Chapter 7

Hope

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Huddled masses of teenagers should not be this scary to approach.

Especially when Dustin was being very generous with the definition of "masses". Considering that there were only about eight of them gathered at the far end of the parking lot (which was also a very liberal use for the term as it was really more of a glorified field that just happened to hold a congregation of cars/bikes/Moped-like vehicles). The school was down the path, probably, there was nowhere else for them to go and he doubted all the classes would take place in the parking lot, though that would justify the "free" part of the academy's services.

But…no, there was Teagan, ushering them to better and brighter things. She dispersed the group, somewhat lessening Dustin's growing sense of nervous anticipation. He had yet to leave the safety of his bike, making a show of packing away his helmet and tying his shoes, sighing with relief as soon as the last teenager disappeared from sight. Maybe this was a mistake, maybe he should back out while he still had his dignity and peace of mind. Kelly would be happy, he could work more hours, and his mom would be happy because of his dedication to his job, and he would be happy because he wouldn't have a heart attack before seventeen and-

"Cool bike."

Dustin leapt suddenly, reacting to the surprise voice and flailing in an impressive display of clumsiness as he lost his balance. His ankle tilted precariously on a rock before collapsing altogether, sending him tumbling back onto the ground where he had originally been not-spying on the easily sociable students. The following laugh didn't wound him as badly as he thought it would, it was like…delighting in the world, not harsh and barbed like it was taking pleasure in his misfortune. It was light and happy and…it somehow made Dustin happy to.

Which was why he met the owner of the voice's eyes with a bright smile of his own, taking stock of the person that made this terribly epic morning less monstrous to approach.

It was a girl, blonde hair, blue eyes, blue clothes, the whole shebang, sporting a wry smile and offering Dustin a hand up, which he gladly accepted because the ground was steadily becoming less comfortable to lounge on.

"Hi," she said, eyes sparkling in that Disney Princess way that almost made her seem more perfect than the world should allow, "I'm Tori."

Dustin blinked slowly, registering the conversation (because warning bells were not going off in his mind and warning bells always went off when he was talking to strangers, especially seemingly perfect Barbie replicas).

Cautious, he stuck his hand, clearing his throat slowly. "Dustin…uh, Brooks."

He winced, berating himself for the mental slip-up brought on by the sparkly-eyed bedazzlement. Rule number eight, don't volunteer your last name or any other extra information, it didn't matter how nice they seemed. You are a bad judge of character and you should not offer information that could allow potential psycho killers to hunt you down and do unspeakable horrors to you.

No, he was not being paranoid, he was simply…prepared.

Because blonde-haired, blue-eyed, perfect teenage girls turned out to be psycho killers all the time.

Totally.

The maybe-psycho killer's eyes shined in the sunlight (they were really pretty, and Dustin had to force himself not to stare because that was what creeper's did and he was most certainly not a creeper). She returned the handshake with ease, grip firm but reassuring, and as soon as he let go she looped her arm around his, cheerfully pulling Dustin towards the path as though they were the chummiest of chums and had not just met and bonded five seconds ago over Dustin's epic fail of a spy attempt.

"You excited?" She chirped, happy bounce in her step, and Dustin had to stop gawking at their joined arms long enough to think up a sufficient answer.

Which was a lot harder than it should have been.

"…Yes," he settled on, deeming it as an appropriate response. Sure, he was ten different kinds of afraid, but with Tori merrily strolling along beside him, he was kind've looking forward to this. Even if she would inevitably dump him in favor of better company, he would enjoy it while he could.

"Me too," she carried on, either ignoring or oblivious of Dustin's hesitation, which filled him with as much joy as it did dread, because one of those reason's made her just about as awesome as Shane and the other one made her a complete jerkface he should escape and run away from. At the moment he was leaning towards the first one, but like he said, he wasn't the greatest judge of character.

She glanced at him sideways, mischievous smirk in place like they shared some kind of secret he wasn't aware of (did arm holding signify something special? He'd have to look it up later) and she opened her mouth to say something, maybe to share the secret, but another voice interrupted her.

"Hey Dustin!"

It called out so suddenly that Dustin jerked again, jolting Tori enough to make her lose her balance. He steadied her before she could meet her dusty fate, frowning apologetically and averting his eyes in wait of the inevitable tongue lashing that was to come. Instead he received another joy-to-the-world laugh and a reassuring squeeze to his shoulder before she re-looped their arms and turned to face their incoming visitor, red shirt recognizable to Dustin anywhere.

Shane jogged up to them quickly, slowing to a walk as soon as he came upon them, somehow communicating with Tori that they should move on (which Dustin completely missed) and soon they were all moving again as though it were the most natural thing in the world, thoroughly confusing Dustin, though he tried his best not to show it.

"Careful," Tori joked, good humor easily contagious, "he's jumpy."

Which Dustin couldn't really argue because at this point he had yet to demonstrate otherwise, but he still didn't understand the laughter that followed. He joined in anyway because these two people were probably the best people in the world (aside from Kelly, and Liv) and he kind've just wanted them to like him enough so they wouldn't mind him breathing the same air as them and possibly be in their vicinity whenever he could manage it. They didn't pick up on the forced laugh, which Dustin saw as immense progress, and he boldly decided to take some initiative as a reward.

Kind of like a verbal Scooby snack, or something.

"Hi Shane," he timidly forced out, sharing the name of their new arrival with Tori, because sharing was caring. But he forgot that Shane had never introduced himself, as least, to him, so instead of increased happiness the dark-haired teen just kind've looked at him oddly, tilting his head, and Dustin had to search in desperation for an explanation while his cheeks lit up like the Fourth of July.

"Kelly told me," he eventually managed, taking a sudden fascination in the trees around them, waiting for Shane to declare him a stalker and call him out on his creepy Skate Park spying (come to think of it he might have been holding his magazine upside down) but instead Shane's response sounded happy, and Dustin risked a peek in his direction.

"Yeah," Shane laughed, shaking his head, "that lady is so cool."

This somehow perked Tori's interest, and soon she was staring at Shane intently, kind've making Dustin want to pull her away a little bit.

"Kelly?" She said, turning back to Dustin for confirmation who was totally not getting ready to 'accidentally' jerk her arm again. "Like, Storm Chargers, Kelly?"

"Yeah," Dustin replied, not-caught in the act he didn't do, "she's my boss."

Tori instantly lit up, boggling Dustin's mind with the sudden amount of wonder and amazement aimed his way.

"You are so lucky, I love Storm Chargers, they have all the best gear!"

Before Dustin could think of a coherent response, Shane cut in, sharing her enthusiasm but in the much more subdued, cool guy way.

"I know, right? Dude," he began, looking over at Dustin slyly, "You have the best job ever."

"…Thanks," Dustin replied, scratching the back of his head, bashful. He had pretty much prepared himself to be more of a tag along to this duo, following their conversations without really contributing, and this new focus was starting to freak him out a bit.

Tori, the blessed, blessed woman she was, seemed to pick up on this (it was a secret girl-sense, it had to be) and stepped in for him, changing the conversation.

"Hi," she chirped, sticking her free hand out to Shane, "I'm Tori."

"Shane," the skater replied, all smiles, and Dustin had to fight the urge to stupidly reintroduce himself to two people who already knew his name, a fact that was still somewhat bothersome to him.

Tori, abnormally peppy for some basic self-defense classes, echoed her question from earlier, asking Shane if he was "super excited" to which he shrugged (because he was too cool to exert anymore effort than that) and replied that he was more interested in seeing what Victor was going to do. Before she could ask who Victor was, because by the look on her face she had no idea (and Dustin would know, he was the master of confused faces) a soft coughing interrupted them and Teagan, fresh back from delivering the last batch of kids, began to lead them down to the school, joyfully making small talk and being far too pleased with the fact Dustin was near other people, going so far as to send him a small wink.

He spent the rest of the walk in silence, partly because Teagan was going back to freaking him out and partly because listening to Shane and Tori talk was comforting in a strange way. The walk ended faster than he wanted it to, leading them into a courtyard-like thing that was shadowed by this monstrous building that was straight out of a Dynasty Warrior game. Tori nudged his arm playfully, smiling at his awe.

Teagan officially went back on the no-love list when she instructed them to split up into groups according to their teachers (and of course neither Shane nor Tori were with him). Dustin wasn't entirely sure how he was supposed to feel about the fact that most of his group consisted of girls (except for this on other guy that attempted to pull Dustin into a high-five, but the mechanic didn't see anything that warranted that and he was a complete stranger, so he opted to leave him hanging). They were all chattering and bubbly and strangely sociable but so…un-Tori like that they went straight on the freakout list, and he spent his time pretending to be as still and unapproachable as possible.

As expected, Shane and Tori were not encountering the same difficulties as him. Shane seemed to fit right into his group, backslapping and elbowing and joking easily, probably sharing war stories about Victor. Tori slid in just as effortlessly, though her group differed in communication strategies. They chose to huddle in small groups, discussing whatever they discussed in a reverent and dignified fashion. Like Dustin, Tori was one of the few of her gender in her group, not that she seemed all that bothered by the situation.

He wondered why they were separated in groups, and if he'd ever get to hang out with Shane again.

Before he could further ponder the helplessness of his situation (he could still back out, no one was going to hunt him down if he didn't show up tomorrow) a hush fell over the crowd. Dustin pulled his eyes off of the ground in time to see an old dude (well, not super old, but he was probably forty or something, which was still kind've old) walk up onto this elevated platform/stage thing that was in front of them. He was all serious but not hard-core serious, his eyes still seemed happy. It was more like the seriousness was a requirement of the job he had to put up with in order to be in charge. Or, Dustin assumed he was in charge, he couldn't really think of any other reason for him to be wearing all those robe/dress things.

And the hat, the hat was like, minus five fashion points, even Dustin could see that.

Speaking of clothes, somewhere between Dustin beginning his staring contest with his feet and In-charge man's entrance, Teagan (and Victor, and some other dude with blond hair Dustin assumed was another teacher) had changed into these…he had no idea how to describe them. The closest thing he could come up with was ninja gear, because they were dressed in this all black leather-ish material. They had robes too, but they were shorter, with matching pants and boots and gauntlet things. They looked incredibly awesome, but the whole thing put Dustin on edge because when he took Karate the fanciest outfit he got was a set of glorified pajamas.

Was this where they made their money? Making them purchase flashy getups?

Before he could wonder what the price range of their ensembles were, In-charge man decided to get a move on (perhaps to distract them from possible scamming).

"Welcome students," he began, face friendly and approachable but still somehow reverent, "to the Wind Ninja Academy."

While Dustin mentally celebrated (he knew they looked like ninjas) the rest of the students, who were not so quick to pick up on those details, instantly began murmuring among themselves, bothered by the altered title (there was no "ninja" on their pamphlet, though why that was Dustin didn't know, he would have totally been on board for Ninja School).

Well, all except Tori's group, those guys seemed more bothered by the fact everyone else was bothered.

Head-man held up a silencing hand, and the unrest immediately died down. Though this didn't change the fact that Shane's group looked like it was about to hit the road.

"I have recently become aware," he began again, focusing on the predominantly red-clothed group, "that not all of my teachers were completely honest when recruiting." He paused and glanced sideways at Teagan and Victor quickly (the blond guy excluded and looking incredibly smug).

"I assume," he picked up again, this time addressing Dustin's group, "that this was to guarantee your participation, and while their intent was honorable, their actions were not."

Teagan had the decency to look slightly abashed, but Victor carried on with a bored expression, standing straight with his arms locked behind his back. Were In-charge man able to, he would have probably rolled his eyes, but he was in charge of keeping twenty kids from cutting and running. Tori's group seemed perfectly fine, and Dustin envied their know-how, so he kept focused on the real problem and moved on.

"Allow me to clarify their misdirections, this," he opened his arms, motioning to the building and courtyards around them, "Is the Wind Ninja Academy. For centuries we have remained hidden from society, passing down the teachings of earth, water, and air ninjas. You few have been selected by the teachers standing before you because of your aptitude towards your particular element." He had to stop there because the murmuring had started up again, except this time it was more of a dull roar, and a few students actually did make to leave. Dustin nervously clutched his backpack as he watched Tori and Shane with intent, torn between following her calm collectedness or his immediate retreat for self-preservation.

In-Charge man, prepared for this reaction, sent Victor a steady look, nodding his head slowly. The stoic teacher interpreted this silent communication, replying with a brief nod of his own, and then suddenly the world around Dustin turned into a whirlwind of noise and leaves.

He wasted a few seconds staring stupidly before he realized it actually was a whirlwind, in the most literal of ways, air currents spinning around the three separate groups and herding them together, pulling in the few strays that had managed to get away. If there was shouting or yelling he didn't hear it, his ears were filled with the overpowering sound of a tornado, winds blowing through his already wild hair and threatening to knock him off his feet.

It died down as quickly as it started, with nothing but drifting leaves and the student's disheveled appearances as proof the incident ever happened. Before any of them could manage to demand what was going on, In-Charge nodded over to Teagan, and the show continued.

She was moving her arms forcefully, punching up from the ground like there was an invisible monster there for her to fight. Only, instead of good old-fashioned nothing happening, the earth (or the dirt, or rocks or whatever was near her) began shifting up out of the ground, stalagmites bursting through in sporadic patterns before being pulled back into the soil, returning to its home.

Dustin rubbed his eyes slowly, glancing back and forth at the other students in his group because at the end of the nothing that should have happened, when Teagan was pulling down her arms, he could almost swear he saw something. There was a flash…only, not bright and sudden like a flash on a camera, it was more like a glow. It was like a golden wave that kind of dangled…or tangled around her arms, twisting down her legs back into the earth.

For a moment, when the stalagmites were receding and everything was turning back to normal, there was like this…pulse, of that gold, circling out from Teagan, like it was covering all the…dirt or something. Dustin stared at his feet quickly, watching to see if it would affect any of them, but it just…moved on.

When he glanced back up his group mates were still staring at the front in wonder, gaping at the places the stalagmite had been. He got this nagging feeling that someone was staring at him, and when he was brave enough, he risked a look forward, meeting the eyes of the head Sensei. He didn't call him out on seeing the gold wave thing, but he knew, somehow, that Dustin had seen it.

That Dustin had felt it.

He nodded slowly, and then returned his attention to the babbling students, all pouring forth an avalanche of questions. He held up his hand for silence, and they immediately quiet down, now eagerly awaiting his words.

"My name is Kanoi, I am the head Sensei. From this day forward you will surpass all normal expectations and train to be extraordinary." He paused, and the sternness faded away into a mostly concealed playfulness. "That is, if you still desire to train here. Are there any who object?"

As expected, nobody did.

That was the day Dustin's life slowly began to turn around.

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Endnotes:

The end

Of this chapter.

Shout out's to Rogue Ranger and ValkyrieNyght for your reviews! I know last chapter felt a little unnecessary, but I wanted to establish their three different voices.

Huh, I guess Tori's family is rich. I didn't even notice that, but yeah, it makes perfect sense.

Funny anecdote: my sister was beta-ing this (for those who don't know, she knows almost nothing about this series; she didn't even know what the characters looked like until today). She thought it was funny that they taught air, wind, and water ninja stuff without teaching fire. If you have those three, you might as well go with the fourth.

I say they just don't trust the kids not to burn their houses down.

I've been throwing out a lot of one shots lately, and I began writing this chapter a couple weeks ago, so I finally got off my lazy butt and finished it, for your viewing pleasure.

Until next time.