A/N: ahh sorry for the wait. Had some…inner conflicts about the plot XD. Anyways. Enjoy!

- Sympathy for the Devil -

Chapter 2

Blood stained the dark pavement of the school parking lot. Kai looked up at his smirking rival, blood running down his face, dripping onto the ground. A low feral growl emitted deep in his throat as he slowly stood, ready to attack.

"Stop this at once!" a shrieking panicked voice demanded from behind the crowd of students.

Everyone turned to see Ms. Tate, the assistant head of school, rushing towards the two squabbling students.

"Oh. My. Goodness. What is this? Tala! Why do you have a knife! Give me that!" she said ripping the silvery object from the teen's grip. "Good Lord! I swear I'll never understand you stude- OH MY LORD! Kai your face! Quickly, get to the infirmary!" she shrieked again, ushering Kai towards the entrance of the school.

Kai scowled to himself as he was roughly pushed towards the school entrance nearest to the infirmary by Ms. Tate. For a woman of such small stature, being so young, she sure had a lot of authority. And no one questioned it. She wasn't exactly a bitch or anything. In fact she was very nurturing and motherly. She had this remarkable ability to relate to almost every student in the school, earning her a lot of respect and liking from them. But like I said… almost every student.

I gulped as I slowly stood, dusting my blue cotton sweater off with my hands. I couldn't help but groan as I noticed all my books scattered around the parking lot thanks to the raving students that had shoved me over oh so graciously. "And all I wanted was to get out of here," I mumbled as I went around recollecting all my textbooks and loose notes. A flash of silver caught my eye as I picked up my sketchbook. Blinking, I moved my hand to the shiny metallic object. It was a silver chain, with a shiny silver ring as the pendant. A phoenix-like creature was engraved onto it, capturing my attention as it sparkled elegantly in the sunlight. Blinking, I thought for a moment. I was pretty sure I'd seen it on Kai when I had first seen him in the art room.

"Well, better return it to him, since he's still here anyways."

Hauling myself up, I made my way back to the school entrance near the infirmary. I could hear a voice from inside, which I recognized as the nurse's.

"Now dear, hold still. This will sting for just a moment…"

Kai hissed in pain as the nurse dabbed some anti-bacterial disinfectant on the now clear wound across his left eye.

I poked my head into the infirmary room just in time to hear Kai cursing violently at the nurse. My face distorted as I caught site of the wound, and Kai's expression. He didn't seem very happy. "Maybe I'll just give it to him Monday…"

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"Ahhh please Ms. Smith I need this mark real bad! Will you just give me a chance just this once! I promise I'll write up the best report you'll ever read!"

The comment was returned with a flat stare. "Nice try Max. You know my late mark policies. This assignment is over two weeks late. You have a 70 deduction anyways. I will not accept any work from you. And I really don't care if it was signed by Jesus Christ himself." The woman added.

Max's permanent grin faltered. "Wowww…are you serious? Even if Christ, the son of the Virgin Mary signs is?"

Ms. Smith's blue eyes narrowed at the blonde teen. "Yes Max, even if Christ, the son of the Virgin Mary signs the damn thing."

A knocking at the door interrupted the two from their argument. Ms. Tate walked in looking very exasperated, sighing heavily she started pointing to the door. "Stacy, we need you, Volklov's at it again."

Stacy slumped her shoulders in defeat. She just wasn't getting to him. As the school guidance councilor, she was obligated to help troubled students like Tala. Although the boy didn't have any troubles with his academics, he definitely had a severe attitude problem, and proved to be a threat emotionally, and physically to other students and teachers.

"Had enough yet, Instructor?" Tala spat, emphasizing the word 'instructor' as Stacy Smith walked into the office where the red head sat.

The blonde guidance councilor gritted her teeth in frustration. "Almost, Tala. Almost."

Tala smirked. "Listen beautiful. There really is NOTHING you can do to change me. And I don't care what your pretty little blonde head is thinking right now, so just stop trying."

That was it. She had dealt with this little brat since he was a freshman. She knew he had problems at home, especially since the accident, and that his attitude was really just a defense mechanism he used to protect his self-esteem, and his emotions from everyone around him- but this was crossing the line. "Listen you little conceited ASS. I work here, and you will address me with complete and utter respect, or I will have your sorry behind suspended. Do I make myself clear, Valkov?" Stacy snapped at the arrogant blonde, standing up abruptly, knocking her chair over and pointing an accusing finger.

"Perfectly, Instructor." Tala cooed softly, his smirk never fading, his confident demeanor never faltering.

Stacy sighed. "You're suspended anyways. So is Kai Hiwatari. It's just to let you both cool down a little and… think things over for a while."

"Right…"

"You're dismissed," she said quietly. There was not much she could do for him. The boy was clearly a mess- the death of his brother in a freak accident, his parents' divorce, and now she was beginning to suspect a drug problem. Evidently, the boy needed more than a school guidance councilor to clear his head.

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Kai cussed silently to himself as he kicked his car. "Piece of fucking junk," he scowled. The engine wouldn't start, again. With one final bang against the engine, a low rumbling sound emitted from it, as it finally began to function again.

Muttering more crude phrases to himself, the stoic seventeen year old sat in the car, slamming the door, and speeding off. What a perfect day. First he gets his face sliced in half, then gets suspended for it, and now his car's functioning abilities were becoming rather questionable…

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Great. Rain. I wanted to scream. First I flee from my calculus class because the 'love of my life' is a jerk. Then Mr. Sour Pants decided he'd like to hate me for no reason. Then I get shoved over during a fight, making my new sweater all dirty, and ruining half my books, and NOW it's going to rain, soaking me, and my books, and my hair, and that guy over there is staring at my chest. Damn shirt. Glaring daggers at the guy, he finally looked away. I could hear footsteps behind me. I hated it when people walked behind me. It made me feel like I was being stalked, and followed. Glancing behind me, I noticed a few guys in their early twenties walking casually in the same direction. They had stupid grins on their faces and seemed to have been whispering something about me. I walked faster. So did they. Now this was making me nervous. I crossed the street. They crossed with me. I turned the curb. They turned with me. Suddenly, I felt pressure on my left arm. Someone had grabbed me. I spun around, attempting to break free. Only cynical laughter followed by more hands aggressively grabbing at me. My mind went blank. I didn't know what to do! I screamed. Loud, and as best as my lungs would allow. But it seemed hopeless. Everyone had run off home too quickly, the sky was dark, and rain was pouring down. Who the hell would be out at a time like this?

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The engine seemed to gurgle a bit before completely dying out.

"Fuck," Kai cursed as he leaned back in his seat. At this rate a snail could beat him home. Sighing in anguish, the teen opened the door and stepped out, only to be greeted by thousands of little water droplets, quite effectively showering him. Growling, the boy stomped over to the front of his car, where he practically ripped off the front hood, and sticking his head in trying to find out what the hell was wrong with his piece of shit now. He was quite rudely interrupted out of his scowling fest as the sound of almost inaudible screams met his ears.

"OW! LET GO OF ME YOU BASTARD!" was something along the lines of what he heard. Hmm…that voice sounded awfully familiar.

Kai was quickly able to put two and two together. That was most definitely the klutz he met in art class. Oi, what the hell had she gotten herself into now?

Curious, the stoic walked in the direction of the screaming as it got louder, and louder, and louder, and louder…

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I kicked furiously as one of the thugs grabbed my angle. WHY ME! This was NOT fair. One pulled my hair furiously after I kicked his buddy. I winced as I felt some of my delicate strands rip out of my skull. Oooo he was going to pay for that one.

"Alright honey, time for you to give us our fun…" One of them said. The comment was followed by cynical laughter coming from all around. I felt nauseous, like I was going to throw up. Now would be a good time to send your guardian angel down to me, God.

The sound of a fist painfully connecting with a face was heard, as a loud thud followed suit. I cracked one eye open, looking around to see one of the pedophile goons missing. Oh wait; he was just sprawled on the ground missing a couple of teeth. Hm, wonder how that happened…

"What the fuck!" one of the men yelled as the others looked towards their attacker who was…who was….Kai! Oh my goodness gracious, Kai came to save me! I don't think I had ever been so shocked in my entire life. People I had known for ten years usually wouldn't turn their heads or flip their hair for me, but some guy I had barely known for a day was playing my knight in shining armour? What does this guy want anyways…?

A loud grunt sounded as the last of the thugs hit the wet pavement with at least one nasty smack to the head. Kai scowled to himself as he stared down at me.

"Look at you, you're a fucking mess. Don't you know not to walk around alleys when it's dark?"

I blinked up at him for a moment. At first I felt grateful, but that quickly changed as I processed his tone.

"You know, I was going to thank you, but if you just came here to lecture me on how to live my life, I didn't need YOUR help, thank you very much." I lectured back, standing up and dusting myself off for the second time today. Tilting m chin upwards defiantly, I spun around and began to walk.

Ha. No way was he giving her the satisfaction of having the last word.

"So…you're saying you could fend off those six guys all by yourself…without ME."

I froze for a few moments, earning a smirk from Kai.

"Well…" I started, "What if I could, I think I could have. I was doing JUST FINE before you showed up," I lied.

"Mm…so you meant to get your hair ripped out and get thrown to the ground. I see. You know, each of those guys was a good head taller than you, and at least 175 pounds. You saying you could take them all?" Kai challenged, his smirk never faltering.

"Uhh…yeah….for sure.."

"Alright…so that means you could take me too then?"

I gulped audibly. "Well…you kicked their butts, so you obviously know how to fight, and so therefore I obviously couldn't hurt you."

A soft chuckled emitted from the boy's throat. "Right." And with that, he turned to stride away, back to his car…which wasn't working.

"H-hey! Aren't you gonna offer me a ride home?"

"Nope, why would I do that?"

"Well that's the way it usually goes, right? Guy rescues girl, then offers her a ride home?"

"Sorry.., only in the movies."

He gave me one last smirk before entering his vehicle.

"Jerk…" I muttered under my breath. However, my hostility was short lived however as I quickly realized Kai was having some trouble starting his car. Dying motor sounds reached my ears, followed by cursing and swearing on Kai's part.

"Hah, sucker. You can't even get your car to start. Now you have to walk home too!" I exclaimed, pointing at him accusingly.

"Why me?" he muttered under his breath.

"Karma." I called out

"What?"

"Karma… well bad karma in this case."

"What the hell is Karma?" he asked, irritation beginning to get the better of him.

"Well, it's like this energy you produce based on everything you do. If you do good things, you make good energy, and good things will happen to you in turn, If you do bad things, then you make bad energy. And then well, what comes around goes around." Rinoa nearly chirped that last sentence, hoping she was beginning to get to him.

"Argh, silly girl. I just saved your life. I should have good things happening to me."

"Well…you did the right thing. But for the wrong reason!"

Kai eyed me carefully. I could tell he thought I was weird already. Rolling his eyes he turned to walk away.

"Whatever…"

I blinked. Does whatever mean…

"H-hey! Was that 'whatever' acknowledgement? Yo! You can't just leave me here!" she yelled after him as he continued walking. "What if these bums wake up and try to rape me!"

"Well then you better get moving!" he called over his shoulder.

I wanted to scream. What a jackass! Who did he think he was! However, he left her with little options… Without another thought she ran after him.

I've been looking in the mirror for so long…

That I've come to believe my soul's on the other side.

All the little pieces falling…shatter.

Shards of me, too sharp to put back together.

Too small to matter…

But big enough to cut me into so many little pieces.

"Sooo…Kai, I haven't seen you around before. Are you new or something?"

Kai sighed. "Yeah, you could say that."

"So, umm, where do you come from?"

"The orphanage…"

Take a breath and I try to draw from my spirit's well.

Yet again, you refuse to drink like a stubborn child.

Lie to me.

Convince me that I've been sick forever…

And all of this will make sense when I get better.

But I know the difference,

Between myself and my reflection.

I just can't help but to wonder,

Which of us do you love?

"S-so..you're an orphan?" I stuttered in disbelief. Could he possibly mean… that orphanage?

"Yes. I always was. I really don't see what's so shocking about it." Kai stared at the ground, refusing to meet my gaze.

"Well it's just. I don't know many orphans, I guess."

"Whatever. You should head home now."

I stopped walking then, realizing we had reached mu street. Kai on the other hand kept walking. His head was still down, and his hands shoved in his pockets. I stared after him in some kind of disbelief, not knowing what to think of him. I looked down at the shiny silver necklace she still failed to return to him, thinking I had always wanted to be someone like him. He always seemed so tough and strong, as though he never needed anyone.

Suddenly, he seemed so lonely.

R & R! That song was 'Breath No More' by Evanescence by the way for those of you that are interested.