Note: The only character clothing I'll describe would be my own. I figure that those who read the story have an idea how the characters' of the show would be dress and I would drag the story on if I described everyone of them.
Making A New Friend
The school day seemed to last forever and the only subject on everybody's mind was, 'What to do on Valentine's Day'.
Just when Jason didn't think the day would ever end from this torture, the bell rang for everyone to be dismissed. He goes to his locker to put some books away and get other outs.
Jason sees his English Lit book and remembers Ms. Applebee saying, "Don't forget to read Act One in Romeo and Juliet over the weekend."
"Of course." Jason grumbled. "What else would we be reading?"
"Hey bro." Tommy says as he comes up to him. "I hope you are up for some sparing today?" He throws a few punches in the air.
"Not really." Jason sighs. "I'm not really in the mood. I think I'll just go home and get a jump on my homework."
"Are you ok man? You seemed a little out of it today." Tommy looks at him with a worry look on his face. "You didn't seem to eat any of your lunch or say much of anything. You just sort of sat there."
Jason tries to give a confidant smile. "I'm fine. I'm just a little tired from this week and I'm looking forward to a nice weekend." He closes his locker and leaves.
'I hope he remembers what this weekend is.' Tommy thinks as he watches his best friend slump off.
As Jason walked home, a loud noise came up from behind him. He turned around to see a red and black Honda CBR 1000RR come roaring down the street. It pasted Jason and turn up onto the driveway of a house that was to the left of his. Jason jogged to the house to get a better look at the bike. The guy riding it wore a black leather suit, black leather clog style shoes with backing, and full head motorcycle helmet.
Jason called out. "Nice bike man." The guy turned around and nods in acknowledge. "Can I have a closer look?" The guy waved for him to come closer. With a big smile on his face, Jason jogged up the driveway. "Will you look at that engine…the leather seating…how fast does it go?" He turned to look at the leather person, only to find that there was nobody there. Jason looked around for the owner of the bike.
A voice called out from the garage. "I'm in here. I'll be out in a moment."
A couple minutes later, a sixteen-year-old guy with very short brown hair, wearing a red gym suit with black strips down the sides, the same black shoes as before, a red cap with a black rim and a pair of round red shades comes walking out of the side of the garage.
"Glad you like the bike, but I can't really answer any questions just yet. I just got it and haven't read the manual yet."
"I see." Jason held a hand out to him. "My name is Jason."
"My name is…uh…Scott." The boy took Jason's hand and they shook.
Jason turned back to look at the bike. "So how long have you had the bike?"
"My dad got it for me for having to move here." Scott sighed.
"Sounds like you didn't want to move." Jason motioned that he wanted to sit on it.
Scott nods that it was all right. "Well…to tell you the truth, I didn't want to move here exactly."
"Why is that?" Jason asked as he hops on to the bike. He gripped the handlebars and straightens up the bike as he stands. He bounced back and forth with the bike, imagining what it was like to ride it.
"Um…" Scott readjusted his shades nervously. "Let's chalk it up to bad experience."
"What do you mean?" Jason stop and looks at Scott with a confused look.
"Could we change the subject? I'm starting to feel uncomfortable about it." Scott gave a weak grin.
"Uh…sure." Jason gets off the bike. "So you and you parents are the ones who moved in over the pass week. It's a quick move."
Scott shrugged. "When you're organized, things tend to go quite quickly."
A woman's voice calls out to him from his house. "Jason?" It was his mom. She came out the front door and across the lawn to them. "Oh I see you've met the new neighbors." She said happily. "I saw the moving van out here all week, but I didn't see the owners."
Jason made the proper introductions. "Mom, this Scott. Scott this is my mom." Scott put his hands to his sides and gives a slight bow.
"How do you do mrs.…uh…?" Scott looked for what he should call her.
"Just call me Cindy." She told him. "You have such nice manners."
"My parents wouldn't have it any other way." Scott replied.
"I see. Well I came over to maybe invite you over to our place some time for lunch or dinner…maybe tea." She waved a hand to show the other houses around them. "In a sort of way to welcome you to the neighborhood. I hope my son has provided an excellent example of the kind of people who live here." She gave Jason's cheek a pinch.
"Mom!" Jason brushed her hand away. "Stop that." He blushed a deep red.
"Oh, don't tell me you're starting to be embarrassed about having your mom around with you." His mother smoothed out his hair. "Dear me, don't you ever comb it? I swear it like a patch of weeds up there."
"Cut it out." Jason knocked her hands away and ruffles his hair back up. "I like how I had it."
"But just once, would it hurt you to look nice?" She licked her hand and tries to smooth it again.
"Ew! Mom!" Jason waved her hands away again.
Cindy put her hands up in defeat. "Alright, I get the hint. I'm leaving." She took Jason's bag before walks back to their house. "Tell your parents what I said." She yelled to them.
Scott yelled back. "I will." He looked over at Jason with a huge grin. "Mothers, what can you do?" He shrugged sympathetically.
"Tell me about it." Jason ruffled his hair up some more.
"First they tell you to grow up and then they fuss over you like you're still a little kid." Scott complained as he opens the garage door.
"I know. Every time you want to do something, you have to pass it by them for approve. And if there is even a hint of injury that could happen, they nix it." Jason gave out a deep sigh.
"I hear ya." Scott replied, as he puts his bike inside and closes the door. "Did you know my mother had an absolute fit over me getting the bike? Dad told her that I'd be all right, but she was all worried that I'd go out and break my neck." Scott motioned Jason to come sit with him on his porch.
They sit on the stairs. Scott leans against one of the wooden poles that held part of the porch roof up and Jason leaned against the side of the house. "I told her I had a better chance of breaking my neck in martial arts practice than I would driving down the street. And she told me that she objected to that too, but she was over ridden by her grandfather."
"You know? I figured you for a martial artist. The way you disappeared without me sensing it and the way you bowed to my mom. What belt are you?
"Black belt first degree in Judo and black belt forth degree in Tae Kwan Do. You?"
"Same thing. How did you get started?"
"Well at first it was to build self confidence. But when that reason didn't work anymore, it was family tradition or something like that."
"Oh?"
"Yeah. Being the eldest great grandchild of the family, my great grandfather thought I should be out winning martial arts tournaments. I'm the trophy winner of the family."
"Sounds like it's more of an obligation than for fun."
"It was as first, but then I really got into it and found it to be rather exciting. I like to imagine each tournament like winning another piece of honor for my family. Besides it make my mother's parents happy. They just love to brag about their grandchildren to all their friends. The more trophies I bring home, the more they get to brag."
"Sounds nice." Jason sees Scott look down the street and also looks down the street to see nothing at first, but soon he sees a red minivan come up the street and pull into the driveway.
A Caucasian man with short brown hair, which was receding from the forehead, brown mustache and beard was driving. He gets out of the van, to show that he was dressed in a blue work shirt, kaki work pants, and black steel-toed boots. A Chinese lady with shoulder long black hair, wearing a white t-shirt, kaki pants, and brown leather ankle high-boots gets out of the passenger side of the van. She comes up to the steps where Jason and Scott sit, while the man opens the garage door to put the van in.
"Hello." The Chinese woman says to them.
"Hello ma'am." Jason stands up to greet and let her pass.
"What a polite young man." The woman comments, then she turns to Scott. "Don't just sit there, introduce us." She snaps and Scott jumps to his feet.
"This is my mom." Scott says. "Mom, this is Jason. He lives next door." Scott point to Jason's house. "His mom was over earlier to invite us over for tea or dinner as a way to welcome us to the neighborhood."
"Well isn't that nice." Scott's mom say with a smile. "I think I'll go over and make a short visit." She looks at Jason. "By the way, you can call me Catherine." She tells him, before walking over to his house.
The man comes up to them after putting the van away and closing the garage door. "This is my dad." Scott says. "Dad, this is Jason from next door."
"You can call me Peter." Scott's dad puts a hand out for Jason.
"How do you do sir?" Jason takes the hand and they shake.
"Fine." Peter turns to Scott. "And you thought you wouldn't be able to make any friends when you moved back." He laughs before going into the house.
Scott blushes as Jason gives him a confuse look. "What does he mean 'when you moved back here'?" Jason asks
Scott fidgets nervously. "Uh…" He sees Jason give him an even closer look. "Ok, I'll tell you the truth." Scott sits back down and Jason does the same. "You see we use to live in Angel Grove, but not in as nice as neighborhood as this. So anyway, about three years ago I moved to China with my great grandfather, cause it would be the last years of his life and he wanted to spend it there. He took me along for some special training and other personal reasons. While I was out in China, my dad's job had to move elsewhere. After three years, the new place wasn't doing so well and everyone had to move back. Thanks to inheritances from my great grandfather, we were able to afford a house here. But because I didn't leave on very good terms, I was worried about what things would be like when I moved back." Scott lets out a deep sigh. "In fact I wanted to stay out in China, but great grandfather said that there were things I had to do here."
"You didn't want to move back because you didn't have any friends?" Jason asked.
"Yeah…" Scott looked at the ground.
"Well, we could be friends." Jason suggested.
Scott looked hard at Jason, "You mean that?" to see if he was serious.
"Sure I do. I mean, we're neighbors. Right?"
"Yeah…"
"So why can't we be friends?"
"I guess there is no reason not to." Scott rubbed the back of his head and looks at the ground again to think. After a couple minutes he looks back at Jason. "Ok." He nodded. "Thanks."
Jason smiled. "No problem." There was a silence between them for a while. They watched as cars drove up and down the street. "You want to shoot some hoops at the park?" Jason asked, to break the silence.
"I'm not very good." Scott replied timidly.
"It's ok. Nothing completive."
"Well, I'll have to ask my parents if it's ok." Scott got up and goes to the door. "Hang on." He opened the door. "Dad? Can I go to the park with Jason?"
"As long as you are back before dark." Peter yelled back.
"Ok." Scott comes back to the stairs and nods.
Jason gets up. "Great. Let me get the ball from my place and tell my mom where I'm going." He walks to his house with Scott following.
After the two boys go through the front door of Jason's house, Jason ran up stairs to his room. He comes back down with a basketball under one arm and heads for the kitchen. In there was his mom and Scott's mom, drinking coffee.
"Mom, Scott and I are going to the park to play hoops. Ok?"
Cindy and Catherine turn around to look at the two of them. "Ok." His mother replied.
"Does you father know where you're going?" Catherine asked Scott.
Scott nodded. "Yeah, I asked before coming over here."
"I hope you too have a good time." Catherine said. "And be careful."
"I will." Scott answered.
"Let's go." Jason said, as he lead the way out of house and to the park.
As they walk to the park, the two boys started to talk about which baseball team was the best. Jason talked about the Boston Red Sox and Scott talked about the Oakland A's. By the time they got into the park, they were in a heated debate over which martial art actor was the best, Bruce Lee or Jackie Chan.
"There wouldn't be a Jackie Chan if it wasn't for Bruce Lee." Jason said.
"But Jackie Chan makes things fun to watch. Every time you see him, you know it's going to be a funny movie." Scott counted.
"Bruce had the best moves."
"Jackie will use anything in sight, like a true martial artist. A true master can make a weapon out of everything. Besides, the guy did his own stunts."
"So did Bruce, he died in the middle of one."
"Bruce is so 70's while Jackie is so 90's. The guy has his own cartoon."
"That he produced with his daughter. The guy is an ego manic."
"No he's not. He always wanted to be in one. You know the saying, 'if you want something done, do it yourself'."
Jason pointed ahead of them. "I think we're a little late for the basketball court." Some people were already playing there. "You want to wait till they're done?" He looked over at Scott.
"They could be there a while." Scott shrugged. "Let's walk around the park some. It's been a while since I've been here." He starts to head in one direction. "Come on, I'll show you where my great grandfather trained me. His dojo isn't far from here. It's also attached to his doctoring practice."
"Ok." Jason follows after him. "So your great grandfather was a doctor too?"
"Yeah." Scott sighed. "It seemed he knew almost everything.
"Sounds like you two were very close."
"We were. Both my parents worked, so if it wasn't for him I'd be home alone a lot. To me he was a teacher, a sensei, an instructor, a mentor, and a friend. I thought I'd be lost when he died."
In time, the two boys reached the place that Scott wanted to show Jason. Nobody seemed to be home, but Scott had his own key to the place and he let them in. Outside the building looked like a large business office, however it was only a shell to protect what seem to be the real buildings inside. Inside was an old style Chinese house with rice paper walls, doors that slide open and close, wooden floors…the works. By the front door was a closet and inside the closet was a rack for outside shoes. Next to the rack was a bag full of Chinese shoes for houseguest to wear inside the house. Scott takes his shoes off and looks for shoes in his size.
"It's been a while since I've been here. Usually there would be house shoes for me."
When he was done, he holds the bag open for Jason to take a pair. Jason was unsure if he should or not.
"Go ahead. My grandmother makes them on her free time. She believes that if she keeps her fingers exercised, she won't get arthritis. So far that seems to prove true."
"Thanks." Jason hands the basketball to Scott before he looked through the bag for shoes his size.
When Jason found a pair, he took his off and put them on. Scott hands the ball back to Jason so he could put the two pairs of shoes onto the rack. After that, Scott leads Jason to the dojo area of the building.
Scott slid open the door. "This is where I learned it all." It was one very large room. A line in the center of the room divided it to actually make it two rooms. One room was the dojo and the other was a gymnastic room. "What do you think?" He looked at Jason.
Jason looked around. "Looks like you would learn a lot here." He ran a finger down the punching bag and pulled off a layer of dust. "It's obvious that it hasn't been used in a while."
"At least for three years." Scott couldn't help, but laugh as he watched Jason wipe his finger on his shirt. "I learned the basics here and practice when the weather was not so good out, but most of my training was out in the park. Plenty of room, obstacles, and experience in almost any situation were the advantage for practicing there."
"Sounds like some hardcore training." Jason chuckled.
"Maybe, but it means nothing when you don't have a partner to practice with." Scott gave a shrug. "Can't judge how good you are if you don't have someone to compete against all the time. Tournaments are ok, but they only keep you on your feet for a few days and then you forget what you learned when you stop."
"So why don't you take me on?" Jason went to side of the dojo, drops the ball, and stood in a defensive pose.
Scott nodded. "Ok."
Scott moved to the opposite side of Jason and stood in the same way. Jason made the first move; he threw a right punch at Scott. Scott ducked and does a sweep kick, knocking Jason's feet out from under him. Jason falls onto his back, but flips back onto his feet just as Scott straightens up. They circled around, trying to figure out who was going to make the next move. Scott jumps up at Jason to punch downward at him, but Jason jumped back and did a roundhouse kick. Scott manages to flatten himself on his stomach on the ground and Jason's leg swings over him. Then Scott rolled onto this back, flipped onto his feet and turned around in time to catch Jason's right hand punch with his left. He held tight to the hand as Jason throws a left hand punch. Scott catches the hand in his right.
Now that he had Jason open, Scott fell onto his back and flip-kicks Jason over him. Jason tucks his head and arms under, so he could roll back onto his feet. He turns around to face Scott in time to see the boy come down at him with his right foot extended for a downward kick and jumps back in time for Scott to land in front of him. Jason ducks down and kicks Scott's feet out from under him. While Scott falls Jason jumps at him, grabbing his shoulder in order to pin Scott to the mat when they land.
"I give." Scott panted as Jason held him.
Jason was also panting. "You're pretty good." He stands up and helps Scott up.
"Guess I've neglected my practicing more than I thought." Scott laughed.
"We still have time. You want to spar some more?" Jason asked.
"Sounds like a good idea." Scott nodded.
They go at it from another hour before calling it quits.
"(Whew) That was good." Scott says, as he wipe the sweat from his forehead.
"Seems you gotten back in the groove." Jason leans against one of the walls to catch his breath. "I'll have to introduce you to Tommy some time. Up until now, he's been the only one able to keep me on my feet. I think you'd give him a hard time too."
Scott smiles. "Sounds like a nice idea." The boy turns away from Jason to lift his shades and look at his right wrist. "Looks like we should be getting back." He looks back at Jason. "Maybe your family and mine could have dinner together."
"That would be great." Jason picks up his basketball.
They leave the dojo and get their regular shoes back on. Scott lets Jason keep the house shoes he has taken. Jason could use them when he came over to Scott's house, seeing as they have the same routine as at the office/dojo.
When they get back to Jason's place to ask if the two families could go out, Jason found a note on the door say his parents were next door. They go over to Scott's house to find both families there.
"Ah, there are our children." Catherine says as she sees the two of them enter the house. Scott and Jason change their shoes before joining their parents in the living room. "Looks like you two had fun. Who won?"
"We didn't shoot hoops, the court was taken." Scott tells them. "I took Jason to great grandfather's dojo. We sparred a bit and then decided to come home to see if we all could have dinner together."
"Actually we just ordered pizza." A man said. He had short brown hair that was also receding from the forehead, red t-shirt, red jeans, and white shoes. "I'm Phil. Jason's father."
"Hello." Scott gives him a wave.
"What kind of pizza did you get?" Jason asked.
"One with a lot of meat, of course." Phil said. He watched as Jason and Scott licked their lips. "And one with vegetables for health reasons."
"Or cause mom said so." Scott whispered to Jason. Jason stifled a laugh.
"Seems like you two are getting along very well." Peter says, looking at the two with a smile. "Are you two planning to do anything over the weekend?"
"Dad." Scott gives his father a look.
"Not really. But I wouldn't mind hanging out with you." Jason looks over at Scott.
"Really?" Scott looks back at Jason to see him nod. "Cool." Scott smiled.