Chapter 5!

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Making the Cut
Chapter 5
Lucas 'n Dew

"The plans were made last night, Shifu. You remember that." Po was saying

"Still, sleep-overs?" Shifu questioned disparagingly.

Po and Shifu were right outside the closed door of my room talking. I was currently packing my backpack with a few things for the night. I had tried not to listen in but it was almost too obvious to ignore. Having stayed here longer than I have, you would have figured they'd remember how easy it was to hear people through the paper thin walls.

Po went on "He's still just a kid. You have to remember that "

"That's clear after his behavior this morning." Shifu said.

"Master, maybe he should have reacted differently, but you didn't exactly make it any better."

Silence
I knew Shifu was going to respond, but before he could Po spoke again.

"Master, what's really wrong. I know this argument wasn't all just about Jo practicing shurikens. Even if that's what started it, you had something else on your mind. I wanna know what it is." There was a firmness in his last sentence. Firmness mixed with care.

Silence again. Shifu sighed heavily. "I see so much of him in Jo."

"Who?" Po asked.

Shifu paused. "Tai Lung."

I wanted to stop listening then, but I wouldn't be able to leave my room without them seeing so I was forced to stay there.

"I don't know if it's his mannerisms or his training, or something else, but there's an essence shared by the two."

Po began. "Master, this isn't the first-"

"Not just him, but the failure I made of myself with him. I wonder where I went wrong with Tai Lung. I'm constantly worrying that I'm making the same mistake with you or the Five or Jo. I've worried about Jo before. And for some reason that long ridden fear came up again yesterday and I don't even know why."

"Shifu, you didn't fail Tai Lung. He failed you." Po said reassuringly.

"I pushed him too much." Shifu protested. "The more I pushed, the more he pushed away."

"Jo isn't like that. Just don't put the same amount of pressure on him. He'll be ready when the time comes. Just like I was."

"Perhaps you are right, Master Po." Shifu said with little conviction in his voice.

I waited till I heard Master Shifu's feet walk down the hallway before I opened my door. When I did Po was still standing there. He read my face clearly. He knew I had just heard everything.

"He thinks I'm Tai Lung." I said morosely.

"Nnnnno he doesn't." Po said but even he knew it wasn't convincing.

"I just heard him." I said. "I thought I had gotten past this. I mean, I used to worry about this, but I thought it was behind me."

Po said. "Jo, remember what I told you before."

"I know." I said. "'I'm only who I choose to be.' I just hope I don't choose the wrong thing."

Po thought for another second. "Jo, do you remember the night we first met?"

For the first time since the argument I smiled. "It would take a lot to forget that." It was the truth. The night I'd met Po was probably the turning point of my life. My life wouldn't be anything it was now without that night.

Po went on. "I remember that night I was simply relaxing in my room, getting ready to turn in when I saw you dash by my window. Then I followed you out to the peach tree. Do you wanna know why I liked you right away?"

The thought had crossed my mind before. Even I had to admit our friendship seemed to take of relatively quickly. Not like that was a bad thing. I shook my head.

Po said. "You reminded me a lot of myself. You were unsure of yourself, ready to quit. But Oogway kept me from quitting, and I knew he wanted me to do the same with others."

It was a reaffirming idea. It was better to think I was like Po than like Tai Lung. "Thanks, Po. I just hope me and Shifu can work this out."

"Jo, I don't want this spat between you and Shifu to be anything that will hinder your abilities. I'll talk to Shifu as much as I can for you."

"Po, you don't have to talk to him for me. I'll do it."

"Are you sure you wanna do that?" Po asked jokingly wary.

"No," I said. "But I'm sure I should do it, but I'll wait till tomorrow. Give him some time to cool."

Po nodded smiling. "That's probably a good idea, J.C."

I smiled back. The fact that he called me by my nickname told me the seriousness had lessened.

As I was walking down the streets of the village the sun was readying itself for night slowly sinking in the sky that was fading from blue to orange. I looked carefully for Lucas's house. He had given me directions the previous night. I found it not too far from the noodle shop. It was a simply-made home, unlike my house which had my foster parents' shop built into the front.

I knocked on the door and waited. After waiting a second, the door was opened by a tall rabbit sporting a dark mustache. "Yes."

"Mr. Zhangi?" I asked.

He looked at me peculiarly. "Yes, are you selling something?"

A female rabbit close in age with him quickly came next to him. "Everette, it's Lucas's friend. The one spending the night."

Mr. Zhangi waved away his forgetfulness. "Sorry, don't know where I'm keeping my mind tonight. Come in, why don't you."

Like Lucas, both of them had off-white fur and royal blue robes. I took note of his Mr. Zhangi 's first name: Lucas's middle name.

"Is Lucas here?" I asked.

"He walked to Deward's house. They should both be back any minute. You can wait in the den if you'd like."

I took a seat on a large fur-covered couch. I was a little surprised and nervous when they both came to sit down in the den too.

Somehow it hadn't occurred to me that I'd have to end up meeting his parents. As weird as it was, I was never good in situations like this. Was I supposed to start the conversation or were they, as the host, supposed to? Am I reading too much into this? Why wasn't I inherently born with these talking skills like everybody else seemed to be?

My first question was taken care of.

"Well, Jo, it's great to finally meet you." Mrs. Zhangi said. "We've heard Lucas say alot about you."

"Oh, really?" How do I respond to that?

Mr. Zhangi said "He says you both met at the Jade Palace last summer, right?"

"Yes, We met the first day there." I hated giving such short answers but I couldn't think of anything else to follow it. What I hated even more was that I was sure 10 minutes from now I would be able to think of a million things to say. I doubted they could tell how nervous I was. I looked over my shoulder to see if Lucas was arriving yet.

"Lucas tells us you're still up at the Jade Palace."

"Yes," I answered. "I'm training with the Furious Five and the Dragon Warrior."

"Everyone by now knows your official title; The Next Dragon Warrior, correct."

"Yes but… gonna try a small joke, here …. You can just call me 'Jo'"

They both chuckle slightly and I felt an ease in tension.

"How long have you both lived in the Valley?" I ventured.

"Born and raised here." Mr. Zhangi said proudly. "Both of us. Aren't you?"

"No," I said. "I came here almost… ten years ago when I was put into foster care."

Mrs. Zhangi asked "Where did you live before?"

I heard the front door open and with it my heart leapt. Lucas and Dew strolled through the door chatting when Lucas caught sight of me. "Jo, you're here already."

"Hey, Lucas, Hey Dew."

"Hope my parents aren't boring you too much." He said jokingly. Everyone laughed at that.

"Well, now that yall are both here, yall wanna go to my room?"

"Sure." I said getting up from the couch.

Lead by Lucas, the three of us traveled up the stairs into what was Lucas's room.

Against the wall where we entered stood a large bookshelf. I had never taken Lucas to be a big reader, but apparently I was wrong. On the opposite wall was his bed which looked to be queen sized. Like me he had several kung fu posters, but his were mostly of Master Monkey.

After the initial comments regarding his room we were all on the floor talking about the party last night. They told me more about the plans they were in on and I told them about the knife the Masters had given me. They asked me more about my training and I told them about me facing the spinning logs.

"Sounds exhausting." Dew said.

Lucas said "Well, extreme training under the Masters can be exhausting."

"How would you know?" Dew said.

Lucas rolled his eyes.

"Being up in the Jade Palace has a few disadvantages." I said. "I never know what's going on in the Village. Has anything changed in the last few months?"

Dew looked slyly at Lucas. "Aren't you gonna tell him."

"Tell him what?" Lucas asked suspiciously?

Dew looked back at me. "Lucas has a crush."

"Dew!"

I laughed. "Well, don't keep me out of the loop. Give me the details."

Lucas smiled nervously while rocking in place. "Her name is Amee. Lives a couple blocks down the street. You might have seen her before. She's a rabbit, brown eyes, her parents own that pottery shop."

"I know the one." I said. "Have you actually talked to her?"

"Yeah, but I want to talk to her more. I keep trying to find things we have in common but I haven't found anything yet other than the fact that we both like the color blue."

"Now, that's something you can build a relationship on." I said sarcastically.

Dew said "You gotta sort out your problems, Lu. Girlfriends come with alot of their own as it is."

"How would you know?" Lucas said in an obvious echo of Dew's earlier statement.

Dew's face turned red.
I chuckled. "Nice one, Lucas."

Dew shook the humiliation off. "What about you Jo? Had your eye on anyone lately?"

"Like who?" I said. "The Only girls I see daily are Viper and Tigress. Other than them both being way older than me I don't like either of them like that. Besides, Tigress still hates my guts."

"What, you haven't seen either of them watching you while you work out?" Dew said with a laugh.

"Yeah, let me tell you." I added humorously.

"Come on show us your guns, Jo." Lucas said with a mock plea.

It felt stupid but I humored them. I held up my arm and flexed my muscle. Even if my strength had increased in training, my physique had changed only the slightest.

"It's gotta be awesome working under Master Shifu." Lucas said.

"Well…... for the most part." I said.

"What's that mean?" Dew said.

I paused not knowing what to say to them. They were both looking at me for an answer. I guess I should have known that I would eventually tell them. They were my friends after all.

I dove into the whole ordeal from earlier today; Shifu's eruption on me, my retaliation, and his conversation with Po.

When I had finished Dew was the first to say something. "Wow, that's rough, Jo."

I looked at them both. "Guys I want yall to be honest. Am I like Tai Lung?"

"Of course not, Jo." Lucas said.

Dew put in "Everyone knows what you did for the Valley. People consider you a hero. You're nothing like Tai Lung."

"I hope not. Otherwise more fights are gonna come up between me and Shifu."

Lucas said "Things will work themselves out, Jo. I wouldn't worry too much about it. Besides, he's a kung fu teacher. Aren't they supposed to be like the most patient people in the world?"

Somehow I sunk right back into the laughter. It was that easy with Dew and Lucas. A couple seconds later the talk of the fight was completely forgotten. I was glad for that. The rest of night was filled with more jokes, stories, and somewhere a in the midst o all that a pillow fight broke out. Although I felt bad when the attention was always on me when I hung out with them and. I wanted to show them an equal amount of interest in them. Unfortunately it was a price to pay when you were the Next Dragon Warrior.

another week, another chapter.
Hope you liked it.

Stay tuned for the Jo and Shifu's encounter.

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