A.N.: Heya people! I am on a writing spree and I just can't stop. So here is Chapter 3! Enjoy!^_^
This chapter, along with the entire story, is dedicated to my friends and fellow authors Skye410 and Sara593. Their characters, Sarah and Bella respectively, are also part of this story from now on.^_^
Disclaimer:
Me: So…who is going to say the disclaimer this time? Masquerade?
Masquerade: No. I am barely in this chapter.
Me: ^_^'…Right….
Bella: I'll say it – for a cookie.^_^
Me: Why does everyone like cookies? Alright, here is a cookie for you.
Bella: Yey! Lady Avotil doesn't own Bakugan or me or Sarah.^_^
Me: Unfortunately this is true. Otherwise Masquerade would still be in the anime and have more than just one appearance in the New Vestroia series!
Masquerade: Really?
Me: Yes. Now on to the story.^_^
Chapter 3: The First Day of School and the Answer
Alice woke up the next morning and sleepily looked at the clock on her bedside table and then at the calendar on her wall. Closing her eyes she was preparing to go back to sleep when her eyes suddenly snapped open and she looked at the clock and the calendar again. She jumped out of bed and quickly went over to her closet – today was the first day of the new school year and the welcoming ceremony was going to start in less than an hour! If she didn't hurry then she would miss it!
After getting dressed and cleaning up the red haired girl ran downstairs and going to the kitchen she saw that her grandfather had just finished making breakfast. Hurriedly she ate her toast and egg and practically ran out of the house and into the forest surrounding it. Running like never before the Russian girl arrived at her school in record time and with 5 minutes to go until the beginning of the ceremony.
Exhausted from the long run the teenage girl went to one of the trees in the school yard and leaned on it to rest a bit in its cooling shadows. Out of the corner of her eyes she could see two people walking towards her. Looking up she saw that it was her two best friends Sarah and Bella. The three of them were in the same class since 5th grade.
Sarah was, like Alice, 15 years old and she had mid-back, black hair with a natural, according to her, tinge of red and had amazingly beautiful sapphire blue eyes. She was a skater-girl, unlike Alice, and her favorite clothing consisted of dark baggy jeans, white skater shoes and a dark blue hooded shirt. She was a brawler and she had black fingerless gloves that reached just past her wrist and her red Bakupod was on her left wrist. Her attribute was Pyrus as far as Alice knew.
Bella also was 15 and like Sarah had black hair and blue eyes. She was pretty much a skater girl as well – she wore a hooded black top, black baggy jeans and black skater shoes. She had black fingerless gloves and a red Bakupod could be seen on her left wrist. Her attribute was also Pyrus.
"Hey guys! How was your summer?" Alice asked after they all hugged.
"Well, if you exclude the fact that today Sarah and I ran away from our parents, then it was awesome! We totally only brawled all summer long!" Bella excitedly told her Russian friend.
"Wait, what!?! You ran away from your homes this morning? Where are you going to stay?" the red head looked worriedly at her friends. She hadn't expected them to run away. Then again with parents like theirs she wasn't surprised that they had finally snapped – their parents were down right medieval people and not very friendly.
"Well…we…still haven't really decided, have we, Bella?" Sarah looked at her black-haired friend.
"Yeah that's true. It was a spur-of- the-moment action" Bella added.
"Well…..how about you guys stay at my place?" Alice proposed. Her friends' faces immediately lit up and before she knew it she was tackled to the ground and both girls were hugging her.
"Thank you so much! That would be so awesome, Alice! But wouldn't we be a bother for you?" Sarah questioned the red-haired girl on the ground.
"No, I don't think so. But guys, we should hurry or else we'll miss the opening of the school year – after all, we are going to be 10th graders. It's a big milestone on the road to finishing school – only two more years. Besides, the buffet will be packed with food" Alice reminded her friends. She knew that they didn't like school at all, but they did love food and there was going to be lots of it during the opening ceremony.
The mentioning of food got her friends going and they arrived just in time for the speech of the school's principal. After talking about their summers and not listening to the long monologue the director had prepared they finally saw the people start clapping and that could only mean that the opening was over and the feast had started. They made their way to the buffet table and piled their plates with all sorts of sweets that were there.
"You know, Alice, talking about brawling…Have you decided if you want to brawl yet?" Bella slowly and carefully questioned her friend.
"Yes, I want to ask you the same thing, human. Bella has told me much about you and your strategies – you would make a fine brawler" a small red and yellow sphere rolled onto Bella's shoulder popped open.
"Wolfress, what are you doing here! I thought I had left you in my backpack in the classroom" the black-haired girl questioned the Pyrus attributed Bakugan. She looked up and saw that the red head was looking at her with a confused look on her face.
"Oops, sorry, Alice. We forgot to tell you that we found two talking Bakugan during the summer. Seems that they are our "guardians" or something like that. Bella's guardian Bakugan is called Pyrus Wolfress and mine is Haos Tigorra" Sarah explained to the third member of their small group as a small white and yellow sphere rolled and popped up on her shoulder.
"Greetings, human. I am Haos Tigorra" it said.
"I see. Well, to answer your question Bella and…Wolfress, was it?...I have been thinking about it lately but I haven't really decided" Alice told her friends, although the last part was a lie – she had already decided what she was going to do.
After a few more minutes of talking the trio decided to leave the party and go to Alice's house. The red headed teenage girl had called her grandfather and asked him if her two best friends could stay at their mansion and he had replied that it was no problem. So here were the three of them, in the forest surrounding the house and Alice was explaining to them that in order to be able to conduct his experiments her grandfather had to be outside of the village.
After reaching the mansion Alice showed them to their rooms which weren't as she had expected the guest rooms next to her own room, but the ones in the other part of the mansion. Sarah and Bella said that they were just happy to be able to stay with their best friend, so it didn't bother them. After getting unpacked the two girls decided to go to the village to brawl and they told the third member of their little group that they would return back to the mansion at around 7 o'clock.
Alice watched as her friends walked down the small path in the forest until they disappeared into the shadows. The Russian girl sighed before going back upstairs to her room. She looked at the clock on her bedside table and saw that it was 1 o'clock in the after noon. She turned on her computer and went online. Immediately the four screens pertaining to the four present(meaning still no Shun) people of the Battle Brawlers appeared.
"Hey guys!" she cheerfully said ad the brawlers smiled back.
"Yo Alice! Where have you, like, been? It's, like, 1 o'clock where you are" the Australian Subterra player asked her.
"Sorry guys! I was at the opening feast until now and I just came back"
"Aha. Anyway" Dan said "The situation is getting serious. Today some kid called Rikimaru challenged me and guess what – he was working for Masquerade and had a Doom card!"
"What? Now Masquerade is recruiting others to work for him? That creep!" exclaimed Runo who was still furious that she had lost a brawl to the masked villain.
"What happened, Danny? Did you beat him or did you loose?" Julie questioned her crush.
"Of course I won! Drago and I are an unbeatable team!" the brown haired boy answered before his smile turned into a frown.
"What's wrong, Dan?" Marucho, the group's Aquos brawler, said.
"…Drago sounded like he wanted to go solo after the battle and so I threw him into the river…"
"You what!" everyone shouted disbelievingly.
"Ha! I knew that he was never meant for you. I would never do this to my precious Tigrerra" Runo said whilst lovingly cuddling the white and golden sphere in her hand that was her own talking Bakugan.
"I must admit that she takes care of me rather well" it said.
"I….can hear my parents calling me! See ya'll later!" the nervous-looking Pyrus brawler said before his window disappeared. The others shortly followed and their windows closed one by one.
Alice also signed off and decided to think about a certain blond boy's offer. She was sure she had decided at the opening ceremony what her answer would be, but she wanted to make sure it was what she wanted.
Bella and Sarah came back at 7 o'clock just like they had said they would and so they had dinner early. After having eaten the trio of girls decided to watch a movie and since it was a unanimous vote they chose a comedy called "Monster In-Law". The three girls laughed and laughed and couldn't stop laughing as they watched it. The movie finished, but the girls were all still laughing. They decided to go to Bella's room and there they sat for another hour and talked about Bakugan and the advantages and disadvantages of the different attributes.
Bella and Sarah were surprised when Alice fiercely defended the pluses of the Darkus attribute and made the minuses of it seem insignificant. The red haired girl noticed this and quickly tried to do the same with the other attributes. Judging by the small smiles on her friends faces she had succeeded in covering her mistake. Both girls knew that Alice was the strategist of the group and so they forgot what had happened a few minutes ago. As 10:30 p.m. neared Sarah and Bella started to become sleepy and so Alice left them and went back to her own room. The moment she went inside she let herself fall down on her bed and she lied there unmoving until a small beeping noise coming from her Bakupod roused her from her thoughts. She looked at the time and was shocked to see that it was already 11 o'clock. The Russian girl quickly pushed a button at the side of her bracelet and Masquerade appeared on the display.
"Good evening, Alice. How was your day?" the blond haired villain asked…with a friendly tone?
"Uh…good, thank you. And yours?" the Russian girl slowly asked, still not used to this side of Masquerade.
"It has been a wonderful day so far. Now, have you decided what your answer to my offer is?" he inquired.
"Yes, I have. I accept your offer under one condition – no one, and I mean NO ONE, is to find out about these lessons. Deal?" she answered and was shocked when a smile made its way on his up 'till then serious face.
"Deal. Ah, Alice - this definitely made my day. I will see you tomorrow after school after your two friends leave to go brawl in the village" he told her and his smile grew at seeing her, once again, shocked face.
"How did you know that Bella and Sarah moved into my house today or that they go to brawl in the village every day after school?" the red haired girl questioned the blond haired villain.
"I have my sources. I know everything. So, see you tomorrow afternoon, Alice" Masquerade replied before the connection ended.
Alice still looked at the display for a long time before she finally stood up and got ready for bed. This time she remembered to turn on her alarm clock so as to not be late again. Satisfied that she hadn't forgotten to do anything for tomorrow she let herself fall on her soft bed and the moment her head hit the surface of the pillow sleep claimed her and Alice dreamed once again of brawling along side her friends.
A.N.: I hope you enjoyed reading this chapter.^_^ Now, since some people have asked me to post my next chapters as quickly as possible, I decided that I'll put something like a requirement for that to happen. I will post the next chapter(which, mind you, I've already finished writing) the moment I receive at least 10 reviews for it.^_^