Hi. I just got inspiration for this story. I hope it's more original than it sounds. Sorry if this chapter's a bit short.

Disclaimer: Not that anyone ever bothers reading this but for those future, current, or retired lawyers among us: I do not own Beyblade and this disclaimer will not show up in any other chapters.

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Chapter 1: First Impressions

"Okay class. We have a new student today. This is Casey and she recently moved here from the USA."

"Kai," Tala hissed.

"What?" he growled back. Honestly, he had much better things to do than listen to some old hag preach about the American Revolution. Why did they teach them this crap anyways? They don't live in America for god's sake.

"Look." With a curt grunt Kai followed Tala's index finger to the front of the classroom. There stood a short girl (about 5' 1") with shoulder-length dark brown hair and piercing green eyes. She wore a yin yang necklace, loose blue-jeans, worn tennis shoes, and an extremely baggy black t-shirt. Not a spot of makeup dotted her face and she glanced about with a calculating gaze.

The only response he gave was a short smirk but that was more than enough. Kai reacting at all was a miracle. He could see now why Tala was so smug. There weren't many girls in the school who would wear something so…. Well, you get the idea. She wasn't exactly the prettiest girl either. The point was, she stuck out like a sore thumb.

Then her gaze finally rested on the pair. Tala's smirk deepened but she just studied them for a moment before moving on. The smirk turned to a scowl. Tala didn't like being ignored. He ran the show and if someone was ignorant of that fact, they would soon be taught.

"Who's she?" Kai asked disinterestedly.

Tala nearly face-faulted. Nearly. People with their reputation didn't do such things. "Where have you been for the last few minutes? No, the last few days? Did you not hear Allison go on and on about her new step-mom and step-sister moving in with her dad. She's been on about it constantly!"

"I've been avoiding Allison. She talks too much." Blunt, that was just like Kai.

"Casey-chan, why don't you go sit in front of Tala? Tala, raise your hand," the teacher ordered. With a sigh, Tala did as he was told and Casey approached, dumped her things on aforementioned desk, and sat down.

Something's wrong, Kai thought. He studied the new girl's back. Something about her seems… off. And yet, try as he might, Kai couldn't figure out what he found so strange. The bell snapped him out of his thoughts.

When they reached the hallway, he found Tala looking at him funny. "What?" he demanded sharply.

"Something's up with you. You were staring at the new girl all class period."

Not wanting to let his friend get the wrong impression, he explained… kinda. "Something isn't right about her." It was odd for Kai to say the sum total of his knowledge, no matter how little that some total was. He didn't like to give away too much information, but how else was he supposed to say it?

"Come on Kai. Just cause she has trouble deciphering her gender…."

Kai rolled his eyes. "That's not what I meant." Catching the seriousness in Kai's tone, Tala sober instantly. What could make the unstoppable, undefeatable Kai so uncomfortable?

Lunchtime:

"CASEY!"

Said girl tensed as a loud shriek echoed down the hall in her direction. Suddenly, 2 arms crushed her in a hug from behind. "Hey Allison," she choked out.

"You promised me you'd sit at my table remember?" Not waiting for an answer, she dragged her stepsister towards the front of the lunch line. "The best part of being popular is not having to wait in line. Everyone moves out of your way!" Allison stopped short. "Well, almost anyone."

Casey looked ahead to find a group of kids at the front of the line sending out warning glares. They appeared to have secured the stereotypical categorization of 'The Punks.' "That's okay. I can wait. Maybe we should go to the back of the line th-."

"Nonsense." Allison pushed right past them, grip tightening nervously. She would have knocked over a shy-looking girl with long black hair but Casey caught her arm and steadied her. "Come ON Casey. If they haven't learned to get out of our way they might as well learn now." The dark-haired tomboy threw an apologetic look back at the girl who smiled her thanks. The punks, however, were not so accepting. Some gave her sympathetic looks and the others just glared ten-fold.

They finally reached the front of the line and handed the secretary some money. Casey followed her step-sister into the kitchen, picked up a tray and held it out to a cook when she saw something she liked. The pair then proceeded to sit at a long table in the center of the room.

"So," Allison started as she sat down. "What do you think of Kai and Tala?"

"Tala… Oh yeah, the teacher pointed him out. He's the red-head right?"

"Yeah, and Kai is the guy with the blue hair that was probably sitting next to him. They're like the kings of the school, not to mention super hot." Allison looked at her interestedly. "Though you obviously haven't met them yet or you would know exactly who I'm talking about."

Casey shrugged. "You're right, I haven't really met them yet but they look a bit arrogant, and I don't tend to take to people whose egos exceed their worth." Allison paled and her smile dropped. The clearing of a throat behind her confirmed her suspicion that her luck had long since abandoned her. This, my friends, is what we call Social Suicide and it is considered a big mistake in most high schools. She nearly groaned. Nearly. If these guys thought they were going to get her to bow down to them they had another thing coming. She did, however, realize that starting an argument would lead to something far most unpleasant. These boys gave off a violent aura. Not to mention they tended to be very protective of their pride.

"Allison." They nodded acknowledgement to said girl but ignored her completely. Not that she minded. She was a quiet person. Her business was her own and she had no need to let other people in on it. Then, it got worse. They sat down on the other side of the table. Kai sat directly across from her, glaring. Why couldn't he figure it out?

"That's all you're eating?" Allison demanded of her step-sister in an attempt to start a conversation.

"Yes."

"You anorexic?"

She looked up at Tala without interest. "No." Casey might have liked keeping her thoughts to herself but Tala didn't mind sharing his opinions.

"Hey Alli, I think you're sister's confused. First, she doesn't seem to have picked a gender. Second, she doesn't respect her superiors." He smirked at her but she didn't appear to be paying attention. She was staring into space and eating at a punishingly slow rate. "Hey new kid!" He snapped his fingers in front of her face and she snapped back to reality.

"Huh? Oh, can I help you?"

"When I talk, you listen." It was a strict order, and he was bound to back it up. That didn't stop the flash of irritation in her eyes. Kai saw it, Tala didn't.

"Excuse me Allison. I think I'll find another place to sit." She gathered up her tray and scanned the room for an empty seat. But the cafeteria was packed and the only open seats were the one she had just left unoccupied (quickly claimed by someone else), and one at the punk's table. Wonderful.

Tala smirked. "Last I checked, they didn't seem too happy with you."

She snapped back before she could stop herself. "They can't be much worse than you. Maybe they will bother to think before speaking." Committing Social Suicide twice in one day was not good on one's social standing. Once was bad, but twice. Heh, I really need to work on my first impressions.

She walked over to the punk's table amidst many stares and sat down at the end. It took a moment for her to realize that the girl sitting next to her was the one that Allison had almost knocked over. Now that she wasn't being dragged around she was able to take the time to look at the girl. She had waist-length raven hair, big blue eyes, and wore a long jean skirt, a plain white t-shirt, and clean tennis shoes in considerably better condition than her own.

After a tense pause one guy with spiky black hair and a red streak in it decided to speak up. He sat to the left of the guy directly across from her. "What do you want?"

She couldn't help but glare. "I want to hear that I'm not the only one who doesn't think Tala is the best thing that's happened to the Earth."

The entire table exchanged looks and the boy leaned over the table, holding out a hand. Surprisingly, he gave her a small smile. "Hey, I'm Ozuma. Welcome to the club."