Chapter 41 - Trouble Brewing
The days passed by. Days turned to weeks, and weeks into months. Before they knew it, the mid year exams had come upon them.
The Elite Five were at the school lawn, studying. Well, truth be told, only Kay was studying. Okay. Fine. Kay was flipping through the books. She already knew the topics well, but felt she had to make some show of actual studying. The boys, however, were busy fooling around and generally making loud noises.
Kyle, Sam and Ali were playing frisbee while Xing Han ... well, he was trying to keep up. As usual, Kyle and Ali were making it like a competition, with making jumps and flips while throwing. Sam wasn't bad, despite him being a 'nerd' although he opted out on any fancy moves. Xing Han had slight difficulty in running after the frisbee that Kyle tended to deliberately throw either higher, or slightly further away from Xing Han.
It was tough love, you see. Kyle wanted Xing Han to exercise more. It wasn't much; he didn't throw it *that* far away. Xing Han, however, had enough exercise and decided to take a rest. He jogged over to Kay, who was sitting on a mat several metres away.
"So, what is your aim this time, Kay?" asked Xing Han curiously, sitting down next to her and peering over her shoulder to the book she was looking at.
"Haven't decided yet," Kay confessed, "I don't have to do badly, but I am not sure if I want to be #1 now just to have Kyle topple me at the end of the year."
"Then just be #2 throughout," Xing Han suggested.
"It's not that easy to do, you know. I know what to do to be #1, but what about #2? Is there someone in this school that will ace everything? Or just have several As? So just what should my score be? It's so difficult!" Kay complained.
Kyle plopped down, putting his head on Kay's lap while looking up at her. Kay raised her arms up, protesting, "Kyle! You're all sweaty and stuff."
"Fine," he said getting up. He then took off his T-shirt, ignoring the kyaaaaa screams nearby and proceeded to wipe himself with it. Then, he reached for his bag, giving another vision of his firm chest and hard-rock abs to anyone who was interested to look. Taking out a clean T-shirt, he proceeded to put it on.
"Happy?" he said, before plopping back down on Kay's lap.
"How am I supposed to read if you're on my lap anyway?"
"Just a few minutes, Kay. I'm tired," Kyle asked, giving her a puppy look.
Kay sighed, and didn't answer but didn't push him off either. She just raised her book higher to read. Ali came over and leaned his back on Kay's back, saying, "Lean on me. It'll be easier."
Sam and Xing Han then lay down on their backs, to Kay's left and right respectively. "It's not fair that Kyle gets a soft pillow while we have this hard ground," Xing Han was saying.
"Get your own sister then," Kyle retorted, snuggling his head onto Kay's lap more, "This one is mine. No touch touch."
Kay smiled indulgently at Kyle, and looked at both Xing Han and Sam beside her, and the strong Ali behind her. She noticed their eyes getting heavier, and it wasn't long before all three were snoring away. She ruffled all of their hairs, and asked Ali, "Are you okay?"
Silence.
Turns out Ali had somehow fallen asleep as well. It shouldn't have been a surprise though since he seemed to have perfected sleeping in a sitting position in class quite well. Kay sighed, but let it be. Times like these were precious.
Janice was watching the whole scene with intense jealousy. She should have been there with them! Kyle would have used her lap as a pillow! But noooooo ... instead, she was forced to just watch them from afar like any of the other girls. She didn't know just what went wrong.
It had started off so beautifully, too. The forum post had burst, depicting Kyle as being a player at such a young age (even though the pictures clearly showed that the girl was the same in all of them). No one truly knew what Kyle was like, as he had always kept a low profile - other than his achievements, nothing else was known. So people were quick to believe that Kyle was capable of such things. They were aghast at the fact that a 12 year old could be so bold as to hug and even kiss a girl.
However, just as Janice managed to play the victim card and garner Kyle's protection (from his mum, no less), a new rumour spread about which seemed to 'explain' the pictures. Kyle was looking for a bride. So the pictures seemed to indicate that perhaps, that girl was "the one". People were also seeing more of Kyle, and more people were talking about him and how he acted : an outgoing, friendly guy. He flirts, but he never crossed the line. A flirty gentleman, that's what he was.
So people started being swayed by the fact that the pictures were not what it appeared to be at first. It wasn't a playboy playing around with different girls and getting them ruined ... but rather, a boy desperately looking for 'the one' before he is forced into marriage.
Janice was now finding that her earlier protests of it being her in the picture backfiring on her, as she could not now say that it is her. People believed that no one in their right mind would want to deny a relationship with Kyle, so it had to be the truth. Kay herself said there was nothing between Kyle and Janice. When Kay had first said it, people thought it meant Kyle had many girls - but in reality, Kay was affirming that it wasn't Janice but someone else, and they didn't want that someone else to misunderstand. (Of course, the last part being something they thought up of themselves). The icing on the cake? Kyle doesn't kiss-and-tell. So he was protecting the girl's reputation.
The once negative news became positive. Their respect for Kyle rose up. Of course, there were still some people who didn't believe it all, and felt it was Kyle hyping it up. Their voices were drowned though, and people just felt that they were sour grapes.
So Janice was unhappy. Very, very unhappy. She stomped her foot in frustration for the umpteenth time, biting into her sandwich savagely. Nothing she had planned was working out the way she wanted. Other than that brief moment at the Principle's Office, Kyle had never given her any attention. She had somehow managed to always join Kay when she was walking back to the dorms, but Kyle was either not with them or he was busy talking to Xing Han instead.
She hated Xing Han. Even now, he was lying down so closely to Kyle. She wished she could bite his head off. She bit into the sandwich again, tearing at it while imagining she had chomped off Xing Han's head and was pulling it off his shoulders. The chewy meat let her continue her thoughts of her actually chewing on some brain matter or flesh. It gave her immense satisfaction just visualising it.
Belinda was watching Janice's angry face as she ate, shuddering. She didn't know why, but the way Janice was eating her simple steak sandwich didn't seem right somehow. That glint in her eye, that chomp of anger, that smirk as she was chewing ... Belinda shuddered again. It sent chills down her spine.
**--**--**
Principal Dobbins wasn't having a fun time either. She perused the documents in front of her in frustration.
"Nothing?" she grumbled, "How can there be NOTHING at all?!"
She kept flipping through the pile of papers, thinking she may have missed something. But, no. Every single one of those papers had pictures and news about Kyle Smith. Yet, there was nothing negative in any of them. Okay, yes, there were but all were just rumours or unsubstantiated comments. There were no such scandalous pictures of him with any girl, and any news about him with a girl turned out to be fake.
After those scathing remarks from Delilah, Principal Dobbins wanted to make sure that what she would gather, would be undeniable and concrete. She went through the papers again, and frowned. No one could be this perfect. What were the fangirls doing anyway? All those shots, and sneak pictures, and not a single one that could show the 'real' him?
She snorted. This picture showed Kyle playing tag with Xing Han. That picture had him playing basketball with his teammates. Another picture showed Kyle being sandwiched in a hug by his team, celebrating a win. Yet another was of Kyle smiling with his sister. And another showed Kyle with the Elite Five eating, everyone laughing while Kyle was leaning away from Xing Han. All of these pictures were like this. Useless!! Why, in fact, he was practically either with his sister, or the other members of the Elite Five. Especially that Xing Han ...
Principal Dobbins' fingers paused, her eyes flashing as a sudden realisation hit her. Xing Han ... she frantically looked at all the pictures again, this time focusing on those that had Xing Han in them. The more she gathered, the more she smiled.
"Bingo," she said with a satisfied smile, as she picked out three pictures and placed them side-by-side. "I got you."