(Outdated) The King of Elements (part 2)

Chapter 43

Megumi sat in the armchair of her living room, worrying about Katherine. Ever since she had visited her in her house, Katherine had been particularly distant from Megumi. She didn't text as much as she used to, nor did she call. In fact, Megumi rarely seen her in the cafeteria on Amity. Did I come on too strong?

"Are you okay, Gumi?" Tiffany asked. Both her and Toney sat on the love seat; Tiffany with a cup of tea at hand, Toney with a bottle of beer. They both looked at Megumi, sharing the same concerned expression.

After taking a drink of beer, Toney chimed in. "Yeah, you've been home from school for about an hour and you barely even begged to use the T.V. Do you have a bully in school that I need to speak with?"

Megumi could tell by the hardness of his voice that Toney was serious. If she didn't say anything now, he'd probably rush the school and demand to speak with everyone that she had talked to. "No, daddy. It's not that kind of problem." She sighed before taking her phone out of her pocket. "I'm sorry, but I have to make a phone call." And with that, she left the living room for her room, shut her door, and jumped face first into the bed. Exhaling, she looked through her contact list to Katherine's phone number, and called her.

After a ring, she answered with a simple "Hello."

Knowing that she wasn't going to be able to hide the grief from her voice, she said, "Hey Kat. Did I do something wrong to you?"

Katherine hesitated. "No. It wasn't you that did something wrong." With a sigh, she said, "Do you have the Emblem of Valor training Thursday?"

"Yeah. At least, I'm supposed to."

"Do you think that we could talk to each other in private afterwards?"

That brought a panic to Megumi's heart. "Couldn't you just tell me now?"

"Not really. For something like this, I need to speak with you face to face. Is that okay?"

She sat upright in her bed, facing the door. "Sure. I think that-" She was silenced by her cracked door. "Hold on," she said to Katherine before she grabbed a Pokémon plushyplushie and threw it at the door. With a sigh, Toney opened the door, his face full of discontent. "Geez, daddy. Were you listening in on my conversation?"

"Sorry Megumi. I thought someone was trying to attack my baby girl."

Sighing, Megumi asked, "Daddy, who taught me how to fight?"

"I did." Toney said, lowering his head.

"And who has the toughest daughter in the world?"

"I do," Toney sighed.

"Right. So, who shouldn't worry?"

"Me." He lifted his head before continuing. "But if you need any help, just call your daddy." He pounded his rugged fists together as he said, "I'll deliver so much help across their faces-"

"Daddy? I'm on the phone," Megumi interrupted, gesturing to the phone beside her face.

Toney silently said his apologies as he snuck out of the room and closed the door shut.

Megumi gave a frustrated grunt before she asked Katherine, "You didn't hear any of that, did you?"

"Oh, I heard it all," Katherine said, sounding close to laughing.

"If you tell anyone, I swear I'll do something." She tried her best to sound threatening, but even she cracked a smile at the threat.

"Do something? Like what, exactly?" Asked Katherine, bemused.

"I don't know. Gosh," she snickered. Before she was able to continue, a tone sounded over the phone. She glanced at the phone, seeing the name Kitty beside an image of a telephone receiver. "Hang on a mo'. I've got another call on the other line."

"Alright. I'll be here," Katherine managed to make out through her laughing.

She tapped the receiver icon before holding the phone back up to her ear. "So, how was the date?"

"It was better than I could've imagined," Kim said, sounding thrilled to bits. "It's not over yet, though. My mother wanted me to go to the store to buy a dream catcher. She said that she accidentally broke one of hers. Ke'Undre? I didn't know that you ate worms." After a moment, Kim said, "Yeah, those are real."

"What?!" Megumi managed to hear Dre call out before a disgusted groan.

Kim laughed as she said, "Ke'Undre almost bought a box of flavored meal worms. He didn't know that they were actual worms." Gross. "Anyway, we've got to get back to shopping. I'll talk to you later." She hung up.

Megumi tapped on the phone's screen to put Katherine back on the other line. "Hey Kat. Instead of calling me Megumi, call me cupid from now on."