Pucca Fanfic: Really Real love

Chapter two- Preparing for the feast

Chang shouted out, "Hold it out until I say so!" Everyone was standing on a pole, blindfolded and balancing large medallions on their arms. Ring-Ring screamed, "I can't hold it anymore!" She was turning red. Chang rolled his eyes. "Ring-Ring, Times up!" She jumped off, took off the blindfold, and dropped the medallions, dusted off her pink top, black pants jumpsuit, and fixed her rose gold side heart headband. Chang walked around, looking up, "Ssoso, Times up!" He barely landed on all fours. "Ching! Abyo, times up." They both got off, dropped the medallions and stretched. All eyes were on Pucca and Garu. They stood calmly, both wanting to make it the longest. Chang just had enough. "Pucca, Garu, you two tie. Times up." they got off and dropped the things. Chang announced, "As you know our feast to connect to our community and encourage other young people to sign up for classes. I would like everyone to help out with the feast. I was going to pair the student who did the lowest time with the student with the highest and so on and so forth. However, I wasn't expecting Pucca and Garu to have the same time. I guess I could have Ring-Ring pick if she'd rather work with Pucca or Garu, but I think we could have Pucca and Garu wor-" Ring-Ring yelled, "I WANT TO WORK WITH GARU!" Everyone was kind of shocked. Chang looked at Garu, "Garu, what do you think? Would you rather work with Pucca or Ring-Ring?" The girls look blankly at each other. They don't fight, publicly however they're not friends either. Garu groans. He knows both girls, they'd both most likely try to get close to Garu, the main difference is that Pucca is a hard worker and very creative while Ring-Ring wasn't either, however she gets others to do the work and with her money she could almost get anything to be done. Pucca rolled her eyes, annoyed. Nobody knows if it's due to being insulted or tired of waiting. She walks over to Ssoso and holds out her hand to shake. Everyone is definitely shocked. They expected her to want to work with Garu. Ssoso doesn't mind and shakes Pucca's hand. Ring-Ring strides up, next to Garu. "Alright, Ring-Ring with Garu, Abyo with Ching, and Pucca with Ssoso. We need to take care of the decorations, music, games, and I'd like at least 2 presentations. I'll let you all discuss what you each want to do and once you've decided what you each want, please talk to me and let me know what you are going to do. I'm going to be here all day, today and tomorrow, so there's no rush." Ring-Ring raised her hand, "Mr.Chang! The Dong King is welcome to cater and Garu and I can decide the menu." "I'm sorry, Ring-Ring. The Goh Rong is going to cater for the event and they've already decided on the menu." Ring-Ring huffed loudly as Chang entered the dojo. The students circled to speak. Ching suggested, "Okay, how about we add one more presentation? So that all of us do pick two jobs and it'd be equal." Ring-Ring scoffed, "Are you kidding me? It'd so not be even. What if we have to do 2 presentations in a row." Ching gave Ring Ring a dumbfounded look. "It wouldn't be a problem because it'd be their choice." "It wouldn't really be a choice if it's the only jobs left." "If it WAS a problem then they could discuss it with us and we could figure out a solution." "Sounds like by the tone of your voice, you'd be the only problem." Ching yelled, "You know what, Ring-Ring?! My only problem is your stuck up attitude!" "What?! How dare you speak to me like that!" The two began squabbling as the boys sighed. Pucca and Garu pulled both of the girls away from each other. Pucca stood a bit in front of Ching, pointed at Garu and Ring-Ring, then put both hands over her ears and began to bob her head in a rhythm. Garu smiled excitedly then pointed at Pucca. Ring-Ring scrunched up her nose. "What the heck is she trying to say?" Ching explained, annoyed. "She's saying you guys should pick the music for the event." Ring-Ring smiled, "That doesn't sound too hard." She grabbed Garu's wrist and made her way to the dojo, tugging him along. Abyo asked, "Wait, that's all your taking?" Ring-Ring kept walking but replied, "If you guys want to make things even-steven then you guys divide the rest of it amongst yourselves." Garu saw that everyone looked annoyed, but chose to ignore her and him because she forced him to team up. Ring-Ring burst through the doors. "Mr.Chang! Garu and I have our job!" Chang looked at her. "Job?" She smiled, "Yes. me and Garu are going to decide the music playlist for the event." "Wow. Usually, people would pick music and some other job as well to even things out." "Well, Garu and I have important plans this weekend and we would be overwhelmed if we took anything else." Garu was going to raise his hands to protest but Ring-Ring quickly grabbed his arm and quickly asked, "So what will we have to do?" "You'd only have to pick about 15 to 20 songs. 5 of those songs being slow-paced songs during the meal." "We got it covered, Mr.Chang." She was about to pull out Garu until Chang interrupted, "Ring-Ring, may I speak to Garu for a moment?" She looked at him and Garu shooed her off. When she left, Chang smiled. "You really have a lot of patience, don't you Garu? Don't worry I saw how you tried to tell the truth. I just wanted to ask if you would please do a presentation during the feast." Garu pointed to himself with a questioning look. "Yes. I'd like you to do a presentation of your skillset to demonstrate what you were able to perfect while here. You're my prized pupil. It'd look good for the dojo." Garu beamed and nodded. "Good. You may go now. I get the feeling Ring-Ring may want help deciding the playlist for the event." Garu sighed and walked out. He immediately saw his friends, sitting down and talking about what to do. They look so serious, talking about who is best for this job, what will be best, and if they should forget about this whole grade thing and just team up altogether. He walked up to them. Abyo smiled at him. "Oh hey, Garu. You and Chang finished talking about something?" He nods and makes a stage with one and a person standing on it with the other. "You're going to do a presentation for the event? Is Ring-Ring going to help?" Garu shook his head. Ssoso asked, "That sounds like it is going to be difficult. I hope you are able to keep your cool during this time." Garu nodded and signed if they needed help. Ching stood up. "No, we got this. You help out your teammate. We gotta tell my dad what we are doing." She and Ssoso went and walked up to the dojo and Abyo just patted Garu on the back. Pucca stood in front of Garu. She held out her hand, pushed them slowly down, tapped on her temple twice and booped Garu on the nose. 'Relax, think about you' or 'Focus on you' is what Garu thinks she said. He groans and nods at her. "GARU!!" Pucca looks at Garu, sympathetically and crosses her fingers for him. She followed the rest of the students as Garu goes to Ring-Ring. She smiled at Garu. "Let's go to my house. We can decide what to listen to there." When they made their way to the Dong King, Ring-Ring was talking about things Garu couldn't possibly even respond to. Shoes, clothes, local gossip. He only shrugged, nodded, or shook his head, but it seemed like Ring-Ring was pleased with that. He could make better conversation with his friends. Ssoso gives meditation tips, Abyo and him talk about fighting movies and comics, Ching talks about fighting techniques and Pucca... Well, he and Pucca just stay. Pucca points to certain items and Garu will explain things or Pucca will stare and admire things and asks Garu if he likes them. It was a bit odd, maybe funny, and he guesses that's why she and Ching are such good friends. Pucca and Ching both like to admire and learn about new things. "GARU!! WHERE ARE YOU GOING!?" He froze up when he realized he was walking past the Dong King. He smiled sheepishly and made his way in the Dong King. Fiya ran to her, "Miss Ring Ring! How was class today?" Ring-Ring just snapped, "Garu and I are going to my room! Bring some snacks and juice. I want them brought up quickly!" Fiya began to panic a bit, "Yes, Miss Ring Ring!" Garu sighed. He figured after these years, Fiya would either grow a backbone or common sense. He and Ring Ring made their way up to her room. She went to her dresser and pressed a button. "Computer, play popular and local songs." She sat at the dresser and began to fix her hair. Garu glanced at her. When she changed from a heart bun to just straight down hair with curls at the end, she kept siding up to him to ask what he thinks. Personally, it WAS pretty, but not really big for him. He sat down on the couch. It played a violin song that Garu liked and he rose up a thumbs up, telling Ring-Ring he liked it. Ring-Ring added. It played a girly pop song that made Ring-Ring dance. She tried to grab Garu's hands and get him up to dance with her but he buried himself into the couch, refusing to move. "Come on, Garu! Dancing is fun!" Garu grunted and buried himself farther. "Garu!" Ayo walks in, announcing, "Snacks!" Ring Ring immediately let go of Garu and he sighed in relief. Ayo placed down the snacks. "Are you guys just listening to music?" Garu nodded. Ayo suggested, "Try Ghosts by Jacob Tillberg or Bittersweet by Nakanojojo! It sounds really good!" Ring-Ring scoffed, "Ayo, that Ghost song was creepy!" Ayo smiled, "Oh, so you did listen to my suggestions." "AS IF I WOULD LISTEN TO YOU!" "Bittersweet has a big anime vibe and Ghosts is like Miss Ring-Ring said a little creepy but they're both catchy and high beat songs." Ring-Ring grabbed Ayo's shoulders and began trying to push him. Ayo was now taller than her by a couple inches. "Get out, Ayo!" "Hey. remember that scene from Lilo & Stitch?" "Don't you-" "GRAVITY INCREASE!" He went boneless and Ring-Ring and he almost fell. Ring-Ring sang a note, wrapped her hair around Ayo and threw him out of the door, slamming it. Garu straightened up and began to sweat a little. He almost forgot how scary Ring-Ring could be. She looked at Garu, took a deep breath and got back into her normal look. "So.... what if we listened to a Disney song?" Garu pointed to the door. Ring-Ring asked, "You want to hear his suggestions?" Garu nodded. Ring-Ring sighed and ordered, "Computer, play Ghosts." The song began with snapping. Ayo was right. It was super catchy. He couldn't help, but bob his head, and when he looked at Ring-Ring, he saw that she couldn't help but do the same. When the song was over, Garu raised up his thumb. Ring-Ring played the next song. Bittersweet was upbeat, but calm. It reminded him of Pucca. He couldn't help but think that. She was a girl who would dance, socialize, and befriend anyone, however if she also liked to read, draw, and likes to do calm things as well. "Garu, what did you think about that one?" Garu nodded and raised a thumb. For a little while, they remained quiet, only saying what songs they like, and what to add to the list. "Looks like we're done, Garu. Do you want to hang out a little longer?" Garu felt a vibraration and pulled out a pager. "Hey, Garu! If you don't mind, can you please help us out with the games and set up?" Ring-Ring looked over his shoulder. "A pager? How barbaric!" She takes it away then pulled out a cell phone. "Here you go, Garu~ This will be so much better than that piece of junk. My phone number is already in. I'm here to talk all the time." Garu nodded, thanking her, then waves goodbye. She grabbed his arm as soon as he was about to walk out. "Wait! Are you actually going to help them? We're not done hanging out!" Garu pried her hand off. She began explaining, "Garu, you're a good, strong guy with the abiltiy to have a high status. If you hang out with upstanding women like me and sure, maybe the captain's son, but you can't hang out with these lowlifes." Garu snapped his head up. "That definitely means you shouldn't hang out with that lame buddist, dirty teacher's daughter and chicken, and certainly not some rinky dink diner chefs and their niece who is utterly lam-" Garu growled, "R-" He was gonna say her name, angerly but reminded himself of the vow. Ring-Ring got startled. He quickly texted and left. Ring-Ring looks at her phone, reading his text. 'I won't let you speak of my friends that way, let that behavior slide or be friends with someone who is gatekeeping who I can be friends with. I expect a full apology tomorrow or don't talk to me again.' She gasped when she got a text from Garu's number saying. [This number has blocked you. You may not call or text this number until they decide to unblock you] When Garu was a few steps outside of the Dong King, he heard loud angry singing, guessing she wasn't happy with his decision. He huffed. Garu didn't even consider Ring-Ring a real friend, just a classmate he should be kind to, so the audacity to say to use Abyo, to abandon his friends, and call the people who care for him, such names is just so infuriating. He saw a rotting tree and all the emotions within him was begging for release. Garu let out a growl and punched the tree at the weakest spot over and over until finally it fell. He sat down on the tree beside it and didn't move until he calmed down. When he made his way over, there he saw Ching, Pucca, Ssoso and Abyo setting up a tables and benches for the feast. Pucca was the first to see him and began to wave frantically. Everyone grinned and welcomed him, letting all of his negative emotions wash away. Abyo grinned, "Good thing you're here, Garu. We want to set up a few hampers for a beanbag basketball. We want to set it up high but even if they stand on my shoulders, they can't reach the right spots... especially Pucca." Pucca growled and punches Abyo hard enough to go into the forest. Garu and Ching chuckled. Everyone did manage to grow out of being the same size, but while Abyo and Garu got full on growth spurts, everyone else only grew a few inches with Pucca only growing the least amount with an inch or two. Garu uses his illusion ability that he's perfected, climbed on their shoulders to make a human ladder. Once he was done hanging them up, he stopped the illusion. Ching smiled. "Thanks, Garu. Now we set up the balloon pop, the skee ball game, ring toss, and the knock over the bottle game, then we can do the decorations and painting, and after everything is perfect, everyone can practice their presentations." Abyo got into a military salute and joked, "YES, MA'AM!" Ching smiled and retorted, "Oh shut up, private. I have the decorations from previous feasts, so let's decide what we should use." They decided light pink lanturns, light lavender and light teal pennant banners and paint the tables and games dark green with light teal outlines and light teal benches. Ching looks at the paint. "Hey, boys? Can you get more of these leaves so I can make more green paint?" Garu and Abyo agreed and went to the woods to find the specific leaves. When they see the tree, Ayo walked up to them. "Hey guys." Abyo jumped up to get a bunch of leaves. "HEY, AYO! WHATCHA DOING HERE?" Abyo grabbed an armful of leaves. Ayo sighed, "Ring-Ring threw a huge tantrum as soon as Garu left." Abyo looked at Garu. "What happened?" Garu groaned and shook his head. Ayo whistled, "That bad huh?" Garu pulled out his sword and sliced a few branchs off. Abyo asked, "How in the world can you stand her, Ayo?" "She's funny to mess with. She may be a huge brat, but she has her moments." Abyo jokes, "If I didn't know any better, I'd say you have a crush." Ayo was a little red and Abyo can only say, "Yeesh..." Garu grunted, causing them to look over. Garu was struggling to carry all the branches. Ayo grabbed half of Garu's load. "What's all this for?" "We need to paint a few things for the festival. Ching makes organic and natural paint." "Just like with make up? I heard Ring-Ring saw her put on flower petal lipstick for Pucca." Abyo smiled, "Yeah, she really likes making natural homemade things things." "Explains why I only saw her in Dong King twice to eat." Abyo smiled, "Yeah... One time I tried taking her to this one food boat, but when she tasted the dessert, she almost threw up when 'she tasted the chemicals in the strawberry drizzle.' It's kinda funny." After a bit of walking Ayo asked, reluctantly, "Hey... Why can't Pucca talk?" Both Garu and Abyo froze for a bit. Ayo apologized quickly, "Sorry! Sorry! I just got curious! It's just... I hear her make noises and stuff, but never really talk. I asked Ring-Ring if she did the silence vow like Garu, but she said, 'Pucca isn't that devoted'... so what is it?" Garu and Abyo looked at each other and Garu nodded at Abyo, but had a look in his eyes. "Pucca... has a condition. I'm not sure exactly, but when I got introduced to Pucca. Uncle Dumpling said that her vocal chords are a bit weird. Her vocal chords hurt a lot sometimes and she can't make a noise, but sometimes, they'll be okay and she can say something before they sting." "That sounds complicated..." "A little. Sometimes they hurt so much to her that she has to stay home and the chefs close the restaurant." "It gets that bad?" "It got worse one time... we were all playing in the woods, playing with a dragon, Destiny." Garu looked down, beginning to shake. "We were on the edge of a cliff. We all pretended that the girls were princesses, Destiny was holding them, and we were the knights. Destiny and us were fighting, and the girls were by the trees. Destiny accidently hit me with his tail, hard. I fell over the cliff. It was bigger than anything, and it looked like it would be the end of me. I heard two voices scream my name. Both of the girls screamed. Pucca screamed loud. It hurt her a lot. When I was okay, we had to rush Pucca home, so the chefs can help her. The restaurant was closed for days, only open when they asked Garu to get medicine or ingrediants for it" Ayo was hushed. "Wow... how'd you make it out, Abyo?" Abyo punched Garu lightly. "Garu and Destiny were able to grab me before I fell to the bottom. It was cool." Garu shook his head and showed his shaking hand. "It was scary for you, Garu?" Garu nodded. "Isn't Pucca usually calm though? Why did she get scared?" "Garu told me it was because her foot got caught in some thorn brambles when she tried to run after me and when she got held back, she screamed." "I guess when you're usually in control, you get scared when you aren't." Both fighters nod. After silence, Ayo asks another question, "So, was she born with it or did she just get it one day?" Abyo sighed, "We don't want to ask her about it. My dad said the chefs get sad when they mention that. So let's just leave them be." "Really? Aren't you guys curious?" Garu shook his head, put four fingers up, lowered them a bit, then just made a smile and pointed to himself. "What does that mean?" "Garu is saying, no. lets keep them happy." "You guys have more restraint than me, I guess," He said as they finally made it back to the dojo. The banner and games were up and they were in the middle of painting the tables and games. Ching smiled, "Oh, hey guys!" Pucca and Ssoso looked up and waved. Ching pointed by the shed. "Just set the leaves over there, guys. Abyo, can you pull them off the branches and get started with the paint? Ayo, do you want to help out?" As the boys pulled them over, Ayo said, "I can't. I left so I can avoid Ring-Ring's tauntrum. If I'm gone a second longer, I'll have to deal with Uncle Fiyah's tauntrum." Ching nodded, "Alright. Garu, help everyone else paint everything." Garu nodded. In the middle of painting, Garu looked up at Ching and Abyo. They were in the middle of making the leaves into a paste. Abyo squishing the leaves hard enough to hit Ching and she hit him, playing. He smiled. When Abyo told Garu, he had a crush on Ching and was jealous Ssoso and her was getting closer, he was not at all surprised. Finally after years of helping him and flirting, Abyo now sees Ching is the girl for him. He looked at Pucca. Pucca was in the zone, concentrating on what she was doing. Pucca is doing almost the exact same thing as Ching did with Abyo. Pucca could easily give up and get any guy she wanted, but for some reason, she's determined with Garu. If Pucca did move on, he hoped she would check in with him and the chefs. Pucca is their princess, he'll lose all his honor and be cursed for life if some scummy lowlife decided to take advantage of her. "THE PAINT, AHH!!" He looked to his left and saw Ssoso freaking out about spilling his paint cup. Garu quickly picked up the cup, and tried to get his hands from spilling the paint. After that, everyone finished painting everything rather quickly. Ching and Pucca squealed in excitement and Garu and Abyo high fived. Ssoso exclaimed, "Everything looks perfect!" Ching grinned, "Okay! I'll make sure everything will be alright for the feast, everyday so don't worry. This leaves everyone 4 days to prepare their presentation for the event! Go home and get ready! Pucca, you'll come back to my house after you're done, right?" Pucca nods. Everyone grabbed their bag and left. When Abyo and Garu walked away from each other, Pucca pulled on Garu's sleeve and began clapping her hands in morse code. 'Hey! I tried messaging you on your pager. Did I do something wrong?' Garu responded back in claps. 'No, Ring-Ring took it, gave me a phone instead.' Pucca smiled, 'That's great! I know your pager is good, but your phone will help out a lot!' 'I know, but I don't know how does thing work, and I'm not sure if I AM interested in this.' 'If you want, I teach you how to text at least, and I can give you, everyone's phone number!' Pucca looked excited. Garu sighed and nodded. 'Okay. can you tell me why you paged me?' 'I wanted to ask if you had ideas for your presentation!' 'Nothing at all. The Dong King isn't exactly inspirational.' 'I have an idea for your presentation that I know will look good and get students interested! It only works with your skillset! So can you take a look?' Garu stopped. 'Sure.' Pucca grabbed a notebook from her bag and handed it to Garu. The idea was sketched out and detailed in writing, enough so that Garu can do this. It was a little flashy than he would usually would do, but flashy is what Chang needs so that he could get more students. Also, he'd be lying if he said he wasn't interested. He handed the notebook back and clapped, 'It looks really good. Are you sure you want me to take it?' Pucca clapped, 'Of course! Just for you! You only have to do me one thing!' Garu heistantly asked, 'what is it?' 'keep showing it to me so it'll be perfect by then!' Garu smiled, 'okay.' He pulled out his phone. 'Now, can you teach me how to use this?' On the walk to the Goh Rong, Pucca taught Garu how to use the phone, discussed the presentation, and the menu for the feast. It's conversations like these that assure the two that they're good friends and there was no need to break things off or rush into things. They were fine. They are perfect.

Got any criticism or anything to say? Please let me know!

Progress on the book will be made on my weekly reports!

If you have any questions, comment or dm me.

Hope you like it and see you soon