TEN REASONS
Chapter 3 – Why I love going to malls
Mariah's POV
"Mariah! Breakfast is ready!" Boy I woke up late; glancing out at the sun I figure it is about eleven o'clock. That is so unlike me; well I suppose I might have had jet lag. I get up and change into my hipster jeans and an orange boob tube and loosely tie my hair into a pony.
"Morning," I pleasantly greet, and seat myself at the wooden kitchen table.
"Good Morning! 5,6,7,8 bog in don't wait!" the bluenette sitting across from me sings and commences to scoff down the food on his plate. Chuckling at his rhyme, I attempt to sip from my cup of orange juice.
"Meow," greets a feline voice from under the table. Tyson swallows his food as if trying to force down his throat a tablet the size of a muesli bar.
"Mariah meet Tac," The cat, well actually kitten dubbed Tac walks out from under the table. It is pure white except for its black nose and a black ring banding its front left leg. It also as the prettiest azure eyes I've ever seen on a cat. It then jumps on the chair between Tyson and I and eyes my pancakes and hash brown eagerly.
"Watch out she wants your food," Tyson warns.
"Cats don't eat this kind of food,"
"Wanna bet? Kenny once said that I raised Tac to take after me, dietary habits included … then Kai said don't have children," I giggle.
"How did you come up with the name Tac?" I ask wondering if this kitten had a past experience with a little pointy metal tack.
"Oh it's just cat spelt backwards,"
"Oh so creative and if you don't follow Kai's advice you'll call you're kids, Lirg and Yob," I mock, he chuckles.
"Or Eh, Ehs or even Yug." We both simultaneously look at each other and than burst out in a fit of laughter. Meanwhile Tac jumps onto the table and sneakily snatches one of Tyson's pancakes. I laugh even harder at Tyson's face as Tac scoffs it down. Tac then struggles in vain to lick off the sticky syrup from its whiskers and Tyson begins to laugh.
"Serves you right Tac!" he teases. Tac becomes even more frustrated when the syrup migrates to her paws as well. "Now you'll need a bath Tac," and he snatches her from the floor she tries to escape but Tyson has his arms firmly locked around her.
"Mariah, I need your assistance!" he hollers. We run to the bathroom, shut the door and I run the bath. "The pet shampoo is in the cupboard under the basin." I open the cupboard and sure enough there is the shampoo. "Ahhh! Tac!" cries Tyson as Tac claws him before jumping on to the top of his head and pouncing out of the window.
Splash!
"Looks like we won't have to bath her anymore. She fell into the pond," I giggle, until I notice blood seeping from under his shirt onto his chest. Tac got him good.
"Take your shirt off," I demand pointing to the blood trickle.
"What?" he stammers raising an eyebrow. Oh he took that the wrong way.
"Well pull it over your head then like a rain hat," I reply sarcastically.
"Oh that's just a scratch…"
"… Which will probably develop into a nasty infection," I make clear, finishing off his sentence. "Now take it off." He sighs and removes his shirt. I gawk at him for a moment… since when did he start seriously working out. I mentally shake my head and get the bottle of anti-septic in the same cupboard as the shampoo. I grab the wash cloth and cover it over the neck of the bottle and dip it upside down. He gasps as I place the disinfectant on his wound and he grabs the rim of the bath the tension of his grasp make his knuckles turn a ghostly white.
I remove the cloth and then begin to dab it over the wound making sure I murder all those icky germs. He flinches with each dab his chest tensing every time. "There, there Tyson. No more germs, you big baby. Now sit there while I get a band aid." I peer into the packet of fluorescent band aids and notice there is only pink. I sigh and ask myself, what is with guys and the colour pink? Yet most of them seem fine that I wear a lot of it and that it is my hair colour. I gently plaster the bandage over the scratch and get the feeling that I am a nurse caring for her patient. "Sorry but pink was the only colour left."
"Yay," he replies whilst rolling his eyes, "Oh dude, I forgot I gotta train. Hey Mariah have you ever done Kendo before?"
"Yeah being a martial artist I've trained in all the forms of the art including kendo." I announce proudly.
"Well, Miss Kung-fu, you can help me train,"
Ten minutes later we were dressed and preparing to fight. My hair was woven into a long pink braid. "Wow you kind of look like Lara Croft, tomb raider in that hair do." Tyson states making me smile.
"Yeah and I'm going to kick your butt just as hard as she would too."
"Bring it on!"
Our trash talked finished and the fight was under way. It was interesting for my strengths were agility, speed and flexibility whilst his were muscular strength, speed and endurance providing a challenging yet enjoyable fight. We battled on for ages, our competitiveness pushing us beyond our previous boundaries.
"Tyson! Tyson are you home?" I turn in the direction of the voice and then feel a gentle tap on the crown of my head.
"I win. You should not let your concentration slip," I nod a little embarrassed and depressed of my mistake, as I knew very well that I had to maintain my focus. "Though you are the best female martial artist I've ever met. Scratch that you're one of the top martial artists I've ever faced." I give a little smile at the compliment.
"Hey Kenny I'm in the Dojo!" moments later a troop of people appear at the entrance of the Dojo. "Hey guys I'd like you to meet Mariah who is a friend of mine from China."
"Nice to meet you," they chime in unison.
"You too," I reply sweetly, "Wow Kenny you look great!" Oh my gosh! Kenny has totally renovated his look, his fringe is trimmed revealing sapphire blue eyes framed by sophisticated square silver frames and he has obviously had a major growth spur or two. His image was smart and clean, and I bet husband hunting girls would describe this image into their intro paragraph.
"Thanks Mariah and it is nice to see you too."
"Is that Dandy?" I ask noticing a pair familiar emerald eyes and fiery red hair.
"You actually remember me?" He asks in disbelief.
"Of course you tied with Tala in one of your World Tournament matches." He smiles acknowledging that I remembered who he was. He seems so much more mature than he used to be. I glance around to the four faces that have no name to them. Tyson picks up on this and introduces us.
"Mariah this is Caramel, Kenny's girlfriend, Jillian, Kenny's little sister, Barry and Taj. They are twins obviously. And of course the pain in the neck, Dandy. The four little squirts here are in the junior elite BBA revolution team." The four teens glare at Tyson in annoyance. Caramel was a short, sweet looking girl who ironically had caramel coloured hair, tan skin and chocolate eyes. Jillian looked like Kenny minus the glasses and the twins had messy short lilac coloured hair and mint green eyes.
"Hey how are we meant to train if those two girls are here? Hold up what the hell am I saying, make yourselves at home." Barry spoke.
"I know Cara and Mariah can go shopping since Mariah has to buy some bathers for Maxie's." Tyson suggests Dandy and Taj whack Barry and Jill just sighs. Tyson's mouth withers into a little smirk.
"Yeah me too," Cara voiced, "We can go to the mall at Main Street," Tyson forked out a heap of Yen notes and stealthily handed them to me and mouthed spend it all, no buts. I sigh this guy is as stubborn as a kid demanding candy, they never give up.
"Hey Ken can we take your car please"
"Sure Cara," he replies and he throws her the keys. Kenny doesn't seem to be as stressed as he used to be and appears to worry less. I think having a girlfriend really calmed him down.
"Cara I'm going to change before we go," I state. She nods and I go and change into what I was wearing previously and left my hair in the braid. I snatch my pink purse and stuff the yen in my wallet whilst whispering an oath to myself that I will pay Tyson back for all he has done for me. I slip on my pink heels. Hey shoes and bag, they gotta match. "I'm ready Cara!"
"Tops! Let's go! Bye!" We wave good bye and hop into Kenny's car which happens to be a black VW beetle with a metallic blue beyblade decal shooting along the doors. It had a blue number plate with white writing reading 'CHIEF'. I wanna work for the BBA! We drove off and chatted as if we were long lost sisters. She's a web page / graphics designer. Boy is she multi-talented. She also designed the decal for their cars and Kai's with Tyson's aid. I never knew Tyson could draw! Caramel is heaps sweet too. Let's just say if you had to imagine a person called Caramel she'd be exactly like the one sitting next to me caramel hair, sweet and sensitive. And she is so easy to talk to. Seriously we clicked like that! We reached the mall in ten minutes and it is gigantic. We are talking about ten stories here! Cara informed me though that the two bottom floors are grocery stores and the top a movie complex. Still seven floors of pure fashion and beauty are a lot for a country gal like me.
The third and fourth floors were extremely dismal we got through them in no more than thirty minutes each but on the fifth floor there was the cutest shop called Moonset. I bought a pair of halter bikinis that were made from a sunset print lycra. The sunset was yellow, orange, pink and purple and had the shadows of palm trees in front of the setting sun. Caramel purchased a stylish pair of black bikinis and as she said black never goes out of fashion. We finished the fifth floor and boarded the elevator to reach the sixth. The doors were closing when a middle aged man called out to stop the elevator and sprinted over. A man next to the buttons pushed the open doors button and allowed the panting man to climb aboard.
"Miss with the pink hair," I swivelled around to face the raven haired man.
"Yes," I reply politely.
"My name is Chad Namoki. I'm the advertising director for Garnier," he announced with pride, "and I was wondering if you would like to attend an audition to star in our latest television ad?" I was flattered but I've never acted before.
"Thank you for the offer but I haven't had any acting experience,"
"Doesn't matter you have absolutely gorgeous hair. How about this? You turn up for the audition tomorrow and if you don't get in, end of story. But if you do get in and star in our ads you will be known, paid a generous amount of cash and you may even receive more modelling and/or acting work from other companies." He reasons.
"Do it girl, you're pretty!" Some old woman speaks, "Why if I had look like that when I was young I would have become a supermodel and married Sean Connery."
"Yeah you're hot," hollers some guy with orange hair.
"Dude I would tape your ad so I could watch it over and over again," voiced his brunette mate.
"How come you haven't asked her out then?" Cara asks curiously.
"Dude, she's way out of my league!" I blush but felt this surge of confidence flooding my veins.
"Mr Namoki, I'll do it," I answer. The whole elevator, in other words six people, cheers. DING! Chimed the elevator and we all filed out, the cheers drowned by the shoppers. Chad pulled me over to one side.
"It's at nine o'clock tomorrow morning on 31 Long Lane. Hope to see ya there." And with that he left. Cara and I shopped for another hour and then headed back to Tyson's. I was already stoked about tomorrow.
Ten reasons why I love going to malls…
1. I am a girl
2. I love window shopping
3. I love trying stuff on
5. I love buying the stuff I've tried on
6. It's a great day out
7. I love the challenge to find bargains like this silver butterfly clip I bought
8. You get to try on all the perfume samples
9. Being on your feet all day and walking everywhere is great exercise
10. There are hair model scouts searching for people with 'absolutely gorgeous' hair in malls!
We pulled up at Tyson's house right on dusk and the junior team of bladers had gone home for tea. I burst into the room with excitement seeping out of my ears.
"Guess where I'm going tomorrow," I half tease and intrigue, riddling the two boys.
"To the toilet," I roll my eyes at Tyson's reply.
"Yes but no,"
"Miss Wong has bee asked personally whilst shopping at Main Street Mall by Chad Namoki, the advertising director of Garnier Hair Care and Beauty products to come in and audition for a television commercial." Caramel speaks as if I was the Queen of England, her majesty herself. And boy was that a mouthful she spoke.
"That's terrific," Kenny congratulates.
"Good on you Mariah! This deserves a celebration!" Tyson cheers.
"How about Mum's noodle bar and dinner is me!" Kenny suggests. We nod especially Tyson. I get a premonition that Kenny will regret what he just said.
"Top Idea Kennington, to the cars!" Tyson addresses much like a medieval knight and directs us to the beetles.
Caramel hops into Kenny's and I in Tyson's, where he and I were chatting in no time flat. "So did he just sprint up to you and ask, hey do you want to be in an ad for Garnier," he asks.
"Yeah Cara and I were in the lift and he yelled out 'Stop the lift!' or something along that line and then he asked me if I wanted to go for the audition.
"That's so great! I mean so many girls try so hard to become models and stuff with plastic surgery and stuff, but you didn't do a thing. Except just wowed some people with your natural beauty." Pink roses flower from my cheeks that was one of the nicest compliments I've ever had.
"Thanks," I manage to mumble, he smiles.
"Hey it was the truth," I blush even redder, luckily cheeks don't glow in the dark. Right? "Here we are," Tyson informs, we hop out of the car and meet up with Kenny and Caramel. We sit down and I meet Kenny's mum, she seems quite nice and she reminds me a little of my own mother. I order the cheese noodles still sick of Asian food, which were absolutely scrumptious. The four of us chatted away like there was no tomorrow. I can see why Ray chose them over the White Tigers all those years ago because they are just so nice. I already consider them amongst my group of close friends. Time just seems to fly by and in a blink of an eye I'm in the car, heading back for Tyson's.
"Had fun today?" the bluenette asks.
"The most I've had in ages."
"Glad to know I am a good host," he smiles, "I suppose you need a lift to your audition tomorrow,"
"Yeah I do," half asking him for a lift in my reply.
I'll take you there, what time does it start?"
"Nine o'clock at 31 Long Lane,"
"I have to go to the BBA office tomorrow, so I'll drop you off and give you my mobile and you can ring me when you want to be picked up. My work number is plugged in the phone," He informs. I mentally sigh, I actually wanted him to come with me and cheer me on. But I guess that's rude and selfish of me. "Hey if the audition goes all day and you get a lunch break call me and we can grab some lunch together," I immediately brighten up.
"Cool," I reply and we smile at each other.
We arrive at the Dojo say our goodnights and head of to bed. Tomorrow is going to be one big day.