Chapter 34: O' Canada Interlude Part 1
When twelve-year-old Sena was flying to Canada, she was a squirmy, mousy little mess, practically jittering in her seat from the apprehension that SUDDENLY was manifested. Before, on the airport, Sena was successful donning a nonchalant demeanor to not worry her friends, but now that they were miles apart, her bravado fell and she was consumed by nervousness.
'I'm so up high,' Sena thought as she peered outside of the window, viewing the clouds that floated underneath the plane. The clouds made it look like a huge fluffy mattress that would be fun to bounce on. Sena wasn't willing to try, though.
She slouched against her seat and fingered the card that Mamori had given her. The card with everyone's names and phone numbers…She was going to miss them terribly, even though they would still keep in contact. But still, it wouldn't be the same without standing by them and seeing their faces. Right now, at the moment, she wanted to see them and be in the embrace of Donatello since he gave the best hugs (not that she would ever tell them that).
The plane had landed. The passengers filed out of the plane and onto the grounds of the Canadian airport. Sena, amongst the passengers, went on her tip-toes, an attempt to see over the peoples' heads. She sighed at her failure and leaned against a podium in wait for her mother and aunt. She scrutinized the crowd to detect her family, but no such luck at the moment. Finally, when the last few people exited the plane, Sena still hadn't seen her parents. Something was lodged in her throat—fear.
Mihae and Aunty Mio weren't there…Had she missed them? Sena remembered them sitting somewhere at the back of the plane, but what if they came out faster than she thought? What if they were in search for her right now?
Her hands went clammy as she gripped onto the straps of her backpack. 'No, there's no use of panicking,' she reasoned, gulping. 'They'll show up. Mom will find me, berate me for wandering around by myself, then give me a death-tight hug and gush out about how worried she was. Aunty Mio would snort and comment about my talent of getting lost real fast. Mom would give her a look. Aunty Mio would call me banana fuzz. I'll carry on with my life as a new Canadian. Everything will be normal.'
And so Sena waited.
And waited.
And waited.
And waited.
And it came to Sena's attention that the amount of people in the airport was lessening, and she couldn't spot a single Asian. Except for this Korean guy (yes, he was Korean), but he wasn't the Asian Sena was looking for. She slid down with her back still against the podium and groaned.
'Well, I guess there is only one thing to do.' Sena stood up and walked out of the port…only to be staring at a throng of moving people. "Hiii…" Sena whimpered. She looked around frantically, but in the sea of many Canadians she became even more at loss. Sena was stranded, helpless. With no translator. At all.
'Can this day get any worse…?'
"I'll be right back, Bud," said Wallis as he snapped his phone shut. "Have a meeting with Sirius Abbott. You know, the guy who runs the theater in…?"
"Yes, I know, Wallis." Bud willed himself to not roll his eyes. "That's why we're here in Canada, freezing our hides." Wallis didn't detect the sarcasm in the fourteen-year-old's voice. The man nodded and bid Bud his farewell.
Bud plopped on a bench and tucked his cold ears into headphone. He blasted the music on, drifting him away from inconvenient things to have in mind, such as Wallis's idiocy or his jet leg.
"This bites," he muttered in French.
After sitting there for five minutes, Bud heard a faint cry that captured his attention. He put away his headphones and listened to the cry again.
"Eto…Eto…Hiii…"
A few yards away from him was a little girl pacing in circles, looking troubled. Bud almost laughed aloud at what she was doing and couldn't help but take pity on her. He decided to pacify the issue by going to the girl, but then recalled something. His Japanese was slightly rusty.
Yes, he knew Japanese. He knew the girl was Japanese too.
The boy scratched his head, trying to remember the correct Japanese grammar. His tutor often berated him for his listless devotion to learning, in which was tedious to listen to day after day after day, so Bud decided to take the subject seriously. He knew French, Spanish, and Dutch, so Japanese was going to be his first Asian language. It proved to be difficult to grasp since he wasn't familiar with the lingo, but soon enough he became fluent in it. He became so great at it that he even went to the slang.
That was Bud Walker for you.
Anyway, after racking through his brain, he knew what to say. Bud walked up to the girl and said, "Konnichiwa."
Her head whipped around, her eyes widening.
He tried again. "Can I help you out or something?"
He wasn't expecting her kind of reaction. She reared back, her hands flying into her bag. "Wh-what—how—no!—b-but—!" she sputtered under her breath, but Bud managed to hear it.
What was even more shocking was when the girl conjured pepper-spray and leveled it at his face. Bud stepped back from the abruptness.
"Whoa there!" He raised his hands in defense. "I mean no harm!"
Okay, all Bud wanted to do was help the girl just to kill time. Really, he had nothing better to do. But now he wasn't so sure if this was such a good idea.
Mean no harm? What in the world?
Sena didn't lower her aim, but waited for the boy to continue.
"Look, I don't know why you're so worked up about, but I assure you that I just wanted to help you out. You seemed lost," the boy attempted to reason.
She bit her lip. "Wh-why are you alone?" she asked after a moment's pause.
"Why am I alone? Good question," he grumbled dryly. "My contractor told me to stay put close to the airport while he's off discussing boring crud with some other suit-monkey." The boy hummed in thought. "Boring being alone, you see, and that's when I spotted you in a jam. Thought you needed help."
Sena stiffened slightly, but this didn't go unnoticed.
"Hey, hey, hey—it's alright! I swear I'm telling you the truth, okay?"
She eyed him warily, but nodded nonetheless. Finally, she lowered her arm, but never her guard.
"Good." He then added casually, "I'm Bud Walker."
Sena's eye twitched. Okay…This was bordering on suspicious. So he was expecting her to tell him her name? What if he was from the mafia? What then?
But then again…this was Canada…
'I'm starting to become waaay too paranoid.'
"'m Sena," she mumbled.
Bud, who had misheard her, nodded and said, "Nice to meet you, Scout."
Sena blinked.
'Scout…?'
"And do me a favor by putting away your pepper-spray. I don't know what's up with you being so tensed, but you're nowhere near danger with officers standing by." He pointed to a few men garbed in blue and black uniforms.
"O-oh…"
When Sena—begrudgingly though—obeyed, Bud's face spread into a wide smile. "Good girl."
'What, am I a dog now?' Sena thought cynically, suppressing a twitch.
"So what's your problem?" he asked, folding his arms.
"Oh." She paused, bargaining with herself whether she should lie or not. Again, he could possibly be related to the mafia, but not really…Oh whatever. "I, um, lost my mother and, uh, m-my aunt."
"Right. Let's get moving, shall we?"
"Okay."
"Say, you're familiar with the Japanese culture, right?"
Sena nearly gave him a deadpan look. But she didn't need to say anything because Bud slapped his forehead and cursed under his breath.
"O' course, how can I be so stupid?" he snorted dryly. "Well, anyway, care to give me some background info? You see, my teacher is quizzing me on this, and I have to know about it by next week…but I forgot to study because something came up…"
Sena was really curious now.
"A-ano…"
"Hm?"
"J-just curious…" Sena twiddled with her fingers, suddenly feeling shy (she never did well with strangers). "How is it th-that you know how to speak Japanese so well?"
Bud's chest swelled up with pride at the indirect compliment. "Ha, well, I suppose I might as well tell you," he said, smirking. "You see, Scout, I'm working my way up to fame, so it's kind of required of me to learn multiple languages."
She blinked. "Fame?"
"Hollywood," he enlightened. "Ya know, the show business, celebrities, and all that! Currently, I'm one of the background characters of a couple T.V shows and movies, but sooner or later the director will see my talent and put me up for the real role."
"You already have a career?" Sena was surprised by this. He was young, after all.
"That's right! Though, it's not official. I need to sign some other contract in order for me to actually live big." Bud sighed, folding his arms. "Someday, I'll be a star."
A line was visible between her brows. "So in the future, I would see you in the movies?"
"You got that right, Scout. Hey!" He snapped his fingers in thought. "I should give you my autograph in case, you know, if I do become a star. In which I totally am going to be one."
"Eh?"
"First, we're gonna need to find a camera to take my pic."
Bud dragged Sena to a cameraman who was snapping photos for lingering tourists. After paying the man, Bud snaked his arm around Sena's shoulders and smiled charmingly. Sena, not knowing what the heck was going on, looked at the man with wide eyes. Then there was a white flash, causing her to go blind momentarily.
"Hey, I look pretty good."
Bud shoved the photo at her face. Sena stared, dumbfounded, at the picture.
"But we're gonna need some more pics." Bud called over to the cameraman in English, "Hey, mister! Take a photo of us over here!"
This had gone for a while, with the American boy (he mentioned to her that he just came to Canada) dragging her to here and there. It was tiresome. Sena didn't know why she was acting with abidance, but she prayed that he would stop soon. She had a feeling that she was going to abominate at a certain celebrity wannabe. Pepper-spray included.
Bud, apparently, was enjoying himself immensely. After paying the cameraman for the numerous photos, he asked for a pen from a girl who, in turn, giggled herself silly and whispered furtively to her friends before giving him one. Bud smirked at this; he knew that his roguish handsomeness could affect any girl, reducing her to wobbly knees and flustered face. Though, he found it curious as to how this Japanese girl wasn't behaving as such. Bud hadn't thought about it till now since he was so caught up having fun.
He shrugged off the thought. Maybe Scout was too young to bother with these kinds of things yet.
Sena wondered why this had to betide upon her.
Weren't they supposed to be searching for her family?
'Just what the Heffalump?'
Bud was scribbling his signature onto the several photos while talking animatedly to her. Sena wasn't even listening.
'Why aren't we searching for Mom and Aunty Mio?'
Then he zipped her backpack open and crammed all the photos inside. Her eyes widened at this.
"Don't you worry, Scout," he said. "I made enough for you to give to your friends back in Japan."
Sena vaguely wondered if this would be a good opportunity to test out her new shock-pistol.
"C'mon, Scout!" Bud grinned, pulling her up.
The fool was becoming too blithesome for her tastes.
'UGH! MY NAME IS NOT SCOUT!'
The day was almost over, the sun was setting, Bud had drained of her energy from dragging her everywhere, and, frankly, it was RIDICULOUS! All she wanted was to reunite with her family, and the nincompoop had promised to help her, but being the nincompoop he was, he ended up being enjoying himself!
Sena tried and tried and tried to remind him, but he was so caught up about him being a star-to-be that any sentences with no relation of the celebrity life figuratively bounced off his head. Holy cow.
Sena let out a frustrated groan, but Bud didn't hear it. He was now flirting with another girl—his fifth, probably.
And now it came to her—why was she bothering with him now? She could leave him! No, she should leave him.
As the boy was currently distracted, Sena silently walked away. "Farewell, Walker," she murmured.
'Ugh, I hope I'd never have to meet Walker ever again.'