Title: Proxy

Author: Ghetto fabulous

Rating: PG

Disclaimer: I don't own Beyblades, it belongs to…somebody but that person isn't me.

Chapter: 1

Perfect Beginnings

"Mommy!"

The little girl watched in horror as the lego building in front of her shattered back into miniature pieces and collapsed onto her 'dead' toy soldier. She ran out of the room, tears rolling like waterfalls, leaving hertwin sisterstanding in front of the mess. She approached the victor, face creasing into a dark smile.

"You know, she's gonna tell on you and you'll be in huge trouble!" She giggled, also exiting the room.

Kai grumbled before standing up and drowsily made his to his bed, plopping himself onto the bouncy surface. It wasn't fair; he'd get grounded again for beating his twin-sisters in but another game with lego blocks and buildings. He couldn't convince his mom otherwise because she would be already positive that it was his fault. She had reason to…it normally was.

Sighing, he reached his arm to the side, touching his desk until his fingers drummed against the familiar, bumpy texture and he grabbed it with his palm. Smirking, he raised the basketball above him in view; glad that it was one of the few things he knew wouldn't leave him in a huge mess. Slipping beneath it, he made sure his fingers and thumbs were in a triangle formation over his head before bending his elbows and pushing them forward. He threw and caught the ball in the same manner repeatedly until the loud knocking on his door distracted him.

Catching the ball, he dropped it beside him and marched over to his door and swung it open. Finding himself face-to-face with his little sister, she grinned evilly. Faster than he could question such a gesture, Christine drew out a squirt gun and pulled the trigger two or three times, drenching Kai's face completely.

Keeping still to see what would be his first reflex, the mischievous little toddler kept a straight face, trying to imitate his completely emotionless one. First breathing slowly, his eyes remained closed, his insides flaring.

"Come here, you little mongoose!"He yelled, chasing her down the stairs.

She screamed and giggled, keeping a fast pace. Finally grabbing hold of her miniscule frame, he wrestled her onto the ground as they broke out into fits of giggles. Finally surrendering to her tickling attack, he rolled over onto the kitchen floor…directly in front of his mother.

"Kai, what the- get off the floor, you're going to be late!" She grabbed his arm and pulled him up.

"Yes ma'am. I suppose you're going to lecture me now?" his mother arched a perfectly curved eyebrow.

"Now what are you rambling about, pack your bag and go to school," She tugged at her sleeved and looked at her watch. "It's time to go!" Kai rolled his eyes, knowing this wasn't exactly rare.

Bidding his mother and twin sisters farewell, he pulled on a large black T-shirt that had "sk8boardz 4 life" sprawled across the front. He hopped down the seven-step staircase, skedaddled onto the front porch and leapt, landing on his skateboard in perfect position. As the wheels rolled forward, he crouched down and slipped on his headset, making sure he was listening to an alternative radio station.

"And don't think I don't know what happened today!" She called out after him but he couldn't hear her.

As the head-banging melody raced through his ears, he was swept away and just barely missed crashing into innocent pedestrians. Bit by bit, a large structure appeared before him. He pumped his fist in the air, realizing he was six minutes and forty-three seconds early. This was the perfect way to begin a Monday morning. Nothing could go wrong.

Approaching the steps, he hopped off his board and flipped it with his foot. He looked from side to side and smiled, knowing that for once, there was no janitor about to close the doors. He had no begging to do today…he was going to make it through without getting into trouble if it was the last thing he did. After all, messing up on the first day back from suspension (for quite literally tossing a certain blondie into the trash bin) would be breaking the promise he made to the principal…and his mum. It surprised him to think he cared but the last thing he needed was a failed grade.

While walking visibly slower in the hallway, he checked through his schedule. Today, his first class was history, right after homeroom. 'Brilliant', he thought 'I have a feeling I won't be able to keep my sanity for long'. He forced a smile and slowly walked into homeroom. The only people in class were Tala and Kenny. Great, the class charmer/backstabber/quick tongue and the know-it-all. If he had made it at the same time as them, he must really be getting somewhere.

The brunette stared (which would be hard to notice since he had no eyes) at Kai skeptically, while cocking his head to the side. Resting his laptop off his lap and onto his desk, he stifled a chortle.

"You, Kai Hiwatari, here now? Will wonders never cease?" Tala snickered.

"You've got a lot of nerve, Hiwatari." Kai shrugged nonchalantly.

"Hey, Tate was asking for it. He was wearing those annoying neon colors and walked by me down the hall. He knows how I feel about neon. He was also wearing that goofy grin. It was tempting." Tala scratched his head.

"Hey, got no problem with that. Max is a complete wuss."

"So now I promised I'd come to school early. It wasn't easy." The red-head's long eyelashes fluttered as he pointed to his shirt.

"I can tell; your T is on inside-out."

Kai averted his view to the backwards message his shirt gave and pulled it off, frustrated. While flipping its sleeves through all the way, the sound of flip-flops tapping at the door stopped him. Shoes never sounded like that.

"I knew it was weird here, but nobody told me that the Japanese teens walked around without a shirt."

The three steered their attention towards the unknown figure standing before them. He obviously wasn't from here. His long, ivory mane was in a ponytail that almost touched the floor. His bangs limply hung over his ying-yang headband that went with the rest of his traditional Chinese outfit. The boy's shoes looked more like slippers and his eyes folded into cat-like slits, with a complexion based on sun-kissed skin. There was only one possible explanation: an exchange student.

That was strange, normally; they never had exchange students without prior information. He didn't even have a knapsack! Maybe it was some sort of mistake. He must have been in the wrong class.

"Um, excuse me," Kenny adjusted the glasses on his forehead. "I think you're in the wrong-"

"Is this room 201?'

"…Yes, it is." Kai blinked, his voice was cool and unaccented.

"And who exactly are you?" The Chinese boy folded his arms across his chest.

"Kon Rei, Rei Kon, however you say it here."

Narrowing his eyes, he found it difficult to escape the fierce garnet gaze radiating from Kai's eyes. His glare was so intense; he could almost feel it emit heat all around them. As for Tala, Rei had never seen such a combination of bright orange-red hair, completed with clear crystal blue eyes, the likes of which you'd never seen. The rest of his face was hidden under the collar of his white vest. And Kenny…he just looked like your typical eyeless computer nerd, sweater vest and all.

For a while, it remained completely silent. Rei began to think he would never find anyone nearly like himself, and also felt really small under the extreme intimidation being made by Kai. Just as he was musing over the rest of the class, the bell sounding struck him out of his thoughts.

Slowly, the classroom was filling up with more and more students yet he was struggling to find a place to sit. The teacher quickly entered the class moments after. Shuffling sheets of paper onto her desk, her eyes ran across the faces of the students to see who was absent or tardy but stopped at the unrecognizable features.

Rei found she looked quite peculiar. Her eyes were dull and narrow and her nose was perked up slightly. She wore a blue suit with a matching skirt that went to her knees and her blond hair stopped just past her shoulders.

"Good morning class." Rei stood still.

"Good morning, Mrs. Doyle!" They all replied after her in a monotone voice. She fixated her glare onto Rei, her maroon orbs not quite successfully piercing through him as Kai's did.

"I see our exchange student arrived a few days early…no matter, let us all greet our new friend, Rei Kon with a warm, Japanese welcome and make him feel like a special addition to the class!" Various greetings were chanted around the room.

"Now, Rei here has come all the way from his home in the mountains of China to be with us so I suggest you give him no trouble. Rei, you may take a spot in the empty desk near Tala." She motioned with her hand towards the space between Tala and another student.

"Since it is his first day here, perhaps one of you should show him around the school and get him acquainted with other classmates?"

Nearly the entire class had raised their arm, some waving it around impatiently but Kai had kept it down, he wanted nothing to do with the neko-jin and as much as he had promised he would do better in school, sucking up and asking for burdens wasn't the way he had intended to do so. Holding her chin with her fingers as if to look thoughtful, she made her decision.

"Kai. You haven't participated in much lately; this will be the perfect opportunity to socialize and make a new friend." A few students chuckled. "What do you say?"

"Sure..." Came his grumbled response. Normally, Doyle would chastise him for such an unenthusiastic reply but she was hoping on making a good impression on Rei.

"Wonderful!" She clasped her hands together, fingers intertwined. "When the bell rings you will show our new friend here to his locker, his classes and the washrooms. Agreed?"

"Whatever…" Mrs. Doyle was running out of tolerance, so she decided to move on to today's schedule.

"It is now 8:45, so you may all make your way to your Monday classes. Rei, I have your sheet right here."

Everyone moved out of their desks, grabbed whatever they needed and headed for the door. The obvious friends were paired or in groups, Kai usually with Tala and Kenny, but now he had to show the new Chinese boy everything everywhere and had a day to do so. This was going to be chaos.

Grabbing the piece of paper, he looked at Rei who was apparently waiting for him and then back at the mini-calendar that indicated that they both had a few classes together, history being one of them.

"Okay…" Kai tried his hardest to be almost…sort of…kind of…partially nice. "So, um, follow me and I'll, er, show you were your first class is." The neko-jin stood up and accompanied him out the door, caught in undertow.

They marched down the hallway in utter silence, Kai being anxious to get it over with and Rei curious to figure out when they would reach anything.

"And…the first washroom is right beside biology where-"

"If it really makes you that uncomfortable, you could stop talking altogether…I can clearly see the restroom with my own eyes."

"You have no idea…"

"And just incase you were wondering, you are making yourself look stupid."

"Just shut up, okay?"

Okay, promise or no promise, this kid was getting on his nerves and if this kept going on, he'd have more than a missed class to worry about.

Rei let his eyes travel to the ceiling. Everything here was so advanced…so convenient. Half the time back at his old school he had to think over problems like whether or not the roof would fall in, or they would receive new, up-to-date books and even mountain lions. People from his village would rely on the older, wiser children to help out with things people here would get hired to do and the elders would expect tasks from them to gain a good reputation. Right now, he was caught thinking about how difficult his departure was, and even worse...how he had to tell everyone he was accepted into a high school in Japan. That there was probably considered a little kid's dream, and to teens of his age…an honor. It wasn't easy to find someone who appreciated things like that here, especially when there were punks like Kai keeping him company. He hated punks.

"Anyways…your locker is right here and here's your combo." Kai's deep voice distracted him from his thoughts. He yanked the tiny slip of paper out of his hand and twisted and turned the dial to match his combination. Once it clicked open, he shoved his books inside and waited for Kai to be done with his own.

"Okay, now take out your history things so we can spend the rest of our seven minutes getting to class." At least he could tell the time. His voice switched from bored teacher to bored student. Rei shot him a sideways glance and noticed Kai was putting no enthusiasm whatsoever in his speech. He was more occupied fiddling with his necklace.

They continued their little adventure down the hall, both no longer looking forward to the rest of today, in complete silence. It didn't bother Kai at all that his instructions were boring his so-called companion to death, anything that could give him the right to say he did nothing wrong was enough.

"So our class is in room 306, which is upstairs. If you could just- Rei? Rei?"

The slate-haired gazed teen out into the distance and watched Rei stalk away, fists clenched. They had seven whole minutes and he was being a waste of time. They were even going the wrong way!

Kai shrugged and slipped his hands into his pockets. It wasn't his fault that Rei ran away…he could just explain that to the teacher with hope of no suspension. Then again, she would probably go ahead and think he shoved him into a locker somewhere. Finding him wouldn't be too hard either, his costume stuck out like a sore thumb.

Approaching the staircase, something caught his eye. Something he didn't like. Neon.

Rei 'hmphed', standing there listening to him was the last thing he felt like doing. He made his way to the other end of the hall, and then frowned, noticing he was going the wrong way after all.

Kai surely wasn't making much of an impression towards him. He hoped there wouldn't be any more people like him around and that he would make at least one normal friend. Turning his back and taking the other way to the staircase, he twisted on his heels, ponytail swinging. All the way, people were eying him the way Kai did. Not a 'who is he?' glance, but more of a 'what the hell is he doing here?' glance. He hated. In fact, there were a lot of things he was beginning to hate around here. More than in China.

Now in another hall, a group of students gathered around a potential scene that was blocked from his view. That spiking his curiosity, he took a quicker pace and fiddled his way through the crowd. He couldn't believe his eyes.

"P-please don't hurt me!" The smaller, blonde boy pleaded, his large blue eyes coated in fear. Kai just smirked, holding his collar up higher.

"What did I tell you about that shirt, Maxie?" Max was shuddering from head to toe.

"I-I don't know!" Kai's grip tightening forced him to change answers. "Not to wear it?"

"Exactly." His voice was dripping in venom. And trust Max, his bite was for worse than his bark. And no, that wasn't an incorrect saying. "Now get out of my sight before history repeats itself, I'm in a very bad mood today."

Rei was appalled. Never in his life had he seen such a sad turn of events. No one was even willing to help the poor boy. Some were even smiling and laughing! Was this some sort of trend? If it was, it was disgusting. As Kai raised his fist and approached Max's face, Rei's eyes widened and he decided he couldn't watch anymore.

"Stop! What are you doing!" Rei ran to the the boy's aid, the narrowing of his eyes showing he didn't look happy. However, it did make him look very feline. "This is terrible!" He faced the crowd. "How could you just watch like that? This isn't entertainment! This is bullying!"

Kai dropped Max and glared at Rei. Shrugging, he walked away, acting like nothing happened. This angered Rei even more.

"Hey? Where do you think you're going?" Moments after, they all left the same way Kai did, leaving Max and Rei alone.

"Aw, come on, show's over. Let's leave Maxie here to this mama's boy."

Rei ignored their comments and turned to the shaken freshman. Every time Rei approached, he flinched, this giving him a feeling that this wasn't a first-time thing. Crouching over and helping him up, Rei smiled sweetly, hoping it would help Max get over it. He smiled back, feeling relieved.

"Thank you so much!"

"Anytime…Max is it?" He nodded; his mop of yellow bouncing up and down. "And I'm Rei."

"Hey, Rei! Anyways, I have to go. Is it your first day here too?"

"Yup, but that's because I'm an exchange student. Tell me, does Kai do this often?" Max's eyes traveled down to the floor.

"At least twice a week…" Rei narrowed his eyes, crossing his arms.

"I guess I'm gonna have to have a word with him."

"Good luck!" Max waved and hopped back down the hall.

Rei shook his head, Max seemed to be pretty hyper for a kid his age. One thing at a time. After class, he was going to discuss this with Kai. Things like this weren't supposed to happen, not while he was around. For now, he had to survive history.

School that day was boring enough. Other than his occasional encounters with a certain student, Kai was doing well for someone who just came back from suspension. Since they didn't share their last classes together, Kai was instructed to go find Rei waiting for him in front of his class once he was dismissed. Then he had to show him where the pickups were made. Well…things didn't go exactly as planned. As a matter of fact, they didn't go at all as planned.

As Kai was strolling through the halls, expecting to find the neko-jin standing in front of the door to class 203, he found himself touring the school at least twice with no luck. He figured perhaps he had found his way on his own. He had no problem with that, Rei wasn't a baby.

Putting everything into his backpack, he took his time walking home. It was raining outside. Kai hadn't taken an umbrella; his house wasn't that far from home. His hands still in his pockets, he focused his stare (or glare, for him there really was no difference) to the grey sky, dark clouds rolling above. The only sound he could hear were those the wheels of the cars made once they splashed in the puddles. It hadn't even once crossed his mind how quickly it had switched from benign to wet weather in such a short amount of time. When he had left, it was so bright outside and now it looked like someone up there really hated him.

Kai was too tired to take out his skateboard. Yet now, it all of a sudden looked like he was the only one on the street and it was beginning to get cold, not to mention himself being drenched all over. Once his home came up in view, he sprinted to the front steps and rang the doorbell, stomping his feet. His mom opened the door, concern washed all over her face.

"Oh, Kai, look at you! You're soaked! Are you going to be okay?" She hugged him close but when he shook his head he got water all over her, forcing her to pull back.

"No, I'm fine, I just want to-" He sneezed. "Get some rest." His sisters jumped up and down.

"Are you alright, Kai?" Christine asked.

"Yeah, are you alright?" Her twin, Monica, repeated after her. He nodded but they found that hard to believe since he sneezed right after.

Kai grabbed his coat and hung it over his shoulders, after pushing his mom away.

"Am I missing something?"

Kai's ears twitched at the unknown voice coming from the top of the staircase. There, in his home, was none other than the neko-jin that had caused him all that trouble earlier that day. Rei…who was yawning and rubbing his eyes…and wearing Kai's PJs.

To Be Continued...