Hillary had never thought she would ever consider partnering with Kai to be a blessing. Yet, it was the case when she had to compare him with none other than Cassadra. Biology had always been a fun class for Hillary, but sitting next to her, coming up with creative taunts anytime they spoke, took a bit of the joy away. She could do nothing but inwardly groan, wishing this class to end faster. The only thing keeping her sane there was Luke, who wasn't happy with his seating arrangement either.

Luke smiled quickly as he realised that she was seeing him again. Sitting next to him was none other than Kai himself. The strange quirkiness that sometimes took over Kai when she was around didn't seem to be applicable for others. Luke had been given the cold shoulder ever since they took their seats next to each other. And next to him, Kai was writing down something. Upon more minutes, she also realised whatever it was, it wasn't biology. Kai wasn't paying any attention to the class, and everyone except her seemed to have not noticed it. Which was strange, because Kai highly valued his academics. what on earth could be so important that it cold steal away his attention in class?

Thankfully, the bell actually rang after a few minutes. Hillary quickly got away from her place, having no intention on sitting there a second longer. Cassy must have had the same feeling, as she quickly took the spot next to Laura and started catching up. Hillary didn't understand, what was there to talk about when the two of them are practically attached to the hip!

She also waved Luke to go on without her. She meet him in a minute. And being the good girl she was, stood in front of Kai. The class was almost empty. Kai looked up as a shadow cast across his book, closing it immediately. "What?" he questioned rudely. Hillary felt offended at this, but reminded herself that it was Kai she was dealing with. "Would you want today's notes? I saw you weren't -- that you were rather busy with something else." She looked pointedly at the book. Surprise crossed across his features before he schooled back his expression. "No need. I have it all figured out." He said packing his bag. "But-" she started again, only to be cut off. "I just told you that I don't need you, now get off me!" He said before sidestepping her to get to the door.

Hillary felt crushed. All that...for this.? She felt an overwhelming  sense of betrayal, which was strange, as Kai was betraying no one. Why was she so eager to help him, especially when she knew he didn't like it? That was just who he was. She just kept being too blind to see it. A humourless laugh escaped her lips, stopping Kai in his tracks. Treacherous tears blinded her vision, yet she didn't dare blink them. She didn't want to give him the satisfaction of hurting her this easily.

Now, they were completely alone in the class now. "Funny of you mention that now. Shouldn't you have mentioned this a month before?" She was barely a feet away from him now. She whispered. "Especially, on one particular night when you lay in a pool of your own blood?" And slightly louder this time "Or maybe... The day after?" Her voice broke. Something akin to regret flashed across his face, but it was too late now. Hillary didn't pay it any attention as she moved past him to the door, banging it shut loudly behind her. She rushed out with no destination in mind. She wanted a moment to gather herself.

What she didn't realise was that they hadn't been as alone as she would have liked. Luke had been waiting for her outside and if she had looked his way, she would have found him looking like a deer caught in headlights. A loud smash, something akin to a punch to the wall was what got him moving before Kai caught him.

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It had been a few hours since Luke eavesdroped on Hillary, and he still didn't know if he should talk to her about it. It was lunch break and their entire group was was fiercely discussing about the school elections. The results of round one were supposed to come out today, after lunch. Luke was obviously worried about it. Their house, Bellona, always had the highest competition. And only the top five, out of fifteen or so participants were going to be selected. The debate was mostly between Aubery and Andrew, while Aarushi mostly tried bringing the beybladers to the discussion. Hillary was just moving her food about her plate, looking quite dejected.

"I honestly hope that Liz does not make the cut." Said Aubery, glancing back a bit, to where Cassy and her 'special collection' of friends sat. Liz was in the same house as Aubery and her concern was well justified. Prefects who did nothing more than file their nails and apply lipgloss every two seconds were nothing more than a liability to their team.

He wondered who else could have been participating. Of course, it was supposed to be a secret, but that is where the rumours came to play. A good deal of people from cassy's  collection had obviously taken part, since most of them were into sports or bands and had enough popularity. At the least two of the bey-bladers were obviously participating. He hoped it wasn't Kai, because his chances of winning would become non-existent then. The others who were here through their academics wouldn't dream of 'wasting' their time on such 'nonsense' as he heard a few boys talk about yesterday. He couldn't imagine how anyone could start preperation for their graduation courses from now itself!

Ahanaa put her hand in his, bringing him back to reality. "Hey, you look a bit pale." she observed. "Hm, hm?" Was the only thing he could come up with. While he had joked about participating with all his friends, that was all they thought it was. A joke. Only Ahanaa knew that he had actually participated, and she had taken a pretty accurate guess on his poster too. She was the only person he had confided in. "Relax, of course you're gonna get selected. Your poster was pretty cool." He tried for a smile, but on seeing her reaction, he concluded that it must have looked more like a grimace. "I just want to get this over with." He mumbled, glancing at the clock again. Ten more minutes.

He tried focusing on the discussion again. Aarushi was on and on about how she wished Kai and Tyson had taken part and how her vote would be for them alone. What was her deal? He thought annoyed. Fangirling, to an extent was understandable, but this was getting ridiculous. He doubted that they even knew ho she was, and look at her, throwing herself away at them. Would she even notice that her twin's best friend was into her, and that too for quite some time, if she had her eyes only for them? He thought bitterly.

Hillary seemed to be getting just as pissed off with her blabbering as he felt. Generally, they all found her fangirling cute, but today, the tensions were high. "Oh, knock it off Aru, they aren't gods for you to worship them like that. Just a bunch of kids with their stupid spinning tops who just keep getting lucky. Stop wasting your time on them and get a life!" Suddenly, a pin drop silence was established on their table. A few people also turned in their direction due to the sudden lack of noise. Even he was caught off guard with her sudden outburst. Most of his friends were Beyblade fans, to different extents. You would be hard pressed to find a teen who wasn't. And Hillary didn't seem like an anti Beyblade kind of girl either, so what went wrong? He was reminded of that conversation again.

Aarushi looked offended now. "How could you say that!" She hissed, not wanting to bring even more attention to themselves in the cafeteria. "I have seen how hard they work in those videos that are shot without their knowledge. Early mornings, late nights. They hardly rest during the tornament season. And what about the times they get injured during the game. Ray was in the hospital for weeks after last year finals. And apart from the tournies, there are rumours that they all had been kidnapped and taken to a deserted island once. They were there for two straight days because some mad scientists wanted to duplicate their bitbeasts! There's also a fan post which says two of Tyson's friends were kidnapped to that old abandoned warehouse and Tyson was the one who set it on fire when he unleashed a special attack!" Arushii was breathing hard now, having talked without a pause.

Hillary looked slightly amused "And what about all the times Tyson barely managed to win, only due to pure dumb luck?" "He has the strongest ever attack strength recorded!" "And his speed and defence are pretty much non-existent! At least the other team bladers try at balancing their stats! What do you have in defence of Kai when he abandoned his team at such a crucial time in Russia? What would you say when he forcefully took his opponents' bit-beasts after defeating them so brutally? " Aarushi for the first time looked dumbfounded at this. She was also close to tears. Not only because she loved the bey-bladers, but because Hillary had gotten really close with the twins since school started. Hearing all that from her must have hurt her more.

Seeing Aarushi's teary eyes seemed to have shaken Hillary from her stuper too. She looked guiltily around the table, nothing different levels of shock and surprise. She tried at damage control, but Aarushi just ran out from the cafeteria, closely followed by Ahanaa, not before giving her a hurtful glare. Hillary just covered her face with her hands, moaning what she had done. The rest of them were just surprised. Hillary was not the kind of girl who had outbursts like that. All the time they had known her, she seemed collected. So, what changed now? "I didn't know you had such strong views about the bladebreakers." Aubery started after a tense silence. "You did talk the truth..." Drew started. "But you didn't have to hurt Aarushi like that..." Noah completed for him. "Immsorry, immsorry" She mumbled a few times. She looked like she might burst to tears too!

Thankfully, the bell rang at that very moment. The sudden outburst had completely taken Luke's attention. Now, his nerves returned with a vigour. Everyone in the cafeteria rushed to the notice board near the principal's chamber. Hillary mumbled something about water and stayed back. No one pushed her to join them either. It was upsetting that a new friend come in and hurt their old friends. They had never had such an intense argument within themselves till then. But he couldn't help but feel that there was more to Hillary that what she told them. And the possibility of her knowing at least one bladebreaker, personally and maybe intimately were rather high.

******

Hillary couldn't help but keep the sobs that threatened to burst out of her as quiet as she could. She couldn't stomach the disappointment which she was on her friend's faces. Aarushi didn't know about her connection with the bladebreakers, she didn't know about the how much she had been hurt just because she hung out with them for a few days. She didn't know how much they themselves had hurt her due to their arrogance, ignorance. She knew absolutely nothing about her, about them. She was just a star struck fangirl. She didn't deserve to be lashed out by her.

Yet, the anger, frustration that kept building up within her since her encounter with Kai just wouldn't go! And on top of that, the results of the first round made her feel so anxious, that she just didn't realise when she lashed out on her. She thought crying away her problems would help, but it only made her feel emptier... hollower.

After what seemed like forever, her sobs reduced. She quickly splashed her face with water and wiped her face. Her eyes were puffy and red and she did look kind of hollowed out. She had been losing weight rapidly since she started her rigourous swimming practice but hadn't bothered to compensate it with more food. The idea of eating food itself made her queasy. These days  she just wanted to do her homework and swimming practice. She couldn't find the energy for anything more. Even sleeping was getting harder and harder and her nightmares only kept worsening. And the worse part of all this was that she couldn't confide about anything in anyone, because none of them knew everything about her life.

The bladebreakers had ditched her, she just messed up with her closest friends, and the others would no doubt side with Aarushi. It was only fair. She was the one who wronged them. They knew them longer. It was barely a month since she knew them, they were just warming up to her as a friend, and she messed up pretty bad.

The crowd near the principal's office had reduced substantially by the time she went. She didn't even have to go far to see that her poster was in the first position. But the sense of achievement she thought she would feel didn't come. What was the use of success, if she had no one to celebrate it with?

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Words: 2285

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A\N: so... What do you think of it? Vote and comment guys!