Author's note: I've changed the previous chappie and you need to read that before reading this chappie or you'll get confused. Sorry for the inconvience and the late update!.
Special thanks to all my reviewers: Xx Shadow Wolf xX2, Hikari, FrozenBlossom, puppalupp2008, Beyblade-gal, Armith-Greenleaf, xCrystalx89, Blackdranzergurl, lexc-angel, Storms-winter, 0.o, Emi-Chan and her 3 Spirits, Untoachable, ANGEL-OF-DEATH6, chibiwolfgurl, kidishcaresh, Rouge, kyuubi no tai, Moonlight Kitten and SoulessAru.
Chapter 9
"And by placing a number in here we have what we call an absolute number. Which means the number cannot be a negative..."
Up front, the bald male teacher ranted on, tapping the board with his chalk. The sound of pens scratching across paper sounded through the classroom as students wrote as fast as they could to catch what their teacher was saying. All save for one. Eyes half closed and his pen in his hand, Kai stared out the window. He could hear what the teacher was saying but his mind couldn't comprehend it. Not when he's thinking about something else.
What Nicky said the other day...
"I think she's got some problems at home." the kid had said. "...family problems..."
What kind of family problems, Kai wondered now as he stared at students drifting through and forth from school. What is it?
His crimson eyes narrowed when he caught sight of Jade through the window. She was walking towards the gate with Hilary and Mariah. They were talking and once in a while, Jade would shake her head and laugh. She didn't look as though she had any problems at all. She looks so happy. Her life seems happy and perfect...
Then again...who am I to speak? You can't judge people by their outer expression. What if all this while, all that was just a mask? A mask to hide who she really is...
"Things are not what they seem." his grandfather's voice echoed in his brain from what seemed like ages ago. He remembered his grandfather telling him that when he was only seven. "You can't trust everything you see, Kai."
"Kai, what are the possible functions to the absolute number of four?"
He turned to see the teacher looking at him expectedly. The man actually thought he caught one red-handed not paying attention in class. Kai proved him wrong.
"Negative four and positive four, sir." he answered nonchalantly.
Peering over his glasses at the slate-haired teen with suspicion, the teacher turned back to the board and proceeded with the class while Kai went back to his thoughts. From the corner of his eye, he caught Tala looking at him weirdly before the teacher decided to pick on him and called him to answer the next question. Kai just continued staring out the window, watching as Jade's friends went off in a separate direction and she another. Alone.
"Missionary work?"
Jade bobbed her head, smiling at her mother. "Yeah. The church is offering me a place in the missionary department."
Ivy Summers scanned the permission paper and finally placed it on the table where she sat at in the kitchen. "Sounds lovely, dear."
"So you approve?" her daughter asked, biting her lip hopefully.
Ivy's green eyes similar to that of her daughter, narrowed with tiredness. "Honey, you know that is not for me to decide. It's your-."
She never got the chance to end her sentence when the object of her sentence walked into the room. More like slumbered in like a bear out of hibernation with a hang over. Jade greeted her father with a smile that she didn't feel when she saw him.
"Hey, dad."
"So the sleeping beauty finally woke up. Good afternoon, Phil" Ivy said lightly. Jade admired her mother for her cool-headedness. It wasn't easy living with a hot-tempered man as a husband.
"What's this I hear about her doing missionary work?" Jade's father demanded. He was speaking with a slur that indicated he had been drinking. Her heart sank even deeper when she saw the cigarette in between his fingers.
"Phil, Jade's seventeen. She's growing up." Ivy began patiently. "Maybe it's time for her to explore-."
"Explore nothing." Phil cut in harshly. "She's seventeen, Ivy like you said. Soon she needs to find a job to support herself and us."
"We can support ourselves just fine, Phil." Ivy argued.
He took a drag of his cigarette and inhaled, relishing the taste of it. "We aren't gonna be young forever."
"Neither am I!" Jade burst out after listening to her parents' batter through and forth.
Her father's eyes narrowed in her direction and usually it was a warning to watch her tongue but this time she didn't care. She spoke up because it was what she believed in.
"Dad, the church has asked me to work in their missionary department." she said breathlessly. "It's what I have always wanted."
"I don't care!" Phil snapped. "Your mother and I have worked too hard to support you. Now it's time you did the same. Not gallivanting all over the globe spreading some useless word of God."
"But dad-." she protested. Tears stung her eyes. It was one thing to be refused the future she wanted for herself and it was another to have the one thing she believed insulted.
"Phil, how could you say that?" Ivy said angrily. "She's not a little girl anymore!"
"Yeah? By the way she's acting, I would think she still is!" her father shouted back. "What does she think I'm made of? Money?"
"Phil..." Ivy's words failed helplessly as she watched her daughter turn and walk out the front door, slamming it shut after her. She had seen the tears in her only child's eyes and her motherly nature went out to her.
Her husband on the other hand didn't feel the same. All he did was puff on his damn cigarette and blew out. "She'll get over it."
How could he understand? How could he understand how much this means to me? He's my father, she thought bleakly.
The thought hurt and her tears, despite her efforts, fell down her cheeks. She wiped them away but yet they came. Biting back a sob, she hurried down the pathway, not wanting to see how the confrontation between her parents turned out and wrapped her arms around herself for warmth. Never in her life did she feel so alone.
She walked until the end of the street, wanting only to get as far away as she could from the one place she should call home and failed to see where she was going. Tears blurred her eyes and she ran into someone. Not just someone.
Kai Hiwatari.
He caught her by her arms to steady her from falling, just as surprise as her at the moment. She tried to pull away but he held fast and all she did was stare through her tears at his black jacket.
"Summers, what?" he bent slightly looking into her eyes, noticing the wetness in them.
She turned her eyes to the ground, not wanting him to see her pain. She felt him take her by her shoulders and guide her to the corner where his car waited at the curb.
"Get in." he ordered gently, opening the door for her.
Quietly, she climbed into the passenger seat while he climbed in from the driver's end. Reviving the engine, Kai pulled away from the curb and drove off; knowing well the last place she needed to be right now was here.
The ride passed in silence with him glancing at her once in a while. She was grateful for the lack of conversation as it gave her time to pull herself together. The car finally pulled to a stop and she glanced about her surroundings in a daze. She recognized the place he had taken her to. They were near the river bank where he had brought ice-cream for Nicky and her two weeks ago. Two weeks that seemed so long ago to the both of them.
"Why did you bring me here?" she asked in surprise.
He turned off the engine and looked at her. She caught glimpse of concern in his usually emotionless crimson eyes. "Are you alright now?"
She nodded. He wasn't convinced. Her eyes were red and filled with pain he rarely saw within them.
"Let's get some fresh air." he said, getting out of the car.
Sighing, Jade too climbed out of the car and the two stood, staring at the glimmering water before them. Now here, away from her troubles, she felt calm, relaxed and peaceful. She breathed in the fresh cool air around them and sighed. Kai was doing the same before he looked at her again.
"Are you alright?" he asked again quietly.
She closed her eyes as if collecting her thoughts and after a while reopened them. "It's my father." she said softly. "He...he's been drinking again."
"Oh." Kai didn't know what to say. He was surprised and who wouldn't be? Here was Jade Summers, the nicest, kindest, sweetest girl in the whole school and her father was a drunk, to put it bluntly. It seems...just so unreal.
"It's not unusual." she said, wiping away tears. "It happens all the time. When he's drunk, he tends...to say things he doesn't mean."
"Do you care?" he asked. "About those things he says to you?"
She nibbled her lip, looking at the ground. "Sometimes. I know he don't really mean it but...sometimes...it hurts."
"Jade, I'm sorry." he said sincerely. His heart went out to her.
She shook her head. "It doesn't really matter. He's still my father and I still love him."
He thought she was kidding. They stood in silence for a few minutes before she looked at him, all traces of tears gone and a smile on her face.
"I heard you taught Nicky how to play basketball." she said. "That's very thoughtful of you. Thank you, Kai. It means a lot to me and Nicky."
"I means a lot to me too." he replied and this time he wasn't lying. He really did enjoy spending time with the little kid who reminded him so much of him when he was younger.
"It's getting late." she remarked. "I should be getting back."
"I'll drive you." he offered.
She nodded and allowed him to guide her back to the car.
He stopped and asked. "Are you sure you're okay?
She smiled warmly. "Yes. I'm fine, Kai. Thank you."
"Jade...?"
"Hm...?" she looked at him.
He swallowed and said quietly "Would you...like to go out for dinner with me this Saturday?"
Something in her face told him she was happy he asked her. But to his further surprise, she shook her head and said softly. "I...I can't."
He stared at her, surprised by her response. "Why?"
"It's...my dad." she said. "He doesn't like me going out with boys. At least not until I'm twenty." she smiled slightly. Then she sighed. "He just doesn't trust people."
Despite everything he's done to her, she still does whatever he says? Any other father would be blessed to have such a perfect daughter. "Oh." was all he managed to say.
"Don't misunderstand him, Kai." she said quickly upon seeing his startled reaction. "My father loves me very much even though it doesn't seem like it. He's just worried about me and wants what's best for me."
"Are you very sure about that?" Kai asked carefully.
She nodded firmly. "Yes and I love my father too. I hope you'll understand."
He sighed, thinking hard. "Okay. Fine. Let me rephrase my question then."
She tilted her head in the most innocence of ways confused by what he meant until he took her hand and spoke very seriously.
"Jade, would you go out with me if your father allowed you?"
A surprised smile broke across her face, warming him to his core. "You would do that for me?"
He nodded. "I'm still waiting for your answer."
"Of course, Kai. I would like to go out with you very much."
"You want to take my daughter out for dinner on Saturday?"
An eyebrow was raised in the young teen's direction the next day as Kai stood at the Summer's door step, facing Jade's parents.
Kai could see now where Jade got her soft lovely features. Ivy was watching both males with a curious look in her pale green eyes. "Yes, sir." he said respectfully. He knew he had come at the right time, seeing as her father wasn't drunk.
Phil eyed him suspiciously. "And why would you want to take her out, kid? Are you trying to play some kinda of a prank of her?"
"No, sir. Your daughter has been nothing but a friend to me and I would like to repay her for that." Kai replied without averting his eyes from the older man.
The man's eyes narrowed. "I don't trust you."
"I'm not asking you to trust me, sir. I'm asking you to trust your daughter." Kai said quietly.
Jade's mother stepped in then, laying a hand on her husband's arm. "Phil, a dinner sounds wonderful for Jade. You did say she needs to get out more."
"I just..." Phil started to defend his point weakly.
Smiling seductively, Ivy battered her eyelids. "Come on, Phil. Remember how you were when you asked my father to allow you to take me out? Hm?"
Kai couldn't help but allow a small smile of amusement just watching them both. He wasn't surprised when Mr. Summers finally sighed in defeat, turned to him and said tiredly. "Have her back by ten."
"Yes, sir. I promise I'll take good care of her." Kai vowed.
The man grunted and tugged back into his house. Ivy stood where she was, watching her husband disappear into the kitchen mumbling something about needing to be more firm with women and she smiled, turning back to the bluenette.
"You're Kai Hiwatari, aren't you?" she asked in the same friendly manner her daughter has.
"Yes, Mrs. Summers." he felt relaxed around her, not having the need to be guarded.
She smiled triumphantly. "I knew it. I missed the start of it but I saw it nevertheless. You were very good."
A faint blush crept up his pale cheeks without meaning to. She saw the play means she saw him kissing Jade too. Not exactly the first impression he wanted to make on the mother of the girl he wanted to go out with. But Ivy seemed fine about it. In fact she didn't seem to care.
"You were very good at dancing." she added thoughtfully. "I don't know if Jade told you but I used teach dancing. Who taught you?"
"My mother."
"Ah. I bet she must be a very lovely woman." Ivy said.
"She passed away when I was five years old." he answered truthfully. "So did my father."
"Oh." a sympathetic look softened her face. "I'm sorry. It must be hard for you."
"It's." Kai admitted.
"Well if you ever need anything, you can come here. If that lovable pigheaded husband of mine isn't in one of his tantrums." she rolled her eyes as she said this.
Kai smiled. "I'll, Mrs. Summers. Thank you."
She nodded, apparently satisfied. "Alright. Take care of Jade for me when you go out and have fun."
"Will do, Mrs. Summers." he nodded. He didn't miss the knowing twinkle in Jade's mother's eyes as he turned and headed down the path. In his mind, he was silently thanking God for her. It was nice to know at least Jade had a mother in her life that cared for her the way a parent should.