EBONY

I waited patiently for Kai to arrive. Mira sounded interesting but I found kids to be a little bit annoying. I breathed a sigh of relief when Kai told me she was quiet and shy. He looked a bit pissed when he came up to me. "What's up?"

"Some idiot cut me off on the way here." I was confused; I thought he was annoyed about being babysitter for the weekend and Voltaire. But that didn't seem to be the case. I would probably found out the reason why later. Mira was behind Kai at a distance not looking too sure of the situation. She looked pretty scared that I felt guilty for thinking her to be an annoying kid. Kai didn't seem to mind her being around him. I couldn't help feel she was familiar somehow. But I shook off the feeling and got back to what I was doing.

Just then Hilary and the others arrived. "Aw, well aren't you cute." Hilary gushed making me feel sick. But I wasn't the only one who was nauseated by that precious little comment. As soon as my cousin's back was turned the little girl pretended to stick two fingers down her throat. The others laughed and I smirked. The little girl folded her arms and looked at the entrance when Hilary turned round making her none the wiser.

"She's quite the comedian." I said in Kai's ear on the way to the changing rooms. "Hmm." He said in a thoughtful way paying for himself and Mira. The little girl followed us in to the changing rooms and she got changed in to a dark blue swimming costume. Hilary gushed again making the little girl look sickened. "I understand how you feel."

"Thanks." She said and followed the happily annoying cousin out of the changing rooms to the pool.

KAI

We waited for the girls. I was in my usual blue swimming trunks that looked oddly like boxers to me. Tyson's were green, Max's were gray, Rei's were black and Kenny's were brown. The girl's came out a couple of minutes after us. Hilary was in a green swimming costume, Mira's was blue and Ebony was black. 'No surprise there.' But she really did look good in black no matter what she wore.

Mira remained silent and swam laps away from us whilst the rest played in the shallows. I watched her go back and forth for a while. Every stroke was like an act of defiance; by the look of things she was just as unhappy about this arrangement as I am. The weekends were the only time I could spend all day with Ebony. I think Mira was a professional swimmer by the look of things. She even did the underwater summersault at each end. Eventually she stopped for a rest when she worked out most of her anger.

I swam with Ebony in the deep end where we embraced by the stairs. She sat on my lap and I sat on the stairs in the deep end. We sat there for ages until a lifeguard told us to move. Ebony swam over to Hilary for some reason so I was left on my own.

Eventually Mira sat in the shallows looking at the sky through the glass ceiling. I came over to her and she looked at me. "You ok?" She nodded without even looking at me.

MIRA

Not a great conversationalist. He asked me if I was ok twice and didn't say anything else. I think that was about to change, that or he would ask me if I was ok again. Kai sat down beside me and sighed. "We're going to be spending the weekend together so any thoughts about what you would like to do?"

"Nope." I looked at him wishing I hadn't. He hung his head in defeat and looked at me with tired eyes. "Sorry." I couldn't think of what else to say then. "For what?"

"Me being here." He looked thoughtfully at me. "Why should you be sorry for that?" I looked over to Ebony. "Clearly you had other plans." Kai smirked. "Did you have plans?" I thought it strange for him to ask me such a thing. I sighed and nodded looking back up at the sky. "I was going to be spending the weekend with my friends. But right at the last minute-"

"You were called away." I looked at him; his eyes were on the sky now. "Yeah." I muttered and he nodded, it was as though he totally understood what happened. "Same here. Now Voltaire told me to keep my eyes on you. So I guess I'll take you with me this weekend." I nodded to find his gaze was now concentrated on me. Sure he was Voltaire's grandson and not a great talker but he seemed ok. "I'm going to be getting up early to train with my team tomorrow. How does that sound?"

"Ok by me." I shrugged and the wave machine turned on. I couldn't help but laugh as the waves hit me. They only reached Kai's stomach but they reached my neck tickling me as they went. I eventually went out to swim with them and I was surprised to find Kai joining me. "I meant it when I said I'd keep an eye on you."

"…" I was going to say something but got a mouthful of water making me splutter and choke. Kai grabbed me and held me above the water. He took me back to the shallows until the waves were finished. "Sorry." I managed to say when the waves stopped. My face was beat red, god that was embarrassing. Why do I have to be so pathetic sometimes? I couldn't tell what was on Kai's face, I didn't look at him. Eventually he swam away and I did laps again. Thank god grandma told me to pack my swimming costume because Kai has a swimming pool. But we went to a public pool instead with his friends.

When we were finished swimming we all went out for dinner. Kai paid when we took a look at the bill, thanks to Tyson's bottomless stomach. I was more tired than anything else so I didn't eat a lot.

At the end of it I was back in Kai's car. I turned away when he kissed Ebony goodbye. I know I'm a girl but an eight year old shouldn't have to witness that. He took me back to the mansion and I went to my room escorted by Kai. "Thanks Kai." I said by the door.

KAI

If I've said it once already I'll say it again. That girl is strange. There was a terrific thunderstorm last night that kept me awake half the night by the sheer volume of the cracks. Maybe it was because my room was on the third floor…note to self: move my stuff to the ground floor. I half expected Mira to scream in terror but I didn't hear a sound. I asked Maggie to check up on her and apologized for waking her up. The disgruntled cook told me the little girl was sound asleep. Must be a heavy sleeper I thought but Maggie told me Mira woke up when she looked over her. "She just went straight back to sleep when I left."

"Strange." Maggie agreed but I thought it best to keep my questions silent till morning.

When I finally woke up I heard my alarm going off. I looked at the time on the clock to realize the alarm had been going off for two hours. "FUCK!" I got washed and dressed as quickly as humanly possible. I ran in to the dining room for a quick breakfast to find a plate had already been used. I ran out the house to see Mira waiting for me patiently by my car. I had completely forgotten about her. She looked a little more confident but a little fear still resided in her eyes. She had her backpack on and I wondered if that was her security blanket or something. "Ready?" She nodded and went in the back seat this time. 'Hmm.'

I saw why she did that when we reached the beach. She was asleep in the back seat? Mira lay across the seat sleeping peacefully, it seemed a shame to wake her but I couldn't just leave her here. So I gently shook her awake and she instantly got up. "You ok?" What the hell is wrong with me? That's the third time I said that. Mira noticed this too and just gave me an odd look before shrugging. "Jet lag." Was all she came out with at this moment in time. "Where do you live?"

"Russia." She said and yawned deeply. "Do you still want to come or shall I take you back to my place?"

"I'm ok now. I've slept it off." She assured me and we walked to the beach where everyone was waiting for us. "You're an hour late!" Tyson exclaimed with a sneer on his face. "Oh really? I hadn't noticed."

MIRA

I noticed Kai's sarcasm when Tyson growled at him. I watched their training from a distance and was in awe at their bit beast's power. I liked Draciel and Drigger but my favourites had to be Dragoon and Dranzer. I just had a thing with certain mythological beasts, dragons and phoenixes just happened to be two of my favoured beasts.

Kai kept looking at me from time to time; I think he was making sure I was still there. I just nodded and he nodded back. Nothing more passed between us through the training session. I lay back and watched the sky as the bit beasts came out again and again. I started to drift off to sleep when I heard a couple of kids arguing.

"Stop it you'll ruin it!" A little boy cried no older than me. A bigger kid say about ten was bashing the boy's blade without mercy. "You challenged me so now you'll pay the price!" I could tell this guy was a bully.

A minute later and the kid's blade fell apart before his eyes. I glared at the bully who laughed evilly and I decided to give him a taste of his own medicine. First I checked to see if Kai was watching me. He had his back turned, good. That was my cue to take my leave and dish out some well deserved butt kicking time. I took my bag and walked down there taking out my blade and launcher as I did so.

KAI

I had just finished a battle with Rei when I looked over to where Mira should've been sitting. My heart stopped when I saw she was gone. "Where's Mira?" We stopped training and looked for her.

A sudden explosion came from nearby. "AAAAAAAHHHHH!" We heard a kid cry out in terror making us run to the scene. We couldn't see anything until the dust cleared. Mira was standing on one side of a creator and an older kid was on the ground staring at her with fear. "Bullies have no place in beyblade!" The kid nodded, picked up the beyblade parts and ran. She turned to a boy around the same age as herself. It was then I could see her launcher shaped like a small crossbow in her hand. It was black and white like her blade when she caught it. Mira handed the kid his blade pieces and he smiled at her. "Thanks."

"Your welcome." Was this the same girl I picked up from the airport yesterday? She smiled and helped the kid repair his blade from some spare parts in her bag. "Want to have a game?" The kid asked and she nodded. "I promise to go easy on you."

"Good." The boy said smiling at his newfound friend. The rest of us stood there dumbfounded by Mira's sudden change. "Let's leave her alone." Rei suggested and we all agreed. Our training continued and I noticed Mira had returned to her place with the kid beside her. They were talking and joking about things that I couldn't hear.

EBONY

I had to agree Mira was a strange kid. The feeling of familiarity was growing stronger but I just couldn't put my finger on it. However her triumph over the bully was good enough reason to like her. I hated bullies having being bullied myself countless times. A pity she was only here for the weekend. Hilary and Mira were in the back seat. I smirked as Mira ignored Hilary completely every time my cousin came out with baby talk. Kai offered us a lift back to our place and we accepted.

We were half -way there when Kai's phone rang and he answered with a hands free set. "Yes?" He sounded irritated. I looked at the phone screen to see Voltaire's name on it.

KAI

"Is Mira still with you?" We came to a red stop light so I glanced at the girl behind me. Since when was Voltaire concerned about anyone but himself? "Yes."

"Put her on." I stopped the car and handed Mira the phone. "Hello?" I waited for a minute before she said anything. "Yes sir." She gave me back the phone; Voltaire wanted to talk to me. "Don't let her out of your site!" Was the last thing I heard him say as he hung up.

I finally reached Ebony's house and they got out. Hilary went straight to the door whilst Ebony hung back and kissed me. "Take care." She whispered in my ear. 'What an odd thing to say. She's only eight, what can she do to me?' My eyes went over the bulge in her pocket making me think about today's events.