Lady Une is downstairs brewing industrial strength coffee when Mariemaia makes her way to the kitchen Thursday morning. Mariemaia hesitates in the doorway for a moment before she crosses to get a bowl of cereal. It's always a bad sign when the coffee is strong enough that she can practically taste it percolating in the air. Lady Une looks up from the thick packet of notes and reports she's perusing at the counter.
"Good morning," her guardian says.
"Good morning," Mariemaia replies. She sits at the table and studies Lady Une. She's wearing heavier make-up than usual and Mariemaia would bet good money it's to cover the dark circles around her eyes. "You didn't come back last night."
"The meeting ran late, time differences between Earth and the Colonies," she replies, rolling her eyes. "I sent Juergensen."
"I know."
The junior agent had appeared on the doorstep with a bright smile and bag of take-out food. "Looks like I'm camping out here tonight," she had said, dimples showing. "Have you eaten yet? I brought enough for two."
Mariemaia had shown her around the downstairs area and then led her to the kitchen to eat. Juergensen had spent the meal politely inquiring about school, commenting on the house in general, and chattered on about her disaster of a cat. Overall, she reminded Mariemaia a touch too much of Duo Maxwell to make her entirely comfortable. After dinner, she had retreated upstairs to do her homework and study her photo albums. Juergensen had checked on her once, then settled into the sofa downstairs and watched trashy reality television. Mariemaia isn't sure when the junior agent left and her guardian returned.
"What was the meeting about?"
"There's some trade issues," Lady Une says. She flips another page of her report, eyes skimming rapidly. She has her reading glasses on, another sign that she probably hasn't slept in a while.
"Trade? Hardly seems like a Preventers issue."
"On the contrary, trade is very important and closely monitored. It appears that someone has been intercepting a couple of the trade routes between Earth and the Colonies. Minister Yergin is not pleased, and not shy about making that known." She lifts her head. "That's Henri. Are you ready?"
Mariemaia glances at her half-eaten bowl of cereal. "Yeah," she replies. She dumps her cereal out and leaves the bowl in the sink, trailing Lady Une out of the house. "Does this have to do with the potential threat?"
"I'm sure they're unrelated," Lady Une replies. Mariemaia can't help but notice that she doesn't look at her when she says it though. She gets into the back seat of the car, eyes still focused on the reports in her hand.
Mariemaia sighs as she gets in after her. Henri gives her a wink before closing the door and rounding the car to the driver side. "Any more meetings?"
Lady Une glances up. "Nothing that should last too long today. Did Henri tell you that I got pulled into one tomorrow afternoon?"
"Yes."
Lady Une sets aside her reports; she reaches over and places her hand on Mariemaia's arm. Mariemaia resists the urge to shrug it off. "I'm sorry. I tried to have it moved…but, time differences made that impossible."
Mariemaia shrugs. It isn't the first meet Lady Une has missed; it won't be the last one. "It's fine," she says. She smiles at her guardian. "You saw my last meet."
"I know you've been working hard for this one."
"Really," Mariemaia replies, "it's fine. Don't worry about it." She pauses, fiddles with the strap of her swim duffle as Henri pulls up in front of the school. "How will I get home?"
Lady Une purses her lips. "I'll figure it out. Have a good day."
"You as well. Bye, Henri."
She hurries through the empty gates, nodding at one of the security guards monitoring the doors, and then makes her way to the locker rooms on the other side of the courtyard. Two other girls are in the pool area, sitting on the coping with their legs dangling in the water as they chat. Yasmin and Julia both look over at her, give her a wave hello, and then go back to talking. Mariemaia finds a spot away from them to begin stretching.
"I didn't know you did yoga."
Mariemaia manages not to jump at Kenzie's voice. She looks over her shoulder. For a moment she wonders if Trowa Barton might be impressed that she managed to maintain the pose in spite of being startled before she squashes that thought. Kenzie is seated with Julia and Yasmin and the three girls are watching her. Some other swimmers have made their way out to the pool area and are warming up or chatting before practice starts.
"Does it help?" Kenzie asks when Mariemaia remains silent.
She shrugs, suddenly self-conscious, and stands up out of the warrior pose. "Maybe," she replies.
"I'd imagine it would, my sister does yoga to help her with balance for dance," Yasmin says. "I don't have the patience for it though."
Julia snorts loudly. "Or the balance."
She yelps as Yasmin shoves her into the pool, comes up spluttering and complaining. The other students laugh as Julia pulls herself out of the water. Mariemaia rolls her eyes, folds herself into lotus pose, and tries to tune out her classmates. She grunts as someone knocks into her.
"Watch it, mongrel, don't just sit in the middle of the floor," Minerva snaps.
"You're lucky we didn't trip over you," Larissa adds. Both girls laugh loudly as they cross the room to sit on the benches and gossip.
Coach Maes blows the whistle as he enters the pool area, the assistant coach trailing behind him. Coach Maes frowns at Julia. "Why are you wet? No unsupervised swimming, you know that."
"Sorry, Coach," she replies. "I fell."
He frowns at her, then blows the whistle again so that everyone gathers around. "Right, I'm sure I don't need to remind everyone of tomorrow afternoon's meet. You lot, get started on your warm-ups and let's get you in the water as soon as possible. You'll be working with Kostova for now," he adds, nodding to the assistant coach.
Mariemaia hovers toward the outer ring of her teammates. She notices Minerva and Larissa exchanging smiles before looking in her direction. She rolls her eyes and lifts her chin, raises her eyebrows inquiringly at them. Minerva narrows her eyes while Larissa turns to grab her goggles from the bench.
"Zverev," Coach Maes barks at Larissa. "Pallas," he directs at Minerva. "Not you two. We need to have a chat."
"What?" Minerva exclaims, arms crossing.
"Why?" Larissa demands, hand tightening on her goggles.
Coach Maes blows his whistle again, silencing their protests. "My office, now." Both girls scowl as they head to his office and he follows behind them.
Kostova claps her hands together, looking at the remainder of the team. "Alright, enough gawking, you won't be able to eavesdrop from out here anyway. Let's get started, shall we?"
Kenzie catches Mariemaia's eye from across the warm-up area. She flashes her another crooked smile and a subtle thumbs up. Mariemaia rolls her eyes and focuses on her burpees instead.
. . ... . .
Kenzie catches her in the pick-up line again. She reaches to grab Mariemaia's arm before she catches herself. Instead, she grabs Mariemaia's satchel strap and tugs her along that way. Mariemaia splutters, tugging futilely at her bag, but Kenzie's grip is strong and Mariemaia has to resign herself to being towed along. She keeps her chin up and ignores the stares of her classmates.
Kenzie releases her when they're further from the crowd, spinning around to face her. "Did you hear?" Kenzie demands.
"Hear what?" Mariemaia asks. She rolls up onto her toes, trying to spy Henri's car through the throng of students. Kenzie waves a hand in front of her face, distracting her and making her lose her balance. She scowls. "What?"
"Minerva and Larissa got benched. Coach brought in the Headmistress about the locker incident." Kenzie is bouncing on her toes, grinning. Mariemaia's scowl deepens. "Why aren't you celebrating?"
"So what if they're benched? This will just make them angrier," Mariemaia snaps. She resumes trying to locate Henri's car. If the Headmistress was involved then that probably meant… Her mouth twists along with her stomach as she imagines the call Lady Une most likely received. "Fantastic."
Kenzie crosses her arms and frowns back at her. "Not speaking up when this happened only lead to them getting worse and worse. You need to learn to stand up for yourself, Khushrenada."
Mariemaia snorts, finally seeing Henri's car pulling up. "Trust me; I can take care of myself. See you tomorrow, Muir."
She darts away before Kenzie can respond, slamming the car door closed behind her harder than she intended. Henri glances at her in the rearview mirror as she buckles her seatbelt, his eyebrows raised. "That's not like you, Miss Mariemaia."
"I'm sorry, Henri," she apologizes. "It's been a long day."
Henri makes a humming noise, pulling out of the school. "Lady Une has requested to see you when I drop you off."
Mariemaia lets her head thunk back against the headrest. "Alright."