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Chapter 11: Saving Mariah and Ray

Oh- sorry for this intrusion but I'm changing the test number to 15 just because I can only think of that many different types of tests and she finds out in 10 hours at 8:00. That sounds better and more nice to Ray and Mariah.

"Hi I'm Beverly Nickta. I'm in you're tribe. I don't think you've met me because you're all up close to the council and I'm just a peasant girl. I wish I could be someone great and high like you." Beverly said admiring Mariah.

"It some aspects of my life I wish I was more like you Beverly. I have this big life. I'm expected to become so great and be so perfect. It's harder than it looks. You're sweet for just being 15. I'm 17 as of 6 months ago. This is my 2nd time being at the terrible place. It's not fun at all. I hate being judged on things that other people think of. I had a great life until I decided to come back to the tribal life. I loved my life when I was 12 and 13. I traveled with my team and went wherever we wanted to. It was perfect." Mariah sighed staring at the sky.

Beverly was a girl who was 15 years old. She had dark brown hair and had rags for her outfit. She had beautiful blue eyes. Mariah guaranteed to herself that Beverly would be someone. She would make a life for herself. She might not seem like someone but the good people in life are the nobodies are nobody-knows to put for nicely. She would reach great things. She'd marry someone who was sweet like her any be happy.

"Mariah, do you ever wish that you could pick who you marry? I mean I know we can't but if you could what would they be like? You seem like someone who has an idea of what they want and that's great. I don't but you having an idea is brilliant." Beverly wasn't a realist she was a dreamer like Mariah. Mariah wished Ray would save her from this but knew her was taking care of it in a different way.

"I met someone who I could describe. He was perfect for me in everyway. I have a good chance I could marry him. He matches me in almost every category. He's nice, sweet, caring, careful, and helpful. He's saved me a million times. He is so romantic. He likes beyblading with me. He and I have spent are whole lives together. He's a leader and he knows how people are supposed to live. I guess I'd be extremely happy if it was him." Beverly was so naïve it was funny. If you hadn't seen her you'd think she was 8 or 9. She listened to everything about the 'person' Mariah liked in every detail. Beverly imagined him.

"Hey if you guys do get together; look me up so we can stay in touch. I don't know where I'll be then but at least one of us knows where were going. I'd love to know or have a clue what kind of person I'm marrying. I can't wait to meet him. You guys seem so perfect for each other. I'll be happy if you do get to marry each other. True love is rarely found in people so young like us. You're a bit older but hey, in heart aren't we all young." Beverly was no sounding like the wisest man in the council.

Mariah giggled and Beverly was confused. "It's very funny. I've worked with the people in the council and that last line reminded me of something they said. Everything they say has to be a proverb. It's like it's a rule. You're great to talk to. Oh, and his name is Ray Kon. He's our tribe's leader. I'm sure you've met him. I have to go take my test but by Beverly."

Mariah would miss talking with Beverly. She was an amusing girl. She had the questions and curiosity of a child and the wisdom of an elder of their tribe. She was very sweet and so pure of heart. If Mariah wished she could do anything as a council member she'd raise the marriage age a few years so people as pure as Beverly could stay pure and innocent like her.

Mariah had always had a hard time picturing a image that had plagued her to imagine. The image was a girl of 16 being married, but not only being married but having a child. As hard as Mariah thought about she couldn't think about; it was just so sad. It pains her to think that the same thing only happened to her with Zackary. He wanted 1 children every year for 10 years; 10 children. What a problem with supply and demand he had. Mariah was just barely going to be able to have 1 child. Mariah would die before she could have 3. It made her cringe; he having a child 2 almost 3 years ago. Yikes, was the word that plagued her mind.

The first 5 test were easy. They were very simple to take and answer. The first was a paper about you- basics, i.e.: name, address, phone and all the basic stuff. The second was on personality, i.e.: what you like, what do you dislike, you hate this, you enjoy these things, you wish you'd never done this. The third was on date ability- when you'd like to have your first child, what kind of guy you like. The fourth was a physical examination of your body. The fifth was a ton of child labor tests.

Everyone took a break after all the shots and running and paperwork. Beverly and Mariah met back at the tree. "So how do you think you did on the last two? I think I'm tired of being poked and prodded by every doctor they have at the Lintec tribe. They had like 6 in there. They had to check every little thing. It got annoying by the end of it. What scared me is all the child labor tests said I'm in peak physical condition to have a child right now? Eww." Beverly was back to her little girl stage in a time where you had to be very mature to be able to not lose your mind through all of this.

"Excuse me you two. I'm going to give you you're beyblade battle schedules. Here." The lady in bright orange hair who looked like a clown handed Beverly and Mariah there papers. Beverly looked scared at the fact they were going to have to beyblade during this. Apparently only about 70 of the female population of the White Tiger Tribe has ever used a beyblade and considered in important to have one with them.

"Mariah you like to beyblade, right? I have heard about you guys leaving the tribe to challenge people in it but I thought it was wrestling until my brother brought one home. Where can I get one? I need one like now." Mariah smacked her head. She was upset because it was teaching a new dog a new trick when it has a test on it now.

"Ya, I have a spare." Mariah took Galax's bit-chip out of her new beyblade and gave it to Beverly. "I kind of need that back later but you can use it for know. I have to go get mine from someone. Bye." Mariah ran off to the council to ask for her blade back.

"My young child Mariah, welcome back to our festival and tribe. What may I do for you?" Mr. Uzi said looking at Mariah who was out of breath.

"I need Galax's blade back. Ray and I gave our blade's back to insure that we wouldn't have access to the power of our bit-beast's action. I need it back for my test now that I have returned. If I could have Ray's too, that would be great." Mariah said kind of in a rush and kind of in pleading manner.

"Sure Mariah, you and Ray returned as you promised so you have full access to every thing you left. You needed your time to be together and we trusted you and let you so here you go." He handed her Drigger's and Galax's blades and she bowed and ran off. She ran to a nearby opening in the forest.

"Okay Galax it's time to return and come back now. 3…2…1…Let it Rip!" Galax's blade came ripping out of the shooter and slammed into a tree and fell down. It didn't make a dent Mariah was petrified. She sat down on the blade after capturing the blade and just eyes wide eyes and mouth wide open sat there. She heard foot-steps behind her.

"Hey Mariah, I think you need this one back. They're giving out basic blades at the test. I'll be better using one of those. This one doesn't anything. I guess it's one of those special ones that only works for special people." Beverly returned Galax's other blade and Mariah compared the two blades. They were the same strength, power and attack strength and both had used Galax. What made the difference?

She put Galax's bit-chip back in the V2 beyblade and launched in and it made a huge dent in the tree. Now Mariah was confused. She sat down and looked up at the sky.

She'd easily win to tournament. Ray is head over everyone and she could beat him 1/3 times at a tournament so she had to be fairly good. Most of the girls didn't know how to blade and the others would have to adjust to a new blade because there's was back at home. It was not home field advantage. It was knowledge of the surprise advantage. It wasn't exactly fair but any open knowledge was fair ground to Mariah and this is just one big thing. It put her 5 steps closer to being with Ray. It was a happy day.

Mariah returned to the spot in the tent where she first met Beverly and came across her again. She brought Beverly outside and taught her the basics of beyblading. It was fair to help a friend once she knew what the test was on too. She didn't redeem anything she had done to prepare anyone for this test unfair. It was common knowledge that this test was on beyblading and you had to beyblade. She just helping make one person who was knowledgeable on this subject a little more.

"Mariah, Mr. Izone wants to see you. I think it's about your beyblade so I'd bring it with you?" Mariah gasped. She remembered she wasn't suppose to have any contact with Galax for the last year and a half but she had for the last half a year. She had messed up big time again.

Mariah was so sad. She would probably have to use a regular beyblade and have a lot of negative points of her personality score card. She hoped not because it was low enough. The beyblade portion was 1/3 of your grade so if she wasn't aloud to join in she was for sure out of the running for getting in the top 10 and that was bad.

"Miss. Or shall I say Mrs. Mariah. How are you? Let's cut to the chase. Using your high place to get info is illegal in the scoring but legally because you did this last year you could plead your case and get off with no negative marks, correct." Mr. Izone was the guilt police. He'd tell you ways you could get out of anything and make sure you did what was right even if it turned out to be what's wrong.

"I know, I know it's not fair to those who don't know what beyblading is and to those who didn't bring there beyblades with them. Any could have asked before what it was on too. I'm just honestly making excuses for the wrong reasons aren't I?" Mariah had given up. Mr. Izone was a mind reader. He knew before Mariah did that she liked Ray. He suspected it would happen from the beginning.

"We all know that you could easily beat everyone there; even without Galax. You are doing this so you can marry Ray, right? Mariah nodded So why haven't you two ever just asked to get married together. It's much easier you know. They'd say yes. Everyone knows you two are meant to be except until recently you did. It's odd how that works. You're in deep now. Just do yourself a favor and admit it to everyone you know. It will work to clear you're conscious. I promise you everything will go you're way if you let it." Mariah had utterly no clue what he was talking about.

"I know I love Ray. I want to marry Ray. He asked me to marry him, I said yes and we're happy know. I guess we never asked because we never think they'd say yes. I don't know why we didn't just ask in the first place. So many people have told us to just ask but we never did. I guess we feel that we have to make things difficult to prove it to ourselves that we belong together; people pulling us apart is the ultimate test. We just felt that it couldn't be that easy because love isn't that easy." Mariah wanted to cry. She had made a fool of herself.

"Love is very simple Mariah. When you love, you just do. When you love Ray how simple was it to love him. You and Ray seem to always second guess yourselves. Why is nothing simple? Why must you feel you're wrong? The elders know love; they've seen love before. They won't go against love. If they see love they let it be. The elders didn't make the law they just enforce it. They hate the laws as much as you do but no one has ever thought to change it and make it right. They second guessed themselves and made this whole mess in the first place. Do the world a favor and end this." Mariah nodded and smiled.

"I see know. When I knew I loved Ray it was instant and easy to know. Nothing is simple because we make everything hard to test ourselves. Nothing is hard unless we make it and think it is. I'm going to so do the world a favor. Thank Mr. Izone. I'm going to tell everyone plain and simple my morals. It's not that hard now." Mr. Izone smiled and waved his hand for her to leave.

Mariah ran out the door happily and took out her beyblade and whispered a simple phrase 'love is above all law, it's is pure, simple, and true.' Mariah had been taught by Ray and her teachers the one thing that all of mankind struggled with. She learned that anyone can do anything if you set you're mind to it. Things are only hard if someone makes it. The true thing is simple and pure like love. A beyblade match is only hard to win when you make it difficult. If we all used the same rocks and stones it would be easy, simple and pure. Man made it difficult.

Mariah was planning on killing the dead laws of her tribe and writing new laws that more fit the times and were true, pure and simple. Everything should be like love. She'd do everything with Ray now that they were above the law. The law means simple, true, and pure like love that's why love is above it.

"Hey World, I'm fine with the law because I'm above the law. Love is above the law. Hate is below the law because hate is the opposite of love. Love brings connection and a bond. In truth, purity and simplicity comes love a perfect and intricate thing love is." Mariah now realized more of the millions of God's simple lessons he had sent down. Mariah now missed Ray. It was time for the match and she was sure he'd be there. Ray loved a good beyblade match.

Mariah grabbed her bag and Galax's blade. She ran off to the stands. There were 5 rounds. Round one was 100 groups of 5 girls. Round two was 10 groups of 10 girls. Round three was 1-1 matches; 5 continued. Round four was first two out. Round five was a 1-1 match best 2 of 3 for winner.

A predict Mariah easily took the competition within a quarter of the time the guessed it would be so they went of to their final 5 tests. Mariah wasn't exactly proud of herself for beating off everyone so easy but she just wanted to get to Ray as fast as she could. She hadn't seen him in a while and this place was very depressing.

The last 5 test were very simple and easy like Mariah had learned to like things. The first was a cooking test. The second was a sewing test. The third was a cleaning test. The fourth was a medical attention test in case of emergency stuff. The fifth and last was a test on maturity, handling problems, taking care of a home, and odd things like that.

"Bye Beverly, it's been great going through everything with you. I'll be sure to keep in contact with you no matter where our path leads. You're a good friend and a good person. I'll miss you." Mariah and Beverly departed for the last time. They would see each other and the marriage declarations but that wasn't like this.

"I'll miss hanging out with you. I hope you get to marry Ray. I have to go off with my section. I can wait to see how everything is going to turn out for us. I'm sure what ever you do you'll make a difference that'll save many future generations from this again." Beverly never said anything after that.

"I'll make sure of it. If your children are still under this law; I'll be very sorry for them because the law isn't getting any better until I have a choice. I promise you; I'll make things better and Ray will be there helping no matter what." They giggled and ran off with their groups.

The groups were very simple. They were divided up into smaller sections; 100, 100, 100, 100, 50, 25, 10, 10, and 5. Mariah of course scored in the highest group among with the other girls who were in the third round of beyblading of course. Beverly scored in the second group which was great for any normal person.

Ray's work

"This is going to be easy than it looks." Ray held up a question and answer sheet that was front and back. It was 20 questions about how he was and what he wanted in a girl. He had a choice of 5 girls and 1 was Mariah so his chances were good and his ideal girl matched Mariah exactly.

Name: Ray Kon

Age: 18

Address: Leaders' Quarters, White Tiger Village

Describe Self: Black Hair, tall, strong, Chinese.

Likes: Beyblading, Cooking, Running, and walking around in forests.

Dislikes: Annoying rules, bossy people, rude people, and improper people.

Favorite Animal: Tiger

Favorite Color: Black and White

Favorite Place: Forests

Your personality: Romantic, fun, respectful, kind, and helpful

You're position in tribe: Leader, protector

Money: from fairly rich decent, part of the council

You want to have a child in the family at age: 20-21 around there

When something goes wrong you…: Forgive the person who did it help fix the problem.

You enjoy company or hate company: I enjoy having friends over and company

Your pet peeve is: Arranged Marriages, and people who never express their feeling

-Her-

Her personality: funny, sweet, quiet, honest and understanding.

You expect her to...: Clean, do laundry, sew and spend time with me.

She has to…: Be able to beyblade at extreme levels because that's what I like to do.

She can't...: Be extremely crazily feminine, be annoying and talk a lot

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Mariah and Ray were tired of being in the same room together but couldn't make any contact with anyone. Ray was bored of sitting around and waiting for news. Mariah was tired of getting news about things that had nothing to do with them getting engaged. She was happy that she could have a child though she didn't want one for another couple of years. She missed sitting back at home watching TV with Ray most of all. She missed hanging out with Max and Miriam and walking around in big open spaces. The place here was crowded and not spacious with all the people walking around.

"Excuse me, everyone we have to go down to the center building and listen to everyone's pairings now. Let's go down now." Everyone in the room without a word walked down into rows without a single movement they saw large rolls of paper all across and people ran for them. "You have to wait until you're announced. Let's get this started."

Each group of 100 took about 1 and a half hours because every couple had to get up on stage sign the document and sign away their freedom. They'd be assigned a visiting house to live and at a go there. It was 6 hours later when they finally got to the highest ranking people. Beverly got paired with a nice young man her age who since she was in a top area had similar thoughts about everything it was great.

Mariah and Ray and most of everyone in the stage had fallen asleep. "Finally and last of all; we have Mariah Kito and Ray Kon who scored nearly perfect on every test. They are their tribe's leaders and beyblading champions. Congratulations." It had finally happened. Mariah and Ray were married. They didn't act as happy as they were they were to have a real wedding with all their friends back at home.

They got back to their home at 11:30 which was a lot longer with all the fights that had broken out. Mariah and Ray broke down on the couch. Mariah looked at her wedding ring. "It's official, this ring and that document says it plain and simple. I'm just so happy." Mariah started crying and Ray just held her in his arms. It was wonderful to be loved by someone like this.

"I'm so glad to Mariah. I'm glad everything worked out like it did. It wasn't that hard after all. I mean you easily won on 1/3 of it with the beyblading. You did great on all the basics. I heard it was all basic stuff. Did you learn anything about yourself you didn't know?" Ray wondered. He had heard that in hard times it brings out new things about people.

"Ya, I did. I learned that no one has ever been against our wedding. It was just us second guessing ourselves. No law can go against love because love is above all form of law. Love is pure, simple and true that's what makes it so wonderful. We could have just asked to be married and they would have let us. It's just that we didn't ask." Mariah said. It was like a slap in the fact after doing the work but they did that because all that was love working through simple things made hard.

"I'm glad even the universe can't be against our marriage. I think that's just perfect. So who taught you that life lesson? I know that you didn't know that this morning so you just learned that recently." Ray was curious to know who could get into Mariah's brain like that.

"Mr. Izone, he asked me if I was being nice and fair when I used Galax in the tournament. He wanted to make sure I knew that everything is simple and only man and woman can make it anything but that. We should never second guess ourselves because it usually doesn't help. Take time to think about it but when you feel it's right don't prove it wrong.

It's not over! Well yes for this chapter but not this story!