Beyblade Fan Fiction ❯ Guilt ❯ Don't judge what you don't know ( Chapter 4 )

Chapter 4

Oliver knocked on the door again. Without even waiting for an answer he entered. The minute he got a good look of faith his eyes widened to a considerable size.
“You look stunning. Your hair is beautiful. Nicole, mes compliments to you.”
His second reaction seemed pensive though.
“Hmmm, there seems to be something missing. Don’t you have some earrings or bracelets or so? I knew I should’ve gotten you some. Aha!”
Before faith could’ve protested he had turned over her scruffy backpack and was rummaging through the content. He had found her mothers earrings. They were beautiful silver strands, the end of each strand decorated with a small diamond. She had always kept them in the small grey velvet box for safekeeping. She didn’t know what she would do if she ever lost them. Oliver was now presenting them to her with a smile on his face and a look that encouraged her to wear them. For the first time her eyes started to turn amber.

“Put those back…now.”
“But why? They would look superb with the dress, with you. Why you keep them in the bottom of your bag, I don’t understand.”
She snatched the box from his hands and was about to place it back in the bag, along with all of her other possessions. She glared again at him, and unlike Johnny, Oliver did put a few unwilling steps back.
“They were my mothers, and the only thing I have left to remind me of hers. If I ever lose them, I’ll lose the last of my memories of her. She liked to wear them when she and my dad went out on a date. She was wearing them that day.”
“What day?”
She was snapped out of her memories realising she was still holding the box. She looked at Oliver confused for a while, not realising that she had spoken out loud. When the realisation did strike her she glared at him.
“No day, ok? It’s none of your business.”
“If they were your mother’s favourite earrings, then she would be sad to see the beauty of it go to waste in a velvet box. She would want you to wear them, if only for a day. You won’t loose them, I promise.”

His determined gaze made her doubt. She had always liked these earrings, and her mom had once told her that she could have them once she was old enough for them. But she was still afraid of losing them.
“Wear them, it would make her proud. And you would still be remembering your mother. She would be with you if you wore them.”
She sighed and put them on. When she looked at herself in the mirror she noticed how much her face looked like her mothers. Even though the memory of her face was becoming vague. She was going to place the rest of her stuff back in the bag but before she could even start Oliver took her by the hand. He had noticed her eyes had become a soft brown.
-Strange, I could’ve sworn her eyes were green.-

“c’mon, they’ll be waiting for us. We’re already late as it is.”
When the green haired boy led her down the stairs she mentally prepared herself for Johnny’s crude remarks. She was puzzled as to why she let the boy get to him. Maybe it was because of the red hair that reminded her of Tala so much. Briefly she wondered how they were doing, and if they were missing her just as much as she was missing them, but put it out of her mind when she realised that she was probably assumed dead by her most beloved friends. And even though the thought hurt every part of her soul as if it was being pierced with a flaming knife she forced herself not to let one tear slip. Johnny would not make her become weak.

Little did she know that the comrades she had left years ago were missing her even harder. She had been right to think that Boris had told them that she was dead. It was a harsh blow for the both of them. Kai nearly destroyed everything and everyone that came in his wake. But once Boris had ‘trained’ him, he seemed to have forgotten that she had even existed. Tala on the other hand suffered in silence. Like faith he refused to cry, but it was difficult. Especially during the lonely nights in cold Russia. The beds were far from comfortable and the high barred windows felt like a prison. It was hard not to think about how the girl always seemed to make the days and nights a little more bearable. Especially when she had nightmares and needed comforting. Then they could keep her safe in between him and Kai.
The whole time Tala also kept fighting the little inkling inside of himself that she was still alive somewhere. He didn’t wish to hope, but he still did. And he didn’t realise that that inkling was the only thing that kept him fighting for his life sometimes. The hope that he would see her again and that they would be free together. Both of the Russians were forced to deal with their problems alone. They couldn’t even talk to each other about it. Tala found that out the hard way. This way it was hard for Tala to know that she hadn’t been a dream, and even harder for him to remember what she looked like and the way her voice always made him feel human. He may have become cold now, but that didn’t mean that he did not care for his friends.

Back in Paris faith, who was indeed alive and kicking, was getting embarrassed at the stares she got when she got down. Oliver had conveniently forgotten that it was a dinner party with several teams, including the American All Stars. And she had no idea how she was supposed to behave. She was currently standing at the bottom of the stairs, surrounded by the Majestics so she couldn’t see the rest just yet, but she hadn’t missed the gazes as she walked down. Cursing her very noticeable hair colour she knew that she was in for a hard time.

Robert noticed her nervousness and tried to speak some words of comfort.
“Do not worry. The demolition boys are a thing from the past now. I’m sure that they’ll see that you are totally not like those …” he quickly changed what he was saying after receiving her piercing amber/red glare. “You are totally not what they thought you were. You washed that past together with all the dirt from your journey. And I must say you look absolutely stunning. You are like a diamond, my girl. You just needed some polishing. Wouldn’t you agree Johnny?”

4 pairs of eyes landed on the red headed blader, who hadn’t said a word ever since she had appeared at the top of the stairs. To say that he had been blown away by her appearance would have been an understatement. He had been so full of hatred when he had first seen her. She seemed the represent everything that he despised. But now he couldn’t even remember his own name.
“Eum yes, she looks ok…I guess.”
Enrique gave a grin to Oliver who grinned back just as wide. The redhead had never been a good liar, and the look on his face said more than a thousand words.

“I believe we have blocked this passageway long enough now. Miss Faith, I would be honoured to have the first dance.”
Robert stretched out a hand and bowed courteously. She looked at him with an unsure gaze in her eyes. She had never attended something like this before. And the only dancing she had ever done was when she was little and standing on her fathers shoes as he twirled her around a few times. She was completely dumbstruck at what to do. Again the lavender haired man noticed her uneasiness and whispered quickly in her ear. “Don’t worry, just follow my lead and nothing will go wrong. Half of these people don’t know how to dance anyway.”

Giving a small chuckle she grasped the outstretched hand and let her be swept away to the dance floor as a waltz began its first notes. Many things can be said about Robert, but not that he is a bad dancer. Faith felt like she was flying instead of dancing. It seemed like the woody actions of the Majestics team leader were only off the dance floor. What was only mere minutes in reality seemed to last for hours for her. Too soon for her liking was she taken back towards the team of aristocrats who seemed to have been joined by a jovial looking blonde boy.
At the sight of her and Robert, Oliver gave a small squeak of joy and motioned them to come faster.
“Ah faith, I would like you to meet a member from the all starz. This is Max, my boyfriend.”
At those words the blonde’s cheeks flushed crimson and found the floor interesting.
“Oliver, you promised you wouldn’t. You know how most people react to stuff like that.”
“Max, darling, how many times must I say that you worry too much? This is the 21st century…it’s not like they’ll hang us for being gay.”

As Max looked up to glare at his lover he noticed faiths hand hanging in front of him. It took him a while before he realised that he was meant to shake it.
“It’s a pleasure to meet you sir, it’s an honour to meet the man that makes Oliver so happy.”
At this Max beamed and allowed Oliver to dance with him. For once he didn’t care what other people thought. Her sentence kept ringing in his head like a small chime. He was the one that made him happy, and that made Max feel proud.
“Wow, well done faith. That’s the first time I’ve ever seen them so close in public. But you must be famished. Let’s go and get our seats at the dinner table.”

It was Enrique who took her by the hand this time as he guided her to her table. During the course of the day she had very much enjoyed herself and the result of that was beginning to show in her eyes. During the meal, when Oliver and Max had rejoined the table, Enrique finally picked up the courage to ask her the simple question.
“Do you wear coloured contacts or something faith?”
“No, why?”
“Well, they were green when we first met, and now they seem to be more of an aqua colour. If not lenses, I must’ve been seriously mistaken about your eye colour at first.”
“No, you are right; they were green when we met Enrique. To make a long story short, I was born with the weird ability to have my eye colour change with the emotion that I’m feeling. Because Biovolt thought that it was a disadvantage, they trained it out of me. But I must be losing my touch.’”
Johnny seemed to be able to open his mouth once again after this. It seemed like the name Biovolt had that wonderful effect on him.
“What is your normal eye colour?”

"I don't know. It's been so long that I can't remember. I think it must've been some form of green if they trained that to be my standard eye colour."
"If you can't remember, how long were you in Biovolt then?"
"Johnny, that is not a question that you should ask her, and definitely not now. We are celebrating, no need to bring up bad memories. Biovolt is a thing of the past now."
For the first time Oliver actually looked angry. But Max looked up surprised at faith, he had heard the name of Biovolt drop before, but he hadn't really been paying attention to it, until Oliver said the name. But now he realised that this girl had been a former member of the hated team.
"Hang on a second; you were part of the Demolition Boys?"
"Yes, but its not like I had any choice."
"The hell you did, all the members from that team are criminalistic, backstabbing sneaks, not to mention the scum of the earth. They deserve nothing better than to be hanged. You can be glad you're under the protection of Robert and his team now, or you wouldn't make it out alive. You wouldn't even survive a decent beybattle without your sneaky tricks...”

That did it for Faith. Every word he spoke both angered her and made her upset, for it all cut through her like a knife. She had expected that kind of tongue from Johnny, but Max had seemed like such a friendly and caring boy that his words crushed her. She thought he would’ve been a person that didn’t judge without knowing a person. Is that really how everyone thought about her team? But she realised that they did not know better, they had not been in their place, they did not know what her team had gone through. But instead of getting into a rage she just stood up from the table, laid the napkin on her plate looked at him with red fury in her eyes and said:
“You don't know anything about me; do not judge what you not know.”
Then turned and left for her room.
After all this Max was surprised that everyone was looking at him angrily.
"What?"
"Max, how dare you say all those things, do you know any of the Demolition Boys personally?"
"No...But I’m right, I mean, you see how she reacted to the comment."
"Who wouldn't after such an insult? We haven't known her that long yet bunny*, but we do know that she and a lot of the people that are in Biovolt are not what you say they are. You hurt her deeply by saying this. Just for that you'll be sleeping in your own bed tonight."
Oliver stood up and went after faith.

In the meanwhile she was sitting in a corner in her room. The comments had indeed hurt her very deeply. But not because she took the insults personally, she was used to the finger pointing by now. But it was what he had said about the rest of her team, especially Kai and Tala. He had called them criminals and backstabbers, even though he didn't have a clue about how they were. She wished she could prove that to him, but she couldn't.
Laying her head on her knees she fought against the tears. But this time she couldn’t win the battle. The words had been too harsh. She never noticed Oliver coming in until he had wrapped his arms around her shoulder. She looked at him scared and tried to wipe away all traces of tears. But he beat her to it. He took out a handkerchief and wiped her cheeks.

“What a way to ruin a perfect evening isn’t it?”
Not really noticing the comforting tone in his voice, she thought he had meant her.
“I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to. But I just couldn’t stand it any longer. I had to leave. I’m really sorry.”
“Ah, non Faith, I didn’t mean you. Well I did, but I didn’t mean that you ruined the evening, but that your evening was ruined.” He halted for a few seconds, repeating the sentence in his head. “And I just realised how complicated that sounds. But anyhoo, I sincerely apologise for everything Max said tonight. He doesn’t know you; he is in no position to judge. I’m sure he didn’t mean to be so rude.”
“Your apologies mean nothing because they are yours, not his. I heard the venom in his voice. He meant every word. And that hurts me Oliver, because he knows nothing about me or my friends.”
She didn’t realise that she wasn’t talking about her team anymore, but about Kai and Tala. She had never really gotten along with the rest of them. The insult Max had spewed about the both of them hurt her the most. What he thought of the rest of Biovolt didn’t matter to her.
“Well, you are certainly proving me wrong on the fact that every person in Biovolt has no feelings.”
He only realised how insulting it sounded to faith when she harshly pushed him away from him.
But he was back next to her in an instant

“I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have put it the way. But you cannot expect us to know what you and you friends are like if we don’t know you. Before I met you I could only judge upon what I heard from other teams and my own experience with your team in the Russian tournament. Those are but superficial judgements. Now are you going to sit here and mope for the rest of the evening or are you going to prove to Max that he is wrong? I might not have known you for long, but I know for sure that you are not what he says you are. And that the friends you had in Biovolt aren’t either, otherwise you wouldn’t have been friends with them.”
“You’re right; I wouldn’t if I hadn’t known them since the beginning. But if I hadn’t become friends with them I would have become a machine. The judgement isn’t just superficial Oliver. It’s true. We weren’t like that at first. But, but Biovolt changed us, turned us in to these monsters your lover spoke of. If the three of us hadn’t had each other to lean on we would’ve become exactly what Max said. But we kept each other humane and polite. I, we, none of us ever wanted to end up in that hellhole. But I just wish everyone stopped looking at us like we choose to be part of Biovolt. That was the one thing that hurt us the most. That made us bitter. This in turn made it easier for Boris to corrupt our beings bit by bit.”

“Who is the 'we' you keep talking about? Your friends? The ones still in Biovolt? Who are they, maybe we can help.”
Oliver and Faith looked at Max standing in the doorway, both of them with a glare on their face. But the sorrow and pity in his eyes told Oliver that he finally understood. Even though the fact that he had learned through eavesdropping wasn’t exactly the right way to do it. Faith noticed the look in the blonds face as well, and got angry at the pity that was readable in them. That was one of the things on her most hated list, just below the ‘judging a book by its cover’ thing and lying. She glared at the boy, even though the effect was a little ruined because of the redness of her eyes.
“It doesn’t matter who they are, to them I am dead now. And I don’t need your pity or help.”

Max closed the door and moved to sit next to them.
“If you won’t take my help, will you at least accept my apologies? I didn’t know, I’m sorry. I only believed what my mom’s team told me, and after a while I forgot there was another side to the story.”
His eyes seemed so sincere that faith mustered a slight nod and then just put her face in her hands. More out of exhaustion than anything else. Today had been an emotional rollercoaster for her, and now she was paying the price for the years of being nothing but a human shell. She felt Max and Oliver helping her up and towards the bed. She looked at them confused.
“Max and I figured it would be more comfortable for you to rest on than the ground. You must be tired after all the travelling.”
She nodded, gratitude showing from her face, and she took of her mothers earrings, putting them back in the box tenderly. All she wanted to do now was to crawl under the sheets and sleep. But she would kill herself if anything happened to the dress because of that. She moved to the bathroom as she bid goodnight to Max and Oliver. After the first had gone Oliver lingered at the door for a moment, waiting till faith had finished changing and got out of the bathroom again to crawl in bed.
“We can talk tomorrow. Sweet dreams faith.”




A/n: well that’s another chapter :P, Hope you liked. All reviews accepted ^^ well except flames of course (duuuuuh)

(*) Somehow Max always reminds me of a little bunny that always looks so cute and innocent.