It was easy to spot the two Russian beybladers amongst the crowd of students, even without Tala's flaming red hair. "Ah, here she is," he said with a grin as she approached. "Did you shrink?"

"Nice to see you too," she remarked, resisting the urge to hug him. She had never known Tala to be big on hugs, and she doubted that had changed in the past year. Like her teammates, Tala must have grown at least a foot over the summer. He towered over Kai now, who looked rather out of place without his trademark white scarf.

Her former captain looked remarkably better than when she'd last seen him - battered and bruised from his battle with Brooklyn. She could have asked him about the match. Or she could have asked him why he left, why he came back, or even why he hadn't called her cousin yet!

Instead, she settled for; "Did you find what you were looking for, Kai?"

Kai didn't nod or smile, but his expression was friendly enough. Rather, Steph though, Kai appeared more at ease than he'd been in a long time. "More or less," he said. "How about you - how was England?"

Ah, Steph thought to herself. It wasn't like Kai to volunteer information about his personal life, even to her. On the other hand, he had no qualms asking about other people's personal life. "Good, I did a summer term at Oxford."

"I still can't believe you voluntarily did more school," Tala said, looking incredulous. "You really are a nerd."

Steph shrugged. "It runs in the family," she said simply. "My dad is a professor after all." [1]

"Like I said - nerd," Tala repeated, but his tone was teasing. "I don't even know how Dickenson convinced me to come back for this year," he went on. "It's not like what I want to do needs a high school diploma, right Kai?"

Kai merely grunted, and Steph couldn't help but notice his response was neither affirmative or negative. Both boys were already eighteen, and if not for the events of the previous year forcing them to spend a year out of school, would have already graduated. While Steph was still in two minds about continuing her beyblade career after high school, Tala had never considered anything else.

"Mr Dickenson wants you to keep your options open, remember?" she said.

Tala scowled but they were interrupted by the teacher opening the doors to the lab and ushering them in. Each of the benches had two seats - so lab partners could work in pairs.

Steph didn't take it personally when Kai silently motioned for her to take the seat next to Tala. When everyone was seated, the teacher started the class by assigning them work to complete in pairs.

Tala propped open his textbook between them and flipped to the page on Le Chatelier's principle, something Steph had studied at summer school. She skimmed the questions and decided they were relatively straight-forward. "Let's do half each," she suggested, and opened her notebook.

Tala shrugged and opened his notebook. Despite all his teasing, and the year he'd taken off school, Tala was a surprisingly good student. Together, they managed to finish the exercises with ten minutes to spare until the end of class - ten minutes that Steph planned to put to good use.

"So, he's okay then," she asked Tala, keeping her voice low and inclining her head in Kai's direction.

Tala didn't respond immediately, and Steph got the sense he was debating how much he should tell her. He had an annoying habit of only telling Steph as much as he thought she needed to know - which usually wasn't a lot. He settled for; "Mostly."

'Mostly' was better than she had expected given the circumstances. "And what about you?" she pressed, hearing the edge to her own voice. The two of them had barely broached the subject of his physical health following his battle with Garland.

This time Tala's grin was half-hearted. "Fit as a fiddle," he told her and when she raised an eyebrow in disbelief, he sighed. "A couple of headaches here or there," he relented. "Nothing to worry about."

Relieved, she closed her notebook and began to pack up her things for her next class. She had Biology next, which meant she'd finally catch up with Becky. "How are the others? Bryan and Spencer?"

"Fine. Bryan found a job and Spencer starts university next week."

"And Ian?"

Tala shrugged. "Ian is the same. Causing all sorts of trouble at boarding school."

As the youngest member of the Demolition Boys, Ian had been particularly susceptible to Boris's propaganda. Steph also knew that Ian had been particularly rebellious since he'd been left behind in Russia during the BEGA takeover.

"What kind of trouble?" Steph prompted him to clarify, to which Tala only chuckled.

"Don't worry, he's not stupid enough to get himself expelled. He knows his participation in the upcoming tournament is entirely dependant on him staying in school." [2]

The bell rang, announcing the end of class and they joined Kai in the hallway. All the science classes were held in the same wing of the school, so Steph didn't need the map to help her find her way to Biology.

"How are things with the team?" Tala asked as they walked. He was making an effort, at least, to be supportive of her decision to return to the Bladebreakers over the Majestics.

Steph sighed. "I'm not sure," she admitted. "I have a feeling Tyson and Hiro haven't been getting along. Grandpa seemed pretty keen to steer the conversation away from the tournament last night."

Tala snorted derisively. "It kills me to say it, but I'm on Tyson's side in this one. What's Dickenson thinking bringing Hiro back?"

"I think he probably thought we needed someone to keep our egos in check," Steph said quietly as they rounded the corner into the Biology corridor, where Becky was waiting for her. When she saw Kai and Tala with her, however, the younger girl's expression soured and she crossed her arms over her chest.

Kai was the first to break the silence. "Hey," he said.

"Hi," she said abruptly, her fingers tightening around the spine of her Biology book.

"Well, this is awkward," Tala muttered, to which Becky shot him a glare.

It didn't take a genius to realise that Tala and Becky didn't get along. If Steph had to, she could probably list more than a few reasons as to why, but at the top of the list would have to be losing both Kai and Ophelia to the Demolition Boys.

Ignoring Tala's comment, Becky turned back to Kai. "You didn't tell me you were coming back."

"It was a last minute decision," Kai admitted.

"Oh, and I suppose there's no cell service in Russia?" Becky said, not very kindly, and Steph aimed a reproachful look at her cousin.

Kai sighed, his expression regretful. "I needed time," he said, to which Becky rolled her eyes and muttered something in Italian that Steph thought too vulgar to translate.

"That's enough you two," she said, to which Tala nodded in agreement.

"Yeah, as fascinating as this conversation is," he said, and his tone suggested it was anything but. "I'd rather take my chances in Gym class with Tyson than listen to the two of you air your grievances."

"I'll see you in later then," Steph said before Becky could retaliate. "We have English together."

Tala grinned. "That we do," he said. "See ya around, squirt," he added, as he reached over and patted Becky on the head, ruffling her hair. Becky swatted his arm away with her binder.

With a sigh, Kai followed his teammate wordlessly down the hall, leaving Becky with nothing to do but glare at his retreating back.

Becky was quiet for most of Biology while they worked through inheritance patterns. While Steph was meticulous as she drew up her punnet squares, she couldn't help but notice the careless smudges on Becky's page as she worked. "Do you want to talk about it?" she offered.

At first, Becky was silent as she rubbed at the pen markings on her hand. She was the only member of their family that was left handed and often complained about the difficulties of using scissors and writing with smudgy ink.

"Hey," she repeated Kai's words, her voice ringing with disbelief and frustration. "Fourteen months of silence, and that's all I get?"

"Did you expect him to go into details in the middle of the Science wing?" Steph asked her, raising an eyebrow.

"Well - no," she admitted, looking rather put out. "I just thought that, after all we've been though together, I deserve an explanation for him walking out on us."

The history of Becky's relationship with their captain had more ups and downs than a roller coaster - Steph thought mostly because neither of the two parties involved had the slightest idea how to effectively communicate with one another. It didn't help that both of them were incredibly stubborn, and while the rest of the team had come to terms with Kai's decision to join the Demolition Boys, Becky had found it the hardest. Steph wouldn't be surprised if his joining BEGA turned out to be the nail in the coffin so to speak.

"Talk to him," she suggested, to which Becky merely shrugged and scribbled out another incorrect entry in her punnet square.

—

[1] Marcus Summers teaches Law at Oxford university. Marcus met Marisa when she was studying to become a doctor. Marcus lives in London full time and travels to see his daughters in Rome twice a year.

[2] Following the closure of Balkov Abbey, Dickenson funded scholarship programs for the Blitzkreig Boys to attend boarding school in the UK. Spencer and Bryan are nineteen at the tie of this story and thus have already graduated. Kai and Tala are both eighteen, and have returned to complete their high school diploma