The Jade Palace masters and students are surprised to hear Max's age!
Chapter 5: Reactions
Max and Blaze follow Shifu to the courtyard and as they entered, Max could only see Layla and Tigress doing a little bit of training and Takami had to watch because he's nursing a broken arm due to an injury he had occured sometime ago that involved a training skill gone wrong and ever since then, Takami has felt like the world crashed all over him and Max was aware of Takami's injury and has made several attempts to cheer him up with little success. All three watched as they saw Tigress and Layla train and spar with each other even further and Layla blew everyone away when he not only did her own take on tigress style, but far exceeded beyond that style, which shocked Tigress and Takami.
Tigress' jaw was dropped when she saw what Layla just did and she said, "Now that is Layla style."
Layla was deeply humbled that that move she just made had been dubbed Layla style and she bowed to that and she said, "Thank you, Tigress. I've never had a move named after me before."
"Congratulations, Lay." Takami said, with a half smile.
"You did amazing!" Max exclaimed, suddenly.
Max's enthusiastic cheer brought their attention as they turned to Max and Layla became the first to greet him and she comes over to him and said, "Long time no see, Max."
"Hi, Layla." Max said, smiling.
Tigress could tell that Layla has a soft spot for Max because she does have a motherly-like persona towards him, but she notices Layla being very surprised that Max is getting a little older and Layla said, "Max...am I seeing things or have you gotten older?"
"I'm gonna be 12 in 7 weeks." Max explained.
Layla was shocked by how old Max will be soon and asked, "12?! You're kidding!"
"Nope. I'm gonna be 12 years old." Max answered.
Takami couldnb't help but overhear what just happened and he stood up as he walked over towards Max and he responded, "Wow...you're not so little anymore, huh?"
"Nope. Though...I don't feel older." Max added.
"Trust me, Max...when you get older, you're gonna see what the world really looks like from a different perspective when you get in your teen years." Takami added.
"Takami...Max has experienced some things that he wasn't ready to see when he was younger." Tigress hinted.
Then, Takami realized that Max had already had an early dose of a rude awakening on how the world was when he was being tortured and abused by his birth parents and bullied when he was at the orphanage and being that he had went through so much hardship, it made him a much stronger person and had a different perspective whenever surrounded by positive people who lift him up whenever he's down and he takes every single hard knocks and uses it as a positive to get through some hard times, which shifts into his understanding, compassionate, empathetic, wise and positive personality that made a tremendous influence on everyone around him.
Before Takami could get a chance to respond, the other members of the Elemental Hazards plus Po and four of the Furious Five walk out of the training hall and many were surprised to see Max come in and they all said, "Hey, Max!"
Max looks at them and said, "Hi, guys!"
"We didn't know you'd be coming." Viper said, slithering towards him.
"Well...I just wanted to come over and say hi." Max replied.
Kiba immediately comes over to Max and just picks him up for a big hug, only to realize that Max is gotten bigger and he said, "Man, you're heavy."
"I'm not that heavy." Max said, laughing.
"How did you get so big?" asked Crane.
"Hopefully, not from Po." Monkey said, ending it with a giggle.
Po rolled his eyes at that comment Monkey made and just said, "Very funny, Monkey."
Max clears his throat and he looks at everyone and he said, "In the next 7 weeks, my birthday is coming over. You guys are definitely invited to come over."
"Nice! Will there be cake?!" Po said, getting excited.
Max knew that whenever Po brings up cake, he knows that he'll be there for cake or many other foods that he'll see in first sight and he chuckled softly and said, "We'll see."
"How old will you be?" asked Faith.
"12."
And that right there shocked everyone to the huge core after hearing Max's age that he'll turn and many found it hard to believe that he's gonna be 12 and even Kiba was shocked to hear that he'll be that age and he said, "Dude! That is an awesome age!"
"So...you're gonna be a tween?" asked Skyler.
"A tween?" asked Max.
"Somewhere between a kid and a teenager. When you reach 11, 12 or 13, you're a tween and when you hit 14, you're a teenager already." Skyler answered.
"Sometimes, you start thinking that you know more than anyone else and if you're being told to do something that doesn't seem right for you, you fight against it." Ryo stated.
"It could be like doing chores, cleaning up your room and stuff." Hope added.
Max could already tell that those experiences that comes with being a teenager might be on the horizon, but he knows that he'll never turn into one of them after witnessing his adopted brothers as teenagers and how they interact in many ways and Max said, "Well...I know that's what it comes down to, but I also know that I'll never turn out like them at all."
"Of course you won't. You are much more respectful in anyway." Shifu agreed.
Blaze laid down on the ground and listened in on the conversation and walks towards Tigress and asked, "So...do you want a ride to the sky again?"
"No way. You've given me enough rides to the sky and I know that you're still gonna mess with me." Tigress stated, with a stern voice.
"Aww...what gave it away?" asked Blaze.
Max turned to Blaze and he said, "Don't make Tigress puke again. Last time she did, you were laughing so hard that you literally peed on her new clothes."
"Oh yeah...that was funny." Kiba said, laughing.
Tigress glared at Kiba for a second and that made him stop laughing and Tigress said, "Want to see what your lungs look like when I take them out of your throat?"
Kiba kept his mouth shut immediately afterwards and backed away slowly and Tigress added, "That's what I thought."
Hilarious! Stay tuned for more!