A sacrifice is a sacrifice. A gift is a gift.

Safe, In Your Arms

Chapter 6: Something Sacred

He looked at her, she looked at him. And they both smiled at the same time. Maroon eyes have been staring at them. The boy frowned.

"Miss Folest Fan? There's someone here to see you," James said as he stepped into the dinning room.

Forrest sighed and wondered who it was. She frowned. Who wants to see me? she asked herself

The answer came as a middle aged looking man entered the room. His hair was a medium brown and his eyes a forest green.

"David," Forrest spat.

"Now, ma chere. You should call me 'daddy', it's much more pleasant, isn't it?" the man replied with a French accent.(my dear)

"You have no right to disturb me right now. Go back. I live here now, there's nothing much that you can do about it."

"Oh no, don't think that you're so important that I've come all the way just for you! And besides, you're fifteen, not eighteen," his tone changed as he stopped abruptly. "Oh, no, no, no! I came here on a business trip and I stopped here on my way to the hotel."

"The hotel's at the other side of the city, you moron, and Theresa is my guardian, you are a rejected father, David," Forrest said as she rolled her eyes and took a bite of her dinner. She was in a bad mood. Normally, she would have at least tried to tolerate her father.

"Now, dear. Why don't you invite your daddy to dinner with these fine gentlemen?"

Forrest eyed Kai and frowned. Her eyes were pleading and Kai grunted.

"You own this bloody place, Hiwatari! Will you invite this bastard or not?" Forrest roared.

Kai waved his hand meaning for James to escort the visitor out.

"Oh, dear. You escaped your fate for today. But you'll have to come back sooner or later. I deposited five thousand bucks into your account since I'm such a nice daddy," David said before he smirked and walked off with James.

Forrest fumed, literally, and left the dinning table with a swing. Her chair fell on the floor, she heard one of the maids scream—the chair was made of a delicate and expensive wood—but she cared less.

I wish that he could just go to hell.

She slammed her door behind her and collapsed on the bed. Sleep took her instantly.

The young green-eyed girl woke up with a terrible headache.

Aspirin.Tylenol. Anything! she thought as she panted. Oh right. I'm not in America. I'll just go for a walk.

She wandered about her eventful day as she left her room wearing her usual clothes. She didn't care about what she was doing right then. She just wanted to find a way to avoid her father forever.

That bastard. Marrying that bimbo after my mom left. How dare he!

She turned around the corner and glided down the stairs. It felt misty around her and she wasn't sure of the time or where she was going. She was just following her instincts, and they lead her outside, to the beyblading dish.

There she saw her blade, still lying there immobile. She sighed.

"I'm so sorry, Starlet," she said as she picked her beyblade and held it in her hands. She fondled with her pockets and found the launcher. "Let's go for a spin, shall we? Just to clear my mind. It'll help you too."

Starlet obeyed and immediately appeared. The star shaped bit-beast turned into a winged lion. He batted his wings and gave a worried gaze towards his mistress.

"I'm fine. Keep on spinning. We both have to improve our strengths. I'm so sorry that I'm so weak."

It is not your fault. Time is the key.

"Thanks, Starlet."

The lion roared and Forrest felt a great wind sweeping across the yard. She smiled.

"Good job. Now fire."

The lion shot fire upwards into the sky. Forrest observed the attack and was proud. The fire slowly disappeared leaving some sparks behind, and for several seconds it looked like the bit-beast was playing with fireworks. Once again flame was shot into the sky, it illuminated her face and her happy smile lingered.

Suddenly, she felt a velvety material draped around her.

"Thanks, Kai," she mumbled as she yawned. "Good job, Starlet. Come on, it's late. You should rest too."

The bit-beast did as he was told and disappeared from sight. Forrest bent down and took her beyblade with a swing of her arm. She gracefully turned around and saw the blue-haired boy.

She gave a weak but sincere smile.

"Thanks," she said as her cheeks gave a faint blush because of the chilly air.

"Go sleep," he replied, his voice plain and flat like usual.

"You shouldn't care. You never care."

The boy looked away and sat down a rock. Forrest took a seat on the ground beside him and sighed. The ground underneath felt cold and hard.

"Aren't the stars beautiful?" she asked dreamily. She wasn't sure what to say. For her reply, Kai gave a 'mmhmmm'. "You know. I owe you one for today. I'm in debt, really. Thank you."

Kai simply nodded and looked at her. He stared at her green eyes. Forrest wasn't a pretty girl, many people that he knew could beat her looks, but he could see that her heart was purer than anyone else's—at least anyone that he knew.

"When do you want to start your lessons?"

Forrest blinked and tilted her head. "What? Oh. Japanese lessons? Drop it. Then I owe you too much."

Kai grunted.

"I don't know why I'm so nice to you," he admitted out loud. "But, no. You need your lessons and I need help with French. The only thing that you owe me is a friendship."

She was quite surprised at his words. A friendship? That's an easy thing for me to give him. At least, it should be easy. It must sacred, since it's coming from the heartless Kai.

She stood up and gave him a quick but friendly hug.

"But that doesn't mean that I'll talk to you, hug you or anything else," he spat.

Back with his angry voice, huh? Forrest grinned. She cared less. With Kai, even to have a friendship was a rare thing and Forrest knew that.

She grinned in the darkness and offered her hand but Kai didn't take it. She shrugged to herself and walked back with Starlet in her pockets and a wonderful feeling swept over her.

"So, what's the name of your girlfriend?" she asked casually.

"Felicia."

"Interesting… for how long?"

Kai grunted.

"Okay, okay. Sorry. No more personal questions."

"Two months."

"Wow! Really? I thought that you were a one-night stand guy!" she exclaimed, teasingly.

Kai gave an angry 'hn' and kept walking.

"You wouldn't be single anyway,."

"Why?"

"'Cause. I have instincts. And come on. There are many girls who stare at you in the hallways dreamily. 'Oh my God, Kai is so hot!'" she said, imitating a high pitched voice.

Kai snorted and looked at her.

"Do you…"

"What?"

"Do you think that I'm hot?" he asked, pocking an eyebrow.

Forrest almost fell on the floor laughing but she covered her mouth. It was late and she didn't want to wake anyone up.

"It's okay, buddy. It's okay," she said as she patted Kai's back.

They both walked up the stairs, Forrest trailing after Kai. She hid her blush as she looked up and saw Kai's form as she mounted the stairs. They arrived at the door of Kai's room.

"Do you really want to know? Well. I'll give you credit for this. You are good looking. But you're also a mean and cold bastard," she said as she turned away.

Kai smirked in the dark and saw her cheeks flushing a tomato red. He laughed inside.

Maybe she is like other girls. Maybe not. But I know that we'll be friends. Maybe my parents were right about renting the room away, he thought as he closed the door behind him and fell back on his bed. But then again, she is like all other girls. They all have a thirst for richness and for fame.

The morning came. The air felt refreshing; it had a smell of cinnamon. The smell caught Forrest's nose so she woke up with a start. She looked around and saw a head of black hair.

"R-Ray Kon?"

An annoyed groan came out of his throat when he felt someone tap him.

"Wake up, Ray Kon," she said between two yawns, "how did you get here?"

He shrugged and yawned. Forrest could see two pointy teeth and she shuddered. Sometime I wonder if he is a tiger, she thought.

"Your couch is very comfortable," he commented. "The guest rooms have awfully hard beds."

"But that gives you no right to come here, does it?" she asked.

He groaned and left the room silently.

"Your door was open," he mumbled as he closed the double doors behind him.

Forrest sighed and dressed herself. She wore her swimsuit underneath her uniforms because she had practice that morning so she packed her swimming bag with extra garments. She ran down the stairs with her swimming bag and backpack and grabbed a toast from Theresa's bowl (her assistant was eating at the table) and skidded down the street several blocks to arrive at school.

She arrived at the pool two minutes late and took off her uniform in front of her teammates.

There's nothing wrong with that… I have my swimsuit inside, she told herself but apparently she was wrong because she heard some chuckles and silly whistling sounds coming from the boys' swim team and water polo team. She shot them a menacing glare and packed her clothes silently.

She bowed to her coach in apology and mumbled 'gomen' about twenty times before jumping into the big outdoor pool. The water relaxed her muscles but she felt a chilly air. She felt goose bumps on her skin and she moved around to raise her body temperature. Suddenly she heard a whistle blow and she saw splashes of water. The other girls kicked off and began swimming the length of the pool in extreme speed. It didn't take her long to kick off too, her slender legs pushed against the wall and she launched herself in the water.

As she arrived at the other side of the pool, she was surprised that she came fourteenth in the team out of thirty-two people because they all had a head start. She looked at the girl who was beside her.

The girl looked older than her. Perhaps a junior, she thought. The girl's hair was masked by a swimming cap but Forrest could see blue locks coming out.

"Hi," Forrest greeted the girl, waiting for the other teammates to swim to their side.

"You hang out with the Bladebreakers, don't you?" the other girl asked, simply.

"I guess you could say that. What's your name?" Forrest asked.

"Felicia," the girl replied.

Kai's girlfriend, she thought as she looked at the coach as he gave an attention-catching cough like the day before.

"I want you to swim to the other side and come back with your quickest stroke. First three people back will get to leave five minutes earlier," the coach said in Japanese.

She took several seconds to register the Japanese words in her mind. It was still hard for her to understand people speaking so fast.

Forrest was prepared this time. I need that five minutes free of swimming, I'm exhausted, she thought as her fingertips traced a burn on her arm. And I need to pick up my new schedule.

The sound of the whistle shot through the air and Forrest once again launched herself in the water. She looked around her and was glad that no one was in front, she was first but her confidence flew away when she saw four girls come head in head with her. She kicked and encouraged herself to keep going.

Come on. Breathe less, swim more, she told herself. She passed one girl in a dark blue swimsuit

It was more difficult to pass the other girls because all of them had mighty strength and swam like there was no tomorrow. Forrest's legs gave up but her brain did not. She struggled to swim with tired legs and unwilling arms. But as she saw the girl with the dark blue swimsuit pass her, she gave one more quick and touched the wall. She wasn't sure if she came before that girl or not but she cared less.

At least I don't feel like a loser, she thought to herself. Her head was out of the water and she saw who arrived firsts at the wall, to her left there was a girl with a black and red swimsuit with a matching cap who stared the ceiling while unconsciously grinning. The girl beside her had a white and blue tankini also wearing a small smile on her face. Then to her right was the girl in the dark blue swimsuit, the girl looked no older than 14 and she had brilliant silver eyes. The last girl was Felicia, who was smirking proudly.

I guess that she was first, Forrest thought as she sighed. Of course. I feel like a failure once again. I'll be late for class again. This year didn't start well for me.

The swimming practice went on and they had some few relay races. Forrest was in a group with three girls whose names were Gloria, Izuki, and Amira. Forrest and Amira were the faster swimmers of the group—Amira finished sixth in the race—while Gloria and Izuki struggled but nevertheless they were all good swimmers.

At least I have good teammates, she thought.

The coach explained that he had analyzed everyone's times and grouped them so that each group would have all kinds of swimmers, slow ones, fast ones, the ones with good technique and etc. The coach also explained that they had to work together in the relay, deciding who will swim first, second, third and last because at the end only two relay teams will represent the school in relay races. Forrest grinned.

We'll start working our butts off right now, she told herself. There is no way that we can't make into the best two groups.

She looked around and saw Felicia's team struggling, she grinned mischievously. Forrest and Felicia didn't exactly start on good terms but surely inside the pool they certainly were enemies. Felicia's team consisted of her—the best swimmer, Shizu—the slowest swimmer, the girl with the dark blue swimsuit and a slower girl with a hot pink swimsuit who seemed to stick up to Felicia.

Forrest grunted and turned her attention back to her group. She managed to help around with the bad Japanese she learned but they still shared sign language and Forrest was glad to demonstrate some tactics to her teammates.

By the end of the practice, Forrest's team managed to tie in third with another team.

With more effort, we'll get into the competition for sure, she said believing in her team members as she changed back to her school clothes.

The bell rang, signaling that it was 8:10.

Crap five more minutes! Forrest told herself as she ran to the office almost tripping three times. Several teachers yelled at her for running in the hallway but Forrest stopped running for two seconds and disappeared into the crowds of people. Finally, she squished her way to the office and came panting to the secretary. Luckily for her, there was no one waiting in line.

"Schedule," she said still panting.

The secretary nodded and Forrest saw the woman's thin and slender fingers search through the pile of papers that she had on her table. Finally the secretary handed her the schedule and Forrest dashed off after saying a quick thanks. She didn't have time to look at her schedule yet but she was quite sure that she still had Japanese at the same time because there weren't many second language students in the school anyway.

She dashed up the stairs and just as she reached the last step, the bell rang. Her heart sank. She sighed and swung open the door of the classroom. She was… exactly sixteen seconds late.

Miss Akiyo looked furious and Forrest mumbled several apologies before going to her seat beside Janet.

"Great entrance," Janet said sarcastically. "You're messed up. There's water dripping from your hair," she said as-matter-of-factly.

Forrest sighed and yawned.

"I don't care. I'm too tired to care right now. I hope that she won't notice if I doze off in class. I assure you that I will so wake me up, okay? Thanks," Forrest replied before giving a yawn that she tried to hide from Miss Akiyo's sharp eyes.

"Hey… you live with Kai don't you? I heard that…" Janet had a dreamy look on her face.

But Forrest fell asleep. Five minutes later Forrest felt someone tap on her shoulder and she groaned.

"Come on. She's coming," Janet muttered under her breath. Forrest heard the girl so she lifted her head a little bit so it looked like she was reading something on her table.

"Miss Laura Fan. Now, there is no need to sleep in my class," Miss Akiyo paused.

Oh God, they give you detentions here? Please no, please no, Forrest thought as she refused to look up.

"Detention, for a week, you'll clean the room everyday," the blonde teacher spat harshly as she walked away.

The class gave a 'oooooooh' but stopped as soon as they saw Miss Akiyo's death glare.

Forrest practically wanted to kill Miss Akiyo right there on the spot.

I never, never, got a detention before. How dare she! And cleaning? Why can't I just write lines? Stupid Japan.

Janet could hear Forrest's heavy breathing and she could see her sweat gliding down her seat-partner's face.

"Hey, it's okay. I got detention for a month from her. Don't worry. It's not like people care. Akiyo-sama has been very emotional lately and…" Janet's voice trailed off as Miss Akiyo started lecturing in her piercing voice again.

She stormed out of the Japanese class as soon as she waved goodbye to Janet. She rolled her eyes to herself and stomped down the stairs to arrive at French class. Her face was red from anger but her eyes were still full of tiredness and boredom. As she entered her second period she drew in a big breath and tried to calm down. The sight of the Bladebreakers helped a little.

"Hey," she called as she made her way in the back of the room.

She sat down at the same spot yesterday but this time she moved her desk a little bit back so that she was closer to Ray than Max.

"Didn't see you in the morning," Max mumbled as he looked at Forrest.

"Swim practice," she said simply. She turned her head around and looked at Ray. The Chinese boy gave her a quick wink and turned to talk to Kai. The bell rang and Forrest could hear the class starting their usual French conversations about nothing in particular.

"Miss Akiyo is such a bitch," Forrest groaned as she joined into the conversation with the boys. Forrest finally had the time to take out the folded piece of paper—her schedule— from her backpack. She scanned and sighed.

"Quelqu'un a musique?" she asked casually. (Someone has music?)

Ray nodded and Max did too.

"Violin," Ray said.

"Clarinet," Max piped. "You?"

"I want to try harp or cello. I doubt that they have a harp," Forrest replied shrugging.

"Actually, they do. But no one has ever tried that in years since the last couple of harp players of the group died in a tragic accident. People think that it's cursed," Max explained.

Forrest rolled her eyes.

"Stupid superstitions. I don't care, I think that I'm going for it. Harp sounds interesting," she said confidently.

"But you know, there's always choral, which is music too," Max said.

"Oh right. Never mind the harp then," Forrest mumbled, quickly changing her mind.

Ray smiled widely and started talking to Forrest about music. In between the conversation, Forrest stole some glances from the distant Kai who was sitting there and falling asleep. She couldn't help but to smirk.

French class ended with a project that Mr. LeBoeuf presented to them. They had to do a research on a French speaking region in the world and they were in group of threes. Ray was put in a group with Tyson and a girl with violet hair whose name Forrest did not know and Max was put with two girls. Kai was placed with Forrest and a guy named Oliver DuBois, whom Kai sort of knew.

"Bonjour," Oliver said with a perfect French accent. (Hello)

"Salut!" Forrest said, grinning. (Hi!)

Kai gave an acknowledging glance and nodded. Oliver kept smiling.

"Which country or region do you want to work on? I want to work on some place in Europe; I lived there for my whole life. I just moved here, by the way, several months ago," the French boy said.

Forrest and Kai both gave a nod which meant that they approved of the idea.

"We can't do France obviously," the boy continued. Forrest gave a nod while Kai just looked away.

"What about Switzerland. It's a nice little country, and they speak French there," Forrest suggested.

Oliver gave a 'mmhmmm' and shrugged a little.

"Or Belgium. I think that it would be better, Belgium has a French population and it's a bigger country than Switzerland, it should be easier to research on," Oliver said.

Forrest agreed and Kai gave a grunt. Oliver went in front of the class to give Mr. LeBoeuf their choice of country. Forrest caught her opportunity to glance at Ray working with Tyson and the girl with violet hair.

The class ended and everyone got out of the room. Ray caught Forrest and gave her a quick warm glance. Forrest blushed slightly and made her way to calculus. Her schedule stayed the same except that she had calculus third period and music last. She made her way to room 215 and opened the door to see the same teacher as she had fifth period yesterday.

"My schedule changed," she said to the teacher. The teacher nodded and indicated her to sit in an empty seat in the fourth row.

Just as Forrest sat down at the spot, she saw a person barge in the room. It was Kai Hiwatari. Forrest's thoughts lingered on the events that happened exactly 24 hours before and shuddered.

He can change so much, she thought as she took out her notebook.

"Mr. Hiwatari! You skipped class yesterday and now you're late!" the teacher barked furiously. Kai gave an annoyed 'hn' and walked to the seat beside Forrest.

"What are you doing here?" Forrest asked.

"I sit here," he spat coldly. Forrest was taken back by the tone of his voice. She looked away.

After the class started for several minutes, Forrest brought the courage to give a glance to Kai. She noticed some smudged pink-red marks that were faded near his mouth and she rolled her eyes.

He always meets with his girlfriend before third period, heh? she told herself. That pervert, all he thinks about is making out… and beyblading.

Author's Notes: Okay. Kai does seem like the person who likes snogging but he's not a player. I don't see him as a player. But since I kind of write from Forrest's perspective, you'll have to see it from her eyes… most of the time. Anyway, remember to R&R:)