Chapter 5

As soon as we reached the foot of the spiral staircase many faces and flashes of light greeted us. Rinoah and I pasted on our public smiles as we were formally announced. After a few "hellos" and "good evenings" Rinoah and I managed to scramble out of the crowd. As I did so, I noticed many familiar faces but then two of which I didn't know. They were pretty tall men, strong and mysterious looking, and scary looking eyes. Assuming they were new friends of mom and dad, I raced over to my best friend Trista and Rinoah went to greet our Uncle Zechs and Aunt Noin. Trista and I didn't really get a chance to start talking when dad came over and told me the press wanted to get a couple of photos and my other guests were waiting. I rolled my eyes and Trista laughed as I left. As soon as Rinoah and I entered the ballroom where the press awaited we were greeted by thousands of flashing lights.

"So what tricks you wanna play this time? Is there a secret scandal in our house or a murder in our backyard?" I mischievously asked her and she scowled. Again we pasted on our public smiles and posed.

"Princess Lana is it true that your father has planned to rebuild the gundams?"

"Miss, Rinoah over here!"

"Over this way Princess Lana"

"Princess Rinoah, smile!" After a couple more photos, Rinoah and I with faked politeness excused ourselves and headed over to the buffet table. I met Trista over there and as soon as we finished getting our food we sat down at a table and began eating and talking about TV shows. After a couple hours, almost all the guests had gone home except for mom and dad's closest friends. Trista, Rini, Rinoah, Li and I sat down on the staircase wondering what to do next.

"I wonder where Uncle Trowa is? He said he'd come." I asked aloud and as if on cue there was a knock on the door. Pagan swiftly opened it and in came Uncle Trowa, Aunt Catherine, Baby Kari, Josh, and Yaten. Yaten was Uncle Zechs and Aunt Noin's daughter and she was a lot older than we were. I think she's all right but Rinoah takes to liking her more than I do. I turned to Uncle Trowa and gave him my biggest smile. He was my most favorite uncle of all.

"The grown-ups are all in the sitting room having tea and coffee." I smiled and Uncle Trowa and Aunt Catherine nodded and left to go join them, leaving Josh with us. I blushed deeply as I saw him walk over to us.

"Hi Josh." I greeted him shyly.

"Hello Lana." He smiled. We all walked back to the staircase and sat down, again thinking of what to do.

"Hey Li, looks like you've gotten stronger. I bet I could beat you anytime anywhere!" Lana exclaimed. Li simply nodded and I raced upstairs and changed into board shorts, tank top, and decided to keep my hair up. I raced back downstairs nearly running over Rini and Rinoah who were on their way upstairs to see Luna and Libra. Josh and Trista decided to watch our match. On our way there, it began to rain outside and a thought struck me. I quickly ran into the sitting room where all the parents were talking about something.

"Dad, can I let Arioso in?" I asked him, at the same time trying to catch my breath. He simply nodded and I raced out of the room and to the back sliding door in the kitchen. I quickly pulled it open and noticed it was beginning to rain hard. I let out a whistle and in the blink of an eye Arioso arrived right in front of me and ran inside. Arioso is my dog, part Siberian husky and part wolf. As soon as he was inside I shut the door and without caring to lock it the two of us ran to the training room, where Li, Josh, and Trista were already waiting. Trista and Josh began petting Arioso as Li and I bowed to each other before we began our fight. I was right; Li had gotten stronger and a bit tougher too. I quickly delivered a sidekick, which he blocked and returned with a punch. Our match went on for about five to ten more minutes and with a roundhouse kick, I knocked him down to the ground and it was over, I beat him! We bowed and shook hands and sat down next to Trista and Josh and began petting Arioso.

"Lets go see what Rinoah and Rini are doing." I suggested and they all followed. We walked upstairs and opened the door to Rinoah's room and there she was petting Keero and Rini was flipping through a book.

"Why don't you go to your own room?" Rinoah pouted.

"Geez! Well sorry, just wanted to keep you company and all." I retorted and quickly left, with Trista and Josh close behind. Li decided to stay in Rinoah's room. Inside my room Arioso jumped onto my bed and quickly fell asleep. Josh, Trista and I decided to play BS, a card game. As soon as we got into the game there was a flash of light outside my window and a loud crash of thunder sounded right after it, causing all of us to jump. A couple more flashes of lightning lit the sky and were all followed by thunder.

"Hey, is it only me but are you guys scared?" Trista asked. I could tell Josh was scared and I was practically terrified but I didn't want to show it.

"Not me!" I announced and the others shrugged their shoulders and we continued playing. Then the door to my room opened and in came Rini, Li and Rinoah, probably scared of the thunder too.

"Hi, can we come in?" Rini politely asked and I nodded. The three of them sat down and joined in the card game. We all sat in a small circle on the hard wood floor. Trista on my left, Josh on my right, Rinoah in between Rini and Li. Without notice came another crash of thunder and all of us jumped.

"Are you alright?" I heard someone say and I looked up. It was Li talking to Rinoah. She simply nodded and then he reached out and took her hand in his. I rolled my eyes in disgust and wished Josh would do something like that for me one day. Anyway, after one more game, Josh and Li decided to go downstairs to play video games and I accompanied them to set up the system. As soon as I finished I raced back upstairs. Reaching the top of the stairs, it felt as if I wasn't the only one upstairs. I quickly glanced to both my left and right. I heard the slight creak of a door and was about to go check it out when I could hear laughter coming from my room. I shrugged my shoulders as I opened the door to my room. The three were whispering things back and forth to each other. Fearing it was about me I quickly sat down next to Trista and demanded they spill the beans.

" We weren't talking about you, we're talking about Li!" Rini grinned happily and I felt like throwing up. 'Why do they always talk about boys, they're just another person in this world.' I said inside.

"I know, lets play truth or dare!" Trista smiled rather evilly.

"Uhh Trista, I dunno…" replied Rini.

" Come on, what's the matter, scared?" Trista smirked.

"I dunno about you guys, but I'm in!" I shouted.

"Me too!" Rinoah smiled and after seeing Rinoah join the game so did Rini. We decided who would go first and it was Rinoah and she chose truth.

"Hmm…truth, you wanna marry Li when you grow up don't you?" Rini asked.

"Remember…the truth!" I added.

" Yes…" she replied and we laughed and giggled, even Rinoah herself.

"Okay, I pick you Lana!" Rinoah decided, pointing to me. "Truth or dare?" she asked. I thought hard. I was the bravest of us all so I decided to go with dare.

"Alright, lets see…" Rinoah pondered. "I got it! I dare you…to go kiss Josh!" she smiled, raising her voice on each word. Trista and Rini tried to muffle their giggles. I sighed heavily. Since I was the queen of dares, I couldn't back out. The three escorted me to the door and wanted to follow, to make sure I really do it. Of all the dares I've ever done, this by far would be the worst. We soon reached the game room and the girls hid behind curtains as I walked in. I could feel my knees shaking. I walked up behind them, and pretended to clear my throat. Li and Josh paused the game and quickly turned around.

"Umm…Josh can I have a word with you?" I asked him and he quickly stood up and walked over to me. Looking into his blue eyes, I felt like melting.

"Yeah, what is it?" he asked. Without wasting another minute I planted a quick kiss on his cheek and took a step back. I could feel my cheeks burning a deep crimson. Fearing Josh would hate me forever for what I just did I wanted to run away but I couldn't, my legs wouldn't budge. Josh, seeing I hadn't run off walked up to me. Afraid of what me might say, I closed my eyes and the next thing I knew, he kissed me on the cheek. I opened my eyes in shock and he stood there in front of me with an expressionless face, both of us were speechless.

"I…uhh…umm…" I stuttered and was about to bolt off back to my room when he grabbed my wrist. Too embarrassed to stay another moment I turned to leave and he let my hand slide away from his. As soon as I took off, the girls ran after me.

"So what happened? I couldn't really see cause of Rini's big head!" Trista complained.

"It doesn't matter, tell us what happened!" Rinoah exclaimed.

" Well I kissed him and…" I stopped not wanting to go on.

"And?" the others asked in unison.

" He kissed me back." I replied and they all jumped in happiness.

"He kissed you back?"

"Oh my gosh!"

"You go girl!" I couldn't help but blush. They were about to beckon me on telling them more when out of nowhere the biggest flash of light lit the sky outside my room and was then followed by a crash of thunder which literally shook the mansion, causing all of us to scream in fear. We all huddled close.

"That was really scary!" said Rini and we nodded in agreement. The rain began falling harder than ever.

*Relena's point of view*

We all sat there talking as the sound of thunder and heavy rain filled the mansion. Noin was right in the middle of explaining the new goals for the Preventers when suddenly the scream of Lana, Rinoah, Rini, and Trista rang through the mansion. Knowing the children were probably terrified of the thunder I decided to go check on them but Heero urged me to stay, and without wanting to be rude, I did so.

*Lana's point of view*

We were all so scared from the thunder we decided not to continue the game; instead we just sat there talking. Every once and awhile another one of the 'out of nowhere' lighting and thunder hit and it caused us all to become even more scared. We all were in the middle of talking about animals when another terrifying crash of thunder rang though the mansion, this time causing the lights to go out. We all screamed really loud and Rini, the most scared of us all, started crying. The lights suddenly came back on. We all were trying to hush Rini when she suddenly stopped and her eyes went wide.

"What Rini?" I asked her and she began shaking. Her eyes were locked on something behind me. Rinoah and Trista turned to look and their eyes went wide and they also began shaking. I quickly turned around and my eye caught what they were looking at, rather who they were looking at. It was the two unknown guests that came to the ball, except they were dressed in all black. Trista, Rinoah, Rini, and I quickly got up and backed up against the wall. I quickly whispered to the others that if they do anything to us, scream your heart out. One of the men locked the door and then joined the other guy as they began advancing on us.

"Which one of you girls are Rinoah and Lana?" one man asked us. I sent Rinoah a nod and we both stepped up.

"We are. What do you want?" I asked, trying to keep things cool. Rini began crying harder than ever and Trista was standing with her up against the wall. 'Some help from the parents would be great now.' I said to myself.

"You two are coming with us." Said one of them. Turning to Rinoah I pretended I was about to say something, but then I turned around and kicked one guy in the groin. He fell down to his knees in pain. Rini quickly ran for the door but was too panicked to notice it was locked. Rinoah ran to the other side of the room in the corner and hid. Trista ran over to Arioso who now, was also helping me fight off the thugs. Trista, Rini, and Rinoah had already begun screaming. The other guy noticed where Rinoah was hiding and was about to grab her when I kicked him in the face. 'Mom…dad…help!'

*Relena's point of view*

We were all drinking tea and coffee and talking when we heard the girls scream even louder than usual, which made me uneasy. Again, I assumed it was the thunder and they were probably chasing each other around because the chandelier above our heads was jingling and shaking. I sent Heero a worried look and he placed his hand over mine. Then all of a sudden we heard a crash and the sound of a vase hitting the floor, and more screaming. Zechs had stopped talking and we all looked at each other worriedly.

"Mommy…daddy!" we heard someone cry and it sounded like Rini.

"Somebody help us!" Rinoah screamed. The next thing I knew, we were all running up the grand staircase and to the center of the noise, Lana's room. Heero turned the knob but the door was obviously locked.

"Lana, open the door!" Heero shouted. I could tell he was getting worried by the minute. We not only heard the girls' screams but also the voices of perhaps two other men, which meant trouble. Heero turned to us and announced the door was locked.

"Then we're going to have to break down the door." Duo shouted above the screaming and thunder.

"You can't, the doors are too thick!" I replied. Again Heero began twisting the knob but no luck. Occasionally we heard swift kicks, punches, and 'ai-ya's' and assumed Lana was trying to fight the intruders off.

*Lana's point of view*

I continued fighting one guy as the other chased Rinoah around my room, knocking down a vase and things off my shelf. Trista was huddled next to Rini and both were now crying, Rini screaming for her mom and dad.

" Lana, open the door!" I heard someone shout, it was dad!

"Dad I can't, it's locked. Dad you gotta help us!" I yelled. Arioso lunged at the guy I was fighting, but without warning, he brought out a crowbar and with a forceful swing hit Arioso, sending him to the ground.

"Arioso!" I cried and slid down next to him. He was hurt bad. "Arioso, are you alright?" I asked, holding the dog in my arms as tears streamed down my face.

"Lana, look out behind you!" I heard Rinoah cry. The other guy had already grabbed her and was holding her back. I turned around but the man grabbed me with a strong grip.

"Let go of me!" I shouted. He picked up a chair and threw it at the window, causing it to break.

"Mom…dad…help!" Rinoah cried as they dragged us out the window.

*Relena's point of view*

I heard Lana scream Arioso's name and I felt more enraged that we couldn't help them.

"Heero, your gun in my dresser!" I shouted and he quickly ran to get it. As soon as he came back everyone stepped back as he blasted the doorknob and we burst through the door. Trowa and Wufei were off downstairs again, hoping to catch the intruders before they get away. Quatre, Dorothy, Duo, and Hide ran over to Rini and Trista. Catherine over to Arioso and Heero and I searched the room for Lana and Rinoah. The window was smashed and the rain was coming in, they were gone. I tried hard not to but I couldn't, and began crying. Heero walked over to me, offering his shoulder.

So how is it so far? There's still more to come! Please send me your reviews and feel free to e-mail me!