Raimundo and Kimiko 4ever
Chapter 2: Raimundo's story
Raimundo walked around trying to find the room he and Kimiko were supposed to share. He had lost to Rock-Paper-Sissors and ended up sharing with Kimiko.
He wandered in, his hands in his pockets. Looking around the new room, he decided to start putting all his stuff away, making sure not to get in the way of Kimiko's stuff.
He sat down on his new bed. A bed? So the old man's finally caved in, huh?
"Hey, Rai!" Kimiko came in, making Raimundo jump. "A bit jumpy, huh?"
"Er...yeah, I guess. Just try not to scare me like that again, please?" Raimundo looked desperately at her.
"Sure. Sorry." She walked over to him. Putting her hands behind her back, she leaned over. "Pretty cool that Master Fung gave us beds, huh? He musta missed us. And really wants us to stay. I mean, to go as far as caving in and getting us all beds." She sat down next to him. She noticed how the corners of his lips went up a little. She also noticed how he snickered.
Was that a smile? And maybe a chuckle? Kimiko looked at him curiously. What happened over the past few years to make him so different?
He hinted to a smile. "Yeah, no joke. Anyway, so what have you been up to over the past few years?" He tried to start up a conversation.
Kimiko smiled. "Well, Papa was teaching me how to do some stuff so I could take up the Tohomiko Industries someday. And I was in the middle of getting ready to finish up school when Master Fung told me that I was supposed to come back." Kimiko looked at Raimundo kind of strangely. "By the way, did Master Fung ever tell you why he needed us all back here?"
"Um...actually, no. He didn't." Raimundo looked up at the ceiling, then back down at the girl sitting next to him. But it better be important if he was gonna drag me all the way back up here!
"Excuse me, my friends. But Master Fung requests to see us now." Omi stood in the doorway.
Aw man! I didn't get a chance to ask Rai what he'd been up to! Kimiko stood up.
Same old Omi. Raimundo looked at the fifteen year old boy.
"He hasn't changed at all, has he?" Clay appeared behind Omi, leaning his arm up against the door frame.
"Nope." Raimundo stood up. "How 'bout a race to the courtyard? You know, like we used to?" Raimundo smirked, he had one of those 'Betcha I'll win' looks.
"You're on!" Clay and Raimundo set themselves up and looked at Kimiko.
Just like old times. She shook her head, smiling. "GO!" She yelled, startling the boys. "I said Go." Kimiko had her 'What are you waiting for?' look.
The boys looked at eachother and shot down the hall. "They are most fast-" Omi said looking down the hall.
"Just like they used to be. They never slowed down, did they?" Kimiko walked over and stood next to Omi, looking down the hall as well. "I guess we should get going, too, huh?" Kimiko looked at Omi.
"Yes. Master Fung will be expecting us." Omi started walking down the hall.
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"THAT'S WHY YOU MADE ME COME HERE?!?!" Raimundo burst. He was yelling and shaking uncontrollably. "I HAD SO MANY BETTER, MORE IMPORTANT THINGS I WAS GONNA DO!!! HAD TO DO!! BUT YOU MADE ME COME BACK HERE...BECAUSE...BECAUSE-"
"Raimundo, please. Calm down!" Kimiko grabbed onto his arm. "Please?!"
Omi and Clay looked around Raimundo at the big fuss Kimiko and Raimundo had created.
Raimundo looked down at Kimiko. She was close to tears. What? She's never freaked like this. Not even when we were younger... "Sorry. But I was...in the middle of a very important event in my life, and when you called, Master Fung, I thought it was something more important than...than a soon-to-be activated Shen Gong Wu." Raimundo looked at the master and sighed, looking at his feet. "Please, Master Fung, can I go to my room and rest for awhile?"
Kimiko wiped away her tears, looking at Raimundo wonderingly. What was he talking about? 'Very important event'? Raimundo...
"Yes, of course." Master Fung said calmly.
Dojo slithered out of Master Fung's robes and wrapped himself around his master's neck. "Hi everyone! What's with all the noise?"
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Raimundo lay in his bed, day dreaming.
"Raimundo?!" Sarah-Jennifer (his older sister) burst into his room. She looked frantic. Her cheeks were tear-stained from crying.
"W-what's wrong?" Raimundo turned around in his chair. He'd been doing his homework. He was fully alarmed now.
Sarah-Jennifer started crying again. "Mom was in a wreck. She's in the hospital...Michael says the doctors told him she's probably not gonna make it." She was obviously scared.
Raimundo felt helpless. His father had comitted suicide a year before he had come to visit in the first place. His mother dying was NOT an option. But Raimundo couldn't find the strength to speak. "W-w-what?" He whispered the only thing that he could say.
"We have to go meet Michael and the others at the hospital." Sarah-Jennifer turned to leave. "Com'on."
At first Raimundo couldn't move at all. But suddenly, even though his whole body felt heavy, he bolted up and raced after Sarah-Jennifer.
'I'll do anything I can to keep you here, Mom.' He thought as he flew down the hall after his older sister.
"MOM!!" Raimundo and Sarah-Jennifer opened the hospital room door. Michael looked up from his seat next to his mother. "Mom...?" Raimundo whispered, slowly walking toward her. He realized that he was crying as tears slid down his cheeks.
"Raimundo..." His mother turned her head to face Raimundo. "I love you. I'll hold on as long as I can for you and your brothers and sisters." Tears slid down her face.
'It's so hard to see her like this...but I don't want to lose anyone else.' Raimundo thought, kneeling down next to her bed. "I love you, too, Mom..."
(OK, so fast-forward a few weeks. They released Raimundo's mom from the hospital. Raimundo dropped out of school to take care of her. And that's where we are.)
"Alright, last thing." Raimundo turned to his mom. Then he noticed something different about her. But he didn't know what it was. "Mom?"
"MOM!!" Raimundo screamed, alarmed that she wasn't responding. "MOM!!! NO! WAKE UP!! PLEASE, WAKE UP!!!" Raimundo felt the tears running down his cheeks. "No...wake up."
He pulled his cell phone out of his pocket and hit speed-dial to call Sarah-Jennifer. "Sarah-Jennifer?"
"What's wrong? Calm down!" Her voice shot through into his ear.
"Mom isn't waking up...I'm scared. I think she's dead!" He was trying not to let his sister know he was crying.
"Okay, calm down. You need to call 911 and they'll tell you everything, got it?" She said as calmly as she could. She was scared now, too. "I'm coming over."
"Okay." He hung up and called 911. "Hello?"
"Hi. What's wrong?" A female voice clicked on, talking calmly to Raimundo.
"My mother was released from the hospital a few weeks ago, I was doing everything I was told to...but..." He paused, tears streaked his face. "She stopped breathing."