Chapter Fourteen

"Yes, we can finally leave," I sighed as I watched Mr. Tate and some of the guys lift our bags and suitcases into the bus that would take us back to the city. "These were the worst five days of my life," I grumbled, resting my back against the tree trunk that I was sitting in front of. Mariah was standing next to me, watching them move the bags as well.

"You're only saying that because you couldn't blade," Mariah pointed out.

"Well, duh! I hate sitting around and not doing anything. I was about to go crazy," I replied. "Thank God Mei wrote me or I would've killed all of you."

Mariah chuckled. "I still can't believe her marriage is soon."

"You're telling me. I still don't know how she can go through with having an arranged marriage. Kudos to her for going through with it," I continued. "I wouldn't want to marry someone because my parents chose 'em. That's…too weird for me. I wouldn't want to settle down that fast."

"You don't even know who you're going to marry. You might change your mind depending on who it is," Mariah pointed out.

"You know Ryu. Can you honestly say you're ready to marry him?"

"Of course not." Mariah shook his head. "That's why we're waiting. Mei just wants to marry him now because she loves him so much and she knows it,"

"She's only sixteen! She's so young!"

"We can get married as young as thirteen if we wanted," Mariah told me. I made a face and she laughed. "You only have to get married when you feel like it's the right time."

"Which makes me wonder how you can accept the idea that you're not going to marry Ray," I commented, looking at my fingernails. When I looked up at her she was glaring at me. I laughed. "Strike a nerve? What do you see in him anyway?"

"What you don't," she replied. "He's nice and smart and caring and sweet and confident and strong and—"

"You're giving me diabetes," I commented. "Can't you break things off with Ryu?"

She frowned. "It's frowned upon in our village. It's like a sin. But he could break things off with me and that would be ok."

"What's with the double standards?"

A shadow of a smile formed on her face. "Sometimes I think you were lucky to be able to get out and away from the rules. Not that I don't love White Tiger Hills but the rules I could do without."

"Yeah, it's a piece of cake coming back where everyone hates you," I said sarcastically.

"Not everyone hated you," she replied.

"Name one person who didn't."

"I didn't," she replied. I scoffed. "I was mad that you could come back after what happened and the Elder didn't bat an eyelash but I never hated you. I didn't have the full story and I still don't but I now know that Elder was being just when he let you back."

"I don't even know if I want to go back anymore," I admitted.

"What? Why not?" She asked, sitting down next to me. She actually sounded genuinely concerned, which was weird. She usually didn't care about anyone else's business.

I pulled my knees to my chest and shrugged "As you said no one had the full story about what happened that night and I was automatically blamed and kicked out and I never even had a say. No one was thrilled that I came back, except for Mei and the little kids but they didn't even know what happened since they weren't born yet. I don't have anything or anyone else to tie me there. I mean, my parents are dead and so are my grandparents. I don't have a reason to go back."

"What about for us? The White Tiger team? You're still one of us," she said as she put her hand on my shoulder.

I laughed bitterly. "I'm not one of you. I never have been. Maybe on paper, maybe by nationality, but I don't fit. I never have." I shook my head, stood, and dusted off the seat of my pants. "Just leave me alone, ok?"

"Thank god we're back. I don't think I'd be able to last another day up there," I sighed as I flopped down on my futon in the Granger dojo. I could relax for a couple of seconds before I was launched off of the futon and landed on the hard floor. Max burst out laughing as I rolled over to face him. "You're going to regret that, Tate!" I said in fake anger before I rushed over and started to tickle him. Max burst out laughing as he held his sides and started to roll around.

"Ha ha ha ha! Stop it! Ha ha ha ha! Stop, stop!" Max said in between laughs as I continued to tickle him.

"What's going on?" Ray asked as he walked into the room, his eyebrows were raised.

"We're celebrating being back," Max replied, sitting up, his cheeks flushed from laughing. "Even you have to admit you were staring to go crazy up there. Being away from civilization for so long. I don't know, I need some interaction."

"You're such a city boy, Tate," I said with an eye roll. "You wouldn't last one day in the mountains."

"I just did, didn't I?" He shot back, flicking my nose. I made a face and swatted at his hands. He laughed and reached to flick me again but I knocked his hands out of the way.

"Wow, you are part cat," he said with a big smile. I glared and stuck out my tongue. "Why is that?" He asked, looking at Ray.

Ray blinked as if to say 'Oh, you're actually acknowledging me now?'. "Why is what?"

"That the people from the White Tiger Tribe act and kinda sorta look like cats," Max replied, rolling onto his stomach and propping his chin up with his hands.

Ray chuckled. "That is a long story that we don't have time for."

"Hopefully we have time to catch some zees," I mumbled, resting my head on the folded up futon and closed my eyes.

"What're you guys doing? We have to train!" Tyson shouted, entering the room. I groaned and curled my hands into fists, opening my eyes to glare at him.

"Chill, Ty, can't we just relax for a while?" Max asked as he looked at his friend. "I mean, we've been training nonstop–"

"And that's the only way we'll be able to defeat BEGA!" Tyson interrupted him.

"For once I agree with him," Daichi announced, bursting into the room. I groaned at the inevitable headache that I was about to get. "We have to train as much as we can to beat BEGA and we can't do that by sitting around and sleeping."

"Come on, Ty," I groaned. "For the past five days we've done nothing but train. I've even trained with one arm and kicked your ass. You could at least reward us with some rest."

"Do you think Boris and his team are resting?" He growled. "No! They're not resting, they're training and making sure they're in tip-top shape to beat us."

"Ty, chill. We get that this battle is important but there's no need to get snappy," Ray spoke up. "The most important thing is that we get some rest and that's what he haven't gotten. We'll just take this day to relax and then we'll get back to training tomorrow. We'll be in great shape, don't worry."

"I can't believe you guys!" Daichi spoke up. "You're just going to sit around all day instead of train? Whatever happened to the almighty Bladebreakers?" He scoffed. "Buncha chumps if you ask me."

"Watch it, Daichi!" Max hissed. I lifted my eyebrows. I've never see Max without a smile on his face. "You're too young to understand. Resting and taking some time off is as good as a packed day of training."

"Yeah, you know that too, Tyson," I agreed.

"Fine. If you guys want to sit around and lose your edge that's fine with me. C'mon Daichi," Tyson snapped and then stomped out of the dojo.

I sighed and rubbed my forehead with my palm. "The guy needs to take some Valium or something. He's just going to crash and burn if he keeps this up."

"He'll come to his sense eventually," Ray sighed.

"How long does it usually take?" I asked.

"Too long," Max replied and I cracked a smile.

"Ok, I don't know about you boys but I'm starving so I'm going to run to the store and then I'll make dinner for everyone," I said as I stood and stretched.

"I'll come with you," Max offered. "How about you, Ray? Want to come?"

Ray shook his head. "But thanks for the offer. Mariah wanted to do something and I promised her so..."

"Ah, can't have Princess Mariah waiting too long," I mumbled, pulling on my shoes. I ignored the look that Ray was giving me. "Come on, Ray, you really can't be that blind. If she wasn't engaged she'd be all over you like lint." I pulled my hair back and held it up with a scrunchie. "I mean, you are a boy and I can't deny that Mariah's pretty. Really, how long can you resist?"

Ray let out a little breath and crossed his arms. "Not that it's any of your business but I'm all ready engaged to someone else, so is Mariah. We're just friends; nothing's going to come out of it."

"Whoa, you're engaged to be married?" Max asked, widening his eyes.

Ray nodded. "Everyone in the White Tiger village is. We're arranged to be married when we're born but you don't know who the significant other is until you're at least thirteen, which is the youngest you can get married."

"So…you're engaged as well?" Max asked turning to me.

I hated the way he was looking at me, as if he couldn't believe it. "Unfortunately, but I don't feel it applies to me. Add on the fact that I was wrongfully banished," I said in Ray's direction, who looked towards the ceiling, "I just don't see eye to eye with some of the rules of the White Tiger village, that's all."

"So, do you know who your fiancé is?" Max asked,

"No."

"I do," Ray replied. I turned to look at him and saw that he had a sinister smile on his face. Of course I would want to know who he was. "All of us know, actually."

"And you're not going to tell me?" I asked incredulously.

He shrugged. "There's no point. You don't want to accept the culture which means technically you're not engaged so it doesn't matter anyway."

"Let's go before you kill Ray with your eyes," Max said, grabbing my arm and dragging me out of the dojo. "You do know he gets on your nerves on purpose."

"We'll see who gets the last laugh when I have my hands wringing his neck," I growled, shoving my hands into my pockets. I took in a few deep breaths and let them out slowly to calm myself down.

Max laughed and ran a hand through his hair. "Why do you two butt heads so much anyway?"

Shrugging I sighed. "Because he keeps treating me like I'm five and not fifteen," I replied, tugging at the end of my ponytail. "Because he's the Captain and he always thinks he's right. Because hes...Ray. It's like…stuck in his mind he still sees me as a little kid that he needs to protect all the dang time."

"He's just looking out for you. I mean, we're all worried with that weird kid running around out to get you."

"He has a funny way of showing it," I grumbled. I let out a little squeak when he suddenly put an arm around my shoulders and pulled me into his side. He looked up at him and he had that famous Max smile on his face. My cheeks started to burn.

"We all care about you, that's all. Don't take it personally. But I do think we all need to take a break from training, at least for one day."

"Try telling that to Tyson," I muttered into his side. "He'll bite your head off if you make that little suggestion. He's acting like it'll be the end of the world if we don't train for one day. I get it, this match is not only important to him but to the sport as a whole and if he lets it get to his head too much he's bound to make a simple mistake that'll cost us the whole thing. The best thing for us to do is to…de-stress. Relax. Have fun."

"That's exactly what I was thinking," Max agreed. "So, do you want to do something tomorrow after practice assuming Tyson doesn't make us train all day."

I pushed his arm off of my shoulders and stopped in my tracks, looking at him. "Are...are you asking me out?" I questioned, tilting my head to the side. It sounded like it but...I wasn't so well versed when it came to things that normal teenagers did. They dated, right? Whatever that meant. And it was Max asking, and he was nice...

He half turned to face me, his eyes shifting. "Well…if that was too forward than no but…" His voice trailed off as a light blush spread across his nose. "If you don't want to I'd understand. I mean you'll probably be tired from practice and want to relax. I just hoped maybe you'd—"

"Sure," I interrupted his rambling. I swear if I didn't stop him he'd talk his mouth off. I grinned at the thought. That'd be pretty interesting to see. Then we wouldn't have to see Tyson eating so obnoxiously like he always does.

Max blinked. "Really?" A slow smile spread on his face. I could tell that he was trying so hard not to make a big deal about it. "Cool," he finally said calmly.

I laughed.