by Shadou-sama
Chapter 1 - What Do You Mean It Isn't Senior Year?
Disclaimer: I do not own Beyblade.
Author's Note: Don't mind the chapter titles. This is my first story with them, so I kind of went wild.
The sun beat down on the high school building as the teenagers of Hieville walked, wove, and loitered on their way there. Gossip, laughter, and voices rose from the school grounds.
Unnoticed by the throng of teenagers, a figure watched them from a classroom window. He had little interest in them. He was looking for one girl in particular. He spotted her. Perfect.
A black-haired girl and a lime-haired boy, both in the male uniform consisting of black pants and dark crimson zip up jackets with the school crest, walked up the cement walkway.
"Senior year, finally," Shadra sighed.
"That's next year, Chaton," Oliver reminded her.
She nearly fell down. "Next year? You mean we have to endear this torture for two more years?"
"Yep," he said brightly.
Enrique, a blonde and handsome boy, stood a few meters away, talking with a blonde senior girl.
"Friday night, my house? Could get interesting." He wagged his eyebrows.
"Not a chance, loser," she said before strutting off to rejoin her cheerleader friends.
"That was harsh, dude," Rei said as he and his pink-haired girlfriend Mariah (wearing the girl's uniform which had a black plaited skirt and a vest instead of pants and a jacket) joined him. Rei slid his arm around her waist. "Not to good with the finer sex, eh."
"Charity work, Rei. Otherwise, I wouldn't think twice about going out with her."
"Is that so?" Mariah asked, disbelieving. They went to catch up with Shadra and Oliver. "'Cause she's blonde, a senior, a cheerleader, and has big curves."
"That's the thing, they're too big," Enrique explained. Mariah sighed in disbelief.
"Hey guys! Enrique struck out again!" Rei called up to the two ahead.
Shadra and Oliver stopped, waiting for them to catch up. When they did, she replied, "Tell me something new, not ancient history."
"I get plenty of dates, Chaton," Enrique growled.
Shadra gasped. "You told!" she exclaimed, spinning to face the lime haired boy.
Oliver put his hands up in defense. "I did not."
"We knew at final exams," Mariah said.
Shadra growled. She had only allowed Oliver to call her kitten, if he'd keep it secret and said it in French. No one but Oliver knew the language, since no one else paid attention in class.
"I bet everyone's tired of calling you that by now," Rei assured her.
"What?" she exclaimed. "Everyone knows?"
"And about your little crush on Kai," Enrique added.
"What?" she exclaimed even louder, her limbs shaking. She calmed herself down before continuing. "So not only does Kai hate me, but everyone else knows as well? And they know about Oli's nickname? This is the worst senior year ever."
"It's not senior year," Oliver said, exasperated.
"Which class do you guys have?" Rei asked, obviously changing the subject.
Shadra pulled a crumpled schedule out of her pocket while Oliver promptly answered, "2B."
"Same as us," Mariah said happily.
"Me too," Enrique said.
Shadra smoothed out the sheet to read it. "And me makes… uh… five."
At Hieville Collegiate, each grade was divided into classes. Their grade consisted of two. It wasn't like smart, normal, stupid, but a random compatibility of schedules. You'd better pray that you got your friends, or at least people you tolerate, or you'd be miserable for five hours a day for the whole school year.
They had reached the front door, so now they turned to walk to their classroom.
"Hey," Mariah said suddenly. "Did you make your points, Shadra?"
"Two losers in Capital City," she replied, holding up a handheld battle analyzer.
Every beyblader that wanted to blade in the inter-school tournaments had to buy one. They also had to win four points before the start of the season. Everyone started out with two points, to win more you had to win beybattles with other beybladers with battle analyzers. But if the point count ever reached zero, you're out of the running.
While her mother was in recovery, Shadra had dropped by the various Beyblade Centers in town to challenge those beybladers coming and going from the training camps going on. Even if they hadn't had a battle analyzer, she still challenged them because beybattles fun, whether she lost, won or gained points. Which spoke a lot for her record.
"And you guys?" Shadra asked.
"Do you really have to ask us that obvious question?" Enrique asked.
"We did," Mariah said, shooting a small glare at the boy.
"The teams, have they been decided?" Shadra asked, a bit more anxious.
Teams could only have four registered beybladers, plus they had to have a teacher supervisor. Only a few teachers felt it was worth it to organize a team. Last year, Hieville had only five teams (but still better than most schools). The school had twenty some bladers with bit-beasts, Shadra not being one of them. If she didn't get a spot quick, she wouldn't be able to beyblade.
"Almost," Oliver said.
"A lot of wheeling and dealing went on during the summer," Enrique explained.
Shadra cursed under her breath. But only half-heartedly. Her mother would have died without the operation to remove the tumor in her brain. It was unfortunate, but at least her mother was okay.
"I would've invited you onto my team, but well, Kai's on it," Rei said.
"Thanks for being considerate," Shadra said sincerely. Being on the same team as Kai… that wouldn't bold well. For her at least.
"And my team's full," Mariah said.
"Wait, you two can actually separate long enough to compete on other teams?" Shadra asked.
"Yes," Mariah said. "Besides, he wanted to be on Tyson's team, and I wanted to be on Lee's. So we were. Problem solved."
"Robert and Johnny asked me," Enrique said.
"Me too," Oliver added.
"So you're all on teams?"
They nodded.
"Oh, damn, this is going to be harder than I thought," she muttered.
They walked into their classroom. According to their schedules, they had Math first. Shadra despised it, never being able to work through the formulas or even remember them, while Enrique secretly enjoyed it. Mathematics came naturally to him.
The group walked past a scrawny glasses-wearing kid sitting at the desk in the front row. Kenny was bent over a calculation, working it out to its foiled form. A redhead girl entered the classroom and immediately walked up to Kenny.
"How was you summer, Kenny?" Emily asked.
He looked up, while trying not to blush. Emily was talking to him! "F-fine. And yours?"
"It was okay. I hear we have a new math teacher."
"What?" Kenny dug out his schedule. "I was sure that we had—"
"She moved or something," Emily said. "I didn't get the exact details, but I know the new teacher's a guy."
"Mrs. Burkham moved?" a black haired boy asked as he joined the two. Kenny frowned on the inside. "There goes my easy pass," Tyson groaned. It was known throughout the student population that she was like an Art teacher. As long as they tried, or appeared to be trying, they'd get a great mark.
"You might have to actually study this year," Tyson's blonde companion teased.
"I know, but you didn't have to say such horrible news, Max." The blonde just smiled.
Behind them, Zeo, Mariam, Hillary, and Salima were talking.
"Mr. Doral appointed me team captain," Mariam said.
"Really?" Zeo said rather than asked. "You know, we should be on a team together."
"There's four of us," Salima said.
"It could work," Mariam commented.
"It will work," Zeo said enthusiastically.
"Woah, woah, woah, I don't beyblade," Hillary said. "I just cheer."
"But then we won't have enough," Salima said.
"What about that other girl, uh, Sashei?" Hillary asked.
They all looked to the front corner, where a shy purple haired girl sat.
"Does she even blade?" Mariam asked.
"Yeah, and she has enough points I've seen her battle analyzer. And bonus, she has a bit-beast," Hillary said.
"Go ask her," Salima nudged Mariam. Mariam obliged, and walked past Robert and Johnny who had called Enrique and Oliver over for a little team meeting.
"You have Mr. Liam's permission?" Enrique asked.
Robert nodded.
"This afternoon, our team list goes up on the board," Johnny said.
"Cool," the blonde said.
Mariah and Rei had met up with Mariah's new team. They, plus Kevin and Gary (sort of, because he was digging in his lunch bag) were awaiting Lee's answer to where he'd been all summer.
"China," Lee said, and opened his fist to reveal a lotus flower and held it up for Mariah to take. She did, blushing a bit. Rei growled softly, but luckily, no one noticed.
Before Rei and Mariah had gotten together, she had been going out with Lee. Sometimes Rei had his suspicions about him, because a lot of his actions towards Mariah seemed flirtatious and romantic. Lee had better hope he wasn't trying to win her back, or he might have a broken neck courtesy of Rei.
Michael, Steve and Eddy sat somewhere near the back, discussing sports. They already knew that they, along with Emily, would make their team with Ms. Tate as their teacher supervisor. Just like they did every year.
Shadra took her seat at the back, her favorite place in any classroom. Sure, if you were up front you could make it to the door faster, but at the back, the teacher couldn't see any suspicious actions.
She glanced over and noticed that Kai was sitting at the back as well (his favorite place also, it seemed). He looked like he was deep in thought. She could just watch him like that all day. He turned his head towards her, and she hurriedly looked to the front of the classroom, hoping he hadn't noticed she was blushing.
As timing would have it, the bell rang. Everybody who wasn't already in their seats ran to grab a desk and the teacher, accompanied by three boys (a redhead, a lavenderhead, and a blonde) walked in.
The teacher, a tall man with purple hair, strange red tinted glasses and a completely black suit, stopped in front of his desk. The three boys stood straight with their backs to the chalkboard. They reminded her, and many other students, of boot camp soldiers.
"I am Mr. Boris, your new math teacher. And when I enter this room, I want you all to stand until I tell you otherwise."
The students threw glances at their peers. This was… eccentric.
"Have I told you otherwise?"
A few of the quicker thinking teens jumped up, and silently urged their slower friends to rise as well. It took a few minutes, but the students had risen. Except for the rebel Kai. But Mr. Boris took no notice of that.
"These three," he gestured to the army-likes, "Are your new peers. Tala Ivanov," the redhead, "Bryan Serkowsky," the lavender-haired, "and Spencer Fero" the big blonde. "Take your seats, boys."
The rest of the lesson went smoothly, except that anyone talking out of turn was threatened with severe detention and those answering a question were to stand. Also, they had to call him sir. Finally, after what seemed to be an eternity for all of them, except the new guys, the bell rang.
"Bellona, I would like to speak to you privately," Boris said before Shadra could make it out of the room. The others filed out, some giving sympathetic glances with Mariah mouthing 'We'll wait for you', leaving the two alone. He shut the door behind him.
"I've looked in your file from your last math course," he began. "Barely managed to pass last year."
She kept quiet. There was no reason to talk. He knew she was horrible at the subject. It didn't matter. He would've found out soon enough anyway.
"Beybladers on my team seem to get better marks, while others who refuse coincidentally fail."
It took a few moments for the information to sink in. "So you're asking, sir…"
"That you be on my new team, the Demolition Boys."
A sixth team at the school? This could be her chance to compete, but—
"I'm not a boy," she said, referring to the team name. Then with a second's thought, she added, "Sir."
"Yet you wear their uniform," he pointed out.
"I just hate skirts," she blurted out before she could stop herself. She mentally kicked herself. She didn't want detention on the first day, which this teacher so readily handed out. "Sir," she added, for good measure.
"That doesn't matter. What matters is your mark. Say yes and everything will be a lot easier. Say no and…"
"But why do you want me, sir?" Shadra asked. It seemed a little weird. Why not ask Kai or Robert or Michael or Tyson? They were all better bladers than she was and they had bit-beasts.
"You have potential for greatness, you just need the right team. And the Demolition Boys is the right team. In a mere month, you'll be tenfold the Blader you used to be. So what do you say?"
After the whole conversation, she couldn't help but say yes. Otherwise, everything would be a whole lot worse. No math grade, no beyblading. This was better. But she couldn't help thinking that he was bullying her into it.
"Good, practice starts tonight, eight o'clock." He wrote down the address and handed it to her. She automatically folded it and put it in her pocket. "And don't mention this to anyone," he warned.
Outside in the hall, Enrique, Oliver, Kai, and the two lovebirds were walking slowly to their next class waiting for Shadra to catch up. Why Kai was there, none of them knew.
"Poor Chaton, being called to stay by that teacher," Oliver said.
"It's probably nothing big," Rei assured them. "Maybe he just wanted to set her straight at the beginning of the year, instead of at the end when she's already failing."
"I wouldn't count on it," Kai said, surprising them. It always seemed to be a surprise when he spoke.
"Why, Kai?" Rei asked.
He shrugged. "I don't trust him."
Shadra came running up to them. "Thanks for waiting guys," she said, a little out of breath.
"Hey, we did walk as slow as we could," Enrique said.
"So what did he want to speak to you about?" Mariah asked.
She paused for a second, searching for a plausible excuse. "My lousy math grades," she said. That was definitely plausible enough.
"I told you," Rei said, looking at the others.
"Are you okay?" Kai asked, startling her. Kai Hiwatari was asking her how she was? Unbelievable.
"Uh yeah, just a little shook up. He was… um, forceful."
"He didn't…?" Rei asked.
"No, no," she said, shaking her head. "Just very, uh, strict and, uh, threatening about it. I'm fine."
They took her word on it, and continued onto the physics classroom where Ms. Judy Tate would instruct them. They talked about what they expected and how much babying she would give her only son, Max.
They didn't notice how quiet Shadra had gotten. She was too busying thinking about Boris and the Demolition Boys.
To be continued...