Reviews :
Nikki Firesong : Aww, thank you SO much. I put my whole heart and soul into my writing, so hearing that really means a lot. Thank you! And yes, you're definitely right about Berri and Gunner. Much to Turbo's dismay lol. And, yes! I was wanting to really round out the beginnings of Turbo's and Berri's.. erm... 'thing' before I dove into Wren and Throttle, but it'll definitely be coming up shortly!
Jay Sketchin : LMAO! Aww. Poor Gunner! ...You're not wrong tho lol.
Burgie : That's exactly what I was going for, so I'm glad that came across :D Thank you!
Snake557 : Yes! In a sort of embarrassed or 'blushy' kind of way.
*Chapter 65*
"Mom, is there anything in my teeth?" Berri muttered just barely under her breath.
Tessa flinched in a gentle reel of discombobulation the second Berri grappled her upper arm, bared her teeth in a clenched grit and patiently awaited her mother's approval for no trace of lunch left in her pearly whites. Tessa quickly blinked a few times, and as she assessed Berri's mouth, hovered nearly above her in their tight proximity, she finally breathed a giggle at just how dorky Berri looked in this secretive instance. Although Tessa and crew already got a bit of attention, due to being royalty, the second Gunner was kindly invited to their little Academy lunch shindig was the second the attention upped by tenfold. Hovered about the table was groups of excited fans, of Gunner's, though his security made it so they had a very generous twenty feet of breathing room, to properly eat lunch and go about relaxing before the bell rang.
"No, you're good," Tessa eased gently to her slightly taller daughter, though in this instance, Berri hovered over her like a newborn giraffe; she wore her favorite pair of heels, and although they were not a crazy height, Tessa slumped her shoulders and began to feel like a dwarf amongst Berri, Gunner, Theo and even Wren. Tessa finally cocked an eyebrow, tucked her wavy auburn hair behind her ears, subtly glanced to where Gunner was sitting and dragged her curious eyes back to Berri, "You, uh... You doing okay?"
"Mom, Gunner just suggested us going to EZ Living later to see his mansion," Berri huffed a tender whisper, she bugged her eyes and shook her head, "H-He may want us to play for his team... I-If they like us enough, we could easily reform Archived Chaos. Sound too good to be true? I shouldn't get too excited, should I."
"Slow down," Tessa blurt a small giggle and shook her head, she warmly held Berri's lower arm and began to give her a stern look, "First off, I don't want you going into EZ Living without proper protection."
Berri wildly furrowed her eyebrows in whole embarrassment. She huffed a shaky breath of faltered words, shook her head and gave her mom a floored look of disbelief.
"M-Mom, Gunner and I a-aren't... I-I mean, wow, I don't think that's on the agenda yet," Berri staggered in now trembling, girly fear, the look of doughy inexperience in her eyes was absolutely real, though Tessa wildly wrinkled her nose in whole confusion, shut her eyes tight and shook her head.
"... I'm not talking about sex, Berri, I'm talking about being full blown deleted," Tessa stabbed with a gentle laugh, and although Tessa's lunch table of older, more experienced Academy students were hovering in listening wait, of which consisted of Oliver, Emery, Penny, Tammy and Otto, they made sure not to show that they were eagerly cued in, "Remember? Faux-codes being deleted? Weird Arcade virus? Uh, you're on the MENU?"
"O-Oh, oh, wow, sorry," Berri huffed nervously, she hugged her arms about her body in a tight, physical show of whole embarrassment as she gave her mother a very blushy, bashful grin, "I-I know mom, but Gunner has a whole team of security. His mansion is on Keppel Crest... Keppel Crest, mom!"
"Hooo boy," Tessa huffed a gentle laugh, looked off and beamed a cheeky smile. She narrowed her gaze and wondered if she could further discourage Berri from this dangerous idea, "I remember Keppel Crest."
"...You've been?" Berri furrowed her brows in whole surprise as she sagged her shoulders.
"Been? I was conceived there," Tessa urged, Berri wrinkled her nose in disgust and shook her head.
"Mom, okay, TMI," Berri uttered nervously, though as she opened her mouth to potentially beg Tessa to be let into EZ Living, just this once, her phone gently chimed a cute little tune of a text notification. She halted her words, pulled her phone from her back pocket and donned a cute, easier smile of content, "Aw, Bo... Poor thing is so bored."
"My head is spinning, okay, you go sit and finish your lunch," Tessa urged in now whole annoyance, "Why don't you ask Turbo about what we talked to Mr. Kelta about... I'll need to set up a meeting with all of them, like discussed. Remember your little idea of itemized deletion protection, going in and out of certain games?"
"Oh I forgot," Berri's eyes lit up in whole delight as she thumbed to Turbo's conversation, "Oh, Turbo will totally know what to do."
"Okay, you go ahead and message Turbo, and we'll talk about it tonight," Tessa huffed in gentle, teasing, motherly agitation, and as she softly shooed Berri away, she continued on, inaudible to Berri's now distanced figure, "Go... Live in boy-land, you weirdo."
"Alright, so let's weigh the pros and cons," Tammy staggered, Tessa's entire mature group now came into focus of Tessa's and Berri's not so secretive conversation. Tammy cocked an eyebrow, took a huge swig of her soda, through the straw, and eagerly caught eyes with Oliver. She heaved a satisfied noise as she set her cup back on the table, and as she continued on, with sassy hand gestures to boot, Oliver, Koko, Penny, Emery and Otto all began to brim with laughter held behind their beaming, knowing grins, "So, the crown of Sugar Rush's future King gets handed toooo... Wise, old gentleman that knows Sugar Rush inside and out, currently runs a third of the code room, has the utmost respect for the royal family, is CLEARLY bonkers for Blueberry, here."
"...OR," Oliver grunted with a teasing smile.
In the roll of Oliver's stab of an insinuation, everyone softly lofted their gazes to Berri's lunch table. Gunner sat with a wide, goofy smile on his face. He had his head tilted back in a show of the useless talent of being able to balance the bridge of two spoons on his nose. Wren and Theo were lost in laughter and boyish encouragement as Berri continued to stroll back over to them; her attention was buried inside her's and Turbo's text conversation. Tessa's table finally brought their hovering, eager, anticipatory grins back to each other, and in the roll of whole knowing, everyone burst out in hard laughter.
"Oh, but he's soooo cute," Penny giggled as she sagged her fists into her cheeks and dreamily peered across the way, still in disbelief that Gunner was now a part of their social group, "Can you imagine? King Gunner Ko... Wow."
"King Turbo Black sounds a lot better to me," Tammy grunted in detesting annoyance, simply a becomingly sassy aunt-like figure for Berri.
"Okay, let's stay hovered on King Zedian Kalivar for a moment, please?" Tessa shoved her fingers into her temples, lulled her eyes closed amidts an eye roll, and had a hard time wrapping her mind around the idea of Berri pairing off with a boyfriend, just in of itself, "I'm still trying to get completely over the hurdle of the idea that Berri is becoming romantically interested in boys."
"Now you know how your mother felt," Tammy muttered with her mouth full as everyone began to slowly return picking at their food.
"I was interested in ONE boy," Tessa defended with a gentle laugh, "That ONE boy is currently King. And you'll have to pry that crown from Zed's cold, dead fingers."
"You mean TURBO will have to pry that crown from Zed's cold, dead fingers," Otto chimed with flattened ears and a fang-filled smile of cute cheekiness.
"Look, we all know Turbo's capable of stealing crowns," Tammy gestured with a cocky look of sweetness, it was clear, here, that their notions were strictly becoming playful, empty words of fun, "Clearly the man for the job. Y'all know who my money is stacked on."
"Okay, let's just..." Tessa inhaled a deep, long breath through her nose, lulled her eyes closed, and desperately tried not to get upset in this instance. In the flash of merely a split second, she could've sworn she saw Berri's whole childhood just flash right before her. Coming to grips with the eventual task of Berri picking a suitor for Sugar Rush's Prince, and future King, was way too daunting of a task to even begin thinking about. She finally peeled her eyes open and was delighted to see that everyone had halted eating, speaking and socializing, at her table. All eyes were held to their Queen, in due diligence, an apologetic show of gentle understanding. Tessa exhaled a revived breath and shook her head, "Just... Let Berri be. She's still got a lot of maturing to do. We just need to let her have her fun all while focusing on her studies. She'll find even ground, in the way of finding a man, eventually. She just turned one not a month ago, we need to ease up."
"Yeah, but when you turned one," Tammy trailed off, cocked an eyebrow and softly lofted her gaze to Oliver the second he cleared his throat in an attention-grabbing kind of way, he bugged his eyes, shook his head and began to pick at his food. Tammy slumped her shoulders, "Oh, what, now, we're really going to forget Tessa's first day at Academy? You ran off into Dead Zed and got lost... Not to mention, the night prior when Zed whisked you away to the Flip Side and you made out all night."
Tessa grumbled an annoyed notion and covered her face with her palms, as her elbows sagged into the hard table they sat at, though just as she was about to perk up and defend her stance, the bell suddenly began to chime, causing everyone to flinch in a jolt of surprise.
"Just say the word, my lady," Penny mumbled kindly to Tessa, the two girls sat close. Penny beamed a cheeky grin and, with her pointer finger, she firmly dug a slicing motion at her throat, something that finally got a chuckle out of Tessa.
"It's fine... I know it's nothing out of malice," Tessa eased to Penny, as the rest of the group continued to bicker and chatter with each other. Tessa and Penny slowly stood, as well, though as Tessa's worried eyes softly glossed in the direction of her second born, and the rest of their small band. They were now casually inching their way closer to the groups of fans and students that ever so patiently waited and hovered, anything to be closer to Gunner, anything to get his autograph. Tessa rubbed her forehead in gentle agitation and shook her head, "I just... I want Berri to have a normal time at Academy, similar to us. I didn't get the chance to see Ace off to school, so... I just hope that this whole Gunner thing doesn't go right to her head."
"Well, that's what her whole family, at the palace, is for," Penny shrugged, she began to gather her things, on top of helping Tessa as well, her idle wrecking hands fumbled, making it clear she was now wholly lost in thought. Penny blurt a small giggle and jolted to catch Tessa's drink, in which Tessa bumped, before it fell over, "... Tess, y'okay? It's gunna be alright, look... I know Tammy can get a bit..."
"Ahead of herself?" Tessa finished with a choke of a laugh, she finally lugged her sling bag over her shoulder and patiently waited for Penny to be ready to head to class.
She thanked Penny for handing her the rest of her drink, though her hazel eyes softly looked back to where Berri and crew were disappearing to. Although they had made headway, all three Sugar Rush kin, and Gunner, were easily loving on Gunner's fans, fans of which were now very rapidly associating Wren, Theo and Berri with Gunner and his fragmented, waiting-to-be-put-back-together band. Tessa got one final glimpse of Berri before she was too lost in the crowd, the vision of her in her stylish clothes, her lithe and gorgeous figure, her cute heels and makeup to boot, Tessa knew she'd definitely fit right in to said lifestyle. Although it was becoming hard to come to grips with, she knew to leave Berri be, to let her find her own path, whether that be buried in school books, or buried in sheet music.
"Excited?" Penny added tenderly, both girls began to softly head across the sunkissed, grassy school quad, they began to catch up with the rest of their lunch pack, whom of which were prepared to part ways for their last few classes, "You know Tammy, always itching for the next thing... You can't tell me you're not excited that Berri has literally predicted her own potential future. Remember her original first day? Before the turn of the year?"
"She asked me how I felt about Gunner Ko being the next King of Sugar Rush," Tessa barked with an incredulous laugh, she shook her head and gave Penny a furrowed, beaming look of disbelief, "I mean, I like the kid, but... He probably doesn't know the FIRST thing about running a whole entire kingdom. Like hell Zed would hand over the code room to Gunner Ko."
"At least outside of a HEFTY amount of code room training," Penny shrugged, though it was here that Tessa began to feel her heart tug in a different direction, for Berri; she sighed and looked off in a very mild form of disappointment that was beginning to engulf her thoughts.
"Turbo wouldn't need any training, whatsoever," Tessa muttered in sore, conclusive dismay.
As the bell to segue into last hour's class chimed through the school, Wren, Theo and Berri walked with each other in the corridors for as long as they could, before being forced to part ways. Although neither of them were proper celebrities, since they were seen palling around with Gunner, it was now becoming impossible to at least not be stopped a few times along the way, sans Gunner, by fans with burning questions, who wanted autographs, pictures and memories. Berri felt it odd at first, though the more the day went on, the more she felt she craved it. Every time she was stopped, she felt the universe about her just glow. The sweet compliments given, the array of questions pertaining to Gunner and Archived Chaos, she could feel the uplift of very quickly being swept away with this lifestyle. She hoped it'd never die down, with every corner she rounded, she found herself eagerly anticipating a new wave of pressing individuals, all strangely now here for her.
After a few moments of loving on a few of Gunner's fans outside her last hour class, whom of which very eagerly became her fans as well, she pushed towards the large arch of her last hour's closed classroom door, and it was here, in her firm stride, did she feel her pupils tighten. The door seemingly stretched in a draw of being sucked into another dimension, she could swear the walls began to vibrate, she held her breath and very quickly felt all her cute, dainty, celebrity-esque thoughts come to a screeching halt. The very class she was previously suspended in, a class typically geared towards third year students, she knew that her original teacher would be inside, awaiting her, though the thought of facing her classmates with the hard facts, that she was Turbo's best friend, made her absolutely certain that she'd quickly be alienated. Still holding her breath, she nervously turned the handle of the large, black door, trimmed in glorious golds and beiges, she pushed the door open and assuredly prepared for the worst.
Upon the gentle swing, she was relieved to see her classmates littered about the room, the atmosphere in her familiar classroom was just how it was, peaceful, sunny and airy. Everyone was in good spirits, the drumming volume of voices about each desk was a calm murmur of sweetness, she felt at ease with these notions. Although Berri's original seat was closer to the front of the class, like the dewy-eyed, first day at Academy noob she previously was, she felt a weird wave of life experience quickly hit her behind the knees, and assure her that sitting near the back was wiser; out of sight, out of mind. In a gentle scoot, her vivid eyes scanned the back of the class for an opened seat, and upon finding one, she tenderly made her way to it, trying not to make too much quick movement, so to be easier spotted. As she passed the few rows of desks, everyone very slowly began to drum their conversations to a curious halt, their eyes held tight to Berri's demeanor in whole bewilderment, Berri held her breath even harder as she sat down, knowing full well all eyes were on her, now. After a moment, she busied herself in her bag, looking for nothing but an escape, though it wasn't until a presence hovered near the vicinity of her desk did she bashfully peer up, once and for all.
"A Ms. Berri Schweetz Kalivar," A deep, wise tone of sweetness glossed over her soul, and with the raise of Berri's blue eyebrows, she finally was able to meet her official teacher, as opposed to that horrible substitute, Coral, she was previously met with.
"I-I am," Berri staggered in a slump of lost confidence, not something that ever really happened; her teacher was a shorter, wider, narrow-eyed old man with long white hair so neatly pulled into a low pony-tail down his back. He peaked a cute smile and side-eyed Berri all whilst holding up his pointer finger.
"Boy, do I have questions for you," He eased in continued, soft sweetness, the easiest tone of warmth that Berri could ever imagine, as if he simply was a grandfather figure to anyone and everyone, "I'm Mr. Yuang... I do apologize for not being present, on your first day at our lovely Academy."
"Y-You didn't know," Berri warmly assured in a shooing gesture of continued anxiousness, she felt her soul desperately claw at any shred of confidence she could muster, though it was fruitless.
"And if it weren't for that lousy substitute, you wouldn't have been suspended," Mr. Yuang's voice raised to a decibel that made clear he was now speaking to the broad of the class, and just as everyone eagerly began to softly spout notions and chuckles of whole agreeing, Berri finally took a brave look about the room; everyone was peering to her in whole kindness, whole assurance, as if maybe they all were completely on her side, through that whole debacle, "We've been waiting a whole month for your arrival, Ms. Sugar Rush. It'll be interesting to hear the stories you have about a Mr. Turbo Black, hm?"
"Turbo," Berri breathed in easiness, she finally beamed a genuine, bashful smile down to her desk and heaved a gentle chuckle, "H-He's... He's wonderful. He's my best friend."
"Really," Mr. Yuang hissed in whole bewilderment, he narrowed his eyes further and side-eyed Berri amidst a cute, cheeky grin; everyone in Berri's class held their suspended attention tight to Berri's rare information, as if the whole of Arcade had ears tuned right to this conversation, a valuable audience she knew she needed to take advantage of, for Turbo's sake, "I-Is he... Friendly? Scary? Grumpy?"
"Mean?" Someone genuinely wondered.
"Funny?" Someone else wondered, across the room, and it was here did everyone begin to volley different adjectives in Berri's direction; with the overload, she easily giggled and beamed a wider, more bashful smile.
"H-He's... Wow, he's very reserved, but... Once you get to know him, he's..." Berri looked down to her desk and furrowed her brow, and although she could feel a nagging prod at the bottom of her heart, she could feel said nagging prod suddenly turn into a poked stab of a hole, right at the bottom, as if her soul was very eagerly prepared to fill said gap with molten love. She caught her breath and felt a wash of weirdness fall over her, as everyone held their attention tight to her, "...He's quite possibly the sweetest, most gentlemanly guy I know."
"Who woulda thunk," Mr. Yuang huffed a small chuckle, he shook his head and long blinked in concern, "Two sides to every story... I wonder what previously drove him to madness."
"It's... Convoluted," Berri grinned with a small laugh, the whole class eased in understanding notions and murmurs of warmth.
"Stories for another day," Mr. Yuang tenderly tapped his old, thick and worn knuckles to the edge of Berri's desk and slowly began to saunter back to the front of the class, "We're honored to have you here, Berri. Maybe one day you can get that Turbo fella in here, to teach us a thing or two about coding. Heard he's pretty savvy with a code room."
"Definitely," Berri agreed in warmth, though as Mr. Yuang began to softly go on about their daily schedule, to the whole of the class, Berri sat back in her chair and furrowed her eyebrows in gentle confusion.
She could feel eager, desperate feelings begin to brim at those now loose edges of her heart, though she shut her eyes tight, shook her head a little and forced said feelings away. She inhaled a deep breath, looked forward, and knew that she needed to focus on her studies. The weird, twisting and confusing bout of conflicting feelings began to tug a bit harder at her thoughts, and although Berri desperately sought to keep any flirty or romantic interests tight at bay, whilst she was in her first year at school, she sagged her shoulders as two boys' names firmly plastered themselves right at the forefront of her mind. She frowned and now looked down to her empty hands in her lap, under her desk. The thought of running around with Gunner, her celebrity crush, and now a fast friend and peak of interest, was something she absolutely craved, the rush of it all, the exciting things to take place, the grand music to be had, she knew that luxurious lifestyle would be fruitful and filled to the brim with opportunity.
Berri furrowed her brow and felt a sag of bittersweet sorrow hit her heart as she desperately tried to focus on Gunner's name and Gunner's name alone. Although she put up a great fight, she felt her whole body ease at the very thought of Turbo, their fragile ember of realness, a molten, slow burn of something calm and divine. The image of Turbo's haunting, hypnotizing gaze peering back at her would be something she could never get over, and though she felt as if she was holding herself back from taking the leap, she wondered if it were for good reason. Berri allowed her eyes to loft across her sunny classroom, to the massive, grassy quad just outside. She knew staying cooped inside Turbo's loft, forever, was not something that would be in her best interest, as future Queen of Sugar Rush. She knew he'd fight her on leaving his lovely tower, let alone Sugar Rush in its entirety. In a sag of cold realization that crawled over her, she knew to potentially put a lid on the once flickering embers of newness her and Turbo had, at least until he had the strength to come out of his shell a little further, whenever, and if ever, that would be.
