I just saw the world premier of a play called Brother Wolf a few days ago. OH MY GOSH! It is like a great fantasy novel set in the rural mountains and based on Beowulf! I'm such a sucker for a good fantasy novel. Brother Wolf has monster fights, romance, tragedy, humor, and a moral lesson to boot! I would highly recommend it. Yeah… sometimes these author's notes are random.

DON'T LET LOVE TRIANGLES GET YOU DOWN!

Daichi slammed the door shut behind him as he entered the Tendo Dojo. He kicked off his shoes, threw down his bag and stomped down the hallway to the kitchen.

"Hi Daichi. How was school?" Akane asked as she took a pan of what looked like smoldering ash from the oven.

"Miserable." He groaned. "And not the normal miserable."

"Why? What happened?"

"I got Setsuko for my project partner instead of Lotion! She's working on her project alone! If Setsuko is so smart why doesn't he work alone?" Daichi said as he got the bread and peanut butter out of the cabinet.

"Then Yuri had to pull another stupid prank on me! I spent half the day in the infirmary!" He opened the refrigerator and got the jelly. "I mean is it too much to ask for a little peace?"

He started throwing together a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. "Then I thought Lotion and I were walking home together, but Setsuko was coming too!" He slammed the top piece of bread on. "And I HATE that guy!"

Daichi sighed. "Thanks for listening Mom. I feel a little better." He took his sandwich and left the room.

Akane scratched her head. "Oh…no problem." She smiled. "Who said raising kids would be hard?"

Akane took one of the smoldering cookies off her pan and popped it in her mouth. Then she made a face and turned a slight shade of green. "Ack!" She spit it into a napkin. "Darn it! Why can't I get this?"

IN THE DINNING ROOM

Jatsuma sat at the table munching on crackers and watching a TV show. He looked up when Daichi came in. "Hey! How'd it go?"

"It didn't." Daichi said, sitting down. "It wasn't like that at all. Setsuko was there too."

"Oh sorry man."

"Yeah." Daichi was silent for a moment. "SETSUKO LIKES LOTION!" Jatsuma fell back.

"They were talking about the science fair the whole way! Then Setsuko glared at me like I was intruding or something!"

Jatsuma sat up, frazzled. "Well uh…"He scratched his head. "That doesn't necessarily mean he likes her."

"He said she was cute!"

"Oh." Jatsuma thought a moment. "Well…there's lots of other fish in the sea!" He smiled.

Daichi groaned and slammed his head on the table.

Jatsuma looked at him for a second. "Are you gonna eat that?" He pointed to the sandwich.

"You are so unhelpful!" Daichi grabbed his sandwich and took a bite of it.

"Hey!"

Just then there was a sound from outside that sounded like a bomb going off.

"What the?" Jatsuma opened the screen door.

"Come back right now!" Mascara ran across the yard with her swords bared. Makoto and Iikiba ran ahead of her. Or rather, Makoto ran and dragged Iikiba along by the back of his shirt. There was a hole in the wall were they had plowed through.

"Damn it Makoto!" Iikiba scrapped his feet across the ground, trying to stop her. "Let go of me!"

"Stop being stupid! I'm trying to help!" Makoto said.

"How is this helping?" Iikiba yelled.

Makoto scowled. "Okay, have it your way!" She let him go.

"Thank you." Iikiba stood up angrily.

"Iikiba!" Mascara ran forward.

"Mascara!"

"I knew you would marry me!" She leapt forward.

Iikiba did a complete turnaround and ran the other way at top speed. "I DIDN'T SAY THAT!" He made another hole in the wall as he ran off.

Mascara landed. "Where are you going?"

Suddenly Makoto grabbed Mascara by the shoulders and steered/pushed her towards the house. "Hi guys!" She called.

Mascara looked around. "Jatsuma!" She blushed furiously. Makoto let go of her and ran after Iikiba.

"Hi Mascara!" Jatsuma said enthusiastically. "You're looking particularly lovely today." Daichi rolled his eyes.

Mascara covered her cheeks with her hands and giggled.

"So how's your new job going?"

"Oh it's going good." She said happily. "Actually I'm supposed to be delivering food right now. But I had to…" She blinked and glared after Makoto. "That was a dirty trick!"

Just then Makoto walked back into the yard looking irritated. "I lost him."

"You lost him?" Mascara yelled. "Well which way did he go?"

"If I knew that then I wouldn't have lost him!"

"Well then I'll find him!" Mascara ran off out the last hole Iikiba had made.

Once she was gone Makoto smiled and opened up her school bag, in which she was carrying a little black chihuahua dog with a red bandana around its neck. "Too easy."

Iikiba the chihuahua glared at her. "What? Don't give me that look." She said.

"That was quite diabolical." Jatsuma said proudly. "Our little girl's growing up!"

"Well what choice do I have?" Makoto walked over to the porch and into the dinning room. "Mascara just won't leave us alone!" She set Iikiba down on the table.

"Hey mutt, how's life treating you?" Jatsuma asked. Iikiba growled.

"Daichi? Are you okay?" Makoto asked. Daichi was hunched over with his head on the table again.

"Just great." He said sarcastically.

"This guy Setsuko has the hots for Lotion." Jatsuma explained.

"Thank you Captain Subtle!" Daichi yelled.

"But you like Lotion!" Makoto said.

Daichi put his hand over his face. "And Captain Obvious."

"Look, it can't be as bad as you make it out to be." Jatsuma said. "I mean, what does this guy have that you don't?"

"I don't know. An A in Chemistry?" Daichi groaned.

"So what are you going to do?" Makoto asked.

Daichi sighed. "What can I do?"

"But you can't just sit back and do nothing!" Makoto insisted. "If this guy is trying to steal her away then you have to stand up to him!"

"Stand up to him?"

"Yeah! Lay down the law! Tell that guy to take a hike!"

"And that works?" Daichi asked skeptically.

"Barkbarkbarkbarkbark!" Iikiba began yipping angrily.

"Iikiba's right. Just telling him to back off won't do anything." Jatsuma punched his fist into his other hand. "You gotta beat the crud out of him!" Iikiba glared at him.

"As tempting as that is…" Daichi said sarcastically. "I think I'll pass."

"Daichi, don't you get it?" Makoto said. "If you don't give this guy a clue he'll just keep hanging around! Then you'll never be able to get rid of him!"

Just then Iikiba jumped off the table and ran out of the room, down the hall.

"Iikiba!" Makoto called. "Jatsuma, go make sure he doesn't get lost."

"Why do I have to watch him?"

"Because I'm trying to give Daichi advice right now."

"So am I!"

"Would you just go?" Daichi said, irritated.

"Alright, alright. Geez." Jatsuma got up to follow Iikiba. But jus then Iikiba reappeared in the doorway wearing a bathrobe.

"Don't listen to those two!" Iikiba yelled urgently. "They don't know anything about romance!"

"And I suppose you're the expert?" Makoto scoffed.

"Comparatively, yes." He turned to Daichi. "I mean what good will kicking his butt do?" He turned back to Makoto. "It's just annoying!"

Makoto swung her bag at him but he jumped back to avoid it.

"Maybe Iikiba's right." Jatsuma said. "Maybe you should just let this slide."

"…That's probably for the best." Daichi sighed.

"Yeah. Then you can go visit them and their twelve kids at Christmas." Jatsuma said. Daichi seized up with a horrified look on his face.

"You gotta step up! Next thing you know they'll be holding hands in the hall and planning weekend ski trips!" Jatsuma continued.

"They…they won't." Daichi stuttered.

Jatsuma narrowed his eyes. "Wouldn't they? Do you really want to take that chance?"

"But…but I can't…unless…" Daichi suddenly jumped up and ran out of the room.

"Where's he going?" Makoto asked.

"Beats me." Jatsuma shrugged.

Makoto turned back to Iikiba. "So I'm annoying am I?" She asked angrily.

"Yep. And one other thing." Iikiba threw a bucket of water at her. "Don't splash me!"

"AH!" Makoto was hit with the water and changed into a little black and white monkey. "Oh ah ah!"

"Serves you right!" Iikiba laughed. Makoto glared at him and jumped forward.

"AH!" Iikiba jumped back, but not in time to avoid her. She clamped her arms around his neck so he couldn't get away from her. "Let go stupid!" Iikiba yelled. He ran out into the yard, trying to get her to let go.

But thanks to his bad sense of direction he ran straight into the backyard pond. Makoto the monkey hugged the black chihuahua who was kicking frantically in the water. "Barkbarkbarkbarkbarkbarkbarkbark!"

Jatsuma watched them for a second then closed the screen door. "Maybe now I can actually watch my show." He sat down in front of the TV and popped a cracker into his mouth.

IN THE DOJO

"DAD!" Daichi slammed open the door to the dojo. Ranma jumped at the loud noise and Kiyoshi, who was running class drills, fell stiffly to the floor, still trying to keep his one legged stance.

"Daichi? What the-?"

"Dad, you've got to train me!" Daichi interrupted.

"You can't do that!" Kiyoshi stood up. "You can't just come in here, years behind, and expect to be trained!"

"You…" Ranma blinked twice. "You want me to train you?"

"Yes!"

He narrowed his eyes. "Why?"

"There's this guy at school I need to beat up!" Daichi said urgently. Kiyoshi snort laughed.

"Daichi…" Ranma said. "I'm so proud of you!" He hugged his son. Kiyoshi fell over in dismay.

"Come on!" Ranma said happily. "We need to start the training right away!"

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