Chapter Summary: Ray's acting out of character and Mystel seems to be fitting into Ray's old shoes which are leaving Mariah confused and primarily annoyed; Kenny wishes he camped out on BEGA's front doors; Julia and Raul prepare for their audition and Judy is tormenting her son.

Inspiration (for this chapter): The supportive reviewers! And oddly enough some of the G-Revolution screen-caps I have seen. They plant ideas in my head and my imagination makes them grow.

Notes: I am aiming for updating fortnightly. This is because of the sheer size of my chapters and because of work, school, social life and extra curricular activities.

Miss Beyblade

Chapter 2

Madrid, Spain

"I left no ring with her. What means this lady? Fortune forbid my outside have not charmed her. She made good view of me; indeed, so much that, as methought, her eyes had lost her tongue, for she did speak in starts distractedly. I am the man. If it be so, as 'tis, poor lady-fuck. I mean fudge." Julia accidentally swore causing her brother to chortle with mirth. "It's not funny! If I keep screwing this up I'll never get the part!" she shouted in frustration, stamping her feet.

"Of course you will," Raul reassured once his laughter had died down still hugging his stomach from the laughing cramp. "Come on we are actual twins and Viola and Sebastian are twins in the play, we are perfect for it! Besides how long have we been performing for? Since the day we were born!"

"Yeah but that doesn't mean we'll get the parts." Julia reasoned her confidence taking an uncommon dive into the pits after stuffing up Viola's monologue in the 'Twelfth Night' for the eighth time. It was if she and Raul had reversed roles with her now being the insecure one and him being the confident one. Then again her character was a lead and his was minor but still it was out of character for her to be anxious about performing.

Romero had suggested, well no forced the Sangre twins to quit the circus for two years in order for them to concentrate on their two final years of senior schooling so they could achieve the highest exit scores possibly instead of roaming round the globe with a circus. He had enrolled the two at some prestige co-ed boarding school in Madrid, Spain their home country. The school offered boarding facilities for their students however with Julia and Raul not wanting to split up (the girls and boys had separate dormitories) they had opted to renting out an apartment funded with part of their winnings from last years beyblade world tournament and Romero's financial assistance.

Even though the two were supposed to concentrate on their studies it didn't stop the two from doing extra-curricular activities. The two were on the gymnastics team, Julia was on the debating club and Raul was on the senior soccer team. Now the two were auditioning for the parts of Viola and Sebastian in Shakespeare's the 'Twelfth Night'. With the parts being boy-girl twins, their love of Shakespeare and performing in their blood how could they not resist?

"Look you just need a rest. You know your lines so well that you're stuffing them up." Raul advised seeing his sister flop into a lump of jelly on the floor after stuffing up for the ninth time. "Anyway it's almost lunch time so let's go get something to eat." he suggested.

"I'm not really hungry though." She stated in a glum tone.

"Sure you are, once you smell the food you'll be hungry and I am really hanging for a toasted chicken, avocado and cheese pita." He declared grabbing his wallet and stuffing it into his pocket. "Besides, I'll shout you." He stated offering his hand to pull her to her feet. "Well if you're paying I better not refuse." She replied with a small smile taking his hand, for the time being forgetting about tomorrow's audition.

Byakko, China

Mariah sighed way beyond bored with the silver embroidery she was sewing above the right breast of the black silk oriental dress. All the healthy men and those nearing manhood (therefore her brother, Ray, Mystel, Kevin and Gary) were down in the fields attempting to harvest as much of the wheat as possible before the storm hit, tearing through their crops. The elderly, women and children had long ago finished their chores of picking all of the ripened variety of citruses and mulberries grown in the orchid and as many tea leaves as the plants would hand over (the potatoes were left unpicked due to the fact they dwelled safely underground.) The buildings and stables were already boarded tighter than Mariah's knots in her threads and pyramids of firewood had been collected and stacked beside each kitchen stove and fireplace. This left Mariah with nothing to do except to finish off her dress for the village's annual festival in celebration of the White Tiger that saved a girl and protected their village, Baihuzu from invaders a very long time ago. The tale of how Byakko saved a young girl was Mariah's favourite.

Long ago a White Tiger spirit named Byakko, an ancestor of Driger, lived up in the mountains that bordered the village on the west. The villagers and Byakko lived in harmony, they did not bother him and he in turn did not bother them. Then one late summer afternoon a freak snow storm blown in from the Himalayas thundered over the village without warning. The villagers migrated from their fields and homes to the town centre in a flash to hide from the storm, all except young Miss Jun. Jun the village leader's daughter was a bright, lively thirteen year old girl spending the afternoon picking wild flowers for her mother's birthday. Her hunt for some Peonies had lead her unknowingly far up the mountain's path and by the time she realised a storm was brewing there was no way she could make it back to the village in time before it hit, even if she had the swiftness and speed of a horse. Still with this in her mind she began her sprinting descent, stumbling over rocks and boulders in her path. Grazes, bruises and blood collected on her body and thin clothing. However she was soon numb to the pain as the cold made her forget how to feel. It made her forget all her worries of never seeing her family and friends, of her stomachs demand for nourishment and eventually made her forget how to stand. Her consciousness flickered like a rarely used light bulb hung by one wire in a basement; her bed the freshly fallen icy snow.

When the storm had been swept further east by the Himalayan winds the village established a search party to find Miss Jun. Just before sundown she was found, lying lifelessly and spotted in blood in Byakko's cave beside the sleeping tiger himself. The search party was furious, Byakko had murdered Jun. However dusk was rapidly approaching, a prime time for tigers to awaken and commence their hunt for dinner. The reaction of the villagers, when the search party relayed what had happened, was one of fury, sorrow and the desire for revenge. It was decided the next day that Quan the village's strongest warrior would hike up into the mountains and dispose of this peril. He arrived at noon, the hottest period of the day where the spirit would still be sleeping like the dead, at the tiger's lair and attacked the tiger in its sleep. However Byakko sensed is approached and with one swipe of his claws rendered Quan dead. That evening the villages gathered at the town centre due to Quan failing to make it back to the village. It was then decided that a group of ten of the village's strongest men would search for Quan and slay the spirit. When the group of ten did not return that evening, another group of men decided to set out in the morning. This happened for five days straight a group of men would depart to slay the beast and then never return. On the fifth night when the men did not return a thirteen year old boy called Loki decided to investigate the matter and set out to reason with Byakko.

He arrived at the cave to find the spirit standing there, as if was expecting him. Throwing his weapons to the floor Loki declared he came in peace to discuss an agreement so there was not a repeat of the past events. Byakko declared that he only killed them in self defence and if they left him alone he'd leave them alone. Loki then brought up Jun's death and explained what he was told by the search party. The spirit then told that Jun was not dead which startled Loki greatly and went on to continue that he had heard a group of wolves howling that they'd found meat and went out to steal it off them when he arrived instead he found a young girl unconscious in the snow. He fought off the wolves, which is how she received blood on her garments and carried her back to the cave. Sensing Loki's yet asked question he lead him over to where she was in a deep sleep but still alive. The two waited till morning to escort the girl back to the village healer and when the arrived at the village, the villagers where alarmed to see Byakko and Loki walking side by side with Jun in Loki's arms. Loki quickly retold the tale and on the day Jun awoken the day was dubbed the day of the White Tiger.

It was only yesterday afternoon she retold the legend to Mystel who warmed to it greatly. Mystel was now a resident of their village after his village's land in Peru was sold to property developers and the money divided equally amongst the citizens of their village much to his displeasure. His village had taken a vote when the developers gave them their proposition and the majority wanted to sell their land in hopes for a better life with cars, toasters and hair dryers. So when Ray offered him to live with him he took up the offer gratefully and was now a member of Baihuzu. He was one of the few outsiders who whilst from a different puzzle seemed to fit in the Baihuzu village's puzzle like an old glove. Coming from another village he understood and appreciated the ways of a small country town, everyone knows everyone, gossip travels faster then wild fire and everyone has to pull their weight. Speaking of the devil…

"Knock, knock anybody home?" Mystel greeted interrupting Mariah from her thoughts, causing her to prick herself with the needle and hiss at the unexpected pain. The blonde had a knack for appearing out of thin air randomly which at times frustrated Mariah greatly. Even with her cat like senses ninety percent of the time she couldn't sense his presence and/or movements which perturbed her somewhat, she could be getting change and have no idea of his presence. "You okay?" he asked sincerely concerned, with his pretty azure eyes slightly widened.

"Yeah, I just pricked my finger that's all." Mariah shrugged off but in a tone that hopefully made him feel guilty for popping out of nowhere as she applied pressure to her left index finger to halt the bleeding.

"Here I'll get something to bandage it up for you." He stated more so then offered as he head over to the cabinet were her and Lee kept there medical supplies at which he bent over giving Mariah are rather generous view of his behind.

Mystel was quite, in fact very popular with the female population of Baihuzu. For starters his unique appearance just caught people's eyes being the only villager to possess blonde locks and blue eyes. For some he was the only person that they had seen ever with blonde hair and they tended to worship somewhat like a god, baking him biscuits on Saturday, offering to join them for dinner on Sundays and every other day of the week just going out of there way to help him or to talk to him. Plus he was rather sweet, kind and an extremely hard worker, he would quite willing milk the cows, rethatch the roof and sew the seeds to various crops. Not to mention his talent in beyblading, the village's favourite sport, did not go unnoticed. If she quoted her neighbour he was 'the catch of the day, any day.'

Yet even with his friendly attitude she just couldn't open up to him like she did with all her other friends. Maybe it was the fact that she didn't count him as a friend. For starters he still had ties with BEGA, she never had trusted Boris Balkov especially how he made Bryan put Ray's life in jeopardy a couple of years ago. Yes, she had forgiven Bryan and the rest of the boys from the abbey last year after she had heard about there childhood but Mystel knew just too well what Boris had done and still associated with him. Even with his BEGA ties Ray still gave him his star of approval; a while back she had mentioned her concerns about him to Ray and all he did was scoff at her, telling her she was being ridiculous. What vexed her more than his connections with Mr Balkov was that he was reminding her more and more of the old Ray she loved.

Lately Ray had been acting peculiar, out of character, true Ray wasn't the most talkative person on the planet but after they had sorted out their differences over him jumping ship a few years ago he had always opened up to her and told her basically everything. Now he had withdrawn back into a shell and had taken up the habit of locking his door and staying in there for hours on end, only coming out to train and do chores. The time spent in the afternoons when she and Ray used to hang out was now replaced with her and Mystel. No matter where she was Mystel would always find her, popping out of nowhere and end up hanging out with her. Despite her constant attempts to try and brush him off, the awkward tension in the air which he must have been ignorant to and her hinting that she didn't want the blonde around, she always found herself starting to enjoy his company like she had with Ray. Yesterday for instance she had ended up retelling her favourite tale.

As Mystel straightened himself up after finding whatever he was looking for she blinked back the thoughts of his firm backside and that he was maybe an okay guy whilst having connections to BEGA, she noticed despite the silk being black that she had gotten blood on her dress. "Great there's blood on my dress," she whined out loud, slightly annoyed with herself but more so at Mystel for making her prick her finger.

"Don't worry blood always washes out," he informed as he made his way over and began to bandage her finger. Mariah was about to protest that she could bandage her finger just fine by herself and that she didn't need to be babied when a sudden after thought struck her and spilled right out of her mouth.

"And how do you know that blood always washes out?" she inquired intrigued trying to make Mystel feel as uncomfortable of possible in the sort of tone of a detective or a lawyer cross examining a victim. Never all less she failed badly.

"I'm a hit man," he joked offering her a smile which her lips unconsciously gave in return much to her head's annoyance. Why couldn't she just hate him, plain and simple?

Tokyo, Japan

"I knew we should have camped last night on BEGA's doorsteps!" Kenny complained frustrated he didn't go with his gut feeling as he, Tyson and Hilary stood in the enormous que that snaked through Tokyo's streets leading to BEGA's Japanese head office.

"What?" Tyson and Hilary simultaneously exclaimed.

"Oh nothing," he sighed knowing that the two coupled with there crankiness and lack of sleep would blow up at him.

"Man I'm hungry," Tyson stated giving his stomach a slight rub.

"What? We seriously just ate!" Hilary cried out incredulously finally getting a chance to take her frustration out on someone.

"Yeah, but I'm bored!" he whined, shifting his feet and looking around for something of interest like a McDonald's, Subway or even a sushi train.

"So you're telling me that whenever you're bored you glutton yourself?" she asked, pondering if it came out as stupid as it sounded in her head.

"Yes," Tyson answered simply, still looking around for something interesting. "Hey there's an arcade!" he cried as if it was his saviour.

"And it doesn't open til ten," Hilary commented acerbically. She had long ago noticed the closed arcade much to her disappointment.

"What's the time now?" Tyson replied.

"Almost eight thirty," Kenny answered.

"Great." The world champion muttered in a drawl fed up with waiting in the queue.

"Look that tattoo shop is opening up!" Hilary informed with enthusiasm.

"And why do we care?" Tyson asked both curiously and annoyed.

"I could get my ears pierced!" she replied happily.

"Won't your mum shoot you?" he questioned with raised eyebrows. Hilary's mother was a nurse and highly disliked the unhygienic ways of piercing studios and tattoo parlours much to the brunette's annoyance who had wanted her ears pierced since she was three.

"Nah, she won't even notice." She shrugged off, shifting her gaze back to the studio with and air of determination as she checked her purse to see if she had enough money. Tyson supposed that the lack of sleep had really gone to her head. "You guys wait here and I'll be back." She announced.

"What if you're not back when we get the tickets?" Kenny asked concerned.

"You're paying for them I don't need to be present when you buy them, besides I shouldn't be too long." She rationalised.

"I'm coming too," Tyson declared, "I'll die of boredom if I just stand here."

"So you're ditching me too," Kenny complained not looking forward to the fact he had to stay in line on his lonesome.

"It won't take to long, we'll be back before you know it," Tyson reassured putting a hand on Kenny's shoulder.

"Anyway aren't we doing you a favour accompanying you today and going to her concert with you? The least you can do is let me get my ears pierced." She reasoned stubbornly.

"That's right," Tyson piped in. "You owe us."

"Whatever just don't take too long," he sighed at which Tyson and Hilary gave him a flashy pearly white grin.

"Knew you'd see it my way," Hilary smiled with a wink as she grabbed Tyson's arm and bee-lined her way to the tattoo parlour. It was nice to get him back as small as it was for him blackmailing her. On second thoughts maybe she should have made Kenny come with her and forced Tyson to wait as a part of his 'patience' training (Kenny didn't like needles, blood or anything remotely hospital related and thought that body piercing was impractical and made one look cheap). It would have been fun to see his face twist in agony as she got her ears pierced. Since when did she turn so sadistic?

Half and hour later the two returned, the now earring clad Hilary claiming she didn't feel a thing and Tyson rubbing his left hand which possessed deep nail welts frowning and glaring holes through Hilary. Much to Hilary's and Tyson's luck they were now only a street or so from BEGA's doorstep.

Stamford, NY, USA

"So how was the party?" Judy Tate asked inquisitively the two of them having a mother/son moment whilst they sat on the black marble bench of their kitchen complete with hot chocolate and pre-made m&m's cookie dough that came in a similar packaging to luncheon. It was now two in the morning but today was Saturday so they could snooze all day. James had been picked up by her parents her legs aching from excessive dancing thirty minutes ago at which time Max's mum, Judy had arrived home.

The eighteenth had been a blast though he only saw the birthday boy twice with the sea of people. Despite the cool air and crisp breeze that blew around the roof top the amount of people present acted as a human heater and the mosh pits a sauna thanks to the sweat and body heat. James turned out to be a social butterfly crushing Max's concerns of not fitting in and she became fast friends with Rick, Eddie and himself plus some other random chicks he didn't know who worshipped dancing just as much as her. Though he somewhat brushed it over in reply to his mum's question.

"It was good," Max replied squeezing the cookie dough packaging like a tube of toothpaste and slicing it off with his finger before savouring it tenderly in his mouth.

"Just good?" Judy inquired taking a sip of her hot cocoa, pressing for more information.

"Okay pretty good. We spent most of the night dancing-"

"-you mean nodding your head in a violent manner." She cut in attempting to be humorous in a way which adults found hilarious.

"Mosh pitting Mum," he explained, rolling his blue eyes, as if was talking to a three year old. "But I suppose so, though I did do the Macarena and James attempted to teach me, Rick and Eddie the Nut Bush."

"How was James?" she asked finally finding her opening and switching topics.

"What do you mean 'how was James?'" he asked though offended, defensive or generally confused, Judy was not sure.

"Well did she enjoy herself?" She elucidated.

"I think so, she danced her pants off. So I am guessing she enjoyed herself." He answered. "Anyway it's your turn to tell me what happened at the meeting." Max piped up in a cheerier note.

"I already told you that the BBA is not selling itself off to BEGA, thank god…" the blonde mother ended in an outward breath of relief. Max had thrown the question at her before she even had one foot in the door this morning.

"Anything else?" Max demanded excitedly impatient. If the BBA was not going to shut down than it was probable there would be another tournament which would mean he would be competing and therefore of a shot at becoming the next world champion.

"Yes," she replied in a long drawl somewhat teasingly, "but it hasn't been finalised yet." Judy stated popping a lump of cookie dough into her mouth.

"Is it a tournament?" Max questioned eagerly jumping straight to the point.

"S'pose you could call it that, but you won't be able to qualify for it."

"What do you mean won't be able to qualify?" Max exclaimed, "I'm one of the best in the world." He cried the modest thing he is.

"Oh you'll see," she responded with a slight twinkle in her eyes.

"Can Rick qualify?" he asked.

"No,"

"Can Tyson?" he continued.

"No," she repeated with a knowing smile that literally screamed 'I know something you don't know do-dah, do-dah' which ticked Max off quite noticeably

"Can anyone from the Bladebreakers?" he asked exasperatedly.

"Definitely not," she said shaking her head.

"What is this some amateur's tournament cause that's discrimination against good bladers?" he questioned, offended he was unable to compete.

"Nope,"

"Than what is it?" he asked impatiently.

"Not telling," she taunted. "You can find out next Friday like everyone else. Though even though you do no meet the requirements to compete I'm positive you'll enjoy it immensely."

Review Responses

pheonix676 – None of the pairings (as many and complicated as they are) are concrete for this story yet and there will be so many triangles. However I don't want to spoil the story for you so I won't give you any hints as to whom I am pairing together. Though I have to disagree with you I love Tyson! He is probably one of my favourite characters! I love it how he is so clueless when it comes to girls!

twincharm – Yes all the girls including Frankie are in this story though some not as prominent as others. Maybe I could have justified Judy's screaming like a harpy better. Basically if they sold the BBA to BEGA she would have no job as there is no way she'd want to work for BEGA and believes that Boris is still pinning on world domination. Plus she was frustrated that her colleague could not see her point of view and that she was right! Just one question, are we on the same wave length because my ideas for the story is quite similar to your suggestions?

SilverWing – You are not being rude at all! Thanks for your support and I hope you loved this update! Believe me there will be oodles of romance and I stress this point greatly. I know! We need tons more fanfics with the girls starring in it!

Silver Suzuka – I have updated and hope you enjoyed it! I am so happy for the support of more stories for the original females of beyblade, thank you!

Nazen - The girls will all feature in this story even the two girls that had Enrique whipped in Rome. I'm glad you like my OC, James (Lol, another OC with a bizarre name. I have my friend to blame for this…) as she will be featuring quite a bit. I have economics to thank for my plot and the core driving force of my story. See school is good for something!

As always your feedback is eagerly welcomed with open arms, as are suggestions, justified criticism and elements you liked of the story. Till next update, adios!