Beyond the Mask - A Bakugan fanfic

Chapter 4

Amari walked to school alone that morning. Not only had Kumiko posted that video last night, but she had the audacity to skip out on their morning walk together too. The heat, the fire, the anger that Amari had felt last night rekindled with every step that she took towards her school. It wasn't until she reached her classroom that she saw Kumiko, sitting at her desk, reading over her notebook as if she had done nothing wrong.

Amari took a breath before stepping into the classroom. She had a few things on her mind that she wanted to say, but she knew that she couldn't possibly say them all at once. She had to be calm and collected for this confrontation, or at least as much as she could be. She turned up her nose and walked to her own desk, the one just behind Kumiko's, without even looking over at her friend. Amari took a seat without saying and word and just went to unpacking her bag, pulling out the necessary books she would need for that morning's class.

"Oh, hey," Kumiko said, finally realizing Amari's presence only after she sat down.

"Didn't see you at our stop this morning. You leave early for school?"

"Oh, yea, sorry about that," Kumiko turned around in her chair to properly face Amari. "Mom wanted me to walk the gremlins to their daycare this morning, so I had to leave super early. I meant to text you."

"Right," Amari said, keeping her eyes down. Her hands began to sweat as she arranged her books needlessly on her desk. She was so nervous she could practically feel her arms and legs shaking. She didn't even know if she were still mad, everything just felt numb to her.

"I saw that video you posted last night."

"Oh yea?" Kumiko hardly sounded as surprised as she probably wanted.

"I told you not to post anything. I didn't want to find anything out like that."

Kumiko turned fully around in her chair. Amari looked up at her to find a scowl on her face.

"Why not? He's new, something neither of us have ever seen before. We didn't even know what to search for. Sometimes to get information, you have to give information."

"Did you find anything out?"

The scowl turned smug as Kumiko leaned back a bit from Amari's desk.

"Just a bit. Now we know that he's not connected to that Masquerade guy everyone's been so terrified of."

"I could have easily told you that last night."

Kumiko shrugged.

"My mom's been monitoring my calls, you know that. She wants me to keep my perfect grade point average," she said in an almost mocking tone, the one that Amari always hated, even when she used it jokingly.

"Its almost summer, how is one phone call going to mess up your entire report card?"

"I don't know," Kumiko said exasperated, waving her hand about in the air. "You know how eccentric my mom can be."

"Well  thanks to your video, I'm probably going to have other battlers coming up to me wanting to fight," Amari said through gritted teeth. Her anxiety weaned and allowed for her frustration to come in again.

Kumiko flashed her a look, something between accusation and jealousy.

"Isn't that what you want? You're constantly talking about raising your ranking. Wouldn't a few more battles going your way help with that venture?"

"Sure, but-"

"Hey, Kumiko, Amari," a voice called from behind Amari. Both girls looked to see one of their classmates, Byron, approaching them. Byron was a short, stocky kid, whose attitude made up for his shorter than average height. His dark hair was swept up in the usual condescending quiff that smelled like the boys' locker room after an excruciating gym class. She couldn't help but grimace as he approached, bringing the horrid smell with him. Kumiko, always accepting of attention, greeted the boy with a smile.