Author's Note: I'm officially back from the graduation ceremony :') It was awesome! But the teachers were talking so damn much, I swear, at one point, all the graduates were standing on stage, to, you know, throw our hats in the air. But we had to wait for the teachers to finish their sentence - which then turned into another speech (it lasted for 30 minutes, and I counted).

Anyway, sorry for not updating in a while. (Insert an excuse). I've written the chapter, but I erased it. It didn't came out the way I intended. So I rewrote it and ta-da! Here's the new and improved update :P

Warning: A bit of fluff. Magic. Curse words. Typos. That's about it.

Disclaimer: Don't own a thing, which I've said, for like the sixth time.

Tattoo

ஜ۩۞۩ஜ

Chapter 7: Ability and Inability

"Blessed are those that know the path out of their carnal flesh, for they shall attain intuition." ― Michael Bassey Johnson

After receiving a message on Facebook from Jake, Trixie was now zigzagging past many New-Yorker citizens through the busy downtown streets. The message came in this morning, when she was in the middle of sleeping. It was a day, let alone a Saturday, that your home-girl promised herself to spend the day in bed, to get some needed sleep. Of course, her best-friend had different plans for her, according to his message.

She sucked on her teeth as she pushed through a man, who seemed like a businessman, his gray suit and his suitcase were a dead giveaway. Seriously, that boy was crazy for making her wake up at 8 in the fuckin' morning. She deserved some beauty sleep, after what happened.

A week passed after she had gotten stabbed by her conscious and everything had been quiet and peaceful. As promised, Jake had been by her side, teaching her about magic. He wasn't exactly teaching her on how to use magic but more on the basics of it. All and all, the two friends had been hanging out, always together like peanut butter and jelly.

Why could he possibly want with me at this hour? For what? Magic analysis? School work? She contemplated, pursing her lips.

He didn't even specify in his text. All he said was: Come to Gramps' electronic shop. The thoughts that went through her mind, as she crossed a street and looked both ways, were enough to drive Trixie crazy. To notice that her conscious had been absent for quite a while, got her on edge. Don't get her wrong, she hated Inner Voice, especially after what she did, but her gut was telling her to somehow worry for the worst.

The sight of Lao Shi's electronic shop jarred her from the thoughts that consumed her. Trixie stopped walking, the squeaking of her black Vans sneakers long gone, and stood before the little shop, somehow feeling self-conscious. That'd be the first time in a while she'd hang out with Jake, outside of school. She didn't know what to expect out of her visit.

Out of instinct, she looked down on herself, in hopes of looking descent. She sported grey jeggings, a white V-neck shirt and a jean jacket. She had to rush herself to get ready since Jakey-boy didn't accept tardiness. Tch, man. She didn't even have had the time to straighten her hair. Her thick curls, which fell right to her shoulders, were everywhere, holding a wild look.

While her left hand rummaged through her curls, her right hand pulled out her cellphone from her pocket and swiftly dialed Jake's cellphone number and pressed her iPhone against her ear. After three dials, Jake finally picked up. "Yo, Jakey-boy, it's Trixie."

He let out a tired groan, as though he had woken up. "Oh, Trix. You already here?"

Trixie playfully rolled her eyes, "Duh, stupid. What d'ya think I called you for?"

"I dunno, to chit-chat." His sentence received a snort, from yours truly, Trixie. "Hey, I take that snort offensive."

"Aw, did I hurt yo wittle feeling?" she cooed, mockingly.

From the other line, Jake faked a sniff. "Yes."

"Cry-baby."

Another fake sniff from Jake. "No love for this Mac Daddy?"

"Sure. Oh wait. SIKE!" Jake gasped from the other line, but Trixie could tell he was smiling nonetheless. "Boy, just get down here and unlock the door," she said, shaking her head with a smile. But her smile quickly turned into an o as she heard the lock of the door shifting from the other side, meaning Jake was already opening the door for her. That was fast. Like Road Runner fast.

She hid her amazement as the door opened, showing Jake leaning against the doorway, holding his grandfather's magical encyclopedia. He jabbed his thumb to the door, "Get inside, I'm gonna finally teach you some magic." He slid to the side, letting his best friend take a step inside the electronic shop.

Trixie shot him an eyebrow-cocked look. "Not gonna give yo home-girl a hello?"

Jake scoffed, folding his arms upon his chest, "Not until ya give me some love."

The African-American pulled her tongue out as she sauntered through the door, the two of them starting further into the store, she glancing around and him opening the magical book. Trixie hadn't been here for almost 3 years. Cobwebs were situated in between TVs as dust brimmed the environment. Not a single customer in sight. She smiled. Indeed, The Canal Street Electronic hadn't changed.

She couldn't help but notice the store's unusual silence. "Where are G and Fu?"

"They went out," Jake answered, turning a page. Trixie noticed the lack of emotion in his voice, which meant he was most likely reading something important, important enough to get him to read. She peeked over his shoulder, only to get a green holographic view of an enchanted, beautiful lady flying mid-air, from the book. Her felineness and gracefulness amazed the newly wizard.

"What is she?" Trixie asked, her Hershey eyes reflecting the green light from the hologram. Jake gave a serious look over his shoulder.

"A wizard."

Trixie stared back down on the holographic wizard. There was no denying it. She was going to be…just like her. Feelings after feelings were battling between each other, one trying to claim her heart. She didn't know whether to be worried or calm. "I…see," she managed to mumble a sentence. "So, is that why you called me?"

Jake nodded and then proceeded behind the counter, towards the backroom, where spells and potions were usually made, according to Trixie's memory. She followed suit. "Yeah, since Gramps and Fu ain't here, I decided to use this opportunity to finally teach you some magic," he said, rather briefly.

Trixie stopped her tracks, her shoulders slumped and her eyes wide. "Wait, what?" she restarted her tracks straight into the backroom. "But Jake, are ya sure? Ain't it too soon to get to magic training? Shouldn't we wait for a couple more weeks? What if we get hurt? Ja-"

Jake slammed the thick book onto the wooden desk, abruptly putting a stop to Trixie's worried rant. He turned to her and softly grabbed her shoulders. "Trix, breathe."

Trixie's eyes traced his fingers; she could somehow feel their heat. They were warm, just like the other time when he pulled her into a hug. The wheels of her memory rolled like crazy and, poof, her cheeks were on fire and her heart was speeding like a racecar. She kept her attention on his fingers; if she looked up to his eyes, she might lose it. Maybe I outta breathe, she thought, forcing her eyes closed.

"Okay," she breathed out and reluctantly willed her eyelids open. Jake softly let go of her shoulders. Trixie was inwardly upset by that, but didn't show it.

"Look Trix, I know this is scary, but you gotta face your identity, once and for all. We've already established the fact you're a wizard. Now, it's about time for you to learn how to control your power," he gestured to the book, behind him, on the wooden table. It was still wide open, therefore showing the holographic wizard. "With the help of this book."

Trixie let out an assured chuckle, which came out as a confused, nervous giggle. It was a bit easier to breathe now that she had someone to help her go through her purple mess and Inner Voice wasn't breathing down her neck or poking her head in her business.

On the flip side, however, she was back to being on her own. She hadn't tried out her powers after her magical conscious had killed her remaining humanity and activated her inner wizard soul. And with Inner Voice's sudden absence, she had technically no one to basically direct her through the right path of wizardry. And hell nah was Mama Trixie gonna get lost on that path.

"Jake…" Trixie started, still unsure about his suggestion. The aforementioned boy grabbed her by the wrist and slowly pulled her to the desk. If only he knew the effect he was causing to Trixie with that small contact…

"It's for ya own good. You need to gain control of your power if we want to prevent the purple mess from happening again," he explained, referring to the wizard's previous fiasco with her powers and Inner Voice.

Trixie sensed the seriousness in his voice since she straightened up with no more complaint, sighing and dragging herself over to the gigantic book. The book was worse than a dictionary. It was filled with nothing but words and words. Ugh. She flipped through pages after pages, and clicked her tongue, displeased by the large number of pages that was focused on wizardry. She winced. "Dayum…"

Jake nodded, "I know right...We got a lot of work ahead of us," he then yawned and stretched his arms out. Trixie stole a glance of him. The boy had bags under his eyes. He seemed…tired. Did he read those pages, all night, just for her? It explained why he sounded tired on the phone, a few minutes ago.

Trixie looked down on the floor. He was putting all his effort on this, for her. He went through his promise, to stay by her side. If he was willing to lend a helping hand, then it was time for her to pull up her sleeves and apply just as much effort as he did. Determination settled in her and she offered an assured, worry-free smile.

"Well, what we gotta learn first, Jakey-boy?"

"Do you really have to go?" Spud whined, pulling his girlfriend into another embrace, for like the umpteenth time. They were standing outside of her apartment building, chatting for the last time, before she headed off.

Stacey giggled, looking through Spud's eyes. He was too adorable for his own good. "I have no choice, Supidinkins. I have to go to my grandparents for the week-end," she pouted a grimace. The thought of spending exactly 48 hours in her grandparents' crib, with nothing else to do but watch their cats licking themselves, brought shivers. Not the good kind. "You know I hate going to their place. They don't have Oh Henry."

If it was any possible, Spud pulled her against his chest, spreading kisses on her forehead. "…But I have some…in my place," he mumbled, mischievously. Snort. Like they'd think of eating candy while going to his place and doing…things, if you get the drift.

Well, the blonde got the drift and giggled once again, in the same inappropriate way as how Spud had spoken. "Oooh, you dirty little ma-" She couldn't even finish her sentence, no thanks to the car honk.

The two hormonal teens swiftly whipped their heads towards the source of the honking, which happened to be Stacey's father. He was sitting in his car, which was parked by the young couple, practically displaying his impatience, if the constant honking and groaning weren't obvious. Stacey turned back to her boyfriend and gave him a quick peck on his cheek, "I gotta go," she gave an apologetic smile and entered inside the vehicle, with a firm slam of the door.

Spud watched as the car started further in the Manhattan street, leaving him alone on the sidewalk. "Bye Stacey!" he frantically waved a bye.

"Bye Spud," she calmly waved back from the passenger window, the strands of her blond platinum hair slowly dancing through the wind, and her black coffee eyes happily shining from the rays of the sun.

With a swerve into another street, the car was finally out of sight. Spud lowered his shoulders and sighed. God, he was so going to miss her, even though she was only going to be gone for two days. Still. Two days was too long for him. Now what was he supposed to do during the weekend? He kicked a rock from the concrete ground and started his walk.

Maybe I can go to her grandparents' place too, Spud contemplated. I mean, I still have the global positioning device and it can still track Stacey. He shook his head, slapping himself upside it. No no no stupid Spud! Stacey would get mad if I do that.

And a mad Stacey was a scary Stacey; if you'd like an image of a scary Stacey, then try to imagine Godzilla… but with blond hair. Yeah, that scary.

Now what to do, Spud inwardly sighed, dragging both his feet around the corner of the street. Maybe I could go skateboarding? He scrunched his nose. Nah. My board's all the way back home. He tapped his index finger on his chin, deliberating on what to do. Hit the arcade? Nah. I don't have my coins with me.

He let out a frustrated breath. Seriously, wasn't there something that the Spudster could do? He looked up in the sky, watching the birds flock away, surely to their nests. The sun was blazing outside, its rays raising the temperature, albeit it wasn't too painfully hot. The self-luminous celestial body was bothering Spud's vision. He pressed his hand over his forehead, only to see something strange.

What the heck? His eyes slightly widened and his feet both froze. Holy crap! Since when did I get a tattoo?

Right in the middle of the palm of his hand, was a small, witchcraft-like star inside a small, open circle. It had taken him a lot of gut to not yelp in surprise. Like a lot, man. He didn't know when it had gotten there, nor how, for this matter. He didn't remember ever going to a tattoo shop or ever drawing it.

Thoughts after thoughts were going through his mind, never going away. They knocked him sideways. He hadn't gone through anything that was out of the ordinary since freshman year – around the time he had officially stopped hanging out with Trixie and Jake. So, it couldn't be the doing of magic.

However, a week back, he did receive some sort of static whilst shaking hands with Trixie. His tattooed hand happened to be the hand he had used on Trixie. He carefully observed it while he squint his eyes, re-starting his walk.

Nah, it couldn't be her, he lazily thought. Last time I checked, Trix's a normal human, not a magical creature.

He crossed a street, pushing his hands inside his pockets. A certain feeling wouldn't go away. He felt…watched. He ignored the gnawing pit of his stomach and continued his way to God-knows, oblivious of the shadow that followed his steps. Not his shadow, but someone else's.

As a matter of fact, if you looked down on the floor and observe its' contour, it seemed like it belonged to a familiar female.

Strange, huh?

"Can't we just give up already?" Trixie whined, exhausted. "I 'preciate the support and help you've been giving me, but let's face it, man. I dunno how to control this – thing," she lifted her hands up to her view, both faintly glowing purple.

Jake threw a water bottle to Trixie, shooting a supportive smile. "Come on Trix, you ain't that bad with magic."

With a grab of the bottle, Trixie shot her fellow a look. "Brotha, I just burned a tree. A fuckin tree." They both turned to look at the said tree, located nearby by the two, which was still suffering from the wrath of purple plasma. At one point, they had to carefully squint their eyes and see if any animals lived in there. Thankfully, there were none.

Trixie turned back to Jake, "…like I said, a fuckin tree."

Jake shrugged, "It ain't that bad."

"…Jake, is yo ass blind?"

Jake pressed his hand over his forehead, protecting his eyes from the burning sun. "I wouldn't be surprised if I am, with the sun and all." Summer was right around the corner. The green leaves flew from the adjacent trees, as the flowers were freshly bloomed, ready to greet many by-passers by its vegetal beauty. All and all, it was a pretty, good day to be outside.

As a matter of fact, Jake and Trixie were currently outside, at the community park. Too bad they weren't outside wasn't to enjoy the weather, but to train.

"Ouf," she fatly fell on the soft, green grass. "All I did was tried to throw purple plasma, with this wood stick," she waved it, making a point, and then tossed it to the side. "And now, I'm pretty much pooped." Jake sighed.

For the past few hours, the two had been practicing a basic move, an easy one that wasn't consisted of rhymes, which was plasma manipulation, a highly offensive power that worked in the same fashion of fire. According to Gramps' magical encyclopedia, it was a normal wizard trait as it was very common for a wizard and witch to generate, control and manipulate plasma. So, any type of wizards and witches (which included common and double-faced witches and hags) should know it, right?

Well, why couldn't his home-girl do it right? Don't get Jake wrong, the girl had mad skills when it came to unleashing purple beams. One easy swing of the wood stick, or her hand, and there came the smooth, burning beams.

However, she was lacking control. The said beams would either end up on trees, buildings, and whatnot. There were a few times where your boy had to transform, in order to avoid the plasma. He gotta say; there were never days in his life where he had to fear of not getting toasted, literally.

Trixie sat up, unscrewing the water bottle cap, and took a few sip of water, gladly enjoying the cold substance. She sighed in bliss, refreshed. Ah. That hit the spot. "Seriously, can't we just call it quits for today? We've been at it for what? 2? 3 hours?"

Jake quirked an amused eyebrow, thinking it was too damn soon to end their training. All they basically did was shoot flames/plasma and ran a few laps. With Gramps and Fu as his trainer and mentor, he'd been through worse than her. He remembered that one time where he had to unclog the toilet from the backroom bathroom, his grandfather claiming it as some intense workout for the muscles. Ugh. He inwardly irked in disgust. The memory still haunted him to this day.

He straightened himself. One more thought of that toilet and he might just barf. "Fine, we'll try one last time, and then we can call it a night. Happy?"

Trixie gratefully nodded, "Very, thank you very much."

"Yeah, yeah. Now let's get to it." He beckoned the girl to get up as she did so, rather unsteadily. He observed the way her knees slightly shook, struggling to get back on their feet. "You're not used to doing this type of thing, huh?"

Trixie blinked, "What do you mean?"

"You know, exercising, running…"

The new wizard/witch tilted her head, an amused expression on her face. "Jake, are ya calling me fat?" she kidded.

Jake immediately waved a no, horror contorting his face. He learned the hard way, from Rose, that calling a girl fat was like asking for the world to destruct to its doom. Don't even ask how he had to learn that lesson…"No, that's not what I meant," he fast-talked. "What I'm trying to say, is that you should try to push your body into training more, to boost up your endurance and allow better energy utilization. We're gonna be doing this more often, if we want your wizardry to improve. So I say…maybe, do a morning-exercise routine before getting to your wizard training," he suggested, rather professionally, which left Trixie quite dumbfounded.

…The fuck? Last time she checked, Jake was lazy when it came to training. What was she saying? He was practically the definition of lazy. Was the world finally ending? She approached the aforementioned Asian-American, slowly waving her hand for him to see. "Are you Jake's evil doppelganger, and if yes, what the hell did you do to the real Jakey?" she jokingly scrutinized, occasionally poking his cheek.

Holding back a laugh, Jake snorted and lightly swatted her index finger away from him. "Just shoot the purple beams already." Trixie tiredly rolled her eyes; she totally forgot that they were training, in the first place.

"Alright, alright. Damn." She leapt backwards, putting space between her and Jake, and held both her hands up, as they were enveloped in purple energy, adapted to its incandescence. Her feet were spread and firmly planted, the purple ends of her black curls swaying to the light wind that formed around her. Determination blazed in her face, her eyes no longer holding the cheerfulness from a few seconds ago. "I'm ready Jake."

Okay, he deemed Trixie ready to conclude her training. He nodded, "Trix, just like what I mentioned in the beginning, try to target the dummy," he pointed towards the fat potato-sack dummy that was located further down the end of the park. Around its stomach, there was a dart target, which was meant for the young Carter. "Your final goal is to hit the bull's-eye, got it?"

Her eyebrows narrowed. The purple energy of her hands greatly intensified. "Got it."

Trixie landed on her bed with a tired flop.

She just got back from her wizard training; and let her tell yall, it was hell. She had been going at it for another 2-3 hours. It would've been shorter if it wasn't for her horrible targeting skills. Jake kept supporting her the whole time, as a matter of fact; it was her first time seeing him so…commanding. It surprised her to the least.

Her arms, neck, face and back were sticky and sweaty. Her once beautiful curls were now tangled monsters. In their current state, they might just outrival Medusa's hair, and she wasn't playing, she had already met the crazy lady! Ugh. It was going to take a lot of conditioning and shampooing to get her hair back in top shape.

She felt gritty and dirty, and she could smell the awful stench her body was producing. She never recalled a time in her life where she had done so much training, and it was hell obvious. Her muscles were screaming from the abuse she was putting them through.

At this point, for her to get accustomed to this type of training, she was going to have to do what Jake had suggested; do morning exercise routines, from now on.

Trixie let out a deep breath, enjoying the lavender scent from her sheets. She snuggled her face deeper into them. It was approximately almost 5 PM. Normally, at this time of hour, she'd be out, probably chilling in the skate park or in the mall, but not today. She had to wake up early in the damn morning and train for hours. She burrowed her bed into her pillow fortress, giving in its' warmth and comfort.

She was going to spend the rest of her day in bed and relax.

And no one was going to stop her.

"TRIXIE, come do the dishes now!" To the shrill voice of her guardian, Trixie risked her eyes open and pushed herself up onto her elbows.

Correction; no one was going to stop her from sleeping, except for her grandmother.

Author's Note: This chapter was kind of like a filler, but not really, at the same time. It was supposed to give you guys an idea of how Trixie's training will be like. She's new to magic and I thought it'd be unrealistic if I just make her powerful too soon, so I decided to make her work for power-ups.

More training + Trixie + Jake = Major power-up for Trix and more Jake/Trixie fluff…get my drift?

Reviews, favorites and follows would greatly be appreciated :)