Chapter Six

Tigers and Demons

Carmen lay on her bed, starring at the ceiling. She didn't say anything at all to anyone.

"Carmen? Hello!" Max said, waving a hand in front of her face.

"Max, please. She won't respond to you." Alex told him. Max looked at Alex.

"You think?" he asked.

"I know." Alex sighed. Max shrugged, then left Carmen alone. Carmen turned onto her side, so that her back was facing her team mates. Tears slowly streamed down her face. It was such an embarrassing moment for her. Alex sat on Carmen's bed.

"Hey. Carmen, don't be upset. We just... We were just worried that you were hurt or something." she said softly. Carmen didn't say anything.

"Carmen. Girl, I know you're upset, but, we were worried." Alex whispered again. The others watched as Alex tried to get her to speak. Alex looked at them, and frowned.

"She won't crack." Alex said.

"Heck! You'd think she's got laryngitis or something!" Aaron cried. Carmen ignored his comment.

That night, Carmen cried herself to sleep, and in the morning, she was just as bad as she was the night before.

"Carmen. Come on! You haven't said anything since last night!" Nick exclaimed. Carmen didn't say anything.

"Carmen, please, speak to us!" Sandra pleaded. Still, she didn't respond.

"It's no use.." Max muttered. Carmen then grabbed a notepad and a pen, scribbled something down onto the first page, ripped it out and crumpled it up. She then threw it at Max. Max looked confused, like the rest of them, but he uncrumpled the piece of paper.

"You got that right!" Max read out loud.

Carmen got up and went outside. The sun shone brightly, making her long black hair look brown. She sat down, looking glad to be outside again. She looked at her skateboard; There was a black permanent marker underneath it. She grabbed her skateboard, and the marker, then flipped her skateboard over. The bottom was plain, there wasn't a picture on it or anything. With her board being one of the modern ones, and not one that had a rather odd shape, there should've been a picture on the bottom, or something for that matter.

She stared at the bottom of the board, thinking, with the permanent marker in hand. Then, she uncapped the marker, and began to draw something. She carefully started to draw the symbol that represented Blink 182, and started to hum the tune to one of Blink 182's songs. Once she had finished, she leaned back to admire her work.

"Ugh, this marker stinks." she said quietly to herself, then wrote 'Good Charlotte' in fancy letters. As time passed, Carmen continued to draw.

"What're we going to do? She won't talk to us, but she gives us notes whenever she agrees with something we say." Alex asked.

"Well, I guess we'll just have to wait and see." Aaron said. They all looked at each other.

"She'll crack sooner or later." Max said.

"I don't know about that Max. She can hold a grudge for quite a long time." Sandra said.

-X-

Back at Tyson's dojo, things were still tense between Kai and Rei.

"Will you two just quit this! You' re friends! Now act like it!" Hilary exclaimed. Kai looked at Rei.

"Well, it has been a hard week for us all.." Kai said. Rei nodded.

"Great! You're friends again!" Hilary said happily. Once Hilary skipped out of the room, Kai walked up to Rei.

"No hard feelings?" he asked. Rei looked at him.

"No hard feelings." Rei nodded.

"Does Mariah know that you don't like her anymore?" Tyson asked.

"Yeah, I told her earlier." Rei said.

"And, what did she say?" Max asked.

"She slapped me one across the face, then ran off crying." Rei answered

-X-

Rei and Kai were practicing with each other, later that day.

"Come on Rei. You can do better than this!" Kai exclaimed.

"I'm just getting warmed up!" Rei answered.

"They're acting as if nothing ever happened between them." Max whispered.

"Yeah, they are." Kenny whispered back.

"Go Drigger!" Rei yelled.

"Dranser!" Kai shouted. The two blades chased after each other like a dog chasing a cat.

-X-

Night soon fell over the city like a blanket. Rei, Kai, Max, Tyson, Kenny and Hilary looked at the sky.

"Well, I've better get going. See you guys tomorrow! Don't forget, it's the Tournament again tomorrow!" Hilary called as she left the back of the house.

"Okay! Bye, see you tomorrow!" the others called after her.

"Who's playing tomorrow, anyway?" Max asked. "I haven't checked. I guess I'd better check now.." Kenny said, looking for which two teams were going to battle it out to the next round.

"The White Tigers VS. The Demons. That'll be an interesting match." Kenny said.

"Hey, yeah! It's the team of Rei's girlfriend, and Rei's old team, that has his ex-girlfriend as a member!" Tyson said with a laugh. Rei was silent for a second.

"Yeah, interesting." he muttered.