"Daddy, time to get up!"

"Five more minutes, Tigress. Please?"

"I'm not mommy!" a bright and happy voice giggled.

Without warning, Po felt a warm and furry bundle pounce on his belly. It jumped up and down and when he opened his bleary eyes, he could just make out the shape of his daughter jumping up and down on his puffy stomach.

"First day of school! First day of school!" Lotus shouted cheerily.

Po made a mock frown. "Hmm. Are you sure that's what day it is?"

"Yes!" Lotus cried. "Come on, let's go!"

"I don't know...are you really sure that's what day it is?"

"Daddy!" Lotus grumbled, though she was unable to keep a grin off her face.

"Alright, alright," Po gave in. "I'm up. Come here, you," he said with a grin that equaled her own, grabbing Lotus by her middle to give her a raspberry blow on her tummy.

"Don't mess up my dress!" she squealed in laughter.

Finally getting up from the bed much to her excitement, Po could see that Tigress had already helped her get ready for the day ahead; she was wearing a pink dress with a pink flower on the top of her head to match her namesake.

"Let's get going," he agreed, to which the little cub ran in response to the door.

xxxx

Po carried Lotus down the Jade Palace steps on his shoulders. While he was a teacher of Kung Fu, he wasn't a teacher of general learning, so he and Tigress had made the decision to enroll her in a normal school for kids her age. Tigress knew that it would also be good for her to learn a bit of independence from them both in case something were ever to happen—they still had to fight their enemies on a daily basis, but ever since that fateful day when Chao had been taken, Shifu had loosened up a lot on their missions. Still, she wanted her daughter to learn that she couldn't be with her parents every hour of the day.

Some people stared as they walked through the Valley of Peace on the route to the school. Lotus was a strange sight to behold; a mix of a panda and a tiger with white and black like her father and stripes like her mother. If not for her orange patches that splattered her little body, she would have looked like a normal white tiger with a straight tail. Since that wasn't the case, Lotus was an odd spectacle for those who were not used to seeing children from two different types of parents, though some of the villagers came up with bright smiles and who Lotus greeted with a smile just as bright.

"Aw, she's so cute," they cooed, which Po and Tigress appreciated. The two ignored the others who would only stare.

"Are you okay?" Po asked Tigress as he noticed her getting lost in thought; he had a faint idea of what she could be thinking about.

Tigress nodded lightly. "I just wish that he..."

Po took her hand, knowing just who the 'he' was that she was talking about: Chao. She wished that Chao could have been able to come to his first day of school, too.

"I know," he said softly in return. He felt the same way, wishing that Chao could have been walking alongside the both of them and Lotus; one happy family. They were happy, of course...but there were times when Tigress would just stare off into space, and it was during those times that Po knew she was thinking of Lotus' long lost little brother who had been taken from them at such a young age, and who they had never found.

"No talking to strangers," Tigress told her daughter as they finally began to get closer to the school, distracting herself from thinking of Chao any longer—it hurt too much. Her nerves were getting the better of her; what if Lotus didn't fit in? What if someone tried to take her like they had taken Chao? She couldn't bear the thought of losing her daughter, too. There was also the fact that she had an odd assortment of powers that she couldn't really control yet. What would happen if her powers suddenly had an episode that she couldn't control?

She and Po had debated sending her to school for that very reason, but in the end had decided that it wouldn't be a good idea to hold her back from learning all she could. From her lessons with Shifu before he had adopted her, Tigress had passed on what their master had taught her about learning control when she herself had been a cub at the orphanage.

Po had also given her a chant that she could say if she ever found that she couldn't control her actions: inner peace, inner peace, inner peace which was very easy for her to remember.

"I know, mommy," Lotus confirmed about the no talking to strangers rule, staring down at her from Po's shoulders with a comforting smile. "I'm not allowed to talk to anyone that I don't know," she recited.

Po clapped his praise. "That's right."

It was a long walk, but they finally made it. It was a school that Po recognized—the school where he had taught an introductory to Kung Fu to a group of bunny children, telling them the stories of the Furious Five and how they had started learning kung fu themselves. Class was just beginning to start, so Po and Tigress couldn't linger for long with the other parents who were just as reluctant to leave their children behind.

"Are you sure you're going to be okay?" Po asked Lotus, reluctant to leave his daughter. He knew deep down that she would be okay with all the kids and the teachers around, but he was still nervous.

Lotus nodded frantically, eager to catch up to her classmates as they filed into the school. "I'll be fine, daddy!"

"Hey hey, come give your mom and dad a hug," Po caught her before she could run any further. Lotus groaned, but happily snuggled into her parents as they knelt down to her level so she could reach them easily. "Can't we just walk her inside?" Po nearly whined.

Tigress shook her head. "Let her go to the kids on her own. She'll figure things out."

Lotus broke free from their hug, racing after the kids who were heading inside the room.

xxxx

The class had a break after introduction time, and they were given the opportunity to mingle and play with each other out front in the schoolyard. Lotus was a little nervous without mommy and daddy, but she soon saw a group of kids talking with each other in a corner, and curiosity had gotten the better of her. She could remember mommy's rule of not talking to strangers, but she recognized the students from class.

She inched closer and closer, seeing that it was a group of different cubs. They were all different animals, but she didn't know what any of them were exactly.

"So what are you, Cheng?" Lotus heard one of the kids ask. 'Cheng' was a red, black and white animal with fluffy fur.

"I'm a fox! And...what are you supposed to be?" he asked with a scowl as Lotus approached slowly.

Lotus thought about what to say, excited to make a new friend. "Well, my daddy is a panda and my mommy is a tiger. So I think I'm both?"

Cheng chuckled. "Both, huh? Do you know what that means?"

Lotus shook her head; she had a bad feeling and didn't like where he was going.

He stepped forward with a stomp, causing her to take a step back. He laughed.

"You're nothing but a mixed breed," he sneered.

She didn't know what that meant exactly, but she knew enough to know that it was bad—and it hurt her feelings. Her lower lip trembled, and Cheng only laughed a second time. He stepped forward again and threw his arms out, pushing her directly to the floor. Lotus yelped, landing hard on her back and getting mud on her pink dress. She scooted away, trying to avoid another hit from the advancing fox.

"Look at her cry," the other kids laughed. "She's so little and stupid."

It was then that something inside her flared. She just couldn't understand why they were being so mean to her!

She growled. Inner peace, inner peace, inner peace, she told herself just like what her daddy had taught her, and what would always help to calm her down when she got upset.

But before Cheng could come any closer, she shot a paw out at him. Claws extracted longer than normal, and before she knew what was happening, Cheng had been flung backwards onto the ground himself.

"Ow! It burns!" he cried on the floor, instantly backing away from her.

"I'm sorry!" she said in a panic, trying to get closer to him so that she could see what happened; he only backed away further. She glanced down at her paws, confusion and fear written all over her face. She tried to get to Cheng to check his cheek, but he continued to back away in a hurried motion.

"Get away from me, freak!" he screamed at her, covering his charred face with a paw.

She halted, then started to back away. She ran in the other direction, not caring where she was going except away from the school. Away from the bullies and the one who had hurt her feelings, and who she had hurt in return without even meaning to. She wasn't like him; she would never hurt another person! She ran and ran until she couldn't run anymore, panting and out of breath as she stood by a small pool of water—a little pond. She dropped to the floor, tears streaming down her face as she sobbed.

I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, she repeated over and over to herself. But even though she was sorry, she knew that Cheng was never going to forgive her. He was never going to be her friend in the first place, and certainly not after what she had done to him.

What was going on? Why had she burned his face? She was never going back to school. Never, never!

A noise suddenly distracted her from her thoughts, and she turned to the trees...only to see nothing.

But she'd seen something, she was sure of it. It had been a big, black shape over by those trees!

Rumbling sounds could be heard, and they shook the trees around her. Her breathing quickened but she continued moving forward, determined to prove to at least herself that a 'mixed breed' wasn't afraid and was good for something unlike Cheng had said.

That is—until she came face-to-face with a huge, black and white creature with bright, yellow eyes.