Matthew Scarpa's Story

"It's been two months, one week, four days and twenty one hours since I split from the others." The pen scribbled furiously across the bleached white parchment of Matthew's ebony dyed, leather bound journal. He paused for a moment, cracking the seal on what was probably his fourth Dr. Pepper bottle today. "How to word the next bit. Hmm." He mumbled and questioned it as he downed the first third or so of soda in one swift motion. As he finally ironed out the thought, he nearly choked on the cola as he moved to pick up the pen once more. "A word of advice from one who's lasted. Never split from the others. It doesn't bode well." The dull roar of the Saturday morning mall crowd slowly bled through his choice of personal music, even in this back corner of the book store. With a sigh, Matthew's journal snapped shut, the crackle of fresh pages somehow audible over the crowd's mumble.

"Two wards, obviously unprotected at this point, both in the same city." His thoughts sorted themselves as he stepped across the threshold into the actual mall itself, easily flowing into the crowd that poured through the front doors. A benefit of being the store owner's son was that he had free reign of the place so he could spend the night in there if he wanted. The only downside? He had to run the entire place alone now that his dad had to pick up slack on the West Coast for the useless bunch of Guardians there. Come to think of it, his dad had been gone so long that Matthew never got to tell him about the split. "Eventually." He murmured as he handed the store's keys to the manager, Aaron near the food court. "Make me some money today Aaron." He joked as he went to buy some breakfast. It wasn't too long after that when he spotted the first ward, one Eve Boleyn. "A spoiled princess no doubt." Rang Matthew's inner voice as they passed in the thoroughfare.

His second ward, a girl named Trinity he knew would be there soon. She and Matthew had some mutual friends at school, ones that had invited him to go with them to blow off some steam up here at Stonebriar today, an offer which he politely declined. She, Matthew already had a fair opinion on. She hadn't done any harm to him, and neither he to her as far as he could recall, unlike Eve whom he'd only barely seen at the school before. "What a stroke of luck," he thought sarcastically. "I've got to deal with two attempts on a live instead of one today. Might as well get started."

Trinity sharpened her gaze on the paper in front of her, a half fished drawing of a dog taking up most of the paper. Trinity bit her lip, brushed the hair out of her face, then looked up at her dog, Patrick, for the millionth time. Carefully, she pulled her pencil along the paper, and with one last stroke, she threw the paper down in triumph. It looked very realistic, up to Patrick's dopey grin on his face. Trinity patted his head before picking up the paper again to examine her work. The nose was a little messed up, the tail a little to long, and the paws to small, but other than that, it looked fantastic. Happy with her drawing, she struck the paper in her journal.

A car horn broke her train of thought, and she jumped up, looking at the time. Right on time, as usual she thought, grabbing her purse and heading out the door, giving one more pat on patrick's head before locking the door behind her. When she got to the car, her friend smiled to her. "Get in the car Trin, we are going shopping" she said, pushing open the door so she could climb in.
***
The mall was packed with people, which made sense as it was a saturday morning. "Ok, that's over there. We have to cross the food court first," her friend said, Trinity just realizing they were talking. Silently, she crossed the food court with her friends, fiddling with her purse. An odd feeling crept over her, as if she was being watched. Without making it obvious, she peered behind her to find a blonde guy practically staring at her. He looked kind of cute, but he was staring at her. Trinity whispered to her friends. "hey guys, right behind me. Cute, creepy guy at two o' clock," she said. Of course, her friends, being the total idiots they are, all turned to look past her at the same time. Might as well have been waving at the guy. Why was he looking at her?

Eve, head held high and making her way through the mall's Saturday crowd, towards the arts and crafts store. Her white with pink frills Lolita dress floated softly around her knees, and her white pumps clicking on the tiled floor with every step she took. Today she was at the mall to purchase some new paint brushes, since someone at school had 'accidentally' used hers by mistake and ruined them. Eve knew it was no accident, everyone wanted what she had, why wouldn't they? She was after all, the most popular, most beautiful, the most talented, and had only the best of everything.

However, Eve had to settle for second rate paint brushes. Her parents were denying her the right to order a new set of brushes. Too expensive, they said. You can not always get everything you want, they said. But why not? She was royalty among everyone! Everyone praised her, loved her, wanted to be her! And those who did not, were just jealous and in denial.

With her second rate paint brushes purchased, Eve made her way through the food court when she spotted a group of students from her school. She really only recognized one girl, of whom she had spoken with a few times in the art room. As Eve strode toward the girl, she passed by a boy who she deemed familiar, but since she did not know his name, he was of little importance to Eve, and therefore not worthy of any acknowledgment from her.

“My, my. Miss Yuliana, what brings you and your...” Eve paused, pushing her dark red hair off her shoulder. “Associates to this poor excuse of a mall?”

Matthew paused for a moment as Eve entered the scene , then blinked a few times, shook his head and stood up straight, easily faking a momentary brain lapse accompanied with a thousand yard stare. Plastering on a fake smile was nothing new to Matthew, he'd grown accustomed to it over the years, a good amount of reasons to keep it stuck to his face. With a slow gait, he made his way across the mall's corridor towards Trinity and Eve, his mind already arguing against itself. More children to babysit. Let them stew in their own muck. You had enough when Emily was lost remember?

"Trinity right? And Eve the new girl. I'm Matthew," That's just it, they're kids. They need the help. They have no clue what'll happen if you don't step in.

"Sorry kind of spaced out for a minute there. Hope I didn't come off as a creep or anything." Losing one of them is just as bad as losing family. Drop them while you can and let the others deal with the hassle.

"So there's a football game tonight. I'm playing quarterback and Richard's brother Curtis is playing wide receiver. I'm sure he'd love to see you there Trinity, and Eve it'd be a great chance to settle in, make yourself some new friends." They need you, you stupid lug, and you know it.

At that, the negative voice promptly disappeared for a moment to think as Matthew reached into his pocket to grab the spare tickets he'd "acquired", then returned with a simple response. Shit. "Right on the fifty, two rows back. You'll be right in the best seats to see the game." He said handing them each a ticket. "If you're up for it then you're set to go and if not, well those are some pretty hard to snag tickets so you could always sell them at the gates. But I've got to get running before Aaron realizes that he's the only manager in the store. Catch you later!" With a goofy half salute, Matthew started backing up for a few feet then turned and jogged back up to the book store, the smile melting away as soon as the others couldn't see him. Stupid bastard. The negative voice chided as he made his way back upstairs.

Eve watched the boy 'Matthew' from the corner of her eye. 'Settle in? Make new friends? As if there is anyone worthwhile or even worthy here to be consider a 'friend' of mine.' Even thought to herself as she turned to face Matthew completely as he pulled tickets from his pocket. 'Well now... No sense in turning down something free, even if it is boring. Maybe there will be a decent and handsome man there to sweep me away.'

“Well,” Eve started as she took a ticket from his hand and then watched as he rushed off. “Giving me the best seat should be mandatory.” With a wave of her hand to Trinity, Eve moved on. “See you at the game Trinity.”

Eve made her way out of the mall, and frowned as she realized she would have to take the bus home. Her parents had taken her car away because of a speeding ticket she had gotten a week ago. “Gross,” She muttered to herself. “Now where must I go to get on the bus... And how long will they force me to wait for its arrival?”

Eve was irritated, she had never needed to take a bus before. Heck she had always had people tend to her, she didn't have the first clue on how 'everyday' people got around or did anything.

Takashi Inevera

Kai thanked her, and then told her what she'd expected to hear. That he couldn't promise to stay out of trouble. Well, that much she'd figured, especially by his nature and what she'd seen so far. He ran his hands through his hair and then did something that she wasn't expecting. Kai grabbed her and pulled her into a tight embrace against him. His heat seeped through her tattered shirt and filled her with a ray of emotions that confused her and left her stunned and unable to fight against him.

Kai moved then, with his strong arms holding her against him, literally carrying her awkwardly through the trees and back to the park. Takashi's mouth was opened in surprise, her heart thudding heavily in her chest. He was warm, strong, comforting. She didn't know what to think as she was carried. How was she supposed to react to this? He was easily breaking down every barrier she had and it had all happened within the couple of hours that she'd been with him.

He released her finally as they entered the park and his heavy voice assaulted her ears again. She looked up at him, her face redder than ever. It took her a moment to readjust herself and figure out what it was he'd said. Takashi had been covered in cuts and wounds and they reflected on his chest. Smears of her blood crisscrossed along his body and she was even more embarrassed that he'd hugged her in the condition she'd been in.

"Kai... you have blood on you..." she muttered, then his words registered to her.

"What now? Are we supposed to train? I don't want to be babysat, I want to be a team," he'd said.

"What?" She asked softly then shook her head, "Train? Team..." It took her another moment to realize what it was he meant. Takashi looked up at him as her eyes had been cast down as she'd tried to piece her mind back together after his last antics. She straightened herself and took a deep breath. She was going to do things differently this time, and this time she would come out on top, not Ivy.

"Train. We can start with that. I'll take you back with me to head quarters. It's where I stay anyway. I need some patching up, but I hope you're ready. I'm not an easy trainer," she warned him, hardening her facial features even as her lips twitched slightly. She turned and started walking, albeit a bit slowly, back towards the exit of the park.

Ivy Thomas

The bookstore at the mall was crowded, filled with mingling people. It was the second book store that she found herself in that day. Except this time she wasn't there looking for pagelings even though she knew that there were a few wandering around the area. She had her sights on one already and that hadn't gone entirely as planned. It didn't bother her though, she had been looking for Takashi for some time anyway. It was nice to see her old friend once again after the last year.

She leaned against the counter and waited. She wasn't there to buy anything as the other boy had asked her a few minutes ago. Ivy had told him that she was waiting for someone and so he'd left her alone, though his eyes kept roaming back to her with a questionable look on his face. It wasn't too long before she caught sight of who it was she wanted to see. He came rushing back into the store and took his place at the counter right after.

He didn't seem to notice her at first, so Ivy made her appearance known after a few minutes, "It's been a long time, Matthew," she said slowly, her lips pulled in a grin. Ivy flicked her burnt hazel gaze towards him. He hadn't changed much really, at least appearance wise, "Tell me, how have you been? A year is a long time.'

Her smile never faded as she gazed at him. She decided to throw him a curve ball just to see what kind of reaction he would give her in return, "Seen Takashi lately? No? That's too bad. I just went and saw her," Ivy leaned forward so that only he could hear her, "It was a nice little reunion. She hasn't lost her fighting spirit you know. That pageling of hers... quite an interesting young man. I though she would have quite being a guardian after her last failure. Wonder what would happen if the same thing happened this time around..." her eyes flashed wickedly as she watched him carefully.