Chapter Nine – Time to Take Action?
"So you'll be having a sleepover this Friday night??" Zarine asked, excited.
"Yep," Carrie replied. "With everyone."
"SWEETNESS!" Max exclaimed, jumping around happily.
The girls watched him with identical smiles on their faces, knowing that Max was certainly on a sugar high at the moment.
"Maxie, calm down!" Hilary laughed.
"How can I? A sleepover is so cool!" Max said.
"What'll we do?" Tyson asked.
"I thought we'll just watch movies, hang out, stuff like that," Carrie replied.
"Let's watch scary movies!" Max suggested.
"I'll see what I can do," the red head promised.
"It's nearly eleven, shouldn't you be sleeping?" Kai asked, walking up to Zarine, who was sitting on the stone bench in the garden.
Zarine sighed, "Look, just because I'm younger than you, doesn't mean that I'm going to fall over with fatigue tomorrow because I didn't get enough sleep for one night."
He studied her face for a moment and stated flatly, "You haven't been getting enough sleep for more than one night. I can tell."
She shrugged. There was nothing she could do about her nightmares that kept coming back every night. She found herself missing her parents at night and crying over their death.
"What's bothering you?" Kai asked gently. "Is it Ray?"
The thought of her boyfriend brought a pang into her heart, unpleasantly reminding her of her dilemma with him at the moment. She nodded miserably. "Kai, I don't think he wants me anymore."
"Why would you think that?" he questioned.
"Because he never even looks at me anymore. We haven't talked for a week now. He's always talking to Shea anyways," Zarine said. "He doesn't need me."
"I don't think that's true," he said slowly.
"Whatever. I'm going to bed now," she said, quickly walking away. She didn't want to talk about it. It was true though, Ray didn't need her like she needed him.
Flashback
The warning bell had just rung, telling students that they only had ten minutes left to go back to class after lunch. Zarine looked down at the ground, and sighed. It was another long lunch hour without a word to Ray.
"Zarine?" Carrie said.
"Yeah," Zarine answered, only paying half of her attention to her friend.
"I hope you won't mind me asking this..." she said slowly, "but, why do you never talk to Ray? He's your boyfriend."
Zarine shrugged. She didn't know that herself. All she knew was that she wasn't about to start talking to him on her own. She was so scared that Ray would tell her that he wanted to break up with her so he could go with Shea.
End of Flashback
Ray yawned. He was tired, but he didn't feel like sleeping yet. Instead, he picked up his photo album and began flipping through it. It was mostly of the White Tigers from back home when he last visited the village. They were either blading, playing soccer, or just hanging out and making faces at the camera. There were some of the Bladebreakers. Ray chuckled when he saw one of Tyson pouring water on Max's head. Then, Max was chasing Tyson around his dojo in the next one with a furious look on his face.
His smile faded when he saw the last picture. It was the one of him and Zarine kissing on the balcony at this party two weeks ago. Tyson took it when they weren't looking. He kept it because he liked it as much as Zarine hated it. Slamming the album shut, he flopped onto his bed and stared moodily at the ceiling.
Zarine hadn't talked to him for a week! A whole week! She was always talking to Leo or some other guy anyway. He didn't know why she no longer wanted to talk to him. One thing he did know was that he missed her a lot. He needed her and thought that she needed him too, but apparently not. Now that she had the attention of some other guys, she wasn't interested in him anymore.
The next day...
Zarine was boiling with anger when she saw Shea flirting with Ray again. Shea knew very well that Ray's her boyfriend, and yet she still flirts with him. Zarine decided that she had to do something about that at least.
"Why do I never see you around Zarine? You guys are supposed to be going out, aren't you?" the blonde asked Ray.
Ray didn't know what to say. He fumbled for an answer. "Well...we see each other a lot at Kai's, so it's good for us to mingle with other people in the school."
Shea could tell Ray was lying but didn't comment on it. She had to take advantage of the rift between him and his girlfriend, temporary or not, to get him.
"Everyone else's girlfriends wait for their boyfriends at their locker. Or at least, the loyal ones do. Even if you guys see each other a lot after school, I think she should still wait for you to go home together," she said matter-of-factly.
"I have to go, I'll see you in class," Ray said, not wanting to continue the subject.
Zarine waited until her boyfriend had left to pounce on Shea.
"Hi," Shea said to the petite girl sweetly.
"Save me the pleasantries," Zarine said, glaring daggers at the other girl. "Stay away from my boyfriend, got it?"
The blue eyed girl smirked. "It's not my fault if he finds me more attractive than you. Besides it's his choice to hang around the girl he likes the most."
"That certainly wouldn't be you, because Ray loves me," Zarine hissed, though her mind was telling her the opposite.
"Sorry to break your little heart, but Ray's going to be with me no matter what you say," the taller girl said, sneering down at Zarine. "God, just because you're pretty, doesn't mean he likes you the best. Face it."
"We'll see about that, bitch," Zarine said softly, before leaving Shea standing in front of her locker.
Carrie, Tyson, Hilary, Max were sitting under a tree, chatting before school. Kai was up in the tree, staring at a certain red head, Jewels. He battled with himself, trying to make himself go up to her and apologize. He had made his decision about what to do, but taking action was a whole different thing. Slowly, the others' conversation drifted into his mind.
Taking advantage of Zarine's and Ray's convenient absence, Carrie said, "You know, we should do something about Zarine and Ray."
"It is very odd how they don't even look at each other. Usually, they hold hands and everything," Max remarked.
"Maybe they can work it out themselves," Hilary said hopefully.
"We had this conversation a week ago already," Tyson said. "I say it's time for us to step in."
"Give it more time," Kai said, causing the others to jump. They had forgotten that he was still up in the tree.
"How long though?" Carrie questioned, raising her head to look up at him.
"As long as it takes for them to talk to each other again," Kai answered, closing his eyes so he wouldn't have to see the object of his problem.
Carrie opened her mouth to say something, but the sound of the warning bell cut her off short.
"Let's go, we're going to be late," Hilary said.
Leo was sitting in the front of the class, waiting for his Science class to start. He rubbed his eyes and yawn, tired from the lack of sleep. His three year old brother had a fever and kept the whole family awake last night with his crying.
Behind him, he could hear girls gossiping.
"So did you hear that Shea have the hots for the new guy?" a girl said.
That immediately got Leo's attention. He opened his textbook and pretended to flip through it while eavesdropping on the girls' conversation.
"Who can blame her? He's such a hottie! And he's also very good-looking," girl #2 sighed dreamily.
"I heard that he's already going out with someone. He's dating that new girl, Zarine. They're on the same beyblading team," girl #3 said. "Too bad."
"That hasn't stopped Shea yet. She's determined to get Ray. Besides, who do you always see around Ray? Zarine or Shea? It's obvious that Ray wants Shea. Now he just has to break up with his dear girlfriend," girl #1 said.
Leo was not happy at all to hear this. He would never let Ray steal Shea away from him.
[Why would he want Shea when he's already got Zarine?] he wondered. [Zarine is so nice and she's pretty.]
His hands balled into fists. As if it wasn't enough when Ray embarrassed him in gym by beating him in basketball. He used to be the star of the basketball team, until his grades got so bad, they kicked him off. Now his grades are getting better, but the teachers were afraid he might have a relapse, so he's only a spare on the team.
He also heard the gym teacher asking Ray if he wanted to join the team. Ray had agreed to it enthusiastically. What the hell?! His sport is beyblading, not basketball. As much as he hated to admit it, he was jealous of Ray. Ray's got everything, even the heart of the girl of his dreams.
Ray thought back to what Shea said to him about loyal girlfriends, and compared her definition of one to Zarine. It was very true that she never waits for him, but he saw her waiting for Kai by his locker all the time after school to go home. She never even waited for him to go to math together. His locker is right outside of the classroom. She should at least stop and wait to go into the classroom together. He was going to have to talk to her about that.
After school, Zarine saw Ray marching up to her. She wondered what he was going to do. He had this determined look on his face.
[God, I hope he's not going to tell me he wants to break up or something.] she thought, worried.
"Why don't you come and look for me at my locker like everyone's girlfriend does?" Ray demanded.
Zarine just shrugged. It seemed like she was always doing that lately in order to avoid answering questions.
"Was that all you wanted to know? Because I'm supposed to meet Carrie right now," she said. Determined to not let him see how hurt she was, she put on a mask of coolness.
"You still haven't answered my question," he said.
"Look Ray, it's not like you wait for me or anything. Why should you always be the one that I pay attention to all the time? I have friends, you know," she told him. "If you'll excuse me, Carrie's going to wonder where I am."
He grabbed her wrist to stop her from leaving. "So are you saying that you don't need me?" he asked angrily. "Now that you have friends, you don't need me anymore?"
Zarine was startled. How did he come up with that? "I never said that," she hissed furiously.
"Well, you might as well as meant that," he said heatedly.
"I never thought of it!" she protested.
"Yeah right," he muttered.
"So you're calling me a liar?" she yelled at him. "How could you?"
The others came around the corner. "Hey, what are you two arguing about?" Tyson asked.
Zarine and Ray rounded on him and snapped, "None of your business, Tyson!" before walking away in the opposite direction of each other.
"Geez, they didn't have to take it out on me," he muttered, annoyed with the couple.
"Guys, I think it's time for us to butt in and make sure they patch things up," Max said seriously.
"It's way past time to," Carrie agreed. "I don't care what Kai says. We definitely have to before things get any worse between them."
I hope you like this chapter. I really like the end, even though Ray and Zarine argued.
"So you'll be having a sleepover this Friday night??" Zarine asked, excited.
"Yep," Carrie replied. "With everyone."
"SWEETNESS!" Max exclaimed, jumping around happily.
The girls watched him with identical smiles on their faces, knowing that Max was certainly on a sugar high at the moment.
"Maxie, calm down!" Hilary laughed.
"How can I? A sleepover is so cool!" Max said.
"What'll we do?" Tyson asked.
"I thought we'll just watch movies, hang out, stuff like that," Carrie replied.
"Let's watch scary movies!" Max suggested.
"I'll see what I can do," the red head promised.
"It's nearly eleven, shouldn't you be sleeping?" Kai asked, walking up to Zarine, who was sitting on the stone bench in the garden.
Zarine sighed, "Look, just because I'm younger than you, doesn't mean that I'm going to fall over with fatigue tomorrow because I didn't get enough sleep for one night."
He studied her face for a moment and stated flatly, "You haven't been getting enough sleep for more than one night. I can tell."
She shrugged. There was nothing she could do about her nightmares that kept coming back every night. She found herself missing her parents at night and crying over their death.
"What's bothering you?" Kai asked gently. "Is it Ray?"
The thought of her boyfriend brought a pang into her heart, unpleasantly reminding her of her dilemma with him at the moment. She nodded miserably. "Kai, I don't think he wants me anymore."
"Why would you think that?" he questioned.
"Because he never even looks at me anymore. We haven't talked for a week now. He's always talking to Shea anyways," Zarine said. "He doesn't need me."
"I don't think that's true," he said slowly.
"Whatever. I'm going to bed now," she said, quickly walking away. She didn't want to talk about it. It was true though, Ray didn't need her like she needed him.
Flashback
The warning bell had just rung, telling students that they only had ten minutes left to go back to class after lunch. Zarine looked down at the ground, and sighed. It was another long lunch hour without a word to Ray.
"Zarine?" Carrie said.
"Yeah," Zarine answered, only paying half of her attention to her friend.
"I hope you won't mind me asking this..." she said slowly, "but, why do you never talk to Ray? He's your boyfriend."
Zarine shrugged. She didn't know that herself. All she knew was that she wasn't about to start talking to him on her own. She was so scared that Ray would tell her that he wanted to break up with her so he could go with Shea.
End of Flashback
Ray yawned. He was tired, but he didn't feel like sleeping yet. Instead, he picked up his photo album and began flipping through it. It was mostly of the White Tigers from back home when he last visited the village. They were either blading, playing soccer, or just hanging out and making faces at the camera. There were some of the Bladebreakers. Ray chuckled when he saw one of Tyson pouring water on Max's head. Then, Max was chasing Tyson around his dojo in the next one with a furious look on his face.
His smile faded when he saw the last picture. It was the one of him and Zarine kissing on the balcony at this party two weeks ago. Tyson took it when they weren't looking. He kept it because he liked it as much as Zarine hated it. Slamming the album shut, he flopped onto his bed and stared moodily at the ceiling.
Zarine hadn't talked to him for a week! A whole week! She was always talking to Leo or some other guy anyway. He didn't know why she no longer wanted to talk to him. One thing he did know was that he missed her a lot. He needed her and thought that she needed him too, but apparently not. Now that she had the attention of some other guys, she wasn't interested in him anymore.
The next day...
Zarine was boiling with anger when she saw Shea flirting with Ray again. Shea knew very well that Ray's her boyfriend, and yet she still flirts with him. Zarine decided that she had to do something about that at least.
"Why do I never see you around Zarine? You guys are supposed to be going out, aren't you?" the blonde asked Ray.
Ray didn't know what to say. He fumbled for an answer. "Well...we see each other a lot at Kai's, so it's good for us to mingle with other people in the school."
Shea could tell Ray was lying but didn't comment on it. She had to take advantage of the rift between him and his girlfriend, temporary or not, to get him.
"Everyone else's girlfriends wait for their boyfriends at their locker. Or at least, the loyal ones do. Even if you guys see each other a lot after school, I think she should still wait for you to go home together," she said matter-of-factly.
"I have to go, I'll see you in class," Ray said, not wanting to continue the subject.
Zarine waited until her boyfriend had left to pounce on Shea.
"Hi," Shea said to the petite girl sweetly.
"Save me the pleasantries," Zarine said, glaring daggers at the other girl. "Stay away from my boyfriend, got it?"
The blue eyed girl smirked. "It's not my fault if he finds me more attractive than you. Besides it's his choice to hang around the girl he likes the most."
"That certainly wouldn't be you, because Ray loves me," Zarine hissed, though her mind was telling her the opposite.
"Sorry to break your little heart, but Ray's going to be with me no matter what you say," the taller girl said, sneering down at Zarine. "God, just because you're pretty, doesn't mean he likes you the best. Face it."
"We'll see about that, bitch," Zarine said softly, before leaving Shea standing in front of her locker.
Carrie, Tyson, Hilary, Max were sitting under a tree, chatting before school. Kai was up in the tree, staring at a certain red head, Jewels. He battled with himself, trying to make himself go up to her and apologize. He had made his decision about what to do, but taking action was a whole different thing. Slowly, the others' conversation drifted into his mind.
Taking advantage of Zarine's and Ray's convenient absence, Carrie said, "You know, we should do something about Zarine and Ray."
"It is very odd how they don't even look at each other. Usually, they hold hands and everything," Max remarked.
"Maybe they can work it out themselves," Hilary said hopefully.
"We had this conversation a week ago already," Tyson said. "I say it's time for us to step in."
"Give it more time," Kai said, causing the others to jump. They had forgotten that he was still up in the tree.
"How long though?" Carrie questioned, raising her head to look up at him.
"As long as it takes for them to talk to each other again," Kai answered, closing his eyes so he wouldn't have to see the object of his problem.
Carrie opened her mouth to say something, but the sound of the warning bell cut her off short.
"Let's go, we're going to be late," Hilary said.
Leo was sitting in the front of the class, waiting for his Science class to start. He rubbed his eyes and yawn, tired from the lack of sleep. His three year old brother had a fever and kept the whole family awake last night with his crying.
Behind him, he could hear girls gossiping.
"So did you hear that Shea have the hots for the new guy?" a girl said.
That immediately got Leo's attention. He opened his textbook and pretended to flip through it while eavesdropping on the girls' conversation.
"Who can blame her? He's such a hottie! And he's also very good-looking," girl #2 sighed dreamily.
"I heard that he's already going out with someone. He's dating that new girl, Zarine. They're on the same beyblading team," girl #3 said. "Too bad."
"That hasn't stopped Shea yet. She's determined to get Ray. Besides, who do you always see around Ray? Zarine or Shea? It's obvious that Ray wants Shea. Now he just has to break up with his dear girlfriend," girl #1 said.
Leo was not happy at all to hear this. He would never let Ray steal Shea away from him.
[Why would he want Shea when he's already got Zarine?] he wondered. [Zarine is so nice and she's pretty.]
His hands balled into fists. As if it wasn't enough when Ray embarrassed him in gym by beating him in basketball. He used to be the star of the basketball team, until his grades got so bad, they kicked him off. Now his grades are getting better, but the teachers were afraid he might have a relapse, so he's only a spare on the team.
He also heard the gym teacher asking Ray if he wanted to join the team. Ray had agreed to it enthusiastically. What the hell?! His sport is beyblading, not basketball. As much as he hated to admit it, he was jealous of Ray. Ray's got everything, even the heart of the girl of his dreams.
Ray thought back to what Shea said to him about loyal girlfriends, and compared her definition of one to Zarine. It was very true that she never waits for him, but he saw her waiting for Kai by his locker all the time after school to go home. She never even waited for him to go to math together. His locker is right outside of the classroom. She should at least stop and wait to go into the classroom together. He was going to have to talk to her about that.
After school, Zarine saw Ray marching up to her. She wondered what he was going to do. He had this determined look on his face.
[God, I hope he's not going to tell me he wants to break up or something.] she thought, worried.
"Why don't you come and look for me at my locker like everyone's girlfriend does?" Ray demanded.
Zarine just shrugged. It seemed like she was always doing that lately in order to avoid answering questions.
"Was that all you wanted to know? Because I'm supposed to meet Carrie right now," she said. Determined to not let him see how hurt she was, she put on a mask of coolness.
"You still haven't answered my question," he said.
"Look Ray, it's not like you wait for me or anything. Why should you always be the one that I pay attention to all the time? I have friends, you know," she told him. "If you'll excuse me, Carrie's going to wonder where I am."
He grabbed her wrist to stop her from leaving. "So are you saying that you don't need me?" he asked angrily. "Now that you have friends, you don't need me anymore?"
Zarine was startled. How did he come up with that? "I never said that," she hissed furiously.
"Well, you might as well as meant that," he said heatedly.
"I never thought of it!" she protested.
"Yeah right," he muttered.
"So you're calling me a liar?" she yelled at him. "How could you?"
The others came around the corner. "Hey, what are you two arguing about?" Tyson asked.
Zarine and Ray rounded on him and snapped, "None of your business, Tyson!" before walking away in the opposite direction of each other.
"Geez, they didn't have to take it out on me," he muttered, annoyed with the couple.
"Guys, I think it's time for us to butt in and make sure they patch things up," Max said seriously.
"It's way past time to," Carrie agreed. "I don't care what Kai says. We definitely have to before things get any worse between them."
I hope you like this chapter. I really like the end, even though Ray and Zarine argued.
