Traci's Test of Willpower

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Normal POV

The next morning, after breakfast, Traci walks outside. She still has Antonio's scarf on. Mike and the others look over at her.

"Traci, did Antonio give you that?" Mia asks.

"Yeah, he said it was a souvenir," Traci says.

"That's so romantic," Emily says.

"Yeah, I know," Traci says.

"Guys, we can get her to talk about her date later," Jayden says.

"It wasn't a date, so what are we going to do today?" Traci says.

"We are going to do some practice sparring," Jayden says.

"Are we going to spar with our spin swords or the bamboo ones?" Traci says.

"Our Spin Swords. I thought we could spar if you're up to it," Jayden says.

Traci nods. They morph and walk over to the platform. Ji could tell that Traci was nervous because her hands were shaking while holding her sword. He was about to tell her to relax. When he notices her tighten her grip suddenly and hears her let out a deep breath.

"How do we know when to start?" Traci asks.

"You can start now," Ji says.

Jayden charges in, and Traci begins to hum her favorite song to train by herself. Traci blocks his attack before counter-attacking by taking one step back before doing a downward strike of her own. Mentor Ji boasts about Jayden's skills.

"Traci is graceful with a sword, too," Mia says.

"Yeah, she is right up there with Jayden," Mike says.

Traci gets distracted hearing the others' compliments and forgets where she is in the song. She swings her sword to the left instead of the right. Jayden knocks Traci's sword away. She hears her sword make a clunking sound when it hits the platform. She stops humming and starts to get scared that the others will laugh at her for what just happened. The Rangers are confused as they watch Traci slowly walk back to the platform's edge. Ji has a good idea of why Traci is acting like this. They watch as she gets to the edge and falls back to the ground. Traci demorphs when she hits the gravel. Jayden sets his sword down and jogs over to her.

"Traci, are you okay?" Jayden asks as he holds out his hand.

"Yeah, I'm all right," Traci says.

Traci slaps his hand away before getting to her feet by herself. Then she takes out her morpher and draws a symbol to make her spin sword disappear. Jayden demorphs and is confused when he sees Traci turn her body towards the house.

"Traci, a real samurai, never runs from a fight," Kevin says.

"That's true, Kevin, but this isn't a fight. It's just practice," Traci says as she jogs into the house.

"I'll talk to her. Kevin, why don't you spar with Jayden," Ji says.

"Okay, mentor," Kevin says.

Jayden morphs again. Kevin does too, and they start sparring. In the woods, Metamot arrives and scares off the fellow hikers. At the house, Ji sees Traci practicing in the Dojo with her spin sword. He watches her do a few flips before the gap sensor goes off. The loud sound causes her to lose her train of thought again. Her dyslexia kicks in, and she swings her sword in the wrong direction and trips over her own two feet. She gets up and sees Ji standing in the doorway.

"Hi Ji," Traci says.

"Traci, what happened out there?" Ji asks.

"I got distracted when I heard everyone complimenting me. After making that mistake, I was afraid that the others would laugh at me." Traci says.

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