by Shadou-sama
Chapter 2 - How Dare She Keep Secrets
Disclaimer: I do not own Beyblade.
"Guys!" Zeo called out to the class as they were leaving from their last class. He had left early, earning the right with his charismatic charm from the teacher, to check out the boards. "Team lists are up!"
This got everybody excited. They'd finally be allowed official team practices in the gym.
"I gotta go," Shadra said. "Check on my mom and all."
"You didn't get on a team, did you?" Mariah stated rather than asked.
Shadra shrugged. They'd find out soon enough. She headed to her locker.
The rest raced (or walked, depending on their personality) along side students from other classes to the message board near the gym. Now was the perfect chance to see who'd they be competing against, at least from this school.
"Kai and Tyson on the same team? No way!"
"Better get practicing if you want to beat Mariah and Lee at the tag-team competitions."
"Who's Sashei?"
"That quiet girl, you know, the one who never talks."
"Oh, that girl."
"Hey, there's a new team," someone pointed out.
Almost everyone turned to look at the sixth poster at the edge of the board.
"Demolition Boys?"
"So the new boys formed their own team."
"With Shadra, looks like."
"Guess they've never seen her blade."
Laughter.
"What?" Mariah exclaimed. She looked at the poster again. "She got on a team and didn't tell us? That little—"
"Something isn't right," Kai said.
"What isn't?" Rei asked him.
"The teacher supervisor."
Rei glanced at the two-toned hair boy, then looked back to the list. "Teacher Advisor: Mr. B. Boris," he read.
"Hey, yeah. If he freaked her that much, how come she's on his team?" Enrique asked.
Kai shrugged. "I just know something isn't right."
"I'll call her, ask her about it," Oliver volunteered.
"Great," Rei said.
At home, Shadra closed the front door behind her. "Mom?" she called out. No reply. She dropped her backpack by the small table and ran up the stairs. The doctor said that complications could occur, and her mother not answering could indicate that something was wrong.
She turned a left in the upstairs hallway and opened the Master bedroom door. She shrieked, jumped back, and closed the door to the room. She was still shaking when her mother wearing a robe opened the door again.
"You were—you were…" Shadra paused. "Naked."
"Oh come on, dear, I'm not that bad looking."
"I saw my own mother…" She paused again. "Naked."
"I just got a little tired of wearing this old robe. I wanted to change into some actual clothes."
"Naked, my own mother."
Her mother frowned. "If you're just going to babble, at least let me sit down. I'm kind of tired."
"Traumatized," Shadra said before entering the bedroom.
"At least it wasn't me and your stepfather—"
"Don't even say it."
"So how was your first day at school?" she asked, lying back on her bed.
"It was okay, except that my popularity went down a whole lot."
"About that Kai thing? Ah, it'll blow over. It's not the end of the world."
Shadra sniffed. "Guess you're right. After all, it is my senior year."
"No it isn't."
"I know, but could you at least let me pretend it is?"
"Sure, dear. Did you make a team?"
"Yeah…"
"Let me guess: the Majestics? Their record is impeccable. And Oliver wanted to be on that one."
"Uh, no…"
"The White Tigers? You said that you had wanted to try some more tag-team."
"No…"
"The NT Team? Those three kids, they don't act like great beybladers, but they are."
"Nuh-uh."
"The All-Starz? Didn't think you were sporty enough for that team, but—"
"No."
"The Bladebreakers? But wait, isn't Kai captaining that one?"
"No, well, he is captaining, but that's not the team."
"Then… There's only five…"
"Demolition Boys. It's a team that the new math teacher set up."
"But you're not a boy. I mean, you wear the boy's uniform 'cause you have that phobia about skirts."
"That's what I said. Except not the phobia part. But Mr. Boris said it didn't matter. What mattered was that I had great potential."
"Well, that's great, honey," her mother said with great enthusiasm. When's your first practice?"
"Tonight, eight o'clock. I'm sure Carly won't mind breaking off her big date to stay with you."
"You're getting too much pleasure out of this, girl."
"Yeah, well, stepsisters fight and all. But it only works if Dick is working. He is, right? I thought he said something about that."
"Yes, he is," her mother sighed. "And I wish you wouldn't call your stepfather that."
"He told me to. Can't argue with my stepfather, now can I?"
Her mother just sighed.
Enrique had barely gotten in through the door when loud, shrieking voices reached him.
"You forgot the milk! Now what am I going to eat my cereal with? All you ever think of is yourself!"
"You never told me to get milk! You never tell me anything! You just like to yell at me!"
Enrique sighed. His parents were at it again. He didn't bother to say hello before running upstairs to his room. Like they would notice anyway. He flipped on his music to cover up the voices, dumped his backpack near his desk, and jumped onto his bed.
When his parent's voices shouted over the music, he turned on his Playstation 2 and his plasma screen. Maybe this fight he could reach level 7. That stupid bird just kept getting in his way.
The phone rang in Shadra's house. "Don't get up!" she called up to her mother from the living room. She dashed to the kitchen and picked up the receiver.
"Hello?"
"Bonjour, Chaton!" She could hear the busy French restaurant behind him. The DuBois' owned the classiest restaurant in all of Hieville. Not that that was saying much, as it was the only formal in town.
"Oh hey, Oliver. What's up?"
"You got onto a team."
"Uh, yeah. I kind of know that already."
"Is that why Mr. Boris kept you after class?"
"Yeah," she said. Then she realized what the point of this was. "I would've told you guys, honest I would, but he told me to keep it quiet."
"And fifteen years of friendship is worth less than that?"
"No. I'll make it up to you. All of you. I'll cook—"
"No!" Oliver said quickly. "I got food poisoning the last time you cooked."
"Fine, whatever. And my cooking isn't that bad. How about I treat you guys to a movie?"
"That would be acceptable."
"So, Friday night then?"
"All right."
Kai arrived home to his huge mansion by the lake. He lived alone, well; it seemed like he lived alone. His grandfather was never there, always away on some business trip. Kai didn't mind at all.
He still couldn't believe how the little dweebs Tyson and Max had talked him into captaining their team. Stupid High School Beyblade Association. Why did they have to cancel the individual competitions? Oh, right, they wanted to encourage teamwork.
But he admitted that it could be worse. Tyson was a good enough beyblader, though his style was erratic. Max had impressive defense skills and Rei was very—No, don't think like that! Rei and cute do not go together. Any man and cute do not go together. But if Rei and Mariah weren't so obviously in love—Stop it mind, stop it!
He thought of Mr. Boris, trying to keep his mind off the taboo boy. Somehow, he felt that he'd met the teacher before. But he couldn't remember where. The only thing he knew was that Boris was bad news and now Shadra was mixed up with him. She was a nice girl and one of the few he could actually tolerate. Abysmal beyblader, but what can anyone expect from someone who takes the sport so lightly? And she's always hanging around with Rei—
"Argh!" He grabbed his Dranzer and launcher and stormed off to his outside beydish. Maybe a bit of training would keep his mind in check.
Eight o'clock found Shadra holding her gear bag standing outside a huge Victorian style house. The sun had almost set by now. "Mom was right," she muttered. "Eight o'clock is way too late for a beyblade practice."
Too late now. She knocked on the door.
Immediately, Mr. Boris opened the door. Instead of the suit, he wore a thigh length jacket (lined with gold color) and cape combo. Instead of the red-tinted glasses, he wore red-tinted goggles. He certainly cast an opposing figure.
"You're late," he said.
"No… I was supposed to be here at—"
"You always come early so that you are ready to go at the specified time," he snapped.
"Alright, alright, sorry," she muttered.
"Come in then," he said, moving away from the door to allow her. She did.
"You'll find that discipline is in high order here," Boris said as they walked down the foyer. "That includes punctuality."
"Yes, sir."
"This team is sponsored by Biovolt, a corporation that studies beyblading to find ways to improve both beybladers and their blades. Which means that the Demolition Boys are always two steps ahead of our competition.
"All that Biovolt requires of us is to win. Think you can handle that?"
"Uh, yes sir. If--I mean when I train really hard."
"Good. Our first tournament is in two weeks."
Two weeks? Was he crazy? Only the teams that have been together more than a year enter the early competitions. And Shadra still had to learn discipline and stuff. Oh yeah, and she had to meet her teammates.
"Practices are everyday from 6:00 until 7:45am, and 3:45 until 9:00pm weekdays. 8:00am until 7:00pm on the weekends. Attendance is mandatory."
Oh man, she had to check in with her mom after school, make sure she wasn't dead or anything. Maybe she could swap with Carly, who had complained about having to give up her lunch hours gossiping when Shadra had drawn the after school shift. And homework could be done at noon, or after practice. And who needs to go shopping, or to movies, or to sport games with her friends?
"You'll be exempt from homework, and your test scores will be altered so you have no need to study."
Huh?
"By becoming part of this team, you have been enrolled in a program for gifted children. It is still required that you attend classes, but anything that is to be done outside of school is not required."
"Even tests?" Shadra asked. "Uh, sir!"
"Yes. Now are you ready to meet your teammates?"
She nodded. Maybe the good will outweigh the bad. Sure, she wouldn't have a lot of time for socializing, but no homework, no tests, and hopefully this would drastically improve her beyblading skills.
Boris pressed a button to the side of a mirror. Immediately, two green rays slid from their eyebrows to their noses. Shadra could watch it in the glass.
"Access confirmed. Welcome Mr. Boris, new addition Miss Shadra Bellona," a female voice said, where from she couldn't tell. But it sounded automated.
The mirror slid open to reveal a completely white cube of a room. Boris stepped inside, so Shadra did as well. The mirror, which was really a secret door, closed again. The whole room shuddered, then went down. An elevator! It's exactly like in one of those science fiction/military movies.
The automated voice asked for a voice recognition, which Boris did at a mutter. Finally, they came to a stop.
"This is our training facility," Boris said as the door opened and exited. "It was specially built to allow maximum security. We wouldn't want any spies, now would we?" They were standing in a cement hallway, with huge windows against the wall. Looking out of them, you could see a room tall enough to be two-story with regulation sized beydishes in them. Three boys were working individually against what looked like beyblade spewing robots.
"That's those new kids, sir," she said. "Umm, Talon… Talo…"
"Nice to see you've been paying attention in class. Since they are now your teammates, I expect you to learn their names well. Tala Ivanov, team captain, Bryan Serkowsky and Spencer Fero. They came all the way from Russia to participate on this team."
"Now that's dedication," she breathed. They looked like fantastic beybladers, might even be able to compete against Kai.
"You will be joining them tomorrow. Dr. Kinseki is going to give you a check-up. He's the world's leading physician specializing in beybladers."
Boris really knew how to pamper his bladers. She followed him as he swept pass the window. A sliding door (how sci-fi is that, she wondered) at the end of the hall allowed them into a medical examination room. She walked in, then immediately felt a pinch on her neck. She had no time to process that before she fell into darkness.
Oliver walked into his room, taking off the apron to set it on a chair. What a time for one of their chefs to get sick! It seemed like everyone in Hieville wanted gourmet cooking. He had barely squeezed in time to call Shadra. He sat down at his desk, hoping to get that math assignment down.
His hopes were dashed as his private phone rang.
"Hello?" he asked, after picking up the receiver.
"Oliver." The lime haired beyblader immediately recognized the voice.
"Enrique."
"Did you call her?"
"Yeah. She's treating us to a move Friday."
"Sweet."
"She seemed perfectly fine then. Said that Mr. Boris asked her not to tell anyone."
"That's good." Oliver heard a few shrieking voices in the background, a crash, and a big sigh.
"Hey, is everything okay?" Oliver asked.
"As normal as ever."
"Okay then, see you tomorrow."
"Bye."
They both hung up.
Shadra woke up. She started, not recognizing the dark place. It came back to her in a rush. She was in the Demolition Boys' training facility, the medical examination room and the lights were turned off. She must have dozed off.
She got up off the table, and checked her watch. Then she realized she had lost her one and only watch six years ago. But she guessed that it was late. She glanced around the room and located her gear bag.
She hurried out the automatic sliding door, up the elevator and out onto the street. It was completely deserted. She started jogging, then running. Her mother and Dick were probably worried sick about her. Or, hopefully, they hadn't noticed that she was missing.
To be continued...
