Yeah, yeah, yeah. I know long time no see eh? Sorry for the long wait but I kind of got bored of this fic. Though hopefully now I am past this phase and I now present you with the revised and updated version of 'Ten Reasons'. So without further ado, enjoy!
10 REASONS
Chapter 1 – Why I hate this arranged marriage
Mariah's POV
Arranged marriages… Some people don't have this problem, other people do. People like me. Sometimes the people in this situation love each, sometimes they just don't care… but I HATE IT!
I, Mariah Wong am being forced to marry Kevin Cheung against my will.
10 Reasons why I hate this arranged marriage…
1. I DO NOT LOVE HIM!
2. I have a thing for Ray
3. He doesn't care that I don't love him, hell I don't even like him!
4. It is like marrying your annoying little brother we have been on the White Tiger's team together for seven years
5. He acts like a monkey! Twenty years old and he is an animal!
6. He is a smart ass
7. He gets cranky easily, like he is still going through his terrible twos!
8. He is shorter than me
9. He wears his hair like a girl
10. Our children would all born to be midgets and the boys would become jockeys and the girls gymnasts!
Why am I being forced into an arranged marriage? One word, Jan. Jan is Kevin's fat, pig nosed step mother and Meyong's mother. Jan despises me, utterly hates me. Once upon a time, not too long ago, I was to marry Ray. This didn't bother me one bit as I already loved him. Lee was to marry Meyong. That was until SARS broke out in my village and claimed my parents, my brother Lee, Kevin's mum and Jan's husband. Kevin was then arranged to be wedded to Meyong. Kevin's dad and Jan hooked up and later married. Then Jan complained, well bitched to the village leader that Meyong and Kevin was practically related and that it was unfit for these two to be married. So the village leader swapped the marriages around. Just like that. He interfered with my fate like a god or something. Ray, Kevin and Meyong didn't seem to give a shit about their new fate but I definitely did. I marched straight up to the village leader and pleaded my case but the bitch Jan stepped in and dragged on that my reactions were after effects of my family's death. Pardon me but my parents were the ones who arranged me to marry Ray therefore they wanted me to marry Ray.
So I placed Plan B into action, I confronted Ray and asked him to runaway from here with me. I told him that we could elope. He flat out refused and told me that he loved Meyong and was over the moon about marrying her. I asked him how he felt about me and he replied he loved me as a sister. Then it went all silent, the wind itself had run away, the silence was lengthy and awkward. I just walked away my eyes flooded with tears, wishing I could kick him over the moon.
Kevin and I marry when he turns 21. That day is in ten days. I only have ten more days of freedom. I lay on my bed and I have this lurking feeling that it is turning into my death bed. I sob into my pillow, my screams muffled by the feathers. I'm all alone, all my family is gone, and my only friend is Gary who is best friends with Kevin so I'll get no sympathy or advice from him. Besides he has no time for anyone else apart form his wife, Sira and his baby daughter, Pippa. I weep and scream at my pillow, Life is not fair, not fair at all!
I scrunch my nose as the sun rise stings my watery eyes. I sit up and stare outside my window at the rabbits grazing on the hills of grass. I watch them scurry in and out of the burrows as if playing a game of tag. Running, I should run away. Question is where to? When Ray left he went to Hong Kong and found work as a waiter. I'll go there. He said he found the job within hours of arriving. Thinking of Ray again my heart sinks to the pit of my stomach. No more thinking about Ray!
Seizing my back pack a little more roughly than I should, I shove as much as I can fit in it, clothes, jewellery, photo album, food, money and my blade. No matter what I will always have Galux. Galux is more than just a bit beast, she's my guardian angel if you will, and she always watches my back. I smile the first smile I've smiled in many days. Opening my door, I notice a letter on my doormat stating Mariah on the envelope. I recognise the writing at once, it's Ray's.
Should I? If I open it, it'll just bring me more pain and they say curiosity killed the cat. 'What do you think Galux?' A bright pink glows from my right pocket. So a yes then. Tearing it open, I read.
Dear MariahI know you don't love Kevin nor want to marry him. I realise you have to runaway and hide to avoid this unwanted marriage. And yours sincerely, has the answer to all your problems. In this envelope there is a one way ticket to TokyoJapan. I called up my nearest living ex-team mate, Tyson and told him briefly about your situation and my plan and he agreed. You got to remember him, navy hair, loud mouth and could rival Gary's hunger? He will pick you up from the Tokyo international airport when you arrive and you will stay at his house until you sought yourself out. He said he will feed you, prepare a room for you and just look after you in general. Remember I do love you Mariah but only as a brother.
Good luck in your new life
Your Friend
Ray Kon
My anger immediately evaporates. I sit in awe what he had just done for me. I realise then and there that I'll have to get over him, I am over him. I smile; I love you to Ray but as a sister, thank you… brother. I whisper into the wind hoping that it will carry my words to dear Ray's ears. I witness the sun wake a sleeping China. Still smiling I begin to run, up the mountain, down the mountain, through the meadow, through the wood and across the river to the city of Changsha.
Looking back before I enter the township, I note that this is probably the last time I'll see the region I grew up in. With one last teary glance I make for the train station and board the first available train to Shanghai. It is a lengthy seven hour trip but after two hours of plain running it is music to my ears to rest that long. I smile at how Kevin and the other villagers will react now that I am long gone. Yawning I find my single bunker and fall a sleep before my head hits the pillow.
Five hours later I wake, just as the train enters a station in Shaohsing and my stomach cheers food, food! Like some kind of cheerleader with a voice like a broken record player, and I reply it by hacking into an apple. The train rounds the corner and the Pacific Ocean comes into view. It is magnificent. Only on a few occasions have I witnessed the sea. My goal one day is that I may swim in it, among the foamy waves. I must sound so lame to so many people but I am a country girl who was brought up with cows, goats and chickens. I press my hand and face against the glass window to get a closer view. The train runs past a rice field and the farmer takes a look at me and falls into his crop. That is when I realise I still have the apple clutched in my jaws. I burst out into a fit of giggles and mentally say sorry to the farmer.
I look out the window once again and realise that the fields have transformed into buildings and we are entering Shanghai. My ride ends at the Central Shanghai Station; I proceed to the taxi dock and holler down a motorcycle taxi. I being a Chinese citizen and all can't believe I have never travelled on one of these previously. They are so much FUN! When all the cars, lorries and vans are at a halt you overtake them all between the gaps.
The driver then asks me where I am from and we have a lovely chat about my home town just of Changsha and how I would love to live near the sea. He tells me he has lived here all his life and would love to live in the country. He drops me off at the airport and we part. I try to recall his name, one of those genuinely nice people you'll always remember but never know their name.
I go through customs and have to chuck out all my spare food in case I spread a disease into Japan. I just perch my self comfortably in the lounge with a mag when my flight is called. Typical, I board the Jumbo to Tokyo, how sweet; Ray even booked me a window seat. Beside me is some businessman typing away into his laptop, clickety, click. No chance of a conversation here. Then it hit me like a piano dropped from ten storeys, I'm going to be living with Tyson Granger, the beyblade world champ. We have only met on a few occasions; he didn't appear to be to bad. Ray told me that he eats a ton, can be immature but he is caring, kind-hearted and overall a great friend. I wonder if he has changed much form the last time I saw him, god that was when I was fifteen, at the last world championship I went to. I hope I like him…
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