"Keep your hands on the wheel!" Phoenix shouted.
The car crashed into the sidewalk. Wasting no time Apollo jumped out the driver's seat and ran.
5 MONTHS EARLIER -
"I'm home" Trucy sang, skipping through the agency door.
"Hiya!" Athena called from the desk she was filling in case files at. Trucy threw her bags down on the already messy sofa and collapsed tiredly next to them.
"You seem exhausted, did you have a good time at Kurain?" Athena gave up on the paperwork and flopped down on the sofa beside Trucy. Trucy had just came back from a 3 day stay at Kurain village, the trip had originally been meant for Phoenix but he'd been caught up in a tough case so Trucy went instead.
"Yeah it was great seeing Pearly and I got to meet Maya who told me lots of embarrassing stories from when daddy was still a rookie lawyer." The two girls giggled at the last part. "Speaking of daddy where is he. Apollo's car wasn't outside either."
"They're still at the trial, I decided to stay behind to wait for you to come back."
As if on cue the red attorney and his boss walked through the door. The two girls jumped off the sofa to greet them.
"Trucy, you're back!" Apollo greeted.
"You had a good time Truce?" Phoenix asked.
"Yeah it was amazing. How was the trial?"
"Terrible. Mindy was found guilty." The two lawyers said in sync.
Trucy and Athena gasped. "Really? That's too bad." She said, trying to be sympathetic.
"Jerks! You were up against Payne." Widget blurted out. Athena slapped her hand over her mouth.
Apollo and Phoenix started laughing.
"This is not funny, the first friend I made in my new school you got convicted of murder." Trucy huffed.
Two weeks ago Trucy had started a new school after her old school had set on fire due to one of her 'magic tricks'. For the first week or so she had complained about not fitting in but she had recently made friends with a shy girl named Mindy. Mindy had just been accused of murdering her teacher.
"Trucy we were defending Mindy of course we would have fought with everything to get her innocent. We were just joking. I thought it was obvious."
"Well it wasn't!" Trucy complained.
Phoenix sighed. "We stopped on the way back and bought everyone Eldoon's."
"Daddy! I've been gone 3 days. I thought you might have been more excited to come home and see me, not hang around with Mr Eldoon." Trucy said playfully.
Phoenix knew she was joking but he still felt the need to apologise for not coming straight home.
"Sorry, I thought we were supposed to be picking you up at the train station in an hour. How did you get home so early."
"Oh Maya was passing through here anyway so she offered to give me a lift, she's just gotten her licence 'just one of the many things I've achieved before Nick' I believe she said" She sniggered.
Trucy saw her dads eyes light up like they did in court just before he yelled OBJECTION!
"Maya's in town at the moment? That's great, you can all meet her. I think you'd really like her Athena, she's into that samurai show you watch-"
"Umm Daddy?" Trucy interrupted. "When I said she was passing through here, I meant she was literally passing through. She's going to visit another channeling school just outside of here-but it's only like a 30 minute drive so I'm sure she'll stop by on her way back." She added the last part quickly.
"Yeah," Phoenix said, not convinced. "I've got some paper's to fill out. I'll be in my office."
"Mr Wright?" Apollo called after him. "Aren't you going to eat with us?"
"You guys start without me -I'll be through later."
"But boss, this is your victory meal." Athena pleaded.
"Celebrate for Apollo he did great out there."
Before anyone else could say a word, he shut the door to his office. A strange silence settled over the trio. Everyone opened their mouths to speak a few times but no one knew quite what to say. Instead of making conversation everyone busied themselves, preparing dinner; that wasn't much of a job since dinner was take out noodles.
Trucy set out the food on the table in a way-too-posh-for-noodles lay out. Apollo washed the already spotless plates. Washing the dishes was second on Mr Wrights cleaning list, second only to the toilet. Athena, who couldn't find any dinner preparations to busy herself with, flicked through an old edition of 'MAGIC WEEKLY' Trucy had left lying about.
"Did you enjoy your trip then?" Apollo finally decided to start a conversation.
"Yeah it was good but I wished daddy could have came with us." Trucy said putting some overly cleaned plates on the table.
"Yeah I think Mr Wright wishes the same. He seems really bummed out he couldn't come." Athena flicked to next page only half reading about how some old magician troupe had made a recent comeback.
"He's always like this after he misses a trip. He'll snap out of it soon." Trucy poured the final box of noodles onto a plate, a pile of salt falling on top.
"You mean this happens often?" Apollo asked sounding shocked his boss, who he highly looked up to and respected, frequently had what Apollo would refer to as 'down days'. He was all too familiar with the feeling.
"I wouldn't say often, not anymore, but Maya's been very busy every since she became master of the Kurian Channeling Technique and since daddy got his badge back they've both been super busy. It's hard for them to plan visits."
"Who is Maya to Mr Wright anyway. I know she's related to Pearly but-" Athena was cut off by Apollo.
"Mr Wright defended her a lot when he first became a lawyer, seriously that girl knew how to get into trouble, she was more troublesome than you Athena."
"Hey! Watch what you say!" Widget shouted.
"I didn't mean anything by that." Apollo mumbled. Athena narrowed her eyes. "She's nice girl."
Athena smiled and went back to skimming through MAGIC WEEKLY!
"How do you know so much about her anyways Apollo?" Athena smirked. "Something we don't know?"
Apollo's face turned the colour of his suit. "What?! No. No…I just watched a lot of Mr Wright's trials and I have a friend who likes the kurian technique."
"Dinner's all set." Trucy smiled.
Just as everyone was sitting down, Phoenix came out from his office. "Now the paper work is done I can enjoy some noodles." He said sitting down next to Trucy as if the last 30 minutes didn't happen.
"Is everything alright daddy?" Trucy asked suspiciously.
"Yeah everything is great." Phoenix said. Apollo glanced over at Athena who winced in pain. Don't need Athena's super hearing to notice the discord there, Apollo thought to himself.
"Seriously, everything's okay." Phoenix repeated after after everyone's disbelieving looks. He let out an exasperating sigh before trying again. "No point lying to you guys, I couldn't even if I wanted to." He laughed, eyeing widget and then Apollo's bracelet. "Yes I'm upset that I couldn't go and visit Maya, it's been eight years since I last saw her but she has her duties and I have mine. We both understand that but it's still disappointing."
"Hey boss, next time you can just ask me to take the case, anything that gets me out of toilet cleaning."
"Thanks Athena. This case was important to me though, it's a case I don't think is over yet. Not by a long shot…"
Just then there was a pounding at the door.
"Okay I'm coming! You just have to knock." Athena said going to the door. She mumbled something about disrespectful clients.
"Hey Truce, you going to eat that? I'm starving, the trial today really wore me out." Phoenix asked.
"Are you sure daddy. I think it's just half a bowl of salt left."
"I'm-"
Athena came back from answering the door, she was trembling and pale. Very pale.
"Boss? I think you need to see this." She stuttered.
I hope you enjoyed the first chapter of my new story 'Hold The Objections'. I'm not entirely sure where this story is going but I've got a vague idea for the end. There will be some narumayo and rivalry between a new channeling school. Thanks for reading. Reviews and constructive criticism are welcome as I'm newish to writing and want to get better. Thank you :D