Meanwhile, Max was watching the battle from the bridge. 'How can they just battle at a time like this?' he thought. 'That's so disrespectful.' He thought that Toni of all people wouldn't be battling; yet she was the one taking part.
He looked down into the deep river, and saw his reflection. His face wasn't at all like it normally was. Instead of being bright and cheery, it was dull and depressing. Instead of having innocence in his eyes, he had remorse and guilt, even though the event that took place was to do with no fault of his own.
He couldn't bear looking at himself a minute longer. He scraped his hand along the floor, picking up stones, glass, rubbish, anything that was there, and chucked it into the river with a loud cry.
When the others heard a cry, they all automatically looked up at Max, who was getting up and storming off. His hands were deep in his pockets, and he was scraping his feet across the floor.
"Now, we can't ignore that." Said Cassidy, getting up. "Please, let me talk to him first. By myself. I need to have a quiet word with him." She said, as the others started to get up as well.
"OK. We'll keep an eye out, but don't wander off too far." Hilary said.
"Thanks." Said Cassidy gratefully.
Hilary's understanding of the need for a quiet chat with someone was a great thing to have in a group like this. There would always be some conflicts, no matter how close they all were, and it was someone like Hilary that would help to sort them out. Her great gift of giving advice was one of her best qualities. The thing she insisted on most of all though, was how treasured friends should be. 'Don't undervalue the necessity of a friend,' was the saying she used most of all, but it was closely followed by, 'Never judge a book by its cover,' as she believed that no matter how someone looked, they should never be underestimated.
Cassidy walked up the hill from the park and then along the short woodland walk to the bridge. As she reached the bridge, she saw Max on the opposite side, just turning around the corner. She hurried across the bridge, and turned the corner. But he had already gone. There were that many different side roads and alleyways, Cassidy had no way of telling which way he went.
She sighed, annoyed with herself that she'd lost him. She turned around, and was about to start crossing the bridge, when she saw a swish of familiar dark blue hair turn down an alleyway. Mariam.
She didn't know whether to follow or go and tell the others first. She contemplated the thought for a moment, and then decided that it would be best to follow her, as if she went back and told the others, Mariam might have gone by then.
Cassidy slowly walked up to the alleyway, but stopped before she got into view. She peeped around the corner, and saw Mariam leaning against a wall. She was obviously waiting for someone.
Cassidy was about to step out and confront Mariam, but then someone appeared from down the other end of the alleyway, so she stayed put. The person was clearly a male, but it was a bit difficult to see any significant features, as the light was very limited.
The male walked up to Mariam, who stood up properly when she saw him. She leaned forward towards him, and her lips locked with his.
Cassidy gasped. How could she have not told anyone? It was understandable that she hadn't told her or the Bladebreakers, but Cassidy was sure that Mariam would've told Mariah, Emily, Salima and Hilary.
Then Cassidy got even more of a shock. The light suddenly increased, as the clouds that had been blocking the sunlight moved, and sunlight poured into the alleyway. It was the same person that she and quite a few other people had had a bad first impression of. He wasn't exactly one to socialise.
Had she not heard about their unpleasant encounter with him? Had she not heard the news about Kelly? Had she been ignoring her friends to play tongue tennis with him, him of all people?
Cassidy tore her eyes away, and rushed back across the bridge to the others.
"Wow. That was quick." Said Emily.
"No, not really. I followed him over the bridge, but I lost him down all the different alleyways and side roads." Cassidy said, sitting on the low wall behind them all.
"Well, it shouldn't have took you that long then if you lost him over the bridge." Amber said.
"That's because I saw another good friend of ours." Cassidy said. No one said anything, so she decided it would be best to tell them all straight away. "Well, Joseph, I don't think you'll have to worry about snooping about her room. We've been talking about Mariam not waiting for us, and being pretty distant, yeah?" she asked first.
The others nodded, and glanced sideways at one another. Cassidy must have seen Mariam, but something wasn't good about it, they could all tell.
"Well . . ." started Cassidy, looking up at the sky, as if she needed inspiration. "After I lost Max, I saw some dark blue hair turn down one of the alleyways, and I instantly knew it was Mariam. I peeped around the corner, and was just about to go and talk to her when . . . I saw someone appear at the other end. And then they . . . kissed."
Everyone looked quite shocked.
"Mariam's had loads of boyfriends before, so why do you think she hasn't told us about this one?" Hilary asked her other three best friends.
"I dunno. Maybe she's too ashamed of him to introduce us." Suggested Mariah.
"No, I think it's because she doesn't want us asking all those pesky questions. You know, like when you say give us all the details, no matter how small. That sorta thing." Salima said.
"Maybe she just isn't ready to tell us yet?" thought Emily aloud.
"I think the reason is you'd say he's a bad influence." Cassidy said, feeling awkward.
Their jaws dropped open. "You know who it is?!" They all asked in unison and in awe.
"Yeah. It's our good friend Josh Clarke." Cassidy stated.
"No way!" they gasped.
"That evil bastard? Oh my God . . . of all the people in the world, and she had to choose him." Toni said.
"I think she was better off when she was going out with that Italian guy . . . what was his name?" asked Emily.
"Oh! You mean Marco Pualo. Yeah, they were both so cute together! He was really nice as well, personality-wise and appearance-wise, so how come she dumped him?" wondered Salima aloud.
"Marco Pualo? Oh my God!" Zeo exclaimed. "He's the guy that's always fighting against the Government, isn't he? I know him because he used to come to the gym and make speeches and stuff. Did she really go out with him?"
"Yep. It was getting quite serious though, and I don't think Mariam was ready for that. Obviously she is now." Hilary stated.
"We need to talk to her. Ask her why she didn't tell us. Shall we go now?" Asked Mariah.
"No, not now. I think the best time would be at school, that way, she can't escape from us and has to answer our questions." Emily said.
"Yeah, OK." Agreed the others.
"Erm . . . guys?" said Hilary, feeling awkward. "Can you leave this to us please? I don't mean to be rude, but we've known Mariam a lot longer than you have. I think she'll prefer confiding in us. And Joseph, don't you dare say anything to her to even hint that we know what she thinks we don't know." Joseph just shrugged.
"No, we don't mind. Just try and get some sense into her head for us, OK?" said Cassidy, answering for all of them.
"OK. Hey, Em, Mariah, Hil, come over to my house now and we can figure out what to say." Said Salima, standing up and brushing off her trousers.
"OK." they said, standing up and brushing themselves off too. "See you all tomorrow. If we don't, see you at school. Bye!" they all said, before walking off.
Toni waved a short goodbye, but then her hands dived back into her plastic Gregg's bag. She pulled out one of her bags of crisps, and put it on the floor next to her, while she searched in her bag for the blueberry muffin.
Danny's hand shot out slyly and grabbed the bag of crisps silently; the others had to stifle their laughs. Danny put it on Dizzi's keyboard, which Toni couldn't see as Dizzi's screen was facing away from her.
Toni pulled out the blueberry muffin in triumph, and went to pick up her bag of crisps, but her hand stopped as she went to pick them up. They weren't there.
"Hey, did anyone see what I did with my crisps?" Toni said, looking around.
"I think Dizzi might have got a bit hungry." Danny suggested.
Toni looked so confused. Dizzi was Kenny's bit beast, and bit beasts couldn't eat. Not only that, she was stuck in his laptop, so there was no way Dizzi would have them . . . unless . . .
"Hey! Give them back!" said Toni, lunging for her crisps, but Danny reached out and grabbed them again first.
"Aww, come on. I didn't get any food, can't you just spare this one little bag of crisps?" he said, dangling them in front of Toni's face.
"You had your baguette! Now, gimme!" Toni said, diving for them again, and Danny threw them back over his shoulder. Toni groaned and started to get up, but Danny shot up and ran to pick them up again.
Toni shot him a death glare, and Danny pretended to look scared, just to get Toni wound up. Toni ran at full pelt towards Danny, but Danny was already off and halfway across the field that was adjoining to the park.
Toni couldn't be bothered to run after him, so she just sighed and went and sat back down. She opened her blueberry muffin, and started pulling the blueberries out, and just eating the sponge. She piled the blueberries up into a little mound, and then when she had finished eating the sponge, she put the empty cake case over the top, so it looked like an empty cake case on the floor.
"What are you gonna do with that?" Amber asked.
"Sshhh!" shushed Toni, as she saw Danny coming back towards them. "You'll find out in a minute."
Danny cautiously walked over to where the others were sitting, and seemed to walk around the edge of an invisible circle when it came to walking past Toni. He sat down in his original space in between Kenny and Amber, and Toni was next to Amber.
"So, you don't mind if I have your crisps?" Danny asked, getting comfortable, as there were loads of tiny pebbles on the floor.
"YES!" Toni shouted, flying to her feet, with the empty cake case in her hand. But it wasn't just an empty cake case. When she'd picked it up, she'd grabbed it from the edges and picked up the blueberries inside it, so the cake case was actually filled with blueberries.
But before Danny even had a chance to start to move, Toni had come right up in front of him. Danny looked up at Toni, and she was grinning. She flicked her wrist around and planted the pile of blueberries in his face, without getting any blueberry juice on her hands, as the cake case had protected them.
While Danny was sitting in shock, and trying to wipe the blueberry mush from his face, Toni had picked up her bag of crisps and wandered back over to her seat. She sat down and opened her bag of crisps, but didn't eat any of them; she seemed to be waiting for something.
When Danny finally got most of the blueberry mush from out of his eyes, he looked across at Toni who was smirking. She picked up a single crisp in her left hand, and then licked the tip of her index finger on her right hand, and gently pushed the crisp with it, while making a "Ttssssssss," sound, as though something hot was cooling extremely fast.
The others started laughing, and even though she was laughing herself, Amber pulled out a tissue from her pocket.
"You haven't used it have you?" checked Danny playfully.
"Ha ha." Said Amber sarcastically, and instead of giving the tissue to him, she gently wiped his face for him.
"Aww, thank you Momma. Danny feel all clean now!" he said in a baby voice. Amber couldn't help raising a smile, but threw the tissue back in his face.
After a few hours of messing around down the park, they decided it was best for them to head home. Toni nodded her head slightly, but didn't smile. It was too quiet back home without Kelly. There'd be no music blasting from her room, no hearing her talking on the phone to one of her friends, and definitely no hearing a Beyblade spinning.
Toni then couldn't help wondering what had happened to Draleen. Did Kelly lose her in the explosion? Or was it still in her room? Toni didn't know, but she couldn't go in Kelly's room, as she'd feel way too depressed.
Amber saw Toni's face droop suddenly as they went to all leave for home, and decided to do something about it.
"Hey, Tone, Cass, wanna come around mine for a sleepover?" She asked. "My mom says anyone can come around whenever."
"Really?" Toni asked, her face lighting up with hope.
"Yeah, sure. I mean, why not? How about you, Cass? You up for it?" Amber asked.
"I'm up for it," said Danny, raising his hand.
"No, this is a girls night in." Amber said.
"Fine. It's not like I wanted to come," Danny said, turning around and pretending to be in a mood with her.
"OK, I'll come, as long as Matt says it's OK. I'll just ring him now." Cassidy said, pulling her mobile out of her pocket.
While Cassidy was phoning Matt, Ray, Kai, Kenny, Zeo and Danny said goodbye to them and walked off. Ray, Kai and Kenny turned right out of the park, Danny crossed over the bridge and Zeo walked straight over the road.
Zeo put his hands in his pockets, and was looking at the floor. He was feeling upset that he hadn't gotten to know Kelly better, and that he hadn't made a very good first impression. Now he'd never get the chance, and he wished he'd made more of an effort.
On the corner of the sidewalk and an alley was someone looking at a map, but was obviously having trouble reading it. Zeo heard them mutter: "Stupid thing. Kelly always told me to pay attention in Geography . . ." Then the person looked up and saw Zeo. Zeo saw it was a girl with dark purpley red hair and green eyes. She also had a gold nose stud and freckles all over her face, but they were only light so Zeo could only just about see them. She hurried over to Zeo.
"Excuse me, but you don't know the way to Dene Hollow, do you? I'm trying to find a friend of mine." The girl asked. She was wearing a short cream coloured top with a cartoon girl on it with devil horns and tail, and angel wings and halo saying '½ and ½' in red and yellow, faded dark purple jeans and white trainers. In her navel was a gold dolphin piercing. On the floor behind her was a huge suitcase, and a guitar case strapped over her back.
"Dene Hollow? Yeah, I know it. One of my mates lives there. You're in the completely wrong area though. I've got some free time, do you want me to take you there?"
"Oh, yes please. That is, if you don't mind." The girl checked politely.
"No problem. Come on," said Zeo, and he walked back the opposite way towards the park so he could go the same way that Ray, Kai and Kenny had gone.
Zeo and the girl walked quite quickly along, and as they came opposite the park, they saw Toni, Amber and Cassidy standing at the front gates.
"Do you mind if I just talk to these people a minute?" Zeo asked, looking back at the purple/red haired girl.
"No, not at all." She said.
Zeo crossed the road, to see what was happening with the sleepover. But before he had a chance to say anything, Toni was squinting her eyes at the girl over the road.
"She looks familiar . . ." Toni said. "I know I've seen her before. What's her name Zeo, and what's she doing with you?"
"Well, I was gonna ask if everything is still on for your sleepover, but let's change the subject. I was actually hoping you might know who she is, cos she's looking for your road. I don't know her name, and I was just taking her to Dene Hollow. I'll come and introduce her to you." Zeo said, before crossing back over the road, and then returning with the purpley red haired girl, who was dragging the suitcase behind her.
"I'm Zeo Zaggart, and these are my friends, Amber Trinselle, Cassidy Castana, and Toni LaVelle." Zeo said, pointing to each of them as he called their name. The girl's mouth dropped open when he pointed at Toni.
"Toni LaVelle?!" she said, gobsmacked. Then her senses returned. "I'm sorry, but I didn't know Kelly had a sister . . ."
Then Toni knew where she had seen her before. It was one of Kelly's friends who had gone to Madame Luton's with her. Kelly hadn't actually said much, just that she got on really well with one girl. Melanie Hunt. And on Kelly's bedside cabinet was a photo of her and Melanie outside Madame Luton's.
"You're . . . Melanie Hunt . . . aren't you?" Toni said, now shaking.
"Yeah. I was Kelly's best friend at Madame Luton's, and you were before me, weren't you?" Melanie said, looking at Cassidy.
"Yeah. Oh, I remember you now! You used to hang around with Danica and Chloe and that lot." Cassidy realised. Toni coughed loudly to get Cassidy's attention. If this was Kelly's best friend at Madame Luton's after Cassidy, then she didn't know the news.
"So . . . you haven't heard?" Toni asked, but was quietly hoping that she had heard.
"Heard what?" Melanie said, looking confused.
"Kelly . . .got killed in a car crash on Thursday . . . outside her new school. Our school. Smithton High." Toni explained, as she had already done many a time that day.
"She's . . . gone?" Asked Melanie, swallowing hard and trying to hold back the tears that were brewing in her eyes.
"Yeah," Toni said, with tears rolling down her cheeks.
Tears filled Melanie's eyes, and they slowly dripped down her face. Her hand covered her mouth, and she mumbled, "What am I going to do?"
"I think it'd be best for you to go back home," Cassidy said.
"I can't. My mom and dad are abroad somewhere working, and I can't contact them. I've got nowhere to go, and I was hoping Kelly might let me stay with her for a while." Melanie sobbed. "Of course, that's never gonna happen now."
"How come this hasn't been a problem before?" Zeo asked.
"Like I said, I used to go to Madame Luton's. But today, they expelled me, because my parents were behind on the fees because they're always abroad so the money gets lost or stolen or takes forever, and they said I wasn't paying enough attention in class." Melanie shrugged.
"I know, then. How about for tonight you come to the sleepover that I'm having, and we'll figure something else out tomorrow? Does that sound OK to you?" Amber said.
"Are you sure?" Melanie asked, wiping her tears away with the back of her hand. "I mean, I don't mean to intrude or cause any trouble . . ."
"Of course I'm sure. My parents won't mind, and you're not intruding, because I offered." Amber said.
"That'd be great. Thanks so much." Melanie said, smiling a bit.
"Well, then. I'll see you guys tomorrow, yeah? Same time, same place?" Zeo asked.
"Maybe." Said Amber. "The others will be here, but we'll see how we feel, OK?"
"Yeah, no probs. See you when I see you then. Bye!" he said, and crossed the road back the way he was walking before.
"Bye, Zeo!" they all said, and then, linking arms, apart from Cassidy who just walked next to them, they slowly walked over to Cassidy's house.
Cassidy's house was closer than anyone else's, plus she could pick up some stuff from her house, and then she said that Matt would drop them all off at each of their houses to pick up their stuff, before dropping them at Amber's.