Disclaimer: I do not own Beyblade. Maya Tudor belongs to me.

Chapter 2: Enter Phoenix

I silently walked behind my step-siblings across the courtyard to my new school. Everything was so nice at this private school compared to my old one. I mean, we even have to wear these funny looking uniforms with short skirts. The strange thing at this school seems to be the groups. Everyone is in different groups and it's pretty obvious who is in what group. There were the sluts, the geeks, the outcasts, the foreigners, the popular group, ect…

Ming-Ming was no doubt in the popular group because the moment we walked through the school entrance she was flouncing away to join a bunch of other pretty girls with dark tans and light coloured hair. Ian and Bryan ditched me when they saw the outcasts and went to join their friends.

I bit my lip as I looked over the papers Nancy had given me that included my timetable, locker number, and a map of the school. I glanced at the locker numbers as I walked down the halls until I came to my own. I spun the combination in and dumped most of my books in it. Closing my locker I looked over my timetable again.

"Okay, Japanese for period A and math after that…." I kept repeating the timetable in my head while looking for my period A classroom. By now there weren't that many people in the halls so I quicken my pace, I do so not want to be the center of attention.

When I finally entered the class, it was almost full but nobody paid attention to me, which was definitely a good thing. I made my way to the back of the classroom and sat down between a blue haired girl, whose heavy make up just screamed 'Goth' and a small blob of brown.

"Hi! You must be new here right?"

Whoa did the brown blob just talk? Oh wait; it's just a very short girl with lost of hair.

"Um yeah. Name's Kassandra, I just moved here from Russia"

"Really? Is it cold up there? Oh, I should introduce myself, my name is Maya Tudor and this is my friend Mariam Lan," said the perky girl. She pointed next to me at the rebel girl who just nodded her head at me and continued to listen to her music which sounded awfully familiar.

"Are you listening to Linkin Park?" I asked.

She gave me a surprised look. "Yeah, you listen to them?"

"Of course, they're my all time favourite band!"

"Really? They're my favourite too! Don't you just love Chester's voice?"

"Sexy! But Mike is cool too," I laughed.

"You know what though; I have a better voice than either of them."

Startled, my head whipped to look at a tall, blond American who was standing in front of our desks with his hands shoved in his pockets. He was smirking at Mariam and had a funny light in his eyes. Mariam, however, did not seem pleased with his presence and one of her eyebrows was twitching.

"Shove off Parker before I shove this pencil up your ass" Mariam said.

'Parker' put on a wounded face and placed his hands over his heart. "Oh you wound me, truly you do. Will you not just say yes and join me on a date?"

"Do I look like a whore to you? The answer is no like always"

"You're beautiful when angry. One day you will see the light Mariam!" With that, the blond boy sauntered over to his group of friends.

"Um, who was he?" I asked Maya, since Mariam looked pretty pissed.

Maya giggled, "Oh that was just Michael Parker. He's been following Mariam around since grade 8 asking her to go out with him. Why don't you just try it Mariam? He might not be so bad." Maya said.

"Why? Because he's a cheater. He dated three girls at once and still had the nerve to ask me out! Plus he's an annoying jock, I hate jocks."

Truthfully I didn't know what to say but Maya was smiling and writing something on a piece of paper. She passed the paper to me with a finger against her lips signifying to be quiet.

She so likes him

Smirking I replied.

Darn obvious

However we couldn't continue with the arrival of the teacher and the beginning of class.

The cafeteria was crowded with noisy students who where spending their lunch hour talking about the busy summer they had. I adjusted my backpack to fit better on my shoulder while I searched for a place to sit. I noticed Ming-Ming and her posse sitting in the middle of the cafeteria surrounded by good-looking guys (one of them was Michael who seems to have gotten over Mariam's rejection if the girl on his lap was any sign). At the far end was the outcast group which included Bryan and Ian who I definitely did not want to sit with. A hand caught my eye and I noticed Maya Tudor waving in my direction. I glanced over my shoulder to see if anyone was behind me. Nope, she was waving at me. Shrugging I wandered over to the table she was sitting at which included Mariam and some other people who I haven't met yet.

Maya jumped up from her seat and pushed me to stand at the end of the table where everyone could see me. "Guys, this is Kassandra Woolf; Kassandra, this is the gang"

Lots of information for me right there, good job Maya. Noticing my lost expression Mariam took it upon herself to introduce 'the gang'.

"Kassandra meet Rei Kon, Mariah Li, Tyson Kimonya, Emily Parker, and Max Tate."

"Hi"

Why does everyone stare at me?

"Hey I know you!" The kid with the baseball cap who was introduced as Tyson said, "You're the person who tripped that asshole Ian Hau in the hall!" Now they're looking at me with expressions of appreciation.

"Yeah, he was pissing me off. If I can't annoy him at home might as well do it at school," noticing their lost faces I added, "the Hau's are my step-siblings or whatever you want to call them."

Mariam smirked. "Good, perhaps you can give me some blackmail material on Ming-Ming, that whore deserves to go done a few steps in the social ladder.'

"I'll give you some the moment I find any."

"Sweet"

The pink haired girl named Mariah leaned forwards a bit. "So how are you related to the Hau's?"

"My mother left my father and married Richard Hau when I was two. Grew up in Russia for my entire life then I'm forced to come here and meet my mother and extended family. However, I can tell that the minute I act like a bitch she'll send me right back," I said.

"You should hang around a bit while you're here though," intercepted Max, "Japan can be very nice."

"Yeah I'm thinking at least two months, I really needed a break."

"While you're here, can you help me with my Russian?" asked Emily, "I don't know why I signed up for the course and I will definitely need help because languages aren't my thing."

"Sure"

"Hey there Mariam"

Here comes Michael again. He always seems to randomly show up and piss Mariam off. I am not sure if he does this for fun or if he really does want to go out with her. I'd like to suggest form him to back off because Mariam's eyebrow is twitching again, but I don't know him well enough to even say hello.

"What do you want now Parker?"

"Just giving you another offer…"

"No"

"It won't be that bad"

"No"

"I'm a good kisser"

That seemed to be the final straw. Mariam smoothly pushed her chair back and stood up. However, she didn't do what I thought she would do (like kick his butt!), instead she came to stand a mere breath away from Michael. Close but not touching. Michael appeared to be barely holding in some excitement. Almost the entire cafeteria was watching this scene, including the girl who was sitting on his lap at the beginning of lunch.

"So, you're a good kisser are you?" Mariam whispered.

"The best"

"Really, so you think you're better than me?"

"You wanna find out?"

Mariam smirked and leaned in towards him. Michael seemed to have frozen with the close proximity, or else he was wondering why Mariam would kiss him (I think everyone else was thinking the same thing). The second Michael started to lean down; Mariam brought her knee up right between his legs. She stepped back to watch the American hunch over in pain.

"You know Michael I have tried constantly to tell you this so you better listen up," Mariam placed her fingers under his chin and gently forced him to look up. "I will only date a man who will be committed to me. So when you say 'Will you go out with me?' that means I will not share you with other women because I hate to share. So if you really want to date me, I suggest you prepare yourself for it. Now, I do believe your girlfriend Chantelle would like to speak with you, so toodles."

By the time Mariam had arrived at the cafeteria doors, I guess the pain had disappeared because Michael seemed to have regained his ability to speak.

"I never turn down a good challenge Mariam." The blue-haired girl turned to stare at him, waiting for him to finish. "I'll prove that I can be committed to you. So when I do show you, I expect you to keep your word and date me."

"I'll be watching" was all she said before she left the room. After a moment or so of silence, chatter came back to the cafeteria and Michael stalked away mumbling something like dumping Chantelle.

"I'm hungry"

"TYSON!"

"Damn Bryan, why'd he have to go and forget about me? I don't know my way around this stupid town."

School had finished an hour and a half ago but my wonderful step-siblings had disappeared and left me to walk back to the house. After missing a wrong turn somewhere I was completely lost and in the poorer part of the town. People leered at me while I passed them and some older me were looking me over so I've been trying to get out of the area for the past 20 minutes but then again I don't know where to go.

Taking a left I turned and wandered down a street with broken down houses and graffiti every where. Suddenly a wall loomed in front of me signifying a dead end so I turn around to go back but blocking my path are two young and dirty looking men. I step back and watch them smirk when my back touches the wall.

"Well, well, well; what do we have here?" said the tallest one.

"Looks like one 'o deem pretty school gurls" said a short stocky on with missing teeth.

"Well I like those school girls, after all, they usually are wild in bed" grinned the first one.

I freaked. I tried to squeeze past them but a third; very hairy man jumped in front of me and grabbed my arm and waist. Truthfully, I don't think I've ever screamed louder. The man clapped his hand on my mouth the moment the scream left my mouth, making me doubt anyone would hear me. My only way out was to fight, so I struggled as much as I could, trying to wiggle out of the man's hold but he was to strong.

"A feisty one an't she?" said the short one.

"She's mine" grumbled the man who held me. I closed my eyes praying for a miracle, god I did not want to be a toy for this creep.

"SHIT!"

I opened my eyes wide when I took in the scene. The short man's body lay on the ground, his head completely detached from his body. The lifeless eyes just stared at the ground like he died so fast he didn't know what hit him. The man that had been holding me let go of my waist but pulled my head back so if I wanted to run, I'd have to detach my own head. It was then I noticed that both men were holding guns.

"Who the hell are you? Come out and show yourself freak!" yelled the tall man.

"There he his" screamed the hairy one as he shot at a place on the rooftop that seemed empty to me. Who ever this guy was that's helping me, I have my life to thank him for so far.

Suddenly some very shiny and pointy objects flew from the opposite direction to imbed themselves deep in the back of the tall man, hitting almost every vital body part possible so he was dead before he hit the ground. The hairy one finally let go of me and I dropped to the floor. I quickly crab walked away to hide behind a large box. Hairy man was constantly searching around him, looking for the culprit. However his efforts were in vain because a figure appeared right behind him and decapitated him in an instant.

I watched the body fall to the ground, then turn to watch the figure. It took out a bloodstained cloth and wiped all the blood off of it's sword before placing it back in the sheath.

I turned around again to face the wall. Please don't kill me.

A hand appeared on my shoulder and I turned to face the hero/murderer. What I found was a young man, no older than twenty with two-toned blue hair and expressionless auburn eyes. He had four blue triangles on his cheeks, two on each side and snow white skin. His clothes were a little faded but not a smudge of dirt was anywhere on him.

"You shouldn't be in these parts" his voice was sounded like music compared to the other men that were here, deep with a hard tone.

"I'm sorry," why couldn't I speak right? I seemed to only be able to whisper, "I'm new… and-and I got lost."

He placed a hand under my chin and gently pushed it up. His other hand tucked a strand of my long, raven hair behind my ear. Why I was letting this happen? I wouldn't know but those eyes were so mesmerizing...

"You are Russian" his thumb was running down my jaw line…

"Yes" was he touching my bottom lip?

A flicker of something appeared in his eyes but I couldn't tell because the next thing he did was very unexpected.

He kissed me.

No tongues, just the gently touching of a pair of lips. Now I've never been kissed before so I can say that it was very unusual but the next second his lips were gone and he was standing looking down at me.

"Follow Takashi road, it will get you out of here" he said and turned to leave.

"Wait!" I yelled. He paused but didn't turn around. "Who are you?"

"Just call me Phoenix"

Then he was gone, just like the wind.

This was a fun chapter to write. Anyways, Everyone probably knows who Phoenix is but he will remain Phoenix for some time until Kassandra learns his real name. Don't you just love kick ass guys like him? I sure do.

I don't think Michael and Mariam actually meet in the series but their personalities are so contradicting it's funny. Michael is arrogant, hot-headed, and obviously wants to be on top. Mariam is all girl power and anti-male domination. I love it!