(Don't own Gundam Wing, don't own Disney. Please don't sue. Pleeeeeeaaaaaaase!!!)
Camp Skookumchuk, August 1, 211 AC, 11:30 pm
Serena Noin could not sleep. Try as she might, even despite jet lag, she kept tossing and turning in her bed, unable to settle down. She glanced at the bunk bed below hers, where her cabin mate was sleeping blissfully. Deciding that Natalie Chang could probably sleep through a herd of stampeding elephants, Serena resolved to climb down from her bunk bed, since there seemed to be no point in her lying there, waiting for sleep to come.
"Gosh, who would have thought Earth was this pretty?" she sighed wistfully as she went and settled in front of the window. She could see the lake, surrounded by the endless cedars. The moon, almost a perfect circle, seemed to dance on the calm water, and the stars appeared an awful lot closer than they did on Mars. Then the realization snuck up on her: amidst all the excitement of her first day of summer camp, she had barely had time to even miss her mother...
******
Seattle Suburbs, August 1, 211 AC, 11:30 pm
Duo and Hilde Maxwell were just then getting around to unwinding after their unusually late dinner. Their guest, who would be staying with them for the first leg of her Earthian trip, had not arrived at SeaTac Airport until a mere two-and-a-half hours earlier, no doubt exhausted and jet-lagged from her intergalactic trip. And yet, despite the late hour, the visit had been quite lovely.
As soon as Duo had pulled into the garage and started unloading the guest's baggage, the children had run out to meet them, squealing with excitement at the novelty of this unknown lady, who looked suspiciously like their own mother's older sister. Hilde had cooked enough food for an army, and being the skilled cook that she was, she had practically knocked their socks off. Getting the munchkins to bed, though, had been a whole other story, one that, in retrospect, made Operation Meteor look like a walk in the park. Helene in particular would not hear any of it, and insisted on staying up and bombarding Lucrezia Noin with questions about Mars and her College of Space Engineering.
For a while, Hilde and Duo had indulged her, being as she was the oldest of the brood at almost thirteen years old, even with Solo and Jordan screaming bloody murderous injustice. In fact, for all they knew, their daughter most likely still had some faint recollection of being the youngest flower girl at their guest's wedding, about ten years earlier. Duo could not help a fond smile at the memory. He still had, tucked away in a drawer, an original copy of the picture that had ended up on every single piece of printed paper the following day. The very picture of his not-quite-three-year-old daughter, bawling her eyes out for taking a tumble while she rehearsed her flower girl act, and being comforted by the soon-to-be Princess Lucrezia, minutes before the wedding. No wonder the people of Sanq had gone insane over the royal couple, and could not get enough of the new princess... For all intents and purposes, and as far as the public opinion was concerned, Lucrezia Noin was the reincarnation of a centuries-old phenomenon, the very legend of the late Diana Spencer, Princess of Wales and Queen of Hearts.
"Ironic how the world still hasn't learned a thing from it," Duo Maxwell wondered aloud as he stood on his patio and enjoyed the stillness of the night. He soon felt his wife's arm sneak around his waist, and felt lucky that, for all the incredible amounts of crap that they each had to endure growing up in the middle of a war, at least in their adulthood their family life had always been safely tucked away from the spotlight and public scrutiny that was an everyday reality for anyone bearing association with the Peacecraft name.
"All tucked in?" he inquired, pulling his wife in a loving embrace.
"It was a struggle, lemme tell ya," Hilde chuckled, "I really do think Helene has her heart set on going to space some day..." The lighthearted chuckle soon left its place to a wistful sigh.
"Aww, Hildey, she hasn't even started high school yet," Duo reassured, "don't you think we got plenty of time to worry about that?" The comment elicited a pout from Hilde, whose maternal instinct would not let the issue be dropped.
"Duo Maxwell," she warned, her index finger waving about menacingly, "I am her mother, and I'll have you know that it is MY prerogative to fret about her growing up, EVEN and ESPECIALLY if it's way ahead of time! Hmph..."
"Right. Sorry, babe," Duo sheepishly apologized, moving in for a peck on the cheek, all the while wondering what he could possibly say to make Hilde smile again. Then it came to him...
"You know, I was thinking... We're pretty lucky to have a trusted friend who just happens to be running a school of Space Engineering on Mars. Makes me feel a whole lot better about my kid going off to space..."
Bingo! The effort definitely paid off, as a grin of utter relief spread all over Hilde's face and she snuggled close.
"Duo... you rock."
"Yeah, well... am I or am I not the Great Shinigami? Say, I was wondering... did Helene mention anything about that annoying little twerp from her class who keeps calling her about homework? Whaddya think, should I ask Trowa to run a criminal check on him?"
"Duo... shut up and kiss me."
With that, Hilde grabbed a fistful of her husband's shirt, and pulled him down, silencing him with her own lips. They stood like that, kissing in the perfectly quiet midsummer night, wondering what on earth they could have possibly done to deserve that much good in their lives.
"AAAAAAAAAAAAH!!! GUN-DAMIT!"
The scream, coming from the front porch, startled the two lovebirds back into reality.
"Oh, crap," Duo groaned, breaking into a jog, "Forgot about Lu." Hilde followed in hot pursuit.
"Wanna bet Fuzzy Wuzzy is back?"
Fuzzy Wuzzy, as the children's rhyme goes, was a bear. A big, goofy, and quite harmless black bear, who often visited Duo and Hilde's neighbourhood in search of berries and scraps of food. Obviously, their guest was due for a formal introduction...
They found Noin leaning against the wall, hyperventilating, but no Fuzzy Wuzzy anywhere in sight. Lucrezia looked up, acknowledged her hosts, and grumbled under her breath,
"Damn raccoon startled me."
In fact, true to norm, there was the other regular visitor of the neighbourhood, Rascal the Raccoon, merrily feasting away on the ripped-up garbage bag that Noin had inadvertently flung in the air.
"Sorry. Don't have those on Mars. I'll deal with the mess," Noin nervously apologized, darting inside to grab a broom and chase away the raccoon with it.
"Whoa-whoa-whoa, there, Nellie," Duo stepped square in front of her, blocking her way. Hilde didn't look too impressed, either.
"Dude," Hilde began calmly, crossing her arms and leveling a typical "mother" glare. Noin gulped. Hilde never said "dude" unless she was really ticked off, usually at Duo.
"Just what were you doing taking out OUR garbage?"
"Um... it was... kinda sitting there in the kitchen, so I thought..." Noin fumbled, all the while marveling at how territorial some people can be about their own garbage.
"Dude..." there she went, using that word again, "You're our guest. Which means you leave the chores to us. You don't take out the garbage, or do the dishes -you didn't think I'd notice, but I saw you load the dishwasher, back there- You just sit back and visit, like a good little girl. Alright?"
Noin looked up from staring at her feet, as though she had indeed been a child, only to see the stern expression on Hilde's face melt away into a mischievous grin. Her thumb was gesturing at Duo, who was intent on cleaning up the mess. Hilde leaned closer to her older friend, enough to whisper something that Duo was not supposed to hear.
"Got him trained well... don't wanna risk undoing all that work, right?"
********
Camp Skookumchuk, August 2, 211 AC, 9:00 am
Princess Chloe Sara Peacecraft or, as she reminded herself of her disguise, Chloe Dorlian, stepped out of her cabin, and inhaled the aromatic forest air. She was still a little jittery and flustered from the goodbye with Pagan, but was determined to not be sad. After all, if Aunt Relena had campaigned so hard for her to be offered this chance, she figured the least she could do was to show her appreciation by being strong and not saying a peep about missing home. It would sure be interesting, though...
True to her upbringing, she had just finished settling into the dwelling that would be home for the following three weeks. Satisfied that all her belongings were neatly put away where most proper, she began making her way to the mess hall for some breakfast. Perhaps, she thought, she would feel a little less lost once she met up with her cabin-mate, who just happened to be the only familiar face in this new... ahem... arrangement that her father and aunt had cooked up. Reaching inside her pocket, she pulled out the tiny green paper frog that Pagan had made for her out of a Post-it note, just to cheer her up before stepping off the car.
"Don't frog-et where you come from, Chloe," his kind, grandfatherly voice had joked, just as he flicked the paper frog to make it skillfully land on her lap, "For we'll be thinking of you every single day." A big bear hug had followed, then their secret handshake, complete with wiggle-walk, then, after all was set and she was introduced to her camp counselor, it was time to say goodbye.
One last bear hug for Pagan, and three more to pass along to her father, uncle, and aunt, and she started feeling awfully sniffly.
"I'll tell you what," Pagan had whispered low, so that the chauffeur would not hear, "If at any time you don't like it here, and want to come home, call me on my cell phone, and Presto-Change-o! I'll be right here to pick you up faster than Uncle Heero can say Gundam! Okie-dokie?"
Somehow, knowing that she was not being "sent away" and that she could, in fact, come home any time she wished had been just what she needed to hear. Strong with her family's love and support, Chloe had decided that she would try her hardest to make the most out of her camp experience and, by golly, she was going to stick it out until the end!
Thus she reached the mess hall, still grinning to herself in pride and determination, and got in line to get breakfast. Her eyes scanned the tables, hoping to find her cabin-mate, Leilani Winner, waiting for her.
"Oh, bugger..." she slapped her forehead, realizing that she had just moved past all the plates, and forgot to grab one for herself. Turning around to assess the situation, she politely asked the girl behind her if she could please reach for one on her account.
The little girl, who seemed to be about her age, and had strawberry-blonde hair
and dark, exotic-looking eyes, did a double take, then blurted out,
"Heeeey, waitasecond! How did you get in front of me?"
Alarmed, Chloe began apologizing a mile a minute, all the while moving aside to allow the girl to step in front of her. She hadn't been here for five minutes yet, and she had already managed to be rude... how was she expected to make any friends now? Strangely enough, though, the strawberry-blonde girl did not seem the least interested in trading places, but kept looking at her funny, her neck bent in an unnatural position.
It wasn't long before the boy behind them thought well of seizing the opportunity to advance the line faster than he should have. As soon as he shoved his way past Chloe, the little strawberry-blonde girl reached out to grab hold of his collar.
"I don't think so, Buster," she called out menacingly, then proceeded to unceremoniously shove the older, taller boy back where he belonged.
"Get outta my face, Pipsqueak," the bully retorted, while Chloe contemplated dashing for the phones and taking Pagan up on his offer.
"I'm warning you, don't mess with me," the little girl continued on, holding her ground quite calmly, "I'm trained in five different types of martial arts."
"Oh, yeah?!!" the boy hollered, testing his boundaries.
"Yup." The girl nodded, quite seriously, arms folded over her chest.
"Yeah??!!!" the boy hollered louder, and lunged forward to shove the girl out of the way.
"Yup," she replied with the same calm countenance, all the while grabbing the boy's arm, twisting it behind his back until he screamed in pain, then finishing the demo by flipping the boy over flat on his back as though he had been a rag doll.
"Told ya not to mess with me," the little girl then quipped, dusting off her hands and resuming her place in line before any of the counselors took notice of the squabble.
"Oh, by the way," she then casually added over her shoulder, "you squeal, you're in for more."
"Oh. My. Gosh," Chloe muttered as she turned around, absolutely appalled, and quite glad that she had promptly apologized to Miss Kung-Fu before she could end up like that boy.
"Hey, 'Ren... Dude... Hellooo, earth to Serena!" Chloe literally jumped as she felt the girl behind her poke her in the back. Frightened out of her wits that she was now the one being picked on, she turned around to face the girl, a sheepish, apologetic grin plastered all over her face as she again offered her place in line.
"Dude... are you alright?" was instead the girl's response, "Ya could have helped me, back there, ya know?"
"Um... I'm... exceedingly sorry," Chloe fumbled, looking for a way out of the sticky situation.
"Never mind," the girl rolled her eyes as she helped herself to a stack of blueberry pancakes, "But how did you get dressed so fast, if you were snoring away when I left? And what's with your hair?"
"Oh, bugger... I did it again," Chloe cursed herself as she noticed that, amidst the commotion, she had once again missed her spot in line for toast and jam, "Uh... excuse me, miss... Uh, miss... would you mind passing down two slices of Multigrain with strawberry jam? I'm really sorry to be a bother... Ehe... oh, dear."
(to be continued)