Chapter Four

"Too bad," Ana said bluntly. The Annoying One was starting the get on her nerves again. So what if he's cu-…ew. Erm. That's no reason why he has to be so rude. She'd had to use her stupid BEGA (ugh) ID card, for Beyblade's sake!

Kai was shaking his head again, while leaning on one of the trees in the park they were in. Ana tried again, "Kai! Look, I know it's not high-quality and it looks bad-but it was the best one there! Don't you at least want to practice?"

The Annoying (and soon to be pulverized) One snorted. The tree's leaves had cast a shadow over part of his face, but Ana could still see the glint in his eyes.

Weary, she plopped down cross-legged on the grass in front of him. Inhale, exhale; inhale, exhale… "I can't make you do anything you don't want to," she said, more calmly this time, "But at least practicing with a Beyblade is sure to lift that sore loser spirit from you," Was that a twitch in his chiseled jaw? "And when a better blade comes across, you can switch as fast as you want. But do you have another blade right now?"

She held out the puke-coloured Beyblade out at arms' length and dropped it at the Kai's feet. She looked up and their eyes met…the Annoying One's gaze was surprisingly disturbing, so Ana was the one to look away first. "I'll…um, go get my stuff. You can leave for good," she jumped to her feet. "But I'll meet you here later if you want to practice."

She shoved her hands into the pockets of her shorts and turned around, jogging in the direction of the hotel her stupid father pushed her in with a nanny (ugh). Ana doubted he'd notice if she disappeared for a month or two though…she grinned. Touching up on her Beyblading skills had been something she'd wanted to do for a long time.

Hopefully Kai wouldn't run off and vanish.

Tearing his gaze away from the Ana's receding form, he looked down. A few moments passed, slowly trickling into minutes.

Finally, he gave a big sigh and picked the colour-damaged blade off the ground with a swipe of his hand. Snapping the bit-chip in was harder, but it was still done.

"Dranzer," he said softly. "Ana's right. We do need to practice. After that we'll crush Brooklyn and then do the same to Tyson!"

"Ugh, stupid Tyson!" Hillary Tachibana muttered, running through the streets. "Can't…be bothered…to…get his own food,…lil' twerp…" she panted, before stopping to tie her shoelace.

"Too busy practicing, so he goes-" Hillary finished the last butterfly knot before taking off again. "Get us some pizza, Hillary, it's not like you have anything else to doo…" she switched the five hefty boxes to her other shoulder, still indignant.

"WHY THE NERVE!" she suddenly shouted, turning heads. "Oops…" The girl reddened. Even so, she continued ranting in her head. "Stupid, stupid, stupid…"

Maybe she was too preoccupied; probably, the pizza boxes had unbalanced her; possibly, her shoelace still wasn't tied tightly enough; or maybe she'd just recognized the girl in front of her. Either way, she tripped.

A few minutes ago~

"Mhh, tuna or original?" Ana asked herself. She was inside Cat's Haven, the only pet store she'd found that didn't have BEGA promotional posters taped up everywhere.

"Eh, I'll just take both!" she walked over to the self-checkout line and waited while the machine went plink-plink.

She couldn't wait to visit the poor cats…but she'd save all her gushing for later. She tried -and failed- to stuff the two bags into the already bulging white-and-magenta backpack she'd slung behind her, and hurried out of the store.

Suddenly, a flying shape rammed into the girl, knocking both parties to the ground. "Ow…"Ana groaned, looking at her shocked attacker. Why was she so familiar…?

The brunette rubbed the back of her head, "Sorry 'bout tha-ANA? Ana! It IS you!" The girl enveloped her into a strangling hug. "How…when did you…"

Ana choked back the hug's smothering properties. "Hillary?" she asked meekly. Her old friend and classmate let go, eyes blazing.

"Where have you been? It's two…three…" "Three," Ana finished.

"Three YEARS. No calls, visits, only those weird letters…were they even from you, or him?" Hillary meant her friend's father.

"Both, I mean, I'd write you something and then it'd be censored…so in the end I just gave up." Ana said bitterly, helping to stack up the squished pizza boxes.

Hillary sighed, "As long as you're here now, it's fin-WAIT! You snuck away?" a grin spread over her face.

Ana nodded, "It took awhile, but he's been so caught up in his newest 'project'…"

"No! You mean…" Hillary pointed to the BEGA emblem stamped onto the pizza box on the top of the stack. "Oh."

"Mhhm," was Ana's reply. They brushed themselves off and she managed to grab onto the shaky pile before they dropped from her friend's grip.

"You should stay with me then! My parents won't mind. C'mon! I wanna let you meet some of my new friends," Hillary began, before the other girl shook her head.

"Not right now, Hill, I promised to help this blader practice in a bit."

"Ha! Still trying to help everyone in the world? I remember when we were little and you'd always be feeding those stray…"

Ana held up the bags of cat food, causing fits of laughter.

"Aws, so who's this lucky guuyyy?"

"I told you! I'm not-"

"-into that stuff. I know, yada yada yada,...but who is he?"

"Oh, remember that competition BEGA had to determine its team? One of the competitors, Kai Hiwarti, got really hurt and I gave him his bit-chip back and promised to help…wha? Hill, why are you looking at me like that…?"

They linked arms, and started walking. "Ana, you have no idea…"

Author's Note: Yes! Ch.4 done and posted!D (trying to write these as fast as I can, but I'm not even done half of it yet.-sighs-) PLEASE KEEP THE REVIEWS COMING!(I'm really starting to heart all of you guys~)

PS: Oh dear...I think I gave away Ana's identity already. Well, was it what you expected? And I was going to save it for ch.6...bleh.