Chapter 8: Mixed Emotions 2

The cock doodled as the sun rose to signal the morning. The morning sunlight beam went through the open window and hit Davis' eyes, causing him to wake up, still feeling dizzy. Where am I? Davis wondered.

Davis looked around examining the surroundings around him. Yellow-orange wooden walls surround the whole room, with two beds and an open window without curtains. He found himself bandaged around his upper body (so he's not wearing any shirt) and on a small one-person bed. Looking across to his right, he saw Dennis lying on another bed, also bandaged around his torso. What's going on? His head was hurting so much he couldn't think much.

Then he looked at the wooden-tiled floor and saw Woody sleeping on the floor, snoring quite loudly. The snoring wasn't the reason Davis woke up, though.

"Woody…" Davis had a good look at Woody…and almost fell down onto Woody as he leant forward too much. Luckily he grabbed the bed side quickly with his two hands to balance himself.

"Whew…" Davis breathed a sigh of relief.

So I'm in the martial arts school… Davis thought. I better get out of this room and check out what the rest are doing.

Davis started to get off the bed, careful not to awake Woody and Dennis. As he did so, he felt a sharp pain on his lower torso. He couldn't help but let out a soft cry.

That soft cry was enough to awaken Woody, who saw Davis trying to get off the bed.

"You should not be getting off the bed." Woody advised Davis as he got himself up. "You have not recovered fully and should get back to bed."

"I'm perfectly fine, Woody," Davis assured Woody as he got himself to stand, but then immediately fell down with another sharp pain on his torso.

Woody ran towards Davis and pulled him back up. "What did I tell you? You need all the rest that you can get…especially after that brutal assault by that…greyish guy."

"That greyish guy has a name…Felix it is."

"Got that. Anyway get back to bed and have a good rest."

Davis nodded and went back to bed with Woody helping him back up onto the bed. Davis then went back to sleep.

After Davis was asleep, Woody was in silence for a long moment as he looked at Davis and Dennis. After that he quietly exited the room and closed the door slowly.

Woody made his way downstairs and saw the martial arts school students having breakfast at the canteen which was just some distance away from where Woody was. Woody wondered why they had no school.

Jessie was chatting happily with Ricky, Stinky and another guy in Judo attire when they saw Woody at the stairs. Stinky, upon seeing Woody, immediately walked away.

"Hey! Why did Stinky…" Ricky started.

"Shh! Don't talk now! He's coming!" Jessie warned.

As Woody approached the gang, Jessie asked how Davis and Dennis were.

"They're fine." Woody replied. "Probably should recover and back to full shape later today."

"Good to hear." Jessie made a wide smile and nodded.

"Anyway…why don't you all have school?" Woody asked.

"Don't you know?" the guy in Judo attire reminded. "Today is Sunday."

"Right you are, Judi," Ricky scoffed, not liking the fact that someone was right, especially Judi.

"Oh, right…the incident must have made me even forget what day is today. But then again…since today is Sunday, why aren't you all at home resting?"

"Well…we all already know about the incident since this morning." Jessie told Woody. "So that's why we're all here…you know…"

One of the students noticed Woody and shouted, "Hey…there's our masters' good friend!"

Every student turned their attention to Woody upon realizing Woody's presence.

"Right. It is to be expected." Woody changed his attention to the crowd, cleared his throat and began to address the students.

"Listen, everyone. It's very likely you all have heard about the rumours. The rumours are true."

Everyone gasped upon hearing Woody's statement.

"However, their lives aren't endangered, so don't worry. When the two masters recover from their injuries, they and I will make sure that such an incident will never occur again and that we will seek the culprit no matter how long it will take! I can't forgive the culprit that posed serious threats to the two masters and I won't tolerate this!"

The crowd became excited and cheered at Woody as Woody headed back upstairs.

"Please carry on with what you all are doing," Woody instructed the students and he walked up the stairs. "And keep it down so as not to disturb the two masters."

Judi looked at Woody with a totally dumbfounded look.

Jessie noticed Judi's dumbfounded look and asked, "What's wrong with you?"

"Since when does Woody talk so much?"

"I'm not exactly sure…though I'm pretty sure they have a strong bond together…"

The students went back to what they were doing initially while Jessie, Ricky and Judi were still standing.

"I think I'll go find Stinky." Ricky started to make his way.

"Be careful. I can tell he was not exactly in a good mood when he talked to me last night. It could be worst with you."

"I'm aware of his bad mood, but thanks for the advice," Ricky waved Jessie and Judi goodbye as he headed out to look for Stinky.

"Hey, Jessie," Judi began as Ricky disappeared from sight.

"Yes?"

"Do you, by any chance, like Stinky?" Judi teased Jessie and smirked.

"OUCH!"

Ricky went to the backyard of the martial arts school and just as he expected, he saw Stinky sitting under the same tree as he did last night.

Stinky saw Ricky and called out, "Now what is it that you want? You approached me yesterday…I refused to talk to you. Now I'm slightly in a better mood. What's up?"

"Nothing, really," Ricky replied. "Just wanna have a good chat with you."

"Sure thing," Stinky signaled with his right hand for Ricky to sit next to him.

Ricky moved towards Stinky and sat beside him with his legs stretched outwards to the max.

"Shoot what you have to say," Stinky demanded impatiently.

"Okay…it's like this…tell me exactly what happened yesterday."

Stinky started to get back up.

"Get back down!" Ricky yanked him back down to the soft grasses by grabbing his right arm. "You said you are in a slightly better mood today. Then tell me what happened."

"I changed my mind," Stinky started to get back up again.

"Oh no, you don't," Ricky yanked Stinky down again. "Come on! What is your problem?"

Stinky looked away from Ricky and refused to open his mouth.

"The reason why I ask is because recently you seem to be ignoring Woody. Did you have a tiff with him?"

"What's a tiff?"

"A quarrel, man. Don't act as if you don't know that word."

Stinky looked down on the grasses.

"From your body language I can sense that what I predicted is indeed true. How the heck did this happen?"

Stinky's facial expression suddenly turned into a glare towards Ricky. "You really want to know why?"

"Yeah. Bring it on!"

Both Stinky and Ricky stood up. "It's because he thinks I'm a weakling."

"And so? You get affected by this so easily?"

"What are you talking about? I hate being called a weakling 'cause I ain't."

"Well…what makes you think he thinks you're a weakling? Or is this your own assumption?" Ricky stared sternly at Stinky.

"He is a weakling," a voice came from behind them.

Ricky and Stinky turned around and was surprised to see Woody.

"See? Even he admits I'm a weakling."

"You're a weakling because you get so annoyed easily when other people think of you as weak!" Woody yelled.

Upon hearing what Woody just said, Stinky was speechless.

"What's the matter? Cat got your tongue?"

"Sir…" Ricky started.

"Let me explain what happened yesterday, Ricky."

And so Woody told what actually happened between him and Stinky yesterday…

"…so that's what happened." Woody finished.

"I can't believe this," Ricky shook his head and turned to face Stinky. "Why are you so foolish to even challenge Woody as you wish? What Woody said was right. You should stay with Mrs. Sire and not insist on following Woody. You ought to think of others, not just yourself!"

"I know!" Stinky cried. "But I just hate the fact that I'm weak!"

"Are you sure it's just that?" Woody implied. "I think it's more like you hate losing because losing makes you weak?"

"Precisely!"

"That's when you're completely wrong. Haven't you heard of the saying, 'To be great, you learn from your mistakes'?"

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"It means if you lose, you would try to understand why you lose. Pinpoint the mistakes you make that leads to your defeat. Only then can you become stronger. Surely you must have heard of that somewhere before?"

Stinky lowered his head. "Come to think of it…I do hear that somewhere before…"

"Please let me be alone for a while. I'm confused right now."

"But…" Ricky started.

Woody stopped him with his right hand. "Let him be," he advised Ricky. "He needs to go through some thinking now. Let's go."

Stinky went back under the same apple tree and sat under it as Woody and Ricky left Stinky to give him some time to ponder. Ricky had one last worried look at Stinky before leaving…

As the sun set, Stinky was still under the apple tree pondering with his head down. Wind blew heavily, causing the tree leaves to rustle. A lot of things were going through his mind. Like whether he was indeed a weakling and that he should give up all these martial art techniques and stuff.

Just as waves of thoughts washed thoroughly around Stinky's brain, a girl appeared, disconnecting the waves.

Stinky looked up and saw that it was only just Jessie. Stinky looked back down again.

Jessie's face showed a purely worried look as she sat next to Stinky.

"Don't be like this, Stinky…you didn't even have dinner today. Furthermore there is school tomorrow. How are you going to concentrate like this?"

"I don't think I'm of any use at all," Stinky groaned. "I don't really do well in studies, my parents aren't rich and wealthy, and now even my martial arts seem to be useless after all this training…" Tears started to flow out of Stinky.

Jessie had never seen Stinky actually cry before and so did not know what was best to console him. All she could do was to look at him with a sad face.

"I'm totally useless! I think I'll just drop school and martial arts and just live as I like until the day I die!" Stinky got back up and was about to run away…run away as far as he could…away from the face of reality…when Jessie grabbed his leg firmly while sitting down, preventing him from going anywhere.

"Calm down, Stinky!" Jessie yelled at Stinky while at the same time thinking, It's good to be strong.

Jessie got herself up and turned Stinky's body to face her. Stinky's head was down.

"Look at me. LOOK AT ME!"

Stinky slowly raised his head to look at Jessie, with tears flowing out of his eyes. Very unseen of from a male, she thought.

"Get a grip of yourself, will you?!" Jessie shook Stinky in an attempt to try to wake him up from his nonsensical senses. "Didn't you hear what Woody said? It's not the end of the world if you fail or lose. You'll just have to learn and recover from your mistakes. Have you completely turned a deaf ear?"

Stinky stared blankly at Jessie. "So you heard us?"

"Of course I…I mean yes. And Woody is not wrong you know. He may not talk much, but his words are never lies!"

Stinky looked on as Jessie continued, "Let me tell you this, Stinky. You're never a failure. You have potential in everything, not just martial arts. It's just a matter of putting effort into what you wanna do."

"I did! I really did!"

"Yes I know you did…but your real problem lies in thinking that losing makes you weak."

Jessie moved her face closer to Stinky's face and gave a close and stern look which Stinky would not forget for a while.

Jessie held Stinky's head and shouted, "Losing DOES NOT make you weak! It only makes you weak when you think of it that way! When you lose, you ought to figure out the cause of your loss and solve the problem from there. Then can you learn from your mistakes and become stronger."

"So does that mean I should lose more often?" Stinky asked.

Jessie slapped her forehead. "Of course not! You should win as many as you can. What I'm trying to say is…if you do lose, you shouldn't stop there and should move on, find out why you lose, find the solutions to the problems that results in your loss, and don't repeat your mistakes again. Understand?"

Stinky thought for a while before replying, "I don't understand everything you say."

"What?" Jessie rolled her eyes at Stinky.

Stinky laughed. "But I do get you point. Now can you first let go of me?"

Jessie saw herself grabbing Stinky's arms very firmly. She blushed and let go. "I'm sorry. I didn't mean to grab you so tightly."

Stinky wiped away the tears from his eyes. "But seriously…thank you very much. I felt so much better now."

"Really?" Jessie's eyes beamed even though it was night.

"Yes…thank you…"

"So are you feeling any confident now?"

"I sure am. But I wanna go to sleep first."

"Right…it's getting pretty cold out here too anyway…let's go…"

As Stinky and Jessie headed back into the school, Stinky stopped.

"What's the matter?" Jessie asked.

"Can I ask you something?"

"Sure."

"You do like me, don't you?"

"OUCH! Hey! That hurts!"

"Serves you right for asking such an odd question." Jessie chuckled.

"I'm gonna cry again!"

"Go ahead and cry. Hehehe…"

Stinky crossed his arms as they continued to quarrel their way back into school.

Up in the window, Woody looked out and saw that Stinky was back at one piece again. Woody made a vain smile before closing the window and turning off the lights.