Dojo Diaries

By Prenn

Summary: several preteens from differing backgrounds meet for karate lessons. They're all here for varrying reasons, whether it was their decision to come or somebody else's. How will they interact? What will friendships say about social backgrounds, prejudice and presuppositions?

Please review! :D This is a story that's been in the back of my mind for awhile. It's made to answer the question, "What was Cecelia's life like before she met Danny Phantom?" Cecelia, as some people may know, is my Danny Phantom character from my account on fanfiction. She's been in every single one of my danny phantom novels. Of which, there are six. Cecelia also becomes a teacher in my other story published here, called "Sirriama Empowered". So if you like cecelia as much as I do, hopefully you'll check out my fanfiction account, which is named Leonardo Dicaprio.

*Cecelia*

"OOOH MY GOSH!" Cecelia Hazel, thirteen, jumped out of bed. Her very first karate class started TODAY at ten in the morning. She was only in the seventh grade. Hopefully, the karate sensei would approve of her even though she has like, NO experience in the martial arts whatsoever.

Even if that was three hours from now, there was no force in the world that could keep this teen asleep. She was definitely a morning person. Anyone meeting her would have to take note of that. This chick was hyper, too, and she'd never let you forget it.

Cecelia glided into the bathroom where she began her normal wake-up routine of the day. She brushed through her ratty brown hair until it had a healthy, silky shine. It swayed down past her hips. Her goal was always for it to be long and pretty so she'd feel like Rapunzel. The long part she had achieved. But was it pleasing to the eye? Heh, you be the judge.

She had soft cheekbones and pale, full lips which she smothered in either purple or red lipstick. Her amethyst eyes were fixated upon her orange and yellow tie-dye shirt and purple shorts. To sort of match, she selected her stylish orange boots that went up to her mid-thighs to sort of make up for the exposed skin from the short purple shorts.

Cecelia put on some j-pop on her iPod and practiced some dance moves in front of her mirror. Dancing was a great way to keep fit, even if she was terrible at it. It's not like she needed to TRY to keep her figure though. She was 5'3 and 87 pounds, and perfectly happy with being that thin. After all, she'd eaten lots and lots of junk food her whole life and never gone above 90 pounds. One day it would catch up to her.

"Oh no." Cecelia muttered to herself when a particular dance move didn't turn out the way she wanted. Imagining things in her head came much easier than the actual act. Well, perhaps those aren't the best words to use. Cecelia can see things in her head—physical actions, combative styles, techniques—but she can't do them. It's probably because she hasn't got a creative bone in her body. "Wait wait wait." She talked to her iPod as the song she liked was just finishing up. As if the iPod would listen to her and repeat the song!

After "dance" was over, Cecelia noticed there was still a half-hour left on the clock before she had to leave. Cecelia began to tidy up her room. She was a neat child for the most part, but after a month of no cleaning, the room had gotten pretty chaotic.

Cecelia had various shelves and a small cabinet where she used to keep her dolls and clothes. She had gotten rid of all the dolls but one—little Kiki, an American Girl Doll. Kiki sat proudly on one of the shelves.

Cecelia had a Dreamcatcher hanging from the ceiling next to her dark wooden loft bed. Beneath the loft bed was a cute little sitting area. On the opposite wall as the bed was the closet and it was FILLED from side to side with dresses. Cecelia loved fancy dresses, and collected them. Even the ones she had worn back when she was but a tot. She couldn't bear to part with them.

Now, her white wooden dresser, that's where the normal clothes went. Cecelia owned mostly tank tops and short shorts, maybe a pair of sweatpants or jeans were mixed in somewhere. She only owned one skirt, and it was a jean skirt. Above all clothes, Cecelia hated skirts so she almost never wore this one.

Cecelia had various accessories like hats and scarves and stylish jackets made in Paris, France. Cecelia admired the Parisian style best of all. She had a few large clips—after all, she'd need the big ones to hold up all of her hair! And she also had several various berets and…earrings. Don't ever get her started on earrings! She's got four jewelry boxes' full!

Cecelia repositioned the round orange rug on the wooden floor. She straightened up the books on the bookshelf and dusted the top. "Looks pretty good!" She huffed, smiling.

*Alex*

Alex Lukat, fourteen, lived in a small city home. Yes, a redbrick one-story with a moldy basement and lots of telephone wires crowding the small, fenced-in backyard. Alex had two no-good parents and two younger siblings who liked to run around all crazy and an older brother who was a high-school dropout. If it weren't for his family's antics, Alex might have been able to concentrate on his schoolwork like he was supposed to.

Instead he gave up—something he did often—and locked himself in his bedroom where he lived most of his life. He'd get up every day at the crack of dawn and start his workout which included pushups, sit-ups, and about twenty minutes on the punching bag. Then he would relax and play some video games.

Since he was in such good shape, he was hoping to get on some sports teams when he finally got into high school. This year would have been his freshman year, but he didn't pass eighth grade last year.

Alex wanted very badly to be out of his house. The first chance he got, he threw himself into karate so that one day he'd be good enough to walk into Mr. Dayo's dojo and impress the other pupils.

And that day had come. At ten o'clock was when the lesson started, and Alex would begin his walk there by nine-thirty.

*Levi*

Levi Takimo lives in a quiet, Japanese-themed home. He has two very polite parents and a little angel of a baby sister. Their home is larger than average and it is filled with expensive paintings and sculptures. Levi's interest in art and history has piqued over the years, especially last year.

It's very uncommon to meet a thirteen-year-old boy who's into history and museums and coffee. But Levi's one of a kind. He's very quiet. He smiles a lot—probably more often than he should. That is most likely because he didn't grow up watching violent or perverted cartoons like most little boys. Levi grew up with the adult shows that he watched with his parents.

Now that he's older, he's gotten into watching action movies like James Bond and Spiderman. All these things thrown together makes him who he is. Levi also has a secret interest in helicopters. He's into many different things, actually. He's got a hard time deciding what he wants to be when he grows up even if that's still a long ways away.

Right now he's interested in the martial arts, specifically karate. His parents have the money and they approve of his wishes, so why not take a few lessons? It couldn't hurt.

*Nett*

Nett Davis is a tricky child, you see. He's very talkative and considered a pest by pretty much every other child in the seventh grade. Because of this, he's often the butt of lots of cruel jokes in school. Bullies are really starting to get on his nerves. He can't stand them.

So he took initiative. That's right, he signed up for karate lessons. The dojo's only a fifteen minute walk from his house. Nett does everything online nowadays. Technology, sweet technology, that's his big interest.

There is nothing, NOTHING on planet Earth that could stop Nett from following in his father's footsteps and becoming a CEO of a technology corporation. Perhaps maybe then his father would pay attention to him.

With father never around, it's just Nett and his mother in the house. Mother's always on the phone or "too busy" dealing with real estate and managing the multiple hair salons she owns across the state.

If only Nett had some friends, er, some people to pay attention to him. Anyone would do, really. That's why he repeatedly acts like a clown in class. His grades are stellar and he makes sure everybody knows it. Deep down, Nett knows in his heart that he's going to be a great leader. Someday. Hopefully someday soon.

*Bree*

Bree Lackneer lives in a trailer park with her single mom. Bree's lucky to have more than five pairs of socks. Because of her low monetary situation, Bree doesn't believe she'll ever be good for anything besides home-cooking and sewing clothes.

Bree's never been very close to her mother. After Bree's father passed away, she just kind of gave up. Why try to make a relationship out of nothing?

Bree's mother, Tanya, took an interest in her child one day as she was doing the laundry. A neighbor suggested that she get the child involved in something confidence-building and suggested theater or modeling. Tanya didn't like either of these ideas. She had something different in mind. "Bree." Tanya called the eleven-year-old over from the kitchen.

"What?"

"I've signed you up for karate lessons. You've refused to get involved in anything else."

"Mom!" Bree whined.

"I just don't want you to end up old and fat and full of regrets because you never got into anything."

Bree looked down at her waist. It was disappearing, and fast. "I'll never be fat." She stated with a slight undertone of defiance.

OHMYGOSH thank you soooo much for reading! I hope you've fallen in love with the characters ^^ I can tell you honestly that i absolutely love them. Even if you don't like all of them, i'd be interested to know who's your favorite, who you don't like, and why. Please review! There will be more to come! ~Prenn