CD: Thank you so much to DV, you've supported me all the way! And my thanks also go out to SP, Smallhands, Keri, Writers_block, your reviews have meant so much to me. I would also like to thank everyone else that has reviewed, sorry that I can't name you all because I can't remember your names and I'm not online at the moment but thanks so much for bearing with me for so long…*tear* *sniff*, I love you all, I'm sure I'll name you all when I get the Nobel prize for literacy…lol, just kidding, I'm not that full of myself!
Kai: You would've had to convince me.
CD: Shut up…God, why do I even bother contradicting you?
Kai: You shouldn't, as you know you wouldn't win.
CD: Grr…I don't know what Mika and SP see in you. You were adorable as a kid but…sorry; you're just not good enough now.
Kai: O.O right…you're normal…
CD: Thanks, I know I am…oh by the way, if you're waiting to read chapter 8 it might take a while…
Mika: I sounded so weak!
Angel: You shouldn't complain, CD has her reasons…whether for better or worse, but always be optimistic. She could change you, you know.
Mika: How can you be so nice?!
Angel: I'm not that nice…I mean, I can be mean. I just don't want to…there's no reason to.
Mika: How come you're right as well? CD! You are so cruel; you give her all of the good qualities…
CD: Yeah, well…you'll get over it. *Dodges blows from Mika* Violent little girl…
Mika: Little girl?! I'll show you little girl!
CD: Oh, I'm so scared! Help me, big meany Mika is gonna strangle me.
Angel: Umm…CD, I think you should just get on with the story now…
CD: *dodge* I think *dodge* you're *dodge* right, here goes:
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
*Ding-dong* *ding-dong*, Tala slid the glass of milk into the microwave and went to open the door.
Angel stood at the door wearing a white jogging suit trimmed with silver, the sun caught the gorgeous highlights in her hair and she had on her trademark smile.
"Want to go for a morning jog? It's healthy to have a bit of exercise," smiled Angel.
Tala rubbed the sleep out of his eyes, "Yeah, sure…whatever,"
"You sound very enthusiastic," said Angel sarcastically.
"Sorry, what do you expect? It's 6:30 in the morning," yawned Tala.
"Well, finish your milk and we're set to go. I expected better of you Tala," joked Angel.
"How did you know…" started Tala.
"I can smell the milk," replied Angel shortly, "hurry up,"
"Yeah, yeah," muttered Tala, he invited Angel inside, got changed into a black jogging suit and drained his glass of milk.
"Okay, I hope you aren't so lazy everyday, coz I'm going to call you for daily jogs," said Angel.
"What?!" cried Tala, he used to have to jog everyday but that was before the abbey had been shut down-it was all part of the demolition boys' training.
"Oh come on, you don't look that out of shape to me. In fact you must exercise a bit, it's just a 10km jog." Said Angel.
Tala groaned and closed the door behind him; they then set off down the road, which was lit by the early sun's auburn rays.
**
"What would you like for breakfast? My treat," asked Angel after they had finished their jog.
"I'll just have some pancakes," replied Tala taking a seat on the restaurant's soft leather couches.
"Okay, but you wont be able to eat on the couch. Sit up and take a seat on the chairs Tala," said Angel, she went to the counter and immediately brought back two steaming plates of blueberry pancakes.
"Great service…" muttered Tala.
"I own the place, got some great cooking tips from Oliver when I was touring France." Said Angel, "I really should visit him again sometime…"
"Oliver from the Majestics?" queried Tala.
"Yeah, why? You know him?" asked Angel.
"Yeah, I battle him once." Said Tala digging into his pancakes.
"Oh, well…I don't know about his blading skills but his cooking is amazing." Said Angel taking a bite of blueberry.
"How do you know him?" asked Tala.
"Well, it was on my trip around the world. I was visiting Paris and I was having dinner at a restaurant, I wanted to compliment the chef personally on his spectacular food and out came a guy of about my age and I was stunned. He was obviously amazing, to be able to make such splendid foods that even adults can't imagine. We got talking and he offered to give me cooking classes which I accepted and yeah," said Angel.
"So you've been around the world…" mumbled Tala to himself.
"Yeah…hey, the summer holidays are coming up. Why don't you invite some of your friends and we can all go on a camping trip to New Zealand, that place is wonderful…they have the best scenery, nicest people and exotic native animals." Offered Angel.
"I don't have that many friends," said Tala.
"That doesn't matter, they don't have to be your friends or anything. I need at least 30 people to fill up the plane so anyone you know would be okay," said Angel.
"Hmm…" mumbled Tala.
"It's okay if you don't want to invite anyone," said Angel.
"What school do you go to?" asked Tala, changing the subject.
"St Andrea's Presbyterian college for girls," replied Angel, "Under my grandparent's orders, if I had my own way I would go somewhere cool like Elinsburgh high. But they're old and I'm the only family they have so it's just to make them happy. All they want is that I get a good education and St Andrea's has a really good name for it's high academic levels."
"I go to Elinsburgh," said Tala.
"Really?" asked Angel, eyes lighting up, "I should visit some time, in my study leave periods. Do you think they'd let me?"
"Yeah, the principle's nice enough." Said Tala, then he added, "I would like it if you came."
"Aww…really? I'll definitely go then," smiled Angel, "Just for two periods though because that's the longest time study leave I get, I could go at lunchtime so that would give me some more time to visit the school."
She looked at her watch, "Oh my god! Is that the time? I really have to go, I didn't realize that the time had passed so fast. School starts in half an hour and I still haven't showered yet. Sorry, uh…do you need a ride to school?"
"No, I'm fine," said Tala, "You better go, not that I'm pushing you or anything,"
"No, of-course not. We can go to the gym tomorrow so you don't have to run, it's a Saturday so I don't have to rush to school. Okay, see you later." Said Angel, she grabbed her keys and rushed to her black sports car.
** (The next day)
"Hello, nice to see you're bright and early this morning." Laughed Angel, this time Tala had been ready for her and had changed into his normal clothes and had packed a small gym bag but Angel was wearing a long white outcoat, white singlet-top, white flared pants, clear heels and purple sunglasses.
"Hmm…aren't you going to change?" asked Tala.
"Actually, I've changed my mind. We can go to the gym later, let's go shopping." She had a mischievous grin on her face.
"Umm…okay, if you want." Mumbled Tala, he didn't know why he was agreeing but he had nothing better to do.
Angel removed her shades and shook her keys, "We can take the RAV-L 4 today,"
She moved aside to show Tala her silver-white car, "I think you should drive, it wont be too comfortable if I do…" secretly, she thought that was an understatement. Her driving had caused her friend to never ask for a ride again…
"Okay…" said Tala raising an eyebrow at her.
**
"Oh, oh, oh, stop the car!" squealed Angel, she had her eyes on a little booth that was set up on the side of the road.
Tala slid to a stop and Angel jumped out of the car. She ran to buy a pair of the cutest fluffy yellow smiley-face gloves, it wasn't a cold day but the gloves were adorable.
"What the? I don't want to know," started Tala, he decided better of it and turned back to the road smiling to himself. She really was immature, so innocent…
"Where are we going?" asked Angel after about 5 minutes driving.
"I don't know, where are we going?" asked Tala back.
"Why don't we go to Hubbard's shopping center? Or we could go to Mulberry road, they have the best designer clothes shops…like Chanel, Gucci, Prada, Christian Dior, LV, and heaps more!" said Angel, her mind drifting… "hey Tala?"
"Yeah?" replied Tala, turning into Corpora Drive which led to Mulberry.
"We have this school formal thing coming up and I was wondering if you would like to come with me? I mean, you don't have to…it's just that I would rather go with you than be paired up with some snotty rich kid by my grandparents." Said Angel.
"When?" asked Tala, he didn't plan to go but asked anyway.
"Next Friday evening," answered Angel biting her lip in anticipation…hoping desperately that he would agree.
Tala thought about it, he wouldn't do anything else anyway so why not help her out?
"yeah, fine." Replied Tala.
"Oh really?! Yay! I can imagine the nicest Christian Dior Pinstriped suit that you could wear, matched with bow-tie and shirt and all…" said Angel, her mind drifted off to dreamland…
**
"Hello Miss Kon, what can we do for you today?" asked the salesperson at the CD chain store (CD as in Christian Dior).
"Kon? Are you related to Rei Kon?" asked Tala.
"Rei? You mean from the bladebreakers, umm…no." said Angel bluntly, "Kon is a common Chinese last name."
"Oh, yeah…forget it," muttered Tala.
"Umm…Tiffany, can you take Tala to the men's suit section and measure him up for a pinstripe suit and I expect it to be the best of quality coming from Christian himself." Ordered Angel, Tala looked at her blankly…people were going to measure him?
"Uh…" started Tala, he was cut off by Tiffany who dragged him away from Angel who was smiling and waving goodbye to him.
"Now, I would like a silk blue slashed dress. Can you get me a piece of paper? I'll design it for you," said Angel to another salesperson.
"Right away Miss Kon," nodded a bald black guy.
The dress Angel designed was a gorgeous cowl necked, low cut blue dress which had a slit up the right side of the dress which ended just above the knee.
"When will the outfits be ready?" asked Angel.
"In three days," replied Tiffany coming back with Tala.
"Three days?" frowned Angel, "Would it be possible to have them done sooner?"
"For you? Yeah, sure…you can pick them up tomorrow, I'm sure one of the dressmakers will be able to finish it tonight." Smiled Tiffany.
"Thanks," said Angel, "Now to order hair and make-up appointments,"
Tala groaned, if it was one thing he hated it was shopping- he didn't know why he agreed to come in the first place.
"I can do them at home if you like, let's go to the gym now." Suggested Angel.
"yeah, sure. Must be better than shopping and appointments." Said Tala.
"Let me drive this time," grinned Angel.
"Uh…" trailed Tala, "Maybe I should take the bus,"
"Oh come on, it's not like I'm that bad a driver! I do have my license you know, I had to get that somehow." Exclaimed Angel pretending to be outraged that Tala thought her driving was so terrible.
**
Angel finally swerved into a parking space in the gym's parking lot, Tala had the most hideous look on his face.
"Remind me why I let you drive," muttered Tala shaking off the sickening feeling he had in his stomach.
"It wasn't that bad…was it?" asked Angel.
"Hmph," grunted Tala, "See you in a few minutes."
"Yeah," replied Angel heading towards the changing room, her heals making tapping noises on the newly polished vinyl.
Tala had already changed and was at the punch bag, he hit at it with such ferocity that she feared he would break the pitiful bag of sand.
"hey," said Angel softly, she came up to Tala and stopped his punch.
"What?" growled Tala, he hated to be intercepted while training.
She didn't reply, instead she took his hands and put white mesh on his knuckles.
"We don't want you to injure do we?" said Angel, she gave a small smile and then jumped onto a jogging machine going out at a slow pace to start off.
Tala blinked, why should she care if he got hurt? Why is she such a caring person anyway? He gazed intently at her, for a moment he saw Mika…back at the abbey when they trained, Mika always chose the jogging machine. When Angel took a gulp of water she seemed to do it in the way Mika had. Tala shook his head vigorously.
"I'm over her," he muttered to himself, /~*sure you are Tala, sure you are*~ /.
He growled at his own foolishness, why? Why was all his thoughts on Mika?! He turned to watch the basketball players shoot hoops but that only reminded him of when they played one on one together…everything reminded him of her. He was so depressed, why did this have to happen to him? Why did he have to be a cyborg? Why wasn't he human? Why wasn't he the best? Why is this coming back to him when he thought it was all sorted?
Angel noticed that Tala seemed down, he had moved from the punch bag to do some crunches on the bars…one thing she noticed was that he had never smiled since she had met him, even when he seemed to joke or when he seemed to be happy.
She walked over to him, he didn't even seem to notice she was there.
"Tala? What's wrong?" asked Angel, she knew this was outright and insensitive but she had to get to the point. She knew what this was about but she had to confirm her suspicions.
"Nothing, I'm fine." Replied Tala.
"Thought so," mumbled Angel to herself, she was right, Tala was the type that was very secretive. Not secretive as such but he didn't like to share his feelings around even if they were hurting him and slowly eating away his ability to be happy.
"Would you like to have a game of Badminton?" offered Angel, right now she had no way of helping him but maybe, just maybe, he needed to be enlightened…somehow, "Or would you like to go home? We have been here for a couple of hours,"
"yeah, sure…let's leave." Muttered Tala, he grabbed his bag and headed towards the showers.
**
"Okay, so I'll visit you at school Tuesday lunchtime okay?" said Angel, she had brought Tala home and was leaning on the fencing of his porch.
"Yeah, that should be fine." Said Tala, his eyes downcast. He was still depressed, everything he saw reminded him of Mika. His head swarmed with thoughts that he needed to clear, just a small thing to take them away would be nice.
Angel frowned at him, she decided then and there to do something rash. She lifted his face by the chin and their gaze met, she then planted a soft kiss on his lips…the feeling was like heaven, Tala smiled…he actually smiled.