FINISHED >> Crouching Tiger, Hidden Mamba (Tay)

[sabre]

Dumb, dumb exams! Who needed them? Why in the world did school force you to waste precious memory space in pointless things such as these bunch of dates... heh, of what help could it possibly be to know that there was this guy named George Washington who was born in 1632 and died in 1899? I mean, who cared? And that the Everest was navigable... pfff! With a heavy sigh, the young man picked a history book from the shelves and took it to a nearby table. He allowed himself to fall on the chair and opened the book.

The myriad little black letters seemed to dance before Sabrel's eyes as he stared at the pages idly. He read the first sentence or so and then began skipping the pages, flipping them angrily, mentally complaining about how useless and badly done that book was... every page looked the same... it didn't even have pictures in it. What a waste of rain forest. He continued flipping the pages until he found the other lid. Sabrel sighed and then slipped underneath the table, searching in his green backpack for his notebook. Slowly, his eyes appeared above the table level, and his hands placed the torn notebook on its surface as if it was the sarcophagus of an Egyptian mummy.

The cover almost came off when he opened it, and many pages were torn and had his fingerprints marked all over them. His eyes skimmed through the scarce bits of spidery writing as he continued to search for the latest notes. Then he stopped, however, the page on which his search halted did not contain the notes he had been looking for, but rather a badly drawn cartoon of a long-haired girl wearing medieval armor, holding high a sword. On her face was a crazy look, and she had a tongue like a snake's. Sabrel chuckled quietly at the memories this piece of art brought.

[tay]

Tayla was walking to her locker after her last class of the day, American Goverment Honors. She knew plenty of the subject, easily able tell somebody what a bicameral legislature is, and how each branch can 'check' the other. But, that class was over for the day, and going to study for tomorrow was important. But first, she needed to get to her locker and drop off her goverment book.She made it there and had push some freshman girls out of the way who were just being all anoying and giddy, they really need to learn to stay away from older people. She opened up her locker and tossed her stuff in and grabbed out her blue pen and notebook. She turned around and slammed it shut before walking off to the library.

Tayla was walking down the hallways, moving quickly to keep her blood flowing, staying still made her feel cold, and she had things to do, the quicker the better, and that is what was needed. She reached to the library and walked, going to the back corner of the library where nobody really came to. She ploped down in a chair and fliped open her notebook to start writing her next speech. She had to write an opening speech for class, and few quick notes to be able refrence while during the debate. But as she started writing, she lost her muse, and just felt annoyed in there. She closed her notebook and got up, putting her chair back in under the table. She wandered around the library, flashing back on her old memories, especially those with hunting. Her favorite was a gator. It tasted so good that night,and eventually became a favorite meal of hers. Oh, the memories kept her happy and felt calm, well, until she saw him. It was Sabrel, that stupid, annoying, arrogant, jerkwad dillweed who thought he was king. A tiger may be fast, but useless once bittin by a black mamba. And then he started chuckling about something. She silent walked over there, and noticed the drawing.

She hissed at him before speaking. "Nice drawing of me taking over narnia." She glared at him, wanting to smack him, but didn't want catch his stupid disease. "Seriously, are you ever going to grow up? You are never going to make it in life." "

[sabre]

Although he wasn't making a sound, Sabrel was now laughing so hard he couldn't breathe at the pictures his imagination brought up about Tay Muro being Joanne De Arco facing the Inquisition, and the shady tribunal being unable to bring up anything she couldn't reply to with such correctness there was nothing they could do to her. It was his artistic representation of an event that happened the week before at American Government, that class they had to take together. Tay was like... Muropedia, she knew just that much. How horrible, huh?

So, still laughing was he when the girl in question showed up. He had his face pressed against his fist, and his elbow leaned on the right page of his tattered notebook. He was startled by the hiss behind him, and instinctively pushed himself away from the table and against the back of his seat, completely tearing off half the unfortunate note book in the process.

"Ach. Look at what you made me do..." He complained under his breath, although loud enough so that she may have heard.

Without saying anything else, he slipped under the table again and crawled around its single leg, like a kid looking for his spilled crayons, picking up all the scattered pages. Holding a particular page against the light, he found the notes he had been looking for earlier, so he crumpled the page into a ball and threw it in his camouflage print backpack. He clenched a fist and flexed his elbow suddenly in celebration of how he must have scored three points due to the awkward angle of the shot.

While doing all of this, he unknowingly left his defunct notebook unprotected atop the table, open in a page that showed a badly drawn knight on a horrid Arabian stallion, wielding a bill guisarme against an elephant knight... which looked more like an overgrown ant-eater, let's be honest here.

[tay]

Tayla was just thinking in her mind how stupid this kid was, ever since she met him freshman year, he just been on her nerves and all she wanted do was shift and inject him with 400mg of pure black mamba venom and just watch him suffer untill he dies. But she quickly shook the thought from her head, thinking about this kind of menacing, viscious, soothing stuff just isn't healthy, it might make her want to actually kill him, and though she wants to, it is against the law of the country, and life in jail or death penalty dosen't sound fun.

She then heard what he said about making him drop and rip his notebook pages.typical Sabrel, can't take responsibility for his own stuff. She just sighed, and then looked down to see the notebook was still left on the table, and the tiger was underneath the table like a little kid trying pick up dropped candy peices. She looked at him for a few seconds, and then back at the notebook. There was another interesting drawing, but of what she was confused. So, she decided to grab the notebook and started flipping the pages, seeing what else was in there.

She stoppped and looked at some pages that weren't falling out, and she wasn't shocked by what was in there. Whatever class he was using this for, was surely failing.And the little drawings here and there, what and who they were of just didn't connect in his head. She flipped through it some more, and then tossed it back onto the table. She then placed down her own notebook and pen on the edge of the table, walked to it and pulled out the chair and sat down at the table, with this idiot.

"If you kept better care of your stuff, everything work out a lot better. And learn draw better, I can't even understand half of anything in there. " She sighed and rolled her eyes at him in general, he was hopeless. "Why you even here to begin with? Your obviously not here to study."

[sabre]

His heart skipped a beat when he saw she had picked up his notebook, but it almost stopped when he saw her sitting at the table.

What is this supposed to mean? His mind complained, outraged.

Is she trying to run me of the table or what...? He furtively looked around, seeing few people, and nobody who seemed to be heading this way, besides, she was always alone, so maybe the mamba thought her venomous stare would suffice to steal the tiger's table.

Sabrel disagreed, and emerged from underneath the table, sitting on his chair with exaggerated dignity.

"Of course I'm here to study!" He defended himself pridefully.

Sabrel Ricardo! If you fail another class, I'll turn you into a rug! His usually easy-going and gentle father's warning still lingered in his head.

He uncrumpled the note and read it... or rather, tried to.

Cit... citi... cityzn...

He narrowed his eyes and turned the page around.

Ah, that's better.

Citzenrip... ... ... Citizenry. His brain concluded victorious, and a tiny smile of accomplishment appeared on his face. The first word was down. Now to the others... Sabrel looked at the page and sighed. No, there are too many of them -- lets kill this one first.

He placed a hand on the big bad history book and dragged it towards him, making an annoying squeaking sound as it slid over the polished table. He opened it on the index and started looking around, he tried to pass the pages but failed to; he licked his fingers, and the two pages were still stuck, so his eyes strayed towards the left page while he fought with the right one. He quirked an eyebrow and stopped fighting, closing the book and looking at its cover with a frown. It read:

History of Yugoslavia.

Sabrel groaned, putting the book under his arm, he ran off to find a copy of the correct book. He disappeared in a nearby corridor. Above him hung a sign stating the rules of the library: the first one was the "no running" one.

Soon enough, he came back with a different book, and he narrowly avoided crashing against a freshman who was carrying the whole library on his hands, it seemed.

"Watch it!" He growled under his breath, once again blaming others for his own mistakes.

He sat back on his chair and pulled the crumpled note from his pocket, frowned at it, then opened the book and started looking for the index. He appeared determined to ignore the snake until she left or something.

[tay]

Tayla kept her place at the table, not really caring if it bothered Sabrel or not. It wasn't her goal to make him leave the table or anything like that. No, her goal was to just bother and make him tense. If she accomplished that goal, then everything be alright. But, she also didn't want to cause to much of trouble with him, cause that could easily escalate to out of control. The library was for being quiet and calmness, not for a fight that leaves a dead tiger and a snake in the cop car asking her about pickachu, and then behind the bars, not fun, not at all.

She flipped open her notebook and started drawing with her blue pen, not ideal, but she drew lightly to be sketched over later. She was drawing the scenery of grass, with a few bushes here and there, and a tree in the back of the view. There was a snake being drawn, her, and it was slightly coiled, with the front of the body raised above the ground, leaning out forward with its mouth open, looking as if it was attacking something. Now what it was, she has yet to decide, but no tiger was in mind, yet.

She was going to countinue drawing, but he decided to be obnoxious and drag the large, annoyingly squeking history text book along the table and it just bothered her, and it was starting feel slightly cold in the room, causing her shiver momentarily for a split moment of a second. She rolled her shoulders and stretched her arms. She then watched him get up and go put the book up, grab another and yell at some other kid on the way back. She just rolled her eyes and looked at him open a book and struggle with it. It just bothered her, and him not doing good in his classes and always try play it off was annoying. It was completly against every single fiber and will in her body, and choked as she tried talk, slowly speaking. "Do, you need, er.." she gulped and forced air down her throat. "Help, with your studies?"

[sabre]

"Help with my studies? Ahaha! what makes you think that..." Sabrel rolled his eyes and continued to struggle with the book he had in front of him. He didn't even look at her, believing he didn't need any help from his worst enemy -- she'd only make him fail, anyway!

Suddenly, he disappeared beneath the table again, but immediately re-appeared holding a badly bitten pencil. He dragged the usable half of his note book towards him and started writing, as always, his grammar was terrible, and he often ate some syllables, sometimes whole words, plus his handwriting often required the teachers to consult the Rosetta Stone in order to decipher it. He was only copying the bits he thought he would be asked in the exam to cut down and concentrate the text he had to memorize for the exam, and then forget permanently...

Crack.

Then the lead snapped. Sabrel growled. He yanked his backpack off the floor and placed it on his lap, then started rummaging inside it for his sharpener. He couldn't find it. The boy sighed gravelly. His hazel gaze slowly rose from the military print pack to his dreaded nemesis. He couldn't help noticing her drawing in the process.

"Hey, that's pretty nice." He said before he could stop himself. He closed his eyes tight in regret for what he had just said, before he would re-open them and act as if nothing happened. Just in what side was he in?! He disgusted himself sometimes...

"Say, don't you have a sharpener?" He asked hopeful, in the best diplomatic tone he could muster, but he noticed the answer would probably be no because the girl only seemed to have that blue pen.. oh well...

[tay]

Tayla was regretting what she said and offered to Sabrel, helping him just repulsed her inside, and she rather not. But, what did bother her was they way he rejected her offer to help. Well, fine, he can be an idiot and fail all his classes, I ain't gonna help him with his classes then. Gosh, people these days, so rude. Stupid overgrown kitty, throw a ball of yarn at him and he probably be dazzled by it and just mess with it for hours. I swear, all he does ever is make a fool of himself and then try act all cool with his group of other idiots. People these days, all inferior.

She sighed and leaned back, rocking back and forth in her chair, bored out of her mind and nothing going on. All she had was a blue pen and a notebook, which was intended for her speech and quick notes to remember for a debate coming soon. However, only official debates or those who were open-minded did she like talk to. Once she spent two hours trying tell somebody use water for a plant, not gatorade, because apparently electrolytes are the key to all and can do anything. But eventually it got into his head when she smacked him across his face and told him shut, listen, use water.

She decided she was going to leave and go do something else, when the tiger looked at her drawing and decided to comment on it. She looked down on it, and while it did look good, it was far from finished, but compared to his weird drawings, it probably could have a priceless french painting worth millions of dollars. But having her ego filled right now just is not the best at the moment. And, then she heard that he needed a sharpener, cause in that entire bag he no other pencils or sharpener.

"Well, thanks about my drawing. And no, I don't have a sharpener. You need learn be self reliant." She sighed and threw her pen at his head. "I want it back when you finish."

[sabre]

"Will you give it to me just like that...? No catch...?" Sabrel sounded surprised. He could still remember several episodes of him and Rodrigo trying to steal her precious pen while they were freshmen... Although that one was black and this one was blue... Hm, well who cared.

Sabrel eyed the pen suspiciously, as if it had a bomb in it or something. But deciding Tayla was not that kind of person (such antics sounded more deign of someone like himself), he shrugged and continued writing... however, the pen appeared not to like its new, temporal master. It refused to write, Sabrel tried to soften it a bit by drawing loose circles over the page, which it did, but when he tried writing again, nothing!

Sabrel sighed angrily and rolled the temperamental pen back at it's master. It was one of these days, it seemed... However the mamba's lecturing brought some light to this gloomy day.

"I can defend myself." He assured arrogantly, holding a hand in front of his eyes, he watched as it begun to morph into a tiger's paw.

First, the fingers shrank and shortened, then the palm grew, his thumb receded as his wrist creeped towards his elbow as some bones stretched and others shrank. The border of his sleeve had begun to constrict his arm as his musculature changed slightly. His arm was threatening with transforming fully, so he stopped it there, not wanting any more torn clothes -- he had destroyed two shirts and a sweater already, in what there was of the month.

So he held the pencil with his human hand while the tiger one began peeling off the soft wood with its claws like Ginsu knives. Furtively, he stole a glance of Tay, to see if anything he had done had managed to impress her. See? At least there was a class where he did pay attention.

[tay]

Tay watched him mess with the pen, trying to be like he normally is and just press hard and apply pressure with his heavy hands, and that did not work. She slightly chuckled for a moment as she watched him get annoyed with it, it made her feel good inside, somewhat. She thought he figured it out when made the weird loopey circles, but then went back and couldn't do anything with it. She stuck her tongue out and grabbed her pen as it rolled back, to its awesome master. Oh well, not everyone has the gift and ability like she does to be able do it all.

She was going to speak and tell him just ask the librarian for a sharpener, but, he decided to take it a diffrent way. His pencil was in one arm, and the other started to look like a tiger. His arm started to change in length, muscles changing and becoming stronger, fingers shrinking and hand longer to become a paw. It was a partial transformation, and he was using it to sharpen his pencil, and try to impress her. Well, for him it was impressive, he knew something, but so did she. She kept her mouth closed , transforming her teeth, just what is natrually called your canines, and looked like long snake teeth, filled with some venom. She flashed her fangs at him, to show she could transform too.

"I can do that too." She said just to mess with him, but to be honest, she was getting bored with this, nothing truley interesting was happening. She much rather be out hunting, getting dirty, having a thrill. Or behind the wheel of a car, racing around, being dangerous and winning. That's where the fun is, not in this boring library. Even go-karts sounds good at this time. "This library, is boring." She looked around, and then bit her tongue. "Let's go somewhere, or do something more exciting."

[sabre]

Taylaki may have kept her mouth shut, but the slightest trace of amazement that flashed in her eyes by the slightest fraction of a second it took her to notice it and hide it, did not escape Sabrel. The young man smiled with accomplishment, and allowed his hand to turn back to normal. He opened and closed his hand to ensure it was fully human, and fully functional. After all, if the partial transformation wasn't done right, one might end up with stiff joints, and nobody wanted those.

Then she spoke and he looked at her, and noticed as her fangs became long as needles filled with that gross evolved drool they called snake venom (but if you asked him, it was still drool). And he wrinkled his nose a bit, believing he caught a glimpse of broccoli stuck in one of those.

Since he didn't remember if he had brushed his teeth after lunch, himself, he didn't counter with any tricks including teeth. Of course, she knew tigers had fangs, too. And bigger, better fangs, at that. Not thin, fragile fangs like a snake's, which broke all the time and a new one was required to replace them, but powerful fangs similar to a saber tooth's. Oh yes, she would also never be able to roar like he could.

But then his mind was stopped dry in the middle of its speech about the superiority of tigers above the other animals. Did she just... she asked him out? He visibly flinched.

What? You? Me? ... huh?! He looked at her wide-eyed then nodded stupidly. Too scared to say no, he threw pencil and notebook inside his pack, and once it was on his back, he turned his eyes back at her like asking what her plans were.

[tay]

Tay was just playing her, wondering where she wanted to go. She invited, this idiot to tag along, mainly because she was really hungry and wanted something to eat. That and going places alone was boring, she needs to show her skills off and dominate. Plus, she can dominate him and maybe he be ashamed by a girl. She thought the idea was pretty funny, the proud and powerful tiger, tamed by a small snake. But to where they should go, that is another whole diffrent ballgame. She was in the mood to feel exhilirated, going fast, racing around a track. So, go-karts were always an option to go to. And they had food, so maybe she could get something, like a hot dog with a drink, and not pay for it. Oh, that sounds great, really great. Race around, eat some food, mess with him, that is where all the fun is, yes it surely, is all there.

"Lets go race some go-karts, and maybe get a hot dog?"

She looked up at him and saw the way he was looking at her. Oh gosh, I swear, if he thinks this is a date and I like him, my venom will inject right into his heart. Ugh, people these days need to read things the right way, not wrong. Guess horomones does that to a boy. Hopefully he keep himself under control and no problems will happen, though I should probably tell him it not a date.

"This isn't a date, remember that. Now, how should we get there is the question."

She stood up and felt her pockets, but remembered her keys were back in her dorm on a small nightstand, she must have forgotten them this morning. She could go back, unless he has someway of getting there, but using public buses was a big no-no.

"You ready yet?"

She knows she was sounding bit to enthustiastic and eager go, but she was just bored as dirt in here, and it was cold. That is not a good mix for her, it really bad, any longer she might just storm out and flip something over on her way, not really caring.

[sabre]

The girl stated her rules and Sabrel's lips twitched into a smile, he looked down and nodded slowly, chuckling on his mind. Clearly he didn't believe her. He found her behavior pretty amusing, for it felt to him like a huge victory -- now even his greatest enemy appeared to have fallen prey of his awesomeness and wanted to be a friend of his. Despite of what she said, this was still considered a date for Sabrel.

You heard it. A DA-TE ~! Sabrel was now feeling all giddy and excited like a five year old who is about to be taken to a roller-coaster, but, of course, he showed none of that; his face was impassive as usual.

Everything seemed perfect for the inexperienced eye, yet something nagged him from the back of his mind: Sabrel! All those years of fighting didn't vanish into the air, you know! Clearly Taylaki is up to something... she wants your head, and you're readily walking into a trap, and you know it! Yet he mentally shrugged these logical warnings off, convincing himself of that maybe she just had enough of being the anti social one, of always being alone, watching everyone from a dark corner like a vulture -- and that was a good thing, of course. Besides, go-karts sounded harmless enough, no? And he was pretty hungry too! Nobody could think clearly while being so hungry.

"Always." The tiger nodded, and began walking out of the library, leaving the book and the wood chips there.

Somebody else's problem, he decided with inconsideration.

On the pocket of his jean he had the keys to his custom motorbike his father had given him. But he did not want to go in a motorbike with Taylaki... it was insane... if she touched him he'd surely catch anthrax. He'd much rather go in a Taxi, and hopefully the girl would be okay with that?

[tay]

Tayla looked at Sabrel to see if he had his keys, but by the looks of it, he didn't. She sighed and thought about this for a second, did she really want go this bad to race some go-karts and get a hot dog? She pondered on and on about it, and decided yes was the answer. And it shouldn't take more than five or so minutes for her run to her dorm and bring her car around to the front of the school. Yea, that sounded perfect and better, she can drive with her own safe rules, that is perfect.

"Sabrel, don't worry about it. Just meet me out in the front of the school in five or so minutes, we will take my car. So get going, I will leave you if not there." She said seriously with a small smile to show she was slightly joking, but she will leave if take to long.

She got up and grabbed her notebook and blue pen and just walked out of the library in a flash. She exited the library and started walking around, turns and stairs here, making it to the building with the girls dormitories in just easily a minute, well, she was sprinting so that probably was why right there. She went up the stairs to sophmore room, and then up again to the junior room area. She walked down the floor and to her room and opened the door, thankfully it was unlocked. She dropped down her notebook and pen on her bed and then grabbed her keys, locking her door behind her and then left the building down stairs again and out, leaving her with three minutes all together.

She raced to the parking lot, taking shortcuts away from sidewalks, jumping over bushes and tables. This was a lot quicker and made it to the parking lot, and bam, she seen her car. It was a 2010 ford mustang black converitble. And it was plenty of fun and fast enough for her. She hoped into the car, threw it into reverse, pulled out, then back to drive and drove to the front of the school, to see if Sabrel was there and to hop in.

[sabre]

Sabrel smirked in disbelief. No... she wasn't letting him ride her super car, was she? Oh my! She was! It couldn't be! He still had his doubts and had no idea of what to expect as he made his way out of the library at his own pace. The snake-girl's contacts with NASCAR had always been the envy of Sabrel and his gang. They had gotten envious to the point of wanting to scrape it badly, yet in a sudden attack of wisdom they had never dared to come anywhere near it, not wanting to die...

He looked over his shoulder at the book once before leaving. To be honest here, he was feeling a little guilty... he hadn't studied in all the week and the nefast exam was drawing near... looming over the horizon like a death sentence. But he'd only sneak out a while, there would be plenty of time to study when he got back, right? That was what he always thought... and then there he would be, five minutes before the exam trying to memorize all the answers before the clock needle could move. It was always the same!

Without a care, Sabrel calmly strode downstairs then out. The hot air from the outside that immediately swept him on the face wasn't a welcomed feel. The tiger boy only stood there for a minute or so, in his mind wondering if he had not allowed Taylaky to fool him -- maybe it all had been only an act and she would never come! Yeah, but in his uncertainty, he decided to wait a little bit more...

And hadn't he finished in making this decision when Taylaky suddenly appeared in her wonderful black convertible. The machine was so undeniably wonderful that it drew from him a quiet whistle of admiration despite of his best efforts of not wanting to appear amazed.

This is just too good to be true, he was thinking as he got in the car and closed the door with as much care as if it costed one million bucks. Then he looked at Taylaky and immediately noticed how she appeared to have just run a marathon. At first, this puzzled him, but seeing her behind the wheel made him changed his curiosity into worry. Although, naturally, he did not show it.

Don't tell me she drives like a maniac... his mind prayed as he began to struggle with the security belt, which seemed to be only one quarter of an inch too short like to lock on to the other side.