "Mulan, you and your friends should stay inside with your brothers," the mother said. She then followed her husband, but Grandmother Fa cleared her throat and motioned for the girls to take a listen upon a roof.

Jeanette's POV

Mulan, Trysha, and I all nodded at the Grandmother, and then we all climbed to the top of the roof. When we reached the top, we looked down and saw Chi-Fu announce to the crowd, "Citizens! I bring a proclamation from the Imperial City! The Huns have invaded China!"

Everyone, including Mulan, Trysha, and myself, all gasped with shock.

"By order of the Emperor," Chi-Fu continued, "One man from every family must serve in the Imperial Army!" He got some scrolls out and called out, "The Xiao family!"

A man walked over and took his conscription notice from the majordomo.

Chi-Fu then announced, "The Yi family!"

An older man came to take the conscription notice, but his grown son stepped forward and said, "I will serve the Emperor in my father's place!"

"The Fa family!" Chi-Fu announced.

Up on the roof, Trysha and I gasped, and Mulan whispered with shock, "No!"

Trysha and I remembered that Fa Zhou was permanently injured in the last war, and if he fought in this war, he would surely die!

Trysha and I looked down and saw Fa Zhou walk towards Chi-Fu and the other men on horses, only this time, without his crutch. As he approached to retrieve his conscription notice, Trysha pointed something out to me, and whispered, "Jeanette, look!"

I looked down and saw that Mulan had left her spot on the roof, and she was looking at her father from the crowd. "I am ready to serve the Emperor," Fa Zhou said to the men.

"NO!" Mulan cried.

Trysha and I exchanged looks of shock as we heard Mulan plead, "Father, you can't go!"

We looked down again and saw Fa Zhou gasp at his daughter, "Mulan!"

Mulan looked at Chi-Fu and pleaded, "Please, sir, my father was injured in the last war, and…"

"Silence!" the majordomo shouted at her.

Before you could say fortune cookie, I suddenly looked down with a glare and screamed, "JUSTICE!"

Everyone in the crowd gasped with awe just as Trysha pulled me back down to hide. "Jeanette, are you CRAZY?!" she asked me with disbelief and anger, "What was that for? This isn't The Hunchback of Notre Dame, you know!"

I sighed with frustration and said softly to my friend, "I'm sorry. It's just that Chi-Fu reminds me so much of Frollo from that movie, even though he isn't a true 'villain' per se!" I air-quoted the word "villain" as I said this.

Then, after a few short minutes of listening to the majordomo say something to Fa Zhou, Trysha and I walked down from the roof to check on the other members of the Fa family. Fa Jun was sulking, "How come I don't get to be a soldier, and Baba does?"

Trysha and I saw that none of his other family members answered, for they all had solemn looks. Then, we saw Fa Zhou walk coldy away from his family, not even bothering to take his crutch back from his wife. Mulan followed him with her head hung low. Trysha and I looked at Mulan, but she didn't look back at us.

"Looks like she's brought big-time dishonor," Trysha whispered to me.

I nodded and watched the family walk slowly home before we followed them.