Chapter Five. I kinda got into talking about Tamara's dad here. Just so you know, I have a great relationship with my father. i get along better with my dad than i do with my mom. maybe my cyberchase stories are a reflection on that. anyway, enjoy.

I don't own Neopets. The OC's are mine.

Blood and Tales
Chapter Five

Maya was standing at the sink; arm over the porcelain basin with blood pouring out from scratches down her forearm and elbow. Maya's face was tight with a grimace, as though she was trying not to scream or cry.

The telltale signs were littered on the floor. The window had a fist-sized hole in it.

"What happened, Maya?" I asked. I stayed where I was hoping that Maya would invite me in. If not, I was gonna do what I had to do whether she liked it or not.

"Got in a fight with Alison." Maya said. "I punched the window so that I didn't punch her." her voice was choked.

I approached her and turned on the water in the basin. "Come on. You need to get that cleaned."

"What do you know about first aid?" Maya asked.

I glared at her. "Plenty." Was my response. "Now, are you are aren't you gonna let me help you?"

Maya hesitated before letting her arm drop into the warm, soapy water. It was either me or the school nurse. I was less likely to ask as many questions or report her to campus safety.

"What's going on?"

I looked up and saw Kayla and Splash at the door.

"Nothing you should worry about too much, Kayla." I said. "Just a little incident with a window." I answered.

"Can I help?" Kayla asked.

I pointed to the red bag on Alison's bed. "Just mix together the numbing elixir with the disinfectant." I told her. "Disinfectant is in the blue bottle and the numbing elixir is in the little packets."

Kayla picked up the bag and placed it on Maya's desk. When she opened it, I watched her shift through its contents.

"What can I use to mix 'em with?" she asked me.

"Use the tongue depressor." I said. "And . . . wear gloves too. The numbing elixir will make your fingers fall asleep if you're not careful."

Kayla picked up a tongue depressor. "Wait. This is one of those tongue-presser-downer-ahh thingies." She said.

"Tongue-presser-downer-ahh thingy?" I asked. "It's called a tongue-depressor."

"Well, I like to call it a tongue-presser-downer-ahh thingy." She said.

"Look, we don't have time for this, Kayla. Would you just mix the stuff?" I said.

As Kayla mixed them together (in silence because I had snapped at her and now I felt guilty about it) at Maya's desk, I returned to my work at cleaning the wounds. I could see them evenly now. Deep scratches caused by jagged pieces of glass. The marks were still bleeding; staining the water a livid red. Luckily, I could see no glass shards in the wounds which would make it easier for me to work with. I didn't want to cause any harm.

I let her dry her arm off on a towel before making her sit down so that I could work better. Putting on gloves, I lathered her arm with the foul-smelling concoction. I watched Maya's nose wrinkle in disgust at the smell. She jumped and yelled as I first applied it.

"What?" I asked.

"It stings!" she answered.

"Well, it's not going to be for long." I answered. I ignored her as I applied the whole cup of the smelly concoction. Then, we waited a moment. "Is it numb yet?" I asked, knowing that the skin would go numb on contact.

"I can't feel anything." she said.

"Good." I said. Then, I wrapped a gauze roll around her arm.

"Now tell me what happened." I demanded.

"Yes, do tell." Kayla said.

Maya rolled her eyes. "Promise you won't tell anyone about this." she said.

I nodded then looked up at Kayla who nodded as well.

"Alison and I were arguing because China had been attacked by Kiya. I said that there was no call for it even if China was choking Fangore. She was only playing. You know that right, Tam?"

I looked down at Fangore who nodded. "He forgives her. There's no harm meant."

"I know that but Kiya didn't need to tackle her." Maya flinched as I applied hooks to the gauze roll.

"Maybe she thought that China was going to go too far." I suggested. "China did have Fangore in a choke hold after all."

Maya's head rolled forward. For a moment, I had thought that I had perhaps gone too far. That I had sided with Alison against her.

I lifted her chin with the side of my gloved hand (the fingers were coated with the smelly mixture). "Choke holds are dangerous after all. China could have killed Fangore."

"But she didn't."

"I know she didn't. I think I would have felt it if she had. But, that's not the point. The point is, choke holds have been banned from the battledome. That's why people don't use them. They can cause unconsciousness, permanent damage to the throat, and even death."

Maya's jaw dropped. "Seriously?"

I nodded.

"Wait. How do you know that?"

"Mom's a vet." I said. "I've seen what choke holds can do."

"What haven't you seen?" Kayla asked me.

I looked at her. My face serious and my eyes were sad. "Death."

"Seriously?" Kayla asked.

I nodded. Then, as I stood up to throw my gloves and used materials away in Maya's paper can, I gave out an explanation. "We've had a few fatal injuries come in. I worked at mom's clinic during the summer—which is usually when the battledome events take place. If mom was sure a neo was going to die, she would make me wait out in the waiting room for her to come get me. She didn't want me to see death this early. She wouldn't even let me see the dead things after they had died." I sat down and sighed. My head rolled forward to my chest. "She didn't have to explain it to me. It would almost be like the day my dad left to join NEO."

"NEO?" Maya asked.

"Neopian Exploration Organization." I responded. "I cried the day she explained to us that he had left and was probably never going to come back."

"Your mom's just a little bit protective of you, isn't she?" Maya asked, flexing her arm to see just how much movement she had left.

"Well, my dad left to join NEO and never came back. He sends postcards every once in a while. Other than that, we don't hear from him. He's been gone since I was four." I replied. "Mom's had to make a living doing what she does best . . . being a healer. But, she's got mouths to feed and bills to pay." I shrugged. "At least with me getting a position as a Neo-Trainer, mom will get public immunity and doesn't have to pay any bills. So long as I stay under her insurance."

"That's true." Kayla touched the top of my head. "I bet it's hard for a single parent to make a living with . . . how many kids?"

"Two." I answered.

"Okay." She nodded. "It's hard to make a living with two kids, isn't it?"

I nodded. As much as I hated people knowing too much about me, for some reason I trusted Kayla and Maya with this tale. Even though I felt like it was a sob story and I was using it to make people pity me.

I moved away from Kayla's hand which was still on my head. "We're getting off topic. Look, Maya, Fangore forgives China for the choke hold and I forgive you for not calling her off. But, the biggest thing is for Alison to forgive you for making accusations and for China to forgive Kiya for hitting her."

"Excuse me?" Maya asked. "Kiya was in the wrong for hitting China."

"I understand that, but you have to keep in mind that China was close to killing Fangore."

Maya opened her mouth to argue with me but closed it again. She looked away from me and I felt guilty.

"I'm taking you for a guilt trip, aren't I?" I asked.

"No. You're fine." Maya responded.

"You sure?" I asked.

"Yea." Maya said.

I shrugged. "Okay." We were quiet for a moment and I could see Maya beginning to think her options over. Finally, she gave a frustrated sigh.

"Problem with Alison is . . . she has her pride. She's never going to apologize and I'm never going to let it go until she does. I'm just going to get irritated with her and I might end up punching the window again."

"You wanna sleep in my room tonight?" I asked.

"Only if your roommate won't mind." she said.

I snorted. "If Kara does give you a problem, I'll bop her in the nose. Other than that, I don't think she'll care much."

I spent some of the evening in Maya's room. Alison had run off to the library to do her homework so she didn't have to be in the same room with her sister. Pretty soon, it turned into a threesome study group between me, Maya, and Kayla. It mostly helped that all three of us were in some of the same classes together. After a while, we went over to the cafe to have supper. Kayla abandoned us to go eat with Alison but Maya and I enjoyed a nice meal together with our neos.

I pointed to Maya's arm; the bandage was already stained with blood. "If you need me to, I could probably do some stitches. I used to do them with mom whenever she needed help."

Maya grimaced and I could see a slight, green tinge take up some color on her cheeks. She shook her head. "Nah. I'm sure they'll heal on their own. They're gonna scar either way."

"True." I said.

Without much else to say, we returned to her room and moved her mattress to my room. I glared at Kara to make it clear that she was not to make any comments on why Maya was sleeping on our floor.