Harley came home on a sweltering June evening with her hair brutally straightened, chopped to chin length, and streaked blue. Permanently.
What did you expect? When your dad doesn't pay you any attention and he's never around to tell you what to do, you can't expect much more.
Suddenly her phone rang. She saw it was from a totally alien number; either it was Pearl with her customary 4 phones a month, or one of her friends demanding where she was. Harley answered it.
"WHAT."
"Well sorry for being alive."
Harley dropped the phone and hastily bent to retrieve it. The voice was frightening, unlike any she'd heard before.
"Who is this? Is this a prank or what!?" Harley was good at hiding fear.
"I don't know, who are you?"
"I asked first, buddy. IS THIS PEARL! PEARL, ARE YOU TRYING TO SCARE ME!?"
"Yeah, sure. This is Pearl. Wait, who's Pearl?"
"PEARL. Or is this MEGAN!?"
"I have no idea what you're talking about."
"WHO ARE YOU! ANSWER ME NOW OR I WILL HANG UP THIS PHONE!"
"Okay, okay. It's Ryuga."
"WHAT!"
"Who's Megan?"
"WHY ARE YOU CALLING ME AND HOW DID YOU GET MY NUMBER, YOU CREEP?"
"Ease up, Harley." Ryuga sounded VERY irritated now.
"WHY ARE YOU CALLING ME! IT'S THE MIDDLE OF THE NIGHT!"
"It is not, it's barely eight."
"Well, that's always what people say on the phone."
"Whatever, will you just get on your video chat?"
"Why?"
"Because...your dad wants to talk to you."
"Oh. Okay."
Harley reluctantly switched on her computer. She didn't know what was worse: having her dad ignore her, or having him want to talk to her.
The screen showed one friend request. From some "Dragon Emperor" guy.
She spoke into the still-calling phone. "Why are you trying to send me a friend request?"
Silence on the other line. With a sigh, Harley accepted the request just so she could yell at the creepy guy. Almost immediately "Dragon Emperor" was calling. She pressed answer.
"Oh, hi."
"RYUGA. I thought you said my dad wanted to talk to me."
"Somebody's in a bad mood...and I lied."
"WHY?"
"It's a villain thing."
"Uh-huh. I don't know why I'm even talking to you." Harley's dad was evil and since then she'd become an evil-hater.
"I just called to say thank you..."
That was strange. He didn't seem like a nice person. At all.
"What for? All I did was yell at you. In the middle of the night."
"I mean for the chocolate. Also, don't think this means I'm nice or we're friends or anything. I just really like chocolate."
"Well, you're a boy. I mean, what did you expect?"
"That's a little bit mainstream, don't you think?"
Harley sighed. "What's the real reason you called me?"
"Okay, fine. Your dad -"
"Hid his chocolate again."
"Yes. Hey, you're good! Would you happen to know where it was?"
"Ask the annoying yellow kid."
"Yu?"
"No, not me. The one who's, like, 7."
"No, that's his name. Yu. Speaking of you, why is your hair all short and blue?"
"Why does he have anything to do with me?"
"No, I meant you as in 'you'."
"That makes no sense."
"Answer the question, already."
"Well, my dad's not around to tell me what to do, and he obviously doesn't care either way. Plus, I'm named after a motorcycle, what do you expect?"
"They're not gonna like that when you go back to school..."
"I'm not going back."
Ryuga stared back at Harley from the screen. "Are you allowed to do that?"
"Like I said, my dad doesn't care enough to make me go back."
"Harley, you can't quit school." Ryuga's voice was not as rough as it had been when they first met; something had changed.
"Why?"
"Pretty soon, your dad's not gonna be around to protect you anymore."
"How do you know?"
"Because this evil stuff is about to come crashing down around him."
Harley was indignant. "Listen, Ryuga, if he's going down, he's taking you with him. You're just a kid like me. If you know that's gonna happen, why don't you make a break for it?"
"Because...this is all I have. I've never had a home, I've never had a family. All I've got is this beyblade and the guy who brought me to it."
"So tell him he needs to snap out of it."
"I can't. The man doesn't listen to anybody."
Harley sighed. "Listen, this is what I was talking about the first night. You're only 14. You're not meant to be in this sort of position."
"If you'll promise not to quit school, I might just back out of this whole thing."
"Deal."
And so the two friends parted ways.
Ok, a few things I need to say.
First, this is not a pairing. This never was and never will be.
Second: Sorry Ryuga's a little OOC. I'm having trouble keeping him IC and getting the story going at once.
And third, I didn't mean for this chapter to come on so quickly; I can't think of anymore fillers, though. And this plot is full of holes.