Disclaimer: I do not own Beyblade or any of its characters. I do own Konna, Tanya and any other new characters. I also own the name of the school.

Room to be Ourselves

Twilight Poet

---Chapter 8---

Secrets and Mysteries

Konna sat on a chair in the relative's room tapping her feet and shifting impatiently.

"Whoa there buddy," smirked a man, "You'll wear a hole in the floor if you keep that up."

Konna glared at him, "This chair is so uncomfortable! Soon they'll need a relative's room for the relatives of the relatives that got injured on the chair in the bloody relative's room!"

The man laughed and sipped his coffee. There was a cough and Konna looked up to see a doctor entering the room. He was a kindly young man with dusty red hair and blue eyes.

"Kon?" he asked. He seemed flustered.

"That's me," frowned Konna, jumping to her feet.

Doctor Terran Smiths coughed and indicated she should follow him down the hall. More than a little nervous, Konna headed out.

"You'll be glad to know that Tan will have a full recovery, but… umm… Mr Kon…" gulped the doctor, "H-how long have you known your… friend?"

"Since we were little kids! Why?"

"D-did you know that he… is a she?" the doctor whispered.

"Yes…" Konna replied slowly, trying not to laugh. She had to think of something, and fast, "you see… sir… our-" she let her face crumble and fake tears appear in her eyes, "-our mum got married again to this man, and- and h-he's mean, really mean! And he would beat us and hurt us and mum couldn't stop him! And so w-we ran away. B-but we think he's looking for us and there are these strange people in black suits that's he's always talking to… so w-we disguised ourselves as boys so he would find us!" she wiped her face and looked the doctor in the eyes, "Please," she whispered, "Please, please don't give us away… we're doing good. We have small jobs and the shelter treats us good. We were about to move to another city when we were chased and they pushed Tanni out a window. I-I didn't know what else to do!!!"

Konna buried her face in her hands to hide the cringe that enveloped her face. That couldn't have sounded more fake!

When she peered at the man to see if he had bought her story, she was shocked to see him blowing his nose.

"That's what's wrong with this world," he sobbed, "this is why I became a doctor." He dabbed his eyes, "Don't worry, your secret's safe with me."

He led Konna to Tanya's room and shut the door so the two girls could talk privately.

"He knows," Tanya sighed

"Don't worry," Konna sniggered. "The doctor 'knows' we're runaways from our evil father and his henchmen that beat us so we're in disguise."

Tanya blinked, "Wow… go figure."

"…why?" Konna demanded.

"Tala…"

Konna grimaced, "Hey, I know he's a pain in the ass, but did you really have to jump out of the window?"

"Tala knows…" Tanya continued, "h-he was… err…" her face went crimson, "very… err… hormonal?"

Disgusted, shocked, anxious, revolted, appalled, vexed and basically freaked out –the expression on Konna's face showed it all.

"I'll kill him." She growled, "I'll take his head and I'll tear it into little biddy bits!"

Tanya laughed, "I know something better."

Konna broke out of her ranting, "Like what?"

"Pretend nothing happened."

"WHAT???" gasped Konna, "No way? That's crazy!"

Tanya smirked, "I know. And just think how confused he will be! 'Are they faking it?' 'Will they expose themselves to get me?' 'What should I do?'" she did an impression of Tala. "It'll drive him mad!"

"Yes," Konna grinned, "That'll work nicely."

The doctor gave the two a bag full of medical supplies and extra bandages. And, despite the girls' refusal, also gave them blankets, food from the dispenser machines and money. The man was seemed almost proud of himself for helping, so the girls took the stuff. Assuring him that they knew the way home, they left the hospital.

"Man do I feel guilty," whispered Tanya, using a crutch to walk.

"Don't worry," Konna smiled, "We'll make it up to him, somehow."

On the way to the school they stumbled upon a woman digging through a garbage can with a young child clutched to her ragged clothing. The girls gave her the blankets, food and money and she grinned wildly.

"You are good people," she croaked, "Here take these. It's the least I can do."

She hand them each a strange spinning top.

Tanya looked it over, "Hey! Aren't these those beythingy's?"

But the woman and child had vanished. Freaked out, they shoved the blades into their pockets and walk/hobbled, faster. The sun was just starting to set as they snuck back into the school. Tanya felt it best to get rid of the crutch, so she used Konna as support. Wearily, they trudged through the school yard.

"You students?" asked an old gardener.

"Yeah."

"Than you should hurry, the boss is holding a big assembly."

They thanked the man and quickly went to their rooms. Tanya changed into some new clothes and Konna hid the medical kit. With Tanya leaning on her smaller friend, the headed in what they hoped was the assembly hall's direction. Quietly, they slipped in sat in the back of the hall and tuned into the conversation.

"-and I want the people responsible for that window to see me in my office after this meeting." The girls gulped as the odd Principal continued, "Now, the main reason for bringing you all here was to inform you all about a very important event taking place. As you all know, 80 of this school is made up of beybladers. So the National Beyblading society has decided to merge this school with another that has a similar number of bladders." The room exploded in murmurs and whispering until Clarkson yelled for silence, "It is only for a month. It should be enough time for you all to prepare yourselves for the upcoming championships. The school is Tarson High, that's all thank you."

Konna and Tanya felt like someone had hit them with a large sledgehammer. Tarson High… the one place they wanted to get away from.

"C-come on…" Konna stuttered, "W-we should go explain the window…"

Nodding, Tanya put a shaking hand on Konna's shoulder and let her lead them to the Principal's office again. In the empty hallway they were intercepted.

"Not now Kai," Konna hissed, "I'm about ready to punch the daylights out of the next thing that moves."

"Bad day then?" the blunette smirked.

Konna swung at him, but he easily dodged. Tanya shook her head and indicated they should just ignore him. Pushing past, they entered the Principal's office and shut the door behind them.

"Sir?" asked Konna

Clarkson looked up from some papers, "are you responsible for the window?"

"Yes sir," nodded Tanya, taking a seat.

Eyeing her blood-stained bandages, Clarkson crossed his arms, "Please explain."

"Well," mused Tanya, "I was throwing a ball around and it got stuck on the curtain pole thing. I stood on one of those rolling chair to try and reach it but I slipped and grabbed the curtains to steady myself. The curtain's broke and I smashed through the window. Kon here found me on the ground outside and took me to a hospital. We came back just in time to here that you wanted to see us."

"So an accident was it?"

"Yes sir."

The Principal sighed, "Normally I would investigate further, but your injuries speak for themselves… I let you go this once. But next time get one of the staff to help! That's what they're paid for."

"Yes sir, thank you sir."

Slowly, they walked back to their rooms.

"There's no way they would recognize us!" Konna frowned, "is there?"

"No!" replied Tanya, "No way at all!" Suddenly her eyes rolled and she collapsed in the hall.

"TAN????" Konna knelt down and helped her friend to sit up, "are you alright?? What happened?"

Tanya leant against the wall and rubbed her face, "Y-yeah… I'm just tired, that's all. It's been a hard day."

Konna sat down next to her and sighed, "That's the understatement of the year."

"E-excuse me? Do you need help?"

They looked up to see the boy Toby, from their first day. He was wearing casually clothes and a surprised expression.

"G'day Toby," Konna said with a lop-sided grin, "My buddy here's just taking a breather… too many stairs, you know."

The boy laughed, "You remember me!"

"Yes, how could we forget?" Konna mused, "hey! You look like you're off duty. Do you think you could help me drag this sorrowful excuse for a beanbag to his room?"

"Yeah sure,"

Using the two small people for crutches, Tanya managed to get to her room. Once there, she leant on the door.

"Thanks Tobs," she grinned, "I owe you one. Call us if you ever need anything."

"No problem!" the boy smiled, "get some sleep!"

Dodging a friendly punch Konna had aimed at him, Toby laughed and headed back down the hall.

"That's two you've missed," Tanya mocked, "You're loosing your tou- AAHH!"

She never finished as suddenly the door swung open and she fell backwards and landed with a thud and a groan. Funny enough, the groan belonged to the small green-haired boy underneath Tanya.

"What the hell?" he cried, "Get off, you're squashing me!"

"Oww!" Tanya yelled, "Quit ya shoving before a knock you into next Tuesday!"

Konna grabbed both their hands, "Here let me- ARGH!!" she wasn't strong enough, and was soon sprawled on the ground as well.

The lights flicked on and all three stared up at a fuming Chinese boy.

"What is it with you and the concept of a good nights sleep?" he roared.

"SHHH!" hissed Konna, "Do you want to wake everyone up?"

She was sure she saw the boy's eye twitch as she glared at her.

"What's all the noise for Rei?" asked Max, coming out of his room.

"What is this?" Rei cried, "A slumber party???"

Konna grabbed his shoulders, "Deep breathes. In out, in out."

Suppressing her sniggers, Tanya waited for the boy to explode, as they usually did when Konna tried her 'breathing' trick. But to her shock, and obviously Konna's, Rei just stared at her curiously and shook his head. Taking Konna's hands from his shoulders he broke eye contact and headed back to his bed. Konna stared after him, what had that been about? Quietly, she helped Tanya to her bed and followed Max back to her own.

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Twilight Poet: School merging, vanishing women, what the hell's going on? I guess you'll just have to find out next time on ROOM TO BE OURSELVES!

I don't think I'll be putting in any detailed battles…. What do you think?