A/N: Here I am with yet another chapter. I really appreciate all of your reviews. It's so much fun to read your thoughts about the story and what you think is going to happen:) I see that some off you are a little worried about Austin... All I can say is that everything will turn out all right for Jack in the end but first it's gonna get a bit worse...(poor Jack...) Don't wanna spoil the story by telling you more;P

And bout the girls...let's just say that every detail in this story is important and they're all there for a reason.

Disclaimer: I do not own Kickin' it only my OC Austin(who I don't even like...).

I personally like this chapter and I hope that you will to... Now, Jack if you would be so kind to countinue the story...

Chapter 4

The Letter

We all looked at Austin in surprise. The moves that he'd just shown us were impressive.

Even if I wasn't too fond of him, I had to admit that he was very talented.

"Wow, you really know how to dance." Kim said. I shot her a glance. She'd looked a bit too fascinated by him, for my likings.

"That was amazing!" Rudy exclaimed. Great now he's a fan too…

"I've just got an idea…" Rudy continued. "What would you say about being a part of our little show here on Friday?" He looked hopefully at Austin.

Eddie had a horrified look on his face which I was pretty sure was reflected my own face. I tried my best to hide it though, but I'm not too sure that I pulled it of. Kim on the other hand, had that lovely smile that I adore, spread across her face.

"Really? That would be so much fun." Austin answered.

"Are you sure that you have time for that. I mean the show's only two days from now." Eddie desperately tried to convince Austin to rethink is answer. "Besides weren't you and mom supposed to go see grandpa on Friday?"

Austin seemed to think about that for a moment as I felt a small ray of hope spring to life inside of me. Maybe he wouldn't be able to make it.

"Of course you don't have to do the show, if you have other more important stuff to deal with." Rudy said understandingly.

"But it would definitely be cool if you could do the show." Kim filled in.

Austin brightened up at Kim's comment.

"I guess I can call grandpa and tell him I'll meet him on Saturday instead or maybe he would like to come and watch both Eddie and me." Austin said as my ray of hope suddenly died. "As for the practise, I know how to dance I just gotta come up with a routine. I'll be here on all your practises and if it's cool with you Rudy, I can train here all day while the rest of them are in school. I don't have any other things to do anyway."

"Great! We can teach you some karate moves to mix in with the dance. It's gonna be so cool." I would have laughed at Rudy's childish enthusiasm at any other day but right now I was kind of upset by the way things were turning out.

"Jack" I snapped out of my thoughts as Rudy said my name. "Come on up here and be my sparring partner." He gestured for me to come. I reluctantly went over to him. Why did he have to drag me into this?

"I want you to throw a sidekick at me." He said.

I did and he blocked it perfectly, as you would expect from a third degree black belt.

"Now, some more kicks. You can mix them up if you want."

I started kicking and he kept blocking my attacks that now came from all directions, as Austin watched carefully. It turned out to a series of blocking movements that almost looked like a dance.

After Rudy's little demonstration it was Austin's turn. He first practised the moves in the mid air as Rudy occasionally gave him some advices and guidance. Kim, Milton and Jerry looked in awe at him as he picked up the moves quickly. It all seemed to come very naturally for him. Even Eddie looked amazed as Austin nailed moves, that they had been practising weeks for, in just a few minutes.

"Okay, I think you're ready to try against a real opponent." Rudy said. Once again I had to be the one to do the kicking.

I stood in front of him in my fighting stance ready to start.

"C'mon Austin! You can do this!" Kim exclaimed. That felt weird. It was the first time that she'd cheered for my opponent, and not for me.

"Ready?" Rudy shot us both glances as we gave a quick nod. "Okay…GO!"

I kicked at him half-heartedly and he blocked. "Good!" Rudy praised him. I saw Austin's confidence grow as he continued to defend himself successfully as I kept kicking and striking at him. Of course I went very easy on him, giving him a chance to keep up with me. But as my adrenalin kicked in I had a hard time controlling myself from getting too rough on him. I did a skip kick almost on reflex. It came really fast. Austin didn't even have a chance to see it coming. My foot made contact with his chest with an incredibly force. In a split second Austin was knocked to the ground.

"Austin!" Rudy and Kim screamed in unison as both ran towards him.

"Are you ok?" Rudy sounded really worried, a lot more than he usually does when I throw or kick someone to the ground, which happens quite often.

"Yeah I'm fine." Austin said as he sat up, though you could clearly see that his body was aching.

"Way to go, Jack." Kim hissed before turning to Austin again.

"Here, let me help you." She held out her hand. He took it and rose to his feet. As he got up their eyes met in an awkward moment. Well, for me it was awkward anyway…

"Jack." Rudy's voice was a bit stern as he said my name. "You have to go easy. You can't just take it all out on everyone you up against."

That was the first time I heard him say anything like that. Usually he's always like 'show em' what you've got' or 'Take him down!'.

"I'm sorry. I didn't mean to kick him." I defended. "It was an accident." Or at least I think it was… A part of me was just as chocked as everyone else, but another part was kind of satisfied. It felt good to get my frustration out on him, especially since he was the one causing me to feel this way in the first place. Was that making me a bad person?

"Okay, let's try again." Austin said.

"Are you sure?" Rudy asked.

"Yes. I'll be ready this time." Austin gave a faint smile to seem confident in his decision. "Maybe I should be the one doing the kicking." Kim said. "Since Jack has difficulties controlling his anger." She said the last words with despise in her voice.

I looked at her in disbelief. How could my best friend who've always stood by my side, turn into someone like this in a matter of hours.

"Kim's right, Jack. You could probably use a break." Rudy said. I didn't say anything, I just went over to the rest of the guys.

"I thought you did great." Eddie whispered to me as I sat down next to him. "He really deserves it."

I had woken up with a mixed feeling this morning. I was excited about the open house at the dojo this evening. But the way Austin and Kim had bonded over the past few days really bothered me and I wouldn't be able to fully enjoy myself tonight. Kim hadn't been herself and she seemed to be in her own unreachable world as we sat in the cafeteria.

"I can't believe that we are going to perform tonight." Milton said with a mixed expression of fear and excitement on his face.

"It's gonna be awesome." Jerry said. "My new routine is really cool. I can't wait to show it for my family."

"The whole thing would be a lot more fun though if Austin wasn't a part of it." Eddie muttered. The mention of Austin made Kim come out of her 'happy place'. "I think Austin is doing a great job. He's good and with his opening the whole thing seems more professional." Her voice got a little louder as she kept going. "What have you against him anyway?"

"Everyone seems to think that he's so perfect and no one notice how he..." Eddie trailed of. "Forget it." He sighed.

"Well, I think since it's our dojo and we're the ones that are actually taking lessons there..." I tried to sound objective. "…we should be the ones doing the show. Besides, in our dojo no one learns how to dance so I think that Austin's act kind of brings you the wrong message." I finished.

"You're just being jealous." Kim snapped.

"What?..." I exclaimed trying to find a good way to express myself without revealing that she was right. All I could come up with was "No, I am not jealous".

She looked at me in disbelief.

"I think that Jack's got a point." Milton said sincerely. I silently thanked Milton for taking me out of the awkward moment when Kim turned her 'evil glare' towards him instead. . "I bet there's going to be a lot of people coming to watch." Milton tried to change the subject as he met Kim's eyes.

"Yeah, especially cute girls." Eddie smiled at the thought.

"My sister Nelly and some of her friends are coming." Jerry nodded towards their table. The rest of us automatically took a sneak peak at them. Hey, weren't they the ones that acted so weird, giggling and whispering around me some days ago… I recognized them since one of them had this crazy black hair with red highlights in it.

"You know who those girls are?" I asked Jerry.

"Well, yeah… sort of. At least the two on the left, Carol and Amy. They use to hang out with Nelly. The cute blond one has actually been to my house once." He smiled. I was about to ask him more about them but I was interrupted by a now very familiar voice.

"Eddie!" We all looked at Austin as he approached us. "There you are. I've been looking all over the school for you." Austin said.

"Well here I am…" Eddie said annoyed. "What do you want?"

"Your mom is waiting for you outside. She said it was important."

"What?" Eddie looked at him surprised. "What does she want?"

"I don't know." Austin shrugged nonchalantly. Eddie reluctantly stood up and left his unfinished lunch to go meet his mother.

"Hey Kim." Austin smiled at her. "I didn't expect to see you here."

"You didn't?" I said. He glared at me. "This is the cafeteria at lunchtime and you were searching for Eddie which happens to be our friend. And you didn't expect us to be around and..." Kim kicked my leg under the table to make me shut up. She then turned her attention back to Austin.

"I didn't expect you either." She said.

"I'm looking forward to tonight." He said looking her deep in her eyes. "It's gonna be so great, especially with you by my side." Kim blushed at his words. Austin observed her in silence for a few seconds. "Have I told you, you look real pretty today?" He said, making me almost choke on the piece of meat that I was just about to swallow. I started to cough violently, drawing everybody's attention to me. My eyes were tearing up and my face had turned red as I tried to catch my breath.

"Are you okay, Jack?" Kim asked.

"Yeah, I'm fine. " I managed to gasp out before taking a sip of water.

"Oh look at the time." Milton said. "We better get going."

We all stood up, took our trays and left the table. I was the last one to leave and as I was about to put down my tray by the dishes, I accidentally dropped it. The plate along with the glass scattered in hundreds of pieces all over the floor with a loud crashing sound. Every person in the cafeteria stopped whatever they were doing and looked at me.

Okay…This was embarrassing. Not since I took out Frank and his Black Dragon buddies on my very first day here had I gotten this much attention. I quickly tried to collect all the broken pieces while everyone burst out laughing. Kim kneeled by my side helping me. I cursed slightly as a piece of glass sank into my skin. In the corner of my eye I could see Austin laughing so hard he had to bend over.

"Okay, everybody move. There's nothing to see here." It was Marge the lunch lady. We all scattered to let her trough. She had brought a broom with her and started to clean everything up.

"Jack your bleeding." Kim sounded worried. I hadn't noticed it before but my hand was more or less covered in blood coming from the cut that the small piece of glass hade made.

"You better get to the nurse and have that checked." Marge said. "I'll take care of this mess."

I walked out from the nurses office after I thanked her for taking care of my hand that was now all wrapped up to stop the bleeding. My friends were already in their classes. Kim had wanted to stay with me but I've insisted her to leave. I mean it was just a small cut, it's not as if I was dying or something. It barely even hurt. It looked way worse than it was and I wouldn't let Kim be late for her class for something as silly as this.

As I came around a corner heading towards my locker, I heard people talking so I slowed down. I'm not an eavesdropping kind of person, but the voices were familiar. I tried to concentrate on what they were saying as I inched closer. Rounding yet another corner I spotted the owners of the voices standing by the janitor's door. It was Austin talking to…Frank?... And there went the last piece of trust I had in that guy… I couldn't make out the words they were saying and I was debating with myself whether I should walk up to them or not. Considering that I was already late and didn't want to get even more delayed I decided to leave, preferably without Austin and Frank noticing me. I carefully backed of around the corner and took a detour to my locker instead. Why were they talking to each other?

I opened my locker, grabbing my stuff when I noticed a folded paper that I was sure hadn't been there before. I picked it up, unfolding it.

Hey Jack.

I don't know if you remember me…

We'd met on your last tournament.

You know the ginger haired girl with her dad by her side…

Anyway, we (me and my dad) have been following your success for the whole season.

Don't get me wrong…

We're just huge admirers of what you do.

So my dad owns this company that would be more than happy to sponsor you.

It's a great opportunity for you (at least that's what I think).

Meet me by the bench behind the gym after school.

Don't tell any of your karate friends about this…

Really hope you can make it, Tess.

I looked at the letter, reading it over again. I didn't know what to think. Was this for real or just some kind of prank? If this was true I was about to get a sponsor. I was really excited about that but the note also freaked me out a little. I did actually remember her taking a picture with me, but how could they have been watching me for so long without me noticing them? But then again, when I started to think of it, I was always so focused on the matches so I'd never notice any in the audience, so that maybe wasn't so strange after all.

But why wasn't I allowed to tell my friends about this? Yet again I figured out the answer to that. Tess and her father are probably thinking that my friends would be jealous or wanting sponsorships as well. I put the letter in my pocket and headed of to class. I didn't think so much more about it for the rest of the school day; instead what really bothered me was Austin's conversation with Frank. The only logical reason of why they were talking that I could think of was that maybe Austin is 'working undercover' for the Black Dragons to infiltrate our dojo to make sure that we loose the tournament. I know it sounds silly and a bit overdramatic when you say it like that, but you get the picture… But then again he was Eddie's cousin from New York (I think…) and that he would know Frank and the Black Dragons seemed kind of farfetched.

Either way I was going to tell the others as soon as I get a chance…

That's it guys, hope you liked it. So the question is, can Austin be trusted?
What do you think?

Please don't forget to review and I'll try to be as quick as possible with the next chapter;)

See ya!

/MJ