Part Two: Interlude
Over the rest of the summer, the four teenagers spent almost all their spare time together. Although Cologne had said that Mousse only had weekends off, she actually turned out to be very lenient in regards to his going out, especially where his new girlfriend was involved. And, as for Ryoga, he now had two people who would help him out when it came time to go anywhere; sometimes three, as he and Mousse were trying to get along better. Mostly to avoid "the Look," which they would get from the two girls whenever they so much as glared at each other in a menacing fashion.
Sometimes the girls would cook, and sometimes the guys would cook, and sometimes they would go out to eat. Jesse and Erin learned very quickly that Ryoga had an understandable aversion to ham and pork, and Mousse refused to eat duck (which tastes nasty anyway…). On one of their trips to an American restaurant, they also discovered that Mousse possessed a violent allergy to mayonnaise; something that led to a "fun" trip to the local doctor and involved a stomach pump.
After they had been going out about three weeks, Erin took Mousse to an optometrist to have his prescription updated. For the next two days, he walked around in absolute exultation as he realized that grass is made up of individual blades and trees still have bark no matter how far away you get. Of course, he still had the habit of pushing them up on his head, but at least he could see well when he remembered to wear them…
When the school year started again in the fall, Erin and Jesse enrolled in advanced language classes at the local college. Mousse and Ryoga, who had both been taught small amounts of English while growing up, decided that they wanted to learn more. This was partially out of a desire to be able to communicate with their girlfriends in their native language, and partially because they wanted to be able to understand the various, muttered English comments that the two girls made when talking to people like Ranma. Because of this, both young men decided to take a beginner's conversational English class. Mousse, who had a natural propensity for learning languages, grasped abstract concepts faster, whereas Ryoga's knowledge proceeded along more practical lines: «Hello, how are you? My name is Ryoga. Where is the bathroom?» Both of them, however, quickly learned one phrase even if they did not really understand the grammar behind it: «I love you.»
By Christmas, both Ryoga and Mousse could carry on pointless conversations in English, consisting of what their names were, where they were from, and basic physical characteristics; something that only came in handy with people who did not speak English. («Hi, Ranma. You are short, stupid, and ugly.») For the first time in several years, Ryoga got a Christmas present, and, as for Mousse, it was the first time in his life. Now that they had girlfriends, they also quickly figured out what mistletoe was good for…especially if you carried it around with you.
Although neither Erin nor Jesse had any real interest in becoming martial artists, Mousse and Ryoga did give them occasional "lessons." Ryoga and Jesse focused mostly on hand to hand combat, with her favorite attack being tickling (worked every time…), and Mousse worked on teaching Erin how to throw knives…accurately. The two cousins were actually getting fairly good. Of course, not good enough to actually beat anyone in Nerima, but then again, no one ever thought about attacking either of them. Too many strange rumors going around. Both girls, however, had the same feelings about fighting with honor: If you need to win against the bad guy, do it any way you can…including cheap tricks and/or cheating. After all, in a life or death scenario, it really matters not whether you played "fair" in the end…just as long as you lived through it.
By the end of the school year, both young men could hold their own in English, as long as the conversation did not get too technical or abstract. Ryoga's directional sense, as well, was showing improvement with all the positive reinforcement he was getting from Jesse and her cousin; something he had never gotten before. One still could not tell him where to go and expect him to get there, but with a good map, he usually did all right. As far as the martial arts, Jesse could hold her own against Ryoga, as long as he kept it fairly simple and refrained from using any energy attacks, and Erin could hit the center of the target almost every time, as long as it was not moving all about.
Soon, it was summer again, and the girls decided that they were going to stay for at least another year…
