Tree laughed, "Thats the only reason you're here?" Then he seemed to think about it. "I can't say that I blame you." he said, cocking his head to the side.
Treasure nodded.
Tree then strolled to the other side of the room, leaving Treasure and I in awkward silence.
"Sooo..." I said in an attempt to make conversation. "I... saw Inception today. And my brain promptly exploded."
"Yeah! My parents saw that, and they were like..." Treasure then motioned his hands going around his head.
"Wait! Treasure, What?" Tree chimed in from across the room.
Treasure looked at him asking him in Treasure to repeat what he had just said.
"What did your parents see?" Tree asked again, walking back toward us.
"Inception" Treasure responded.
"Was it good?" Tree asked looking at me.
"It was WAY good! But confusing. I thought I had a theory, but then the last scene just blew my theory away."
"I'll go see it then!"
Treasure then said something, more of a mumble and motioned throwing things up in the air.
Tree started cracking up. "Did you get what he said??" He said through laughter. "He said he's going to throw lollipops at the ceiling so they stick, spelling 'Hi Bandit, From Treasure'. "
"Well in that case, I'm going to drag you back in there and make you go get them." I said.
Treasure started jumping and reaching toward the air.
"Don't worry Bandit, I won't be too mean." Tree assured me. "I'll just put all the arm rests down."
"Thanks Tree, you're a saint." I said sarcastically.
"OOOH BANDIT, YOU'RE HERE!!!" Came an excited voice from across the room. Suddenly I was in an embrace.
"I'm not here for elite team, Water Fetcher!" I said being squished.
"Oh..." she said, letting go and sounding disappointed.
"She's just here to get her belt." Tree informed her.
I was in an embrace again before I could even recover from the last one. "Well, whoever is running elite team tonight should give Bandit her belt!! I want to see it on her cute little...red belt...face!"
"Red belt face?" I asked as she let go, but there was no answer.
"ELITE TEAM! LINE UP!!" Aslan yelled.
Everyone lined up, and I sat down on the sidelines where I usually go.
"Bandit! What are you doing?" Aslan more or less shouted.
"I'm sitting here, Sir."
"No you're not! You're lining up!"
"You're on elite team now." Tree smiled.
I felt really excited, then ran up to join the class. We lined up, as is normal, then bowed in.
"Tree, will you go get that red... piece of fabric thats over there on that shelf?"
He laughed, "Yes sir." He grabbed my belt then stood up next to Aslan.
"BANDIT!!" Aslan yelled.
"Yes sir!" I responded bowing and running up to him.
"Does anyone have a camera?" Aslan asked looking around.
"Yeah!" Said Dancer, "do you have you're phone Bandit? Do you want a picture on it??"
"Not particularly..." I said, now feeling very 'on the spot'.
Dancer then disappeared for a moment then returned with a camera. This was a very different promotion ceremony for me.
"Turn around and take off your belt." Aslan instructed.
I did so, then handed it back to him, who handed it to Tree at his side. I heard the camera clicking. He then took my new red belt and tied it around my waist. "Okay, turn around and face the class. Bandit, Red belt, Cheriet, Kunyeh." Everyone bowed to me, then erupted into applause that was much louder then the usual rank advancement applause. I knew I was back where I belonged.
I stepped in front of Tree, who handed my old belt back to me. "Congratulations Ma'am." he said. "Unless you want me to..."
"Tie it around my feet? Yeah!" I said. (This is custom)
"Okay, okay." Tree whispered, bending down and tying my belt around my feet as people behind me giggled at his confusion. "Okay, step out..." Tree instructed quietly. I complied, then stepped out of my previous belt. Tree picked it up off the floor and handed it to me. "Congratulations."
I didn't take the belt.
"You're supposed to..." Aslan whispered motioning both his hands forward.
"Aren't you going to put it around my neck?" I asked.
"Yeah, come on Tree!" Came a voice from behind.
"I want the WHOLE ceremony!" I said.
"Okay, okay! Sorry. I haven't done this in a long time!" Tree defended putting the belt around my neck. "NOW, congratulations!" he said for the third time, holding out his hand. I took it and shook.
I ran back to my place in line with everybody clapping again. I was on top of the world. This rocked!
"So... we aren't allowed to do any crazy flying killingness this week..." Aslan informed everyone, "Because pre-testing is this Saturday. So don't break yourselves!!" Most eyes in the room went to Treasure, who looked around uneasily.
Aslan continued, "This means no flying around, no skateboarding, no parkour, no extreme sports, no letting your friends drag you underneath doors..." on this last example Kenny pointed at Treasure who looked down. "Don't do ANYTHING stupid for the next two months!"
Fluffy put his hand halfway up, "Does that include-"
"YES!!" Aslan replied pointing hard at him, who put his hand down and looked at the ground just like Treasure.
"Sooo... go do the demo!" He said walking away, "Line up!!" Everybody ran to their rehearsed places while I walked over to the side of the studio, having no rehearsed place and not even knowing the demo.
"Bandit, Get over HERE!" Hiss said almost angrily pointing to a spot on the floor. "You are in the demo!"
"I don't even know the demo!" I said.
"Oh, come on!" Water Fetcher said. "We'll teach it to you! Come on!"
I ran over to some random spot on the floor and Water Fetcher taught me the form while the whole team went through it slowly with me.
"...then you slide up into this..." she said.
I tried... "What the..."
"Ku San Ku" Treasure said.
"I don't even know Taguek 8!"
"You're delivering a pizza." Fluffy said, doing the move again for me slowly.
I tried again. Fluffy came up to me and moved my hand into the correct position. "Oh, okay." I said.
We went on to the next move. "This is a Taguek 8." Tree said. "You'll get it easy."
I nodded and continued.
Water Fetcher continued, "Now, Middle knife... front snap...punch... crecent, turn... up....one, two, three.... and KILL!" We all took a isometric punch to the ground and kioped. It was awesome!
"This is the part where sparks come out of our fists!" Tree said.
"Yeah!" I said, liking this idea as Treasure reenacted it for me, complete with sound effects.
"This time with music!" Said Dancer. Suddenly everyone started talking to me.
"This isometric move is 1, 2,3..." Said Water Fetcher.
"Just follow the person in front of you..." Dancer said.
"...delivering a pizza" Fluffy said.
Treasure looked like he was saying something.
"I lost the game." Came Tree's voice, which had just materialized behind me, making me jump.
"Game?" I asked.
"The game is to not think about the game, if you think about the game you lose the game and must announce that you have just lost the game..." (remember, all of this dialogue is happening at the same time)
"Bandit! Did you get that? Bandit!" Hiss was saying.
"Everyone stop! There are like, ten people trying to talk to me right now!!" I yelled, and everything went quiet. "Lets just start the demo, I'll do my best." I said.
This seemed to satisfy everyone and we continued the demo.
Tiger then came in and had us practice 360 kicks.
"I don't know 360 kicks!" I said.
"POOF! Now you do!" She said.
"Woah..."
"360's go!" Then she whispered to me, "Don't worry, I'm not going to make you do them tonight." So I held the kicking pad for Dancer while she did her kicks.
After that, Tiger, "Okay, everybody, two lines down there! Okay, thats 3, I asked for two! One, two! There we go! Flying doubles!!!"
"I can't do flying doubles!" I said.
"Bad word! Five pushups!"
I was doing pushups when Water Fetcher noticed. "Bandit, what are you doing?"
"Pushups for saying I can't do something!" I replied.
"Yep, cuz I'm mean!" Tiger said almost triumphantly.
We continued with the flying doubles, first doing a flying double snap kick, followed by a double roundhouse, then lastly a flying double side kick.
"No fair!! You're better at them than me!" Water Fetcher complained to me. "I just have too much of an 'oh crap' instinct."
"It's okay Water Fetcher, I have a feeling my lack of 'oh crap' instinct is going to get me killed some day." I responded.
Next, we did split kick, which went alright, then we finally bowed out of elite team (after a "don't do anything stupid" reminder). I received more congratulations for getting my belt, but all I care about is that I'm back with MY team.
