A/N: A sort of lighthearted "side trip" with a happy ending that I didn't expect till I was actually writing it. My thanks, as always, to PDXWiz, jtbwriter, Harry2, BishopT and Kyryn…
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§ § § -- June 11, 2003
"All right," said Christian slowly, watching Leslie dressing, "let me see one more time if I can understand this. You and your friends finished your compulsory schooling twenty years ago, and now you're going to this…gathering of all the people who received their completion certificates at the same time you and your friends did." He paused, then corrected himself. "I mean, graduated…I always forget the English term."
"That's right, my love," said Leslie and smiled. "It's pretty much a nostalgia party. I don't imagine we'd normally do that sort of thing, but since we get students from the Air Force base on Coral Island, Father decided to set up the local school system in the American model. And as I recall it, Fantasy Island High's class of 1983 actually had more students from the base than the island. We don't get too many reunions like this, but it's the Coral Island students who decided to do this, and naturally they had to get hold of the Fantasy Island students and get them in on it." She grinned. "It got Michiko and even Frida to the island, so all us girls will be there, and that's really enough reunion for me. But we're all going to put in at least a token appearance, with our husbands, and then we'll have our own private party at the Okadas' place." Nick and Myeko, who had by far the largest yard, had volunteered to host a huge cookout for the girls' own reunion.
Christian considered that. "It's a strange custom," he remarked. "I've never heard of such a thing. And believe me, even if someone from my school in Sundborg came up with this same idea and carried it out, I don't think I'd go. Frankly, my Rose, you had a much better time of it in high school than I did."
Leslie smiled at him in the mirror and put an earring in one ear. "I won't argue with the strange-custom part, since I really wasn't too curious about finding out whatever happened to all the Coral Island students, or the guys who smoked pot behind the school outbuildings, or that girl from Mississippi who swore up and down that she was going to run away and finally did, a month before graduation." Christian laughed, and she snickered in response, putting in the other earring. "But, well, here we are. Like I said, for us it's going to be a token appearance, for the sake of the students from the military base, and then we're all heading for Nick and Myeko's. It was really nice of Anna-Kristina to agree to babysit all the kids." Even Jimmy and Camille's son David, the oldest of all Leslie's friends' children, had barely turned thirteen, and he had been resentful of the idea of spending his evening stuck with eleven other children rather than hanging out with his own friends. And though Haruko Miyamoto, who would celebrate her thirteenth birthday in August, had been eager to do the sitting, the adults had insisted there be someone older because of the smallest children. Jimmy and Camille had finally gotten the daughter they'd been trying for; born on May 14, Robin Omamara was the apple of her mother's eye. Anna-Kristina was thrilled at the thought of caring for the infant for a night, even though Camille was still leery of leaving her with a relative stranger. Fortunately, Jimmy had talked some sense into her.
"Nice, and perhaps a touch foolhardy," Christian said, sighing gently. "But if she and Mateo are really going ahead with their plan to adopt a Chinese baby, she may as well get all the experience she can." He crossed the room to stand behind Leslie while she was brushing her hair. "Trust me, my Rose, you're beautiful. You can stop primping."
Leslie laughed and put down the brush. "I know, you just want to get this over with, don't you? Okay, I guess I'm ready." She turned in his embrace and happily returned his hug, smiling up at him. "Don't worry, my darling, we're planning to stay maybe an hour at the absolute maximum. Camille and Myeko have been talking about sneaking into the school building from the gym and seeing if the classrooms are all still the same."
Christian let out a laugh. "That sounds like Camille and Myeko. All right, then, let's get going, so we don't make an unwanted entrance by arriving last."
In about twenty minutes they parked in front of the school, at which Christian gazed with curious interest. "Ah, so this is where it is." The building was set back from the Ring Road some little distance, just far enough to be hidden behind a stand of trees, and had a long curving drive to accommodate loading and unloading from school buses. "No wonder I never noticed it whenever I came down this way to get to the pineapple plantation. Which reminds me…how much longer is Mr. Roarke going to be in choosing new staff for it? Ever since that last earthshaking brawl down there, our business has fallen off by ten percent."
Leslie laughed, catching his hand as she met him near the steps to the main entrance. "Isn't that just a touch of exaggeration?" she teased him. "After all your complaining about that place, you ought to be jumping for joy."
"I don't jump for anything," Christian said, raising an eyebrow, which resulted merely in more laughter from her. He grinned. "Actually, I expect it's a good thing all around. More employment for local islanders, and a nearly guaranteed job for my niece."
"Exactly," Leslie agreed. "Let's go in—the girls are probably waiting, and they're going to want to get the latest scoop on the plantation." Just after Camille had given birth to Robin, there had been the brawl to end all brawls at the plantation, resulting in a fire that had burned the overseer's house right to the ground, nearly gotten to the offices, and eaten away at some one-fourth of the nearest field to the house. Roarke, fed up with the constant trouble, had stepped in and laid down new rules, and at the moment the plantation was quiet, except for the construction of a new overseer's residence. The plantation's computers were currently in storage at Christian's office in Amberville.
In the gym Christian and Leslie were spotted almost instantly by Leslie's friends, all of whom had arrived except for Michiko and Errico. The Enstads saw them waving madly, and crossed the floor to the table they had appropriated, taking two of the last four chairs. "About time you got here," Myeko teased. "What is it with royalty, always showing up late? Is it some sort of royal tradition to make a grand entrance?"
"If you think that was a grand entrance," Christian retorted good-naturedly, "then you need to appear at one of my niece Gabriella's royal Christmas balls. You'll never think of a 'grand entrance' the same way again." They all laughed; everyone knew that King Arnulf I had started the annual royal Christmas ball when Christian was just five, and Arnulf II and Gabriella had continued the tradition during their reigns.
"Besides," Leslie put in, "if you're really looking for a grand entrance, just wait for Errico to show up with Michiko. Errico's kind of flamboyant anyway, and being king, he's going to make sure he's seen when he gets here."
"I still don't see any particular reason for us to be here," said Grady Harding with a long sigh. "How many other graduates are bringing their spouses?"
"You never know, honey," Maureen said, patting his arm. "Cheer up, we're not going to be here all that long."
"Famous last words," Grady observed. The men laughed while their wives looked at one another and rolled their eyes, almost in unison.
Jimmy remarked, "Well, the longer we have to wait for Errico and Michiko, the longer we're going to be here anyway. I should've brought a cushion for this chair."
The gathering made wisecracks for a few more minutes, till Errico—looking more than a little bewildered—and Michiko finally did come in and claim the last two chairs, to happy greetings from the others. "I've asked Michiko to explain this to me at least five times," Errico said, staring around the gym, "and I still don't understand its purpose. In fact, the more I ask, the less I comprehend."
"Then stop asking," Michiko teased. She hugged Leslie and squeezed Christian's hand. "It's really good to see you two again. Are you all right, Christian?"
"Just sympathizing with His Majesty," Christian said, evoking laughter.
Errico grinned and shook hands with Christian. "My dear Prince Christian, always good to see you. You need not be so formal with me…I've told you on any number of occasions, we're both royalty. And of course, since I am not here in an official capacity, I daresay that for one night I can have a taste of life as a commoner. An intriguing novelty."
Michiko made a face. "He's just waiting for the cookout at your place, Myeko. Okay, so when is this thing supposed to actually start? All I see is people wandering around."
"Is there any coherence to this thing at all?" Fernando inquired. "That is to say, are you ladies simply supposed to mingle while we men wonder why we're here?"
The girls laughed. Of all their husbands, only Jimmy had attended school on the island, and he had graduated from Fantasy Island High five years before Camille had. There was in fact supposed to be a twenty-five-year reunion later in the month for his own graduating class, but he had decided he didn't feel like being there, particularly after being dragged to his wife's reunion party. And in their own group, Katsumi—who had lived in Japan until shortly before Christmas of 1996—was the only one who wasn't present, which had led to joking envy among the men.
"Actually," Tabitha said, "I heard there's supposed to be an MC for this thing, believe it or not. Probably one of the more gung-ho organizers of this whole thing."
"Ten to one it's Rae Ellen Moore," Myeko said. "She was the star in my drama class every single year."
"Isn't she the one from some southern state that ran away right before graduation?" asked Lauren.
Myeko laughed. "That's her!" she said.
"You mean she came back?" exclaimed Leslie in genuine surprise, and they all laughed then. "I'm serious," Leslie insisted, grinning. "Everyone heard about Rae Ellen running away, but nobody heard a word when she came back. And I never knew her, so it's not like I'd have noticed if she did."
"She was gone for two weeks," Myeko said, "and they caught her on the outskirts of San Bernardino, California, trying to hitch a ride east. After she made it that far from here, it sort of surprises me she didn't manage to get the rest of the way to Mississippi before the cops caught up with her. While she was gone, somebody in the class suggested a group of us get together and write a soap-opera parody of her life and put it on for extra credit, but Miss Kinau heard about it and put the kibosh on it." That generated more laughter, and for a while the girls talked about assorted classmates while their husbands got involved in their own conversations, predictably enough including sports for a while, before Brian asked Nick what was on the cookout menu and touched off a discussion about traditional cookout foods for the primary benefit of Errico and Christian.
After a while Christian checked his watch and sat up in his folding chair, catching Leslie's attention. "You said an hour maximum," he told her, "and half of that is gone. If no one has taken charge in the next ten minutes, I suggest we as a group cut our losses and get over to the Okadas' house."
Leslie grinned. "I'm starting to agree with you," she admitted. "Besides, so far I haven't seen anyone else I remember from—"
At this exact moment she was interrupted by a southern-accented voice from the stage, calling for attention and then announcing, "Welcome to the Fantasy Island High Class of 1983 reunion! I'm gonna call roll, and if you're here, let us know!" The woman on the stage began to call out names, in alphabetical order, from a stapled sheaf of papers, and the girls groaned softly.
"I knew it," muttered Myeko. "It's Rae Ellen all right. She must be a statistician or something—see her, checking off names if someone answers? She's keeping track of who showed up! I'm tempted to hide under the table."
"I'm tempted to answer to someone else's name," Camille said, and snickers ran around the table, even from the men this time. They were trying not to draw attention to themselves, since the noise level had dropped considerably.
"Well, never fear," said Tabitha comfortably. "I'm dead last on her list, thanks to my maiden name, so as soon as she calls my name, maybe we can get out of here."
"That's what tempts me," noted Christian, getting another laugh.
Fortunately it went quickly enough, since the woman onstage didn't ask for any more than confirmation of presence; eventually she called out, "Hamilton, Leslie Susan," and Leslie stuck her hand in the air. Rae Ellen beamed. "Awriiiiight! Ichino, Camille Lianne?"
"Yo," said Camille whimsically as she raised her own hand, generating laughter.
"Yo to you too," replied Rae Ellen. Myeko made a face.
"I forgot how cheery she always was," she muttered as Rae Ellen went on calling out names. "Now I remember why I couldn't stand her!"
"If she was so happy, then why did she run away?" wondered Frida.
"Because she was such a wonderful actress, she was faking all that happiness," Myeko said. "Listen, if we can stand it in here a little longer, I want to corner her and ask her if she ever did try to become a star in Hollywood, the way she used to claim, or if Mississippi was just too strong a draw."
"McCormick, Lauren Anne!" yelled Rae Ellen from onstage, and Lauren waved her hand in the air. "And is 'Moore, Rae Ellen' here? Anyone?"
"Bueller? Bueller?" muttered Camille, touching off an explosion of desperately muted laughter from the entire table, including Errico, Christian and even Frida's husband Klaus; they were all familiar with the movie to which she referred.
"Oh, I guess that's me," Rae Ellen chirped from the stage, and a collective groan arose from the entire room, evoking further snickers. "Oops, sorry, y'all. Okay then…" She went on calling names, utterly undaunted by the less-than-enthusiastic reception to her attempt at a joke. When she called, "Olsson, Frida Marie!" Frida at first didn't react, then belatedly put a hand up when Klaus nudged her.
"How come you didn't raise your hand? Forgot your own name?" Camille teased.
Frida smiled sheepishly. "Since I found my birth parents, I thought of myself as Frida Liljefors," she confessed, "and then I have called myself Frida Rosseby since I was married. I have not used the Olsson name since then. I didn't remember that this was the name I had when I finished school here."
"That makes sense," Camille agreed.
"Do you ever hear from Liselotta?" Christian asked her curiously.
"A little," said Frida. "My mother finally understood that our common ancestor is the grandmother of my grandmother. Our clan is quite large in fact."
"So I understand," Christian said and grinned. "If you had a family reunion, it would be large enough to take up the entire royal castle, I expect."
"I think you're right," Frida agreed, laughing.
"Sensei, Myeko!" Rae Ellen called out, and Myeko flapped a hand in the air.
"It's going quickly, at least," Errico murmured, looking grateful.
"Must've been a small class," Nick observed curiously.
Myeko nodded. "There were a little more than a hundred of us all told, so it shouldn't be too long before we can cut out of here…unless Rae Ellen's thought of some other method of torture to keep us hanging around."
"Tokita, Michiko," shouted Rae Ellen, and Michiko winced, then waved a hand in the air for a moment. "Our very own queen, y'all," Rae Ellen remarked brightly. "Tomai, Maureen Kathryn? You here, honey?"
Maureen raised her hand and snorted quietly, "Right here, sugar lips." Their entire table exploded with glee, getting odd looks from everyone else in the room, and Maureen turned red, pleading through her laughter, "For God's sake, don't explain it to them!"
"Why not? Rae Ellen'd probably love it," Myeko cackled. "She's almost done. Even if she does have something else in mind for this thing, I vote we leave anyway. We'll have a heck of a lot more fun at our house. Nick set up a sound system for us in the backyard, so we're going to have a real blast."
"Does that mean we have to sit around listening to 80s songs all night?" moaned Grady. "I hate 80s music."
"You can always go home," Maureen said sweetly, "and I'll bum a ride back with Christian and Leslie. Come on, Grady, be a sport—you're the one who said I had no excuse not to come to this thing, being conveniently on the island."
"Aw now, come on," Grady protested, just before Rae Ellen hollered, "Zuma, Tabitha!" Tabitha put a hand up, and then everyone at the table scraped back chairs, preparing to leave. The noise level promptly went up, despite Rae Ellen's attempts to quiet the throngs; she finally gave up and left the stage while their group was moving towards the door.
"Did you hear her call Cori Mukulani's name?" Camille was asking. "I saw Cori over in the corner. She's as big as ever, and I bet she's every bit as mean."
"I see her now," Leslie said, glancing into the corner where a profoundly overweight woman sat alone at a table, "and you should keep your voice down. I mean, just in case you turn out to be the next target of her short fuse."
"I have a better idea—let's just leave," Lauren said.
"I thought we were going to sneak in and check out the classrooms," Camille said.
Myeko laughed. "I forgot all about that. You think we could get away with it?"
"There's such a thing as too much nostalgia," Michiko put in, exchanging a grin with Leslie. "Wait till your kids are students here, and then you can see the classrooms all you want, through parent-teacher conferences."
Christian looked at his watch and then gave Leslie a surprised stare. "You were very close, my Rose," he remarked. "Fifty-four minutes."
Everyone stared at him, and Errico suddenly exploded with laughter that echoed up and down the otherwise-empty corridor. "A man after my own heart! As a royal, he's quite as allergic to large gatherings as I!"
"You're kidding!" Grady said and let out a crack of mirth. "Sorry, Christian, but I fail to see anything but humor in that. Being a prince, you must've been practically required to attend large gatherings, and I'm sure that's even more true of you, Your Majesty."
Christian grinned good-naturedly, while Errico, still chuckling, conceded, "You're quite correct, my dear sir. I am frequently required to attend large gatherings, on both a social and a professional scale. And in both, I encounter far too many pompous windbags, although to be perfectly honest, I fear they are more numerous in the government."
"I seem to recall my father and brother complaining about parliamentary follies and filibusters," Christian agreed, chuckling too. "Actually, life as a commoner is generally quite peaceful. You might try it sometime, Errico."
Errico nodded thoughtfully. "Something to look into with Mr. Roarke," he said, and Michiko rolled her eyes, which brought on more laughter as the group descended the steps from the school's main entrance. "Speaking of whom, how fares he these days?"
"He's well, as always," Leslie said. "Busy as ever, but I'm sure he'd appreciate the chance to visit with you. Does anyone need a ride? We have a couple empty seats."