Chapter 2: Desperate Measures
The next morning brought sunny skies with little or no clouds in sight. Sunlight that penetrated the glass windows of Enrique's castle-like mansion brightened up the rooms. An exhausted Enrique was still sound-asleep on his bed. A few unexpected knocks coming from his door caused Enrique to roll over and off his bed with a thud. 'Owww!!! Grrrr!!! It's just 7 o'clock!'
"Master Enrique," a male voice recited until Enrique finally unlocked his bedroom door, revealing a man about ten years older than Enrique. "Good morning, Sir. There's someone waiting to see you downstairs. He claims to be your new mathematics tutor."
"HUH?!?! My new tutor?!?! I could have sworn Father said he'll arrive in the afternoon."
"That's what I asked him, Master Enrique. But, he says the earlier the better."
"All right then. Tell him to meet me at the breakfast table," Enrique requested of his butler. "That will be all."
"All right then, Master Enrique," the butler said. He left the room, shutting the door gently on his way out.
Downstairs in the luxurious living room, the butler addressed a figure patiently seated on a cushioned chair. "Excuse me, Mr. Saikara [Say-kar-eh], the young master requests your company in the breakfast room," the butler said, staring straight at the figure of similar age to Enrique. He had reddish brown eyes under thin framed glasses and long and straight reddish-brown hair tucked under a stripy blue bandana. His attire: a plain white T-shirt and black cargo pants under a grayish-black wooly jacket, and running shoes consisting of white and blue stripes. Strapped on his left shoulder was a black messenger bag.
Getting up from the chair, the red-head replied, "That's alright. You can call me Saikara."
"If that pleases you, Sir. This way, Saikara," the butler answered, and pointed the way to the breakfast room. He began leading Saikara through the hallways.
Meanwhile, in the bathroom, Enrique frantically switched on his usual, comfortable, and stylish clothes. 'Got to hurry. Got to hurry. Got to hurry, Enrique,' he recited in his head over and over until he finally freshened up for the start of the new day. Quietly he opened the bathroom door, and crept down the stairs. 'Lucky the breakfast room is on the other side of the mansion,' he laughed mentally.
Ten whole minutes passed. No Enrique arrived in the breakfast room. The butler had left Saikara by himself to get back to work around the mansion again. 'Oohhh!' Saikara fretted, 'That Enrique! He did it again. I should have known. Johnny informed me of his 'games'.'
Outside the mansion, just inches away from the backdoor, Enrique stooped down lifted a doorstep rug, and picked up a pair of keys. 'One for the gate, the other for the rest of the mansion,' Enrique thought deviously, 'I'll be out again.' Swiftly and cautiously, Enrique tiptoed towards the gate. Scanning his surroundings for possible threats to his escape, Enrique placed one of the keys into the keyhole of an electronic box. He opened it, and inside were buttons to press. 'Okay, Enrique, what was the entry code again? Oh yeah, it was,' he thought to himself as he punched in the password consisting of numbers. On cue, the gate swung open. "Success! Yes!" he shouted happily and exited through the gate. He then locked it, and was prepared to slide down a small hill as usual.
"Hehehe, nothing and no one can stop me now," he snickered loudly as he slid down the small hill. Upon arrival, an extra shadow cast down upon him. He looked up from his crouching position and saw a tall figure standing right in front of him.
"Ah-hem," the figure spoke. "You must be Enrique, my new pupil. I'm Saikara," he introduced with a smirk.
Laughing nervously, Enrique stood up, and replied slyly, "I was just trying to retrieve something before I join you at the breakfast table. Anyway, I couldn't find it. So, let's head back into the mansion for breakfast. You must be famished."
"That would be great. But not better than what I have in mind," Saikara said, trying to get Enrique's attention.
"Oh. What do you have in mind?"
"How does a stroll around the park sound? Some fresh air in the morning does wonders to the young minds. We can also catch a bite on our way there."
'Huh? Am I hearing things right today? Is he really a tutor or what? I've not met any tutor like him before. Strange fellow.'
"Well, my pupil, what is your answer?"
"Oh, oh yes. Sure."
"Splendid," Saikara said enthusiastically, and they both began walking in the direction of the park.
As they ambled down on the pathways, Enrique spotted a few of his 'friends' inside a bakery just a few metres away. Enrique cleared his throat, and asked, "Hey, Saikara, how about grabbing some grub now?"
"If you want. Let's head into that place," Saikara answered, pointing his finger at a coffee shop just across the street, "it's got some of the finest soup and bagels." Enrique nodded in approval.
Carefully, they both crossed the street, and arrived at the entrance of the coffee shop. "How about I wait for you here? I wouldn't mind some more fresh air," Enrique stated, hoping that he will agree.
"Okay. Don't go anywhere. I'll be back with the food soon," Saikara replied, suspicious of Enrique giving him the slip again.
"Don't worry. I won't even budge. I'll be right here when you come back," Enrique vowed with a devious grin.
"Alright then, don't stay out too long, you might catch a cold," Saikara advised as he pulled the handle bar towards him, and entered the shop. The glass door gently bounced back into place in front of Enrique who peered through the glass and spied on Saikara as he began to place his order.
'Now, to greet my two elegant ladies,' Enrique thought sneakily when he concluded that Saikara is fully distracted. Warily, the young teen slid along the pavement and across to the other side again, to where the bakery was situated. 'Now, what were their names? Um… it's either Rosa and Fiona or Yvette and Eliza…. Argh! It's difficult remembering all these names along with math,' Enrique griped mentally as he stared at them through the large glass window. His mind continued to ponder their names until he realized that they were coming out the door.
"Hey, Enrique. Wanna invite us to your yacht again?" one of them with long golden curls asked, blinking her green eyes flirtatiously.
"If my two dear beauties desire," Enrique answered slyly, flattering both girls. They giggled at his compliment.
"That's very sweet of you. But we can't. You see, Rosa and I are about to head to the park to watch the artistic Oliver on his beyblading tour," the other girl, with straight, shoulder-length raven hair and purple eyes, said.
'Ha-ah. She's Rosa. Then the other must be Fiona,' Enrique thought in relief. "Oliver? What a coincidence! I know him. I'll accompany both of you ladies," he offered energetically as he placed his arms around both girls' shoulders and began laughing gleefully.
"Okay. Let's get going," replied both girls, not minding his company, and all of them began to walk in the direction of the park.
Meanwhile, Saikara exited the coffee shop with two large brown paper bags in his right hand. He looked around for Enrique. 'There he was,' he thought when he saw a teenage boy with golden strands of hair around the corner across the other side of the streets. When he saw the two girls he was hanging around with, his blood boiled, and his face reddened with madness. Steaming in fury, Saikara let out a growl. "ENRIQUE!!! YOU'LL PAY FOR THIS!"
'Since you're headed to the park also, I get there first,' Saikara deduced as he stomped his feet on the pavement with every step he took as he cut through a back alley and began to take a shortcut to the park.
Fifteen walking minutes later, Enrique and his two girlfriends reached the park to find a group of chattering bladers encircling around two bladers in combat. Making their way through the noisy crowd, they discovered a certain green-haired young man in his match against a teen with long and straight silver hair. "Oliver!" Enrique blurted out warmly.
Hearing a familiar voice, Oliver turned to look in the direction of the sound. Upon seeing Enrique along with his two female friends, he replied, "Enrique! What a pleasant surprise! It's great to see you, but I'm kinda busy now. Wait for me after the match."
"Okay!" Enrique said as he watched the spinning blades, one after the other, inside a large concrete bowl made into the ground in the middle of the park.
"ACK! Unicolyon--" Oliver managed to yell. Oliver's mighty unicorn bit-beast emerged from his prison, galloping in anticipation.
"Ha-ah, don't even think about it. MERL!" Oliver's opponent interrupted and summoned his bit-beast. Merl surfaced from his blade, revealing himself to everyone. He looked like someone in their late eighties with white hair and wrinkles, and dressed in medieval clothing. In his right hand was a long wooden staff and in his left an ancient-looking book.
"ATTACK!!!" both of them hollered in unison. The crowd watched quietly in anticipation.
"Double Slam!" Oliver commanded, and Unicolyon began racing towards the elderly human-looking bit-beast.
"Merl! Cast your Five Elements spell now!" Immediately Merl responded, opening the book. His lips moved quickly, but no sounds could be heard. His wooden staff was glowing purple.
"Fire, Wind, Water, Earth. Feel their wraths!" a mysterious voice shouted boldly. The sound was coming from Merl, but there was no movement of his lips. Merl struck his staff forward targeting the approaching unicorn. Some of the bladers in the crowd gasped, shocked. Fire allied by its adversaries, water and earth, was carried promptly by the wind, assaulting on the bewildered unicorn and his blade.
"The fifth element is heart, but that's not going to appear to attack your bit, Oliver."
"DODGE, Unicolyon!" Oliver ordered, but it was too late. The attack had already done its damage, and his blade was sent flying out the bowl by the wind right after water chained the unicorn's legs and fire scorched the mystical beast and earth shook the ground, sending the bit-beast crashing hard on the concrete and retreating into the blade.
Merl returned to his blade and to into the master's left hand it went. "Let's call it quits for now, Merl," he murmured to his blade and then slipped it into his pants' pocket. One by one, the spectators left, leaving the two bladers behind with Enrique and his company.
"That was so cool!" the raven-haired girl with Enrique complimented when she broke free and rushed towards Merl's owner.
"HEY!" Enrique complained, but she didn't look back.
"Alex!" the raven-haired girl shouted merrily, waving as she approached him.
"Fiona?" Oliver's challenger Alex questioned, tilting his head slightly out of surprise. "What are you doing here?" he asked, tilting his head back into position.
"I came to watch Oliver's match," she replied, stopping about two metres away from him. Hearing that, Alex took a glance towards Oliver who was greeting Enrique properly and getting introduced to Rosa.
A gentle breeze began to blow. With it came someone unwanted from behind Enrique. "Ah-hem!"
It was a peculiar and familiar voice. Enrique and Rosa turned around while Alex and Fiona joined them. "Sai-- Saikara?!" Enrique exclaimed in a shocked and shaky voice. 'I thought you would have given up on locating me.'
"You look kinda familiar. Do I know you?" Alex questioned Saikara.
"Yes. Come to think of it. You look like someone I know that I can't put my finger on," Fiona agreed, but Saikara shrugged a no.
"I'm glad you chose to head here. But I'm very disappointed that you left without informing me," a displeased Saikara stated as he pulled Enrique away from Rosa. "Now, if anyone of you don't mind, Enrique shall be away for the time being to learn about the meaning of keeping promises and mathematics. If anyone of you wants to come along, so be it. But no distractions."
"Act--" Alex began to say when interrupted.
"I'll come along," Oliver offered. "I've got to see you, Enrique, solving math problems. Maybe I'll learn some things also."
"Suit yourself, Oliver, but I'm out of here," Alex said waving a goodbye.
"We'll see ya later too, Enrique," Rosa said as she joined Fiona and Alex on their departure.
Enrique frowned and waved them goodbyes. 'Until next time, my beautiful ladies.'
"It's a good thing I decided to head for the park also or I won't have found you. Today's lesson would have been ruined. Anyway, I don't know if I should say this or not," Saikara began to say, "However, if I don't, it'll be all for nothing."
"Oh?" Enrique questioned.
"Keep your words, Enrique. And math is only as hard as you want it to be. Practice and patience is the key. Not to mention concentration and perseverance, so don't try to run away from mathematical troubles when you find them difficult. Mathematics is one of the foundations of life, and everyone will learn to accept that and become experienced," Saikara lectured passionately.
"I do believe my father only hired you to teach me math, not to give lectures of keeping promises or never quitting."
"Enrique!" Oliver scowled.
"Don't sweat it, Oliver. I'll go to great lengths to teach my second pupil mathematics and its significance for free if I find it necessary," Saikara said calmly. Neither Oliver nor Enrique said a word. "Alright, let's get started," Saikara announced as he sat on the grass. Oliver and Enrique took a seat on the grass also. He handed Enrique some preliminary evaluation papers to fill out with a pencil, eraser, ruler, protractor and a calculator, and gave one test sample with answers to Oliver.
Enrique accepted his supplies, and began working when Saikara placed one of the brown paper bags on the ground besides him. "You can have breakfast if you want."
"Oh? Okay," Enrique replied, opening the bag. He snuck his right hand and got out a wrapped bagel, a plastic spoon and a Styrofoam container holding warm chicken and veggie soup. He unwrapped the paper, and took a bite on his bagel. 'This is not that bad,' he thought, and resumed answering mathematical questions on the evaluation sheets as he ate.
"Would you like a bagel or soup?" Saikara asked Oliver as he got out the food from the bag.
"Soup would be nice," Oliver replied.
"Okay," Saikara said and handed him the other bowl of soup.
Almost an hour later, Saikara asked Enrique, "Have you completed them yet?"
"YES!!!" Enrique rejoiced. "FINI!" He returned the papers to Saikara who then began marking them.
"You and Oliver can chat if you want while I do this," Saikara suggested as he began correcting the papers with a red pen. Oliver and Enrique just replied with shrugs.
"So, Oliver. You're on a beyblading tour? And you didn't inform me?"
"I was going to head down to your house to surprise you right after my match with Alex."
"Oh. So, why are you on a tour by yourself? We should have gotten the Majestics back into gear for a group beyblading tour. I still have to get a rematch from Tyson ya know."
"I didn't think you would have time to, considering that I heard from Johnny about your horrible math results. And it's not really a tour I'm on."
'Johnny?' Saikara thought as he overheard their conversation while marking. He then took out a thin laptop from his messenger bag and began to use it.
"How did Johnny find out?"
"Your father and his parents were talking about you some days ago. He was worried about your marks so he asked Johnny's parents what to do. Johnny was the one to come up with the solution however. He told your dad to hire a new tutor, someone out of the ordinary. Maybe he listened to Johnny, seeing that Saikara was hired to do the job." Saikara said nothing, trying to show that he was ignoring them. Instead, he was keying in Enrique's results from the test papers, and typing up a message. However, he continued to listen to what they had to say.
"I see," he replied dully. 'I'll murder that Johnny for opening his big mouth!' Enrique thought angrily. 'He should have recommended a female tutor. I usually listen to girls.'
"But I won't mind you joining Johnny, Robert and I on 'The Annual Quest for the Best Competition' in terms of beyblading. That's why I'm here. It's taking place in Rome. There's no team, only individual battles. I heard that last year's champion was someone from a team called Millennium Magic, the team Alex is on. There's not much info on last year's champ. And unfortunately, Alex refused to tell me how it was unless I win a Beyblade battle against him. The only way to find out his identity now is to hope that he'll show up again for this year's competition. Robert and Johnny will also be participating. However, to enlist in the competition you need to pass an examination."
"Go on, I'm listening. What type of test?"
"A math examination of your grade, with an eighty percentage at least. The competition doesn't really begin for the next two months and half cause the BBA decided that bladers may want some time to brush up on their mathematical skills before participating in the one-week competition. It'll take about two weeks to process the test and tally up the results for the public. So that means you'll have to work harder and faster on improving your math so you can pass the examination if you decide to take it. Two months, Enrique. Two months."
'Eeek! I can't believe the lengths the world would go to to make us want to study math,' Enrique thought in uneasiness. "What's the prize?"
"Fame, fortune, and food. The name of the winner will be broadcasted all over Europe and the rest of the world. The winner will also receive a surprise present as his or her trophy plus a lifetime supply of meals at every Beyblade sponsoring restaurant in any country.'
"Food?" Enrique said, bursting out in laughter. "Tyson will surely be there!"
"Probably. I received an e-mail from Kenny complaining that Tyson's been bugging him to train him in math."
Enrique laughed louder at the thought of Tyson.
"This is no laughing matter, Enrique. One of us can reclaim our status as being the best blader around, to defeat one of the Bladebreakers, especially Tyson."
Enrique discontinued laughing, when all of a sudden, Saikara shouted satisfyingly, "Bingo! Done it!"
"Done what?" Oliver and Enrique asked together in curiosity as they moved closer to Saikara to see what he was doing on the laptop.
"Your test scores ranked more than a pass so I talked to your math teacher on the messenger, Enrique, and he says that there was a miscalculation on your report card for your math grade and was trying to contact you at your house today to correct the error."
"Oh? Really?"
"Yup. Even math teachers make mistakes. And now, your math grade is back to being what it was initially supposed to be, a seventy-three percent. Wait until your father finds out. He'll be thrilled that you did not fail math in your mid-term for the first semester," Saikara replied excitedly.
"That's great news!" Enrique agreed.
"What happens now then? You won't need a tutor," Oliver posed.
"Non-refundable transactions. And I always finish my job, which means that I'll hold up my end of the deal with your father, Enrique, and I'm sorry if you'll need to bear our times together for the next month and a half. But I do promise it'll be worth it and it'll get more exciting gradually."
"Yay," Enrique replied dully.
"Let the games begin," Oliver added, smiling mischievously, and Enrique rolled his eyes, not amused while Saikara handed his papers back.
"Tomorrow, the fun begins," Saikara claimed with a smirk.
* * *
To be continued.
A/N: Thanks go out to everyone who read and/or reviewed the previous chapter as well as this one.
Disclaimer: I don't own Beyblade.