A/N: This is an story in which I introduce an original character of mine. This story is a sequel to Kiss me Thru the Phone. Stuff might get really crazy, lol.
Crazy Red Head Adventures Part I
While the team members of CoreTech were strolling through a thick forest foliage on their way to a nearby town, Jinja felt vibration in her pants pocket and went to fish out her phone that had just received a text message.
4.19 pm
[text] heads up, folks! 😨
Jinja frowned slightly as she re-read the text from Abby. Heads up? She glanced around, checking for any signs of S.T.O.R.M. troops, Eklipse, or Dark Spin members. When she failed to spot see any immediate threats, she frowned even more. What the heck was Abby up to now? A prank? Well, Jinja couldn't exactly see the fun part of this joke. Maybe it was just an auto-correct mistake or something. Jinja proceed to shrug it off and continued to walk alongside her friends when a faint sound from above could be heard. Jinja glanced upwards but couldn't see anything other than a black dot in the air that was hidden away by branches and trees of the forest. She squinted her eyes and noticed a strange thing. The dot was growing bigger. And as it grew, she could spot the figure growing arms and legs and – oh, crag.
"Incoming!" Jinja yelled and went to hide behind a tree. Her companions turned around, now alarmed and with their cores in the hands; ready to be launched.
"Dark Spin again?" Chase asked, his ears straining to catch Medea's tell-tale hysterical laughter. However, all he could hear was a…female scream getting closer?
"Not this time," Jinja dismissed from her hiding spot. She pointed towards the sky with a slight smile. "Seems like Abby found us."
"Abby?" Chase and Bren replied in union. They spared each other a surprised look before joining Jinja behind the tree. Dax and Beyal had no time to be confused at the situation or even ask what they were all doing, when the snapping of thin branches sounded high in the air above them. Everybody turned to glare at a person who was now hanging awkwardly from a tree, their parachute caught within a maze of twigs. Upon further inspection, the person was wearing a full body suit and helmet. The person took off said helmet and revealed wild red hair and bright green eyes. Jinja came out from her hiding spot with a large grin.
"Abby! It is you!" she exclaimed happily and the rest emerged from behind their hiding place.
"Suno! Jin! Bren-Bren!" Abby squealed loudly. She attempted to hug them from her position off the ground, but failed miserably.
"Abby," Chase and Bren both chuckled, simultaneously at the sight of their old friend and at her current antics. Dax and Beyal withdrew from their defensive stances at the revelation that this person was seemingly friendly, given their comrades positive reactions. Dax scratched his head.
"You're one crazy sheila," he said as he retreated Bioblaze' core. Alerted to his presence, Abby spared Dax a quick look before pointing a gloved finger at him rather immaturely.
"Oh, you're that one hot guy Jin told me about on the phone! Dax, was it? Then where's-!" she frantically searched for a particular boy when the fabric of her parachute ripped, gravity kicked in and she fell through the air. She didn't feel any pain when she hit the ground; rather she found herself in the embrace of a young monk with a nice pair of eyes. The remains of her parachute fluttering away to wherever the wind took it.
"Are you alright?" he kindly asked. "You seemed like you had fallen quite a bit from up there."
Abby blinked a few seconds to regain sense of the situation before a mischievous smirk worked its way up her face. She wrapped her arms around his neck. "Baby, falling won't be any problem as long as you're there to catch me," she winked knowingly.
"Uh…" the monk turned red in an instant. "I beg your pardon?"
"Alright, Casanova, that's enough," Jinja said as she interrupted Abby's dreamy daze. She dragged her friend away from Beyal regardless of Abby's protests and whining. "And tell us what the heck just happened."
Abby gave up on trying to weasel her way back to the monk's arms and proceeded to pout. "Jeez, you sure know how to make a girl feel welcome. And about that," she shrugged in her large suit.
"It gets boring with only the occasional phone call and text messages. I wanted to see you guys face to face, since well, I missed you all a lot," Abby gave a genuine smile which was returned by her friends. She turned a little to send Beyal a wink. "And a lot of other things among that."
"So what; you decided to fall down the bleezing sky?" Dax asked amusingly with his arms crossed.
"Hey, I did tell you folks to look out. And mind you; that was a free parachute jump, buddy," Abby said, puffing out her chest proudly. "Didn't cost me nothing but a free adrenaline rush and some time away from my nagging siblings."
"Who takes care of the twins now?"
"My cousin's family, of course. They wanted me to give you a holler from the Connacht family and tell you to visit them soon," Abby replied. She immediately turned and made grabby hands at Bren. "Bren-Bren, come here and give ol' Abby a hug!"
He was soon pulled into a tight hug followed by a nookie. "You mean the ones that usually leave me with no oxygen left in my lungs? Uh, no thanks."
"And here I thought it was something other than my hugs that left you breathless," the red head smirked unabashedly at her bad joke.
"Haha. Very funny."
Since Abby's team of parachute-jumpers would pick her up the morning next day, she decided to join Team CoreTech as they entered a new city. They spent hours talking about old days, when the subject came to their middle school days where they hit puberty.
"Remember when Bren-Bren's voice started to change?" Jinja taunted as the group shared a laugh, the imagery alone able to bring a chuckle out of Beyal and a wide smirk out of Dax. Bren huffed, his face turning red with embarrassment.
"It wasn't that funny!"
"Remember that time you couldn't talk straight for more than two seconds before your voice turned so high-pitched that even the old Ms. Harrington was rolling on the floor?"
Bren turned to glare at Abby with wide eyes. He pointed at her. "You promised neither of you'd mention it to anyone!"
Abby paled in realization. She stopped laughing. "Oh shit, you're right."
"If that's so, then hear what happened to Abby when she tried to confess to her crush back in seventh grade! She-!" Bren was never able to finish the sentence since Abby decided to jump on his back and clasp both hands on his mouth to muffle all sounds of protests. She let out a string of nervous giggles before spotting something.
"Oh, look!" she said and pointed. "We're here! Last one at the first café we see is buying lunch!"
The group had settled down at a nice little café in the comfortable warmth of the noon sun. During lunch, Abby suffered quite the barrage of questions regarding school, family and the like, most of which naturally came from Bren, Chase and Jinja. After they've had their fill to eat, the group decided to split up based on whatever recreational activity they wished to attend the following afternoon. Chase and Bren wanted to see the famous chains of restaurants around town, Dax and Beyal wanted to visit the nearby nature reserve and Jinja was keen to go visit to the massive mall with its countless stores, hoping to bring Abby with her for some quality time bonding. However, it appeared that she had some plans of her own.
"Unfortunately for you, I'm going with the smoking hot monk," Abby said, with a wink. Jinja huffed her auburn bangs away in annoyance. "You can't mean that."
"Sure thing! We'll be back by evening and then I'm all yours! We'll have lots of time to catch up at night."
Jinja was unimpressed. "Oh, and what; you'll glue yourself to Beyal in the meanwhile?"
"I prefer the term; 'researching on close hold'," Abby retorted, casually flicked her braids away and wiggled her brow. "I might as well research the anatomy of his ass while I'm at it."
Jinja scoffed. "You're unbelievable. Besides, it doesn't seem like you'll be getting what you want since Dax and Beyal are already going together," she pointed at the two boys who were chatting at the corner. Abby saw this but didn't seem fazed. She gave a light shrug.
"I'll fix that. Easy. Just watch," she waltzed away confidently and threw a look at Jinja from over her shoulder. "and learn, Jin."
Abby dragged Dax away from Beyal's side by tugging impatiently on his coat, sending the monk an apologetic wink before further dragging Dax away.
"Oi, what's the big idea?" he said with a slight scowl.
Abby clasped her hands behind her back and smiled lightly. "D'you mind taking my place at the mall with Jin?"
Dax raised a brow, confused. "Why? Thought you two were gonna go together."
"Well, yeah, I was," Abby pondered and lightly tapped her chin with a finger. She glanced behind the Lowlander to find the monk and giggled. "but some stuff came up and I thought you'd fair better tagging along with Jin than me. How come you two aren't officially together yet?"
Dax seemed a little taken back by the sudden question but shrugged nevertheless. "Beats me. I kissed her the other day and she was all gone up here," he gestured to his head with a slight grin at the memory. "Then the next day, she acts completely normal like nothing'd happened. Eh. Girl logic," he shrugged. "Gave up on trying to understand you guys ages ago."
Abby blinked a few times and tapped her chin yet again. "Scratch that; you definitely need the time with her more than I do." She went to snake an arm around the boy's neck and looked him in the eyes. "C'mon, just imagine it. A fun time at the mall; with whom could it possibly be better than with the girl of your dreams?"
"And think about the teasing she'll get when I tell you all about her funniest childhood moments. I mean, you love teasing her, don't you?" Abby asked amusingly, knowing she was moving onto dangerous territory. She really needed Dax to take the bait, though. He gave her a perplexed look, as if hesitant about the proposal.
"Are you sure you're supposed to be telling me this?" he asked. Abby shrugged.
"Hey, Bren-Bren wouldn't even have a clue about what happened with my crush three years ago if Jin hadn't squealed to him and Suno. I'm just doing this to even out the scores," she replied calmly and held out a hand to seal the deal. "Are you in?"
He shook her hand with little to no hesitation, a curious smirk on his face. "Got the hots for Monkfish, haven't ya?"
Abby felt the heat in her cheeks despite the fearless grin she put on. "You don't know the half of it," she said. She gestured to Jinja who was waiting on the other side. "You better woe her off her feet, buster. Text me if you need me," the red head fist-bumped him as she walked past him on her way to Beyal. He glanced up from his meditation position on the ground with one eye open in hopes of seeing Dax. However, both eyes cracked open at the sight of the girl before him. Abby didn't think her mouth could stretch any wider with the smile she was wearing.
"Wanna go to the zoo with me?"
Before he could even ask where his previous companion had gone, his hand was taken in another's as he was dragged away, Abby's ringing laughter sounding as the sound of Jinja's unsuspecting shout of anger.
"Dax decided to accompany Jinja instead?" Beyal asked softly. He was walking next to Abigail among the many tourists who were mingling in the midst of the wild jungle of the nature reserve. "That seems rather sudden."
"Yeah, the two of them were sort of working something out. Relationship stuff," she waved dismissively with her hand, not to fazed by the situation herself. She had faith in Jinja. Abby turned to glance expectantly at him. "Are you disappointed?"
Beyal shook his head. "No, not at all. I-" he was cut off by the red head grabbing his upper arm and leaning against his shoulder affectionately. Despite the slight height difference, Abby didn't seem to mind.
"The view is not so bad from this angle either, good-looking," she giggled, amused by his dumb-struck expression. They only had a few hours together before the inevitable trip back to the group and Abby wished to make the most of every second. They began to wander about the reserve, gazing upon the animals and saw various types of exotic birds, felines, monkeys, rhinos and elephants, mammals as well as reptiles and lots of other animals, some of which they had never seen before. During their outing, Dax had sent her a text message, allegedly in need of blackmail material. Abby had willingly provided him with some, though, she made sure she didn't go overboard. The last thing she needed was the wrath of an angry Jinja when they came back. The two of them ended up taking multiple photos with Abby's camera, most of them comprised of the animals with the occasional silly photo thrown in of themselves as well.
"C'mon, handsome; show me a face that can crack me up!" Abby said, holding her camera in place before Beyal. He glanced downwards for a second, seemingly deep in thought.
"Very well," he replied after a while. He smashed his palms against both his cheeks, lips puckered and eyebrows furrowed together tightly. Abby managed to snap two photos of his silly pose before bursting out laughing on the ground, her hands clenching her sides. A few tourists looked their way in surprise.
Beyal knelt down and titled his head with a grin of his own. "Did I perform well?"
"Well? I've never seen a face like it!" she giggled faintly and wiped her eyes. It seemed that there was more to Beyal than his naive appearance let others to believe. Abby liked surprises. After a few seconds of recovery, she placed a finger on her chin, her head titled. "But I have to admit that you have some damn kissable lips there."
Beyal's face reddened considerably at the compliment and he was able to utter a weak thanks. After they had taken a decent amount of photos, the two of them ordered some ice cream and sat on a bench where a large oak tree provided a cool resting place. They sat next to each other in silence, watching people walk by as time went.
"So, Beyal, what kinds of girls do you have dreams about?"
Beyal instinctively clenched the waffle cone of his treat so hard that it cracked between his fingers. The ice cream fell off and landed on him, staining his white shirt with pink strawberry droplets. Both gasped out loud and stood up in panic, a sigh escaping Beyal's lips at the sight of his ruined shirt.
"Oh God, Beyal, I'm so sorry!" the red head panicked and grabbed a couple of tissues to help clean the shirt. Beyal graciously took them, mumbled something about the toilet and then disappeared into the men's booth. Abby sighed and collapsed back onto the bench, her face hidden behind her fingers in embarrassment. After a couple of seconds of lamenting, she fished out her phone, dialing a phone number lightning quick and held the phone to her ear, a finger brushing back her bangs.
"Traitor," was what greeted her ears the second Jinja picked up, and honestly, Abby could live with that. She smiled wryly, already feeling a little better.
"I assume you and Daxie are having an awesome time? No need to thank me, sis, it's what I'm here for."
"You told Dax about my braces when I was eleven? Or the time I accidentally went inside the boys' gym lockers when I was fourteen? How could you! He's been teasing me all day about what I'd seen!"
Abby had to hold back a chuckle. "Teasing? Sounds to me like he's jealous," Abby leaned back on the wooden bench. "I mean, I kind of am too, now that you mention it. What did you see that time, huh?"
"I saw nothing and I didn't want to either! You already know that!"
"I do, but can you blame me for hoping?"
"You mark my words, Abigail Parker; I'm gonna get you for this." Abby knew she would and she really wasn't looking forward to it. Jinja was certainly vengeful, with an extra side of petty. "So, why'd you call? Trouble in paradise?"
"Sorta," Abby said. She sighed dreamily. "Crag, Jin, we had a great time! And I wasn't even staring at his ass half the the time!"
"So, what happened?" Oh, boy. Abby bit her lip and braced herself for the impact.
"I kind of asked him what kind of girls he dreamt of…not good, huh?"
"…you really are unbelievable."
Thinking she had no reason to fear Jinja's scolding this time around, Abby perked up with a surprised; "I am?"
"Of course you are! Are you trying to scare him away because it seems that way to me! Who asks another person those type of things!"
"I do! Apparently…" the red head deflated a little but shook her head to rid herself of the negativity. "It wasn't my fault, though! It'd been circling around inside my head for days, we weren't talking and it was so damn quiet-"
"So, you just had to drop a bomb on him."
"It slipped out! And the guy took it pretty well, too…I think. I mean, he spilled ice cream all over his shirt when I asked him…but at least he didn't run? That's always something, right?" Abby was starting to feel like she should be more concerned at this very moment.
"You're just lucky that Beyal's the one in the group with the highest level of tolerance."
"Hey, at least I didn't ask him if he's good with his hands. Could you imagine that?"
"…I'm starting to think I got the better deal when you stuck me to Dax and I honestly don't know how to respond to that."
Abby pouted in response to this, absentmindedly playing with her braids as well. "You're no fun, Jin. You're supposed to console me and say that there could be worse things than a slip-up of this particular manner, right? Right-"
All sentences evaporated from Abby's mind when her eyes caught sight of the monk who had seemingly appeared before her while she had been immersed in the conversation. He was holding his wet albeit clean white shirt on one arm, his other holding his monk robe, which left his upper body bare for the world to see. In Abby's case, to stare. And drool. Though while his chest wasn't quite as broad as Chase' or Dax', his was still well-toned and defined by several years of training in the mountains. Her bright green eyes lingered from his collarbone all the way down to the small abs that was starting to form on his abdomen.
"I managed to clean it. Now I'll just require a sanitary spot for it to dry."
Abby snapped out of her dreamy state and hurried to stand in a rush. "I'll help you look. It's the least I can do."
Beyal nodded in gratitude with a smile and turned around to begin his search, leaving Abigail to stare at his backside, unbeknownst to him. She only realized seconds later that she in fact, hadn't ended the call with Jinja yet and that said friend was yelling at her through the phone.
"Why did you suddenly ignore me?" she asked, huffing heavily.
"Help me, help me, help me, help me, help me, help me!" Abby whispered frantically, voice turned away from Beyal's attuned hearing.
"What? What is it now?"
"Jesus Christ; the guy is half naked in front of me!" Abby replied and inhaled air sharply. "Whatever Monsuno Lord up there is testing me, and I am not a fan."
Faint protests could be heard in the background and a thick Australian voice caught through on the other side.
"Sorry, but Princess is busy right now, Red. Gotta handle this on your own."
Abby stared at her phone in surprise, and felt a strange sort of pride spread within her. Jinja had better procure herself some of that. She turned off her phone and suddenly became aware of her camera dangling in a strap around her neck. She took it between her fingers and grinned behind a hand.
Whoever's testing me up there, I owe you one.
