Chapter Four-
A/N: Huzzah! It is here!
"TYSON!"
"YOU TOLD HER?"
"YOU'RE SUCH AN IDIOT, TYSON! I CAN'T BELIEVE I'M FRIENDS WITH YOU!"
Tyson, and his dear friend Hilary, were yelling at each other from approximately three feet apart. The cafeteria had initially quieted to listen to see if there was anything interesting going on, but because there wasn't, really, the rest of the students were back to their morning chatter.
"C'mon, Hil… It's ok, sweetie pie." Max tried to consol his girlfriend, who was looking more and more like a flustered cat than anything. The brunette glared daggers at her friend, just barely letting Max's soothing take effect. She was not a happy camper.
"I really just don't see what the big deal is. He isn't as bad as you might think; he's even pretty nice to me!" Tyson justified at a more acceptable volume. The blue haired teen really didn't see the issue. Did Hilary or Max even know Kai? How could they be so quick to judge him? He didn't get it.
"He's not bad? He's worse! You don't even… have a clue, Tyson!" Hilary said, annoyed but looking less furious tucked under Max's arm. She was still glowering and sputtering like an angry kitten, however.
"I think I know him better than you do, Hil." Tyson barked, glaring at the brunette who just shook her head.
"You'll regret being his friend, Tyson. I'm being serious." Hilary gave her last warning as the bell rang, indicating that the students should get to class.
"Whatever, Hil." Tyson dismissed, walking away from his friends and towards his first class.
The rest of the day, as usual, went without major conflict. By third period, Max, Hilary, and Tyson were all best friends again, and ate lunch together like usual. They joked, they laughed, and Tyson ate just over half of everyone's lunch in addition to all of his own. Kai Hiwatari was not mentioned or seen until after the friends split at the end of the day.
"See ya!" Tyson waved, heading off in the direction he always did after school.
"Bye Tyson!" Max waved back, his arm slung casually over his girlfriends' shoulders.
"Mondays sucks…" Tyson mumbled to himself with a sigh, gripping his backpack strap with his left hand tightly and walking at an unusually brisk pace for the somewhat lazy teen.
Tyson grumbled, well, until he turned the corner and found his new BFF leaning in usual fashion against the chain-link, a cigarette hanging from his mouth. Tyson grinned and felt his own excitement bubble in his throat.
"KAI! HEY, KAI!" Tyson said loudly, his voice nearly shrill with over enthusiasm. Kai just gave him an exasperated look, scoffing as the younger teen came walking up to him, casually invading his personal space.
"Pipe down, idiot." Kai grumbled, pulling his cigarette from his mouth and blowing the smoke out in a huff towards the younger teen. Tyson squinted his eyes, the tobacco-rich smoke making them water and his throat burn.
"How do you even smoke those things?" Tyson asked, waving a hand in front of his face and smiling.
Kai shrugged in response, looking towards the last few students that were leaving the school. He did a chin-up at someone, and then looked back at his younger companion.
"So you aren't going to leave me alone?" Kai asked shortly, throwing the cigarette butt on the ground and stepping on it. Tyson nodded, oblivious to all social cues.
Kai sighed deeply, running a hand through his already wild and messy gray hair. His blood-colored eyes scanned over the younger teen that stood staring at him, with an almost stupid grin on his face.
"Are you any good at functional analysis?" Kai asked suddenly, looking at Tyson quickly.
"Functional analysis? You mean math?" Tyson asked himself out loud and then nodded. "Actually, yeah. It's the only subject I don't fail regularly." He laughed at his own truth, and looked to the ground insecurely.
"Wonderful. Hopefully you can be useful then. C'mon." Kai said, walking away from the spot in the vague direction of his apartment in his usual fast pace.
"Now? Wait, what? Dude!" Tyson looked around confusedly, before jogging after Kai. "Lemme call and tell gramps I'ma be late." Tyson said, pulling out his cell and flipping it open.
"So if the parent graph is 2 to the x power, then the critical points on the x axis are -1, 0, and 1, and on the y axis they are 1/2 , 1, and 2, in that order?" Kai asked casually, chewing delicately on the black pencil he'd been writing with.
"Yeah, perfect. So if we transform the graph by changing the exponent to x+2 what happens?" Tyson asked, suddenly feeling very important to his friend.
"The parent graph moves to the right by two." Kai answered, staring at the graph paper and scrutinizing it.
"…No." Tyson informed him reluctantly. "It moves to the left by two." He said, sketching the answer on the paper with an arrow pointing in the correct direction. Kai threw his pencil down dramatically.
"That doesn't make and god damn sense!" The older boy said, his voice tense and frustrated.
"Well, think of it this way. The x+2 are like… married. And anything that is married is in parenthesis because they can't be split up. And you remember, from earlier this year, that any values in parenthesis in functions are actually the opposite of what they are outside of them. So x+2 in parenthesis is really x-2." Tyson finished, nodding to himself and looking up at Kai, who was looking anything but cheerful. The older teens jaw was locked and he was glaring at his poor tutor like murder.
"I guess I can remember that…" Kai sighed, taking a deep breath and laying back on his couch. The two teens were on either side of Kai's short coffee table. Tyson was on the floor, whilst Kai chose to sit on his quaint navy blue sofa.
"I guess you're done for today?" Tyson asked quietly, flopping down on the carpeted floor and closing his eyes. They'd been studying for Kai's retention test for a few hours, and it was becoming exceedingly obvious the senior didn't have a basic understanding of mathematics.
"Yeah. I need a smoke." The older boy said, sitting up and grabbing the pack from the short table. Tyson sat up, watching intently as the older boy dug around in his pocket for his lighter. Kai slid his main window open, and leaned against the window sill. He set the white stick between his lips and lit in quickly, sucking in the chemicals and starting the slow burning.
"When did you start?" Tyson asked suddenly, watching the older boy as if he was in a trance.
"Start what?" Kai asked, blowing a lung-full of smoke out the window.
"Smoking." Tyson replied, crossing his legs and cocking his head slightly.
"I think I was 13." Kai said casually, closing his eyes to, presumably, savor the moment.
"That's really young." Tyson noted, nodding to himself and pursing his lips. "Why?" Tyson inquired.
"What is this? 20 questions?" Kai asked sharply, opening his eyes lazily to glare at his 'friend'.
"I'm just curious. You're kind of closed off, man." Tyson said to the older, standing up and walking over to the window as well. He leaned his head against the wall and admired the view of the parking lot and road.
Kai just shrugged and grunted. "Wanna try it?" Kai asked suddenly, offering the white cancer stick to the younger teen.
Tyson eyed the small item suspiciously. These things meant cancer. And yet… If Kai did it, it couldn't be too bad. Gramps would kill him.
He reached out for it anyways, grasping the delicate white stick daintily, holding it more like a joint than a cigarette. He brought it to his lips insecurely, and looked once more at Kai.
The older boy had both eyebrows raised slightly, is mouth slightly parted. Tyson couldn't help but grin a little bit at the idea that he surprised the older boy. Maybe he couldn't get laid, but he could smoke a cigarette!
Tyson placed the filter in his mouth and closed his lips around it. The texture was not nearly as unpleasant as he expected. He sucked in the air softly as first, feeling the warm and dry smoke enter his mouth, before blowing it out.
"It's not a cigar. You're supposed to inhale into your lungs." Kai informed him, his eye narrowed and harsh.
Tyson nodded, gulping once, before sucking again on the stick, feeling the smoke enter his mouth before opening his chest and letting the smoke bore down his throat.
Tyson immediately coughed, once, twice, three times. The smoke jutted out of his mouth and lungs erratically, and his throat burned like no tomorrow. The taste of the cigarette was strong on his tongue and he shook his head at the disgusting flavor.
"I don't get it." Tyson said, looking at the offending cigarette and shaking his head from side to side. Kai grinned, for the first time Tyson could remember, and slung an arm around his shoulder, pulling the younger against his side.
"You're crazy, you know that?" Kai chuckled, grabbing the cigarette with the same hand he had around Tyson, then brining his lips to it and sucking deeply. Tyson gulped at how close the older boy suddenly was, his eyes widened considerably as he studied Kai's lips around the cig. Kai smelled like cigarettes, definitely, but he also smelled a little spicy, or maybe a little musky, but it was entirely pleasant. Tyson froze, his body going rigid at so much contact. He felt insecure, and he felt his palms begin to sweat.
And then he felt his heart begin to race.
The blue-haired teen ducked under his friend's arms and backed up a few steps, his eyes wide and his balance unstable. Kai looked at his curiously, his formerly happy and carefree expression fading into something much darker.
"Sor-sorry." Tyson stuttered, swallowing reluctantly as his dry and burning throat protested.
Kai just raised an eyebrow, looking at the younger darkly and with a deeper sense of… anger?
"Oh! Wow! Look at the time! Man, I better get going. It's been real, Kai. I'll see you soon, buddy, bye!" And with that, Tyson was out the door and sprinting home like a maniac.
"Ty? You ok, bud?" Max asked, sitting at their regular lunch table around noon. The blue haired teen was acting strangely all day, and it was beginning to ruin the fun of his two friends.
"Huh?" Tyson asked, snapping his attention up to his blonde friend who looked at him with very concerned eyes.
"What's wrong, man?" Max repeated, his blue eyes meeting the darker blue of Tyson's.
"Oh, nothing…" Tyson sighed, looking back at his uneaten sandwich.
"Tyson? Max? Guys?" A small voice came from beside the table, both Max and Tyson looked at the brunette immediately.
"KENNY?" They both exclaimed at once, and were immediately on top of the small boy, smothering him with what could be described only as brotherly love.
"Dude! I didn't know you were coming back yet! This is awesome!" Tyson said excitedly, hugging the short brunette tightly.
"How was China? Did you get lots of studying done?" Max asked while his arms also, somehow, wrapped around the small boy.
"You guys… are hurting me…" Kenny squeaked, before both teenagers let him go.
"Tell us all about it!" Tyson said excitedly, sitting back down at this spot and gesturing for the other boy to sit with him. Hilary, who'd been present but ignored the whole time, looked at Kenny with a smile.
"Kenny, it's good to see you." She said sincerely as Max settled back in next to her.
"You too, Hil!" Kenny said pulling out his laptop and setting it on the lunch table.
"I'll tell you guys all about it later, but first, I want you to meet the friend I brought back with me." Kenny said, gesturing in the direction he came. Standing approximately ten feet from the table, an awkwardly large distance, stood a tall and lithe Chinese boy. He wore traditional Chinese clothes and had unbelievably long black hair, tied at the back of his head. His eyes were striking and the way he stood was reminiscent of a cat, ready to run or pounce at any moment.
"This is Ray!" Kenny said happily, coaxing the boy over.
"Hi Ray." Max greeted with a big smile.
"Hello. You must be Max, am I right?" The boy asked, his accent almost non-existent.
"Yeah, dude!" Max grinned, giving him a thumbs up. Tyson scooted over, as did Kenny, so the new boy could join the group as well.
"You must be Hilary, and you Tyson." Ray said, looking at the others with his shifty gaze.
"Mhm!" Tyson said, nodding wildly. Tyson's day was definitely looking up.
At the end of the day, the group stood chatting together happily, including the new student Ray.
"Tyson, do you think we could all hang out at your place and catch up? The dojo is the best!" Max exclaimed, gesturing with the one hand that was not laced with Hilary's.
"Yeah, man, let's do it. Gramps would love to see you all again." Tyson nodded, Kenny agreed and Ray did as well.
"Aw man this is so great! I can't believe you just went to China and brought home an exchange student. I mean, it's really cool and Ray is awesome, but Kenny, I didn't think you had it in you." Tyson stated and the group laughed and chatted about it.
As they rounded the corner, Tyson led the way and looked out for Kai. Kai Hiwatari was, in fact, in his usual spot partaking in his usual cancer-causing activity. The older boy just glanced briefly at Tyson without any real acknowledgment.
"Hey Kai!" Tyson said suddenly as their group approached the teen. Kai's upper lip twitched on one side. He looked pissed.
"Tyson, lay off. He's not worth your breath." Hilary added suddenly, her voice seething and her expression almost as malicious as Kai's.
"It's nice to see you too, Ms. Tachibana, considering we haven't chatted in awhile." Kai said smoothly, his voice too smooth and perfect. He was studying her intently, his eyes were a tiny bit bloodshot, and his calculating look indicated the fact that he was going in for the kill.
Silence descended on the group and the air suddenly became so tense it could be cut with a butter knife.
"In fact, if I remember correctly, which I always do," He paused with a smirk, "…the last time I saw you this close you were on my bed without any clothes on. Oh, how time flies." Kai said darkly. He looked at the usually strong willed girl with a cruel glint in his eye. He then looked to Tyson and met his eyes briefly, before walking away without a stray glance back at the silent group of teens.
Tyson felt his body go numb, understanding suddenly that Kai wasn't mad at Hilary… He wasn't even trying to piss Max off. He was royally pissed beyond comprehension at him and he couldn't think of any reason why that could be.
"Hilary, why did he say that?" Max's sugary sweet voice chimed softly from the back of the group.
A/N: Ohhh I'm a bad authoress! It's been nearly two weeks! Oh goodness… I hope this mega over dramatic teenage drama will make up for me. Oh, and so you're probably wondering by now if I'm like obsessed with cigarettes or something. The answer would be yes. I don't smoke, much, but I think they're really sexy and me and my friends share a cigarette whenever we go out and aren't going to get stoned. Uhh, don't ask… Either way, bad Emziie, bad! Update faster! I was going to edit this more and make it funny, but that might delay it's posting for a week or more and I couldn't do that to ya'll. I love you guys… Reviews for teen angst, my critters?
I'm, apparently, not supposed to reply to my love varmints (AKA reviewers) on my story. Well, fine. I won't. If you have any questions though, I will still answer them here. Just message me or drop a review and I shall answer! I love you guys dearly.