Hola, yes I'm once again updating later than I'd hoped and have no better excuse than I'm lazy. But hey, better late than never right?
Disclaimer: Don't own, haven't owned, and likely will never own Beyblade.
Fanmail…fanmail…fanmail…fanmail…damn I'm going to kill Mariah one day. Best friend or not she's going to pay for forcing me to look through several hundred letters a week. Yes I'm well aware she's a good thousand miles away and not physically forcing me to do this, but it really is her fault.
"Rei, you know you're not supposed to reply to fanmail. Remember Miguel and that stalker? According to Mr D there was another kidnap attempt yesterday." Poor Miguel, I'm really starting to feel sorry for the guy. Being a celebrity and every teenage girl's fantasy isn't what it's cracked up to be.
"Yeah I heard Hiro. It's just that Mariah sends me a letter every week but she refuses to send it in an envelope which isn't bright pink!" Now you'd think that a bright pink envelope would stand out a bit, and in any ordinary household it would. Unfortunately the Bladebreakers suffer from truckloads of fanmail that requires two to three postmen to deliver. And of course fangirls have chosen pink as their standard colour of envelope…just like Mariah. I think you see the problem.
"Cant you tell by the writing on the front?" Hiro asks while his eyes drift to the various piles of fanmail I've been working my way through. I've spent the last half hour organising the lot of it into whose mail is whose so that I can lessen the amount I have to look through. Looks like we'll be having a bit of a bonfire tonight.
Oddly I notice that Kenny's fanmail pile has been increasing lately, and if you look closely it's the tiniest bit bigger than Tyson's. An article was published in a magazine lately that had claimed Kenny as 'mysterious' because he hides his eyes and avoids the press more-so than the rest of us. Since then he's had a big boost in popularity, people are comparing his mysteriousness to Kai now. Needless to say Kai isn't too happy with it.
"Not really, her Japanese writing changes almost on a daily basis." It does, Mariah has to write the address in japanese for the letter to get here and believe me, her writing skills leave much to be desired.
"Cant you just…you know say that you couldn't find it?"
Wow I'm almost shocked, how irresponsible you sounded there Hiro! If I didn't know any better I'd say that you were another lazy-ass like Tyson. "Tried that. When I didn't reply she went on a three day journey to the nearest civilisation so she could yell at me over a payphone." And damn that girl must carry a lot of change about with her, she yelled at me for 3 hours over the phone. I suffered from temporary deafness for about a week after that.
"…I guess you should keep looking then. By the way do you know where the coffee is?"
Ha! I knew there was some catch to Hiro being up this early and being this talkative first thing in the morning. My sharp hearing barely catches the sound of something behind the door.
"…I'm not going to fall for that Kai!"
I hear a few groans and curse words from behind the door and can't suppress a smile. In comes a very bedraggled Kai a few seconds later, looking un-caffeinated (yes it is clear at a glance whether Kai has had his morning coffee or not, basically its what normal people look like when they first get out of bed in the morning, except a lot scarier) and very grumpy I might add. Thankfully I'm safe from any beatings/ laser glares until he has his morning coffee, so no need to run right now.
"For god's sake Kon, just give me the bloody coffee before I slit your throat, tear your head off and feed it to a pack of angry dogs." …What can I say, Kai's motivational techniques are one of a kind. I laugh nervously and hand Kai a mug full of instant coffee granules that I had prepared earlier just for this situation. I flick the switch on the kettle and pray to the heavens Kai doesn't look in the mug.
"Kon there's sugar mixed in with the granules!"
Some higher power must be laughing his/her/its' ass off right now. Something up there must hate me.
Hiro looks confused, I guess Kai didn't explain the whole situation to him when he told him to find the coffee stash. I mouth the letters BBASUB to him and he nods, clearly not understanding but willing to go through with it because it involves the scheme. Fine by me, maybe he can stop Kai from catching me and torturing me to death.
"Kai you know you're not supposed to go against anything in the sche…" Hiro trails off because he's suddenly fearing for his life, Kai seems to have decided that Hiro was talking down to him and is now glaring so hard that I'm reaching for the fire extinguisher, whether I'll use it to put out the flames Hiro will surely burst in to or to whack Kai over the head with I'm really not sure.
Well I can't let Hiro get himself killed so I guess I should step in. "Don't worry about it Hiro, if he really doesn't like it then he can take the sugar out."
Ha, I'm a genius! Kai knows very well that this will be his only dose of coffee until lunch, so if he throws it out then he'll have to survive some other way. He also knows that trying to get every bit of sugar out of the mug will take more time than sanity will allow. With a grunt he adds the water, stirs and drinks. Damn am I good or what?
"Ok, well now that that's sorted, don't we need to talk about a scheme suggestion Rei?" Hiro asks while finally taking a seat at the table, furthest away from a very pissed off Kai.
Oops, I'd completely forgotten about that. I need to talk to him about Hilary's suggestion about some variation in our training. "Yeah, well Hil suggested we should include different activities in our training routine, she thinks the old one is just getting on everyone's nerves."
"Hmm, well I think she might be on to something there, it'll take a while to come up with ideas though. Any suggestions?"
"I have one, and I can arrange it to start today." Hiro and I are shocked to hear Kai speak, and actually offer to do something of his own free will. Hiro and I exchange doubtful glances, and noticing this Kai pulls off a very good innocent-Max impression. I have a bad feeling about this…
I knew Kai was up to something! I'm going to die, I'm going to die. This is all just revenge for the coffee thing, which wouldn't have happened if Daichi hadn't made that stupid suggestion. I'd kill Daichi if he wasn't my only ally and in the same boat as me. Actually we're not literally in a boat, but I'd kill to have one right about now.
"Come on Rei, swim some laps to warm up and then we'll get started. Swimming is a great workout and regular practise should increase your physical abilities substantially."
Yup, you guessed it. Kai knows I can't swim, and therefore in an act of pure evilness used his great fortune to rent out the local swimming pool last minute. How does Kai know this little supposedly-secret fact about me? Well I'm not really too sure, I think he might have picked up on it during the boat-ride to Europe when I kept making excuses not to get in the swimming pool. Yeah that was probably it.
So right now I'm standing at the deep side of the pool wearing nothing but a pair of swimming trunks that Kai so kindly bought for me when I pointed out I couldn't go because I didn't own a pair. Thank you sooooo much Kai. That was sarcasm by the way.
"Yeah Kon, you're not going to get any fitter just standing at the side." Before I can even process the fact that Kai is beside me I'm body slamming the water, causing a colossal wave despite my size. Ouch, who would have thought water would be so painful?
Now under normal circumstances when drowning you'd expect the person to put up a valiant struggle and call for help, I however, know that I can't swim a stroke and decide not to waste my breath. I'll just sink and hope that someone notices me before I drown.
…I'm screwed. Damn you Kai. I don't even have my notepad with me to write my will like I'd planned! Not that I could write under water but hey, we've all somehow defied physics before right? There's a chance.
Ok, this is getting bad now, I think it's time for that valiant struggle to swim because I'm running out of air and no ones come to save me yet. Wasn't Kenny at least looking my way when I was shoved in, and the splash caused by my most graceful entry must have caught someone's attention right?
Right ok, time for some quick learning. Kick legs and I should go upward right? Ok…I kick my legs and…am going down…I guess this would be why only a very small percentage of neko-jin swim. Maybe lack of air is making me uncoordinated.
Hey wait a sec…is that? Ah it's a sea-monster, swim away! …Of course my attempts at swimming away just bring me closer to the 'sea monster'. Oh wait, it's just a blurry Hiro. Damn water mucking up my vision. Suddenly I'm being pulled up towards the surface and I take a deep breath of glorious air. Phew. If cats have nine lives then I must be in the negative numbers by now.
I'm dragged to the edge of the pool which I cling to for dear life. Why, because its land, and I like land. Much better than sky, and infinitely better than water, water is evil! Land is gooooood.
Unfortunately Hiro takes my land-hugging as a sign of unconsciousness and starts to panic. As soon as I hear the words 'mouth-to-mouth' I almost roll back into the water in an attempt to get away. What? Just because I can keep calm while drowning doesn't mean I won't panic at the threat of that.
Ugh, I can tell this is going to be the longest hour of my life.
Hey I was right, this hour has been longer than any other, even longer than the hour Hilary spent talking at me yesterday. Daichi and I have just spent a gruelling hour being taught to swim by Hiro, while we wear embarrassing inflatable band things on our arms might I add.
Ok, well it's not too embarrassing since it's only my team mates here, but its just the fact that these bands aren't designed for people my age. They fit Daichi just fine, but even the largest set doesn't get past my elbow. This effectively means that the only thing that floats is my forearms, while my head and everything else is stuck under the water. On the bright side my floating arms are useful to indicate when I need rescued – 4 times and counting – and also indicates when Kai needs rescued too. Kai, needing rescued? Yeah well have you ever tried swimming while hysterically laughing like an evil maniac? Apparently it's very difficult, because whenever Kai sees my arms bobbing above the water he bursts out laughing which causes him to half drown. Laughing Kai? Yeah we're all terrified too.
No matter what though, I refuse to lose to Kai. I swear I'll get him back for this, and I don't mean just by putting stuff in his coffee. I think it's time I have a talk with my new prankster ally. Kai will pay for this! The battle is on!
Man I'm starting to feel guilty for putting poor Rei in all these situations. Oh well, i suppose i could be meaner if i really wanted to. Anyways R&R, any feedback is welcome!