Chapter 4! Shopping time! New name! Introducing Fanfiction stuff and fandoms to Jack! His reaction! READ! XD

Jack was waiting at the bottom of the stairs for Mel and Wuya. When they came and found him, they climbed into the jet and Jack took off. Mel was barely buckled before they were launched into the sky. She 'eeped' faintly as she was jolted.

To fill the silence, Jack asked, "So, Mel, tell me a little more about yourself." Mel looked startled for a second.

"You know, I'm not sure about the name 'Mel' anymore. I don't think it fits me well." She had started to regret taking the name. After all, it wasn't hers; how can she be her own person when she didn't even have an original name?

"Then pick a new one or go with your old one," Jack stated simply. Mel thought a while.

"You know, my friend Taylor let me borrow a baby name book to look at. It just occurred to me that I never brought it with me." Jack was silent. He tried to think of a reason why she'd borrow the book and why her friend had it in the first place. Wuya found her voice first.

"What does that have to do with anything?" she asked. Mel smiled.

"Because it has at least 100 girl names I could choose from. I want a name that sounds close enough to my real name that I'll recognize it immediately but different enough that no one will be able to guess my real name, though I doubt anyone would anyway. I need a name that describes me or my personality, sounds good, and is unique to me. The great thing about that book is that it lists 100 girls' names and 100 boys' names, provides their origins, what they mean, and any mythological, biblical, or literary references there may be pertaining to a particular name. If I had it with me, I could just write down a list of names that appeal to me and choose from them."

"Okay, I understand that part. Now, mind telling us why you and your friend had the book to begin with?" Jack requested.

"Taylor found it in her house. Her parents used it to name her. Recently though, her boyfriend has been really creepy, in my opinion, and they were deciding what to name their kids when they got married." Mel paused for a moment to shudder.

"What, don't like kids?" Jack smirked.

"No, I do, to an extent. I just can't stand the thought of having my own. I mean, seriously? Do I really want to spend 9 months being fat and irritable and extra emotional, exceedingly bitchy and hopped up on hormones? Personally, I don't want to push a freakin' kid outta my business. I don't want to spend the next few years changing diapers, feeding it mush, and waking up at the most ungodly hours just to comfort the damn thing. Not to mention all the extra stuff you have to buy, like toys and baby-stuff, and potty-training. Ugh, I remember when Dad and Gina were trying to potty train Landon, and then later Christopher, and then Bethany. Total nightmare having to listen to little kids cry because they wet the bed instead of getting up and using the bathroom. And then there's bills and school and daycare and careers and babysitters. The lists go on and on, Jack! I can handle someone else's kids. I can handle babies; as long as they're not mine. Uh-uh, no way! I told all my friends and family that the day I decide to "have a family"—" Melody made air quotes. "would be the day I've quite officially gone insane."

Jack laughed at the expression of disgust that grew on Mel's face as she ranted.

"Yeah, me too. I don't understand why people would want to go through all that."

"Well, for obvious reasons, they want a family. But in some cases, I think it's because they don't know what the Hell they're getting into or they don't give a damn either way. They want a kid? Fine. Be my guest, I don't care. I honestly don't see how Taylor would put up with that shit from her boyfriend. Although, she's almost as bad. I never got to meet the actual boy. But she talks about them doing it, like, every week! Total eww!"

Jack blushed and shifted uncomfortably at Mel's casual mention of "it". Melody continued, oblivious to Jack's discomfort. (1)

"Anyway, we were in History class and Taylor let me look through the book. I was really interested in the meanings and origins of the names. My math class and I had loads of fun looking up each others' names and reading them out loud. Josh Jobe's names are all Hebrew, so he was pretending to be Jewish and saying stuff with all sorts of innuendos, like 'Let me take you to my promise land!' and such. He acts totally retarded sometimes, but he's funny as all hell! I kept the book so I could make names for characters I create in my stories."

This peaked Jack's interest. "You write stories?"

"FanFiction," Melody replied stiffly. She said nothing else and looked out the window. She didn't want to tell Jack about FanFiction. She knew all sorts of stories on the site that would make Jack gag if he read them. Just from spending this short amount of time with him, Melody could safely venture that Jack was straight and not in any way at all gay. Which was sort of a problem, seeing as the majority of Jack Spicer Fanfics were slash. Yaoi. Shonen-ai. Mel's favorite reading material.

Jack however, couldn't read Mel's mind to know these things. So he asked her, "What is FanFiction?"

"I'd rather not say…" Mel said slowly. Jack nudged her with his elbow and grinned.

"Is it naughty?" he asked, drawing out the last word playfully.

"No," Mel said, drawing out the word as well, smiling. "Well, it depends on what you're reading, I guess. Adult FanFiction is exceedingly naughty! But FanFiction is just a place where people can make up stories about characters from their favorite books or movies or TV shows. They have different categories and such for whatever medium of entertainment floats your boat. Mine is mainly cartoons. I like reading Fanfics of my favorite characters and taking place in a familiar environment, which is usually the characters' home world. I think it's kind of educating, too, I guess. I get to see the different styles that different people write in."

"So what do you usually read?" Jack asked. He was genuinely curious.

"It depends on what I'm obsessing over at the time." Melody answered. "Most times, it's either Invader Zim, cos he's awesome and epic fail at the same time, along with his enemy Dib, so they make the best slash ever, and Xiaolin Showdown, which is what started off all my hopes and dreams." (2)

Jack started. Wuya whipped around to face Melody.

"Really? Do tell!" she rasped. Melody looked uncertain and deftly avoided answering.

"Look, I consider myself mostly neutral watching the show and reading the fanfiction. I hate how the villains were portrayed in the show and I especially hate how some of the best writers on FanFiction bash the Xiaolins and make them look like the bad guys."

"I might like this site!" Jack crowed.

"No you wouldn't," Melody sighed in a sing-song voice. She grinned evilly for a few moments before elaborating. "Most of the Fanfics I read are romances. And since there are plenty of characters in the show, there are also plenty of pairings to go with. There are too many fangirl freak fanatics out there to stop the really weird pairings, but there is a big enough fan-base behind certain slash pairings that they're almost legit."

"Oh yeah? Like what? And what is 'slash'?" Jack asked. Again, Mel looked uncomfortable before she spoke.

"Promise you won't get mad? Because I'm telling you, right now, that you aren't going to like any of the pairings. Most of them revolve around you."

Jack made a face. "Why?" he asked.

"Duh! Because you're the favorite! The darling of the show! Fans everywhere would seriously kill to meet you! To be honest, I'm half convinced I'm having a lucid dream here! But they would be trying to pair you up with whoever else their particular fandom revolves around."

"Just tell me and get it over with." Jack sighed. Melody sighed as well.

"Okay, starting with some of the less freaky and more normal pairings; Raimundo and Kimiko."

"Typical."

"Jack and Kimiko"

"What? How?"

"There is an overabundance of male characters in the show, so the normal-ish pairings can be any of the many guys with any one of the very few girls. And that particular pairing is mostly due to the fact that at many points in the show you can be a real flirt and one time you actually kidnapped Kimiko to repla—ACK!" Melody choked and started coughing. Jack looked over at her, slightly concerned.

"Are you okay?" he asked when she had recovered.

"Yeah, fine, I think," she answered. "Strange. That happened to Melody whenever she tried to tell the others something she knew and they weren't meant to know yet…" her voice trailed off.

"Who? What are you talking about?" Now Jack was thoroughly confused.

"Since I was 12, I've had this story going on in my head. Melody is the name of the girl I created and whose name I took. That's why I'm kind of uncomfortable with my name now; because it's not mine, it's hers. Anyway, Melody traveled to a different world when she died, and it's kind of the same thing that happened with me, except I didn't die. Her world and mine are exactly identical. She went to the world of Xiaolin Showdown and she knew all this stuff from her world, just like I do. Only, she wasn't allowed to tell the monks or anyone about the things that happen in the future. Whenever she was about to say something that they weren't meant to know, her voice would shut off and she'd choke. The same thing just happened to me, which is strange because Fate didn't bring me here. I'm not the Traveler like Melody."

"Sounds like a very complicated story," Jack remarked. "So you can't tell us certain things; you can still be helpful, though, right? Your movement doesn't seem to be inhibited."

"Damn right I can. Melody was able to work around the rules and let the others know of some of the issues without actually saying anything important to give it away. They had to trust her judgment cos they knew she couldn't tell them directly what she knew. So she usually said something about 'it's important', 'do this', 'do that', 'I can't tell you', 'you'll have to trust me', and all that junk. I'm guessing I can do the same thing with you."

"Okay, so, continue with what we were talking about before you…choked." Jack said.

Mel made a face. She had hoped Jack would've forgotten.

"Okay, so there are all sorts of people in my world and certain kinds of fangirls that make up pairings just because two people have any sort of interaction, even though there's no way that the pairing could possibly work. This next pairing is Jack and Wuya."

"WHAT?" they both screeched. Mel held her hands up in a surrendering gesture.

"Wuya is the only other female Jack has the most contact with! That's why it's a pairing!" she explained quickly.

"What's next?" Jack growled.

"Most of the rest of the pairings are slash, Jack." Mel warned.

"And yet you still haven't told me what that means," Jack retorted. "So what is it?"

"FanFictioners have their own language. AU, OC, OOC, Canon, Fluff, Lemon, and Slash are all the terms we've developed. AU means Alternate Universe; the world in the fanfic is different from the original world. The characters may have different roles, they may do entirely different things, they may live totally different lives, or the flow of time and the sequence of events is altered so everything is different.

"Canon is the exact opposite. Everything is the same, everyone's personalities are accurate, and everyone interacts with others in the fashion that they usually do. The story might be altered a little bit, for the sake of the author's intentions for the story. This world would be considered canon, because it's like the original world and all the characters are acting like their real selves. It's not changing a lot of things in the story."

Jack nodded his head, able to grasp these concepts. Mel continued explaining.

"OOC stands for Out Of Character. This is usually the case in AU stories. It means the characters personalities are different from what they usually are. They don't act like they normally do, and in a lot of cases, this is blatantly obvious.

"OC stands for Own Character. OCs are people that aren't in the show or book or whatever original story the author is writing from. The author creates them. I have two OCs that I've created. Melody is one of them. Her evil twin Morgan is the other. If you remind me later, I might tell you about them.

"I'll skip Fluff and Lemon, because those determine the kind of romance that people can write. And Slash is a romance category all on its own."

Jack waited while Mel fidgeted nervously.

"It's easy to explain to a girl, because for some reason, girls understand it. They get addicted to it; some so much that normal relationships seem disgusting to them. But most girls don't have problems with Slash. And I'm telling you now, Jack, I know that while it might be okay in my world, it definitely isn't in this world. You're the real thing and I—"

"Spit it out already!" Jack cried.

"Okay, okay! There are pairings between you and Raimundo, Clay, Omi, and several of the male villains on the Heylin side, most of which you haven't met yet." Mel made a face while Jack sat in shocked silence.

"Your people think I'm gay?" he asked, clearly insulted.

"It's your body type and general behavior, I think. You're just the ideal candidate. And there's only one pairing that makes any sense even though it's totally and utterly wrong and impossible."

"Mel, I don't wanna know." Jack said resolutely. Mel was quiet for a moment.

"You know, I think I might let you read some of CrystalikSky's work. You may not be gay, but you'll like her work at least. It's funny and the innuendos are awesome and hilarious. But come on; it isn't an issue here in this world, alright? This is your world, not mine."

"Glad of it," Jack grumbled. "Let's drop this FanFiction stuff, okay?" he added.

"Gladly," Mel sighed with relief. "Oo! Is that the mall?" She looked out at the world speeding around her and saw a large building. Jack checked a screen and confirmed Mel's question. He swirled down and around, and pulled off a few twists and a loop-the-loop before twisting a couple barrel rolls and settling down into a parking space, taking up two spaces. Mel whooped and hollered the entire way, laughing and yelping with delight at every sudden twist and turn.

She opened her door and stumble out, wobbling a little and giggling madly. (3)

"That. Was awesome!" she hooted, throwing her arms into the air triumphantly. Jack rolled his eyes and chuckled.

"Come on. Let's get you some clothes."

"Ha ha ha ha! Total sweetness!" Mel shouted, pumping her fists. They walked to the doors and entered the mall.

In the hours that followed, Jack and Mel went from store to store, going through the many racks of clothes. Mel had a fun time searching for the best clothes, from hot jeans and cute skirts to blouses and baby-tees. There was even a store in the mall that reminded Mel of the Hot Topic back home, and she got a myriad of different jewelries and baubles and more clothes. Jack was enthusiastic about the whole experience, as if he didn't have the chance to go shopping very often. He enjoyed having Mel play dress-up even more than she did! It was a little suspiciously gay, to Mel's mind, but she knew plenty of other guys who liked shopping and weren't gay.(4)

During one of their breaks, Jack came back to the table they had claimed to find Mel engrossed in a book with pen and paper.

"What are you doing?" he asked. Mel answered without looking up, "I'm doing exactly as I said I would: I'm making me a new name." Jack looked at the cover of the book she was holding and realized it was a book of names. He sat down next to her.

"Can I see what you got so far?" he asked. Wuya peered over Mel's shoulder as well. Mel passed the paper to Jack.

At the top, there were three initials.

"What is A.N.D.?" he asked.

"They're my initials. I figure the best way to go about this is to keep them and choose names that fit in with them. So I'm searching for a first name that starts with 'A'."

Already, there were 9 names written down. The place of origin and the meanings were next to each name. Some had notes next to them.

Adora (Latin) "beloved"

Alanna (Irish Gaelic) "fair, beautiful" A feminine form of Alan.

Alan (Irish Gaelic) "handsome, cheerful"

Alina (Slavic) "bright, beautiful"

Almira (Arabic) "exalted" A feminine for of Elmer

Elmer (Old English) "noble; famous" See also Elmo

Elmo (Italian) "helmet; protector"

Anastasia (Greek) "of the Resurrection; of Springtime"

Ana (Hebrew) "graceful"

Angela (Greek) "angel; messenger"

Ardelle (Latin) "warmth; enthusiasm" See also Arden

Arden (Old English) "eagle-valley" Literary: Arden, in Shakespeare, is a romantic place of refuge. ~Ardenia~

Ariel (Hebrew) "lioness of God"

Astrid (Scandinavian) "divine strength" ~Astra~

Jack passed the paper back to Mel, who took it.

"Now that I have these written down, I can go through the process of elimination." she said, and then she set to work.

When Jack looked at the paper again, he saw that Adora, Alanna, Alina, Almira, Angela, and Ardelle were crossed off. Anastasia, Ariel, and Astrid were left. As he watched, Mel crossed off the last two.

"My first name will be Anastasia, or Ana for short." she said. Nodding his head, Jack found himself liking the name.

"You know, I think you are an Ana. You look like one. It suits you."

"What about the other names?" Wuya pondered.

"I'll work on it." Mel answered, and she set to work.

At the top of the page, Mel had written her new name. Anastasia or Ana for short. The newly dubbed Ana smirked as she continued to write down possible last names. Her new name sounded somewhat close to her original name and fully spelled out, it even contain it within itself! Genius, she thought.

When she was done, she passed the paper to Jack, who looked at the 10 names she had written down.

Dahlia (Scandinavian) "From the valley"

Damara (Greek) "gentle girl"

Danika (Slavic) "The morning star"

Deirdre (Irish Gaelic) "Sorrow; complete wanderer"

Dodie (Hebrew) "beloved" Familiar form of Dora

Dora (Greek) "gift" See also Doris and Dorothy

Doris (Greek) "from the sea" Mythological: The wife of Nereus and mother of the Nereids (sea nymphs)

Dorothy (Greek) "gift of God"

Darnell (Old English) "from the hidden place"

Delano (Old French) "of the night"

Donovan (Irish Gaelic) "dark warrior"

Drake (Middle English) "owner of the 'Sign of the Dragon' inn"

Duncan (Scottish Gaelic) "dark-skinned warrior"

Jack watched Ana cross off most of the names, not bothering to ask what was going on in her head or why she crossed off certain names. Soon, only three were left.

Ana wrote them down, separate from the others. Then she began pairing them up.

Anastasia Danika—of the resurrection/of springtime; the morning star

The morning star of the Resurrection

The morning star of springtime

~Ana Danika~

Anastasia Delano—of the Resurrection/of Springtime; of the night

~Ana Delano~

Anastasia Donovan—of the Resurrection/of springtime; dark warrior

Dark warrior of the Resurrection

~Ana Donovan~

"Well, Delano's out," Ana said, and she crossed it out. Jack could understand why, too. The meanings of each name didn't match up.

"So Danika or Donovan. Which is it?" Jack asked. Ana thought about it.

"The morning star of springtime, the morning star of the Resurrection, or Dark warrior of the Resurrection?" Ana mused.

"Personally, I like that last one," Wuya reflected.

"Yeah, me too," Jack agreed. Ana nodded then declared, "Alrighty then! From now on, my name is Anastasia Donovan! Call me Ana.

"But what about your middle name? The 'N'; what's it stand for?" Jack asked.

"Oh, I'll figure it out later," Ana said waving her hands. "Don't we got a few more stores to hit?"

"Yeah, let's go."

The next hour saw Jack, Wuya, and Ana in their last store. Ana was standing in the dressing rooms, waiting for a stall to open. Jack and Wuya were waiting outside in the lounge area. Finally, a stall at the far end opened up and Ana started towards it.

A girl, seeming about a foot shorter than Ana, came out into the hall and examined herself in the three-way mirror. She had short black hair and a slim frame. When she turned around, Ana thought, 'She's so pretty!'

She was wearing a pair of black skinny jeans and a white, flouncy, tank top-like shirt. It had spaghetti straps and a round neck around her chest. The fabric was form-fitting in that area and pinched close to her body just under her breasts. From there, all the fabric was loose. There was no hem at the bottom and there seemed to be a lot of extra fabric, because when she twirled, the many folds flew outward and fluttered gracefully and swished around her before settling and falling back into place.

It was as if the girl was wearing a skirt attached to a breast band on spaghetti straps. Ana fell in love with it immediately, and bounded over to the girl and got her attention.

"Excuse me. Hi! I really like that shirt. Do you know where I can get it?"

The girl turned and smiled up at her.

"You like it? I can show you where there's a whole lot of these things! They're on sale!" the girl grinned.

"Oh wow!" Ana exclaimed. She grinned and said, "I wonder why."

"They got overstocked. They expected to sell them quick, but it didn't catch on. So now they're hoping to get rid of them all so they can get different stuff. Bad for them, I suppose, but good for us! Right?" the girl said.

"Right!" Ana agreed. "I think it's awesome. I gotta try these on, then we can go check 'em out. 'K?" The girl nodded. She went back in and changed back into her original clothes, then stepped out for Ana so she could change.

"By the way," she called. "My name is Keiko. What's yours?" Ana froze in the middle of pulling on a new pair of jeans. 'Keiko? Did she just say Keiko?'

Ana's mind worked quickly with this information, even as she answered Keiko with, "My name is Anastasia. Call me Ana." Keiko was the name of Kimiko's best friend. They were always on the phone together, talking about their lives and chatting like real girlfriends. A plan formulated in her head while she and Keiko approved and vetoed some of the clothes she was trying on.

When they were done, Keiko grabbed Ana's arm and they hustled out of the dressing rooms. Ana dumped the approved clothes in Jack's arms while he franticly looked back and forth between the two girls and the dressing rooms, bewildered.

"Hey!" he shouted. "Where are you going?"

"Keiko's showing me some cool stuff!" Ana called over her shoulder. Wuya floated next to Jack.

"Who's Keiko?

Okay, that happened! I hope you liked the names. I did use my little book to figure some stuff out, and if your name was one of the ones up there, good for you! You now know exactly what your name means. If not, oh well. And now for the note #'s:

(1) My group and I are a pretty dirty bunch. We talk about sex and stuff it entails and all sorts of kinky things. I'm not so much into the talking sex crap, but I'm almost as bad at encouraging dirty-minded-ness. You think sex is dirty. Therefore, you have a dirty mind. :D

(2) Srsly, I'm messed up. It all started when I was 12, which was around the time that Xiaolin Showdown was popular. Too bad it was aired by Kids WB. They suck donkey dick. Pardon my French. (not) jk (or am I?) no, really, jk. (but can you be sure?)

(3) Is there any other way to laugh? I'm a thrill junkie. Yay for random subject changes! :D

(4) Besides, if he was gay, I wouldn't be writing this! But I promise, I WILL make an alternate universe version where I help hook up Jack with Chase. :3