Far From Here
DISCLAIMER: You know whom I own. Dak, Laili, Alec, Zada…
Chapter 9: Unspoken Pain
Eleven months later… (March 2004)
There are some times when I truly do hate my life. Sometimes I can't figure out who I really am. Am I Kai Camden, the Tyson/Max combination (which seriously scares me, since they're both hardly tolerable separate)? Or am I Kai Hiwatari, world champion Beyblader who doesn't need anybody? Or am I some strange mix of the two? Which one is the real me?
The annoying beeping of his installed cellular phone brought 16-year-old Kai out of his electronic journal entry. "Who is it?" he asked, clicking on the vid-phone icon.
"Hey, Kai!" Rei cheerfully called.
"Aren't you supposed to be in school?" Kai asked suspiciously.
"Home schooled!" Rei crowed triumphantly. "Nami got tired of me, so she sent me off while she goes and screams outside. And uh, Kai?"
"Yeah?"
"You look entirely too domestic. It scares me."
"What?"
"You have a kid crawling on your back."
"Oh." Kai said, twisting his head around to find his eleven-month-old sister clambering up onto his back. "Zada, get off." The toddler refused to comply and Kai finally sighed, "Fine, be that way." He turned back to the screen.
"Any way." Rei continued. "What about Alec?"
Kai scoffed. "He's back into the crowds out here. I think it's the school that's doing it for him. Big Man On Campus, he is. Forgotten all about dear old Kai."
"Aw, it's okay. We haven't forgotten you." Rei comforted.
"You better not have." Kai threatened good-naturedly. "Because I'm coming out to Tokyo this weekend. Honestly, do you guys even bother training when I'm not in?"
"I do," Rei offered evasively. "I'm not always in Tokyo either."
"I didn't doubt you," Kai grumbled. "It's Tyson and Max and their ultra-big egos I'm worried about."
"Mm-hmm." Rei agreed. There was an irritated voice in the background and Rei said hurriedly, "Okay, I have to go, but I'll see you this weekend."
"Bye." Kai closed the screen and continued to write.
And Alec. Don't even get me started on him. Mr. "Explain-why-you-abandoned-us" has committed willful mutiny. At least I didn't know it. I mean, my best friend through childhood, fellow Beyblade… learner, and all of a sudden I don't exist anymore. It HURTS.
Later that night…
"Hey, Kai, we're back!" Dak called as the door shut in the kitchen.
"Hmm." Came the answer of his stepson from the den.
"Where's Zada?" Laili asked, sticking her head into the den. Kai was still immersed in his laptop, typing up a storm. (A/N: I know, it sounds more like Chief, but is it a little late to say the characters are a bit OOC?)
"Nap." Kai answered, not bothering to look up.
Laili left to go upstairs and Dak entered the den and sat down just as Kai closed the computer. "Kai, can I speak with you for a moment?"
"Hmm." Kai answered.
"Like as in a real conversation where you say more than monosyllabic words." Dak said wryly.
"All right." Kai conceded.
There was silence for a moment before Dak finally said, "You want to go to Tokyo to stay, don't you?"
"Maybe."
"You know, I would let you. You've stayed longer than we agreed on. We said a year, it's been almost one and a half."
"Hmm."
"Kai, why are you acting like this?" Dak asked.
Kai shrugged. "Because it's in my nature?"
"Finally, more than one syllable." Dak muttered. "This goes beyond nature, Kai. What's going on?"
"Dunno. Maybe I just don't know who to believe."
I remember, I used to lie in bed at the abbey and hope that when I woke up, I'd be back in my own bed in the cabin, that the abbey and all that happened in it was just a nightmare. All I would have to do get out of bed and climb into Dak and Mama's bed and everything would be fine, because nothing could happen.
But everything did happen. I got trapped, trapped by their weird, twisted experiments, trapped by my own naiveté and by my thirst for power, and I guess, slowly anything that had ever meant anything to me went away. Only Dranzer stayed.
*1996*
"Hey, Alec! Hurry up or we'll be late!" 8-year-old Tala moaned, hopping from foot to foot.
"Sir won't be too pleased," Bryan added.
"I'll come when I'm good and ready," Alec said calmly. "If you guys are so scared of Sir, you go on ahead."
"You're going to be in for a whipping, Alec." Kai warned.
"Hmm-mmm." Alec said, clearly unimpressed. "But Sir will decide it was all your fault and decide you need discipline. Not a stroke will land on me."
"Exactly." Kai groaned. "I'm still trying to stop bleeding from last night's whipping. Can't you just listen to Sir for once? Even for just today?"
"I don't like him," Alec responded, standing up. "I don't respect him."
"Yeah, well, I have great respect for that whip and the person who uses it, so let's GO!" Kai whined, tugging at Alec's sleeve.
"B13 R13, you arrive late for your drills once again." Sir sighed.
"We apologize, Sir," all four boys chorused together.
"Apologies are excuses, and I don't accept excuses." Sir snapped. "For your lateness, B13 R13 F4, you will receive 20 lashes. For the lateness of your comrades, 20 lashes each. You have a legacy to uphold, B13 R13 F4, and I will not tolerate any behaviour not fitting the station you are destined to hold. That will be another 15 lashes. And all four of you will be confined to your dormitory for the remainder of the day."
Kai hung his head and while Tala and Bryan looked petrified, Alec looked immediately contrite. Because he had dawdled, Kai was going to get 95 lashes on top of the 100 he'd received last night.
When the drills had finished, Tala, Bryan and Alec returned to their dormitory to await the arrival of Doctor Resven, the only genuine medical doctor in the abbey and a decent person, who seemed to know before they did when Kai returned from the punishment cell.
He arrived in about five minutes with Kai draped over his shoulder, closing the door behind him.
Throughout Doctor Resven's tending to the newest wounds on Kai's already-horribly scarred back, all three boys were constantly apologizing to Kai. Alec himself was in tears and flinched along with Kai every time Doctor Resven touched Kai's skin.
"All right, Kai." Doctor Resven said finally, standing up. "I'm going to leave you a couple of pain-killers. Make sure you hide them well. You can take them at lights-out if your back still hurts then. Try not to sleep on your back, okay?"
Kai nodded silently, a stray tear sliding down his cheek. "Thank you, Doctor Resven." He whispered as the door closed again and locked the four boys into the windowless cell, lit only by a single light bulb swinging forlornly on the ceiling.
*Sunsrest High School, English class*
"Mrs. Eners, do I really need to do this assignment?" Alec asked charmingly, setting the outline sheet back down on her desk.
"If you want to pass this course, Mr. Yvan, I strongly suggest you do this assignment, and do it well." Mrs. Eners responded, not bothering to look at Alec.
Alec grumbled as he climbed onto the bus as it hurtled out of the drive.
"Hey, Alec, did you get out of the assignment?" Aaron asked as Alec swung into the seat.
"No." Alec grumbled again. "Of course, this is the one teacher I can't charm into relieving me. She's never bought my line about my traumatic past." He scoffed.
"So what do you plan on doing?" Aaron asked. "You of all people should have an interesting enough answer." He took out his own sheet, identical to Alec's.
Assignment: an autobiography
Due Date: May 15, 2004
Title: at your own discretion
Topics that MUST be included:
Introduction: Birth
~ birthdate
~ birthplace
~ parents
Body Paragraph 1: Early Years
~ First word
~ First steps
~ other information pertaining to the ages birth - 4 years, including parents'
divorces/remarriage, new siblings, moves…
~ include ONE short anecdote if you want
Body Paragraph 2: Childhood
~ date you started education
~ early favourites (colours, shows, activities…)
~ other information pertaining to the ages 5 - 12 years, including parents'
divorces/remarriage, new siblings, moves…
~ you MUST include one anecdote
Body Paragraph 3: Present Day
~ present favourites
~ other information pertaining to the ages 13 - present, including parents'
divorces/remarriage, new siblings, moves…
~ you MUST include one anecdote
Supplementary Body Paragraphs Subjects (at an additional 5 points each):
~ a memory you wish never happened (embarrassing moments, etc.)
~ a memory that will stay with you forever
~ at your discretion
Conclusion: Future
~ reflections on past
~ plans for the future
**KEEP IT ALL CLEAN!!!**
"I can't believe this!" Alec fumed as he banged into the kitchen of the Yvan household, with his 10-year-old brother and 8-year-old sister right behind him. "It's ridiculous! Who wants to spill the intimate details of their private lives to their teachers, knowing that they have to deal with this teacher another two and a half years, and that they don't know where this essay is going!"
"What's wrong, Alec?" Isobel asked, entering the kitchen. "Bad day at school?"
"No, bad school assignment!" Alec hissed. "An autobiography, Mother! An autobiography, with REQUIRED anecdotes!"
"Alec, you can't keep it bottled up forever." Isobel said gently, ushering the younger children out. "You knew it was coming eventually. And Kai will have to write one as well."
"No he won't." Alec muttered. "Kai's not in school."
"He's not?" Isobel asked suspiciously. "He's skipping?"
"No, he's already graduated." Alec answered. "Got his diploma a few years ago."
"Is it true, what Alec is telling me?" Isobel asked Laili, when she went over to the Camden household later that evening, dragging Jekyll and Calypso with her. 8-year-old Calypso was quite taken with Baby Zada, but 10-year-old Jekyll was bored out of his mind and asked to go outside.
"Stay in the yard, Jekyll." Isobel responded, then turned back to Laili. "Alec was telling me that Kai hasn't been going to school."
"He hasn't?" Laili repeated.
"Yes, Alec told me he's already received his high school diploma. I thought I'd run it past you." Isobel said.
"Well, this is news." Laili muttered. "While it shouldn't be, it is." She sighed in disgust as she sat down. She looked up sharply as Dak came in, and, having overheard the last part of the conversation, tried to slip back out unnoticed. "Dak."
"Yes, dear?" Dak asked innocently.
"Did you know about this?"
"About what?" Dak asked uneasily, with the distinct expression of a guilty schoolboy who had just caught dipping the pigtails of the girl in front of him in the inkwell.
"You have been taking Kai to school, haven't you?"
"Y—y—y—yes." Dak stammered.
"Are you lying to me?" Laili asked again.
"Yes." Dak admitted.
"You haven't been taking Kai to school?"
"No."
"Where have you been taking him, then?"
"Into Tokyo with me."
"WHAT?!"
"Well, I, I, there's no real point in him going to school when he doesn't need to, is there?"
"Dak, I don't believe you!" Laili nearly shrieked. "You've been lying to me the whole year??!! KAI!"
Talk about a soap opera. Sure, my life has never been normal like Kenny's is normal, but I had a routine going. Then comes that stupid Sunsrest Tournament. I am more than willing to bet that I probably would've been better off the way I was, just dealing with Grandfather's demented lifestyle as it came and went and then maybe one day, when I was no longer a minor, I would try and find them. Maybe not. Who knows?
Kai was jolted out of yet another electronic journal entry by Laili's screech from downstairs.
And here comes another lecture on not skipping school. No doubt Alec squealed to his gossip of a mother who then informed mine.
Kai closed the computer and ambled downstairs.
Once Laili had once again finished the lecture on the importance of education and socialization with his peers, Kai returned to his journal entry thoroughly disgruntled.
And I was actually in a pretty good mood today, too. So much for that. And in about two seconds, Dak's going to enter the room and give me a slighter more gentler lecture.
"Kai, can I come in?" Dak's voice came from outside the door.
Told you so.
"Sure." Kai grumbled, closing the laptop again.