I mashed the "A" button down on my video-game controller as fast as I could, the intensity of the alien horde thickening with every moment. Wu, to no surprise, wasn't doing very well.
"Dude, just mash the buttons! It's really not that difficult." I said, annoyed Wu wasn't helping me beat the aliens.
"Quinn, but the combos in the instru-" Wu began.
"No one uses the stupid combinations, Wu! They just smash the buttons!" I exclaimed.
Wu seemed to be going through inner turmoil, as his eyebrows knitted together in anguish. It would have been funny if I hadn't been so frustrated at his ignorance. I was going to be killed by the giant horde of aliens, and that was NOT the way I wanted to start my Saturday morning.
"Fine. If mashing buttons is too obscure for you, or it offends your 'moral ethics' of disobeying the instructions, then give me your stupid controller." I demanded. Knowing not to argue with me, he gave me his controller, and sulked out of the room, most likely to cry dramatically somewhere near the location of our parents.
Knowing time was limited before my Mom or Dad came to scold me about treating Wu "unfairly", I smashed all the buttons I could, simultaneously, on both controllers.
I was just about to finally beat the aliens, when the T.V suddenly shut off. I rolled my eyes and looked at my mom, who held the T.V plug in her hand.
"Really?" I said angrily, "You didn't even let me save?"
"You hurt your brother's feelings. Apologize." My mother demanded, ignoring my protesting. I glared at my younger brother, who was sniffiling in the doorway. He deserved no apology from me.
"He hurt MY feelings by being such a horrible gamer." I retorted. Immediately, my mom put on her angry face, and I knew I had gone too far. Wu and I called it the face of doom. Basically, it meant sudden death.
"QUINN MONTGOMERY GARMADON. That is NOT how you talk to your mother OR your brother. You are almost fifteen, you should KNOW better." Mom screeched. Wu had disappeared from sight. "Go to the training course and think about your attitude, young man!"
I stomped out of the room in a dramatic huff, making my angry way towards the training courtyard out in front.
Our house was an old monastery, kept nicely trimmed and stable. Our dad loved to spar, and also happened to be a famous, powerful ninja master. So naturally, we had a fully-fledged training courtyard out in front.
I came out to said courtyard quite a lot, actually. It was where I relieved stress, fought my demons, and also kept myself physically healthy. The training course was my life. Other kids had tiny toys or dolls for their childhood. I had my training equipment.
I grabbed my favorite, black steel katana from the weapon rack on the wall of the house. It had been my birthday present last year. Compliments to the state-of-the-art blacksmith shop called "Four Swords".
The training dummies were already set up, and so I immediately began swinging my black steel katana, with a skill most rare for an almost fifteen-year-old., if I do say so myself.
My father had always said I was a natural when it came to the art of sword handling. That, plus the tips that my ninja master of a father gave me, made me probably better than most of the grown men in the village.
Which was probably why the girl who had just opened the monastery doors looked terrified to find a teenage boy hacking defenseless training dummies.
She looked to be about my age, maybe a little closer to Wu's. She had mousy brown hair, held back in a french braid. She had gorgeous sea-green eyes, and a cute splash of freckles across the bridge of her nose. My young, adolescent heart didn't know how to handle a cute girl.
"If you're here to sell girl scout cookies, I'll have the minty kind." I blurted without thinking. She obviously wasn't wearing a girl scout uniform, and seemed a little bit too tomboyish to enjoy selling cookies in her free time.
"I'm sorry, who are you?" The girl asked, while suspiciously eyeing my katana, "This is the Garmadon household, right? I swear, if Wu gave me the wrong directions…"
Before I could answer either of her questions, The front doors slammed open, and Wu came running out of them, his arms outstretched towards this mystery girl.
"Misako!" He exclaimed in pure excitement, as he wrapped her in a huge bear hug. Her mood changed from scared and confused to happy and elated, and before I knew it, the two were wrestling on the ground, squealing and laughing.
So THIS was Misako. Wu's very best friend. I had heard so much about her from Wu, but had never seen her until now. They became friends through a geeky science fair project that involved rolling a marble down a race car track, or something like that. I honestly had no idea what that had to do science, but at the same time, I wasn't the brightest bulb in the bunch.
They stopped wrestling eventually, and Wu helped Misako up off the floor.
"Misako, meet my older brother Quinn. Quinn, meet Misako." Wu said, introducing the two of us to each other. She smiled and nodded at me, no longer afraid of the katana I held in my hand. I smiled back.
It was only for a few moments that Misako and I had held eye contact, before Wu ushered her inside so they could work on some homework together. But those few moments felt intense to me.
It may have just been me, of course, but when we made eye contact, it felt like Misako wasn't just looking at my eyes. She was looking in my eyes, finding my soul, staring me down as she x-rayed my heart. Like she was testing me, prouding at me with her uncomfortable stare, looking for my weaknesses. Only much later would I realize that she wasn't looking for my weakness.
She was becoming it.
I didn't dare follow the two back inside the monastery. My mom was most likely still on the prowl, ready to confront me about my "attitude" as soon as I stepped a foot inside the house. I practiced swinging my katana for a couple hours until lunch, when I knew my mom would've calmed down. She still told me to watch my mouth, but she let me off the hook, knowing she could not combat the struggle that is sibling rivalry.
I was walking to my room, ready to face the doom of my homework, when someone behind me said my name.
"Quinn?" Misako said. I turned around and smiled at the girl that was walking down the hall towards me.
"We meet again." I joked. She snorted.
" First off, I'm sorry for not introducing myself properly earlier," She said, "I wasn't really expecting to find someone killing realistic looking dummies."
I laughed at this, remembering the look on her face.
"And second, where's the bathroom? Wu's too interested in our homework to hear me." Misako asked, rolling her eyes as she did so. I chuckled.
" That weirdo. I swear there's something wrong with him. The bathroom is down there, third door to your right." I said, pointing her down the hallway. She thanked me, and we parted ways once more.
As I worked on my homework, my mind kept jumping back to that soul-searching stare Misako had given me. It haunted me for the rest of the day. There was something about those searching eyes, something about that smile on her face; It had caught me off guard.
For the next year, I made it my goal to figure out what was so special about Misako. And even as we grew closer together (I could argue even closer than her and Wu), I was never able to quite place what was so special about Misako, the green eyed girl.
That is, until I had my first encounter with destiny. After that, everything I knew changed.