Beyond the Mask - A Bakugan fanfic

Chapter 6

Amari returned home, same as usual. For once, she appreciated the bland normalcy of her routine. A note from her foster folks about the promised precooked food awaiting her in the fridge and a simple apology of them both coming home late again that night set Amari at ease. What would she have told her foster parents if they asked her why she looked so pale and clammy?

"Don't worry, I just saw a huge black dragon tear a giant mosquito monster to shreds making it literally unable to transform back to its ball form, no big deal. What's for dinner?"

That definitely would've gone over well with them. They probably would have called Byron's parents to apologize and then call the school to ban all Bakugan, though Amari wouldn't be too surprised if they did receive a hysterical call from Byron's parents. Luckily, she was home before Souma and Mai, and she could easily intercept it, should it actually happen.

Amari's foster parents knew that she liked Bakugan, they often liked to dabble in a battle with her from time to time, but that's all it was to them, a fun little game that the three of them could play together whenever they were around or had the time. They knew nothing of the battle field or the extent these battles can go to. They didn't have the faintest clue about what Bakugan were or how to use them, outside of their marble shape and the idea that you had to also use cards in order to play with them, but Amari was more than happy to keep things that way with them. 

Amari followed the note's instructions, "red lidded container, top shelf of the fridge," heated up the food, and trudged up the stairs to her bedroom.

The starkness of her room never bothered her so much until now. Although the warmed food, a plate of leftover chicken and sweet potato, smelled delectable, the sheer lack of stuff in her room made her stomach uneasy.

She'd lived with Souma and Mai for almost ten months at that point, having moved in with them well before the school year started. They encouraged her to do whatever she pleased, make her new room as homey and comfortable as she liked. Only, she didn't have much of anything besides the clothes on her back and the few extras she kept in her backpack. She had a blanket that she'd been given in between homes, something to help with each transition, but that was it; only the blanket and her Bakugan really belonged to her. Everything else, the phone, the computer, the bed, the room, Souma and Mai had all given to her. They were night enough, her foster parents, but Amari never liked to settle into a new place until she felt sure. Of course, ten months was nothing to sneeze at, and she always felt bad whenever they poked their heads in to check on her. Most often she was at her desk, on the Baku-Logs or doing her homework, but each and every time they would look around the room just to see if she had done something, anything to make the room her own, other than putting her clothes in the dresser drawers, laying her blanket on the bed, or discarding her book bag on the floor, their faces would fall. When they saw that nothing had changed, Amari knew they were disappointed. Mai was better at hiding it, but Amari chocked that up to her high-profile job as an attorney. Souma, however, was like reading one of those flashing traffic signs seen on the side of the road in a construction zone: you couldn't NOT read it.

"She hasn't changed a thing," his face would read. "Does she even like being here?"

But Amari did, she loved living with the two of them. The first couple of weeks living with them were spent getting to know one another and getting used to the rules and routines of the household. Both Souma and Mai were fairly laid back as far as homework and chores went; so long as Amari took care of what was expected of her, they left her alone in that regard.

Then both their jobs picked up. Mai found new clients to represent and Souma had to help his company prepare for a new product launch, then they seemed to leave Amari alone in every regard. Not that she minded, she was used to being left alone. She actually preferred it, if she were being honest. There were sometimes, however, when she wished she had someone to talk to. Kumiko liked to hear her own voice, so she wasn't much help when it came to conversation, and no one else at school really took too well with Amari and her stand off-ish tendencies. But just a friend, however big or small, just another voice besides the one in her head was all Amari really wanted.