To Mai Surprise

Disclaimer: I do not own The Nine Lives of Chloe King, nor do I profit from any of my stories.

Prologue: Two years ago…

The crowded halls seemed to laugh at my struggle. Every push and shove was no use; I was never going to make it to class on time. With a sigh, I waited in vain for the sea of people to disperse before attempting again to make my way through the main hallway. It was only my third day of high school, and so far I had managed to be late to every single class. I can't handle crowds, not since last February. Too much noise, I just didn't want to deal with it.

I could hear every whisper, every sigh, and every single rude comment the jocko club made. I haven't gotten used to my hypersensitive hearing. I don't know if I ever will. Everyone says I will, but my transformation was six months ago and I haven't gotten the voices out of my head. The halls were as crowded as ever, but I didn't need to block out the sound anymore. Every voice was quiet, no one moved, even the jocks were silent. Confused, I looked around.

Honey brown hair fell across his face, almost covering his eyes. He looked up from the half sheet of paper he was holding, his eyes met mine. He looked at me for a split second, and then smirked. The voices came back just as suddenly as they had disappeared. Girls gasping in delight and jocks muttering about "competition" but the one voice that I heard the clearest was attached to those chocolate brown eyes.

His voice surprised me with a thick British accent, and a certain superior tone. "Which one of you is going to help me find my classes?"

Chapter 1:

"Why do I have to wear all black? I'm going across town to Amy's house, not planning a heist!" I complained loudly to my cousin Jasmine. She shot me an apathetic glance, and then shrugged. "Are you coming with, or are you just going to stay here?"

Jasmine thought it over for a second, then shook her head. "Amy is cool, but her 'plus-one' gets on my nerves" she said with a laugh. She liked Paul, but ever since he found out about the Mai it has been question after question. Jasmine humored him, but only sometimes. Paul had long since grilled me on the full extent of my knowledge, but Jasmine had been studying our culture and history her entire life.

With a quick text to Aunt Val to let her know where I was going, I left the building. Walking down the street, I dipped into the alley behind our apartment building. A well-practiced jump was all it took to launch myself into the neighboring tree, another to land on the roof of the coffee shop next door.

I paused to survey my surroundings, and then took off. The trip to Amy's house took me only six minutes by rooftop, though the route is a good fifteen minutes if you drive there. As I neared her house, I smiled. Amy had her headphones on, but I could still hear her singing along. She only sang when she thought no one was listening, so that means that Paul must not be there yet.

I jumped off her neighbor's roof and walked up to the front door. Ringing the doorbell, I heard excited footsteps thundering down the stairs. I hadn't even walked into the house yet when Amy exploded.

"Did you get my text? We need to talk! I don't know what to do! Should I say yes? Or is it too weird?" I always wonder if she remembers to breathe. I push past her into the house, and then make up way upstairs to her room. She had texted me earlier telling me to come over because "something urgent" came up. We sat on her bed as she started talking again.

"Paul asked me on a date! A real date! Paul! Mr. Comic-Book-Nerd! Should I go? Does he like me? Does he know that I like him?" A sudden thought dawns on her. "How does he know I like him? Did you tell him? If you did, I'm going to kill you!" she said with a glare.

I burst out laughing. Amy opened her mouth to keep talking but I silenced her with a loud shhhh. "Yes you should go, yes he likes you, no he doesn't know you like him back, so no I didn't tell him that you like him!" She shot me another accusatory glare. "What? He asked me if it would be a good idea to ask you out!"

"When was this? Why didn't you tell me?" Her anger was replaced with surprise and curiosity.

"Oh last week sometime, I didn't want to tell you just in case he chickened out and didn't ask you," I said as Amy grabbed her phone and called Paul. She told him when she wanted to go on the date, where she wanted to go, what time to meet her there, and that he was paying. Paul was speechless for a second but quickly recovered to agree to meet Amy at 8 on Saturday, at Ground Zero, the best "under-21" club in the area.

Amy was plenty excited; she would have talked about it all night, so I distracted her with a more urgent upcoming event. The first day of school was coming tomorrow morning, and she hadn't picked out the perfect outfit yet. Her search through her closet lasted an hour, by the time she was satisfied I was asleep on my feet. I practically crawled into Amy's bed; thankfully "the dads" had blessed her with a nice queen sized bed.

It took me two alarms, three people yelling, and fifteen minutes to wake her up. Amy sleeps like the dead. When we finally got out the door, we were already late for school. Amy drove us both to school a good 10mph over the speed limit, but I still walked into math five minutes late.

After an hour of listening to the teacher talk about every single little detail in his syllabus, the bell finally rang. I walked towards the stairwell where I had agreed to meet Amy, and she started talking about Paul again. He was in her first period class apparently. The two had spent the past hour passing notes back and forth.

"He said that we are going to go out to dinner! You remember that new Italian restaurant, Grazie? Well Paul said—" Amy's chatter stopped when she heard the tell-tale sound of a basketball hitting the floor. She glanced behind her, and then said, "Look perky. London calling at 10 o'clock."

"Okay, that's your crazy obsession, not mine" I replied. "Did you tell him you like him?" Alek threw the basketball against the wall, a few inches from my head. Smack! "Because you need to tell him!" Smack! "He deserves to know that—"Alek threw the ball again, but this time I caught it before it hit the wall.

I took a step forward. "Hey jocko, do you mind? People are trying to have a conversation here. Go play 'Look-at-me!' somewhere else." I threw the ball down the hallway. It landed in a trashcan about thirty feet away.

I gasped as Amy's jaw dropped. "You did not just do that!"

"I think I did." I grabbed Amy's hand and said, "let's go." Amy sent me a accusing look as I tried to pull her down the hallway. "Amy, come on!"

Just then the bell rang, and I rushed to class. Shit, shit, shit. Why did I do that? Aunt Valentina is going to kill me! For the past two and a half years, I have been trying to blend in. I don't do sports, I don't join clubs, and I hang out with "Crazy Amy" and "Comic Book Paul" for crying out loud! If anyone finds out about my suspiciously above average speed, coordination, and strength, I am in so much trouble! Amy and Paul already know about the Mai, but that is only because they were there when I first started to transform in the 8th grade.

My phone made an almost inaudible beep! that would be impossible for human ears to pick up. I quickly glanced to my phone, only to find a text from Amy. "Damn girl! Way to show off for Petrov!" I sighed inwardly; just because Alek was fantastic eye-candy didn't mean he would ever notice me. Not that I wanted him to, no. That would be bad. I could deal with my little crush on him, but only from afar. He was off-limits. Not because he is the single most popular guy in the entire school, not because he would never talk to me, but for a much more simple reason. He was human. I am Mai. Mai and humans do not mix, cannot mix, and will never mix.

Alek is such a player; he has a new girlfriend every other week. I don't want to get to close to him or his friends. Alek might try to kiss me. And, no matter how delicious his lips look, I can never, ever, kiss him. It's a curse. Literally. A kiss from a Mai is deadly for a human. If Alek kisses me it will cause his death, within a day if not immediately.

I text Amy back, "Yeah, I wish. But, some girls can only dream."

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