The next day, as I'm sure you all have guessed by now, was Valentine's Day. The boys, for once, had all managed to get up rather early in the morning and now were all in the common room, talking.
"So," Ray asked, "did everyone find a valentine for today?" he winked at the boys.
All the boys, minus, Kai, gave an affirmative nod.
"So, you don't have a valentine Kai?" Ray asked him.
Kai sighed in annoyance at the question and made no move to respond.
"It doesn't really matter," Max reminded Ray, "he's Julia's best friend, so we'll just count her as his valentine"
Kai growled at the mention of this, though no one was sure if it was in approval or disapproval.
"Alright," said Ray hesitantly, "then I suppose we can put my plan into action!"
"And your plan is?" asked Tyson.
"Well, I was thinking we could go out for dinner today," replied Ray.
"Great idea Ray!" Max and Tyson chimed.
"Yeah, the only problem is, we have to find a restaurant," said Ray.
"I know one," a voice said.
They all turned to where the voice had come from, their eyes widening in shock.
"Kai?" Max asked.
"Hn. There's this one downtown, it's called the Spaghetti Factory. Or, if you wanted to do some sightseeing in the process, there's always the 360 degree revolving restaurant in the CN Tower."
"Kai, I think that's the most we've ever heard you say," Tyson told him.
"Hn" came the reply.
Tyson grinned, "I knew this couldn't last long."
"Guys, quit it," Max told them, "so, which one should we go to?"
"Well, the 360 one may not be such a good idea in case anyone doesn't like heights or gets dizzy real easily. So, I think we should go to the Spaghetti Factory, even though the name is awfully ridiculous," concluded Ray.
"What time should we set it at?" asked Tyson.
"Well, what time is dinner normally?"
"7 should be good," said Max.
"Yeah, 7 sounds good to me. Ok, so 7 PM at the Spaghetti Factory, great. Do you know how to get there Kai?" Ray asked.
"Hn, that's what taxi's are for," he replied coldly.
"Ok, well, let's go get ready to train then," Ray told them, as he began to walk over to the kitchen and start to make breakfast.
The boys nodded and went back into their respective rooms, got their clothes, and occupied the bathrooms, thankful that they didn't have to wait on the girls who were still asleep.
Soon after the boys had finished, the girls woke up as well and got ready for training, unaware of the boys' plans for tonight. Today, they were put into two stations. One side of the training space was used for practicing harnessing their power and making it their own, and the other side was just for normal beybattles. It was a good thing that no one else used this training area, because if they had, they would have seen some pretty freaky things going on, like fire coming out of people hands, their hands transforming into claws, or some other crazy stuff. Once, Kai's power got a little out of hand, engulfing more of him in flames then was necessary. He didn't feel any burning sensation so he wasn't really worried, but from the looks of the others, they were.
Finally, after some moments, Mariam used her hurricane wave attack to extinguish the flames from Kai's flame saber, much to the happiness of the rest of the team. Kai however, was not so thankful for her actions. As soon as her wave had washed over him, he was completely drenched in water, his triangle face paint was running down his face looking something like mascara, and he was spluttering water out his mouth. Through all this, he gave Mariam a glare, who was quite shocked that he was actually wet.
Seeing her confused face, Julia grinned sheepishly and rubbed the back of her neck with her hand. "Hehe," she giggled nervously, "I forgot to tell you guys. Only the wielder of the attack will not feel its effects. That's why Kai's wet, because Mariam is the wielder of Hurricane Wave attack, not Kai. The same goes for her. If Kai had used his Flame Saber attack to help anyone, they'd be engulfed in flames, and would in fact, suffer severe burns."
"Ok," Kai said with a smile that said 'Julia you're dead', "thanks for telling us…I'M GOING TO KILL YOU!"
Julia gave a shriek followed by a wave of giggles as Kai chased her around the room. She kept running, kept running, until she met a wall. Her eyes widened as she hit the wall, and turned around, ready to start running, when Kai showed up right in front of her, forcing her to go back against the wall. They stared at each other, giving the other a challenging glare, before losing focus due to giggles being heard on the other side of the room.
Kai, turning his head, and Julia looking over his shoulder, saw their team trying desperately to suppress laughter. Giving their teammates a 'what' look, Kai and Julia planned to stare them down. It worked because eventually the giggling stopped, mainly because their teams were looking scared for their lives at the maniacal grins and looks Kai and Julia were giving them. Pleased that their tactics had worked, the two teens walked back to the rest of their team and declared that they had the rest of the day off.
Upon hearing this, Tyson and Max rushed along to lunch, while Ray went off to go meditate, Hilary mumbled something about sleep, Mariam and Salima went downstairs to the gift shop, and Kai and Julia decided to stick around a bit more and have some fun beyblading, after Kai got a change of clothes and took a shower of course.
The rest of the day passed without much incident and at 5PM, when they were all in the common room watching TV, Ray told the girls that today the team was going to go out for dinner, and so the girls should get ready. Squealing, Salima and Hilary ran off to their rooms, squealing while Julia and Mariam walked behind them, rolling their eyes at their friends' girly attitudes. Once the girls went to their own rooms and got their clothes and makeup, they all huddled in Julia and Kai's room.
They spread the clothes out on the two beds, and began to try on the many different outfits they had brought over.
"I wonder where we're going that we need to get dressed up so nicely, and why are they just taking us out all of a sudden?" Hilary said while trying on a pink sleeveless shirt.
"Duh, isn't it obvious?" asked Mariam. The other three girls shook their heads. "Oh brother, do I have to spell it out? They're taking us out for Valentine's day!"
A look of understanding appeared on the faces of the other three girls and the room was filled once more with the excited shrieks of Hilary and Salima.
After a few more outfits, the girls heard a bang on the door. "Who is it?" called Julia.
"It's me, Kai."
"What do you want?"
"I need some clothes, obviously."
"Right. Uh, wait one second."
"Ok"
Julia told the girls to just put on something quickly, didn't matter what, just anything because Kai was going to come into the room. Obediently, they just threw on some random things, and after a few moments, Julia called, "Come in!"
Kai walked into the room and saw it littered with various articles of clothing. He then saw the girls, and raised an eyebrow. "I hope those aren't your final outfits," he gestured to their mismatched clothes.
"Of course not you twit! We just had to rush so that you could come and get your clothes!" Mariam told him, obviously offended.
"Hn," came the reply from Kai.
He walked to his closet, and pulled out a few shirts, and a few pairs of slacks, before leaving again.
As soon as he left, the girls all went back to frantically trying to find a perfect outfit and after 30 more minutes, it seemed as if everyone had. Rushing to the bathroom, the girls set up their makeup on the counter along with four chairs, and plugged in a hair straightener and a curler.
The boys, all gathered in Ray's room, were waiting patiently for the girls to finish getting ready. In the meantime, they were engaging in small talk.
"It's too bad the Chief couldn't come this time," said Tyson, "it just doesn't feel really right without him here."
"Yeah," agreed Max, "who's going to analyze our data and give us strategies and tune-ups, if not Kenny?"
"C'mon guys, he needs a break from this stuff sometimes too. Besides, if my parents were going to let me go on a trip around Europe, I'd miss one tournament too," Ray replied.
"Yeah, I guess you're right," agreed Tyson.
Back with the girls; Salima and Mariam were doing their make-up in front of the mirror, while Hilary and Julia were working with the straightener and curler.
"You guys are so lucky," Hilary told the two doing their make-up, "you always have perfect hair. I mean, Salima's may not be either straight or curly, but it always looks good, and Mariam, you have the most perfect straight hair any girl could ask for!"
"Thanks Hils, but you don't exactly need much work on yours either," Mariam told her, and not a second had passed since the words escaped her mouth, that Hilary had put down the straightener and moved up to the mirror to do her make-up.
A few minutes later, Julia too had finished making her hair fall in soft ringlets. It was about another 20 minutes before the girls emerged, ready, and headed to Ray's room to get the boys. When they got to his room, the boys and the girls eyed each other, astonished. Neither could have expected that the other could clean up so well. The boys obviously hadn't gone to the trouble of straightening their hair or putting on make-up, but they still looked amazing. Kai had taken off his face paint, figuring that it wasn't appropriate to have on for the place they were going. The boys stared at the girls, amazed that these were the same girls they had been training with just a few hours ago. Most admirable though, was the fashion sense that both sexes had instilled in them.
Salima was wearing an emerald green halter dress that had a low V-neckline shape. At the waist there was some ruching, giving the appearance of a smaller waist. The dress came just over the knee, in a loose, free flowing, satin form. A pair of gold pumps was her shoes of choice.
Mariam was wearing a Tawny (Dark Orange-y Bronze) strapless dress that came just over the knee. The skirt of the dress was in pleats and an icy blue sapphire bow was tied around the waist. Her heels were of a light blue color heading towards teal, had a closed, rounded top, and were not very high.
Hilary was wearing a Baby blue satin thick strap sleeveless dress with a sweetheart neckline. On the part of the dress covering her breasts, there was a design made to look something like pleats, before finishing off in a sleek simple manner. The back of the dress had a deep V in it, and it hugged until the waist, where it flowed off to the ground. The heels, though covered by the length of the dress, were silver in color.
Julia was wearing a black strapless dress with silver sequins on the right side of the waist, and it came down to just above the knee. The form of the dress was something like that of a pencil skirt, just staying in one straight line that hugged the body. It was paired with black pumps that had a singlewide stripe of silver going across it.
The boys were equally as good looking.
Kai was wearing a pair of black slacks and a crimson red shirt, with a black vest over it and a silver tie.
Ray was wearing a white shirt, black suit (slacks and blazer), and a gold necktie with semi-ornate embroidery.
Tyson was wearing a bold sky blue and chocolate brown vertically striped shirt, with a pair of navy trousers.
Max was wearing a light blue and orange pinstripe shirt, and a midnight blue suit(slacks and blazer), with a gold paisley designed pocket-handkerchief.
From the lobby, they took 2 taxis to the Spaghetti Factory restaurant, where they were promptly seated (mainly because Ray had been smart enough to make reservations and Kai had threatened the owners with the Hiwatari name).
The section in which they were seated was a favorite for all guests. There was a carousel in the middle of the restaurant, obviously not functional, that had a few tables in it. They had been lucky enough to be able to dine inside the amazing carousel, surrounded by beautifully made gold horses. The place in which they sat, was secluded because so many horses surrounded it, therefore they had the utmost of privacy, much to everyone's satisfaction.
The boys pulled the chairs out for the girls to sit in, before taking seats themselves. A few minutes after receiving their menus, a waiter came around to take their order. During the time they waited for their food, they amused themselves with small talk, mainly trying to avoid the topic of Valentine's Day.
Julia was one of the first to speak up. "Hey guys," she started, "there's a very important part of the prophecy that I forgot to tell you about. Though obvious, I do feel the need to share."
"What is it?" asked Ray, as the atmosphere at the table immediately became more serious.
"The enemy will stop at nothing to try and destroy us. This obviously isn't new news, but they may go to extremes such as burning down our hotel. I warned the manager earlier and while I don't think he really believed me, I'm not sure he's willing to take that chance. If by some chance, I am right, it's fine because I have had everything moved to my house. I believe that my housekeepers are there as we speak, bringing your stuff over to my place. The other thing is not so obvious. Remember when I showed you how to make your bit beast's power your own? Well, there's another way as well. Besides using the attacks, you can also change form. If this confuses you, let me give you an example. Kai and I, for example, will be able to sprout wings, and Salima, you and Ray will be able to grow claws and run at abnormally fast speeds."
Silence covered the table, before Max spoke up.
"Wow, this just keeps getting more and more unreal," he said breathlessly.
"Well, I for one, just want to forget about this prophecy thing for tonight!" called out Tyson, obviously trying to lighten the mood.
A chorus of cheers and agreements were heard, and just like that, the conversation was placed in the back of their heads, no longer disturbing them.
Their food came rather quickly, and the atmosphere was immediately livened. As they ate, they discussed more about their lives then anything. The bladebreakers all had stories to share of past tournaments, as did the Mystics, to which the others listened intently, either laughing at the funny events, or being amazed at some of the battles they'd had to face. Before they knew it, it was 10 o'clock and they had finished the food. Though no one really wanted to, Ray suggested that they call it a day. Reluctantly agreeing, they paid and left, stopping only momentarily when they saw their hotel on TV. It had indeed, as Julia predicted, been burnt down. She told them to split up again and take two taxis, or take a big van taxi and go as one group. Luckily for them, they had managed to find just one taxi that could hold all of them, and Julia told the driver to take them to her address. The driver's eyes widened slightly at the address, but he obeyed and was nothing short of exceedingly polite during the whole ride.
After a 20-minute drive, they arrived at their destination. Large iron gates greeted them, blocking the way to a large driveway. At the gates, an intercom system along with an alarm system that set off a bunch of Dobermans running across the yard greeted them as well.
"Who is it?" asked a voice over the intercom.
"Hello Jeeves," Julia spoke, "it is the Mistress Kon"
"Ah, welcome my Mistress. I shall let you in immediately," the voice responded.
"Thank you Jeeves," Julia said, smiling a little.
A few moments later, the Dobermans disappeared and the large iron gates had opened. The taxi driver drove up the long driveway, and the rest of its occupants, minus Julia of course, marveled at the yard's beauty. There was lush green grass on either side of the driveway, and a few grass sculptures as well as neatly trimmed hedges and marble statues of both people and animals.
The long and somewhat narrow cobblestone driveway lead to a massive mansion situated on the top of a small hill. Jeeves, the butler, came out to greet them, as well as pay the taxi driver. Julia was happy to see him and her home, and greeted him pleasantly. He retuned the greeting, before ushering the teens into her home.
"Welcome home, Mistress Kon. We have missed you so at the house."
"Jeeves, how many times have I told you that you do not need to call me Mistress Kon? You may call me Mistress Julia," Julia scolded.
"Ah, yes my mistress," Jeeves said, embarrassed, "it keeps slipping my mind. Shall I show your guests to their rooms?"
"Yes yes, but first you must be introduced. This is Salima Grey, Hilary Tatibana, Mariam Saint, Tyson Granger, Max Mizuhara, Kai Hiwatari, and last but not least, my brother, Ray Kon," she introduced.
"Ah! Master Kon! It is a pleasure to finally meet you! I've seen you grow, but only in pictures! And of course, I know the Mistresses, welcome ladies. And Master Hiwatari! It's a pleasure to meet you as well! The mistress has been trying to find you ever since she left Russia! The letters were great, but I'm sure she is immensely pleased to see you in person! Welcome everyone, and I hope you have a great stay at this home!"
"Thank you Jeeves," Kai said, the first on to speak up, "it is nice to finally meet the butler I've heard so much about," he reached out to shake Jeeves' hand.
Jeeves bowed before shaking Kai's hand as well.
"Well, Mistress Julia," he said turning to Julia, "shall you be so kind as to share with your guests the many changes you've made to this home for their stay?"
"I suppose I should. Well, first of all, this isn't a new change, but I have a large beyblade arena. Do you remember when you visited the All Starz's facility during your first world tournament?"
"Yeah, that place was huge! And so many training opportunities and places! It was insane!" exclaimed Tyson.
"Well, I have something like that. Of course, it's not exactly like that, but it's the same idea. I also added in a candy store with every possible candy you could ever imagine. I heard how much Max and Tyson like to eat, and so I put that and a 24-hour buffet in. I suppose it may not have been the best idea, but I always want my guests to enjoy their stay. Ray and Kai, I got you guys both rooms that you can meditate and think peacefully in, rooms that only you guys will have access to. The rooms you will sleep in are beside the arena, and they have each been painted in your favorite colors."
"That's so cool! Seems you've been preparing for this for a while," Ray said.
"Well, of course I have! You boys may have only found out about my team the day you met us but I've been doing research on you guys for the past few months! I've known all along that it was you we were going to be paired up with! Of course, I couldn't have done it alone. Mr. Dickenson's been helping me this whole time. He's teamed up with Kenny and together, they've been sending me files and videos and photos of you guys for my analysis!"
"That's just slightly frightening," Max told her.
"Yeah, I know," Julia responded, "but it's helped me to renovate! Now, let's go to your rooms!"
Jeeves led them all up a large marble staircase with red carpeting on the center of the steps. The staircase was in the center of the greeting hallway, and went up straight for a flight, before taking a left turn and a right turn. The rooms were on the right side of the second level.
The first room they encountered (going left to right) was Max's room. The layout of them room, as Julia told them, was the same for every room but each were different colors. In every room, there was a queen-sized bed, a large cherry oak cabinet that held a big screen TV, a large walk-in closet complete with shoe stands, hangers, and drawers for make-up and jewelry and a bathroom. Each bathroom had a large vanity mirror and white marble countertop. Across from it, was a towel stand and a bathtub that had Jacuzzi jets, and of course, towards the end of the bathroom, there was a toilet.
Max's room was painted in sky blue with small hints of fluorescent green and orange. Mariam's room was red, Salima's was royal purple and gold, and Hilary's was pink. Tyson's was a mix of Red, Blue and Yellow. One of the most interesting was Ray's whose room was painted a gold color, giving it a permanent shine, and on the ceiling there was a gold and yellow ying yang sign. Kai's room was also shiny, as it was painted metallic blue, and it had a professionally done glittering red phoenix on the ceiling. Finally, on the end of all these rooms, was Julia's. Naturally, because she lived there, she had a bigger room. Hers was painted with a silver color, and she had a metallic blue and white phoenix on the ceiling, as well as metallic blue stars.
After letting them get settled into their rooms with the help of the butlers, Julia bid Jeeves a good night as he went off to the servant's quarters. Evilly smiling, she then turned to her team. "How about a little truth or dare?" she asked, smirking.
Now, normally any good teen would be up for some truth or dare, but the way she was looking at them frightened them all. They weren't sure if they should decline out of fear or agree out of it. Deciding against the former, they went with the latter and a few 'Why not's' were heard.
"Excellent," she smiled, and led them down to the main living room. Though it was a very big room, Julia managed to make it feel a bit more intimate by making them sit in a close circle. They sat near the large glass coffee table, which was adorned with several bowls of candied confections and other delectable snacks.
Once they were properly seated in a circle, Julia started. "Hmm, my first victim shall be…Hilary! Truth or Dare?"
"Truth," came the response.
"Ok then Hilary, have you had any um…'unpleasant' or somewhat disturbing dreams involving the bladebreakers?" she smirked evilly.
"Well," Hilary blushed, "I did have this one about Kai and Max making out. It was quite…strange." She concluded, obviously embarrassed.
"Ew, that's disgusting!" said Max.
"Yeah, alright, my turn! How about, Ray? Truth or Dare?"
"Ok, I dare you to lick Max's arm!"
"No way!"
"Rules of the game say you have to!" chimed Hilary.
Ray paled considerably and went over to Max, mumbling an embarrassed sorry, before licking his arm. Max looks, if not more, at least as uncomfortable as Ray. When it was all over, Ray wiped his mouth with the back of his hand, downed some water, rinsed, and spit it out.
"That was just nasty," he said, "Ok, my turn now! Hahaha!" they heard Ray laugh an evil laugh that one would not have expected from the calm neko-jin. It was more the kind of sadistic laugh that Bryan of the Blitzkrieg Boys let out. "My victim is KAI!"
Unfazed, Kai gave Ray a challenging look before responding indifferently, "Dare"
At this Ray grinned and Kai began to wonder if he had made a mistake. "Kai, I dare you to sing I'm A Little Teapot, while doing the hand motions!" Ray finished with a cackle, completely uncharacteristic of himself.
Giving Ray a death glare that would have brought grown men to tears, Kai stood up before singing lifelessly, while doing hand motions that made him look like a five year old. Oh, his teammates were going to feel his wrath next practice, that was for sure. Everyone else sitting in the circle tried to watch intently, all failing as they keeled over with laughter and tears began falling from their eyes, blurring their vision considerably. When it was all over, Kai sat back down; pride injured, and began to thing of ways to get his revenge. He couldn't choose Ray again, for he knew what he would do to the poor boy, but decided to release his frustrations on other people he didn't like.
"Tyson, I choose you!" Kai said, and Tyson gulped. "Truth or dare Tyson?"
"Uh, dare!"
"HA! I finally get my revenge! I dare you to go on a diet!"
A loud 'NO' could be heard through the house, as Tyson screamed his agony. "Rules of the game say!" the rest of the group piped in.
Upset, Tyson mumbled a 'fine' and then began thinking of what he would do to his victim whoever that was.
"Alright," Tyson grinned, "Max my man, truth or dare?"
Confidently, Max replied, "Dare"
"Great," Tyson smiled, "now, we all know how much you like Mariam. But does she know? I dare you to show your feelings for her in a kiss, a LONG one," Tyson told him, winking.
Max paled, immediately regretting his choice. Nevertheless, he went over to a blushing Mariam and gave her a long and passionate kiss. They broke apart and heard the rest of their team whooping, which only increased the intensity of their blushing, if possible.
"Well, Mariam, truth or dare?" he asked her, smiling playfully.
Immediately knowing what he was thinking, her cheeks turned a bit pink yet she smirked, before saying "Dare"
"I dare you to let me do that again," he said.
More whooping and 'OH's' were heard as those words left his mouth, and towards the end people began becoming sick of their public displays of affection. Finally pulling apart, for the human body needs air to function, Mariam thought for a moment before saying, "Salima my dear, truth or dare?"
Not wanting to be the victim of a terrible dare, for god knew what went on in Mariam's conniving mind, she was obliged to select truth.
"Truth eh? Well, why don't we share with everyone that fun time you had at my birthday this year," Mariam suggested, smirking evilly. "You know, the one where you made out with a certain picture of a certain someone"
Salima blushed, but knew that she was forced to tell all. "Well, on June 3rd, Mariam had turned 14 and well, we planned to have her party here, seeing as it had the most space and Julia's parents let her do practically anything. Anyway, we invited a few of our closest friends over and one of them, a guy of course, has a certain, well let's call it fondness, for alcoholic beverages. He came over and of course, as suspected, brought alcohol with him. Mind you, he's a really nice guy and rarely drinks enough to get drunk but whatever. Usually he just keeps the stuff to himself, but this time, he decided to share. I didn't know the punch was spiked, I swear! So, I drank from it and got a little bit tipsy…"
"A little tipsy?" Julia piped in. "Oh no girl, you were piss drunk!"
Salima rolled her eyes, "Whatever," she said. "Either way, I wasn't in my right mind. First, I roamed around Julia's house until I got to the hallway near her room, which is where we're staying. On the wall and on a little hall table, she had like, I don't know, maybe a few pictures of Ray. Again, whatever, I was totally drunk, so I took the one that looked most hot and pretty much made out with it. Mind you, I was totally gone! I had no recollection of it! In fact, if Mariam hadn't been so kind as to share those events with me, I probably wouldn't have known I did it!"
"By the way," Julia piped in again, "I immediately removed that picture from the hall, it's no longer there, but this isn't the end of her story," she told the bladebreakers who already had somewhat shocked looks on their faces, Ray's being the most comical.
"Yeah, yeah, whatever. Do you want to stop interrupting?" asked Salima, annoyed.
"Sure," Julia smiled, "sorry"
"It's ok. As she said, that's not the end of it. Apparently, I went up to one of Julia's butlers, not Jeeves, and tried to seduce him. Mariam, again, told me that the look on the poor guys face was priceless, but I'm sure my attempts were even more so. From what I heard, I drew quite a crowd that night," Salima finished.
"And don't forget that the Dobermans nearly ate you!" chimed Hilary.
Salima groaned. "Do we HAVE to mention that?"
"Of course," agreed Mariam evilly.
Salima sighed, embarrassed, before continuing, "Well, ok, so I didn't know that her alarm to the mansion was on so I went outside. From what the girls and everyone else told me, I was trying to flash the gardener"
At this, she got a collective gasp of shock.
"Yeah, yeah, marvel at my stupidity why don't you? Anyway, like I said, I was outside and I stepped out of the protected area. Naturally, when I tried to get back in, the alarm went off and the Dobermans came out, fangs and drool and growls and all. I was drunk, but still in my right mind to be scared of them," she told them.
"Again, she's enough in her right mind to sense her fear of dogs, but not enough to stop herself from making out with a photo. Strange? I think so!" Mariam winked, making Salima blush.
"Shut up!" Salima yelled at Mariam angrily. "It doesn't matter, in the end, Hilary saw me from the window and shut off the alarm, sending the dogs away. So there you have it, that's my story. Now Julia, Truth or Dare?"
Julia thought for a while and finally responded, "Dare, I'm not scared of you"
Salima smirked evilly before replying, "You should be. I dare you to give Kai a, um, how should I put this, more-than-friendly backrub," she ended with a mischievous glint in her eyes.
Knowing that Salima was probably going to select something with Kai, Julia wasn't too surprised, but a little bit annoyed at her team's persistence. She and Salima noticed Kai tense at the description of the dare, and he went upright. Again, Salima smirked. "Look at him Julia! He's so tense! He's just begging for a backrub!"
Glaring at her friend and at the already laughing teammates, Julia rolled her eyes and said, "Whatever, leave him alone."
"Only if you do the dare," Salima chimed.
"Whatever," Julia said again before walking over to Kai. "Look," she said to him, "they're a bunch of idiots trying to make us get together because we're best friends. So just let me do this stupid dare and maybe they'll back off for a while."
Still stiff, Kai nodded, tensing even further when Julia pushed herself against his back, her arms draping over his shoulder, and began massaging the muscles in his shoulders.
"Just relax," she whispered, noticing how tense he got.
Taking her advice, he let his shoulders sag a bit, but was too embarrassed at the current time to look up at the faces of his teammates, who he was sure, were laughing silently.
Julia continued to massage his shoulders, glad that she had something to focus on, for she too was becoming increasingly embarrassed and she wasn't entirely sure why. I mean sure, she was doing an embarrassing dare to one of her best friends, but that was the problem! He was her best friend! It shouldn't have been that weird of a feeling! In the end, she blamed it on the fact she hadn't see him for a long while, and now they were teenagers with chemical imbalances called hormones. Almost absentmindedly, she moved her hands around his waist and with her thumbs, she began to massage the lower sides of his back.
Kai, while he would never admit it, was enjoying the massage somewhat. It was true that he had been tense and needed to relax a bit, but this was definitely not the way he'd wanted to do it. His idea of relaxation was to go in that meditation room Julia had set up for his, and to just lie there and think, or listen to some of his favorite music. However, this wasn't a bad alternative, minus, of course, the fact that every one of their teammates was watching them with increasing interest.
For a moment, he raised his head and looked at Ray, secretly hoping that the boy would soon do the only right brotherly thing to do, get mad and pull Julia away. Unfortunately, it seemed that the years of separation between the siblings had stripped Ray of all those overprotective brotherly feelings inside, and it showed by the way Ray was snickering and giving Kai a knowing gaze.
'Idiot,' Kai thought, referring to Ray, 'what the heck is he staring at anyway? And what's up with that look he's giving me? Does he really think that Julia and me like each other? Ugh! That man should be held in contempt of his own sanity! Crazy idiot…and I thought he was smart! Wrong about that one, that's for sure.'
Through all this thinking, he had nearly forgotten about the massage and, snapping back to reality, he noticed that he had become more relaxed. Smirking, he turned to Julia, who was now working his upper back, and whispered, "You're pretty good at this. Maybe you should go into it professionally"
She shook her head, before replying, "In your dreams. Now, sit up, I'm done."
Much to the dismay of Kai and Julia, as soon as the two got up and raised their heads to face their teammates, each and every one of them had a big grin on their faces.
"Oh, for the love of god," Julia said, exasperatedly, "can you all stop smiling like a bunch of idiotic fools?"
"Ooh, someone's getting irritated," teased Max, but he was immediately silence with a death glare from Julia that sent shivers up his spine.
"Kai and Julia sitting in a tree…K-I-S-S-I-N-G! First comes love, then comes marriage…" Tyson began singing.
"Tyson," Kai warned, "if you want to live to see tomorrow, you will stop this nonsense at ONCE," he gave a glare for emphasis.
Tyson gulped and immediately sat back down, silenced. A few moments passed before Hilary started speaking. "Hey guys, that's not such a bad idea! I mean, this game's getting kind of boring, so why don't we do something more fun, like karaoke?" she suggested cheerfully.
This seemed to raise almost every one's spirits. "Sure!" was the general chorus of voices. All except for one.
"I don't sing," the voice spoke coldly.
"Aw, come on Kai! What do you have to lose?" whined Max.
"My dignity," came the cold reply.
It seemed as though once again, the party was going to be ruined thanks to the unwilling participation of Kai, when Julia came up with an idea. At once her face brightened up, and she walked over to Kai and whispered something in his ear. Again, the rest of their team got stupid knowing grins on their faces, almost positive that this would convince him. And by Julia's reaction after talking to him, they knew it had.
"Ok, he said yes!" Julia announced happily, "but we need to use the elevator to get up to the 10th floor, where I have the stuff set up!"
Together, the teams walked to the elevator and went upstairs, where they found the room and opened the door. The Bladebreakers, though not entirely surprised after seeing the house, were fairly astonished at the room she had set up. Most of the time, especially in Bakuten, karaoke usually meant a bunch of bored teens sitting around singing into a small machine with a portable microphone. Here, in Julia's house, karaoke pretty much meant a rock concert in front of a small live audience! There was a mini platform stage, with many tables and chairs around it. On the stage there were 4 microphones, 2 electric guitars (as well as 2 acoustic ones on the side), a drum set, and a keyboard.
"Welcome to my humble music room," Julia said to them, "I have already chosen that it's going to be each of us with a solo and then at the end, the boys get into a group, and the girls get into a group. The order of solos will go like this; Ray, Salima, Tyson, Hilary, Max, Mariam, Kai and finally me. I can't leave the guests with no fun, now can I? Oh, and if you're not up singing, please sit at one of the tables. Ray, darling brother, you have about 10 minutes to think of a song, and my staff will more than happily assist you in any playing of the instruments."
Ray paled slightly and nodded, then went off to think of the perfect song to sing. The rest of the team sat down and anxiously awaited his arrival on stage.
