Chapter 4: I don't understand. Can you help me?
The Blade Breakers were now proceeding with their schedule. Today they had to start their promoting in Plaza Las Americas, one of the most important and popular malls in Puerto Rico.
They had the main hall to accommodate all the equipment for the promoting they'd be doing there. They didn't have any help organizing the equipment. They had a giant plasma screen TV to put tapes of their last tournaments, a small table with pamphlets with information for the tournament among other things, Beyblades to teach newcomers the art of beyblading and a medium sized Beydish.
"Man, Mr. Dickenson could have had the decency to send some people to help us organize all of this," complained Tyson as he sat on a chair.
"On the bright side, look how well we did organizing it all. Let's just enjoy our little promoting job here and we may as well enjoy the mall too while we're here," said Max as he organized the pamphlets and the registering sheet.
"Well the mall doesn't open for another 20 minutes so let's walk around for a bit. We already finished preparing the main hall," said Hilary as she made her way to one of the mall's other halls.
"That's a great idea," said Rei as he walked to where Hilary was now standing.
"Yeah, let's all go take a walk around the mall, the stores are opening any minute now too," said Kenny as he grabbed his laptop from the desk.
"Then it's settled. Let's go take a walk around the mall. Coming Kai?" said Tyson as he stood up stretching his arms.
"Fine," was all Kai said as he made his way to where Rei and Hilary were standing.
As they walked around the mall they noticed a huge fountain with giant metal animals hanging from the ceiling.
"Wow look at those things, are they animals?" asked a puzzled Max as he sat next to the fountain. "…I mean they're not like anything I've ever seen before."
"Well they are animals, they're some of the animals that live in Puerto Rico," said Kenny as he examined the creatures.
"Look at all the pennies and nickels in the fountain, this must be one of those make a wish fountains," said Tyson as he inserted his hand into his pocket to look for some coins.
"What was your first clue Einstein?" Hilary said with a raised eyebrow, as she too looked for a coin to toss into the fountain.
"This mall is quite big actually, even for me," said Max as he examined his surroundings.
"Aren't you going to toss a coin into the fountain too, Kai?" Rei asked as he tossed a coin into the fountain.
"Hn," was all Kai mustered, as he too tossed a coin into the fountain. "We should all head back now, the mall will be opening soon enough."
"I agree, it's almost 10AM," Kenny noted as he stood up from his seat on the ledge of the fountain.
"Ok, well then let's head back, but let's go through this way to kill some time and look around for a bit more while we head back," Hilary agreed as she pointed to a hallway to their left.
About two hours later they hadn't signed up a single beyblader into the tournament. The only things that they had attracted were kids under the age of 10 and all they did was watch the videos from the tournaments thinking it was some sort of movie.
"Man! So far this has been a total waste of time, wouldn't you agree Kai?" Rei asked as his cat-like eyes lingered on the kids watching the tournament videos.
"I'll have to agree, but it's barely been two hours since the mall opened, so let's not get frustrated," Kai replied rather calmly as he sat on the chair next to the registration desk.
Just then, a boy around 12 years old approached the desk and said, " Me pueden enseñar como jugar eso de beyblading?"
Kai had no idea what he was saying so he said, "Un momento," which was all he knew how to say, trying to use his common sense to translate what 'One moment' would mean in Spanish. "Hey Kenny, do you know how to speak, or at least understand, Spanish?"
"Yes a little. Why?" Kenny asked as he cleaned his glasses and put them back on.
"I think a kid wants to either register or learn how to play," Kai responded as he looked at the kid with a raised eyebrow and then walked away.
"Como puedo yo ayudar," Kenny began, attempting to speak in Spanish as he approached the kid.
"Me pueden enseñar a jugar eso de beyblade?"said the kid once again as he rolled his eyes.
Kenny thought for a minute what the boy could be saying. 'Let's see, uhmm, jugar means play and pueden must be can? I think enseñar, I really don't know…so far I've got Can play beyblading. Must mean for us to give him a preview of what it really looks…I'll ask Dizzy,' Kenny decided wordlessly.
He moved over to his laptop and opened it, and there was his dear companion and bit beast that greeted him with a, "Hello Chief! Where the heck have you been? You haven't opened me up since forever!"
"Sorry about that Dizzy. I've been a little busy with this whole new tournament thing, but I promise I'll contact you more often," replied a rather nervous Kenny knowing she was right to complain.
"I hope so. So what can I do for you, Chief?" Dizzy asked in a more cheerful tone.
"Well, I was hoping you could help me translate what this boy could be saying," Kenny replied as he fixed his glasses.
"Well then, tell him to repeat what he said Chief, Spanish isn't my hard drive's strong point," Dizzy instructed.
"How do I say 'repeat what you just said'?" asked Kenny.
"Let me get my translating program," Dizzy paused for a minute, looking for the translator program. " 'Repita lo que usted acaba de decir' is what I got Chief."
"Ok!" Kenny beamed, hoping that the kid heard what she had said.
"Dije que si me puedes enseñar a jugar eso de beyblade!" repeated a rather annoyed boy, rolling his eyes once again.
"Well Dizzy…?" asked Kenny, starting to feel uncomfortable under the boy's annoyance.
"I got 'I said that if you can teach to me to play that of beyblade,'" answered Dizzy quite confidently.
"Thanks Dizzy I'll take it from here," said Kenny and with that he closed his laptop and placed it on the desk. He made a beckoning gesture with his hand to the boy, and the boy followed Kenny over to the others.
"Hey guys, we have a customer," said Kenny sarcastically. " But just to warn you, he doesn't speak English, he only speaks Spanish."
"Well can you stay then and translate for us, or just get Dizzy?" Rei suggested as he stood up from the chair next to the Beydish.
Just then they heard someone calling from the registering desk. They all turned around to see there were at least 5 kids there.
"Sorry guys I guess I can't help you, I need Dizzy to help me understand what they are saying," said Kenny as he shrugged and began to walk towards the registering table.
"Man what are we going to do? None of us know how to speak in Spanish let alone understand it!" Rei sighed, almost despairingly, as he sat back down in his chair.
"I know a little French but that's it. And I've been told that it comes from the same branch as Spanish but that it's completely different," Hilary mused as she stood next to Rei.
"Come on guys, we have to at least try," Max smiled pleadingly as he walked towards the boy and placed his hand on his shoulder.
"Maxie's right, we have to at least give it a try," Tyson agreed as he practically jumped from the chair he was sitting on.
For the next hour, the only thing they'd managed to teach the boy was how to launch a beyblade, and they were still trying to teach him how to command it. There was a line of at least 10 more kids that wanted to learn how to blade. Kenny was still busy trying to answer all the kids' questions as fast as possible.
"Man this has been hell, and all I've done is hand out kids Beyblades and launchers," said a very tired Hilary.
"The good news is that we get a break for lunch in an hour. The bad news is that after that we have another 4 hours of 'promoting' to do," Rei sighed heavily as he instructed another boy to stand next to the Beydish.
"What was the good news again?" Tyson smiled, daydreaming about food.
"…What a pathetic attempt to teach those kids how to blade, let alone their attempts to speak Spanish…" they heard someone say from not too far from them.
"Hey! Who said that?" Tyson demanded as he examined his surroundings, looking for the source of the voice.
"Me," came the same voice again, sounding as if it belonged to a girl. They all turned around to find a long, wavy, browned hair girl wearing an indigo blue top with a short denim skirt and heeled boots that came to her knee. She had green eyes and white porcelain skin.
"You have to have some nerve to critique us for trying our best to teach kids how to blade. You think you can do a better job?" Tyson hissed with steam practically coming out of his ears.
"Well, I don't know about the 'teach them how to blade' part, but I can certainly do a better job translating than all of you put together," the girl replied mockingly.
"Why you…" Tyson fumed but he was cut off by Kai
"We'll take you up on your offer," he said as he crossed his arms.
"What?" the girl and Tyson exclaimed together.
"You said you could do a better job than us translating, well then, we'll take your offer," Kai replied as he looked straight into her eyes.
"Fine, it will be my pleasure," the girl smiled as she walked towards him.
"What's your name?" asked Max with a raised eyebrow.
"My name's Shayera. How about yours?" she announced as she examined all of their faces with mixed expressions.
"I'm Max, that girl over there is Hilary, this is Rei, the boy at the registering table is Kenny, that's Tyson over there, and the guy next to you is Kai, our team captain," he announced as he pointed to the each of them as he mentioned them.
"A pleasure to meet you all, I'm sure," she said, sarcasm laced into her tone.
"Let's see how good you really are at translating for us, Shayera," Tyson huffed as he folded his arms over his chest.
"My English may not be perfect but I'm pretty good at translating since I originate from here," she said as she walked towards an empty chair.
"Well then, let's begin," said Kai as he instructed a kid to follow him.
An hour later it was lunchtime and they had all gone to the food court, Shayera in tow. They all sat at a table, eating the food they had all ordered.
"It's been much easier working with the newcomers with Shayera's help," Rei mentioned as he took a bite of his burger.
"You do have to agree with that Tyson," said Hilary, staring at the bluenette.
"Yeah, I guess," was all Tyson could say as he stuffed his mouth with fries. Shayera couldn't help but humbly smile, seeing as they appreciated her help.
"And she's not as bad as she seemed to be at first," Max added as he finished his food.
"Thanks, I think?" Shayera smiled uneasily as she stood up to throw away the food that she didn't want.
"So, Shayera, when will you be leaving us?" Rei asked as he too stood up to throw away his unwanted food.
"In about three or four hours. You think you can all cope without me?" she asked sarcastically.
"Yeah, I think the little Spanish that you taught us will do us well for the remainder of the day," Rei smiled nervously, trying to prevent an outburst from Tyson at her evident sarcasm.
"So how long will you guys be staying here?" she asked as she sat down.
"Well, we'll be here quite a while since the tournament doesn't start for another 3-5 weeks," Kenny informed her.
"Well then, if you ever need me here's my phone number," she said as she gave them each a piece of paper.
"So are you a beyblader?" asked Rei.
"Not really, I'm not really into that stuff," she replied as she began to stretch her arms.
"Oh well, that shoots down my idea to ask you if you wanted to register for the tournament," Kenny sighed as he drank his soda.
"I'll keep it in mind," Shayera laughed lightly.
"We should head back now," Kai stated as he stood up.
Max stood up and walked towards Kai and said, "Yeah it's almost 2PM now. We have to get back to those newcomers."
They all threw their food away and headed back to the main hall to continue their 'job'.
They spent the next 4 hours teaching kids how to beyblade, gave live performances by none other than themselves and finished handing out pamphlets. They then began to put away all the equipment they had used.
"This has been quite a tiring day hasn't it?" asked a rather exhausted Tyson, aiming his question at no one in particular.
"Let's finish putting away the equipment and head to hotel," Rei suggested as he lifted a few boxes containing the beydishes.
"Yeah, I'm too tired to walk all the way to the food court. We'll just order food at the hotel," Tyson agreed, fatigued.
"Do you need a ride to your house Shayera?" asked Hilary, sitting next to her.
"No thanks, my father agreed to pick me up. So I should probably go now. He'll be waiting for me outside, near the entrance into Macy's," Shayera replied as she stood up and stretched her arms.
"Then we'll go with you. It's the least we could do after you helped us today," Max offered, walking towards her.
"No thanks. If you really want to thank me for my help, you'll just keep in contact with me, ok?" Shayera replied quickly.
"Ok, we'll call you tomorrow to see if you can come with us to a Press conference, and thanks again for staying with us until we finished," Kenny smiled in gratitude with his arms wrapped around his laptop.
"No problem. Well then, I'll talk to you guys later," with that she gave them each a kiss on the cheek and left. Although Kai didn't really want her to do so, he didn't want to come across as impolite towards her after all the help she'd given them.
A few minutes later, Shayera was outside the mall when a car pulled over. A man popped his head out of the window and called for her. She got in the car and greeted the man with a, " Hi father".
"Hello my dear Shayera. How was your day at the mall?" Shayera's father asked as he began to drive towards the mall's exit.
"Unlike any other. I met some boys in the main hall while doing their so-called promoting job. It wasn't their best effort," Shayera replied as she looked out the window.
"Oh? What were they promoting?" he asked as he continued to drive, never letting his sight leave the road.
"Beyblading," she responded.
"Beyblading…were they promoting Beyblading for the BBA?" her father asked, quite intrigued.
"How'd you know?" Shayera asked, turning her gaze on her father.
"Internet my dear," answered her father, a knowing tone to his voice. "What were the boys' names?"
"Let's see if I remember correctly…there was Max, Hilary, Kenny, Rei, Tyson and last but not least Kai," she answered as she counted them off on her fingers.
"Kai you say? What's his last name?" he asked, trying to stay focused on the road.
"I don't know. Let me see if in the pamphlet they gave me it says his last name," she said and began to browse through it. "Let's see…Oh, here we are! Team captain: Kai Hiwatari."
"Hiwatari you say?" the man said, beginning to ponder, losing himself in his thoughts.
"Father watch out!" yelled Shayera as they were about to hit another car. He then pulled the emergency brake and the car came to a stop.
"What's wrong you father? You almost hit that car!" she yelled at him.
"Quiet! Don't you dare use that tone of voice with me!" he spat back, to which she immediately reacted by folding her arms across her chest.
"I'm…I'm sorry father. I didn't mean to yell at you…"she began to say uneasily.
"Forgive me daughter, I didn't mean to react that way towards you either," he apologized and began to drive again.
'Hiwatari…Kai Hiwatari, this must be my lucky day,' the man thought with a smirk on his face.
A/N: Hiyaa people! How are you liking this fic. As i promised from this chapter on the story will start to develop and become a mystery. This rather long chapter makes up for the next one which will be short but starts to set the scene for the mystery. A special thanks to my dear honourary sis Keely who has been helping me with my grammar and spelling and for all her help. Just to warn you all, if I don't get more reviews than just...1 per chapter I'm afraid I'll discontinue this story. Please do try to review even if you just say a word or two. I promise you'll like the next chapter and if I get tons of reviews I'll post the next chapter as soon as I get as many reviews as I want. Please R & R.
Summary of Chapter 5: A woman is released from prison and comes back with a plan for revenge. When she pays a visit to Mr. Dickenson, what secrets will be revealed?