Author's Note: I'm SO sorry about the hold-up. Mid-year exams kill
writing ability, but now I'm back with a ruckus. Prepare to be shocked.
The next two chapters are so emotional and suspenseful that it will put you
on edge... if you haven't already gone over...
------ -----
Venue 7: Burning Emotions
"You're such an idiot, Mac... How could you do that to her?"
That was the quote that Zoe laid on Mac an hour after he came into the Green Lodge on Peak 1 from Snow Jam. Mac was wordless ever since he had his conversation... or rather confession to Kaori about what went down with him and Allegra, and with Griff's oversized mouth, news spread out throughout the mountain even though Zoe was closer to the group than anyone else. As she stood in front of Mac, who was alone this time, playing a pinball game, totally silent. Normally Zoe never really bothered with Mac, but this was something that she couldn't let slide...
"Well, answer me..." she demanded while giving him a stern look and putting a hand on her hip. Mac still played the game, hoping the loud sounds would drown out Zoe's nagging voice, but to no avail. He played harder, practically ramming the buttons on the side and shaking the machine. Zoe herself was trying not to literally smash the glass that contained the ball and gadgets with her fist... or maybe guide that same fist to Mac's face.
"Mackenzie!" she finally yelled and instantaneously a high to low sound from the pinball machine came out, followed by the letters "GAME OVER" on the score display overhead. Mac himself didn't even look at up. He just smacked his hand against the side of it and walked away from Zoe, hands in his jacket pockets. Zoe just stared at him again and scoffed.
"You think you feel bad? Imagine how Kaori's feeling right now!" she yelled across the room, just as Mac vanished up the lodge stairs. Honestly, Mac was thinking about how his friend was feeling. How could he be so stupid? If only he didn't get involved with Allegra... Heaving a sigh he made his way up to the top of the stairs... and eyed the British representative that was in front of him. Moby was leaning on the wall of the hallway, arms folded and looking down to Mac, who didn't get fully get up to the second floor.
"You alright, mate?" he started in a calm voice. Mac kept his eyes on him a bit longer before mumbling something under his breath and attempting to pass Moby, who didn't stop him... at least not physically.
"It'll help if you spoke up," Moby said again, stopping Mac. "I'm only trying to help..."
Mac looking in front of him for a second before looking over his shoulder and spoke, "And I want to know why."
"What's that?"
"I'm saying that you're acting well beyond yourself. Ever since this season started you've been... polite..."
"And you have problems," Moby said with a bit of a low tone, "which makes it clear that people can change. Unfortunately, yours was for the worse and holding it isn't not something that the Mac I know does... Oh, wait. Forget that. It's something that the Mac I USED to know doesn't do..."
Mac fully turned around this time and this time spoke with some sense. "Well... It's pretty obvious that you know what's been happening between me and Kaori..."
"Correction," Moby interrupted. "Among you, Kaori, and Allegra..."
Mac sighed. "Yeah... It's tearing me up inside. I'm mean, come on! I really didn't expect Kaori to... be so... so..."
"Hard on you, mate?"
"Yeah. Call it whatever you want, but it's clear that this totally sucks."
Moby took a pause before speaking again. "You said that you were worried about how Kaori's feeling now, right?"
Mac nodded solemnly... That and the fact that he didn't know where Allegra was at the moment or what she was up to. She left shortly after Kaori stormed off at Snow Jam, reassuring that she'd be back. Of course, that was a full hour ago.
"Well... do you think it's wise to stay here and mope about it? You should be healing her heart."
Mac looked away sheepishly. "I'm not sure... You know how women can be when stuff like this goes down... She'd probably bite my head off."
"And you think things will honestly get better if you just think about it, you're dead wrong. Just imagine what you-know-who would do when he finds out you hurt Kaori, especially after the way he's been treating her..."
Instantly, Hiro's image appeared in Mac's mind... Something that didn't happen in a while... and Mac practically freaked.
"Moby, you're so right, it's not funny. I'm outta here!"
In a blur, Mac took back down the stairs and grabbed his gear. Moby just smirked and ran down after him.
"Hold on, mate! I'm coming with you!"
---- ----
"Baka, baka, baka..."
The Japanese word kept coming out of Kaori's mouth periodically as she sat on the snow at the start of the Peak 3's Gravitude. After hearing what happened between Mac and Allegra over the course of a half-day, she felt sick. She couldn't really compute this thoroughly enough to realize that Mac was really trying to sooth his words so that she wouldn't get mad, but once the words "I stayed over at Allegra's apartment" came out, Kaori didn't want to hear much afterwards. She wasn't going to hear about the possibilities of what could have happened during the night. At the moment, she didn't want to even see Mac's face.
Picking up a clump of snow from the ground, Kaori just held it and looked off into space, her eyes just drying from crying about 10 minutes ago. Silence filled the area with nothing moving at all, the usually harsh wind dulling down just for her. Kaori never noticed...
"Mac..." she growled out suddenly, crunching the snow in her right hand tight. Before she could take it further, a voice called out from behind her.
"Kaori? Hey, girl... I've been looking all over for you..."
Kaori swiftly turned her head to find Allegra standing behind her, a soft expression on her face. Instantly Kaori spun around.
"Yoroshikatttara... riibu..." she muttered in a harsh tone. Allegra twisted her face and put his hands on her hips.
"You mind? I really don't know what you're saying..."
Kaori sighed then translated. "I said 'If you don't mind... leave.' I really don't want to see you or that... that... ugh..."
"You mean Mac..." Allegra said with a sigh. Kaori turned her head away from Allegra and spat out "Biiida! I could care less about him now... I don't even know why I'm talking to you. You're the one who went on and-"
"Now hold on a second, Kaori," the other girl cut her off. "Let's get things straight-"
"DAME!!" Kaori vigorously yelled out in Japanese, "YOU get THIS straight, Allegra! I've known Mac longer than you do. Heck, I've spent more time hanging around LUTHER than you've known Mac! How could you even think you can just come around here and do what you just did and not expect repercussions!?"
Allegra just looked down at Kaori with sincere eyes as the harsh winds that Peak 3 was famous for whipped around once again. Allegra sighed.
"Kaori, I just want to say something..."
Kaori stared at Allegra for a while before hardening her eyes. "What could you possibly want to say to me? Haven't you caused me enough problems?"
Allegra took this time to sit down next to Kaori, their boards, which were still on their feet, overlapping on one another. "I'm not trying to do that. Just hear me out..."
Allegra felt better inside once Kaori looked towards her and softened her expression. "Okay... I'm listening, Allegra..."
"Great. Okay, I admit that I knew somehow that you and Mac were... 'seeing' each other. Not literally, but it was implied. I also admit that having Mac over my apartment wasn't called for either, but I'll be honest. I didn't initially want this to go out like this. I wanted to just make Mac feel better... but something... inside me... I'm not sure what... took that plan and expanded to places that it shouldn't have been. I'm sorry for that..."
Kaori then added, "And what about the kiss at Ruthless Ridge?"
That made Allegra's stomach flip a bit. "Uh... well... I... I'll be honest... That... that wasn't on me. Mac actually kissed me, not the other way around. I can't really... uh... explain that one..."
Kaori sighed at that statement. Allegra herself sighed.
{I admit that much, but I'm not going to tell her that I started that kiss... She doesn't need that... She also doesn't need to find out that for a while... I did feel myself falling for Mac... and I'm probably still am...}
As the cool wind swept by again Allegra put a hand on Kaori's shoulder just as she spoke. "Well... I guess I... overreacted earlier..."
"I don't blame you. I would have did the same thing if I were in your shoes... So... are we cool?"
Kaori looked at Allegra, their faces pretty close to one another. Allegra was noticing the intensity that Kaori was giving her through her brown eyes, which seemed to peer into Allegra's inner being and evaluate it. After a while Kaori responded.
"I'm not promising anything at the moment... but I think we can work some things out between us..."
"Great... At least you're okay now... Now how about we get out of here. I swear this wind is killing me."
For the first time in a while Kaori smirked. It wasn't a smile but it was a start. As both girls started to get up, however...
"Now what do we have here? Heh, heh, heh..."
The raspy voice came from a victory-happy Psymon Stark, who sped right towards the two on the top of the Gravitude runway and abruptly stopped right next to Kaori. Normally Kaori would have been freaked out but now her eyes, which were just recovering from being in hurt mode, went back to hard just for him.
"I don't need to see you know, of all people, Psymon..." she said in a warning tone. "I don't care if your Peak 3's boss. I'm not in the mood..."
Psymon just snickered. "Well, well, well! I didn't expect little Kaori to show some backbone!"
"I'm not little anymore, Psymon... I'm 19, for God's sake... and if you plan on messing around here..."
"Ooooohhhh... That hurt..." Psymon countered in a really fake voice while playing the role of a very pathetic actor. "Honestly, I wouldn't want to do that..."
Allegra was about to say something when Psymon then got closer to Kaori, who wasn't looking at him directly but through the edge of her eyes, and raised a hand to touch her brown hair.
"...a few more times, maybe, though... for old times sake..."
POW!!!
The instant the last syllable came out of Psymon's mouth, Kaori slapped... no... fully decked Psymon's face full force, making him fall to the side. Allegra was pretty shocked as Kaori eyed Psymon's body, not saying anything at all.
"Kaori's got a nice right hook for a girl like her..." she said under her breath. Psymon lay on the snow for a couple of seconds before sitting up, his eyes wide.
"Okay, then... I see you want to play dirty! Well, if that's the case...!"
Without warning Psymon pushed Kaori off balance, making her fall forward face-first...... into the downward slope of the Gravitude race. Yelping, she tried to sit up into a position to stop herself but her speed picked up... and she saw the huge gap that was a rather large drop into a canvas... FAR below...
"KAORI!!" Allegra yelled out. Quickly giving Psymon's smiling figure a hateful glare, she got up off the snow and boarded her way to get to Kaori in time before she went over the edge... Kaori was approaching it faster than Allegra was getting to her... but just as Kaori reached the edge, Allegra pushed her body out and grabbed her by the board, stopping her from moving... for the moment.
"Hang on, girl! I gotcha!"
Kaori wasn't responding. She just stared wide-eyed at the crevasse that seemed to go on forever... As Allegra strained to pull her back up, Kaori then finally said something... No, she yelled it.
"ALLEGRA!!! HURRY!"
Just then Allegra lost a bit of her ground and the two then jerked forward, Kaori's upper body hanging over the edge with nothing to grab onto... Another jerk, this one smaller, but it wasn't helping the situation. Both girls were now in danger of falling over... Allegra tried her best to hold onto the small ground she had but friction was not on her side...
"ALLEGRA!!!!" Kaori shrieked as she realized that she was getting closer to being a weighted rock falling from an apartment roof.
"I... I can't... hold on much... longer...!" she yelped as one last jerk made her lose her footing... and both started their long fall to oblivion...
---- ----
End of venue
------ -----
Venue 7: Burning Emotions
"You're such an idiot, Mac... How could you do that to her?"
That was the quote that Zoe laid on Mac an hour after he came into the Green Lodge on Peak 1 from Snow Jam. Mac was wordless ever since he had his conversation... or rather confession to Kaori about what went down with him and Allegra, and with Griff's oversized mouth, news spread out throughout the mountain even though Zoe was closer to the group than anyone else. As she stood in front of Mac, who was alone this time, playing a pinball game, totally silent. Normally Zoe never really bothered with Mac, but this was something that she couldn't let slide...
"Well, answer me..." she demanded while giving him a stern look and putting a hand on her hip. Mac still played the game, hoping the loud sounds would drown out Zoe's nagging voice, but to no avail. He played harder, practically ramming the buttons on the side and shaking the machine. Zoe herself was trying not to literally smash the glass that contained the ball and gadgets with her fist... or maybe guide that same fist to Mac's face.
"Mackenzie!" she finally yelled and instantaneously a high to low sound from the pinball machine came out, followed by the letters "GAME OVER" on the score display overhead. Mac himself didn't even look at up. He just smacked his hand against the side of it and walked away from Zoe, hands in his jacket pockets. Zoe just stared at him again and scoffed.
"You think you feel bad? Imagine how Kaori's feeling right now!" she yelled across the room, just as Mac vanished up the lodge stairs. Honestly, Mac was thinking about how his friend was feeling. How could he be so stupid? If only he didn't get involved with Allegra... Heaving a sigh he made his way up to the top of the stairs... and eyed the British representative that was in front of him. Moby was leaning on the wall of the hallway, arms folded and looking down to Mac, who didn't get fully get up to the second floor.
"You alright, mate?" he started in a calm voice. Mac kept his eyes on him a bit longer before mumbling something under his breath and attempting to pass Moby, who didn't stop him... at least not physically.
"It'll help if you spoke up," Moby said again, stopping Mac. "I'm only trying to help..."
Mac looking in front of him for a second before looking over his shoulder and spoke, "And I want to know why."
"What's that?"
"I'm saying that you're acting well beyond yourself. Ever since this season started you've been... polite..."
"And you have problems," Moby said with a bit of a low tone, "which makes it clear that people can change. Unfortunately, yours was for the worse and holding it isn't not something that the Mac I know does... Oh, wait. Forget that. It's something that the Mac I USED to know doesn't do..."
Mac fully turned around this time and this time spoke with some sense. "Well... It's pretty obvious that you know what's been happening between me and Kaori..."
"Correction," Moby interrupted. "Among you, Kaori, and Allegra..."
Mac sighed. "Yeah... It's tearing me up inside. I'm mean, come on! I really didn't expect Kaori to... be so... so..."
"Hard on you, mate?"
"Yeah. Call it whatever you want, but it's clear that this totally sucks."
Moby took a pause before speaking again. "You said that you were worried about how Kaori's feeling now, right?"
Mac nodded solemnly... That and the fact that he didn't know where Allegra was at the moment or what she was up to. She left shortly after Kaori stormed off at Snow Jam, reassuring that she'd be back. Of course, that was a full hour ago.
"Well... do you think it's wise to stay here and mope about it? You should be healing her heart."
Mac looked away sheepishly. "I'm not sure... You know how women can be when stuff like this goes down... She'd probably bite my head off."
"And you think things will honestly get better if you just think about it, you're dead wrong. Just imagine what you-know-who would do when he finds out you hurt Kaori, especially after the way he's been treating her..."
Instantly, Hiro's image appeared in Mac's mind... Something that didn't happen in a while... and Mac practically freaked.
"Moby, you're so right, it's not funny. I'm outta here!"
In a blur, Mac took back down the stairs and grabbed his gear. Moby just smirked and ran down after him.
"Hold on, mate! I'm coming with you!"
---- ----
"Baka, baka, baka..."
The Japanese word kept coming out of Kaori's mouth periodically as she sat on the snow at the start of the Peak 3's Gravitude. After hearing what happened between Mac and Allegra over the course of a half-day, she felt sick. She couldn't really compute this thoroughly enough to realize that Mac was really trying to sooth his words so that she wouldn't get mad, but once the words "I stayed over at Allegra's apartment" came out, Kaori didn't want to hear much afterwards. She wasn't going to hear about the possibilities of what could have happened during the night. At the moment, she didn't want to even see Mac's face.
Picking up a clump of snow from the ground, Kaori just held it and looked off into space, her eyes just drying from crying about 10 minutes ago. Silence filled the area with nothing moving at all, the usually harsh wind dulling down just for her. Kaori never noticed...
"Mac..." she growled out suddenly, crunching the snow in her right hand tight. Before she could take it further, a voice called out from behind her.
"Kaori? Hey, girl... I've been looking all over for you..."
Kaori swiftly turned her head to find Allegra standing behind her, a soft expression on her face. Instantly Kaori spun around.
"Yoroshikatttara... riibu..." she muttered in a harsh tone. Allegra twisted her face and put his hands on her hips.
"You mind? I really don't know what you're saying..."
Kaori sighed then translated. "I said 'If you don't mind... leave.' I really don't want to see you or that... that... ugh..."
"You mean Mac..." Allegra said with a sigh. Kaori turned her head away from Allegra and spat out "Biiida! I could care less about him now... I don't even know why I'm talking to you. You're the one who went on and-"
"Now hold on a second, Kaori," the other girl cut her off. "Let's get things straight-"
"DAME!!" Kaori vigorously yelled out in Japanese, "YOU get THIS straight, Allegra! I've known Mac longer than you do. Heck, I've spent more time hanging around LUTHER than you've known Mac! How could you even think you can just come around here and do what you just did and not expect repercussions!?"
Allegra just looked down at Kaori with sincere eyes as the harsh winds that Peak 3 was famous for whipped around once again. Allegra sighed.
"Kaori, I just want to say something..."
Kaori stared at Allegra for a while before hardening her eyes. "What could you possibly want to say to me? Haven't you caused me enough problems?"
Allegra took this time to sit down next to Kaori, their boards, which were still on their feet, overlapping on one another. "I'm not trying to do that. Just hear me out..."
Allegra felt better inside once Kaori looked towards her and softened her expression. "Okay... I'm listening, Allegra..."
"Great. Okay, I admit that I knew somehow that you and Mac were... 'seeing' each other. Not literally, but it was implied. I also admit that having Mac over my apartment wasn't called for either, but I'll be honest. I didn't initially want this to go out like this. I wanted to just make Mac feel better... but something... inside me... I'm not sure what... took that plan and expanded to places that it shouldn't have been. I'm sorry for that..."
Kaori then added, "And what about the kiss at Ruthless Ridge?"
That made Allegra's stomach flip a bit. "Uh... well... I... I'll be honest... That... that wasn't on me. Mac actually kissed me, not the other way around. I can't really... uh... explain that one..."
Kaori sighed at that statement. Allegra herself sighed.
{I admit that much, but I'm not going to tell her that I started that kiss... She doesn't need that... She also doesn't need to find out that for a while... I did feel myself falling for Mac... and I'm probably still am...}
As the cool wind swept by again Allegra put a hand on Kaori's shoulder just as she spoke. "Well... I guess I... overreacted earlier..."
"I don't blame you. I would have did the same thing if I were in your shoes... So... are we cool?"
Kaori looked at Allegra, their faces pretty close to one another. Allegra was noticing the intensity that Kaori was giving her through her brown eyes, which seemed to peer into Allegra's inner being and evaluate it. After a while Kaori responded.
"I'm not promising anything at the moment... but I think we can work some things out between us..."
"Great... At least you're okay now... Now how about we get out of here. I swear this wind is killing me."
For the first time in a while Kaori smirked. It wasn't a smile but it was a start. As both girls started to get up, however...
"Now what do we have here? Heh, heh, heh..."
The raspy voice came from a victory-happy Psymon Stark, who sped right towards the two on the top of the Gravitude runway and abruptly stopped right next to Kaori. Normally Kaori would have been freaked out but now her eyes, which were just recovering from being in hurt mode, went back to hard just for him.
"I don't need to see you know, of all people, Psymon..." she said in a warning tone. "I don't care if your Peak 3's boss. I'm not in the mood..."
Psymon just snickered. "Well, well, well! I didn't expect little Kaori to show some backbone!"
"I'm not little anymore, Psymon... I'm 19, for God's sake... and if you plan on messing around here..."
"Ooooohhhh... That hurt..." Psymon countered in a really fake voice while playing the role of a very pathetic actor. "Honestly, I wouldn't want to do that..."
Allegra was about to say something when Psymon then got closer to Kaori, who wasn't looking at him directly but through the edge of her eyes, and raised a hand to touch her brown hair.
"...a few more times, maybe, though... for old times sake..."
POW!!!
The instant the last syllable came out of Psymon's mouth, Kaori slapped... no... fully decked Psymon's face full force, making him fall to the side. Allegra was pretty shocked as Kaori eyed Psymon's body, not saying anything at all.
"Kaori's got a nice right hook for a girl like her..." she said under her breath. Psymon lay on the snow for a couple of seconds before sitting up, his eyes wide.
"Okay, then... I see you want to play dirty! Well, if that's the case...!"
Without warning Psymon pushed Kaori off balance, making her fall forward face-first...... into the downward slope of the Gravitude race. Yelping, she tried to sit up into a position to stop herself but her speed picked up... and she saw the huge gap that was a rather large drop into a canvas... FAR below...
"KAORI!!" Allegra yelled out. Quickly giving Psymon's smiling figure a hateful glare, she got up off the snow and boarded her way to get to Kaori in time before she went over the edge... Kaori was approaching it faster than Allegra was getting to her... but just as Kaori reached the edge, Allegra pushed her body out and grabbed her by the board, stopping her from moving... for the moment.
"Hang on, girl! I gotcha!"
Kaori wasn't responding. She just stared wide-eyed at the crevasse that seemed to go on forever... As Allegra strained to pull her back up, Kaori then finally said something... No, she yelled it.
"ALLEGRA!!! HURRY!"
Just then Allegra lost a bit of her ground and the two then jerked forward, Kaori's upper body hanging over the edge with nothing to grab onto... Another jerk, this one smaller, but it wasn't helping the situation. Both girls were now in danger of falling over... Allegra tried her best to hold onto the small ground she had but friction was not on her side...
"ALLEGRA!!!!" Kaori shrieked as she realized that she was getting closer to being a weighted rock falling from an apartment roof.
"I... I can't... hold on much... longer...!" she yelped as one last jerk made her lose her footing... and both started their long fall to oblivion...
---- ----
End of venue