New Beginnings, New Love
Chapter 7
Why is it so bright? Where am I?
Suki's eyes flickered open. She was tucked in a bed, not her own bed, and the lights were on and shining very brightly. She looked around and it was very clean, too clean. Suddenly the door handle started to turn and her attention was focused on the door. A doctor walked in holding a clipboard.
"Ah, Miss Winn you're awake. Good." The doctor said smiling. "How do you feel?"
"Umm... I feel okay," Suki said nervously. The doctor wrote something down on his clipboard before turning to her again.
"You have some visitors waiting for you outside. Would you like to see them?" He asked kindly.
"Yeah, yes please," She answered. She leaned back onto her pillow and tried to take off the tag round her wrist. The Bladebreakers, Hilary, Mariah, Mariam and to her surprise Tala came bursting through the door. The girls came running up to her, Hilary looked as if she had been crying.
"Are you okay?" Mariam asked worriedly.
"Yeah I'm fine," Suki said whilst sitting up a bit more. This made her stomach twinge unpleasantly and she winced slightly.
The others had walked cautiously over to her bed, Tala was lingering behind them not sure whether he should be there or not although he did look quite upset. Suki wondered why he was there, but she was grateful he came.
"Tala insisted on coming," Kai said. It was if he could read her mind. Suki looked a little surprised and smiled at Tala. He smiled back nervously.
"So, err... what happened?" Max stuttered. "If it's too soon then you don't have to tell us now." He added looking nervously around the room. 'He and Mariam would be perfect for each other,' Suki thought distractedly.
"Mmhmm, I'm sure Kai can explain. I just wanna rest for a bit," She said smiling. The others nodded.
Kai sighed heavily before starting the story. Because he wasn't there for the beginning of it, he couldn't explain what happened first.
"- And then I rushed Suki back to school." He finished dryly. The memory of her lying helpless on the branch like that made him want to punch something, but he resisted the temptation to do so and kept his face expressionless. The others stood there shocked until Tala broke the silence.
"That bastard. I can't believe he'd do something like that!" Tala growled. He felt like going out and killing Ozuma personally. Hilary sat down on her bed and put an arm around Suki. Silent tears started to run down Hilary's face and fell on Suki's hand. She snorted slightly.
"I dunno why you're crying Hilary, it didn't happen to you!" She laughed at her.
"Sorry, I just don't like it when things like this happen to my friends." Hilary sniffled. Suki was taken aback to see how caring Hilary was but smiled in a grateful way.
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The next morning Suki was allowed to leave the hospital and returned back to school. The others weren't allowed to stay over night so they met her in her dorm in the morning. Again, she was pounced on by Mariah, but she quickly got off noticing how much pain Suki was in.
"Sorry," Mariah said whilst looking at the floor. "I'm just glad you're all right."
"Don't worry about it!" Suki said smiling widely. Her stomach was bandaged up, so was her left hand, her legs and arms were covered in bruises and scratches, and a big bruise was swelling over her right cheekbone. Suki walked gingerly over to her bed and dropped onto it. The girls came over and sat on her bed with her.
"It's okay Suki, don't worry about it," Mariam said whilst patting her back.
"Have they found Ozuma yet?" Suki asked abruptly, breaking the silence.
"Err... no," Hilary said bluntly.
"Oh." Was all Suki could say to that. She was scared of the feeling that he was still out there.
"But that doesn't mean they won't find him," Hilary said whilst scowling at the floor. Hilary was very upset that something like this had happened to one of her friends and she was picturing herself shocking Ozuma with a cattle prod.
The Bladebreakers had gone down to the beydishes to take their mind off school work and Ozuma.
"Oh yeah, we still haven't asked if Suki wants to join us for the tournament in February!" Tyson said horror struck. It was now November and they needed to ask her soon so they could all train together as a team.
"I'll go ask her now," He said before turning away.
"No Tyson!" Kai called out after him. "It's too soon to be asking her that now." Kai finished by glaring at Tyson.
"Oh... yeah, right." Ray's hands tightened into fists as he reminded himself of what had happened to Suki. He sighed before turning back to the school. "Hey Ray! Where are you going?" Max called out after Ray.
"I'm just gonna... go back to school," Ray said over his shoulder to the shocked teens.
When Ray arrived outside the girls dorm he could hear sobbing coming from inside. He waited and listened before he entered. He poked his head round the door and smiled weakly at the girls surrounding Suki who had her head buried in a large fluffy pillow. Mariah gasped, looking at Ray.
"Ray what do you think you're doing!?" Mariah screeched at him. He stood there and blinked.
"What?" He asked perplexed.
"You didn't even knock and we could have been changing or something! Did you even think about that!?" Mariah said crossly. Ray looked down and started to blush.
"Oh, uhh... sorry." He said, and he did sound extremely sorry and put out. Mariah rolled her eyes and turned back to Suki. Ray walked in further and sat down next to Hilary on Suki's bed. She had stopped crying a bit and looked up.
"Hello," She said weakly. Ray could see how cut her face and body was and started to shake out of anger.
"Ray what's wrong?" Questioned Hilary.
"Uhh, nothing." He said before sighing heavily and staring back at the upset little girl.
Suki got off and strode towards the door before turning and looking at their puzzled faces.
"I'm just gonna go for a walk to clear my head a bit," She smiled at them before closing the door behind her. She put her hands in her trouser pockets and walked off. She was about to go to the forest, but many disturbing memories flooded her mind and decided to go to the river.
"Well, we can't really carry on without Ray." Tyson said looking disappointed, a little too disappointed. "C'mon let's go eat!" He said happily and turned towards the refectory.
"But Tyson you just had lunch!" Max called out whilst following after him. Kai rolled his eyes and went for a walk to the river.
Suki sat by the rivers edge with her legs pulled into her chest, her eyes peered over the top of them looking out onto the rivers surface. When Kai reached the river he saw someone sitting there with long black hair. He knew who it was immediately. He walked over and sat down beside her.
"Are you okay?" He asked gently, looking at the side of her face. She hadn't turned her head to face him and carried on looking at the river.
"I'll live..." She said gloomily. She rested her head on her knees and sighed. Kai was still staring at her and wanted her to turn to face him. If she hadn't just have been abused by Ozuma he would have made her face him, but he didn't want to make her feel threatened in any way.
Suki could feel Kai's eyes staring at her and finally turned her head so she was looking directly into his eyes. Her face remained expressionless but her eyes gave everything away. They were filled with sadness, resentment, anger and confusion. For once in Kai's life, he wasn't thinking about himself. He couldn't help but feel sorry for the petite girl sitting before him.
Gradually, he started to get closer to Suki until they were only inches apart. But Suki shifted uneasily away.
"I'm sorry Kai, it's too soon." She said with tears filling in her eyes. Before Kai could speak Suki had ran off towards the school. He sighed and returned his gaze back to the lake.
'Damn it!' He thought furiously with himself. 'Why did I have to do that then? I knew she wasn't ready for it but I went and did it anyway.' He growled and made a couple of ducks fly off in fright.
When Suki arrived back at her dorm, she stood at the door trying to wipe her face so it looked as if she hadn't been crying, then she heard Ozuma's name. She stood there and listened intently to the girls and Ray's conversation.
"So the police have no idea where he is then?" Hilary asked.
"No, they think after Kai threw him out the tree he ran for it," Ray said solemnly. A silence remained after that until Hilary broke it.
"Do they think he'll come back?" She whispered, Suki had to press her ear right up to the door to hear that.
"I dunno, but the police think that he will try to come back to finish what he started..." Ray couldn't find the right words to finish the sentence with and left it there. Suki sighed before entering the room.
"Hey guys," She said in a fake happy voice. She didn't want the others to worry about her even more than they already were.
"Hi," They all chanted back to her. They stayed in silence for several minutes. It was very difficult to talk at the moment, Suki didn't want to admit that she overheard and the others didn't want to ask her.
"So, do you wanna go to town or something?" Mariah asked breaking the silence.
"Yay!! Yeah let's go!" Mariam squealed and dragged the others out of the door, literally.
When they arrived in the over crowded town they went straight to the clothes shops, Ray tried to get away, but all the girls pulled him inside.
"We need a male opinion on these," Hilary said whilst grabbing a bunch of clothes to go try on. Once they had all selected the items of clothing they wanted, they each went to try them on in the cubicles. They had decided to buy dresses for the dance next Friday.
Hilary was wearing a sleeveless, short blood red dress which came half way between her thighs. Mariam chose a long pastel blue dress with a slit up the right hand side with long flowing sleeves. Suki had a long black, low cut dress with slits up both sides. And Mariah was wearing a medium length pink sleeveless dress, to match her hair, which had a very low back. When they came out of the changing rooms, Ray stood there stunned.
"Wow," He gasped. "You all look amazing!" The girls blushed, Suki more so, as many of her cuts and bruises were now on display.
"Umm guys, do you think they'll be gone by next Friday?" She asked pointing at her wounds.
"Yeah, of course they will." Mariam replied.
When they got back to the girls dorm they were in for a little surprise. They all stood in the doorway, gaping at Max and Tyson inside. They had on the girls underwear and were prancing round pretending to be the girls. They hadn't noticed them in the doorway yet and carried on looking like idiots.
"Oh look at me, I'm Hilary and I'm oh so pretty!!" Tyson said in a girly voice. They turned round and saw the girls and Ray standing in the doorway. They stopped what they were doing immediately.
"WHAT DO YOU THINK YOU'RE DOING!? YOU TWO ARE SO IMMATURE!" Mariam shouted at them at the top of her voice. The boys stood there, wide eyed and petrified of what the girls might do to them. Ray stood at the back sniggering at the boys misfortune.
Suddenly, Max and Tyson sped past the girls and ran to their own dorm.
"Come back here!" Hilary shouted as they ran after them. When Max and Tyson reached their dorm, they slammed the door behind them scaring the living daylights out of Kai, although he didn't show it. He rolled his eyes at the boys who were dressed in the girls lingerie and carried on staring into space. Finally, the door burst open and the girls charged on Max and Tyson.
Hilary and Suki pinned down Tyson and Mariah and Mariam pinned down Max to the floor. Kai and Ray watched, amused.
"So, do you do this all the time we go out? Or is it just a one of thing?" Suki asked in a very calm voice, too calm.
"Err... err," Was all the boys could say. They both looked quite scared and remained still.
"Well...?" Suki reinforced the question, wanting an answer.
"It was all Max's idea!" Tyson suddenly burst out. Max looked extremely shocked at this.
"What!? It was your idea Tyson!" Max replied.
"Hmm... well you're both gonna have to suffer the consequences. You two are our slaves, for the rest of the school year." Hilary added looking very triumphant.
"WHAT!?" They both bellowed. Being slaves for 4 girls for 8 months was suicide.
"Oh yes," Suki said smiling. "That's what you get when you go through our underwear. And that's mine!" She said whilst trying to take off the corset Tyson was wearing. She flipped him over and sat on his back whilst trying to unclasp it.
"Tyson! You've got all the clasps mixed up! It's gonna take ages to get this off." She growled at him. Ray looked very jealously at the two and kinda wished that he was Tyson there, but not wearing girls lingerie...
Someone knocked at the door and Tala's head appeared.
"Well, this does look like fun," He said smiling. He looked over at Suki and Tyson and they received another jealous look.
"Kai, can I talk to you?" Tala asked still staring at Suki and Tyson. Kai grunted in response and followed him outside.
"Umm, do you think it's too soon to ask Suki out?" He asked.
'What?' Kai thought, 'I never knew he liked Suki.'
"Yeah, she's not ready yet," Kai said, he remembered earlier down at the river and didn't want her to be under pressure like that again.
"Oh, okay then," Tala said looking very upset. "I'll wait."
"Why are you asking me anyway?" Kai asked suspiciously.
"Err well, you're quite close with Suki, other than the girls, and you act differently around her, so I asked you." He replied. Kai grunted in response and went back inside. Suki had managed to get the corset off Tyson and the other lingerie as well. Kai walked over to the window and looked out over the forest. He didn't know he acted differently around her.
'Yes you do, and it's because you like her,' said an evil voice in the back of his head. 'Shut up!' He growled back it.
"Well, our work here is done!" Mariah said triumphantly, and the girls walked out back to their own dorm. Max and Tyson sighed, relieved.
"Women..." Max muttered under his breath.
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Thank you for all the reviews!!! I hope you like this chapter, I think it's the longest one so far. Enjoy!!!!
