Kim joined our dojo. Best day ever....ugh! I will talk to Kim if I have too, but I don't like her, one bit.
¤¤¤
I was sitting in the hall sketching a new design for a ring. I was thinking to do something for Jack. Maybe something like zig-zags to a kid doing a side kick. Milton comes running down the stairs.
"Guys, wanna know who just won the districtwide spelling bee?" He holds up a tiny bronze bee. Jerry shakes his head. I laugh under my breath. "Here's a clue: M-E." Milton points with the bee.
"Meh?" Jerry says, confused as always.
"It's me, you toad." Milton scoffs. "Who's the man?" Milton asks when Burke walks in yelling.
"Jack it the man!" Everyone starts chanting Jack. I go back to drawing. "Now thanks to Jack's routine, we've won our first gymnastics trophy in 15 years." Burke hands the trophy to a guy who climbs a latter and puts it up with the rest of the school's trophies.
Jack shrugs,"It wasn't really a routine. I was trying to move fast enough so no one would notice I was wearing a unitard." I snort and he glares at me. I smirk. "When you're wearing one of those things, even when you win, you lose." Jack sighs. I laugh again.
"Hey, show us what you did to win, Jack." Eddie exclaims.
Jack did a cartwheel and a backflip. I scoff at how he won with that. Everyone claps as Jack walks over to me and holds out his hand.
"Care to join me?" He bows.
"Join you in what?" I set down my notebook and pencil.
"Showing the people what they want." He shrugs, still holding out his hand. I groan and take his hand. He pulls me up. "Who wants to see us spar?" Jack held up my hand. The crowd of students went wild.
Jack smirks at me and walks over in front of me. "I'll go easy on you." He winks.
"Oh please. Even when you don't, it's easy to beat you." I shrug, smirking.
"Have it your way." He gets ready to fight me.
Jack comes at me and I try to sweep his feet but he jumps. I get back up and throw punches and kicks. He blocks them and throws some at me. I block them. I go to punch him but he grabs me hand and tries to flip me but I bend my back and land on my feet, sweeping his feet, and standing back up.
"Looks like you lost, Brewer." I laugh and stick my hand out to help him up.
When he grabs it he pulls me on top of him. I roll of him, looking at him.
"You are a cheat, Brewer." I stand up, he follows.
"Not too bad, Adams." He high fives me. The bell rings. "Let's go." Jack helps me grab my bag. "What's this?" He hands me my notebook on the page of the ring design.
"Oh, nothing. Trying out different ring designs." I shrug.
"Is it for me?" He crosses his arms. I scoff.
"What makes you think that?"
"Oh, nothing. Just the fact that it has a kid doing a side kick. And I love to do side kicks." He smirks as we walk to class.
¤¤¤
Milton was telling us about how the janitor caught him and saved his life.
"Huh, never noticed him before." Jack shrugged.
I scoff,"Ok, hang on." Everyone stops walking. "So you're telling me that you didn't notice a 600 pound custodian, but you did notice when Donna Tobin changed her ponytail from left to right." I used my hands to motion left and right.
"Ok first, it was right to left," Jack used the same hand movement as I did. I glare at him. "Second, it wasn't a ponytail, it was a French braid. And third, maybe if that custodian had legs like Donna Tobin, I would've noticed him too." Jack walks over to the dojo and we all follow.
"Hey, big news, everybody." Rudy stops us pulling a wagon. "The magic shop across the mall went out of business. They have to sell everything a half price. I feel so bad for them. I think I'm gonna cry." Rudy pouted. "It's a good thing I have this handkerchief." Rudy pulls a red handkerchief out of his sleeve and fake cries into it.
He still fake cries and starts pulling out the handkerchief more and more for a whole rainbow handkerchief to come out of his sleeve. He keeps pulling and starts laughing and cheering.
"Yo, I don't know how he's doing that man, but it's freaking me out." Jerry hugs me.
"Jerry, if you don't take your hands off me in the next 2 seconds, you won't have hands." I sneer. He let's go, scared as we all walk into the dojo.
"Anyway, since the store closed, there's a storage space opened up in the basement directly below us. I finally have a place for all my stuff." Rudy smiles.
"It's about time." Eddie looks at Rudy. "This place is getting cluttered." He pointed out.
"It is not." Rudy argued.
"Rudy, this place looks like a crazy old cat lady lives here." Kim raised her arms then let's them down, hitting her sides.
"Ok, that is a bit of an exaggeration." Rudy points at her.
"Really?" She walks over and opens a cabinet, stepping back as stuff falls out. An orange cat comes out. I scoff and point at the cat.
"Ok, that is not my cat." Rudy points at the cat. He starts to walk away but stops and whispers,"Are you coming, Tip-tip?" The cat jumps in the wagon and Rudy walks to his office with his head held high.
¤¤¤
"Bringing presents to custodians? That's not cool. I mean, what's next? Asking the crossing guard to prom?" Jerry directed to Milton, who was taking a cake to Mr. Nakamura, the custodian.
"I already tried that, but she just wants to be friends." Eddie shrugged, sadly. I try so hard to hide my laugh but I couldn't.
I'm guessing Jack could hear me laughing under my breath, because he put his hand on my mouth and whispered in my ear,"Not right now, ok?" I just nod trying to keep in my laughs. We walk up to the janitor's closet and Milton knocks but no one answers.
Jerry walks up to the door and opens it. Inside was trophies, medals and posters of Mr. Nakamura. He was a sumo wrestling champion.
"Whoa." We all exclaimed.
"Do you know what this means?" Jack looked at us.
"I know exactly what it means- our custodian's the king of the babies." Jerry gasped. I flick his ear.
¤¤¤
We walk into the cafeteria and see Mr. Nakamura. We go up to him.
"Mr. Nakamura, I just wanna thank you for saving my life the other day." Milton smiled.
"That's what I do, mop up pudding barf, collect trash and catch flying boys." Mr. Nakamura joked.
"We stopped by your closet and saw your newspaper clippings, your trophies and your medals. You're amazing!" Milton said proud.
"Then we checked you out online. You were a six-time sumo champion." Eddie praised.
"Yeah, that match were you lost your diaper thing and kept fighting, that was awesome!" Jack laughed.
"And disturbing. But mostly awesome." I grimaced.
"That was a long time ago. I used to be a hero in Japan and now I plunge toilets." Mr. Nakamura clicks his tounge. "And you." He walks up to Jerry. "You either change your diet or use the bathroom at home, Jerry." He points at Jerry.
"Wait, you know my name?" Jerry says shocked.
"In the janitor's room we call you the bowl-buster." Mr. Nakamura scoffs.
"You guys hear that? I'm the bowl-buster. Whoo!" Jerry proud says. I pat his shoulder.
"Nice job, bud." I have sarcasm laced in my voice.
"Sir, I love that awesome victory dance you do." Kim looks up at the sumo man.
"The Nakamura stomp." Jack and I say in unison and high five after.
Everyone nodded. "That started when I seen a spider in the ring. The crowd loved it, so I just ran with it." Mr. Nakamura shrugs.
"Come on, do it for us." Jack said, impatiently. We all agree with him.
"I couldn't. I'm at work." Nakamura responds.
"Please? Just once." Milton steps up.
"Fine. Just one for you, little buddy." Nakamura smiles.
We all clap and get out of the way. Nakamura stomps once making the whole cafeteria shake and bouncing me around. Then he does the other leg with a stomp making me grab onto Jack's hand to stabilize myself and him. Nakamura jumps and makes things go flying. Including Jack and I.
I open my eyes to see Jack on top of me. He winks.
"Now's really not the time to be flirty." I flip him so I'm on top. "See. Bad time." I wink standing up and holding my hand out for him. He grabs it and stands up. Burke comes up to us.
"Look what you did!" He yells with noodles on his bald head.
"I'm sorry sir." Nakamura stops laughing. "We were just having a little fun." Nakamura smiles.
"Oh, fun? I didn't hire you to jump around like some hopscotching hippo." Burke points at Nakamura. I grab Jack's hand, not even realizing it. Milton steps in front of Nakamura.
"Mr. Nakamura would like you to talk to him with a little respect." He gets in Burke's face.
"So I don't talk to you with enough respect, hm?" Burke takes the noodles off of his head and places them back in the bowl.
"Actually I said-" Milton interrupts Nakamura.
"This man used to be a hero, so he doesn't even need this job."
"Really?" Burke looks at Nakamura.
"No, I really need this job-"
"He demands you to apologize to him right now."
"Really? Here's my apology, Nakamura," Burke smiles. "Your fired!" He yells and stomps away. Jack looks at me, shocked. I look back at him. He looks down and realizes we're holding hands and our fingers are interlocked. He chuckles nervously and we both pull our hands away.
¤¤¤
"Milton, what were you thinking?" I ask as me, him, and Jack walk to the dojo.
"I don't know." He shrugs. "I thought by stepping up and helping Nakamura I could be a hero for once, like you and Jack." He stops making Jack and I stop too.
"Eh, we're not heros." Jack shrugs.
"Oh help! He stole my purse!" A woman yells. Jack and I push Milton out of the way and swipe the running guy's feet. I jump on a table and kick him into the head, then flip over him, grab the purse and throw it to Jack who throws it to the woman. "Bless you, Jack and Naomi." She thanks us. I walk back over to Jack and Milton.
"What were we talking about again?" I ask, catching my breath.
"Oh, you and Jack were just going on about not being a hero." Milton shrugs sarcastically and walks into the dojo. Jack and I follow.
We walk in and Rudy waves us over to him telling us it's a group meeting. Everyone walks over including Kim, Jerry, and Eddie that were there before us. We huddle. "Um, why is Weepy McHugie still here?" He says, referring to Nakamura in the corner, with four boxes of pizza and ten tubs of Chinese. We all look at him then back at Rudy.
"The guy's been through a lot Rudy. We found out why he gave up sumo and left Japan in shame." Milton sighs.
"65 wins in a row, the some rookie struts in and throws him out of the ring like a moldy pear." Eddie frowns.
"You guys hiding pears over there?" Nakamura stops eating his pizza to ask.
"There's no pears, darlin'." Kim looks at Nakamura who looks disappointed.
"As if that wasn't bad enough, he lost his life's savings." Jack says, telling bad for Nakamura.
"Wow, how'd he do that?" Rudy asks Jack but I answer.
"He went on a game show called 'Are You Willing to Lose Your Life's Savings?'" I scoff, crossing my arms.
"Fix this. Once the food runs out, we're gonna look mighty tasty to that guy. Fix this." Rudy whispers, pointing at Nakamura and walking out the dojo.
"Hey guys, I got an idea." Jack walks over to Nakamura, we all follow him.
"Nakamura, Milton was right-You're not a custodian, you're a champion. And with our help, you'll get there again." Jack says proudly.
"I told you it was a long time ago. Why do you guys believe in me?" Nakamura stands up and looks at us huddled around him.
"Look we live by something call the Wasabi code. That means we never give up on each other. Or ourselves." I look at my friends and smile. They smile back.
"We just gotta find a way to get you back up on that horse." Jack shrugs.
"Uh, Jack. It'd probably be safer if the horse got on his back." Jerry pointed out making me flick his ear. He shrieked in pain. "But, uh you know, either way." He looks at me scared.
"Wasabi?" Jack put his hand in the middle of all of us. I put my hand on top of Jack's followed by Eddie, Jerry, Milton, and then Kim as we all look at Nakamura.
He nods and puts his huge hand on ours, weighing us down.
"Wasabi!" We all yell raising our hands and smiling. I look at Jack who winks at me. I grab his hand and pull him to the corner of the room while everyone cheers for Nakamura.
"Some plan you got there." I smirk. He smiles and we do our handshake.
¤¤¤
Jack and I were running along side of Nakamura who was carrying Milton in a baby carrier on his chest. We make it back and Jack clicks the stop watch off.
"All right, that was your best time yet. You ran the entire mall under four minutes." Jack cheered.
"Boucing around in that thing has given me a new respect for kangaroos." Milton gets dropped by Nakamura undoing the straps. Nakamura started to walk to the dojo when he gets stopped by Rudy.
"Hey Nakamura, I saw you running through the mall carrying a big pasty baby that looked a lot like Milton." Rudy shrugs.
"I'm not pasty." Milton shoots at Rudy. "I'm transparent." He goes back to being shy.
"Nakamura's training for his big comeback." I say as we all walk in the dojo after wincing at Milton's comment.
"A comeback sumo match, I bet people would by tickets for that." Rudy nods invested. "You know, we could have the match right here in the dojo." Rudy smiles.
"Yeah, that's great and all, but we don't have another sumo wrestler for him to compete against." Jack points out making everyone, except Rudy, nod.
"I do."
Rudy tells us about the time he thought a guy was a beached whale. Then runs to his office to call him.
I look over to see Jerry come out of the bathroom with a fake sumo suit on. I groan and walk over with everyone else.
"All right Nakamura, time for your real workout. Let's belly up!" Jerry gets in a fighting stance.
"Jerry, how's the thing gonna help?" Jack asks.
I nod,"You look like a bloated turkey in a thong." Jack snickers at my comment and high fives me.
Jerry waves us off. "Come on big guy." Jerry runs at Nakamura. Nakamura pushes Jerry down with ease. Jerry falls and tries to get up by flopping. "A little help?" Jerry asks and we pull him back up. Jerry starts to run to the bathroom but I trip him. He falls on his face and Milton, Eddie, Jack, Kim, and Nakamura go to help him up. I stop them by holding my arms out.
"Leave him." I smirk.
¤¤¤
Rudy was giving people tickets at the door while Jack and I were getting things ready. Nakamura's opponent walked in and Nakamura ran off to Rudy's office once he saw him. The crowd started to get ugly I came up with a plan.
"Hey everybody!" I yelled making them calm down. "Who wants to see a 14 year old girl kick some ass!?" The crowd cheered as I grabbed Jack.
He whispered to me,"What are you doing?"
I whisper back,"Trust me. Let's spar." I winked and we began sparing until Milton came out.
"I got this guys." He stops us. I look at him in his underwear. I nod and walk off. Milton was going up against Yamasaki. He was losing, hard.
"Your little kangaroo baby has the heart of a lion. This is your moment. Go out there and take it!" Jack smacks Nakamura in the butt but it sounded like it hurt Jack's hand more than it hurt Nakamura. "Ooh. Wow. Skin on skin. Awkward." Jack chuckles nervously.
Nakamura walked up stopping Milton. Jack raised up his hand and whimpered. I look at him.
"Did Jackie Wackie get a boo-boo?" I use a baby voice and he glares at me I smack his hand.
"Ow!" He squeaks. I smile, devilishly.
Nakamura threw Yamasaki out the ring and won. Everyone cheered. Jack and I look at Milton.
"Milton, that was crazy. Why would you do that?" Jack asks shocked.
"I don't know. Someone had to stop you two from killing each other while sparing." He shrugs and Jack and I laugh.
"Neither of us would have done that." Jack looked scared.
I nod,"That man is the size of a freaking brontosaurus. No way, dude." I shake my head.
"You know what this means?" Jack asks.
"He has a second brain that controls his tail?" Milton replies.
"No Milton. It means you're a hero." I pat his shoulder.
"Yeah. You inspired Nakamura to get his confidence back. You were awesome!" Jack high fives him.
"Really Naomi?" Milton looks at me for confirmation. I nod.
"Yeah. And you wanna know what else is awesome?" I ask looking Milton up and down and pointing at him. My face straightens from a smile. "Pants. Seriously, my guy, put 'em on." I look away and walk with Jack behind me.
We walk over to Nakamura and high five him when Jerry starts cheering.
"Nakamura stomp!" He waved his fist in the air as everyone joins.
"Nakamura stomp! Nakamura stomp! Nakamura stomp!"
He stomps once, then again with the other foot, then with both feet. He falls through the floor and lands on Lonnie from Reptile World. Rudy looks down the hole.
"Look who dropped in." He smirked.
I heard Nakamura exclaim,"Sweet man cave!"
¤¤¤
"Thanks to Milton, Nakamura's heading back to Japan to get his title back." I high five Milton.
Eddie made a comment on Jerry's mom and ran off with Jerry chasing him.
"Hey, have you guys see me spelling bee trophy? I thought it was in my locker but I can't find it anywhere. I know it's small, but it means a lot to me." Milton sighs.
"Don't worry Milton. I'm sure it's someplace safe." Jack looks at the boy before Milton walks away.
"You put it up with the others didn't you?" I look up and so does Jack.
He smiles. "Yeah."
¤¤¤
Sorry that I haven't been posting. I just got back into school and it's been crazy. Thanks for waiting. Btw this is unedited so sorry for mistakes.