Chapter Eleven

"This is so frustrating!" I growled as I kicked at a rock the next day. Hilary and I were on our way to the park where the rest of the guys were waiting. Once again we were turned down when we tried to get more parts for our beyblades.

"What is?" Hilary asked as she looked over at me. I gave her an incredulous look before responded.

"Buying getting beyblade parts," I responded as I gave her a suspicious look. "That's what we've been dealing with for the past couple of days. What did you think I was talking about?"

"Well, to tell you the truth, I thought you were talking about Ray," she responded as she set her ruby colored eyes on me. I made a gagging noise as she continued to study my face.

"Ray!" I repeated. "What's he have to do with anything?" I questioned as I stopped walking and stared at her.

"Don't think I haven't noticed," she said as a smile came to her face. "I know you two have known each other for a long time so you probably didn't notice the way he looks at you, the way he cares about you."

My mouth opened and closed as I tried to form words but they wouldn't come out of my mouth. Ray and I have been friends for a long time and once, when I was younger, I did like Ray a little bit. But then it turned to feelings of me liking him like an older brother and a role model. It never entered my head about ever dating him.

"I…what about you?" I demanded as I pointed a finger in her face, wincing as pain shot up my other arm.

"What about me?" She asked as she blinked and looked at me.

"You constantly fight with Tyson," I responded as I placed my uninjured arm on my hip. "But I can see what you're up to. You like the attention you get from him. And why?" I continued before she could open her mouth. "Because you use his attention to make up for the lack of attention Kai gives you. Take it from me; you don't want to deal with someone like Kai."

"It's funny," she suddenly stated. I tilted my head in confusion and she continued. "You knew all of the Bladebreakers at different moments in time. You knew Ray from your childhood; you knew Tyson and Max from when you moved here. So, when did you meet Kai?"

Immediately memory after memory slammed into my head at high speeds, and there was no way I could stop them. Memories of darkness, pain, sweat, and blood filled my head and flashed before my eyes like a picture without sound. My heartbeat raced as his laughed filled my ears and echoed in my head before it got louder and louder until I couldn't hear anything besides the laugh. That evil laugh…

"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to bring it up," Hilary said quickly as I took deep breaths.

"No, it's all right," I muttered. "Let's…just go find the guys."

"All right."

We walked back the rest of the way in silence. I kept my eyes on my feet as we made our way to the park. From a distance I could hear the water from the river rushing and I really wanted to just go and stick my feet in the cool water. There was something peaceful and relaxing about the river, I couldn't explain it. Hilary kept the knowing smile that was on her face once we met up with the guys again.

"Any luck?" Tyson asked hopefully as Daichi stood by his side.

"Sorry dude, they wouldn't give us any parts," I responded. He sighed and lowered his head. "We don't need BEGA," I said as I stared at him. "We can do this on our own. That way we can prove that blading comes straight from the heart. What other way to prove it than to putting some heart into the beyblade you created by hand?"

"She has a good point, Tyson," Max agreed as I walked over to the edge of the river, slipped off my shoes and stuck my feet in.

"But when are we going to get the blades fixed? To beat BEGA, we need to use everything we've got," Tyson responded.

"There must be a solution we haven't thought of yet."

I whipped my head around when I heard a beyblade from a distance. The sound got louder as a beyblade spun down the hill and stopped at Tyson's feet. We all looked up and gasped to see White Tiger X, the PPB All Starz, Barthez Battalion, and F Dynasty.

"You want a solution? You've got it," Rick said with a smirk as they all smiled down at us.

"Kevin!" I called as I turned and waved.

"Crystal!" He said with a smile as he rushed down to my side. "It's so great to see you again. We heard about your challenge. BEGA is going to be tough to beat. But we have come to help."

"Appreciate it," I said as I ruffled his hair.

"Whoa, what happened to your arm?" He asked once he looked down at the sling that was on my arm.

"I got into a little fight, it's no big deal. You should've seen what I did to the other guy." I could feel Ray's eyes on my back as I laughed a little. "I'll be fine but I fear that Dricer's getting restless without me being able to blade for a while."

"Well…maybe there's a way you can blade with one arm," Mariah suggested as she joined me on my other side. "We can help you find a way."

"Thanks, but no thanks, I don't need your help," I said as I let out a sigh.

"Crys, you can't keep pushing us away. Sooner or later you're going to have to accept that we want to help because we want to see you succeed."

"Thank you Oprah," I said sarcastically, trying to hide the smile that was forming on my face but I lost it when Kevin burst out laughing.

"Well, we can still keep your physique up. You can still do push ups and run and do some of the other martial arts training we've learned before," Kevin said once he stopped laughing.

"Thanks guys, this really means a lot to me," I muttered as I looked out at the river that was rushing by my feet.

Boris won't be able to stop us, no matter how hard he tries. I can feel it, the storm is coming and we're caught up in the middle. I know that we will do whatever it takes to succeed and failure is definitely not an option.