Back again! I am on a roll today! Time to give my thanks to all who've reviewed since last update a few hours ago.
Nomi Norisu: Yeah, keyword being "almost" here. Let's just say, this is going to cause some real problems later on for them.
Elcall: Yeah, the suit is pretty cool. My original design was exactly like the Ninja's(boring!) but with different colors. The additions(the webbed hands, movement of the scarf's location, and covered eyes) are to help with moving through water. And yeah, it's going to take a little bit longer for the Warrior and Ninja to meet, but hopefully, next chapter, it'll happen.
Remember when the doodles told her why she can't speak in words during her self-training session? Well, it has to come from her heart and soul for the words to be revealed. Meaning, her words have to be true and sincere. Water can be deceiving, in depth and the powerful currents underneath. The Warrior, being a sort of representative of the different sides of water, needs to be truthful where it counts, as well as deceptive(because accidentally revealing you're identity is a pretty big deal)
And as for the other books . . . actually, you're really close in terms of a location. They're scattered all over Norrisville. Let's see . . . Randy has one, so does Jenna, a third is already "found", per say, and that leaves three more to find, and four more students to find them. Oh, and by the way, you only have to be impatient until tomorrow after this one. It's real good, heh heh.
(Also, I can confirm that I planned on one of the books being hidden in the Old Gym, which ties a lot of canon and my imagination all cobbled together. Basically, think of the four remaining elements and the spots they would most likely be hidden. I'm trying to stick to canon on this in terms of places, so if you think of place, go ahead and name it.)
Wow. That was a pretty long review answering, but I don't really care. I love the reviewers! ;-P (playful, joking wink) Enjoy!
Chapter 7: Friendship Is Complicated . . .
Jenna didn't particularly like having someone else choose where she went and what she did, but her Uncle did have a pretty good point. Where else would she be most likely to meet kids her age during the weekend. Although, now that she was here, she had absolutely no idea what to do. Trapped in the school? Find a good spot and start climbing for "fun". Attacked by a bear? Scream at the top of your lungs and bang pots together to drive it away while edging for the nearest tree, just in case.
The Gamehole was something she wasn't prepared for, book-wise, street-wise, or just in general. She'd rarely ever played video games, besides Frogger, and she'd stopped playing that years ago. She couldn't really escape, since her uncle was hanging out nearby and would know if she just left after being in there for two minutes.
So, after a minute of looking around in total confusion and attempting to puzzle out a plan of action, Jenna finally shrugged and started walking around the arcade. She glanced at the various games, squinting a little as the dark atmosphere plus the bright, ever-changing lights of the screens hurt her eyes a little. She saw a few people she'd helped out at school, like Bucky, Juggo, Accordion Dave.
They all waved when they saw her, but almost immediately went back to whatever they had been doing, whether starting on another game, chatting with someone else, or eating some food. She would give a quiet ,"Hello," or "Hi," and a small wave in return, but kept on walking. She wasn't sure if she should ask to join or wait for someone to ask her.
She had literally no experience in this area of everyday life; well, everyday life for most people, but not her. As Jenna wandered farther back, she accidentally bumped into someone. Starting to apologize, she was cut off, the person she'd run into in on mood for apologies.
"Hey, watch where you're walking, shoob!" shouted the boy, jabbing his finger right into her face. "I almost beat the high score, and then you come along and have to wonk things up! Thanks for nothing!" it was Howard, and in the dim lighting, and with Jenna subtly pulling up her hood, he didn't recognize her.
Jenna froze, then stepped back a little, with a quiet, timid, "I'm sorry, I didn't mean it. . . "
"You should be! I don't even have any tokens left now!" he continued, venting his anger and frustration on her. He'd been so close at beating the high score and rubbing it in Cunningham's face!
Jenna ducked her head, then turned and walked away, hands clenching at her sides. She was keeping down sobs, but a few small sniffles escaped her as she walked past a taller boy with spiky purple hair.
Randy paused and waved to her. "Hey, Jenna! Wanna, you know, come hang with me and Howard?" he invited. Then, he thought over the Nomicons' message from Friday night. After some more thought on it, he realized that the fight between ninja, lizard, and Warrior vaguely resembled his fight with the robotic Mantis from last Monday . . . when Jenna had helped him and got hurt because of it.
Jenna almost flinched, but managed to hold it back.
"Naw, me and Howard kinda . . . bumped into eachother already. I . . . I'm good, but thanks. He just . . didn't seem in the best of moods." she replied, keeping most of the shakiness out of her voice, but not all. She slipped past him and went to the very back, where there was an exit, and went outside. Once there, she walked down the alley a couple of paces before sitting against the wall with a quiet sigh.
"Why do I mess up every chance I have to make friends?" she groaned quietly, burying her face in her hands, letting herself begin to cry, sobs shaking her shoulders and tears streaming down her cheeks.
Meanwhile, Randy and Howard had regrouped. "What do you mean you need more tokens?! I just gave you the rest of my tokens less than fifteen minutes ago!?" Randy exclaimed, waving his arms around at his biffer, irritated.
Howard held his hands up. "I know, I know, but I kept dying in the game and putting in the tokens so I could keep going! I was this close, Cunningham," he showed a tiny amount with his fingers, "This close . . . and then some shoob bumped into me and made me wonk up!" he finished.
Randy thought for a moment. There weren't a whole lot of people at this end of the Gamehole, only one or two others besides Howard and himself, which begged the question of who bumped into Howard. He would've gotten pretty steamed at them.
"Do you know who bumped into you?" he asked.
Howard shrugged, leaning against the game console and looking at his fingernails. "I dunno, some shoob in a camo hoodie." he replied.
Randy's eyes widened. "That's Jenna, dude! Don't you remember what happened last Friday between her and Bash? She beat him without even touching him!"
Howard's eyes widened, too, then narrowed with disbelief. "Well, she sure didn't sound like 'Jenna'. She sounded like any other 'fraidy cat shoob." he replied dismissively.
Randy recalled when he had walked past her. What she said seemed awfully suspicious. "I invited her to join us a few minutes ago . . . and she said she'd, 'bumped into you', and that you weren't, 'in the best of moods'? Hm? Ring any bells?" Randy asked, crossing his arms. He was not happy.
Howard gave him a look. "What are you getting at, Cunningham?" he returned, suddenly grumpy, annoyed at the turn in conversation, but secretly curious. What had brought on Jenna's odd, hundred-and-eighty-degree change in reaction and personality?
"What I'm getting at is you totally made her upset!" Randy exclaimed, waving his arms. Didn't Howard get it? Yelling at others guys was okay, but not at girls. Even he had standards.
"She's tough, she can handle it! Did you not hear about how she was completely unaffected when Bash's insulted her?" he returned. He could see where he could've possibly gone wrong, but didn't understand why Randy was getting his cheese in a bunch over it.
"Yeah, but she's new here! She doesn't know who Bash is or his popularity status." he returned sharply. "Otherwise, she would've totally been affected. And," he paused, giving his friend a bit of a look. "Since I know you won't apologize, I will." Randy told him, jabbing his thumb towards his chest before turning to look for Jenna.
Howard rolled his eyes. "Classic us . . ." he muttered, deciding to go get some food before catching up with his bro.
Randy opened the door to the alley slowly, glancing around. He saw Jenna, leaning back against the wall of the building a few feet to the left. Walking out, he called out to her.
"Hey, Jenna? Uh, what's going on?" he asked.
She started, looking sharply in his direction, eyes wide and tears on her face, just visible underneath her bangs. "Oh-ah, h-hey, Randy . . ." she stammered, looking back down at a small photograph she had in her hand.
Randy walked over and sat next to her, noticing how she stiffened. "Look, I'm sorry Howard got all grumpy at you, but, well, he can't help it. When he's mad about something, he just says it, ya'know?" he told her, rubbing the back of his neck. It was clear she'd been crying, probably for awhile now; had Howard really upset her that much?
Jenna nodded faintly. "Yeah . . . sometimes, things just . . . can't be h-helped . . ." she replied despondently, looking down at the picture again with a quiet sniffle. It seemed that there was more to the problem than just Howard yelling at her.
From what Randy could see of the small pic, there was a man with blue-green eyes and medium brown hair, a women with dark brown hair, dark eyes, and dark skin. Just behind the man was someone who could almost be the man, but . . . older, with more blue in his eyes, silvery hair, and a sort of weathered look about him. Actually, Randy could recognize this man as Old Man Joans.
Old Man Joans, or Mr. Joans to his face, was a kindly guy that lived not to far from his place and practically everyone in Norrisville knew, except he looked a little younger in the picture. Next to the women was none other than Viceroy, in his usual attire. Standing side by side, you could see how he and the women could be -and probably were- related.
Standing in front of the women and man was a young girl, probably eight or nine years old, with short, light brown hair, bright violet eyes, wearing a shirt with a picture of a white fox and an orange fox that side, "I (heart) Foxes!" down in orange and outlined in white while the background of the fabric was in forest green and arctic blue, swirled around almost randomly. The closer you looked, though, the more you could see how it vaguely resembled the yin-and-yang symbol.
"Is that you and you're family?" he asked, indicating the picture.
Jenna flinched. "Y-yeah. . . it is. . ." she replied quietly, reluctantly, as if the picture would disappear if she spoke to loud.
"So, you're related to Old-I mean, Mr. Joans?" he slowly pointed to the older man. "He's really nice."
She nodded hesitantly, pulling the picture away from his hand a little. "Yeah, he is . . ." her fingers brushed the figures who must be her parents before drawing back again, tears flooding and falling from her eyes, her shoulder shaking with silent sobs. 'No, I will not cry . . . not here, not now . . . If anyone sees me weak . . . I'll just get picked on more later on . . .' she thought to herself, trying to hold it in, but unable to.
Randy, beginning to feel uncomfortable with being with an emotional teenage girl, tried to think of what to do to calm her down. He put his arm around her shoulder slowly, waiting to see if she was okay with that before gently pulling her closer in a half hug.
"Hey now, its okay. Uh, do you want to tell me what the problem is?" he asked hesitantly, seeing how she clutched the picture to her.
Jenna shook her head "no", subconsciously leaning into him, wanting comfort from physical contact but not sure how to ask anyone. "Not really. . . "she replied softly, clutching the photo closer.
Randy shifted a little so he could use his other arm, waving his hand a little in her face. She jerked back a little, nearly banging her head on the wall as she turned to look at him.
"If it's a secret, I promise not to tell anyone . . . okay? I just want to help." he told her, putting his sincere-ness in his voice.
She seemed to think, then, hesitantly, she nodded. "Okay . . . but don't. Tell. Anyone." she ground out stiffly and stonily. Randy could gather from her tone alone that to tell anyone else would probably be the equivalent to signing a death wish.
"I promise. My lips are sealed." he told her, using his free right hand to draw his fingers across his lips, like closing a zipper, before pretending to flick the zipper tab aside.
She nodded, snuggling a little closer. She either didn't realize or didn't care how uncomfortable this was making Randy feel. He wasn't sure exactly what she thought of him. Her reactions to him when they first met, to the fight with the Mantis, what he'd heard about her fight with Bash, and now . . . all this snuggling she was doing. He honestly wasn't sure what to expect from her by now, as her personality seemed to change like the wind.
She took a deep breath, and released it slowly. "W-well . . . these two people," she pointed to the unidentified man and women in the picture, holding it out with a shaking hand, "They're my mom and dad . . . I. . . I haven't seen them in awhile, and, well . . . it just hurts. . ." she finished, fresh tears falling down her face.
Randy subtly tightened his grasp on her shoulders. This seemed to be deeper than her folks just going on a business trip. WAY deeper. He waited silently for her to continue.
"I-I haven't seen them since Chr-Christmas Eve . . . th-they . . . it was sn-snowing hard, a-and . . . th-they were trying to . . .to . . ." she gave up, her throat tight and chest hurting. She twisted around to cry into Randy's chest, forgetting for the moment that he was there, taking a small amount of comfort in the fact that someone was there for her, let alone who.
Randy, on the other hand, had frozen. He hadn't quite foreseen this, though he probably should have. And what she had said, even though she hadn't finished, spoke more to why she was so upset. From what he could guess, her parents weren't around anymore, and had been gone for about a month. Slowly, he unfroze, and gently rubbed her back with his spare arm, like how he'd seen in movies and on tv.
"Hey, it's okay . . ." he said quietly.
"No it's not . . ." was her muffled response into his chest.
Randy wasn't sure exactly what to say. "Wh-what happened?" he asked, then immediately regretted it.
Jenna didn't really move much except to pull her head back a little from his chest, to make her words clear. "It was all m-my fault . . ." she mumbled.
Randy blinked. "I'm sure it-" he began, but she interrupted him.
"No!" she snapped, suddenly hostile. "It's not okay! I left it behind and they went back to get it for me! If I hadn't forgotten it, then they never would've gotten into an accident! IT'S ALL MY FAULT!?" she shouted at him. Tears filled her eyes, and she buried her face back into his chest.
"It's all my fault . . ." she whimpered quietly, the sound muffled and difficult to make out. Randy was able to, though.
Okay, so, I made this extremely fluffy scene between Randy and Jenna. Any thoughts on it?