There was a bit of shuffling as people went around looking for paper and something to write with. Hillary stole a quick glance at Cassandra.She was examining her nails, trying to look nonchalant, but from up close, the worry was quite clear, surprising her. Did Cassandra seriously think that she had a chance to win this, a newbie as someone had pointed out earlier, when she was literally one of the founding members? Somehow, this gave Hillary a bit of hope, at least it won't be a land-sliding victory, she consoled herself.

The wait for the results felt long, even though she knew it lasted only a few minutes. Lizzie counted the votes, sometimes reading out the suggestions they had for her. One voter who had voted for Cassandra had told her to sod off. Another voter who'd voted for Cassandra said Elisabeth was better off running the club better than either of them, and few others, who had voted in her favor thought her idea was cool and mentioned that the club needed new blood at the top anyway.

"Well, here's the results. Out of the twenty-five voters here today, the three of us on stage excluded, fourteen of them have voted for Hillary and the other eleven have voted for Cassandra. That was a close-call! All in all, a huge round of applause for your newest club representative!" Elisabeth announced, gesturing to her. Thankfully, a huge round of applause did follow.

She was sure Luke even whistled after the announcement, but she was too flustered to think straight. All the attention was kind of hard to digest honestly. She tried going for a humble and professional look. She wondered how the Blade Breakers made winning in front of an audience look so effortless.

This brought her attention back to Tyson. He seemed to have been trying to catch her eye for so long that he looked entirely gleeful when their eyes met. And to her utter mortification, he too whistled at her, followed by a wink! What was wrong with that guy? She quickly darted her eyes away from him, making sure that nobody saw that. How was she supposed to keep a poker face when he does that?

And that was how she looked stepping down the stage, fighting a blush so deep that her cheeks did look pink from afar and a grin so wide that she was sure her jaw would hurt later.

******

The first thing Kai noticed as Laura made her way towards him after school was that she was in an absolute shitty mood. She's generally the one teasing and playing around whenever they're together, but today it seemed that she was the one looking for a way to blow off steam.

There was absolutely nothing soft about her today. She came straight for his lips, nearly biting it off. He somewhat liked the new development, matching her energy until she took a break to breathe. "What's gotten you so wound up today?" He enquired casually. He immediately wished he hadn't.

She got into a long-winded rant upon how much of a stuck-up, pompous upstart (other choice words included) Hillary Tachinbana was and how she'd stolen the club representative position from Cassie. He didn't bother to believe a word of it. For one, the girl Laura described sounded more like herself than Hillary. And secondly, the story sounded too biased.

But he didn't let her know, especially when she was soon back to the task at hand with much more vigour.

******

Cassie tried to hide it, but she'd been hurt when Lizzie hadn't considered her for the position. But after seeing Hillary classily dismiss Laura (a hard deed in itself which she did every other day) and present her plan with such clarity, she somewhat understood her reasoning. They really did need new blood at the top position.

But then Laura went ahead and dragged her into her power-play schemes (without her consent she might add) and made her look like a buffoon in front of the whole club. And then, she had the guts to get angry with her for getting angry at her! That was crossing a line. The face-off seemed to be the only thing everyone at school was talking about, having moved on from the attacks after the party.

Hillary's popularity in the school spiked considerably. She was suddenly on the radar for many people that day, for it wasn't everyday that a new student became a rep. She was all smiles and confidence as other club reps went ahead and introduced themselves. And got a bit flustered when a few boys went ahead and congratulated her (and tried asking her out indirectly), much to her exasperation and envy.

Laura and Cassandra seemed to be connected telepathically or something because the next second Laura muttered. "What do they even see in her? Swarming around her like bees! It's so pathetic!" she hissed. Laura must have been the only person who seemed more pissed than her about the recent developments, but unlike her, she wasn't bothering to conceal her dismay.

Cassie would have smiled, but the two of them weren't on speaking terms and she wasn't going to be the one to give in this time. "Well, she is kind of hot in an exotic kind of way... with those big red eyes and ghostly pale skin, not your typical girl next door. The only other person that pale in this entire school must be your boyfriend." Supplied Liam, pointing his fork towards the table where the Bey-Bladers sat.

"And her body is a knockout anyway, honed with all the swimming she does. Though a bit skinner than I'd like perhaps." concluded Mike.

Laura stamped both their legs in turn. "I did not ask you to glorify her, idiots!" She hissed before angrily turning back to her plate.

******

Cassie was to be present at the after-school meeting with Lizzie where Hillary was supposed to present the finalised idea of adding credit points for those who take part in volunteering activities.

It was designed in such a way that a student could only acquire a fixed amount of credits per month and such that a student couldn't earn all their extra credits from volunteering at this club alone. It was a delicate balance between appeasing students with credits and appeasing the school staff that the students couldn't earn too much credits from this, one which Hillary seemed to have begrudgingly achieved.

But since it was Saturday (a half-day) and there was still an hour to go for that meeting, Cassie had nowhere to go. She had almost made up her mind to spend her time at the library, which was open until six in the evening on all working days, when she heard a series of noise.

A noise of metal clashing against metal led her to the beyblading arena where the Blade Breakers were practicing. In the last two months of knowing Tyson and Max, they had grown quite close in class. It also helped that they sat side by side all the time. And Kai wasn't that antisocial as the media had made him look all these years. He was just reserved and not as talkative as Tyson or Max, or wouldn't goof around like them. She didn't think either of the three would mind if she hung out with them for some time.

On going closer, she found Kai sitting by the stands with the other two boys practicing. Ray and Kenny didn't seem to be present with them. Not wanting to disturb the boys locked in a match, she headed to the stands. "School's over, you know?" she asked Kai, standing beside him. "Thanks for the heads-up," he grunted, not even looking at her. Cassie rolled her eyes; the media also forgot to mention the sass, she thought. "Seriously, what are you guys still doing here? School got over half an hour ago." "We have permission to practice in the bey arena after school on Saturdays. The obstacle course and the customizable bey dish here come in handy for practices," he explained, still not looking at her, too focused on the match.

"Do you mind if I hang out here for some time? I have to meet the principal in an hour and have nowhere to be until then." "I think you would have known by now if I didn't want you here," he stated, smirking up at her, no doubt remembering how he'd shooed away Laura from their lunch table one time. Cassie only scoffed at his reminder before settling down beside him.

Cassie took out a book and started reading. Kai continued to intently observe the match, giving inputs every now and then. Sometimes, those inputs turned into long-winded insults. "Stop being a dumb red-eyed bull, Tyson! Try working out what Max's plan is. And you, come up with a more complex strategy next time! Not everyone is as dumb as Tyson; you need to one-up your game!" he shouted once. Cassie tried hard to not crack up, but Kai's continuous remarks were making it difficult. "Hey!" Tyson yelled indignantly once when it got a bit too personal. Max took the opportunity to throw dragoon out of the bey dish.

"Start again. And stop grinning like a madman Maxie; even a newbie could have busted Tyson today," Kai snapped. Max shut his mouth, but the grin was still hard to hide. It was only then that the two of them noticed Cassie sitting beside Kai. Tyson looked embarrassed as he waved at her. "A bit of a heads-up when we have company would be nice," he muttered."Don't worry Tyson and Max; the world champions' embarrassing practice matches won't leave this room, will it, Cassandra?" assured Kai, smirking. Cassandra blushed. She liked the way her name sounded on Kai's lips, with a bit of an accent of his. "Of course not!" she assured the two of them. They didn't really believe her. But Kai wouldn't let them chat for long. Both the boys took their stance again. "Three, two, one! Let it rip!" they yelled out, releasing their beyblades.

 Tyson and Max went against each other three more times without a respite. All the three matches were nothing but intense. Both their Beyblades were nothing but blurs racing against each other throughout the dish. She couldn't actually see the bit-beasts when they called them out, but anyone could have felt their presence in such close quarters.

When she'd heard Tyson and Max complain of Kai's ruthless training regime, she hadn't actually believed them. But she could see their point now. Kai continued yelling out instructions, but did tone down on the insults a bit. The boys looked ready to drop after an hour, but Kai showed no signs of letting them off the hook yet. "Won't you be joining them?" Cassie asked as she packed up. "I'm still supposed to take things slow..." He cautiously started.

 Cassie stopped suddenly, feeling stupid to have even asked. It was no secret that Kai had suffered a major injury at an award show that summer. "Silly me... I'm sorry. I shouldn't have asked," she mumbled. "Everyday activities are one thing, but I've been forbidden to touch my blade for another month," he completed, not at all acknowledging her interruption."Hmm," she nodded. "I'll leave then. Say bye for me," she called out from behind, heading for the door. "Absolutely not!" Kai promised.

******

Kai must admit, he did think that their very first practice session had been a tad bit too much, especially since the two boys hadn't practiced much since the finals. The two of them looked absolutely drained after three hours of intense training. Feeling guilty, he helped them pack up and walked with them to the dojo too, just in case they drop down unconscious or something on their way home.

Unfortunately, Ray too was at the dojo when they came, having come to spend some time with them. He looked absolutely livid when he saw the two blader's condition. "You will not move from here," he warned him before turning towards the exhausted boys.

Ray told Max to inform his dad on the telephone that he would be spending the night at the dojo before helping Tyson into bed. Ray set up Max's bed next. The two boys were asleep as soon as they hit the mattress.

"What the hell is wrong with you!" Ray exclaimed as he washed the dishes for a dinner he'd prepared, which no one would be eating. Kai leaned against the dining table, not at all bothering to help. "Here I come, thinking we could have an evening just for ourselves, with grandpa out for a trek with his friends and all. I bother to make everyone's favourite dishes as soon as came back from visiting Isa and Zen and checking out Mariah from the hospital, only for you to exhaust them to this extent? How long did you make them practice that Tyson didn't even ask for food? He's always starving.""From three. Look, I understand that I might have gone a bit overboard today—" 

"MIGHT HAVE? May drigger have mercy, Kai, Tyson hadn't looked as exhausted as he did just now even after his final match against Zeo!" Ray was now all but shouting. Kai wasn't one to back down either. "That's because he was at his peak form then! I saw his performance today, ABSOLUTELY PA-THE-TIC!" He said, with as much venom he could muster.

Ray quietened down. "You're being too harsh on him, on both of them, to be honest." Kai matched his tone. "Because I know what comes next. Not everything is roses after becoming the world champion. Your work isn't over just after the tournament. Become a world champ once, people just attribute it to luck, but twice? That draws attention, especially the bad kind." he said, his hand instinctively raising to the bullet scar.

"If not for the shoot-out that happened three months ago, Tyson would have had at least three bladers challenging his title in an official match by now. I'm not going to put even put a number on the number of unofficial challengers he would have faced. Taking down THE world champ is always a symbol of power. No matter that they catch him by surprise or the number of illegal ways and under-handed tricks they use to do so, the world champion is always expected to play honourably and win, unless he likes to be called ruthless or weak. He cannot afford to lose any matches from now on, official or otherwise, if he wants to be taken seriously, that is."

"You keep talking of Tyson alone." Ray noted, lifting an eyebrow. Kai laughed dryly "Make no mistake, they will come for Max too, but not as viciously as they'll come for Tyson. Max lost his match in the finals. Tyson singlehandedly won his tag-team the second world championship. I lost and you won your match during the first world championship, making it a tie. Tyson's match was the defining match. In all of beyblading history, there have only been a selected few teams who have won the world championships twice, fewer of them consecutively. Officially, our team may have won the championships twice collectively, but make no mistake, the world recognizes Tyson alone as the two-time world champion."

Kai ran his hands through his hair. "And that's not all. Mr. Dickenson kind or used Tyson, with his silly charm and goofy nature, as his poster-boy when he was trying to revive and launch beyblading worldwide as a fun sport instead of the ruthless and dark-ally sport it had grown synonymous with before. Last time he lost a match against Ozuma, BBA's stock market shares crashed. Two of the five investors nearly backed out until I intervened and assured them it was only a minor setback. Something like that happens now, the aftereffects will be ten times worse! I accept I pushed the two of them hard today, but they needed the wake-up call! The two of them can't goof around forever, not when things much bigger than either of us are affected here!" Kai finished, frustration evident in his voice.

"Alright, but you will not be training them without my supervision from now on." Kai didn't argue further. It was a fair compromise, both of them had made their point. Ray glanced at the clock then. It was nearly seven. "Will you be staying for dinner? He asked. "No thank you. I have other places to be." replied Kai, heading to the door. "Thought so. At least take the steak with you, I've packed it for you." He says, lifting the tiffin box for him to see, a mischivious grin on his face. Kai could never say no for steak. He rolls his eyes instead, but still can't seem to hide the smile on his face. "Can't let me stay mad at you for too long, can you?" He muttered as he snatched the box from his hands, making Ray laugh.That was when Kenny called out at the door.

 "I'll let him in on my way out" Kai informed Ray a he left the kitchen. "Tyson's and Max's blades are on the dining table, do the upgrades you were telling me about a week ago. Ask for Ray's beyblade and do his too if you have the time." He told Kenny, getting across the point directly. he was back to the reserved captain mode. Kenny looked confused. "But where are you going? Ray told me we were—" "The get-together is postponed for now." He cut-in before disappearing into the night.

******

Words: 2916

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A/N: Seems like I'm on a writing spree, in the middle of my exams no less. And once again nearly 3k words!!! Tell me what you think of this chapter. Vote and comment guys!

And completely out of context, how often do you open wattpad?

Happy reading!