chapter six ━ surprise parties & idols
( season one, episode six )

❝ if this thing with bobby wasabi
doesn't go through, you have to deal
with a blubbering rudy, okay? ❞

"𝐖𝐇𝐄𝐑𝐄 𝐇𝐀𝐕𝐄 𝐘𝐎𝐔 𝐁𝐄𝐄𝐍?" 𝐕𝐄𝐑𝐎𝐍𝐈𝐂𝐀 asked as soon as Jack had set down his skateboard and helmet on the mat in the dojo. The entire room had been decorated with streamers and balloons, and Veronica was walking around ensuring it all looked decent enough. "You're late."

"For what?" he asked her, joining her by the lockers.

"Rudy's surprise birthday party," Eddie replied and Veronica pressed her lips together. "Remember? The one he's been planning for himself for two weeks?"

"I just need someone to remind me how I'm related to him," Veronica said with a sigh before shaking her head. "No, actually, tell me how he and my mother are related."

Suddenly, the lights turned off and they could hear Rudy's strained whisper. "He's coming!" She rolled her eyes and glanced at Jack. Rudy walked in and turned on the light, turning to see his karate students.

"Surprise..." they said with no enthusiasm.

He dramatically clutched his heart and stumbled against the wall. "How did you know it was my birthday?" he asked and Veronica leaned her arm on Jack's shoulder in annoyance. "Are you guys trying to kill me?" He put on a cake hat on his head and she shook her head. "You'd better not have brought gifts. But if you did, now would be the time to load me up."

Veronica sat down on the mat and leaned her head on Kim's shoulder as Milton and Jack walked back to the group. "This is from Jerry, Eddie, and me," Milton said, giving Rudy the box.

He ripped the top off and gasped. "Oh, joke-a-day toilet paper," he said. "Get out." Veronica shook her head with a chuckle. "My cousin had this at his house. I literally laughed myself off the bowl."

Veronica nodded. "It's true," she added. "We haven't seen him since..."

"Thank you, guys," Rudy said, looking at the three and disregarding his niece's quip. "Now, I don't want to turn this whole gift thing into a competition, but, Kim, it's time to top that gift."

"Unlike some people," Kim began, looking pointedly at the boys. "I put a lot of thought into my gift. I hope you like it, Rudy."

He tore the paper off and dropped it on the floor, looking up in surprise. "A signed picture of Bobby Wasabi, my hero, my idol, the man I patterned my life after?" Veronica smiled softly; she knew how much Bobby Wasabi meant to him. "'To whom it may concern, Bobby Wasabi.' That's me. I'm whom. I'm concern!"

Veronica tilted her head. "You're not wrong about the last part..."

She stood up and let out a breath, walking over to her locker and Jack hurried after her. "Ronnie, please say I can get in on your gift."

"Sorry, Jack," she said, shaking her head. "This only makes sense if you're related to me or him." She patted his shoulder and handed the bag to Rudy. "Happy Birthday, Uncle Rudy."

He took the bag from her and dug inside to pull out what looked like an orange belt that was beginning to fade. "An orange belt?" he asked, looking up at her.

"It's your first belt, actually," she said with a soft smile. "I was going through Mom's things and I found it in a box. There's more. Read the note."

He looked back at her before pulling out a tri-folded notebook paper and his eyes widened at the handwriting. He glanced at her and she nodded. "Dear baby brother," he began and she hugged her arm. "You got your first belt today which means you're one step closer to becoming a black belt. I know you can do it. But I'm still better than you. Carrie." He chuckled lightly to himself. "Thank you, Ronnie."

"It pays off to have a sentimental mother," she said with a shrug and hugged her uncle tightly. "Happy Birthday, Uncle Rudy."

He nodded before looking at the sixth member of the group. "Alright, Jack. Rock my world."

"Yeah, Jack." Kim crossed her arms. "I'm sure Rudy saved the best for last." Veronica cleared her throat. "Except for Ronnie's extremely sentimental gift."

"Well..." Jack let out a breath and shrugged. "You know, I was thinking... you know, everyone knows how much you love Bobby Wasabi. And I asked myself, what could be better than a picture, right?"

"Only the man himself." Rudy suddenly looked very serious. "Wait, wait, wait a minute. Are you saying what I think you're saying?"

Veronica tilted her head. "Probably not," she quipped.

"You found a way to get Bobby Wasabi to come down here so I could meet him?" Rudy asked and his niece gestured at him, having just answered his own question.

"Yeah," Jack said with a laugh and Veronica raised her eyebrows at the boy.

"Wait, the founder of this dojo, an international movie star, someone who hasn't been seen in public in twenty years is coming to see me?" Rudy repeated before clutching the photograph to his chest and sitting on the bench. "I can't believe it."

"None of us can believe it, Jack," Kim said, crossing her arms.

"Let's get this party started!" They all looked over to see Milton with a bo-staff aiming for the piñata and failing, making them all duck.

"Milton, stop! Before you kill somebody!"

___________________________

"𝐈𝐓 𝐈𝐒 𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐓𝐖𝐄𝐍𝐓𝐘-𝐅𝐈𝐑𝐒𝐓 century," Veronica muttered to herself, waving her phone in front of her. "How can phone calls not go through anymore?"

"I can't believe Bobby Wasabi Wasabi is actually coming to our dojo!" Jerry exclaimed making her jump and she looked over to see him, Milton, and Eddie running over to Jake and Kim, the former with an exasperated look on his face. "Look, Jack. Bro, since Bobby's coming for Rudy's birthday, we've decided to take advantage of this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity."

Eddie nodded in excitement. "We spent the whole night in Jerry's garage writing his comeback movie," he explained and Veronica quirked an eyebrow upward.

"Wow, you hear that, Jack?" Kim said, pulling him to the side toward Veronica. "Our friends spent all night in the garage writing a comeback movie for Bobby Wasabi."

He shrugged. "What's bad about that?" he asked, walking back toward them. "What if they wrote a really great movie?"

"Oh, it's better than great," Milton told them and Jack nodded toward him. "It's epic. Bobby Wasabi is the biggest martial arts action star in history."

"But now he'll battle with the most diabolical force he's ever faced," Eddie interjected while Kim shook her head and Veronica chuckled.

"It's half piranha, half octopus," Milton said, opening the poster in his hand. "It's... Piranhapus!"

"Eight arms," Jerry explained, the boys making a blabbering sound as commentary. "Nine mouths." They made growling sounds. "And one bad attitude."

Veronica hid her face behind her hand and laughed at the three boys making their version of piranhapus before walking over to Jack. "I have a bone to pick with you, skater boy," she said and he looked at her. "If this thing with Bobby Wasabi doesn't go through, you have to deal with a blubbering Rudy, okay? I am not doing it again. I'm still recovering from when he lost the 'Name the Panda' contest at the zoo. I made seventeen batches of cookies. Seventeen."

Jack sighed. "He also wore his 'crying boots'."

"And I've hidden those from him," Veronica replied with a nod. "I've had practice. I'm just warning you... you have to deal with the sobbing mess of Rudy Gillespie if this doesn't go your way."

___________________________

"𝐑𝐔𝐃𝐘!" 𝐕𝐄𝐑𝐎𝐍𝐈𝐂𝐀 𝐒𝐇𝐎𝐔𝐓𝐄𝐃 𝐅𝐑𝐎𝐌 𝐈𝐍𝐒𝐈𝐃𝐄 the dojo. "There's still confetti all over this place! I thought you said you would be picking it up." She went toward the broom closet and frowned. "Why is the broom not in the broom closet? There's a reason it's called a broom closet."

"Rudy!" she heard Jack shout and she walked out to find the group running into the dojo in excitement. "Rudy, your birthday present's here. It's Bobby Wasabi." Veronica looked between the man in an oversized red outfit and the cutout of the movie star beside him and her eyes widened. "You wanna know why he's here? Because when I say I can deliver, what happens? Oh, that's right, I deliver."

Rudy laughed, shaking his head. "That's a great joke," he said. "You hired some big belly to squeeze into a dress and then waddle in here saying he's Bobby Wasabi. It is hilarious!"

"You don't think that I am Bobby Wasabi?" he asked, doing the exact same post and expression as the cutout.

"No, ma'am or sir, I do not."

Veronica sighed and hung her head. "Oh, Rudy..."

"That is it." She pursed her lips and grimaced when Bobby started his battle cry. He ran at Rudy who quickly blocked him and hit him in the chest. He let out another cry and was flipped onto the mat and groaned.

"Rudy, this is no joke," Jack said as the others went to help the man off the floor. "That really is Bobby Wasabi."

Rudy looked at him and then down at the man on the floor. "Oh. Oh. Oh! Oh, Bobby. I'm sorry, Mr. Wasabi. Mr. Wasabi, I'm so sorry for the misunderstanding," he said sheepishly. "Um—welcome to my dojo."

"This is not our dojo," Bobby told him breathlessly. "This is my dojo. And you are fired!"

___________________________

"𝐇𝐄𝐘, 𝐇𝐎𝐖'𝐒 𝐓𝐔𝐃𝐘 𝐓𝐀𝐊𝐈𝐍𝐆 𝐔𝐍𝐄𝐌𝐏𝐋𝐎𝐘𝐌𝐄𝐍𝐓?" Milton asked Veronica the next day at school and she sighed, tilting her head.

"Well, he has a job—"

"See?" Jack said, pointing at her. "I told you he would land back on his feet again. He's smart. I bet—"

She held up her hand. "I didn't finish," she interrupted. "He has a job. At Reptile World, working under Lonnie. He came home the other day smelling like seawater. And crying."

"Oh..."

After school, the teenagers visited Rudy at his new job just as Lonnie was explaining his new responsibilities. "You're not going to mix them up, it's terribly obvious." Veronica looked around the room at the different cages. "This one is for the mouth, this one is—oh, dear, it's mine! Oh. Oh, not again. Oh!"

Veronica bumped into Jack as Lonnie ran away in disgust and his hand unintentionally wrapped around her waist, keeping her from falling. She straightened up and cleared her throat, smiling softly at the boy.

"Thanks," she muttered before turning to her uncle who was looking at them all with an uncomfortable smile.

"Hey, guys," he said. "What are you doing here?"

"You know, we just came by to see how you're doing," Jack replied and Veronica nodded.

Rudy waved it off and nodded. "Yeah, don't worry about me," he told them, his voice high-pitched. "I'm doing swell—swell, I tell you."

Veronica sighed as her uncle ran off tearfully. "Guys, this is all my fault," Jack said to his friends. "Rudy's a third-degree black belt, and now he's scrubbing turtle butt. Bobby Wasabi took away his job and Bobby Wasabi is gonna give it back."

"Is this going to involve anything illegal?" Veronica asked, raising her hand. "Because I love Rudy with everything I have, but I have no desire to get arrested."

___________________________

"𝐖𝐄'𝐑𝐄 𝐁𝐑𝐄𝐀𝐊𝐈𝐍𝐆 𝐈𝐍𝐓𝐎 𝐁𝐎𝐁𝐁𝐘 𝐖𝐀𝐒𝐀𝐁𝐈'𝐒 house?" Veronica asked while the group of friends stood outside of the large mansion. "This is exactly how someone gets arrested."

"He's not answering," Eddie said after pushing the button several times. "How do we even know he's in there?"

"Well, someone just ordered a truckload of pastrami," Kim replied, pointing at the large truck by the house and Veronica's eyes widened at the sight.

Jack looked at his friends. "Hey, guys, it took us three buses to get here," he told them while Milton squeezed through the bars of the gate and Veronica looked over at him. "So we're just gonna have to break in."

Jerry scoffed. "Not happening, man." Veronica tapped Jack on the shoulder and gestured to the redhead who was walking to the controls on the other side of the gate. "Guys like Wasabi have million-dollar security systems. Dude, I'm talking lasers, motion sensors, surveillance cameras." She walked inside once the doors were opened and Kim followed her. "This thing's an impenetrable fortress. Bro, there's a way we're getting in here—what's up, Milton—ever."

Once they were inside the house, they walked around quietly while Veronica looked at their surroundings with worry, concerned they might actually get arrested for breaking and entering.

"Uh-oh," Kim said, noticing a sign that said 'ninja king'. "That's not good..."

Jerry sighed, shaking his head. "Oh, come on. It's just one of those gag signs you buy at the carwash."

"The man had a truckload of pastrami delivered to his house," Veronica deadpanned, crossing her arms. "I wouldn't put it past him." Suddenly, four ninjas appeared in front of them and she pressed her lips together. "Not a gag. It is not a gag."

"Ninjas!" Milton screamed and the group split into three different directions. Kim and Veronica went one way; Jerry, Eddie, and Milton went in another; and Jack, a third.

"This is why we don't break the law!" Veronica whimpered. She and Kim locked themselves in a dark room and she looked around. "Uh—where are we?"

Kim turned on the lights and they saw a man in a disco outfit as music began playing. The two girls glanced at each other in confusion before looking around the room. There was a toilet that looked like a throne and silver glitter everywhere.

"You see the man, too, right?" Kim asked, still looking at the dancing man in a silver tuxedo. Veronica nodded slowly, finding the doorknob.

"Forget this, I'll get arrested if I don't have to see him again," she said and the girls quickly left the room only to be cornered by three ninjas. "This is what I get for trying to get Rudy's job back!"

They continued running through the house, eventually crashing into Jack. The three black belts looked behind them to see four ninjas running at them and they burst through a pair of double doors as an alarm went off to see Jerry, Milton, and Eddie with Bobby Wasabi.

"Hey, Bobby," Jack said breathlessly. "I've been looking for you."

"Get them!"

Veronica sighed and looked around to see eight ninjas getting into their fighting stances. She flipped backward, kicking two ninjas while Kim held onto Jack and knocked out two more. A ninja caught Veronica's foot and was thrown upward but she flipped in the air, landing on her feet and earning an impressed look from her three friends who were watching them fight.

She pulled away her hair from her face and spit out a stray strand. "This is why my hair is always up..." she muttered before ducking at the swinging fist of another ninja. She kicked him in the chest just as Kim rang the gong, making the one on the floor groan.

Another three ninjas appeared and Jack ran at them, taking out two with one kick and as he landed, he kicked the third. He high-fived the girls before the ninjas stood up and restrained them.

"Hang on a second," Bobby said, holding up his hand. "That was a perfect Flying Dragon kick."

Jack smiled. "My grandfather taught it to me."

"Well, I can't think that your grandfather would approve of you breaking into my house," Bobby replied.

He shook his head with a shrug. "No. But he would approve of me standing up for my sensei."

"Your sensei called me a man lady," Bobby whimpered in offense.

Jack sighed. "It was an honest mistake," he said and Veronica nodded. "You've got a ponytail and that thing you're wearing kind of looks like a dress."

"It's a kaftan. It's breathable, wrinkle-free, and great for those on-the-go days," Bobby promoted and she raised her eyebrows.

"Mr. Wasabi." Jack walked toward him. "What was the one thing that all of your movies had?"

"Hot chicks, explosions, and a sassy orangutan sidekick," he replied.

Jack smiled. "Everyone loved Dr. Bananas!" Everyone nodded in agreement—ninjas included—all with fond memories of the monkey.

"But they also had you," Veronica told him, stepping forward. "You lived by the Wasabi code. The's something that Uncle Rudy still lives by."

The karate students put their fists together. "We swear by the light of the dragon's eye..."

"To be loyal, honest, and never say die," Bobby finished and Veronica smiled softly.

"Wasabi."

Jack let out a breath. "Bobby, look... Rudy's far from perfect. But he's more than just a great sensei, he's our friend. And her uncle." Veronica waved with a smile. "Do the right thing and give him his job back."

Veronica jumped when she heard the disco music start to play again and the doors opened to the same man dancing his way into the room. He opened a cabinet and grabbed a bejeweled plunger before dancing away.

"Okay, I gotta ask," Veronica said, raising her hand. "Who is that?"

"I have no idea," Bobby replied. "I'm just glad you can see him, too."

She scratched the back of her neck. "Uh—I think you might want to call the cops on that guy... Just a thought. He's living in your bathroom..."

___________________________

𝐕𝐄𝐑𝐎𝐍𝐈𝐂𝐀 𝐒𝐀𝐓 𝐀𝐓 𝐀 𝐓𝐀𝐁𝐋𝐄 outside of the dojo when she saw her uncle being carried out of Reptile World by Bobby Wasabi bridal-style and she furrowed her brows. Despite her confusion, she clapped with the rest of the group and looked down to see her father's contact appear on her phone.

"Oh, my gosh..." she muttered, accidentally dropping her phone in her haste to pick it up. "Dad? Oh, my gosh, this is the best service you've had in months!" She smiled to herself and walked away from the table. "I've missed you."

Jack had a small smile on his face which didn't go unnoticed by Kim. "Did you have something to do with that?" she asked him and he looked at her.

"I don't know what you're talking about." She frowned and he sighed. "She mentioned that all of her calls have been getting cut off, so I asked Bobby if there was anything he could do."

"And there was?"

"Well, he wasn't sure," he replied with a shrug. "But I guess he could." He looked in the direction that Veronica had gone and smiled softly. "She looked happy, didn't she?"

Kim nodded. "Yeah. She did... You should tell her."

"Tell her what?"

"What you did for her," she said, standing up. "She'd want to know." She shrugged and began walking toward Falafel Phil's. "You could mention the crush while you're at it."

"Jack!" He jumped at his name and saw Veronica walking toward him. "Dad told me what you did..." She hugged him tightly. "Thank you," she mumbled against the crook of his neck.

"Don't mention it," he said, letting go of the embrace. "How was your talk with your dad?"

"It was good," she replied with a smile. "He says hi, by the way. Even if you've never met him before."

Jack chuckled. "Well, I can't wait to meet him one day." He looked behind her. "Do you want to go to Phil's? I'm sure there's something vegetarian that you can eat that isn't falafel."

Veronica smiled. "I'd love to."

___________________________

━ author's note:

in case it was abundantly clear, kim is captaining the ship and she's captaining hard

I love bobby, he's so chaotic but entertaining