THE NERD GETS THE GIRL ; milton krupnick

Wasabi Warriors

     AT LUNCH, in their school's cafeteria, Phoebe, Eddie, Jerry and Milton sat at their usual table in the corner, away from everyone else.

"Hey new kid!" Eddie exclaims out to a boy who had just grabbed his tray from the lunch line.

"Uh, what are you doing Eddie?" Jerry asked. "We save that seat for cheerleaders, prom queens and supermodels."

"Jerry, I'm literally the only girl who has ever sat here." Phoebe frowned.

"Well, I'm Jack. So how do you guys all know each other?"

"We're friends." Milton answered. "We do karate at her brother and his friend's dojo after school." He pointed at Phoebe, who nervously smiled at Jack. Nice boys were her weak spot, hence her huge secretive crush on the sweet nerdy boy next to her.

"We don't just do karate, Milton. These fists are registered weapons." Jerry bragged with a confident smirk. "In fact, I've already gotten a few calls about joining the Navy SEALS."

"Navy SEALS? You're afraid of baby seals." Eddie giggled.

As the rest of them ate their food in peace, Frank Bickle, who was basically the leader of the goons from the Black Dragon dojo threw a chunk of meat right at Milton. Phoebe put a hand on his shoulder as he turned to exclaim out to them with a glare. The boys laughed at his distressed state. Phoebe really hated those boys. They always picked on her for her weight. She wasn't that insecure until they had made it their goal to belittle her.

"That's awesome!" Jerry laughed hysterically. "The kid from the Black Dragon dojo just whaled you with—" He started before another chunk of the gross school food hit him, cutting him off immediately.

"Not cool man, not cool!" Jerry's eyebrows furrowed as the mean boys continued to laugh loudly.

"Aren't you gonna do anything?" Jack asked. "Wait, I thought you guys knew karate."

"Yeah, we do." Phoebe nodded. Milton stood up, half trying to impress her and half just trying to do anything to get them off their backs for once. But quickly sat back down once he noticed those boys weren't faced at all.

"But they know it better." Milton added, embarrassed he couldn't do more.

"It's cool, I got this." Jack smirked as he stood out of his chair and began to confidently walk towards the putrid boys.

"Why did we learn his name? Now I'm gonna miss him." Milton shook his head.

"Hey, I like your outfits." Jack began. "You guys cheerleaders?"

"No. Well, Brian used to be." Frank quickly defended himself. "So, you got a problem or something?" He pushed his chair away as he stood up. He towered over Jack. Phoebe couldn't help but wince.

"I didn't come over here to fight man." Jack laughed as he started to walk away. Frank threw a punch his way but Jack caught his fists before it could hit him. "Okay, you probably shouldn't have done that."

Jack twisted Frank's arm around and kicked him over his lunch table. Three more of his friends came over to Jack and started swinging at him but Jack was quick enough to dodge their attacks. Jack kicked a chair into one of them and he was out cold. The other two kicked and shoved at Jack but he was able to stand his ground.

Phoebe watched in amazement from under the table, next to Milton, Jerry and Eddie crouched behind it, who also had the same looks on their faces. The only person Phoebe had ever seen be that good at karate was her brother.

Jack jumped onto one of the tables that was vacant aside from Kim Crawford, a girl who Phoebe had only met once when she asked her to borrow a pencil but seemed nice. One of the Black Dragon boys slid across the table after Jack jumped over him. Jack flipped back off the table and pushed the other guy's face into a bowl of pudding.