Nashi took a moment to stare at the five other people sitting around her. She looked between them all, before her eyes stared at Storm, looking for some form of encouragement, since to her knowledge, he was the only one who knew about what she wanted to talk about.
Storm could offer a small smile of support, but he knew that Nashi needed her own time to spill this to her friends. No matter how close they all were, sometimes they all required their own personal space. Like Nashi now, for instance. Tagg, however, didn't say anything.
"What's this about?" Jay asked,, looking at the pinkette in confusion. "Why did you call us here so secretively?"
"I'm wondering that too," Lester said, crossing his arms. "I was in the middle of a date with my girlfriend."
"Girlfriend, huh?" Tagg snickered. "You mean that girl you're always talking to online?"
"How long have you two been a thing?" Jay asked curiously. "I don't really know much about her, after all. When can we meet her?"
"How about we let Lester meet her first," Tagg snickered. "Because if I can guess correctly, you haven't even met the girl before, right?"
"That may be true," Lester said, crossing his arms. "But what I feel for her is real."
"Alright then. Quiz," Sylvia said with a very uncharacteristic smirk painted on her face. "Where does she live?"
"America."
"What's her favorite food?"
"Chinese noodles."
"What does she do?"
"She's a tourguide."
"How old is she?"
"My age. Twenty."
"Well you're definitely informed," Storm whistled. "What's her name?"
"I don't know," Lester said, as if unfazed by this fact. "We haven't told each other our names yet."
"Why not?" Nashi asked, her interest suddenly spiked. "If you're dating, you might as well know each other's names, right?"
"I suppose," Lester sighed. "But it really isn't necessary. We just call each other by our online pseudonyms. She's Smith and I'm Drey."
"That's literally just a shortened version of your last name," Jay said, unamused.
"I think we've just gone a bit off topic," Storm muttered, turning back to Nashi. "Wasn't Nashi trying to tell us something?"
"Uh… right," Nashi said, nervously playing with her hair.
"Go ahead," Tagg encouraged.
"Uh…"
She was shaking.
"Hm?" Jay said, looking back at her.
"I… I overheard my parents talking about something," Nashi started softly. "It was about Fairy Tail, actually."
"What about it?" Lester asked curiously.
Nashi gulped. "It seems like… it seems like my father and mother are in big trouble."
"Trouble?" Jay questioned. "What does that mean?"
"It means they're in really really big trouble," Nashi muttered, crossing her arms. "Everyone needs to promise not to freak out."
"Alright," everyone agreed.
"Myparentsarebankrupt," Nashi said quickly, closing her eyes tightly and waiting for everyone to start screaming.
Unfortunately, Sylvia was the only one who seemed to make sense of what she had just said. The younger girl gasped, her hands flying to her mouth as she backed away in shock.
The boys, though, raised confused eyebrows.
"What was that?" Jay asked, looking at Sylvia with a weird expression.
"My parents…" Nashi started again, "went… bank...rupt."
"What?" Lester said, his eyes widening. Jay's head cocked back and Sylvia turned away.
"I'm not repeating it again," Nashi hissed. Lester gulped. He looked down at his fingers, beginning to play around with them since he didn't know what to say. The other's weren't any better. Even Tagg, who already knew.
"Are you…?" Storm started, beginning to raise his hand to put on her shoulder, but thought better of it at the last second. "Nevermind."
"That's not possible," Lester finally said, his fists clenching. "That isn't even remotely true. You're just playing some kind of sick joke on us, aren't you?"
"No, I'm not," Nashi said, her eyes narrowing at the older blonde. "You're not making this any easier, you know."
"But, it's Natsu," Jay insisted. "That can't happen to him!"
"Well, it did," Nashi said.
"She isn't lying, guys," Tagg said, shooting both the boys a glare. "Stop that."
"Nashi-chan, Sylvia is sorry," Sylvia said quietly, crawling up to the pinkette and proceeding to envelope her in a tight hug.
Jay crossed his arms underneath his chest, and Lester just stared wide-eyed at Nashi.
"No," Lester said, standing up to his feet and looking down at the girl. "No way. We have to do something about this."
"It's too late," Nashi said, shaking her head. "From what I heard, there isn't anything they can do about it. They used up all their money with all the renovations that have been going on."
"What's their goal?" Lester questioned.
"They want to become a chain, right?" Storm cut in, looking at Nashi for approval. She nodded.
"Yes."
"Do you know the company they're going for?" Lester asked again.
"No," Nashi said. "I could probably find out, though."
"No need," Lester said, reaching into his back pocket and taking out his phone. The others watched in complete silence as he typed several things before nodding firmly. "I've got it."
"What?" everyone else asked.
"What are you doing?" Tagg asked.
"It's probably this one," Lester said, holding out the device and showing it to everyone. There was an unfamiliar website pulled up.
"What is it?" Nashi questioned, reaching out and taking the cell. "This is…"
"A very famed company that specializes in these things," Lester nodded. "That's right. Flam & Tee Restaurants. My money's on the fact that your parents are aiming to impress these guys."
"What are you saying?" Nashi asked. All eyes were now on Lester, whose gaze didn't falter from the girl in front of him. They watched in awe as his expression broke into a giant grin.
"This company's headquarters are in America," he started slowly. "California, to be precise."
"Yeah, and?" Nashi asked.
"They're looking for determined and reliable restaurants to help build up into a franchise," Lester continued.
"I don't know what you're saying," Nashi said, still very confused.
"We need to show them that your father's restaurant is worth investing in. Natsu has shown nothing but determination throughout his business, and he's very prideful with his work."
"I get it," Sylvia said, getting up too and walking up to the two of them. "You're suggesting that we go to America and show them that we're worth it."
Everyone blinked.
They stared at the blue-haired girl in shock.
"Actually," Lester started with a cough. "I was going to say that we should just send them a professional email. But that works too!"
Nashi facepalmed. "You're kidding me, right?"
"Of course not!" Lester said. "I mean, why not? You, Tagg and I are legally old enough. We can act as chaperones for everyone else! You take Sylvia, Tagg takes Storm, and I'll take Jay. It's perfect!"
"Lester, you have a few screws loose. You too, Sylvia," Jay began. "We could never pull something like that off. Our parents would never allow it!"
"We could always make up some kind of excuse," Tagg shrugged, beginning to fall with the flow of this idea. "I'm sure it won't be too big of a deal."
"What kind of excuse?" Nashi asked slowly.
"Hmm…" Storm thought. "Some kind of school trip?"
"That could work," Sylvia nodded. "Lester can write up official papers to make it look like it's a real thing. One of the circumstances could be that everyone attending can take a friend along."
"That's smart," Storm said. "Sylvia, Jay and I all go to Magnolia High. Nashi and Tagg graduated this year. Sylvia can ask to take Nashi, I can ask to take Tagg, and Jay can ask to take Lester."
"Yes!" Sylvia cheered. The pair of siblings raised their fists to give each other a bump. They grinned heavily.
"I… I guess," Jay said, crossing his arms. "Should we tell anyone about it?"
"No," Lester said. "Let's keep this completely to ourselves. We wouldn't want to cause any sort of trouble."
"America, huh?" Tagg whistled. "You might bump into your girlie."
Lester smiled softly. "Maybe."
"When are we gonna do this?" Jay questioned, still looking a little doubtful.
"I don't care! We're totally getting this done!" Nashi cheered happily. "I'm gonna make sure Fairy Tail doesn't close down!"
"We can leave within a few weeks if everything goes to plan," Lester said, turning to Jay with a nod. "We can't get interrupted during this, though. It's going to take a lot of planning and careful consideration. I'll get to work on the forms right away. Everyone start looking for your identification and passports. Begin to tell your families about the trip, so it doesn't come as a total surprise to them when we give them the forms. Nashi and Tagg, you guys begin to look through the flight times and cost rates. Find the best deal you can, okay?"
"Got it," Nashi and Tagg said with a nod. They turned to each other with wicked grins.
"This is going to be epic," Storm said with a smirk. "We're gonna make sure this happens perfectly."
"How long are we gonna stay in America for?" Jay asked.
"About a month," Lester replied. "We're going to need at least a week to go through all the processing information. The other time is for fun."
"You've really thought about this haven't you," Nashi said, clearly impressed. "And in such a short amount of time, too."
"What can I say?" Lester said modestly. "I'm really excited for this. We're totally going to show those people a taste of Japanese culture."
A realization then dawned upon everyone.
"Uh… does anyone here know how to speak English?" Jay asked.
Everyone but Sylvia and Jay raised their hands. They looked at each other expectantly, while the others gave them hungry gazes with their eyes.
"That's it," Sylvia said. "You guys are gonna be our teachers!"
…
"Okay, so this is the alphabet," Tagg said, pointing to a large spread of random squiggles. "Each one makes a different sound, and you combine the sounds to make words."
"This sounds like way too much work," Storm said, leaning back in the seat of Nashi's bedroom. "I can't teach people!"
"Why didn't you guys take an English course?" Nashi questioned. "I thought everyone had to."
"Yeah, but not until a higher grade level," Sylvia explained, taking notes using a small notebook Nashi had leant her. "What's that?"
"This is the letter S," Tagg explained, drawing it out on the whiteboard in front of him. "It's also the first letter of your name in English, Sylvia."
"Really?!" Sylvia exclaimed, excitedly beginning to memorize the way the letter curved on the page.
"I'm so confused," Jay said, grabbing his head. "So this is a noun, this is a verb… and this is a… pronoun?"
"Yeah. A pronoun is a word that can function by itself as a noun phrase," Tagg said, shooting Nashi and Storm dirty looks. "You guys can help too, you know! Lester's busy writing the forms, so you guys are my only hope!"
"No way," Storm said with a click of this tongue. "I'll just watch Tagg-sensei do all the work, eh?"
"Storm, I really don't like you."
"What's the difference between a pronoun and a proper noun, then?" Sylvia questioned, flipping to a new page.
"A proper noun is a name, while a pronoun can be words like I, you, they, she, etcetera," Tagg explained patiently.
"Well you've definitely learned a thing or two from your father," Nashi whistled. "I wouldn't expect any less, of course. Uncle Lyon's the principal of Magnolia Junior High School, after all!"
"Which is why he shouldn't need any help from us," Storm added.
"Storm, don't be rude," Nashi said evenly. "But he does have a point, Tagg."
"Aghh Nashi I thought you were on my side!"
"Are we really sure about all of this?" Jay spoke, still copying down what Tagg had told them to write. "I mean, we're all still young. Going on a trip abroad without any of our parents is kind of… scary."
"Hm," Nashi hummed. "You know what else is scary?"
"What?"
"The thought of my parents giving up," Nashi said. "I'm scared too, about all of this. I really am. But I don't wanna see my father and mother like that ever again.
"Nashi…"
"No, I really mean it," Nashi said again. "I know my mom didn't mean to put the blame on Dad like that. She really didn't. She isn't like that. It had been building up for quite some time now. And watching it all break down… it just really got to her. I don't want that to happen again. That's why I'm forgetting about my fear and just going for it."
"You're really brave," Storm said with a grin. "Really, truly, brave."
Nashi didn't answer, but Storm already knew she wouldn't. She was too deep into her thoughts at the moment to think about anything for the time being.
…
Lester finished printing out the documents and glanced down to his phone just as a message popped up. He finished stapling everything together and went to check it out.
It was from Smith.
'You wanted to talk?' she had messaged.
Lester quickly opened it and typed back, 'Yeah. Do you have a minute?'
'Sure,' was her reply.
He took a deep breath.
'I'm coming to America for a little while. California, actually. Where you live,' he typed.
'Really?! That's awesome!' her reply was almost instant. 'Wanna meet up somewhere?'
'Yes, definitely,' Lester said, his smile becoming even wider.
'Great! Now I'm so excited!' she replied.
'I am too,' he said, before remembering something. 'Oh right. I think we should tell each other our real names.'
'Fine by me.'
Lester gulped.
'My name's Lester Dreyer,' he said, sending the message and waiting anxiously for her reply.
'Haha so you also did your last name as your user as well!' she said.
'You did too?'
'Yep! My name's Mioa Smith.'
Lester sucked in a breath.
Mioa.
What a beautiful name.
'I love your name, Mioa,' he messaged, making his thoughts known.
'Thanks! I love your name too, Lester.'
I'm sooo excited for this! I also can't wait to start writing for Mioa! (She's one of my favorite OCs that I've made).
Hope you enjoyed the chapter! Thanks for all the sweet reviews as per usual! :3
