I'm so glad you liked the last chapter, though there is more realisations from Kimiko to come!
I actually managed to get this uploaded since I now have my own laptop and so was able to bring it to the pub which has wifi! Yay!
Enjoy! Please R&R!
Chapter Twelve
The next morning I woke up to find that Rai had told all of our friends about what Maria had said to me, and now none of them were speaking to her, simply giving her looks dirtier than the ones she gave me – even Fernando and Ricardo. I felt awful that her own brothers were angry with her because of me, and of course, Raimundo sensed this. "She deserves it, Kimiko. No thinking otherwise." He had said, but I really couldn't help it. I mean, they're her family. They should be on her side, not mine. No matter what. It's what families do, right? "You're part of the family though, too Kimiko." Rai murmured in my ear.
"Not a blood relation, though. And seriously? Can't you stay out of my head for one day?" Rai only chuckled though, returning to eating his breakfast.
Morning classes passed by mostly with me trying to prod Rai awake both physically and mentally. "Oh, come on, Kimiko!" he would whine each time I woke him up. "We're not getting tested this year, so we don't have to pay attention now. It's too early."
"Rai, we may be exempt from this year's Hogwarts exams, but we're certainly not exempt from next year's O.W.L.s!"
"Oh, you can just tell me later." I opened my mouth to protest, but Rai already had an excuse on his lips. Standard practice for a prankster. "You can use it as a mode of revision. Recite it back to me. It'll be helping both of us at the same time."
He did sort of have a point, so I dropped it. Though I didn't warn him when Professor McGonagall was coming near our row, so she caught him sleeping. Unfortunately she didn't see it quite the same way he did, and now he has detention on our new free night that would usually be Quidditch practice, which was cancelled due to the cancelation of the Quidditch Cup. Rai and I usually went out flying anyway. We missed it too much.
He levitated me in the air for a good few minutes, swinging me round above his head, in revenge at lunch. Then he dropped me unceremoniously on the ground. I glared as I picked myself up, causing him to catch his wrist in his other hand with a small cry of pain.
I noticed that Cedric and Cho were sitting nearby with some of their friends and remembered that they were now the only ones who didn't know about the dragon. I nudged Rai, nodding in their direction. He nodded in understanding before following me.
We stopped in front of them and their friends started to jeer. "Hey, read the badges, Xiaolin Losers." Ah, they've adopted Spicer's catchphrase. They shoved their badges in our faces – as much as you can when they're pinned to your lapel – and I saw that they were modified versions of the badge I had thrown at Maria last night, reading 'Support Cedric & Cho: the REAL Hogwarts Champions' before turning an acid green colour, and their captions turned to 'Tohomiko & Pedrosa STINK'.
"Heh heh heh. Real mature, guys. Cedric, Cho, can we have a word?" They got up and followed us with a shrug. Once we were out of earshot, we stopped and turned to them. They looked as if they were going to say something but I quickly cut them off. I needed to tell them before someone interrupted. "Dragons." They closed their mouths and stared at me.
"That's the first task." Rai finished for me.
Cho's mouth dropped back open. "Are – are you serious?" Cedric stuttered.
"Oh, yeah. Dead serious. They've got one for each team."
"And the others. Do they know?" Cho seemed to have found her voice again."
"Yep." They blinked a few times.
"Right. Dragons." They seemed rather shell shocked. Well, I suppose as a normal human you're not used to strange things. At least not in the way Rai and I are. Well we have to be since they're pretty much a regular occurrence. "Thanks for telling us."
Cho started to walk back to her waiting friends and Rai and I nodded, turning away, but Cedric caught my arm. "Uh, about the badges… I've- well, we've asked them not to wear them but…" he shrugged.
"Don't worry about it. I'm used to idiots by now. They're definitely not the most imaginative nor the most hurtful insults I've received in the last few days."
I ignored his confused expression and hurried to catch up with Rai, but he seemed to have noticed that I wasn't with him and had stopped, talking to the twins. They were saying something to him with a grin, but I only caught the last few words. "…watch out, Raimundo!" They made no sense to me, though they did seem to do so for Rai, who scowled, causing the twins to laugh before leaving.
"Done with your little chat?"
I blinked, surprised at the anger in his voice. "He was just apologising for the badges." Rai grunted and we set off again back to Clay and Omi. We collapsed at the base of the tree where we found them, and I leant against it, crossing my legs and picking at the grass. "So, do you guys have any idea how to fight a dragon?"
"Well, I am sure we can think of something. I mean, we are the Xiaolin Dragons, so you do have an added advantage-" Omi was cut off when we heard the voice of the person we really could've done without knowing from above us.
"Hah! An added advantage!" I jumped to my feet, glaring at the one and only – thank God! – Jack Spicer. "You know what, Xiaolin Losers? My father and I have a bet going." Our faces remained unchanged, glaring at him, though he seemed not to notice. "Oh, yeah. You see, I think you won't last ten minutes in this tournament." Jack continued airily, not noticing our clenched fists. "He disagrees. He thinks you won't last five."
I leant against the tree, seething, though it was still an anger that I could control. "I don't a damn what either of you think. Your father's vile and cruel, and you're just pathetic." I scoffed and turned my back on him.
I'm not quite sure what happened next, though I do remember an angry shout from Rai and when I turned back round, Spicer's wand was flying through the air. He looked quite put out and moved as if to climb down the other side of the tree. "Smell ya later, Xiaolin Losers!" he called to us as he turned but soon found himself caught in the lasso Clay carries around in his bag. Wow. I suppose it did come in handy.
"You'll smell us now, ya dirty snake." Clay pulled him to the ground as Rai and I stared with raised eyebrows.
"'Smell us now'?" I echoed.
Rai leant in close and muttered, "Clay's villain taunting…needs some serious work." I giggled, fighting the blush that was rising. Wow, it hadn't even been a day and this hiding a secret crush thing really is hard work!
Clay had loosened the lasso and Spicer was crawling to his feet. "What did you hear of our conversation, Spicer?"
He just stared at us, as if he didn't understand us. Knowing him, he probably didn't. Omi grabbed him by the lapel of his robes and pulled him close to his face, yelling, "I order you to spill your internal organs right now!"
I felt like burying my face in my hands, though a wide grin was spreading across my face. Only Omi… The whole courtyard had gone quiet at Omi's words and everyone was staring at us as Spicer whined. "What kind of sick people are you!" he screeched.
"Uh…" Rai piped up from beside me. "I think he means spill your guts."
"Oh. I didn't hear anything, I swear! Just that cheese-ball here thinks you two have some sort of advantage over something just 'cause you're famous."
"Hey!" the four of us yelled in support of Omi.
"Alright, he only heard that, Omi, he didn't hear any of our top secret Xiaolin Secrets." I know, I know, that isn't really what we were talking about, but he doesn't need to know that.
"Awww man!" He scrambled to his feet as Omi dropped him and ran to grab his wand when Moody appeared.
"Thought you'd try to curse her when her back was turned, huh?" Oh, so that's what happened… "Rather a cowardly thing to do. I'll teach you not to be so cowardly. Oh, it was brilliant! He turned Spicer into a ferret! Bouncing him up and down before sticking him down the back of Ashley's robes! Well, until Professor McGonagall showed up and put an end to it. Moody asked Rai and I to follow him to his office and we did, burning the image of Jack Spicer: The Amazing Bouncing Ferret into our brains forever as we went.
We sat down at a table in his office, in front of his foe glass, and we were rather shocked by his question. "What are you two going to do about your dragon?"
"Uh…" we were so shocked that he knew we knew, and not only that, but seemed fine with it that we were speechless.
He gave us a little speech about how the other teams would have a plan – as if we didn't know that! And we would have a plan by the time the task came. We're not stupid. Though we usually like to wing it. Things don't usually go according to our plans.
"You can bet their plans will play to their strengths. Come on. Think! What are your strengths?"
"Um, well," I glanced at Rai, who shrugged. "We can fight. Martial Arts, our elements…uh…we can fly. Well, that's a given with Rai's element, but I'm a fair flyer too-"
"Better than fair the way I heard it." I allowed myself a small smile at Moody's words. Rai nodded in agreement. We sort of just stared at Moody before we realised that flying was the strength that he had been trying to hint at.
"But we're not allowed a broom." Rai pointed out the obvious.
"No, but you're allowed a wand."
"Of course…the summoning charm!" Rai's eyes widened in realisation. After all, how many times had his mother used it this summer on the twins? "Thanks Professor!" I jumped from my seat and grabbed Rai's arm, dragging him along with me. I didn't really want anyone to hear our full plan. Plus, the bell for the end of lunch just rang.
We sat in our usual chairs by the fireplace in Gryffindor Tower after Xiaolin Training. It had been a particularly gruelling session, so Clay and Omi had already gone to bed, but Rai and I wanted our plan sorted out tonight.
"Right. So, we use the summoning charm to summon our broomsticks. Then what do we do?"
"Well, I suppose that depends on whatever the challenge is. It wouldn't just be fighting the dragon. They wouldn't expect students to kill it."
"No." I stared into the fire for a moment. "Okay, so I distract the dragon and you complete the task, whatever it is."
"No, I'll distract the dragon." Rai cut in quickly.
"Why?" My eyes narrowed suspiciously. "Don't you think I can handle it?"
"No, of course not. I just…" He stared into the fire, too, blushing, before he returned my gaze. "I don't want to see you get hurt."
My heart fluttered. Damn him. He is making hiding this crush seriously hard! He's turning me into a Kimiko shaped puddle! "That's really sweet, Rai, but I'm fireproof, remember? And you're not, so you'll be completing the task while I ward off the dragon."
"I suppose that's the best plan. All we need to do is learn that summoning charm."
"Of course it is – it's my plan!" He stuck his tongue out at me and I giggled while he stood up and stretched. My giggles dissolved into a yawn and I accepted Rai's hand to get up and out of the chair. "We should probably get to bed a bit earlier than last night, eh?"
"Yeah. Goodnight."
"Night. And no popping into my head, this time."
"Hey, I was bored!" he whined.
I couldn't resist putting the quote in!;)