CHAPTER THIRTY-EIGHT

The crowd cheered as Claude attained the first victory for Barthez Battalion, the cheerleaders off to the side doing the same. "Good job," Miguel praised, "Mathilda, you ready to win the next round?"

The pinkette nodded, taking her beyblade and launcher with her as she walked up to the platform.

"Bladers are you ready!"

Mathilda readied her beyblade and instead of eyeing her opponent, she eyed the sidelines only for her heart to literally skip a beat or two as she watched Dylan move past the other cheerleaders to leave the arena.

"3, 2, 1..."

Why was she leaving? Wasn't she going to watch and cheer for her? She cheered for the All Stars during their battle, she rooted for Kai to the point of losing her voice when the Blitzkrieg Boys were up, so why not for her? That's what cheerleaders were supposed to do, weren't they? It was her job; why wasn't she doing her job?

"Let it rip!"

The hedgehog launched her beyblade, wrinkling her nose at the faulty landing in the dish, creating some sparks and emitting an irritating noise making most of the audience cringe in reaction.

"Don't worry!" She could hear Miguel yell from the benches, "You got this, Mathilda!"

"I'll call you later". She hadn't called back at all. Mathilda frowned as she glanced over her shoulder slightly; was Dylan actually mad? For what, though? After all, she really did have plans with Julia and the others way before the blonde had asked!

"What the hell are you doing!" Aaron had exclaimed from behind.

Dylan was just being a bitch. Mathilda didn't owe anything to her. It was true that she picked the other girls over her, but why wouldn't she? First of all, the Californian was never a friend, and second, to be friends with the girls of the BBA was something she wanted for a long, long, long time. They were great, they were nice, they were fun, and Mathilda really couldn't complain, but...

"Mathilda stadium out!"

The clank of her beyblading landing by her foot in loss snapped the pink haired girl back to reality. A painful and unexpected reality that could have been avoidable.

"Damn," Ian remarked as he watched the battle on TV in their locker room of the stadium, "She could have won that easily, that was one of the new teams,"

"Shit happens," Tala shrugged.

"So we going out for drinks or what?" Spencer chimed in with a reminder and the team captain nodded.

"Just waiting on Julia; she's supposed to meet us here and then we'll leave,"

Amethyst eyes shifted to the redhead, "So you've invited her to come out with us, then,"

"Obviously," Suddenly, it hit Tala, "Why? Is there a problem?"

"Not on my part,"

"Okay then..." Tala rolled his eyes, the sudden silence quickly to be replaced by the Queen Bee's presence as she stepped into the locker room.

"Are we going out?"

"We're waiting for Julia,"

"Oh," The blonde smirked and crossed her arms, "How lovely of her to join us,"

"It better be lovely," The older Ivanov got up and hit the blonde over the head with several rolled up BBA pamphlets, "Or I'll kick your ass,"

"Tala? Kick somebody's ass? Wow, that's new. The steroids you're secretly taking must be helping with this newfound self-confidence. It's just such an awful shame that it's not enough to do anything to Garland," She shook her head in false pity, "Last I heard, you had your itty bitty behind handed to you by him,"

"What a coincidence," The redhead began, "It's almost like how you had your ass handed to you by Mathilda. She's smaller than you too, no? So sad, your only 'friend' no longer a friend. Come to think of it," Tala stared into the ceiling in thought, "You actually don't have any friends,"

The duel ceased to continue as Julia made an entrance and before they knew it, the group of seven found themselves at a lounge.

"She's underage," Tala pointed out to their server, not in a protective brotherly way, but in revenge, "She can't have any alcohol,"

The male server raised a brow at the blonde, "Do you have ID?"

She unzipped her jacket and pulled the ends apart to give him a view of her assets, "Do you have eyes?" As his lips parted into a dopey 'O', the cheerleader outfit doing her serious justice, she grinned, first at the redhead as if to say 'nice try', and then at the server, "I'll have a Cosmo, please and thank you,"

How silly of Tala to ever think Dylan wouldn't get her way. At least he tried. The table, which consisted of a semicircular booth good for up to ten people, arose again in conversation. "Oh my gosh," The blonde begun, a smile directed towards Julia, "I love that top on you,"

The Spanish blader narrowed her eyes suspiciously, "Thanks..."

"No problem, I mean not everyone can pull that off, you have a really small bust so it looks gorgeous on you,"

An insult about her breasts in the disguise of a compliment about her clothing, the result of it causing discomfort and embarrassment to Julia and making the other Blitzkrieg Boys check out her chest – or lack thereof – in reflex. It was ingeniously evil, Dylan's trademark; Boris would die to have her as an intern working for him.

"Totally adorable," The bitch added, simultaneously taking a sip of her martini that the waiter had just delivered.

Tala gritted his teeth, his nails digging into the flesh of his palms under the table, the blonde having been lucky to be seated in shelter between Spencer and Ian. Kai had been next to the indigo haired blader, followed by Bryan, the captain subsequently, and at the end of the half-moon table, Ms. Fernandez.

"So Julia," As She-Satan had opened her mouth again, Tala feared what would come out of it, "How many guys have you slept with?"

"Dylan. Stop," The redhead warned.

"Don't be childish, Tala. Julia and I are trying to have a girl to girl conversation here, so if you don't mind you can go talk to your homeboys about cars and girls and all that stuff,"

"Seriously. Stop,"

"No it's fine," Julia surprisingly objected, "I have no problem telling her and in turn, she should have no problem telling me either, isn't that right?"

"Of course," Dylan agreed.

"2," The female blader answered at last, "I've slept with 2 guys,"

"Interesting, but you know what they say, though: add two for a girl, subtract two for a guy. So your real number must be four,"

"Funny, I've never heard of that rule. It must be something that only the sluts know about,"

What was supposed to be a fun night kicking back with drinks had turned into two women locking and loading and firing at each other, with Dylan undoubtedly possessing more ammunition. And none of the guys wanted to get hit by a stray bullet by getting involved. The atmosphere at the table was so awkward and uncomfortable, Ian had pretended to occupy himself with his cell phone, Bryan only looked off into the distance as means of avoidance of the circumstance, Spencer contemplated turning gay so as not to ever be part of something like this ever again, Tala eyed nothing but his drink, and Kai didn't seem like he gave an F-word even if the girls ripped each others' heads off.

"Anyways, don't try to avoid your turn: what's your number?" And it continued.

"I actually don't kiss and tell. It's not very ladylike," Came the statement before she raised an arm to call over the waiter, "Hi sweetheart, can you just get me a glass of water, please? And she'll have a Dirty martini," And her sickly sweet smile only claimed further victory, "It suits her personality."

The night had come to an end, sooner than it should have for understandable reasons. Bryan decided it would be best if the redhead just dropped the Latina off by himself, and everyone else had agreed in silence, squishing into Kai's car in the process and while they drove home, Tala went to the opposite way towards Julia's hotel. The ride had been unusually silent and it was when he'd turned into the hotel's drive-in, she chose to say something, "You look mad,"

"I'm not mad," He shrugged his shoulders, one hand casually on the wheel, his eyes looking out the windshield. He was mad.

"Tonight didn't really go as planned..."

"Yeah, well," Another shrug, "Anyways, it's getting late. I have to head home; I have stuff to do in the morning,"

The fact that he was in such a fake hurry had given it away. "You seem like you're mad at me about something..."

"I'm not mad at you, but," He breathed out, "You really didn't have to let the whole world know how many guys you slept with,"

"Your sister asked me,"

"My sister is only 17 and in high school. You're 19. You should have more sense. I don't want my friends to know how many guys you slept with,"

"Oh my God, I've only been with two guys,"

"You're missing my point. Personally, I don't care how many guys you've done whatever with, I really don't. I never asked you because I don't care and it's none of my business. What I care about is my friends knowing private details about you. They didn't need to know that. It's weird and un-classy,"

"Oh, so now I'm un-classy,"

"I didn't say that,"

"That's what you're implying. Your dumb sister is doing all this shit and you have the audacity to blame it on me?"

"I'm not blaming it on -"

"You're fucked. You're fucked in the head. Every problem we've had is because of her, other than that we don't have any problems. She's breaking us apart and you're letting her,"

"How the hell am I letting her? Why is she even a problem? Why the hell are we even talking about her? She's 17, she's a child. Why are we talking about a child? If you haven't noticed, I only go for girls who are my age or older, and you know why? Because I can't deal with immature bullshit and this is immature. So she said some dumb shit, big deal. All you had to do was ignore her. She can't say anything to you if you ignore her, she'd just look stupid and shut up. You didn't have to turn it into a fight and you certainly didn't have to ask her that kind of a question in front of me. I'm her brother, I don't need to know that about her and neither do my friends,"

"She asks me things that are beyond absurd, what the hell do you want me to do? Be quiet at her?"

"Didn't you see what she did? She got an answer out of you, but when you asked her she didn't give you a number. Look, I know she's an idiot and really annoying. She asks crap like that to everyone, she even did it with Mariah and Mariah was mature about it. She said stuff back, but she did it in a really smart way and she probably thinks I didn't notice, but I did,"

The mention of Mariah had undoubtedly pissed Julia off. She angrily opened her side of the door to leave, but not before looking over her shoulder, "If Mariah's so mature and so smart then maybe you should go fuck her!" She exited, slamming the door to a close and stormed off into the hotel lobby.

x x x

It was nearly midnight when Hilary's phone went off. She hadn't quite gone to bed yet, but had prepared to, dressed in her pyjamas with her hair tied up. With Julia displayed on the caller ID, she picked up instantly, "Hey,"

"Hey..."

The brunette's expression turned serious. Julia's voice had cracked slightly and a sniffle was an indication she was crying, "Oh my God, are you okay?"

"No...I'm on your floor...can I come over?"

"Yeah! Of course!" She ended the call and raced to the suite's entrance, collecting her distraught friend and bringing her to her room before Tyson and the others could see. As Julia sat on the edge of the mattress, Hilary grabbed a tissue, dabbing the tears off her make-up smeared face, "Tell me what happened,"

"He..." A few more droplets descended, "He's an asshole!"

"Who is?"

"You know who,"

Hilary frowned. She definitely knew who. Tala was just bad news for any girl. "What did he do this time?"

"He's seriously a fucking asshole,"

"I know,"

"We all went out and his fucking sister wouldn't leave me alone. He got mad at me. Me. The stupid bitch asked me how many guys I had sex with and I said two and Tala's all 'oh you shouldn't have answered it, that's un-classy' and all this other BS,"

"Are you serious?"

"Yeah! And then in the car when he dropped me off, he kept mentioning Mariah, like how she's so mature and so this and so that. Why would he do that? Its common sense that you don't mention another girl especially if you have history with that other girl. He's such a fucking dirt bag, Hilary,"

"You know you can do better than this,"

"I have done better,"

"He doesn't respect you. He kept blowing you off from the beginning, he went clubbing with some slut last time, and look what he did this time," She pushed some of her friend's hair away from her face, "He made you cry,"

"He goes around and fucks a million girls and everyone knows it but when it comes to me, apparently it's a huge problem if only four of his friends know,"

"He's making a double-standard with you," Hilary sighed, "Do you want me to call Mariah here too?"

"No," She shook her head, "Mariah is the last person I want to see right now. I know she's my friend, but...I don't know. Mathilda told me some stuff,"

The brunette furrowed her brows, "What stuff?"

"That Tala and Mariah might still have something going on, I don't know. Don't tell Mathilda or Mariah I told you,"

"Obviously not," Hilary reassured, "Tala's an ass so he might have tried something with her, but I know Mariah would never do that to you, she loves you,"

"And Dylan told me one time how Tala keeps texting Mariah. I checked his phone one time, but I didn't find anything,"

Tala had definitely texted Mariah – inappropriately. She'd seen the messages as they had come. Julia didn't know this, and from the looks of it, Tala had probably deleted the messages off his phone before seeing Julia. Hilary was suddenly put into a strange situation: Julia was her friend and she had the right to know but would it be right to tell her? And how would Mariah take it? Would this affect Julia and Mariah's friendship? Would Julia be mad that Mariah hadn't said anything earlier? Would Julia be mad that Hilary herself had kept silent?

All this because of one guy. Unbelievable.

x x x

Someone in the house was going to die today, Ian was sure. The way his team captain had exploded into the house was enough a hint. The short blader poked his head out of the kitchen just as the redhead headed upstairs and when he heard racket coming from the Ivanovs' room, he immediately followed, the scene before him a tense one.

With her hair a slight mess and her clothes consisting of some super tiny pink and blue checkered shorts and a white tank top, it was evident Dylan must have been woken from her sleep. They stood half a foot away from each other, a screamfest taking place in the middle of their room.

"What did I do?"

"You know what you did!"

"What?" The blonde raised both her arms in an 'I don't know' fashion, "What did I do?"

"Stay the fuck out of my life!" As the redhead advanced towards his sibling, Ian was stunned to see Tala shove Dylan. And it wasn't just any kind of push, he'd done it aggressively on purpose, probably disregarding the fact that he was older than her, much bigger than her, and a guy. She'd fallen on the floor on her behind with a loud thud, propping herself up on her elbows, her brows gathered in the center in anger. She grabbed something lying on the floor – a calculator – and whipped it right at her brother, the redhead blocking it with his arms in turn, and the look on his face following revealed that he'd finally snapped because he went at her. Literally. He tackled her like a stray football in a field.

Dylan vs. Tala in a verbal battle, the former would usually come out the winner.

Dylan vs. Tala in a physical battle...well, let's not kid ourselves here. He could do some serious damage to her, if he hadn't already.

"Hey, hey!" Ian raced inside and ripped the two apart, "Cut it out! Shit!" But he was only able to hold it off for so long before they broke free, "Stop! Stop! Guys! Stop!" His shouting was practically an invitation for everyone else in the house to come into the room to witness World War III, and with the help of the mammoths Bryan and Spencer and a systematic Kai, the brother-sister brawl was put to an end.

"This fuckery needs to stop," Bryan barked, "It needs to stop now," There was silence for a short time as no one really knew what to do. While Dylan was covered in red patches that would soon turn into bruises, Tala was covered in bloody scratches that would probably leave marks. They seemed to have calmed down, only by a little, neither of them bothering to look at each other.

The lilac haired blader eyed Ian, and he had taken the cue. The goggle-clad boy motioned for Dylan to follow him, a method of separation, and they proceeded to the kitchen. She'd taken a seat in one of the chairs and he fetched a packet of frozen peas for her. He hadn't planned on talking. She did.

"He's so crazy,"

Ian eyed the blonde before scooting his chair closer to her, moving the make-shift ice pack into a better position on her knee, "I think you should leave him alone,"

"I didn't do any -"

"Are you fucking kidding me? He's so mad, look at him; even I don't wanna go near him. You need to own up to the shit you do. Stop pretending like you don't know what's going on. I can see right through you, Bryan can too, Spencer not so much but he'll catch on soon, Kai knew from day one, and now Mathilda probably can too. Like Tala said, you know what you did,"

"I know what I did," Miraculously enough, she had confessed, "But you don't."

DO PEOPLE STEREOTYPE YOU? Among men, I seemed to be stereotyped as a slut. I'm 22 and I've had one boyfriend for - as on and off as it was - 3/4 years (he's an ex now...I think). He's the only guy I have ever done ANYTHING with, including kissing. Yes, I've kissed one guy in my whole entire life. Yet, every time I go out with a guy, he thinks he can get me in bed. EVERY TIME. "Oh, but I thought you were like that..." they say to me, looking all surprised when they find out I won't do anything with them. I don't know if my chest has anything to do with this. I'm a 32DD, but I don't flaunt it; I actually keep it out of view as much as I can by wearing my hair down or always having a cardigan on, and every time I buy clothes, I have to be very careful about it. Sometimes I feel really bad b/c I don't know what I'm doing wrong for guys to think that way of me. I mean, I wear glasses and even those have become a 'sex symbol' for them. Once the guy gets to know me, they don't think that anymore, but now when guys approach me, I don't know what they want from me. Do you guys have any stereotypes?

xoxo to...

Freekiellie – Haha, I love how you told me your fave parts of the last chapter in your review!

Tanzy – Brothers hardly ever stop being jerks! Trust me, I know! :( And about your life story with the guy on the train...WTF? Lol honestly, people are crazy! Like all I could think about after it happened to me was what the hell was going through that guy's mind? I just can't stop thinking about it!

Peroxxide Priincess – I KNOW! I know! :( I'm trying with DLS but...BLAH! LOL! I don't know what to say haha! I have a MILLION story ideas, I always do, only 50 per cent of it get written up and only 1 percent of that 50 percent (...sorry if the math is confusing you LOL) get published! LOL.

PhoenixxLament – I know! This time I updated really fast! The next chapter is also already written up! PROGRESS! It's just that every time my retarded ass ex boyfriend makes his way back into my life, shit hits the fan. I really, really, really hate him. I've been seeing someone else since a few months ago and I finally told my ex that last night and he was like 'oh we should cut off contact with each other then' blablabla and testing me...but I was fine with it. I think in a few days he'll talk to me again though...but I can't help that I have feelings for someone else now! Sorry for spilling out my life story :P

Someone

Xxz0eyxx – About what Kenny is doing...you have a good guess! :P

LovelyKitsune – It scares me too that there are people out there like that! I'm the type of person that NEVER looks at my surroundings; I couldn't even tell you who was sitting next to me on the bus. After that, I'm definitely more careful. Anyways, will Mariah end up with Tala? We will never know! :P Actually that's not true, we'll know at the end...LOL! I crack myself up...and about how I got into Beyblade. Oh man, oh man lol. I remember it exactly. I'm 22 now, I got into it the summer I was entering grade 9 (when I was 14). The Digimon 'fandom' had just ended (for me at least), and my younger brother (who was 9 at the time...how time flies!) was watching it on TV (he never watches anime!) and then I started watching it...I was TOTALLY hooked. Sooo hooked, it wasn't even funny. I don't know how I found fanfiction, but I found it in the same year too (I've had my account since 2002!). Got into writing, and that just made me an even bigger fan of the show. So yeah...how'd you get into it?

Native-kitten