Chapter Five: Aftermath and Mall Run
(Still Wednesday...)
Tala felt his stomach lurch as what he had just done sunk in; it was then he realized that his fist was a few inches shy of her body and that it was held in place by her hand.
"Not bad." Kali commented in an off hand manner, as calm as if she were discussing some sort of sports competition.
The redhead's gaze traveled to her arm; he was startled to note for the first time that it was lean as well as somewhat muscled. His look trailed up to her face; when he met her eyes, his own expression seemed confused.
"I, unlike most girls, do work out from time to time." She added lightly before releasing his hand; she made no move to step back, however. "D'you wanna know what it is? Or would you rather not?"
Tala's hand returned to its resting spot on his knee. "I'm fine."
"Alright." Without further protest, she resumed her seat and work.
The four boys warily observed, half expecting the redhead to take another swing.
"...that's it?" Ian probed cautiously after an extremely still and silent several moments.
"Well, if I get sick, I'll be blaming Reds." The statement was accompanied by a teasing grin; it faded when she realized Tala failed to recognize that she was joking. A small sigh escaped her; she shook her head and then focused on her homework again.
-x-x-x-x-
(Thursday, after dinner...)
"Hey, Kals..."
She paused her music and turned her attention obligingly to Ian.
"Not that I mind, but...why're you always hanging out with us? Where're your friends?"
The other four stared at her, movie forgotten.
"Lessee..." She stared at the ceiling for a moment. "Well, Quinn and Michi won't be back 'til about a month into this semester because they did the 'semester abroad' thing."
Tala arched an eyebrow. "Last I checked, first semester freshmen weren't sent abroad."
"Oh, they're not freshmen. They're sophomores...uh, Ten is here but we have a...game, if you will. We duck and dodge one another for a month. First one to give-to approach the other-loses."
"Why?" Spencer finally asked.
"Well, we were rivals from the age of..." She paused, thinking back. "Six. We're not anymore, not really...but this game is kinda a remnant of that." A slight smile quirked the corner of her mouth.
"So we're stuck with you until they return or your friend gives?" The redhead simplified.
"No, you're stuck with me for another week and three days. The others are stuck with me for as long as they wish to be." Kali returned calmly before she turned her music back on and increased the volume.
Ian smirked at the confusion on three faces; Tala's wore a thoughtful expression.
-x-x-x-x-
(After the movie ended...)
"Nine am class tomorrow, right?" Ian groaned.
"Yep." Kali replied as she idly scribbled comics.
"Whatcha doin?" The purple haired boy questioned as Bryan nodded a g'night to all of them and headed for his room; Spencer soon followed after a goodnight nod of his own.
"Drawing anorexic nudes."
The three stared at her; Tala, who ejected the tape from its player, missed catching it and it hit the floor with a muffled thud.
"...stick figures?"
The three continued staring for a moment as it dawned on them: Ian snickered; Kai rolled his eyes; Tala glared.
"Honestly." She muttered. "You act like you've never heard stick figures called that before."
"Who, aside from you, would?" Ian returned, still smirking.
"Well, I have the sneaking suspicion you will from now on."
"...touche."
Tala and Kai ignored them in favor of resuming last-minute work on their paper.
-x-x-x-x-
(Friday, approximately one AM...)
The redhead collided with something hard, then jerked away. It took a few minutes of his heart thudding in his ears for him to realize that he fell off his bed, most likely from thrashing around during his nightmare. He warily sat up; his left side was sore, but not to the point of pain. Tala glanced over at his roommate's bed; his purple-blue eyes widened when he met sleepy grey.
Kali blinked, kept the eye contact for a moment longer, and then rolled over to try to get back to sleep. "He prolly doesn't wanna talk about it anyway."She told herself as she closed her eyes.
The tired and somewhat sore Russian decided he wasn't going to question his luck and broach the topic-now, or in the morning. He rose and climbed back into bed, wrapping the covers around himself. After a few moments, he found himself relaxing to the point where he could drift off.
"'Night, Tala." Came the soft murmur from the next bed.
His eyes found her blanketed form before they slipped shut and sleep claimed him again.
Kali rolled onto her back, ignoring the way her blanket tightened around her. Her grey eyes found the now-slumbering Russian and she let out a breath she hadn't known she was holding. "Phew...I was afraid he wouldn't go back to sleep." A slight frown tugged at the corner of her mouth. "I'll deal with that bridge once I have to cross it."She decided, then let the gentle cadence of his breathing lull her to sleep.
-x-x-x-x-
(Friday morning, before class...)
"Goooood morninggggg." Ian intoned cheerfully as he calmly entered Tala and Kali's dorm room.
The roommates fixed him with identical death glares from their respective beds.
Bryan, who had followed him in, smirked slightly. "Not a morning person, girlie?"
"...stuff it." Was the muffled order before Kali thrust aside the warm covers and ignored the goose bumps which promptly peppered her limbs. Tala scowled and pulled the covers over his head as Bryan advanced, his smirk widening from 'mischievous' to 'downright evil'.
Kali, noting this change, quickly gathered her shower-things and was out the door. She decided she was glad she had, as she heard a sound that was unmistakeably Tala yelping when she closed the door behind her.
-x-x-x-x-
When she returned, dressed, from her shower, she found all five boys waiting.
"...is this the part where you tell me you've sold my spleen on the black market, or something?"
Ian snicker. "Nope. Breakfast time, though."
"...right..." Kali muttered as she grabbed her backpack, keys and ID. "Lead on."
Ian promptly did so; she and the others straggled along behind. There appeared to be no one else from their dorm up and about; the hallway was devoid of the normal early birds as well as the zombie-like conversations from rooms near one another.
When they got outside, things became even more strange.
The campus was eerily silent and empty; fog seemed to rise from the ground simply to obscure everything ten feet from them.
"Yanno, I'm almost expecting-" Kali began when the first rotten corpse traipsed through the billowing fog into view.
-x-x-x-x-
Kali snapped awake, flailing, and ended up on the floor as Ian, Kai and Bryan walked in.
"FML." She muttered, dragging a hand down her face.
"...which horror movie was it this time?" Ian queried as he plopped down at the foot of her bed.
"I think it might've been the Dawn of the Dead remake...'cept it took place on campus." She muttered as she untangled her limbs from her comforter and threw it on the bed. The girl paused a moment, then shrugged and began to dress, ignoring the four boys.
Kai flung her comforter at her.
"What?" She snapped as she dragged it off.
"Doesn't this-" He indicated the other three and himself, "bother you?"
"Nothing you lot haven't seen before." She replied. "And I wasn't stripping down past my cami and underwear, thanks."
Kai scowled before shoving the snickering Tala off his bed.
Ian ignored their antics and cocked his head to the side. "...you're used to changing in front of others, including guys, yeah?"
"Yeah." She replied as she laced up her hiking boots, then slipped them on; she then began to tie them. "You tend to get over it, or you don't last."
"What're you doin' that requires you to be in a co-ed changing room?" Bryan questioned as Tala and Kai glared at one another.
"Used to. I'm...on a vacation, of sorts." Kali grumbled as she finished tying her laces. "Anyway...I play a sport. Not a lot of places have the right facilities for it, so we ended up changing into our uniforms and such in front of our teammates. S'why I got into the habit of wearing camis to begin with."
"You never told me what sport." Ian prodded as she fished through her pile of textbooks.
"A sport is a sport is a sport." She returned as Tala shed his pjs and slid into his clothes for the day. Kai 'accidentally' stuck his foot out as Tala knelt down to pull his shoes from under his bed; in an effort not to fall, he grabbed onto Kai's pants, which had yet to be belted for some reason. The redhead ended up clocking his head on the bed frame; Kai ended up with his pants around his ankles.
Spencer chose that moment to enter the room.
Ian and Bryan started snickering; Kali discreetly checked out Kai before resuming her search for the right textbooks; Spencer, however, looked from Tala, to Kai's crotch, to Tala in a questioning manner.
Ian promptly fell off the bed, quaking with laughter; Bryan's eye twitched as he took a step back from both; Tala's eyes narrowed, though it was difficult to tell if it was from pain, anger or a combination of both; Kai snarled several expletives at him in Russian as he hurriedly yanked his pants back up; Kali goggled at the two in horror before shuddering and stuffing her finally-found textbook into her backpack.
"...we are not gay." Tala snarled as he jammed his feet into his shoes. "And that was not Kai's way of asking for a quickie!"
Ian snorted. "Me thinketh he doth protest too much."
Bryan stepped behind Kali, keeping her between the two in question; Spencer shrugged; Kai glowered at all of them; Kali rolled her eyes at Bryan before frowning.
"...so you guys didn't do anything that night Kai slept over?" She promptly flung herself to the ground as two pillows were launched in her direction with murderous intent. They instead hit Bryan, who returned them with twice the force. Pillow-stuffing littered the floor and bed near Tala and Kai.
Kali rose and mimed brushing herself off before gathering her ID, key and backpack. "...on that note, I'm skeddaddling."
"Ditto." Ian stood back up and followed the girl; Spencer smirked at the two now-humiliated teens and followed; Bryan raised an eyebrow at the two before accompanying Spencer.
Kai and Tala, twin scowls etched on their faces, looked at one another. At the moment, they agreed on one thing: Spencer was in for some humiliation of his own.
As Tala surveyed the destruction of his pillows, he added Bryan to that list.
"Let's go." He ground out. "I'll deal with this later."
Kai nodded, then led the way. "...they're going to be cracking jokes about this for weeks, you realize?"
Purple-blue eyes turned ice met his. "Not if we get our revenge at the mall."
A smirk tugged at the corner of Kai's mouth as he raised an eyebrow at the redhead.
-x-x-x-x-
(At lunch...)
"Where's Kali?" Ian wondered aloud.
"She's around." Tala replied. "What are we, her keepers?"
"Don't worry, they just wanted to ditch their chaperon." Bryan commented lightly as he took his seat.
"Actually, I wanted pasta bar, and they didn't." The black haired girl replied as she slid into her seat. "Seriously guys, d'you have some sorta vendetta against all things Italian?"
Ian snickered. "Considering the only Italian beyblader we know? I wouldn't be surprised."
Kali cocked her head to the side. "Ah. You mean the player from Rome?"
"Yeah. Him." Spencer agreed.
Ian looked at his teammates, then back to Kali, then back to his teammates.
She smirked. "They missed that, huh?"
He shrugged as the other four glowered at Kali; then laughed. "Guess so."
"Ah well. English isn't their first language, so I suppose it's not that big a deal." She returned before taking a bite of the aforementioned pasta.
"Missed what?" Bryan grumbled after it became apparent that neither Ian nor Kali intended to explain.
"Player can refer to someone who plays a game, yeah. But in it's more modern usage, as slang, it means a guy who manipulates and uses a lot of girls for sex, or his own personal amusement." The girl rattled off.
"You are not allowed on Urban Dictionary ever, ever again." Ian groused as the other four resumed eating and ignoring them.
"Actually, I memorized the definition loooong before I knew of that website. My school was notorious for that kinda guy, so it paid to know their game before they tried to 'play' it." The girl returned, then ducked as Ian threw a vegetarian sausage at her. "Yeah, yeah, very punny."
The two fell into their comfortable banter mode, though they found themselves observing their tablemates.
Ian frowned.
Kali whipped out her phone, typed something and then showed him the screen.
This is why we need to get you a phone. We could have a convo without them overhearing.
The purple haired boy promptly took the phone, backspaced the message and typed his own.
Yeah, it's a good reason but this'll do for now. Is it me or are Tala and Kai ...uh...off.
The girl frowned, erased the messaged and typed her own before tossing the phone back.
If by 'off', you mean quiet, even for them, then yeah. Well, at least for Tala. I wasn't around Kai all that much, so I can't really say for him. ...at any rate, is this...er...dammit, how do I put this?
The corner of Ian's mouth quirked.
Is this 'a cause for alarm' is probably the wording you're searching for. And, to answer you, yeah. When they get quiet...er...things get bag.
Kali snickered.
D'you mean 'bad'?
Ian deadpanned.
Stuff it, you know what I meant.
That heralded an insult fest, one which they didn't need the phone for.
-x-x-x-x-
(Friday, approximately four o'clock)
"Hey guys." She greeted as she and her class-buddy (aka Tala) met up with the other four in front of the dining hall. "D'we wanna eat here or at the mall?"
"What do they have at the mall?" Spencer asked as the other four frowned.
"I think they have American versions of Chinese and Japanese food, a Subway, a Burger King and a cheese-steak place." She paused. "They might also have a place that sells 'boardwalk' food, which basically means hot dogs, hamburgers and fries. Again, not sure. I only went there...what, twice?...last semester."
"You have free transportation to and from the mall. You're a girl. You're supposed to wanna live there." Tala snapped.
Kali leveled him with a look that equated him to a particularly boring specimen on a microscope slide.
Ian raised an eyebrow.
"My brother's more into shopping than I am." She stated before 'accidentally' crashing into Tala as she swept past them towards Dywn.
"So he's gay then?" The redhead growled.
"No more so than you are." She retorted before letting the door slam behind her.
"Stupid bitch." He muttered as Bryan and Spencer snorted; Kai and Ian rolled their eyes, but refrained from commenting.
She returned, moments later, with a bag of drinks. "You're still here?"
"Are you going to the mall or not?" The redhead shot back.
"After I put these in my fridge, yeah, I am."
"Then c'mon." Ian tugged her towards the dorm, shooting her a look she couldn't decipher.
-x-x-x-x-
They were on the way across the quad towards the bus stop when a girl ran towards them. All five boys tensed up, prepared to deal with that rare fangirl Kali had mentioned.
"Kali!" The girl hugged her.
"Sera! Wow, you look great."
The brunette-turned-blonde grinned. "I figured I could use a change."
"A change is right."
Both laughed, though Sera then noticed the boys.
"Uh...friends of yours?"
Kali bit her lip to disguise her smile. "Sera, meet my roomie, Tala. These are his friends Spencer, Kai and Bryan. Ian, however, is also my friend."
"Nice to meet you." She grinned at them; they stared at her impassively. "Ah, I see. A quiet bunch. I'll seeya later?"
"Sure. Just drop me a line, and we can meet up. Mebbe we'll do a library raid again?"
"Yeah, we'll have to get a hold of Mick first, though. Seeya!"
"Later, Sera!" Kali waved, then turned to find five flat looks leveled at her. She groaned. "I don't have the functioning braincells to explain the finer intricacies of how 'friends made in class' usually work right now."
The five continued to glare.
She sighed. "Fine, stand here and glower. I'm going to go catch the bus."
They followed her to the bus, then sat in the back, their flat looks still firmly in place.
"I'm extremely tempted to say 'screw you guys, I'm going home'." Kali thought sourly as she took a seat near the front; the corner of her mouth twitched. "However, if I did do that, I would probably actually be going home. Ah well...they're just...bleh. Boys."
Meanwhile, Ian was mentally both swearing at and high-fiving Kali. She had just proved to the boys that she did not need to hang out with them, that she had other options, but she had also showed that they could easily be dropped or ignored and it would cause her few problems. Independence was good...the potential for abandonment was not.
"Eff my life." Ian moaned before glancing at the other four.
Kai and Spencer seemed fairly calm; Bryan and Tala were glaring daggers.
"Spencer occasionally wheedles tales out of the lot of us, so he's probably heard of Kai having to deal with that cheerleader...so he gets that this is how girls get sometimes...Kai, of course, dealt with the cheerleader himself...Tala and Bryan, though...they have no idea..." Ian rubbed his temples as his head began to pound. Playing referee was looking like a worse and worse move as time wore on.
-x-x-x-x-
Tala pounced as they left the bus; he dragged Kali off to the side.
"You asked if I was going to the mall; I said yes."
He glowered.
"You never asked if I was going with you lot."
"Are you going with us?" Spencer cut in as Tala stalked off.
"Depends. You guys gonna do a good impression of a human glacier? Or are you gonna be your...well, I hesitate to use the word 'normal'...selves?"
"Normal selves." Kai replied, then glanced at Bryan, then at Tala, who stood by himself a few feet away. Bryan nodded.
Tala scowled. "Are we going or what?"
"Heh." Kali shook her head. "Where to first, gents?"
Ian fought the urge to smile; things had been patched up and he hadn't even had to get involved! "I vote we wander, then go for food later."
"Seconded."
"Sensible. Food court's probably crowed right now anyway..." Kali muttered before leading the way through the aforementioned and extremely crowded food court to the stairs.
"To infinity and beyond." Ian mumbled.
"Hold your horses, space ranger." Kali returned and the two smirked as they led the way up the steps. "Alright, right now we're at the J.C. Penney sector. This place has mostly girly or kiddy stuff, with the exception of our oh-so-lovely electronic store...which is over there." She pointed. "The booths ahead, well, they vary. Sometimes they have stuff, sometimes they have decent stuff and sometimes they're just plain empty."
The tour continued down the sector; most of the stores were, as Kali had said, kiddy or girly.
Spencer frowned. "Don't you wanna go in any of these?"
She chuckled. "Thanks, but no thanks. I shop for clothes at Old Navy, Ross's, Target or, if I'm feeling particularly masochistic, Wal-Mart. These places, for the most part, are over-priced and way too trendy for my liking."
"You say that like it's a bad thing." Bryan commented.
"It is. Why should I pay fifty bucks or more for a sweatshirt here when I can buy the same thing at Target or Old Navy for twenty? I've never understood the whole 'brand name thing' most girls seem to cling to."
Tala gave her the "you're a girl, idiot. you're supposed to" look.
"Heh." Kali snorted. "So does that mean just 'cuz you guys do a sport, you're dumb jocks?"
All glared.
"Didn't think so. Just cuz you see the girly-girl stereotype on t.v. and in the movies doesn't mean every girl's gonna fit it. I don't and the standards you normally think of when it comes to that kind of girl need not be applied."
Ian covered his laugh with a cough. "So where's this phone store?"
"Ah, that's thisaway."
-x-x-x-x-
Ian approached the man at the counter while the other four boys were still busy. "A StrawBerry."
The man chuckled and began to pull up the necessary paperwork.
"Heh, I'd pegged you as more a BlueBerry fan, myself." Kali commented; both laughed, which caused the other four to give them flat looks. "Whoops, they prolly think we're laughing at the fact that it's taking them so long..."
"They're damn picky, what can they say?" The purple haired teen replied with a shrug before he resumed the process of purchasing his red BlackBerry...now officially known between him and Kali as a "StrawBerry".
-x-x-x-x-
"So, what's your number?" He asked as the two waited outside on a bench.
She pulled her phone from her pocket and began to scroll through the contacts.
He laughed as the other four approached. "You seriously don't know your own number?"
"Well, I usually don't give it out to people." Kali replied with a shrug.
"Then what do you do?" Tala snarked.
"I get other people's numbers, text them and let them use that to add my number to their phone." The girl replied without missing a beat.
"Okay, my number is..."
Tala gave Ian the finger before heading off towards the bookstore.
The other five watched.
"...he does know the food court's in the other direction, right?"
"Guess not." Ian muttered as he and Kali tried to muffle their laughter.
Tala spun around and stormed back over. "Something amusing?"
"Yeah. Either you really like books, which I can't fathom, or you have no sense of direction." Kali returned as she programmed Ian's number into her phone and sent him a text.
The redhead's expression turned wooden as the other four boys gaped at Kali. "Did you just call me stupid?"
"No, I said I can't picture you reading. I picture you as more of an active kind of a guy. Like...you like to wander around, swim...that kind of thing."
The boys exchanged glances.
"That's true enough." Bryan acknowledged as he led the way back to the food court.
Kali grinned. "I suppose the reason I have trouble picturing Tala reading is 'cuz I always picture him with glasses on..." She commented to Ian.
Tala stiffened as Bryan, Spencer and Kai exchanged alarmed glances.
"What?" Kali asked as Ian frantically motioned at her to shut up. "When I picture people reading, they normally wear glasses. My mind is weird like that..."
The other three relaxed, Ian ceased making the 'shuttup' motion, but Tala stayed tense.
"...how did she..." He scowled; he didn't buy her little explanation one bit. "I don't even have my glasses with me!"
"Tala."
He snapped something obscene in Russian.
"...are you coming, or what?" Kali retorted, gathering that it was meant to be an insult from his tone.
He pushed past her, continuing to mutter obscenities in Russian.
She caught up to Ian. "I am so learning Russian just so I can cuss back at him."
He shook his head. "You would."
"Damn straight!"
-x-x-x-x-
Kali plopped herself down at the table with the rest of them; unlike them, she had her food in a takeout container.
"Why the takeout?" Ian questioned.
"Simple. As good as all this is, I can normally never finish it. This way, I don't have to throw out the left overs." She grinned. "And I'll have lunch for tomorrow, so I can use my lunch-meal to get some more snacks to keep in my dorm room."
"Planning ahead. There may be hope for you yet, young Padawan."
"I am not wearing that stupid braid-thing."
"Good, 'cuz I'm sadly lacking in the light-saber department."
"Darn. I wanted a blue one."
"You get a green!"
"I'm not Anakin, dolt, no matter how cool Vader ends up being."
"Dolt? Really?"
"Oh, stuff yourself."
"I intend to."
"...good!"
The other four tuned them out in favor of enjoying the food, which turned out to be better than initially expected.
Halfway though the meal, Kali closed the takeout container, threw out her trash, popped her headphones into her BlackBerry and shot Ian a devilish grin.
His eyes lit up as he recalled her previous comment; he gave her a discrete thumbs up, then distracted the other four.
-x-x-x-x-
"Tala." She caught his attention once all were settled on the bus.
"Da?" He grumbled.
"сын кусающегося животного овец." She stated.
Four of the five gaped; Ian cracked up.
Once he had calmed, he managed out, "your pronunciation needs work, but you get points for creativity...son of sheep biter..." His voice quaked with suppressed laughter.
Tala stared, then glowered at Ian.
Kali grinned, shook her head, then held up her BlackBerry and headphones. "I love online translations with pronunciation included, don't you?"
The redhead shot her a look that clearly said if she said anything else strange in Russian in the next twenty minutes, her precious phone was going out the window.
-x-x-x-x-
Big thanks to my two friends from college. They inspired the two OCs mentioned/intro'd in this chapter (Sera and Mick). Those aren't their real names, but they may or may not show up again.
Also, this chapter was written thanks to the songs "Who Says" and "Round and Round" by Selena Gomez. ...I have an odd taste in music but if it keeps my muse singing, then I don't care xD
Also: I have nothing against homosexuality or the LGBT community. However, in Russia, only 10-20% of people say homosexual relationships should be accepted, as of 2007. A law actively prohibiting male-on-male sex was only repealed in Russia a little under 10 years ago. Add in the fact that many straight men my age seem to think being called 'gay' is a horrible insult to their masculinity, and you have the attitudes I crafted for the boys.
Kali doesn't really give a damn, as she was raised in a pretty accepting household. Her problem with their 'relationship' stems from the implication that they had sex while she was in the room (albeit asleep).
Sorry about the extremely long gap between chapters three and four. I forgot I had it written, as I had a pretty crazy semester. On the bright side, however, said crazy semester is now over, so I can now write a lot more…thus where this chapter comes in. Get ready for one crazy weekend for these six, gang!