"Laurel Wreath"
By Roby Carr
Part Two: The Xiaolin Dragon of Lightning
-----
Laurel had found that just in the span of one afternoon and one morning, she was instantly enraptured by the kindness and welcoming the four young Dragons and Master Fung displayed for her. How could Jack and Wuya be right about them trying to stop the good cause Wuya was trying to further? They were all so nice... But Jack and Wuya would have never lied to her. That would have been wrong. Without a doubt, everyone at the dojo was just pretending to be nice. That was exactly what Wuya had said would happen. They were the liars!
But still...
Laurel found herself smiling broadly in a rather foolish and girly way as her mind traveled into the memories of just that morning. Raimundo and Clay had made both her and Kimiko laugh for at least half an hour as they continued to banter all throughout breakfast over Rai's interesting habit of picking the marshmallows out of his Lucky Charms before eating it.
"It's even more 'magically delicious' this way," Rai had protested when Clay had tried to get him to eat just one spoonful of Lucky Charms with the marshmallows in it. Rai still refused to eat it.
That was what she liked especially about this group. That they could have playful arguments over breakfast and by mid-morning training be best friends once again. Currently, the others were all in Kimiko's room because it was the one set up with her video games. From what Laurel had gathered, this was the constant meeting place when they weren't training.
Laurel turned, heading to the one window in her room that looked out onto most of the rest of the dojo. How could anything so full of friendship and life be so evil?
"Aren' ya goin' t' unpack?" a voice asked, startling Laurel. She turned to see Clay leaning casually against the frame of her door.
Laurel smiled at him. She liked the cowboy. Not only was he the only other person at the dojo from the States, he was also one of the sweetest people she'd ever met. He acted like she could come to him about anything.
"Of course not," she said in her normal quiet tone, "I'm only going to stay here for three days. Master Fung only asked me to give this Xiaolin-thing a try and I really want to get back home to my family and friends. To tell you the truth, Clay..." She paused. "I wasn't ever really planning on staying. I'm only here to be polite to Master Fung."
"What're y' talkin' 'bout, Laurel?" he questioned, raising an eyebrow and pulling off his hat as he entered Laurel's bedroom. When he was reared down in a small town in Texas, he'd been taught to always take off his hat before entering a lady's bedroom and, though he no longer bothered when entering Kimiko's room, he still wanted to make a good impression on Laurel.
"I'm already homesick..." she whispered quietly as she glanced back out the window, "For you guys, this dojo has become your home, but I just want to go back to Los Angeles. I miss my friends and my family and the shopping mall."
Clay walked over to join her out the window. Following her gaze, he realized he could easily understand where Laurel was coming from. He had been feeling the same things when he first came to the dojo, not knowing anyone and hating the fact that he was already stereotyped as the big, dumb cowboy. He'd wanted to go back to Texas in his first few weeks at the dojo too, before Rai became his best friend and Kimiko and Omi became his good friends too. He'd wanted to go back and see his girlfriend back in the States, Paige, and especially when he turned sixteen a week after arriving at the dojo he felt alone. At least he did until Rai forced him to come back behind the dojo and he realized that everyone had gathered to throw him a surprise party. That was when he started feeling like he belonged.
But they only had two more days to convince Laurel to stay apparently. She was missing the patience the Clay had, and she was far more emotional than the calm cowboy.
"Y'all should stay fer a while longer," Clay attempted anyway, his efforts useless. Golden-blonde curls bounced as Laurel shook her head violently.
"No. I'd rather just go home... Maybe I'll return someday, but now isn't a good time," Laurel explained, "I'm just starting high school soon and I want to be there with my friends." Clay found himself understanding even more and in his usual way, he knew what she needed to at least feel better.
He embraced the smaller girl tightly and when he finally pulled away, he smiled comfortingly. "Y'all should know tha' you've got friends here at the dojo too. We ain' gonna see ya go tha' easily. We all care 'bout ya, Laurel. So don' you worry your pretty lil' head over this, ya hear?"
Laurel couldn't help giggling as she carefully pulled the cowboy hat from Clay's hands and leaned up on her tip-toes to place it back on his head.
"As long as you promise not to worry your pretty lil' head over taking off your hat when you come in my room, okay?" she asked playfully, smiling at the sweet boy.
"Fair deal," Clay replied, nodding, "Ya'll wanna go play some Phoenix Hunter 3. Kimiko jus' finished teachin' mah how t' play."
Laurel nodded back. "Sure," she said quietly, "That sounds like fun. I'll race you."
"On three," Clay agreed, taking a starting stance, "One... two..."
"Go!" Laurel shouted and shot forward. Clay grinned and chased after her, accusing her of cheating.
Things were going to be okay.
-----
Raimundo sat on the steps on the dojo, still panting slightly from his training. He was only planning on resting for a minute but the moment he'd sat down he realized how sore he was and how long he'd been out in the sun. Maybe this was going to be an end for today instead of a break.
The wind was blowing softly and he noticed that the sun was already setting, casting a reddish-orange glow over the entire dojo and its training grounds. Kimiko would've called it beautiful. Raimundo called it cool.
Running a hand through his sweat soaked brown hair, the Brazilian was frustrated with himself for knowing that he still hadn't entirely mastered the form Jae-Sang. Heaven and Earth. He'd meant to finish it so that tomorrow he could show Master Fung and then he'd finally be able to start using the bo that Master Fung just left leaning against the wall in one of the rooms of the dojo. He'd been waiting for a while and no one else used that bo either. It was just begging him to use it.
"I didn't know you were still out here, Ricardo. I thought everyone was already inside for tonight. They say it's going to rain tonight."
"Raimundo," he corrected as he turned around, ready to glare at Kimiko. Instead, he found a flushing blonde girl from Los Angeles standing in the middle of the doorway dressed in the dojo's standard female uniform. It clung to her curves nicely, just as Kimiko's did on her and Raimundo couldn't resist teasing Laurel a little, "Man, menina! You look gooood!" He grinned playfully at her and offered her a hand, pulling her down on the steps next to him when she took it.
"Sorry about getting your name wrong. I'm not very good with names. Sometimes I have trouble remembering my own name," she was flushing even harder after Raimundo's flirting and kept tugging at the edges of the short skirt. It felt much higher than what she was used to, "Kimiko let me borrow this. She says everyone wears these around the dojo."
"Yeah, but us guys are lucky we don't have to wear the skirts." Pausing for a second, Raimundo grinned. "I guess everyone is lucky I don't have to wear it. Trust me, I should not be showing off my thighs."
Laurel giggled and smiled before looking away at the empty grounds.
"I think I've seen you before." Raimundo frowned as he realized this. Laurel lived in Los Angeles, California in the States and he lived in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. And he'd lived there all his life until coming to the dojo.
Laurel looked up and cocked her head to the side, "I doubt it. We've been in different hemispheres, right?"
"Yeah, I guess..." Raimundo agreed, though there was a nagging feeling at the back of his mind, "I've got it! Your smile reminded me of-"
"I always remind people of..." Laurel interrupted in a sing-song tone, still soft, "Who is she?"
"She died," the Brazilian boy said slowly, unsure if he should continue. He'd never told even Clay about this and Clay was his best friend. Finally, he settled on just revealing her name - not much, but still enough. "Her name was April."
"Oh. Sorry about your friend," she replied just as slowly, looking more timid on such an uneasy topic. She barely even know Raimundo...
"You look familiar."
"Like your dead girlfriend," she repeated, glancing up at the taller boy and pulling at her skirt again.
Raimundo shook his head, "Only when you smile but I know I've seen you somewhere else. Ever been to Rio de Janeiro?" Laurel shook her head and Raimundo shrugged, "Maybe I'm wrong."
There wasn't much talking for the next few minutes as Raimundo's mind focused on past events and on April. The dirt on her grave was still new when he had to leave Brazil to head out to the dojo. For a week or so, he'd been pretty bitter about it, making fun out of insulting anyone he could find in Portuguese. It was Clay who'd changed it all. Despite the fact that Kimiko and Dojo became furious and Omi was always annoyed when Raimundo did it, Clay took the teasing stoically and would simply smile at him when Raimundo finished.
"Don' worry 'bout it, partner..." Clay'd told him after being shouted at in Portuguese one time, "I'm not gonna git angry so you're just proddin' a dead bull." Confused by this, it took Raimundo a couple of days to find out why Clay had never been annoyed. It had never occurred to Raimundo that Clay might be having a tough time too. That his sixteenth birthday was coming up and he had no friends to celebrate with. So Raimundo finally did something nice. He threw Clay a surprise birthday party and from that day on he found himself slowly feeling better. April was gone, but now there were Clay, Omi, and Kimiko. April couldn't be replaced but the others weren't trying to do that. They were just helping fill up the empty spaces she'd left behind.
"You're leaving in two days, right?" Raimundo asked, surprising himself even more than he'd surprised Laurel. He hadn't even been thinking about that when the question popped out, "Clay told me that you're not going to stay here at the dojo."
"Yeah, that's the truth. I'm going back to Los Angeles," Laurel replied.
"You know that we want you to stay, right menina?" Raimundo tried, "You don't need to worry about it. We all felt a little off in our first few weeks here, but once you get used to it, the dojo's alright."
"I'm not worried about that. I just don't belong here, okay?" the blonde girl said, getting a little angry, "Why do all of you just keep pushing it? I want to go home! I gave the dojo a chance and I don't like it! You can't change my mind!" She got up quickly, bent on heading out of there, but Raimundo grabbed her hand.
"Laurel," he said softly, "We aren't going to make you stay if you don't want to. It's your choice and we know that. We aren't going to force you to choose us. I know where you come from."
At these words, she relaxed visibly and glanced down at the Brazilian. "Yeah..." she replied, "I know. I'm just homesick, that's all."
Raimundo just smiled and let go of her hand, "Night, Laurel. I'll see you tomorrow at breakfast."
"Yeah..." Laurel replied as she headed for the door, "Goodnight Rodriguez."
"Raimundo!" he called.
"Whoops! Sorry, Raimundo! I won't forget again," she called back and Raimundo could almost hear Laurel flush bright crimson.
He really did hope that Laurel would end up staying. She would be an interesting addition to the team.
-----
Jack Spicer looked up from where he was closely examining the robot that Laurel had messed up. Wuya was currently grumping around.
"Why hasn't that girl gotten the Shen-Gong-Wu for us yet? We should have the Shen-Gong-Wu by now!"
Jack was also grumping, but for different reasons. He just couldn't figure out where Laurel had screwed up his robot so it couldn't fly anymore. They was something wrong, he knew that. He just couldn't figure out what. He hated when this happened! He was an evil genius! He wasn't supposed to not know what was going wrong! Nothing was supposed to go wrong!
"Is this working?"
A hand-held radio box lay forgotten on the table but it crackled to life and Jack remembered why it was there. Laurel had the other one and she was supposed to communicate on it.
"Well?" Wuya shrieked, zooming down to the radio box, "Do you have the Shen-Gong-Wu yet?"
"Quiet down!" Laurel's voice hissed, "Someone might hear you and then I'll never get you the Shen-Gong-Wu!"
"What'd you do to my robot?" Jack demanded to know, picking up the radio box, "How come I can get it to work?"
"I don't know. I tweaked a few wires, that's all. I just sort of messed around until it started playing music. But I'm here to give you my report. I've gotten into the dojo and they trust me, I'm going to head to Los Angeles and my 'home' in two days and I expect them to follow me. If they do, I'll buzz you to attack and you can pretend to lose so I can get away with the Dragons. It they don't follow me, I'll just return saying that you attacked me and I don't want my family or my friends to be put into danger."
"How deliciously evil!" Wuya cackled.
"What do you mean?" Laurel's voice asked, "I thought they were the evil ones."
"They are, dearie," Wuya told her, trying to cover her tracks, "They're deliciously evil and we need you to help us stop them."
"Over and out," Laurel's voice crackled and the radio box suddenly stopped making noise.
"You almost blew that for us!" Wuya accused Jack, "You almost told her that we were the evil ones! You must be the worst help ever! Dolt!"
Jack rolled his eyes and went back to working on his robot.
-----
"You're really leaving?" Kimiko asked. All four Dragons and Dojo had come with Laurel and Master Fung to the airport where Laurel was scheduled to catch her flight back to Los Angeles. Dojo was hidden under Clay's hat.
"I just need to be at home for now," Laurel said softly. She didn't squirm when Kimiko hugged her, but instead hugged back. She repeated the process with Omi and Raimundo who both wished her the best in life and did what they could to try to convince her to stay with them. She paused at Clay though and took longer to hug him, looking up and smiling. "I wish you were my big brother," she told him and Clay smiled back, hugging her again.
"Y'all should know tha' if Ah was yer big brother, Ah'd be givin' ya noogies all day long," he warned her playfully and ruffled her golden-blonde curls. Laurel laughed and clutched Clay's shoulder's, pulling his down a little so she could lift up his hat a little.
"Bye Dojo," she whispered, "You take care you these guys, okay? If I hear that anyone's been getting hurt, I'm blaming you."
Under the hat, the tiny dragon gave her a small grin and she set the hat back down, letting Clay straighten up once again.
"I'm going to miss you, Laurel," Omi told her again, "I wish I could have shown you more of the strings before you left the dojo."
"Ropes, Omi," Raimundo corrected for the second time that week, "The phrase is 'show you the ropes'."
"Oops."
"Flight 575, Northwest Airlines is now boarding at Gate C17," the PA system announced and Laurel glanced down at her ticket.
"That's me," she told them all and gave them a bittersweet smile, "Bye Kimiko! Bye Dojo! Bye Omi! Bye Clay! Bye Master Fung! Bye Roberto!"
"Raimundo!" the boy in question corrected in frustration and Laurel giggled.
"Yeah, I know. I just wanted to get it wrong one last time."
One last time.
The meaning of her words hit the four Dragons like a sack of potatoes. Already, they had gotten used to seeing Laurel every morning and they now expected her to get Raimundo's name wrong at least once a day. But she wasn't going to be around anymore. It was just them now.
"Laurel!" Kimiko cried, but the blonde had already disappeared out onto the plane, "Laurel's gone..."
"Yeah partner..."
"I'm gonna miss that menina," Raimundo admitted, "Master Fung, can't we go after her one more time? We know what city she's in."
The Xiaolin Dragon of Lightning.
"Perhaps, Raimundo. Perhaps, this is a time when we must go out of our way to acquire something even more important than a Shen-Gong-Wu. Perhaps, this is the time to acquire a Dragon."
-----
"So this is L.A.," Kimiko stared down from Dojo's back, "I always thought it would seem bigger than this."
"Where does Laurel live?" Omi asked, blinking up at Clay. The cowboy glanced down at the paper he held in his hand and took a moment before answering.
"Some apartmen' buildin', partner. Lincoln Park Apartmen' Complex. Master Fung didn' write down what her apartmen' number was."
"Maybe he didn't know," Kimiko suggested, "We can just ask around. I bet someone will know where Laurel lives!"
When they arrived at Lincoln Park Complex and entered, Kimiko grinned at the sight of a reception desk. A gray-haired man sat at the desk, hunched over a piece of paper.
"Hey, man." As they approached, the man looked up without a sound and Raimundo ventured the question on everyone's mind. "Do you know which apartment Laurel Nee lives in?"
"Laurel?" he repeated and nodded rather automatically, "A real neat kid. Number 419 on the fourth floor. Do you want me to call her down?" He gestured to the phone on his desk with a jerky motion.
"No!" Kimiko replied a little too quickly, worried that Laurel might not want to see them, "I mean, don't worry about it. We want to surprise her."
"Alright," the man replied and hunched over his magazine again. Raimundo elbowed Kimiko for her mistake and she elbowed him back as the four Dragons headed to the elevators.
"Did that guy seem a little weird to you guys?" Dojo hissed from under Clay's hat and Omi nodded.
"Yes, that was a strange encounter."
"Aw, partner. He's an ol' man. It ain' his fault if he's a lil' bit strange," Clay said, pressing his hat back down, "Y'all stay hidden, Dojo. If somebody sees ya, we're gonna have a problem on our hands."
"I guess you're right..." the little dragon replied and returned to his hiding spot as the Dragons boarded the elevator. The moment the elevator door closed, Jack Spicer climbed out from under the desk.
"Good job, Chameleon-bot," he said, "Now you get up into Laurel's 'apartment' and pretend to be her friend. Go!" The robot complied, changing form from the old man to its normal robot self to a light brown-haired girl. It left the building as took off, heading up to the open window where Laurel was waiting for it.
-----
It didn't take long for the Dragons to find Laurel's apartment on the fourth floor. It was the one with the door flung open and Avril Lavigne's song 'Sk8er Boi' blasting from a stereo inside.
"Uh, Laurel?" Omi called, glancing in the apartment.
Just barely visible from the doorway was the living room in which two girls were hanging out. One was Laurel; the other had light brown hair and was probably one of her friends. As Laurel sung along to the music in a highly off-key voice and danced, her friend was laughing and eating ramen noodles from a bowl.
"Mom! Dad!" she shouted, racing towards the door and froze when she realized it wasn't who she thought it was, "Omi? Raimundo? Clay? Kimiko?" Laurel glanced back at her friend who gave her a confused look. "Um... What are you doing here? In Los Angeles? Shouldn't you be at the dojo?" She gestured for her friend to turn off the music. The other girl obeyed, still very confused.
"Laurel," she said, "I'm going to go wait in the kitchen, alright?"
Laurel nodded robotically and waved her away. "Sure, Natalie. This won't take long."
"We would like for you to return to the dojo with us," Omi explained as soon as Natalie left the room, "We will leave right away."
The golden-blonde girl looked stunned by this offer. She hadn't even expected these four to show up on her doorstep, much less to think that she was going to leave her nice, normal life to come back with them! She couldn't just leave everyone she loved for a world she barely knew. As much as she had begun to care about the four Xiaolin Warriors, this was her life - not them.
"Please come back, Laurel," Kimiko begged, "We came all this way just to ask you to come back!"
Laurel looked both annoyed and shocked at this. "NO!" she replied rather suddenly, "Why can't you leave me alone?" She slammed the door in their face and Kimiko glanced over at the three males and Dojo.
"Maybe she will be hanging tighter when we return?" Omi suggested in a disappointed tone.
"Hanging looser, Omi," Raimundo corrected with a sigh, knowing the there probably wouldn't be any return.
"What are we going to do?" Kimiko asked, glancing over at Clay. He was the sturdy one. He was their rock. But even the Xiaolin Dragon of Earth looked shaken by this new turn. No one had expected Laurel to turn them away so suddenly. It just wasn't how they knew her to be. She was a sweet little blonde girl who got homesick after only one day, got embarrassed over the smallest teasing from Raimundo, and did her best to love everyone. She wasn't the girl who shut the door in their face.
"Ah guess we'll have t' go on back t' Master Fung an' tell him 'bout wha' happened. There ain' nothin' else we can do righ' now," the cowboy finally declared and Omi sighed, disappointed. They all were. "Maybe Laurel will come on her own soon enough."
"I guess..." Kimiko couldn't help thinking that the entire exchange was a little fishy, but as the guys headed into the elevator, she followed. Down in the lobby, Kimiko noticed that the old man from the reception desk was no longer there and now it was empty. Too bad. They might've left a message for Laurel or something like that.
The Dragons were had just left the building when they heard a loud scream. A familiar scream.
"Laurel!" Clay yelled, looking up at the building, "C'mon partners!"
-----
The fourth floor hallway was almost empty, much to the Dragons luck.
"Which one was her apartment?" Raimundo asked, glancing up and down the hall. It wasn't hard to figure out though as a curly-haired blonde stumbled out of one apartment looking more scared than she'd ever been in her life.
"You're still here!" she cried, relieved when she saw them, "This guy! He- he-" She screamed and dashed out of the way as Wuya swooped out of her apartment, followed quickly by Jack Spicer and two Jack-bots.
"Git down, Laurel!" Clay shouted, running forward from the rest of the Xiaolin Dragons. "This hallway ain' big enough for the both of us," he called to Jack Spicer, "An' y'all need to git outta here righ' now."
"Oh yeah?" Jack taunted, grabbing a struggling Laurel's wrist and tugging her to him, "And what're you going to do if I don't listen?"
"Ah'll-"
"It doesn't matter what he does!" Laurel interrupted, balling up her hand into a tight fist, "Because I'll do this!" She pulled her arm back and swung forward, her arm smashing into Jack's nose. A trail of blood began running from it and he frowned.
"You're going to pay for that!" he cried angrily as Laurel broke his hold and took off at a mad dash down the hallway, "Jack-bots! Get that geek!" The two Jack-bots had taken off after Laurel and were gaining on her quickly, but Clay was even faster.
"THIRD ARM SASH!" he shouted and pulled the Shen-Gong-Wu from his pocket. He used it to pull Laurel towards the Dragons much faster than the Jack-bots could move and reached into his other pocket, "And now, since we've got Laurel safe - EYE OF DASHI!" Using the Shen-Gong-Wu, he fired a blast of lightning and fried the Jack-bots. They dropped to the floor and he was about to use it on Jack and Wuya but Jack yelled one final threat and leapt away into the apartment. They could hear his propellers moving and realized he'd escaped through an open window.
"You saved me!" Laurel cried gratefully, throwing her arms around Clay's neck and hugging him tightly, "Thank you so much! You're my hero, Clay!"
"Aw, shucks," he replied modestly, blushing as he rubbed the back of his head, "It was nothin'. Any of these guys could have done it, Ah jus' happened to have some o' the Shen-Gong-Wu with mah."
"What're Shen-Gong-Wu?" she asked, stumbling over the word as she finally realized that Clay had been using magic. That was certainly... different.
"Look, I know it's a little unbelievable, menina," Raimundo explained slowly, "But we aren't just really awesome martial artists. We're sorta trying to save the world from the guy you gave a bloody nose and that one floating purple ghosty-head-thingy."
Laurel was unable to resist giggling a little. "No offense, Rai, because I believe the whole magic thing - I did just watch it happen." She paused and glanced at the quartet and Dojo, who was peeking out from under Clay's hat. "But when you look back on that incident, that whole attack was a little bit pathetic. I'm not sure it's all that hard."
"Alrigh', yeah," Clay agreed, "Jack's a lil' bit off of it sometimes, but other times..." He trailed off and Laurel nodded.
"Hey, where's your friend?" Kimiko asked as it occurred to her that Natalie hadn't come out of the apartment after Jack left.
"Oh no!" Laurel dashed down the hall for the second time in the past five minutes and stared into the apartment, "She- she's gone! That guy must have taken her as a hostage!" She paused and turned to lock her gaze with Omi. "I will. I will come to the dojo and learn how to use my powers. I'm not going to let him get away with hurting my family or my friends and I can't risk this happening again. I need to be there."
"Sweet, menina!" Raimundo said with a grin as the Dragons joined her at the doorway to her apartment. Wrapping an arm around her waist, he pulled her to his side, simply to give her a noogie. "Don't worry about it, girl. We're gonna get your friend back and Jack Spicer won't know what hit him."
"Thanks, Rodriguez," she replied with a small worried smile as she wrestled away from his brand of tough love.
"RaiMUNDO!" he corrected once again, annoyed that she still hadn't gotten it.
"Whoopsie! Sorry, Raimundo. I won't forget again, I promise."
"C'mon Laurel. I'll help you pack up some stuff to take to the dojo!" Kimiko offered, grabbing her new friend's hand and tugging her into the bedroom.
-----
Jack groaned again in pain, the wet cloth over his nose already turning pink from the blood.
"Ah thank she bwoke mah nowse!" he complained to Wuya, who seemed especially proud that Jack was in pain.
"Quiet boy! She just made you bleed! Toughen up!" Zooming down to her puzzle box to take a rest, she murmured, "It's so hard to find good help these days..."
Moaning again with a high-girly squeak as he pressed too hard, Jack wished that Laurel really was on the other side so he could start plotting revenge on her. But instead she just happened to be a good actress. Dang!
Laurel... The moment you're back over here, I'm making you go out on all those stupid Shen-Gong-Wu missions! he thought, And Wuya will yell at you when you fail instead of me!
-----
In the next chapter of Laurel Wreath -
"Hey partners!" Clay called on his way past Kimiko's bedroom where Kimiko and Raimundo were locked in a heated match of Fury Fighter VII. Laurel and Omi were looking on eagerly, waiting for their turn to play winner, "Dojo says he's got a reading on a new Shen-Gong-Wu!"
"Huh?" Laurel asked, blinking furiously. She was still having trouble grasping the concept of what a Shen-Gong-Wu was.
"C'mon!" Kimiko said, pressing pause as she and Raimundo set down their controllers.
"Yeah, menina!" Raimundo agreed, "This is where being a Xiaolin Dragon gets cool!"
-----
"It's called the Rabbit's Ears," Dojo explained, climbing onto Clay's shoulder for better view of the scroll, "And even though it looks silly, it's worth the ticket from the fashion police. It allows you to run from two times to five times as fast as a normal human runs."
-----
"There it is!" Kimiko shouted, finding her voice and pointing up at a model in the window of some teen-scene fashion store. On it's head was a pair of bunny ears.
"I got it!" Laurel said and dashed into the store as fast as she could. She reached out and placed one hand on the Rabbit's Ears, but less than a second later, the window smashed as Jack Spicer flew through it, "It's mine, Jack Spicer! I was here first!"
"Not anymore!" Jack replied as he pulled on the Rabbit's Ears, trying to pull them away from her, "Laurel! I challenge you to a Xiaolin Showdown! Your Tangle Web Comb against my Changing Chopsticks!"
"Not the Tangle Web Comb," Raimundo groaned, remembering how Laurel had been hanging from the tree that morning when he walked out of the dojo, "She stinks with that thing!"
"Fine!" Laurel snapped back anyway, doing her best not to show the nervousness she felt. She didn't know how to use it, "Name your game, Jack Spicer!"
-----
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a/n; Okay, so did the chapter suck too terribly? I thought it was plenty fine despite the Mary Sue-ness that seemed to abound. I still keep my reasoning being that it's the way I would expect the four Dragons to act around a new person. They would just be really kind. And I don't really care if you disagree.
REVIEW MY FIC! REVIEW MY FIC! REVIEW MY FIC! REVIEW MY FIC! REVIEW MY FIC! REVIEW MY FIC! REVIEW MY FIC! REVIEW MY FIC! REVIEW MY FIC! REVIEW MY FIC! REVIEW MY FIC! REVIEW MY FIC! REVIEW MY FIC! REVIEW MY FIC! REVIEW MY FIC!
Lookie there! I said 'REVIEW MY FIC!' a whole fifteen times! W00t! And since I took all that time to type out 'REVIEW MY FIC!' fifteen times, I expect all of you to take the time to review. It doesn't have to be long and it doesn't have to be nice. It doesn't even need to be in English. I'll accept 'Tu's el fanfico el suxos.' See? Spanglish! Please review. It makes me feel good that I'm either good enough to have people actually tell me that, or because I'm so bad that people bother telling me. I don't mind sucking.
Speaking Spanglish to the masses.
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- Roby Carr