Ok, guys just to let you know Kai and the Bladebreakers won't be coming in until the sixth or seventh chapter. And the subject of beyblading will come in during the fourth, max. fifth chappie. And note: This is set in V-Force, so no Daichi (TTTT) and Hilary's in the picture. :(

Chapter Two

Packing and the Dads

I got packed in a jiffy. I stuffed my clothes into one shopping bag. They got a bit squashed but I didn't really care. I don't really care much about my clothes. Most of my clothes used to be Tanelle's and she adores pink and glitter, tight and skimpy stuff that shows off her perfect figure. I haven't got a figure. I'm so small that even miniskirts go past my knees and I'm so skinny that everything looks like a sack on me and I'm so pale that pink makes me look like a bean curd. I got born prematurely and had to stay in the hospital for an eternity. I never really caught up with anyone my age. Tanelle says I'm the runt of the litter.

The only garments I actually like are my denim shorts and some t-shirts and a special pair of tall converse, but I really love my white hoodie. It's magic because it stretches everytime it's washed so it's grown with me the last two years. It's got blue and turqouise dragon wings at the back and red, tangerine and yellow flames up the side and purple and pinkish waves on the shoulder. It had a zip up pocket at the front for my trigger and ripcord and my Beyblade.

My dad bought it for me. He took me out for the day, just him and me. He saw that I had goosebumps up and down my arms so he bought me my hoodie. He also bought me my locket. It's got Aurora Borealis and Opals stuck at the top and it's in a heart shape. It cost a lot but Dad said it was to make up for everything else. It has a picture of him and me in it.

I packed all my possessions into one of the cardboard boxes Saphaela had brought from the supermarket. There was my big book of myths and legends at the bottom. I loved their intricate illustrations, the swirling dragons and the fiery phoenixes. Then there were my notebooks and pens. My big set of Fabre Castel colouring pencils. My even bigger set of Caran D'Ache felt tips. My rainbow gel pen which coloured pink, red and purple at the same time and my other rainbow gel pen which coloured in blue, pink and green at the same time. A couple of posters and my old cuddly toys. There was Danike's one-eared teddy, Saphaela's one-eyed dolphin and Tanelle's Barbies. I didn't play with them anymore, but I'd have felt terrible throwing them out.

Tanelle had done a lot of throwing out. She had thrown out old make-up and some long forgotten clothes. But she still had a suit case and three boxes overflowing with her make-up and magazines.

Saphaela had even less clothes than me and just one box containing a pair of rollerskates, her big grunge boots and her X-files and Buffy DVDs and all her laptop and I-phone (how Mom managed to fork out for that I had no idea).

Danike was still refusing to pack. She wasn't speaking to Mom either. She wasn't speaking to any of us because we were all ecstatic at the idea of a house with a garden now. Danike spent every second next door with Tom and his family. Mom got so mad at her she went and banged on Tom's mom's door and they had a huge cat fight right on the landing with Danike joining forces with Tom's mom.

Saphaela and Tanelle and I had to do most of Mom's packing but we divided it up easily enough. Saphaela took charge of all the heavy house stuff, Tanelle got her clothes and make-up organized and packed and I did Mom's mystic paintings, her tarot cards and astrology charts and her crystal ball and precious speaking stones and her Ouija Board. I had to pack for Mom's little boy too. We both agreed on the name Hiashi. It meant sun in Japanese and the sun was a strong symbol of male energy, according to Mom. She still hadn't decided on Hiashi's furniture. She'd gone off the Mothercare selection.

"I want something traditional you know? It would be awesome to get something personally designed. But that might cost us an arm or two," Mom grimaced.

"Just a bit," Saphaela reamarked as she wound up a bunch of cords and shoved them at the bottom of a box. "Remeber, you gotta pay for the removal van."

"Well I was thinking about asking one of your dads for a bit of help," Mom stated. I sat up proudly. The only one of our dads Mom was still in touch with was my dad.

"I'll see if he can hire us a van," Mom said.

"Or loan us his hearse!" Tanelle cackled, Saphaela joining in. I glared at them, scowling.

"Get lost, you!" I said it so fiercely that even Saphaela edged back. "Don't you dare pick on my Dad! I don't know why everyone thinks his job's so funny!"

"It's not funny. It's downright creepy!" Tanelle sneered. "It's lucky that you're not a little kid who needs her hand held any more. Just think about it! Holding his hand after he's done one slimy day of embalming!"

"Yeah...funnily enough I had a bit of a hassle with that part," Mom remarked, "I made him take a long bath everytime he came near me. But I still caught a whiff of something weird."

"HE DOESN'T STINK!" I yelled, almost in tears.

"Of course he doesn't, Mercy!" Saph comforted me as she hugged me.

"Here, Mercedez, turn that frown upside down, sweetie. I didn't mean that about your dad, you know that! Come here," Mom pulled me onto her knees, I was careful to mind her bump. "Your dad's a very great guy, I think he was the best out of my special guys."

Tanelle has the ears of a cat. "You always said my dad was your all time favourite!"

"All your dads were great guys!" Mom said. She sighed and settled back into her seat, stroking her bump. She started telling the dad story. We all knew it like the backs of our hands. She told this to us when we were going to bed. It was like our special bedtime story.

"First there was my lovely Marcus, Danike's dad. We were childhood sweethearts and we first started dating during our Freshman's year in high school - just think! We were so in love. Thought we knew how to handle it all too. I couldn't help but be ecstatic when I knew I was having Danike, though I knew my mom would blow it out of proportion. Marcus did his best to stand by me, but how could he be a father of a kid when he still was one?"

"Then, Saphaela's dad came," Mom continued, putting her arm around Saphaela.

"Matt knew where he was going alright, and for a while he took great care of me. He was a good dad to Danike too. He could be so sweet and tender with us. So passionate and loving. But he was a scary guy all the same, especially when he was messed with. He made my heart melt and I loved him with all of it, but I knew I had to leave him when he started hitting me around."

"Good riddance," Saphaela muttered as she smacked her hands down to her knees.

"Then there was my dad, Lawrence," Tanelle declared proudly. "He was the hottest wasn't he, Mom. I bet you'd have stayed with him forever if he hadn't died. " She looked at me pityingly. "Then you wouldn't be here, Mercedez! You wouldn't even exist!"

I glared at her and kicked her hard on the shin. I knew she was just winding me up. But it was working all the same.

"Hey! There'll be no words like that here, Tanelle!!" Tanelle rolled her eyes. "Of course there was going to be a Mercedez!" She waved her hand in the air. "Read my hand! Four gorgeous girls and one bouncing boy! Five kids in total! It was my destiny, sweetie! It was so sad losing Lawrence. You're right, Tanelle. He was so rugged my heart just hammered when I just looked at him. He was so talented too. He's have been a star in the music world if he just had the right breaks. It wasn't reallyhis fault he got into the drug scene. It goes with territory right? Oh dear golly! It was terrible when the police called me." A tear slid down Mom's cheek. She always cried when she got to the Lawrence part of the Dad story.

Tanelle snuffled and puckered up like she was crying too. She always acts like losing her dad was the big tragedy of her life, but as he took his overdose when she was two years old I don't think she can even remember him. Mom ran her hands through Tanelle's lovely long hair and gave her a kiss on the cheek as if they were both still mourning the loss of Lawrence.

"Tell me about my dad!" I asked, sticking my head in.

"That's exactly what I'm going to do, Mercedez. Dear Frankie, he was such a sweetheart. I was just totally out of it. He helped me arrange everything and get things organized-"

"The oak cofifn, the Sycamore coffin or the deluxe mahogany lined with purple silk?" Tanelle muttered cruelly. I dug her painfully in the ribs.

"Zip it Tanelle. If it weren't for Frankie's kindness...I'm not sure I'd have made it back to sanity. He helped me out so much, and every night I went a bit nuts even more..."

"And then you had an itty little nutcase with creepy old Frankie," Tanelle sneered, even Saphaela could see she had gone too far and slapped her arm.

"Hey! Alright, I guess I haven't been as lucky as I'd hoped with my guys-"

"To put it mildly," Saphaela mumbled.

"So I'm gonna shack up and it's just gonna be us Metcalfe girls. Then we'l have Junior to look after us when we're oldies." Saphaela cocked her head.

"What about Junior's dad?" Mom had this dreamy look in her eyes and she smiled.

"I knew it was just going to be a brief encounter," she sighed. "He was so beautiful and artistic too! Imagine, I'd have died for a portrait of us Metcalfe girls." Mom sighed wistfully.

"What about his name?" I asked.

"She probably doesn't know it!" Tanelle commented shrewdly as she poked me with her pointy nails. I swatted them away.

"Hey! I need space. I'm gonna call your dad now!" Mom said as she looked at me. She stabbed the numbers out onto the telephone.

"Hey, Frankie, hi. It's been a while. How've you been?" Mom said coolly in her 'you-can-reason-with-me' voice. She launched into a huge conversation before she mentioned packing or a removal van of any sort. Once she did, she started to tighten her lips a lot and lick them and clenched her fists until her knuckles turned white. This was the warning sign...she was gonna blow any second. Then she started to smile.

"You're a darling! We still share a kid, pal! Our Mercy! You want a word with her?"

I waited, I tried to conjure up spit in my mouth but it just dried completely. I waited.

"Oh...ok. Bye!" Mom put the phone down. "Sorry, Mercedez, but daddy's hooked up with work right now. But he told me to give you a hug."

I went into my room after Mom had given me the hug. I flopped on to Saphaela's bed because mine had all the junk on it. I cried my eyes out, I missed him, it felt like he didn't even want to see me, or awknowledge me. I heard Saphaela coming in.

"Hey! What are you doing in my bed? Frig, I sound like the frigging three bears!" Saphaela giggled. "Are you crying, Goldilocks?" She sat down beside me and observed my watery eyes.

"You upset because your dad didn't want to talk to you?" Saph asked, I wasn't shocked, she could read me like a book any day of the week. "Hey! I never saw my Dad, but do I give crap? No sir!"

"Yeah well your dad was nuts. No offence, Saph. He hit Mom and Danike. I'm assuming he also hit you too. Even though you were just a baby!"

"I'd like to see him try now!" Saph said, punching thin air. "Mom's better without him! She's much better without any of them!"

"How come Mom can't see any of them ditching her or disappointing her in her crystal ball and her tarot cards and her star charts?"

"Mom and her little fortune-telling! Don't drink up any of that phoney-baloney guff, Mercedez. It's just a glass ball and some old cards and some stupid figures about the stars. How can Mom honestly tell the future with that crap?"

"Because she's psychic?"

"She's just as psychic as the next moron that walks into the building!" Saphaela scoffed. She grabbed the hand which was holding Dratido. She gave it a little stroke. We jumped as we heard Danike coming in. Mom said something, then Danike.

"I'm not frigging well going and that's that!" she yelled. She stomped off, slamming the door.

"Mmmmm...I can see for sure she's just as psychic as Danike!" Saphaela grimaced.

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