Post by fuzzydragon on Feb 9, 2007 12:14:49 GMT -5
Dur-d-dur! Want me own board 'cause I'm a gonna start me some AD:JL fanfiction, yeah? I already have a pretty long chapter of the first one written!
P.S.: The first fic is called "Rotwood Unleashed". The first chapter can be found here.
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Rotwood Unleasehed
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Like? ^^
Chapter 1
-----
A frazzled and irritated-looking Jake Long looked up from his pointless assingment on mythical creatures. Dragons to be exact. Rotwood had his questions worded all wrong. Jake thought he'd look too suspicious if he added that dragons shed every 10 years or so, not every 5 as the multiple choice question said. But why does he care anyway?
Rotwood's definitely ten boards short of a half-pipe. I don't know how he ended up here in the first place.
Jake got an idea and pulled another peice of paper from his Eragon trapper keeper. It's seventh grade, what can you say? That sort of stuff is still fashionable, not to mention masculine. Brad, the bully of the class, sometimes picked on Jake for supposedly liking dragons so much.
Of course I like dragons, yo. I'm the American Dragon.
Jake made an almost indistinguishable clicking noise and a soft whispered, "Holla." One of his best friends, the great Arthur Spudinszki, whom we all love so much, looked up from his leaning tower of pencil bits, held together by sticki-tack, looked over at him with a wry smirk, the one he always wore. Arthur, Spud for short, smiled vaguely. His eyes were like that of an animal. They showed emotion, but sometimes he wasn't all there. Half the time he was off in La-La land. Spud was an eccentric by heart and a comedian by way of his actions. Trixie Carter, a female African American girl sitting behind Jake, gave Spud's tower a dirty look.
Nobody wondered why Rotwood didn't stop Spud in his architectual feats. He'd given up. After the 24th detention, to be exact. After Rotwood blew off his steam and the class had a good laugh, he'd proclaimed Spud the master of Study Hall and said he wasn't going to bother anymore with it.
Trixie was just worried about Spud. After all, she secretly cared for him. She saw his antics as artistic vision and humor rather then outright stupidity. Though, she'd always put on the "Cut it out, guy!" mask whenever he did stuff like what he did right just then at that desk. Yes, it's true. Trixie Carter had a crush on Arthur Spudinszki. Kyle Wilkins was just a cover-up. He was nice, and hot, and sweet, but Trixie always felt herself laughing on the inside when she was around Spud. She never felt that way with Kyle.
Jake was oblivious. After Rose's disappearence, Jake had no one and was lonely.
He still kept up his usual hip abilities. Dragon Training, ripping it up at the skate park with Trixie and Spud, going down to the river with Spud and having lasangna-eating contests. Spud was always the victor, but if Jake used Stomach of the Dragon, which sometimes he did, he would win. But, we don't count these because he cheated.
Spud turned his dull eyes on Trixie and hissed, "Behold! The leaning tower of graphite and the wood of innocent rainforest trees!" Jake snickered
What's his next project?
As if on cue, Spud started to explain his next passion. "We're studying deforestation in Social Studies. Normally I wouldn't be interested, but we gotta care about all the little animals, man! The little an-i-mals!"
"Not to mention half the magical population lives in-"
"JAKE LONG!" Rotwood barks, slamming a ruler painfully on Jake's unattending hand. The familiar sting of pain makes Jake cringe and look up at the massive wild bunch of combed-over hair Jake made so many jokes about in the cafeteria or while hanging out. He groans.
Why's he gotta be in my face all the time?
"You are shtill a member of zis class, Jake Long and you and vyour little friends make more noise then a glockenspiel at a high school band concert doing a remix of ze Hokie Pokie! You will do fifty more lines on the essay, and do it on Chimeras zis time."
Still, Chimeras were no problem for Jake. After the Dreamscape incodent, Jake was fairly keen on them. He'd done a whole study lesson on them in the library that day after all. Jake surpressed his flare of anger by thinking about how easy the essay would be.
The scene was completed by Spud fumbling with a pencil and a wad of tack and the whole thing fell over, scattering tack and bits of pencil everywhere.
"Detention, Spudinszki!"
Appearantly he hadn't given up yet. Jake helped Spud pick up the pieces while half the class snickered at Spud.
"Thanks, bro," Spud said without the slightest inclination that he knew what was going on around him. This was Spud. When people laughed at him, it didn't bother him. Class ended about five minutes later. The long bell, signalling the end of the day. The packed school began to empty, and Jake knew another two and a half hours of Dragon Training lay ahead of him. First, though, the American Dragon had to pick up his younger (and very annoying) sister, Haley Long. Her school was for gifted children, and she rubbed it in Jake's face every chance she got.
Jake was a little softer toward her lately. They still had their usual quabbles, and as brother and sister, they were entitled to them. (Especially at Haley's age). But, finding out that Jake was the thing that inspired Haley in Switcharoo made Jake not dislike Haley so much. Even as he picked her up though, her little pigtails bouncing as she pranced down the steps, she started the gloating process.
"Hi Jake! I got an A today! Do you want to hear about it?"
"No," Jake says, "Let's get out of here before anyone sees."
Haley goes on with her explanation anyway, "My teacher said my essay was the best she'd ever seen. I mean, I am the perfect little angel-"
"I don't need that business today Haley. I gotta clean the shop today and Grandpa's all up in his usual thing about it."
Haley grins and hops a little in her step.
"Sonny says we're going to chase birds today. Flying lessons are fun, aren't they Jake? ...Jake?"
Jake was pulling a Spud, off in La-La land thinking about Rose. "Oh. Oh yeah. Right. Fun."
Rose was getting on his nerves lately, but it was because she wasn't there. The dream charm had stopped working, or Rose had lost hers. It was true that Jake was actually starting to love Rose the more she was gone. Things were getting serious. Spud and Trixie were bringing less and less smiles out of him. Between the goblin wars and the Leprechaun corruption and the escapes from the other dimensions, nothing was really different. Being the American Dragon was hard work, but it was the same work.
There was yelling up ahead. It wasn't the kind of yelling Jake would Dragon Up for, but a yelling argument between a couple.
"I can't beleive you gave away $350 to some lady on the street. What's gotten into your head, Johnothan?!"
"I-I don't know! She just looked at me and I wanted to give her the money! Next thing I knew, I was on the sidewalk and everyone was looking at me like I was some kind of moron."
A car passed by and the clatter of its tires over a sewer cover drowns out the names Mrs. Long calls her husband. Jake stepped between them with both arms out.
"Mom, Dad! What's up?" he shouts over their arguing.
Mrs. Long drew a deep angry sigh and glared at her husband. "He just GAVE AWAY $350 on the street. That was our car payment! Who does he think he is giving some strange woman our car payment?!"
Grandpa and Fu Dog came bounding down the street. Grandpa addresses Jake with a yell as always, "JAKE!" and gives a respectful, "Hello," and a bow to Mr. and Mrs. Long. This is a very odd sight indeed. Fu Dog might have said something had it not been for Johnothan.
"Er, uh," Lao Shi said quickly, "You see, the boy must clean my shop early today, Johnathon. I er...have to take Fu here to the vet. I think he has come down with something, yes?"
Fu coughs up a wad of something onto the sidewalk. Jake cringes.
"Awwww man, that's nasty!" he exclaimed, "Grandpa, I have tons of homework! Can't I just-"
"No, young one. The shop is due for a cleaning."
"But, eh," Jake said, looking totally aghast. Johnothan points his finger rhythmically at Jake and says, "Now you listen to your grandfather, mister. Run along and help him. You can stay up late tonight to do that homework you're so worried about."
"Yeah...right," Jake mumbled, raising an eyebrow. Haley met it with an eyebrow of her own.
"Daddy, since when is Jake ever interested in homework? I on the other hand, must go upstairs to practice the capitals of the Middle-Eastern countries."
"That's my little angel. You go upstairs and practice, honey," Johnathon smiles fondly at his daughter.
He seems to overlook the fact that she took all of her allowence and bought exactly what she wasn't allowed to, skipped school, received a detention in a school where detentions didn't even exist, and nearly turned over the entire kiddie population to a Pooka. What's up with that?!, Jake thought bitterly. Little girl syndrome blows, man.
It just so happened that Jake's eyes had drifted over to Fu Dog, who took the opportunity to wink.
"Woof," the dog said in his cliche New York accent.
"His bark does sound a little...strange. You should get him checked out," Johnothan observed, looking at Fu with concern. Jake thought he saw Fu smirk. He tried to hold back his laughter, and succeeded. A smile did peek its way across his lips, however. Haley waved to Jake and started to prance away, but Jake's mother held out an arm.
"Why don't you help him, dear? I'm sure your grandpa could use an extra hand."
A huge wink in Haley's direction from her made Haley change tact immediately and fall in line with Lao Shi
"Sure, Mommy! C'mon Jake, brother of mine. I'm sure you'll find something to do!"
"Don't push it, Haley," Jake said in a warning tone, touching his arm.
"Now you two be nice," Mrs. Long said nervously, turning Johothan away from Fu, Lao Shi, Jake, and Haley, "C'mon, dear, we have a score to settle."
Lao Shi turned immediately on the spot and began to walk. Jake hopped on his skateboard and put his backpack on. It was a nice little workout. He went from side-to-side, street-corner-to-street-corner, doing a kick flip here or there, a grind there or here.
'Get over here kid, we gotta talk," Fu yelled across the street. Jake rolls up and kicks his skateboard into his hand.
"Sup, Fu? I know somethin' was up when Mom asked Haley to come along. More dragon bid'ness?"
"You got it kid. And this time, it's serious."
"Not as bad as Hunts-butt, right?"
"Eh, no." He sped up his speech, "Just a group a' gypsies loose in manhattan who look like normal babes and have total mind control powers." He winked. "I dated a gypsy once. Boy, you, she took everything I had!" He laughed shortly, "You might want to get your buddies over here, too. We gotta do a city-wide search for 'em. Ain't too hard to miss. They like to mess with your money if ya know what I mean, kid."
Jake walked up Spud's front steps and knocked. Spud's bedroom window opened.
"I got it, Nanna!" he shouted the other direction, then poked his face out the window.
"Hey, sup bro? Goin' for some shreddin'?"
"Nah man. Dragon business. Need your help. C'mon."
"Trix ain't with you?"
"Nope. We're getting her, though."
"TRIx!" Spud bellows across the street. Trixie opens her window directly across the street.
"Whuddup, kid?"
"WE...ARE...GOING...TO...SAVE...SOME...DEFENSELESS...ANIMALS!"
"Man, playa, not that tree bid'ness again! I got some serious Biology homework goin' on in here. I won't tell you agai- Hey Jakey!"
"Sup, Trix! Dragon business."
"A'ight. Be down in a sec."
Her window closed with a snap. Meanwhile, Spud showed up at the front door sporting a new blue shirt, this one not with his usual green alien face, but with a picture of all different types of paw prints mixed into one, with a round logo sporting the slogan, "Save the Trees, Kill Disease!"
"Like the new threads?"
"Er......yeah," Jake lied, not having the heart to tell his best friend he thought it made him look tree-hugger to the max.
"3% of the rainforest dies each year, you know. The trees are all like, 'Whoahah,' and then they're like, 'Noooooo! Save me!', and then they're like, 'Oh no I've been cut in half, sigh.'"
"Spud, trees can't talk," Jake informed him. Trixie took longer to come down, but she was looking punk as usual in her attire. She raised her eyebrows at Spud and said what Jake couldn't.
"Yo Spud, you goin' all tree-hugger on us?"
"The term is: Tree embracing. Embrace the trees, for they are your breath of lif-"
"You got to cut that!" Trixie exclaims, "I like trees too man, but not that much."
Jake decided to break the uncomfortable feeling he was having and started to fill in Spud and Trixie on what was going on. Lao Shi filled in the rest after Jake had finished.
"Gypsies come from the Eastern deserts. If they meet your gaze, you are said to meet your doom at their powerful magic spell. They can make you do anything, young ones!"
"Like eat Pineapple Upside-Down cake?" Spud said hopefully, moving a little forward to complete the expression.
"Like throw out all of your cash and credit cards, or give away your skateboard, kid." Fu said seriously, looking around at Spud with a just expression."
"Man, we ain't got no cash or credit cards to toss, Fu. Don't you think they'd be after bigger things like...Leprachon gold or...Gryphon eggs?"
"Precisely, Jake," Lao Shi says dramatically.
"Or the Dragon Council's stash of magical artifacts!" Fu exclaimed, reaching up and opening the door to Lao Shi's electronics shop, which hadn't had a customer in years. Jake looked at Haley. She looked extremely upset. Jake actually felt enough compassion to ask...
"What's wrong?"
"Mom didn't say I could stay up and finish my homework. Dragon stuff is fun, but bettering yourself and your education is better."
Fu Dog went into the back room to retreive a book. He came out with it in his mouth and set it down on the floor with a clunk. Openning it with a paw, he narrated the whisp of smoke which trailed from the book and turned into a holigram of a beautiful woman gypsy,
"Says here the only way to send a gypsy back to where it came from is for them to see their own eyes in a mirror. Huh. Imagine that."
"The only way to send Nanna back where she came from when she puts her vanishing cream on is to give her a mirror," Spud laughed, itching his right ear idly. Everybody looked at him, and everybody shrugged as usual. Jake smiled, and once again was the one to break one of the odd silences caused by Spud's out-there comments,
"So what's the plan, Gramps? We supposed to split up and find these girls?"
"One more thing!" Fu dog adds, "The mirror used to banish the gypsy has to contain diamond on it in some way, shape or form. It just so happens Fu won a bet a few weeks ago and got four of these babies. Be right back."
He trotted into the other room.
"I'll help!" Haley offered cheerily with the smile on her face that always drove Jake nuts.
"Nah, nah, kid." A pause. "Alright, here. Pass 'em out."
Haley dishes out the expensive-looking gold and diamond-wrought mirrors. They were very elegant, and Spud was more than sure he'd get bad luck if he broke his.
"Whoa, Jakey, check out the bling bling in this here hizang! Fu how much you pay for all this?"
"Said I won it, kid. Aces loaded, the guy had a pair a' twos. Boy was he ticked."
Fu Dog looked rather proud of himself. Jake couldn't see why the old wrinkled dog wanted to bet on stuff all the time. Jake was competative, but never messed with money.
I could get seriously messed up with money! If I had any, that is.
Trixie was bold enough to voice what Jake was thinking.
"So what'd you bet, G?"
"Tonsils."
"Dude do dogs even have tonsils?" Jake asked peculiarily, both eyebrows raising.
"Magical ones doo! Abababoo!"
"Let's get down to business," Lao Shi said in a slightly irked tone. He was always annoyed, it seemed. Jake never caught him on a good day. "We will start here and work our way out. Jake, go with Trixie and Spud. I will take Haley. Make sure every street is searched. Do not forget one or Grandpa will be-" he raised his voice to an unbearable tone- "VERY ANGRY!"
They all winced, including Haley, whose wince was probably the most pronounced. Jake knew she hated being scolded, and he allowed himself a small laugh.
They all filed out of the shop looking dull and bored. They didn't even think about the fact that if those gypsies got a hold of Rotwood and the knowledge he knew of Jake and the magical world, everybody would have some serious explaining to do. Rotwood was just getting his brown coat as the gypsy walked across the street, coming up on his run-down apartment.
At this rate, they would meet.
At this rate, there was a potential for disaster!
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End of part 1
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P.S.: The first fic is called "Rotwood Unleashed". The first chapter can be found here.
-----
Rotwood Unleasehed
-----
Like? ^^
Chapter 1
-----
A frazzled and irritated-looking Jake Long looked up from his pointless assingment on mythical creatures. Dragons to be exact. Rotwood had his questions worded all wrong. Jake thought he'd look too suspicious if he added that dragons shed every 10 years or so, not every 5 as the multiple choice question said. But why does he care anyway?
Rotwood's definitely ten boards short of a half-pipe. I don't know how he ended up here in the first place.
Jake got an idea and pulled another peice of paper from his Eragon trapper keeper. It's seventh grade, what can you say? That sort of stuff is still fashionable, not to mention masculine. Brad, the bully of the class, sometimes picked on Jake for supposedly liking dragons so much.
Of course I like dragons, yo. I'm the American Dragon.
Jake made an almost indistinguishable clicking noise and a soft whispered, "Holla." One of his best friends, the great Arthur Spudinszki, whom we all love so much, looked up from his leaning tower of pencil bits, held together by sticki-tack, looked over at him with a wry smirk, the one he always wore. Arthur, Spud for short, smiled vaguely. His eyes were like that of an animal. They showed emotion, but sometimes he wasn't all there. Half the time he was off in La-La land. Spud was an eccentric by heart and a comedian by way of his actions. Trixie Carter, a female African American girl sitting behind Jake, gave Spud's tower a dirty look.
Nobody wondered why Rotwood didn't stop Spud in his architectual feats. He'd given up. After the 24th detention, to be exact. After Rotwood blew off his steam and the class had a good laugh, he'd proclaimed Spud the master of Study Hall and said he wasn't going to bother anymore with it.
Trixie was just worried about Spud. After all, she secretly cared for him. She saw his antics as artistic vision and humor rather then outright stupidity. Though, she'd always put on the "Cut it out, guy!" mask whenever he did stuff like what he did right just then at that desk. Yes, it's true. Trixie Carter had a crush on Arthur Spudinszki. Kyle Wilkins was just a cover-up. He was nice, and hot, and sweet, but Trixie always felt herself laughing on the inside when she was around Spud. She never felt that way with Kyle.
Jake was oblivious. After Rose's disappearence, Jake had no one and was lonely.
He still kept up his usual hip abilities. Dragon Training, ripping it up at the skate park with Trixie and Spud, going down to the river with Spud and having lasangna-eating contests. Spud was always the victor, but if Jake used Stomach of the Dragon, which sometimes he did, he would win. But, we don't count these because he cheated.
Spud turned his dull eyes on Trixie and hissed, "Behold! The leaning tower of graphite and the wood of innocent rainforest trees!" Jake snickered
What's his next project?
As if on cue, Spud started to explain his next passion. "We're studying deforestation in Social Studies. Normally I wouldn't be interested, but we gotta care about all the little animals, man! The little an-i-mals!"
"Not to mention half the magical population lives in-"
"JAKE LONG!" Rotwood barks, slamming a ruler painfully on Jake's unattending hand. The familiar sting of pain makes Jake cringe and look up at the massive wild bunch of combed-over hair Jake made so many jokes about in the cafeteria or while hanging out. He groans.
Why's he gotta be in my face all the time?
"You are shtill a member of zis class, Jake Long and you and vyour little friends make more noise then a glockenspiel at a high school band concert doing a remix of ze Hokie Pokie! You will do fifty more lines on the essay, and do it on Chimeras zis time."
Still, Chimeras were no problem for Jake. After the Dreamscape incodent, Jake was fairly keen on them. He'd done a whole study lesson on them in the library that day after all. Jake surpressed his flare of anger by thinking about how easy the essay would be.
The scene was completed by Spud fumbling with a pencil and a wad of tack and the whole thing fell over, scattering tack and bits of pencil everywhere.
"Detention, Spudinszki!"
Appearantly he hadn't given up yet. Jake helped Spud pick up the pieces while half the class snickered at Spud.
"Thanks, bro," Spud said without the slightest inclination that he knew what was going on around him. This was Spud. When people laughed at him, it didn't bother him. Class ended about five minutes later. The long bell, signalling the end of the day. The packed school began to empty, and Jake knew another two and a half hours of Dragon Training lay ahead of him. First, though, the American Dragon had to pick up his younger (and very annoying) sister, Haley Long. Her school was for gifted children, and she rubbed it in Jake's face every chance she got.
Jake was a little softer toward her lately. They still had their usual quabbles, and as brother and sister, they were entitled to them. (Especially at Haley's age). But, finding out that Jake was the thing that inspired Haley in Switcharoo made Jake not dislike Haley so much. Even as he picked her up though, her little pigtails bouncing as she pranced down the steps, she started the gloating process.
"Hi Jake! I got an A today! Do you want to hear about it?"
"No," Jake says, "Let's get out of here before anyone sees."
Haley goes on with her explanation anyway, "My teacher said my essay was the best she'd ever seen. I mean, I am the perfect little angel-"
"I don't need that business today Haley. I gotta clean the shop today and Grandpa's all up in his usual thing about it."
Haley grins and hops a little in her step.
"Sonny says we're going to chase birds today. Flying lessons are fun, aren't they Jake? ...Jake?"
Jake was pulling a Spud, off in La-La land thinking about Rose. "Oh. Oh yeah. Right. Fun."
Rose was getting on his nerves lately, but it was because she wasn't there. The dream charm had stopped working, or Rose had lost hers. It was true that Jake was actually starting to love Rose the more she was gone. Things were getting serious. Spud and Trixie were bringing less and less smiles out of him. Between the goblin wars and the Leprechaun corruption and the escapes from the other dimensions, nothing was really different. Being the American Dragon was hard work, but it was the same work.
There was yelling up ahead. It wasn't the kind of yelling Jake would Dragon Up for, but a yelling argument between a couple.
"I can't beleive you gave away $350 to some lady on the street. What's gotten into your head, Johnothan?!"
"I-I don't know! She just looked at me and I wanted to give her the money! Next thing I knew, I was on the sidewalk and everyone was looking at me like I was some kind of moron."
A car passed by and the clatter of its tires over a sewer cover drowns out the names Mrs. Long calls her husband. Jake stepped between them with both arms out.
"Mom, Dad! What's up?" he shouts over their arguing.
Mrs. Long drew a deep angry sigh and glared at her husband. "He just GAVE AWAY $350 on the street. That was our car payment! Who does he think he is giving some strange woman our car payment?!"
Grandpa and Fu Dog came bounding down the street. Grandpa addresses Jake with a yell as always, "JAKE!" and gives a respectful, "Hello," and a bow to Mr. and Mrs. Long. This is a very odd sight indeed. Fu Dog might have said something had it not been for Johnothan.
"Er, uh," Lao Shi said quickly, "You see, the boy must clean my shop early today, Johnathon. I er...have to take Fu here to the vet. I think he has come down with something, yes?"
Fu coughs up a wad of something onto the sidewalk. Jake cringes.
"Awwww man, that's nasty!" he exclaimed, "Grandpa, I have tons of homework! Can't I just-"
"No, young one. The shop is due for a cleaning."
"But, eh," Jake said, looking totally aghast. Johnothan points his finger rhythmically at Jake and says, "Now you listen to your grandfather, mister. Run along and help him. You can stay up late tonight to do that homework you're so worried about."
"Yeah...right," Jake mumbled, raising an eyebrow. Haley met it with an eyebrow of her own.
"Daddy, since when is Jake ever interested in homework? I on the other hand, must go upstairs to practice the capitals of the Middle-Eastern countries."
"That's my little angel. You go upstairs and practice, honey," Johnathon smiles fondly at his daughter.
He seems to overlook the fact that she took all of her allowence and bought exactly what she wasn't allowed to, skipped school, received a detention in a school where detentions didn't even exist, and nearly turned over the entire kiddie population to a Pooka. What's up with that?!, Jake thought bitterly. Little girl syndrome blows, man.
It just so happened that Jake's eyes had drifted over to Fu Dog, who took the opportunity to wink.
"Woof," the dog said in his cliche New York accent.
"His bark does sound a little...strange. You should get him checked out," Johnothan observed, looking at Fu with concern. Jake thought he saw Fu smirk. He tried to hold back his laughter, and succeeded. A smile did peek its way across his lips, however. Haley waved to Jake and started to prance away, but Jake's mother held out an arm.
"Why don't you help him, dear? I'm sure your grandpa could use an extra hand."
A huge wink in Haley's direction from her made Haley change tact immediately and fall in line with Lao Shi
"Sure, Mommy! C'mon Jake, brother of mine. I'm sure you'll find something to do!"
"Don't push it, Haley," Jake said in a warning tone, touching his arm.
"Now you two be nice," Mrs. Long said nervously, turning Johothan away from Fu, Lao Shi, Jake, and Haley, "C'mon, dear, we have a score to settle."
Lao Shi turned immediately on the spot and began to walk. Jake hopped on his skateboard and put his backpack on. It was a nice little workout. He went from side-to-side, street-corner-to-street-corner, doing a kick flip here or there, a grind there or here.
'Get over here kid, we gotta talk," Fu yelled across the street. Jake rolls up and kicks his skateboard into his hand.
"Sup, Fu? I know somethin' was up when Mom asked Haley to come along. More dragon bid'ness?"
"You got it kid. And this time, it's serious."
"Not as bad as Hunts-butt, right?"
"Eh, no." He sped up his speech, "Just a group a' gypsies loose in manhattan who look like normal babes and have total mind control powers." He winked. "I dated a gypsy once. Boy, you, she took everything I had!" He laughed shortly, "You might want to get your buddies over here, too. We gotta do a city-wide search for 'em. Ain't too hard to miss. They like to mess with your money if ya know what I mean, kid."
Jake walked up Spud's front steps and knocked. Spud's bedroom window opened.
"I got it, Nanna!" he shouted the other direction, then poked his face out the window.
"Hey, sup bro? Goin' for some shreddin'?"
"Nah man. Dragon business. Need your help. C'mon."
"Trix ain't with you?"
"Nope. We're getting her, though."
"TRIx!" Spud bellows across the street. Trixie opens her window directly across the street.
"Whuddup, kid?"
"WE...ARE...GOING...TO...SAVE...SOME...DEFENSELESS...ANIMALS!"
"Man, playa, not that tree bid'ness again! I got some serious Biology homework goin' on in here. I won't tell you agai- Hey Jakey!"
"Sup, Trix! Dragon business."
"A'ight. Be down in a sec."
Her window closed with a snap. Meanwhile, Spud showed up at the front door sporting a new blue shirt, this one not with his usual green alien face, but with a picture of all different types of paw prints mixed into one, with a round logo sporting the slogan, "Save the Trees, Kill Disease!"
"Like the new threads?"
"Er......yeah," Jake lied, not having the heart to tell his best friend he thought it made him look tree-hugger to the max.
"3% of the rainforest dies each year, you know. The trees are all like, 'Whoahah,' and then they're like, 'Noooooo! Save me!', and then they're like, 'Oh no I've been cut in half, sigh.'"
"Spud, trees can't talk," Jake informed him. Trixie took longer to come down, but she was looking punk as usual in her attire. She raised her eyebrows at Spud and said what Jake couldn't.
"Yo Spud, you goin' all tree-hugger on us?"
"The term is: Tree embracing. Embrace the trees, for they are your breath of lif-"
"You got to cut that!" Trixie exclaims, "I like trees too man, but not that much."
Jake decided to break the uncomfortable feeling he was having and started to fill in Spud and Trixie on what was going on. Lao Shi filled in the rest after Jake had finished.
"Gypsies come from the Eastern deserts. If they meet your gaze, you are said to meet your doom at their powerful magic spell. They can make you do anything, young ones!"
"Like eat Pineapple Upside-Down cake?" Spud said hopefully, moving a little forward to complete the expression.
"Like throw out all of your cash and credit cards, or give away your skateboard, kid." Fu said seriously, looking around at Spud with a just expression."
"Man, we ain't got no cash or credit cards to toss, Fu. Don't you think they'd be after bigger things like...Leprachon gold or...Gryphon eggs?"
"Precisely, Jake," Lao Shi says dramatically.
"Or the Dragon Council's stash of magical artifacts!" Fu exclaimed, reaching up and opening the door to Lao Shi's electronics shop, which hadn't had a customer in years. Jake looked at Haley. She looked extremely upset. Jake actually felt enough compassion to ask...
"What's wrong?"
"Mom didn't say I could stay up and finish my homework. Dragon stuff is fun, but bettering yourself and your education is better."
Fu Dog went into the back room to retreive a book. He came out with it in his mouth and set it down on the floor with a clunk. Openning it with a paw, he narrated the whisp of smoke which trailed from the book and turned into a holigram of a beautiful woman gypsy,
"Says here the only way to send a gypsy back to where it came from is for them to see their own eyes in a mirror. Huh. Imagine that."
"The only way to send Nanna back where she came from when she puts her vanishing cream on is to give her a mirror," Spud laughed, itching his right ear idly. Everybody looked at him, and everybody shrugged as usual. Jake smiled, and once again was the one to break one of the odd silences caused by Spud's out-there comments,
"So what's the plan, Gramps? We supposed to split up and find these girls?"
"One more thing!" Fu dog adds, "The mirror used to banish the gypsy has to contain diamond on it in some way, shape or form. It just so happens Fu won a bet a few weeks ago and got four of these babies. Be right back."
He trotted into the other room.
"I'll help!" Haley offered cheerily with the smile on her face that always drove Jake nuts.
"Nah, nah, kid." A pause. "Alright, here. Pass 'em out."
Haley dishes out the expensive-looking gold and diamond-wrought mirrors. They were very elegant, and Spud was more than sure he'd get bad luck if he broke his.
"Whoa, Jakey, check out the bling bling in this here hizang! Fu how much you pay for all this?"
"Said I won it, kid. Aces loaded, the guy had a pair a' twos. Boy was he ticked."
Fu Dog looked rather proud of himself. Jake couldn't see why the old wrinkled dog wanted to bet on stuff all the time. Jake was competative, but never messed with money.
I could get seriously messed up with money! If I had any, that is.
Trixie was bold enough to voice what Jake was thinking.
"So what'd you bet, G?"
"Tonsils."
"Dude do dogs even have tonsils?" Jake asked peculiarily, both eyebrows raising.
"Magical ones doo! Abababoo!"
"Let's get down to business," Lao Shi said in a slightly irked tone. He was always annoyed, it seemed. Jake never caught him on a good day. "We will start here and work our way out. Jake, go with Trixie and Spud. I will take Haley. Make sure every street is searched. Do not forget one or Grandpa will be-" he raised his voice to an unbearable tone- "VERY ANGRY!"
They all winced, including Haley, whose wince was probably the most pronounced. Jake knew she hated being scolded, and he allowed himself a small laugh.
They all filed out of the shop looking dull and bored. They didn't even think about the fact that if those gypsies got a hold of Rotwood and the knowledge he knew of Jake and the magical world, everybody would have some serious explaining to do. Rotwood was just getting his brown coat as the gypsy walked across the street, coming up on his run-down apartment.
At this rate, they would meet.
At this rate, there was a potential for disaster!
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End of part 1
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